Chapter 4
Timing is Everything
"Where are we going?" Madoka asked, trailing behind the blunette who led the small, bedraggled group. There had only been one of the monsters beyond the double doors, but the others were probably still pursuing them. They'd ran down on hallway, across a corridor, and had stopped at the drinking fountains to catch their breath.
"I was… kinda… hoping… you'd have… a plan," the blunette grinned through gasping breaths. Forcing herself to inhale slowly and deeply, Sayaka reflexively wiped her forehead with the back of her sleeve. Unfortunately, the blood-drenched cloth did little to alleviate the uncomfortable sheen of sweat, and she panicked as her left eye started to sting.
"Ugh! It's getting in my eyes!" she hissed frantically, the thought of blinking in blood disgusting and frightening at the same time. "Gah!" Infected blood. Her knuckles were skinned, and numerous cuts and scrapes already adorned her arms and legs, but the mental image of getting it in her eye was somehow much creepier.
Luckily, Madoka was right behind her. As her best friend had reeled back in distress, she'd understood and put a gentle hand on the blunette's shoulder, supporting her while wiping away at her eyes with a freshly washed sleeve, softly making shushing noises. Sayaka sheepishly froze in place, resisting the urge to open her eyes as the pinkette continued to rub away the worst of the filth.
"What's wrong?" Nakazawa whispered, out of breath from supporting the stumbling boy at his side. Homura watched, following behind a pace, ready to catch Kyousuke if he should fall. Which is exactly what it looked like he was about to do, pale-faced and swaying on his feet.
"Sayaka-chan is a mess," Madoka replied, keeping her voice down without having to resort to whispering. "I don't think it's safe, being covered in… b-blood," she gulped. "Like that." The only good thing about her friend's appearance was that none of the blood seemed to be her own. The blunette could only agree, feeling wretched underneath the coating of bodily fluids. Her arms were blood-red, literally, right up past the elbows. Her left side was drenched in it, and she was pretty certain there was some in her hair… she hadn't had the courage to examine it, and since it was plastered away from her face, it suited her fine for the moment. "We need to get our stuff, from our lockers."
It was the only place Sayaka was fairly certain was clear, having been here a short time ago. She agreed with a nod, thinking of her backpack and the rest of the contents of her duffel bag, and Akemi Homura was awfully quick to support the notion, obviously eager to retrieve something as well.
The thought of some clean clothes was more than welcome, banishing the disgust she felt regarding her blood-stained attire. Except when she thought about how she must look, and how Kyousuke would remember her. Or Madoka, for that matter. Looking like some kind of… mass murderer. "Thanks, Madoka-chan," she breathed, feeling the girl give her shoulder a gentle pat. She opened her eyes, relieved temporarily despite seeing her friends disgusted expression as she wiped her hand against the wall, leaving a smear of crimson so dark it was nearly brown. Immediately, the swordswoman began glancing around, poking her head into the "T" intersection, one hallway leading toward the cafeteria and commons area, the other towards their lockers and the stairway to the gymnasium downstairs.
Sayaka made a quick gesture, creeping down the hallway on the balls of her feet, feeling like a spring compressed and ready to be sprung any which way. She tried the slow breathing again, but the sense of anxiety continued to plague her as she stealthily made her way to the end of the corridor.
Technically, I probably am a mass murderer. Those things that I've been smashing to death, eight, to be exact, not that I was counting, but hey it's not like that's something I'm going to forget soon… they were people, at least an hour ago. I'm not sure how this is going to be interpreted by the police. It hadn't crossed her mind that this was anything but a finite, local occurrence that left the rest of the outside world unscathed. "Do you think killing those zombies," she emphasized with both her eyes and voice, "is, like, murder?"
"Technically, yes." Homura's answer took both friends by surprise, the slender transfer student looking up from rubbing her shoulder. "Well, technically, mass murder." She shrugged, pushing her glasses back up her nose. "I don't think there's a separate statute regarding the possibility of reanimated corpses. Your obvious defense, of course, is self-defense. Although you'd have a difficult time convincing a judge that an unarmed civilian posed a deadly threat without introducing evidence about the creatures being, essentially, zombies, and of course the government would never allow that to happen."
