I'll be putting authors notes between the main chapter and the mini story from now on.

Chapter 3

The Way Out

Sosuke Gogeia

Sosuke's knife had been holding well enough for him as a means of defense, but ended up getting a bunch of blood on it. Doing his best to keep it clean and the blade sharp, he took an oil cloth that he found and polished it.

Fujisaki and Shinya were taking a quick break; The sudden absence of the fallen wasn't a very plentiful occasion so they decided to make the most of it. Come to think of it, the two he had been accompanying had been strangely quiet; Whether it was to keep the fallen from hearing them or some other reason, he had no idea whatsoever. He looked at Shinya who began to pry the bones out of his buzz saw/paddle contraption but failed to make any real difference.

"So, you think we're gonna find anybody else at the room?" Sosuke asked.

Fujisaki kept her eyes on the staircase with her music stand.

"I hope so. Renji couldn't have made it there by himself; He also said it on the PA so someone else must have heard it."

"Yes!"

Fujisaki and Sosuke turned to see the Shinya finally was able to get the buzz saw running. He set it down and stood up onto his feet.

"Okay, that's enough. The surveillance room is on the opposite side of the building. If we can make it there without any of those monsters, we're golden."

Fujisaki smiled and nodded her head. Sosuke nodded as well and stuffed the oil rag back into his pocket. The three walked down the hall and encountered some of the dead lying down, but too lazy to get up.

The surveillance room was right in front of them when they saw another group of familiar faces.

"Huh? Toyoba-san? Kazushi and Kubo-san too?"

Kazushi waved to Sosuke with a piece of rebar in his other hand.

"Hey guys. Glad to see that someone else is still alive and kicking."

Yahiru nodded.

"Yeah, I was stuck in the locker room downstairs until these two showed up. Misaki's a genius. That plan about the soda? Brilliant, right Misaki? Misaki?"

Misaki was too busy being choked, sorry, hugged to death by Fujisaki.

"OhmygoshIcan'tbelieveyou'restillalivedidyougetbittenareyoualrightdoyouhaveanyscratches?"

"I'm fine Fuji! Please stop hugging me!"

Sounds of furniture being moved came from the door to the surveillance room. Once it opened, Renji and Tetsuba were seen.

"Hey, you guys! Come on in, we don't want any of them to surprise us."

Everybody nodded ad entered the room.

Second-years POV

"Hey guys! How's it going?" Fumina said from behind a computer.

Everybody was busily greeting each other except for Sosuke who decided to step back for a little bit. Socializing wasn't really his thing, but he was glad to see that there were more students alive.

"Y-you…"

Sosuke turned around, and a flame began to flicker in his eyes. Drawing his whittling knife, he punched Tohru out of the way and sent a flat kick onto the chest of the opposing person. They hit the table and Sosuke placed his knife on their neck as he stared into the eyes of Keigo Abarai.

"Why? Why are you of all people alive when others are dead?!"

Sosuke felt someone's arm snaking underneath his armpit, but he still held fast.

"Sosuke! Quit it! He's not worth killing right now!"

Eventually, Kazushi pulled him off of Keigo as Yamado placed himself in front of Keigo. Sosuke's eyes were still filled with hate, but he refrained from stabbing Keigo. Kazushi stopped holding him, but stayed close enough to stop any outbursts.

Fujisaki glared at Keigo while Shinya started to speak.

"We found Sosuke in a locker. He said that Keigo left him to die while he ran to save his own sorry ass."

Keigo shrugged his shoulders.

"I can tell you that your friend was in no mortal danger. I knew all along that they wouldn't be able to break the locker door. He's still alive, right? And so am I, so I think that makes it a justified action on my part."

The atmosphere in the air suddenly went up in response to everybody immediately getting angry. Yamado stubbornly followed up.

"Hey, you better be grateful that boss decided to let you in here."

"Don't forget that you wouldn't be in here if we hadn't let you in." Tetsuba said in reply.

