Chapter 30 - The Right Person in the Right Place
The door to the studio opened with a click, and the inside of the room became filled with light.
“…”
It was Sakura who entered.
She had a red rod-shaped something in her hands.
The monster with its four limbs severed was still tied up, and it looked up at Sakura.
“Can you hear me?”
The monster nodded to her question.
Sakura approached the monster with brisk steps, squatted in front of it, and softly stroked its cheek.
Her expression was full of affection, and the monster delightfully squinted.
Sakura unfastened the gag and shoved the red object into its mouth instead.
“Heal.”
The monster nodded and moved its mouth as it chewed.
Before long, it opened its mouth wide.
A string of saliva hung between its upper and lower jaws.
And then, it showed the red thing to Sakura.
Faintly seeing the dark blood vessels and muscle, it became clear that it was the monster’s tongue.
“Hehe, good child…”
Sakura stroked the monster’s head, and forced the gag once again into its mouth before leaving the room.
Because of the danger of someone coming to visit it, it was important to take certain measures.
Closing the door, the room once again fell into darkness.
“Well then, I’d like to start the meeting.”
The survivors were gathered in the conference room, sitting in a circle.
“What I want to talk about today is, well, primarily, what we’ll be doing from now on. First off, we need to procure supplies before the snow falls. It’ll become troublesome if it snows. So, about the place we will procure supplies from…”
Tooru started writing letters on the whiteboard.
“...I think the shopping mall is unreasonable since there will be crowds of zombies there. As far as I could see on my way here, there weren’t too many zombies in the shopping district, but the street is basically one way, so it is very likely that we won’t return if we get trapped there. Do you have any good ideas?”
“Hmm.” Daiki folded his arms.
“Then, wouldn’t raiding convenience stores be good?”
“But, there is a likelihood that it would be a waste of time because it’s already too late, so there might not be any more supplies in the convenience stores in this area.”
“Then, if all the safe places are taken, aren’t there only dangerous places left?”
“Yeah. Therefore, I thought maybe you would know a good place.”
Thereupon, Shinji opened his mouth.
“I think the shopping district is good. We’d obtain various kinds of supplies at once, and if, for example, we were trapped, we would still be able to break through if there’s a certain amount somehow.”
He wasn’t sure if they’d be able to do it somehow, but it was certainly a good place for all kinds of supplies.
“Even if you say ‘somehow’, it’s too dangerous. As one would expect, if 100 zombies came we can’t do anything. Well, if we had a weapon that could scatter around at once, it could work though.”
Seiji rebutted Shinji.
However, whether it was humilating to be pointed at, Shinji raise his voice a little as he objected.
“However, it’s obvious that we can’t do anything without supplies. Or, do you want us to stay here, quietly starving to death?”
“Huh? That’s not what I said. Are your ears merely decorations!? Or, has your brain become rotten already!? Huh!?”
“Hey, Seiji, calm down!”
Everyone stopped Seiji who had raised his hand against Shinji.
Although Seiji sat down first, he glared at Shinji with his sanpaku eyes1.
However, Shinji shrugged his shoulders helplessly, and directed his opinion to Tooru.
“How about it? I think the shopping district is a good idea. It’s temporary, but you’re the leader here. You decide.”
This was a very difficult problem.
Still, the most hopeless leader was the one who wavered.
If their leader wavered, the hesitation would be transmitted to them.
And so, Tooru made his decision.
“...I understand. Let’s go to the shopping district.”
Shinji looked at Seiji with triumphant eyes.
“Still, it’s dangerous to be attacked from both sides, so we’ll devise a countermeasure.”
“Countermeasure…?”
Nodding to Yuuki’s question, Tooru indicated to Ryou to bring his phone.
“Ryou, is there a rough sketch of the sewer systems of this town reported?”
“No, it’s not reported, but…”
“But?”
“Since school and the shopping district aren’t that far apart, if we went the wrong direction, I think we’d end up in the manhole of the shopping district.”
“OK. First, some of the boys will go from the manhole in front of the school entrance to the shopping district and check where the manhole is connected. Since it’s necessary to have an escape route in case it got dangerous. The rest of the boys will modify a functioning car, I guess? Weld the iron plate in the tech room, and make an armored vehicle. A silent car would be good, but it’s unreasonable to attach more than armor. As for the girls, it’ll be laundry, I guess.”
“Laundry? Using the valuable water?”
Miu raised her doubt but made it into an assumption.
“According to the weather forecast the week before the infection, it would rain tomorrow. Let’s store the rainwater in a container and wash with it.”
“Alright, let’s start gathering material straight away!”
Daiki stood up triumphantly.
However, Tooru reined him in.
“Daiki is on manhole duty.”
“Manhole duty? What do you mean by that?”
“You might not have realized it, but manholes are absurdly heavy. It’ll be around 50kg. The lid here is probably ancient and has no lock, so we’ll have to open it with Daiki’s strength.”
“Oh, so that’s how it is…”
Daiki dropped his shoulders dejectedly.
Although he wanted to remodel the car, there was no other way.
This was what “the right person in the right place” meant.
- I mentioned this in earlier chapters, but it basically means that his eyes are intimidating. ↑