Day: 2
Location: Kirishima High -Ground Floor - Parking Lot
Time: 10:27 A.M
Remaining time before Night: 7 hours and 33 minutes left
Multiple zombies emerge from every corner of the school, making everyone start to feel the danger encroaching.
"What is going on?! We haven't done anything that would signal the zombies of our location!" Souichi killed a zombie while also making sure not a single zombie came close.
"No idea. The repairs are totally quiet, and yet the situation is getting worse." Kyosei did not show panic, but it was also clear on his face that the situation was quite dire.
The zombies continued to show up from every corner of the parking lot without any signs that the horde would stop. The rain of zombies from the classrooms was also quite a grim sight as well
"Hey, how long before the repairs are done? We are getting surrounded!" Kyosei asked with urgency in his voice.
Nejima answered Kyosei, "As much as we wanted to rush here, we needed to do some minor maintenance on the whole engine of the bus. We couldn't afford to have the engine to burst into flames or fail in the middle of a horde! Please give us at least around 5...no, give us 10 minutes maximum!"
Okabe frowned. "Isn't that too long?!"
"Don't blame them. If the car's engine is too damaged, it needs repairs that take time, and as they said, it is not a good thing to get stuck in a horde. We can't complain and wait for them to finish this!" Chie became the voice of reason for Okabe, and as much as he wanted to say something back, the zombies were approaching fast.
Kyosei and the others continued to defend the bus while the others inside the bus feared for the fighters outside, but without any way to contribute, they could only watch the onslaught continue.
"Sis! How's the situation?! Is the horde still increasing as we speak?!"
"Yes! It seemed like it attracted all of the current zombies present inside the school to crowd us!"
"The f*ck is going on?! Don't tell me we are actually in a game and we have an invisible mission that was triggered?" Souichi frowned.
"Don't be absurd, Brother. We are in an actual apocalypse now; there must be something that is attracting the dead here instead of the thing you mentioned! As if we are in a fantasy series! This is a global crisis!" Nanami did not tolerate what her brother said. She refused to believe that they are thrown in a world where a game or novel had mixed in with reality.
Countless dead bodies have piled up around the group, who are still struggling to defend against the whole horde approaching. And they have to defend it for a few more minutes while the repairs are still ongoing.
"Sh*t...I am running on fumes..." Okabe started panting as he stomped the zombie's head beneath his feet.
"Same here..." Chie looked haggard as well after they had dispatched a few of the zombies.
And even with tiredness, the horde is not stopping, and they are slowly crowding.
"Done! Finally done!" Nejima exclaimed in relief, giving a surge of energy to everyone.
"Get inside! I will cover you all," Kyosei quickly dispatched a few more zombies again as the others scampered their way inside the bus.
"Kyosei, get inside now, go!" Mr. Leo shouted.
After Kyosei kicked the zombie trying to reach him, he immediately climbed inside the bus, and Mr. Leo quickly closed the door. The door closed shut and the zombies started crowding outside the door.
"Will the door even last long!? That's a lot of them!" Mrs. Haruna is shivering in fear, while being comforted by Cindy, who is also shaking in fear.
"Not for long." Mr. Leo immediately slots the key into the ignition and turns it.
The engine started to make noises, but it didn't immediately turn on. Everyone is now sweating as they are alternating to look at Mr. Leo to try to turn on the engine, and the zombies are now trying to climb the front and banging on the automatic door.
"Nejima, you sure you didn't make the work half-assed? We can't get out there and fix it with all these zombies blocking our way out!" Souichi is also feeling restless.
"Yeah! The engine should work now. All we can do now is wait and see if the bus engine will work with us!" Nejima insisted.
Everyone is looking anxious now as they keep on hearing the banging sound of the automatic door. The more they bang on it, the more they feel like the door is getting ready to detach from the hinges.
"Come on, come on!" Mr. Leo is also panicking despite trying his best to remain calm. It's not easy to remain calm while the zombies are now trying their best to break the glass and door.
