Day 108, 6:45 AM

Forest

Riding through the forest with nothing but their thoughts to keep them occupied, Kaminari avoids the bumps in the dirt road. Bikes weren't meant for four people but it wasn't like they had any other vehicle. The only vehicles in their possession were a school bus and his dirt bike. They could do better, but it's not like car dealerships offering free cars were nearby.

I wish we had an RV like in The Walking Dead, Kaminari thinks. That would be so cool but I don't think forty people can fit in an RV.

Jirou looks ahead. "Kaminari, are you staring off into space?"

Kaminari keeps his gaze forward. "Maybe."

"You idiot; if we crash then I'm going to destroy you."

"Good to know."

Kaminari rides slowly and smoothly and when there's a fallen branch in the path, he stops the bike and has Kuroiro leap out of Jirou's jacket and remove the branch. After they do, he merges with Jirou's jacket once more before the bike takes off.

"So tell me about this place," Jirou urges, "aside from it being a wide open field, what else is there?"

"Oh, I think there's a couple of buildings nearby. You know, like a warehouse or two. Or, maybe a factory, perhaps. I don't know, something for production."

"What would a warehouse be doing out here?"

Kuroiro peeks his head out from her jacket. "Who cares? It could be useful."

"Yeah," Kaminari agrees. "When we're done scouting this open field, we'll go to the warehouse and scout the place out. It should be easy, right?"

Jirou twirls a jack around her index finger. "One can hope."

As Kaminari is about to say something, a walker leaps out in front of him.

"Oh crap!"

He jerks to the left hard and unfortunately, causes Komori to fall off the bike and roll across the ground a few meters. Komori winces, picks herself up, and runs in Kaminari's direction. The good news was that Kaminari was already making a U-turn and the zombie lunging for her was a walker. The bad news was that runners were coming out of the forest and lunging for them.

Komori climbs on the back and Kuroiro clings her to the bike. Kaminari takes off, going full throttle, forcing Kuroiro to bearhug Komori to the bike, doing the best he can to make sure she doesn't fall off.

Six runners come charging for them but by the time they catch up, the bike is already long gone.

"What the hell?" Jirou pants, clinging hard to Kaminari's chest as the adrenaline pumps within her. "Are you okay, Komori?"

Komori nods. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"I am so sorry." Kaminari looks back. "I shoulda warned you."

Jirou spots something in the path. "Kaminari!"

Before they know it, Kaminari rides over a bump in the road that sends the bike flying a few feet off the ground but because of the combined weight, the bike goes no more than three feet off. As Kaminari scrambles to regain control of the bike, he spots something between two tree trunks in front of him.

"Hold on!"

Kaminari slides the bike Akira-style between the two trunks with his head down. Jirou, still recovering from suddenly flying into the air, loses her grip on Kaminari and falls. In a desperate futile attempt to keep Komori from falling, Kuroiro falls out of Jirou's jacket and takes a tumble with Komori on the ground.

Jirou, Kuroiro, and Komori roll across the ground a few meters and stop when they roll on their sides. Picking herself up to her knees, Jirou winces and looks at Kaminari with a glare.

"Kaminari, you got three seconds to explain yourself or I'm going to use Heartbeat distortion on you."

Kaminari points between the tree trunks. "Look."

Jirou looks and sees a thin and thick cable placed at neck height between the trunks with drops of blood covering it.

"It's one of those traps for bikers," Kaminari explains, "a cable to decapitate bikers."

"D-decapitate?" Komori sits up, Kuroiro still clinging to her. "Why would someone do that, shroom?"

"To keep out trespassers, for fun, maybe just because."

Jirou picks herself to her feet but continues to wince. "A little warning next time, would ya?"

"Sorry, I only had a second to react."

Kuroiro picks himself up and pats his shaky legs. "Okay, I have to ask: why is it whenever we get in a car accident or vehicle accident of some kind, Kaminari is the only one to walk away unscathed."

Kaminari pulls down his mask to smile. "Maybe because I'm lucky."

Before any more bantering could continue between the four, the roars of the runners alert them that they caught up. Jirou looks back and sees the six runners charging at them, full throttle.

"Come on!" Jirou stands in front of the cable. "Come and get us, zombies! Come on, are you hungry!" She backs away as the six runners close in and that's when...

The runners hit the thin cable and fall to the ground. One of them, probably the one who had been dead the longest, gets his head cut off immediately. A second runner got caught in the thin cable and stuck. The other four runners are on the ground with their necks having deep cuts that would have killed them had they been alive.

