Messenger:

Message history: November 10, 2016.

22:10 From: Katashi: “Hey Hana! What happened in class today? Why didn’t you answer when I called you? Are you upset? We’re friends, so tell me what’s wrong. You’re making me worried.”

22:15 From: me: “Sorry, I don't know you, thanks for your concern.”

22:18 From: Katashi: “Come on Hana? You’re joking, right? That’s not funny, if anything happens tomorrow tell me, if you keep joking like that I don’t know what to do.”

22:20: From: me: “You are harassing me, please, leave me alone.”

22:22: From: Katashi: “Hana, stop it, I know all your jokes, don't try anymore, I'm starting to feel uncomfotable…”

22:30: From: Katashi: “Hana, I was a bit too harsh, sorry… let's talk.”

22:38: From: Katashi: “Hana? Where are you?”

22:40: From: Katsahi: “Hey? What's wrong? You've been acting a little strange all day.”

22:50: From: me: “Please, Katashi, get out of my life.”

22:52: From: Katashi: “Hana, what are you saying?”

22:55: From: Katashi: “Hey! Hana!”

23:00: From: Katashi: “Hana!”

You have blocked Katashi.

You have removed Katashi from your contacts.

…

…

October 1, 2017.

After our chance meeting last night, I was eager to see Katashi at school today to see how he would react.

But, like every day, Katashi walked into class, walking straight past my seat, as if I never existed.

Are you getting revenge on me, Katashi?

The homeroom teacher hadn't entered the classroom yet, with the little time I had at the beginning of the class, I could still go down to Katashi's desk at the back of the class and ask him directly, but doing so in front of the whole class right now would seem quite awkward and would ruin my image.

'HOT News of the Day: Class Monitor Hana Chats with Stupid Katashi.'

Oh, just thinking about it makes me feel embarrassed. They'll gossip and make all sorts of accusations. The boys I used to despise won't even think of me anymore.

I had to take out a book to read to kill time.

Just then, Akira Byakuya, the most attractive boy in the class next door, entered my classroom. He timidly walked towards where I was sitting. All the girls from the class next door and my class gathered around to see what was going on. All eyes were on Akira and me.

In his hand was a beautifully wrapped gift box and a purple flower. I didn't need to explain what was going on here.

Coming to my desk, Akira bowed his head, his baby face flushed red.

“Hello, I'm Akira from class 3B, nice to meet you.”

I looked at Akira, silently letting him continue.

“Um… How should I say this…” – Akira struggled – “Well… I’ve noticed Hana for a long time now, you’re very beautiful, gentle, and extremely smart… um… I wanted to ask if you want to get to know me?”

"Of course not!"

I replied coldly.

Akira was shocked, my words were like a bucket of cold water poured over his head. The girls in the next class screamed in pity for Akira. Even though he was cute, a lowlife should stay in his place.

Akira stood there, frozen, my reply was too quick and too sudden. It was normal, I had to deal with this kind of confession nonsense everyday.

“You have your answer. Now that you're done, go back to your classroom.”

I ignored him and returned my focus to the book in my hands.

“But… but…”

“Hana doesn't have time to talk. If you have nothing to do, please leave.”

Airi jumped beside me and shooed Akira away like a puppy. He had no choice but to bow his head in shame and walk away. As soon as Akira stepped through the door of my classroom, the girls of class 3B immediately gathered around to comfort him while the boys of my class breathed a sigh of relief.

As for Airi, she is my right hand woman and the second most attractive girl in the class. Although her academic results are not that impressive, her looks are slightly better than mine. Although she is always by my side, Airi's real goal is to find a loophole to overthrow me and become the queen of this class. Trust me, she is just a bitch who likes to stab people in the back.

Akira burst into tears like a child. Even though he was one of the brightest students in the grade like me and Airi, Akira wasn't arrogant at all, instead he was known to be extremely kind and friendly. He must be the type that is popular because of his cute appearance and outgoing personality.

But unfortunately for that kid, hanging out with lowlifes for so long, he's just a lowlife.

What a shame.

As soon as the incident was over, whispers started to arise in my class, mostly about me, and I pretended not to hear them.

“Damn, if we can't even beat Akira in 3B, then we don't stand a chance…”

“It's normal, I knew I couldn't approach her from the start.”

