Day 343, 12:30 PM

Sitting on his bed, Shimamura turns on the camera and looks straight into the lens, his breathing erratic with each passing second. "It's been twelve hours since I was infected. So far, I feel fine. Well, as fine as possible. I feel like... I'm starting to feel a little cold but, it could be psychosomatic." He clears his throat. "My skin is starting to turn purple." He shows his hands, where the rash spreads up his hand with his fingers now purple. The rash slowly spreads up his hand as the purple skin slowly travels up his fingers at a snail's pace. "I've experienced rashes before but I don't know what to do when my skin turns purple. I know it's a real thing but I forgot what's it called. It's been twelve hours and thirty minutes since initial infection and... my friend Kimiko here seems to be experiencing similar effects."

Kimiko, wearing nothing but a dirty pair of bra and panties, walks in view of the camera and shows her purple fingers. Shewinceds before lifting her feet to show her toes, which were now purple as the skin up to her ankles developed rashes.

Shimamura turns back to the camera. "In a few hours, our skin is going to be turning into black patches of dead skin and soon, our limbs will be falling off. We're already coughing and vomiting blood at random times and there doesn't appear to be a pattern. I'm scared of dying. I hope there's a cure or some kind of treatment. I only have a limited amount of battery left and... I'm going to wait until I see major progress."

He turns off the camera and sits on the edge of the bed, resting his elbows on his knees. He flexes his fingers, wincing slightly. "At least the arthritis is gone, right?"

Kimiko looks at him. "Yeah, the arthritis is gone and now our fucking skin is turning purple. Shit. How long until our skin turns black and dies on us?"

"I don't know."

"Is there a cure?"

"I. Don't. Know. I've never heard of this disease before. Besides, we heard Kendo like an hour ago; she's going to send a team to a library to get a medical book."

"Oh shit. I hope they make it back soon." She sits on the bed, not taking her eyes off her infected limbs. She closes her eyes and thinks back to life before everything went to shit. "This wasn't supposed to happen. I'm supposed to be building with you and everyone else in the support course at UA High. Now, I can't even use my fingers to build something because they hurt. And now, in a few hours, I won't be able to use my fingers at all because they're falling off. They're fucking falling off my body piece by piece. I'm going to fall apart like a fucking statue."

"Hey," Shimamura grabs, "Hey, calm down. We'll be fine. Don't worry, they'll find a medical book, figure out what kind of disease this is, and then we'll... we'll get treatment."

"Shima, in case you hadn't noticed: it is the end of the world. Medicine is going to be the first to go; we're lucky to have antibiotics at this point. We're going to fucking die, Shima, and we can't do anything about it. Look, it's already been twelve hours and this disease is already starting to get worse."

"It'll work out, I promise." He says this more to himself than to her. "It has to work out."

Kimiko pulls away from him. "I don't know how much longer we can use our hands. Black flesh is dead flesh. Our skin is literally slowly dying. Once it turns red, it turns purple and then black. Our skin is slowly dying. Our skin will be dead and we'll be falling apart like that guy was last night and we'll still be alive. Did you hear the way he screamed? He sounded like a goddamn wounded animal. Jesus Christ, that's going to be us. We're going to die a slow and excruciatingly painful death. God. Fuck."

Shimamura grabs her. "Hey, you're getting yourself worked up. Calm down, take a deep breath, and calm down."

She snatches her hand back. "Don't tell me to calm down, don't ever fucking tell me to calm down."

"You need to calm down, Kimiko. The more worked up you are, the faster your heart is and the more blood you pump. The faster you pump blood, the faster this disease progresses."

"Is that how it works?"

"Uh, I don't know." His eye twitches and he rubs it, wincing again.

"Do you really believe we're going to be saved?"

"Yes," He says without looking at her. "We will be saved. You, me, Kamakiri, either way; someone is going to be saved."

"I am not going to die like this. Slowly, painfully, my body parts falling off one by one, piece by piece, he only thing I got looking forward to is that I'm going to be walking with eh body of a corpse on me while I'm still alive."

"Relax," Shimamura pleads. "Please, just relax, take a deep breath. Something will work out."

"You're not afraid to die?"

"I'm terrified. I don't want to die. There are so many things I still want to do. I still want to go fishing with Mogami; we've been fishing since childhood. I want to build robots for the future. I want to play the latest Biohazard game. But now... the apocalypse took that away from us and now, this disease will take my hands away. I'm going to die a fucking virgin, too."

Kimiko looks at him. She closes her eyes and contemplates. She opens them when she has an answer. "We're both slowly going to die and, while I can't help you fish or build robots, there is one thing for sure."

"What's that?"

"Neither of us are dying as virgins."

He looks at her, his eyes widening, his cheeks turning a shade of red that matches his infected skin. "Really?"

