6 Dante

Fujimi high school or Fujimi Academy is a large institution surrounded by a tall fence and steeled gate. The campus consisted on several buildings that few of them had four layer of floor and connected by the walkways on the 2nd and 4th floors. Aside from the main building that was built for the purpose of classes, there is also an administration office building, a dorm, and few smaller buildings. The sport facilities could be considered almost perfect, not only it had a vast track field and soccer field, but such indoor sport like gymnasium and water pool had been provided. At the top of the administration office building, there is an observatory with large telescope for any astronomy geek to go crazy. Albeit with all of the grandiose explanation at the above, but the school interior actually looked like a run-of-the-mill school where the hallways lined with classrooms running throughout the building and stairways that led into different locations around the school.

In the main building first floor, inside a room that was mean for teachers office. Takashi wheeled the knob of the sink and he used the translucent glass he found to hold the stream of fresh water that came out. He filled it up until it almost full then swiftly closed the valve as he poured the water into his dried throat. He shut his eyes and his adam apple went throttle as he gulped on the liquid. He drunk till the water only left a quarter and put down the glass with a big exhale. He even let out a little bit of a cough.

"Take it easy, Takashi..."

Hearing the girl voice resounded from his right, he wiped the water from his mouth with the back of his hand, he glanced to her and wryly smiled.

Rei pouted at her childhood friend's response but her hand rubbed his back to ease his coughing. Looking at her now that had restored the calm temperament, Takashi secretly let out a relief, he straightened his back and turned his body, sitting on the sink, he said: "I am fine now, thanks Rei."

The girl nodded then she went off to elsewhere...

Takashi gazed at her departing back, his eyes blurred with vague scene and his mind recoiled back to the event on the Auditorium's terrace.

"Takashi, take care of her... and sorry..."

That was the last words Igou Hisashi spoke before the last breath punched through his chest. The grayish haired boy had begged to be killed before he turned into any one of them. But this hand simply froze, this legs stabbed deep on the ground, unable to move, incapable to take the steps.

Under the constant pleaded from Rei and his incompetency, the once become his best friend ended his life in a painful way. Under the observation of two pair of eyes, Hisashi wiggled his body, moaning and groaning as if every muscle inside his body had been pulled out, he screamed like thousand of blades repeatedly made a hole out of him, he coughed a lot of blood, grasping his chest like it was ready to explode.

He died, in the front of their eyes, he threw the last mouthful of red liquid then fell onto the floor, no longer move, no longer breath.

At that time he was ready, casting aside his cowardliness and prepared to sent his best friend away, at least, he owed him that much for unable to ease his suffering.

But the desperation and denial on Rei face brought back his fear, he stopped once again, his will became dimmed.

Then he came back, under the same eyes that watched him died, Hisashi twitched his body and rose on his feet.

Or should he call him 'it' now?

"Rei, get back..." that's the only thing he could say.

"No... he's not turning into one of them, Takashi, can't you see? He is special, Hisashi is come back to us, this is the real Hisashi, the one that is your best friend, and my..."

Unable to withstand her rambling of denial, he strode forward, grabbing her shoulder then he supported her body to raise from the ground. She moved along without any much of a resistant, because she knew what she said, she knew the reality presented before her, but she just... couldn't accept it.

With the final resolve lit the spirit inside his pair of eyes, he grasped the steel bat's handle with both hand, he clutched it tightly, shivered a bit but no hold upon his back. His eyes became fierce, despite the crying shout of the girl behind him, he readied his steps, dashed forward while raising his bat.

There is no going back after this, the moment my bat smash against the face of the once I called best friend, I know...

We all know...

I am no longer what I used to be...

(***)

After the brief meeting in the hallway, the group decided to take a small rest in the teacher office room, Saya also needed to wash up the mess of blood and meat from her body, the ill scent was so unbearable for her. Luckily the office had its own relieve facilities, after finished taking each of their turn, the group huddled together in the center of the room.

"We need a plan to get out from here..." Takashi dropped on the floor and leaned his back on the copy machine.

