The helicopters’ blades whirring was something could be heard in the silent sky. No other voice could be heard, no sound of birds, other planes or machinery. Sometimes, they only could hear wind blowing or sound of waves underneath them. Everyone in the helicopter was literally just losing their home. Most of them basically only had themselves until they were recruited by the team and the people they knew throughout their lives either had turned into zombies or left dead there, the hardest decision they had made. They still remembered those who had sacrificed themselves to hold back the dead just so that all of them could safely fly off and those were gotten bitten when they were protecting them or just simply to delay the dead coming closer to them. They silently decided and agreed that this moment would be used to grief over those who they had lost.

Yuko looked over the female who hadn’t had a word spoken ever since they got into the helicopter. The lady with long black hair, who was busy with her own thoughts, simply staring out of the helicopter, far to the horizon, watching the sky starting to get dark and cloudy, the sun was hidden behind the dark clouds, which somehow projecting how everyone was feeling at the moment. Yuko definitely felt guilty, leaving Jurina behind and how she wished that she didn’t hesitate to let Jurina out. Then maybe she wouldn’t see this depressed Rena. She even had a thought of losing her courage into staring at Rena’s eyes, afraid seeing the melancholy in her eyes. Yuko also felt sadness and failure, as it’s like she was letting down Rena, Jurina and her late professor who entrusted the two females to her. She wanted to cheer her up but she knew whatever she did right now wouldn’t make Rena feel better. Only time that could heal Rena now.

Meanwhile, Rena somehow remembered about the talk that she had with her father. How it was the happiest time in her life, being with her father and Jurina. She also didn’t quite understand why that specific thoughts came to her, right now.

‘Rena, if one day you are out of this facility, it would mean that something bad had happened. I want you to do your best to keep everyone safe with all the strength you have and even your life.’

‘With my life?’

Rena remembered little her asking that to her father, completely confused on what the older man meant back then. Seeing how her home now infested with the dead, somehow she understood the meaning of it. She owed her life to the team, they were literally who raised her and Jurina up, especially after her father passed away. The only way to repay those was just something like how her father had told her. If her home, that was guarded with the best team she could possibly know, was easily infested with the dead, creating such chaos and destruction, how would people outside doing? It must be worse than that.

‘Keeping everyone safe?’

A cheerful voice somehow rang inside of Rena’s mind and it brought a smile directly to her face although it wasn’t as bright as how she usually smiled. Honestly, she herself had forgotten how her true smile looked like lately. Yuko who was sitting next to her, probably saw the smile she had but as usual, Yuko wouldn’t speak of anything, unless the latter thought that she needed to.

‘Then I’ll also keep everyone safe, especially Rena.’

‘It’s good that you think that way, Jurina. Just remember to protect one another and watch each other’s back, okay? If that day ever comes.’

Rena’s smile slowly disappeared from her face. Thinking about it, making her realized that if there’s anyone to blame, it would be her. She was strong enough to bring Jurina out. She could just ask Yuko to leave and let her stay to save Jurina. They had promised to watch each other’s back and she was betraying Jurina by leaving her behind.

“You know… you shouldn’t blame yourself. You’ve done so much for us, raising us up and shoulder the troubles that both of us brought to you.”

Yuko looked at Rena as it was the first time the female talked after they were out of the facility. Yuko could see the sorrow in Rena’s eyes before the subject of speaking turning her gaze away to the horizon again, hiding her feelings away from Yuko, clearly didn’t want Yuko to feel even guiltier.

“If there’s any betrayal and person for Jurina to blame, it would be me. If there’s a chance for Jurina to scold anyone right now.” Rena let out a bitter chuckle. At first she wanted to bring the mood up, even if it’s just a little bit. It seemed that she failed as usually it was Jurina’s thing when it related to other’s mood since Jurina was someone who never really thought much about everything, always cheerful and goofy.

