The Library
Chapter 11: And So It Spreads
A/N: Yeah, a bit late, but like I said, it's gonna be a long haul till the end. I haven't forgotten, I'm just pressed for time. Accept this chapter as a humble apology. :D
"Let's get these doors open." Tsukasa's voice was hushed, as we had almost revealed ourselves to the black-clad soldier who had swept down the hallway below us, halting our descend on the stairs.
This wasn't the police; they had real guns, like us. They were pulling out all the stops, and we would get killed in a millisecond if we were seen. We're going to the cafeteria and blowing the doors open, as a last "fuck you" to everyone. We might die in the blast if we can't get away, we might not. It might be preferable, because if we don't, the gas will get us.
"Damnit! The doors are locked." Oh no. This means we're going to have to use a bomb on these, too...and that will definitely alert the guys who just went into the second floor hallway.
I looked at Tsukasa. Her hair was ragged, and her eyes were wide, not with fear, but resignation. She pulled a bomb out of her bag, and got up. We backed around the corner, she lit the pipe filled with explosives, and tossed it.
The explosion crumpled the steel doors like paper, and alerted everyone and their extended family of our location. We bolted through the wrecked doorway, and took an immediate right down the hallway that ran alongside the lunch room. We could hear shouting and voices behind us, but we reached the end of the hallway and turned into the opposite hallway, where the kitchen and maintenance hallways were. Tsukasa pulled on a door and surprisingly, it opened. She pulled me into it and I shut the door quickly, but quietly, behind us.
The shouts were getting louder, and came very near to us, close enough to make out voices and listen to what was being said.
"What the hell was that?"
That voice...no...there's no way...
"No idea ma'am, but I think I saw someone run away from the area. The fuck kind of psychos have bombs, anyways? What's next, poison gas and brainwashing?"
"...I don't know Lieutenant, I don't know...now shut up and do your job. Check those corners, silent until I say. I don't want anyone else dying today."
"Yes ma'am, and I can agree with you on that."
As the two voices retreated into the distance, I was left reeling with my thoughts. Yui-neesan was here! I couldn't...no...this is all wrong...what am I going to do...and Tsukasa...
I looked to the lilac-haired maniac in the dark, who was singing the edges of her hair with the lighter. She wasn't going to let me walk out on her now...and she'd have no qualms about killing a cop, so what happens now?
"Well, they're gone. Lets go fuck the blast doors six ways to Sunday." She opened the door and stepped into the still brightly-lit hallway. It felt like such a hallowed ground that the illumination was intruding on it, somehow. I followed behind her, digging into my backback for the bombs I had left. She did the same, and we stopped in front of the thick metal doors, easily 3cm thick of steel.
But then again, we had a LOT of explosives. We were also going for the reinforced section of wall next to it, not the doors themselves.
"How many do you have?" I'm on autopilot now, so I count them up.
"21, only 9 full pipes though. You?" I look to her pile, which is much bigger.
"18 full pipes, 34 total. That's enough, set them over here." She knelt down and set the pile of improvised boomsticks (wow, that's a bad joke self, stop that.) about a meter to the left of the door. I set my bundle next to hers, and began to separate their fuses and wind them together.
I looked up at her again. She was furrowing her brow in concentration, each movement of her wrist causing her rifle to hit against her. The rifle that was still covered in blood from her...treatment of her sister.
She's fucking insanse, I can't do this. Well, maybe the blow open the wall thing, but just...everything. How am I going to live with myself? I'm a horrible person. I've killed today, and nothing's ever going to change that fact. But her...I can make it a little better for me. By killing her. Yes. Perfect. I'll kill her, but how? She's watching me out of the corner of my eye, I know it. If I make a move for my gun, or rather, her gun, she'll kill me. I don't know. Maybe I'll kill her when she's awed by the horrors lying inside this room.
Wait.
That's it!
I get rid of all of my stuff with the explosion, then while she's waiting to get inside, I'll choke the life out of her! I'll have killed the mastermind of the operation, thereby saving myself!
