"Hey Kio, by zombies… do you mean those zombies? Like the ones in anime and movies?" Riko asked, even though the scene in front of her definitely matched with the zombies that showed up in the shows she had watched before.
"I'm not sure, but that's what it looks like in front of our eyes." Kio replied while he observed the scene outside the window.
Being a fan of apocalyptic anime and web novels, Kio instantly figured out what's happening in front of him, unlike some zombie story protagonists who take hours or days to assess the situation.
"With these zombies chasing people while biting into whoever they catch, we have to quickly ..."
Before he could finish his words, a large group of people ran into the hotel through the front doors, screaming hysterically.
"AHHHH"
"Run!! They're right behind us!"
"Somebody save me!"
Shocked at the scene in front of her, Riko hid directly behind Kio, tightly clutching onto his shoulders. Although his heartbeat started rising due to the soft objects touching his back, he knew now wasn't the time to have such thoughts.
Quickly running to the desk at the front lobby, he grabbed a few card keys for the rooms on the second floor that were vacant.
"Hurry up, let's go," Kio started running while pulling Riko by the hand. Looking at all the people heading to the elevators, he turned towards the emergency stairs that were mainly used by the cleaning staff.
The sight of all the people swarming into the hotel, with some covered in blood, froze her mind for a moment. Getting pulled by Kio brought her back to reality.
They started running up the stairs, opening the emergency door on the second floor.
After reaching the hallway on the second floor, they ran into Yuki, the coworker who Kio has a crush on.
Dressed in a formal black suit over a white dress shirt, along with a black skirt, Yuki was on her way to one of the rooms on the second floor after a guest was asked for room service earlier.
When Kio spotted her, he immediately thought, 'Eh? Why is she already at work? Did she work throughout the night?' However, Kio pushed the question to the back of his mind and loudly spoke to her while running.
"Yuki! Quickly follow us!"
Stunned at the sudden order from an employee younger than her, Yuki responded in a displeased tone, "Hey, Kio! Even though we're friends outside of work, you can't use such a tone when you're speaking to me at work. A guest is asking for room service, I need to go help him first.
"Yuki, I'll explain everything later, follow us first! ... Now!!" Kio demanded after he noticed the elevator opened on the second floor. A group of people began to run out, with blood on some of their bodies, unknown whether it's from a bite mark or other injury.
Kio pulled Riko to the closest room they had the key to, then closed it after Yuki entered.
*Bang*
Banging sounds could be heard a few seconds after the door closed.
"Please open up! Let us hide with you too!"
A feminine voice could be heard loudly outside the door.
"Motherfucker! I'm gonna break this door down if you don't open it right now!"
"Open the fucking door!"
Angry shouts started to drown out the earlier pleading voice.
Woken up from all the noise in the second floor hallway, some guests opened their room doors to check what all the commotion is about.
"Hey, what are you guys doing…?" A young caucasian male asked, standing at the doorway of room 201.
"What's happening out here?" Guests from other rooms on the second floor also opened their doors.
"That door is open!"
"Let's go!"
"Quickly!"
After one person started running to an open door, some of the people in the group followed into the first opened room. Meanwhile, the remainders split off into the other rooms that were opened.
"Why did you guys come into my room? I don't have anything valuable for you guys to steal… Hey! Are you okay?! Your hand is bleeding!" The male from room 201 was initially worried about being robbed or kidnapped inside of his hotel room, but he quickly noticed the bite wound on the young woman in front of him.
Although traces of blood could be seen on some of the others, he was only paying attention to the young woman due to her young age and big chest, with a bit of cleavage visible due to her skimpy choice of clothing.
"I'm okay, someone just bit me earlier and I ran away after he got hit by something." The woman replied, not feeling much pain due to the adrenaline released in her body ever since she got bit.
"You should go wash your wound in the washroom first," The room owner responded, trying to earn a favourable first impression.
"Okay…" Worried about a bacterial infection on her hand, the woman replied and went into the washroom. She then closed the door, locking it shortly after.
Nearly half an hour had passed from the time when she ran away from the crazy person that bit her to the present moment.
After cleaning the wound, she began to cough up blood.
*Cough*
"Ack.."
Falling onto the floor, her coughing intensified as more blood came out.
***
In the room that Kio, Riko, and Yuki entered, Kio quickly pushed the bed and cabinets against the door shortly after they closed it.
Although he ignored the cries and shouts outside the door, that doesn't mean Yuki could do the same.
"Hey! Kio! Tell me what's going on. Why didn't you let those guys outside come in as well?" Yuki asked, unaware of the situation since she had been working for nearly 8 hours.
"Well… If I tell you that some of them could be infected by zombies, would you believe me?" Kio replied, knowing how ridiculous it may sound to her.
"Huuuuuuh? What the hell are you talking about?" Yuki dumbfoundedly questioned, not processing the situation at all.
"Well, my friend Riko and I had just entered the hotel a bit earlier, and then we saw zombies chasing and eating other people outside the window. We thought about the worst case scenario and decided to hide out in one of the rooms." Kio replied, stating all of his observations to try to convince Yuki.
Looking at her doubting face, he knows she doesn't believe him.
"Umm… Why don't you try looking outside?" Riko quietly suggested, pointing towards the window of their room.
