Chapter 16 - The Cleaning Up Team and Zombies

The Cleaning Team encountered zombies the moment they stepped into the hallway.

However, knowing that the supply retrieval team would be arriving soon, starting a fight here would be a bad idea.

Takumi signaled to the others with a hand gesture not to engage, then calmly walked past the zombies.

If they were going to fight, it needed to be in a place where they wouldn’t risk being surrounded, ideally somewhere with a single point of entry.

A hallway might be good for that, but it was a bit too narrow for swinging bats and the like.

Ideally, somewhere a bit more spacious would be better.

They began to climb the stairs.

There was no way to silence the sound of their steps, and a few zombies began to gather.

All of them were slowly making their way down from the upper floor.

Earlier, they'd agreed that fighting in the hallway wasn't ideal, but it seemed like this battle couldn’t be avoided.

Accepting that, Takumi spoke up.

“We're doing this.”

Everyone present heard his words and braced themselves.

Takumi punched the lead zombie in the left cheek, and as it staggered, he grabbed its head and slammed it against the wall.

With a squelching sound, the zombie’s face was crushed.

Takumi pressed forward, and Shinji finished off the zombie whose face had been smashed with a blow from his bat.

It's common to compare a cracked head to a 'pomegranate,' and seeing the shattered skull, he once again thought so.

The way blood and brain matter blossomed like flowers on the floor gave the impression of a fruit that had fallen and split open.

He somehow feel it’s closer to a tomato.

However, it doesn’t look quite that soft.

So, the pomegranate still seems like the perfect comparison.

They ran up the stairs and came out into a slightly wider space.

It was a point where hallways from the north, east, and west converged, and zombies were closing in from all three directions.

Seiji moved east, Ryu and Shinji headed west, and Takumi moved north.

At the center of the formation, Yuuki notched an arrow.

“Everyone, start the attack! Make it flashy!”

“Got it!”

Seiji changed his shoes.

They were baseball spikes he had found earlier near the student entrance.

From the east side, a dozen or so zombies were approaching.

“There are more of them here than anywhere else! Give me backup!”

Seiji shouted toward the rear.

Just then, an arrow whizzed right past his side, and the closest zombie toppled over.

“Could you please be quiet? It’s distracting.”

Yuuki said coldly, as if recognizing Seiji himself as prey.

“…What a rude one.”

Immediately after, an arrow grazed just a few centimeters beside Seiji’s cheek.

Seiji let out a deep sigh and punched a zombie that was approaching again with a hole-punch strike.

Seiji held two hole punches like boxing gloves, jabbed the zombie’s stomach, and snapped its jaw upward.

Then he moved close to the fallen zombie and stomped on its head.

Over and over again.

Wearing spikes in the hallway made walking very difficult, but not to the point of falling.

Then he punched the stomach of a zombie leaning against the hallway wall, knocking it down.

The fallen zombie tried to lift its head to stand up, but was shot through with an arrow.

And in the blink of an eye, he took down over a dozen zombies.

“Haah… this is tough…”

He felt his legs growing a little heavy from fatigue.

But from down the hallway, a zombie was staggering toward him.

“Give me at least a break.”

Muttering that, he delivered a powerful right straight to the zombie’s face.

“Arrgh... uuugh, shut up! You’re so damn annoying!”

Half-irritated, he kept punching the zombies.

Right now, to Seiji, the zombies looked no different from punching bags.

Meanwhile, on the west side.

There were relatively fewer zombies here, with only a few approaching, reaching out their hands.

Ryuu stopped, holding his bat ready.

Unconsciously, he rubbed his right thumb and index finger together.

It’s always like this.

Even when giving speeches in front of the entire school, he always rubs his fingers like this.

It had become a habit before he even realized it.

As the saying goes, "Everyone has their quirks," meaning everyone has some kind of habit.

He had accepted it that way, but now that this habit had surfaced, he analyzed himself as probably being quite nervous.

It’s okay, you’re not alone.

Shouda-senpai is with me too.

It’s okay, it’s okay.

Once again, he tightened his grip on the bat.

“Wooooahhh—!”

He swung the bat sideways, plunging it into the zombie’s neck.

With a sickening crack and a feeling he’d never experienced before—the sensation of bones breaking—the zombie was slammed against the wall.

I can do this.

He felt a definite sense of impact.

And on the north side.

Takumi was loosening up his muscles just like before a match.

He rolled his shoulders, stretched his leg tendons, and prepared himself.

After finishing his warm-up routine, Takumi fixed his gaze on the zombie approaching straight ahead.

During matches, he used to look his opponent in the eyes.

By looking into their eyes, he could read their determination and predict where they would strike.

His father had taught him that such insight and the tactical mind games with opponents were the true essence of karate.

But zombies have cloudy, milky eyes, so it was impossible to read their intentions.

In other words, while he might use some insight, there was almost no mind game involved.

As he thrust at the zombie before him, he felt a bit disappointed.

This isn’t a match.

It’s just a task.

Even knowing this, his body still craved that excitement once more.

And to get that thrill, he tried out various techniques.

But no matter how many zombies he killed again, he never felt truly satisfied.