“It’s alright to grief, you know. Everyone is doing so, right now. Let’s not point finger to you, to me or others. After this, I believe all of us need to think of something, a way to go forward and see whether we could reverse this whole thing or if not, a way to make things at least better than now.” Yuko told Rena as she needed to be the rock for the both of them now, continuing to do something that she had been doing all this time. Although Rena had assured her, she did still feel guilty. However, she would do as what she had said earlier. When they had settled down and had things planned, maybe she would continue her self-blaming after things had slowed down.

“If it’s related to Jurina, I won’t grief. But to others who have fallen, I would. Because like how you also know, Jurina is always the fighter.”

“You are right. I guess we should just trust that Jurina would be alright.”

Rena gave a nod, smiling softly to Yuko. She didn’t want Yuko to blame herself further and she wanted Yuko to see that she was fine. Besides, she had made a decision. When they didn’t need her any longer, she would go back and find Jurina, even if it meant to fight all the zombies in the facility. She definitely would go back to Jurina at all cost. For now, so that people around her wouldn’t worry, she would think of how Jurina would be if she was out here with her. She was supposed to feel excited and even nervous to be out after she never stepped out of the island ever since she was a kid but the condition now doesn’t allow her to and the nervousness that she felt was from different thing. She would also hate to admit one more thing that she felt, fear. She was scared, deep inside, going to unknown environment with unknown danger. She shook her head, reminding herself that she was no longer that fragile child and she was a lot stronger now, much stronger than people around her. The role of protecting, she should step up and do it, no time to be a coward.

Yuko didn’t quite believe on the words that she herself said to Rena about Jurina. She didn’t think the glass chamber would be able to hold the dead away from Jurina. It’s bound to happen that the chamber would break. It’s a matter of time. However, she didn’t have the courage to destroy the bubble of hope that Rena had at the moment. She didn’t know how it would impact Rena emotionally if she did so. She just knew that if the worst happened to Jurina, it would be in the least pain possible, remembering that Jurina was still under deep sedation when they left her behind.

***

Yui took out her phone from the pocket of her pants. She unlocked the device and sighed when she saw that there wasn’t any service. That was bound to happen anyway. It’s just that she didn’t expect it to be that fast. She saw that she had one unread mail and she knew it was from Sayaka, the best intel the team had. She had a few missed calls and she checked about it. Those were from the authorities and the president. Apparently it got through before the service got cut off. Taking the satellite phone in the helicopter, he called to every single authorities, from head police, head military even the minister and lastly to the president. Unfortunately, she couldn’t get through to any of them. It made her think on how bad things would go right now as there would be no more rules or law. She would leave the phone for now. If there was any survivor that had a hold on the satellite phone, they would be able to contact them. This was one of the things that she could start for now. The only plan she had. The others would be done once they landed and she would discuss this with Takamina. She needed some help and insight for the older general. Then, the next thing she did, was reading the mail from Sayaka.

‘They are sensitive to blood. As I’ve observed, blood made them more sensitive as they ran towards the source. So could be concluded, they still had their senses. It’s just they’re dead. And, the last info is related to NOX. It could be true but it could also be false. The guy, you asked me to look for, I found the info that the latter is in Nagoya but then the next thing I heard he was in Tokyo. That’s why I’m here and also then that incident happened. I’m always a step too late and he’s really good in erasing his track. After this, I don’t know where he would go. I hope the history of his appearance could help you in finding him.’

Now, Yui had a purpose, especially for her new plan. She needed to find the head researcher for NOX, someone in his late 50s and had been the target of her team for years. She didn’t know much about that researcher, except for the part where whatever illegal experiments that were done by NOX was led by that man.

Keeping her phone back to her pocket, she looked out of the helicopter. The weather was slowly getting colder, the wing blowing was getting stronger and dark clouds could be seen forming. She believed storm was coming soon.

“We should look for somewhere to land.”

The pilot nodded, knowing the concern of Yui of the weather. It wouldn’t be good if the storm coming to hit them. However, for now they still hadn’t found a place suitable to land as they were still on above the sea with no land to be seen and they wouldn’t be getting any assistance from control tower which only making things harder. Now they only fly based on the compass and radar with the help of the flying logs and maps.

