Chapter 16: The Temptation of Going Home (Part 2)

On the fourth-floor balcony, a blood-soaked woman stood there. Her hair hung messily over her face, revealing a pair of lifeless gray eyes. She stared at Sosuke Kitahara so intently that his spine turned ice cold. "No way! Has a zombie already evolved this fast?" Sosuke's eyes widened in disbelief. Without evolution, a human wouldn't stand a chance against even a basic evolved zombie. Facing one now, with his current strength, was practically a death sentence. And with Kasumigaoka Utaha beside him, who couldn't fight, and his only weapon being a reinforced baseball bat, things looked grim. He fought the urge to bolt immediately, hoping he wouldn't provoke it. But then he noticed something. A rope was tied around the woman's neck, her tongue grotesquely hanging out. Looking closer, he realized she had been hanged and had probably been dead for quite some time. He recognized her. She was Junko Aomori, a middle-aged woman who had recently lost her job and had been surviving on government assistance with her fourteen-year-old son. Apparently, she had noticed him too. Her hands began to twitch, her blood-soaked clothes fluttering in the wind, and horrifyingly, beneath her lifted shirt, there were no legs. Another tragic story. Sosuke's expression dimmed. "Let's move." Utaha, still shaken, nodded quickly and followed, though the dim hallway immediately put her on edge. "Sosuke, something's wrong here. It feels off." As they walked from the school to here, she'd seen plenty of blood. Zombie blood had a distinct, dark coloration, easy to identify. But the blood patterns here were strange scattered everywhere, with signs of dragging, even splashes on the walls. Yet there were no zombies or even bodies in sight, as if someone had deliberately cleaned up. The flickering stairwell lights overhead were like the gaping jaws of a beast, waiting to swallow them whole. "Stay alert. Don't make any noise." Sosuke led carefully. They'd come this far; there was no turning back now. Ahead, a shovel lay in a pool of blood, still clinging to chunks of rotting flesh clear evidence of a struggle with zombies. "Should we take that? It might work better than the bat." Utaha's whispered suggestion surprised Sosuke. He didn't expect her to adapt this fast. She wasn't even fazed by the blood now. He knocked off the rotten flesh and handed her the shovel. Utaha gently placed the baseball bat on the ground, wiped the shovel handle clean, and gripped it tightly. There was no way they were taking the elevator. On the second floor, the blood trail continued both human and zombie blood. "I'll check first. Don't move." Sosuke signaled her to wait as he carefully peeked into the second-floor hallway. The apartment doors were tightly shut, but in one corner lay a corpse with a kitchen knife embedded in its skull, swarming with flies. Definitely dead. "Stay quiet. Watch our backs." Sosuke crept up the stairs with Utaha close behind. The first and second floors felt like they'd been cleared. Without encountering a single zombie, they reached the third-floor landing. "Huh? The stairs are blocked..." Utaha tugged at Sosuke, who froze as well. The stairwell was barricaded with sofas, chairs, and tables, completely cutting off the path to the fourth floor. "If they blocked the stairs like this, how would they get down? Are they planning to hide up there forever? What if someone gets bitten or dies? Wouldn't the entire floor turn into a zombie nest?" Sosuke was stunned by the efficiency and speed of his upstairs neighbors. If this stairwell was blocked, the other one probably was too. His brow furrowed. Someone must have cleared the lower floors, but who? "Could my father have come back?" His emotions surged. He had so many questions. Could his father have known about the outbreak all along? Was that 'business trip' really just a cover for work at some biological research facility? Sosuke's home was on the far right of the third floor. But he didn't rush to his door. His eyes were fixed on a nearby open door his neighbor's apartment. There was a large bloodstain at the entrance. "Maybe they turned and were cleaned up?" He approached cautiously. Suddenly, a shadow appeared at the doorway a pale face with dead gray eyes, as if waiting for him. The zombie lunged. But Sosuke had been ready. He swiftly retreated and swung his bat at its head. His expression changed instantly. Clang! The zombie was wearing a motorcycle helmet! Although the hit knocked the zombie off balance, sending it crashing into the wall, it wasn't fatal. The zombie staggered back to its feet. Utaha quickly stepped in, swinging the shovel and smashing the zombie's face into pulp. Seeing it collapse, she proudly glanced at Sosuke. But Sosuke urgently grabbed the shovel from her and tossed her the house keys, yelling, "Open the door! Quick!" Another zombie emerged from the neighbor's apartment. Both residents had turned. But that wasn't what made Sosuke panic. The echoing clang from his bat had reverberated through the stairwell. Like a bomb dropped on still water. The previously quiet building now erupted with thudding noises. Newly turned zombies had stiff joints and couldn't descend stairs like normal people. Loud noises meant they'd simply fall down the stairs. Zombies howled throughout the stairwell, sounding like hundreds of them all at once. "Which key is it?!" Utaha's voice trembled as she desperately searched for the right key. "The biggest one!" Sosuke smashed in his neighbor's head with the shovel. Five more zombies appeared around the corner, cramming the narrow hallway, their excitement spiking as they caught the scent of living prey. "Is it open yet?!" Sosuke shouted, his back drenched in cold sweat. He swung the shovel a few more times, realizing it was becoming unwieldy. He switched to his baseball bat, crushing a few more zombies as others crawled across the floor toward him. In this situation, even a submachine gun wouldn't be much help. The nearest zombie was less than a meter away. Sosuke's back was practically against the wall. He shouted in terror, "If you don't hurry, we're both dead!" Click. "Got it! Got it!" Utaha's hands trembled as she pushed the door open. "Get inside!" "Coming!" Sosuke yelled back, smashing a zombie's head as he scrambled through the doorway. Bang! In his panic, he slammed the door shut, but in his rush, he accidentally caught a zombie's arm in the door. The crunch of breaking bones echoed as the arm snapped off, but the severed hand continued to claw at the air. Behind the door, tremendous force pressed against it, accompanied by the deafening roars and foul stench of the horde. "Come help me! I can't hold it much longer!" ------------------------------------------------------------ If you're enjoying this thrilling journey through the apocalypse, don't forget to drop a Power Stone and leave a review! Your support keeps the story alive and fuels the next chapter!