Chapter 27 - Cleaning Is Important

“Uraaaaah!”

Ryou screamed and swung the metal bat down on a zombie’s head.

The zombie was crushed flat and laid face down in the hallway.

Even when he checked on it, it didn’t show any movement.

Since the sound disappeared, it meant that there were no more zombies gathered here, and also that there were no more zombies within the school.

At least those lured by sound, though…

“We’re finished!!!!”

Ryou held his hands high.

When the metal bat fell down from his hands, it made a satisfying clinking sound.

Each person on the cleaning-up team expressed joy as if the sound had been a bell signaling victory.

“Everyone, good job. Let’s return to the conference room. …Let’s go and haggle to eat more canned food today.”

Everyone’s eyes gleamed at Takumi’s proposal and gave a big nod, and left the hallway behind.

Afterwards, only the hallway dyed red and a mountain of zombie corpses remained.

Hearing that they had completed cleaning up the zombies, Tooru sighed with relief.

Many should have survived by creating communities as they had done, but it would be a miracle to obtain such a large area without a sacrifice.

Since there might be zombies being stuck somewhere, they needed to check the corners again, but for now, he should congratulate them.

Although there were several problems regarding food, he was happy enough to not care about it too much.

“Thanks to everyone’s effort just about everything has turned out well. Although we had an irregular case, Rei dealt with it well. It’s really amazing, thank you.”

After Tooru bowed his head, Rei scratched his head, embarrassed.

The monster was put in the studio, wrapped with its limbs cut off.

They had to move it later.

“Well then, first off…”

Everyone’s eyes sparkled with anticipation.

Either because of today’s celebration or the increase of food.

Those expectations were broken in an instant.

“Let’s clean up.”

With a crashing sound, except for Miu, Yuuki, Shinji, and Takumi, everyone’s chairs fell down to the floor.

Tooru was confused since the scene was similar to the time they first met each other.

“What happened?”

“C-cleaning, huh! That’s right! Cleaning is important, right!”

Daiki said as he pulled up his chair, though it was probably not Tooru’s imagination that his expression looked somewhat fake.

He became worried that he had said something strange, but still continued anyhow.

“Let’s bring out the gasoline from the teachers’ cars in the parking lot and cremate all zombies. It’s too unsanitary so we need to burn them. Since we probably don’t have enough gasoline, let’s divide it into several times. Since it seems like we’ll have to go into town to get some, so as soon as we obtain some, we’ll burn them. Could you girls clean the blood on the walls, etc? And, everyone, since it’s dangerous to touch the blood, let’s use rubber gloves.”

Tooru gave the instructions swiftly.

There was no faltering, no stammering, and he was never at a loss as if he had practiced it beforehand.

It was enough for them to think that he was talented in holding speeches.

“Aren’t corpses heavy though? It needs a lot of effort to carry them all the way to the sports ground. It’s not really realistic.”

Shinji said, swinging his arms exaggeratedly.

Although he didn’t know whether he had any ill will, it made it seem like he was making fun of Tooru.

However, Tooru was composed, and the corners of his mouth tugged upwards as he gave a so-called “daring smile” and said,

“It’s fine, I have a way.”

“And so, I thought of this method…”

“So it’s like that.”

Tooru and Ryou lined up the zombies on the sports ground.

“One… two…!”

As the two shouted and carried the zombie, making it roll, the number of corpses in the line increased.

There were probably fifty zombie corpses already.

Ryou gave a wry smile. Rather than pretty merchandise being lined up in the supermarket, it was more like their rooms with all their stuff unorganized.

“People are heavy, huh…”

He muttered again.

Although that might be natural, it wasn’t natural because of the circumstances putting him in this situation, so unless he confirmed each one of them, he would start wondering what actually was normal.

The sun shone on the zombies from the east.

The zombies that weren’t that injured appeared to be sleeping if you overlooked the blood.

Boys, girls, teachers, friends, brothers, sisters, lovers, everyone…

No matter what you did or said when you were alive, in the end, all you would end up as was a corpse.

Everyone was a thing.

We were no more than a thing.

Ryou looked up at the dazzling third floor.

A pipe extended to the third floor.

It was a so-called “evacuation chute”.

Tooru stared at the transportation of the corpses fixedly, he might have told Takumi that there was a chute nearby and had shown him the place to bring down the zombies.

If that was the case, then Tooru was looking even further ahead than what they had experienced until now.

The pipe shook, and another corpse was moved down.

Seeing this state, Ryou thought, “They really were things, huh”.