Surviving the dead

Naoki nodded at the group as they were discussing on who was going to bash it with the mop, though he wasn't particularly sure if that was a good idea. But they don't exactly have a choice. He nodded at everyone else as he took the mop into his hand from Liam's. "Well, guess I'll have the honour of doing it. We won't be able to hold it forever though." He took a deep breath as he held the mop like a spear with both his hand, though the smell from the walking corpse was really affecting him. The plan was simply to thrust the mop towards its head or mouth, stopping it from advancing. He looked at the shy girl, Kai, he believed her name was. Well, as long as she wouldn't drop the bucket on him then it would be all fine. He nodded at her, trying to reassure her. He turned towards the ever approaching undead, with arms already stretched trying to make them early lunches.

"Guys, how about going to the workshop or laboratory further down the hallways and get something useful? Hammers, acid, drills, whatever. Get something," he suggested again as the thing got dangerously closer towards them.
 
Ren shrugged, eyeing the corpse warily, body tensed to run if necessary. 'I did suggest we could always continue moving for a bit to find a better weapon. Shall we do that? You want to come together with us, Naoki, or will you rather risk your life to stay behind and... hopefully bash this thing into bits with a mop? Ah, move backwards a little bit.' Ren reached out to grab the back of Naoki's collar, pulling him backwards. While they still hadn't decided whether or not to just charge at the thing, it was better to maintain a certain distance, so that they at least had ample room -and time- to run away if they wanted to. 'Whichever it is, we better decide fast. Ah,' Ren paused for a moment, taking a few steps away from the corpse himself as the thing continued to advance at its -fortunately- slow pace. Really, if it wasn't for the fact that it moved that slowly, all of them would have been caught by now. Death by zombie. Ren would have laughed if it didn't seem more and more like a sickeningly plausible reality. 'It's out of context, and really not the time, but I suppose we can take this thing's presence to mean that they aren't slowed down by stairs? It did manage to follow and catch up to us relatively quickly. Perhaps we should keep it alive for a while to experiment...' The last sentence was mumbled to himself, really. As much as it seemed like a good opportunity -a chance to find out what their current foe could and couldn't do, as well as its weaknesses, on a perfectly escapable test subject- Ren wasn't quite sure any of the others would see it the same way.
 
Lala was listening to Ren explain. 'Running away to find a better weapon would be safer... But...' Lala's thoughts were interrupted by Ren's words. Even though he was just mumbling she stood close enough to hear everything. '... Are you... Insane?!' she shouted. 'What will we do if any of us get hurt now? How will we explain such a thing to our teachers?'. A small sigh escaped her mouth. Suddenly she got an idea. 'Can't we just lure it to the stairs and push it off using the mop? I don't think anyone would survive that.' Her idea might be risky, but it was worth a shot. The least it could do was buy them time.
 
Kai silently stands there, holding the bucket between her hands nervously. Although she was reassured a tiny bit by Naoki's smile, but the thing was still getting closer... and closer... they'd have to do something - she'd have to do something sooner or later.

At Ren's words, she hears the last part of his sentance, but she wasn't particulary disturbed by the proposal... if there were more of these things, Kai wanted to know their physical capibilities... and how they could get rid of them the easiest. Just as for this one however... she had an idea how she could help take the thing down, and possibly 'experiment' on the possessed corpse. See what it could do, that was all.

Kai flinches a little as Lala shouts, and holds the bucket into her tighter. She takes a deep breath, finally ready to say something - she needed to talk now, if anything, and not communicating wouldn't be helpful at all. Kai just wanted to get... whatever this was... over with.
"Um... p-please don't shout... maybe Ren... has a point...?" Kai nervously says, her words shaking off a bit as she finishes her sentance.
"Um... but... we shouldn't do to much... I-I have an idea..." She quietly says, and cautiously goes close, but not in lunging range of the possessed corpse. She whimpers a little as she goes fairly close to it, and then throws the bucket over the possessed corpse's head, seeing what it would do, how it reacts, and if it could see anymore.

The corpse just kept mindlessly walking with the bucket over its head, although it didn't really seem to have much idea where it was going as it bumped into the walls now and again. Kai runs back to the group, and the corpse seemed to be slowing down a little, and it wasn't making much effort to take the bucket off its head.
"It's... um... not very... clever..." She quietly notes to the others as the possessed corpse bumps into the walls, but it was still walking towards the group.
 