Sayaka looked at the black-haired girl blankly. Nakazawa interrupted the staring contest. "Uh, guys, I mean girls, or… um, isn't this a bad time? Ladies?" He glanced around meaningfully, then nodded his head at Kyousuke.
The boy was as white as a sheet. "Kyousuke-kun, can you keep going?" Sayaka asked, approaching him for the first time, all too aware of her blood-spattered appearance. The grey-haired boy swayed and instinctively she reached out to grab his shoulder. His far-away gaze came into focus on the messy blunette.
"Sayaka-chan, it is you," he murmured woozily. Sayaka glanced at the other three in concern. He wobbled a bit. "Yes, yes we can go. But… we have to go back. Something's missing."
She patted him on the shoulder gently. "We'll find it," she lied, and he smiled, reassured.
They crept forward silently, and a few tense minutes and false scares later, they came to the hallway with their lockers.
Nakazawa stood guard near the corner, watching for anything entering the "L" shaped intersection. Periodically, he found himself glancing back at the glowing red Exit sign shining like a beacon further along down the hallway.
Lockers were quickly ransacked, Homura coming away with a worn backpack and wearing a set of sport glasses with a ridiculous strap running behind her head. Feeling self-conscious of wearing what she essentially considered Phy Ed equipment, Homura turned to relieve Nakazawa, taking up vigil at the hallway intersection.
Sayaka stripped off her blouse without concern for modesty, eager to get the filthy thing off. She noticed her bra was stained as well, but there was only so far she was willing to go in the name of cleanliness. She grabbed two extra shirts from her equipment bag, using one to rub down her face and hair to get the worst of the damp unpleasantness out before slipping into the other. Unfortunately, they were unwashed, and the shirts both smelled a little ripe, but it was better than nothing. Probably smell like blood and crap soon anyway. That was a startling revelation: blood, in enough quantity, smelled. It was a metallic scent, reminding her of the taste of water from old pipes, or maybe copper.
Then she began drawing out the pieces of her bogu. The kendo practice armor came in four parts; the men, a helmet with a hard mesh front and shoulder protectors, the mitten-like gloves called kote that covered her hands and forearms, the chest piece made of rigid plastic, and the leg and groin protection.
She was tempted, but ultimately just picked up the gloves. Her hands were raw, and she figured if she was going to go down swinging, some added protection for her forearms might come in handy. Chuckling at her own pun, she tried to think of a way to use it before it was forgotten.
Madoka was busy stuffing books and things in her backpack. "Madoka-chan," Sayaka began, waiting to finish until the pinkette looked up briefly. The blunette raised her gauntleted fists. "These might come in handy." She waited, but Madoka just smiled a little, nodding before returning to cramming the entire contents of her locker into the pink cat-themed backpack. Sighing in disappointment, the blunette approached her friend. "Hey, you don't really need all that stuff, Madok-"
"But these books are expensive, Sayaka-chan! And I need my things. I can't leave Mr. Binky or Pickles or any of the rest here, I just can't!" She tried to convey her feelings to the taller girl with a meaningful, desperate look.
Nakazawa popped his head around the corner, and his eyes went wide. "Whoa, you have a suit of armor?!" he asked, shocked. Sayaka sighed.
"Help yourself, but think about this: we've been running for most of the past ten minutes. As long as we're not trapped inside of some room again, we'll probably be running until we get clear of this hell-hole." She'd always called the school that, and saying it again was almost like saying I-told-you-so to the universe, for all the good that did any of them. "Probably not worth the extra weight."
"Sayaka-chan," Nakazawa began, his eyes focused on the pieces of her armor. Something about the wild, ichor-stained blue hair, coupled with the remnant smudges of red around her face, made it hard for him to look right at her. Amazed at what he'd seen in the hallway, and more than a little afraid of the crazy blue murder-eyes and that ferocious expression his classmate had worn, the boy had to swallow his unease. "You have to put that on."
