-Tap, tap, tap...-

The sound of the constant tapping of my pen getting smacked against the table was the only sound echoing inside the house right now. In front of me, an open textbook.

On it, several things drawn. Or more like, scribbled...

A circle with the word 'Grain factory' over it. Next to it, a Y shape. The upper left appendage of it ending in a wavy pattern. The word 'River' next to it.

At the end of that part, another circle. The word 'outpost?' over it. And lastly, in a bigger circle that had the whole appendage in. 'We are around here.' written next to it.

"So, you got all that?" The radio, which was on the table next to me asks.

"Yea. Think so." I answer.

"Say it back to me." The radio adds right after.

"Saya, relax." I chuckle as I shake my head.

"Don't, tell me to relax you idiot. If I got, if you got something remotely wrong, you will get lost. So say it back to me." Saya answers with a commanding tone.

(Jeez, you have a funky way to show that you're worried sweetheart.)

"Uhh, next to the grain factory is a river, the river splits in two, on the side that is closer to the facility, if you follow that river, you will find an outpost. The outpost itself is a bit inland, about two intersections in. So we should look for a parked boat or guard activity. A refurbished one-floor store with a garage that encircles the whole building serves as the main facility." I start speaking with a flat tone as I stare at the piece of paper. Rika, who was sitting next to me, holding back a chuckle.

"I see you studied for your exams, I'm proud~" Rika whispers as she finally starts chuckling. I just throw her a 'meh' glance.

"Hmm, good." Saya answers, letting out what I think was a sigh of relief?

"C'mon Saya, you can't think I'm 'that' stupid." I chuckle as I close the textbook.

"I..." Saya stops speaking.

"I'm just making sure ok? Stupid..." Saya mumbles.

"If you say so..." I answer as I get up with a sight.

"Well, guess that's that then." I continue as I stretch my back.

"Huh? Are, are you going to go now?" Saya asks with a worried tone.

"Good question. The sky is starting to dim, and we don't know how far we really are from our target. Honestly, going out with the hope that we'll find another clear, walled-off house like this is a pipe dream. So I'm thinking of staying the night here, leave early in the morning." I respond.

"I see..." Saya mumbles.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure nobody touches your boyfriend~" Rika then leans towards the radio with a smirk.

"Wha. Nobody asked you! And you're not allowed to touch him either!" Saya quickly replies.

"Aww, I'm not?" Rika answers. Trying to sound, confused? Though that shit-eating grin on her face would say otherwise.

"Yes you're not!" Saya barks back.

(It feels like I'm watching a pink Pomeranian fighting over a bone against a troll-faced Rottweiler...)

"But he's so nice~ I can't? Not even a little bit?" Rika continues to talk, slightly shaking her shoulders as she was trying not to laugh...

"No!" Saya flatly declares. I then tap Rika on her shoulder, and as she turns to glance at me, I shake my head.

"Fiiiine..." Rika answers as she makes a pouty face.

And, after a few seconds of silence...

"So, uhh. We, really should not be wasting any battery so." I speak as I fold my arms.

"Ah! Naier wait!" Saya instantly replies, her annoyed tone quickly disappearing. I reply with a questioning 'huum?'

"Umm. Just, be careful, alright?" Saya adds right after.

"Don't worry Saya. I'll be back before you know it." I respond, trying to sound as convincing as I can.

"And, I, I want to ask you something..." Saya continues.

"Privately..." She adds right after.

I glance at Rika, who just shrugs, and then turn to head up the stairs to the second floor, radio in hand.

And the moment I reached the second floor.

"Ok, so?" I ask.

"Are, you alone?" Saya asks.

"I'm on the second floor. Rika is stealing my food on the first floor." I respond.

"I see..." Saya mumbles.

"I..." She starts to speak, only to stop.

"It is..." And stops again...

"It's just..." And again...

"Saya. Is something bothering you?" I ask as I lean on the wall, staring at the small, fake potted plant that was inside an extrusion on the opposite wall.

"I'm..." Saya once again did not manage to finish her sentence...

And, after a few seconds...

"You, you won't do anything weird with her, will you?" Saya finally asks.

"You mean Rika?" I ask.

"You're already calling her by her first name..." Saya mumbles...

(Is this a jelly chundere?)

"Saya, let me ask plainly. Will it hurt you if I did something?" I ask.

"W, what sort of question is that? Of course it will, I'm already having to deal with Sae..."

"Then I won't, it's that simple." I answer.

"..." Saya didn't respond.

"You don't believe me huh?" I ask.

"I, want to, but..." Saya mumbles.

"Let me set it another way. If I hurt you, you'll leave. I don't want you to leave." I answer.

"Sweet talker..." Saya mumbles again.

"Where did I hear that one before?" I chuckle.

And, after a few seconds of silence...

"Still, I'll admit I'm kinda hurt you have 'this' little faith in me..." I add as I tilt my head.

"H, hey! It's not my fault, I mean, you already want both me and Saeko and..." Saya responds

"Did I ever hide that fact though? I made it clear the moment you showed some actual interest. Same way I'm telling you that I won't do anything behind your or Saeko's back." I answer as I lift my head to look at the ceiling.

"But..." Saya mumbles before turning silent...

