Here we go! another update as promised! I really hope you guys are enjoying this so far... I'm sorry if it is a little slow going but I promise it gears up soon enough. Let me know what you think by leaving me a lovely review and I'll catch you next week!

Chapter 6

The group came to a stop outside the faculty lounge all of them hoping that they'd find a radio inside and that it wasn't a repeat of the communications room where there had been two zombies just waiting to eat them. They stood, shinai in hand, eyeing the partially open door.

Now, on one hand Nanako had been kind of hoping that there would have been some teachers holed up inside… you know, responsible adults that could aid them in this time of crisis… but apparently the minute shit went to hell, the teachers completely threw out the whole responsible adult idea and pretty much just left the kids to fend for themselves… sad times! If this was any other situation, she'd be straight on the phone to her father so he could put a complaint in but… this was not one of those times and probably wouldn't be ever again.

It was an odd moment of realisation for Nanako as they gingerly crept into the faculty office. Wealth would mean nothing now, social standing? Not going to be a thing. Now, while she could cope with that, she knew there were people out there who would just melt down at the idea their name wouldn't carry any kind of power any more… one person in particular, a certain Ootori who was used to dropping his name to get things done was possibly going to be one of those people who'd not enjoy the fact he couldn't get things done the way he used to… maybe once this mess is over, things could return to normal… maybe?

A quick scan of the room revealed that much like the nurses office, some serious shit had gone down here too. Exam papers, essays, books, you name it, were strewn about the room. Wrinkling her nose, Nanako stepped over a large blood splatter, moving deeper inside, hoping to god nothing was going to come bumbling out at her from the closet at the end of the room.

On the bright side? Oh yeah there was a definite bright side! Resting atop the row of filing cabinets that lined the wall was the one thing they'd been looking for… a radio! Nanako did a silent fist pump before scuttling over to it and as quietly as she could, she unplugged it from the wall and stowed it away in her bag. As she was stowing it away in her bag, she noticed a keychain hanging up with various keys on it, one of which read 'vending machine – first floor hallway'. Cupping her hands around the keys she took them from their hook and tucked them into her pocket.

"Mission accomplished" she whispered to Honey who was nearest to her.

Honey grinned and nudged Mori who nodded with a small smile before motioning to Ritsu and the others that they'd gotten what they'd come for and as quietly as they entered, they filed out of the room, Nanako stopping momentarily to gently slide the door shut. They didn't need to leave anywhere for their undead schoolmates to hide… or any other undead people for that matter.

They'd been gone for almost an hour and Nanako had to wonder how worried the others would be about them, though seriously, did they expect this to only take ten minutes? No no… the dining hall was a good ten minute walk from music room three on a normal day and they'd detoured to get the radio, so really, considering the zombie dodging they had to do, an hour was maybe decent time… maybe.

In music room three…

Tamaki was pacing the room while Kyoya was doing his best to try and not throw something at him. Hikaru and Kaoru had fallen asleep on one of the couches, Izumi and Naoko were curled up together on another couch, talking about anything to keep their minds off the situation, Nakamura (the third year boy) was doing his calculus homework to pass the time, even though he needn't bother with it and Haruhi… well she was watching Tamaki pacing around.

"Senpai… stop pacing, you'll damage the floor" she sighed

"I can't help it Haruhi! They have been gone an hour! An hour Haruhi! That's too long!" he was definitely worried.

"I know Senpai… but we don't know what the school is like right now, they might have had to take another route to get to the dining hall" she rubbed her face a little "besides, pacing won't help"

"No? It makes me feel better!" Tamaki threw his arms up in the air as he continued to pace.

"Tamaki… please for the love of all that is normal right now… please sit down…" Kyoya groaned

"Fine… fine…" he plopped down onto one of the chairs, running a hand through his hair "I'm just worried about them… that's all…"

"Well they have Honey-senpai and Mori-senpai with them… I'm sure they'll be just fine" Haruhi offered Tamaki a soft smile because she understood… she was worried about them too.

"Hey uh… I'm going to use the bathroom" Nakamura spoke up

"Okay, I'll come with you" Kyoya stood "better than watching Tamaki work himself to madness"

They'd agreed bathroom breaks would be done in at least pairs so one person could watch out for the other and so Kyoya and Nakamura quietly slipped out of music room three to attend to the call of nature.

