Chapter 8 - The Odd Couple

A chubby guy and a tall guy sprint down the hallway.

“This is bad! Seriously!”

The chubby guy gasped as he spoke.

“Yeah, it’s crazy! Everyone’s turning into zombies!”

The tall guy sounded a bit worn out too.

Ahead of them was the cooking classroom.

“Let’s get in here!”

“Okay!”

They dove inside and locked the door.

“Huff, huff… haah. Man, this is tough…”

“Pant, pant, I can't run anymore..."

Both of them sat down, unable to move.

The chubby guy's name was Ryuu Kamata.

And the tall guy was Rei Shimura.

Both were in Class 1-3.

Even though they only met after entering high school, they had hit it off talking excitedly about a certain robot anime, and now they were best friends.

"If it's the cooking classroom, there should be knives and stuff..."

Ryuu muttered.

"Huh? You mean...?"

“Yeah. It seems like if you get bitten, you’ll get infected, so we at least need to have some weapons.”

“Is that really okay...?”

Ryuu handed Rei a kitchen knife.

“Well, I guess it’ll be justified as self-defense, so maybe it’ll work out somehow.”

“No way—we’ll get caught once this chaos settles down, won’t we?!”

“If it settles down... yeah.”

Getting bitten means infection.

It might seem inefficient at first glance, but in reality, it’s terrifying.

Because if you get bitten, you’ll be infected—100% guaranteed.

And the people who get bitten also turn into zombies and start attacking others.

Their numbers grow exponentially, like a chain reaction.

On top of that, the sound of sirens can be heard all across town.

Which likely means that most of the people in the city have already joined the ranks of the zombies.

It’s even possible that they’re the only survivors left in this school.

The situation is far more serious than it appears.

"Anyway, the real question is how we’re going to get rescued…"

"Yeah, seriously…"

Just then, a single zombie slowly rose up from the back of the cooking classroom.

“Y-You’re…”

The zombie was wearing glasses.

It was Shinta — one of Ryuu and Rei’s clubmates, someone they often hung out with.

“Hey… Shin-chan, no way, right? Why the hell would you turn into a zombie…?”

Rei stood frozen in disbelief.

Ryuu nudged him with his elbow, signaling for him to hold the kitchen knife.

Rei gripped the knife tightly.

Ryuu said,

“It’s probably just zombie Shin-chan in here. Think about it — there’s two of us, and only one of him. Two against one.”

“Yeah.”

"It pains me, but we have to kill before we’re killed."

"…Got it."

He raised his hand against a friend.

Normally, anyone would hesitate, maybe even protest.

Normally.

But in a situation this abnormal, common sense meant nothing.

On top of that, with a clear threat standing before them—and the advantage in numbers—

There was no reason not to eliminate it.

Ryuu and Rei, relatively calmly, steeled themselves to kill what was once a person.

It was like spotting a cockroach and having insect spray right within reach.

Ryuu exhaled slowly and rolled his shoulders to loosen up.

Then he gave Rei a signal with his eyes.

Rei nodded.

"Forgive us!"

"Sorry!"

Each spoke the thoughts in their heart as they swung their kitchen knives.

The two knives stabbed into the zombie’s head from both sides, and the zombie’s head was hanging by just a single layer of skin.

However, the zombie was still moving its limbs.

"One more time!"

Ryuu pulled his knife out of the zombie’s head, stepped back, and again jabbed the knife at the nape of its neck.

The tip of the knife didn’t sever the spine but sliced through the skin on the left side.

The zombie collapsed.

Heavy breathing filled the home economics room.

“...Grrrgh…ughkkk!”

Rei vomited.

Ryuu also held back his nausea.

He had just killed someone who had been alive only a few hours ago.

The skin on the neck was gouged out, revealing the bone beneath.

And then, there was a massive amount of bleeding caused by the rupture of the carotid artery.

However, since the heart had stopped, the actual volume of blood wasn’t that much, but for ordinary high school students who had only ever seen bleeding from minor injuries, it was somewhat too shocking.

"Damn it... What the hell is going on... Damn it..."

Ryuu muttered while covering his mouth.

His tone was a mixture of anger and helplessness.

At that moment.

Ding-dong, ding-dong.

The chime rang.

They instinctively stared at the speaker.

“—Hello, hello. Survivors inside the school, can you hear me—?”

Ryuu and Rei couldn’t believe their ears. Who would be calmly making announcements in a situation like this?