Author's Note: Here's the newest chapter... Also shout out to Kyren for proof reading this chapter.

Exploration - Start

Today, we decided to explore the west wing’s 2nd floor.

This was the general area we confined ourselves to this past week.

It was in the old school building, and as expected, the structure and make up of the whole thing was rather outdated. In fact, if you looked at it objectively, you’d come to find that the whole of the building resembled more of a gothic styled cathedral rather than an actual school. This became more evident, especially with the hanging rafters and high ceilings.

The 2nd floor was a place of sparse population. Even before the apocalypse, at most, only about 100 students had classes here. 100 may seem a lot at first, but not when its put into context. Oak Wood Highschool was a huge school, with a large land space and a large student body. At most, there were 6,500 students. That’s not even to include the 200 or so teachers and janitorial staff.

In short, the 2nd floor was a big place with few people. And while we did spend the majority of our time here, we never really got a chance to explore it in earnest. We were too busy focusing on surviving and grinding. The only other times we went of to venture into other classrooms were to scavenge for food and necessities.

Speaking of food, we’ve been living of granola bars, old sandwiches, and whatever else the 100 or so students decided to bring to school on that particular day. It was hard going, and by now, we’ve limited our consumption to 1 meal a day. This rule is especially hard on Cielle, who unexpectedly and despite her appearance,is quite the glutton.

In fact, I worry about our food supply. Its been slowly running out and I fear the day we eat our last granola bar. I’ve thought about supplementing our food with“monster meat”, but as expected even I’m a little hesitant on that. I can’t help but imagine cannibalism when I look at the half human part of a minotaur.

Also, food isn’t our only limited resource. For one, I have hardly gained anymore hp potions or mana potions, despite the number of monsters we’ve killed. This situation was unlike the time with the goblins. Comparatively, the drop rate of items was much higher with the little green midgets than the minotaurs.

Although I might attribute this to the type of monster. Maybe varying species just have varying drop rates, and Minotaurs just so happen to be the type that don’t drop too many items. While this is somewhat troubling for me, I don’t worry too much about it. Mostly since I can always rely on Cielle’s [Gemini Blue] or to some extent, Hina’s [Lesser Heal].

The real issue is food.

But hopefully, we can either find more food or get out of here before the situation truly becomes so desperate.

At least on the bright side, we don’t have to worry too much about water, seeing as how the water fountains are still in operation. Although I don’t know how long that’ll last, so I’ve started storing them in a few containers from the art room.

But… despite the water, truth be told, the situation isn’t as… amicable as I make it out to be. For one, we haven’t taken a bath since, well since forever. Things, and people especially are starting to smell. Of course, I don’t voice this opinion out loud, mostly since its a mere trivial problem and I’m a bit hesitant on offending the girls.

I might not have that much experience but I’m sure commenting on personal hygiene isn’t going to make females happy.

The dirt and grim has gathered and stained both my body and clothes. The blood is especially noticeable. And, while I’m not too sure as of yet, I think the filth and constant use is wearing down on the durability of my items. I don’t have a method to solve this solution (mostly I don’t want to do laundry) so for now, I can only pray that my items will last for a little while longer.

Anyway back to the topic at hand, we decided to explore the west wing 2nd floor today. Afterwards, we plan on either going downstairs, or moving towards the eastern hallway, where the minotaurs original movement pattern led to.

The latter option interests me the most, mostly because of this past week’s situation.

Although we’ve fought minotaurs for over a week, a mini boss type monster similar to the goblin commander hasn’t shown up.

At first, I assumed such a creature would be resting or hiding out at the spawn point, but for minotaurs, it seems like that wasn’t quite the case. The minotaurs had haphazardly left their important gateway alone, after all.

So, considering the circumstance, I hypothesized that if there did exist a minotaur mini boss, then it would most likely be down the eastern hallway. It would make sense, since that’s where most of the other minotaurs went to.

In all likelihood, they had their “base” within the deep recesses of the eastern hallway, or in my case, uncharted territory. That once familiar area became a chasm of unknown, causing hesitation in my stride.

I’ll head there eventually, but for now, I’ll fully explore this place that I’ve called home for the past week.

****

We exited the art room, and walked down the hallway. Unlike prior, where we moved in the direction of the minotaur base, we went the opposite way, taking the original route that Cielle used to get to Hina’s classroom.

Today I had a few goals in mind.

There wasn’t any possible way to search through all of the rooms. Even for me, that would be ridiculous, plus, the usefulness of ordinary classrooms in a survival setting is questionable to begin with.

No, rather, we planned on visiting the essential areas that I deemed of some importance located within the west wing. Well, although I said essential places, there’s not much I can think of that would be any useful. At most, maybe the old chemistry lab. They might have some useful chemicals or something. After all, I am quite curious to see what effects they’ll have on fantasy monsters.