And after a few seconds...

"Uggghh! Why does this keep happening to me! You were supposed to spend your day with me. Not get stranded on the other side of town with that perverted weirdo..." Until she speaks up with an annoyed tone.

"Really feels like we keep getting the short end of the stick since coming to the airport huh..." I add with a slight sigh.

Saya stayed quiet, too quiet...

(...I get the feeling I'm about to hear...)

"I'd rather leave than stay here if they will keep doing this..." Saya grumbles in a low tone.

(Stupid.)

"You know our chances of survival will..."

"I don't care, at least when we were out there, we were together." Saya cuts me off.

"That, I can't really deny." I respond with a low sigh.

"It's stupid. Why does this keep happening? Why papa keeps picking you for these stupid missions, can't he just send another idiot..."Saya grumbles right after.

(Low key you just called me an idiot, again. Also, it was Rika that nailed me with this mission. But, let's not tell her than, lest she actually tries to kill her.)

"Had to be me, someone else might have gotten it wrong." I chuckle as I answer.

(...And I just death-flagged myself by saying that, didn't I...)

"Then get it wrong, that way they'll leave you alone..." Saya retorts in a low tone.

(Feels like Saeko said something along those lines too. Victim of your own success huh...)

"We'll figure something out. After I am back. But for now, just hold on tight. And, uhhh..." I stop talking and look at the radio.

"I don't mean to be the ass here, but the battery is already down to two out of three." I add as I keep looking at the radio's small screen.

"What? Why didn't you say so earlier you idiot?! Close the radio, we will need it for more important stuff than this!" Saya quickly answers.

"Hey, making sure you are mentally well is as important." I answer as I chuckle.

"...S, stupid. I'm not weak, I'll be fine..." Saya mumbles in a low, whiny tone.

"One thing does not nullify the other. But yea, shutting down." I add, and after a few seconds, I close the radio.

"...Ho boy..." And let out a huge sigh as I start going down the stairs...

The moment I reach the bottom floor I find Rika on the sofa, munching on something, again.

"Girlfriend problems?" She asks as she arches an eyebrow.

"Yea, because 'somebody' is teasing them too much." I answer as I fold my arms.

"Hey, don't blame me, it's their fault that their reactions are so cute. Or well, at least the pikette's are. The other one feels like she'll try to stab me if I push too much..." Rika shrugs.

(Huh, you're not 'that' far off about that...)

"Soo, what's the plan? Hunker down for the night?" Rika casually asks.

"Yea, not a fan of wandering around at night." I shrug.

"Haaaaa, good. Because I don't feel like getting off this sofa." Rika lets herself sink on the sofa as she speaks.

With that, I go back up the stairs, and towards my room.

After reaching it and closing the door behind me...

"...And now, it's boring time..." I groan and drop myself on the bed, absentmindedly staring at the ceiling...

"...This would actually be the perfect moment to have Saeko or Saya with me..." I sigh as I turn to look out the window, the sky slowly starting to turn orange, which in turn, slowly made the room I was in take a darker shade.

"Hopefully by tomorrow, the corpse parade will have passed. Then, we'll go to our right, since the grain factory is towards our left. If we're lucky, we'll reach that outpost tommorow. Saya told me it's near the river, but the distance, is something I don't know..." I fold my arms under my head as I keep speaking to myself...

It could have been the silence, or the overall hecticness of the day. But I found myself drifting in and out of sleep pretty fast...

- Several weird dreams about semi-auto crossbows and korek charms later -

"Infinite durability katana. Heheh, heee...uhhh" I slowly open my eyes as I mumble something stupid.

I blink once, twice, thrice. But the light does not return, instead, I am greeted by a dark room, a very, dark room...

I look to my left as I sit on the bed. Out the window, a cloudy dark sky.

"Uhh, it's, night?" I ask myself as I tilt my head.

(A cloudy night, no wonder I can barely see shit now that we got no lights...)

I carefully get off my bed and reach for my helmet, which was on the nightstand next to the bed along with my mask, while the rest of my black clothes were on the floor.

I then take the flashlight and open it. The light shooting straight at my face.

(Ughh! Fucking hell!)

I reflexively close my eyes before shaking my head. Rubbing my eyes as I get off the bed.

By the next time I opened my eyes, I could at least see where I was walking.

(Damn, feels like a horror game in here...)

I shiver slightly as I turn to exit my room, into an equally dark hallway, the only place actually visible being the conic shape that the flashlight illuminated, and the dim moonlight from the window behind me.

After doing down the hallway and to the stairs, I then head down.

On the main room, on the sofa, Rika was out cold, her pants haphazardly tossed on the floor.

(Huh, kinda risky that both of us fell asleep...)

I head to the full-sized window that was near the sofa and open it. And much to my surprise, silence.

(Hmmm? Did the horde pass over?)

I tilt my head and head up to the concrete wall. Hold the flashlight with my mouth, and with a quick jump, climb it.

With half my body over the concrete wall, I take the flashlight to my hand and check the road...

Other than a couple of corpses that were simply staring towards god knows what, the road was clear.

(If the road stays this clear, then we can leave once the sun is up...)