Kuroiro takes out his knife and stabs the runner stuck in the cable before heading to the other four. He backs away upon seeing the runners get up and charge for them. Luck was on their side when they ran straight for the cable and trapped themselves. Though they were still reaching out, they did not attempt to try and go under. Komori quickly blinds them with mushrooms and allows Kuroiro to take the runners one by one. He barely avoids their scratching hands and manages to kill the four runners.

"Good job," Jirou praises.

"It's a good thing I brought a knife." He wipes the blood off one of the runner's shirts before pocketing it.

Jirou heads to the cable pushes the dead runners off, and unhooks the cable. She wraps it up before tucking it in the hole in the trunk to her right. "This cable could make killing zombies easier."

Kaminari parks his bike before he and Kurorio work on moving the runners out of the way. After clearing the path, they notice the decapitated head of the runner from earlier gnashing its teeth. Kurorio goes and stomps on the skull several times, not stopping until it is a sloppy mess of blood.

"So it's gotta be the brain," Kaminari figures, "like always." He turns away and gags.

"There's one more zombie, a walker." Kuroiro looks at his knife. "We should go back and get it, just in case."

Jirou twirls a jack around her index finger once more. "I agree."

"Kaminari and I can go get it. It should be only one walker; no problem."

"And leave us here defenseless?"

"Your quirk is good for scouting out the area and for listening in on stumbling objects."

"We'll make it quick," Kaminari cuts off before pulling up his mask. "Hop on."

"We'll be back in three minutes." Kuroiro hops on the bike.

Kaminari rides off, leaving Jirou and Komori behind. With nothing to do, the two girls sit against a tree and Jirou plugs her jacks into the ground.

"They'll be fine, right, shroom?"

Without missing a beat, Jirou nods. "Yeah; Kaminari's got that darkness boy to protect him so he should be fine."

7:00 AM

Closing in on the lone walker, Kuroiro smiles as Kaminari slows to a stop. Like before, the walker was all by itself with no other zombies in the area. "I got an idea. Let's knock it off its feet. I'll grab it and then you drive us into a tree trunk and I crush its brains."

Kaminari hesitates and clutches the throttle. "If it makes for an easier kill, then sure."

Kaminari revs up the bike and circles the walker. He circles the walker three times, swerving, and kicks the walker in the leg and downs it. Merging into Kaminari's jacket for a better angle, Kuroiro reaches out and grabs the zombie by the back of the shirt and lifts him with both hands. Turning straight, Kaminari rides in the direction of a large tree trunk. Kuroiro holds the walker off the ground by about two feet and holds the corpse out. As Kaminari turns to the bike at the last second to avoid the trunk, Kurorio launches the walker into the trunk and destroys its skull.

"YES!" Kuroiro cheers. "Fuck yeah!"

Kaminari sighs heavily and looks ahead. He readjusts the direction and begins riding back to the girls. "Hey, don't take this the wrong way man, but I think it's kinda... weird that you like killing zombies."

Kuroiro merges out of the electric boy's jacket and sits on the back. "Oh, whatever do you mean?"

"I mean, that was a human being you killed."

Kaminari hears Kurorio say nothing for the longest time and to ease himself, he focuses on the trail ahead.

"Let me tell you something, Kaminari, do you think we live in a beautiful world? A Sugar Bowl world? Huh? Where good things happen to us day and night and there are no villains?"

"Uhh, obviously no but -"

"That thing I killed wasn't a human being, it was a corpse. A walking... rotting... corpse. Nothing more, nothing left. Whoever the person was before he died, died when he died. Zombies aren't with hopes and dreams; they're just corpses whose only goal is to eat and kill. To say that we should feel sympathy for them is asking to die." Kuroiro leans to whisper in Kaminair's ear. "My parents, my brother, they're dead. Those zombies I put down at my house, weren't my family; they were zombies, period. We live in a dark world now where letting our guard down for just a single second could cost us. Look at what happened right now: we were riding 29 kilometers out and we almost got snatched by a walker. And not only that but we almost got decapitated by a cable. This isn't a Sugar Bowl world, Kaminari, this is a truly, utterly, crapsack piece of shit world."

"Right," Kaminari whispers. "I'm sorry."

"Ha, if I wanted your pity, I would've-"

They ride over a bump, causing Kurorio to bite his tongue.

~AAAAH~

Kaminari pulls up to the girls and looks back. "Are you okay?"

"I bit my tongue!" he weeps. "My tongue, ow."

Kaminari laughs. "I'm sorry for laughing but..."

Kurorio glares at him with his tongue sticking out, not even a speck of blood on his muscle. "Are you being serious right now? I don't want a lisp like Mineta."

