Chapter 9 – One down, Wave 6

With the onset of yet another wave, the girls assembled themselves to return to their defensive positions, Anzu, abandoning her worries of the team being split, and still disappointed Chikage had decided to forcibly lock Tama out in the name of difficulty, decided to follow Wakaba and Hinata as they went up the stairs back to their original position. Chikage waved dismissively, she only needed herself to hold back the wave anyway, well, and Takashima to watch and hopefully come back in future to play with her again. The others be damned.

"Takashima-san, follow me" she said, "we're moving again"

"Gun-chan? What about the others?"

"We'll be okay without them" Chikage answered

Yuuna looked between Wakaba, Hinata and Anzu stood at the top of the stairs, then at Chikage stood at the bottom, eventually she decided to follow Chikage so she wasn't on her own and lonely during the next wave, she would have much preferred to mediate and get everyone together, but with the enemies coming so soon and everyone so dead set on splitting up, she was too late. As soon as Yuuna reached the bottom of the stairs Chikage had gone down, Chikage quickly took off down the corridors. Leaving Yuuna to largely guess where she had gone. She tried her best to keep up, but she wasn't as familiar with the maps as Chikage was, and she eventually found herself lost among the maze of corridors, Chikage seemingly gone.

She looked around, her mood still cheerful, at odds with the grim setting of the map. No doubt she'd find Chikage again, she would just have to look around for the others.

"Okay" she whispered determinately to no one in particular.

"Time to find Chikage"

She set off walking in the direction she thought she would find Chikage, shotgun in hand, armed with a loose idea of where Chikage had gone, hopefully Chikage didn't worry too much when she found that Yuuna had disappeared behind her.

Yuuna's hopes of a calm Chikage were to be in vain, for upon reaching her destination, Chikage was instantly aware she was alone, and that Yuuna had gotten lost during the journey. She looked around hastily, panic beginning to set in, she'd left Yuuna on her own somewhere. If Yuuna got killed then it was she'd never want to play with Chikage again, and watching others play was no fun to Chikage. Though that Tama was stuck with that situation now, but she was far less important than Yuuna.

By now the enemy wave had begun to pour into the building, making it harder for Chikage as she hastily scrambled back the way she had come, looking for Yuuna. A horde of Zeds followed her every move, and she was left with no choice but to blast her way through the crowds of enemies, frantically searching for Yuuna, calling her name every now and again in panic.

Meanwhile, Yuuna, unfamiliar with any of the map, had set off in the direction she assumed Chikage had been down. She was confident that they'd meet back up eventually, she would have to take care not to get killed by any of the enemies along the way. And they seemed to be gathering now, forming a large wall in front of her, never one to back down from a confrontation with creatures wanting to brutally kill all human life, Yuuna was ready to fight her way through them, "I'm coming Gun-chan" she called playfully, like a game of hide and seek.

It seemed that whoever needed rescuing now was not aware of it. Yuuna burning with determination as she ran up and down stairs looking for Chikage.

"Gun-chan!"

"Gun-chan!"

Her manner was cheerful, completely devoid of desperation, conversely, Chikage was desperately combing through each room, fighting her way through the Zed crowds, searching wild eyed and panicking.

"Takashima-San!" She called out wildly

"Takashima-San!"

She couldn't let Yuuna die here on this wave. She could faintly hear Yuuna shouting back to her, also calling her name as they searched for each other. Chikage scrambling up the stairs and Yuuna running down corridors.

Anzu had decided to go with Wakaba and Hinata, she was still disappointed in how Chikage had decided to leave Tama behind in the name of "difficulty". She was interested to see how suitable the defensive position the other two had chosen was.

Wakaba led them up to the top floor where they had defended before, looking at the multiple entrances, Anzu knew that eventually it would be an unsuitable position, especially as they were now in the later stages of the game.

"Anzu, what do you think?" Wakaba looked to her for advice on their position.

"It's not optimal, there's too many entrances…" she replied quietly, thinking.

"We should move from here, since there's less of us now"

"I don't think that will be possible..." Hinata commented, pointing at the Zeds coming at them from the three different doorways that led to the rooftop.

"I've got these ones" Wakaba said, springing into action and throwing herself at the nearest crowd of Zeds. There was a faint sound of admiration, presumably from Hinata, that came from back the way she came.

The axe was a much more effective weapon than the earlier machete, and each swing cleaved through the Zeds with ease, though the sheer numbers arrayed against them had grown many times since earlier. Wakaba continued cutting through them, she'd simply needed to fight her way through everything before.

Stood on the roof next to Hinata, carefully picking out the larger targets for her sniping weapons, Anzu was dutifully carrying out her role surviving the wave when she heard Hinata's voice behind her, it was full of concern.

"Anzu-san, where is Wakaba-chan?"

"Wakaba-san is…" She trailed off, sighting the doorway where the Zeds were much more thinly spread, she had a good idea where Wakaba had gone…

"Hinata-san, I think I know where she is" she sighed, nodding at the quieter entrance.

Understanding instantly passed over Hinata's face, and she began to make her way towards the door, her face that of a mother about to scold their child, she was stopped in her tracks, however, for one of the hulking Zeds appeared at the door, obscuring their advance.

