Chapter 34 - Is It Worth Living?

“Huuuaaahhh!!!”

Daiki pushed up the manhole cover.

When Daiki stuck his head out, they found themselves on the main street of the shopping district.

During festivals, stalls would be set up here, but right now, only about ten zombies were wandering aimlessly.

Though, no doubt, there were more than ten times that number swarming inside the shops.

Looking around, there were clothing stores, grocery stores, mountaineering gear shops, fishing tackle stores, and bookstores near the manhole.

“Alright…”

After climbing out of the manhole, Takumi followed him out.

“For now, let’s mark the area.”

Takumi pulled chalk from his pocket and drew lots of arrows around the manhole.

“This should do.”

“Senpai, shouldn’t we bring some supplies back with us?”

“Don’t. Our job is just to secure the escape route.”

“Y-yes…”

Daiki sulked like a kid who’d just been scolded.

“Well then, shall we head back?”

Just as Daiki was about to return to the manhole, he noticed a car.

“......”

“What’s wrong, Daiki?”

“No, that car…”

Daiki approached it and saw a girl crouching inside.

“There’s a girl! We have to help her!”

Daiki hurried to open the door.

But Takumi stopped him.

“W-why are you stopping me, Senpai?”

“No. Look closely.”

Takumi’s gaze landed on a small bite mark near the girl’s calf.

“The girl is infected.”

“No way...!”

Noticing the commotion, the girl slowly turned toward them.

Her face was bloodied and dark red, dried blood caked on, and her mouth was badly mutilated.

“...!”

The body in the driver’s seat — presumably the mother — twitched, then suddenly started thrashing.

Sounds of the girl pounding on the door and the mother struggling wildly despite the seatbelt tightening could be heard.

“Daiki, move! Zombies are gathering.”

“Why… Why is this happening?!”

Tears welled at Daiki’s eyes as he lamented.

But now, what Takumi could do was not comfort Daiki, but shove him back down into the manhole.

With a scraping sound, the manhole cover slid open, and Daiki stuck his head out.

“Welcome back. How was it?”

“...Yeah, it definitely connects to the center of the shopping district.”

Daiki seemed a little off—he looked somewhat drained.

But at least they confirmed it did connect all the way to the shopping district.

“I marked the manhole properly with arrows. There were no signs of it being disturbed, so we can probably expect some supplies. But there was a spot along the way where we could only crawl through. Since Daiki managed it, I think everyone can get through... though I’m not sure about Ryuu.”

Takumi, who followed Daiki out of the manhole, explained.

It looked like they had a pretty good understanding of the situation now.

For the time being, they decided to end today’s activities and gather everyone in the conference room.

“So, we’ve confirmed a tentative escape route. It looks like this.”

Tooru drew the escape path with a red pen on the map taped to the whiteboard.

“If anything happens, we’ll retreat here. The forecast says it’s going to rain tomorrow, so we won’t be exploring then. Luckily, we still have enough supplies for now.”

After the meeting, it was time for dinner.

Everyone opened their canned food and ate as usual.

Going days on end eating only canned food was a first for them all.

Surely, in a disaster situation, this kind of life would be unavoidable.

In front of Tooru was a can of pork and beans.

Having eaten it three meals in a row already, it was a taste he was used to.

He broke some disposable chopsticks that had been left in the staff room and picked up a soybean.

But Tooru didn’t bring the chopsticks to his mouth.

He was looking at Daiki.

Even at a meal, when Daiki would normally be happy enough to start dancing, he looked drained.

“Daiki, are you alright?”

“...Yeah, don’t worry.”

He said that, but it was clearly off.

Had something happened during the shopping district exploration?

As Tooru pondered, Daiki suddenly spoke.

“They were dead.”

“Huh?”

“Dead.”

Saying that, Daiki opened his can and started picking at his food slowly.

“There was a girl in a car during the search. But she was a zombie.”

I see.

That’s why Daiki was so down.

Now that he thought about it, Daiki seemed to like kids.

“Why? Why do kids who should be alive end up dead?”

His tone sounded like he was asking Tooru, but also as if questioning himself.

“...Right now, in this world, there aren’t any ‘kids who should be alive.’”

Tooru answered, putting a soybean in his mouth.

“What’s needed are ‘kids who find their own way to survive and keep living.’ The idea that some kids can just sit around and ‘should be alive’ is too good to be true. Things have been too good until now.”

“...”

Daiki said nothing.

Without a word, he forcefully shoveled more canned food into his mouth.