Before I let myself fall back down, I looked to my left, and then, I saw it. About five houses away from ours, on the second floor.

A light shining from the inside...

I blink a couple of times and turn my flashlight towards the said building, and the light quickly disappeared...

(...shit...)

I quickly close my own flashlight and let myself fall, then, just as quickly I move back inside the house and close the window behind me.

(That light, it turned off the moment I shined at it, in other words. Somebody was watching me.)

I walk up to Rika, kneel next to her, and shake her.

"Wake up." I whisper as I glance behind me, towards the window.

Rika didn't respond, at all.

"Rika wake up." I say again, this time louder, shaking her even more.

Rika this time did respond. Actually, she responded a bit, too much. As she turns towards me, her upper arm going over my shoulder. But, she didn't stop, she kept turning, up to the point that her upper body leaned off the sofa and onto me. Ending up with half her body off the sofa. Ending in a rather uncomfortable position. As she ended up groggily opening her eyes right after.

"Hmmm..." She lifts her head to look at me.

"Uhhh, if you wanted to sleep together you didn't have to wake me up..." Rika mumbles as she closes her eyes again.

(...)

I take the flashlight, open it, and shine it on her face.

Rika frowns as she tries to hide her face, trying to bring her arms over to where my flashlight was.

"Rika wake up, we might end up with some unwanted visitors." I say as I pull the flashlight away from her searching hands.

"Muuuhh. No eye rape please..." Rika mumbles as she keeps trying to reach for the flashlight.

"Must everything you say sound provocative..." I whisper as I start to get up, Rika still leaning on me.

"Quit, stretching me so much..." Rika 'responds' with a moan, finally opening her eyes...

(...For fucks sake woman...)

I let out a small sigh as I keep looking at her...

"Humm, is it go time?" She asks as she stares at me with a sleepy expression.

"Yes, we might get a bunch of weirdos knocking on our door, saw a flashlight nearby." I answer.

"Ah..." Rika finally stops hanging off me and sits on the sofa.

"Shit..." She adds as she stretches.

"How close?" She asks as she picks her pants.

"Couple of houses down, they know we're here. Might be nothing, might be a bunch of nutjobs looking for parts for their new meat bicycles." I respond as I turn to look at the window again.

"Uhh, meat bicycles?" Rika frowns slightly as she finishes putting on her pants.

"Never mind, just get ready for trouble." I respond as I walk up to the window, open it slightly, and glance outside.

(Can't see that house from here...)

I sigh and back off, leaving the window open...

"Let's go to the second floor, with the lights out and the doors closed it's pitch black up there. 'If' we get any visitors, we'll see them before they see us." I motion with my head as I turn to head towards the stairs.

"Right.." Rika also gets up and throws a few slaps with both her hands to her face in order to wake up.

"And I was having such a nice dream..." She sighs as she follows behind me.

(Ok, so, whoever had the flashlight turned it off when they realized I was looking towards them. One, is they are scared and hoped that I didn't see them. Two, they will want to get the jump on us and hoped I didn't see them...)

After going up the stairs I sit down, the window on the bottom floor visible from here.

"Hey, you forgot the window open." Rika whispers as she nudges me.

"I didn't forget it. Better to leave an apparent 'opening' that we can manage, than having our, 'might' be foes create one behind our backs." I respond as I get up.

"Hmm, I see. Not a bad idea. Uhh, going somewhere?" Rika asks as she lifts her head to look at me.

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"I'll change to my normal clothes." I answer.

"Oh. I'll keep watch over the stairs." She continues. I just nod as I turn to head to my room.

-A few minutes later.-

I was in my full gear. Sitting next to Rika...

"...Nothing so far..." Rika whispers.

"There's a good chance 'nothing' is all we'll get." I respond.

"But in the off chance that that's not the case..." I continue.

"Best time to be paranoid huh." Rika shrugs her shoulder as she keeps staring at the window.

"If nothing happens till the morning, then what?" She then asks.

"We leave, by jumping into the house to our right. Use this house as cover to move away, then go through the back allay. If it ain't clear, we jump to the next house, until the block ends and we end up on the street. Overall, we avoid the street next to the river until we are far enough from the house that had the light in." I answer.

"Extra paranoid." Rika chuckles.

"Other than a couple of retarded decisions I made so far, most of my choices were like that. Don't fix it if it ain't broken." I shrug.

"Fair enough." Rika nods.

"Wait, what retarded decisions did you make?" She asks right after as she arches an eyebrow.

"I'll leave that to your imagination." I answer as I shrug again.

"Ehh, that's no fun." Rika leans towards me as she narrows her eyes with a slight smirk.

"Eyes on the door..." I flatly respond.

"Stick in the mud..." Rika mumbles as she leans back, turning to look at the window.

And so, we stayed there, watching, hearing...

The minutes ticking away...

Everything on the lower floor was completely still, uneventful.

Until, the darkness started to fade...

"...I'm starting to see light." Rika whispers.

"Hmm, let's start packing, the second floor won't stay dark for too long now." I respond as I slowly get up.

"Alright, I'll grab a bag I found and put some basics in it. And change to my normal clothes." Rika nods as she also gets up.

And with that, I move to my room. Then head straight to the desk that was near the window next to the bed, taking my bag and strapping it on me.