"Yeah. We're both sick; we're going to die so... why not... you know." She makes a circle with one hand and thrusts her index finger in with the other.

Shimamura nods. "Yeah, I guess you have a point."

"This may be the last time we use our hands and feet so... why not go all-out." She pushes him on the bed. "Do you have fetishes?"

"A few."

"Do you want to try them out on me?"

"I would but, I don't have any whips. If what's-her-name - the girl with the big tits who can create anything - we're here, then I wouldn't have a problem."

"I have a belt."

"It's a start. But, should we really do this?"

"Don't you want to have sex with me?"

"I do, yes, but... won't our adrenaline accelerate the disease?"

"I'm not sure but does it matter?"

Shimamura pauses and considers her words carefully. Does it matter? Huh, well, let's see: we are infected with some kind of disease that deteriorated us alive and the last thing we're going to do is have sex that could potentially accelerate the disease's progression. I don't know how adrenaline affects disease but am I willing to take that chance? Am I willing to deny myself a good fuck when I know for a fact that I am going to die?

"No, I guess not."

He strokes her cheek before pulling her down and kissing her.

12:45

With Monoma

"Kamakiri, how are you feeling man?"

After thirty minutes of dead silence, Kamakiri continues to be non-responsive as his body is tucked under a blanket like a cocoon. Monoma carefully steps forward and looks over him, taking two steps back when he sees the buy boy twitch.

Kamakiri's eyes open slightly as he looks over and spots Monoma. "I can't feel my fingers," he whispers. He closes his eyes again, looking like he was going to pass out. Sweat drenches his pillow like a whale and he doesn't move his head to a dry part.

"Let me check." Monoma carefully grabs the edge of the blanket behind Kamakiri's mouth and gingerly pulls it away. Once Kamakiri's body was unearthed from the pillow, Monoma gasps and falls flat on his ass.

Kamakiri's fingers lie on the bed, separated from his body, and the worst part is there is no blood. No signs of blood at all. Kamakiri's fingers literally fell off his body and there was no blood, not on his fingers or the part where he lost his fingers.

"FUCK!" Monoma gets up and runs out of the room, barricading the door with his body.

"Wait," Kamakiri gasps, "please, don't leave me."

Outside, Monoma faces Awase and Manga, who stand guard.

"Guys, his fingers, his fingers fell off his body. His fucking fingers fell off his body and there was no blood."

"Oh god," Awase gasps. "Then let's get in there and help him!"

"No!" Monoma shoves him back. "We're not going anywhere near him."

"What about you? You were in there with him for hours!"

"Not anymore; I'm not going back inside."

"MONOMA!" Kamakiri's voice booms through the door. "Don't leave me!"

"Open the door, man," Manga orders.

"No, I'm not going back in there."

"I'll go in there then. I should be fine as long as I don't touch him, right?"

Monoma shoves him back. "No one is going in there. His fingers fell off his body and he's not even leaking blood like a juice box. No one is going in there."

"He's scared, we should at least be there with him!"

"I said NO!"

Manga pushes his head forward. "(SMACK!)"

The word SMACK! flies through the air and smacks Monoma across the face, knocking him down. Monoma groans, feeling like he took a slap from Mike Tyson as Manga moves through the door.

Manga locks the door from the inside and turns to Kamakiri. He carefully keeps his distance as he rolls his sleeves down to make sure none of his human flesh shows. He then steps forward.

"Hey, Kamakiri, how are you feeling."

"The blanket," Kamakiri whispers. "Please, cover me up."

Manga spots Kamakiri's fallen digits on the bed and punches himself in the stomach to not vomit. "Jesus Christ. Hold on." He tiptoes forward and pulls the blanket for Kamakiri again. "There you go." He notices the sweat on the pillow. "Oh my god, you're burning up."

"Water, please, water."

POUND! POUND! POUND!

"Open up, Manga, you shouldn't be in there."

"Fuck off, Monoma." Manga pushes the chair Monoma was sitting in earlier and plans it under the doorknob. "Try getting in now, buddy."

He moves closer to Kamakiri and holds his face about two feet away.

"(Pheeew)"

The word Pheeew flies through the air and gently over Kamakir's face. The buy boy closes his eyes and sighs heavily after feeling the soft breeze cool him down a bit.

"Thank you," Kamakiri utters, "but, you shouldn't use your quirk. What if there's a beast and your quirk attracts it?"

"That's not your concern."

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry for being such a burden."

"Not your fault, man."

"Shit." He turns his head.

"Hey, you can't infect me. I'm a mutant and I can't get this disease through the mouth or the eyes because I don't have any. And I'm covered. So, I'm staying. Just... I'm staying."

