Okay… so I know I missed an update and this one is late but I had some family things to deal with so… Without further ado! Here is Chapter 5!
Chapter 5
"So, who wants to come with me to get the radio from the communications room?" Nanako spoke up, tilting her head a little at the group.
"I forbid it!" Tamaki declared, rising to his feet "there is no way I am letting my little girl go down there! It's too dangerous!"
"Can it Tamaki" Nanako rolled her eyes "you aren't my father, I have one already okay? And secondly, I wasn't going to go alone… so who's with me?"
"I'll go" Ritsu spoke up, having recovered from his earlier nosebleed
"Me too" Mori nodded
"And me" Honey piped up
"Okay so, me, Ritsu, Honey and Mori… I think that's acceptable" I looked around to Kyoya and Tamaki, waiting for them to disagree.
"Us too" one of the kendo members, Sakamoto spoke up "we'll go, right guys?"
The other kendo members nodded in agreement.
"So that's what… seven of us right?" Nanako counted off on her fingers "That means we can also do the run to the dining hall too, since that's going to be a group effort"
"That works" Kyoya nodded "be careful"
"Yeah be careful Nanako" Haruhi gave her shoulder a squeeze "come back in one piece"
"Of course" I grinned "let's go boys!"
Nanako's POV
On one hand I was surprised that neither of the girls volunteered but then again… probably best they didn't come. Quietly as we could, the seven of us crept from music room three and climbed through the barricade we'd set up earlier.
"Nana-chan" Honey whispered "we should go round past kendo club… we could gather ourselves some weapons"
"Good idea Honey-senpai" I whispered back "I don't fancy just waltzing into the Communications room barehanded"
No no… I didn't intend on going there without a weapon and clearly great minds think alike.
"Okay…" I kept my voice down "first stop… Kendo club, grab weapons and then to the Communications room for the radio… and then to the dining hall"
I watched as each of them nodded in agreement and off we went in the direction of Kendo club.
As we walked, I had to wonder if we would come across anyone else. I mean sure, there were bound to be zombies lurking around somewhere but I mean living breathing humans. I also had to wonder if the people that left us a couple hours ago were okay… did they get out of the school okay? Time however was pushing onwards, it was almost six thirty and the sun was starting to set. Thankfully it appeared the lights were still working… for how long I couldn't say but hopefully for tonight at least.
From what I understood, the lights were on a timer so they'd come on around 5pm and go off somewhere around 10:30pm after the last faculty member has left. The nightshift janitor roams the school and turns the lights on and off manually as he goes around, so I knew we could at least turn the lights back on once they went off at 10:30.
The empty hallways felt eerie and each small noise had me on edge, so much so that Honey dropped back to hold my hand.
"Hey Nana-chan… its okay" he soothed as we walked along, trying to make as little noise as humanely possible.
"Thanks Honey-senpai…" I whispered back as we came to the stairwell that leads down to where Kendo was.
Swallowing hard, I gave Honey's hand a little squeeze, more to comfort myself than him before we all moved single file, one behind the other, all the way down to the bottom. I know the school was usually rather empty by the time club finished of an evening but this was a whole new level of creepy, considering the amount of papers and text books littered around and the odd bag here and there, zombie vomit and blood splatters decorating the usually pristine building.
All we could hear was our own breathing as we crept along the hallway, only able to relax a little once we reached the door to the kendo room.
"Okay… wait here" Honey smiled to me, leaving me with Ritsu and two of the kendo club; Sakamoto and Majima as he, Mori and the other kendo guy; Tanaka, slipped inside.
It only took them a couple of minutes but it honestly felt like hours before they returned, shinai in hand, passing one to each of us. Mori had wrapped a few of them in one of the hakama's that they wear for kendo, fashioning it into some kind of cross body carrying device so the shinai were on his back. Smart.
I felt kinda brave with a shinai in my possession, even if it meant having to let go of Honey's hand so I could be ready to use it if I had to. At least the walk to the communications room didn't quite feel like walking to my death anymore. For all that brave talk I gave up in the music room, I really was kind of a weenie.
It was odd though, we hadn't come across a single person, living or otherwise and I was starting to think maybe our luck was going to run dry and oh boy, I couldn't have been more right. As we turned the corner to head down towards the communications room, we were stopped in our tracks by a female student crouched over a male students body. At first I wasn't sure what to think… I mean maybe she was checking to see if he was still alive, maybe he was hurt? Or maybe…
"Do you think she's okay?" the third year kendo club member Tanaka spoke in barely a whisper.