Anzu's heart skipped a beat, this was what had killed Tama before. She felt herself calculating just how she would bring this threat down and make it suffer for what it had done to Tama, for now she kept her nerve, she wouldn't be able to get revenge by blindly charging in. Right now, Hinata's armour seemed to be the right answer, she hated how she'd have to use Hinata as a human shield for this to work, but if she was right then Hinata shouldn't suffer any major damage.

"Hinata-san, please stand in front of me" Anzu told her calmly.

"I-I see." Hinata replied, shaken, but moving to stand in front of Anzu.

"I'll hit it hard enough that you won't take that much damage" She smiled at Hinata, hoping it was a reassuring smile, and not one that reflected her inner unease at the plan itself.

"Okay, I'm going to shoot it now." she added after a brief pause.

The first bullet was a clean headshot, having a tremendous impact on the body of the Zed, but seemingly very little effect on its overall advance. Anzu prepared for her next shot, she had to bring it down before it did severe injury to Hinata.

She lined up the next shot.

Wakaba didn't know what had happened, she'd been cutting her way through Zeds when she'd taken a second to look at her surroundings, realising that she was no longer on the roof, she then took a further minute to consider how she'd managed to cut her way down the stairs without even realising. She recognised the surroundings as the floor which Tama and Anzu had been surrounded on when the others came to save them. Though she couldn't quite figure out her orientation, she was stood dead centre of everything, and there seemed to be exits everywhere.

It wouldn't be too hard to find her way back, surely only one of these exits led to a staircase facing upwards. But before she could look, she was aware of a breathing coming from one of the exits behind her, someone, or something, running up the stairs, out of breath. Slowly advancing on the exit, Wakaba readied her axe to strike the oncoming threat. As the individual out of the doorway, Wakaba stopped her axe swing just short.

"Yuuna?"

"Ah, Wakaba-san" Yuuna's face lit up to see another one of her team members "have you seen Gun-chan anywhere?" she asked, out of breath.

"I'm afraid I haven't, what are you doing on your own?" Wakaba asked, concerned, she didn't know how Chikage had let Yuuna out of her sight.

"I got a little lost." Yuuna replied bashfully, Wakaba sighed, this girl was a completely different tone to their surroundings.

"Where are Hinata and Anzu?" she added

Wakaba coughed awkwardly "I got lost too…"

"They should still both be on the roof."

"Then we're both lost?"

"Yeah" in spite of their situation, Wakaba smiled a little at just how ridiculous it all was.

Wakaba was also acutely aware that whilst they'd been stood comparing their situations, there had been a lack of Zeds approaching them, in fact there had been none. Meaning that the majority were with the others.

"Yuuna, can I ask you a favour?"

"Sure!"

"Can you come with me to find Anzu and Hinata first? Chikage will be fine, she plays games all the time."

Without hesitation Yuuna agreed, Wakaba knew they could both trust Chikage to survive the wave alone.

"Okay, we're looking for a staircase heading upwards."

"Like that one?" Yuuna instantly asked, pointing directly down the corridor behind them.

Wakaba flushed with embarrassment, it was incredibly obvious in its placement. If they followed that then they should end up on the staircase.

Halfway up the stairs, the wave completed text appeared, Wakaba breathing a sigh of relief, maybe they'd survived this after all.

Reaching the top of the stairs, though, she realised everything wasn't quite as she'd left it, a great stack of dead zeds were piled atop each other, the general atmosphere was complete chaos, the roof was covered in blood and dead Zeds, it had been one desperate fight. Then her eyes fixed on Hinata propped against the wall, one of the massive hulking Zeds dead but a few inches away.

Wakaba ran to her side, Hinata was already dead, game or not, Wakaba still felt a deep-seated regret that she'd left them to their deaths. If only Wakaba hadn't got lost and separated herself from the rest of the group. She clenched her fist, despite her attempts to get angry with the zeds, she was more annoyed that Hinata would now be free to snap embarrassing pictures of Wakaba as she concentrated.

Yuuna ran to attend to Anzu, laying not to far from Hinata. Wakaba looked over as Anzu whispered some words to Yuuna and raised her arm in a very weak salute. Yuuna looked absolutely devastated, Wakaba wasn't quite sure if she still knew it was a game or not, she'd seen fine early when Tama had died, but the news about no respawns had shaken her up, whatever she inferred from that, it had left her incredibly emotional. When she shuffled over to Wakaba, Wakaba was eager to learn what Anzu's had left them with, maybe she'd figured out something to help them survive the next waves with their limited numbers.

Making sure to ask gently, since Yuuna still looked shaken, she raised the question.

"Yuuna, what did Anzu say?" she asked softly

"Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Fuhrer" she replied, tearing up a little. Wakaba was pretty sure that Yuuna's pronunciation was a complete butchering of whatever Anzu had originally said, but it wasn't helpful to them either way.

That wasn't helpful.

"Come on Yuuna, it's just us and Chikage now. Let's go." Wakaba said, gently guiding Yuuna back down the stairs, away from the devastation behind them. She was left hoping they'd be able to survive the next wave with their limited numbers.