Chapter 15 - Recommendation To Clean Up

The door to the conference room opened, and the three of them returned.

First, a wave of relief.

The tense air in the room loosened.

If someone had died right from the start, morale would’ve taken a sharp nosedive.

Tooru truly felt grateful that they had come back alive.

“The gate’s shut.”

Takumi reported.

“Thank you very much.”

Tooru said it with genuine gratitude.

That prompted everyone else to start offering their thanks as well.

It wasn’t enough to say they were fully bonded yet, but Tōru felt a small sense of unity beginning to grow—just enough to get through sharing food and shelter.

Once everyone had finished expressing their thanks, Tōru spoke up again.

“Alright, I’d like us to move on to sweeping the school. There are about 1,000 students and staff total in this school. Subtract those who managed to escape to the outskirts, absentees, and people who didn’t turn into zombies... I think there are probably around 800 zombies inside. Right now, including myself, there are 15 of us. We’ll make this conference room our temporary base. All non-combatants will stay here, along with two people who can fight to protect them.”

When he asked who couldn’t fight, three hands hesitantly went up.

Miu, Sakura, and Hazuki.

“Then, for defense here…”

Daiki raised his hand.

With that brute strength of his, he might actually be more suited to defense.

Besides, if Daiki went out on the sweep, Tooru had a feeling he’d probably make some ridiculous mistake.

“Alright, Daiki for one. The other will be…”

Rei raised his hand.

He didn’t seem like the kind of person who would take initiative in a fight anyway.

If anything, he had that air of someone who wouldn’t hurt a fly.

Asking him to kill what used to be a human would be too much of a mental burden.

“Okay, Rei it is. That leaves 10 of us to go sweep the zombies.”

“So we each just gotta take out 80, right? Sounds easy enough!”

Kazuma said brightly.

But taking out 80 each was absurd.

It just wasn’t realistic.

Weapons would break. They’d get exhausted.

Under those conditions, taking down 80 each would be practically impossible.

“I don’t think we’ll be able to take them all out. Once we’ve thinned them out a bit, we can continue tomorrow. As long as we play some music, they shouldn’t come near the conference room. Now, let’s split into teams.”

“Teams?”

Ryuu asked, puzzled.

“Yeah. It gets cold at night, so we’ll need blankets. We also need food. There’s an emergency storage room, remember?”

Ryuu recalled what he was talking about.

The large storage room at the back of the faculty office.

If they unlocked the dial lock on the door, it should have emergency rations and clothing.

“One team will handle the cleaning, while the other will head to the storage room, collect supplies, and bring them back here.”

Tooru finished explaining, and they began dividing into teams.

“Supply Retrieval Team: Tooru Saejima, Sayo Haiga, Jun Haiga, Kazuma Aso, Tsubasa Honma

Cleaning Team: Takumi Toudou, Shinji Shouda, Yuuki Miyoshi, Ryuu Kamata, Seiji Honda”

Tooru wrote the names on the whiteboard.

While the Cleaning Team definitely had more combat strength, Tooru felt that the division was fairly well-balanced overall.

“Alright, everyone, make sure to bring your weapons. Don’t push yourselves too hard. We must all return here, every single one of us.”

When Tooru said that, everyone nodded firmly.

“Okay then, Cleaning Team’s heading out first.”

Takumi opened the door.

The Cleaning Team also had the role of acting as a sort of decoy.

By drawing the zombies toward themselves, they would make it easier for the Supply Retrieval Team to transport goods.

The last in line—Seiji’s back—disappeared through the doorway.

“Well then, let’s head out too.”

Tooru urged his teammates behind him.

Each carried their own makeshift weapon:

A bat, a kitchen knife, a hole punch, and so on.

Taking on 800 zombies with this gear was clearly not feasible.

We’ll have to find more weapons somewhere, Tooru thought as he opened the door.

The five left behind

Among them, Rei was especially tormented by guilt.

(They definitely all think I’m a coward…)

Rei was tall.

And yet, instead of going out to fight, he stayed behind because it was “safer.” That was his reason for not joining the sweep.

Even Tsubasa, who looked far less capable of fighting, had gone out.

He could feel the others’ stares like daggers.

They hurt.

He gave a little shiver, as if trying to shake off the pain.

“Everyone’s gone now, huh~…”

Daiki muttered.

“…Do you think they’ll be okay?”

Sakura said nervously.

Her face mirrored her voice—filled with unease.

“They’ll be fine! Me believe in them!”

Hazuki said cheerfully.

Her expression was the opposite of Sakura’s. It was bright and optimistic.

Then—

“Wait, Asagiri-san, you actually say ‘me’ to refer to yourself?”

He immediately regretted saying it.

What the heck am I saying?

Am I an idiot?

Yeah, definitely an idiot.

“Yeah, guess I do say ‘me’ sometimes.”

She answered, and Rei felt a wave of relief.

If she hadn’t responded, he might’ve emotionally collapsed.

He’d have ended up sitting in the corner, knees hugged to his chest.

“I say ‘me’ too!”

“No way, me too! We’re like twins or something!”

Suddenly, everyone was buzzing with “me me me.”

Why did we all end up with such a weird way of referring to ourselves?

Well, at least nobody was saying "bro" or some other annoying slang.

If everyone talked like that, it’d be no joke.

Maybe the conversation wouldn’t even work.

Rei was a little surprised that he had the mental space to think about this—but honestly, imagining that scene was kinda terrifying.