I made the chapter a bit bigger than I planned, and that took more time.

—-

Saya watched as the abomination raised its arms and lunged at Rei, who unconsciously raised the mop handle to block, but her hands trembled in the face of superhuman strength.

“Rei! Stab him!” Hisashi shouted.

Rei snapped back from fear and pushed the undead.  She spouted a curse and brandished the mop handle like a spear and swung it skillfully to knock back the abomination.

Lastly, she let go of all hesitation and stabbed at the heart of the undead; the metal nail at the top of the mop handle pierced its heart and hoisted its body.

Saya had to praise the Sojustu skills of the fickle girl. 

‘I can do it too. I’m a genius, after all.’

However, in the next moment, all her haughtiness faded into oblivion. The abomination twisted its head and jerked its whole body, causing Rei to crash into the railing of the walkway. She released a pained scream, but the abomination charged at Rei as though the blood flowing from its heart was a joke.

Before it could attack Rei, Hisashi locked his arms around its neck and pulled it back.

Saya’s eyes widened, and the blood drained from her face when the abomination twisted its neck to 180 degrees and sunk its teeth into Hisashi’s hands.

“Argh!!!”

Fear gripped her heart, while her genius mind went numb, unable to form any thoughts.

But the scene of Rei desperately smashing the stick against the abomination pulled her back.

“A Takagi can never admit defeat.”

She whispered the line her father used to say and jerked her head back to find Komuro holding the bat defensively.

“Komuro! Help them, do something!”

Her yelling awoke Komuro from his stupor, and he rushed at the abomination. Without any hesitation, he smacked the aluminum bat on its head.

*Crack!*

The abomination’s skull cracked open, and a rain of blood flowed, splashing over the trio.

It took them a while to recover from their first kill. After Hisashi covered his wound with his shirt, the four of them began running toward the admin building.

But they face a horde of abominations wandering in the corridor leading to the exit gate of the admin building.

“How is that even possible!?” Rei despaired, almost breaking down. “They are all students of our academy.”

Saya scrutinized the abominations, their numbers definitely looked overwhelming, but they were scattered. She also noticed that even after standing in plain sight, none attacked them.

Saya searched around, and with a stroke of good luck, she discovered a pen on the ground. She quickly grabbed it before tossing it toward the stairs leading up.

The lazy abominations instantaneously became active as they all threw themselves in the direction of the pen.

“Bingo! I found their weakness. They only react to the noise.” Saya told her discovery.

The trio was amazed for a moment, making Saya smile even more widely.

“Still, we can’t go from here. How are they multiplying so fast?” Komuro inquired before he gazed into the distance with blank eyes as if reminiscing about some bad memories. “And that woman with Marikawa-sensei’s brother… She cut their head off in one move…”

Saya’s eyebrow shot high in surprise. “Marikawa-san? Which woman? It reminds me… have you noticed that the number of females is rather scarce compared to males?”

Others nodded their heads at her assumption.

“We only have two choices now. One, we stay in the observatory room on the roof till help arrives.” Hisashi spoke. “Or we go around and exit from the main gate of the school.”

Right now, they stood at the furthest building from the main gate. 

Rei looked at Hisashi’s wounded hand with a worried expression. “I’m taking the second. I… I want to see my parents, and your injury will only get worse here.”

“I’m also the same,” Komuro replied in a worried voice.

Saya nodded her head. She also wanted to check up on her mother. “Then let’s get going.”

So, the group went back to the same route. This time, they tried to be as sneaky as possible. 

Hisashi’s situation got worse on the way. His face paled as if he was sick for days.

Saya realized this all seemed similar to a genre of movies.

Zombie.

One bite and only death await you.

And right now, one person in the group had 90% chances of being infected.

Saya swept her gaze over the trio, who had no idea about this threat or they knew and just didn’t want to admit it.

‘Sometimes, I hate my wits.’

They arrived in an eerily silent corridor. Komuro’s grip around the metal tightened.

Saya also felt something odd here as if this calmness was just a prelude to the storm.

“Wait, guys. I think we should go back.” Saya tried to keep her voice at a minimum.

“Yeah, I think s— Cough! Cough!”

Hisashi clutched his chest, bent over and coughed up blood.

*Roar!!!*

A beastly roar resounded in the corridor, almost freezing their blood.

Saya’s legs started trembling. She gritted her teeth in an attempt to control the innate fear rising inside her.

*Bam!*

Some object came flying her way. She looked closer to find it was a gate…

A figure walked out of the room. When Saya gazed upon it, her heart almost froze in shock and fear….