"Are you fucking kidding me!?"
The undead who was pounding the door broke the door's upper section, giving itself a chance to crawl through. It's like it punched a hole through it.
Thankfully, the two also finished packing up but Clarisse was startled by the undead, making me run to her and help her up.
"The window's open, hurry up!"
"Thanks, wait what about you?"
"...I'll take care of this one."
I have a feeling I can't keep something like that alive. The undead was forcing its way through the wall, his mouth salivating like a rabid dog.
Clarisse nodded hesitantly and rushed to the window with her brother. Meanwhile, I pulled the axe from my belt and approached the climbing undead.
It turned its head forward and tried its best to grab me while it was stuck. I didn't waste any time and quickly swung my axe horizontally, beheading the undead.
I had hoped for the worst but it's great that it didn't move after that. After that, I quickly followed Clarisse and made my way out the window.
"Raargh!!!"
However, as I jumped out, an undead appeared and tried to grab me. My reflexes managed to outrun it and I swung my axe to kill it.
"What the hell is going on!?"
Running away from the store, I briefly looked behind and... Oh god, there's hundreds of them!?
Before I noticed it, the undead kept increasing, swarming the store from the front. However, because of the noises we made, it seems like they all took notice of us.
No, that's not the problem right now.
"Where are those two?"
I tried to look for them as I ran, hacking away at the undead who got close to me. However, they're nowhere to be found.
Until I saw the bag that Clarisse brought with her.
"Damn it..."
"Eek!"
"!?"
I lost hope all hope of them being alive but a familiar scream brought me back to reality. Looking in that direction, it was Clarisse desperately fighting off an undead who was on top of her.
After changing my running route in her direction, I killed that undead once I reached it and helped her up before grabbing her hand to run as quickly as possible. I didn't see her little brother around, but we can't afford to slow down.
"...L..."
"Let's go!"
She was mumbling something but I didn't hear it.
We ran as fast as we could, adrenaline was probably rushing in. However, Clarisse is struggling to keep up.
By some stroke of luck, we managed to outrun the hundreds of the dead up to the next block and hid in the back of an alley.
"Fuu… Haah… We managed to outrun them but we can't stay here for long, we have to-"
I caught my breath and tried to tell Clarisse our next action. However, she tried to run back so I grabbed her hand.
"What the hell are you doing!"
"L- Leo… Leo is…!"
She faced me, tears trickling down her cheeks. She tried so hard to remove her hand from my hold but I subconsciously increased my force.
"Don't, he's probably-"
Probably dead… Isn't something I could say, facing the woman who was currently breaking down.
With all those undead swarming the area, the chance of someone, much less a kid, surviving is close to impossible, it would take a miracle for that to happen.
But if miracles and such did exist, then this whole thing wouldn't have even happened.
We're all on our own now.
…
…Damn it.
I grabbed Clarisse's other wrist with my free hand, which earned a small shriek from her. And I placed the handle of my axe in that trembling hand of hers, closing it so that the axe wouldn't fall off.
Completely letting her go, I took a step back and smiled at her with the best I could have.
"You have your reasons, that I'm sure of, however, I can't follow you… No, I can't risk my life at something like this. So please, take that… You already know how to kill them right?"
She raised her head as my words stopped and our eyes locked. Her tears seemed to have dried off and the only thing I could see from her eyes was resolve.
"If we meet again… Let's help each other survive for real, can you at least promise that?"
"Sure… And, umm thank you!"
Her lips formed a strained smile before she turned her back and ran as fast as she could.
A pain I couldn't explain erupted from my chest. My thoughts were full of doubt. What if I had tried to persuade her more? What if I forcefully stopped her instead?
Could I have saved her?
But the only thing I could do was clutch my chest. I'm not a hero and I have no interest in playing as one.
I still have some things I have to accomplish, even if this world has turned to hell. Only for those things, I can proudly put my life in the betting pool.
Perhaps that's the reason I gave her my weapon so that the burden of guilt would lessen… Or maybe I really did want to help her?
Well, it doesn't matter anymore.
Catching one final look at the hellish scene in front of me, I also turned my back and ran in the opposite direction.
It was a day that should've been like any other. I met a woman named Clarisse, she had a little brother who had a similar name to me. Shit happened and now… I felt like I just abandoned her to her death.
But my head is clear. Because I understood.
It was the day when the world changed.