In the dining hall…

They had finally made it to the dining hall and upon inspection they could see at least three zombies shuffling around in there.

"Great" Ritsu whispered "we can't go in there… as much as I reckon we could take them, I'd rather avoid the violence"

"I second that" Nanako nodded as the group peered through the glass in the door.

"There is another way in you know" Honey beamed "a door just a little further down, it's where the staff go in"

"Mm…" Mori mumbled his agreement on that note.

"Okay… so we go in the other entrance, no problem" Majima nodded

"Let's go" Ritsu motioned for everyone to follow him.

The side door to the kitchens was closed, something that they hadn't been expecting… but did that mean nobody was back there, or did it mean maybe someone might be shut in there? There was only one way to find out and Ritsu was the only one willing to open the door.

"Step back" he whispered, hand closing around the handle, turning it slowly before gently pushing it open.

The group waited with baited breath for any signs of life but nothing leapt out at them. After giving it a few minutes, they forged their way inside, careful not to make too much noise. Although the shutters were down, they could still hear the zombies ambling around in the dining hall and it wouldn't take much to alert them to their presence.

"So… what's the plan?" Sakamoto asked

"Well we can't take anything that requires cooking as we don't actually have an oven in the club room… all the cakes and stuff get prepared and delivered to us" Honey nodded

"So basically anything that can be eaten cold without making us sick" Nanako joined the conversation "besides… I found some keys in the faculty lounge that unlock the vending machines and other doors and stuff around the school, so if all else fails we can live on snacks for a couple days"

If all else failed in their bid to find food, they could always open up a vending machine for potato chips, candy, snacks and drinks. It wasn't ideal but until they knew what the outside was like, it was going to have to do.

In music room three…

Haruhi peered out from between the curtains, the grounds were fairly well lit thanks to the amount of lights around the place and she could see people ambling around out there. There were so many things she didn't understand about the world and this was one of them. How could zombies happen? It was a scientific impossibility wasn't it? There was no way this should be happening right now but here they were, living the impossible.

Kyoya and Nakamura had returned a few minutes prior and were both discussing how the situation must look from a medical standpoint, both agreeing on how medically, this shouldn't even be a thing. It turned out that Nakamura's father was also in the medical field, so it gave someone for Kyoya to talk to about that kind of thing.

Past the school grounds in the distance, Haruhi could just about see the lights of the city, her fingers curling around the phone in her hand, praying quietly that her dad had been able to seek shelter somewhere… then an idea came to her.

"Kyoya-senpai… is there any way we can get some long distance radios to communicate with?" she asked curiously.

"Hm… I'd imagine there would be some down in the admissions office… the teachers carry them around with them during the day and the school is pretty big" he looked thoughtful for a moment "though, it would be something we'd be better off waiting for daylight to do just in case the power goes out"

"That's fair Kyoya-senpai… I don't think I'd want to walk around the school building in the dark under any circumstance" Haruhi shuddered.

The school was large and intimidating and even more so at night. Even if there weren't zombies shuffling around, nobody would want to wander this place at night, not after hearing what the black magic club had to say on ghosts and spirits.

"For the moment however… we have candles, lamps and flashlights just in case" Kyoya motioned to the changing rooms "we always keep a good supply just in case of emergencies and I think this counts as an emergency"

"Yea…" Haruhi rubbed her face as she moved away from the window.

"Besides, when 10:30pm rolls around all the lights go off automatically… they are on a timer so I will set up some lamps and lanterns… We don't want to draw unnecessary attention to ourselves by having the main lights on… Nakamura-senpai, could I borrow you for a moment?"

With that, Kyoya and Nakamura set about placing lanterns and lamps around the room before dragging a box of flashlights, batteries and candles out of the closet in the changing area.

Haruhi looked around the room as they moved, the twins were still sleeping and it looked like Izumi and Naoko had also drifted off to sleep. The room was oddly quiet and while that would have been wonderful less than 24 hours ago, right now it was creepy as all hell and she couldn't wait for the others to return.

In the kitchens…

As quietly as they could, the group in the kitchens had gathered food, bottled water and anything else they thought necessary, including several large and sharp kitchen knives. They needed something other than shinai to defend themselves and as Nanako had pointed out, zombies aren't going to die from the smack of a shinai… they were going to have to sever the head or destroy the brain and a shinai just wouldn't cut it; they weren't built to kill and it was only a matter of time before they broke from impact.