Before leaving, I check my vest, or more precisely, the magazines on my vest.

(Hmm, one mag left. And...)

I then check the mag in the gun.

(Hmm, looks like about half empty, so. Twenty and ten? Thirty bullets left total? Aka, jack shit. At least the pistol is still fully loaded, minus the shots fired when the roof got overrun)

After checking that my Katana was not clunking around when moving, I exit the room, Scar-h under my arm.

The door to the room ahead of me wide open. Rika in her normal attire, checking her rifle.

"How much ammo you got left?" I ask I enter her room.

"The rifle has only three left, my handgun is empty." Rika responds as she stops checking her rifle, passing it over her shoulder, next to a blue, medium-sized bag.

"You?" She asks back.

"Two full mags for the handgun, one and a half for the rifle." I respond.

"Hmm, can I borrow the handgun?" She asks as she glances at the P-220 on my side. I just nod and hand it to her, along with the extra two mags.

"I'll head down. Once we're set, we will head out from the window by the kitchen." I say as I turn to leave.

"Roger." Rika answers as she follows behind me.

And with that, we pass the bathroom, and head to the stairs...

(Don't see any changes...)

Nonetheless, I ready my rifle as I go down the stairs.

"Clear." I say after a quick sweep.

I nod and motion Rika to come down. After that, I head to the window I left open, and close it. While Rika made a beeline to the kitchen, opening the drawers and filling her bag with whatever food and water she had not wolfed down by now.

"I'm starting to see clearly outside. If there was a time to go, it's now." She adds as she turns to glance at me. I nod as I sheath my blade, turning to quickly jog to the kitchen. Then, I opened the normal-sized window that was over the sink.

After that, I climb up the counter and check outside, before finally jumping out.

The sky was now a very dark blue. Only on the horizon the sky was taking a light orange color behind the clouds.

(Chilly...)

With that thought, I straight towards the concrete fence wall.

Kneeling down, I check one last time around me, letting Rika catch up to me.

"I take it no guns?" Rika asks as she stops next to me.

"Unless you can mute it, then yea." I nod, Rika just nods back and holsters her, my gun. And draws her combat knife.

"Ok, over the fence, and then towards the fence at the backside of the house, if the back allay is too hot, we head to the next house until we reach the road." I whisper as I look at the purple-haired sniper.

"Right behind you." Rika nods.

And so, with a deep breath, I get up and jump. Climbing over the concrete wall.

After going over it, before jumping down, I check the house's yard.

Compared to the house we stayed in, the next house had several corpses wandering around in a relatively bloody yard. All of them near the front door, where two 'eaten' corpses lay next to each other.

(The backyard looks empty from here.)

And so, I jumped. And the moment I touched the ground, I moved to the back of the yard. Where I ended up next to a single corpse that was, hitting its head against the wall. And judging from the blood splatter on the wall, it has probably been doing so, for quite some time.

(...Uhh, you do you...)

I ignore the headbanger and move to the back concrete wall, and turn around to wait for Rika, who was not far behind me.

The moment she closed in, I kneel down and motioned to my eyes with my fingers, then point behind me, towards the alleyway. Then interlock my fingers to make a step for Rika. Who quickly nodded and moved to step on my hands. She then tapped my shoulder, and I got up, silently lifting her up.

Not one second later Rika jumps back, and starts shaking both her head and hands negatively. I nod and turn to head towards the next house.

Upon reaching the wall, I climb up just as before, and...

(...Well, fuck me...)

This house looked like an ongoing bachelor party. Probably because the front gate was toppled over, so when the corpses from the passing horde passed, they bled in. The front was plainly put, overrun. The back, was not much better either...

I let out a silent sigh and balance myself on the wall. Rika then climbs up next to me...

"Fuuuuck..." She groans, causing a couple of the nearby corpses to stumble towards the wall, lifting their heads to 'look' at us as they lifted their arms.

Without speaking I start walking towards the back wall while staying crouched...

(Wonder how bad the alleyway is...)

As I think that I reach the end of the wall and look at the alleyway...

(...)

The best way to describe it, was a minefield. While corpses were not back to back, there were a lot of them on the ground...

(Yea, no.)

I shake my head and keep walking on the top of the concrete fence wall, towards the last house between us and the street.

Thankfully, there wasn't anything to obstruct us from passing to the final house. Which was honestly as crowded as the last house, if not worse...

(I think I see even more corpses in this house's yard...)

With a small sigh, I keep moving forward, soon finding the reason 'why' this house had even more corpses in it...

Upon reaching the wall that was facing the street, I found that most, if not all of the upper left side of the house's fence wall was destroyed, a tow truck had busted right through it. Its zombified driver still inside, stuck on the driver seat because of the seat belt. I guess that crash would also explain why that part of the road was clogged with corpses.

Shaking my head I look ahead of me again, towards the street...

(...Of course corpses would be stuck here as well...)

Essentially, the wall had corpses chilling right next to it. The street itself had several wrecks on it. With corpses dotted all around...

(Hmm, the cars ain't too far apart...)

"How far can you jump?" I ask as I glance behind me motioning Rika to back off. Rika instead of answering glances over me, towards the cars.

