I'm on a roll.
"Come on guys!" Rei urged, as she and her impromptu group hurried down the stairs and towards the injured students. Hisashi, unlike a certain shameless child she knew, saw the need to help and joined her with some of his friends.
"Shouldn't one of us go and inform the clinic?" asked someone.
A pause. No one volunteered
"Let Miyamoto do it - she's the fastest here,"
A beat.
"Eh!" protested Rei, thinking of the distance she would have to run in the opposite direction. But she was overruled by the rest of the group.
"C'mon Rei," said Hisashi, apologetically, "Just hurry back. You really are the fastest out of us. It is your sacrifice as the bojutsu ace!" he joked, trying to break the tension.
She grumbled, but Hisashi was right, as always.
"Fine," she reluctantly agreed. "I'll double back once we get to the entrance."
As the group cleared the main doors of their classroom complex, Rei took off, circling the building to begin heading for the clinic. Hisashi and the rest of the group jogged on to meet the injured, yelling for them to stop and wait for help that was on the way. Rei was just past the edge of the class complex when the yells turned to screams of shock.
Rei slowed down, the screams gradually transitioning from shocked to pained and horrified.
Do I go back? she thought, coming to a complete stop now in her indecision.
Pained and horrified morphed into that scream from before.
This time, this close to it, she could hear undercurrents that she could not perceive before. The soul-tearing scream had a sort of monstrous undertone, as though driving home that it was not being produced by a human throat. Fear filled the air, urging her away from the scream.
NO!
Deliberately moving back to the edge of the class complex, she pushed herself step by step, fighting down the reaction of terror. Ignoring her instincts, she peeked around the corner.
The Scream kept on going.
It took her a moment to understand what she was looking at.
Somewhere in her glitching mind, she could only just point out to herself that the scream really ought to have stopped by now.
The Scream kept on going.
The "injured" students had fallen on their would-be helpers with cannibalistic vigour, ripping into them with teeth and fingers. The students fought back - she saw Hiashi clothesline one of them before being dogpilled by three more. One student was already dead, his throat a large gaping wound that she could see even with his hands wrapped around it futilely.
The Scream kept on going.
Her mind fixed on that dead student, unable to tear itself away for anything.
Hiashi's screams gurgled into a death rattle.
The Scream kept on going.
She barely heard him.
She could not tear her eyes away from the corpse.
The Scream kept on going.
The corpse's skin rapidly paled, as though decaying on high speed.
The air stunk with the cloying smell of blood.
The Scream kept on going.
Then, the corpse suddenly began to scream, adding its own chorus to the Scream still assaulting the atmosphere.
She took a step back in horror.
The Screams kept on going.
She took a second step back.
The Screams kept on going.
She turned and fled for the sports complex.
Where were you when you first heard the Scream?
That question would become something to bind the survivors in this dying world together. Kohta would look back on that scream as the thing that turned his life around. He, of course, did not know that at the time.
Kohta always skipped Shido's class when he could get away with it. Today was one of those days. He was on the roof, glad to have the whole space to himself uncontested even as he worked his way through a novel. As such, Kohta's first sign that something was wrong was the Scream.
He looked up from his book, heart speeding up even if he did not know why. It was as though something palpable was in the air.
It continued on beyond when a normal throat would have given out.
Kohta looked over the edge of the roof. Nothing.
He searched for something - anything - but saw only the usual campus below him.
The scream cut off.
Kohta began to put his bag together, heart still pounding. In a way, the silence was even worse. The noise level from the building increased, chatter from his fellow students picking up in earnest and filtering to him as a sort of indistinct hum.
He didn't bother returning to class.
It seemed like the whole school was in the corridors, crowding the windows facing the administrative complex and looking outside. He ignored them all, making his way through the crowd.
"Hey!" exclaimed an irritated voice. "Watch where you're going."
He turned, but he already knew that voice.
"I'm sorry, Takagi," he said.
"Sorry for yourself," she retorted. "You're still skipping Shido's class. Do you think that is a good long-term solution?"
"I'm sorry, Takagi," he apologised again, "But I don't think that the press of this crowd is the best place for this talk?" he half asked, half said.
The crowd seemed to nearly gasp as one.
