I recommend playing - HOTD OST 7 - watch?v=AeNRDDyXbCY&index=7&list=PL24EA2AE5A70AE119 - when you see the *****. At least once or loop until the end.

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It was hard to recall very clearly the rest of what happened that night. Saeko almost thought it was a dream, barely remembering the awkward parting they had the next morning as few words had been exchanged and they never talked about it afterwards. One thing she did come to know, it was after that point that she started to notice Miyako's secretive glances and looks.

Glancing around the dimly lit shed, she walked to the door and unlocked it before calling out to the others quietly. Everyone quickly made their way inside. As they looked around, Rei spotted the baseball bats in one of the sections of shelves along the back walls, walking over to it, she gingerly hefted the aluminum bat. It was actually quite a bit lighter than her wooden sword, to her surprise. Deciding to keep her weapon she walked up to Marikawa-sensei and Saya, handing them each their own. They both seemed comfortable with the weight, but as for their purpose, neither one seemed particularly enthused about carrying them.

Saeko pulled Miyako to the side and walked her over to the baseball gear, picking up then showing her the shin guards, "I think these will be useful to you."

Eyeing them briefly, she nodded in understanding then took them, before kneeling down beginning to put them on, "Thanks these should help."

Kneeling down next to her as she watched her friend lace the pads on, she asked in an uneasy tone, "Do you think our families are okay?"

Miyako paused and looked up at her, considering for a moment, "My father was…" She paused again then sighed, did secrecy even matter anymore? "He was working with another country's military somewhere… I am not really sure where, so I can't say. And now that this has happened I don't know when… or if he'll be back. My mother she… was at the dojo today." A cold chill ran through her body.

Saeko noticed it and placed a comforting hand on her knee, rubbing it gently, "I am sure she is okay Miya…" She used the childhood moniker that only came out rarely in such moments.

"I hope so…"

"Our families would both be trying to make it to your home… If they could get there I am certain they are alright," she followed supportively.

The thought did bring her a measure of comfort, even though the getting there would be the challenge.

The kendo girl's mind did briefly touch on her own family, but unlike Miyako, her feelings were a bit more detached. Much of her interactions with them stemmed out of respect and duty, not a deep connection as her friend seemed to have with hers. She was an only child and raised under the pretext of being the heir to the family dojo, so emotions were far less of a focus compared to training and learning. Not to say that her family was cold to her, but she was never able to bond with them intimately like a normal family.

Saya watched the two older girls out of the corner of her eyes with a sullen expression as she fiddled with the bat, not quite sure what she was going to do with it. She knew the both of them had been longtime friends and her own father shared a connection with Busujima's, but their closeness was something she envied. Having spoken to Saeko on several occasions, the girl came off as a prim and proper one, who did everything outwardly right. Much like her in many regards, though that shared likeness didn't amount to anything since they never found something to talk about. The other girl was a different story…

Rei noticed the pink haired girl's expression, but wasn't sure what to make it.

"I hope I don't have to use this…" the blond woman said uneasily, while holding the bat clumsily with both hands.

"…back there, I noticed the most effective hits were on their heads," the twin-tail girl added softly, recalling when that boy died and the two other girls were beating them down from behind. "It's hard to say what exactly those things are, but they do still seem to rely on some part of their brain to function."

Walking up to the others with Saeko, Miyako followed up "I believe you're right, I noticed that they seem to be immune or perhaps mostly unaffected by damage to other parts of their body."

"Of course I am right," Saya huffed, though she bit back some of her retort, as she stared at Miyako for a moment, before glancing around at the others. "Did anyone else notice anything useful?"

"They appear to be capable of running," Saeko replied.

"That doesn't seem to be something they can all do though," Rei chimed in, from her earlier observations.

"Now that you mention it, their speed is also varied, much like normal humans," the purple haired girl remarked.

"Their strength is also much higher than a normal person," Miyako recalled. "If you get caught…" She didn't add anything more, but everyone got the idea.

The pinked haired girl thought for a moment before replying, "That could be related to how our brain limits our own strength with pain, in order to not damage our body."

"Given how they can move around with so many physical wounds that would normally cripple a person… that seems plausible," the nurse surmised, to everyone's surprise. Seeing everyone's expression, she flushed, "Sorry, it's just I don't do well under pressure… not like this."

Eyeing the nurse's figure, Miyako asked casually, "I apologize for bringing this up, but do you exercise regularly Marikawa-sensei?"

Turning to the student, she blushed slightly, "…no I don't. And please just call me Shizuka."

"Sorry Shizuka-san, it's just important to know everyone's capabilities under the present circumstances," she replied lightly.

Saeko was looking at the woman's skirt as their attention was focused and added, "Can you run in that?"

"Umm… probably not," she replied sheepishly.

Coming over Saeko grabbed the hem of the skirt along her thigh and began tearing it, stopping about three quarters of the way up.