"Shut up, pretty boy!"

"You wanna make me?"

"I'll kick your ass!"

"Enough Tohru. We're already in deep trouble as is right now." Keigo said to his follower.

Renji nodded.

"Yeah, you too Tetsuba. As much as I hate Keigo, we've got other things to worry about."

Tetsuba let out a deep breath and leaned back on a desk.

"Alright. I'll keep my peace for now. Did you guys see anyone else on the way here?"

With most of his hatred gone, Sosuke shook his head.

"Fujisaki and I found each other on the third floor. We met Sosuke in another classroom." Shinya said.

"I was with Misaki-chan in the gym and found Toyoba-san in the locker room." Kazushi said.

Fumina was on the computer.

"I don't see anyone coming here. I guess this is all of the second years that are left."

Sosuke quickly counted the amount of classmates he had.

"9… 10…11? That's it?"

The amount was slightly disappointing, more so that they had Keigo and his goon. But a single thought popped up into his head.

"H-hey…" Sosuke said.

Keigo appeared to have heard him but made no action confirming it.

"Hey..." He said again.

Keigo still made no affirmative action until Fujisaki yelled at him.

"Hey, ass hat! Did you not hear him? He was talking to you!"

Keigo turned.

"Oh, such vulgar language. Of course I heard something, but I thought it was just a tiny mouse in the floors."

"Why you…!"

"Didn't you have two goons with you…?"

Everyone suddenly became silent as they all had their eyes to Keigo. Keigo calmly shook his head.

"You honestly don't have a brain amongst you, do you?"

Everyone glared back at him as he continued.

"Must I spell it out for you? Fine, he fell behind and got himself killed."

"You tripped him while you were running, didn't you?" Sosuke asked.

Keigo shook his head.

"How many times must I tell you? I can barely hear a word you say if you speak with that voice. In other cases, no, I didn't trip him. He was just too clumsy and they were rushing us. I had no choice but to leave him behind."

Fumina was checking the tapes and frowned.

"Yeah, it's true. The jack-ass is telling the truth for once."

Everyone sighed, disappointed that they couldn't use that as an excuse to throw him out.

"So, next order of business: We need a safe way out of the school. Preferably without any of us getting killed or turned."

"There's tons of those things on the way to the first floor. I don't think I'll be able to activate the alarms outside; Only for this building."

Kazushi stood up.

"Maybe we can fight them off?"

Fumina shook her head.

"Not a chance. We could probably take five each before being overrun. A few could make it but the majority would join the rest."

"So it's a sacrifice? Some must be made for the survival of others. Why not take a chance?" Keigo said.

"For the love of God, Keigo! Would you please shut up! We're going to find a way to get out of here with everybody!" Fujisaki yelled at him.

Keigo shrugged his shoulders.

"Just saying. We're all not going to make it."

"You keep talking like that and I'll make sure your the first casualty we suffer." Renji snapped at him.

Keigo huffed and sat back on the table.

"Go ahead. I'm way too valuable to be lost. Killing me will be like signing your death warrant."

Shinya clenched his fist and was tempted to saw the egotistical bastard in half.

"How exactly is your sorry ass valuable to us? You nearly got one of us killed!"

Keigo tutted him.

"Again with your vile tongue. On the idea of being valuable, I'll let you in on a little something: I have connections with the military."

He paused to let the information sink in, then continued.

"They have tons of helicopters that can ship us out of here, but they can only be called by my phone."

"What's stopping us from getting rid of you and taking your phone and calling them ourselves?" Yahiru asked.

"Me!" Tohru shouted at them, reassuming his position in front of Keigo.

"Yes, there is Tohru, but there's also the pass code for my phone. Plus, I have no contacts; I memorize all my numbers making my phone useless to you. The final being that they only answer to me; Anything happens to me and they won't come to rescue you lower life forms."

