Chapter 30 Dead by Midnigh

Day 1: 11:50 P.M.

Kirishima High School - Underground Bunker

Duration of the Night Rage: 7 hours and 10 minutes left

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Souichi and the rest of the ragtag group are resting in the spare beds. Sena is tending on Miyuki who is still unconscious. Chie is looking on some charts of the books about human anatomy and a few books on Physics and Advance Chemistry. Nanami is still tinkering on the laptop as she tries to connect to Kyosei who is not yet able to catch up with them. Nejima is sleeping soundly after the attacks of the undead. Souichi is groaning as he keep on staring on the person who let them inside the bunker. He is neat looking middle aged man and looks more clean than them. He is still not yet believing when he knows what everything this guy is spouting earlier.

(Earlier)

The middle age man walk cautiously around him as if looking for his faults.

"You are?"

"I... I'm Souichi Tsukishima, Second Year Class A sir," Souichi said politely. He is afraid on whatever status this guy have.

"Ho, so you are Souichi huh? You really look like one that Kyosei has described on. I see, interesting," the middle aged man stroke his beard.

"Uh...excuse me for my intrusion but who are you sir?" Souichi asked, still vigilant.

"I see, many people did not see me anymore after some years. Of course I will be forgotten, excuse me for not being so abrupt on giving my name," the middle aged man looks at him.

"I am Yao Lei, I am a Chinese but I decided to stay in Japan after many years of settling down here with my family after having a conflict in my homeland. I am the founder of Kirishima High School," the middle aged man said.

"W..what? The founder?" Souichi was stunned.

He already heard in the past that the founder of the school is a Chinese and named the school Kirishima in the memory of his deceased wife, Yao Kirishima who is a half Chinese and half Japanese. It was said that the founder disappeared without a trace and nobody knows his whereabouts. But who would have thought that the founder is living underground of the school?

"Surprised eh? Of course you would. Many speculated that I returned to my homeland but the truth is I stayed here. I have still many impending things that are trying to look me bad in China so I decided to live here for now but now I will stay here for good.

" What is this place?!" Souichi asked as he looked around him.

"Before I answer your question, you should let your comrades in first. I know that it is not safe in the surface so get in," Yao Lei said in a gentle tone.

Souichi is speechless but he decided to stop dawdling and he returned to the elevator lift and pulls the lever on the side so that the elevator will return to the surface.

A while later, the group he left earlier arrived underground.

"Is it safe?" Sena asked as she anxious and readies her weapon.

"Yeah, no problems here," Souichi nodded as he readjusts his glasses.

Souichi leads the way since it is dark in the hallway and his phone is the only source of light. In just a matter of steps, they arrive once more to the area where Souichi met Yao Lei. Yao Lei is currently cleaning the place.

"I apologize for the mess around here. Its been a while since somebody visited me underground," Yao Lei smiled.

Nanami got curious on the man.

"Brother, who is this?" Nanami asked.

"This is Yao Lei, the founder of the school," Souichi said.

Yao Lei beckons them over as he prepared a bunker bed with two decks of bed.

"Lay down the girl here, she should be taken care immediately," Yao Lei said as he grab the nearby medkit.

The girls helped Yao Lei redress the bandage on Miyuki's head that got injured earlier. She is still unconscious and gives no signs of waking up yet.

"Is she okay sir?" Chie asked.

"She is still in good condition. She didn't suffer much but she will need to rest for a while," Yao Lei said as he checked the pulse of Miyuki.

Everyone sighed as the heavy burden that worries them is lifted.

"You guys are somewhat lucky to survive. I never expected that everyone is alive," Yao Lei said as he grab some mugs and put them in a tray alongside with coffee and milk.

Nanami perked up.

"Sir, are you a doomsday prepper?" Nanami asked out of the blue.

Yao Lei chuckled as he pours hot water from the thermos to his mug.

"You can say that. I am quite prepared already in apocalypse but I never expected it to happen so abruptly. I heard earlier in the news that Sapporo and Nagoya have fallen in the hands of the infected and the other parts of the country are also in danger of destruction," Yao Lei said.