"Nakazawa-kun, I just told you-"
He bent over, hefting a piece. "It hardly weighs anything! You've been bashing heads, and even though all I've done is see people get ripped apart, I've seen people get ripped apart. That armor, that helmet… that's exactly what you need. They keep biting people! The neck, the shoulder, the face… it doesn't matter."
Sayaka frowned, considering. "The peripheral vision is restricted by the helmet. I dunno…"
Nakazawa looked up, finally. The blunette couldn't help but feel awkward under his strange, intense expression. "We can help. The least we can do is watch out for trouble. We have plenty of eyes. What we need is someone who can kick ass and won't get eaten." He looked at her, seeming to dare her to find fault with his argument. "I'd probably fall down flat on my face, if I tried wearing it. You know how to move in it, you've practiced in it. You should wear it."
She shrugged, then began strapping the armor on, leaving behind the thick leggings that were the most restrictive part of the outfit, at least in terms of movement. "Well, if it slows me down I hope you don't leave me behind," she joked.
Nakazawa turned away. "I don't think any of us would even consider leaving you behind, Sayaka-chan."
If she's taking her armor, I'm taking Mr. Binky! Madoka thought fiercely, looking at the pile of expensive, glossy-paged textbooks lying on the floor of her locker with regret as she zipped up the backpack, fuzzy companions safely inside, along with the bento box she'd brought for lunch and her purse.
Homura had barely gotten Kyousuke back on his feet when she heard the noise. Glancing at Nakazawa, she looked back down the hallway.
Screams in the distance drew the blonde's attention. Something about the plaintive, desperate cries were impossible to ignore. Each time she heard that hideous sound of someone calling out hopelessly for help, terrified and alone… it tugged at her. She wanted to help, she didn't want anyone to suffer this fate, so much more terrible than mere death. She wanted to save them.
A flood of the living dead flowed through the lower level of Mitakihara High, a river of shattered, bloodied, lurching figures that stumbled toward the door to the stairs, death approaching from three directions.
She wanted to save them. But she couldn't.
Steeling herself, Mami slammed the door shut, turning her back on the hapless victim and focusing on the immediate concern of escape. She turned toward the stairs, seeing the feet of one of the girls disappearing around the corner. Blinking tears from her eyes, Mami took a series of deep breaths, flooding her body with oxygen as she raced up the stairs behind the three others.
Behind her, the doorway burst open, the shambling horde moaning with unholy harmony, an unending, ever-changing, discordant symphony of doom echoing up the stairwell..
"RUUUN!" she screamed, glancing back to watch the hideous wave of inhumanity wash up against the staircase, the figures clambering over one another in a frenzied attempt to claw their way up, driven by the unquenchable craving for succulent, living flesh.
Sayaka, Madoka, Homura and Nakazawa stared down the hallway with extreme trepidation. "Perhaps we should go-" Homura started to say, and then the doors leading toward the cafeteria swung open, revealing a pack of figures that shuffled into the room, limbs moving jerkily, heads lolling, aimless.
Carefully, the four stepped back. Sayaka motioned in the direction they'd come, thinking of a stairwell that led almost directly to the infirmary. Maybe that would prove to be a safe place, some kind of respite from the ever-present danger these unpredictable, roaming monsters posed. At the very least, it was close to one of the main exits. Earlier, looking down between the glass partitions, they'd seen numerous things moving around, running, shuffling, wrestling on the ground… but it was possible they'd moved on.
Homura bent down, unconsciously reaching up to keep her glasses in place. Smiling, she realized she didn't need to worry about that annoying problem anymore. She'd always wondered what would happen if this kind of apocalyptic, extinction-level event ever played out. She had strong suspicions that secret government agencies were, even now, working to bury the truth and put a proverbial lid on the whole fiasco. Maybe another 'nuclear reactor meltdown', since she'd read on the forums that the government had used that particular ploy to good effect in the past.
One thing she didn't have to worry about was looking fashionable. Or even normal. She glanced unconsciously at the fully-armored blunette, who obviously felt the same way.
