The dim fluorescent lights of the convenience store flickered ominously, casting eerie shadows along the aisles. The scent of stale food and spilled beverages mixed with the distant stench of rot and decay. Outside, the moans of the undead grew louder, their clawing fingers scraping against the glass. Every breath Nobita took felt suffocating, as if the very air was thick with dread.
Giant wiped sweat from his brow, gripping his metal pipe tightly. His knuckles were white from the pressure, veins bulging under the strain. "We can't stay here forever. They'll break through eventually."
Shizuka, still catching her breath, nodded in agreement. "We need to find a safer place. Somewhere we can actually defend ourselves."
Suneo clutched his sprained ankle, wincing as he adjusted himself on the floor. "How? We barely made it here alive! If we go out there again, we're dead!" His voice cracked with fear, his usual arrogance nowhere to be found.
Nobita scanned the store, his mind racing for options. Shelves were stocked with food and water—supplies they desperately needed—but they had no real weapons, no way to fight back if they were overwhelmed. His fingers twitched. The undead would break through at any moment. They needed to move.
A loud crash shattered the tense silence. The front glass door splintered as the creatures pushed through, their gnarled hands reaching. Cracks spread across the glass like spiderwebs before the entire structure gave way, shards falling like deadly rain.
Shizuka screamed, stumbling backward. The creatures surged in, their hollow eyes locked onto fresh prey. Their jaws snapped hungrily, fingers twitching in anticipation.
"Go! Now!" Giant roared, shoving a shelf down to slow their advance. The metal structure groaned as it collapsed, pinning several of the undead underneath. But it wouldn't hold for long.
Nobita grabbed Suneo, hoisting him up with all his strength. The four of them bolted toward the back exit, bursting into a narrow alleyway. The air was thick with smoke and decay, the remnants of a world that no longer cared for the living.
More zombies lurched in from the street, their grotesque forms illuminated by the flickering neon signs above. Some had missing limbs, others had jagged bones protruding from torn flesh. Their skin, stretched taut over rotting muscles, oozed with blackened decay.
They were surrounded.
"Shit!" Suneo cursed, panic setting in. "We're trapped!"
Giant swung his pipe, knocking a ghoul back with a sickening crunch. "Then we fight!"
Nobita gritted his teeth, his hands trembling. His body wanted to shut down, to freeze in terror, but something inside him screamed to move. The horror around him felt surreal, like a cruel joke. But this was real. If they didn't act now, they would die.
He spotted a rusted ladder leading up to a rooftop. "There! Climb up!"
Shizuka didn't hesitate. She hooked her arms under Suneo's shoulders, dragging him toward the ladder. With sheer willpower, Suneo forced himself to climb, his injured ankle barely supporting his weight.
"Come on, come on…" he muttered, his fingers slipping against the rusted rungs.
Giant bashed another creature's skull in before following, his powerful arms propelling him upward.
Nobita was last. As he climbed, he felt a cold hand grab his ankle. His heart stopped.
A grotesque face, half its flesh missing, snarled up at him. Its fingers tightened, pulling. The creature's breath was rancid, its milky eyes devoid of life but filled with hunger. Its nails, jagged and broken, dug into his skin, drawing blood.
Panic surged through Nobita's veins. He kicked wildly, his shoe smashing into its rotting teeth. It stumbled back, but more were climbing over each other, their ravenous hands stretching toward him.
A sudden sharp pain shot through his leg. One of them had bitten through his sock, teeth grazing his skin. Cold fear gripped his chest like a vice.
"Nobita!" Shizuka screamed, reaching down.
With a final, desperate effort, he lunged upward, grabbing her hand. She pulled with everything she had, and Giant grabbed his other arm, hauling him over the ledge just as the dead swarmed below.
They collapsed onto the cold concrete, their bodies aching, lungs burning. Nobita clutched his leg, inspecting the wound. It wasn't deep—the creature hadn't fully bitten down. Relief washed over him, but the pain still throbbed.
"That… was too close…" Shizuka whispered, trembling.
Suneo lay on his back, staring at the night sky. "I thought we were dead."
Giant exhaled sharply. "We should have been."
Nobita stared at the hellscape below—the city he once knew, now overrun by death. The skyline was ablaze, streets littered with corpses. In the distance, the Tokyo Tower stood like a skeletal husk, its once-bright lights now dim.
His hands clenched into fists. His whole life, he had been weak, useless. Always relying on someone else to save him. But now…
"We can't keep running forever," he murmured. "We need to find answers. We need to fight back."
Giant turned to him, his expression unreadable. Then, he nodded. "Then we start now."
For the first time, Nobita felt something stir deep inside him.
Madness.
The cold realization set in: if this world had gone insane, then so would he.