Day 108, 12:36 PM
Factory
Kendo carefully pried open the bathroom door and found two walkers stumbling toward them while the other zombies were distracted by something else. Kendo opens the door before grabbing the zombies with both hands and Pony sends one of her horns into their skulls, killing both of them. Kendo quickly locks the door and drops the bodies on the ground. Laying the zombies on the ground, Pony calls back her horns and begins cutting into the zombies.
The girls gag at the smell and turn away. Pony nearly vomits but she continues to chop away at the zombies. She stabs and thrusts the horns and pulls apart the stomachs before turning over and vomiting on the bathroom floor.
"We're mutilating a corpse," Shiozaki closes her eyes, "this is horrible."
Pony vomits once more. "Let's never do again."
Kendo heads into the stalls and manages to grab a roll of one of the last few toilet papers in existence and uses it to scoop out guts and viscera. Feeling some of the sticky blackish-red blood touching her skin, her face goes green and she nearly vomits before forcing it down her throat. She drenches her jacket with zombie guts and takes very careful measures to make sure that no blood or guts touch her skin. Too much at least.
"Come on, girls," Kendo orders. "Let's do this. Whatever you do, don't get any blood in your eyes, mouth, or an open wound."
With a blank look on her face, Kodai dives in, not bothering to use toilet paper, and splatters herself with zombie guts. With Pony still puking, Kodai splashes the guts on her with finesse, making it look like she was rubbing body paint on the American girl.
Yangai steps back. "This is going to be scary." She uses Pony's horn to cut into the second body and cover herself in guts.
Shiozaki nearly vomits and covers herself in guts.
With all the girls 'gutted up', they open the door and allow one walker to trespass inside and test the smell. The walker looks at them before turning away and heads for the wall. When it couldn't find a way out, it headed to the door Kendo held open.
"It's... worrrrking..." Kendo hisses in a soft pitch.
"Let'ssssss geeet ouuut offfffff hereeee," Kodai urges in the same tone.
The five girls walk out and into the horde of zombies. In a weird way, walking among the zombie horde while wearing zombie guts as camouflage offered some form of semblance of the normal world. Kendo looks around and pictures these zombies as living people just like things used to be, and how she and her girl friends would all hang out at the mall, talk about life, and simply just do whatever girls did. Pony struggles to hold in her breakfast or lack thereof from this morning but she has to put her hand over her mouth in order to do so. Kodai keeps an emotionless face while holding onto Yanagi's hand and escorting her through the horde. Shiozaki looks at the horde, forcing her to look the zombies in the eyes as they ignore her and draw a cross on her chest before silently praying.
The five girls paused when they heard loud sounds behind them. Turning around, they see Monoma's team fighting for their lives to hold off the zombies. The girls clench their fists and try to silently come up with a solution when a zombie falls in front of the exit. Looking up, they see Froppy and their team. The zombie picks itself up and looks at the catwalk before turning. The zombie stares at Kendo and blinks a few times before baring its teeth.
Don't worry, we're wearing camouflage, Kendo assures herself. There's no way-
The brainiac roars at the top of its lungs and points at them.
The zombie horde surrounding the five girls suddenly turns on them and lunges for them. When things looked like they were going to get worse, Shishida came bursting through the door to the garage area, hit a support beam, and caused Monoma and his team to fall to the ground hard and the catwalk holding Froppy's team collapsed.
Kendo swats as many zombies as he can while Kodai tosses several bolts after enlarging them. Shiozaki uses her quick to wrap the girls in a protective cocoon as the zombies close in on them.
Monoma winces as he picks himself up, his vision spinning and face turning red as his body comprehends the fact that he broke his leg from the fall. Awase and Kaibara land on a crate that collapses beneath them while Shoda lands on his back and gets the wind knocked out of him.
From the catwalk, Sato fell with the catwalk before he could get a good grip and Tsu couldn't do anything. She clings to the ceiling with Koji Koda being carried with her tongue while Kamakiri is using his blades to stick into the wall.
Sato coughs, blood forcing its way up his throat, and backs away upon seeing the brainiac closing in on him, ready for the kill.