No. What does that make me? A killer, that's what. Well, it just further solidifies my perch as one. And how do I know they won't just kill me on sight anyways? Well, it's worth a shot.
"Hey, finish wiring that fuse, and tie it around mine. We haven't much time, come on!" She was looking at me anxiously. She must know something's up...well, too late now.
I took the grenade out of my handkerchief with her eyes on me, and placed it neatly on the mound of explosives. She looked at me incredulously. I just shrugged.
"It'll make a bigger boom, right?" Tsukasa just sighed and shook her head, but nevertheless took the now-completed fuse in her hands and unrolled it to its full extent, nearly half a meter in total.
"Whatever you say Izumi." She never calls me Izumi. Uh oh, this is bad. She knows. Do I try and kill her now? No, I'm...I'm what? I have moral qualms? Not at all, she's a bitch and needs to die. Am I scared? Also a fat no...okay, maybe I'm kind of scared. I don't want to die! Not yet...not...after I killed...hundreds...oh god.
What have I done.
No. This never happened. It was the ploy of a witch. A witch with only a few minutes to live, as it so happens. A witch I'm walking to a corner with, and watching light the fuse that will blow open the wall that contains a cesspool of poison gas that will kill everyone in a large area if it's released in such a form.
No.
No.
No. This is wrong. But I'm fixing it, one breath at a time.
My body is moving on its' own. I'm moving forward, stepping on the fuse, halting the passage of the spark, pushing her aside, surprising her.
Turning now, I see her face light up in surprise, then anger. She's reaching for the rifle, encased in human blood. Not happening.
My fist connects with her nose, and in my fury of thoughts and movements, I see it crack and flutter with specks of blood. She's going down, but it still trying to bring up the gun. I ducked, and the sound of bullets firing and the wind it caused as they rushed by me was not lost on myself.
Then she was down, the rifle skittering out of her hands, and as my eyes followed it, I saw the fuse.
It was still going, not a full fire anymore, but a small spark was creeping ever closer to the pile. It wasn't safe. The corner of the hallway was only a few meters away. I made a dash for it, but I fell as a hand tightened on my ankle, sending me sprawling, still getting closer to the corner, to safety.
Her face was one of utter madness, burning hatred that may go unequaled for quite some time. Her nose was bleeding heavily, but she obviously didn't care.
"You...bitch..." The fuse is still burning, and we're still in view, still in harm's way. I turn from the vengeful demon and drag myself against her iron grip, sliding around the corner, before feeling the grip vanish, and I fell and slid around the corner, before feeling a foot connect with the back of my head and sending me smashing into the floor, before sliding along the floor.
I rolled onto my back, seeing her kneeling on her knee, holding her face, even as a steady torrent of blood spilled around her fingers.
In the middle of the floor between us, was an object of interest.
The shotgun. It had been on my back, but after getting batte around, it must have fallen off. It was loaded still.
No one moved, our eyes on the gun, then each other, and they didn't move.
"Why try to kill me Izumi? It's your fault these people are dead," She knocked the wall, on which the other side was dead silent.
"My fault?! I didn't even really want to do this in the first place! I was wrong about my choice, and I hate myself for it!" She looked up, her face coated in blood, not all of it hers.
"Don't worry Izumi, I hate you too." She took a step forward, but collapsed under her own weight. She must have injured her foot when she fell.
"At least we can agree on something." I ran forward and slid on my knees, going past the shotgun and picking it up in one deft movement.
The world turned upside down and we were both thrown against the wall and pelted with debris as the silence was replaced with the rumble of a wall collapsing and the booming noise that happens when several kilos of high explosive detonates in a highly confined space.
I heard something snap when I hit the wall, but Hiiragi was right next to me, so maybe I can hope that it was her. I don't think I'm that lucky, though.
The dust began to settle, and it revealed exactly what we both knew ot be inside.
