Surviving the dead

Ren had been one of the last to leave the classroom, choosing to linger behind for a while and grab his bag rather than rush out with the mess of them -he'd only get crushed at that rate. The girl that had dragged him over to the window in the first place had long since extracted herself from his side and left along with the throng of others. Shooting one last glance at the scene outside the window -there really were buses there, Ren noted rather belatedly- he exited the class as well, and then paused in the hallway. Too many people. There were too many people there, all heading towards the main staircase. It was the shortest route, Ren supposed, but with the amount of people, teachers and students alike, crammed into that small space, getting down to ground level would take far too long. The people that had been on the first level when the announcement was made must be thanking their lucky stars.

Rounding left instead for a far less congested -albeit, slightly longer- route, Ren squashed down a yawn. He was walking quickly -not quite running, but long strides instead. He'd believe in the dead people for the sake of efficiency. If they really did exist, it'd be best if he simply get that pesky doubt out of the way first; if they didn't, and this was just some elaborate prank, well... no harm done trusting in it, anyway, but for a bit of pride. And what was pride in a situation wherein the other option meant confronting with a legion of living dead? Ren would rather not take his chances with that.

Getting out of the school building came first, and then came reuniting with the rest of his family. They could ponder over their situation once they were safely traveling somewhere far, far away.
 
As Lala ran down the staircase on the left side of the school building, she kept worrying about her parents. 'Please be alright..' she whispered. Only a few more meters and she would reach the door. She tried opening the door, but she couldn't seem to get it open, it was a heavy door after all. She tried to calm herself down before trying it again, she was shaking quite a lot. When she was about to try it again she could hear footsteps coming from the stairs.
 
A few people running past her, Kai hurries through the corridors, her feet lightly tapping against the floors as her mind was lost in thought. The place was madness - even from the quieter, less packed corridors she could hear shouting every now and again from around the school - seemingly most people were just as frightened as her as of what to expect in this school. This school. She never really like the place - the education was good, but some of the people - like Jaina and her little gang - were just downright nasty and general bullies. Most others just ignored her and her quiet ways, and she was fine with that. Although she had seen a few people in the school that slightly scared her... sometimes a cold look was all it took for Kai to shrink a little in her seat.

Kai feared for her safety - and with the hope that no one else would get harmed - as she hurried through door after door, step after step. Got to get out the school. She would fear for her parents' safety - but... they had died a long time ago. All she would think of to go to right now was her foster parents... and... she wasn't exactly keen on that. Her foster parents cared for her and all, but... she was the least favoured amongst the other fostered siblings there, and was often blamed. She didn't even have time to complain it was unfair in that household.

With not much idea of this part of school (in terms of the quick routes, that is) she hurriedly follows one of the girls in a fast walk. Lala, she thought her name was...? She couldn't really remember, and that's all she had heard from others talking to/about her. Kai was only in a fast walk, however, and it wasn't long before the other girl had ran down the stairs, out of sight. Kai just wanted to get out of this school, so she slowly walks behind... although... round the next turn, Kai could have sworn she smelt something... horrible... round the next corner, where the stairs were.

*Guhh...*
 
Liam continued his way down the hallway, ignoring the commotion and panic that was coming from students in the opposite direction down the hall. It appeared there were a few other students that had the same idea as him, but there weren't nearly as many going down this route as their were going down the main. Because of that, Liam hoped this way would be a viable way to get down to the ground floor and, ultimately, out of the school and to safety.

He knew of another staircase down this way as well and he was nearing it to the point where he could see it. Someone else ahead of him walked down the stairs and he followed suit, hoping the student in front of him going slowly wasn't a sign of anything bad down there. As soon as he set foot down the flight of stairs, a foul stench attacked his nostrils. "What the...?" He said aloud, his pace slowing to a halt as he took a moment to attempt and determine the source of the foul stench.
 
On the way towards the rear exit, Chiyumi heard other footsteps. She stopped in her tracks, feeling that she was being followed. She decided to call out whoever she was hearing. "Who's there!? Show yourself! Now!" She demanded as she turned around to look behind her.

