'Dear Lyon, I and your mother have been staying in the academy's quarantine camp for a few hours now, everything was "fine" but we went to get our information registered into the list of people here while also looking for yours. We couldn't find but it seems like the military is planning to airlift me and your mother to the hospital due to her high position as chairwoman. We... failed you, son, we tried asking them to send a team to your campus and we even tried to blackmail them by saying that we wouldn't comply with their request. They pulled out a gun on your mother, son... I stood in front of her and said we'd comply with their plan of being airlifted to the hospital. We will wait for you in your mother's office for as long as it takes, forgive us... for our weakness.'
'This is starting to feel like a wild goose chase... hold on!? She mentioned a hospital she was the chairwoman which could only possibly be Yoime City Medical Center. The same one that we had watched be breached by zombies in that Livestream...' I thought to myself while tightly clutching onto the note's thin and smooth surface while trying to calm my breathing down.
Going to this academy itself was already a risk I had placed over myself and my group so did I have the right to ask them to come with me to that hospital? The last time we had seen it was in that Livestream I watched with Alyssa but that camp was being breached by zombies by the end of it which meant we'd most likely be going into a death trap with the number of zombies staying inside that place.
'Wait, those looters mentioned clearing a hospital while Misako mentioned going to a hospital that's on the other side of the river. What are the chances of it being the same one mentioned in this letter?' I questioned myself as my mind began creating a mental summary of the situation we were currently in. There are only three hospitals that are on the other side of the river, one of them was on the western edge of the city, the other was close to the northern bridge and the last one was the very hospital where my mother worked at.
The city had a lot more hospitals on the inside of the city too, there were more than three on the other side of the river as well but those "hospitals" identified themselves as clinics instead due to how small they were in comparison. They also mostly offered check-ups instead of the kind of service wherein you spend a few hours up to months in hospital rooms. Contrary to how some might judge the size of a city, Yoime city is as big as two cities combined due to the quick expansion of Japan's industry post World war 2.
This caused a massive influx of civilians going into the city and though they lived in small shacks and alleyways at first, hard work, grit, and determination were all it took for them to be able to able to afford and buy cheap housing for their next generation. This caused the city to expand to what it is now today and explains why it has so many hospitals and why getting from point A to point B in the past took whole days, that and the 10+ detours we had to take due to hordes of abandoned cars and zombies blocking our way...
My mind was getting out of track though so I shook it off and started folding up the letter until it was small enough to fit into one of my pant pockets. The other three were now just watching me, having finished reading or glancing through each letter that they had found on the bulletin boards they were standing in front of. I wordlessly walk off the platform, deliberately taking slow steps while looking at the empty scene that was laying in front of me.
I did not know what emotion I should feel at the moment. Should I have felt joy at the minuscule chance of them being alive due to this letter being written most likely before this camp was abandoned or destroyed by zombies? Maybe I should just give up instead and blame this decision of not even trying on how the chances of them still being alive are nigh zero?
'That would certainly be the most logical choice but... am I about to just abandon my parents again?' I thought to myself as my thought process began being influenced by my emotional side, something that, in most cases, always led to irrational decisions with favorable and unfavorable outcomes that were dependent on mere chance. This only caused me to strengthen my belief in the need on capturing someone who is a part of the looter's group, someone I can gather information from to fuel my logical decision-making.
'I'll get that information even if I have to torture each piece of it out of their mouths.' I thought to myself while passing through the opened gates of the academy without looking back at its "lifeless" structure. There was an uneasy silence among us all, a wordless agreement to just walk away in silence without them even knowing why or what were the contents of the letter.
They didn't need to know the contents of the letter, not yet at least but they were smart enough to guess that whatever was written on the letter wasn't something to jump for joy about. A fact quite obvious due to the distant gaze and emotionless expression I had plastered on my face as we made our way close to the crossing lane near the alleyway, a short walk that was done in a matter of a few seconds since the cruel world seemingly decided to give us a break from zombies.
Fortunately, and unfortunately, that break was short-lived as we found ourselves standing in front of our car, a position that gave just barely enough angle to spot a van stopped in the middle of the street crossing east of the school's perimeter wall corner closest to us. The van wasn't there before but we were lucky enough to have not been spotted by the owner/s of said vehicle, this managed to garner my interest but I decided to hand the keys of the car to Ren while fully expecting the worst-case scenario.
"That van, it might be Higashi and his group's car but the chances of it are quite low since they were using a 4x4 SUV, not a white van. Take the keys and stay in the car, wait for two minutes or until you hear a gunshot before bringing the car close to that van." I whispered to Ren before receiving a nod from him as he made his way to the car, leaving the window beside him open so he could hear the gunshot if one were to ever ring out.