"Thank you." Kamakiri sinks his head into his pillow.

"How are you feeling?"

"Like I'm dying."

"Sorry, stupid question."

"No, keep talking. Keep asking stupid questions. When I die, I'm going to miss these stupid questions you ask so keep talking, keep asking."

12:15

With Kuroio

"Let's go." The shadow merger boy leads the rest of his team across the street and through several alleyways before they spot the library a short walk away. Looking over his head for any zombies, he turns back to the library and slowly crosses the street.

"We probably should've parked closer," Kaibara suggests.

"Maybe, but we know these streets so if we get cornered, we know where to go."

"But are you a parkour expert?"

"No, but, let's hope it doesn't come down to it. Come on, let's get to the library."

Stepping through the front doors, they scan the area and pause momentarily to see if there are zombies inside. Kuroiro produces a knife from his pocket and walks first through the doors. Kaibara follows close behind, holding a baseball bat. Komori and Kodai head off in a different direction, using scissors as weapons.

"Let's go," Kuroiro orders, lowering the volume. "We're going to this side of the library, Kodai and Kaibara will head to the other side. Look for medical books and anything else that might be useful."

Kuroiro steps forward, Kaibara following so close behind they almost bump into each other.

The interior of the library is rundown with books and trash scattered over the place, making it look like a tornado came through. The vending machine was smashed and all the snacks inside were gone. The register in the front was broken into and all the cash was gone. One of the bookshelves tumbled over and was stacked against another bookshelf but it remained standing Kuroiro could tell that the slightest increase in weight would cause it to go down like dominos.

They check the fallen bookshelf and find the genre. 'Science Fiction'. Kuroiro turns away. Science fiction, you useless genre.

Komori and Kodai step over the register and check the drawers. They pull out several trash bags that had been rotting since the world went to shit and gag. They shove the trashbag back into the drawer before turning a door with a sign that says 'Employees Only'. Kicking it open, they check for any signs of the dead and step through. They find a half-open safe and look inside. Nothing but paper currency is completely useless.

It's amazing, Komori thinks. Back then, people would kill for money and now, no one even bats an eye at money. It is truly amazing how quickly something so valuable can become worthless.

She takes the money anyway and shoves it in her pocket.

I've always wanted to burn money though.

Kodai steps on a piece of glass. Looking down, she finds a photo of the library owner taking a photo with his wife and daughter. She puts the photo down before looking at Komori. "Anything?"

"Nothing." Komori picks herself up and looks over to the employees-only bathroom. Kicking the door open, she looks around. Sighing heavily, there's no sign of a zombie inside. She looks behind the toilet for anything useful but finds nothing but an unflushed toilet filled with blood. Stepping back, she thinks back to a horror movie she watched with Kuroiro before the apocalypse, Candyman. The sudden thought makes her look in the mirror and quickly zip her lips, lock it and put it in her pocket.

She does take the rolls of toilet paper in the TP holder because even when the world is dead, you need toilet paper.

Outside, Kuroiro checks all the shelves and finds several manga that he had yet to pick up before the apocalypse. Unable to resist, he stuffs several mangas in his backpack before turning back to his main objective.

"Kuroiro," Kaibara calls out ten meters away, standing near a shelf filled with identical books. "Over here."

Kuroiro regroups with his teammate, closing the distance in less than three seconds and his eyes land on the medical books.

"Look, Kuroio, medical books."

"Okay, good. Which one Which we take?" He counts twelve books on one shelf with very little space between the books, indicating that these books were untouched or at the very least, unsought after for a whole year.

"There's a lot, Shihai. There's... human anatomy... female anatomy. There's... one about doctors. One about... treating fungus. One is about microbiology. Dressing physical wounds."

"The disease our friends got, is it a virus or something else?"

Kaibara shrugs. "I have no idea the difference between the two."

"Take the one about dressing wounds and... the one about... microbiology."

"What's a virus? I don't know what the difference between a virus and a bacteria is but I do know that a virus is not a microbe."

"We have enough space in our notebooks so we can take more than one book. Take the one on... microbiology and virology."

"Wait, we should at least look through them. You know, to make sure. What if we bring these back and they don't have anything on this skin-rotting disease?"

Kuroiro sighs. "Okay, let's look through them but we gotta be fast, okay, fast. But we'll take the one on dressing physical wounds either way."

In a split second, Kaibara grabs the medical book discussing physical wounds and tucks it in his bag. He proceeds to grab the book on microbiology and look through the page of contents. "Holy shit, there's a lot of bacteria."

"Narrow it down."

"How? All these bacteria have unpronounceable scientific names, not nicknames."

"Shit. Well, just... flip through the pages as quickly as possible. The longer we stay here, the sooner Kamakiri and the others start to fall apart."