"Akemi-san?" Blinking, she dropped her hand, hooking her arm underneath Kyousuke's. Silently, she and the long-haired boy from the front row, Nakazawa, picked up the violinist. The boy's face was pale, almost ashen… he looked dead to Homura, but she had to admit that his greyish hair and slender physique didn't give him a feeling of robust vitality in the first place.
Still, circumspectly, she held two fingers to his neck, trying to feel the pulse-
"Hey," Nakazawa whispered, looking disapproving. "What are you-"
Kyousuke moaned.
Down the hallway, the low hum of the creatures went silent. The shuffling of feet stopped.
Sayaka looked at the others nervously. Frantically, she began waving them down the hallway, but Homura had panicked at the sound of the moan, her fingers unable to instantly find a steady beat and uncomfortably close to the boy's mouth. If he is still a boy.
From down the hallway, something horrible let out a terrible wail. Instantly, it had become a choir of hellish noise. "Go!" Sayaka roared, stepping past the others and positioning herself in the rear, hoping that they'd get to the door in time-
Grunting as he found himself suddenly supporting all of Kyousuke's weight, Nakazawa picked the boy up, cradling the weakly struggling figure in both arms as he stumbled forward. Homura felt no loyalty towards either boy, not to mention interest, but the shocked look of the pinkette was enough to send her back, ready to support if possible.
"Sayaka-chan, should I-" Madoka began, before the first of the monsters became visible around the corner. The stairwell was twenty meters back, and she'd retreated perhaps five. Kyousuke was still just ahead of her, Nakazawa struggling to carry the burden.
Come on, he's not that heavy, Sayaka thought, afraid and dismayed both. The lurching gait of the large creature was too fast, almost a run. "Madoka, get to the stairs!" Much faster than those she'd fought before. Within seconds, a half-dozen figures came into view as they rounded the corner, faces twisted masks of gnashing teeth and blood-drenched mouths, their hands dark with their messy feast. Several bore terrible wounds, gaping tears into their flesh revealing tendon and bone through the rotting meat.
They wore crimson-stained uniforms, the maintenance personnel, Sayaka realized. Continuing to back up, she stumbled into Nakazawa, who cursed loudly. "Sorry," she yelled, panting as the creatures closed the distance, swiftly shambling across the hallway.
Shit. Fuck. Through the helmet's wire-mesh faceguard, Sayaka watched as the first of the creatures came at her, the whites of its eyes blood-red and the dripping, gore-stained face square and vaguely familiar… with a strange sense of inevitability, she looked more closely, noting the missing limb, and the large ring of keys jangling at his belt. At its belt. Because it was not Hokannin-san, not anymore.
Always wanted to do this, she thought, and the shaky hands and rapid breathing vanished as intention became action and once again she was flowing through the form, advancing with a single step as she twisted her torso, the momentum working in tandem with her swinging arms as the bokken sliced through the air, humming right up until the point of impact, punctuated by a wet crunch.
Her longtime nemesis, second only to Vice Principal Tetsuo, crumpled, falling like a sack of rice. She skipped backwards, noting the others were very close to the door now, but the remaining monsters were uncomfortably close, a tight-knit pack that would be impossible to deal with one at a time.
Madoka got to the stairwell, feeling amazingly calm and collected with the knowledge that her friends lives depending on her actions. Carefully, she pulled open the door a crack, hiding behind it but listening for anything.
The rapid patter of steps, very loud and very close. And, unmistakably, the loud, demanding moans of dozens and dozens of the hungry dead. Oh no.
Gingerly, she closed the door. "Sayaka-chan," she called, "there's zombies in there, lots!"
Godammit all to hell! raged the blunette, feeling their options diminishing by the second. Homura approached the door, and was bowled over by several running figures flew out.