No, Shishida snaps in his head, I'm not going to let my friends down.
HONK! HONK!
That's our way out of here!
Taking a deep breath, with his beast form still activated, he rams his way through the crowd and quickly scoops up all his friends. He bowls over several zombies but manages to scoop up Monoma's team before charging for Shiozaki's dome and punching a hole through. The girls quickly grab onto him and hang on as he goes forward. He heads for the fallen catwalk, knocks the brainiac to the side, and runs for Sato. Shiozaki uses her vines to lift him up as the beast carrying all the students sprints out the front door.
HONK! HONK! HONK!
Even with the three-second warning, the bus fails to skid to a stop in time and hits Shishida, sending him flying a few feet. To avoid potentially crushing any students under his weight, Shishida depowers his human form and causes all the students to fall.
"Crap!" Deku yells from the driver's seat. "I am so sorry!"
Kirishima and Tetsutetsu quickly rush out of the bus and use their quirks to punch and push the incoming horde back. Mineta throws balls from a bus window to stop the zombies in their tracks.
Kaminari pulls up on his bike and Jirou hops off. "I got this!" She uses Heartbeat Distortion on the zombies and breaks the ground apart.
Froppy and Kamakiri break a window on the third floor and quickly climb out. Kamakiri slides to the second floor using his swords while Tsu carefully climbs down like a spider with Koji Koda still in her tongue's grip.
Shoji, Mashiro, and Hagakure quickly disembark the bus and carry the injured 1B students inside. After having the other students hold off the zombies, Deku prepares to drive off before Jirou waves her hands in front of the bus.
"Tsu and the others are up there!"
Deku waits for the students to get on the bus before driving straight into the wall of the building directly beneath Tsu and Kamakiri. Kamakiri and Tsu leap onto the roof of the bus and cling tightly as Deku puts the bus in reverse.
"All aboard!" Deku yells.
Tsu lowers Koji Koda into the bus through a school window before climbing through herself. Kamakiri uses the emergency exit on the roof to get out.
"Confirmed!" Shoji answers.
Deku keeps the bus in reverse, planning on putting it in drive when he's clear of the zombie horde but before he knows it, they were already driving down a narrow driveway that made U-turns of any kind impossible. He could always drive into the openlands and make a U-turn but they were trying to get away from the zombies as quickly as possible so that wasn't going to happen.
Hagakure runs to the back of the bus and looks through the backdoor window. "Deku, why are you driving in reverse?!"
"Sorry, this is my first time driving!" Deku keeps his hand on the wheels tightly.
Seeing the driving path turning to the left, Hagakure feels herself sweat. "Deku, turn left, turn left!"
Deku jerks the wheel to the left, going in the opposite direction.
"Right, right, right!"
Deku turns the wheel in the opposite direction, barely avoiding crashing into the trees.
"Starboard!"
"What does that mean, Hagakure?!"
"Straight!"
Deku keeps the wheel straight while keeping his eyes forward, seeing Kaminari and his bike trailing them.
"Deku, when I say turn left, I mean my left."
"Sorry, I'm doing the best I can!"
"Left is right and right is left, remember that!"
"Jeez, it's been so long since I used my left from my right!"
"Right, turn right!"
Deku turns the wheel to the left and barely makes a hard right going backward. After turning the wheel straight, Deku listens carefully to Hagakure's instructions while keeping his eyes on Kaminari and Jirou as they ride in front... or maybe behind.
Well, I am at the front of the bus but the bus is going backward... so... the back of the bus?
"We're almost out!" Hagakure yells. "Left, left, LEFT!"
Deku turns the wheel to the right and drives into a streetway with more space. More space but not enough to turn the bus around. But at least they were back on the road where they could drive back. Seeing no other choice, Deku sighs heavily and drives the bus in reverse.
"I can't turn." He faceplams. "Hagakure, can you keep an eye out for me, please?"
"Sure thing." Hagakure puts her gloves on the back window and stares.
Sato sits in his seat and coughs up blood. Tsu pats his back and holds his head between his knees. "You'll be okay," she assures him.