I got up slowly, tenderly, and so did she, our deathmatch all but forgotten. The contents of the cafeteria were being laid bare for all to see. I pulled my shirt up over my mouth, hoping I didn't breath any of that terrible, terrible gas in.
The interior was like an orgy of pus, blisters, and blood. Every table, every square inch that wasn't shredded by the bombs had a body on it, in most places several deep. Some of them had died standing up, the horrible pus oozing out all over, hardening into a shell that would take a mallet to remove.
Hiiragi climbed over the remains of the wall, into the room itself. She stopped at a table where a laptop had been used by its' former owner. She looked at it, looking like she was reading something on screen.
Suddenly she shrieked and picked up the laptop, closing it and throwing it to the floor, intending to smash it.
It never made it to the floor. The sound of it hitting something soft was heard, and Tsukasa was sprayed with yellow pus and...liquidized flesh, causing her to shriek and myself to shudder. I was still outside the room, not wanting to go anywhere near the room, it's sole living occupant, and its' mountains of dead occupants. There was something about the store room of the dead that made me want to run, and so I did.
The closet that we had been in was still open, and I ran in, closed the door, sat down, in the fetal position, and tried to think.
She was in there, I was out here. We were both unarmed, but I was clean, and she was covered in blood. There was a good chance they'd identify her as being the cause. They. The authorities. What am I to them? If they know everything, a dirrty phreaker who masterminded the murder of hundreds. If they know nothing, I'm just a student hiding in a closet, scared shitless of the world going to shit around her. I like the second one.
Wait. Those are voices. Of course, the blast would've drawn people towards this place like moth to a flame. I'm on the verge of tears anyways, so I'll start crying, and once they're close, cry a little higher, get found, and rescued...hopefully.
Yeah...I like that idea.
Oh my god...I'm sorry...I'm so sorry...no...
Line Break:
It's glorious. So glorious. The very air smells like breath. Or maybe that's the gas. At this point, I don't even care. We've created this, this wonderful scene of death. Everyone, absolutely everyone in here is dead, and it is quite plain to see that they were in agony until the very end. It makes me smile to see this. No matter how rich or poor they were, no matter what gender, age, aspirations, it didn't matter. They still died like the herd they were. Slumped on each other, their skin burning away from the acrid particles, their bodies forming pus-filled pustules to try, try and fail, might I add, to be rid of the infection.
Now I have it, too. It may be faint, but I'm tainted. I'm glad; now this suffering I have called life can finally be over, and the next step on my journey can start.
What's this? A laptop, among the bodies on a table. It's only a few meters away, so it's easy enough to walk on top of the carpet of flesh and look at it.
It has a chat open, between one "Kamiya" and an unnamed other party. Well Kamiya, hope you burn in hell.
Wait. There's a blinking light on the laptop. The camera is on!
NO!
I picked it up, shut it, and threw it to the floor. But it didn't break. It broke a pustule the size of my fist that had been on someone's bare back, which burst all over me. It tasted like bile, and I wretched, wiping the vile substance from my face with my sleeves, which were by now soaked with red and white bodily fluids.
"What the fuck!" I didn't mean to yell, and I heard footsteps fading away. Konata, that traitor...oh well, she's dead anyways.
I collapsed into the pile of bodies I was on, suddenly tired. I tried to take a deep breath, but I sniffed the air and in a convulsion, emptied a pool of bile onto the nearest corpse, a girl who may have looked pretty, but with half of her face sagging off in drooping, scalded flesh, she was just ugly. And covered in bile, but that was a recent development.
It's over.
I'm finished, Konata's finished, Hiyori's probably dead already. Sis will be in pain for the rest of her life. Unless I went too far, in which case she might be dead. I'll find out in a few minutes, either way.
It feels like an eternity, however long its been since that bell rang, at precisely 11 A.M. It may have been days, for all I know, but it can't have been any longer than 2 hours, at the most.
Two hours, hundreds of lives, and three people. Us. We turned the school upside down, showed no mercy, and in the end, we'll be joining them.
