Kazuki's stomach growled loudly, shattering the tense silence on the roof of Hanazono High School. It was a brutal reminder that since yesterday afternoon, they hadn't swallowed anything except the convenience-store bread that had run out long ago.
"I could eat a shoe right now if someone was selling one," Kazuki grumbled, clutching his increasingly cramping stomach.
Daiki glanced toward the rusty metal stairwell door leading down to the halls below. "The school cafeteria is on the ground floor. But the streets outside already look like hell. We don't know how many monsters are roaming these hallways."
"We can't go down empty-handed," Renjiro cut in firmly. His sharp eyes swept across the rooftop before settling on the row of third-floor windows below them. "The sports storage room is in the third-floor corridor. There should be plenty of hard equipment we can use to defend ourselves before we risk breaking through to the ground floor in search of food."
Daiki and Kazuki exchanged glances, then nodded in agreement. The decision was perfectly logical. Without preparation or protective gear, walking down to the ground floor would be no different from offering themselves up as easy prey to the infected.
Carefully, Renjiro pushed open the stiff, creaking metal rooftop door. The three of them descended the dark concrete stairs on tiptoe, moving through the emergency exit and into the main corridor on the third floor of Hanazono High School.
The architecture of Hanazono High School featured a modern design with a mezzanine in the center. Instead of enclosed floors in the middle, each level had a circular corridor that looked directly down into the open atrium far below on the ground floor. The only barrier between the circular corridor and the drop into the central atrium was a chest-high glass railing reinforced with steel frames. From the third-floor corridor, anyone could look straight down at the ground floor below.
The third floor felt unbelievably dark, deserted, and unfamiliar. The morning sunlight filtered dimly through the dusty corridor windows. The sharp stench of rotting blood mixed with the scent of expired floor cleaner, hanging thick in the air and making Daiki's chest feel tight.
"Slowly..." Renjiro whispered, walking at the front while watching every open classroom door sway in the wind.
But after they had gone only a dozen or so meters along the third-floor circular corridor toward the sports storage room, a heavy scraping sound suddenly came from behind the bend in the hall.
*SREEK... SREEK... SREEK...*
Four figures emerged one after another from behind the darkness of the turn.
Renjiro's blood ran cold. The four figures might once have been students and school staff, but their bodies had now mutated into grotesque, horrifying forms. Their bodies had swollen far beyond normal human proportions, tearing apart the school uniforms and shirts around their chests and shoulders.
Coarse, dark fur two to three centimeters long jutted from the arms, legs, cheeks, and jaws of all four monsters. Gaping bite wounds rotting black on their necks and arms spewed thick fluid that dripped onto the concrete floor.
The moment they caught the scent of the three young men in the corridor, all four zombies suddenly raised their heads in unison. Their pupil-less white eyes bulged wildly, and an ear-splitting, hissing roar exploded from their jaws!
*GRRRRAAAAARRRRGH!*
Without hesitation, the four muscular, thick-furred monsters leaped forward and charged down the third-floor corridor at full speed!
"Watch out! They're so fast!" Daiki yelled, instinctively taking two steps back and setting his stance.
"Don't run backward! Force them to the side!" Renjiro barked. His keen combat instincts read the layout of the mezzanine corridor in seconds. To their left was the solid wall lined with classrooms, while to their right was the thick glass railing bordering the drop into the central atrium.
Close-quarters combat erupted instantly. Each of the three men engaged one target with extraordinary physical agility.
Kazuki moved to the front as their main shield. When the first zombie charged with its thick-furred claws, Kazuki seized the monster's muscular shoulder, used the momentum of its rush against it, and executed a powerful shoulder throw. The first zombie's body flew into and over the thick glass railing, plunging freely into the atrium below!
On the left, nimble Daiki dodged the second zombie's snapping bite. The two-toned-haired young man—yellow and black—spun his body rapidly and landed a spinning back kick squarely against the second zombie's neck. The force of Daiki's kick launched the zombie out of the corridor, sending it after the first zombie toward the bottom of the atrium!
Meanwhile, Renjiro fought on the right. Dodging the third zombie's wild bite, Renjiro drove an elbow strike straight into the enemy's jaw. The powerful blow shattered the third zombie's jaw, throwing it off balance and sending it tumbling over the glass barrier!
