Surrounded

Shocked at all the zombies chasing the six people who were heading towards their location, Jay ordered his guards, "Pull down the shutters and lock it! Quick!"

"Yes!" Following Jay's orders, Ren and the other guard quickly pulled down the shutters and locked it.

"Bring all the heavy things we can find and stack it against the shutters!"

Obeying Jay's command, Ren and the other guard ran into the store and looked for whatever heavy items they could find.

"Riko, Yuki, let's help too." Kio stated, aware that if the zombies enter, they would also be in danger.

"Mmkay."

"Alright."

Going in another direction from Ren and the other guard, they began to carry over empty luggage and filled it with useless miscellaneous items before stacking it up against the shutters.

"Please let us in!"

"We'll do anything you ask, please!!!"

"Please open--- KYAHH!"

"Nooo!!! Mayumi!!!"

"Ahhh!!! Run!!!"

Ignoring the pleas for help outside, Kio continued with his work. When he turned around to grab the next luggage, he noticed tears dropping from Riko and Yuki's eyes.

Bringing them in for a hug, he told them, "Riko, Yuki, I know we basically left them out there to die, but everyone inside here would die too if we were to try to help them. Didn't you see how fast those zombies and zombie dogs were?"

*Sob*

Quiet crying sounds could be heard from the two girls as he continued, "We aren't saints, we can't save everyone that needs help. As long as we protect the people important to us, isn't that enough?"

"I know Kio… It's just that… they died right in front of us. Why did this have to happen?"

Answering incoherently, Riko grieved over the fact that their life is falling apart. 'Today was just supposed to be a normal day, walking together with Kio to work and maybe confessing to him if everything went well.'

"I don't know what caused this, but we just need to focus on surviving," Kio replied, trying to calm her emotions.

"Kio, do you think we'll ever return to a normal life again?" Yuki asked, even though she knows that he doesn't know the answer.

"I…. Don't know. I don't want to lie to you and say everything will be fine. However, we just need to stick together and meet up with our family. After reaching them, as long as we can find a survivor base, we should be somewhat safe."

Although Kio isn't aware of any survivor bases, in all the apocalyptic anime and novels that he had watched and read in the past, they all have some kind of survivor base where it's safe.

*Clang*

Hearing rustling sounds further into the store, they saw Ren and the other guard, as well as the rest of their group, carrying many heavy cardboard boxes towards them.

"Hey Jay, we found these in the back. We took a peek and noticed nothing useful is inside, so we brought it over to reinforce the barricade." Ren asserted, feeling proud of his contributions.

"Let's hope that those boxes and the luggage that Kio found are enough to hold back the zombies from breaking through," Jay said, feeling unconfident about their makeshift barricade.

Shortly after stacking up the boxes, the cries from outside faded.

*Bang! Bam!*

Loud sounds could be heard from the shutters, as if the zombies discovered traces of living humans inside the store.

"This… should be sturdy enough. As long as nothing crazy happens, I don't think the zombies can break through," Jay declared, trying to convince others as well as himself of the strength of this barricade.

"It looks fine for now," Kio chimed in after he observed the shutters remaining intact from all the banging.

"Yea... Kio, why don't you and the ladies go get something to eat? You must be starving by now."

"Okay. Riko, Yuki, let's go."

"Kio, we'll exchange information afterwards."

"Sure thing," Kio replied, willing to share what little information he has since Jay was kind enough to bring them into the shelter and even allowed them to take some of the food from the store.

"Sounds good. Ren, Satou, can you two continue to watch over the shutters? Just yell out to inform us if it looks like it will collapse. Two other people will switch with you in a few hours after your shifts are over," Jay spoke, reminding the two guards about their guard duties.

"Okay."

Satisfied with their replies, Jay left and went towards the woman who was bitten previously, curious if there has been any changes.

Kio, Riko, and Yuki went towards the grocery area, opening up some chips and other snacks to fill their stomach.

After eating, they went to find Jay. When they found Jay by one of the corners of the store, there was also a circle of people around him, with a tied up zombie in the middle.

"Jay, what's going on here?" Kio asked, although he has an inkling of what happened based on what Jay previously told him.

"Hey Kio, this zombie… was a woman from our group. She was the one I mentioned previously, who got bitten after we entered the store. She turned into a zombie approximately 30 minutes after the bite," Jay stated, feeling conflicted at the infection speed of these zombies.

From all the zombie movies that he watched in the past, zombies usually infect people pretty fast, turning them into zombies within seconds or minutes after a bite or scratch.

"I see… So if one doesn't die instantly, it takes quite some time before they turn into a zombie. Based on what we saw earlier from the hotel, if you die from blood loss, you would become a zombie right away."

Kio decided now was a good time to share the information he had on these zombies, as he continued, "As you probably already know, these zombies also have an extremely good hearing, but I'm not sure if their other senses are still working."

"Hmm… a human's five senses. Let's test it with this zombie that's tied up." Jay brought up his idea to learn about the extent of these zombies' strengths.

During the experiment, they tested all of the zombie's senses by doing things such as waving a hand from side to side in front of the zombie and dripping some blood near it.

As a result, they found out that aside from an extreme listening ability, these zombies lost most of their remaining sensory abilities. They weren't able to feel anything poking them nor were they able to detect movement with their eyes.