"Okay, okay, Jesus Christ. Give me some lightning so I can see the page numbers easily."

Kuroiro pulls out a flashlight and holds it over the pages. Kaibara takes a moment to read the table of contents quickly before trying to decide which page to turn to. Most of the pages discuss the origin, biology, symptoms, and treatment of the disease so he has to turn to the correct page unless he wants a lesson in medicine.

When he flips to the first page, he finds a photo of a bacteria called Escherichia coli taken under a microscope. It takes a few seconds to realize the bacteria is the same bacteria commonly known as E. Coli. "This is going to take forever." He flips several pages over to try and find the next set of bacteria to read about. "Shit. Okay, okay, back to the other plan; we take all the books with us just in case."

"These are heavy textbooks," the shadow merger reminds the boy, "the more weight we carry in our backpack, the harder it's going to be to run. We need to take only what we need, nothing more, nothing less."

"We'll take all the books of virology and microbes then."

"There's six different books each."

"We'll divide and conquer."

Kurorio groans. "Fine, yeah. Okay. Let's just... let's take all the books on the medical shelves and we'll sneak out. If we get caught by zombies, fighting them isn't an option. We're not at full strength, we're starving, we're tired from crouching to get here, and we'll be carrying extra weight so if zombies come, then we're going to be screwed."

"Then let's get out of here and fast."

Komori and Kodai come out from the employee's lounge and look around.

"Did you find anything?" Komori asks.

Kuroiro and Kaibara begin stuffing their backpacks with all kinds of medical books.

"Come on, we need your help; help us carry these medical books."

"Which one?"

"All of them," Kaibara immediately answers. "Come on, hurry up."

The two girls quickly rush over and help the boys. They get down to their knees and quickly stuff some medical books in their backpacks. With all four on their knees and getting to work, their backpacks carry at least five textbooks each when-

SHATTER!

A dangling lightbulb disconnects and shatters on the ground ten meters away on the northeastern side of the library, startling the four teenagers into a frozen state.

They become so quiet that they can hear the faintest sound of a pin dropping and do nothing but stare at the destroyed lightbulb. It takes thirty seconds before anyone dares to move even a muscle but it felt like even the slightest movement of a muscle was enough to wake someone from a deep sleep, even on the other side of the world.

Grr...

They choke on their breathing as the four stand up and quickly back away. They make a break for it, keeping their eyes on the shattered lightbulb while also keeping an eye out for the soft growling sound. Without looking, they bump into the shelf that had the fallen shelf pushing against it.

With an earth-shattering sound, the bookshelf topples over, knocking the remaining bookshelves over like fucking dominos, popping off sounds that sound like gunshots. The four kids cringe with each sound and feel their hearts leap out of their chests as the shelves finally tumble over and leave a mess of books behind.

ROAR!

A runner races out of a door the kids didn't see early and charges for them, another runner coming in after them, with a dozen walkers emerging from the door next.

The four kids run and make a break for the door but the door is pushed open when several zombies stack against it and cause the door to crumble to pieces. The four kids stop dead in their tracks and now find themselves surrounded by zombies flooding in from both sides. With no other choice, they run for the bookshelves stacked against the wall and quickly climb them.

Kuroiro tosses his backpack on the top shelf that is nine feet high so he can merge into the shadows. Dropping his flashlight, he merges with the shadows and leaps out, sitting on top of the shelf before reaching his hand out.

Komori abandons her backpack and climbs up the shelf, nearly toppling it over. Kuroiro quickly slams his foot down on the shelf and helps her up.

Kodai shrinks a bookshelf beside her to the palm of her hands before returning it back to its original size as a barricade to block the zombies off. The zombies ram into the bookshelf and cause it to topple over but the mass crowd of bodies fallen over still manages to create enough of a barricade to keep the zombies at bay for a few seconds.

Kaibara scales the bookshelf with difficulty because his backpack is slowing him down but he manages to get on top. He and Kuroio hold their hand out and help pull Kodai to the shelf just as the zombies get through the barricade and reach the bookshelves.

The area for them to stand on the bookshelves was narrow and they had to press their sides to the wall to avoid dangling any arms or legs over. Because of how tight and narrow the shelves were, the students couldn't sit side-by-side and were left with no choice but to sit a leg length away and press their bodies tighter to the wall, hoping that maybe it'll help but terror overtake the students as they're left watching helplessly as more zombies begin flooding into the library like a wave on the shore who have a grudge against dry land.

"Oh fuck," Kuroio whispers, "not again, no, not again."

"Yeah," Kaibara nods, "not again is right."

Komori presses her eyes shut and silently sobs. No, please no.

Kodai remains silent, not saying anything. She pressed her back against the wall so much she felt like she was going to bounce off. This is all our fault.