Chapter 20 - So-Called Looking Ahead

“Mm…”

Ryuu slowly woke up.

When he checked the phone by his side, it read 5:30 AM.

Perhaps because winter was approaching, it was still quite dark—almost indistinguishable from night.

He stretched, muscles tensing, then exhaled and let his body relax.

Glancing to the side, he saw Rei fast asleep.

Seems he had woken up a bit too early.

That’s when he noticed a light on in the broadcasting room.

Someone must be on watch.

Curious, he decided to take a look.

“Ah, Ryuu. You’re awake.”

Tooru was staring intently at his smartphone.

"Huh? That smartphone…"

Ryuu recognized it from somewhere.

"This? I borrowed it from Rei."

"What are you doing?"

Peeking at the phone’s screen, it looked like he was viewing a page titled

“How to Make Miso.”

“Miso?”

“Yeah. Since we don’t know when the internet might stop working, I figured I should look up how to make things I usually use but don’t know how to make, while I still can.”

In front of Tooru were about ten sheets of loose-leaf paper and a mechanical pencil, neatly organized with careful notes.

Ryuu thought Tooru really wasn’t an ordinary person.

Planning ahead for a long battle by researching how to make all sorts of things wasn’t something most people would think of.

And if he came up with this idea under these circumstances, his mind must be pretty quick.

At first, Ryuu had thought he seemed a bit scatterbrained, but it turned out that wasn’t the case.

“But after working so much, are you actually getting enough sleep?”

“Well, I was keeping watch, and when others were on watch, I took naps, so I don’t think I’m sleep deprived.”

“…Did the Self-Defense Forces or police get wiped out?”

“Hm?”

“Like, I haven’t really heard gunfire lately, though there was quite a bit yesterday.”

“Well, asking people to fight zombies with such gear is probably unreasonable. I’m guessing now, those bitten zombies running around wildly and people holed up at home avoiding trouble but it’s only a matter of time—they’re probably locked in a struggle.”

“Maybe once school cleaning is done, it’d be better to go around town collecting weapons.”

“Hmm. Even pistols like those are better than nothing.”

“Yeah, and maybe some special forces survived, or there’s an armored vehicle loaded with weapons somewhere. Anyway, no matter what, we absolutely have to go out to secure food.”

It would be hard to survive this winter with the food they had now.

The stack of loose-leaf paper in front of Tooru seemed to include a section on agriculture, but since there were no facilities like greenhouses here, they probably wouldn’t be able to farm this winter at least.

Water would come from the school’s storage tank and vending machine drinks, but once those ran out, they’d have to get it from the river behind the school—which would be risky if infected people entered the water.

Everyone getting infected and dying would be the worst case.

That meant they had to barricade the river.

Securing food and drinking water regularly was the immediate goal.

Also, they needed kerosene.

Even though this school was built in the Heisei era, they still used a chimney stove, so kerosene was necessary.

For hygiene purposes, such as burning infected bodies, it would also be useful to have.

There were piles of problems.

“I’ll help.”

Ryuu plopped down on a pipe chair and started looking up “How to Make Homemade Bombs” on his own smartphone.

Weapons like these would surely be necessary later.

Only the sound of Tooru’s pencil scratching on paper could be heard in the broadcast room.

7:00 a.m.

Everyone gathered in the meeting room to discuss the plan.

“For now, let’s continue the cleanup. The Cleaning Team stays as is. The Supply Team will join the cleanup.”

Then, Shinji spoke up.

“Let’s collect samples.”

“Samples?”

“Yeah. We still don’t know enough about the enemy. Shouldn’t we secure a few zombies, tie them up or something, for study?”

A reasonable suggestion.

However, this brought up a problem.

Since everyone seemed to share the same concern, Tooru spoke up to represent what everyone was probably thinking.

“So, you mean we’re going to use the students from this school—turned zombies—as test subjects?”

“Exactly. We have to find out if chemicals work, where their weak spots are, and figure out effective ways to deal with them.”

Everyone fell silent.

Even if they were zombies, could they bear to use their friends and acquaintances as test subjects?

Were they really justified in experimenting on people who were living normally just yesterday?

Wouldn’t it be kinder to just put them out of their misery?

At this moment, many were crushed by pangs of conscience.

But it was something they would have to do eventually.

Besides discovering zombie weaknesses, other unknown behaviors might come to light.

What should they do?

They had to make a decision.

Worrying now would only spread more fear.

“…Let’s do it. But let’s use people here who know as few others as possible. Everyone okay with that?”

When Tooru asked, despite complicated expressions, everyone agreed.

What was needed in this situation wasn’t conscience, but the resolve to do what it took to survive.

Even if it meant being tormented by guilt later.