"I don't know about you, but the front field of the school is crawled with those things..." Saya crossed her hands and spoke with serious countenance.

"That's why I think we should get a car or something, not only it can take all of us together, it also provided us a protection from the attack of those things," Takashi glanced toward Shizuka, "Marikawa-sensei, did you bring your car key with you?"

"Hmm?" the buxom blonde woman looked dulled for a moment then she exclaimed, "Ah, I think I have it inside my bag, probably..."

She opened the brown colored bag atop the desk and started ransacking it's content for the small silver key.

Saya twitched her eyebrows, she said with an angry tone, "Did you think such a small car enough to hold all of us?"

"Oh, yeah..." Shizuka declined her head in depression, the image of her yellow cherry car popped out inside her mind.

Takashi looked taken aback, then he rubbed his nose in embarrassment, "I don't know Marikawa-sensei car is actually that small."

"Hah, you are hopeless..." Saya stared at him with deadpan expression.

"Um..." the slight fat glasses boy pinched the window curtain and peeked at the front yard, "how about if we use the minibus?"

Several away from their location, a big white vehicle appeared with its smooth surface and good condition. It appeared no one had the idea of using it to escape the school yet.

"Oh!" Takashi eyes lit with excitement, he snapped his head toward Shizuka, "Marikawa-sensei, can you drive the minibus?"

"Uuuh... it shouldn't be that different from a normal car..." she nodded her head, "I can give it a try..."

Takashi looked at Saya, the twin tail pink haired woman smiled as she held her glass, "I think we found our way to escape..."

In the other side of the room, two people, young man and woman, respectively sat on a desk and green chair stool chair.

Busujima Saeko is a tall woman, with white milk skin and slender figure. Unlike Saya or Rei, her skirt is actually long beyond her knee but not enough to sweep the floor. Her dark purple hair was long fall onto her back with a bang covered her entire forehead.

She put her bokken (wooden katana) beside a desk, then faced the man who shared the same year with her, happy and joy cannot be conceal from her beautiful face.

"I can't believe you alive, I thought everyone already gone, either escape or dead," she said with almost hurried tone.

"I am the only one left..." the man instead didn't show the same emotion with her, his face remained calm without any sort of fluctuations.

"Fujimura, how you not escaping like everybody else?"

"They are all left in a rush, by the time I come out, several of 'them' already appeared in the hallway, I took my time to get away..."

"Have you seen any of our classmates?" she said in a meaningful tone.

Fujimura eyes turned half lidded, there was a slight pause before he responded, "Yeah..."

Saeko expressions lagged for a brief then she sighed, the corner of her lips them curled upward, "Nevertheless, I really glad that you made it out fine."

Fujimura went silent, then he set his face at the other way, "Me too, it's good to see you..."

"Have you been in Dojo before the outbreak?" he said without turned his face to her.

Saeko didn't bother with his rude manner of talking, as if she already accustomed with it, she replied without hesitation, "Um, the usual morning practice, then several of 'them' come to Dojo..."

"I see..."

In this moment, Takeshi suddenly remembered the two people here that are older than him, he spoke stuttering, " B-Busujima senpai, Hayate senpai, I am sorry for making a plan without including you both in the talk, what do you think we should do?"

Even in circumstances like this, one need to remain polite toward other people especially if they are older, this needed to maintain the harmony of the group.

Although Takeshi is not your everyday yes student type but he knew which ethic he should follow.

"Oh, no, no, is our fault that we distanced ourselves from the talking itself, first, I agree we should escape from the school and taking the school bus is a plausible idea, second, I don't mind we visited your houses and understand your worry in regard of your kin, so, in conclusion, I agree with your plan," Saeko said with a faint smile, then she glanced the blue haired man beside, "Fujimura, what about you?"

"..." Fujimura didn't immediately reply, despite many eyes that had been directed at him, his countenance still the same. Then closed his eyes and crossed his arm.

