Chapter 2.
Recap:
Before I could enter the science laboratory I heard the noise of someone falling. Looking behind me I saw a girl with waist length black hair with two ribbons above each shoulder on the floor with a zombie holding her leg. She tried kicking the zombie but the undead's grip held strong. Knowing she couldn't do anything she turned her tearful eyes towards me. She didn't say anything but her piecing blue eyes screamed at me for help, to save her life.
I should leave her and watch out for myself, my brain said. I agreed. Why should I risk myself for a complete stranger when I could die trying to rescue her. I'm not a saint. I'm not a knight. There is no reason for me to do anything except going inside the laboratory.
And yet for some reason, I ran towards her.
Instantly, I noticed a fact about the zombie, considering how weak parts of zombie were it was probably not a recently turned zombie. Knowing that, I deduced that if I were to deal enough blunt force damage to a specific body part of the zombie, I could probably crush through the rotten muscles and bones to rip it off of its body.
With that in mind I got close to the zombie holding her leg and used all the strength I could summon to stomp on its elbow.
Fortunately my deduction somewhat worked and I managed deal enough damage to crush through the flesh, stopping at the bone which made the hold falter, though at the cost of my knee taking a severe shock which is not surprising since bones are hard in general even if they are rotten. At the very least this freed the girl so I guess I'll just have to live with a painful knee for a while.
"T-Thank You." she said as she hastily got up when she was finally freed from the zombie's hold.
"Hurry!" I half shouted as I glanced between all the zombies approaching us. "We need to go to the laboratory, we're surrounded from both sides!"
She nodded and we ran towards the only place for us to survive as fast as we could. I decided to run behind her since it would be better for her to reach safety first while I made sure no zombies got close to us. As we got closer I looked towards the other corridor and noticed it being full of zombies coming towards us.
After a few meters we reached the door and my partner got herself into the room. Being only a few steps away from safety, somehow, I failed to realize groaning behind me as I was distracted by the horde of zombies coming from other side.
"BEHIND YOU!" The girl shouts as my eyes widen at the realization of the danger behind me. I swiftly turn around and stop the zombie from almost biting my shoulder as I hold back its arms. The sudden force of the zombie causing me to fall back halfway into the room, blocking the doorway with the undead on top of me.
I realized, at that very moment if the girl I saved hadn't alerted me of the danger behind my back, I would've been zombie lunch right now.
Well, I'd still be zombie lunch if I didn't manage to get this zombie off of me within the time it'd take for the rest of them to corner us which would ultimately lead to our death, and according to my calculations I was running VERY low on that time.
I could feel fear gripping my heart as I was desperately trying to push the creature off of me looking around to see if I could find anything that would help me out of this situation. Every second that passed made my heart pound harder, thoughts of dying without ever finding out if my family was safe clouded my mind.
Fast footsteps coming towards me from inside the lab interrupted my thoughts and before I could do anything I saw a metal pipe hitting the side of the zombie's head completely smashing through the skull.
I didn't let myself get surprised by that miracle for more than a second even with the blood splattering all over my neck and half my face. I shove the body outside and hastily get up to shut the door, locking it as fast as I could.
The constant banging of zombies against the door letting me know that if I had been even a second slower I would've died.
I rushed as fast as I could to the nearest shelf and pushed it towards the door to make sure the walking corpses couldn't break down the door.
I then fell back down against a wall, hoping that the zombies weren't strong enough to break down the door.
After a minute or so which felt like hours, the constant banging and groaning started dying down and I let out a shaky breath that I was unconsciously holding.
Then I also heard another noise in the room, looking to my left I saw the girl in a similar position, sitting against a wall, shaking, with a bloody metal pipe besides her.
Looking at her closely I somewhat recognized her, Yukinoshita, was it? Can't seem to remember her first name, but from what I know, she's a top scorer in every subject and probably the most popular female our school in terms of beauty.
I decided to be the first one to break the tense silence because regardless of anything she did save me from being ripped to shreds and eaten by those zombies.
"Thanks." I muttered out, "You saved my life there."
She seemed surprised by me suddenly speaking at first, but then she replied, "A-ah, you don't have to. It was my fault you were in that situation, if I had just been a tad bit stronger... strong enough to force myself out of that creature'sgrip, you wouldn't have had to save me…"
Well that's… surprising, I heard random npcs talk around the school about the fact that she was a stuck up rich kid who didn't want to associate herself with normal people but here… she actually feels guilty about almost getting me killed… Though I'm not the type of person to believe those rumours but it is surprising nonetheless.
"It wasn't your fault," I couldn't help but speak up.
"Huh?", her downcast expression turning into a confused one.
"It wasn't your fault," I repeated, standing up and making direct eye contact with her, "You don't have to feel guilty about anything. The decision to save you was mine. I saved you and you saved me, so let's just call it even."
"I-I see… I suppose that is acceptable…" she replied, surprised by what I said
Well, at least that got her to stop shaking. Now I just need to find myself… a towel or a cloth something because having dried zombie blood over me is not something I would prefer.
