Chapter 2 - The Escape From the Apartment Part One

"W-What should I do...? Where was the evacuation center again...?"

I frantically run around the room.

"The nearest evacuation center from here is... yeah, it’s gotta be the high school!"

Scratching my head, I throw on my backpack.

"For now, I need to bring canned food, frozen stuff... ah, and lots of drinks too."

I rummage through the fridge with enough force to almost toss everything out, then stuff it all into my backpack.

Thud! Thud!

The sound of banging on the door grows louder and louder.

It sounds like it’s about to break down.

"Ahhh!? Wh-Wh-What do I do!? What do I do!?"

Suddenly, my eyes land on the bed.

"Th-That’s it. I’ll make a rope out of the sheets and climb down to the lower floor!"

I hastily rip off the sheets.

Then I open the balcony door and tie one end of the sheet to the railing.

Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud!

The door starts to creak under the pressure.

It’s not going to last.

"This is the sixth floor, isn’t it~!"

The cold wind wraps around my body.

If I fall, I’ll die instantly.

"M-Maybe I shouldn’t after all..."

THUD!

"Yikes! I have to hurry!"

I wedge the sheet between my legs and slowly begin to lower myself down.

Just then, with a loud BANG, the door bursts open.

In an instant, my room is flooded with weirdos.

"Aaaah~~~!"

The sight is so overwhelming that I let go.

"I-I’m falli—...!"

My vision flips upside down.

But since the sheet is wedged between my thighs, I manage not to fall.

"Uuuuuuhhh... Aaaargh..."

Just as I begin to lift my upper body, I lock eyes with a face peering down at me from the balcony.

This one actually has eyes.

But... but still!

"Half their face is missing～～～!"

You can see the skull.

It’s like a zombie.

They clumsily start to descend after me with a dragging motion.

But I can’t tear my eyes away from the face peering down.

"What the hell is this... seriously!"

While I was doing all that, I arrived at the balcony on the floor below.

I’d have to repeat this three more times.

"Feels like I’m gonna break a bone..."

I open the balcony door.

"Excuse meee~..."

I slowly step inside.

In my hand is a survival knife.

"Is anyone heeere~...?"

No response.

There’s no sign of those weirdos either.

"Heave-ho..."

For now, I pile up the table and some chairs in front of the door to make a barricade.

"Okay now, sheets, sheets..."

It’s a hassle having to find something to use as rope on each floor...

But it’s a matter of survival.

I open the sliding door that separates the bedroom.

“!!”

What lay there were the corpses of the family who had likely lived here.

The person who appeared to be the father was gripping a kitchen knife, which was deeply embedded in his own heart.

The mother and sisters had been stabbed to death with that same knife, over and over again.

One slightly bulging eye stared directly at me.

“Ugh! Gaaahh! Bleeaaahhh!”

The scene was so gruesome, and the stench so overpowering, that I couldn’t help but vomit.

But even those blood-soaked sheets had to be turned into ropes.

My mouth went sour, but I somehow held back and grabbed the sheets.

Then I hung it over the balcony again and slowly started descending.

Whoooooosh!

A sudden gust of wind blew, shaking me from side to side.

“Whoaaa!?”

I clung on desperately and somehow managed to hold on.

Relieved, I climbed down to the balcony on the lower floor.

"Uuuuuuhhh... Aaaargh..."

Inside, a female weirdo was there, approaching me.

But I had to go inside to find something to use as a rope.

“Do I have no choice but to fight…?”

I ready my survival knife.

The weirdo started slamming the window.

Cracks quickly began to spread.

"I-I’ll come at you from this side!"

I kicked the window glass with all my might.

"Grrrrhhhhh..."

The weirdo was blown backward.

But she got up immediately.

Just like a zombie.

No, she probably is a zombie.

“Come if you’re coming! Zombie son of a bitch! …Ah, maybe ‘son’ isn’t the right word…”

The zombie walks toward me with both hands stretched out in front.

“Th-this is self-defense! Take that!”

I slash at her arm with the knife.

But it doesn’t affect her at all.

“Don’t you feel any pain!?”

Panicking, I move to the other side of the table.

Then, the zombie tries to push through straight ahead, shoving the table with its body.

"Are you stupid or what?"

Endlessly, relentlessly, she just charges forward.

With those cloudy, glazed-over eyes, it really is just like a zombie.

The table isn’t very big, so if I stretch out my hand fully, I can aim for her heart.

“Take this!”

I plunged the survival knife aimed at her heart.

“Huh…? Uuuuuuuaaaaghhh!”

“It’s not working!?”

In other words, the heart isn’t beating.

Just like a real zombie.

I quickly pulled out the knife and thought for a moment.

(Other vital spots besides the heart... the brain?)

First, it’s time for practice.

I slash wildly at the face with the knife.

Gradually, the face becomes gouged out and unrecognizable.

The handle started slipping with blood, and nausea welled up inside me.

But here, I had to endure.

“Just die already! Die, die!”

However, at that moment, I realized something.

(Huh? Can a knife actually cut through a skull?)

Before even considering whether it could cut or not, the blade might chip.

So, I stopped moving the hand holding the knife, steadied it, and aimed it straight at the neck.

Shlck.

I felt an unpleasant sensation as the knife pierced the neck.

“Take this!”

I pushed the knife further upward at an angle.

Then, the zombie twitched violently and stopped moving.

“So the weak spot is the brain after all... or maybe the spinal cord... probably both. Yeah, that must be it.”

Muttering to myself in agreement, I began searching for the next rope...