The moment they stepped out of Costco, Akira scanned the parking lot.
Clear.
"For now."
He hurried toward the rear of the Hummer and pressed the release button.
Click.
The rear hatch swung open, revealing a neatly organized cargo compartment packed with supplies.
Akira grabbed the first box.
"Help me get everything inside. Quickly."
The two women didn't hesitate.
"Right!"
Together, they began unloading the shopping cart.
Boxes of canned beans.
Canned fruit.
Spam.
Medical supplies.
Everything disappeared into the back of the Hummer one box after another.
The only boxes Akira handled personally were the five cartons of Twinkies.
He carefully stacked them in one corner.
The younger girl couldn't help but stare.
"You really like those."
Akira looked at her as if she'd asked whether the sky was blue.
"They're priceless."
"..."
"..."
Neither woman knew how to respond to that.
The distant rustling grew louder.
Shff...
Shff...
Grrraaa...
Walkers.
A lot of them.
Akira glanced toward the Costco entrance.
"They're coming."
The last box disappeared into the cargo area.
Akira slammed the hatch shut.
Without another word, he grabbed the now-empty shopping cart.
"Watch this."
He shoved it with all his strength.
The cart rolled across the parking lot.
Its loose wheels rattled loudly over the cracked pavement.
Clatter!
It slammed into a light pole, tipping onto its side with a metallic crash.
The noise echoed across the otherwise silent parking lot.
Akira nodded in satisfaction.
"That'll keep them busy."
He sprinted to the driver's door and threw it open.
"Get in! Quickly!"
The two women rushed toward the passenger side.
they climbed into the rear seats Pushing the assault Rifle and shotgun to the middle of the seats.
Both slammed the doors shut just as Akira jumped behind the steering wheel.
He started the engine.
The modified Hummer came to life with only a low hum.
Carefully, he shifted into reverse.
The vehicle rolled backward without attracting much attention.
Then he stopped.
Everyone inside watched through the tinted windows.
One...
Ten...
Fifty...
More and more walkers poured from the Costco entrance.
An endless stream of decaying bodies shuffled into the parking lot.
Instead of heading toward the Hummer...
They were all converging on the overturned shopping cart beneath the light pole.
Akira slowly exhaled.
"Shit." He shook his head.
"Thank God they didn't corner me inside."
"I fired my pistol four times in there."
"If they'd surrounded the exits..." He didn't bother finishing the sentence.
He already knew the outcome.
Even with his training, escaping hundreds of walkers inside a warehouse would have been nearly impossible.
In the back seat, the two women sat frozen.
Neither dared make a sound.
The sheer number of walkers staggering out of Costco made their blood run cold.
The younger girl whispered,
"There are so many"
The older woman swallowed hard.
"We've been hiding in that building for three days."
"I had no idea this many were inside."
Akira kept his eyes on the growing horde.
"Hordes don't just appear."
"They gather."
"When a city suddenly seems empty.."
He nodded toward the sea of undead outside.
"it's because they're all in one place."
The walkers continued to crowd around the fallen shopping cart, bumping into one another in a mindless attempt to reach the source of the noise.
Akira waited another thirty seconds to make sure none had noticed the Hummer.
Then a small smile appeared on his face.
"So much for brains."
He shifted the transmission into drive.
"Let's get the hell out of here before one of those runners decides to ruin my day."
The Hummer silently pulled away from the parking lot, leaving behind the growing horde that remained fixated on nothing more than an overturned shopping cart beneath a lonely light pole.
The Hummer continued down the empty road for another mile before Akira pulled onto the shoulder.
He shifted the vehicle into park and turned off the engine.
Silence filled the cabin.
Akira turned around in his seat to face the two women sitting in the back.
They looked exhausted.
Their clothes were dusty, and dark circles hung beneath their eyes.
Despite that, his expression remained serious.
"Okay."
He folded his arms.
"Time to speak up."
The two exchanged nervous glances.
"I know for a fact no one in their right mind would let a high school girl dye her hair like that."
His eyes shifted to the older woman.
"And an office lady with naturally pink hair? Not buying it."
The silence grew heavier.
Akira sighed.
"Either start talking or I'll leave you both on the roadside."
The younger girl immediately tensed.
"N-No!"
She hurriedly bowed her head.
"M-My name is Takemoto Uruka."
"I'm a third-year high school student."
Akira's eyes narrowed slightly.
Then the older woman spoke.
"My name is Mafuyu Kirisu."
"I'm a teacher."
She glanced at Uruka.
"Takemoto is one of my students."
Akira slowly rubbed his face "I knew it."
The names clicked into place.
Takemoto Uruka.
Mafuyu Kirisu.
Characters from We Never Learn.
Or Bokuben.
He had watched the anime years ago on Blue Star.
"What the hell are characters from a romantic comedy doing in a zombie apocalypse?"
He muttered the question under his breath.
Neither woman understood.
Akira leaned back against his seat.
"All right."
"Explain something to me."
"Why were you hiding inside Costco?"
Mafuyu answered first.
"That's part of the problem."
She frowned, clearly trying to make sense of it herself.
"We don't know what happened."
"One moment, we were inside a classroom."
"The next we were standing in the Costco parking lot."
Uruka nodded repeatedly.
"There wasn't any warning."
"No strange light."
"No earthquake."
"We were just..."
"there."
Mafuyu continued.
"Then a man covered in blood suddenly ran toward us."
"We thought he needed help."
Her expression darkened.
"But."
"He attacked us."
"We ran into the supermarket."
"I found a metal baseball bat."
"And..." She looked down at her hands "I killed him."
Even after three days, the memory clearly haunted her.
Akira didn't comment.
He already knew.
Their first zombie kill would stay with them forever.
Instead, he asked another question.
"How long have you been here?"
Uruka hesitated before quietly answering.
"Three days."
"We've been hiding in the back office ever since."
"We only came out occasionally to look for food and water."
She lowered her head.
"Then we heard gunshots."
"We thought maybe someone was alive."
Akira nodded.
"So we crossed paths."
Both women nodded.
Silence settled inside the Hummer once again.
Akira stared through the windshield at the empty road ahead.
His mind raced.
Three days ago.
They were transported from their classroom.
Straight into this world.
That confirmed one thing.
This wasn't a coincidence.
It wasn't a hallucination.
People from other worlds really were appearing here.
The question was.
Was it a one-time event?
Or was it still happening?
If it was still happening then there could be dozens.
Hundreds.
Maybe even thousands of people from different worlds suddenly thrown into the middle of the apocalypse.
Akira let out a long breath.
"Great."
"As if surviving two different kinds of zombies wasn't enough."
"Now I've got dimensional refugees to worry about."
Neither Uruka nor Mafuyu understood what he meant.
But one thing was certain.
The world had just become far stranger than Akira had ever imagined.
And he had the unsettling feeling that Takemoto Uruka and Mafuyu Kirisu wouldn't be the last unexpected passengers riding in his Hummer.