"I fell three stories," Sato whispers before spitting blood out. "It felt like something burst inside me."
"Don't worry." Kendo heads to the driver's side of the bus and removes an emergency medical kit, the one the students voted to leave on the bus in case of emergencies.
Kendo brings it to the back and tosses it to Tsu. Kendo looks down at Kuroiro's wound, which looks to be sewn up by one of Shioaki's vines.
"What the hell happened?!" Monoma asks. "Where did all those zombies come from? I thought the area was clear for the last 16 kilometers."
"Apparently not," Shishida pants as he tries to relax in his seat. He curls his fingers and toes as he tries to fight through the sore and bruising pain that continues to linger after getting struck by the bus earlier.
"I'm sorry," Deku says suddenly, "for running you over."
"Not your fault," Shishida winces.
"I tried to stop in time but-"
"Hey, you don't have to explain yourself, Deku, I understand."
Kuroiro takes a water bottle and sips from it. "What a mess."
"Hey, it could be worse," Kirishima argues, "at least no one died."
"Of course, because being wounded is so much better than being dead."
In the back of the bus where Kaibara and Kodai are sitting, Kodai grabs the hand belonging to her 'roommate' and examines it. Seeing no serious injury, she sighs before putting his hand down.
"Why are you covered in zombie guts?"
"Camouflage."
Kaibara nods. "Oh, just like The Walking Dead. Did it work?"
She nods. "Until there was a brainiac."
"Oh."
Kendo looks ahead after checking on Shishida. "Deku, you're not going to believe this: wearing zombie guts acts as camouflage. We were able to walk through a crowd of zombies. We found a way to hide... as long as there isn't a brainiac in the crowd."
Deku rubs his chin. "Interesting. You can cover yourself with zombie guts and they won't notice you. In theory, that sounds perfect but brainiacs are able to tell you apart. That means, even without the obvious signs of infection, the greatest risk of walking among a crowd is the brainiacs. They truly are the most terrifying kind of zombies you can ever encounter. but what is it that makes them so smart? Why is it that they possess basic problem-solving skills that walkers and runners don't seem to possess? And how is it that they are able to give orders? I've seen them growl when giving orders but I haven't seen any of them talking. Maybe they possess some kind of telepathy that allows them to organize and communicate with zombies. But... the odds of becoming a brainiac seem to be very low. There are hundreds and thousands of walkers and runners, maybe even millions, billions in the most extreme case, but brainiacs and beasts seem to be something of a minority. What is this zombie virus and why is it causing some variants within the zombie horde? What causes some people to become walkers, runners, beasts, and brainiacs? Is it possible that there are multiple strains of the virus? That may be true but multiple strains of a virus only occur after a certain number of years and since it's only been 108 days since the outbreak, that means there can't be multiple strains. Not naturally at least. If this virus has multiple strains without having any time to evolve over time, then it could mean that this virus was genetically engineered. Then again, if it was multiple strains, then there would probably be a wider spread of beasts and brainiacs. Still, overall, the walker and runner variant seems to dominate, which leads me to believe that the physical makeup of a human being determines what variant one zombie may become. Katsuya from Isamu Academy had a muscular physique and became a beast. But what about brainiacs? If physical makeup determines the variant then it's possible that runners become runners when their human status was a runner or at the very least athletic but then again, not a lot of people are too athletic, and yet, almost half the zombie population become runners. And what about walkers? Do walkers -"
"DEKU!"
Deku hits what he is hoping is a speed bump, causing him to bite his tongue accidentally and knocking Monoma on his ass in the walkway. Adding that fall to the fact that he broke his right leg and Monoma was screaming bloody murder. Deku hits the brakes.
"What the hell?!" Hagakure yells, "I yelled at you a bunch of times and you ignored me!"
"I'm sorry," Deku winces, "what happened?"
"We ran over a walker and I think he's trapped under the wheel." Opening the door to get down, she pauses when she sees Kaminari ride around.
"We'll get the walker," Kaminari tells them.
"Thank you."