However, they were able to sense blood if it's within close proximity, approximately about a meter away from them.

Lastly, they didn't know nor want to test if these zombies were still able to taste things.

These zombies don't appear to be that powerful, since this tied up one isn't able to break apart the wires coiled around her hands and feet. But that may be due to the fact that this zombie just turned, female zombies being weaker, or other things that they currently don't know about.

Satisfied from the information gathered, Kio went to grab a few backpacks for himself and the two girls. Riko and Yuki quietly left and followed after him.

While everybody is distracted from the experiments involving the tied up zombie, Kio went to stock up on as many calorie bars, dried food, and other non-perishable food as he could fit into the three backpacks. A bit of space was left in the bags so he could fit a few bottles of water into each of the bags.

With such a large stock of food in this store, Jay's group would only complain if they witnessed them taking all the food because there is still a lot of food left on the shelves.

He also took an empty suitcase and used it to store basic necessities such as soap, shampoo, supplements, and clothes.

When Riko and Yuki saw what he was doing, they also picked up another suitcase for themselves and filled it with similar items in addition to facial masks, beauty products, hygiene items, and female clothes.

When Kio noticed what they were packing into their suitcase, he didn't want to say anything about it. Although he knows half of their items are useless in this situation, girls would always have their own needs.

Besides, even though they all knew that it would be nearly impossible to bring the suitcases with them when they leave, they still wanted to fill it up, in hopes of having an opportunity to drag it along with them on the way home.

After quickly storing up the supplies, they brought the backpacks and suitcases with them into the section of the store that they planned to use during their time here.

With the zombies surrounding the store, they are currently trapped inside, with no possible route to escape.

With nothing much to do for now, Kio decided to give Kaori a call, to check up on how she's doing.

*Ring*

"Hello?"

"Kaori? How is everything over at our house? Did Mom and Dad come home yet? Have the zombies made it to our neighbourhood yet?"

The moment he heard Kaori's voice, Kio asked many questions in quick succession, showing how worried he was over her well-being.

"Calm down Kio, Miyu and I are hiding in my room right now. We haven't seen either of our parents yet and many zombies came near our house an hour after we gathered food from our houses," Kaori calmly replied, telling him that they're safe right now.

"That's a relief. I hope Mom and Dad are okay… I told them to head home after my call with you ended. Listen, we're currently held up by something, so we might take some time before we can come back. You don't have to worry though since we're safe for now."

"I knew you would be fine, but we're more worried about Riko since these zombies can be pretty scary for her," Kaori told him.

Although she had been worrying about both of them the whole time after their first call ended, she wouldn't admit it.

"Don't worry too much about Riko. With me protecting her, nothing will happen to her." Boasting about himself, Kio reassured her, trying to lessen their worries.

"Uh huh, sure you will…" Kaori replied sarcastically, realizing his intentions.

…

After a long 15 minute call, Kio decided to hang up after he noticed Jay walking over to them.

During his call with Kaori, Yuki and Riko were patiently waiting for him.

They didn't want to bother him during the call, so they took this chance to get to know each other better by introducing themselves while asking each other how they're related to Kio.

Seeing Jay coming over to them with a heavy expression, Kio asked, "Jay, what's wrong?"

"Kio, I just took a look at the perimeter of the store through the second floor window, and the situation is pretty bad. We're surrounded by hundreds of zombies and a few zombie dogs."

"What!?"

"The people from earlier must've lured a big group over. On the bright side, at least they stopped hitting the shutters. So as long as we stay quiet, they shouldn't try to break in."

"..."

"Sadly, I don't see any way for us to escape from here at the moment, unless someone lures them all away."

"Sigh… Looks like we just have to wait it out. Luckily, we have a lot of food and water in here."

Despite being safe inside the store, Kio and Riko were worried about Kaori and Miyu. They don't know how long their sisters will be safe at home.

...

Time quickly passed while they remained trapped in Don Quijote, and on the third morning since the zombies appeared, something appeared around their building on the ground.

A bright circle with symbols and mysterious letters inside of it became more apparent, shining brightly even though the sun is already up in the sky.

During the last day and a half, neither Kio's group nor Jay's group could figure out a way to escape, so they decided to wait for a good chance.

However, nobody would've expected a summoning circle to suddenly appear out of nowhere.

"What's going on here?"

"What's happening?"

"What is this?!"

Nobody had an answer to their questions, and they could only wait to see what will happen. The circle covered their entire building, even extending to a few tens of meters outside.

Although the people in Jay's group were just standing around asking questions, Kio told the two girls next to him, "Grab your backpacks and stay close, we don't know what's going to happen."

Since they were close to their supplies at the moment, they quickly equipped their backpacks.

Just as they put their hands onto their suitcases, all of a sudden, the whole group started to slowly fade from sight.

"Kio!!" Riko shouted, scared from the weird phenomenon.

"Riko! Grab my hand!" Kio managed to hold her hand right before they completely faded away.

No matter what happens, Kio couldn't afford to separate from Riko, otherwise he doesn't know how he would explain it to Miyu if anything happens to her.

*Whoosh*

In complete contrast to the noises in the building and the huge horde of zombies around it, the surroundings became dead quiet; even the zombies completely vanished from the area.