A brief silence settled over the motel room after Akira finished explaining the state of the world.
He suddenly snapped his fingers.
"Right.... I completely forgot."
He scratched the back of his head.
"I've been talking this whole time, but I never actually introduced myself."
He gave the two women a small smile.
"My name is Akira Connor."
"I'm half American and half Japanese."
"Before the apocalypse..."
"I was a rookie police officer with the Los Angeles Police Department."
"I'd only been on patrol for six months before the world fell apart."
To prove it, Akira reached into the inside pocket of his leather jacket.
He pulled out a worn leather wallet.
Opening it, he revealed a silver police badge alongside a faded identification card.
"I still carry it."
Mafuyu leaned forward slightly "So you really were a police officer"
Akira nodded.
"I've been surviving on my own ever since the government collapsed and the evacuation zones were overrun."
He slipped the badge back into his jacket.
"Most of my training came after that."
"Experience is a harsh teacher."
Uruka looked at him with newfound respect.
"So that's why you stayed so calm."
Akira laughed.
"I wasn't calm."
"I was terrified."
"I just learned not to let panic make decisions for me."
He reached into the nearby box of Twinkies and grabbed another one.
With practiced ease, he peeled open the wrapper.
"My current goal is pretty simple."
He took a large bite.
"Mmm."
After swallowing, he continued with complete seriousness.
"I'm going to travel around the country and eat every Twinkie I can find before they expire."
The room fell silent.
Mafuyu blinked.
Uruka blinked.
"That's your goal?"
Akira nodded without a trace of embarrassment.
"Absolutely."
"The world's ending."
"Civilization's gone."
"So if I find a box of Twinkies" He raised the snack cake like it was a priceless treasure "I'm not leaving it behind."
Uruka couldn't help herself.
She burst into laughter.
"Pfft!"
"Hahaha!"
Mafuyu covered her mouth, trying to maintain her composure.
Even she couldn't suppress a quiet giggle.
After everything they'd talked about.
After all the grim realities of this world.
The man who had rescued them had just declared that his life's ambition during the zombie apocalypse was to hunt down every Twinkie in America.
Akira looked between the two confused women and shrugged.
"What?"
"They're delicious."
The room erupted into soft laughter.
For the first time since arriving in this terrifying world, both Mafuyu and Uruka laughed from the heart.
Outside, the apocalypse continued without pause.
Inside Room 12, however, a police officer happily enjoying a Twinkie had managed to remind two frightened strangers that even at the end of the world.
There was still room for a little laughter.
While Akira, Mafuyu, and Uruka rested comfortably inside Room 12 of the motel on the west side of Citrus City.
On the east side of town.
Inside a small three-story hotel that Akira had unknowingly driven past earlier that day.
A pair of blue eyes silently watched the deserted street below.
The curtains were only opened by a narrow slit.
A pair of binoculars slowly peeked through the gap.
The young woman behind them had beautiful blonde hair tied into a side ponytail with a blue scrunchie. She wore a pair of jeans, a light-blue shirt, and a winter coat trimmed with white fur around its hood.
Her gaze remained fixed on the road.
"There it is."
Almost an hour earlier, she'd watched a black Hummer H2 calmly drive through the city.
At first, she hadn't paid much attention.
Until it reached the three-way intersection.
Her eyebrows had immediately shot up.
"How?"
To the right of that intersection sat a gas station.
Or rather.
A gas station currently occupied by a massive herd of slow walkers.
She had observed it every day since arriving in Citrus City.
Any loud vehicle passing nearby inevitably attracted part of the horde.
Yet.
The Hummer simply drove by.
No roaring engine.
No sudden stampede of undead.
Nothing.
It was almost silent.
"That vehicle's been modified" She lowered the binoculars slightly "No normal Hummer is that quiet."
Over the past two weeks, she had gathered what little information she could from the occasional survivor brave or desperate enough to pass through the city.
Everyone had complained about noisy vehicles attracting both walkers and the terrifying runners.
Whoever owned that Hummer clearly understood the same problem.
"Smart."
She quietly admitted it.
Then she sighed.
"Unlike my arrival"
The memory still made her want to bury her face in her hands.
One moment.
She had been carrying snacks to her lady at school.
The next.
She had found herself standing alone in the middle of an unfamiliar street.
Confused.
Lost.
Then someone covered in blood had charged toward her.
Naturally, she'd assumed they needed help.
That assumption had almost gotten her killed.
"Worst first impression ever." She still remembered the runner.
It hadn't shuffled.
It had jumped.
The infected had leapt over the hood of an abandoned car with frightening speed.
If she hadn't reacted on instinct.
She would have died before even understanding what was happening.
By sheer luck, she'd escaped into this hotel.
For the past two weeks.
It had become her prison.
She glanced down at the notebook resting beside the window.
Inside were pages filled with observations.
Slow Walkers
- Gather in large hordes.
- Attracted by sound.
- Poor eyesight.
Fast Walkers
- Extremely aggressive.
- Often wander alone or in small groups.
- Surprisingly quiet until they attack.
Closing the notebook, she let out another weary sigh.
"I don't know who was stupid enough to create a virus that turns people into zombies."
"and then somehow make a completely different disease mutate so it infects humans too."
She shook her head in disbelief.
"What did the people of this world ever do to deserve a double zombie apocalypse?"
Her gaze drifted toward the street below.
Several runners wandered between abandoned vehicles.
Unlike the shambling walkers, they occasionally twitched or jerked their heads as though constantly searching for prey.
Even after two weeks, watching them still sent chills down her spine.
The blonde woman rested her forehead against the cool window.
"Honestly."
"I never thought my luck could be this bad."
She closed her eyes for a brief moment.
"My only consolation is that I hope Lady Kaguya isn't in this world too."
The last thing she wanted was for the person she respected most to experience this nightmare.
Unaware that only a few kilometers away, Akira Connor had already rescued two other people from entirely different worlds.
Ai Hayasaka quietly continued her lonely vigil, waiting for the next survivor to pass through the streets of Citrus City.