"Hitomi-chan!" Madoka screamed, excited to see her friend and terrified of being eaten and feeling a little nauseous at the moment. "Mazushii-chan?" Her stomach had an unpleasant, liquidy feeling as she saw the other two girls dashing up the stairwell, the brown-pigtailed Kaede from class and, of all people-
"Mami-san!" she cried, and Homura looked up from the floor. She saw, through the door that had been swung wide, the busty blonde bounce her way up the last half-flight of stairs, saw the brown-haired, pigtailed girl trip. She watched as the first shadowy figure emerged from below, grasping, dripping hands clutching at the girl's leg-
"Watch out!" the raven-haired girl cried, pointing helplessly-
Another arm appeared, fingers clenching around the girl's pigtail, and Kaede began screaming shrilly as she was yanked backward-
Sayaka, determined to buy her friends as much time as she could, found herself feeling exceptionally fatalistic all of a sudden, lunging right at the group. There was a commotion behind her, but her pulse pounded in her ears as she dealt with the immediate threat before her. She jabbed one right through the eye, darting backward before the clutching fingers could grab hold. Armor or not, she doubted anyone would escape the grip of several of the infernally strong monsters.
Madoka's grin of amazed relief became a grimace of horror, seeing the friendly brown-haired girl from class fall backwards, behind the welcome sight of Mami. The blonde saw her look and turned back in dismay, the younger girl had been out of breath, but they'd had to keep running-
"Help me!" Kaede found her breath as her legs were grabbed, yanked, and white hot pain lanced through her thigh, then her calves. "Mami!" Screaming, she felt each tendon shred as human teeth bit deep into the back of her legs, hamstringing her while filthy, slimy, wet fingers dug into her flesh. "AAAAAAAHHHHHH!"
Mami took a step down, the ascending horde momentarily preoccupied and paying her no heed. Madoka screamed, "No! Mami, no!"
Frozen, the blonde could only stare at those accusing, pain-filled eyes as the girl's screams increased an octave. Horrified, she saw the eyes bulge, the zombies greedily fighting over the still-living meal, her legs pulled in opposite directions until a horrible wet SNAP-
Homura grabbed the blonde by her hair and dragged her backwards, kicking the door shut behind her. The sight of that girl, a classmate whose name she couldn't quite remember, being split apart like a wishbone, the copious amounts of blood that spurted out of the horrendous wounds, snapped bone poking straight through skin as the girl's leg, mercifully, went silent. Turning, she vomited loudly, her meager breakfast spilling across the tiles, maintaining her grip not to pull but for support. Hitomi was screaming and the plain, brown-haired girl from class was shaking with fright, looking between the doorway and the approaching monsters.
Mami snarled, wrenching free from the clutches of the smaller, slighter transfer student, who staggered back. "What the hell are you doing, Akemi-san?" she choked, trying to swallow the lump in her throat.
"She's dead," Madoka said quietly, pointing down the hallway. "Sayaka-chan's not, though, and she needs your help!" She'd seen the bloodstained, makeshift spear or staff the girl held, and besides, as one of her closest friends, Madoka knew all about the Olympic hopeful.
Mami blinked, berating herself for even taking that long as she rushed headlong down the hallway.
Two corpses were laid out on the ground before Sayaka felt one of the ghoulish talons close around her arm. She tried to squirm free, but the grip was unbreakable, like she was being held by a metal statue. Desperately, she tried to transfer her sword to her left hand, but it fell to the floor with a clatter as more of the creatures bore down on her. Pinned beneath multiple bodies, Sayaka tried to make it as hard as possible to get a bite in, thrashing about madly. She felt one try to take a chunk out of her forearm, the thick gauntlets pinching her painfully. A hideous, bloodstained maw yawned open like the pit of doom, its torn and flayed tongue dripping a slow string of viscous red goo that hung from snarling lips as it descended. Unable to twist away, she couldn't keep her eyes from shutting tightly as the thing bit at her face, feeling the shock and hearing the grating as teeth bit at her mask, centimeters away from her flesh, fragments raining down on her left cheek as enamel shattered against the tough metal protector. With a burst of desperate energy, she tried to head-butt the thing, but couldn't get any leverage. Blinking back tears, she readied herself for one final, last-ditch attempt to escape-
Mami ran up to the nearest figure that crouched atop her kohai, jabbing out with her sharp stick at the temple and pulling back before thrusting it out again, catching a zombie in the sternum and knocking it back. "Sayaka-chan!" she cried, using her staff to push another of the creatures off the prone blunette. She watched the girl lash out at one of her remaining attackers with an armored fist, smashing it's teeth and nose in, and smiled. It was a fierce smile, mid-strike against the last of the creatures on top of the scrabbling, armored figure, knocking it back and then stabbing down, thrusting with both hands until she found the eye.
