“…I’m bored,” Haruka murmured, stifling a yawn. “Isn’t anything exciting going to happen?”
“Don’t say something inappropriate like that.”
“But I’m booored.”
“You can always go back to the room if you want.”
“There’s no internet, so there’s nothing to do there.”
“That’s true…”
“I know this isn’t something I should be thinking two days after a zombie outbreak, but I wish I had something to help me pass the time.”
“Everything’s free, so why don’t you bring back whatever you want when we go out tomorrow?”
“I’ll do that. Let’s see, what do I want…? Something that’ll come in handy in the future, huh? Maybe I’ll pick up some boxercise gear to train with.”
“Don’t forget: Close combat against zombies is dangerous.”
“Then maybe I’ll get a bow and arrow. I can get a bunch of them, in fact, and Tsukishiro can show us all how to use them.” Haruka placed the arrow against the bowstring and pulled it back lightly. “But according to the movies, you have to hit a zombie directly through the brain to take them down, right?”
“Yeah. I don’t know if the zombies in our world are the same, but you won’t be able to become an expert at using a bow and arrow overnight.”
“In that case…should I get a baseball bat and do some practice swings?”
“That sounds good, but would you actually enjoy it?”
“Not sure. Training is important, but I also want time to play games and read.”
“Let’s think about what we want to bring back by the time we leave tomorrow.”
“You got it. Hmm… We could also look for games to play together so we can get to know everyone better.”
“Good idea.”
“What kind of games should we look for? Maybe we should ask the others to fill out a questionnaire during dinner. Anyway, Yuuma, do you feel like afternoon tea?”
“That was a sudden change in subject.”
“I was just thinking it’s almost four.”
“I’m fine, but you can go inside and grab a bite to eat in the cafeteria.”
“No, not like that. I was talking about having afternoon tea out here.”
“What, like a picnic?”
“Sort of. The dorm has furniture everywhere, so I’m sure no one would mind if we moved a table and a few chairs out here. I always dreamed of having afternoon tea outdoors, but my parents never let me; they always said the chairs would get dirty.”
“I don’t see why not. It’d be handy to have chairs out here for when we’re on guard duty.”
“Yay! So go and get them for us!”
“Who, me?”
“Sure. I’ll grab the tea and sweets.”
“That’d leave no one here to stand guard.”
“Oh right. But it should be okay if it’s just for a little while. I mean, you already tied up all the zombies in the area.”
“We can’t do that. Here, I’ll go get the table, then go back for the tea and sweets.”
“But if you’re not here, I won’t be able to deal with an emergency if something actually happens… Fine, I’ll get everything ready,” Haruka declared, then began moving furniture out of the dorm.
She carried out a round wooden table without much trouble, and I realized she was actually pretty strong. “Hup. There we go.” Then she brought two chairs and set them up next to the entrance, and we were all set to begin our elegant afternoon tea.
I was amazed by her creativity and can-do attitude to enjoy a world in an apocalypse.
“By the way, shouldn’t we invite the others?”
“I think Tsukishiro and Ichinose are still sleeping, and Hoshimiya seems to be taking a bath. We’d only be bothering them with an invitation.”
“I guess you have a point.”
“We have to set up some ground rules for living in the dorm, like when it’s okay to talk to someone when they’re in their room.”
“Yeah, definitely. Maybe we should have people put up a DO NOT DISTURB sign outside their door when they’re sleeping… That said, it’s a pain in the ass having to go to the fifth floor every time we want to call them downstairs.”
“Should we ask Hoshimiya and Ichinose to move to the ground floor?”
“Yeah, probably. For the dorm rules, we also need to figure out how to make it more efficient to use the one bath we have for both men and women.”
“It would be annoying having separate times for each gender; it’s better if everyone can use it whenever they want. We could make a sign that says MEN on the front and WOMEN on the back—and hang it on the door while we’re using the bath.”
“We’d still need to have some sort of idea who’s using the bath at what time, though, otherwise we’ll just end up—”
“Aaaaahh!!”
All of a sudden, we heard a scream from the direction of the bath. It sounded like Hoshimiya.
“Aaahh! Nooo!”
Hoshimiya kept screaming, the panic clear in her voice. She must be in trouble over there.
Had a zombie somehow managed to get in?!
“Yuuma!”
“Haruka, wait here!”
I ran inside the building without taking off my shoes and came to a stop in front of the changing area for the bath.
What if it wasn’t a zombie that Hoshimiya had encountered, but just a large bug or something? I hadn’t heard the sound of a window breaking… Still, if it was a zombie attacking her, Hoshimiya’s life might be in danger.
I braced myself, opened the door to the changing room, and ran into the bathroom. Hoshimiya was covered in a bright-red liquid from the neck down, trying to wipe it off. I was shocked; that looked like zombie blood.
A few seconds later, I smelled a telltale putrid odor. But I couldn’t find the attacker.
“Are you all right? Where’s the zombie?”
“—Aaahh!!”
Hoshimiya covered her chest with her hands and squatted down. It wasn’t wrong for a girl to react like that in this sort of situation, but we had bigger issues right now.
“Tell me where the zombie is!!”
“…It’s not that. The water coming out of the shower just suddenly went all weird…,” she said, pointing to the detachable showerhead on the floor. The floor was stained bright red around it.
I turned the showerhead toward the wall and ran the hot water. What came out instead was polluted water, reeking of decay.
“It may contain the zombie virus! You have to wash it off quickly!”
But turning on all the other showers only released more nasty-smelling hot water.
“Oh! Get in the bath!” I said, and Hoshimiya dived in the bathtub.
The zombie blood clinging to her body dissolved in the hot water, but we couldn’t let ourselves relax just yet.
“The virus might still be alive, so hurry and get out of the wat—”