"Uhh well, depends, what exactly do you want to do?..." Rika whispers as she keeps looking at the street.

"The jeep ahead of us that got t-boned by that yellow sedan. We can reach it from here, we then jump to the cop car that is next to it and reach the next set of houses. From there we can get off on the street next to the river, something we can't do here since that pickup wrecked the wall, and the road in front of this house has too many corpses to walk past." I respond.

"All or nothing huh..." Rika sighs slightly as she nods.

"Who goes first?" She asks right after.

"I'm in the front, so I'll go." I answer.

"Try not to slip into the hungry mob then." Rika flatly retorts.

With a slight sigh, I turn to look back towards the road. Standing up and taking a few steps back.

And with a last breath, I dash forward, and jump, arcing over the corpses that had gathered under us.

With a loud thud, I land on the jeep's roof. A rather, slippery roof, as I found myself slipping to my side and sliding towards the hood.

"The fuck?!" I shout as I pull my knife and quickly stab it on the roof, using it as a handle to stop myself.

"The crap was that?!" Rika shouts right after.

"The roof is slippery as fuck! Now move, we made too much noise!" I respond as I get up. Rika nods, and without waiting, she runs to the edge and jumps.

And, the moment she lands on the roof, she slips and falls on her butt, sliding on me like a curling stone...

"Ouuf! Damn, you were not kidding. What sort of paint finish did they use to make the hood this damn slippery." Rika grumbles as she massages her butt.

"Hell if I know." I sigh as I get to a sitting position, pulling my knife out and holstering it. I then turn to look towards the hood of the truck. While the jeep was tall, it was not tall enough to keep corpses from waving their grubby mitts all over the hood. Though the center of the hood 'was' free of grasping hands.

While still sitting I slide to the edge of the roof and look through the front windshield. A single well-dressed corpse was sluggishly clawing at the roof over its head.

(The windshield ain't cracked, so I guess we are safe from that one corpse at least.)

I nod and slide to the center of the roof, then stand on it.

(Uhh, does seem slippery, but the distance to the cop car is too far if I can't get rid of the corpses in the front...)

"Well, fuck it..." I groan as I ready my Scar-H and take aim towards the corpses on the front of the jeep.

I open fire, a single burst, and the corpses in the front fell back, either from getting shot to the head or from the force of the bullets.

(Five rounds, five left.)

Without waiting I let my scar go, pull my knife, run to the edge of the hood, and jump. Landing on the cop car's trunk, thankfully the corpses around it had turned to go towards the jeep, so by the time they turned again, I was on the cop car's roof.

"Rika! Don't jump yet!" I glance behind me as I raise my hand. Rika just nods leans on her hand as she keeps sitting on the roof of the jeep.

I then turn to look back ahead of me, the next target, the wall...

Which was a full sidewalk away, along with it being about three times the height of the cop car's hood...

(...No way I'm making this jump...)

I bring up my scar-h, then change to the full mag.

I take a deep breath, walk over the siren, and jump on the hood. The quickly aim my rifle at the corpses in the front of the car and fire a short burst.

The moment the corpses were on the ground, I dashed forward, jumping over the fallen corpses and landing right in front of the wall.

Not spending any unnecessary time looking around, I let my scar go and jump up, climbing up the wall.

The moment I stabilized myself on top of the wall, I looked back down, the path I used already taken over by corpses.

"Well, that could have gone worse." I whisper as I stand up and head to the far end of the wall, towards the street that was next to the river.

(Hmm, this road is almost clear...)

With a small nod I jump down, and head in the intersection between the road that Rika was on and the road by the river.

"Rika! Once these fucks leave an opening! Move!" I shout as I raise my scar in the air, Rika stayed quiet as the corpses turned to look towards me.

I then glance around me, since the corpses by the cars were not the only ones that turned to crawl towards me...

(I got seven, eight? Maybe more incoming from where the toppled wall and tow truck is. About uhh, twelve? From where Rika is. And, three from my left, luckly left is the way we need to go.)

Ignoring the mass of corpses ahead and to my right, I draw my blade and quickly head towards the three corpses to my left. The first one was relatively ahead the other two. Which were next to each other.

The moment I close into the first corpse, I stomp the ground before sidestepping to its side. Then, I bring down the blade in a vertical slash, severing both of the corpse's arms with one clean splash. Though the corpse itself didn't seem to give a single fuck.

Before it could turn towards me, I sidestep again and slide behind it, then kick it at the back of its knees, causing the corpses to end up on its knees. And, with one more slash, its head was sent flying.

I then sidestep away from the body and turn around, towards the last two corpses.

(Too close to each other...)

Instead of charging towards them, I silently start walking diagonally towards them. Until I was side by side with them, still at a relative distance...

(This better work.)

I crouch slightly, before darting off towards the two corpses, both of which stopped walking to turn towards the new incoming noise.

Only for the one that was now in front to end up with a strong kick to its chest, sending it stumbling backward, into the second corpse. The impact, while stoping the first corpses from falling on its ass, send the second one tumbling down.

With the second corpse essentially down and out, I walk up to the corpse ahead of me, and with a forwards charge, I stab the corpse right through the head, quickly pulling my blade back. The corpse unceremoniously falling forward.

