"Quit screaming. You're not bitten."
Kitahara Sosuke gave him a swift kick. "Keep yelling and you'll bring more of them here."
Tobe Kakeru quickly shoved Hayama Hayato's body off and scrambled up, running a hand across his neck. After confirming he was fine, he exhaled heavily and turned to Sosuke, eyes gleaming with gratitude.
"You saved my life, man. No, big bro, you're my blood brother now. I'm Tobe Kakeru. What's your name, big bro?"
"Don't go claiming people as family. I'm not your brother."
The world had already ended. Kitahara Sosuke had no interest in gaining siblings or forming meaningless attachments. In this new world, every extra tie was an extra risk. If someone wanted to follow him, they needed to prove their worth in combat. Nothing else mattered.
He nodded toward the body behind Tobe. "You just gonna stand there? Want him to take another bite out of you?"
Tobe turned his head and nearly jumped out of his skin. Hayama Hayato, who was supposed to be dead, had somehow sat upright again. His clouded gray eyes mirrored Matsuda Yuko's moments before she turned. Blood gushed from his cracked forehead, but he stared straight at Tobe with a cold, vacant gaze.
Tobe yelped and dashed behind Sosuke in panic. "Big bro, he turned too!"
"You think I can't see that?"
Without hesitation, Sosuke swung his bat again.
The sound was sickeningly final.
Hayama's skull caved in, black-red blood spreading across the floor like spilled ink. The once-clean classroom tiles were now stained with gore. His twitching corpse finally fell still.
Sosuke didn't know him. Even if he had, it wouldn't have changed anything.
Sometimes, the malice of the living far outweighed the danger of the dead.
The rest of the students were pale and trembling. Some dry-heaved into trash bins, others bolted to the back of the room to vomit. None of them had ever witnessed such brutal violence, let alone experienced it firsthand.
Sosuke didn't waste time worrying about their feelings.
He turned back to the class. "I'm leaving the school. Stay or come with me. Your choice."
"You're leaving? Right now?" Kasumigaoka Utaha's face was pale, but unlike the others, she still kept her composure. She didn't collapse or retch. That alone set her apart.
"But… didn't Tobe say the floors below are crawling with them? How are we even supposed to get out?"
Her voice shook slightly, but her question was sharp and serious.
"Yeah, bro, wouldn't it be safer to wait for the police? There's too many zombies downstairs," Tobe quickly chimed in.
Sosuke shook his head. "I'm leaving either way. The police aren't answering. And if the lines are down, the situation outside is worse than we think. The initial chaos has already passed. This is the best time to get out."
He scanned the room. "You've seen it yourself. Once someone's bitten, they die and turn. If we wait too long, we'll be surrounded."
What he didn't say was this: the low-level zombies had poor vision and hunted by sound. Right now, there were still enough survivors making noise to distract them.
But soon, the school would grow quiet. And in that silence, the faintest noise would draw a swarm.
Once that happened, they'd all die.
"I'm staying. I'll wait here. The Self-Defense Force will come. There's no way they'd abandon a major school like ours," Tobe said quickly.
"Yeah, we're in the middle of Tokyo. Rescue teams must already be mobilizing."
"Maybe the signal's just temporarily blocked."
They kept clinging to whatever hope they could.
But Sosuke wasn't surprised.
The strong carve out hope from despair.
The weak wait for salvation.
In this new world, only those who fought had the right to survive, to evolve.
They would rise to seize the moon, or dive into the abyss to slay monsters.
To wait idly was to die.
Utaha hesitated. For all her intellect and composure, when facing life-and-death, she realized something painfully clear.
She was just an ordinary high school girl.
She had no power, no skills, not even the courage to swing a bat at a zombified classmate.
Sosuke glanced at her and sighed. He couldn't waste time. Sentiment had no place here.
"If that's your decision, then stay."
He turned without hesitation.
But the moment she saw his back, Utaha felt a sudden, inexplicable fear, would be the last time they ever saw each other.
"Wait! Kitahara, I'll go with you!"
She didn't even know why she said it. It wasn't love or admiration. It was just a gut feeling a sixth sense telling her not to stay behind.
Sosuke blinked in surprise but quickly nodded.
If she wanted to come, he wouldn't stop her.
In fact, anyone who wanted to follow him was free to do so as long as they didn't slow him down. That was the only line he still drew as a human being.
Grudges should be settled. But humanity shouldn't be discarded.
Once you became just another walking corpse, you could never evolve again.
"I'll protect you," Sosuke said firmly.
They stepped out from the fourth-floor classroom.
The sky was noticeably darker than before.
"Seems like the fourth floor's still secure. The zombies probably haven't started climbing yet. Either that, or the noise elsewhere is still keeping them busy," Sosuke muttered, scanning the area. He could still hear distant screams and the hum of car engines outside the school.
"Stick close. I'll lead. No matter what happens, don't scream or panic."
"Got it. I'm not that dumb," Utaha replied, gripping a long umbrella with both hands. They'd found several umbrellas in the storage closet. Sosuke had handed her one for self-defense.
She took a deep breath. "Don't underestimate me. I've been working out recently. I'm pretty good at running. And while writing Love Metronome, I actually researched a ton of post-apocalyptic novels. I'm scared, sure, but I won't act like one of those clueless side characters who drag everyone down."
She nodded to herself and moved forward with surprising determination.
Sosuke followed behind, quietly smiling.
But after a few steps, his smile faded.
Love Metronome, if he remembered right, was supposed to be a pure romantic slice-of-life novel.
And she researched zombie survival stories… for that?
Now that was terrifying.
Even falling in love had become a horror story.