The blond cringed as her designer skirt was being torn, her face puffing an angry red. A moment later though, she sighed and grudgingly said, "… thank you."

Seeing Miyako glancing at her, Rei answered, "I am not on any sports team, but I should be okay if we need to run or anything."

She nodded before shifting her attention to the girl with the glasses.

"… I never really had to participate in gym classes due to my circumstances!" the pink haired girl huffed with a measure of both pride and embarrassment.

"I see…" From what Miyako knew Saya was a special case student who was apparently very intelligent and allowed to attend classes at her own discretion. "Well, our goal is to reach Shizuka-san's car and make out way out of here, so if something happens it would be best for everyone to run until we get to it."

Her voice carried a commanding tone, born of her leadership in the clubs and the others nodded as they prepared to leave.

"Saeko, do you want to take the lead?" Miyako asked.

"You're going to bring up the rear?" she already knew the answer. It was the type of person her friend was, but the thought still made her uneasy. Saeko was certain Miyako would stop to help one of the others if something did happen.

"Yes."

"Let's get going then," the purple haired girl responded coolly, though she was not the least bit satisfied with the situation.

After explaining to her the route they all had agreed on, Saeko made her way out moving at a fairly quick pace through the grassy sports field. The plan was to skirt around the rear of the field where the grass was relatively flat, before coming alongside the school's recent building addition, passing through the walkway between them, until finally jumping the fence to the parking lot waiting on the other side. There weren't many of the creatures around, most seemingly having been attracted to the main building, but up ahead was the connection between the recent addition to the school where they would go under a walkway. Coming closer to it, the group was becoming increasingly more uneasy. What was once a sparse collection of the creatures spread out over the area was quickly turning into a high concentration of bodies.

There were dozens of them wandering around in the area, crisscrossing each other, staring around blankly, or mauling on victims missing various pieces of their head, throat or upper body. Saya clutched her bat tightly, as she held it in over her shoulder along her neck. Her breathing was quickly escalating along with the nurse in front of her, whose hands were beginning to shake as she held the bat by the handle and pointing precariously down. The creatures' hoarse moans and groans only served to heighten their fear, as they came in closer and closer.

Rei was still holding it together, though barely, as she followed Saeko. Her eyes were quickly darting left and right, while squeezing the wooden sword so tightly her hands were turning white. Looking back, Saeko's face darkened when she noticed the shift in position of Shizuka's grip. The woman had been holding it with a slight tilt in front of her, but now… She had no desire to stop and correct her though given how many of them were nearby, particularly since saw the other girls were beginning to crack with the exception of her friend.

Miyako appeared outwardly calm to her while walking with the sword slung over her back, though the occasional bead of sweat trickled down her face. It was only another hundred and fifty feet or so now. As they started getting closer to the walkway, even Saeko was starting to get nervous due to having to step over and around the limbs of bodies that were being fed on or already dead.

It was then that it happened— the blond woman in her intense distress tripped over a dead students arm and dropped the bat in front of her to a loud clang onto the edge of the walkway, before falling to her knees. All the creatures in the area immediately reacted, turning towards the sound and began to crawl, shamble, jog and even run towards the nurse. The closest one that was feeding on the corpse lunging at her.

Miyako eyes went wide as she saw the throng of bodies heading towards her…! With no time to think, she did a short hop forwards before performing a sharp vertical kick to the nearest one, crying out, "Haah!" The blow turned its face into a gory mess and causing it to be thrown backwards.

"RUN! GET OUT HERE!" she screamed loudly, drawing the attention of most the horde of students and teachers, then making several short jumps backwards avoiding lunging attempts at her.

Saya and Rei snapped out of their sudden terror by her sharp command, quickly helped Shizuka up, before they all started dashing towards the fence.

Saeko came forward and violently slashed several of the approaching creatures in the temples, cutting them down like grass. Her eyes darting towards Miyako, she saw the other girl was quickly getting surrounded. Fear, not for herself, but for her friend flooded into her like a storm as she battered more of more of them while trying to get closer.

Seeing them massing all around her, Miyako's face hardened she weaved even further away from the group through the slower ones, due to being unable to get closer to the others from their sheer numbers. Noticing one running at her from her peripheral vision, she turned towards it right as it lunged at her, using its own weight and strength against it she flipped it over onto another three more lurching at her from the opposite direction. Two of them were knocked down, but the other only slightly grazed dove at her crouched form.

Panicking as she saw it, Miyako quickly rolled to the side onto her back then using her feet to thrust it over, causing the creature to land on its neck and topple along with a couple of others that were close by. Hearing a groaning nearby, she noticed too late, how close one of the crawling ones had come and it bit her left kote wildly, grabbing her arm just before doing so. She screamed in agony as the bite tore her skin open despite not penetrating the glove.