He looked around, panicked. He did not think his voice was that loud!
No one was watching them, however. All eyes were glued to the windows, or trying to get a better view through them. The noise in the corridor died a sudden death. All that was left was an oppressive silence, like the silence of the jungle after a tiger coughs. Kohta's unease began to ramp up again.
Takagi must not have felt the same way however, because even though she made no comment on his ribbing, she began dragging him in the direction of the rear doors of the corridor.
"I'm sorry, Takagi," he began to plead.
"Shut up!," she whispered, her voice tight with something. "Can't you hear that?"
Am I misunderstanding something?, he asked himself as he heard the tightly controlled fear in her voice.
As though waiting for her, the Scream started again.
Saya dragged Hirano down the corridor, and towards the rear doors. She could spot a few others making the same move away from the corridor.
Away from the scenes outside.
She could see Mr Koichi come out of the classroom and try to slip out of the building, talking urgently into his phone.
Coward, she thought. I expected nothing more from that snake.
She could see Ms Hayashi try to take control of the situation, shouting for order, and get students to use the emergency fire protocol.
Pointless, she thought. Does she think we cannot hear the terror in her voice?
She could remember her father's instruction this morning.
"Saya," he'd said out of the blue, "In case of any emergency, seek out Mr Uzumaki, and introduce yourself to him. He will know what to do."
I'm reasonably sure that students eating other students could reasonably be classified as an emergency, she thought, the snark evident even in her thoughts.
They were just stumbling out of the rear entrance of the classroom complex when the Scream became Screams.
The resulting screams of terror from the class complex was nearly like a physical thing. They crashed into them, raw and flooded with desperation, flogging them even as she pulled Hirano into a run. He must have finally caught on because he needed no further encouragement to run, and actually pulled ahead of her.
Shit!, she thought. Even Hirano is faster than me!
She was panting hard by the time they arrived at the sports complex.
"It's locked!" cried Hirano, yanking at the doors which seemed barred from the inside. He banged on them for a moment, before turning around to meet her eyes.
"Takagi! What do we do?!"
"Shut up, Hirano!" she barked, even as her own thoughts raced.
Think Saya… Think!
Running through what she had on hand, she finally remembered her mobile phone.
Damned fool!, she thought, berating herself even as she frantically searched for Mr Uzumaki's number.
"Saya?!"
Running hard towards them was Rei Miyamoto, the bojutsu ace. The girl slowed down as soon as she noticed them, stopping as she reached them.
"It's locked?" she panted.
"Obviously," replied Saya shortly.
"Saya?", this time from behind them.
Relief flooded her on hearing the raspy voice of the redheaded instructor, her head snapping around. They didn't hear the doors opening.
"Thank fuck," she heard Hirano mutter, but she had eyes only for Mr Uzumaki.
He stuck his head outside the door, looking behind them, before opening the doors wider to admit them.
Someone barging into the doors, and then yanking on it furiously interrupted their discussion.
Naruto was moving for the doors immediately, Shizuka and Saeko left trailing. Getting closer, he could sense the people on the other side.
Saya and Kohta. Miss Miyamoto as well.
He unlocked the doors and opened them slightly.
"Saya?" he said, drawing her attention to him. There was a constant cacophony of screams from behind them. Muted when the doors were closed. People scrambled out of the classroom complex in a violent riot, running in every which way, but generally towards the school gates.
Opening the door, he wordlessly allowed them in before shutting it behind them.
"What is going on outside?" he asked.
The three started talking at once before he raised his hand, stopping them.
"One at a time," he said.
"Saya," he nodded at the girl. "You go first."
"Summary," began Saya, voice clipped, "there are students eating other students outside."
Absurd.
"What?" interjected Shizuka, confusion and disbelief in her voice. "Do you mean 'students are killing each other'?"
Saeko kept quiet, but her disbelief was evident on her face.
"I said what I meant," snapped Saya, irritation bubbling over.
"Maybe you're mistaken?" snapped Shizuka right back.
"It's true!" insisted Miyamoto, interrupting Saya who seemed to be coming to a boil, and not waiting to be called on. "I saw what happened."
Everyone turned to her as she continued to explain.