Turning my sight towards the third corpse, I find it clumsily getting up.

"Naier! Screw that smelly hobo! Run!" And before I could even take a step towards it, Rika dashes past me as she loudly shouts...

I blink a couple of times as I turn to look at Rika, who was running down the road, then look behind me, to find a wall of corpses steadily 'screening' the road.

(O-Shit!)

I quickly sheath my blade and start running after the sniper.

We end up running past a couple of corpses, until I caught up to Rika. Or more like Rika stopped running upon reaching the next intersection.

"We go up the intersection?" Rika asks as she turns towards me.

Before answering I glance behind her, the road next to the river had a slight curve to the right as it went on, in other words, the road disappeared behind the houses.

(The road ahead looks clear for as much as I can see.)

I then turn to look to my right, an uphill road that led to who knows where. This one going straight, letting me see much further away.

(This one is relatively clear for much further, but.)

"We keep going straight, if we find the road blocked, we return here. Going up one or two intersections should be fine, as the outpost is not next to the river. But I'd rather stick close to the river, that way we don't need to worry about going the wrong way. We don't know if 'straight ahead' is really a straight line here." I answer as I start to walk again.

"Good point." Rika just nods before turning to follow me.

As we kept going, I took out my almost empty mag, and took out the remaining bullets. To find out that...

"Only two? Fuck me..." I groan as I put the mag back into its pocket on the vest, then take the mag out of the gun, and add the two extra bullets in it.

"How many left?" Rika asks as she keeps looking at me.

"Less than twenty, more than ten." I answer with a slight sigh as I put the mag back in the gun.

"Damn..." Was Rika's only response.

"Want your handgun back?" She asks right after.

"No, I still got this." I respond as I tap the Katana on my hip.

And so, we kept going, avoiding most corpses in our way, either by simply walking past them from a distance, or by walking on the fence wall of the houses to our right...

-Sometime later-

We were sitting on a fence wall that overlooked an empty, narrow back alleyway that separated the wall we were on, from the fence wall of the next house. The backyard behind littered with four 'dead' corpses.

"When are you going to notify the little ones of our progress?" Rika casually asks, a cigarette on her fingers. A cigarette she picked from a pack she found on one of the four dead corpses behind us. This was also the reason we were taking a break, as by her words 'I won't enjoy it if we are on foot.'

"Little ones. Hah, I can already imagine Saya fuming from hearing that." I chuckle back.

"Hey, to me you are still little ones." Rika shrugs.

(F.B.I open up.)

"And to answer your question. I don't know, maybe when the sun ends up being over our heads I'll note em up." I answer as I glance at her, then look at the cigarette.

"Uhh, don't you have smokes in your room, barracks, locker, or whatever you had in the airport to make such a big deal about this?" I ask right after.

"Nope, run out. And I usually smoke cigars, not this crap. Too bad both are a bit of a precious commodity now." She responds as she takes a puff.

"Huh, I do suppose smokes and booze would run out in the blink of an eye with how stressful it can get right now." I nod slightly as I turn to look at the alley.

"Ha, this kid gets it." Rika chuckles as she glances at the cigarette's burning point.

And with that, we turned silent...

A couple of minutes later, Rika stood up.

"Ready?" Ask. Rika just nods as she throws the remaining cigarette in the alleyway.

With that, we jumped into the alleyway, and went towards the left. Taking the first turn left and ending up by the riverside road again, before going right once again...

We must have walked a couple of minutes when the curved road ended up revealing what seemed to be a big three-floor store not too far from us, a bridge right next to it.

Said bridge being barricaded haphazardly on one side with cop cars and buses, it seemed like they tried to block the road off in a real big hurry. Civilian cars were abandoned all around, both on the bridge, in front of the store, and the roads around, including the one we were on.

The store itself must have been a toy store, as the front face of the building had several cartoon characters drawn on. To the right, a large parking lot, to the left, while not visible, must have been a street, as there were other buildings starting soon after. Also, corpses, a lot of corpses...

"Hmm? Hey Naier." Rika whisper as she leans towards me.

"Go back? Too many here..." She asks. I just nod. And we turned around to walk back the way we came.

"So, we go up the next intersection?" Rika asks again, I nod as glance at a couple of corpses that we had walked past some time ago. Most of em clawing against the fence wall of a nearby house...

The thing was...

"Rika, stop..." I stop moving as keep staring at the corpses.

"What's wrong?" She asks as she glances at me.

"These corpses, the ones by the wall." I motion with my head.

"Hmm? What about them?" She asks again.

"We used the road, so why are these things clawing at the wall?" I ask as I tug Rika to turn around again.

"You think somebody followed us?" She asks as she turns around and starts walking, placing her hand over the handgun's handle.

"I don't know. But if they managed to follow us thus far in silence. And we can't see them, they have the jump on us." I respond as I glance behind me, and then, I saw it.

A man standing on the fence, bow drawn, aimed straight at us.

(The fuck?!)

I quickly grabbed Rika by the vest she was wearing and pull her with me behind a car, crouching down behind it.

"Woa! What's gotten into y!..." Before she could finish, a single arrow landed where we were standing with a loud thud, then recoiled off the road and flew off into the river.

