Act 10: Breach of the Dead [I]

Day: 1

Time: 6:35 P.M.

Location: Kirishima High School - Clocktower

Time until Daybreak: 11 hours and 25 minutes left

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"What do you mean it wasn't a dog? This shape is clearly a dog!" Souichi kicked the carcass a few times, shaking it a bit.

"As much as I want to agree with you, based on my results, it wasn't a dog but a human. The reason I took so long to finish identifying the corpse is that I couldn't believe my findings before. With how it looked, I was more inclined to believe this was an animal that mutated, but that wasn't the case, and turned out to be human. Here, have a look at this sample I found fused on its skin," Chie then tossed over a piece of flesh inside a plastic container and showed it to Souichi.

"What is this?" Souichi eyed the contents but couldn't figure out what it was.

"At first, I thought it was its skin since it was black. But when I extracted it to see if it was something from an animal, I realized it wasn't even fur or skin. It was a cloth. More specifically, the same fabric our uniforms use."

"Then that means..."

"Yes. Based on the uniform's color, the corpse belongs to a male student. When that student morphed into this creature, whatever happened earlier caused him to have his skin fused together with his body and everything was absorbed and became his new skin. And aside from that, his organs are all part of the human as well. I extracted the heart earlier and it matches very closely to the regular heart of a human. Even if the person morphed so much, even the contents inside his body couldn't change drastically."

Hearing the explanation, Souichi returned the container back to Chie and backed off from the dead creature. Even the others who were just listening to the explanation Chie had said were also scared. Miyuki approached and calmed everyone before talking with her.

"You are Miss Chie, correct? Are you perhaps done with whatever you plan to do with this dead body? Even if it is dead, if what you said is true, that must mean it might bring diseases here where we are staying. With one of us here being pregnant, I don't think it is safe to keep it close to us."

"Oh, go ahead and do so. I have no need for the samples I found as I already studied them. Although the sample would be a good idea, I don't see much use for it."

Hearing this, Miyuki looked at Kyosei and the latter nodded before he kicked the dead body off the building. Seeing it gone, everyone is relieved.

"What about this mosquitoes here? These things are huge...are you going to keep one?" Nanami asked after finishing gathering all the mosquitoes the group killed.

"Just leave me one sample that is not totally broken and destroyed. The others are safe to be disposed of."

Leo was amazed at how professional Chie sounded even though she was still a student. "Miss Chie was quite a remarkable student. Considering this matter was supposed to be done by scientists, you seemed to be fine doing it yourself."

Chie shrugged. "This much is necessary if we will need to survive the new situation we are in. I am only using my experience to utilize things properly and explain whatever is happening now."

Miyuki then clapped her hands to catch the attention of everyone.

"Well, today is one stressful day. Perhaps everyone should get some rest before we have dinner later. With how hectic we were doing earlier, it is kind of a miracle we are still alive right now," Miyuki said trying to be optimistic about the current situation.

"If that is the case, you young people should go rest, especially you, Kyosei. With how much you have done earlier, I don't think anyone is more deserving to have a rest other than you," Leo suggested.

However, Kyosei shook his head. "I appreciate the concern but with our current situation right now, I don't think I will be resting for a bit. You lot should go ahead first. I will stand guard for a bit. And I am used to staying up late and being a night owl, don't worry about me."

Although the way he delivered his intent sounded cold, Leo nodded and pat Kyosei's shoulder. "Alright then, but don't overdo it, alright? Once I get enough rest, we switch places and you go and rest this time around."

Kyosei only nodded. The others also decided to relax or take a little nap for a bit. With the situation they are in right now, they are lucky that the situation is not so bad and they can get to sleep with other people.

As for Kyosei, he went straight into the bag that he brought back earlier full of food. He dropped it off after he brought back Sena, which contains food and water he plundered in the kitchen. The kitchen still has food left as he couldn't fit everything he could loot in his bag and it would get really heavy so he only selected enough. But seeing the group right now, the food he brought wouldn't be enough to fill the bellies of everyone. If they decided to conserve the food a lot, the food he brought would only last for one day with the water going to be the first to run out. Sure, they can conserve for a bit but that is not a long-lasting solution and they will get weaker for not eating properly.

"Looks like the amount of food I looted in the canteen is not enough. I will have to return tomorrow if we want to keep ourselves fed until we get out of here."

"Should I join? I can fight and since we will be going in the morning, I think I can do just fine," Souichi volunteered.

"I will join as well. Considering I am the only adult male from the group, I shouldn't just put all the burden on all our young people here by risking their lives for food," Leo also chimed in.

Kyosei nodded in agreement. The only reason he did it solo earlier is because he has a mission to secure the passage for the people in the gymnasium and he can move fast. Now that he secured the safety of those people, he don't need to restrict who he should bring along. Besides, he needed the extra manpower and carry weight so that they could haul more food and water.

"We should also secure our way out of this school as well. Considering that the cars are still present in the parking lot, we can use any of them to get out of here. Staying here won't do us any good especially the food diminishing day by day," Miyuki suggested.

"Right...a getaway vehicle. With our numbers, a school bus would fit us all. It won't be a small one and it will be hard to move around tight roads, but if we can't just go and pick multiple cars considering not all of us here are drivers," Kyosei scratches his head. After all, aside from a bicycle and a motorcycle, he doesn't know how to drive a car just yet.