He hadn't gotten a chance to reply to Lala before Kai made a move, and Ren watched as the girl lopped a bucket over the corpse's head, nodding at her when she returned, despite the rather self-deprecating statement. 'No, good job, actually. Now we know that they still move around using mainly their sight and aren't very clever. It would have taken off the bucket by now if it was.' He paused then, and turned to Lala, expression entirely neutral. 'The point is to do experiment that won't hurt us, and will prevent us from any further hurt if we can find out things like Kai just did,' He drawled, pointing a finger at the corpse, which seemed dangerously unstable at the moment, banging into walls and generally moving around like it had been blinded. Which, in a way, Ren supposed it had been. 'Pushing it off the stairs with a mop might also be a form of experiment, really. See if they can be stopped without needing to personally damage its brain, or something like that. But I'm afraid luring it might be rather hard now that it can't see us. Ah,' Ren turned to stare at the corpse as it continued making its way towards them, much more slowly than before, and mused to himself, 'I wonder if it can find us entirely by scent. Should we test it out? We could go and find a staircase to hang around and time how long it takes to track us down.'
 
Lala was shocked by Kai's action. She had no idea that this shy girl was able to do such a thing. The zombie was actually walking slower than before, so with a bucket on it's head navigating became difficult for the creature. 'So.. I guess we can say that it actually does use its eyes..?' Lala looked around at the others with a puzzled look on her face. She actually wasn't entirely sure herself. Then Ren started talking. 'Well then let's try to push it off the stairs. How about we go back to the one we came from? Then we can test if it can hear us as well, we have to run past it to go there. If it turns around when we run past it, it must be able to hear us.' Lala started taking a few steps in the direction of the zombie waiting for the others to give their opinions about her idea.
 
"Actually, I'm wondering if there's something wrong with us being mostly calm and collected at this moment," Naoki whispered to himself as he saw the entire event sort of happened beyond his expectations. Especially when Kai actually managed to drop a bucket onto the corpse's head. As an added bonus, the zombie seemed to become significantly dumber now that it couldn't exactly see where they were. Or hear them. It probably couldn't sense where they were that well now. Regardless, he had to agree with the plan of pushing it back to the staircase and push it off. Now that it could be easily made stumbled... With that, he gave Kai a thumbs up as he listened to Lala's idea about luring it to the stairs. "We can also test it if it still has a sense of touch if he can't hear us, but I like that idea." In truth, he likes any idea that can keep his hands clean... though he probably will have to make them dirty soon enough especially if the downtown area had already been overrun.
 
Kai shyly stands away from the possessed corpse, watching it stumble around. A distraction could probably work, but Kai wasn't the strongest of runners, so she sort of froze up a bit. She was quite small, and could probably slip out of the corpse's grasp if it caught up to her, but she still wasn't overly enthusiastic about leading it to the stairs.
"E-erm... we could throw something near it? The sound might distract i-it... as for leading it to the stairs... I'm really not... fast..." Kai squeaks, although she was one of the smallest here. She hoped things wouldn't get too bloody or messy - if there was one thing she hated, she hated getting her clothes or hair dirty. It was one of the things she detested, although she knew if she wanted to be a nurse one day, she'd have to deal with blood sooner or later.
 
'Let's just go with my plan for now and go towards the staircase we came from.' Lala said this confidently while turning her head away from her classmates and to the zombie. She thought it necessary to act like the leader for now and lead them. 'Follow me! Oh, and don't slow me down.' she said this with a bright smile on her face. Lala started running in the direction of the zombie, she felt very confident and spurted froward. She was taken back to reality when she suddenly felt a hand grabbing her arm. 'What? I thought I told you not to slow me d...' turning around as she said this, she saw that it wasn't one of her classmates, but the zombie who had grabbed her arm. Her mind went blank and fear was clearly visible in her eyes. Lala tried to get her arm out of the zombie's tight grip, but without success. '..H-H-HELP ME!!' she screamed while looking at her classmates.
 
As she continued to watch her classmates from afar, Chiyumi decided to follow them stealthily and quietly. But when she saw a Zombie grab ahold of Lala...She couldn't just stand there and let her be bit. Instead, she made a very bold move. "Hang on, I'm coming!" She then ran, charging towards the Zombie. Within seconds, she attacked the Zombie kicking it away from Lala before she repeatedly started stomping on its face. She didn't stop until she needed to catch her breath...
 