12:50 PM
Side of the Road
After Deku parks in the middle of the road, Kaminari parks his bike to the side and gets off after Jirou disembarks first. Kaminari kicks the stand in place before heading to the back of the bus and kneeling. He groans and cringes at the sight of the walker lazily struggling to free itself from under the wheels. Even though he was wearing his lighting bolt mask, the smell still managed to overcome the electric boy.
"Looks like this walker isn't having the time of his life," Jirou groans. She pulls her mask up to block the smell. "Want to do the honors?"
"Why me?"
"You're stronger than me, moron."
Though the mask hides it, he smiles. "Am I? I don't know about that, Jirou. Not to brag but..." He grabs the walker by the feet and yanks it free, ripping the legs from its waist and leaving a trail of black blood behind. Kaminari catches himself before he loses balance and blinks twice at the bisected body. Nevertheless, he manages to stay on track with his one-liner. "I've been told I can rip a man in half."
"I can see that," Jirou mumbles, focusing on the intestines on the ground.
Kaminari tosses the legs aside before grabbing the walker by the back of its shirt and pulling it free. The walker reaches for him, making him jump back before he stands above the walker. Or, crawler as the zombie tries to become.
One of the windows in the bus opens and Shoda sticks his head out, holding a familiar kitchen knife. "Present from Kuroiro."
"Hey, thanks." He catches the knife before driving it into the bisected walker's skull. He rips it out and sighs heavily. "And that's how it's done, ladies and gentlemen."
"Why can't walkers be crawlers; it'd make life easier for all of us." Jirou whirls her left jack around her index finger. "You should put that knife away before you hurt yourself."
"Yeah, you're right. After all, who needs a knife when you got radiant electrical energy?" He gives a thumbs up before his heart skips at the sound of a branch breaking behind him.
"Look out!"
Turning around at the last second, Kaminari sidesteps a runner before it pounces on Jirou. Jirou holds the runner back by pushing at its chest, allowing Kaminari to stab it in the back of the head. Kaminari grabs its limp body and throws it in the opposite direction from Jirou. Holding the knife down by his waist, he looks at Jirou, his eyes trailing up and down to make sure she doesn't have a bite. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," Jirou answers with a shaky breath like a leaf. "Just..." She looks up. "There's another one!"
Kaminari turns and tries to throw the knife at the zombie like a knife-throwing expert, only for the knife to bounce off its chest. Kaminari sidesteps this runner once again but this time, Jirou steps to the side while sticking her leg out and tripping the runner. Kaminari picks up the fallen knife and charges for the runner as it lies on its stomach. He pushes it down on the ground and drives the knife. This time, the knife doesn't penetrate the skull all the way. When Jirou spots this, she reaches out and smacks her hand into the handle, driving it deeper into the runner's skull.
Kaminari pulls out the knife and pants with adrenaline. "Holy crap!" He looks to the punk rock girl. "Are you okay?"
"Are you okay?!"
"I asked first so you should answer first."
"I'm okay, idiot."
"Good, I'm okay too." He hands her the knife so he can pull the body out of the bus path.
Hagakure kicks open the back door. "What are you guys doing? Get on your bike and let's get out of here!"
Jirou looks and sees another group of runners closing in on the distance. Kaminari gets on his bike and starts it up. He waits for Jirou to climb on securely before riding off. The bus follows behind and tries to accelerate but fails when several runners manage to cling onto the open windows on the side of the bus.
About five runners on both sides of the bus cling onto open windows and try to climb inside.
Jirou watches with her eyes growing the size of UFOs. What, runners can hold onto surfaces? Or is a brainiac around and giving them orders on how to climb? She remembers the knife in her hand. I got an idea.
"Kaminari, get me close to the bus!"
"Got it." Kaminari slows his speed to get to the left side of the bus.
Inside the bus, Kuroiro pulls out a second chef's knife he came prepared with and grabs at a runner on the nearby window. He grabs it by the skull and stabs it in the forehead several times, stopping only when his hand slips due to the jerking motion and he cuts his hand. Yelping, he drops the dead runner and the knife out the window as he holds his bleeding hand. Eyes growing wide and feeling his heart pump, Kuroiro checks to make sure no zombie blood gets in his wound and sighs upon seeing that there is nothing to worry about.
