"Is that... a bite mark?"

Naoto couldn't help but look in horror at Riko's injury. Despite him making his best attempt at covering it up, that injury was clearly a bite mark.

The group didn't fully understand the workings of these monsters, but given what they saw at the cafeteria, it meant that it wouldn't take long before Riko would start turning.

"N-No! It's not what you think!" Riko desperately tried to wiggle his way out of the circumstance. However, his friend, Haru, was the first to approach him, pulling his hand away from his injury.

If it wasn't clear before, it was now. The markings of the teeth sinking into his skin were still there, clearly signifying a Zombie bite.

"I-it's true..." Haru said to himself, staring at Riko with an expression of sympathy and sadness. "Y-you...were bitten."

Riko angrily pulled away from Haru, covering his wound again. "N-No! I'm fine! It's nothing!" He said, turning to Sakura. "You have to believe me!"

She wasn't even looking at him, her focus instead being on the massive wound in his arm. The sight of blood mixed with the deformity of his arm due to the injury made her want to puke.

"S-S-S-..." She couldn't seem to get the words out of her mouth. Back when the Infection started, she was the first one to bear witness to what happened to bite victims, so she knew very well what could and would happen to him.

"S-Sta-Stay Away, please." Sakura's entire body was shivering from the schock. Riko simply looked at her in disbelief, seemingly not able to believe that even his Kouhai was scared of him now.

He looked around frantically, trying to get words out of his mouth. Unfortunately, all he could get out were mostly stutters.

Haru looked at Riko again, touching his shoulder. "Ri-Riko..." He looked like he was inches away from breaking down. "Y-You have...to leave, or you'll pose a danger to everyone here."

Riko gave Haru a hard stare, before shaking his head. "N-No way! I'm not leaving! I'll be on my own."

"B-B-But if you stay..." Naoto tried to say a full sentence, but he was afraid that Riko would lash out on him.

"You'll kill us if you stay." Nagatoro finished Naoto's sentence.

As Riko noticed that practically everyone in the room was against him staying, his feelings of fear and shock slowly went away, and were replaced with stress, and most of all, anger.

"Y-You can't just kick me out! I'm staying here no matter what happens. I'm not getting killed by those things out there." He took on a defensive stance, seemingly ready to defend himself in case he were to be physically forced out.

Naoto approached him shakily, trying to relieve the tension. "P-please, Riko. Just calm down. W-We c-c-can talk about this." He reached out his hand, seemingly in an attempt to calm down the panicking Riko.

"Don't touch me!" Riko yelled at Naoto, seemingly afraid that he'd try to get him out of the room. Naoto wanted to back off at first, but decided to follow trough on his approach.

"Riko, please. Calm. Down. We just don't want anyone here to get h-"

From one moment to the other, Naoto was suddenly on the floor, clenching his cheek. He had gotten too close for comfort to Riko, who responded with a right swing at him.

"I said back off! I'm not going anywhere, and it's not open for discussion!" He seemed to get more unstable by the second. The mixture of stress along with the infection starting to take its effect resulted in bloodshot eyes. He seemed like he was really in no position to have a normal conversation anymore.

"Senpai!" Nagatoro yelled, as Senpai stood back up, still holding his hand against his cheek. "I-I'm fine."

Haru came closer to Riko. "Riko. If you're not going to listen, we're going to have to get you out of here."

"H-Haru...you..." Riko seemed beyond disbelief at the fact that his friend was backing the other ones up. But he was too angry to care. His head filled with nothing but the will to live no matter what, he instantly swung at Haru, hitting him straight in the face.

But unlike Naoto, Haru wasn't going to go down in a single hit, quickly getting back up as he tackled Riko, attempting to pin him down on the floor. "Please, you have to calm down! Listen to me!" He seemed like he truly didn't want to fight, as he cared for his friend. But it seemed like the only option.

Riko, at this point not even being able to understand what Hino was saying, simply threw Haru off of him, tossing him to the floor and getting on top of him instead as he attempted to pummel him.

Haru, at the disadvantage, was able to hold his own for a while, blocking the relentless strikes from the enraged student, but his arms eventually gave out, forcing him to lower his guard as Riko finally started getting proper hits on his face.

He wasn't holding back in the slightest. Everyone could tell that every punch was sent out with all the strength he could muster, as Haru was trying to get him off of him.

Haru finally managed to kick the boy with his knee, tossing him away as they tussled on the floor. Riko, blinded by rage and the effects of the infection, was having the advantage, slamming Haru against the wooden floor multiple times.

"Senpai! Please!" Sakura yelled at Riko, as he got close to him and pulled him by his shirt, trying to get him off of Haru. "Please! Stop!"