"We good?" Ritsu whispered, peering over the hot food racks at the others who were doing a last few checks.

"I think so…" Nanako nodded, looking to Honey and Mori who both nodded.

"Yea we good" Tanaka agreed after checking with the other two.

"Okay so now all we have to do is leave as quietly as possible…" Majima spoke up and was about to turn to head back to the door when a loud crash rung out.

"Shit!" Ritsu hissed, eyes darting around until they landed on Sakamoto, who'd bashed into one of the tall trolleys that housed the dirty plates from the start of lunch hour, sending some of them crashing to the ground.

"You have got to be kidding me?!" Nanako glared across at Sakamoto who looked like he'd just seen a ghost.

Nanako's POV

The sounds of grunting and shuffling in the dining hall had stopped and boy was I mad at Sakamoto right now! As much as I wanted to yell at him for being an idiot, I also didn't want to make more noise and attract anything to our location.

All I could hear was the sounds of all of us breathing as we waited in silence to see what would happen. After a good few minutes of waiting and I am sure with all our hearts racing, the shuffling and grunting resumed in the dining hall.

"Holy fuck…" I whispered out "Sakamoto you… you are so lucky nothing came running through that door"

"I know, but its okay" he seemed a little too cheerful about it

"The point is Sakamoto, that we are trying not to get eaten and those things could do just that" Ritsu stepped in before I could reach out and slap the boy.

"Oh please… how do we even know they are attracted to noise anyway?" Sakamoto shrugged and headed over to the door that we'd left part the way open.

"And how do we know they aren't?" Majima hissed with a raised brow, daring his underclassman to give him some sass.

"Look… guys, let's not argue okay? How about we all just take a minute and then we can leave and get back to the music room" As much as I'd like to see Majima whack Sakamoto with his shinai, I'd rather we just got the hell back to safety.

"I couldn't agree more" Sakamoto rolled his eyes, ignoring the look that Mori was giving him and moved to leave.

Apparently Sakamoto thought that just because zombies were wandering the earth, he could be a disrespectful little shit and I was this close to beating him with my own shinai if it not for Honey who slipped up beside me and took my hand, giving it a firm squeeze to remind me that now was definitely not the time.

"Sakamoto… wait" I stepped forward, letting go of Honey's hand and walked after him.

"What?" he turned sharply

"Don't go off alone… please?" I was doing my best to try and sound like a rational human being.

"Or what? I'm going to get eaten?" he shook his head and was about to reach for the door when it swung open.

Before anyone had a chance to move, Sakamoto was tackled to the ground by a very large and irate zombie. The impact was enough that they both skidded out of view of the group behind one of the large food heaters.

I leapt back with a squeal, tripping over my own feet and quite quickly found myself on my ass, Sakamoto's yells filling the air as he tried to fend it off.

"Yamada!" Ritsu leapt over the counter that separated us and dragged me to my feet before shoving me behind him as Mori and Honey leapt into action.

Mori used his shinai to smack the zombie hard enough that it rolled off of Sakamoto who scrambled back, face pale and mouth hanging open as he started hyperventilating. Cue Honey, who leapt on top of it and using one of the large knives we'd picked up, he jammed it through the side of the zombies head with a sickening crunch, twisting it for effect as the zombie sagged and stopped moving, its eyes rolled into the back of its head.

"Sakamoto, are you okay?" Ritsu asked as Honey yanked his blade free from the zombies head.

"I… I… I think so?" he stammered, slowly pulling himself to his feet.

"Let's get out of here before any more of those things turn up" I nudged my way past Ritsu, gingerly peering round the doorway "it looks clear… let's go"

With no arguments, we filed out of the kitchens. Nobody spoke a word as we started our walk back to the music room, we were all too freaked out by what happened and now far much more aware of our mortality. That could have been so much worse! Someone could have died but luckily that wasn't the case today and we were all still in one piece.

"Hey guys…" Majima spoke up "what's that noise?"

We all stopped dead in our tracks, the sounds of running feet were approaching us and it was definitely more than one pair of feet. I slowly turned and saw what the noise was. From the other end of the long hallway I could see a group of zombies rounding the corner, maybe six or so of them? I didn't stop to count.

"Run!" I squeaked, although my feet didn't seem to want to do that "split up and run! Don't look back! Try and lose them and return to the music room!"