Kazushi gritted his teeth as he tightened his grip on the piece of rebar; Renji glared daggers at him; Tetsuba leaned on the table with his arms crossed not making a sound. Finally, he spoke.

"I know that you're not doing this out of the goodness of your heart; What is it that you want us to do for you?"

Keigo smiled.

"Finally! Some intelligence that can speak to me!"

"Keigo-sama has decided to see you on an equal intelligence. Be grateful!" Tohru said to Tetsuba.

"I'd be more grateful if I had dog shit on my shoe."

"Actually, I want something from each of you. Think of it as a price to pay for your worthless lives."

Keigo looked towards Kazushi and Sosuke.

"You jocks really annoy the hell out of me, but you're really useful when it comes to fighting so I want you to act as my additional guards."

Turning to Misaki, he looked her up and down, much to Kazushi's anger.

"You would do well for my amusement in the fine arts. A looker much as yourself wouldn't have much trouble finding success with your… talents. The rest of you just have to stick to me and become one of my party or stay out of my way once we land."

Finally, He turned to Renji.

"Ah, and of course you. You know why your precious little sister had a terrible accident, correct?"

He leaned in close to Renji's face with a smirk. Renji gritted his teeth, but stayed silent.

"I only wanted to set her up with the best person in the world! But you know what she did? She denied me."

"Like every other girl in existence?"

"I'll choose to ignore your comment. Your ticket out of here"

Keigo walked to the table he was originally at.

"Is to make her become mine."

Jin Otsuji

Jin sent a right hook which knocked the former classmate of his down to the ground. Running right past him, Yoshi Shinjuko stepped on it's chest and sent it's head flying to the wall with a well placed kick. The monster was the last one on the floor and the two decided to take a break.

"Of all the people I find, it turns out to be you, huh?"

"Don't judge. Just be glad I saved your ass back on the first floor."

Jin chuckled as he downed some water from a bottle. True, Yoshi was a jerk, but at least he was reliable. Right now, reliability was everything, and Yoshi was all he had; He couldn't afford to be picky.

"We should get something to cover your fists other than boxing tape. They can bite through that and it'll be game over for you."

Jin shook his head.

"If I put on boxing gloves, it'll cushion the punch and I won't have enough force to knock them down. I'll stick with this until I find something like a biker's glove."

For the past hour, the two had been fighting their way to clear the second floor of one of the third-year buildings. They had yet to find more company and to find a way to block the stair preventing more of them coming.

"So, you called anyone yet?" Jin asked.

Yoshi nodded.

"Tried to but none of the team members picked up. Best case scenario they just left it in their bags. Not like they would be any use though."

Jin frowned.

"Just because there not as good as you are in basketball doesn't mean that they can't help now."

"They can't meet standards, then they're not allowed." Yoshi sighed.

"It's not that I don't think they're good enough to be on the team, but if they're good enough to make a college team or even play professional teams, that's when their worthy."

Jin scowled but decided not to argue.

"What are you? A perfectionist?"

The two were interrupted by another monster climbing up the stairs.

"I've got it." Yoshi said as he walked up to it and gave it a swift kick in the face sending it down the stairs; it's head bursting when it hit the wall.

"Ugh. Disgusting." Jin said.

The two found a large table in a room nearby and fastened it to the hand rails with a few bungee cords. After proving to be a good barrier, the boys did the same with the other stair cases leading to the first floor. Upon securing the last staircase, they decided to head up to the next floor. That was, until they heard somebody downstairs.

"Give me your goddamn keys, damnit!"

"Let me go! You don't have to take his keys!"

"This dude's car is the only one parked outside the gate; Taking one of the teacher's cars is outta the question!"

"There's tons of cars out there! What's stopping you from hot-wiring them?"

"Just give me your fucking keys!"

Jin panicked.

"Shit! We gotta go help them! Help me get this out of the way!" He said as he unfastened the bungee cord.

Yoshi grabbed his hand and pushed him away from the barricade.

