Boomer.
A special infected in a bloated sack of a body—skin stretched thin over sloshing organs, pustules quivering, bile eating holes wherever it dripped.
It waddled, gurgling like a clogged drain, then jerked its head up and horked.
A rope of yellow-green slime lanced thirty meters in a blink—
straight for the last girl stepping onto the bus stairs.
She screamed.
Cloth hissed open in smoking holes; the stench bit like acid.
In a heartbeat her abdomen melted through, red slicks writhing in air.
"Help—help me—I don't want to die—!"
Her pupils washed out. Breath hitched and broke. Bile and blood puddled under her, fizzing.
Yukino's knife flashed.
A clean thrust through the skull. She caught the falling rifle, voice sharp and shaking. "Don't freeze—on the bus!"
The spell snapped. Students surged, shoving and tripping over the steps.
"Sorry," Yukino whispered to the still form, then spun back into the maelstrom.
The bile's beacon flipped the lot to berserk.
"Shoot—shoot!" someone shrieked, slapping the trigger.
Bang! Bang!
The parking lot thundered. A thousand flies seemed to take wing at once—except they were hands and teeth and the sound of throats tearing the air.
The Charger had already hit flank speed—right-arm like a wrecking ram. It swatted a baseball kid sideways.
His scream clipped off as he crashed against the bus, bones popping like kindling.
"Get away from him!" Kakeru swung his bat into the Charger's nape—
It snatched him out of the swing one-handed.
Rotten fingers clamped his calf; jaws dropped and bit.
"AAAH—!"
Teeth punctured straight through denim and deep into flesh. Meat tore free with a white wink of bone; blood sheeted, painting the monster's mouth red.
Kakeru spasmed, then sagged, eyes glassing.
"Fire! NOW!" Hayato roared, voice cracking.
Muzzles strobed. Rounds hammered the Charger—blood flowers blooming across the purple bulk. It bellowed like a bull and slung Kakeru away in pain.
"Hang on!" Hayato dove through the press, heaved Kakeru onto his back, and staggered up the steps.
He saw the shredded thigh, lips blanching. He knew that look—that end.
"Don't hate me," he rasped.
The Phoenix knife fell.
Shrrrip.
Blood fountained. Kakeru's scream ripped itself in half—and he went limp.
"TOURNIQUET—high and tight!" Aiden snapped without looking, boots already pounding forward. "Yukino—cover! Painkillers—half a packet!"
The Boomer swelled to vomit again.
"Move!"
Aiden yanked a frag ring, shoulder-whipped the grenade into the press.
WHUMP!
Orange tore the gray in half. Heat rolled out, a fan of shrapnel scything the lane.
The airborne bile flashed into foul white steam. Zombies around the blast went up and out, parts drumming the asphalt; a shallow crater smoked at their feet.
The gap opened—
—and filled again.
The shadow hit like weather.
"Charger!" Aiden's pupils pinpricked. He didn't wait for impact—he slid, let the shoulder graze past, wrenched the monster's tree-thick arm, and vaulted up its back.
In the air—
his left palm crackled alive, mana and stamina sluicing. He bit the Stamina Vial, swallowed, eyes cold.
"Magic—Arc Lightning Arrow."
Four bolts bloomed—
and dove.
BZZZZZZT—!
Blue webs crawled across the horde. Half the front rank froze, twitching, skin blackening with sizzle.
"Go. Down."
Aiden rode the drop, AK-105 barking. He stitched the Charger's exposed neck joint; blood blew in a ragged halo and the brute stumbled, speed bleeding out.
He hit the ground cutting.
Blade Intent sang through his bones. He moved like a seam, like a principle—
foot through a knee, hand across a wrist, point through a palate—
and nothing touched him.
Ten, twelve grasping arms closed—and met air. Rot and bone fanned out around him like dirty snow while he carved a clean path.
"Is he even human…?" someone whispered.
Hayato's palms sweated around the knife. Relief and terror tangled in his chest. Backing Aiden had been the smartest decision of his life.
Yukino had meant to cover fire—but her hands stalled mid-draw.
He was faster than five minutes ago.
"Yukino—left forty!" Aiden's shout snapped her back.
"On it!"
Thwip—thwip—thwip.
Her arrows punched skulls clean; three bodies folded at once.
The Charger roared, shook off the stun, and thundered in again—
Aiden flicked his wrist. The launcher he'd slung earlier kissed his palm.
Thunk—FWOOM!
A 40mm bloomed under the thing's ribs. The blast flipped it like a flipped table; it smashed into a wrecked sedan and slid down, twitching.
[Player "Aiden" felled Special Infected — Charger. +700 points!]
The Boomer burbled, waddling to spew at the bus door again.
"Back up—ten meters!"
They gave him space. He lined the iron sights and sent a single clean shot.
The slug took the bulge above its jaw.
BLOOMP—
It burst in a bile geyser—splashing short of the doors, pattering harmlessly across already-charred asphalt.
[Player "Aiden" felled Special Infected — Boomer. +300 points!]
"Hayato-kun—engine!" Aiden called, swapping mags on the run. "Yukino—last push! Everyone else, blades up—finish the crawlers!"
"Copy!"
Hayato jammed the key home—twisted.
The big yellow bus coughed, rattled—
caught.
"Doors!" he yelled.
The last three stumbled in. Yukino slashed a set of fingers off the threshold and sprang inside; Aiden was the last, booting a ghoul back into its friends as he climbed. He slapped the folding door lever—clang—sealed.
"Seat belts. Heads down." Aiden slid into the driver's spot like he'd been born there. "We break west—creep the choke."
The bus lurched, tires shouting as they climbed a curb.
Aiden threaded the mess—nose to fender, fender to bumper—nudging dead cars aside, shouldering through gaps no one else would trust.
A straggler leapt for the window; Aiden twitched the wheel and sheared it off on a signpost.
They cleared the gate.
Aiden downshifted and fed it gas. The western lane clogged, but not dead; he snaked the bus through with inches to spare.
"Hold on—bump," he warned a breath before a minor crunch. An abandoned compact rolled under the bumper and popped out the side.
Behind them, the school shrank—its lots a smeared bruise of smoke and bodies.
Inside, hands unclenched; sobs bubbled and died. Over the rumble, Hayato's voice shook with exhausted laugh-tears. "We… we did it."
Aiden checked mirrors, eyes flat and bright.
"Don't celebrate yet. We just traded one trap for a bigger map."
On his HUD, two neat lines pulsed:
[Special Infected downed in succession — bonus multiplier applied. Points credited.]
[Squad morale stabilized. Leadership influence +.]
He allowed himself one thin exhale.
"Next stop—somewhere we can actually live."
(End of Chapter)
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