CH 12

Chapter 12 – Victim

It’s past 6 pm.

In my sense, the dinner started a little early.

Curry has a stable taste, probably because there was an aunt who had worked in an employee cafeteria somewhere among the refugees.

The rice was cooked softly in consideration of people in old age.

There was potato in it, I was dissatisfied with only that, but I am satisfied because I received a large serving of pickled vegetables.

“Huff! Huff! Delicious! Delicious!”

When I noticed, I was eating the third plate of refills.

It was at this moment that I was convinced of the changes in my body.

I’m originally a person with a thin diet, you know? Really.

For rice, half a bowl was enough for me before.

It changed this much.

Everyone was watching me as if they were looking at a rare beast…

I’ve had enough.

From now on, I will live as a gluttonous character.

“After all, do people who exercise eat more?”

Rika giggles when she sees me eat.

“I wonder about that?”

“Ufufu… Isn’t it about yourself?”

I wonder about it, really.

I don’t think I can see any boys who have four plates of curry.

“After all, have you been doing kendo since you were a kid?”

Next, Kosuke was curiously asked.

I somehow looked away,

“Ah, about that. Maybe about three years?”

I answered.

Even if he was looking at me with respect like that, it was something that I obtained without much effort.

It feels a little awkward.

Lunch ended with a cheerful atmosphere from beginning to end.

It seems that everyone’s smiles are coming back even if just a little bit.

The wives seemed to be particularly energetic.

Are women that strong? The experience of collaborative work may have helped the refugees to get to know each other.

When I woke up in the morning, I wondered if the lid of the cauldron of hell had opened.

Unexpectedly, there were no major problems, and it would be impossible for everyone to survive the situation.

I thought that way.

Of course, it was an irreparable and sweet outlook.

▼

Early morning of the next day.

I woke up in the unpopular 3rd year 3rd class.

There are too many rooms here for the number of people who have evacuated. So, at night, everyone was divided into families and all the classrooms were used.

Of course, I am lonely for the rest of my life, and I occupy the classroom by myself.

When I looked out from the classroom, the sun had just begun to rise.

While washing my face, I decided to take a walk, so I went downstairs with my sword and a plastic bottle.

The barricade was already completed from the second floor down. Perhaps some of the survivors were good at that kind of work. Desks and chairs tightly packed with wire and tape provide complete protection from downstairs. Perhaps it is difficult for even humans to climb from the front.

A ladder was placed beside the barricade, and in an emergency it seemed like a strategy to climb up and down between the first and second floors with this ladder.

I thought something was weird shortly after I finished preliminarily inspecting the retreat path.

The girl and her supposed mother were standing in front of the classroom.

At this early in the morning.

They shouldn’t have anything to do either.

The faces of the two were familiar.

Yesterday,

“Sister, are you strong?”

That girl who asked that simple question.

“What’s up?”

I casually called out.

“…Nothing …Noth-…”

She replied with 5 seconds intervals.

Mom looks to be in a stupor, and looks in weird directions.

At least, I understood that it couldn’t be “nothing” as she says.

I looked at the classroom. The sign says it’s the 2nd year 5th class.

The inside of the classroom at my alma mater cannot be seen from the corridor.

When I listened to the door out of other options,

I could hear splattering sounds.

Ah. This is bad.

Thinking so, when I was about to open the door, the mother grabbed my hand.

And she shakes her head, “No,” she says, like a little child.

“Excuse me.”

After saying that, I gently pushed the woman away.

How about then? The woman falls down as easily as a broken doll.

“Mom!”

The girl watching it hugs her mom.

She looks like she’s facing a robbery.

While thinking so in the corner of my heart, I entered the classroom.

There was a picture from hell.

There are two human silhouettes I can see.

Probably the woman’s husband and one of her relatives.

One is an old man with white hair.

The other is a middle-aged man.

The middle-aged man is lying in the center of the classroom, in a position that looks like he tried to escape from something.

The mouth of the old man who was bending over him was dyed bright red.

A kitchen knife is stuck in his chest.

Probably, after the middle-aged man resisted the old man who mutated into a “zombie”, he thrusted a knife into him. It was like that.

The muddy-eyed old man is still carrying meat to his mouth calmly, suffering a wound that would otherwise be fatal.

“…Ah.”

Even though I faced the reality that I had expected, my heart could not accept the facts.

I was flabbergasted.

The hallucinations that I heard yesterday certainly said,

―”Safe Area.”

I ruminate over the word.

At that time, you must have heard the word “safe zone”.

That’s why I was relieved. That’s why I was off guard.

That’s why I slept like a log last night.

If I think about it now, I have to say that it was imprudent of me.

Indeed, when the back gate of this school was closed, at least it might have been possible to prevent the invasion of “zombies” outside. At that moment, the inside of this school building may have been a “safe zone”.

However, after all, it is only temporary. The situation is constantly changing. Just because it was safe just before it doesn’t mean it’s still safe.

I had completely forgotten such a natural fact.

“When… was he bitten?”

I asked so that they could hear it outside the corridor.

There is no reply.

Of course, I didn’t need an answer either.

Probably, he got bitten before he arrived at the school.

And that was hidden by his family here.

I had seen an old man with an injured shoulder.

I heard he got injured by falling.

I was relieved with just that excuse.

“-My father-in-law is”

When I turned around, the woman I mentioned earlier turned her crying and swollen eyes toward me.

“My father-in-law is ill…”

I see, he’s sick.

Is it a human-eating illness?

Well, it’s not wrong.

“I’ll get rid of it, so keep your child far away.”

“Wait!”

The woman screamed.

“It will get better! It will definitely get better!”

Hmm.

I’m at a loss for words.

Because there was no material to argue.

If it was said that this was some kind of “illness”, I couldn’t say that “treatment” was impossible.

I would like to have an illness that allows me to survive even if my hands and feet are cut off.

Well, I wonder what I should do now.

“Ooooooooooooooooooooo…”

When I was hesitating, the old man noticed me, and turned his hollow eyes toward me.

He probably smelled fresh meat. He stood up and slowly began to walk towards us.

One sigh.

With the sword still in its scabbard, I stabbed his chest.

The old man “zombie” who lost his posture collapses into the sea of ​​blood.

I thought for a while on what I should do.

I decided that it was dangerous to decide on this case at my own discretion.

I turn my heels and leave the classroom.

“That’s right. However, leaving it as it is is a risky act, so let’s make a conclusion together.”

I intended to say it as brightly as possible, but the woman’s facial expression remained dark.

▼

After a short while.

You can hear an irregular knocking sound from the closed classroom door.

The sound was from two different people.