A growl erupted from her and she began to tuck into him like he was the manwich special of the day, all of us dropping to defensive positions.
"No… I think she's hungry" I hissed back "but she's in our way… we are gunna have to go through her…"
"Or we could hide in here and wait for her to leave?" Ritsu suggested, motioning to the open door right by us.
The room was used for first year art class, the lights were on but it didn't seem as if anyone was in there. After taking a quick look inside, Mori nodded and the seven of us crept inside to wait. The room had large windows that looked out onto the corridor in question so we could at least keep tabs on our zombie friend out there and know when she was on the move. It didn't take long at all really. After about twenty minutes, our friend was done with her meal and began to amble off down the hallway and it looked like she was heading in the right direction to go outside.
Slipping quietly from the room, we continued onward, giving the poor dead guy a wide berth, a shudder rolling through my body. As much as I tried not to look, I totally looked and then wished I hadn't. It was disgusting! His entrails were strewn about like old party streamers and he was laying in a puddle of his own congealing blood, his face warped in a look of pure terror, eyes rolled back into his head.
"Hey… eyes ahead" Ritsu spoke gently, taking my arm and guiding me in the right direction.
"Sorry…" I mumbled, shaking myself off a little before continuing onwards.
It was only once we'd passed the body did I realise it was Makimura-san from homeroom… Dude… I am so sorry your life had to end like that… in fear and probably absolute agony.
"Shh…!" Ritsu put his arm out, stopping me in my tracks, the others coming to a stop too.
"What?" I whispered
"Can't you hear that?" he asked quietly, looking around as he tried to locate the source of the sound he'd heard.
"Hear what?" I mouthed as he held his finger to his lips.
It was only when I actively listened for it, could I hear the sounds of grunting and shuffling… where was it coming from? Tilting my head, I knew there was only a couple of rooms ahead of us before we hit where the communications room was and I was so hoping that wasn't where that noise was coming from.
"Let's move… quietly" Tanaka encouraged and we forged onwards.
You know how I said our luck was at an end. Well it was definitely at its end now. The door to the communications room was shut and there were two zombies waiting inside, just shuffling around and grunting.
"No no…" I groaned softly "we need to get in there…"
"How do you propose we do that?" Ritsu hissed
"I don't know" I shot him a look that suggested he keep grouching at me and see where that got him.
"Is there anywhere else you have seen a radio Nana-chan?" Honey asked, creeping up beside me.
"Maybe the faculty lounge? That's only two rooms down…" I mumbled softly as I contemplated our predicament.
"Well then… maybe we head there and see?" Honey asked
It wasn't a bad idea, we'd be passing by the nurses' office too and I knew for a fact we'd at least be able to get some kind of medical supplies.
"Okay" I nodded and we continued to creep along, past the communications room.
The door to the nurse's office was open and… the room was trashed. Clearly something had gone down here earlier and then I was reminded of the girl who'd been bitten and had been heading there. Stepping over things, I made my way inside, followed by Ritsu and Honey, the others staying by the door just in case.
"Jesus…" I muttered as I sidestepped a puddle of blood and vomit, moving to open the first cabinet I could see.
Inside was a small stash of medical supplies, nothing too complex, mostly over the counter type pain killers, Band-Aids, bandages and other simple medical supplies. Looking around, I saw a gym bag hanging on the back of one of the chairs, motioning for Honey to pass it over. When he did, I unzipped it, carefully removing the contents and setting the gym clothes in the chair.
"Sorry Mika-chan… I hope it was quick" I sighed softly as I spied her name sewn into the inside of the gym bag.
Once the bag was empty, I stuffed anything that looked useful into it, any medical stuff I could find really. I'm sure Kyoya would be able to sort through it all and dispose of anything that wouldn't be useful. Somehow I had a feeling we probably wouldn't be staying at the school long… maybe a couple of days while we waited for news maybe? And to let everything calm down because what we have seen so far today is madness and that was inside school… could you imagine how crazy out there is?
Our exploration of the nurses office didn't take too long at all but we were still down a radio which was starting to bug me… why did the nurses office not have a radio? I was sure there used to be one… oh… right… there it is… on the floor, smashed and trampled… great.
"Good news is we have some medical supplies… bad news, the radio got smashed up" I sighed as we moved down the hall a little further before stopping outside the faculty lounge.