Before he could do anything -not that he had any idea what, exactly, he would do- another classmate of theirs came charging forward, kicking the corpse down before proceeding to unhesitatingly stomp it into oblivion. Ren would admire her instincts. When she paused to finally take a proper breathe, Ren reached out to grab their sudden new addition, gently tugging her backwards, away from the fallen corpse and towards the rest of the group. '... Chiyumi? It's already beaten. You can step back from it now.' He let go of her shirt, patting her on the back, before turning to raise a scathing eyebrow at Lala. 'And you, rushing into something without even properly considering the consequences. As if an experiment like running past a corpse to see whether or not it would be able to hear you in order to catch you is safe in any way. What if Chiyumi hadn't been there, and none of us had reacted in time?' He shot her something like a glare -but nothing as harsh as that- before turning around to survey the corpse that Chiyumi had stepped on -hopefully- to death.
 
Lala heard a girl's voice coming from behind her, within seconds the girl had attacked the zombie. Its grip on her arm had loosened, Lala quickly pulled away from it. Still in shock she dropped to the ground, just sitting there with no emotions on her face. She was watching the girl while she kept on stomping the zombie's head. After a while Ren had turned to her and started talking. He seemed to be a bit angry. She did such a foolish thing, she knew that now. Lala looked at him, still sitting on the floor. '... Sorry..' she said in a soft voice. Next she looked at Chiyumi and thanked her for saving her life.
 
Kai nervously watches, giving a worried squeak as she sees the possessed corpse suddenly whirl around, holding Lala in a tough grip. Kai sweats nervously as she watches in horror - what could she do? She could use her judo to possibly flip the possessed corpse... b-but... she'd stopped doing that for a while now, and besides, she wasn't st-

Suddenly, Kai watches as Chiyumi runs from a nearby corridor, kicking the possessed corpse cleanly over, and stomping on its head brutally until there was little more left of the head than a pulp, the posses- no, now it was just a corpse, falls still and stops groaning. Kai lets out a disturbed exhale of air - Lala had been saved, and that was terrific, but the sheer horror of seeing such a brutal way to kill something that used to be a student... it was right, Kai knew that, but she still couldn't not feel guility. Not when you could still manage to make out the expressions and some of the details that once used to be a human.

Kai rushes over to the scene, watching Ren chew Lala out a bit, but it was probably neccessary - Lala hadn't payed much attention to the possessed corpse before, and it turned out to be faster than expected. Kai helps Lala onto her feet.
"Oh my... d-did you get hurt...?" Kai asks worriedly, and looks to Chiyumi for a second. Kai opens her mouth to speak, but turns away nervously - that girl scared her a bit, and Kai didn't have the courage to talk to her, although she certainly did a good job of saving Lala.
 
Lala, still sitting on the ground, slowly became her old self again. She realized that it was over.. For now at least. The shy girl came over to her and helped her up, she also asked if she got hurt. Lala shook her head 'No, I'm fine. Thank you.. Kai.' she said this and tried to smile a little. This was really out of character for her, but since they helped her she figured that she could at least be a little nicer from now on. Lala turned herself to face everyone and apologized to them once again for causing trouble. She really felt like an idiot, and also a little embarrassed, for letting that happen.
 
Ren stared at the corpse, beaten into the floor -it was probably dead for good. The head had been kicked in, and if what movies proclaimed were true, that would put one of these things down for good. Just to be on the safe side, Ren prodded at it with his feet, shaking the body, and when he wasn't grabbed or pushed off, stomped on the body once more just to be sure. They should be fine now, probably. Stepping back from the corpse -now that he thought about it, Ren had gotten used to the horrible, rotten smell coming off it. He didn't seem to be nearly as affected as before- he turned to face the rest of the group, keeping silent. Lala did an absurdly stupid thing -that point was undebatable- but that one absurdly stupid thing had led to them nicely taking care of their walking-corpse problem, so Ren supposed it worked out well enough. You hardly get that kind of 'luck' nowadays.

'... We should go.' He said finally, looking at each member of their strange little group, 'We've already been delayed for so long. The buses might be ready to leave by now.'
 