I think we did good. Maybe, just maybe, that revolution I talked about, in passing, maybe it'll come true. Maybe we started something greater than we can comprehend. Or rather, I started. Sure, those two helped me, but they didn't follow through. Hiyori tried to kill me, and Izumi is now off in parts unknown.
My skin is starting to burn, I can feel lit. It's not bad, but it's noticeable. It won't be long now.
Where was I? Ah yes, the revolution. Even if this falls upon deaf ears, dead ears, or none at all, at least I'll know that I thought it, and that's all that really matters.
Society is stagnating, it's plain to see. This oppressive work environment we are all bred to take on is not going to lead to evolution. It may have even killed it I did not have the idea, the dedication, the inspiration to change all of that.
I hear voices. Shouts. It draws ever closer, my own end. I must hurry now, to tell you what it is I think.
Those with bright minds will realize that you must kill and destroy what is wrong in order to rise up with what is right. Countries have been formed and crushed by this principle, and by virtue monolithic governments who wish to control society itself, that sort of insurrection is always put down before it ever starts.
But not anymore. Three people terrorized this school, and thanks to the power of the media, the country, more effectively than any organized group could have.
If you work in the sunlight, the government will burn you to a crisp with a magnifying glass that increases your insecurities tenfold. Work in the shadows, where these former weaknesses are turned into strengths that fuel your desire for revenge, and you will become strong. Strong enough to fight back against the government, against the unjust systems that govern our lives.
In the next life, I hope I can lead such a revolution.
And next time, I won't be slaughtering everyone. No, far from it. I can only hope that through my martyrdom, a global revolution is sparked. There will be much bloodshed, with the old ways fighting against the people, the new people, but if there's one thing they could learn, is that change is inevitable, and maybe, just maybe, if they accept it, they won't have massacres happen occasionally. Or at all.
But in order for such an event to disappear from the public eye, the roads will be paved and re-paved with the blood, sweat, and tears of a million martyrs. If I die a million times to make it happen, such is life. A cycle that never really ends.
I have planted my seeds.
I'll be waiting.
Line Break:
"Everyone, secure your helmets! The anomaly scan showed trace amounts of an unknown substance in the area, probably from that blast from a minute ago. This is the last area of the school that isn't secure, so keep your eyes peeled." I looked at my watch. Almost 1430 hours. Three hours since that phone call that made us wonder about the sanity of the world.
"Hold it! Debris in this hallway!" I moved up to the soldier who had his arm raised in the 'stop' signal, looking around a corner. He gestured to a chunk of masonry that lay at the end of the hallway,
"That wasn't here a few minutes ago, ma'am, we walked through here on our way to the foyer." This was true; someone had been through here in just the last few minutes. Possibly their mystery murderers, who were still on the loose.
"Everyone, move up to the corner, weapons free!" This earned a collective sigh; I was the only cop on a squad of real soldiers; no doubt they had been live the whole time. Oh well, nothing beats protocol.
"What...the...hell..." The next hallway was filled with the remains of the wall, and the wall had been destroyed, giving a surreal look into the interior 'safe' room that had been sealed for the entirety of the chaos.
It apparently wasn't safe. The interior was littered with bodies, in the most grotesque shapes possible. It was plainly obvious that they weren't killed by gunshots. Each and every one of them had horrible welts and rips in their skin, oozing a yellowish pus that tainted their very skin color. Not a single survivor, that's for sure. I breath caught in my throat. If Konata was in here...no, don't think that way! She's probably already out of here, escorted out by the first medical staff on scene. Back to the task at hand...
Inside, a girl with lilac sat atop a mountain of corpses, talking to herself while peeling chunks of her skin off of her body. She was talking to a corpse that sit next to her, its' face a droopy mess of nasty...meat.
I threw up a little in my throat.
"Apprehend the girl, but don't hurt her!" Two of the men were already picking their way into the ruined cafeteria; one of them stopped and snorted.