But aside from that, our actual primary goal is to visit our old classrooms. Since we’ve basically spent the whole week in Hina’s, today’s primary focus will be to visit Cielle’s and mine. Of course, there isn’t much necessity in this action, but rather…. it holds some form of sentimental value for us.

Sort of like a relic, a relic from a world that had already ended.

First, we were going to visit Cielle’s old classroom. A decrepit old room, near the farthest wall. According to Cielle, it was primarily a foregin languages room. Spanish, or maybe german.

As we walked, idle chatter floated pleasantly between the two girls. They were much more lax than one week ago. This was probably due to them sort of “getting used to” our current situation.

“Sis, when do you think we can take a bath?” Hina spoke a rather off topic question.

“‘... I don’t know.”

Hina sighed at this apathetic response.

I noticed, that between the dynamic of the two sisters, Hina was the more outgoing one while Cielle was somewhat reserved. Yet despite this, Hina seemed to dote on her sister, more so than what would be considered normal. Of course, this love doesn’t go unnoticed. Cielle has her own odd way of reciprocating affection.

“Sis, I seriously think you should start considering things from a much broader perspective. I mean, you are a girl after all. It would be a waste to see your cuteness deteriorate due to lack of hygiene….”

Hina concernedly said as she fluffed her older sister’s hair around.

[What is this idiot thinking….]

I couldn’t help but inwardly sigh.

It was a bit odd seeing Hina adjust so well to the situation at hand. To worry about such meaningless dribble, even in a situation like this… I don’t know whether her adaptability is praise worthy or not…

Actually, in the first place, she shouldn’t be spouting words like that. It’s not like Hina was any cleaner than the rest of us….

“Nnnn…..” Cielle, didn’t bother answering, but rather just absentmindedly nodded, a thing I noticed that she does quite often when faced with a topic she doesn’t particularly care for.

“Geeze! You’re not listening properly….” Hina obviously noticed the little, minute, intricacies to her sister’s personality.

“...Sorry…” Cielle looked up, as she bowed her head slightly down. “... Why don’t you use some of the water… or your magic to clean yourself..?”

Upon hearing her response, Hina despondently sighed as her eyes briefly glanced in my direction.

I pretended not to notice as I continued walked down the hall.

“Mmmm… It’s not that I don’t want to, but rather, using such a thing would be wasteful. Who knows when our water supply will run out, and it would be bad if I just used my magic willy nilly like that. What would I do if an emergency comes along and I lacked any mana?”

Hina promptly listed out the faults to this, as her eyes made short brief glance towards me.

I unconsciously nodded, upon hearing all this. It seems like my training wasn’t entirely wasteful. At least they fully understood the concept of danger in this world.

“Anyways, none of that matters!” Hina continued. “The issue here isn’t about me, but you, Sis!”

“Uuu….” Cielle responded, rather unexcitedly, to her sister’s enthusiasm.

“... You know sis…. Hygiene is especially important for girls...especially when…”

Hina’s gaze once again discreetly fell upon me.

I ignored the rather obvious piercing stare though.

After a while, Hina finally continued on, this time in a more subdued tone.

“You know sis…. guys don’t like smelly girls….”

Her voice was faint, obviously meant for only one person, but nevertheless, my abnormally good hearing, picked up on the subtle nuisance of her faint words.

Hearing this, Cielle’s once hunched back, shot straight up, and I could hear a sharp intake of breath from her direction.

She turned rather ominously towards her sister, her face as pale as the first time I saw her.

“I-is that true?” She asked in a hauntingly shallow voice.

Hina, whose eyes widened in mild surprise, ultimately nodded her head decisively.

“Uuuu….” Cielle let out a worried moan. “W-what should I do then….Do I really smell that badly…?”

Upon eavesdropping to this point in their ridiculous conversation, I sighed out in exasperation.

I decided to ignore the the two for the rest of the short way there.

With that, we laxly walked down the hallway, the sound of eased laughter and conversation filling the dead hallway around us.

****

When we reached the end of the hall, we turned to face a rather broken down sliding door.

By Cielle’s reaction and ever shifting facial expression, this was the right place.

I waited quietly, observing the slight increase in breathing and small shakes of nervousness coming from Cielle’s body.

From what Cielle had told me previously, she had roughly managed to survive an earlier monster attack by simply hiding out in plain sight. She waited out, under the dying screams of those around her until the carnage had subsided.

I could only imagine what kind of emotion and trauma that sort of experience might bring forth, so I did the common human courtesy of waiting for her to rein in her restless emotions.

“.....”

“....”

“.....”

After a while, Cielle finally managed a nod, and a firm “mmm!” of determination leaked out from her mouth.

Seeing this, I solemnly nodded as well, and began opening the door.

The first thing that hit me, was the smell.

