"Go away already, please..."
"I'm sorry, Rei, but I'm not going to do it."
The spring breeze carried the afternoon's heat up to the rooftop. The sky looked as if someone had painted it with soft clouds, and if you didn't think about what was happening below, it seemed like a beautiful afternoon.
A boy was kneeling before a girl, squeezing the hand he held even tighter. His dark hair partially covered his forehead, and his lips bled from the bite he gave himself out of helplessness.
The girl, for her part, sat on the ground with her back against the wall. If that had been all, it wouldn't have been anything out of the ordinary.
However, besides her complexion growing paler by the second, she revealed brushstrokes of dark veins under her almost translucent skin that snaked out from the bloody circle on her neck.
"Go! I don't want you to see me like that... I... Cough!"
"Rei! Hold on!"
The boy shouted when she coughed, spitting a thread of blood.
She looked up and the sun reflected in her caramel-colored eyes, slightly dim and sad.
"Takashi-kun… you granted Hisashi-kun's wish before he died… So… you can grant mine too…"
The door that connected the stairwell to the terrace creaked constantly. The reason was the persistent pounding of the zombies. She knew there wasn't much time before the door would be broken down.
Rei coughed again.
"T-Takashi-kun… go… I'll… be fine…"
A single tear rolled down her cheek.
Takashi shook his head.
"I can't. I'm not leaving without you."
She inhaled with effort, hiding the grimace of pain, and curved her lips into a smile.
"Is it because… you love me, right? That's why… I don't want you to see me… like this."
Takashi closed his eyes in pain.
It had happened when the zombie virus broke out.
He was one of the first to realize. The moment he saw a dead teacher stand up and sink his teeth into another's neck, he ran to warn the only two people he could call friends.
Those people were Rei Miyamoto and Hisashi Igou, Rei's boyfriend.
At that moment the three of them left the classroom before they got trapped. They fought their way through the halls until they reached the rooftop.
But Hisashi was bitten by one of those he called 'them'. Maybe it wouldn't have happened if he'd used a broom like Rei or a baseball bat like Takashi.
However, since he was a black belt in karate, he relied more on the strength of his own body to defend himself.
Unfortunately his fists couldn't match the hunger of the dead. And try as he might to deny or ignore it, the infection spread quite quickly.
On the rooftop, Takashi had to raise his baseball bat and finish off his friend turned zombie.
Before they could process that loss, another zombie appeared.
It was much larger than the others. It also moved quickly.
It lunged at Rei and sank its teeth into her neck. Takashi managed to open the valve on the emergency water hose and train the powerful jet on the zombie.
The impact made it lose its balance and it fell over the railing straight to the ground.
If it hadn't been for that hose, the two of them would be dead now. Or maybe they'd be walking among the others without a soul and without will.
Still, the only one left intact was Takashi, while Rei was being consumed by the infection.
"I won't let you become one of them. I promise I'll find a way to save you. I swear I won't let you go."
Rei closed her eyes and thought he was very stubborn.
How could he even help her? Much less save her. There was no way to stop the infection. If she'd been bitten on the arm, maybe cutting the arm off immediately would work to stop the virus's advance, but she'd been bitten on the neck.
In a few minutes she'd die. Then she'd open her eyes. She'd look at him and attack him like one of them.
And she didn't want that to happen.
—Cough!
"Rei!"
She started coughing hard. Tiny drops of blood stained her hands, which covered her mouth.
The girl's eyes went out. Slowly, the light faded.
Her chest rose and fell erratically.
Until it stopped.
"Rei! REI!" Takashi grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her.
"No… don't do this to me…!"
But her head fell to the side, hanging weakly. She looked like a puppet that had lost its strings.
Despite the heat, a cold wind scraped up from the ground across Takashi's face.
He stood up slowly as he retreated.
No. No. No.
It couldn't be real.
His back hit the rooftop railing and yet he didn't stop. Whether from the force with which it was gripped or from fear, the bat in his hand trembled.
"..."
She had begged him not to let her become one of them. But now that he faced that decision…
He realized he couldn't do it.
He had killed Hisashi. He had raised the bat and done it without hesitation.
But now…
Rei…
He couldn't lift the bat to repeat what he'd done with Hisashi.
—Crash!
A loud bang came from the door, snapping Takashi out of his paralysis.
The rooftop door crashed open, and five staggering figures crawled toward him. Their eyes were glassy, jaws snapping as they opened and closed their mouths.
Takashi lowered his gaze and hid his expression beneath his bangs. Saying nothing, he bit his lip, tightened his grip on the bat, and turned.
—Hit!
—Hit!
—Hit!
The zombies fell one by one before him. Clearly driven by rage, he made the bat slam mercilessly into the zombies' heads.
And then he went down the stairs without looking back, his steps heavy.
×××
In the middle of the hallway lit by the orange glow of the setting sun that crept through the open door, Takashi stopped.
In front of him, coming up the same flight of stairs, there was a boy.
He had snow-white hair and a clean tunic without a spot of blood that billowed with each step.
He didn't seem of this world.
Takashi didn't know him, and in the world before the apocalypse, that appearance would have made him stand out among the students. However, Takashi didn't care about anyone else right now.
The boy passed by without saying a word.
He, however, gave him a light smile.
"I see. I guess someone's interfering…"
Takashi frowned, ignored him, and continued on his way.
×××
And on the rooftop...
Where the sun no longer shone so brightly, where the blood had dried, and the wind was the only thing making a sound...
Rei's eyelids moved, and then they rose.
Her breathing was almost nonexistent and her lips trembled a little before parting.
"I'm sorry, Takashi-kun…"
She had faked it. Yes, she'd pretended to be dead.
And she hoped he'd believe it. She didn't want him to see the end. She didn't want him to see what she was about to become.
She coughed hard and her gaze got lost in the orange sky. In the distance, the sun sank between the clouds and the smoke rising from the city.
She felt the cold creeping up from her feet. Crawling over her numb body. Her neck still burned from the bite. There wasn't much time left. And she knew it.
Her eyes were closing again. The blinking slowed.
And then...
It was like when one falls asleep staring at the ceiling. Darkness advanced, wrapped her, and she couldn't do anything to stop it.
Soon she no longer felt the pain in her neck, nor her breathing, nor the warmth of her body, nor the cold of the floor and the wall.
She died.
And it happened that in the darkness that covered her vision, the figure of a being of light was projected.
Rei didn't react immediately. Instead, she was confused. Hadn't she died?
"Tell me, child. Do you wish for a second chance?"
×××
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