"Leave your bags in the car but bring your weapons just in case." I tell them before receiving curious and unsure looks from my two other companions who were staying with me but they didn't have any complaints over what we were doing, not any that they were willing to voice out at least. It was quite understandable as to why they had such expressions plastered on their face but my gut feeling told me that a prize was hidden on that side of the perimeter wall.
We leave our bags in the car and cross the street again before huddling close to the wall as we took quiet and careful steps to get closer to the wall's edge with our order being me, Chisato, and Alyssa respectively. I reached the edge of the wall and spared a small peak at what lay on the other side, giving me a scene of Higashi laying down on the cemented pathway with an absent gaze in my direction as a puddle of blood began forming around his slightly disfigured head which was caused by the crowbar sticking out of him.
That view caused me to narrow my eyes as I looked at the six upright figures standing a few meters from each other. The only exceptions to this were that one of the unfamiliar figures was aiming a gun at Amaya's head, which he was holding next to him with his free hand, and the person Misako was stepping on, her bow and a notched arrow aimed at his prone figure.
'I'd rather not use a gun but... the situation calls for it.' I thought to myself only to find Chisato's figure running past me before I could even utter a single whisper of a plan. Her action managed to surprise me but it is quickly dialed down as I managed to spot one familiar detail that the farthest figure had on his back, something that they most likely all had but managed to unintentionally hide due to the angle of vision we had.
"A Venn diagram."I whispered to myself before I slightly distanced myself away from the wall so I could position myself at a greater angle to shoot from. Alyssa runs past me as well, following after Chisato's moving figure for a few seconds before stopping as she seemed to have been satisfied with the proximity she now held towards the hostile group of strangers before aiming her shotgun at the second closest stranger to us.
"Misako, don't shoot, just keep him restrained!" I shouted while firing the rifle at the man who was holding onto Amaya, his eyes already pointed at us as he heard the footsteps coming from our direction due to Chisato and Alyssa. The sound of a gunshot rang out from where I stood, accompanying it was the sound of a body and a gun falling to the ground as both lay on the pathway's solid surface a few seconds later.
Chisato, who was but a few inches away from the figure I had shot, just runs past his falling figure and Amaya's motionless frame with her right hand holding onto the katana she had salvaged from her house while the other hand held its sheath instead of using her Type 94. She moves closer to another member of the hostile group which was the same one who Alyssa was aiming for causing her to turn the gun at the third figure instead which was too far for an effective quick killing shot from a shotgun.
She fires anyway, causing the third figure to fall to the ground as well with him placing his hand over the side of his torso as blood began to seep out from the holes made by the few shots that managed to hit him but an arrow coming from Misako finished him off. Chisato, in turn, engaged the second hostile with close-quarters combat as she blocked an overhead strike made possible by a steel pipe that the second hostile was using.
She slightly moves the sheath she had used to block it to the side, giving her enough space to follow it up with a slash aimed to go across his torso from the right to the left. Her blade manages to find its target, causing the sharp blade to tear the fabric of the man's jacket and shirt with ease as the katana enters his body from one side before getting out through the other.
It was aimed low enough to avoid hitting any of the ribs which meant only his fat, muscle, skin, and organs were there to hinder Chisato's efforts. It was also shallow enough to not hit his spine but deep enough to hit the various organs of the digestive tract, a gruesome fact proven by the barely visible entrails of his intestines as copious amounts of blood came out of the open wound.
The figure falls to his knees while clutching onto his wound with both hands before looking up at Chisato's looming figure, his pipe having been dropped the moment the sword had entered his body due to pain and shock at the sensation of cold metal going through his body. Chisato was about to finish him off but I placed a hand on top of her shoulder which manages to stop her before doing it, causing her to look at her side from the corner of her eye so she could still watch over the shell-shocked figure of her enemy.
"We need to go." I whispered to her as the sounds of screeches coming from zombies rose in volume as they got closer to our position. It began a few seconds after I fired the first bullet but the distance I managed to conclude from how quiet their initial screeches were was already shortening by a large margin with each second that passed. "We'll use them as distractions while we escape, they won't survive this."
She hesitates for a few seconds before complying as the vehicle we had been using for a while now stops right beside the van of our enemies. I turn my gaze back to the weary but angry looks of Misako's group while Amaya cried as she hugged her last older brother, Hoga Tomoya.
Misako moves closer to me while her hand was placed at the back of the man, most likely meant to hold onto whatever restraints she used to stop the man from escaping or fighting back. A streak of blood flowing from his broken lip caused by what was most likely a kick if that dirty shoe mark wasn't "saying" volumes of what had happened while I wasn't looking.
"Do any of you know how to drive?" I asked Misako only for her to shake her head in refusal which only made our current situation more troublesome than it already was. Ren, who was inside the car the entire time honked the car, causing me to look at him through his open window as he points at the road in front of him where zombies could be seen running toward us.