"You..." She continues as she turns to look at the arrow that flew into the river.

"Guy with a bow, same place where corpses were clawing at. Probably not alone." I whisper as I glance from the side of the car, at the side of the pedestrian walkway, yet I could see nothing from this side...

"Can you see them?" I ask.

"Nu-uh..." Rika whisper.

"We can't stay here, they know where we are. Move, we are going to the store." I get up slightly as I speak, keeping my sight towards the back.

"The place that is full of brain-eating dead men?" Rika asks as she also keeps looking back.

"Yes, I'd rather deal with them." I respond.

"Ok, but won't they just. You know, take potshots at us as we go there?" She asks again.

"We go back to back, one of us will keep an eye on our back as we go." Rika glances at me, nods, and holsters her handgun, then draws her sniper rifle.

"I got three bullets left here. That will be three less of them by the time we reach the building." She adds with a serious expression.

"Alright, I'll exit first, pop up shortly after, if one of these assholes gets tries to take a shot, cap their fucking head off. I'll then turn to take aim while you leave." I nod as I do a last check on my Scar, then switch it to full auto.

"Ok, Go!" I loudly shout as I get up and start running. And, sure enough, a second later. A single loud gunshot.

"A-aaAAAHGUAAA!" Followed by a loud scream, and the sound of ripping fabric.

"Assholes!" Rika yells, and I instantly stop, turn and drop to one knee. Rika was already running towards me, and, as for the owner of the shout...

Let's just say that the corpses that were clawing at the fence wall before, were now busy eating lunch.

Now call it instinct, but since I could not actually 'see' anybody, the first place I ended up looking at was the window of the hostile house, and while the insides were dark, the curtains were flowing outside, in other words, the window was open.

Nonetheless, I fire a short burst and, another scream as a single arrow flew from the window, and towards a random direction away from us.

"Move!" I hear Rika shout from behind. And I get up and turn around, Rika already on the ground, aiming towards the house.

I quickly run to the side to move away from her light of sight, then start running towards our target, the corpses towards the store now clearly coming towards us.

(After this they will be on top of us...)

This time, I heard no gunshots, and by the time I turned around.

"Move!" I shout as I take aim, then throw a short glance behind me at the corpses. Their moans grew louder by the second. Rika rolls to the side before spinning to her feet, turning around to run.

(...I can't see anything. There were only two of them?)

"Naier, they're almost on us, we'll get swarmed if we stand still anymore." Rika stops next to me as she looks at the corpses.

"Not much we can do, go to the side, fire the handgun, I'll go the other way and move past when there is an opening, then get on the bridge and draw them there." I point towards the railing next to the river as I speak. Rika nods passes the sniper over her shoulder and runs to the side. While in the meantime I run to the other side. Keeping an eye on the house.

And shortly after, two shots echoed. Turning to look behind me, I see the corpses had turned to creep towards Rika, who was slowly backing off, the road still blocked off.

(Cmon, cmon, move your asses!)

And, after a few seconds that felt like an eternity, I saw an opening, Right next to the end of the wall, no more corpses popped up.

Without the time to wait and see if there were more incoming, I dash forwards towards the open road.

And the moment I dashed past the wall, I glanced to my right, only to find out that the group of corpses has 'not' completely passed, the remaining corpses less than a meter away from me.

(Shit! Shitshitshitshit!)

Instead of stopping, I kept running, leaning forward to avoid any grabby hands.

And as I kept running, the corpses on the far end of the group started to turn towards me, probably because I was not being very silent as I sprinted.

(God this better work!)

I lift my gun and pull the trigger, the nearest corpse that just blocked my way to the ground. Though, none of the bullets found the head, as it kept shuffling about on the ground, slowly getting to a sitting position.

The moment I reached the corpse, I jump. And using the corpse's face as a step, I vault over the remaining corpses, landing behind the group with a roll.

(Bridge! Now!)

As my boots touched the ground, I sping into another dead run. Straight towards the bridge.

"Over here you groaning fucks!" I shout as I undo the scar's suppressor. Turning to face the group the moment I reached the bridge. And with one hand, as the other was holding the suppressor, I aim towards the group and fire a single shot.

I then glance behind me to see the corpses around the cars on the bridge had also started to roam towards me.

(Ok, time to git.)

I start walking towards the way I came as I try to put the suppressor back on, only to see a pair of legs in front of me. Glancing up I spot a corpse, arms stretched towards me.

"Tch." I click my tongue and shove the suppressor in a random pocket on my vest as I move away from the groaning shambler, turning my focus back on the incoming corpses.

(Ok, once she is passed we ca...)

"GAAH!" I didn't even manage to finish that thought when I saw Rika popping up from the group of corpses, and falling to the ground while clutching her thigh. The corpses behind her all leaning over to swarm over her.

"The fuck?!" Quickly raise my scar and pull the trigger, and then keep it pulled. Emptying the whole remaining clip on the corpses around Rika as I run-up to her, grabbed her by the vest, and started walking backward. But, not fast enough, as one of the corpses managed to grab her leg as it lunged forward.

"Shoot that damn thing I'm out!" I shout. Rika in response quickly pulled her handgun and fired three rounds at the corpse's head, which in turn let go of Rika's leg as I pulled her back.