But Riko wasn't listening. He couldn't even understand anything they were saying anymore. To him, everything seemed red. His mind was slowly filling up with nothing but the thought of anger and aggression. In his blind rage, he threw a swing at Sakura.

Sakura wasn't as strong as Haru, and was even more frail than Naoto, so the punch sent her flying back into a stool as she groaned in pain. The others, who were previously watching, not really able to do much, rushed towards Sakura as they helped her get up.

Haru, having just seen his best friend carelessly swing a punch at their Kouhai, lost his temper. Sure, he and Riko were problematic at times, but theu still cared for people, especially Sakura, who seemed like the only one out of Nagatoros clique of friend who atleast enjoyed her time with them.

"You! You fucking bitch!" He yelled at Riko, finally gaining the advantage as he wrestled him around the floor, before kicking him away into a shelf full of small sculptures.

Riko impacted agains the shelf hard, before landing on the floor. He didn't even seem or sound human anymore, his gritted teeth and red eyes seeming like they might pop out, along with the fact that at this point, all that came out of his mouth were grunts of pain.

The grunts only got worse as his body started to convulse. It seemed like a scene straight out of a horror movie, as he continued to convulse. Everyone could tell what was happening: He was about to fully turn.

"H-Haru..." Riko spoke quietly, seemingly still able to atleast get a few words out. "I-I'm scared." His hand reached out to haru, twitching and twisting. It was moving in such a weird manner that they could hear his bones cracking from the bizarre movements he was making.

"T-This...i-i-is your Fault." His voice seemed more sad than anything now, seemingly wanting to get these last words out more than anything before he met his untimely fate. Haru stared at his convulsing friend in fear. "N-No, please don't say th-"

Riko interrupted him. "I will hold this against you even when I die." He was breathing very heavily, his body twisting and turning as it became harder for him to breathe.

"W-When I t-turn...I'll k-k-kill you first, asshole. I promise it." Those were the last words he managed to say as his body went limp for a few seconds. It seemed like he was dead.

Haru knelt down on the floor, holding back tears. In just a few minutes, he was forced to fight with his friend over the safety of the others around him, and had just seen him draw his last breath. "I-Its not...my fault." He cried out, trying his best to hold back the tears.

The moment didn't last for long, as Riko opened his eyes again, seemingly standing up. But he wasn't human anymore. Whatever he was now, human was definitely not the appropriate word. His pupils had gotten smaller as they darted around the room. He looked like an animal with rabies more than anything.

His eyes continued darting around the floor, before focusing on Haru, who was still on the floor. He let out a quiet groan, before quickly crawling his way towards him, looking almost like a spider.

Haru was too distracted to notice as Riko got closer, only turning around when Riko almost got to him. "Watch out!" Naoto yelled, throwing himself at Haru and tackling him away from Rikos attack.

Riko slammed against the wall, his bones twisting and cracking at the impact. He quickly stood up, his spine crackling as it almost turned ninety degrees. He stared down Naoto, who was on the other side of the room with Haru, before running towards him.

Gamo, finally stepping in, grabbed a chair and, without hesitation, slammed it against Rikos face, who groaned in pain, before being thrown against a cabinet by the impact. He got back on his feet and ran towards Gamo, who panicked and jumped away.

Right behind Gamo was a massive window, so the moment she jumped away, Riko slammed his body against the window, the impact causing it to shatter. His body flew out of the room, before his shirt got caught on a piece of glass, causing half his front to remain inside while the rest of his body flopped around outside the window.

The danger wasn't over, however, as the zombified Riko was clinging his nails against the inside of the window, trying to push his way in. The stained class was ripping his shirt and cutting his skin, but being a Zombie meant that this didn't even register to him. All he saw was creatures that he wanted to kill for some reason. He didn't even know why, he just wanted to.

Naoto and Haru finally stood up, as Haru looked at his zombified friend hanging from the window, starting at him with bloodlust.

"Naoto! Here!" Nagatoro threw a broom at Naoto. "What the hell am I supposed to do with this!?" He asked Nagatoro, who responded in an Irritated tone. "Are you dumb? Push that thing away!"

Naoto trembled as he attended to poke at the Zombie, trying to get him to fall, but he just didn't want to, clinging on for dear life against the wall.

Haru turned to Naoto, holding onto the broom. "Let me do it." He said quietly. Naoto turned to him in confusion. "W-What? Are you sur-sure?" Haru simply nodded in silence.

Naoto slowly let go of the broom, before backing off as Haru confronted his best-friend-turned-Zombie. He knew this wasn't Riko anymore. It was simply a beast with the intent to kill. Nothing more than an animal following its instincts.