"At first, we thought they were just injured,"
Who's we?,""you thought who was just injured?" interrupted Kohta and Shizuka at the same time.
"If you'd just shut up, she'd get there," retorted Saya, her irritation boiling over.
"Now look here young lady," began Shizuka.
"Guys…" Naruto said. "We don't have time for this. Can we let Miyamoto finish first?"
Kohta looked apologetic, but Shizuka looked annoyed, glaring at Saya who returned it with full force. She kept silent though.
"Please continue, Miyamoto," Naruto said.
"I think I need to go back a bit," said Miyamoto.
"So, after that announcement and that first Scream, I was in the corridor with…" she trailed off. "Never mind that. I saw students and a couple of teachers limping out of the administrative building. They obviously needed help - or so I thought. I gathered some people, Hiashi…" she trailed off again.
"Oh god, Hiashi…" she wailed.
She was not looking at them anymore, her mind dragging her into whatever personal hell she was remembering.
Damn, thought Naruto, what exactly is going on outside? This can't be a mere riot.
Her shoulders curled inwards even as her hands started to shake.
"Miyamoto…" he said carefully.
"I killed him," she whispered with a shuddering broken breath.
He took a step towards her, instinct overriding politeness for a moment. Shizuka's face had shifted from residual annoyance to deep concern.
Saya was silent, still smouldering.
Saeko's face was tinged with mild discomfort at the visceral emotion on display.
Kohta looked on in stunned horror.
"I killed him!" she cried, falling to her knees as she broke down.
Ms Marikawa remained with Miyamoto, arms around the girl as she sobbed bitter, ugly tears. Some people looked good crying, but Miyamoto was not one of them.
Kohta hung around, uncomfortable, but willing to provide his presence as a comfort, however little it might be.
Mr Uzumaki on the other hand, had taken her and Takagi aside, and was grilling Takagi even now.
"I don't know," she responded irritably to a question he asked. "All I have are what I observed, and the little Miyamoto said before she broke down."
"We need to figure out what is going on," he insisted. "Saeko,"
"Yes, Mr Uzumaki," she replied.
"Gather everyone and go to my office," he said. "Keep the complex doors locked, no matter what, and lower the grates on the stairways as you go up."
"What will you be doing, Mr Uzumaki," she asked - not in concern, but in curiosity. Whatever else she did not know about Mr Uzumaki, she was sure that he was the most dangerous person on the campus right now - rampaging students or no.
"I need to find out what is going on," he replied. He stuffed a bunch of keys into her hands as he continued speaking. "My office keys are in there. The small group of keys is for the vending machines - empty them out and take it all up with you."
"Should we pick up bokken and staves from the club rooms as well?" Saeko asked.
"Yes," he replied. "When you're done, see if you can escort Shizuka to get some supplies from the clinic."
Turning to Takagi, he continued. "I need you to make a list of people we need to call, and start doing so immediately. Call your father first, then Saeko's father, then anyone else."
"How will you get in?" asked Saya.
"I have my ways," replied Mr Uzumaki. "Now come with me - I need to tell the others."
"I would rather get to my tasks actually," Saeko said. "I will be taking Kohta with me."
"That's fine too," replied Mr Uzumaki. "Good luck."
"Kohta!" Saeko called. The boy perked up and waved, before walking towards them.
"Senior Busujima," he said as he got within talking distance.
"Follow me, and gather all the bags here," she replied. "We're going scavenger hunting."
The boy nodded and simply followed her.
They started from the vending machines around the general gym floor. Since it was the off season, only one was not completely empty. She unlocked it, and Kohta joined her in emptying the contents into his backpack.
"Er, Senior Busujima," he began demurely. "We will need a bigger bag. This only took 20 bottles."
"This is the only vending machine on this floor," she replied. "The rest are upstairs where we're going eventually. You can make multiple trips right now, while I go get the rest of the things on our shopping list."
"Alright senior," he replied.
Saeko moved on to the club gyms surrounding the main gym. Her goal was the kendo club gym, and bojutsu club gym.
In the kendo club gym, she sought out the large gear bags, stuffing them with shinai, bokken, and the short wooden staves that served as intermediate weight between shinai and bokken.