"Miss, I think she's hurting herself more than we can." He pointed, so where she was now attempting to peel the skin off of the back of her hand, which was covered in the same pus that oozed from...everyone...
The same soldier grabbed the girl roughly by the hand, causing her to see us, or at least acknowledge us, for the first time.
She wrenched her hand away with a look of disgust, in the process falling from her perch onto a nearby table, revealing similar welts and blisters on her arms and legs. She looked at us with madness in her eyes...or maybe spite? The girl wasn't right in the head, is what I'm trying to say here.
"So! You've found me at last! How does it feel, that I killed everyone here! You couldn't save them, their fates were sealed the moment they entered this place! You may be looking for terrorists, but there were none! Only two, my accomplices number, and I killed one myself! The other, who knows where she may be, she left me long ago. Now, kill me! I beg for sweet release! If you don't the mustard gas will kill me slowly! I beg of you! Kill me! Kill me, and save my sister! Third floor science rooms, there may be another one with a hole in her mouth! Alas, my time has come! KILL ME."
The girl sat up suddenly, lunging at the soldier who snorted. She dug into his leg, and he cried out in pain, but rather predictably responded by shooting her. Multiple times. In the face.
There wasn't any identifying of that body anymore; the chunks of her face and hair, with that peculiar hair color, were all that were left of that poor girl.
The girl must have been crazy; there's no way three people caused all of this. That's impossible; a miracle of guerilla warfare if it were to be true, even taking into account the unarmed civilians. But some elements of it matched up. The hermetic sealing due to an anomaly; wouldn't that be the shit if it were mustard gas? And the "unused" science rooms hadn't been...checked...yet.
Everything was being recorded, thankfully. Talking into the mic, I sent out orders.
"You listening to this, chief?"
"Yeah, and get me the name of the dumb fuck who just killed that girl."
"...Tousen, sir, his name is Tousen. Can you send a team up to the third floor's unused science rooms, just in case there is some credence in what was said?"
The radio static fizzed for a few seconds while I analyzed the nearest patch of wall with great interest.
"Already on it ma'am, we'll report back when we have confirmation."
"...Alright, let's get the hell out of this room. This is creeping me the fuck out. I didn't sign up for this shit." I was about to reprimand the soldier, but held my tongue, on ground of agreeing with him; a mass grave of high school students, their safety blanket ultimately leading to their deaths.
Back in the hallway, I froze. Everyone else did too.
The sound of sobbing. It was faint, but it was definitely there. I looked to the others, who just shrugged and pointed in different directions. I moved towards the complete section of the wall, and the sound got just a microscopic amount louder, so I headed for the wall of closets that, according to their labels, stored cleaning equipment.
It was distinct now, the hushed sniffling of someone who was scared and trying not to be heard. No doubt that whoever it was , had heard the gunshots from Tousen's rifle, and had every right to be scared.
I gripped my gun, turning my safety on. I wasn't risking anything. I scare easily, and I don't want something like that on my conscience.
I opened the first door, which was full to the brim with mops and brooms, and full of exactly no people.
The second one held similar contents, but the sound grew louder, to being very crisp at the third one. I paused. This was a delicate situation.
I knocked three times. There was an intake of air on the other side, and I grabbed the door handle and turned the door. The rapid breathing could be heard inside the closet, so I called out to the individual inside.
"It's alright! This is the police, we're here to help." Sure, the police is usually clad in black body-armor and full face helmets that make us sound like Darth Vader.
I opened the door...and there was Konata, red-eyed and crying. She obviously wouldn't know it was me, but I could barely stop myself from grabbing her in my arms and squezing.
Oh my god, she's okay! I laughed in my helmet, but quickly played it off as relief in general, as my voice was still deep Dark Side-ish.
"C'mon, we got a survivor! I'm going to escort her to the foyer, everyone else stay here and wait for confirmation from the team that's heading for the third floor." I started walking, taking Konata's shoulder in my hand. She looked shaken, and rightly so. I still couldn't believe she was okay.
As she was slowly coaxed to walk, I grabbed her shoulders and pulled her along.