She didn't like being followed and she wasn't going to start now. It was already weird enough that she didn't seem to care about the safety of her parents right now. "I'm trying to be nice to you! Don't make me come back there because I will beat the crap out of you!" Her voice was filled with intimidation and demand.
 
Naoki managed to eventually catch up with some of the other students who were heading towards the same general direction as well. Good choice, he thought to himself commending the others on their actions. In fact, he knew their faces. They were all from the same class. With this little number of students getting through, they should have no problems reaching the main floor in time and get to the buses. Once he got to safety, he could call back home and see if his family was safe - and also confirm if this zombie issue was real. After all, Tokyo was the hub of all sort of activities. Surely his parents and his siblings could-

Then it hit him. If they knew about the news, they would have called him already. He tried to calm himself from the sudden realization that things might truly had gone wrong by persuading himself that if they didn't know about the zombies or the zombies were a hoax, naturally they wouldn't call him.

Regardless of his thoughts, he managed to reach the staircase where the other students seemed to stop dead at theirtracks. He was going to ignore them initially and push ahead. Then the stench of something rotten entered his nostrils that almost forced him to throw up his breakfast. He swore that it smelled like rotten fish exposed under the sun for too long. He successfully recomposed himself and nodded to the other students. He remembered them now. Kai Aminara. A very shy girl, but he remembered nothing about her beyond that. Liam Xavier. He was one of those boys that the girls secretly swoon over in his class.

After their small encounter, Naoki braced the smell and walked down the staircase although he had slowed down considerably, trying to listen for sounds that were out of place and to spy for signs if anything were wrong down there. He remembered that there was another girl ahead of him, though she was no longer in sight. He wondered if she had gone down the stairs too...
 
Someone was shouting, although Ren couldn't for the life of him discern who it was. He supposed it didn't quite matter, anyway. Whoever it wasn't didn't sound panicked or threatened in any way -I'll just assume for now that the dead haven't made their way here yet. He continued his pace -abruptly running would only tire himself out and force him into a panicked state- and turned around the corner into the staircase soon enough before jerking to a pause. Something smelled wrong. Ren couldn't place it at first, standing at the top of the steps and distantly taking note that several of his classmates were there too -he didn't see anyone in front of him, but perhaps Ren had just been too far behind them- but then his brain finally connected it to the smell of rotting -something, and he scowled, pulling up the collar of his shirt to cover his nose and mouth with.

Judging by what few movies he'd watched and books he'd read about this exact same situation, that smell probably meant that one of the dead were near. If the fact that his classmates at the bottom of the stairs weren't yet mauled, and haven't been turned into slobbering creatures of the dead, it was probably relatively safe where they stood. There might be something further down, however. Ren went down a few steps, acknowledging the others with a slight tilt of his head, and then paused to watch one of the boys -Naoki, was it? Ren couldn't say that he had much of an impression of this one, apart from the fact that he had grades that rivaled Ren's own. A few of the others liked to joke that Naoki would completely top Ren in every way one day, but he hadn't used to really care. Let the boy take the top grades. Ren was content to have whatever was left- make his way down the stairs cautiously.

Well... at least someone else would be the one to check if something was hiding down there.
 
The footsteps were coming closer to Lala. The footsteps belonged to four other kids, all of them were her classmates. 'Why are you all here? Did you all follow me?.. It doesn't matter, help me get this door open. It's heavy..' she said while keeping her cold face. And then she noticed something. Most of them were covering their nose. Because Lala was really stressed out, she hadn't smelled a thing yet. She sniffed. The smell of something rotten entered her nose. 'What's that smell?' she asked while looking at the others. And then she saw it. A human like creature was walking towards the small group. But there was something wrong with it, it seemed like it had been dead for a while.
 
Kai blushes a little as Lala asks if she was following her. The truth was that Kai was indeed just following the others, and she would have hoped she hadn't of being noticed doing so.
"U-um... I..." Kai begins anxiously, the stench still in her nostrils as she cut off from whatever she was about to say - which would most likely have been nothing whatsoever. This wasn't the case of a piece of food or something going bad and causing a bad smell; she turned her attention to where most people were staring at by now.