A rancid, disgusting, fermented smell of death had collected within this room, and now that I’ve opened the door, all this accumulated disgust seeped out, hitting us full force with its smell.

I unconsciously reeled back, while Hina’s hands instantly moved to cover her mouth and nose. She briefly gagged while her eyes reflexively scanned the open door.

Her face immediately paled, regretting her decision.

I followed suit and glanced around the room, and I completely understood as to why she was making such a pale green face.

Around, was destruction. More so than in the art room, and more so than any other place I’ve seen so far, save for a couple of locations.

What made this seen even worse, was that amidst the scattered school equipment and destroyed desks were mounds of corpses. Haphazardly strewn on the floor were decaying corpses. Splattered on the walls were blood stains and unrecognizable mush. Slumped over the teachers desk, was a relatively intact body, save for its missing head. It was evident by the spray of blood, that the once poor teacher had enjoyed the pleasure of having his head caved and smashed in by whatever created this mess.

Truly, it was destruction on the highest caliber.

Unperturbed was Cielle, whose face was blanketed by an eerie calm. Unlike the two of us, whose natural human response was to reel away from such carnage, Cielle stared outwardly into the room.

Her face was void of any emotion as she stepped through the threshold, as if embracing the very scene she had scraped out of.

After a moment’s pass I followed briskly while Hina did so as well, albeit with plenty of hesitation.

We stood quietly to the side. My eyes briefly scanned over the room, looking for any salvageable parts. As expected, this was just like any other classroom we’ve visited, so there wasn’t much use found here.

Whatever food might have been around would, in all likely of scenarios, have rotted down by now, so it was useless to look for anything substantial. The only place I could think of that might hold any use, was maybe within the pockets of the dead, but even I’m hesitant to loot a dead body.

It wasn’t an issue of humanity, but rather, I didn’t want to take any further risk with infection or disease. It was bad enough I stepped into this hellhole of a room, I wasn’t about to mingle with its demons.

Cielle quietly walked to the front of the room, and surveyed the whole scene, slowly turning around as she observed every nook and cranny of the location.

“... I couldn’t see it all as clearly as this…” Her voice cracked open. Uncharacteristically, it was much louder, more audible, and filled with more purpose than usual.

She continued talking as she continued looking at the carnage.

“I-I hid there.” Cielle pointed to a knocked over metal locker, filled with broken brooms and tarnished rags. “The locker was turned over on its back… so I couldn’t see anything.”

She paused for a moment, as she walked over. She gently ran her finger around the outer frame of the rusted handle.

“I could only hear….”

Hina and I were silent. We knew, we instinctively knew that Cielle wasn’t really talking to us. She was more consoling herself. Describing this disaster she first handedly witnessed through an impartial lense.

“When- when they left, I got out, and that was the first time I saw- I saw all this.” She motioned vaguely towards the content of the room. Her face was covered in her usual mop of hair, but strangely, I felt that she had a vaguely sad expression on her face.

After letting out an audible sigh, she let her arms fall to her side, as she solemnly looked down on at the floor.

“....”

“... I was sad when I found out everyone died… I was sad, but-” She gulped. “More than anything, I was happy.”

Her head suddenly flared up, to look in our direction. Her hands grabbed at the lock of black night covering her face, as they pushed it upwards. For the first time, she revealed her face, a cute, yet pale, a charming, yet haggard face, that, in other circumstances, I would have found attractive.

Yet right now, a look of pure pain shrouded that heavenly appearance. Her eyes drooped sadly, as her lips formed a self mocking scowl. Tears welled up, in her eyes, but I didn’t really notice.

“I was happy.” She repeated once more. “Happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, so very happy that it was them that died. I was ecstatic that the monsters were satisfied with only killing my classmates. I was overjoyed that the teacher was the one whose skull got caved in.”

Her voice ran ragged, as her speech suddenly cracked. A whimper of remorse abruptly cut off what was quickly turning into frantic yelling.

After a while, of half pained whimpers, she looked up. Her gaze focused on me, as her eyes curved upwards, as if smiling. she looked directly at me, and the repeated words once again filled the air;

“I was happy….”

Her voice trailed off as her body began to shake. Immediately after the final words escaped Cielle’s mouth , a figure darted forward in front of me.

Hina rushed to Cielle’s crumbling side, as she took her in for a hug. Surprisingly, Hina’s face was covered in tears, as she gently caressed Cielle’s face on her chest.

The two of them didn’t do anything but hug, in the middle of this room, surrounded by several corpses. The sounds of hiccuping sobs filled the deathly quiet. At this point, I wasn’t shocked to know that the sobbing was from Hina.

Cielle’s face hung down as she silently reciprocated her sister’s contact.

“....”

Amidst this scene, all I could do was sigh out, while awkwardly scratching my head.

Not willing to break up the scene before me, I remained standing, and I waited.

*****

After a while, Cielle regained much of her composure, and she quickly reverted back to her usual demeanor.