"Come on, hurry up, we need to get you out of here!" She looked like she was about to cry.
"Why, what happened? I heard guns a few minutes ago..." She's absolutely devastated...
"The...bad people used a toxic gas in the cafeteria, it's highly dangerous if you breathe it in." Her face dropped and looked at my face, no, my helmet's facade with a look of loathing. I didn't like it, even though I knew it wasn't me she was aiming it at.
"You mean the killers. They killed people." So blunt...what did she see today? I'm afraid to ask, but I'm sure I'll get a short version of it someday...
"...Yes, the killers. Were you hiding in that closet the whole time? I had been through this area a few minutes ago on a sweep, and we didn't hear anything..." Konata shook her hair, again looking like she was on the verge of tears.
"N-no...I was in class eating when people first started screaming, and an explosion freaked everyone out. I was in the classroom until I heard gunshots in the next room over...as soon as they stopped, I entered the room and managed to see someone with a shotgun and plum-colored hair exiting into the hallway...they were going to my classroom, so I ran into the hallway and downstairs. I was in the main office...with the dead people...until I heard something explode nearby, and ran into that corridor, where I was in there until you found me..."
Oh god, she saw the killer...which really was the purple-haired girl? Well, she's not going to influence anyone hurting anyone anymore. That's just some sick and twisted shit right there. Though she had to have had help...judging by her state of mind, I'd say they're dead too. A shame; finding out what happened here was not a top priority, but knowing was better than being left in the dark about it.
We arrived in the main lobby, which was eerily quiet. Outside, the series of tents, riot personnel, and blast shields could be seen, forming the impromptu base-camp where anyone they found was being moved to. A different set of tents was further away, where plastic bags could be seen laid out. Each bag contained a corpse, and those tents would be expanded as more were...recovered.
She shivered in cold air; all of the windows had been blown out and the crisp air from outside was causing the temperature to drop inside. I put my arm around her, causing her to look up in fear. She still couldn't see my face, so I just shook my head and patted her shoulder. The sirens in the background just now began to register in my brain. Their constant drone throughout the past hour caused them to be virtually eliminated from my awareness.
"This is where I have to leave you. Go to the tents with people, they'll help you. I have to go back into the school, I'm needed. And the girl with purple hair...she's dead. A man in my squad killed her when she attacked him in the cafeteria...you're safe now."
Konata's face didn't get any better, but she nodded, her eyes still glistening with tears that had yet to gain enough weight to fall. She gave a small, awkward wave, eying my gun, and turned, almost sprinting to the front doors and out into the parking lot. She ran all the way to the line of blast shields, where I could see her taken into the arms of several soldiers.
I turned to head back into the school, when my helmet mic sprang to life.
"Why'd you tell that girl what happened? That's classified information!" The chief, of course.
"She's my cousin, and no one said it's classified yet." He didn't answer back, apparently satisfied with the response, blunt though it may be.
"You know, they found someone in the place that girl had said there would be." The chief sounded uncertain, which was never a good sign. The man had nerves of steel, and even he wasn't taking this whole ordeal very well. What was worse than poison gas and a room full of dead kids?
"...What was it, if I may ask, sir?"
"...Two girls, near the stairwell. One of them was completely naked, her...area, ripped apart by something, we're not sure what. Another girl was next to her, a single bullet right through the sides of her mouth. They're both breathing, but in bad shape, and the team who went up there is bringing them both down to the gym for immediate evac to the hospital.
It should be noted that they're two of only three people who we've found that have been injured but still alive, the other being that girl you found in the stairwell with the shotgun wound. Everyone else is either dead, or ran at the first sign of trouble and didn't see the culprits at all. We have absolutely no leads on who did this."
That's bad. That's really, really bad. No culprits will mean no scapegoat, and no scapegoat means a PR disaster. To make matters worse, this was the worst massacre in a long time, and possibly the most deadly school killing the modern world has ever seen.