Chiyumi kept her mouth shut. Unless she had something important to say, she wasn't going to say much. However, because it was in her best interest, she decided that she'd tag along with the rest of them if it meant making it home in one piece. Not like she was the talkative type either. However, it was indeed best to team up with other survivors. Wonder what happened to the rest of the students besides them. Or were they all that's left? She reluctantly got ready to follow them out of the school. If the buses have already left, perhaps they could all squeeze in a car. Indeed Chiyumi was no stranger to driving a car or even riding a motorcycle, but she has yet to operate some of the larger vehicles, like Trucks, Buses, Trains or even Airplanes. If they could find themselves an SUV or even a Truck, since there was no way all six of them would be able to fit into a Coupe, Sedan or even a Hatchback, four-door or not. A Limousine was out of the question as well. Not like Motorcycles were in the equation either because she doubted that any of them knew how to operate or ride one. Although she kept it a secret, Chiyumi was a hashiraya -- in other words a Speed Demon or Street Racer outside of School Hours.
 
Lala wasn't sure if it was okay for her to suggest any more ideas, because for all she knew they could turn out like her last one. So she just decided to listen to the others for now and follow. Ren just said something about the buses. 'Right, the buses!' she had almost forgotten about it. Lala had no idea for how long they had been struggling with that zombie, so it could just as well turn out to be an hour later. Getting to the buses was her priority now, so she decided to agree with Ren's plan. '.. I think Ren's right..' she said softly. 'We should probably get going now.'
 
"O-okay... I hope we haven't missed them..." Kai says a little nervously. She looks at the possessed corpse blankly, a little disgusted with her facial expression. Although she knew it was deeply wrong, she could see that in the pocket of his rotted clothing was some sort of pocket knife, with a small flip-up blade. Obviously not usable as a weapon, but nonetheless the tool could be of use. She waits for a moment where no one was looking, hopefully, then quietly bends down and quickly pockets the small blade for her own. Now that it was dead - and it was dead in the first place - it surely couldn't be considered grave robbing, as such. If this corpse was mindless and before was a normal boy, Kai hoped that the once normal boy would have wanted her to have it. She draws her little white hood up with panda eyes to conceal herself, for she was whimpering a little of the smell and the blood that dripped over the floors.

Kai hoped for the safety of her foster parents, now that she thought about it. Without them, she would have no one, and although they weren't exactly very nice to her, they could still be okay sometimes - and that was good enough for Kai. To have someone to go to, and to know that someone, in some cases, would be there for her. Even if she would be the last in queue to get attention or help amongst her other foster brothers and sisters.

Kai shyly stands at the back of the group, holding her own hands in front of her.
"U-um... ready when you guys are..." She quietly says in a tone that was almost unhearable, so it probably sounded like a high pitched mumble.
 
Ren's gaze followed Kai when she approached the now-beaten corpse -whatever could the shyest girl in the group want with something like that?- and he saw her pocket the penknife, rejoining the the rest of the group. Well. None of them -Ren himself included- had even noticed that thing. This girl has good observational skills, evidently. Ren stopped observing her once she pulled up her hood, instead glancing at all the others in their mismatched little group, now one addition bigger. No one seemed to be moving. Which was rather annoying, because all Ren wanted was to return to the rest of his family and leave the country -for a few years perhaps- and really didn't have the time to deal with self-esteem issues right then. All this delaying probably means that we've already missed the buses, honestly speaking. How am I going to get back home, at this rate? Then again, the buses probably would have taken us to a safe area or some such. Perhaps this is for the best.

Blatantly ignoring the corpse that laid right there no more than a few meters from them, Ren pointed at Lala. 'You,' he said, expression neutral -not like what he was saying was all that emotional anyway- 'Stop beating yourself up about it. One mistake is one mistake, restraining yourself from ideas or charging forward or whatever is just going to pull us all down, so stop doing it. Just a put up with this for a bit more and we're going to get on those buses,' a meaningful -or, well, as meaningful as Ren could manage- look at everyone, before turning back to Lala, 'So stop being so subdued and continue leading the way, got it?' Ren raised an eyebrow at her, gesturing in the direction they had come from. From before their unfortunate incident with the corpse, that girl had undoubtedly been the leader, which meant that she'd better step up and continue being one, because Ren sure didn't think anyone else would do it.
 
"I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm getting out of here." Since no one was taking the initiative to leave and just stand there all frightened, Chiyumi took the first step. She then started walking towards the exit where the buses normally were. As she looked back, she wondered if her classmates would follow. Although scathing of them on the outside, deep down underneath her cold exterior, she actually worried about them. As she turned back, she continued down the desolate empty hall.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back