After almost an hour flying with little help, they finally saw a piece of land. As they got closer, they saw the damage done. Many broken buildings, smoke as proof of fire did break out earlier in the day, and people who had turned to zombies wandering around the road aimlessly. The scene under them as they got closer was enough to make them grimace at how tragic it was.

“Let’s find the airport. We need fuel anyway.” One of the pilots said through the coms to other pilots.

“If the airport is safe enough, maybe we could sit the storm out too, while do the planning.”

Everyone in the same helicopter as the young general agreed with her. The nature wasn’t being supportive at the moment. They needed to find a safe place before they ran out of fuel which wouldn’t be easy. If everything went smoothly, they wouldn’t lose another family member in it.

***

This place was worse than warzone. That was what Yuki had in mind. At war, she needed to kill the people that became threat to her country. But now, she needed to kill her own people after protecting them all this time. How ironic it was when she really thought about it.

“Captain, there’s a roadblock ahead. Where should we go?”

Yuki looked ahead and saw how the cars were totally in a disarray, blood could be seen on the window of some cars. Those used to be perfectly parked along the sideway or driven on the street had long gone. The owners maybe had turned into the dead around them right now.

“Take right turn now, we could go through the parking lot of that building. After that, we’ll reach my apartment building.”

Yuki’s comrade nodded while Yuki started to check on the things they had right now. She started to count on the amount of grenade and clips they had left. She knew each of them had a grenade, so four of them meant four grenades count. None of them had used it. Ammo clips that she had with her was six, two on her vest, two on her belt and two on the pocket of her military pants. She had her military knife on her belt and a handgun strapped on the side of her leg, just above her ankle inside her pants. Her comrades pretty much the same. On the back of the truck, they still had a few more guns and ammos. However, they should use their guns only on the time of need. They should reserve the rest for future needs, knowing how it would be hard to get one.

Yuki also had decided that she would be the only one go to save Mayu while the team remained in the truck. She didn’t want to sacrifice the lives of her comrades for her and Mayu. It’s enough for her alone to take the risk. She hadn’t told them that though, knowing that most probably they wouldn’t agree to it.

The truck stopped with a screech. Yuki and her team got out of the truck, looking around. The surroundings seemed empty although they couldn’t let down of their guard especially with the danger could be lurking around and got to them at the most unexpected time.

Autumn wind blew, spreading the dust and leaves on the road into the air, making them blink for a few times to stop the sting in their eyes. Yuki pulled her cap down a bit before turning to face her team.

“I want all of you to stay here. This isn’t worth the risk for you guys. It’s enough that you guys agreed on letting the first stop to be mine.”

“But captain…”

“I need you guys to keep the things in the truck safe while one of you get ready to drive the moment you guys saw me and Mayu.”

Her team contemplated on the plan. They wanted to disagree with their captain. However, they knew if their captain turned this into an order, they couldn’t do anything but to follow. Thus, they nodded reluctantly at what Yuki had said although they did want to return the favor after all this time Yuki always kept their priority as first instead of hers.

“If I’m not back in half an hour, leave without me.”

Yuki said before she jogged her way into the building, leaving the team with heavy heart, afraid something happened to her comrades when she’s away. Responsibility as the captain always made her put her team needs and priority first. She would thank her teammates after she saved Mayu, despite that her comrades were the ones insisted that they saved Mayu first with an argument of how Mayu was a great asset for the future.

The compound so far was empty. She kept her gaze and ears sharp, for possible sound or movement. She went to the backdoor, exactly towards the emergency exit. There would definitely be people, maybe now had turned into the dead, still it wouldn’t be as bad as the main entrance where the threat could be coming from every direction.

Carefully opening the metallic door, she stepped into the building. Faint raspy sound of breathing could be heard. She knew that it was coming from the door heading to the corridor of the apartment. Taking careful steps up the stairs, back sticking close to the wall, she switched the safety off, knowing there would be something waiting for her before she could reach to Mayu.

‘Wait for me a little longer, Mayu. I’m here now.’