The more the better, in her opinion.
Dragging her haul out, she left it at the entrance of the club room and moved into the bojutsu club gym.
Once again, she stuffed the gear bags with all the staves she could find.
Dragging both gear bags to the stairs, she manhandled them upstairs. Mr Uzumaki's office door was ajar, and Kohta was inside, emptying out his backpack. From the pile in the corner, he had made several trips already.
She dragged the bags to another corner of the office, and went back down the stairs.
She returned to the club gyms and took all the gear bags, stuffing all others into one of the bags. A flash of white caught her eyes, and she took the towels as well.
Mr Uzumaki seemed to be preparing to hold this position for a while, so she might as well expand the scope of her instructions in line with that.
She made this trip with her bag as well, dumping them both in Mr Uzumaki's office.
Kohta was tackling the vending machines on the office floor now.
Not waiting to be told, she thought. Good.
She handed him an empty gear bag to replace his backpack, and made a circuit around the sports complex, securing the main and rear entrance doors, and the maintenance doors at the sides that led to the clinic.
He watched Saeko walk away.
For a moment, her image was superimposed by another purple headed woman a reality away.
He shook his head, shaking away the image, and approached Shizuka and Miyamoto. The girl seemed to be calming down now.
"I'm going to find out what is going on," he said without preamble. "We need information."
"You need to find Takashi," replied Miyamoto, her voice hoarse and subdued. "He tried to tell me that something was going on, but I ignored him."
"Will you be alright?" asked Shizuka. "Going out into that…"
"I'll be fine," he reassured her. "And I'll see what I can do about Takashi," he said to Miyamoto. "I need you to go assist the others. I've given Saya and Saeko their tasks."
"What about us?" asked Shizuka.
"When Saeko is done, she'll escort you to the clinic to get medical supplies we might need," he replied. "Do not use the main entrance - there is another entrance that connects the clinic to the sports complex."
"I know, Naruto," said Shizuka, smiling to show she did not mean it confrontationally.
"Bar the doors behind me." was all he said in return as he slipped out.
He took a moment to orient himself, drawing as much chakra as the seal would allow him.
Scenes from a horror movie greeted him.
Students lay broken around the classroom complex. By some strange miracle, none had come near the sports complex. Screams still echoed around the campus, but they were few and far between. The thick, coppery smell of blood hung heavily in the air.
Worse was the silence. It was the silence of the dead.
He moved towards the nearest corpses a couple of metres away from the classroom complex.
They were canvases of brutal violence. Some likely fought back. Throats torn out roughly, and huge chunks missing from forearms and faces. Others were likely run down. Faces in the bloody mud, and large chunks missing from the back of their necks.
All the damage was consistent with bite wounds, as though by a wild animal. Without knowing what Saya and Miyamoto had said, he'd have thought that. Now?
As if the attackers used their teeth.
He turned one over with his foot, and its hand snapped out, closing around his ankle as all the corpses burst into sudden, frenzied motion.
They were all aimed at him.
He twisted as he fell, kicking violently as he dislodged his ankle from the grasp of the corpse.
Zombies, he thought to himself incredulously. They're fucking zombies.
A beat.
The world slowed as his chakra cycled faster. Briefly concentrating a bit of his chakra in the tenketsu in his foot, he released it in a tight burst as he connected to the head of one of the zombies rushing him. It exploded spectacularly, showering gore as the now corpse dropped like a rock.
A beat.
He landed on his palm and pushed off immediately, drawing his blade as he arched upwards and above the onrushing zombies. His blade flickered, carving through skulls like butter, and making a brief island of space around him.
A beat.
The zombies that still had their heads did not stop, despite what should be debilitating wounds. But then again, they shouldn't be moving in the first place.
A beat.
He left his blade in a skull momentarily as he cycled chakra into his fist, rapidly compressing and releasing it in a pair of bursts as his fist made contact with two of the slavering bodies around him. Everything from the waist up simply disappeared, gone in a flash of gore.
A beat.
He took hold of his blade again, ripping it out of the holding skull, and through another. Leaving the blade in another torso, he flickered between the rest of the zombies, releasing controlled bursts of compressed chakra as he flicked them in the head.