Jirou covers her mouth but it's no point as she laughs at the top of her lungs. "Oh man, our big bad zombie slayer is getting all weepy over a tiny bite on his tongue."

"I could be bleeding!"

Komori laughs.

Kuroiro merges into Kaminari's jacket like an embarrassed teenager.

"We got the last zomb- hahaha -ie." He waves to the girls. "Get on it."

"Good." Jirou climbs on. "And make sure to drive slow so Kurorio doesn't bite his tongue."

"Maybe I should give him a mushroom to chew on so he can't bite his tongue." Komori smiles.

Kurorio bashfully merges into Jirou's jacket before hugging Komori tight.

7:15

29 Kilometers Out

Finally, without incident, they arrive at the open field. Kaminari parks his bike near a large boulder before looking around. Deciding to save time, he uses his bike to move slightly quicker around the field.

Like the training camp, there was enough open space for more than forty people to occupy this space at once. There were some rock formations in the corner but nothing to suggest that this site has dead vagrants or squatters. Kaminari parks the bike in the center of the field and turns it off.

Jirou gets down to one knee and sues her jacks in the ground. Listening carefully, she opens her eyes and turns to the others. "I got nothing. Not a single zombie or anyone else for at least 16 kilometers."

"And what about the factory?" Kuroiro asks.

Jirou listens in once again. "Dead silence."

"Any other kind of 'dead'?"

"No, nothing. Zero, absolute silence."

Kaminari beams a smile under his mask. "Alright, that means we're in the clear, right? No zombies. Man, finally, our luck is changing for once."

"Don't let your guard down," Kurorio reminds him, "we gotta check the warehouse out and then we can celebrate."

"Yeah. Let's get this down and over with." He starts the bike up. "Hop on guys and I'll take you to where the warehouse is."

Kaminari quickly rides over to the warehouse. If memory serves him correctly, then the warehouse should be somewhere in this area. Maybe...

Kaminari pulls to a stop upon seeing a fence with barbed wires at the top. He rides to the right of the fence and comes across the overgrown front gate. The gate was open and there were faint tire marks left behind to indicate someone came and went a long time ago. Kaminari rides in through the gate and stops at the front of the factory.

Factory, not warehouse.

The factory, overgrown with mother nature, was about three stories tall and somehow, was hidden behind tall trees that concealed it from prying eyes. There was a parking lot long overgrown with grass, bushes, and weeds, and nothing to indicate something had come through in a long time. The factory had a black paint job and several rows of windows on the second and third floor, along with some chimneys on the roof that had been used forever. There was an empty guard post with graffiti on the door.

'RUN AWAY'

"Dead silence was an accurate term," Kurorio nods. He spots the door and finds more graffiti.

Jirou chuckles. "Well, anything after the end of the world, 'dead' is a relative term.

'NOTHING INSIDE GO BACK'

Kuroiro pushes the door open and pulls out his knife. He looks around and sees an empty factory floor with the lightbulbs above busted and no longer working. The only light that was in the room was sunlight coming through the skylights above. Stepping inside carefully, Kuroiro holds the knife forward and steps on a broken shard of glass. Wincing, he walks ahead, keeping his eyes and ears out.

"Hello darkness, my old friend."

Jirou holds a hand up. "Kaminari, stay here with Komori."

"Are you sure, Jirou? I mean, I can go in there and -"

"In case we need to make a quick getaway, we need you out here, on the bike."

"Got it."

Komori walks through the front door and calls out to Kurorio in front of her. "Be careful, shroom."

Kurorio pauses. "I will, mushroom girl."

"I'll keep an eye on him," Jirou assures the girl, "and make sure he doesn't bite his tongue again." Even though she can't see, she can feel Kurorio rolling his eyes.

Jirou heads inside while Kaminari and Komori stay behind. Kaminari sits on the bike with Komori standing beside him.

"Hey?" Komori speaks up. "Kaminari, what are we supposed to do?" She looks down with a sad look on her face. "Are we supposed to just sit here and do nothing?"

"No, we're watching the fort." He leans on the handles. "Watching the fort is an underrated job. Well, it was before the world went to hell."

"Is that all we're good for? My mushroom quirk isn't useful against zombies. I can blind them but I can't kill them."

"And let me guess: while I'm OP, I am only good for one shock. Mr. Aizawa said if someone can only throw one punch before going down, then they're a liability. But then again, Mr. Aizawa told a lot of lies... or logical deceptions as he calls them, so I doubt he's reliable."