Sayaka, gasping and sweating and no longer needing to pee, wrestled herself away from the disoriented zombie she'd punched in the face, rolling across the hallway to grab her fallen sword. Another of the things recovered from Mami's assault and lunged toward her with impressive speed. Still prone, she spun the sword low to the ground, catching the nameless custodian in the ankle. It fell, crashing right on top of her.
Mami shot a glance behind her, seeing the flash of motion and then watching one of the things fall to the ground. With a quick step, she used the broken mop-handle as a lever, hoisting the zombie off the blunette as she dashed backwards. Sayaka picked herself up from the ground, and Mami stabbed repeatedly at the fallen thing, unable to stop its struggles.
On her feet, Sayaka threw herself forward, slamming the tip of her sword into the thing's face, pushing it back to create some distance before pulling back and sweeping the wooden blade down in an overhead slice, fully aware that Mami stood not a meter away, trying to end the other one before it could get up.
Madoka and Homura watched, the black-haired girl fiddling with her backpack nervously until the corpses were again corpses, unmoving and starting to stink. Hitomi was red-faced and in tears, bent over Kyousuke, exchanging angry words with Nakazawa while Mazushii darted forward as soon as the battle was over, eager to be away from the door.
"No time for greetings, we need to run!" Mami said urgently, and every single exhausted, emotionally drained body managed to pick itself up and hustle down the hallway. Before they were halfway to the corner, the first of the ghoulish forms shambled out of the stairwell, red and wet with fresh blood, turning in their direction as first three, then eight, then more, and more zombies began to pour out through the door.
Turning the corner, a lone undead stood in their way, dropping quickly to Mami's spear thrust, and finished off by the descending bokken. Reaching the door, the two shared a glance, and turned to face the others.
Sayaka waited for Mami to take charge, but the silence stretched for a long moment. Turning, she was puzzled by the look the older girl was giving her, almost expectant.
"Well?" Hitomi asked, glancing behind her nervously.
"Mami-san?"
"You've done well for yourselves, kohai." The blonde smiled warmly, the blood spattering her face reminiscent of some tribal warpaint. Someone made an impatient noise, and she looked at the group. "Nakazawa-san and Akemi-san… and Mazushii-san, you three keep Kamijou-san moving. There's no telling what is on the other side of these doors," she whispered, giving Madoka a severe case of the creeps. "Sayaka-chan and I will be up front, clearing a path. Shizuki-san, Madoka-chan, please follow behind the others; your job is to let us know if anything is happening. Anything." She stared at the green-haired girl, trying to make clear her expectations. As she turned to Madoka, she couldn't help grinning proudly at the brave face the girl was putting on.
She turned to the door, the moans beginning to reverberate throughout the corridor, the sound of shuffling feet getting closer. "Whatever happens, follow us. We'll try to go straight though; there's a ladder with access to the roof in the old equipment room, it's just on the other side of-"
Opening the door, her whisper died in her throat. A small glass walkway connected the corridor with the cafeteria, and the scene before her was beyond nightmarish.
Oh god.
Shit.
Really? Really?!
I knew she'd get me killed!
No…
How can we possibly…
So many. Mami's thought, like everyone else's, was tinged with a strong shade of hopelessness. But choice was suddenly taken out of the equation as the first of the stairwell zombies turned the corner behind them, their moans growing more agitated as they came into sight.
The cafeteria was a large room, one glass wall abutting the gymnasium, allowing students to watch the victories and failures of the freshmen class, who invariably were given the midday Phy Ed slot. Sayaka had adjusted to it quickly, but Madoka was still mortified whenever she'd toss up a ball and fail to connect with rim, net or backboard entirely, and not just from the sense of failure. Mostly, it was the ensuing cheers of the seniors who watched from above that she couldn't stand.