***

The apartment building was still silent, extremely silent that even Mayu could listen to her own breathing and heartbeat. The ticking of the clock became her company. Occasionally, she could hear the raspy voice of the dead as if they were struggling with breathing or speaking. That voice concluded that her neighbors must have turned. Maybe even manifesting the corridor now. Funny thing was Mayu didn’t feel scared at all with everything that was happening. Maybe she was in her working mindset. When she was focus, she literally didn’t feel anything at all. It’s like she was totally empty, except for her concern over her girlfriend and she needed to stay alive. That’s all she had in her mind.

Mayu didn’t move from her spot, still hugging the baseball bat while sitting on the couch until she almost fell down, that’s when she realized that she had dozed off. How long had it been last she talked to Yuki? She couldn’t quite remember. Checking it on her phone, it was around two hours ago. Was it supposed to take this long? She patted her own cheeks with both of her hands. It’s not time to be negative. She knew if she let the negativity get to her, it wouldn’t do good to her own self, especially in condition like how it was right now.

Walking towards the sink, she took the glass and the tap to fill it with water. It seemed that the water still worked, at least for now. She gulped the water down. She just realized that they had lost the electricity when she was placing her glass down by the sink as she was standing just across the TV in the living room. The red light on the bottom left corner of her TV was off now.

Mayu paced around the room, trying to calm down as she could feel her anxiety building up. She never felt suffocated in her house before until now. Even with a huge risk of Yuki’s job, she never felt that way. Because she knew she would still get news from Yuki by the end of the day. Now, they couldn’t contact one another even if they wanted to. The communication was down along with the electricity. It wasn’t hard to know. Once electricity was out, things would be going down one by one.

Then, Mayu heard thudding sound and soon knocking coming from the door. She directly ran towards the door, not forgetting the baseball bat. It’s better being safe than sorry.

“Yuki?” Mayu asked in a soft whisper.

After a few pregnant seconds, finally she heard voice coming from the door. “Mayu, it’s me.”

Mayu wasted no time to open the door for Yuki. Mayu managed to glance to the corridor and saw a few familiar people down the floor, blood coming from their head. Then she turned to face Yuki and at the same time close the door behind them. She saw Yuki’s hand was covered in blood and Yuki had tears in her eyes before Yuki turned her gaze down didn’t want to let Mayu see her tears.

Mayu took the knife from Yuki’s hand and tossed it to the carpeted floor before hugging her girlfriend. Wanting Yuki to share her burden and guilt that Yuki was feeling with her and also to let Yuki know how relieved she was, seeing that she was alright.

“Mayu…”

“Shh… The condition forces you to do that. You don’t need to explain anything to me.”

Mayu understood what troubled Yuki right now. Mayu saw the bodies on the corridor. Those were their neighbors and among them, there were two old couple, Mr and Mrs Suzuki, who were like parents to them. So she understood what Yuki was feeling. If it was Mayu, she would probably cry her heart out already. She was sad, but the impact was different with what Yuki was feeling. Mayu saw their bodies while Yuki was the one ending their life, although they couldn’t really say that they’re still alive when they’re mindless and soulless.

Yuki to others might not seem like a type of person who would hold someone so close to her heart, especially when Yuki was on duty, but once people knew Yuki, they would realize how it was the opposite of the image she portrayed. Comparing the two of them, Yuki was the one who cheerfully greeted others and befriended them. She didn’t think that there isn’t anyone in the building who didn’t know Yuki. While she would be the one who was always quiet and looking from the side. She tends to draw a line, not wanting to be too close to someone, a habit that came from her job somehow, to remain professional, that’s how she worked.

After a moment in silence, Yuki pulled away from the embrace before sighing. Mayu watched Yuki collected herself and she gave her a small and warm smile to Yuki.

“Feeling better now?” Mayu asked softly. Although from the look of it, Mayu knew that Yuki had finished her grieving from the tears that had started drying on her girlfriend’s cheeks.

“I wonder how come you don’t feel anything. Always the cyborg.”

Mayu shrugged as she took the knife from the floor to clean it with water in the sink. When Yuki could start joking, Mayu knew her girlfriend would be alright.

