Terror Infinity Side B

Chapter 2 - 2, H.O.T.D

The head of the zombie... the dead body of the zombie if that isn't a contraction fell to the floor as it head was smashed in... by the bloody bat in my hands.

What happened just now was so, so surreal.

Watching people fight against a real zombie and joining them.

The feeling of the bat smashing into a man's head.

The blood, bone and the slightly decayed brain matter that splatter out into the open... Staining me, Hisashi and the wall next to us with its filth.

Shin: This... this really isn't a game is it?

I... No we all came from the modern world and at the very least when first experiencing these fantasy-esque scenes straight out of the world of anime would be shocked, but I on the other hand was rather delighted, ecstatic in fact. Being bored with the reality for long as I can remember I have always wanted to come to this world. The world of anime and games.

I wanted some kind of stimulation. A way to not become one of the walking dead ( Figuratively ) of the adults of modern society. I was rather delighted when I first learned of this world and in a way I still am. I mean this is the exciting worlds of manga, anime, novels and games. Wasn't this my dream? Not only can I finally at last experience all these worlds, but I can and definitely will enhance myself with points to make myself stronger, better then ever before. I should have been fine here in this dimension with nothing to worry about. Not just H.O.T.D, but I have spent the better part of my life watching anime and playing video games. If there is anyone who can survive this world it would have to be me.

I would become stronger and never die.

Once I finally became strong enough and nothing could kill me here, I would be able to go to any world, live the life of any of the MCs that I have always admired and live however I liked. Maybe even get girlfriend ( Just looking at Rei when I first saw her got me excited in spite of the circumstances ). And if I ever got bored of this place, I would just go back to the real world as a new man. That was what I imagined... Well, until I bashed in the skull of my first zombie that is. This may in a way be my idea world, but this place wasn't heaven, if it even exist.

This was hell.

And I was just a little bug in the eyes of God or whatever the hell ran this place. Human lives are worth nothing more then flesh and blood in the eyes of a being with the title of a god who wasn't merciful, and here in this world when a person get bitten by one of Them, all you can do is kill them to put them out of their misery. I am just a regular person. Both in here and in the old world. Knowing the plot as well as I do is an asset, but in the end luck is an important factor. And facing off against a real zombie made me realize a few things.

This world wasn't a game.

This world wasn't heaven or paradise for otakus. This is a hell world. One where one can die, cast aside like this former teacher now a headless body in a pool of blood. But most importantly... I didn’t want to die. At least here and turned into one of THEM after I die.

Hishashi: Are you ok? Thanks for saving me back there. Who knew that one of those things could spin their head around.

Shin: Ah, no problem. Just doing what any person in my situation would have if they saw someone in trouble.

After having his life saved, Hasashi thanked me and brought over his two companions to introduce themselves to me and Hikari. I already knew who Takashi and Rei were, yet I still went along with the introductions. Then it was our turn.

Takashi: Just who are you guys? You're not wearing our school uniform?

Shin: Ah, that, you're right we aren't students here. We...

Hikari: Our siblings go to this school and we are worried about them. The truth is that this madness isn't just happening here, but all over the city.

Rei: Is... is that true?

Hikari then saved me the need to come up with an explanation. Our story was the following... And I had to say, Hikari had no talent for coming up with good stories.

Hikari's and my family are close. The the four of us, with our two siblings who go here and were supposed to ditch school halfway through and meet up to go to the mall for a day of fun. The two of us arrived early and were going to wait for them, but we discovered that something was wrong.

THEM.

They started appearing everywhere and the two of us ran away, but because our siblings never showed up we became worried with everything going on. We came to their school as fast as we could, and to our surprise we found that the front gate was left open and bloodstains were on the ground. Fearing for the worst, the two of us infiltrated the school to find our family.

I honest couldn't believe that Hikari came up with that story in the heat of the moment... A bullshit story by an author with no literary talent. It was a imperfect story and had so many holes in it ( Like why don't we all go to the same school or why didn't we just call ), yet for whatever they bought it hook line and sinker. Maybe the God of this world does something to the character and setting to allow us to have a believable excuse to be here. Although I doubt a truly bad lie could be believed.

Takashi: So did you find them?

Shin: We wish we didn't. They, they were turned into one of THEM (Me following up with Hikari's story). We... had to deal with them.

Hishshi: ...

Takashi: ...

Rei: ...