The first steps that in case of outbreak situation like this is to arm yourself with any reliable weapon. The second one should be checked your supply for the preparation to survive, even if you don't plan to stay inside your house, always check for any possible consumption. The third one would be barricade yourself inside a safe and protective building, where there are more than one exit available and a lot of room to move. The fourth one was waiting for the military evacuation, and the fifth one incase the fourth steps didn't succeed is going outside to look for a community or other survivor camp, or maybe government camp itself.

Fujimura opened his eyelids and swept his calm gaze to the rest of the people, he opened his mouth, "I-"

"It can't be!"

A sudden female voice resounded in the room, everyone startled and directed their attention to the brown haired woman in the room.

Rei was staring at the TV that hung on the ceiling, her eyes widened in disbelieve and her delicate body slightly shivers, "Why... they do this?"

Following her line of sight, other people also looked at the TV and they all shared her reaction, even Fujimura couldn't help but twitched his lips, Saeko grabbed the TV's remote and increased its output sound.

"Government had began their action in order to solve the on-going rebellion on the street. However, the politicians had doubting the military special force to handle such..."

"Rebellion?! How can they claim this phenomenon as rebellion?!" Takashi angrily said.

Saeko pressed the button and changed the channel.

"The casualties in the Saitama prefecture has reached 10,000 deaths. The prefecture government has declared the state of emergency--" the beautiful reporter hadn't able to finish her sentence as a loud sound immediately forced her to stop and wince.

Behind her, many law department personnel busily moved about, they all assumed the alert stance.

"It's a gun sound! Just now the police just opened gunfire!" the reporter went to the side as the camera view shifted the scene to its left. Beyond the lens of virtual eye, behind the white ambulance with red glaring serene on its top, two body bags wiggled before it finally steadied then slowly raised from the wheeled beds.

Two spray of blood spurted out from their head as they fell back to the bed.

But as if the situation wasn't getting any better, even the beautiful reporter started screaming, "No! Don't come closer! Go away! Someone, help me! Argh, No, no, let me go, no, no!!!"

*--------------------------*

The group of student and one teacher witnessed that horrifying scene and heard her desperate begged for help, their countenance went pale and drop of cold sweat trailed down their face. The air on their nose and mouth lagged, as if they had forgotten how to breath. The usual calm Saeko also got her finger trembled, even no matter how fierce she was, such a scene enough to cast a fear inside her heart. Fujimura glanced at the monitor display and Saeko reaction with grim expression, his eyes revealed a dangerous color.

Then the camera fell onto the ground and broke its lens, soon after the view became blurry and the connection had been cut.

"Excuse us for the inconvenient, since there are some technical problems on the field, we will continuing broadcast from the studio, to all citizens, please stay calm and don't go on panic. Until further notice about the outside situation, unless it's absolutely necessary, we advise you stay inside your house and lock your door."

Then the news finished. The atmosphere inside the teacher's room became tensed and gloomy, everyone could feel the cold air breeze against their back of the neck.

*Bang!*

Takashi gritted his teeth and punched the desk, one can see the fury that raised on his face, "What the hell is going on? Not just covering the true story but also told us to just stay put, this doesn't make any sense!"

"It actually does," Saya crossed her arms and fixed her glasses position, "it's a normal procedure to spread a false news in order not to create any further panic, but mostly reducing the chaos that had been happening, of course, if the situation had been extended into the most part of the cities, such procedure will no longer work."

"The government also needed to maintain the order and law, such will not letting any ill intention civilian to add the fuel into the sea of fire, and kept people's confidence toward their solution."

Saya gazed at the display with somber expression, "Fear will lead into chaos, chaos will lead into anarchy... the government couldn't possibly handle both problem at the same time."

They saw the news that reporting the situation at the other country, witnessed how they unable to solve the same problem that occurred, even the white house had been evacuated.

Moscow contact had been cut.

Beijing was on fire.

What their eyes witnessed just one another bad news, one grim report to one grim report. Chaos, anarchy, disorder, pilfering, loitering, robbing, looting...

Murder and ****.

It was as if the world screaming at them, telling the madness had descent to earth, telling no humanity left to care. Just... more hard reality and hopeless situation.

Ye abandon all hope...