“Oh my god, what's wrong with Hana? Even Akira from class 3B refused, I'm so jealous of her!”

“Yeah, Akira looks so pitiful, if I were her, I would have jumped for joy!”

Even Airi was secretly badmouthing me to her own friends. Her fake face was exactly the same as when she badmouthed her other friends to me.

“That arrogant girl, who does she think she is to dare reject Akira! Does she think she's beautiful, talented, and comes from a noble family, giving her the right to look down on others like that?”

“Airi, you were the one who chased Akira away too?”

“Ah, yeah… but to tell you the truth, I was just following that girl's orders.”

“She also makes you do such terrible things?”

“So hateful, even using Airi as a tool, truly unforgivable!”

etc.

See, just a small detail and my class has turned it into a whole topic for discussion.

I had to wait until the end of class to talk to Katashi.

During the day, I took the opportunity to glance at him a few times to see if he had any movements, but that stubborn guy didn't pay me any attention even once. I wondered if he even remembered what he had done last night.

Finally, a long school day is over. Time always feels much slower when you are looking forward to something.

But it seemed that God was not on my side today. In the early afternoon, the weather started to storm, and the heavy rain prevented most of the students from returning home immediately.

The rain poured down so hard that the glass of my classroom window turned into a thick curtain of water. I went to the window, pressed my face against the glass and looked outside, but the curtain of water was so thick that I could see nothing but the silhouettes of the trees shaking violently outside.

It was only four o'clock in the afternoon, but the sky was already dark, and I could hear the wind howling outside. It seemed that our town was on the coast, so the effects of storms were always stronger than usual. But I still found it strange that yesterday's weather report didn't mention a storm.

When no one was paying attention, I glanced at Katashi for a moment. That hateful boy was still calmly reading a book with his headphones on.

Things got worse when the power went out at school at four thirty. Damn, there was no light to read, and I left my computer at home.

To get home from school, most of the students including me have to go through the coastal road. During storms like this, the road is especially dangerous so we will be stuck here until the storm passes before we can go home. Well, I don’t want my beautiful body to be covered in dirty rain and mud anyways.

The atmosphere in the classroom was now more chaotic than ever. The boys started to make mischievous jokes and ran around the hallways. A large group took advantage of the darkness to gather around to tell ghost stories, laughing and talking nonsense. The only people who knew how to maintain their culture at this time were me, Katashi and a few other girls.

Miyu, Meiko, and Sayo are the other girls besides Airi who qualify as ‘friends’ for me. They are all from well-off families and their beauty and appearance rank at the top of their class after me.

My friends came to the window and gathered around me, of course without Airi because she was busy curling up in the arms of her boyfriend in the next class.

Meiko started a conversation. My friends were talking about trivial things that I had no interest in. Although I didn’t join in, listening to their conversation was a good way to pass the time, at least until the power came back on.

“What should I do… I still have to pick my brother up…”

Miyu's sudden voice reminded me of Toru. Her school was on the other side of town, and she finished an hour earlier than me. I wondered if Toru would be home by now.

I rarely worry about Toru because one, she's very independent, and two, because I'm a bad sister. But I always feel safe about her because Toru is better at dealing with life's problems than I am.

“Hana, your sister is in the same class as mine, right? You don't seem very worried, do you?”

“Don't worry too much, Toru can handle it, maybe he'll take Yuuki all the way to your house before coming back.”

Miyu looked at me and smiled softly, covering her mouth. She had an innocent beauty and a small mole under her eye that looked very cute.

“Ah… that's right. She's Hana's little sister, how can I not feel at ease.”

“…”

My family is complicated. It's not like you think.

Miyu was a shy kid and so was her younger brother, Yuuki. At school, Yuuki was often bullied by the upperclassmen, and Toru often fought back to protect her. So when my mother scolded Toru at the dinner table, I usually kept quiet because I understood that she had a reason for causing trouble at school.

We talked for a while longer. The storm was still raging outside, and the rain showed no signs of letting up.

At six o'clock, suddenly there was a commotion outside the corridor. My whole class rushed out to see what was happening like a swarm of bees.

Even Katashi got up from his seat to see what was going on, unlike his usual self. What could be so serious? I started to have a bad feeling.

Then I heard some kids in class talking.

