Across the highway from the seaside boulevard, hundreds of zombies stood packed together at least five or six hundred of them. Strangely, every single one of them was facing the pier, unmoving, as if in a trance.

Atop a nearby residential building, a bizarre figure crouched motionless. Its tall, gaunt form hugged the rooftop railing like a predator waiting to strike. Like a ninja poised in silence, its limbs were tensed, clawing onto the edge, ready to pounce at any moment.

"What… the hell is that thing?" Haruno Yukino squinted, a mix of doubt and unease in her gaze.

Both Yukino and Kasumigaoka Utaha, who had climbed onto the delivery truck, noticed the anomaly. Just as they tried to get a clearer look, the figure suddenly raised its head high like a pack leader among wolves and let out a piercing, shrill howl that shredded the air like a blade.

In the next instant, the motionless horde erupted to life.

All of them surged forward at once directly toward them. Worse yet, they were moving at nearly twice the speed of regular zombies.

"Run!!"

Haruno's entire body jolted. She shouted and immediately began climbing upward. But before she could gain much ground, thudding impacts sounded from behind them. The rushing zombies had crashed right into the truck. Those behind, unable to get through, began piling atop one another, climbing the vehicle in a grotesque, writhing mass.

The three girls turned pale, panic flooding their faces as they scrambled upward. Thankfully, while these mutated zombies were fast, they were still clumsy climbers.

Haruno led the charge, hacking fiercely at any that squeezed through the gaps with her machete. Yukino and Utaha weren't far behind, swinging their weapons with desperate force. Severed limbs and heads fell like rain. Even a slaughterhouse would pale in comparison to this gruesome scene.

"We're going to live! We're going to survive!!" Haruno gritted her teeth, shouting to bolster both her courage and theirs. All around them, inside the abandoned vehicles, were not just trapped zombies but mangled, bloody corpses.

Despite all she'd seen, Haruno's spine tingled at the sheer brutality on display. Worse still, the thunderous sound of hundreds of zombies charging behind them sent chills straight to her core.

"Just a little more! We're almost there!" she suddenly shouted with joy. She had reached the top of a large freight truck and began waving frantically. Yukino and Utaha exchanged glances, strength welling up within them. They carved a bloody path forward, scaling the final truck.

Sliding down the tilted hood, Haruno barely found her footing when.

A pale, bloodied face suddenly stared her down, like a ghost straight from a horror film.

It was a severed female head, long hair soaked in blood, eyes wide and locked on her. Even with its neck hacked clean off, it still retained its zombified instincts, gnashing its teeth madly in her direction.

"Watch out, Sis!!" Yukino screamed.

Snapping out of it, Haruno turned in time to see several zombies in blue vests leaping from behind the freight trucks.

"YAAAHH!!"

To everyone's shock, Haruno didn't retreat. With a fierce cry, she raised her machete and charged forward, instantly slicing down the first zombie. But the blade lodged too deep into its skull, and she couldn't pull it out in time.

She kicked the corpse aside and spun to slay another, but it was already too late. Two zombies tackled her to the ground.

"AHHH!!"

Haruno hit the ground hard, the back of her head slamming into the pavement. Dazed, her mind reeled. But years of Aikido training kicked in. She raised a leg and kicked one zombie square in the head, then lifted her machete just in time as the other lunged.

Its rotten breath made her gag.

The second zombie's hand clamped onto her ankle as the first one bit down on the blade in a frenzy.

Just as she pushed the top one off, she saw the other's mouth descending right toward her calf.

BANG!

A flash of fire burst beside her leg. Smoke filled the air, and the zombie's skull exploded like a melon, collapsing in a heap.

"Haruno! Snap out of it! The next wave's catching up!!"

Utaha's voice rang out as she raised her smoking pistol.

Haruno blinked, shaken but alive. She didn't have time to savor that. Gripping her blade, she turned toward the other zombie only to see Yukino step in and swiftly decapitate it.

"We can't find Kitahara anywhere," Yukino said urgently, grabbing her sister's hand. "And the pier's swarming with zombies!"

CLANG!

A deafening crash echoed from the seaside boulevard. All heads turned to see a metal fence collapsing waves of zombies tumbling down from the elevated road, directly above the dock.

There were hundreds of them.

Without pause, they flung themselves over the railing, falling like a grotesque waterfall. Some died on impact, but their broken bodies cushioned the fall for the rest.

Soon, twitching limbs began to rise from the pile.

"Run!!"

Haruno turned and sprinted, firing her SMG wildly into the horde blocking their path to the yacht. But even as bullets tore into their heads, it barely slowed them down. They kept coming.

"This isn't working!" she shouted, switching back to her machete and slicing into the nearest zombie's skull.

Then, without warning.

BANG!

A mangled car tumbled from a mountain of wreckage behind them and slammed into the ground.

Standing atop it was a hideous zombie, hunched and trembling with feral intensity. Its blood-red eyes locked onto them.

Then it howled again.

Immediately, more zombies began scaling the car, pouring over like a landslide.

The earth shook beneath the weight of the approaching horde.

"Sis! At this rate, we're going to get caught in the wave!!" Yukino screamed, her face red with panic.

They were just 20 meters from the dock. But even if they reached the yacht, there would be no time to start the engine. The swarm would be on them before they could even cast off.

VRRRRRMMMM!!

A thunderous roar split the air, like a dragon awakening.

The unmistakable sound of a powerful engine.

Haruno's face lit up. Despair turned into sudden, blazing hope.

Yukino's eyes widened, her legs surging with new strength.

Utaha's gaze locked ahead toward the source of the sound.

Even from dozens of meters away, she could already picture that cold, determined face… and those eyes, burning with confidence.

It was as if the darkness had suddenly parted and let the dawn break through.

Right when they needed him most.

Sosuke Kitahara had arrived.

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