Chapter 3: Exploration

I arrived a few minutes later at the literature club room with Sayori. Natsuki, Yuri and Xavier were already there, looking at me with uncertain looks on their faces.
- "Okay everyone" I said my trademark phrase. "Today we are not going home. I am afraid that for the time being we are stuck in this school."
- "Are we going to die?" shouted Natsuki and started crying.
- "No, Natsuki, we are not going to die. We must work together and I am sure that we will survive"
- "What if zombies break into the building?" Asked Yuri
- "All doors are barricaded and windows are covered with bars. However we must stay vigilant. Bernard said that he will hold a meeting at 18:00 and I am sure that we will work together on a plan. Please do not panic"
- "I wasn't able to phone anyone. My phone cannot reach any signal, nor can anyone else phones" said Xavier
- "What if we went on the school rooftop and tried to catch some signal? There must be some working phone signal station in the area?" said Sayori
- "Allright". I replied "Me, Sayori and Xavier will go on the rooftop and try to catch a signal".

We passed the third floor and found the ladder to the school roof. There was a sign saying "Unauthorized access forbidden" but we ignored it and simply entered the rooftop. It was large, flat roof, with only one building at the center and a fence around, to prevent anyone too stupid from falling. There was cold wind blowing around. Xavier took out his phone and looked at the signal.
- "Still no signal"
- "Let's go on top of this building, maybe you will catch something" proposed Sayori
- "Allright, Sayori. But you gotta help me to get there"
Sayori squadded down and Xavier sat on her shoulders. Then she slowly stood up until he could reach the top of the building. He grabbed the edge with both his hands and climbed up. He took out his phone and raised his hand as far as he could while looking at the signal.
- "And? Did it work?" I shouted
- "No. But I am afraid there's something worse. Look at the city around."
I came to the fence and looked as far as the horizon. There was not a single person walking or driving around. Only hoarders of zombies going around everywhere. Sayori started crying, realizing how hopeless the situation was.
- "I am afraid there is no relief for us. We are truly stuck here" said Xavier.
- "Allright, it's 17:55, let's go to the debate club room and see what we can do"
Xavier jumped out of the building and we came down to the second floor, gathering Natsuki and Yuri beforehand. I saw the doors to room 205, where the debate club was headquartered. It brought back all the memories from this place when I was a member of this club. I decided not to think about the past and crossed the door.

Inside, members of Debate Club were sitting around three tables they merged together. From the very left, was sitting Michael with a few pieces of paper and a pen, Bernard to his right, talking with him about something, then Arthur and at right, Arthur's girlfriend, Linda. When they saw us coming, Bernard stood up and said:
- "I am glad you are here. Please sit around the table." I sat next to Linda, then next to the literature club took seats. At the table I noticed there were plans for the floors of the school, list of people as well as some other papers.
- "We were on the rooftop and even at the highest point we couldn't catch any signal. Also we couldn't notice and humans as far as horizon goes" said Xavier
- "Yeah, as you all know, the situation is looking grim. We can't count on any outside help. We must assume that we are the only nine human beings alive. However, we are not going to give up. We cannot surrender to panic or else we'll die. We must organize ourselves, plan everything. That's why I nominated Michael as my secretary, who will keep track of everything."
- "Nominated? You already made yourself a warlord?" I asked him.
- "Monika, please. We will not survive if we keep fighting. Does anyone object to my leadership?"
Everyone was too afraid to say anything, so he kept talking:
- "From this day this place is our new home. We must organize everything we need to survive. Now we must gather everything that is at school. That's why I and Michael decided we will divide into three groups – Me, Michael and Arthut first group will go explore the second and third floor. Yuri, Natsuki and Xavier will explore the first floor. Monika, Sayori and Linda will explore the basement. We must find everything that can be useful for us. Please bring everything to room 204 next to us, where we will write down everything we have. Do not hesitate from breaking down locks or anything, it doesn't matter anymore. If anyone runs into any problem or is attacked by zombies, shout loudly, we do not want any victims on day one. Anyone has any objections?"
- "Are we gonna sleep here?" asked Sayori
- "No, you can sleep outside with zombies if you really want to. Tell us how it went" answered Bernard sarcastically.

Sayori pouted and headed to exit. I also stood up and went with Linda and her to the basement. Doors to the basement were located at the end of the building, rarely anyone went there. They were made from metal, visibly very old and rusty. Normally they were closed, however Sayori grabbed the key from the janitor's room since no one was going to stop us now anyway. I inserted the keys into the doors and opened them with a loud crack. The stairs led into the darkness. I flipped the light switch and went inside, with Linda and Sayori behind me.
- "It feels like the beginning of a horror movie. I have bad feelings about this" whispered Sayori.
- "Please Sayori, don't be silly. There are zombies out there, how probable is this that there are also ghosts on top of that?" said Linda
- "Can't argue with that" I said
At the bottom of the stairs was a long corridor with multiple doors. When we opened the first doors there was a bunch of old furniture, chairs, tables, desks and other objects. When we opened the second door there was a bunch of coal lying around. It all looked like it remembered times 50 years ago, when our school was built. In the third room there was an electrical generator as well as a few cans of diesel fuel..It could come in handy in future, since we didn't know how long electricity was gonna last in our school. Our school was connected to a local water plant, but without human oversight it could fail at any time. In the fourth room there was canned food. There were peas, corn, fruits, spam and other edibles.
- "Do you think that it's still fresh?" asked Linda
- "I don't think that we have much choice. Besides, this is canned food, it could probably survive dozens of years. We should be grateful that we have all of this"
When I was talking I suddenly heard a loud "boo".from behind. I shouted and looked back only to see Sayori who was giggling to herself.
- "I scared you, Ms President!"
- "That was not funny, Sayori. Do not do this again, unless you want me to have a heart attack"
- "Okay, okay"
However, we couldn't open the last door, as they were shut down. They were made from thick metal, so there was no use in punching them or anything. After a few tries we decided to give up and return to everyone.

When we returned to room 205, everyone else was already standing there. I noticed they brought items they found in other rooms, including flashlights, small radio, clothes, and other items.
- "Ohh you're finally here!" said Bernard "Did you find anything?"
- "We found electrical generator, diesel fuel, coal and room full of canned food"
- "Very good, food is definitely something we will need. We will bring it all to room 204. Michael has created a list of all items we have found, so we know how much we all have. We will distribute food among everyone. If anyone needs any item, please ask Michael so he can decide whether you need it"
- "So you decide everything about our lives now?" I was getting kinda nervous.
- "It is my responsibility as a leader. We do not have a lot, so we must must have established rules or else we will fall into anarchy"
- "Where will we sleep tonight?"
- "I decided for our own safety, that the best decisions will be that boys will sleep in room 206 and girls in room 207. We found blankets, and P.E. clothes, so we will sleep in these on the floor"
- "Will we sleep in someone else's clothes?" said outraged Natsuki
- "I doubt they will have much use of them now, they're probably zombies" responded coldly Bernard.
Natsuki shut her mouth. The cold realization of what happened trickled on us. Most if not all of the people we knew and loved were probably now gone, turned into lifeless zombies.
- "Allright, now that's all decided, let's head to beds. We must have energy for the next day"

After moving all the stuff from the basement, I changed myself into P.E. clothing and headed to girls room. When I entered I saw five blankets on the floor. Natsuki and Sayori were talking about something, while Yuri was reading a book. Linda wasn't there at the time. I slipped into the blanket and fell asleep thinking about today.