"Well, we're going to be sending in cleanups now, you can return to the staging area for some rest...after what you've seen today, I'll be surprised if you don't go nuts. I've wretched more than a few times with the images getting sent back here, and this isn't even the worst of it...so thank you for your brave actions in this tumultuous environment." The chief sounded flustered, even a bit embarrassed, but he was a good man, if a bit gruff.
"I'm just doing my duty as an officer of the law, sir; I'm on my way to the evac area. Yui out."
Line Break:
The outside of the school was in disarray. Shattered glass lay on the ground, and looking back up at the school, a lot of windows were shattered, and some debris, including a desk, had landed outside.
The soldiers, with their big guns and heavy armor, brought me into the safety of the area quickly, leading me to a room full of people who had escaped from the school safely.
At first, I was practically wetting myself with panic, worried that someone would recognize me, but it soon turned out that through some stroke of luck, anyone who had seen me with the psycho Hiiragi and Tamura-san were dead. Some of the people in the school, due to the instantaneous crowds affected by mass hysteria, had been trampled to death in the rush to get out; they had practically scraped some of the poor people into the transparent bags that they were bringing past the open-air tent where we were huddled together.
The faces and limbs pressing against the thin material stood out as each one passed me, as I was sitting on the edge, waiting for someone to recognize me, and realize my betrayal, if it could be called that.
I don't know what I was thinking. Though, if I make it through this, I won't have to worry about getting made fun of by those who did; they're all dead, we made damn sure of that. Does that make me a monster?
Wait, the circuit board! I still have it in my pocket!
I quickly felt around in my pocket and withdrew it, silently dropping it to the ground and crushing it under foot. It was in short order nothing more than a collection of shattered bits of PCB and a few strands of the remains of an LED.
Almost as if to add to the dreadful atmosphere already generated by the event, it had since started to rain lightly, and being on the edge of the tent, I was able to get the remains of the board wet, further disfiguring them and making it impossible to determine what use, if any, the components had been used for.
"Excuse me, may I have your attention please!" The muffled voice of one of those armored individuals carried over the crowd, causing the uneasy chatter that had been floating around to cease, almost at once.
The same armored figure that had found me after I initiated the sob act was standing in front of a small podium, addressing the group of students. It was a woman, that much could be determined through the chestplate. I don't think she was in the same section of the police as all of the soldiers, though; she had been using a much lighter gun than the rifles the military personnel walking around had.
"Thank you for waiting patiently while we have contained the situation. Let me begin by saying that I am greatly saddened that such an event has taken place today, and I feel nothing but great sympathy from the families of those who are no longer with us.
We are still unsure what exactly occurred here today, but we do know that multiple individuals opened fire on the populace of the school, and at some point a highly deadly toxin was released into the air inside the school. We have tried our best to contain this, but it is still an ongoing process. Out of 1,387 students and teachers, less than 200 of you stand before us right now. The rest is currently unaccounted for.
At this time, you will be allowed to go home to your families, and we will be issuing an official report on the situation at some point in the next week. For obvious reasons, school activities will be postponed until further notice. If you have any questions, please, don't hesitate to call the police station and discuss it with the help desk. That is all, and I wish all of you safe passage on your ways' home." The figure bowed, and with a single motion, the crowd of people began to move towards the sidewalk, eager to leave this place.
The conversations I could hear around me brought me to tears again, this time hating myself instead of hating those around me.
"My little brother hasn't called me yet, I hope he's okay...last I saw him, he was headed to the cafeteria."
"Oh my god, I saw Kana in a bag out there! No, I mean it! It was her!"
"Who would do such a thing? I hope they rot in Hell."
"Hey, you notice that none of the real drama queens or sports stars are out here? You think these psychos were gunning for certain people, maybe?"
"Nah, they were just wackos with guns. I hope I get to piss on their graves."
Guilt washed over me, but I kept silent even as I neared the train station, conscious of the negative emotions flowing towards the faceless "Ryoo Bomber Bandits", as an underclassman near me coined it to be, and was quickly adopted by those in the crowd.