Shin: Please don't look at us like that. We have already moved on, or are deluding ourselves into thinking so. At the very least I don't want to not think about it for now.

Takashi: Alright then. Thank you again for helping us,

Shin: Yeah, and it was a good thing that we did too. Unless you wanted your friend here to be turned,

They all, including Hikari looked at me in shook.

I then began to explain to them all on how one becomes one of THEM. That once you are bitten by one of THEM you will become one of them, an undead, and even in death unless you receive a strong blow to the head before dying. Hisashi's face turned pale as he realized that if I was a second later then the undead would have bitten him, sentencing his fate to become one of THEM. Hearing as much, all three characters began to thank me all over again, but there was one person that wasn't so happy, so I ignored her for now.

Then Takashi's group of three began to discuss this new information and Rei thought to call her father on a secret and secure line. Originally, the call didn't last very long, but because Rei was calling earlier then before, the call went through perfectly. Rei was able to haply talk to her father, and after a brief crying scene from Rei, they all began discussing what to do once they all escape and reach the East Police Station. Too bad that it is impossible to reach there before the police are forced to retreat somewhere else. As they were discussing plans, pulling me aside Hikari began to speak to me in a low enough voice that couldn't be overheard.

Hikari: Hey Shin, what is going on?

Shin: What do you mean?

Hikari: What do I mean? It sounds like that Hisashi was supposed to die here or would have at the very least been bitten by one of THEM. Isn't that what originally happens?

Shin: Yeah. What about?

Hikari: Are you sure it was a good idea to save him. Won't this change the plot somehow.

Shin: Hmm, maybe a little. Without the death of Hisashi, Takashi won't grow as a leader who is responsible for everyone's lives and Rei's feeling for Takashi won't be reignited. Personally, as a fan I think that Hisashi's death was needed and I really hate stories that are afraid to kill off their main/sub characters, but we aren't the readers here, but actual people living this story. Like the authors we have the right to move this story however we want, and although some things may change slightly, I think it was well worth it.

Hikari: How so?

Shin: Think about it. By saying their lives just now we have gained their trust and are basically a part of the group now. I believe Aqua original meant for us to just go with the plot, escape the school together in a panic and hopefully we could all become one group as we secretly looked out for them. Now we don't need such shaky relationship because we are trusted members of the group from here out.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Hikari: So that is it? So our opinions and ideals will be listened to by them from here out. That is some amazing thinking there Shin. Did you think of all this as soon as we decided to go after the MC's group?

Shin: No. I just went with the flow back there was all. The chance to act like the main character doesn't come up to often in the real world, and so I got excited.

Hikari: ...Are you a baka?

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After listening to Hikari's complaints we both consulted with Takashi and the others.Hisashi originally planned to wait for help on the roof, but now with new information that this isn't an isolated event, he has given up his plan of heading up to the roof. This effectively changed the plot along with him still being alive, but only time can tell to what extent.

With no help coming we all needed a new plan, and Rei suggested that we find better weapons to arm ourselves with. Along with her own spear martial arts club, there were sword and other serious martial arts and sports club here at this school, so acquiring makeshift weapons should be possible. From the administration building where we currently where, we were moving over to the club building. As we were running there, I could swear that I heard the sound of a gun being firing constantly, and I immediately thought of Aqua.

She didn't stick around to help us out, but it was still reassuring knowing that she was still alive and kicking, but more importantly it meant that she was till fighting hard. With that Auto 9 with infinite ammo she should be killing hordes of THEM right this second.The more Aqua killed the undead for points, the less there were of THEM to hinder all of us. Just that was more then enough to help us out.

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Then at last we arrived at the club building.

Lucky for us there were still some students nearby who were still fighting/distracting THEM, so we could sneak around back and enter unnoticed in all the chaos. From the spear martial arts club Rei got a replica spear, Hisashi took some basic gear from the hand-to-hand martial arts club and Takashi acquired a better bat from the baseball club. I myself took a bat as well, protective gear from the martial arts club to shave off potential bites from THEM, and filled a bag with a first aid kit and anything else I could quickly spot that I thought would be helpful.

Hikari... was just too anti-athletic to really put a weapon in her hands, so we armed her with protective gear to the point it didn't slow her down too much. She didn't completely agree with not being able to fight as well, but I just had to point to the closest window, where just right outside there was an army of THEM, which we would have to push our way through to escape the school and she was more then ready to agree with me.