9172. when someone cries like that.” Mayu wiped the knife clean with towel as Yuki took the spot on the sink to clean her hands and slightly blushed at what Mayu said. A rhythm that they both knew extremely well, when one of them was having a breakdown, one would stay strong for the other.

Mayu threw the towel to Yuki which was caught by Yuki to dry her hands before Mayu handed Yuki the knife. Yuki sheathed the knife and placed it back to the belt. Mayu disappeared into their room and took their white bed sheet out of their room. When Yuki saw what Mayu was holding, somehow Yuki understood what Mayu was going to do with it.

“Let’s go?”

Mayu turned to face Yuki, already carrying one backpack and Yuki walked to carry the other one after moving her machine gun from her back and holding it instead. Mayu always managed to surprise Yuki. In a way, Mayu seemed more prepared than her in facing their reality now while she was still slightly troubled and frustrated over changing her mind-set, from protecting the people from outside threat into protecting her family from the people she used to protect. It’s like making a decision on taking one side in a civil war for her.

“The corridor is clear but we still need to be careful. Less voice the better, since they are attracted to sound.” Yuki explained to Mayu about the condition that she knew so far. Something she discovered a while ago when she climbed the stairs. That was why she changed her gun into her knife.

Emergency exit would be her concern next because she only cleared the stairs towards their floor, there might be a possibility of the dead from the upper floor moving down. Hopefully there wouldn’t be that many left wandering around the stairs.

Mayu held the baseball bat in her right hand while her left was holding the white sheet. Yuki opened the door for them and peeked out, so far the corridor was empty and silent. Mayu followed Yuki and for the first time, truly saw what was happening. Some losing chunks of their flesh on their arms or legs or some even worse, having their guts spilled. If she wasn’t the person who cut into people every single day, she must be feeling nausea by now.

Mayu placed her bat against the wall before she walked towards the body of an old lady and gently pulled the body closer to the body of an old man. Then she joined their hands, as if the old couple were holding hands before she gave her prayer, followed by Yuki who was standing behind Mayu who was kneeling. Then Mayu covered the bodies with the white sheet she took with her. This was one thing that Yuki loved about Mayu. Mayu might not show how she felt all the time but what she did clearly show the concern that she had.

Yuki then led the way towards the emergency exit. When they reached the metallic door, separating them from the stairs, Yuki pressed her ear against the door. She listened to what was behind the door. Knowing that it was quiet enough, she opened the door carefully while Mayu watching their back. Having a soldier girlfriend helped Mayu know some basic of military stuff, like moving strategically.

Yuki made the way to the stairs first, turning to look on her left and right before up and down. So far, the area was clear. She led their way down, making silent steps. They stayed alarmed because they could hear faint raspy voice near them. Mayu followed Yuki close while checking her back once in a while. Then she heard Yuki fired up some shots as down the stairs there were a crowd of the dead, like around 10 of them. Soon the bodies fell to the ground one by one. Mayu knew some of them and clearly they didn’t make their way out. Mayu directly turned around to make sure no zombie was chasing after them.

“Careful.” Yuki mouthed to Mayu as they made their way through the bodies on the ground. At the same time, Mayu observed Yuki’s emotional state through her gesture and from her eyes. Mayu noticed the serious gaze of Yuki and with that she didn’t need to worry over her girlfriend anymore.

Finally reaching the last step, Yuki pushed the door open to the compound. There were a few zombies there but it didn’t bother her much. They could sneak through them or a simple kill with her knife. Pushing the gun behind, Yuki unsheathed her knife and started walking towards where her comrades was waiting for behind the gate. Along the way she would stab the head of the zombie that she met while Mayu by her side would hit the head of the zombie with the baseball bat. Although it wasn’t exactly killing the zombies because it was barely a day for the bodies to be dead, so they hadn’t started to decay at all, which doubling the effort but at least it managed to slow the dead down.

As they were getting closer to the gate separating them from the truck, they saw another black SUV passing. They didn’t feel suspicious of anything, thinking that it might just be another survivor until they heard shots fired. They directly ran as fast as how their legs could bring them to. The moment they got out of the gate, Mayu saw Yuki’s friends on the ground. Mayu directly went to check the damage done, going to the one unconscious first while Yuki looking around their surroundings. Who are they?Yuki thought to herself as she knelt down to her comrade, Kitahara Rie.