A chill ran through her body as she saw her friend go down, followed almost immediately by her scream. "Nooo!" Saeko wailed in anguish, while defiantly beating more and more of the creatures down, as she tried to get closer— however there was no end to them!

It was as if the creatures had been driven into a frenzy and it seemed like the entire school was now bearing down upon them!

Rei reached the fence first after skirting past several of them and jumped up onto the ledge with her sword on the top, before she straddled it and started to help the less athletic Saya to get over. Her face was clearly flooded with panic as she saw more and more of the creatures coming closer to them. While helping the teacher up, she heard the scream. She glanced over, only to hear Saeko's own cry. Had they gotten Miyako? She questioned wildly before screaming out to the kendo girl, "Busujima-san come on!"

The words barely registered to the enraged and anguished purple haired girl, who kept swinging at and dodging the creatures, however her arms were starting to get heavy with fatigue from the constant jarring hard impacts. What one had been precise powerful swings were now wild light smacks. Tears had begun to stream down her face as she grit her teeth, fully intending to go down fighting.

Pain stabbing fiercely at her now, Miyako rolled onto her side closer to it, before performing a heavy uppercut, followed smoothly by an elbow to its face. The blow caused the creature to release its grip and bite just enough for her to snap her arm away then rapidly flip herself onto her feet. Seeing herself completely surrounded and only a few paces away from the thong, she grimaced while glancing around quickly and finding the spot they were thinnest— dashed forward and did a flying side kick to the nearest one. The powerful impact caused the creature to be thrown backwards and bowl several of the others down.

Using the fallen ones as steps, she rapidly moved over them. Landing on the other side, she immediately performed a vicious hop kick to the chest one of that was lurching towards her, followed by back kick to the face of another to side of it. Knocking one down and snapping the neck back of the other. Clutching her arm in pain as blood trickled down with a ragged breath; she ran a short distance away from the group to escape the relative enclosure. Looking past the walkway in her brief respite, saw the others had apparently made it to safety, though Rei was still on the face with the creatures approaching. Although she couldn't directly see her through the mass of bodies, Miyako did notice the sword sings.

Calling out as loud as she could muster, "SAEKO! GET TO THE CAR! I AM OK!"

Her voice penetrated the foggy cloud of the purple haired girl's bloodlust and she quickly backed away from the numerous bodies along with creatures still coming at her. The young woman's face was contorted in a mixture of indecision, anger and fear as saw the mob move like a wave towards the back of the school adjacent to the addition.

"Busujima-san!" Rei cried out fearfully now as the creatures were nearly upon her, it would be easy for her to swing her over and escape but... without the older girls, was there even any point? None of them knew how to fight and they were nowhere near safe.

Saeko's mind was racing now as she turned away from the throng and started dashing full speed towards the fence, she was in anguish, but wanted to believe that Miyako could get to safety alone.

Seeing Saeko coming towards her, Rei's face flooded with relief and she skirted the rest of the way over with the wooden sword, before one of them got to her leg.

On the other side, Shizuka who was completely terrified had fumbled with the keys several times, dropping it and putting in the wrong ones before finally opening the door to her four door Nissan Micra. The vehicle was a compact and only designed to only seat four people. Saya was behind her and immediately got inside once it was unlocked. Turning on the car in a panic, she glanced back and saw Rei still on the fence. The girl yelled something and a moment later jumped down. Running up to the vehicle past several other parked cars, Rei got inside the nearest rear door.

Breathing heavily, Saeko saw the creatures turning towards her having lost their prey in girl with the orange hair. Tired but still enraged. She did a hard sideways slash at the nearest one's head, then spun and using her momentum smacked another in a similar fashion before landing a third blow on the last one. She lurched in fatigue and faint dizziness from the motion, but managed to quickly jump up onto the fence with her sword in one hand. Her forearms had lost their strength though and she tumbled forward, managing to land on her back on the hard asphalt parking lot.

She grunted in pain as the breath was knocked out of her, but rolled onto all fours after sucking in a few gulps of air. Propping herself up, she half ran, half crawled past the cars while struggling to regain her breath. Opening the front passenger door, she plopped herself inside.

"Where is Miyako?!" Saya cried out.

However, Shizuka had already started to drive away, having seen more of the creatures heading towards them from the front of the parking lot near the street.

Sobbing while looking at her, Rei mouthed brokenly, "She's…!"

"Noo! That can't be!" Saya denied vehemently, with tears in her eyes.

Driving past the creatures, Shizuka was merely moving on instinct born of terror, avoiding crashed cars and as many of the creatures as she could, while moving away from the school.

Looking up at the nurse as she finally caught her breath, Saeko raged at her, "No, damn you! Turn around and head to the back of the school!"

Snapped out of her panic, she looked at girl in confusion.

"Just do it!" she followed angrily.

Glancing back at the approaching creatures, with an expression filled with dread, the nurse turned the car around and starting driving over— unsure which one she was scared of more…