"Come to think of it… why aren't Aiden and Yukino back yet?" Kakeru frowned.
"It's been over two hours. If everything went smoothly, they should've returned by now," Hayato said, checking the high-end watch on his wrist.
In his heart, he wanted them back safe—
it would steady the waverers and give everyone some faith.
To Hayato, in a world like this, unity was the only path forward.
"Y-Yuko… what's wrong!?"
"Don't—don't scare me like that!"
A panicked voice burst out behind them, snapping both boys around.
"What is it?"
Hayato's brows knit. The girl whose arm had been bitten off—Yuko—was losing control.
"Uu… mm!!"
Her face flushed beet-red; foam spilled from her lips. Her eyes rolled back until only the whites showed, limbs jerking wildly.
It was a horrifying sight.
"This is bad. She's turning!"
Hayato's stomach sank. He hurried over.
Midori and a few other girls no longer had the strength to hold Yuko down.
"You guys—help! Hold her!"
"R-right…!"
Taisuke and the others flinched at the sudden fit, then scrambled over and pinned the thrashing girl.
"W-what do we do…?"
"Yuko… is Yuko really going to become a zombie?"
Midori's eyes filled with tears at her friend's half-human, half-thing contortions.
"Kakeru—my knife. Now!"
Hayato made the call.
Kakeru's face darkened. He lowered his head and handed over the Phoenix straight dagger—a tactical knife of high-carbon tool steel with a spear point and dual blood grooves.
Sharp enough to shear a nail—or wire.
Everyone understood what Hayato intended.
Some winced.
Some stared at the floor in silence.
A few girls wept softly into their friends' shoulders.
All of them knew what was coming.
"I'm sorry, Yuko-san… On the first day of school, of all times…"
Hayato's expression went bleak. He gripped the dagger and angled it toward her skull.
"Wait—there's really no other way?"
Midori, streaked with tears, clutched his wrist. "Please… please, think of something!"
"There isn't," Hayato said, shaking his head. "It's the only way to give Yuko-san peace."
"I… I'll do it." Midori's voice shook. She took the dagger from him with both hands. "She's my best friend. I should be the one."
…
The room held its breath.
Midori leveled the blade at Yuko's temple, hands trembling.
And just as the edge began to fall—
everything went wrong.
"Raaagh!"
Yuko exploded with inhuman strength, snapping her restraints.
Her neck twisted—reeking teeth lunged straight for Midori's throat.
Shrrrip!
Blood sprayed.
Midori didn't even have time to scream.
A chunk of her neck vanished in the monster's jaws. She wilted to the floor,
eyes locked on her friend in shattered disbelief.
They'd been too close.
Worked up and crying, Midori hadn't noticed the danger gap closing—
and the fully turned Yuko took her life in a blink.
"AAAAAAAH!"
"Midori—Midori's dead!?"
"She—she's really turned!"
The classroom detonated.
Girls shrieked; boys cursed; the chaos bored straight through the building's hush like a flare.
"F-fire! Shoot!"
Hands shook as guns came up, trying to aim at the thing eating Midori.
And then—
Boom—!
The ceiling tore open without warning.
Wood splinters and cement dust rained down.
A lean black shape dropped like a stone,
a gust of air kicking up grit where it landed.
A small, hunched horror in a black-blue blood-smeared hoodie.
If Aiden were here, he'd have named it at once:
Special Infected—Hunter.
Unlike common infected, the Hunter's mutation granted catlike hearing and smell—and a guttural throat growl.
Its limbs ended in knife-long talons, perfect for aerial strikes.
When it attacked, it rumbled with a predator's warning purr.
"Hss—!"
Cold, blood-red eyes swept the panicking herd,
a beast surveying its territory for a kill.
Suddenly it sprang—no tell, no wind-up—
straight at the nearest boy.
The claws slid through his chest as if nothing were there—
hot knife, soft butter.
"AAAH!"
His lungs punctured, he writhed, trying to crawl free,
while those hands churned inside him.
With each ragged scream, bright red things flew.
The cries dwindled… and went out.
Prrr… prrr…
The Hunter lifted its gore-slick white face,
purring like a cat over a bowl,
hooked a glistening loop of intestine out and began to feast.
Across the room, the turned Yuko tore free again and sank her teeth into another girl.
The scene broke completely.
"R-run! Run!"
"Help! Somebody help me!"
The killing didn't stop.
In scarcely ten seconds, three more students went down.
In the blink of an eye, their twenty-two dwindled to sixteen.
Despair rose like a tide and swallowed them.
Bang! Bang! Bang!!
Hayato's eyes went bloodshot. He racked the M870 and fired again and again—
but without training,
his shots kept missing the slipping shadow.
Those razors, that crooked gait, the inhuman leap—
a true killer.
It toyed with them like a cat with mice,
never rushing, always cruel.
Prrr…
The purr rolled again.
It dropped the girl with the hollowed belly.
On all fours, lips peeled, rows of needle teeth dripping blood and meat,
it rumbled deep in its throat—
a big cat in the grass,
still as stone,
ready to launch and crush a throat in the next heartbeat.
"Roaaar…"
Its scarlet eyes narrowed; its spine arched.
Then the Hunter detonated off the floor,
crossing the air in a single sideways burst—
straight at Utaha, who was fleeing in blind panic.
(End of Chapter)
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