That was about the time I heard the moan.

It was quiet, distant. Almost dreamlike. I barely caught it above the sound of the rolling thunder. My muscles tensed and I immediately froze with fear; an hour and a half of half-assed zombie groans and monologue really put me on edge.

There was a thick pause as the rain fell softly like snow around me, and I let out a shaky breath that painted the dank air gray. The walls of the courtyard suffocated me, their chalky bricks glowing ominously pale in the dim light.

Then I sighed again, this time in relief. God, that was stupid. Zombies, Kyon? What bullshit.

I forced a nervous chuckle before returning my attention to my phone. The seventeen missed messages blinked with inky-black urgency, but I was hesitant to listen to them then... call me paranoid.

There it was again. Low, growling.

"Ugghh..."

Imagining things, I told myself. Chill the hell out. You watched a bad zombie movie and now you're hearing things. It's all in your head.

My eyes darted around cautiously as I dialed Miss Asahina. The ringing monotone drawled in my eardrums and drowned out the noises I was pretending were real. Then there was the hollow click and rustle of an answering caller.

"H-hello?"

I grinned at the familiar sound of Mikuru's voice. "Hello, Miss Asahina? It's Kyon."

"O-oh! Oh, thank God! Kyon, did you get my messages?"

I frowned with concern at the fear that lined her words, dripping like acidic rainwater down each syllable. "Um, no. I mean, I got them, but I didn't listen to them yet. I thought I'd call you. Is something wrong?"

"Hm... I-I... um, that's classified."

I felt my shoulders tense. Something was definitely wrong. And that damned groaning was happening again. "Miss Asahina, what's the matter?"

No reply.

"Mikuru, what's going on?" I demanded. The goddamned moaning was getting louder by the second. My heart began to pound.

"That's classified."

"Uggrrhh..."

Dumbass movie. I shook my head clear of the fake sounds and asked again, "Miss Asahina. What do you need to tell me?"

"Kyon. I can't tell you everything... but... b-but something really, really bad is about to happen."

"What?" I wiped the rainwater from my brow. "What's about to happen? Mikuru?"

The cell's screen began to fade when I brought it before me. Bad signal? I shook the stupid device and rattled the insides. Damn. Dead batteries.

"Brugh... braiggghh..."

Where the hell was that noise coming from? It wasn't imaginary, that much was clear now. I whirled around, executing a swift three-sixty on my heel and scanning the yard for movement. My eyes met with a dark blue, hunched back. It was an indigo jacket; one of our school uniforms. Underneath it was obviously a student, but from the back, it was hard to tell who.

I took a step towards them. Greasy, slicked-back locks of hair. "Taniguchi?"

My old friend's ears perked up a bit at the sound of his name. But he didn't turn.

I sighed a breath of cold, wet air and wandered over to him. My paranoia faded and dimmed into mild surprise. Taniguchi was the one making the noise. Thank God. But what was he doing here? He wasn't exactly the stay-after-hours-and-study-because-I-care kind of guy.

"Hey, man, what're you doing?" I glanced over his shoulder and saw him pawing at the blackness of an unlit window. The darkness of the classroom beyond offered little reflection of his face. "Jeez. It's nothing perverted, is it?"

He lolled his head lazily to the left, as though to get a better view of something I couldn't see. I struggled to follow his gaze. Was there a cute girl in there? I couldn't tell. I didn't want to be caught looking, though, so I nonchalantly clamped a friendly hand around my pal's shoulder and went to pull him away. "C'mon, you animal. There's always tomorrow-?"

I froze. My fingers squeezed gently into his dark jacket and dug into what I assume was skin with a sickening squish. I felt my nails sink into the flesh like it was moldy cheese before I quickly yanked away and gazed at my fingers in horror. They were stained red, almost black, with blood. Thick, lukewarm, disgusting... blood.

I stumbled backwards. Lightning lanced the sky and illuminated his reflection in the window for a split-second of absolute terror. The clouds bled gouts of rain as Taniguchi's lifeless eyes, glazed-over and sticky with gross fluid, stared into mine. His skin was pale and white, almost green, and his hand clawed at the glass once more, squashing blood and dirt and grime across the glass. A thin, slimy trail of decay stained the black as he turned to look at me.

And I heard what he'd been trying to groan all along as his torn lips parted, and his disintegrating nostrils quivered as he roared.

"Brrrainssss!"

"No way," I heard myself panting, gasping desperately for much-needed oxygen. "No freaking way."

He took a wobbly step towards me, his arms outstretched and his hands shaped like talons. I staggered away in shock, tripping backwards and onto the concrete below. My palms scraped the icy ground, and searing pain shot through my knuckles like fire. Taniguchi's dead-eyed stare was far more agonizing. Tears singed my eyes as he approached me with ravenous, bloodthirsty intent.

My best friend was dead.

"T-Taniguchi?"

And now he wanted to eat me.

"Taniguchi, please..."

The sobs came without my knowledge. I was choking on the tears, weeping uncontrollably. He never faltered as he limped ever closer.

"Snap the hell out of it, you bastard!" I roared uselessly, my throat raw with panic. "It's me! Kyon! Your best friend, goddamn it!"

It all happened in a three measly seconds, but it felt like hours when he finally reached me. His jaw unhinged as he screamed a horrible sound and charged me.

One second. A glimmer of quicksilver and pale skin flashed before my eyes like lightning as Yuki Nagato suddenly appeared, her leg uncurled and the foot extended as she kicked high into the air. The heel of her shoe smashed into his maw and sent rotten teeth and sickening juices spewing into the wind. Nagato's golden eyes pierced the gray and locked with the zombie's, never blinking as she twirled with the momentum and hurled her other foot into Taniguchi's decomposing skull.

Two seconds. The walking corpse fell backwards, his spine connecting with the window behind him and leaving a white scar of a crack in the black glass. The snapping noise of breaking bones rang out as the thing howled in pain or rage. Yuki landed gracefully before him, her back to me and her face to him. She swept her foot beneath him, knocking him to the ground and flat on his back. Another snap shook the air as something else inside his undead body broke, and Taniguchi writhed about helplessly, his oily claws gnashing at the heavens.

Three seconds. Nagato didn't hesitate as she raised her heel into the sky, her arms cemented firmly to her sides, and then threw her foot to the floor with such a force that the earth beneath me literally vibrated. With a gross splat, the point of her heel exploded into the zombie's forehead, and bits of skull and greymatter splashed across the asphalt. Black strands of blood and mucus stained her knees and feet as she watched Taniguchi twitch and spasm until death after death.

Then she turned to me. Flecks of bone and crimson fluid marred her ghostly white face as she stared at me without feeling. A streak of vibrant scarlet blood was spattered across her nose and under her left eye as she spoke. "Get up."