Mashiro jumps to one of the sides and tries pushing the runner off the window but only ends up hitting his head against the ceiling. He ignores the pain, even when his vision goes pale white, and continues to try and push the runner off but the runner wouldn't lose its hold on the window. Then again, it's called a 'death's grip' for a reason.
Kendo, Shiozaki, Kirishima, and Tetsutetsu manage to push the runners off on the other side of the bus, breaking some windows in the process, and leaving only four on the left side and one more on the right side.
Keeping his hand on the throttle, Kaminari uses his left hand to remove his sunglasses and puts them on Jirou. Jirou doesn't take any time to consider why as she carefully reaches up and stabs the first runner in the back of the skull. The runner goes limp but its death grip on the window remains. Some of the runner's blood lands on Jirou's jacket with a drop almost getting into her eye. Thankfully, Kaminari's sunglasses manage to save her from joining the dead club.
Aoyama shoots his laser out the window, breaks it, and knocks the last runner off on the right side of the bus, leaving only three runners on the left side.
Kaminari slows the bike once more to match the speed of the bus and closes in as Jirou stabs the second runner in the head and kills it. This time, the runner falls and almost causes the bike to crash but luckily, Kaminari's biker skills and agility manage to swerve out of the way and avoid the runner. Jirou tips over, unprepared for the sudden swirl, only for Kaminari to catch her by removing his hand from the throttle and holding his arm out to catch her with his forearm.
"A little warning next time?"
"I'm sorry, I'll be sure to ask the next time I save your butt."
Jirou glares. "You moron; using my own words against me?!"
Kaminari rides closer to the bus once more, flinching upon seeing Aoyama's naval laser shoot out and knock the second-to-last runner off. Kaminari reaches the bus and allows Jirou to reach up and stab the last runner in the back of the skull.
Unfortunately, history repeats itself when the knife lodges itself into the skull but not deep enough to hit the brain. Jirou hammers her other fist into the handle like a mallet and drives the knife the rest of the way through. She pulls the knife out as Kaminari veers to the left slightly.
"Nice one, Jirou." Even when wearing a mask, one could tell that the electric boy was smiling by his tone alone. "Total badass."
"Thanks."
Kuroiro sticks his head out one of the windows. "Can I have my knife back please?"
Kaminari veers to the right and has Jirou hand him the knife. The shadow merger takes back his lethal property before using it to cut the fingers off the dead runners still clinging to the bus. Once their bodies fall and get left behind, he gives them a thumbs-up with his bleeding hand.
Kaminari speeds up and rides in front of the bus, sighing heavily. Jirou holds onto him tightly before remembering that she was seeing blue. She removes Kaminari's blue sunglasses and puts them on for him.
"Thanks for the visors." She looks away. "I'm pretty sure I would've gotten blood in my eye if not for you."
The electric boy laughs. "Call it payback for kicking me into that one villain at the USJ."
"If I remember correctly, you were saying that we got nothing to worry about because you're awesome with your electric power."
"And I still am."
"So it wasn't payback, was it?"
"Ahh come on, a guy like me has no time for payback. I mean..." He loses his will to speak, as well as his smile. Instead, he tightens his grip on the handles and focuses on the road in front of him as he rides forward. "We almost died. Kuroiro almost died. And everyone else is badly hurt."
Jirou settles her head into Kaminari's back, right between his collarbones, finding that it feels much more comfortable than any pillow could ever feel, and takes a moment to reflect on everything. All the events of today, from waking up this morning, accidentally eating more rations than intended, the decapitating bike trap, the factory, training, and then the zombie factory and now the zombies on the bus.
"But at least no one died," she whispers into his back, the back of his jacket muffling her speech. She turns her face to the right so her words can come out more clearly. "That's all that matters. And that right there, is something to be optimistic about."
A/N: This story is going to be the first book in a series of books revolving around Kaminari and Jirou trying to survive the zombie apocalypse. The series will be called Dying Love.