Hi again. So, chapter eight. At war with myself at what should stay, what could change. Always room for improvement right? Well, I guess let's get onto it.
Chapter Eight
Ooarai tank sheds – Day Two - 0810
The sounds in the shed consisted mainly of shuffling and muffled whispers as the teams readied themselves for what was to come. Miho oversaw the shuffle from her tank, weary from what had occurred over the past few days. She looked towards Yukari, who was speaking with Erwin and Noriko. The trio had been the first to volunteer scouting, Yukari and Erwin had done well before, and were more than happy to help. Noriko was confident that she could help them with any infected they may encounter. Miho was worried, she didn't want to send them out there, she could go by herself, she thought. This was cut short by Yukari.
"Nishizumi-Dono. We're ready to go on your command!", she stated enthusiastically.
Miho smiled weakly, "Yukari-san, are you sure? I could probably head out, it's not safe…", she said as she trailed off.
"I insist! We did well the first time, I feel confident we can handle it!", Yukari beamed.
Erwin added, "Yes, Commander Nishizumi. Our last scouting mission that was on Pravda was a success, the same will be said for this one."
Miho nodded, "Alright. Get anything you can use as a weapon. We'll move quick."
The trio replied at once, "Yes, Commander!"
With that, the group dispersed around the shed, Erwin headed for her tank, electing to go for the shovel kept on the StuG, she felt she could use it better against these foes than using an axe. She looked to her team that looked at her with shock and awe, astonished by the courage of their Commander. She expected them to break out into references in history that were like their current predicament, however there was just silence. Everyone was tired as it was, mentally and physically. Erwin simply tipped the Commander's field cap she always wore, smiling, and turning to head off towards the door. Wishes of good luck echoed behind her. Meanwhile, Noriko was going over their plan again for her teammates, brandishing the axe she'd begun to grow accustomed to from their tank. Yukari was simply staring at something she'd placed on one of the mud flaps of the Panzer IV. Miho walked over, curious.
"What's wrong, Yukari-san?", she asked. Yukari turned, revealing the hand grenade that Yukari always carried, her coveted M24 Stielhandgranate.
"I'm trying to figure out what I can do with this, I mean, sure it is an explosive, but I could only use it once and it would be very loud!", Yukari said, lapsing into thought once more, before getting what appeared to be an "Aha!" moment. She wandered off for a minute, heading in the direction of a pile of scrap metal, boxes, and a few spare roadwheels that had been left in the corner. Picking up specific metal bits and examining them closely. After another minute or two, she walked back, looking content. She then went to work disassembling the stick grenade, taking extra caution not to accidently set it off. She carefully removed the ignitor system from the grenade with what could only be called surgical precision, Miho was of course terrified she might set it off,
"Yukari-san be careful!", she panicked.
"No need to worry, Nishizumi-dono, it's a dud now!", Yukari laughed. Moving the ignition system out of the way, she removed the explosive filler, roughly leaving just the sturdy wooden handle. She then went about emptying the canister containing the of the explosive substance, making the hand thrown explosive practically inert. Yukari had removed the pull string and ignition system, hollowing it out. She screwed the cap back on and looked at it quizzically. She then looked around the shed, seemingly looking for something, her eyes landed on something in the corner. She quickly ran over, Miho sat there watching all of this, it was good to see Yukari was in good spirits, she wished she could say the same, however all she could manage was a sad smile.
"Alright! This will work well! It worked for the brave men in the trenches of World war one!", Yukari chirped. She was lugging one of the few spools of barbed wire they had stored in the shed. It had been used to maintain the exterior fences during happier times. Yukari unwound a length of the wire, looking around, she eyed a pair of fence cutters resting against a nearby wall, she grabbed them up and cut a piece of wire off. She then went to work carefully wrapping the stielhandgranate with the barbed wire, winding it tightly so it wouldn't simply fall off. She tied off the end, she then raised the new weapon, admiring her handiwork.
Despite all the modifications, she still didn't look satisfied.
"It's crude for sure, it could work, although some nails would be effective as well.", she thought aloud. Nakajima had taken notice and walked over to where they had been working. Her expression was weary, but she wore a slight smirk. She spoke then, having to clear her throat due to her voice being hoarse from sobbing.
"I-I think we have some nails around here. Let me see if I can help.", she stated.
She walked over to a workbench, Miho walked up next to her, curious.
"Commander, I had an idea earlier.", Nakajima started upon Miho's approach.
"Eh? What is it?", Miho asked inquisitively.
"Well these things, we need someway other than weapons to fight them, you've seen how they act, they attack in groups."