"Are we liabilities? Jirou can use her quirk to slow runners down and cause the ground to break apart and Kuroiro can use his quirk to escape and he's killed a lot of zombies with nothing but a kitchen knife. And almost everyone else can take on zombies all by themselves. What about the two of us? Mushroom girl and Jamming-Yay?"

He twitches. "Really, even Class 1B is calling me Jamming-Yay? Dambn, what has this world come to?" Kaminari looks at her and grabs her hand gently. "Hey, don't be such a downer, Komori, just because we don't have the best kind of quirks against zombies doesn't mean that we're useless. Yes, I may be able to only throw one ultimate move before shortcircuiting but I can take out hordes of zombies at once. And you, you can create mushrooms and blind zombies. You blinding the beasts at Isamu saved our lives. And when we were hungry, you made food for us."

"But a mushroom diet is useless after a while."

"Yeah, and so is sleeping."

She looks at him. "Huh?"

"Sleeping is useless after a while."

She cocks her head. "Huh?"

He rolls his eyes, groaning at himself. "Never mind, that was me short-circuiting my brain without knowing it." Kaminari releases her hand. "We're not useless, Komori, don't worry." He leans forward. "Who knows, maybe this zombie apocalypse will take a The Last of Us turn and turn fungus us. Your quick will come in handy."

"Never seen The Last of Us."

"What did you say?" Kaminari looks at her. "Watch The Last of Us? You don't 'watch' The Last of Us, you play it. Sure, there was a TV show that came out but still." He laughs. "And another thing, Komori..."

7:23

'If you could get into UA by having a non-combat quirk, you can survive the apocalypse, Komori.'

Jirou retracts her jacks and closes her eyes. She adjusts her headphones before picking herself up. You're not useless, moron, either of you.

"Boo."

Jirou jumps out of her skin and screams. She falls to the ground and turns around. Kurorio laughs as he dangles upside down from a shadow on a pipe, half of his body sticking out. He laughs and points to her.

"Got ya, hahaha." He leaps out of the shadows and picks her up. "If I was a zombie, you'd so be dead."

"Zombies don't use quirks."

"Yeah, and just like zombies don't run like Flash... or grow to the size of Hulk. Or have the genius intelligence of Light Yagami."

"Fair point." She looks around. "Did you find anything?"

"Nothing but a couple of corpses. Unless you're into cannibalism, I think that's nothing. Dead cannibalism, obviously." He brandishes the bloody kitchen knife. "They weren't zombies; in case you were wondering; I just found some dead bodies and found a nice place to shove this blade." He makes thrusts the blade forward.

Jirou's eyes go wide.

Kuroiro groans. "Their skull, you giant pervert."

"Oh. For a second I thought you had -"

"Gone the way of a necrophile?" He scoffs. "You are a pervert; I guess it comes with the territory when you're a purple head."

She groans again. "I'm sorry."

"Apology forgiven..."

She sighs and begins walking.

"...not."

She stops and rolls her eyes. "I should've known; anyone who makes dramatic speeches about darkness can never forgive someone the first time around. Let's just get this over with."

Kuroiro escorts Jirou through the crowd and takes her up a flight of stairs. They notice a dead conveyor belt with shattered glass soda bottles sprinkled over it. Not only that, but several birds were flying around the ceiling, cawing, and pecking at something in the rafters. As they climb the top of the stairs, they reach a rusted yellow ladder and climb up. They make it to the third floor with only one more floor to go. Kuroiro keeps his eyes out and looks over the railing.

Just one more climb up a fifteen-foot ladder, Kuroiro was at the very top and now has a bird's eye view of the factory.

"Man, look at this place." He leans on the railing. "This used a soda bottling factory. All those glass soda bottles we used to drink, would come from here. And now, it's just... dead."

Jirou uses her jacks against the wall to listen. "I got nothing on my end, what about you?"

"Five corpses, all dead, but to make sure they weren't zombies playing dead, I stabbed them."

"Nice story, even funnier the second time. What about supplies?"

He shakes his head. "Nothing. But then again, I haven't had time to check the place out thoroughly. Even with my ability, it would take forever to scavenge this place. But if we brought the others back then..."

"We could work with that. Where are the dead bodies?"

Kurorio heads to a supervisor's office on the fourth floor just about thirty meters away from them. He opens the door to show five dead bodies inside, each with a slit right between their eyes.

"Oh my god." Jirou covers her nose and mouth before turning away.

While Jirou had seen a dead body before, in the form of a zombie, zombies tended to have less flesh peeling and decaying off of them, and their smell, while reeking of something rotten, was not enough to make Jirou vomit.