"Are you insane? The noise they'll make will attract them! We should keep this up to buy ourselves some time to run."

Jin looked at him in disbelief.

"You're just going to let that guy get mugged?"

"I'm saving your ass again! Let's get going, there's a shortcut to the next building over here- what the hell are you doing?!"

Yoshi tried to pull Jin off of the barricade again but failed as Jin shoved him away. Grimacing, Yoshi backed off.

"Fine, go and be a hero. You'd end up distracting them for a bit longer."

Yoshi disappeared around the corner, but Jin didn't notice; He was still working hard to get the table out of the way while trying not to hurt his left hand. He finally ripped the table off and set the heavy piece of wood on the ground as he dashed down the stairs.

"Please! Just stop!"

"Either you give me your keys or the bitch gets her throat slit!"

"Calm down! You're not thinking straight!"

Jin turned the corner and found the back of a student facing him with a girl in his hands. In front of the student was a familiar face.

"Kenshi?"

"Jin! Help me out! He's got Noriko!"

The student turned around and showed the frail body of Noriko Kazumi. In his hand was a butterfly knife held close to her throat.

"Oh, so you're gonna stop me? How about this, since you look more reasonable; You gotta car parked outside the gate?"

Jin looked around and saw that the noise had attracted a few of them. Without much of a choice, he nodded.

"It's a truck. It's kinda beaten up but it'll work. I'll give you my keys if you let her go."

The student flashed a wicked smile.

"Now that's what I'm talking about! I never really wanted to hurt this girl but sometimes a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do."

He beckoned for Jin to come closer and let his knife pull away from Noriko. Jin nodded and got his keys out of his pocket. Kenshi looked protestant.

"What? No, Jin don't do what he says!"

Jin ignored him as he held out his keys in front of him. The student smiled and released his grip on Noriko. The trade off went smoothly as they exchanged the keys and Noriko. The student smiled.

"See? That wasn't so hard, now was it?"

"You bastard!"

"Huh?"

*BAM*

Kenshi sent his fist into the face of the student and sent him flying down the steps of stairs into the pile of former students and teachers.

"Ah! AAAUGGGH! YOU LITTLE SHIT! I'LL KIL- AAAAAAAAAHHHH!"

Jin forced himself to look away as the student was buried by the piles of rotting flesh. A ripping and tearing sound was heard along with the crunch of the bones. Noriko covered her mouth as the boy's hand disappeared under the monsters devouring him. Kenshi was breathing heavily.

"W… what did I just… do?"

Jin recovered from the horrific sight and noticed something on the ground; it was the butterfly knife of the student. He picked it up and searched around for his keys but couldn't find them anywhere. Noriko walked over to Kenshi.

"I'm… I'm a monster… How could I do that?"

Kenshi breathed heavily as Noriko put her arms around him, trying to comfort him. Jin motioned for her to hurry and nodding his head to the turned classmates heading up the stairs.

"Come on. We can get to your car if we hurry."

Kenshi slowly brought his face out of his hands and nodded. The three went up the stairs together.

"Shit!" Jin yelled as he ran into another monster on the top of the stairs waiting for them.

It grabbed him and tried to force his arm into it's mouth, but he was able to keep it at bay with his left hand. Resisting the pain in his hand, he tried calling for help.

"Hey! Kenshi! I dropped the knife! Help me!"

"I… I can't kill again… Not again… This is all just a dream…" Kenshi said, holding his head in his hands.

"Something's got me! I can't get it off!" Noriko said from the stairs, one of the fallen holding onto her heel.

The student's face came closer to his own, it's mouth opening and closing to bite him. It was about 5 inches from his face.

"Kenshi!"

Four inches.

"The knife! Quick!"

Three inches.

"I can't… I can't handle this…"

Two inches.

"HELP ME!"

One inch.