That left the fourth zombie—the largest and most muscular monster of them all—roaring savagely as it prepared to pounce on Renjiro at close range.
"Ren, hold it!" Kazuki shouted.
"Hit it together!" Renjiro barked.
The three of them launched a perfect **execution combo attack**! Kazuki charged and slammed his shoulder into the fourth zombie's chest with the force of a bull, pinning it rigid at the edge of the corridor. Daiki leaped in with a double knee strike to the monster's stomach, and Renjiro finished it with a powerful high kick straight to its head.
*CRAAAAASH—CRASH!*
The thick third-floor glass railing could no longer withstand the impact of their combined attack. The heavy glass shattered, scattering fragments into the air! The fourth zombie, along with the glittering shards, fell freely across the central atrium's open void!
*BOOOOOOM! BOOOOOOM! BOOOOOOM! BOOOOOOM!*
Massive booms erupted one after another as the four monsters' large bodies slammed into the atrium's tiled floor from the height of the third floor.
But the thunderous crash of breaking glass and falling bodies sent echoes racing into every corner of the school building.
From the ground floor below, dozens of hissing roars suddenly erupted in answer. The thunder of thousands of dragging footsteps and claws slapping against the floor rapidly swelled. The horde of zombies roaming the ground-floor atrium abruptly looked up at the third floor, then scattered into a run, scrambling up the main staircase!
"Damn it! The noise drew the monsters from downstairs!" Daiki shouted as he watched dozens of zombies racing up toward the third-floor stairs.
"RUN! THE SPORTS STORAGE ROOM!" Renjiro yelled.
The three of them turned and sprinted down the circular corridor toward the far end of the third floor. A thick wooden door stood in front of them, marked **Hanazono High School Sports Storage Room**.
Kazuki kicked the wooden door open, and the three of them leaped inside. Kazuki and Daiki slammed the door shut, shoved a heavy metal cabinet against it, and set a wooden bar in place to secure the barricade from inside.
*BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!*
Only a few seconds later, dozens of heavily furred hands and zombie bodies began pounding and clawing at the storage-room door from outside, accompanied by savage roars that made their hair stand on end. But the metal-cabinet barricade held against their assault.
The three of them breathed heavily inside the dusty sports storage room.
"Safe... for now," Daiki muttered between breaths, sweeping back his sweat-soaked yellow hair.
Renjiro scanned the contents of the school's sports storage room. The wooden racks and storage cabinets held an assortment of physical equipment that was still in excellent condition.
The three of them immediately selected the best equipment to arm themselves with:
Renjiro walked to the golf-equipment rack and picked up two thick steel golf clubs. He swung one in each hand, confidently testing the weight and grip of the cold metal.
Daiki found a hard-wood baseball bat and a mesh bag containing several solid baseballs. With his sharp eyes and quick reflexes, Daiki slipped the baseballs into his jacket and tested the wooden bat's swing through the air.
Meanwhile, Kazuki went to the sports-club storage cabinet and found protective equipment: a full American football uniform with thick shoulder pads and a helmet, which he immediately put on; a pair of thick leather MMA gloves to protect both hands from the risk of infection when throwing punches; and a body-sized, square Taekwondo kicking pad. Kazuki tied the large kicking pad to his left arm, using it as full-body protection to break through the line of zombies ahead of them.
Renjiro calmly swung both golf clubs through the air, then pointed his chin toward the back corner of the storage room. A secondary wooden door stood there—the back door of the sports storage room, connected directly to a service stairwell leading to the ground floor.
"This storage room has a second door in the back," Renjiro whispered, listening to the dozens of zombies still rampaging at the main entrance. A cold, tactical grin spread across his face. "We don't need to do something stupid and break through the monster crowd at the front door. We'll use the back door, move quietly, and stay careful on the way to the cafeteria. Don't make a commotion unless we're cornered."
Daiki and Kazuki nodded in understanding. Moving stealthily and remaining fully alert, Renjiro slowly lowered the latch on the back door, opened it little by little, and led the three of them out into the dark service corridor toward the ground floor.