How is it that zombies, walking corpses, look and smell less dead than a dead person?

"We gotta move these bodies out, or else I'll vomit on you."

"No problem." Kurorio quickly grabs the bodies one by one and drags them out. He tosses them over the railing and watches them fall four floors to the bottom.

"Did you have to do that?"

"They weren't zombies and they all died in the office so I'm pretty sure they would've been okay if we tossed their bodies overboard." He turns and walks down the walkway. "Besides, I'm not dragging five corpses to the bottom when I can just throw them over."

As they reach the bottom factory floor, Kuroiro drags the bodies out. He uses his quirk to get across the floor quickly and when he reaches the front doors, he tosses the bodies out like ragdolls, surprising Kaminari and Komori.

Kaminari watches in awe as Kurorio throws a body across the ground with one hand. "Wow, you're very strong, Kuroiro."

"I am." Oh my god, she complimented me again.

"It's clear," Jirou declares as she steps down the stairs. "Nothing inside."

"Okay, so that means we're good, right?" Kaminari starts up the bike. "Hop on and we'll drive back."

Komori points to the five bodies. "What about the bodies?"

"We'll burn them when the rest of the team gets here." Kuroiro merges with Jirou's jacket.

"All aboard the Kaminari Express." He waits for the others to board before he rides off.

As they ride through the forest, Jirou suddenly remembers the conversation she unintentionally eavesdropped on Kaminari and Komori. Deciding that something should be done, she says something.

"You are not useless, Kaminari. You and Komori, you're not useless."

Kaminari doesn't look back but he lets the words sink into his brain for a few seconds before they make their way to his heart. "We're not?"

"No, you're not. And honestly, I think you're kind of an idiot for thinking so"

Kaminari cringes with his eye twitching. "Really, you had to put it like that? What force on earth compelled you to say that?"

"Sorry, but that's how I feel. And honestly, I kinda think that you guys are putting too much negativity on yourselves. Kaminari, you saved us countless times. Komori, you're good for emotional support. Especially with Kurorio. Honestly, he's kinda turning into a psychopath."

Kurorio sticks his head out of her jacket. "I hear you, 1A loser."

Jirou laughs. "See? Hahaha." She looks over her shoulder and faces Komori. "Don't ever think you're useless, Komori, because you are not. Neither are you, Kaminari. In spite of your... Jamming-Yay side."

Komori averts her gaze and looks at the ground. When she is sure that Kuroiro is not looking, she cracks a small smile and wipes the tear on her cheek. "Thank you, Jirou."

"Looks like not everyone in Class 1A is a loser," Kuroiro says.

"But can the same be said bout Class 1B?" Jirou snarks.

"We're far from losers, Jirou, believe it."

"Now you're quoting Naruto? How original. What are you going to do, use Talk-no-Jutus on me?"

"Temping but I think that is reserved for people who have common sense."

"I have common sense."

"Yeah, you do... for a short girl such as yourself."

Kaminari sighs and smiles with his mask covering it. He looks ahead and checks for more booby-trapped cables and when he remembers this, he slows his speed down. It was going to be about a half hour or two before they made it home and Kaminari decided to say nothing and revel in the comforting sounds of the silence between his classmates. Kaminari was a boy who loved to gossip but honestly, sharing the sweet, beautiful sounds of silence between his best friends on his bike... was just bliss. eternal, eternal bliss. But Jirou... was she his friend? It was pretty obvious to anyone, even an outsider, that Kuroiro had a massively huge crush on Komori the size of the Empire State Building and yet, he had yet to express his emotions. And as for his feelings toward Jirou...

I'm not going to beat around a bush: I'm in love with Jirou.

He blushes, which the mask hides successfully.

I am in love.

While he doesn't have the guts to confess his love right now, he can at least revel in the feeling of Jirou holding him tight on the back of his dirtbike, and honestly...

Man, if it weren't for this bike, I'd never be able to feel Jirou's arms around my body. The same goes for Kuroiro. This bike truly is the MVP of love stories.

Character Cards

Shido Kaga (Man in Suit in Chapter 4)

Quirk: Irrelevant

Occupation: Salaryman

Age: 39

Birthday: November 1st

Height: 170cm

Blood Type: O

Likes: Volleyball

Other Facts: Rejected promotion at work.

Takeshi Fujiwara (Man with the Cross in Chapter 4)

Quirk: Irrelevant

Occupation: Janitor

Age: 31

Birthday: October 13th

Height: 169cm

Blood Type: O

Likes: Documentaries

Other Facts: Regularly pays for prostitutes.