"Is it due to the Night Rage?" Nejima asked.

"Huh? Night Rage?" Yao Lei was confused.

"Uh, sorry. We call the dangerous behavior of the dead during the Night as Night Rage. We just randomly names it though," Chie said.

"Interesting," Yao Lei nodded as he sipped the coffee in his mug.i

"Actually, I got stunned by that behavior of the dead that the news just reported. I expected that they will move slowly like in the movies Land of the Dead and Day of the Dead, but it is more dangerous in reality. I never expected that you all named the phenomenon as Night Rage," Yao Lei said.

"For what reason are you here, sir?" Sena asked.

Yao Lei chuckled.

"I am fascinated in zombie apocalypse in the past and when I decided to build my own underground bunker. When I build my school, I also decided to put the underground bunker under the school. I will keep on living here in memory of my deceased wife," Yao Lei said.

Souichi felt the sleepiness a bit and Yao Lei noticed this.

"If you wanted to sleep, there are lots of spare bunker beds here but if you don't want to sleep yet, drinking caffeine is also a good thing to let yourself stay awake for a while," Yao Lei said, smiling.

"Thank you, but why are you helping us?" Souichi asked.

"Does Kyosei send you here?" Yao Lei wears a serious face.

"You know Ichi?" Nanami asked.

"Yeah, he is the only one person besides the principal and the janitor that knows my location. He is a good kid but has a bad temper. If you all are his friends, of course I will help you," Yao Lei smiled.

Souichi can't respond to that as he looked at Yao Lei in seriousness. Nanami opened her bag and pulls out a cord.

"Sir, do you have any television here or something?" Nanami asked.

"Yeah, your planning to connect your laptop to the TV? Let's go to the living room since this room is the living quarters," Yao Lei said.

Everyone are stunned. How rich is this guy to make an underground bunker?

They walked and arrived in the living room that Yao Lei mentioned. It is rather unique. The place may be a bit dark but the chandelier gives a rich mood and the flat screen TV is also hanging in the wall to complete the wala set containing the tables and a very comfortable sofa set. Nanami immediately put the cable on her laptop and extends it to the television. Soon, the laptop's screen is also projected in the television.

"Good thing that the electricity is not yet down and the internet connection is still solid though the cellphone networks are to.busy to be used," Yao Lei said.

"It might not last forever. Internet connections are still a manned system and won't be functional if the staff are all dead. Maybe making a private network that can connect to the satellites will do," Nanami said.

The screen flashed and a live news appeared on the Television Screen.

"Currently, the Kyoto branch are also not spared and we lost contact to our reporter stationed in there. According to our aerial scouts, Nagoya, Sapporo, and Kyushu are overwhelmed with the dead after the Six in the evening strikes on the clocks. Osaka, Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Fukooka are still on battle against hordes of the infected. The other big cities like Nara, Okoyama and Yokohama are still out of our contact and we can't establish a contact and scouts in the area yet. We also got a report that Australia and America are also hit by these deadly phenomenon and are currently requesting help to the neighboring countries."

The news keeps rattling on and on as several images and videos that are captured using the chopper are streamed in the screen.

"Screw that!" Sena was stunned by the News. " My family is in Kyoto!"

Nejima is also looking with a dark expression. Chie is taking notes of the cities that are mentioned. Nanami is still typing and trying to find an area where someone can be quarantined.

Yao Lei's expression also darkened.

"I suggest you all to stay here for a while though you can't stay here for the longer run. I know you are all worried with your families so I will not pin you down here though this place is safe. We still don't know the future yet," Yao Lei said.

Everyone nodded. Just like Yao Lei said, they won't be staying here for long. They still need to find their families that are around the area. They are only staying in the bunker waiting for the morning.

...

Souichi looks at his phone. 60 seconds left before midnight. Though he wanted to sleep, he can't sleep at all, maybe due to the effects of the coffee. He keeps on staring on his phone and when the clock display on his phone strikes on Midnight. A very sharp howl of some sort resounded the whole area, which causes everyone in underground bunker to clutch their ears due to the ear piercing howl