Hikari: Fighting? Me? I'll leave that kind of thing to you tough looking men. Gender equality? That is a important social issue, but don't you think old time values like men fight and women protect from the rear are sacred? I do, thus I'll allow you to fight in my stead.

Shin: ...Let's just go.

As we were leaving we saw the students still fighting the losing battle with the undead. Takashi and Rei felt that we should help the students, who included a few of Rei's friends, but it just wasn't possible. It was obvious for all to see that. Although they were still hold up, there was just too many of THEM who had them surrounded.

They weren't going to last much longer and we couldn't afford to waste time or had the power to really help them. Maybe if this wasn't our first mission, but we are still normal people. We didn't have the ability to save them or protect them from future dangers that are sure to come. Still, Rei wasn't listening to this, so Hisashi had to slap her to stop her from running off. Also, Takashi gave a helping hand.

Takashi: Rei, Hisashi is right. We don't have the ability to help them. Lets just... Let just focus on surviving.

Hisashi: Please Rei.

And with Takashi and Hisashi's persuasion they were able to convince Rei to leave the Club building behind. Exiting the building we began to discuss our next plan of action as we we repelled the few undead who came after us.

Takashi: So what now?

Shin: Now...We should go find some some comrades and find a way out of this godforsaken place.

Rei: What do you mean by comrades!? Didn't we all just abandon my club members back there!?

Takashi and Hisashi were confused and Rei was still angry over leaving are friends, so they were all wondering what I was going on about. Lucky, Hikari was able to follow up for me.

Hikari: Say, what is our goal here? It should be to escape from this school and try to meet up with our families. Unfortunately, that isn't possible with our man power alone and we also lack a means of transportation. We need comrades, capable comrades who have similar goals as ours and a means of transportation. We also can't become to large of a group as we need to move fast.

Shin: That is right. Once we find a few comrades... Maybe a swordsman, gunner, strategist and a medic then we can steal a car from one of the teachers and get the hell out of here.

Takashi: That is a good idea and I am with you, but... isn't that too specific? Where can you find such first rate comrades on short notice in the middle of the apocalypse?

Shin: Ah, who knows. Maybe we will get lucky ( Oh my... I thought that I was going to be penalized for that potential spoilers there just now ).

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The five of us; Takasji, Hisashi, Rei, Hikari and I returned to the main building. They all agreed to look for any potential comrades, but they were itching to get out of this place and look for their families, so they weren't willing to wait more then thirty minutes on the search. It wasn't a lot of time, but more then enough if you know the locations of the main characters from knowing the story inside and out.

Saeko Busujima and Shizuka Marikawa should have just left the the nurse's office with medical supplies and Saya Takagi and Kohta Hirano should be fighting their way through THEM trying to reach safety. In the original plot everyone was supposed to meet by the stairs, yet... What is this odd feeling that I am having?

Shin: Hey, lets hurry it up. I... I have a bad feeling.

Hikari: What do you mean a bad feeling?

Shin: Like everything is going too well.

Hikari: In what way is everything going okay?

Shin: Well, isn't it? We have avoided the majority of THEM, found comrades, weapons, are all unhurt and have a plan of action to get to safety. Things are just going too well. The idea that something bad is just waiting for us around the corner just won't go go away. We need to hurry!

And without waiting for any arguments about safety, I ran ahead. The others decided to do the same, but because they had to guard the slow and defenseless Hikari, they got somewhat left behind.

I ran, ran and ran down the halls as fast as I could with the sense that something bad was really about to happen at any moment. I ran into countless of THEM on the way, but using the technique that Saeko Bushimiya came up with to just knock them down since it's very hard for them to get back up, I preceded forward nearly unhindered. I had to smash in one or two of undead heads in with my new bat, yet over all I quickly made my way down the hall.

I then heard shots being fired as I reached the middle of the hall where the stairs were. It wasn't the sound of Aqua's Auto 9 from earlier, but something much softer and lacked the rapid fire power. It has to be Kohta's nail gun that he got from wood shop room. The shots weren't coming from this floor, but from the one above

Kouta: Takagi! I am out of nails. Takagi!!!

Saya: No!! Stay away!!!

Shin: Damn, they just had to be on the next floor!

I ran up the stairs as fast as humanly possible... Only to confirm my worst fears coming true.

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Authors Note:

Proofread by Deltoren

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