But still...

Seeing his best friend desperately attemptsto get to him and kill him...

It was only a matter of time before the tears started running.

_

Haru managed to keep standing on his feet as tears slowly ran down his face. He knew it had to be done, but he couldn't bring himself to push his friend off the window. No matter what this thing was, it was wearing the face of his best friend. His best friend, who in his dying moments, promised he would kill him.

"I'm sorry... Riko."

With one strong push, Haru managed to push Riko off the window, as he stumbled his way, occasionally scraping agains the wall of the building, before his body splattered against the floor.

The danger was over, but the feeling of guilt in Haru's chest simply grew stronger as he collapsed on his knees, quietly sobbing to himself. He had just killed his best friend. He didn't care if he was a Zombie, or the fact that he did it to protect the people around him. The only thought that crossed his mind was 'You killed him'.

"I-its not...n-not my..." He couldn't form propper sentences, simply giving into the weight in his chest, the only thing stopping him from straight up sobbing on the floor being his knees.

Naoto quietly walked up to Haru, who looked at him with a stare of pure guilt. He couldn't tell that he was blaming himself for what happened to Riko, even though nothing would've changed the fact that he'd turn.

"It's okay, Haru. It's not your fault. You did it to protect us, didn't you?" Naoto tried his best to comfort Haru by himself, as the others didn't dare to intervene.

"He was my best...friend. And I killed him." He cried out between his sobs. Naoto rested his hand on his shoulder.

"You didn't kill him. What happened was inevitable. Don't blame yourself." Naoto didn't know how to go around this other than to reassure Haru that this wasn't his fault.

Sakura finally chimed in, kneeling down next to Haru. "Ru-Senpai. You saved us. I know you feel bad for what happened, but thanks to you, we're alive now." Sakura seemed to understand Haru's pain much better. Being around them all the time meant that she was around everytime they hung out. She saw how close they were, almost never splitting off. Sure, they were semi-delinquents, but deep down, they were still simply two people having a good time togheter.

It took a lot of back-and-forth between Naoto, Sakura and the others in order to finally get Haru to calm down. The danger was over for now, and they had sadly lost a member of the group much too soon.

After the situation was over and the room settled back to relative normality, everyone regrouped at the center of the room in order to discuss their next plan. They had already put all the edible food that Riko was previously carrying in the storage room in the back, and Hana and Yoshi had built a small campfire next to the window using scraps from broken canvas-holders and stools.

The campfires flame was small enough to not pose any danger to the rest of the room, especially as it was Isolated by a fireproof mantle underneath to prevent fire from spreading. The smoke also left easily trough the window, meaning they now had a way to cook the frozen food without problems, granting it extended shelf life.

Naoto looked around the Room, peeking a few looks at the pieces of meat that they had packed into the backpack, which were currently on top of the fire being held by a makeshift metallic bar. "Now that we have a sufficient amount of food, at least for now, we should figure out what we want to do next." He asked everyone around the room.

The first one to give an answer was Nagatoro. "Well, since it's already getting late, shouldn't we go to sleep? I don't think we have to worries about Zombies outside coming in. The door is locked tight, and it's relatively resistant." Naoto pondered for a while.

She wasn't wrong. They'd been busy the entire day gathering up food and barely surviving, and the others already seemed tired. "Y-Yeah. You're right. We should probably hit the sack soon. We will continue our discussion when we've regained our energies." Naoto said.

He stood up from the circle of people before heading to the supply room. He soon came back, holding multiple blankets and pillows. "T-The supply room has a lot of these for some reason. I think the previous club here was something called a 'Napping Club', and they simply never got rid of these things when they left.

Naoto was holding more than enough blankets for all of them. It truly seemed like a stroke of luck after what had happened throughout the day. Naoto handed them off one by one as each one set their sleeping spot in different places around the room.

It didn't take long until everyone was already sitting on their blankets next to their pillows, ready to go to sleep. It had been a long day and they didn't want anything more than to get some well deserved rest.

It started with a "Good night." from Hana, who was the first one to doze off. Then came Yoshi, followed by Sakura, and soon enough, everyone was cozy and asleep in their 'beds'. Everyone except Nagatoro, who was still sitting on her blanket, staring at the sleeping Naoto.

A mixture of thought filled her mind. The Zombies, Haru, Riko, when they looked for food. But none of them was as big as the thought of Naoto taking the lead multiple times for the group, taking the initiative to lead trough the entire chaos. She gave him a faint smile, before finally laying down on her bed and falling victim to her tiredness.

"Maybe... my Senpai is pretty cool, after all."