Unlike the uncomfortable, hard-seated, folding rectangle tables they'd sat at back during junior high, ten to a row, the excessive demands of Mitakihara High and the increasing responsibility each student was burdened with as they approached adulthood was rewarded with more adult-like seating. Circular tables by the dozen were staggered in rows throughout the room, each seating six to eight, depending on how close of friends you were. Many of them were overturned, and fallen chairs littered the floor. The room had no outside-facing walls, which seemed odd to Sayaka, but explained why so many students enjoyed sneaking away to the roof during break.
They entered towards the middle of the room; the kitchen and serving area to their left, and several rows of tables to their right. The place was filled with shuffling, blood-stained dead, and the sound of a scuffle in the kitchen turned into a loud crashing of falling cookware. Everyone winced, and Mami let Sayaka take the lead as they stepped into the room, tense and alert.
Sayaka, glancing at towards the kitchen area, saw motion behind the partition separating the cooks from the cafeteria workers. Glancing around, she noticed many of the zombies among the tables had turned, slowly but intently moving toward the kitchen. There had to be thirty of the things, but most continued lurching aimlessly through the room. So far, none appeared to have noticed them. That just left the ones coming up from behind…
Clenching her bokken tightly for a moment before relaxing into the supple grip of a swordswoman, Sayaka advanced swiftly. Instead of trying to find a clear path, she found a relatively clear path with isolated zombies. She crept up behind a swaying, blood-stained figure with a good-sized tear across it's throat, the cafeteria uniform nearly unrecognizable.
Crack. Even as the thing was falling, she continued on, the next one turning at the sound.
Mami kept her eyes moving, watching the sides and what lay ahead of them. She noticed the zombie turn towards them with a flash of trepidation, fearing what would happen if-
The creature let out a sharp moan just as Sayaka swung, the crunching of bone not silencing the sound quickly enough. Worried, Mami's eyes darted around, watching as several of the things around them slowly turn toward the sound. She held her breath.
Another moan, and another. The chorus was taken up and suddenly the aimless shuffling became a purposeful shambling, the creatures beginning to converge.
"Get ready to run!" whispered Sayaka fiercely, adjusting her grip, ready to break through to the left, towards the kitchen.
A metallic cacophony from that direction startled her; the sound of pots and pans and god knows what hitting the floor of the kitchen, rattling for long seconds before it ended. When it did, the zombies had already turned and begun walking towards the kitchen.
Sayaka heard the panicked whine as the young man burst out of the kitchen, fleeing several pursuers in hairnets and blood-spattered aprons. She rushed forward, cracking the skull of another of the creatures from behind. "Hey, over here!" she called, instinctively offering help to the panicked runner.
"What are you doing?!" Hitomi shout-whispered, dismayed at the noise. She looked around, imagining hungry, crimson-edged eyes turning back, looking at her like meat-
The short, pudgy form of the young man kept going, unwilling or unable to respond. Sayaka opened her mouth again, but Mami tapped her on the shoulder, shaking her head. Too many, she mouthed sadly. Downcast, the blunette closed her mouth, advancing up behind the next of the slowly lumbering monsters.
Tired, the runner got tripped up on some fallen chairs, turning the stumble into a series of hops from which he tried, and failed, to recover his balance. Crashing to the ground, his whimper was audible halfway across the room, a wounded, exhausted sob. "Help," he mouthed silently, trying to regain his breath.
The ghoulish cafeteria workers had stopped pouring out of the kitchen, adding their numbers to the already crowded dining area. The man, halfway across the room, was making panicky, almost squealing screams as he struggled for breath, rising and stumbling and rising again, glancing around frantically at the approaching creatures coming at him from every direction.
Madoka, horrified, wrenched her gaze away from the looming tragedy, watching a group break off from the rest, approaching them from behind and to the right as they made their way to the kitchen. "Psst!" Madoka pointed, and Mami's eyes picked out the threat.
