—BEEPPP!—
It took an entire minute for the car alarms to shut off—a minute that felt like an entire hour for Nach, Saeko, and Yui, especially for Miku, who kept clinging to Nach, burying her face into his left shoulder while being carried, her body trembling in his arms.
They needed to get off the main road, away from the horde of undead chasing them from behind and another horde about to intercept them up front—but not into the streets either, which were also swarming with more undead attracted by the blaring car alarms.
That left them with no choice but to enter one of the buildings along the main road.
"Just keep running and don't panic," Nach said, urging Saeko to take the lead and warning Yui not to trip, before pointing at the building where they would hide.
"We're going to that love hotel!"
The love hotel might be perfect for the night, but it wasn't exactly Nach's first choice. There was a bigger hotel—a five-star one—on the opposite side of the road, but its gate was locked, while the love hotel's wasn't. There was also the chance that undead were occupying the love hotel, but betting their fighting and survival chances inside was far better than getting swarmed by the horde outside.
Regardless, the chance of reaching the love hotel only a dozen meters away wasn't guaranteed either.
Saeko halted her run and drew her katana to cut down the first undead intercepting their escape, beheading it with a clean slice through its neck. She then held her katana with both hands to split open the head of the second undead with a return slash, before recovering her stance and thrusting her katana upward to pierce the jaw of the third undead.
"On your left, Nach-sensei!" Saeko shouted as she withdrew her katana and glanced over her shoulder.
The old man undead crawling on the ground was in Nach's blind spot while Miku was in his left arm, and if not for Saeko's warning, it would have bitten his left leg before he could sidestep to the right and make a quick swing with his sledgehammer to smash its head, lifting it into the air before fully bashing it with the return swing, splattering blackened blood and brain matter at his feet.
"That was close," Nach said, his voice and body—especially his left leg—tense from almost getting bitten.
"Thanks, Saeko."
Nach stomped his left foot on the ground, shaking off the trembling and making sure he wasn't bitten, then proceeded forward, following behind Yui.
"Get away from me, pervert!" Yui shouted in disgust. Of course, she wasn't referring to Nach, but to the nude undead man slowly approaching her. She swung the axe lent to her by Nach to protect herself. The blade cleaved into the undead's head but got stuck in its skull; still, the undead kept moving closer to Yui.
"Step aside, Yui."
Hearing Nach's command, Yui let go of the axe and sidestepped to her left, giving Nach space to strike the axe with his sledgehammer and bury it deeper into the undead's head, finishing it off.
Nach then pulled out the axe and handed it back to Yui.
He should have been urging Yui to keep moving, but the sight of the undead intercepting their path ahead gave Nach an ominous feeling. Even Saeko wore a troubled, disgusted expression while fighting them.
Like the nude undead he had just killed, all the undead in front of them—both men and women—were naked. It was obvious they had come from the love hotel, which could also mean that there were fewer undead inside, since many were already outside.
They were only a few meters away from the gate of the love hotel. However, Nach's gut—and his rod—told him that going inside the love hotel was a very bad decision, considering all the nude undead men shared one thing in common, or more accurately, were missing something they all should have had.
"Where the fuc' are all their rods?"
Either there was another dangerous undead with the quirk of devouring a man's pride, or there was a creepy survivor with a disgusting fetish for collecting undead rods—Crack!—while Nach was pondering that thought and debating whether to go inside the love hotel, a cracking sound echoed above them.
"Saeko, run!"
Saeko glanced back at Nach's warning and saw him already carrying Yui over his right shoulder while still holding Miku in his left arm.
She followed him without needing to ask why, running toward the middle of the road and maneuvering through the abandoned cars while evading the undead, realizing the danger about to befall them.
The instant they reached the other side of the road, the place where they had just stood was showered by undead falling from the upper floors of the building beside the road.
Forget the decision to enter the love hotel, the possibility of a rod-eating undead, and the existence of a creepy rod-collecting survivor.
They were surrounded by a horde up front and on both sides, cornered with their backs against the closed gate of the five-star hotel.
"Hold her for a bit, Yui," Nach said, putting Yui down and handing Miku to her.
Yui and Miku both looked at Nach, terrified as the undead slowly approached. Even Saeko couldn't help but feel desperate.
"It's not like we're out of options, so don't give up yet," Nach said, gripping his sledgehammer firmly before raising it, intending to bash open the five-star hotel gate.
As Nach made his swing, the gate suddenly slid open.
"GAAHHH!"
The terrified scream didn't come from Nach, Miku, Yui, or Saeko, but from the old security guard who had opened the gate—the sledgehammer stopping just a centimeter from his face.
Nach looked at the security guard, who had fallen to the ground, and without saying a word, the guard nodded and spoke in a trembling voice.
"Hurry up and get those young ladies inside."
Nach carried Miku again in his left arm and ushered Yui forward, followed closely by Saeko as they rushed inside.
All that was left was to close the gate, but the security guard was left trembling, unable to stand at the sight of the undead horde right in front of him.
"What are you doing, old man?!" Nach shouted as he ran back, grabbed the security guard, and kicked away the undead that was about to seize him before slamming the gate shut.
"If you die saving us, that's going to be a heavy burden on me, old man."
"Thank you, young man."