The two girls separated, and before we left the classroom, Cielle moved over to one of the broken desks across the room.

She bent down and picked up the backpack that lay underneath all the rubble.

With an inquiring look, I asked the obvious, “Is that your backpack?”

She looked up at me, and nodded.

Cielle gently placed the scratched bag on a propped desk, as she opened it wordlessly. In quick time, she pulled out a black cased smartphone.

“...”

For a moment, I blankly stared at the foreign object she held loosely in her hand.

“Oh, sis, so that’s where you had your phone.” Hina chimed up amidst my silence.

Cielle nodded, as she pressed the power button on the side. As if coming to life, the once black screen flashed a luminescent light as it faintly illuminated Cielle’s hovering face.

“Ohoo~, its too bad I forgot my phone at home last week…” Hina lamented as she outwardly sighed.

[Uuuu….]

I made a painful mental groan as I facepalmed myself.

“Agh, dammit, I’m such an idiot….”

After seeing the simple scene before me, I couldn’t help but mutter a quiet remark over my stupidity.

In short, I had completely forgotten that phones existed.

For this past week, I was too caught up in the...the surrealism of this new experience. Some once common items like mobile smartphones and the like were just among of the several existences my preoccupied mind had bypassed.

I was too caught up in the notion of a ‘fantasy’ that the apocalypse had introduced, that my idiotic mind had completely forgotten that this wasn’t just fantasy. This was the cold, and hard reality which I dealt with.

Of course things like phones and the internet still existed, despite everything.

[Idiot, idiot, idiot…] I continually chided myself for such a stupid, elementary mistake.

Rather, if I had remembered sooner, my situation might have been different from how it was right now.

While, I had forgotten my own smart phone, along with my headphones, during that fated day, I could have easily looted a working smartphone from any one of the several dead corpses I passed through almost daily.

I sighed once more, before finally deciding to let go of the situation. What’s done is done, and I can’t keep worrying over spilt milk.

For now, I’d look onwards, with as much positivity as I can muster.

“Can you make a call?”

My voice suddenly chimed in, causing the two girls to jump slightly in surprise.

“Ah, um, wait and let me check….”

Cielle rattled on as she quickly turned her attention towards the glowing screen.

With a few light taps, she waited for a while as her eyes glared downwards. After a while, she despondently sighed out.

From her reaction just now, I couldn’t help but sigh out as well.

“My phone can’t connect to anything….” She confirmed my earlier suspicion.

“Then… did you at least try the internet?” I asked, a tone of mock hope filling my voice.

“Nmm… The internet doesn’t work either… at the very least, the school’s wifi and my 3g is down.”

Cielle sighed despondently.

I glumly sighed out as I turned to look out the overlooking window. There, I saw a scene which had always greeted me throughout this week; a city on fire.

More than anything, I wanted to know what the situation was like outside these walls. What was it like in the city? What was it like around the world? These questions, and more, were ones I desperately wanted answered.

Well, of course, I also worried about my parents, but….

I brushed aside this thought, as I walked over to the doorway.

As I was motioning for the girls to follow, my body jerked into an abrupt stop.

[If its that… then maybe….]

“Hide…?” Hina’s voice worriedly resonated from behind, but my excited mind didn’t listen to her faint voice.

My lips curved into an upwards smile, as I propelled my body forward.

I stood at the door way and motioned the girls to quickly follow.

They exchanged glances, seemingly worried about my sudden excitement, before they reluctantly followed.

Satisfied, without a word I moved down the halls, each and every step filled with new found purpose.

“H-hey, Hide! Slow down, why are you in such a rush? Where are we going?”

Hina asked, but otherwise continued to follow.

I couldn’t help but awkwardly grin, as I looked back behind my shoulders.

“We’re going to visit the computer lab from across the hall, it shouldn’t take long, its fairly close from our current distance.”

“Eh? The lab? But didn’t Sis just say that the internet was down? What’s the point in doing that?”

Hearing this, my head turned back to face the front as I couldn’t help but widen my smile.

I shook my head as I answered.

“No, that’s not it. Cielle said the wifi was down, not the internet. The computer lab in the west wing is fairly old, like the rest of this building. Alot of their computers are still hooked up directly, by ethernet cable.

The chances are slim, but not nonexistent.”

I couldn’t help but blurt out a chuckle as I saw Hina’s, as well as Cielle’s eyes widen in realization through my peripheral vision

Not wanting to stop, I continued on my voice now overcome with an audible excitement,.

“It’s only been a week since this all started, its not entirely out of the question.

Let’s go see if the internet still works.”

*****

Author's Note: Hope you enjoyed that, and as you can see, it was Hide who forgot about cellphones, and not the author...

Comment, follow, favorite, and rate/review if you enjoyed this fic so far. It's not much, but it keeps me going.