"Go over the counter," Homura offered, hoping that whatever had been lurking in the kitchen had followed the guy who'd provided them with exactly the distraction they'd needed. She tried not to think to hard about him as he began screaming, the first of the ghastly figures reaching down-
Sayaka latched onto the idea in an instant. "Go!" she whispered fiercely, nodding to Mami. The blonde took off, deftly climbing over the waist-high partition and spinning around with her makeshift staff, ready for anything. A kitchen's worth of pots and pans and metal trays littered the floor, but aside from that, and the blood, nothing jumped out at her.
She waved the rest in. Sayaka slid across last, giving Kyousuke a gentle but firm shove across the metal counter before climbing up herself.
The eight or so monsters that followed continued forward.
"We need to get out through the door in the other room, I don't know if this place has any other access points, and don't want to risk getting trapped in a storage room." Mami crept along the wall separating the kitchen from the supply area, peeking around the corner.
"Grab something, anything you can," urged Sayaka, looking around and seeing cookware and utensils, searching for the gleam of a sharp knife. Madoka found several long, triangular blades beneath the counter, and Hitomi picked up an iron skillet, hefting it with both arms. Nakazawa, looking around, accepted a knife from Madoka, sliding it into his belt before pointing out something underneath the industrial-sized range.
Homura leaned down, unfastening the plastic clips that held the half-sized fire extinguisher. She quickly familiarized herself with the trigger mechanism, and tried to decide if she should swing it like a bat or try and smash things with the metal cylinder's base.
"Gotta go," Sayaka whispered, nodding to Madoka and smiling as the girl stuffed several sharp objects into her backpack before zipping it up. Crouched, the group made their way around the scattered pots and pans, hearing something bang into the counter behind them, hard. The slamming continued, growing more insistent.
Looking out from behind the doorway, Mami and Sayaka surveyed the scene. Most of the monsters were bunched up in the middle of the room, piling around the fallen man. To their left, three scattered zombies lurched between overturned tables and scattered chairs. Mami was more worried about twisting an ankle than anything. "We'll have to be careful," she warned, motioning for the others to follow her.
"No. NO! N-"
Hearts freezing, the group looked as one back at the figure of Kyousuke, thrashing limply in Nakazawa's arms. Homura, wide-eyed, had her hand clamped over the boy's mouth, muffling the protests.
The kitchen erupted in sound as something kicked around the metal cookware littering the floor, the sound echoing harshly. "Let's move!" Mami whispered, stepping out and looking back to see several shapes disappear, crawling over the counter she herself had. "Hurry!" She walked out to flank the first of the three zombies between them and the doorway out.
Madoka, clutching a long knife with both hands, felt her heart beat painfully in her chest as the lurching figures began to stumble out of the cooking area, staring at her with hungry eyes as she slowly backed away. "They're coming!" she whispered, looking at Hitomi's panicked expression and wondering if her own matched.
Mami glanced around, hopeful of their chances. Unless... If that hallway isn't clear...
Forcing the thought from her mind, the blonde frowned, hearing the wet, tearing sounds coming from the dining area, the subdued grinding of metal across tile as something slid across the kitchen behind them. With crystal clarity, she heard the footsteps behind her, Nakazawa's grunt and Hitomi's rapid breathing and Mazushii's tiny whimper and Kyousuke's muffled moan.
The hum of the immense refrigerator and walk-in freezer, the gentle flow of air through the vents, the far off thrum from the boiler room, all of the infinitesimal sounds that blend together, unnoticed due to their constant presence... everything suddenly had stopped. Mami looked around, feeling something was very wrong.
And then, the lights went out.
Happy Valentine's Day if you're into that kind of thing.
Thanks so much to all who've shown interest; even if you end up hating me by the end, which you will if I do my job right, know that your comments are my inspiration.
StormFarron185, Faust91x, RacheltheBooksandAnimeGeek, kyosayalove, Kurio-Yasha, I greatly appreciate your thoughts and suggestions, and am particularly thrilled when your ideas mesh so well with my own. Also, when they bring up something I haven't considered but that would make a brilliant addition. Many thanks.
And knowing I made someone lose their appetite while reading this… not sure what can top that.