Isamu slowly moved, his breaths coming in shallow gasps. 'It's a virus! No doubt, we're dead meat. How could this even happen?!'
Denji noticed the fear written all over Isamu's face. "What is it Isamu, did you see something out there?"
Isamu sat back down on the bench, trying to calm himself but his voice was still shaky. "I think it's contagious. Some of them have already turned."
"What do you mean turned?!" asked nervously Sota Kobayashi, their short (in comparison), dark-haired and-eyed teammate who followed behind them.
Takumi moved to the blinds, slowly lifting his fingers as they trembled. His eyes widened. "What the f**k?! They are… they are all acting like the man who attacked them," he turned around and sat on the bench next to Isamu, burying his face in his hands.
"What the hell is going on?.. We're trapped in this room! We should've left with the others when we still had the chance!"
Isamu gave a humorless and shaky laugh. "It would've made no difference. They probably attacked the main hall first. The club room is on the other end of the school gate. We would be dead if we were trapped in there."
Denji slammed his fist against a locker, the metal rattling loudly. "We could've tried! We could've made a run for it!"
The sharp sound echoed, and as if summoned, the growling intensified from outside. Shadows began to move along the hallway, the thud of footsteps growing louder as they ascended the stairs. Isamu quickly put his finger over his lips signifying to them to stay quiet.
They held their mouth as the growling people passed by the club room. They all caught a whiff of a foul stench, a sickening odor seeping from under the door.
Takumi cringed immediately. "What the hell is that smell?"
Sota gave a half-hearted chuckle and replied, "I forgot to put on deodorant earlier, my bad."
Isamu gave him a dark look along with a sigh. "I don't think anyone sweat smells this bad, especially considering you barely played. It must be them," he said as he nodded outside.
"Jeez, they smell like a dog that's been dead for days," Denji softly remarked, his nose wrinkling.
Then Isamu's memory suddenly sparked like a lantern in the dark. 'Wait, this smell is kind of familiar… The house from yesterday smelled exactly like this. I thought it was the dog since it rained.'
"They're dead… they're all dead," Isamu said with his eyes widening in realization.
Sota nervously snickered, "What do you mean dead? They are walking right there."
"Smell them, that's what a dead person smells like!" Isamu insisted. "The virus or whatever it is, it's using them as a host."
Takumi blinked quickly, trying to process. "Wait, you mean like zombies?"
Denji murmured with amusement. "That's impossible, there's no such thing as zombies. That sh*t is only in the movies, it's not real."
"Well, let's hope they are, we might be able to kill them if they are zombies. We don't want them to be something new that can't…" Isamu trailed off still hardly believing the words coming out of his mouth.
Sato started tearing up, the fear of those beings settling deep and anchoring itself.
'Life is a drag. Seriously, zombies? Life couldn't get any worse, more problems and stress… Though I guess this problem has just nullified most of my other problems.' Isamu thought with a slight smirk.
Takumi caught Isamu's strange smirk. "Is something funny?"
Isamu quickly snapped out of it and started itching the back of his head as he looked away. "Sorry, I just zoned out for a bit."
'He's right, this is hell on earth. I haven't even thought about my mom and dad. They could be dead or turned or managed to get away. I hope they don't try to save me here. There are too many of them here.'
Isamu pondered on his thoughts for a while…
"I think we should leave the club room," his voice cutting through the silence.
Sota let out a harsh laugh. "We're surrounded by those things. How do you expect us to get out of here?"
"If we stay here, more will turn and we'll have more to deal with. We have no food, nothing to defend ourselves with, and barely have enough water to last us till tomorrow. If we get weak here we'll be completely useless when we are forced to leave," Isamu explained.
They all knew he was right and stood silently thinking and accepting it.
Denji's shoulder slumped. "He's right, we have to leave this place as soon as we can."
Takumi and Sato nodded in agreement.
Isamu nodded as well and continued to explain as his voice grew steadier. "We have to go to the cafeteria first. There's food, water, and knives. Most of what we need is there so we can't just go straight to the main hall."
"Well, the cafeteria was probably empty at the time the zombies got through the gate. So hopefully, it's a smooth sail in there," Sato pointed out.
"You're right but other students and faculties probably went there as well. So hopefully they didn't barricade the doors or anything. Then we go to the main hall and hideout in an empty room there."
Takumi quickly interrupted Isamu. "WHAT?! Are you crazy? Everyone is probably there! We'll be dead in seconds!" he protested.
Isamu huffed loudly. "I know that. That's why we'll be going in there through the windows. Actually, if we could get to the roof it would be best but I've never seen the fire escape so I don't know if it goes all the way up there."
"Why the roof? Shouldn't we try to go out through the gate?" asked Denji.
"Yeah, it would be favorable but there are probably a lot of zombies around the gate since everyone was trying to get the hell out of this place. So we'll go to the roof. Hopefully, government officials are sending aid, helicopters would be nice if we are lucky. We'll make a large sign on the roof if we can. We need to be easy to spot. And the roof gives us a clear view of the entire school so we can plan more from there," Isamu explained to finish it off.
They all stared at him in awe.
"What's wrong?" asked Isamu uncomfortable with their gaze.
"Nothing, it's just you thought of all that really quick. I knew you were kinda smart but, this was just, I don't know.." Denji said looking at Isamu was amazement.
Isamu's face turned a little red as he looked away. "Oh, thanks. Anyways, that's the main layout anyway. Sounds good, right?" he asked nervously.
They all gestured in agreement along with a slight smile, bracing themselves for the horror that awaited them outside.