Chapter 339: Survival of the Smartest
Michael's trapse of death continued long into the afternoon with the exhausted survivors slowly following him as he went. He'd already passed and killed most of the zombies in the business and office district of the city, and was moving into the shopping district, which should have the highest population of zombies.
His thoughts were proven correct when he stepped around the corner and looked at the illuminated street, filled with many lit signs, open buildings with shattered shop fronts, and bloody literally everywhere.
There must have been five-thousand zombies in his line of sight alone, and who knows how many more hiding inside the nearby buildings and alleyways. A zombie springs from underneath a car nearby and attempts to get a bite out of his leg, only for him to kick it in the face and cause its head to snap back like a Looney Tunes character.
"Darth, kill the stragglers." he says aloud while gripping his weapon tighter.
"At once master." the shadow hand replies and gets to work, not using Derflinger, but instead simply twisting the necks of the undead to kill them.
With that, Michael gets to work, running headlong into the hoard and a whirl of blades, making short work of the weak undead that dared attack him. He'd even elected to not use magic in order to increase the rate at which his swordsmanship skills increased. It might have had no effect, but it wasn't like he was losing anything... The undead were simply unable to threaten him as he currently was.
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The survivors walk through the business district but were forced to slow their pace as children and the elderly began falling behind. Just because the cosplayer had eliminated most of the large groups of undead didn't mean they weren't still at risk.
The sounds the large group made alone were enough to attract those hidden nearby that'd not been purged by the cosplayer. Thus, even with most of the work being done for them, everyone was steadily becoming tired.
"S-sensei! What do we do? We can't follow that guy forever!" one of Shido's steadily growing group of 'students' asks.
Shido pushes his glasses up and turns towards the group of survivors with a smile, holding his arms out as if he were a priest giving a sermon, "We must only worry about the safety of ourselves and our group! Humans are social creatures, so much so that even these monsters gather together to increase their strength! This is why we must stick together! Our lives and very souls depend on it!" he pauses, gauging his audience's reaction before continuing, "The person fighting for us is merely giving us a chance to take our fate into our own hands! We cannot stagnate and become complacent in such terrible times!... For now, I feel I should put myself as the temporary leader of this group, to ensure each and every person's survival!" he turns while ignoring the few people who had contrary opinions and points to a nearby office building, "We must take rest and fortify ourselves, use this chance we've been given!"
"Hai Sensei!" many people shout while Shido preens under the attention.
All the while, over in Takashi's group, Rei was almost foaming at the mouth with rage at the audacity of this sick man.
"That lying, piece of trash snake! Why would anyone in their right mind want someone like him in charge!?" she exclaims, her voice not reaching the other survivors due to their group's distance from them.
Takashi nods, "He might sound alright, but I saw him sacrifice one of his students to save himself... That isn't someone we should trust."
The others have similar reactions, the time they spent in school interacting with the man known as Shido had made them well aware of his true nature. He was an opportunist with zero moral compunctions. He was the son of a prominent politician and had only become a teacher to 'guide' the students who had powerful or well-connected families.
Takashi's group was well aware of this as most of them were among those he'd attempted to 'Guide'.
"Then, what should we do? We can't go off alone, we're in the centre of the city!" Kohta asks, checking his nailgun's ammo for the Nth time today.
Saya growls under his breath, "We should never have followed that cosplayer. We've been led into a cage with a rabid dog and no way out."
Saeko taps her bokken on her shoulder, her face neutral as she glances between Saya and the trail of destruction left by the cosplayer, "Why don't you come up with a plan then, Miss Takagi?"
Saya sneers, "And what would I even say!? The only way forward I can see is to follow that creep Shido! That, or follow that stupid cosplayer into the jaws of thousands of monsters!"
Saeko glances at the others, "I don't know about you all but, I would rather follow the person who is fighting for his and our lives right now instead of that man... We can't lose a valuable person like that because no one cared enough to stop him from exhausting himself!" she presses, feeling as if her blood were boiling with excitement and adrenaline. The thought of following that person into battle was bringing out emotions she hadn't felt before...
The thought of wading into an enemy army and sending blood flying while fighting to the death almost had her running to the stranger's aid even now, when she knew the odds were so far against them.
Reluctantly, Saya has to agree with her. Her thoughts on the cosplayer and their near-death at his hands earlier aside, he'd proven to be far, far stronger than anyone else around. He was like Saeko, Takashi, Rei, and a battle-maniac manga character combined...
"We should follow him then, the other people might not be able to keep up, but none of us are dropping yet. And I refuse to be around Shido anymore than we already have." Rei states.
...
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