Miho nodded, "It's like a hive mind, if one hears something, they all go for it, it's strange."
A look crossed Nakajima's face, an idea.
"Commander that's it! These things seem to have excellent hearing. Maybe we could distract them somehow.", Nakajima started, pausing, thinking about how they could 'distract' them. Miho watched her intently, noting how she almost seemed back to her old self, in her mechanic's mindset. Meanwhile, Tsuchiya had walked over to where Yukari was, watching her work. She then noticed the ignition system resting on the bench, she picked it up, Yukari, noticing this, inhaled, about to go on a spiel about the design of the Stielhandgranate and its effectiveness during both wars. Once the word, grenade left Yukari's mouth, Nakajima again lit up with another idea.
"That's it! Some sort of explosive that makes noise!", she chimed excitedly. Yukari had paused, looking over curiously to who had spoken up. Miho looked at her incredulously,
"Uh…How would we…?", she trailed off, Yukari, having then catching on to the idea, quickly added,
"The tank shells! They have powder in them used to propel the round."
"Yes…Its possible…", Tsuchiya said as she picked up a pipe. "We can use these for to hold the filler and we can get that- ", she stopped, everyone picking up on the obstacle they now faced. They turned towards the locked door in one of the shadowed corners of the shed. Miho was the first one to bring it up,
"The munitions room is still locked."
A sense of realization hit them then. The door holding the munitions was tough and not easily picked nor broken down, they would need a key. Maintenance workers were supposed to unlock the door before school started, obviously, that had changed.
"Okay. That one's out of the question, at least for now. Is there anything else we could use in place of powder?"
The trio brainstormed quietly before Yukari had an idea,
"What about the chemistry classrooms? I remember they stored matches in there, we could use the match heads as a substitute, there's sulfur on them."
"What? That'll actually work?", Miho asked, Tsuchiya chimed in,
"Yeah, actually. That'll work in place of powder, just have to find enough of it."
The idea that high school age girls knew how to make explosive devices baffled Miho, and she shook somewhat, unsure of how to react. She did know they needed something to protect them, but she also feared someone might get hurt.
"Alright. Let's get a group ready to head out then.", Miho finished.
Yukari and Tsuchiya nodded, and the trio dispersed into the larger crowd of students. Yukari walked up to Erwin and Noriko who were conversing quietly about the plan, Erwin smirked seeing Yukari walk up.
"Since we're headed out soon, it might be a good idea to think of places to avoid in case those things decided to hang around."
Yukari nodded,
"Right! I think we should try to keep some distance between ourselves and the auditorium, it was where everyone was at when…", Yukari said, trailing off.
Erwin acknowledged her addition to the conversation,
"Alright. In that case, we'll try and detour to the chemistry labs, and see if there are any faculty or law enforcement around that might be able to help us."
Noriko had been silent for the most part, occasionally agreeing with Erwin's points, it was clear she was nervous, who could blame her? Everyone at that point was on edge, this wasn't exactly a normal disaster. Despite her nerves, like a match of volleyball, she would give it her all. Psyching herself up, she smiled,
"Ready when you guys are."
Erwin looked at her and stated, "Guess we better get ready then."
The trio moved towards to one of the heavy doors, Erwin pressed her ear against it to listen for any banging signaling the presence of one of those creatures behind it, she heard nothing, she turned towards Miho,
"Commander. We're ready."
Miho simply nodded before an idea crossed her mind,
"Erwin-san, one moment, please!", Miho said.
She walked over to one of the tanks, grabbing a throat microphone from inside, she handed one to Erwin,
"Best to keep in contact!", she stated. Erwin nodded to her with a smirk, she then turned to face the door. Without another moment of hesitation, she reached for the latch, and began to carefully slide the door open, occasional creaks and bangs sounded from metal grinding against metal, Erwin winced at every sound created by the metal. Making an opening big enough for them to squeeze through, she went first, Yukari eagerly followed, Noriko was the last out. She turned towards the door, nodding to her fellow volleyball team members with a smile, she simply said rather than shouted,
"All it takes is guts!"
With that, she shut the door, turning to her two friends who had begun surveying the area. Erwin gripped the brim of her field cap, looking around, squinting at the bright morning sun, an unearthly stillness had fallen over the town, at least from what she could see. She could hear none of the usual sounds of life. She looked towards the classroom buildings in the distance, their path seemed clear, she noted only a few scattered infected. Most had moved on. Erwin led the way, brandishing her shovel, Yukari followed, still picking at her 'trench club'. Noriko was looking around, making sure they weren't flanked. Picking off only one of the of the 'zombies', as Yukari coined them, they'd successfully made it to the entrance to one of the classroom buildings, moving inside, they noticed the lights still functioned here as well. After a quick sweep, they determined the building empty, Erwin pressed down on the button on her microphone,
"So far, nothing, Commander. We only took down the one infected we encountered. We managed to sneak past the others."
