"Please stop! It wasn't even a bite. It's just a scratch."
"It's okay, Reina. I can already feel myself turning..."
"Jacob... Sob..."
"Get this girl out of the way!"
Tom and Frank followed Dex's command without hesitation, dragging the girl away from her boyfriend while Phil and Doug held the guy in place despite his hands already being tied behind his back.
"Don't worry about your girlfriend," Dex said, raising his metal stud.
"I'll definitely take care of her if she agrees to become my woman."
"You bastard—UGH!"
BAM!
"NO!"
As soon as the guy started coughing, Dex began beating him, gruesomely bashing his head in front of the girl and splattering black blood and matter across the floor. Some of it even covered Phil and Doug.
The girl could only cry silently in despair as she stared blankly at her boyfriend's corpse while Phil and Doug dragged it away and threw it out through the second-floor window.
"Hurry up and bring me my next prey!"
***
"He's basically become a murderer," Ivan said, glancing at Dex as he prepared to kill another guy who had been bitten, even though he hadn't fully turned into an undead yet.
"And he's making this place really uncomfortable," Mike added, looking at the other students who were already terrified from being chased by the undead horde.
Their total number had risen to over a hundred, all of them first-year students.
Now, they all had to watch their fellow students being disposed of because they had been bitten and would soon turn undead.
And even though only a dozen male students had been bitten, watching them being executed was still a traumatizing experience.
"So, boys turn slower while girls become undead much faster, especially after they die from being bitten..."
"I already said, Ren, stop analyzing this situation like it's a game," Karl said, interrupting Ren, who was mumbling to himself.
"If we want to survive, we need to understand what we're fighting."
Ren's remark made his friends look at him seriously, unable to argue against or deny the harsh reality of their situation.
"And it's not like we can complain about what Dex is doing," Ren continued, returning to their previous conversation.
"After all, we're doing the exact same thing."
Another guy was slowly turning undead in front of Ren. The only difference between him and Dex was that Ren had mercifully asked the guy whether he wanted to die as a human or become an undead.
I don't think I can handle the pain of getting beaten to death, so please wait until I turn—UGH!
RARGHHH—!
Remembering the guy's last words—a fellow first-year student whom Ren barely remembered from the Academy cafeteria—Ren raised his wooden sword and swung it with precision, breaking the guy's neck in a single strike and killing him the moment he turned undead.
Ivan and Mike then carried the corpse toward the bleachers before throwing it out through the second-floor window.
"If I ever get bitten, could you give me a quick death like that?"
Karl asked Ren for a favor while looking at the other male students being executed by Jun with a baseball bat and Arthur with a wooden katana.
"Don't raise your own red flag, idiot."
"Something is happening outside!" Mike shouted, drawing Ren and Karl's attention while deliberately alerting the others.
"It's the senior students and other instructors!"
Ivan's remark only made the other students more concerned as they rushed to look outside.
They initially thought the senior students and instructors were attempting to handle the situation, only to discover that they were escaping the undead horde themselves.
"Shit, they took all the microbuses!"
"Those bastards are leaving us behind!"
"You could at least take the undead horde with you!"
"Something is wrong with some of the microbuses," Ren said, interrupting Karl, Mike, and Ivan's cursing.
Of the twelve microbuses that were about to leave the Academy, two suddenly stopped in the middle of the road, while another crashed near the gate.
Then the same thing happened to the three microbuses. Their windows were soon covered in blood from the inside as the students rushed out, only to be devoured by the undead already swarming around and waiting for them.
"Shit, now I feel bad for them."
"They must have missed an infected person among them."
"Regardless, this doesn't change our situation."
"No. This is exactly what I've been waiting for."
***
"Did you find anything, Lilia?"
"Having me dissect my own students... Aren't you being a bit heartless, Natch?"
Inside one of the gymnasium's storage rooms, Nacht and Lilia, along with Carol and Diane, who were both medical students, were trying to determine the cause of the undead outbreak.