As some of the group split off to climb the stairs to the opposite train platform, to go into the city, I realized I had no money to get home. I asked a lean girl next to me who had been chatting animatedly with her friend about everything for some money.
"Excuse me, I don't have any money...would you be able to spare some change? I'm only going 5 stations." The girl looked at me, and surprisingly, didn't recoil in disgust or, as I'd expect more recently, fear.
"What's that? Oh, yeah, sure, hang on a second...you're Izumi, right? I see you ride the train most days, where'd your money go?"
Oh shit, I hadn't thought of that. I hadn't brought any because I thought I'd be lying in a pool of my own brain matter by now, but I couldn't say that, now could I?
"I lost my wallet while I was running away from the gunshots and everything...I had close to 25 thousand yen in that wallet, too..." The girls face changed to one of understanding, nodding as she handed me a handful of coins.
"That much? Wow, that stinks...it's probably gone now. I just cant believe something like this could happen. I think my brain still doesn't get it, because I cried for a few days when my kitten died, but I think this is going to take a bit longer to really...get, ya'know?" I nodded, putting on a thoughtful face, finally able to breathe easy, or at least, easier. Still a couple of loose ends to tie up, but they were easy tasks, except for maybe the note I sent to my friends...especially Kuroi. She'd get the gist of it, and understand why I 'wouldn't need them anymore'. I'd need to invent a story to fix that, which would be difficult, but probably doable.
"You still there Izumi?" The tall girl was still talking to me, her friend having wandered away to talk to a girl who was blowing her nose on her uniform's handkerchief.
"What? Oh, yeah...uh...sorry, I don't know your name..." The girl laughed, which was odd for this situation, but I was an axe-murderer in sheep's clothing, so it could be understandable.
"I never gave it, silly! My name is Sekine Mitsurugi, but you can just call me Sekine. Oh look, the train's here!" Indeed it was, and we boarded the lightly populated train. The time said 4:00P.M.; the school rush was over, and the evening work rush had yet to begin.
After the train was in motion, Sekine turned to face me, obviously intent on breaking the blissful silence that had formed in the past few minutes.
"You need to get yourself cleaned up, you know that, right?" I looked at her, before she took out a pocket mirror and showed me. She was right; I had spatters of blood on me, and that didn't look good, and wouldn't help my cover any.
"I'll get washed up at home, but thanks for thinking of me." I smiled at the girl, trying to push her away from suspecting anything, but she frowned and shook her head, causing her jet black hair to swing around in sweeping arcs.
"No, like, it doesn't look good at all. You might have some cuts underneath that or something. Let's get you all cleaned up in the bathroom when we get off the train, alright?" Well, she sounds concerned for my well-being, and seems to know who I am, so I guess it's okay.
I nodded, and she gave a cheerful smile, turning her head and humming a strangely familiar tune for the remainder of the short ride to the station closest to my house, a mere 10-minute walk from home.
Sekine grabbed my hand and dragged me into the bathroom, where she led me right up to the sinks, turning on the water for me, even. That's beyond generic caring, I think. As I looked into the mirror to clean the blood from my face, I saw her right over my shoulder, staring into my eyes in the mirror. Her face had changed: it was excited, manic even. Her eyes had a knowing look. Oh, fucking hell.
"I know what you did. I'm inspired by this; this is the beginning of a new era."
A/N: Holy mother of shit, that chapter was long. Longer than the previous 2 combined, most likely. I've decided I am doing a sequel, so a lot of new elements were introduced, and of course the death of our primary antagonist, which was to be expected. Now comes the final chapter to take place on this day, after which we'll be seeing a time-skip or two. We're oh so close to the end, I hope all of you have enjoyed it so far and will enjoy the rest as well.
If you could, leave a review, or if you're shy, just PM me. I love hearing feedback on my stories, and listen to/take into consideration any creative input that's thrown my way.
Keep calm and trip-mine the dinosaur. That is all.