A reply crackled over the static,
"Good. Please be careful, I don't see anything from the high up windows, but I'll alert you if I see an approaching horde."
"Sounds good, Commander.", Erwin replied.
With that, they went about searching for the chemistry room, they soon found it. Stepping inside, they looked around, locating a small cabinet near the front containing supplies used for classes, it was locked, at least it had been before Noriko managed to bust the lock with her axe. They raided several boxes of matches, Yukari turned to Erwin.
"Do you think we'll need anything else besides matches? It may be easy to get all we need in one trip…", she asked.
Erwin pondered on the question for a moment, before pressing down on her microphone once more,
"Commander. Do we only need matches? It would be easier to get what we need now."
There was a pause as Miho relayed the question to Nakajima and Tsuchiya. She echoed the response,
"Actually, Nakajima says if you see any batteries or duct tape, grab them."
Erwin replied with, "Copy that."
They rummaged through the cabinet, finding a spare unopened pack of batteries, and a roll of duct tape on a nearby counter. Satisfied, they headed out of the classroom, shutting the door behind them. Making their way out of the building, they cautiously scouted the area, a few infected stumbled around listlessly, they hadn't been noticed yet. The group failed to notice something quietly lunging from building to building, the creature clicked it's nails against the roof in anticipation. Like a predator, it waited patiently, watching as the trio moved onwards.
The group walked silently, being careful of their surroundings. Yukari broke the silence in that moment,
"Hey, look!"
She pointed out a figure standing alongside two others of its kind. The infected was wearing a brightly colored boiler suit, the attire of maintenance staff.
"A maintenance worker. There's a chance he might have a key ring! We might could use that to get into the shed!", Yukari stated, trying to contain her excitement at their luck. She rushed to it, her club at the ready, determined to end it and the ones with it before they'd even noticed, Noriko ran to assist, startling Erwin at their brash attack, she angrily shouted,
"Guys wait!"
They'd just taken down the maintenance worker and one of his 'friends' and readied to take down the final one when they all heard an animalistic screech. It came from behind them, whirling around just in time to see something leap from a nearby building, within the same second, it had pounced Erwin. Yukari panicked and turned to Noriko,
"You take that one, I'll help Erwin!"
Noriko nodded, before she turned to the remaining infected and focused on taking it down while Yukari ran towards Erwin, whose screams had turned from surprise and confusion, to that of terror and pain, Yukari reacted quickly, smashing the creature hard in the skull, it gracefully rolled back, landing on it's feet. It stood there for a moment in shock, before shaking it's head angrily as if to gather itself and leaped backwards once more, onto the building, crawling out of their reach and out of sight. Erwin was panting, staring up at the sky, tears streaming down her face, Yukari cringed at the sight. The leaping thing had quickly torn through her shirt, and had begun slicing at her abdomen, she couldn't tell how deep the wound was, she didn't know what to do, she took a breath, trying to reign in her fear.
"E-Erwin-San. Hang in there, we'll get you back to the others!", Yukari choked out.
Erwin groaned in acknowledgement, wincing at every move she made, the pain was blinding, she gritted her teeth, meanwhile blood had started to pool around her.
Yukari carefully eased the field jacket she always wore, knowing she'd hate her for doing this, she pressed the jacket against her abdomen and shouted at her to hold it, Erwin weakly pressed her hands against the jacket, in far too much pain to care about the jacket. Yukari turned to Noriko and shouted,
"Help me lift her! We have to get her back now!"
Noriko didn't respond for a moment, Yukari begged her to help once more, snapping her out of her trance,
"O-Okay!", she grabbed Erwin by the legs meanwhile Yukari wrapped her arms around her upper body, they hoisted her up, all the while Erwin weakly crying out in pain. They moved quickly, saying nothing, the only sounds being frantic footsteps and the occasional crackle that came from the throat microphone around Erwin's neck, Miho's voice repeatedly asking for an update…
Cliffhangers! (sorry.) Heh. That's eight down now. Took a break to decompress all throughout November, hopefully I can get back in step with it. That is, if I don't get arrested for researching the basics of homemade explosives, ecks dee. Well, I think that's it for now. Stay tuned, until next time, See ya.