“Captain.” Rie greeted Yuki and held the gun up to help putting up defense since they could see a few zombies making their way to them. Rie was ignoring the pain she was feeling on her right leg and arm which were bleeding from the shots while Yuki supporting Rie so she could stand up.

Mayu knelt next to a guy, the tag let her know that his name was Sutou Akira. She checked his pulse but it was gone and Mayu didn’t feel surprised by it, seeing where the shots landed, not just on his chest but also on his head. Mayu pulled the metallic necklace from the dead body, a memoria of the fallen soldier. She then went to check Rie and seeing Rie’s condition, she didn’t worry much. Rie didn’t bleed too much, meant that the bullets didn’t hit major arteries. Rie was also fully conscious.

A click could be heard. Someone was opening the door. Another Yuri’s comrade was coming to the back of the truck to provide backup for them since everything had sort of calming down. She managed to get down to hide when she saw the gun coming out of the window of that SUV from her side mirror. The regret was she didn’t fast enough to give warning to her friends.

The female that Mayu knew as Kizaki Yuria rushed towards her girlfriend and Rie. Helping the captain in supporting their teammate. Mayu could see a hint of sadness from the three soldiers over the loss of their friend.

Mayu climbed to the back of the truck silently before helping them to get Rie to the truck, although the view she saw ahead of her wasn’t something she really liked. She could see herd of the dead coming closer to them and it seemed that they were getting faster and faster.

“Get to the truck. The zombies somehow run towards us.” Yuki said while helping Rie getting into the truck, gently pushing her friend up while Mayu pulled Rie up. They could see the zombies were getting closer to them, just a few feet left.

“Must be from the shots earlier.” Mayu concluded while helping Rie to sit down before turning towards Yuki and Yuria, to make sure they are getting into the truck with Rie already started pointing the gun behind her captain and comrade, ready to shoot anytime.

“Kizaki-san, go and start the truck.” Yuki directly fired up an order to Yuria who ran back to the front of the truck and soon the engine sputtering could be heard, breaking the voice of the zombies that told them that they’re getting closer.

“Captain, I’m ready anytime.” Yuria turned to look behind from the small window provided.

“Hit the gas.” Yuki directly shouted once she got to the back of the truck. If they were just a second too late, they were need to fight against the never-ending zombie waves that were coming towards them.

The truck soon moved away from the zombies and Mayu placed her backpack down to the seat and started to rummage. First thing, she did was tying Rie’s wound with towel, to slow down the bleeding while she assessed what to do best. Mayu looked at Yuki and then Rie before she sighed.

“I have the basic kit. But… I have no anesthetic. We could take risk to find a clinic or hospital for it. Meanwhile, for now… she still could survive with this until you guys made the decision.”

Mayu then sat down next to Yuki and took the dog tag from her pocket, handing it to her girlfriend. Yuki slipped the tag into the pocket of her vest. Rie slightly winced when a little bump on the road shook their body. The ride pretty much silent while the captain and her comrades thought of the best decision on what to do for Rie.

“Let’s go to the nearest hospital or clinic that we could find.” Yuki got up from her seat and went to the small window, telling Yuria what to do.

“Are you sure? There isn’t enough manpower for us to win the fight.”

“We can just check the place first. If it’s possible, we go in. If not…, I’ll ask Mayu to operate on Rie without anesthetic.”

So, Yuria headed out towards the nearest hospital or clinic that she could find, agreeing to the decision their captain had made for them. Still, deep in their mind, they still thought of who the people in the black SUV were.

***

The wind blew harder and the cloud grew darker. Slowly the rain started from small drizzle which soon turned into a downpour. The visibility was extremely low as they barely could see the view ahead of them which made the pilots be extremely careful since they were flying low as they were reaching the airport soon.

The heavy rain now had turned into a full blown storm. Flashes of lightning could be seen and clashes of thunder could be heard roaring in the sky. Everyone just hoped that they could land safely as the helicopter started to shake from how strong the wind was, while the rain, with the help from the wind, drenched most of the people in the helicopter.

