Volume 1 - Chapter 8

Police Station, Part 1

I watched Aiko as she navigated her car through the narrow streets of Kanonji, her eyes scanning the area for any signs of danger.

The road between Iseki Pond and the Onohara Police Station was littered with abandoned vehicles and debris.

I had no doubt those other drivers fled in a hurry but still ended up as zombies anyway. One thing I couldn't shake was how everything looked staged, as if the entire world had been designed to look like a zombie apocalypse.

We passed by a small park on the left, the swings and slides eerily still. The silence was broken only by moans from the undead.

A few zombies staggered towards us, drawn by the sound of our engine, but Aiko expertly maneuvered around them.

Storefronts were smashed, their contents spilling out onto the sidewalk. A burnt-out bus blocked part of the road, forcing Aiko to take a detour. The acrid smell of smoke filled the air, making my eyes water.

Aiko's grip tightened on the steering wheel as we neared the police station.

“Be ready for anything," she said, her voice tense.

I nodded, heart pounding heavy.

She took a left turn off the main road and we drove by some small fields. I could see distant mountains to my left and buildings to my right.

The road curved a bit and the police station came into view. It was actually a set of buildings on the right, next to the city hall and the welfare center.

Aiko pulled into a mostly empty parking lot and found a spot underneath the carport.

I didn't see any zombies in our immediate area, but it was the city and there had to be some.

“Okay,” Aiko said, “we are here.”

“Maybe we should park the other way,” Chiemi said, “in case we have to make a quick getaway.”

Aiko nodded, “oh, yeah, good thinking.”

She turned the car around and then cut off the engine. Looking around, I could see two kei trucks and three white one-boxes parked in the rear, next to a single patoka.

“Okay, are we ready?” Aiko asked.

I was nervous but also as ready as I ever would be.

Aiko and Chiemi stepped out first and then I got out at the same time as Ryotaro. We closed the doors gently and kept our eyes vigilant for any signs of danger.

“Back door?” Ryotaro whispered.

I looked and saw a glass door that had already been shattered to pieces. That wasn't a good sign.

“Let’s go,” Aiko lead us towards the small station.

I would do anything Aiko told me, and I was the first one to follow her. She carried her baseball bat and I still had the long pointy butcher knife.

I knew I kept calling it that but I figured it was technically a santoku. The big kitchen utensil was perfect for slicing, chopping, and cutting.

Ryotaro and Chiemi both had baseball bats that Aiko gave them. I felt more comfortable with the knife since I never played baseball.

We reached the entrance and glass pieces crunched underneath our shoes. We cautiously stepped inside, careful not to get cut by sharp edges. The lobby was empty, but there were signs of a struggle.

Overturned chairs, broken glass, and bloodstains covered the floor. Aiko motioned for us to keep on, and we made our way down the single hallway to a room that looked secure.

It was the only doorway with a metal frame. There were dents, dings, and scratches near the doorknob and frame. Someone had already tried to break in with a prybar but had no luck.

Aiko looked at me before reaching for the handle. I didn't wait for her to do it. She needed to know I could and would pull my own weight in the group. I stepped forward and grabbed the doorknob, but it was locked.

I tried a few times but it was very secure. suddenly feeling weak in front of Aiko, I was embarrassed instead.

When I had no luck, they each had to try turning the knob as well. No one could get in.

I asked, “what do you think is in there?”

“Either guns, evidence, or paperwork,” Ryotaro said, “the other doors are not locked.”

“Whatever it is, it’s important,” Aiko agreed. "Somebody else already tried."

I looked back down the hallway. It made sense. This was the only room in the building that was secured.

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Chiemi started looking around. “Maybe we can find a key.”

We all split up in the small structure, looking through different rooms for anything that could help us.

After the others chose rooms I looked around again. It was clear the last few minutes of law and order in this place was an undoing of the social fabric.

I headed towards a room no one else went into. Inside, I found desks and shelves filled with various processing items: blank forms, gloves, empty storage containers, printers, and other office things.

As I turned to leave, I heard a noise coming from the other side of the room. I froze, heart pounding in my chest.

It could be a zombie. I took a deep breath and slowly made my way towards the sound, my knife at the ready.

I moved my head around the doorway to get a glimpse.

Ryotaro was there, rummaging through a filing cabinet.

“Dang,” I said, “my nerves are getting to me.”

He looked up and gave me a sheepish grin. "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you.”

I let out a sigh of relief and shook my head. "It's okay."

Ryotaro held up some large booklets. "I found some maps of the area," he said. "I know we live here but they might come in handy."

Without our phones, they might actually be useful. I nodded and made my way to one of the other rooms, where Aiko was searching through a desk.

The beautiful woman held up a pair of handcuffs and raised an eyebrow seductively. "These could be useful," she said while looking towards Chiemi.

My mind immediately went to the gutter.

Luckily, before I embarrassed myself, Chiemi pushed by me and walked over to Aiko.

The older woman rolled her eyes. "For what? Arresting zombies?"

Aiko chuckled and put the handcuffs in one of her pockets. "No. I guess not. But you never know.”

I gulped, still thinking about Aiko’s words. I wasn't sure if she'd said all that on purpose or if I was just being dirty minded.