"Aaargh! I'm going to kill these asshats!" Rika screamed as she yanked her rifle. The reason? An arrow was sticking out from the back of her thigh...

As I kept pulling her back I lift my head, the perpetrator standing in the middle of the street with a hysterical expression. Bow drawn, aimed at us.

"The hell's their fucking problem?!" I quickly yank myself and Rika to the side, while at the same time Rika fired a shot from her rifle, and the bowman flung his arrow. The sudden movement caused both to miss.

"Don't fucking move me!" She yelled as she glared at me.

"I'm not letting that bastard get out of this alive..." She hisses as she aims through her scope.

The bowman, realizing that he's probably not as fast as a damn gun, quickly turns to dash towards a nearby alleyway.

And, Rika fired the final shot of her rifle...

"FGHAAA!" Followed by a loud scream, and the bowman was on the floor, clutching his knee.

"Eye for an eye dipshit. Help me up, we need to get out of here." Rika whispers before turning to look at me, passing the rifle over her shoulder.

I pass Rika's arm over my shoulder and lift her up, and then turn around.

The bridge, had corpses, the road behind us, obviously had corpses. And the road to our right, had corpses...

"We're surrounded." I whisper as we keep moving forward, towards the store.

"Check the back of the store." Rika points at the left of the store, past the parking lot. Then turns to look at the arrow sticking out her thigh, running her fingers around it

"No ripped fabric..." She whispers as she grabs the arrow, and pulls it out with a grunt, revealing it to be a field-type tip.

"Silver lining, at least they didn't use the normal arrows with the wide tip, would be impossible to pull out..." She just took a deep breath as she tried to not step with her wounded leg.

After we moved past the parking lot, using the cars as shields against the corpses, we ended up in the backside of the store.

Two giant gates led inside the storage section of the store, both of them open. And in the backspace of the store, another big parking lot surrounded by a wall, this one designed for trucks, seeing how there were multiple box trucks already parked here.

We headed to the nearest one that was in front of one of the store gates, parked with its backside towards the store. The back doors of the truck wide open.

"Wait a sec." I let go of Rika, and quickly run to the truck and climb up a few steps as I run up the truck's cargo box, grabbing the top of the cargo box and climbing to the top shortly after.

I then turn around and lie on the cargo box, extending my arm.

"Cmon." I glance around at the oncoming corpses as I speak. Rika nods and limps up to the box truck, grabbing my arm as I pull her up.

And seconds later, we were both looking at the sky, with our backs against the box's ceiling.

"Fucking hell..." I sigh as I finally relax. Rika just stayed quiet, before she started chuckling.

"Naier, can you do me a favor?" Rika speaks up as she keeps staring at the sky.

"What?" I ask back.

"Can you take a shirt from my bag and wrap it on my leg? My thigh is starting to feel a bit 'too' wet." She casually adds as she takes off her bag and gives it to me as she kept the pressure on her thigh. I just nod, take her bag and open it. Grabbing a random white shirt from inside.

I then slide towards Rika's leg and wrap the shirt around her injured thigh.

"Uhh, guess we will be stuck here for a bit now. Can't go bleeding all over the place." Rika gets to a sitting position.

"We need a basic first aid kit. Something to at least stitch the wound temporarily" I fold my arms as I speak.

"The house we were in had nothing. And whatever we had..." Rika lets out a sigh as she stops speaking.

"Is on the roof, I know." I continiue after Rika...

But, that was not what was really worrying me right now.

"You feel fine otherwise?" I ask.

"Hmm? Yes, my thigh hurts like hell, but I've had worse." Rika shrugs.

(...Arrows, unlike bullets, are known to get dipped in poison. And infected saliva, would be a really, really bad poison...)

I glance at Rika then take a deep breath.

(How long did it take for Hihashi to turn? The anime had time skips in between...)

"Naier? You're staring pretty hard right now." Rika leans towards me as she speaks.

"Rika, do you know how long it takes for an infected person to turn?" I ask flatly. Rika blinks a couple of times, before leaning back off again.

"Hmm, from what we have been informed, anywhere between five, to twenty minutes." Rika answers calmly. And, after glancing at her thigh.

"You think the arrow might have been spiked?" She asks just as calmly.

"I don't know. But these guys did try to kill us. If they were smart, and ruthless enough. It could be a possibility." I answer as I sigh.

"I see. You, do have a point." Rika lowers her head slightly. Then, pulls the handgun I gave her.

"Comand also told us that saliva loses its infective properties as soon as it dries." She adds as she tilts her head.

"But hey. Look at the bright side, If I do turn, certain two girls won't have to worry about the 'perverded weirdo'." She chuckles as she slides me the handgun.

"You heard that huh." I answer as I glance at the gun.

"It was a bit too quiet. And I might have been a bit 'too' curious about what the pinkette wanted to say. Not that I'm that surprised to be honest." Rika chuckles.

"Just, do me a favor ah? If I do turn, make sure you go back into that house, and make sure that all these assholes are dead, really dead." Rika takes one of the cigarettes from her chest pocket, and lights it up. Then turns to look in the distance.

All we could do now, is wait.