Kai cupped her mouth, suppressing a quiet squeal of horror at the sight.

A human-like creature, yet it wasn't in the same sense. It was mindlessly walking, groaning yet it had a humanoid figure, its body rotted in some parts, as if the poor man was already dead a long time ago, yet something continued to strive him to walk, dragging his - or should she say its - feet along the ground in a stumbled walk. Clothes ripped, rotted, as was its skin which was cut and pallid, infected wounds and sores covering the poor humanoid's skin. She couldn't even refer to him as a human, it was clear he was dead... yet somewhat possessed as the... she would call them the 'Possessed Corpse'... the possessed corpse continued to just walk towards them, coming closer each drunken step. What on earth did it want? By the sound of its groans, it clearly wasn't a passive creature.

It wanted to hurt her. The possessed corpse wanted to hurt her. To kill her. She couldn't prove this, but the way it walked, the way it groaned, the way it snarled and bared its rotting teeth...

Kai backs up away from the creature in fear, her back pressing against the jammed door.
"Oh... G-god..." She whispers in horror, shaking with fear as she tried to cower a little under the hood of her white hoodie. She was too shy around these people to give suggestions as to what to do... and she didn't want to get near the thing...
 
After a few moments, it was becoming painfully apparent that others around him were beginning to notice something bad - presumably the source of the stench. He hurried down the remaining steps of the stairs, stopping right by where Lala and Kai were. They were classmates of his; he recognized them, just never really had a reason to talk to them. At least until now.

He saw it. It was similar to how they were depicted in the media such as video games and the likes. A shambling corpse which wants nothing more then to devour your flesh and turn you into one of them. Liam wanted to suggest that it was a joke- that something like this couldn't have happened so quickly but the rotten smell and appearance coming from it was acting as heavy evidence against the possibility of it being a joke. He took a deep breath in, the next thought coming to mind was... gruesome, to say the least. "Do any of you have a blunt object? Anything?" He asked aloud, looking around at his fellow classmates.
 
Chiyumi finally made her way to the rear exit. To her dismay, she realized that the door was locked and there was a hefty padlock across the bolts, making it impossible to open without a key. She cursed her bad luck as she tried to figure out what she could do next. She figured that the either a Teacher or the Janitor had the key, but reaching the Janitor's Office would require her to backtrack and finding a Teacher with the Key would be impossible because there were too many teachers and in the current situation wouldn't help her case. Knowing that even trying to break the door down would be impossible and heading back was too dangerous, she decided to try and find another exit. There had to be an unlocked exit around somewhere. Like maybe a bathroom window?
 
At the question, Ren had ventured down the rest of the steps, standing at the bottom along a few of the others in order to see what was going on. And, well, now that the evidence was right in his face, dragging itself slowly towards him, Ren really didn't need a reason to doubt the existence of the dead people roaming about. Then again, he never did doubt it anyway. Letting his eyes leave the corpse for a moment, glancing around them to check, Ren answered the one that had asked the question -Liam, was it?- easily, 'No suitable blunt objects here apart from our bags, but I'd assume that you wouldn't want to use that to smash a corpse.' He paused there. The object needn't be blunt, anyway, if absolutely smashing that thing was what they wanted. A sharp object would work just as fine, although Ren rather thought that something that didn't put the user too close to the corpse was better, which meant to scissors and penknives -both of which he had in his pencil case- were out of the running. They were in a school building; there was bound to be something suitable somewhere -anywhere- nearby. Perhaps one of those huge metal rulers in the science room would work.

'For now, get away from that,' Ren called out instead, taking a few steps backwards himself, back up the staircase, 'At the pace it's going, it won't reach us as long as we're quick enough. And since we don't actually know anything about these things apart from the fact that they're horrendously ugly and in desperate need of a bath, it'd be prudent to first get out of this staircase and into open area. There's bound to be something suitable in one of the classrooms.' He took a few more steps up the stairs, moving backwards. For Ren, it was a tactical retreat. If the others didn't want to follow him, so be it; Ren could probably find something of use in the school building by himself. Unless one of them could mysteriously pull out a weapon from somewhere in the narrow staircase -perhaps they had the habit of regularly carrying out end-of-the-world simulations and thus needed something on them always, whatever- it was best to get out of the place before the corpse had to chance to... do anything, really.
 