Rena had never seen such a bad storm as this in her entire life. For the soldiers, like Yui or Takamina, this weather wasn’t really the first time and had grown familiar with it, and Yui sometimes even went to help after the storm was over. While for Yuko and Annin, although they had never experienced it themselves but they saw it before in the news. Rena held on the seatbelt tightly. Noticing that, Yuko held Rena’s hand and her own seatbelt, bracing herself from the shakiness. I totally need new clothes after thisYuko thought, complaining in her own mind because she was extremely cold right now. With that kind of thought, she even considered of wearing raincoat everywhere start from now on, when the weather was unpredictable like this. It was sunny when they were out of the facility but now it was a complete opposite of it.

Yuko spared a glance next to her to assess Rena’s condition. It’s like her habit now. She had grown this ability to observe her subjects silently, seeing the change in them without them knowing. This kind of moment was a good chance to observe and to know more of how Rena’s body reacted to this new environment. Since the facility never tested Rena or Jurina for this kind of condition and they just trained them physically in case they needed them to handle a fight. However, to Yuko, nothing could be better than a fight with nature because it’s so amazing on how one could surpass beyond one’s ability when they were forced to until that person could no longer fight. The training that maybe Rena or Jurina never had in the facility was a training of will. How much a will to survive, to live and to protect could change a lot of things in this condition.

Now what Yuko saw from Rena was how amazing the gene that Rena got from Jurina worked. Rena was just like herself, drenched from head to toe but Rena’s hand was so warm as if it’s a glow from the campfire despite the thin piece of white garment the latter was wearing, a common clothing for patients while others, including herself already started to shiver from the cold although she didn’t feel as bad as others from holding onto Rena’s hand. She wondered what secret was still hidden inside Rena and Jurina. She still got a lot to comprehend. Two of them had their own similarities and their own difference. Thing that bothered her was the complication, the side effect that Jurina had mentioned. Could there be something that she had missed? Certain symptoms or signs of the side effect that Rena had shown but she didn’t see it all this time.

As they were getting closer to the airport and the control tower could be seen much clearer, they flew much lower that they could see the condition on the airport’s runway. There were zombies wandering around and they would take their chance. They didn’t think that there would be a place without one of the zombies walking around. They would fight their way when the time came, when they stepped their feet down on the ground.

Suddenly lightning flashed and struck on the helicopter where Takamina and Annin were. The tail was caught on fire and the helicopter lost control, hitting on the helicopter next to it, where Rena and Yuko were.

“Brace yourselves.” The pilots on both helicopter said while tried to hold still the control, a hint of panic could be heard in their voice.

Meanwhile the pilot in Yui’s helicopter managed to dodge in the last second. If not their plane would be going down as well and they were watching their friends in full of concern and horror as their helicopters going down, heading towards the runway of the airport.

As the helicopters going down, Takamina tried to think and made a decision as fast as she could. She could see what was written and calculated through the lens type monitor in her eyes, telling her the command on what she should do. She could see the countdown started and when it reached zero, Takamina unbuckled her seatbelt and Annin’s. Takamina pulled Annin closer to her, keeping Annin in her embrace as a shield unloaded from her arm, coming out in a form of a metallic tube before it spread open. She shielded herself and Annin before jumping out of the helicopter once it was getting closer to the ground, shield first and sparks of fire came from the friction of the shield and the asphalt of the runway. Takamina wanted to save all of them but it would be impossible. Her mission would always be protecting the one with the highest value and in that helicopter which was Annin.

Everything was happening so fast for Annin, she was in the helicopter and next she was flying out of the helicopter in Takamina’s embrace. She didn’t even manage to scream and she just groaned when the shield behind her back landed on the ground before the two of them rolled around the asphalt. She would be in pain later on, but at least she was still alive.

“I’m just so crazy…” Takamina said as she registered everything out as she pulled back from hugging Annin. What if the calculation was wrong earlier? She would kill Annin. “What have I done…” She mumbled to herself repeatedly as panic set in, standing there with an empty gaze.