Suddenly, all was still around him. Gore mixed liberally with mud, and the thick cloying smell of blood filled the air.
He picked his blade up again, idly flicking it to clean it, before activating the seal at the base of the blade. It glowed a muted white before cooling rapidly, cleaning it.
"Fucking zombies," he muttered to himself, still a bit incredulous.
Shizuka did not know what to think.
Rei had finally completed her story, and she still didn't really believe it.
Mass hallucination? Some form of airborne psychedelic trip?
Those were more plausible than that students were turning to fucking zombies.
She didn't tell the poor girl that, of course. She had only just managed to calm her down, and shift her grief over Hisashi to worry over Takashi. No matter what anybody said, no one was really afraid for Naruto. The man gave off the aura of a supremely dangerous individual.
There was also the fact that she had never forgotten the time she saw him in the hospital, looking half dead.
She never mentioned it because it was one of the few advantages she had over him. Spending it for what would amount to mere trivia would be stupid.
"Ms Marikawa," Saeko called, approaching her. "Mr Uzumaki mentioned that you'd want to go to the clinic to get supplies."
"Yes, Saeko dear," she replied. "Are you ready?"
"I am," the girl replied. "Will this bag be enough? I do not want us to do this twice."
There was a sheath across her body in addition to the large bag she held, and somehow, Shizuka doubted that it held a mere bokken.
"It is," assured Shizuka.
They had locked down all entrances and exits except for the side entrance that led to the back of the clinic. All the crowd control gates and security grates over the stairs were locked as well, except the stairs closest to the entrance.
Kohta and Rei remained close to the door, a staff with each of them. Saya remained in Naruto's office, making calls.
They carefully opened the door, and slipped out, leaving it slightly ajar in the event that they had to return in a hurry.
The first thing that hit them was the unnatural silence. Isolated screams faded in and out on the wind, and a bent sign swung about, creaking. But besides that, nothing.
Then the smell hit.
It was a cloying, coppery smell. Like a horrific accident scene, but somehow worse.
She hesitated a bit, but rallied after Saeko who never stopped for a moment.
They crossed the lawn, and were inside the clinic, in the central corridor.
She opened her mouth to speak when Saeko grabbed her firmly.
Looking at her, the girl mouthed, there's someone here.
Shizuka's heart began to pound as the girl shrugged off the bag carefully, and unsheathed an absolutely wicked looking thing. She wasn't a weapons expert - not by any stretch. But she knew enough to recognize that the blade in front of her wasn't normal.
It was broad, thick, and slightly curved, like someone had taken a machete and bent it just enough to look unsettling. It had weight to it - not like the delicate scalpels she was used to, but something heavier, something made to cleave. The edge wasn't straight like a katana—it had a forward curve that made it look… hungry. Aggressive. Not a weapon for clean cuts or delicate precision, but one that bit deep and didn't let go.
Her eyes traced the thick spine of the blade, following it down to the handle—a firm grip, designed to lock into a hand, to be swung with force. The whole thing felt brutal.
It wasn't elegant.
It wasn't clean.
It was made to end things.
Quickly.
Messily.
And if Saeko was the one carrying it, that meant it was in the hands of someone who knew how to use it.
That should have reassured her.
Instead, it made her uneasy.
Saeko crept forward, utterly silent while Shizuka feared that somehow her heart would beat so hard it would give them away.
Something moaned.
Shizuka's eyes locked on the direction of the sound, everything in her wanting to retreat to the safety of the gym. Saeko, on the other hand, made a beeline for the sound. She was round the corner and out of sight in a few steps.
There was a horrible thwack and snap, and the sound of something hitting the ground. Two more of those, and Saeko poked her head round the corner.
"It should be fine now," she said, her voice completely steady. "Come on."
Shizuka followed.
On clearing the corner, there was a corpse with a smashed skull. Large gaping wounds - one at the base of the skull, and two at the back of the skull. It was thankfully facing downwards, but she could still tell it was male.
"Ms Marikawa," said Saeko, almost gently.
She looked no different - not even winded. No hair out of place. She had somehow avoided the blood spray that such wounds should produce.
For the first time, it dawned on Shizuka just what it meant when her instincts flagged Saeko as dangerous.