The village seems to have been abandoned, although the the cause is unknown . They doesn’t know how long they would have to wait. To pass the time they wander in and out of the abandoned houses. They feel tired, but they aren’t sure whether sleeping has a place in my new life. Kurotsuchi and Mirai go up on the roof of one of the houses and look out over the neighborhood. The cotton flowers looks like snowflake.

Although the falling snow deter their sight, there is no sign of living human. 

Even in the two abandoned houses that are connected, the house they are staying for now, there rotten food on the table. Based on the sheets on the bed and the rotten food, it could be abandoned for about 5 years. Actually Hiro's mind can't stop linking the deserted village with the zombie they met days before.

They assemble in a circle in the house after igniting the woods in the hearth, they eat their proper dinner for the first time.

"Why.."

"Hmm?"

The girls feel weird as the man seems to be very restless, going back and forth from the circle to the entrance door, peeking left and right. 

"I believe this empty village has something to do with the ghoul."

Having said that, he slowly falls asleep. The girls too. They are only waken up by crumpling sounds outside as if someone walks on the snow. 

They look at each other and nod. The fire in the hearth is still burning but they ignore that and pack up their stuffs. 

They crouch along the door and window, peeking at the lane outside. As there is no one there, they slowly step to outside, trying not to make any crumpling sound on the snow. Other than their breath, they can't hear a single sound. 

I decide only my torchlight would be switched on to avoid alerting possible foes because too much brightness. 

“…Haa…ha.”

He breathes in short breaths and cover the flashlight with the palm of one hand while holding it in another, so the light doesn’t spread out as much. 

A clattering sound rang out.

It happens suddenly just when he gets careless thinking about various things. Somehow, he manages not to drop the flashlight.

He remembers the zombies he saw in movies in his original world. Usually, the are slow-witted. They posses the strength of usual human but their speed is pathetic. But the reality we encountered was the said ghoul was strengthened and agile. He prays such creature won't be here.

The house they were sleeping was sixth building from the entrance of the village. They are now walking out towards there to exit the village.

Right now, he doesn’t know whether the zombies react to light, so he switches off the flashlight just to be sure.

Click! The slight sound of the button echoes. However, it isn’t noticed by the zombies who are probably somewhere in the surrounding.

They can’t move from there until their eyes are accustomed to the darkness, so they sit down on one straight line unwillingly. So that he can immediately move even if something happens, he keeps one leg upright.

“…Ha…Haa.”

Apart from their breathing sound, they sometimes hear a clattering sound. Although there is surely something, it is indiscernible whether it is one or more beings. He thinks that it is only one, but if he is wrong they will die. So, he can’t help it but to be as careful as possible.

He gathers his determination as he moves while bending his waist. The move as carefully as possible, but the contents of their luggages make a little noise nevertheless.

His heart is beating so hard that he starts feeling that it is too noisy. He knows it isn’t actually making any audible sound, but when he thinks that it may attract a zombie, it weighs on his mind.

We past the fifth house from the entrance. On their right and left there are walls of houses, so if by any chance they are sandwiched, there’s no way out. The rest is to pass through the fourth house from the entrance. 

However, naturally, the world isn’t so sweet as to let it end without anything happening.

“Are you serious?”

Tsuu. Sweat runs down his back.

He can’t see very well from here, but there is single zombie in the form of a man. There would be no problems if there is only a single zombie, but that would be only in the case that we don’t have to go near it.

There is only one zombie, but it is in front of the second house. We may be able to kill it by running fast but it may alert other zombies.

Kurotsuchi behind me grabs me shoulder and gives cue that she will do the killing.

She draws a kodachi and raises her arm to fling it against the parietal area of the zombie. But before she could do that, her hand is grabbed by Ivanna who are behind the two of us.

"That looks like normal man." 

Of course that looks like a normal man but he whispers to her,

"There is no such thing as too careful. Kill him "

Ivanna walks to the man and asks, "Are you a villager? What happened here?"

He thinks that it’s a stupid question.

The man looks back, reacting to her question.

"A human…come on, don’t surprise me like that. Why are you here?”

The man doesn’t answer. He just looks at us with hollow eyes.

She is just able to hold back the scream that is going to come out of her mouth. 

"Grrr." He behaves like the ghoul the other day except his appearance is like human with slightly rotting face. He moves slowly unlike the agile ghoul the other day. 

She kicks him with full force against the wall. A loud sound as it crashes against the wooden wall.  Then, they begin to hear sounds from here and there. It seems like the other zombies have noticed them.

“Shit, we need to make a run!” Sekrit mutters.

We run past the zombie. It loses its balance, and without waiting to see his fall, they run past it. 

Because zombies are slow witted, it needs several seconds to get up, in the meantime they have enough time to escape.

***

Four male zombies are at the entrance while we hear many steps from all over the place walking towards us. 

"Head." I remind the girls. 

We can reach the arch once the four are killed. By any chance, if we are overtaken by the zombies in the back and have trouble to control them, it’s game over.

Clementine jumps like a bullet to the middle of them and stab a zombie's neck. As its her first time killing a zombie, she waits to ensure her attack works. It collapses and ceases movement. Having watched her attack works, other girls grow in confidence. Sekrit makes a spin between two zombies and cut their heads. Kurotsuchi slips to the back of a zombie and stab the back of its neck.

"Hoi. There are too many!" Sylvia shouts and points to lane behind. 

Oh, my god. There are dozens, no, hundreds of that creatures coming towards us.

The are pouring out from the narrow lane like a scene from a horror movies. We then run towards straight from the arch to the plain.