“Takamina… Takamina…” Annin tried to calm Takamina down and at least Takamina’s attention was on her now until they heard loud crash. Annin’s concern over Takamina would always be this, when Takamina’s logic fought with her emotion since that always clashed somehow since part of Takamina’s brain was computer and the real Takamina’s brain retained was only on her memory and emotion part.

They watched their helicopter fell down and exploded. They tried to go to the helicopter, hoping there’s a survivor until they saw a crowd of the dead was heading to the source of fire. They looked at their surrounding and Takamina thought that they needed to look for a safe place. Damage assessment would be done later and she knew that there’s already an issue regarding her left arm as she couldn’t keep her shield back, somehow her robotic forearm couldn’t read her command.

Takamina spared a glance upwards towards the sky. Rain didn’t bother her eyes at all and she could see that there’s another helicopter going down. She wished she could stop that but there’s limit to what she could do. She hated feeling helpless. She thought she was strong enough for time like this but she wasn’t. Even her left arm wasn’t working that well right now. Annin followed Takamina to glance upwards, shielding her eyes with her hand and saw the same thing. Both of them braced their heart, knowing they would lose another friend. Tears started to form in Annin’s eyes although soon washed away by the rain.

Takamina tore her gaze away and looked at their back and the dead was getting closer to them, heading to the burning helicopter. Black smoke started to billow to the sky. Pulling Annin with her right arm, distracting her from looking up the sky, their mourning would continue later.

“We need to run.”

Annin just saw what was right behind them. She wiped her face from rain and tears. She needed to focus. Gathering herself up, she followed Takamina who had started running ahead of her, clearing a way for her, punching every single zombie ahead of their way, who directly collapsed with their head fell apart from their body. What Takamina did, she didn’t need to know nor wanted to see it. Takamina was doing her job and she wouldn’t be a burden to her by slowing the latter down. Rain washed the blood that was coming from the body of the dead and Annin stepped her way through, sprinting behind Takamina, tagging close to the cyborg.

***

“It’s left.”

“If we go left soon we’ll reach the end of the road.”

The argument continued and they did that ever since they heard helicopters sound. First whether they should go and chased it or not, now they were arguing over which road to take, knowing the city well, if they continued they’ll reach the end of the road and faced with a wall. However, that argument didn’t last long when they saw a helicopter on fire heading down to the ground.

“Sae, It’s going down.” A tanned tall girl who was driving the container truck told her friend who was sitting next to her. They had been chasing the helicopter for a while now, even fighting the storm to get to it, believing that it must be the government who was sending help around and they wanted to make sure to get to that place.

“Let’s go there, still.” Sae, the ikemen girl, insisted. “If we don’t find any help, we could still get the scraps from the helicopter. How cool will it be?”

“You are so crazy, at times, you know.”

The ikemen girl just shrugged and pointed straight while checking her map, deciding to take different route to go closer to the helicopter. The more they looked at it and how familiar the road was they came to a realization.

“We are heading to the airport!” Two of them exclaimed before laughing at their own silliness from driving around for quite a while and even arguing.

“But are you guys sure? Airport bound to be dangerous, don’t you guys think so?” A girl said while playing with her pet bird which was perching on her finger.

“Don’t you hear how Sayaka just said that I’m crazy?”

“Well… I just think that Sayaka is crazier that she supported your idea, Sae.”

“Both of us are just crazy and you should just join us.” Sayaka wrapped the talk up with her silly grin before driving happily.

The girl who was holding her pet bird shook her head. She tolerated their craziness as that was just their rhythm. She knew that because they had been neighbors for quite a while. Besides, she knew how the two would be when they were serious and she could trust them in keeping her safe while she would help them watch their back.

***

In a secret laboratory

“Activate project doomsday.” An instruction was given by a guy on the lab coat to his subordinates.

“Yes, sir.” His subordinates had horror in their face but they still did it, knowing how monstrous that guy could be. It’s better that others be his victims than them. In the end, they pressed the red buttons, releasing every single creature in the lab, things that they better didn’t see or would ever face with.