As if their prayers have been answered, Mr. Leo turned the key again to start the engine, and instead of repeating the same noises as earlier, the engine finally flared to life, releasing a mighty roar, ready to move.
"Hold on tight! We are gonna go full speed ahead!"
Mr. Leo hit the gas, and the bus moved forward, bulldozing all of the zombies at the front. The other zombies that were trying to climb the front all got sent flying a short distance, while the others flocking got run over as the bus escaped the horde that is trying to trap it from moving.
They managed to get away, but the gate is still closed, and a few zombies are already on the gate.
"Sh*t! The gate is still locked!"
Kyosei immediately moves forward. "I will open the gate. Mr. Leo, get ready to hit the gas as soon as I open it!"
"What about you?!" Mr. Leo frowned.
"Don't worry about me, I will catch up to you guys."
Mr. Leo sighed before opening the door. Kyosei quickly leaped out and started sprinting towards the gate. As soon as he reached the gate, he immediately performed a drop kick on the gate, causing the zombies that were latching onto the gate to get their hands off the metal railings, allowing Kyosei to quickly open the closed gate without any zombies trying to grab hold of him.
"Dang, that must've hurt." Souichi seemed to resonate with what Kyosei felt as he dropkicked the gate.
"But admit it, that was effective in getting rid of the zombies temporarily," Chie said with a grin.
"True. I won't even think about doing something like that myself, and yet this guy is doing it like nothing."
As soon as the two gates swung open, the zombies outside started marching inside, eyeing Kyosei, who started running towards the bus.
Mr. Leo reopened the bus door, and before the bus could fully accelerate, Kyosei jumped inside and kicked the zombie that managed to catch up to him.
"Close the door now!"
Mr. Leo immediately did, and as soon as the door closed, he hit the gas and did not care whether the bus would ram a zombie or not; the most important thing was that they could leave the hellhole and survive.
Everyone burst into celebration as soon as they got out, leaving the horde behind them as they escaped with only Kyosei not too happy with the situation.
As he was being helped by Miyuki to stand up, Kyosei immediately dropped the truth bomb, ruining the little happiness that the group was feeling at that moment.
"Sorry to ruin this moment, but we aren't out of danger just yet. In fact, we are just plunging ourselves deeper into the danger. At school, the danger is isolated and contained in a single place. But now that we are out and about here on the city, that also means we won't just be dealing with the regular zombies, but also the survivors as well."
"What's wrong with survivors? Isn't our goal leaving is to search for someone else who are still alive immediately?"
Kyosei shook his head. "We are not the rescue personnel, nor are we military. We are civilians, and we don't have the capacity to accept more survivors inside the bus. Our numbers are already on the high side, which means supplies are also going to run out faster. If we drag in another survivor, the reality hits, and we will need a bigger food and water supply to cater to everyone. I could understand if it was just us since we all came from the same school, but what about these strangers? Are they even worthy of trust to begin with?"
Everyone went quiet. Mr. Leo added insult to injury as he backed up Kyosei's remarks.
"I do agree with Kyosei. Our situation is not going to be good now. We don't even know whether the zombies are gonna repeat the same thing they did last night. Are we prepared to keep this bus protected if those mutated zombies suddenly attack the bus?"
Chie who is chilling on the side, made a comment about Kyosei's behavior just now.
"You really decided to do that after we managed to get out of danger, Kyosei? Come on, you are such a killjoy. Let everyone at least celebrate for a small win."
Heavy silence returned to the bus. Kyosei sighed and shook his head. Although he did drop the truth bomb there, he didn't mean to actually bring the mood down. However, since the situation seemed to be hard to salvage, he decided to just continue with it.
"The best thing you guys should do is to relax and have a rest. Until we find a place we can stay for the night or even a store we can go and loot, then rest while there's nothing much going on. We will all need it."