'Blunt objects shouldn't be hard to find in a school building.' she replied. Thinking about where they could find some was out of the question as the monster was still approaching them, and it was already getting too close. Then Lala heard Ren's voice, telling them to get away for now. Right after that she saw Ren run back up the stairs. Honestly she just wanted to get out as fast as possible, but dying at the hands of this monster is not an option either. Lala decided to follow suit and ran up the stairs, making hand gestures to Liam, Kai and Naoki to follow. 'Hurry up! Don't slow us down now!' she shouted. Then she turned around to face Ren. 'How about we check the janitor's closet? There will be brooms and who knows what else..'. She awaited his reply.
 
He was quickly joined by the others as he stood there, stunned from the sight of the vile... thing that entered his vision. A shambling, smelling corpse; standing upright, letting out a quiet moan as it turned and shuffled towards them. To tell the truth, its stench wasn't even that much of a bother anymore. Though it could only do so a few steps at a time, but if they don't move from the stairs they would quickly become its breakfast. That was one situation that he would want to avoid. Once Naoki managed to take the current reality into account and the broadcast that he only half-believed then, maybe the situation was far worse than he originally imagined. Though their school wasn't that far from the city center, but for one of the things to reach the school ground in such a short time... And by the gods, if whatever was turning the people into the walking dead had been lurking all this while and only awaken now... He shook his head. There weren't enough information to suggest that what he thought had happened was the truth, but it was something for him to keep in mind.

As soon as Lala began to run up the stairs and ushered them to follow, he quickly followed suit as he felt the adrenaline rush. When he heard Lala's suggestion, he nodded at her suggestion while moving up the flight of stairs. "Agreed. There should be some brooms, mops, pails and what not. We could use those to stall it... or at least barricade the doors while we figure out how to deal with it. If we can get to any of the workshops or school labs in this level, we should be able to find something we can use to deal with it." Then he stopped in front of a door that was one level lower from where they originally came from. He would have choose going back to their original floor - it was further up, giving them enough time to prepare for the thing. But all they had were classrooms then, and he really couldn't think of anything useful that they could get from the classrooms. He turned the knob and pushed, and the door opened easily enough. "This way, hurry!"


Edit: Wrong colours for conversations.
 
Kai nervously follows, her legs tapping agains the ground as she is sure to steer clear of the possessed corpse. She didn't want to follow other people, but she would probably be dead on her own anyway. She was excellent at Judo, but she was a little rusty and hadn't done it in a while, a little nervous to try it again - especially on one of these possessed corpses.

Not wanting to make herself a hinderance, Kai follows suit after Naoki and the others. She had a few suggestions - one being the biology class because of the cutting implements it had, and another being the chemistry class because of the vials of acid, and large metal rulers. But those were probably too far away, and therefore dangerous, and she was too shy of her opinion to other anyway.

After running down the corridor a while with the others, Kai nervously creaked open one of the doors. As suggested, it was the janitor cupboard, alright... although it had little than a metal bucket, a small duster and pan and a rag. Thankfully, Kai could spot a mop in there - there was more stuff in the darkness she couldn't see in the back of the cupboard, too. She was too nervous to fight or take up arms, as she would probably just hurt someone else in her own mind, so she shyly steps back a little.
"It's coming...!" She squeaks, her arms tucked in at her sides. She wished her parents were still around right now to comfort her... but that was impossible before, anyway.
 
