CHAPTER 6: THE HIDDEN WING
The iron door groaned as Takiya heaved it open. Rust flaked from its hinges, and a draft of stagnant, dust-choked air wafted from the darkness beyond. Kanata peered into the tunnel, the dim beam of his flashlight slicing a thin arc through cobwebs and forgotten decay.
"This goes beneath the cafeteria," Godou-sensei whispered, clutching her map. "It was sealed decades ago after the quake. Maintenance tunnels... maybe fallout shelters too."
Kanami adjusted the straps on her backpack, the nail-shooter tucked beneath her arm. "It's creepy. And it smells like something died in there."
"Something probably did," Serizawa muttered, stepping forward. She gripped her blood-crusted bat tightly.
Kanata said nothing. He was already moving.
---
The tunnel stretched longer than expected. Concrete walls damp with old condensation. The group crawled under collapsed beams, skirted deep puddles, and passed the husks of rusted-out machinery. Their breathing echoed around them like ghosts.
They reached a rusted ladder that descended into a lower level. Godou-sensei checked her map again.
"This leads to the original sub-basement wing," she said. "Before the school was renovated in 2002. There might be an access hatch into the East Wing basement... maybe even an old fire exit."
Kanata dropped first. His flashlight flickered against long-abandoned walls. As the others descended, he noticed something: scratch marks on the wall.
Kanami squinted. "Are those... words?"
Scratched in shaky, desperate strokes:
"DON'T TRUST THE UNIFORM. DON'T TRUST THE UNIFORM. THEY FED US TO THEM."
Serizawa's grip tightened around her bat. "Who the hell wrote that?"
The air grew colder as they moved through the corridor. Old lockers lay dented and overturned. A shattered teacher's desk blocked part of the path. As they moved past a sealed classroom, Kanami stopped.
Inside the narrow window, a figure stared back.
Kanata rushed forward, readying his pipe.
But the figure didn't move. A corpse. A girl in a school uniform, her mouth gaping, dried blood caked across her chin.
But that wasn't what Kanata stared at. On the bulletin board beside her, half-torn and pinned beneath a rusted tack, was a photo.
It was Yuka.
His sister, smiling with three other students in full uniform. The paper was marked with red pen.
"Last seen with Security Team." "DO NOT TRUST HER."
His throat clenched. He took the photo and slid it into his pocket.
"Kanata?" Serizawa whispered, stepping beside him. Her eyes narrowed as she saw the paper. "Is that...?"
"Keep moving," he muttered.
---
They passed a corridor sealed with barbed wire and wooden boards, marked with spray paint:
"CONTAINED. DO NOT ENTER."
But the boards had been broken recently. Blood smeared the walls. And claw marks.
Kanami whispered, "I don't like this. It feels like a grave."
"We keep going," Kanata replied coldly. "We're not stopping."
They emerged into an old recreation hall — now serving as a makeshift camp. Empty food wrappers, burned candles, and rows of desks stacked into barricades told them someone had lived here. Recently.
Then they heard the sobbing.
A figure sat in the corner, rocking. Dressed in Kichijo Academy uniform, but covered in filth. Long nails, tattered shoes, hair matted with dirt.
"Wait," Godou-sensei said softly. "He's alive."
Serizawa stepped forward, slowly. "Hey. It's okay. We're not infected. We're students. We're just like you."
The boy looked up.
His eyes were wide. Dilated. Skin pale and sunken.
He screamed.
And lunged.
---
The boy tackled Takiya to the floor. His fingers clawed at her throat, snarling like a feral animal. Kanata rushed forward, slamming his pipe into the boy's back.
But the scream had echoed.
It had reached farther.
From the sealed stairwell nearby, thudding noises began. Claws against metal. Moans. Then a sharp crack — as the door at the far end of the shelter exploded inward.
Zombies.
Dozens of them.
"MOVE!" Kanata roared.
Kanami fired her nail-gun. One bolt embedded in a zombie's skull — another whizzed past and stuck in a support beam. Godou-sensei dragged the unconscious boy into cover.
Serizawa and Takiya slammed one barricade shut, but it wouldn't hold.
"There!" Kanami pointed at the map pinned to a wall.
An old blueprint of the school. A red circle marked "Library Basement - Emergency Hatch."
Kanata kicked the barricade. "That's our way out! This tunnel curves under the language wing — we can reach it if we go now!"
They ran.
Zombies poured in from behind — silent save for their feet and their breathing, like an avalanche of death. The team ducked through a broken hallway, climbing over desks, under pipes, until finally, they reached a narrow, rusted hatch with a wheel-lock.
Kanami twisted the valve.
It wouldn't budge.
Kanata stepped forward. Gripping it with both hands, he heaved. The wheel shrieked as it turned, rust breaking off like skin. Finally — click.
The door creaked open into a dark stairwell.
---
Safe, for now.
Kanata turned and slammed the hatch shut. They could still hear pounding from the far hall, but the steel held.
Takiya gasped for breath. "We can't keep running like this."
Kanami sat down, pale, cradling her bruised wrist. "Why was that guy like that...? He looked human. But not."
"People break," Serizawa said, voice low. "Sometimes they break worse than the infected."
They took a moment to rest.
Kanami sat beside Serizawa, her hands trembling. "Do you think we'll make it out?"
Serizawa didn't answer at first. Then, softly, she replied, "I don't know. But I'll protect you. I swear it."
Kanami looked at her. "You're always so brave. Even when you're scared."
Serizawa forced a smile. "It's easier when someone believes in you."
They looked toward Kanata, who stood near the wall, staring at Yuka's photo.
He touched it gently.
"Do not trust the uniform."
What had happened to her?
Why was she labeled a threat?
He gripped the photo tighter.
He had to find her. No matter what it meant.
Even if she was the enemy.
---
At the end of the stairwell, a door marked "East Wing Access B" awaited.
Kanata opened it — revealing more than just a hallway.
Inside, barely alive, were two students. One was bleeding from the abdomen, the other clutching a fire axe. They looked up in terror.
"Don't come any closer!" the boy with the axe shouted.
"We're not infected," Godou-sensei said. "We're survivors."
The girl with the stomach wound sobbed. "Please... they were my friends. They turned. I had to... I had to—"
Kanata stepped forward. "You're safe now. We're going to get out of here."
The boy hesitated. Then, slowly, he lowered the axe.
"We heard about the hatch," he said. "But we never made it. We've been waiting here for days. Everyone else... they're gone."
Kanami knelt beside the girl, checking her pulse. "She's weak. We need to move."
Kanata nodded.
"We head for the library basement." He turned to Serizawa, then the others. "If we're lucky, that exit still works."
"And if it doesn't?" Takiya asked.
Kanata looked back.
"Then we make a new one."
In the dark, his face looked like stone.
And for the first time, Serizawa was afraid of him.
---
To be continued