"Sorry about that. I didn't know they were medical students," Natch said, hiding the fact that he could barely recognize the male and female students because their faces were covered in blood from their victims.
"Regardless, splitting someone's skull in half with a wooden katana..."
"That's just how skilled the Tsubaki Clan is with their swords."
After nearly half an hour of dissection, which was enough to make even Carol and Diane throw up, they examined everything from the brain to the heart and lungs, then the stomach, the girl's womb, and the boy's genitals. Finally, Lilia revealed what she had discovered.
"Sorry, but I got nothing," Lilia said as she placed the scalpel back into the medical kit she had fortunately brought with her before escaping the infirmary.
"There's no visible parasite or anything like it. Unless we have proper equipment to test their blood, we won't be able to figure out what's going on."
"Did we just disgrace their bodies without gaining anything?" Diane cried, feeling guilty about what they had done. Carol felt the same.
"Sheryl... Bryan... We're truly sorry... Sob..."
"We could at least give them a simple burial here."
While Nacht neatly covered the bodies of the two students, as Lilia had requested, a sudden commotion broke out inside the gymnasium.
***
"Where the hell do you think you're going?!" Tristan shouted, causing a commotion that attracted everyone's attention.
"I already told you I'm leaving," Natalie said without looking back at Tristan as she refilled her quiver with arrows and grabbed her bow.
Annoyed at being ignored, Tristan grabbed Natalie's right hand to stop her before trying to reason with her.
"We don't know if this undead outbreak is happening outside the Academy, too. But if you just wait here, I'm sure your father..."
At the first mention of her father, Natalie yanked her hand free from Tristan's grip and slapped him across the face, leaving him stunned and speechless.
"How can you say something like that, knowing Nat's younger sister might be in danger at her school?" Evelyn said as she stood beside Natalie, carrying a wooden sword. Elizabeth followed, pointing her wooden katana at Tristan's face.
"If you don't plan on helping us rescue Nicole, then don't try to stop us."
"Let's go," Ren said, interrupting the commotion between Tristan and his supposed childhood sweethearts.
"We still have a lot to do before we can leave."
Hearing Ren's remark, Tristan suddenly snapped and lashed out at him.
"You! Didn't I tell you to stop bothering Natalie?!"
"Shut up, you idiot bastard!" Ren snapped back, punching Tristan in the left cheek, opposite the spot where Natalie had slapped him. The blow knocked him toward Marcus, who had remained quiet throughout the entire commotion despite being Tristan's best friend.
"My younger sister is in the same grade school as Nat's younger sister, so figure out the rest of the reasons on your own, moron!"
"If your group wants to leave, then we won't stop you," Natch interrupted, intentionally stopping Ren from beating Tristan any further.
"But you can't expect any help from anyone in getting out of the Academy alive."
"We already know that much, Natch-sensei."
"That goes for anyone who wants to leave and go back home!" Natch shouted, reminding the other students that their families could also be in danger.
"Why would you say something like that in this situation?" Lilia whispered, scolding Nacht for making the students even more worried.
"We have enough supplies here at the gymnasium to last for at least a month," Nacht continued.
"But it's your decision whether you want to stay or leave."
***
"You three don't have to come with us."
"It's not like I'm coming just to help you find your younger sister," Ivan said, explaining to Ren that he also wanted to check on his parents back home.
"I'm also coming to find my older sister," Karl added, followed by Mike, whose reason was quite surprising even to Ren.
"I'm living on my own, so I might as well go with the flow and help the three of you."
"If you're done chatting, then let's go."
Following Natalie and Ren, their group—including Elizabeth, Evelyn, Karl, Ivan, Mike, Gian, Tristan, and Marcus—headed out to find Ren's and Natalie's younger sisters.
"If this undead outbreak is happening outside the Academy," Noire called out, clearly intending to mess with Natalie, "your sister is most likely already dead."
"Just fucking shut up, Noire."
"Didn't I tell you never to call me by that name, Natalie!"