"I agree. The majority of you guys are not yet a licensed driver, yes? Maybe using scooters or bikes but cars should still be out of your league. Mrs. Haruna and I know how to drive, but since Miss Haruna cannot be behind the wheel with her pregnancy, the driving will fall to me ultimately," Leo explained.

"Do you know how to drive a bus, Sir Leo?" Souichi asked.

"Yes. I did drive a few back in the Philippines at my former job before I was accepted here. So you all can count on me if we will be using the bus as our getaway vehicle out of this mess," Leo proudly said with pride.

"Alright. Everyone should continue to have some rest. We can discuss things further tomorrow. I will keep watch for the night then we will have another shift for us, alright?"

The others nodded. They really needed that rest and they can't afford to not rest considering their enemies will never get tired no matter how hard they might try.

As the others are relaxing or have fallen asleep, Kyosei observes the situation below the building. It seems that the zombies continue to move faster than ever before. He can hear occasional screams of pain and fear somewhere that gets slowly drowned by zombies. It is even a miracle that they managed to keep themselves alive at this point considering sprinting zombies are something straight out of a nightmare. Thankfully, it seems the zombies don't know how to climb at the very least.

While the situation seems calm at the very least, Kyosei suddenly spots one muscular guy from the zombies. He can vaguely see his figure due to how noticeably larger he is compared to the others. He had seen the guy before and he remembers he was from the Baseball club. One of their pitchers is quite big in size and he can see that he is quite big in size compared to the others. Seeing him among the dead makes it a bit sad to think about. With his skills as a pitcher, he would be a good asset for hurling things toward the dead and perhaps using grenades or Molotov cocktails to light up the dead to flames. But what can he do about their death? Nothing. He is dead after all.

He continues to observe their movement when the former baseball pitcher looks up in his direction. Kyosei frowns and retreats a bit to hide his presence and yet allows him to see the situation still. At first, the zombie is just staring in his direction for a bit. Soon, it starts to move away for a bit. Kyosei thought that this zombie was now moving on realizing there was nothing there but he was soon stunned to see that the zombie grabbed one of the other shambling zombies effortlessly and hurled the poor guy toward his direction.

Considering the height and the strength of the throw, the zombie he threw wasn't able to reach far and landed on the ground head first.

"What the f*ck is that guy doing?" Kyosei frowned. There is no way that guy is remembering his former routine when he was still alive? But seriously, zombies?

Kyosei continued to observe the zombie and it didn't stop with just one throw. Instead, it started to throw others as well. And looking at the distances and the speed of the hurl, it seems that the zombie is "learning" how to properly hurl. But based on how it was currently doing, Kyosei can tell one thing from it and it seems that it was not practicing or anything. Rather, it was trying to calculate the throw strength, distance, and height of its target which is why it was doing those tasks right now.

Seeing this happen, Kyosei stood up and ready the crowbar. He is not liking what that zombie is doing and sooner or later, there will be a chance that the guy will succeed in his attempt. It won't succeed for quite some time but seeing how it was doing rather quite well in most of his previous throws, he won't be surprised if one zombie managed to land right there in their doorstep.

He first looked at the others and saw most of them had fallen asleep from exhaustion, aside from Chie and Souichi who were still awake, Kyosei decided to keep quiet to not alarm everyone and alerted the other two who were still awake. The two immediately understood what Kyosei meant and they approached him.

"What's up, Kyosei. Are you seeing something?"

"Why include me? I don't think I will be of any help aside from any science stuff."

"Shh, observe that zombie who is currently hurling other zombies?" Kyosei points over to the zombie that continues to hurl zombies time and time again.

"What the heck is he doing? Is it muscle reflexes? Isn't that Gotou? The pitcher of the baseball team? Looks like he wasn't even safe from the zombies huh?" Souichi frowned.

"That behavior is somewhat concerning. And the zombies he was throwing seem to be getting closer," Chie said as she saw a few of them land not too far from the opening of the building.

"Based on what I am seeing, perhaps we can say that this zombie hurling zombies at us is a variant. Just like those in games."

"You mean like those "Tank" and "Boomer" type?" Souichi frowned.

"Exactly. Chie, maybe you can analyze the zombie's behavior right now? I know this will be hard but..."

"Leave it to me," Chie quickly answered.

As for Souichi, he grabs his baseball bat and they continue to observe the pitcher zombie continue his task. At first, they are still not high enough to even reach their place. But Kyosei can tell that it was getting higher and higher and it won't be long before a zombie will land near them.

CRASH!

One of the zombies crashes to the nearest window a few distance below their current location.

"Holy sh*t! That is too close for comfort!" Souichi cursed.

"Get ready!" Kyosei stood up and backed away from the crack for a bit. The other two also did as well.

This resulted in the others waking up as well.

"Kyosei? Souichi? What is going on?" Miyuki asked as she was rubbing her eyes when...

SPLAT!

A zombie landed straight into the hole but pierced through the metal bar on the window. It wasn't pierced in the head so it was still alive.

Seeing this happen, the rest started to back off in fear while the other guys also pulled their own weapons as well.

"Back off. More will be coming. He won't miss this time."

And just like what Kyosei said, a zombie landed right into the whole. It grabbed onto the floor and was ready to climb up only for Kyosei to bash its head with his crowbar.

"We have been breached! Gear up and defend!"