Chapter 14 - The Gates That Won't Shut

They slowly descended the stairs and reached the front entrance.

Naturally, there were zombies at the entrance, too.

But zombies weren’t the only thing they had to watch out for.

For example—blood on the floor.

Blood, with its high oil content, is slick and slippery.

If you slipped and fell, you’d obviously make noise.

For this mission, stealth until reaching the gate was crucial.

All three of them hunched over, walking quietly.

Three guys walking single-file like a line of ducklings might have looked ridiculous, but for the people involved, this was life or death—they were dead serious.

And so, still in that ridiculous crouched pose, they reached the gate.

Daiki and Seiji placed their hands on the gate and nodded.

Takumi also took his stance and nodded back.

The two began pushing, their arms straining with effort, and the gate started to close.

Creeeeaaaaak… groooaaaan…

The gate slowly shut.

And that sound, of course, attracted zombies.

“T-They’re coming, Senpai!”

Daiki shouted in panic, but Takumi remained completely expressionless.

He took a deep breath.

As deep as he could—twice.

“Hmph!”

He thrust his right hand into the chest of an oncoming zombie.

“GraaaAAaahh…”

The zombie was blown back several meters.

“Haaah! Sei!”

With sharp, spirited cries, Takumi k

nocked down zombie after zombie.

“Amazing…”

Even Seiji was stunned.

Takumi was taking down the zombies without hesitation, with movements so polished and refined that they wasted not a single step. Every strike launched a zombie backward.

It was like watching a perfectly choreographed martial arts performance.

An ultimate art form.

That’s how flawless and captivating it looked.

However, the number of zombies didn’t decrease. If anything, it increased.

“Still not shut?!”

Takumi called out from within the swarm.

“Almost there!” Daiki panted in reply.

The gate was already nearly halfway closed.

Once it was fully shut, it would surely prevent any more zombies from entering.

But then—a new problem arose.

“They’re coming from the road too!”

That’s right.

Zombies weren’t just appearing from inside the school, now they were approaching from the street outside as well.

They had no choice but to interrupt the task and fight.

“Three people really was too much of a stretch, wasn’t it!? Damn it!”

Seiji slashed a zombie with his knife, then kicked at the wound to finish it off.

“RAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!”

Daiki shouted as he swung his metal bat wildly.

Though he often missed, whenever his absurd strength landed a blow on a zombie’s head, it was practically a guaranteed home run.

“This is bad, real bad!”

Zombies kept pouring in.

Like cockroaches.

No matter how many they took down, more kept appearing.

There’s that saying—“If you see one cockroach, there are thirty more.”

Here, it felt more like fifty.

Three against fifty.

And more just kept coming.

“Focus on closing the gate!”

Takumi barked the command, then pulled out a personal alarm and threw it toward the outskirts.

The zombies outside the gate were drawn toward the noise.

But this meant Takumi alone had to bear the brunt of defending against the zombies inside the school.

“Hurry it up, rugby man!”

Seiji shouted.

Considering Taiki’s build, he really did look more like a rugby player than a basketball one.

It was a strangely accurate jab.

“I’m a basketball man, dammit!!”

Daiki shouted back as he threw all his strength into pushing the gate.

But no matter how you looked at him in that moment—

He was a rugby forward in a full-blown scrum.

“It’s shut!”

The heavy gate slammed closed, becoming a wall that didn’t even let light through.

They locked it and made sure it wouldn’t budge, then turned around.

Between the front entrance and the gate writhed the dead.

A horde of ravenous corpses, arms outstretched, desperate to devour their prey as quickly as possible.

“Alright, we’re going to run at full speed. Don’t bother with the zombies unless absolutely necessary. Only fight what you have to.”

Takumi spoke firmly, and Daiki gave a deep nod.

Daiki had been terrified from the start, and the pressure placed on him must have been weighing heavily.

Perhaps he was trying to ease that fear by nodding as vigorously as he could.

Noticing this, Takumi spoke to him in as calm a tone as possible.

“You scared?”

That was all he said.

But hearing those words, Daiki nodded with a look on his face like a lost child finding their mother—or like a sinner receiving forgiveness in a confessional.

“Well, uh… I kinda joined up in the heat of the moment, you know… haha.”

Daiki scratched his head as he spoke.

It wasn’t hard to imagine he wanted to look cool in front of a girl. But still—joining a life-or-death battle for that reason?

Maybe that’s just how kids are.

Takumi, a bit exasperated, stepped in to support him.

But he didn’t quite know what to say.

After thinking for a moment, he spoke slowly.

“If you really can’t handle it, call me. I’ll figure something out.”

It was a rather offhand, almost careless remark.

But to Daiki, it sank in deeply.

(That was insanely cool… Is this what it means to be a man!?)

Daiki was moved—completely, all on his own.