Chapter 47: Torment of the Useless Teammates

Several women among the group instantly shrieked in terror. Not only were zombies pouring in from below, but there were also zombies on the helipad itself. About six or seven of them had been right by the door, and when the door was forced open, they were knocked backward. But zombies' tenacity was not to be underestimated. As long as their brains remained intact, they wouldn't die. They staggered back to their feet, and the noise immediately attracted other nearby zombies, who snarled and rushed toward the group. A quick glance revealed at least seventeen or eighteen zombies. "What are you standing around for? Kill them!" Sosuke Kitahara gripped his katana tightly and charged forward. The three girls realized they were trapped between danger on both sides and had no room to retreat. Utaha Kasumigaoka gripped her baseball bat and followed without hesitation. Yukino Yukinoshita and Haruno Yukinoshita also rushed forward, wielding their sharpened wooden sticks to guard the flanks. The three of them formed a triangular formation. Unlike Sosuke, who fearlessly waded into the zombie horde, they focused on cleaning up the stragglers. As Sosuke had said, the apocalyptic danger and the will to survive had driven them to overcome their fear and grow rapidly. In just a few breaths, they had already taken down several zombies with surprising coordination. But the other survivors who had fled with them were not so composed. In their frantic escape, five or six of them hadn't even grabbed a weapon. They ran around the helipad in a complete panic, some getting cornered by zombies as they tried to dodge others. Useless teammates not only were they no help, they actually made things worse! Sosuke gritted his teeth in frustration. Originally, with seventeen or eighteen zombies charging together, he could have mowed them down in no time. But now, he had to run back and forth because these people were drawing zombies in all directions, wasting precious time. "Ahhh! Help me! The zombies are catching up!" Sosuke turned to glance back and nearly exploded with rage. A middle-aged woman was standing at the staircase, screaming at the top of her lungs. After seeing the zombies on the helipad, she had irrationally turned to flee back downstairs, but now she was back, still howling at the door. And no one had even thought to shut the door behind them. Some of the survivors cowered in the corners, frozen in terror, unable to move. The thunderous sound of shuffling feet filled the stairwell, accompanied by deafening snarls that made Sosuke's heart skip a beat. The middle-aged woman was grabbed by a zombie at the staircase entrance and fell hard to the ground, just one step away from the helipad. But that single step became an insurmountable chasm. Several zombies immediately piled onto her, tearing into her flesh. "Stop fighting! Block the door!" Sosuke roared, slicing through a zombie in front of him. The three girls immediately abandoned their fight and rushed to the door. The overwhelming stench made it nearly impossible for them to keep their eyes open, but they gritted their teeth and pushed against the door as tightly as they could. "Don't shut the door! Please, I'm begging you, save me!" The middle-aged woman used the last of her strength to raise her hand toward them, tears streaming down her wrinkled face, her eyes filled with desperate pleading. Yukino's heart trembled as if something inside her had just shattered. "You can't be saved." Yukino bit down hard on her lip. Once bitten, there was no turning back. Even if it meant being cruel, this was her final mercy. The door slammed shut under the combined effort of the three girls, cutting off the woman's last shred of hope. The woman's anguished screams and hateful curses echoed even through the thick door, but they soon gave way to wet, gurgling gasps as the zombies overwhelmed her. On the helipad, Sosuke continued to cut down zombies one after another, leaving a trail of corpses in his wake. A young woman tripped and fell, and a zombie immediately lunged at her. "Squelch!" Sosuke pierced the zombie's skull in a flash but made no move to help the woman trapped underneath the corpse. He sneered coldly and turned to continue fighting. "Why are you standing around? Get over here and help! We can't hold the door much longer!" The three girls screamed in panic as they braced against the door, which was now shaking violently under the relentless pounding of zombie hands. Some of the clawing hands nearly scratched Yukino's face. The other survivors, finally snapping out of their stupor, scrambled to join the effort to hold the door. "Stop moving! Let me cut those hands off!" Sosuke yanked his blade from the skull of the last zombie on the helipad and rushed to the door. With a flash of cold steel, severed hands fell to the ground one after another. The survivors pressed against the door, frozen in terror, unable to react to the twitching, dismembered hands littering the floor. Just then, the elevator that led directly to the helipad dinged open. Six or seven people rushed out, including Akai from Keio University and her boyfriend, as well as Iida Yuma. They stood in shock at the grisly scene the helipad strewn with corpses, the frantic group holding the door, the deafening roar of zombies on the other side. "What the hell are you standing around for? Want to die with us?!" Sosuke bellowed furiously, snapping them out of their trance. Realizing the gravity of the situation, they immediately rushed over to help hold the door. When the door finally slammed shut, severed arms and hands littered the ground. With everyone working together, the door was securely locked with a loud click, but the other side was now packed with hundreds of zombies, and everyone continued to brace the door, too terrified to move. "There are too many zombies. I don't know how long this door will hold." Sosuke quickly scanned the helipad and noticed several steel rods stacked in a corner. He remembered that several of the zombies they killed earlier were construction workers, still wearing their gray uniforms. He called for the remaining men to haul over the steel rods, making several trips until they had reinforced the door. Only then did everyone collapse to the ground, panting heavily, their spirits utterly crushed. Fortunately, the zombies seemed content to swarm the door without trying to break it down. If they had known how to bash it, the door wouldn't last long. "Anyone here bitten or scratched? Step forward now. If we find out later, it won't end well for you!" ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Oh, you like the story? Wow, who knew. Go ahead, drop a review and throw some power stones maybe I'll be motivated to keep going. The story's already ahead on Patron. Go there if you want to catch up faster! [email protected]/_theon Change @ to "a"