"What's up?"

“I don't know, I couldn't squeeze in, but from what I heard, someone was injured…”

“Looks like there's a lot of blood!”

“It's Dojima Sensei… he was bitten!”

What was that that bit me so badly? I'm not usually the type to leave my post just because of some gossip, but looking at their faces right now, something was really going on.

And if Katashi didn't leave class because of the rumors, maybe he went to the bathroom, this was my chance to ask him about last night.

I said goodbye to Miyu, Meiko, and Sayo and chased after Katashi.

It wasn't hard to catch up with Katashi, I stopped right behind him, joining the crowd on the stairs that were pouring down to the first floor.

Thanks to my beauty, the boys were willing to make way for me, so I was able to get to the first floor, where the strange event was happening, pretty quickly. Poor Katashi, if he wanted to know what was going on, he had to line up. That was his price for ignoring me, if he was nice I would have let him come along.

Finally I reached the bottom of the stairs, the crowd parted to reveal a horrifying sight.

It seems that the students in my class weren't lying, and the rumors they heard were even tamer than what I was seeing right now.

Our respected math teacher, a strict teacher who devoted forty years of his life to education. Right in the middle of the hall, right in front of the entrance, Dojima Sensei was lying writhing on the ground, his whole body soaked in the rain, his broken umbrella and school bag lying beside him, but worse than that, his white shirt was stained red with blood. His right arm, as if it had been savagely pecked by a pack of piranhas. The flesh was torn from the outside, exposing the white bones. From where he lay, the pool of blood was growing wider and wider.

“All of you stand back!”

The physical education teachers lined up at the top of the stairs, blocking us from reaching the scene.

Dojima Sensei painfully hugged his crushed arm and screamed.

“You don’t believe me! Those people out there are crazy! They just keep coming at me and biting me… All those people out there… are cannibalistic savages!”

“It looks like he hit his head somewhere in the storm.” – A physical education teacher spoke up – “The security guard found Sensei in front of the school gate in that state… his arm must have been crushed by a falling tree…”

I could do nothing but cover my mouth in shock. Even the teacher who had just said those reassuring words to us had a worried expression on his face and was also sweating profusely. How could anyone escape from being crushed by a tree like that, especially in a storm like this?

It was horrible, who could have done this. The smell of blood and the strong smell of rain in the air made me want to vomit.

Suddenly, another scream came from the middle of the rain, if I'm not mistaken, it was the voice of my school security guard. All eyes immediately turned to the outside.

Outside the glass, dark figures slowly approached us. Groans were heard and bloody hands pressed against the glass from outside.

“All of you stand back…!”

The PE teacher ordered us. His voice was even more fearful than before. Standing behind me, I could clearly see his back trembling.

Without needing to give orders, we students knew to retreat in fear.

I didn't have to look at the shadows outside for a moment to realize that they were human shadows.

What was out there grew more and more crowded, and the shadows began to thicken, blocking out the little light from outside.

Dojima Sensei looked out the glass door beside him in horror, his face covered in blood looked extremely scary.

The teacher groaned in a breathless voice.

“It's them! They're here! It's all over… They're here!”

My emotions, at that moment, were either shock or panic to the point of losing my mind. What we saw in front of our eyes, and what was outside the glass door… was real.

I started remembering the news I missed last night.

“A virus has spread from Chernobyl. Residents of nearby residential areas have lost consciousness and are attacking humans. Authorities are currently investigating the cause and have imposed a quarantine on the area.”

That's all I remember hearing last night. If those things out there are really people infected with this Virus, then I have to admit that the speed at which it spreads is too fast.

And if a quarantine order has been issued, the only way this Virus can spread, is through the air.

If so, then to reach our town, this Virus has traveled a long way from Chernobyl to here.

That is to say, this is already a worldwide problem.

In America, there are many TV series like this, and if I had to choose a word that best describes our situation right now, it would be that we have entered the Zombie apocalypse.

No, I'm just dreaming, right?

My emotions were more chaotic than ever. There was surprise, there was worry, there was shock. But above all, there was extreme fear.

If my speculations are correct, and what is happening here is not a dream, then there is only one thing that can scare me more than the ‘Zombies’ right now, and that is my parents and sister who are still out there, somewhere in this raging rain.