Chapter 16 - The Cleaning Up Team and Zombies

As soon as the cleaning up team went out to the hallway, they met zombies.

However, they knew that the supply procurement team would come out soon, and fighting here would be problematic.

Takumi conveyed with his hands that they wouldn’t fight, and slowly walked past the side of the zombie.

If they would fight, he wished for a place with one-way traffic so that they wouldn’t be surrounded.

When it came to that, the hallway would be a bit narrow to swing a bat.

If possible, he wanted a place that was a little wider.

He started climbing up the stairs.

Since they were unable to muffle the sound when going up the stairs, the zombies gathered and came after them.

They all came from above the stairs on the floor above.

He had said earlier that fighting in the hallway wasn’t desirable, but it seemed like they couldn’t avoid this fight.

Thinking there was no other way, Daiki said,

“Let’s do it.”

Everyone at that place heard those words and braced themselves.

Takumi hit the left cheek of the zombie in the lead, grabbed the head as it staggered, and smashed it into the wall.

The zombie’s face was smashed in with a crushing sound.

Takumi moved forward, and Shinji killed the zombie that was smashed against the wall with a bat.

An expression for smashing a head is often compared to “like a pomegranate”, and seeing the smashed skull, he once again thought so.

The view of blood and spinal fluid enlivening the floor gave the impression of fruit falling down and becoming crushed against the ground.

If anything, it was close to a tomato.

However, it didn’t look that supple.

If we assume that, a pomegranate was just perfect.

Running up the stairs, they reached a slightly wider place.

It was the spot where the northern, eastern, and western hallways ended, and zombies were approaching from those three sides.

Seiji took the east, Ryu and Shinji took the west, and Takumi moved toward the north.

And then, Yuuki fixed an arrow to the string in the center of the battle formation.

“Everyone, start attacking! We’ll do it flashy!”

“Understood!”

Seiji changed his shoes.

He had found baseball spikes from a student by the entrance a short while ago.

Around ten zombies came from the eastern side.

“The numbers are higher here! Cover me!”

Seiji said, turning towards the back.

After doing that, an arrow passed by directly beside him and turned over a zombie.

“Could you please be quiet, it distracts me?”

Yuuki said coldly like she also saw Seiji as the prey.

“...What an uncute person.”

Immediately following, an arrow passed by only a few centimeters from his cheek.

Seiji gave a big sigh and made a drilling punch to a zombie that once again came close.

Seiji gave two drilling punches like he was wearing boxing gloves, and hit the zombie’s stomach and jaw.

Then, he crushed the head of the zombie fallen down with his foot.

Again, and again.

Although it was hard to walk with the spikes in the hallway, it wasn’t to the point of falling.

And then, holding the wall, he punched the stomach of a zombie, bringing it down.

The fallen zombie raised its head, trying to get up, and an arrow pierced right through it.

And then, after taking down about ten zombies, he was exhausted.

“Hah… How harsh…”

He felt like his legs had grown heavier from fatigue.

Still, zombies came staggering from the hallway.

“At least let me rest a little.”

Grumbling that, he met the zombie’s face with his right straight.

“Shut up with the ‘aa, uu’! How annoying!”

He continued punching the zombies half as sharply as before.

It was inevitable for the Seiji right now to not see the zombies as sandbags.

The west side.

The numbers were somewhat lower here, and zombies only came toward him with their hands reaching out.

Ryu stopped gripping the bat.

He unconsciously rubbed his right thumb and index finger together.

It had always been like that.

When he was making a speech in front of the whole student body, he always rubbed his fingers together like this.

Before he knew it, it had become a habit.

It followed the saying that everyone had their own peculiar habits no matter who.

When he analyzed it, he figured out that it was a habit he did whenever he was nervous.

It was fine, he wasn’t alone.

Senior Shouda was there as well.

It’s fine, it’s fine.

Clutching the grip once again, he put force into his arms.

“Arrrghh!”

Swinging the bat sideways, it sunk into the neck of a zombie.

It gave off a disgusting sound as he slammed the zombie into the wall, and he felt the sensation of bones breaking that he had never felt before.

It was alive.

He definitely felt a response.

And then, the northern side.

Like before a match, Takumi loosened the muscles.

He prepared by rolling his shoulders and stretching the tendons in the legs.

Finishing the warming up, Takumi fixed his gaze on the zombie in the front.

During a match, he would be looking at the opponent’s eyes.

If he looked into them, he would find out everything from their enthusiasm to the place they would aim at.

His father had told him that this type of perception and strategy against the opponent was the real thrill of karate.

However, since the zombies’ eyes were cloudy, he couldn’t perceive their movements.

In other words, while he might be able to use his perception, he basically couldn’t strategize.

While stabbing the zombie in front of him with his hand, he dropped his shoulders because of the unsatisfactory feeling.

It wasn’t a match like this.

Only work.

Even though he understood it, his body still wished for that excitement.

And then, to be able to attain that excitement, he made all sorts of moves.

However, no matter how he defeated the zombies, he didn’t feel satisfied.