*SHUNK*

Jin opened his eyes and felt the monster wasn't pressing onto him anymore. He shoved it off of him and found the butterfly knife stuck in it's head and an unexpected face.

"Wha-? Yoshi?!"

Yoshi rolled his eyes and went to the stairs to help Noriko.

*CRUNCH*

He smashed the skull of the former classmate with the heel of his shoe and helped Noriko onto her feet.

"You really owe me for this…" He said as he slid the table down the stairs knocking over several more undead.

Yoshi walked right past Jin who still had a stunned look on his face. Swallowing, he looked to Noriko and Kenshi, then decided to follow the man who was both a pain in his ass, and his savior.

Ah! It's been way too long guys! Sorry that I haven't updated in a while; One fic was hard work and I had too get back into the groove of school so I had to cancel this for a little while. News on later updates: I will update once every two weeks so I have time to work on my Persona fic, so please take it easy on me! Anyways, please review and favorite if you like this fic and put out suggestions that you want to see! With that being said, here's the ministory!

Inseparable

"Come on, Mitsu! We don't have much time!"

"I'm trying! I'm just… really… tired…"

Ikubo was running through the hallways with his girlfriend Mitsu at his side. He held tightly onto her hand with one of his own and held a broken table leg on his other. The hallways were filled with fallen classmates trying to grab at him, but he quickly bashed their heads in if one of them posed a threat.

They were nearing the end of the building and saw the doors leading to the field area.

"Alright, Mitsu, we're almost there! Just hang on for a little longer!"

"Ngh… I don't feel too good…"

He kicked the door open and closed it behind him. He wedged the table leg between the bars to stop them from exiting the building. Breathing a sigh of relief, he turned to his girlfriend and brought her to a place of shade near the tool shed.

"Alright, let me see your bite mark."

Mitsu looked onto her arm that was bleeding a few minutes ago but was now held by a torn piece of cloth. She pulled it away to show that a chunk of flesh was taken out of her arm and that the teeth marks were turning slightly yellow.

"Oh god… that's… that's pretty bad…" Ikubo said as he pulled out a water bottle and tried to clean the wound.

Mitsu hissed in pain as he cleaned the matted blood away, but the yellowed marks remained and seemed to spread. Ikubo cursed and took out a tube of antibiotic and applied it to the yellow marks.

"Oh no… it's not working… Ah!"

Mitsu shrieked in pain as the yellow marks had suddenly spread even quicker, as if the antibiotic was feeding it. She pushed on Ikubo's chest.

"Please… just leave me… I don't want you… to see me like them…"

Ikubo's eyes were starting to shed tears.

"No! I can't do that! There has to be a way to stop this! I… I've got some rubbing alcohol from the nurse's cabinet, that's gotta stop the spread!"

Mitsu placed a hand on his as she shook her head.

"Please… Just… go…"

Ikubo looked back at her, his breathing starting to choke up as he couldn't contain the sobs within him. Then, he held tight to her hand and pulled her into a hug.

"I'm never leaving you! Not now; Not ever!"

He sobbed into her shoulder for what seemed like eternity, until he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"I… I love… you…"

Ikubo felt the warmth disappear from the body of his lover, then closed his eyes.

And felt a sharp pain at his neck.

A few minutes later…

"Hello? Is anybody else out here?"

A member of the student council was outside. He was able to escape from the classrooms in one piece without getting bit and was safe for the time being. His eye caught two people in the distance holding hands.

"Oh! Hey! Over here!"

The students didn't move. He called out again but there was still no reaction. He decided to walk up closer to them.

"Hey! You guys! Can you hear me?"

Then, he smelled a rotting scent. Much stronger this time as he was nearing to the couple.

"Uh, hey. Are you two okay?"

He grabbed the shoulder of the boy and turned him around.

The boy turned around and lunged at the hand of the council member and downing him on the ground. But his hand never left his girlfriend's.

They would be together forever.

They would never leave each other.

Even if death had claimed their humanity.