Liam heard Lala's suggestion, silently agreeing with himself on that being the best course of action at the moment. He wouldn't bet on there being anything necessarily super effective as a weapon, but it would be a start. He quickly followed his fellow classmates up the stairs, taking a glance over his shoulder at the rotting corpse as they all made their retreat. Despite the rush of the situation, he couldn't help but wonder if the rest of the city was like this. Rotting corpses roaming with the living panicking to get to safety and defend themselves. Surely the military was rolling in right about now to help control the outbreak and mass panic. Surely his mother, father and brother would be able to defend themselves until the military got the situation under control. Liam shook his head, trying to get the thoughts out of his head. He had to focus on the task at hand.

He followed his classmates down the corridor until one of them, Kai he believed was her name, opened the door to the janitor closet that they had spoken of. He looked in, squinting to see better in the darkness of the closet. Immediately he spotted a mop. Not exactly something you'd want to use long term, but it'd work nevertheless. He stepped into the closet, grasping the handle of the mop with both hands firmly. "This will probably work." He said, stepping out from the closet with the mop in hand. "Anyone want to volunteer to do the actual honors of using it?"
 
Ren had simply been following the others for a while, dropping to the rear end of the small group because he wasn't quite running. It was more of a jog, really. There was only one corpse shambling around -and not a particularly fast one at that, although Ren didn't exactly have other specimens to compare with- which meant that it was easier for him to conserve more of his energy for later, rather than tire himself out immediately by sprinting all over the place. Besides, he could keep up just fine, so there was no trouble on that front. When Kai opened the janitor closest, Ren slowed down to a halt, glancing at the path behind them when Kai squeaked that it was coming, and indeed spotting the thing approaching them in the distance. And then Liam pulled a mop from the closet and Ren turned his attention back.

'Whoever has the most confidence should use it,' He replied, gesturing at the mop, 'No point in forcing someone who doesn't want to. If no one else volunteers, I can do it, but,' Ren shrugged, he just pretty much wanted to get this over and done with and return to his house to get the rest of his family, and if that meant that he would offer to beat a corpse to pieces, so be it, 'I'm not exactly well-versed in combat. Ah, we could always continue on if everyone has enough energy and see if there're any better makeshift weapons to be found. Either option is fine, but please do decide on one of them before it actually does make its way to us.'
 
Lala was looking into the janitor closet. As opposed to what she had thought, barely anything was in there. The only usable thing in there was a mop. 'What a joke... Why would there only be one mop..?' she whispered to herself. Then she saw someone move towards the mop and grab it. It was Liam. She was a little surprised, a mop is not the best weapon after all.. 'Are you seriously thinking about using that thing?' she asked it in a way as if she didn't believe a word he was saying. But it seems like they didn't have a choice as the monster was getting closer to them every second. 'So who's gonna use it? We can't just force this task onto anyone..'.
 
[[There were some things in the darkness Kai couldn't see, so go ahead and make up what those are for whoever wants to.]]

Kai looks at the mop blankly, then looked back at the possessed corpse, which was a while away in the corridors but slowly going towards them... although she knew she had to do something... was a mop really that suitable? Then again, she supposed it was better than nothing... all she could think of else of a weapon was her pen - and that would be near useless anyway. All else seemed not much of use... although maybe... the bucket could come in use? Nervously, she takes the metal bucket in her hands, still squinting and not really noticing what other items were in the darkness.

She looks between the possessed corpse and the mop. She wouldn't do much of use with the mop - she hadn't really done such a thing before and wasn't necessarily strong. She did have an idea for a backup plan, although she was too shy to share it. In short, it involved some acid from the chemistry labs and the bucket which would hopefully be corrosion resistant, but she would see if the Omnipotent Mop Strategy would work first.
"Um... I'm not very strong... I wouldn't... do a lot..." Kai shyly says, worriedly glancing at the possessed corpse as she nervously grasped the bucket. Maybe throwing the metal bucket over the possessed corpse's head could work... although it probably didn't need to see anymore...
 
Ultimately, Chiyumi decided to be bold and attempt to make her way to the Janitor's Office. There was no way the infected could have made their way into the School just yet. On the way to the Janitor's Office, she saw five of her classmates confronted by a disfigured man. Did the infected make their way into the building? If that's the case, it's probably time to find a faster way out of the school. She struggled on deciding what to do next as she saw Kai holding a Mop and struggling on what to do.