While I looked around the room searching through shelves and storage drawers, I started to think about the fact that I might have accidentally ingested some zombie blood in some way.
I don't have any cuts on my face or neck where most of the blood was splattered and I definitely don't remember tasting anything even similar to blood. There's also the fact that I probably should've turned by now consider how fast zombies started appearing through the school…
If I had to guess I'd say it takes at least 2-5 minutes for a person to turn and It's definitely been 2 minutes since I got into this room and I haven't felt any weird symptoms so I think I might be safe? I sure hope so.
That also seems to be all I know so far about these horrific creatures along with the fact that the zombies also get somewhat weaker over time due to them being dead and all, though even with that weakness I wouldn't go ahead and fight an entire horde.
After a minute I just got tired of searching and just decided to use the backside of my uniform blazer to clean my face up hoping to thoroughly wash it later, I'd be better of spending my time to search for a… weapon.
"Yukinoshita-san, how exactly did you find that metal pipe?" It does seem odd for a metal pipe that thick to be in a science laboratory but I was secretly hoping for there to be more of those because I don't think fists will work that well against them.
"Well, this, I found on one of the table's after I saw you get tackled by that… thing," she replied solemnly
My D rank luck strikes yet again, I guess I'll just have to constantly use Stealth Hikky.
It also seems like she's still shaken up about our current situation, I wouldn't blame her of course. Nobody can accept the fact that there's suddenly cannibalistic undead creatures roaming around the world.
Looking towards her, I spoke again. "What do you plan on doing next?"
She seemed to have understood what I meant, "I… I don't know. My family lives in an estate near the outskirts of Chuo ward."
"I see, Chuo ward is pretty far, do you have a phone to possibly contact them? I think I accidentally dropped mine."
She shook her head negatively, "Unfortunately I left my phone at my desk when I heard the commotion."
I said nothing. What's there to be said anyway, with those freaks out there getting to Chuo ward alone is pretty much impossible.
'Well, unless I–'
–"What about you?" she asked
"For now I need to get to my house as soon as possible and make sure my sister is okay. I'll figure out the rest after that"
"And your parents?"
"On a vacation in Shizuoka," which is still pretty surprising since they're both always working
"…I see"
I can't do anything about my parents right now except hope that they're okay, but I need to get to Komachi as fast as possible and make sure she's safe.
I should get to leaving right now and make my way to my house but... abandoning a girl right after saved my life just won't sit right with me.
"How about we join forces then?"
She looked towards me with a confused expression, wanting me to elaborate.
"What I'm saying is, we team up and you help me get to my sister and in return I help you get back to your family."
She narrowed her eyes at that, "Are you saying I need your help to get to my family?"
I see where those rumours emerged from now, "Don't put words in my mouth, that's not what I said. What I meant is that it's better if we stick together, it'll raise the chances of our survival significantly."
Her eyes widen, "Why?" she asks with a focused gaze
"Like I said, it'll help me as much as it helps you", I answer honestly and before she can reply I add with a smirk, "I also know that your family is loaded, so I aim to take complete advantage of that to make sure my sister and I are safe."
I wasn't surprised by the disgusted look on her face. Even I'd be disgusted if someone said that to me.
I wasn't lying though, having the Yukinoshita family be indebted to me because I made sure their daughter was safe sounded like the perfect way to be safe.
"I almost thought you were a decent human being before you added the last part", She half glared at me as she started speaking
"Regardless, I suppose this alliance you propose is beneficial to us both. Very well, I accept." she decided, standing up
It was hard to believe this was the same girl who was scared and shaken up just a few minutes ago. I guess I did something right then?
"Considering the disgusting behavior you displayed a few moments ago, I'm not surprised you haven't even thought of introducing yourself yet", she spoke suddenly with a mocking smile
Oh yeah, I still haven't. Must've slipped my mind while we were talking. It's still pretty embarrassing though.
"Sorry, it slipped my mind," I explain, before answering blandly, "Hikigaya Hachiman."
I could see the amusement evident on her face. Somehow, she found my boring introduction funny.
She smiled, walking towards me, "Yukinoshita Yukino. Pleased to make your acquaintance, Hikigaya-kun," she said as she offered her hand.
"Likewise", I reply as I shake her hand
Writing is fun. But I'm still very slow at writing. It's hard to think up of stuff when you write. It's still fun though.
Pretty hard chapter to write honestly, still feel like everything I wrote is pretty shit and boring. But it is what it is, I hope to get better as I write more.
I also don't know where to go with this like I said in the first chapter, but I guess I'm good with thinking up of things on the fly.
I also hope I got the japan geography right, that shit is hard considering I'm not Japanese so I guess I'll just make up a bit of my own shit because its AU anyway.
Advice and criticism is always appreciated, even if I'm writing this for fun I want to make sure what I'm writing is at least half decent.
(also I wonder if I should get a beta reader :think:)
o/