"Okay, if I find out that you lied to me, Kio you better be ready for a punishm-" Before she could even finish her word, the scene outside truly frightened her.
Many people were running away from the direction of the train station. Although everyone was running, the group of zombies near the back were jumping out at some of them, biting and tearing at whatever body parts they could grab.
Walking up to Yuki, Kio reinforced his earlier observations, "You see? If these aren't zombies, then why don't you kindly tell me what they are?"
"..." Speechless, Yuki didn't know what to say.
"Well, this is the situation we're in, let's just see what we need to do to stay alive." Kio calmly stated, the rush of adrenaline from earlier ended after they reached a safe place.
While thinking of what they need to do now, Kio mumbled his thoughts quietly, "Let's see, we need to find shelter, food, water, weapons... hmm…" He also contemplated if there is anything that he missed from the list.
Standing beside Kio, Riko observed his actions and spoke up after she noticed he forgot something, "We also need to check on our family."
"You're right, let's quickly call our sisters and parents to see if they're safe." Kio replied and blamed himself internally when she pointed out what he forgot, since all those points he listed out was only about his own safety.
In most apocalyptic stories, the phone lines were usually cut shortly after, which caused him to forget about it, but it still didn't justify his momentary lapse in judgment.
'I swear I'll save my parents and little sister no matter what.' Kio began to make a mental note to himself, to make up for his error.
Kio took out his phone and started to call his sister first, while Riko did the same and called her family.
*Ring ring*
"Hello? Kio, what's up?" Kaori answered after she picked up the call.
"Hey Kaori, is everything alright over there?"
"What are you talking about Kio? How's your date with Riko hmm?
"Kaori you… Let's talk about this later. Anyways, what I'm about to say, please believe me."
"Why are you so serious all of a sudden Kio?"
"Kaori… Have you watched any zombie movies or anime before?" Kio tried to slowly push the topic towards zombies, trying a different approach of explaining the situation since he couldn't convince Yuki earlier.
"Yea, I've watched a couple, why?"
"Well, I think that kind of event might be happening to us now…"
"Eh? What do you mean?"
"Kaori, there are zombies biting people outside my workplace. Riko and I just saw this happen after we looked outside the window."
"Ehh really?" Kaori muttered, with a mix of disbelief and shock in her tone.
"Yea, I hope you believe me. Maybe it just hasn't spread to our house yet. Listen, can you and Miyu stay inside the house, lock the doors and close all the windows? If I'm wrong about the zombies, I'll make it up to you later."
"Mmmk. Anything else?"
"Wait. Before that, go to Miyu's house and grab all the food and water you can find, and bring them over to our house with Miyu."
"Eh? Oh, are we holding out at our house?" Kaori questioned, but she started to follow along with what Kio told her because she somewhat sensed the seriousness of the situation based on his tone.
"Yea. Quickly grab all the supplies you need, then go back home and lock all the doors and windows. After that, bring all the food and water into your room, then block it with the bed or whatever heavy things you girls can find. I'll try to come back as soon as possible, but since the zombies are already outside the hotel, I'm not sure how long it'll take to get back."
"Kio, did you or Riko get bit by any of them?" Kaori asked, worried about her brother and Riko if he wasn't joking about the situation.
"We're fine for now, but make sure you follow what I said. I'm gonna call our parents and Riko is gonna call hers. Remember to stay upstairs with food and water, We'll come back home whenever we can find a chance." Kio spoke, while he pondered if he forgot to mention anything.
"Okay, Miyu and I will do as you said. Stay safe Kio."
"Yea, bye Kaori, I'll come back soon." Kio uttered and ended the call.
Kio tried to remain as calm as possible throughout the call, to reduce the amount of panic that his sister will experience.
Next, he called his parents and told them about his message to Kaori. He also advised them to quickly leave work and get home as fast as possible to stay with her. Although his parents didn't completely believe the story about the zombies, they decided to follow his advice due to his serious tone.
After he hung up, Kio noticed Riko and Yuki looking at him, "Did you already call Miyu and your parents?"
"Mmhm, I told Miyu to stay with Kaori until we get back. I told my parents about the zombies, but they didn't believe me… I then lied to them that someone broke into our house and asked them to rush home as soon as possible. They scolded me, telling me not to lie about zombies and mentioned that they would rush home right away." Riko softly mentioned near the end.
Who would've thought that her parents wouldn't believe the truth, yet they believe in her lie.
"Alright, what about you, Yuki?"
"They didn't pick up…" Yuki replied, worried about what could've happened to them. After seeing the situation outside, she began to think negatively about what could've happened to them.
'What if they also got bitten or killed by these… zombies?' Yuki pessimistically thought, shaking her head immediately afterwards to dispel the idea since she wanted to believe her parents are safe.
Who could blame her for having negative thoughts? After all, most people would wish for their family to be safe.
"Maybe they were just busy and couldn't pick up? Just try calling them again after waiting for a few minutes."
"Yea, I'll do that…"
"Well, since we finished our calls for now, let's see if we can gather some food and get back home. I guess I'll just have to skip work for today," Kio said jokingly, trying to lighten the atmosphere.
There was a tinge of sadness in his voice since he didn't know if any of their family members are safe if this tragedy spread over to other areas.
"Mmm, how about we go grab some food from over there?" Riko pointed at a building across the street through the window.