I moved on to another room that was just as messy as the others.

After looking through drawers and closets for a minute I started feeling antsy about our situation.

We were not having much luck. Either this place had already been looted or there was nothing good to start with.

The four of us met back up in the hallway, our faces etched with disappointment. We didn't find anything useful in our search, except for maybe Aiko, unless she was joking about the handcuffs.

She suggested trying the next police station, but the old man still had his eyes set on the locked room.

"I hate unsolved mysteries!" Ryotaro declared.

Chiemi, on the other hand, voiced her desire that we needed to leave. She was worried about zombies approaching, which was my concern also.

She said, "I think we need to go."

I couldn't help but agree with the older woman. She was playing things smart with her suggestion. The longer we stayed there, the more danger we were in.

"I also think we should go," I said, trying to keep my voice steady. "We can always come back later if we need to."

Aiko looked at me, her expression unreadable. "Are you sure? We might find something important in that room."

I nodded, trying to ignore the nagging feeling in the back of my mind that we were leaving something valuable behind.

"I'm sure," I said. "I agree we can't risk staying here any longer since we have no way of getting in there anyway."

Ryotaro sighed, but he didn't argue. "Alright. Let's go."

We made our way back outside. Glass from the shattered door crunched underneath our shoes again.

I was the last one to step out from the police station. When I looked beyond Aiko, Ryotaro, and Chiemi, I saw several zombies stumbling towards us from the street.

They were still a good distance away, coming in the same direction that we drove from. Clearly, they were moving towards the noise we made.

I turned to Aiko, who was already assessing the situation.

"We need to get back to the car," she said, her voice steady and calm. "Stay close and follow my lead."

I nodded, gripping the knife tightly in my hand. Ryotaro and Chiemi exchanged worried glances.

Aiko lead us around the side of the police station, trying to avoid the main road. We moved quickly and quietly, sticking close together.

As we turned a corner, I heard a low growl coming from beside us. I glanced back and saw a single zombie lurching towards us, its face twisted in a snarl.

Without hesitation, Aiko raised her baseball bat and swung it at the creature's head. There was a sickening crunch as the bat connected, and the zombie dropped to the ground with a thud, arms and legs splayed out.

It shook off the confusion and struggled to stand.

We didn't have time to catch our breaths before more growls filled the air. I looked up and saw a group of zombies shambling towards us, drawn by the noise of Aiko's attack.

"Run!" Aiko shouted, and we took off towards the red sports car.

I could hear the moans and the sounds of their heavy footsteps as they hurriedly wobbled behind us, arms outstretched.

Just as we neared the car, a zombie lunged at me from the side. He must have been between the kei one-boxes. I stumbled but deftly outmaneuvered the zombie. It fell to the ground.

Leaning down, I hacked the knife into his head. Brownish-red blood-matter gushed out when I hacked on his skull a few more times. Then I stood up and turned to run again.

The others had made it back to the car.

I got in the back seat next to Ryotaro. Aiko was at the wheel. She started the engine and slammed on the pedal, narrowly avoiding a group of zombies that surrounded us.

She sped away from the parking lot. The streets were filled with the undead, and all of them were walking towards the police station. Their mindless bodies turned our direction as we zipped by them.

Chiemi asked, "why are they all acting like they knew we were at the police station?"

Her question hung heavy in the air.

How did the zombies know our location? It was obvious they could hear us, but some of them were too far away to have heard anything.

Aiko glanced at me in the rearview mirror, her brow furrowed in thought. "Maybe they're somehow connected," she suggested. "Like a hive mind or something."

I shook my head, trying to wrap my mind around the idea. "But how would that even work? Do they all share one brain?"

Ryotaro chimed in. "It's possible. Maybe they're all connected through some kind of... zombie wi-fi network."

We all shared a nervous laugh at the absurdity of the idea, but it was clear none of us had a solid answer.

Chiemi turned to look at me, her eyes filled with concern. "Do you think it's possible they can smell us? Or sense our presence in some other way?"

I shrugged, feeling helpless. "I don't know. I've never been in a situation like this before. Ryotaro is the one who knows about zombies."

Aiko's grip tightened on the steering wheel as she navigated through the streets, avoiding the hordes of zombies that seemed to be everywhere.

Ryotaro proposed a laughable idea. "What if they can hear our thoughts? What if they know what we're planning?"

I felt a chill run down my spine at the thought. "That's ridiculous," I said, trying to sound more confident than I felt. "There's no way that's possible."

But even as I said the words, I couldn't help wonder if the zombies could hear our thoughts. How else could we explain the way the zombies seemed to know exactly where we were?

When nobody else spoke, I confidently said, "they can't hear our thoughts. It might be the hive-mind theory but only for them. All the zombies within a certain area might share some type of thinking."

"That's ridiculous," Chiemi shook her head. "If they can think, then they're not zombies."

It was a valid point. Having brain function meant that some part of their humanity still existed.

Aiko said, "maybe they're hearing is just really good?"

I nodded, accepting any possible chance for an easy explanation. The idea of a zombie horde with some type of connected wi-fi brain was too much for me. I didn't like it.

We almost died in the first half-hour of our first trip, and we still didn't have any guns.