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Day: 2
Location: Osaka Main Road (Location not yet determined)
Time: 12:00 P.M
Remaining time before Night: 6 hours left
Around two hours after the group managed to leave the school grounds with the bus, a slight reprieve finally dawned on the group as the bus continued to move along the road while looking for their way to a safe place where they could stop for the time being.
The girls who were shivering earlier drifted to sleep, with only Miyuki and Nanami still awake, while the boys were relaxing, yet still alert and ready to fight if things suddenly started moving toward a bad direction.
"It's been two hours since we left the school, and I thought it would be more panic, and more people would be outside, trying to loot the whole place. And yet the busy streets are all barren, and the cars are all abandoned to the side of the road," Miyuki made a small comment to break the silence looming inside the bus.
"Probably because of that horde thing that happened with us last night. You know...what does Chie call that?" Souichi looked at his sister as he tried to recall the actual name that Chie dubbed that event.
"Night Rage, brother."
"Yeah, yeah. The Night Rage. With how the horde suddenly swarmed us that night, isn't it the same thing to the other people as well? Fatalities would be really high if each person's house had been swarmed like that. Doubt that thing only happened to us."
"Very possible. And without any real guns we can use to fight the dead, aren't they just sitting duck? In a zombie apocalypse, having a gun as a weapon is the most basic thing that one should have, right?"
Okabe joined in the conversation. "As if we have a way to get access to those guns. I heard those guns are only accessible in closed doors by licensed hunters and real firearms handlers. Model guns and airsoft guns, sure. But real guns? Even a single pistol is rare."
"Yeah. I know the law helped Japan become safe from any gun-wielding people committing crimes, but during these kinds of events, us civilians who have no way of knowing where to find those guns are at a disadvantage," Souichi sighed.
Kyosei who is listening on the side, decided to say his piece.
"If we are talking about guns, I have a gun here with me. It's not practical, but it is one of the guns they said to be quite strong and dangerous to wield if the user doesn't have any history of using any guns."
The boys looked at Kyosei in shock. Even Mr. Leo slowed the bus as Kyosei pulled out the .357 Magnum.
"Holy sh*t, a revolver?! And you have that with you all the time?!" Souichi was in total surprise after seeing the gun in person. "Not to mention, isn't this the Colt Python variant? Similar to the gun used in Lupin the 3rd?"
"Is it? I have no idea, just that it is called a .357 Magnum and is very hard to use unless one is already trained to shoot it," Kyosei said before putting the gun away.
"How many bullets do you still have with you, Kyosei?" Nanami asked.
"Two boxes plus the six bullets inside the cylinder, I would say 46 bullets overall."
Hearing that, the others frowned. "That's quite small, Kyosei. I thought we wouldn't have much of an issue against the zombies during the Night Rage now that we have a gun, but the ammunition is the problem. 46 would just immediately run out in a few shots." Souichi shook his head in disappointment.
"That's why I haven't used it. Doing some practice shots would have helped me get used to the gun, but I am not too familiar with it. And is it even wise to use a gun during Night Rage? I think that would just attract more danger to the bus if we fire this gun. I heard this is quite loud. Keeping the bus on the move would have been the better option here if we want to avoid the horde from continuously pouring throughout the night."
Mr. Leo sighed. "If we needed to keep the bus running all night, that also meant we needed a lot of gas as well and a way to refuel it without going outside."
"Wait, are we running out of fuel?" Miyuki asked.
"The bus has been running for an hour now. We have burned quite a lot of fuel during that time. Right now, we only have at least half a tank, maybe even less, and I have no idea how long the gas will last. We need to refuel soon if we want to keep the bus running up until later."
"Not to mention, we will also need food and water as well." Nanami looked at everybody.
Kyosei sighed before turning to Nanami. "Nanami, you mentioned that you downloaded some maps earlier, right? Can you track down where we are and if there is a nearby gas station and a small mart we can loot? Let's get this done real quick."