Chapter 27 - Cleaning Is Important

Cleaning is important.

“Haah! Take that!”

Ryuu let out a loud shout as he swung a metal bat down onto a zombie’s head.

With a squelching sound, the zombie’s body collapsed onto the hallway floor.

Looking around the corridor, nothing was moving.

The only noise was here, meaning no more zombies were gathering — which meant there were no more zombies left inside the school.

At least, none were drawn by the noise.

“It’s overrrrrr!”

Ryuu raised both hands high in victory.

The metal bat slipped from his hands and landed with a sharp clink.

As if that sound were a victory bell, the entire cleanup squad shouted their joy.

“Everyone did great. Let’s head back to the conference room. …I’ll try to get us extra canned food today.”

At Takumi’s words, everyone’s eyes lit up and they nodded strongly, then left the hallway behind.

All that remained was the blood-stained floor and a pile of zombie corpses.

When Tooru heard that the zombie sweep was complete, he finally let out a sigh of relief.

Sure, there were probably many others like them who had built communities and survived, but managing to secure such a vast territory without a single casualty was nothing short of a miracle.

There might still be zombies stuck somewhere and unable to move, so they would have to check every nook and cranny thoroughly—but for now, this was a moment to celebrate.

Though problems like food shortages piled up, the relief was overwhelming enough to overshadow those worries.

“Thanks to everyone, everything went smoothly. There were some irregularities, but Rei handled them well. Really amazing—thank you.”

Tooru bowed his head before everyone, and Rei scratched his head bashfully.

The monster was wrapped tightly like a mummy in the studio, its hands and feet severed.

They’d have to move it later.

“Well then, for now…”

Everyone’s eyes sparkled with anticipation.

A party today? Or maybe an increase in canned food rations?

That hope was quickly dashed.

“We’re going to clean up.”

With a loud crash, all the chairs except those of Miu, Yuuki, Shinji, and Takumi toppled over.

Since the scene resembled the first time all the survivors had gathered, Tooru felt confused again.

“What’s going on?”

“C-cleaning! Yeah! Cleaning is important!” Daiki said as he set the chairs upright, but Tetsu couldn’t help noticing a forced cheerfulness in his face.

Worried he might have said something strange, Tooru pressed on.

“We’ll siphon gasoline from the teachers’ cars in the parking lot and cremate all the zombies. It’s way too unsanitary not to burn them. We probably won’t have enough gasoline, so we’ll burn them in batches. Eventually, we’ll have to get some from town, so as soon as we have more, we’ll burn them. The guys will carry the bodies to the field. The girls, can you clean the blood off the walls and such? Also, everyone—touching blood is dangerous, so wear rubber gloves.”

Tooru gave his instructions smoothly and confidently, as if he had practiced beforehand—not stumbling over words or hesitating. He might just have a knack for speeches.

“But the bodies are heavy, you know? Carrying them all the way to the field will take a lot of effort. It’s not practical,” Shinji said, waving his hands dramatically.

Whether he meant to be rude or not, it almost seemed like he was mocking Tooru.

But Tooru stayed calm, curling the corners of his lips into what people might call a “fearless grin” as he replied,

“No worries. I have a good plan.”

“So, that’s how you came up with this method, huh…”

“Exactly.”

Tooru and Ryuu lined up the zombies on the field.

“One, two, three!”

With a shout, the two rolled the bodies they had been carrying and added one more to the line of corpses.

There were probably about fifty zombie bodies by now.

Rather than a neatly organized supermarket, it looked more like Ryuu’s own messy room, and he let out a wry smile.

“People are heavy, huh…”

He muttered to himself again.

That was only natural, but in the first place, the situation they were in wasn’t natural at all, so if he didn’t keep reminding himself, he might forget what “normal” even meant.

The sun, now tilting toward the west, shone down on the corpses.

Among the zombies, some had minimal damage and, aside from the blood stains, looked as if they were just sleeping.

Men, women, teachers, friends, brothers, sisters, lovers——.

No matter what they did in life, what they said or how they behaved, or how they met their end, a corpse was still just a corpse.

Just an object.

Ryuu squinted up at the third floor.

From there extended a pipe—the so-called “evacuation chute.”

Tooru might have been thinking ahead about transporting the bodies and told Takumi about the chute nearby, a place where they could efficiently take down zombies.

If that was the case, then Tooru was looking further ahead than Ryu had thought.

The pipe swayed, and another body rolled out.

Watching that, Ryuu thought again: after all, they were just things.