"Tch, Ren, I need you to drive the car while Chisato and Alyssa will watch over the prisoner. I'll drive Misako's car and we can use the two-way radios to communicate with each other. Do you, by any chance, have the keys?" I told my group before asking Misako again only for her to point her finger at the motionless figure of her dead cousin where Amaya and Hoga were standing close. The younger of the two was on her knees crying while shaking the lifeless body, uttering guttural cries of her begging him to wake up from his eternal slumber.
Alyssa seemed to be hesitant at complying with my command since it meant I was all alone in a car with people that we could barely consider friends in her eyes. She seemed like she was about to refuse but a pleading look from me manages to convince her otherwise, causing her to take away the prisoner from Misako's clutches. Chisato and Alyssa moved closer to the car with the prisoner before throwing him inside the car before they went in themselves.
I didn't wait to watch them do it though as I had already moved closer to Higashi's dead body, quickly shoving my fingers inside his pockets to find the keys to the car. I whispered for them to go inside their SUV already but the two were adamant about staying beside their brother's fallen figure which caused Misako to forcefully drag the two away so they could go inside.
"Brother!" Amaya cried out as she reached her hand to her older brother as she got farther and farther away. I was about to leave as well but it seems like my own emotions were more influential than I wanted them to be when it came to decision-making since I found myself running back to Higashi's dead body before kneeling to take a braided bracelet that was colored with a mix of black and blue.
I slung my rifle over my shoulder before dislodging the crowbar sticking out of his head, and take it with me before I stood up and began making my way closer to their SUV. The zombies I had been worried about were now less than ten footsteps away from me, causing me to unsteadily aim my gun as I held the barrel with the same hand that was clutching onto Higashi's bracelet while moving.
An arrow finds its way to the head of the zombie I was aiming for before I could fire though, causing me to look at Misako's figure who was briskly walking toward its fallen corpse while aiming another arrow at more oncoming figures.
"Get inside the car!" I shouted out to Misako as the sound of a shotgun firing came from an open window in the second row of chairs in my group's car, Alyssa firing precise shots while waiting for them to be close enough to reach the effective range of her shotgun. She closes the window she was shooting from only after Misako ran past me while holding onto the same arrow she had used earlier, small drops of blood falling slowly from the arrowhead as I followed behind her before getting inside the driver's seat.
I go inside and start up the car before placing my two-way radio on top of the SUV's dashboard in automatic mode so that I wouldn't have to press the damn button every time I wanted to speak. The sound of Ren's voice coming from the radio rings out while stopping in random intervals as he seemingly fumbles with the controls only for it to be interrupted as the sound of a strong thud came from beside me.
"Ren, I'll tail you from behind. Let's get as close to the river as possible before 6 PM, we'll rest for the night in some random house just fucking drive." I shouted to the radio as the bloodied face of this zombie was rammed into the window beside me, causing thin but long cracks to appear on its surface. I glance at the window behind my chair and check if there were any zombies close before opening the door and slamming it into the zombie's torso which causes it to fall and crash its head on a different car's roof before I closed the door.
I turn my gaze back to the windshield and find the car my group was in begin to drive away slowly at first before picking up speed. I do so as well, placing the car's automatic shift on the position marked with "D" before stepping on the accelerator lightly so that I wouldn't accidentally bump into the back of their car. That precaution was unfounded though as their car had already picked up enough speed and distance from my position.
I follow close behind them and run over the few zombies that they had bumped their car against, causing abrupt and small bumps coming from both of the front wheels at random intervals. I turned my gaze to the rearview mirror and looked at the road we had just driven through earlier only to find the figure of the man Chisato had been fighting earlier trying to chase after us.
'He's tenacious, I'll give him that at least.' I thought to myself while looking at his disheveled figure, his two hands were still placed over his wound seemingly meant to stop his entrails from falling and being dragged on the ground with each step he took. He trips on the ground as some of the zombies that had been chasing us earlier opted to just eat the meal available to them instead of fruitlessly chasing us.
It was at that same time that this was happening that I felt the cold sensation of metal being placed directly at the back of my neck, causing me to pause in my thoughts as I looked behind me. I found Hoga with an angry look on his face that still had marks of dried tears coming from his eyes aiming a handgun at me, its name managing to elude me as what's left of my attention from driving was instead placed on the fact that I now had a gun aimed at me for some reason.
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A.N: Nothing much to say tbh other than I have a surprise for everyone. It's numbered chapter 35 and let's just say that it is very different from what all these past chapters were about. I actually ended up writing it in advance (I wrote it without even doing the chapters that were supposed to come for it.) and I just finished writing the last chapter before it the other day. The special chapter took a lot of time to make since I had to do more "research" and read up on the latest "material" for it. :)