As usual, we put a barricade of desks surrounding the school’s back gate, and after confirming that everyone was in place for our zombie hunting practice, I said, “Then, Kousuke, please go ahead.”
“Alright… Go!” As he said this, he opened the gate a little and allowed one zombie inside. We have been using this technique for a week now, so we are pretty used to it by now.
“Over here.” I told the zombie as I poked its belly with the scabbard of my sword. Once it had noticed me, it tried jumping in my direction, but I dodged it with a quick backstep.
And in the next moment, a survival knife was stabbed on the back of the zombie’s head, “Take that!” Rintarou exclaimed as he twisted the knife that was still inside the zombie’s head, spurting a lot of blood on Rintarou’s face, “Die! Die! Die!” He was laughing out loud as he shouted that.
“Rintarou, how many times must I tell you? Just use the minimum amount of force necessary when killing the zombies…” I told him while sighing.
“Oops, sorry! I’ll be more careful next time!” He said that, but he was smiling with his bloodied face, he’ll most likely do it again next time.
Everyone, except him, sighed at once as we realized that.
“Just how many times will you give this same reply…?” Kousuke asked, he seemed to be really depressed at how careless Rintarou was.
“Ah, come on! Don’t mind it too much! Don’t mind it!” Rintarou replied.
“Look, just hitting the brain is enough. You don’t need to destroy it thoroughly. Spending too much time with one zombie will leave you open to the attack of other zombies… And making lots of noise will attract them too.” I tried to give him a reasonable explanation to why he shouldn’t act like that anymore, but I had low hopes that it would actually work.
Either way, Rintarou seemed to give up on arguing for the time being, so I decided to move on with the practice, “Alright then, your turn now, Asuka.”
“Leave it to me, senpai!” She happily exclaimed with her anime voice as she got in position.
“We’re the same age, please don’t call me senpai…” I told her.
However, she just giggled and said, “But senpai is senpai!”
It was the same exchange that we had every time. Perhaps I should give up on telling her this.
Sighing in resignation, I said, “Kousuke, please go ahead.” who then opened the gate to let another zombie in.
Then, I repeated the luring process just like last time.
“Take this!” Asuka exclaimed as she got behind the zombie and slammed its head with a shovel that she got from the Janitor’s office… It might honestly be a better weapon than a katana, as it won’t deteriorate nearly as quickly… Though I do have the ‘Super Maintenance’ skill, so I guess this is somewhat irrelevant for me.
“I did it!” Asuka cheerfully said as she pulled the shovel out of the zombie’s head. It’s a bit surprising that it got stuck as deep as it was, but it’s good that there were no issues removing it.
Things seemed to be going quite well. It’s good that we were able to learn quite a bit about zombies on this past week, like…
They move in different ways, some walk slowly and others can move faster and jump at you.
They don’t sleep nor rest.
They continue moving until their brain is destroyed.
They are extremely strong and can easily tear human flesh with their bare hands.
They only care about eating human meat, as they don’t try to eat animals like cats and dogs.
Their growls can attract more zombies.
And lastly, their attention span and their thinking ability is about as high as an insect’s, if not lower.
Some of those things I learned on my own and told them, but others we learned together during those practices. It was quite useful to understand them properly, as it made it easier to plan out how to best deal with the zombies.
The most important thing we decided on, was that it was too risky to face them head on. It was better to sneak behind them and destroy their brains with a single blow… Sure, there was more resistance there than there was on the eyes, but it was much safer nonetheless.
In any case, it was close to midday, so, “Everyone, let’s wrap it up for today.” I told them. I figured it was better to end practice still in the mornings, as it was safer for us to not spend too much energy practicing, as later in the day some emergency might occur… Though I think I’m the only one saving my energy, as the other four seem to be doing some physical training of their own afterwards.
Either way, everyone seemed to be relieved once we ended, “Phew, I survived another day!” Rintarou exclaimed.
Everyone seemed to be smiling a bit as he said that, I guess they were thinking the same thing… It’s not a bad thing, I suppose.
But then, “Hey, everyone!” We heard the voice of a glasses-wearing student that was running towards us from within the school grounds, “Listen, listen!”
That was Takenaka Isao. He was so skinny that it made me wonder if he lived on the basis of only water and vegetables. He often stayed at the school’s rooftop watching the surroundings to warn people of anything noteworthy that he may notice.
“What happened?” Kousuke asked him.
“At ‘captain’, you know, the nearby supermarket!” He started saying. It was the nearby supermarket chain that I often bought pork at before the world became like this, “Your family is on top of a truck near it, Kousuke!” He exclaimed.
“Wait, what!?” Kousuke was wide-eyed. I wasn’t aware that his family wasn’t here because I didn’t really ask each people about their family situation, but it’s not surprising that some were separated from their loved ones, “Is everyone there? Are all three of them safe!?” Kousuke asked him.
“Yeah! Your parents, your sister and one more person are there! I’m really happy for you!” Isao seemed to be as happy as if he was talking about his own family there. I suppose it’s a miraculous situation to find out that one’s family is safe and sound after being separated in such disastrous conditions.
However, Isao immediately changed his expression to a gloom one, “And I’m sorry to say it, but their situation is pretty terrible… Come on, everyone.”