…But I suppose it was natural for a girl to worry about her boyfriend. I’d probably be just as frustrated if I were in her shoes…
“I’m sorry. I’ll refuse next time if you don’t like it… But I don’t want to tell the others about us, since they’ll only start worrying.”
“…Hee-hee-hee. That sounds like something a guy would say to his girlfriend.” Haruka smiled. “Okay, I’ll forgive you this time since you finally seem to have figured out how to act as my boyfriend. However…if something like this happens again, I’ll break it.”
“Break…what?”
Once everyone had finally finished bathing, we put out the fire that was heating the bath, threw out the water, and headed home. We left the drum where it was since we’d be using it again tomorrow and every day after that.
It might be because it was everyone’s first time outside in a while and we’d enjoyed an outdoor bath, which was out of the ordinary, but the mood in the car was upbeat on the way home. Haruka was right; it was a good thing we hadn’t given up on taking baths. Times were tough, which was exactly why we had to try to enjoy every little morsel of happiness we could find.
But once we returned to the dorm, we found that the lights wouldn’t go on.
I quickly went to the dining room and checked the main breaker, but I couldn’t see anything wrong with it.
“…Kousaka. Look,” Ichinose said, pointing out the window. “It’s starting to go dark outside, but the streetlights aren’t coming on.”
“You’re right… I didn’t notice that at all…”
The blackout seemed to be affecting the whole area. Were the power lines damaged somewhere? Or had the power plant that’d been going strong up till now finally stopped working?
We used our phones to illuminate the cafeteria, eating dinner in the dim light. However, from now on, we wouldn’t be able to use the induction cooktops, the microwave, or the refrigerator, so all the frozen food we’d brought back from the supermarket would thaw out.
“For dinner tonight, let’s just have canned foods and other things we don’t need to prepare,” Tsukishiro said, quickly coming to grips with the situation and focusing on the possibilities available to us. “Kousaka, it would be a great help if you could find a portable stove somewhere tomorrow.”
“Okay. I’ll also get us a bunch of flashlights.”
“Could you pick up some scented candles, while you’re at it?” Haruka added, relaxed as usual. “Are you going to go out to get it now?”
“No, it’s too dark outside, and I don’t want to risk an accident, so I’ll wait and go tomorrow. It might be good if we could all try to think about what we need now that the power’s out.”
Having laid out the plan, we started to eat, which was more difficult to do in the dark room than I’d imagined. For one, getting the food to your mouth accurately is a hassle. On top of that, you can’t really taste food when you can’t see it, so it’s easy to sink into a depression.
I was getting a headache just thinking about how our lives would be starting tomorrow…
“This is kind of fun,” Haruka said brightly. “It’s like we’re camping. Tomorrow, let’s bring tents and sleeping bags. Oh, and a telescope, since we should be able to see the stars clearly with the city pitch-black.”
Our one saving grace was Haruka’s unwavering optimism. Although, maybe she had a little too much energy…
After some struggle, we managed to finish our meal, and we all returned to our rooms. It was too dark to do anything, so we ended up going to bed early.
Tomorrow, as soon as the sun was up, I’d go out looking for supplies…
…A little while after falling asleep, I dreamed of a woman letting out a long, piercing cry. It was followed by Tsukishiro’s screaming voice, which seemed to come from a long way away. She sounded distraught, and it was hard to imagine the calm, collected girl I knew making a sound like that. Next, I heard the panicked footsteps of two people getting closer. They were coming from the entrance to the dorm and heading straight for my room—
The door slammed open.
All the disturbing sounds I’d been hearing were real.
Sensing the unusual atmosphere around me, I instinctively sat up in bed. Tsukishiro stood in the doorway, the light from her phone turned toward me, and I noticed a woman standing next to her. She was wearing a suit and looked to be in her early twenties.
“—Yuuma!! The gate!!”
I was still drowsy and couldn’t think straight. But Tsukishiro sounded so frantic that something terrible must have happened.
I grabbed the hemp rope I kept by my pillow and staggered out of bed.
“This lady came to the dorm!! There were so many zombies when I opened the gate!! I couldn’t close it!!”
“—I understand.”
Now that I had the basic gist of the problem, I slipped past Tsukishiro and the other woman and ran out of the room in bare feet. The hallway was dark, and I could barely see a thing, but I heard indistinct moans coming from somewhere not too far away.
There were zombies nearby. Several of them.
I ran back to my room, woke up Haruka, and put on a spare pair of shoes.
Why did this have to happen right after the power went out, of all times…?
“I’m so sorry… This is all my fault…,” Tsukishiro apologized tearfully and collapsed on the spot. She must’ve thought this would be the end for us.
I gently patted her on the head. “It’s going to be okay. I’ll take care of everything.”
She gazed up at me with a look of surprise, and I smiled.
“You were just trying to help someone. No one can blame you for that.”
With that, I reached for my metal baseball bat.
—Now, then.
I was acting cool, but there were a million things to do. I needed to protect Haruka and the two others in my room, meet up with Lisa and Ichinose upstairs, while also going out to close the gate. What was the best way to do all—?
Crash!!
Suddenly, the window facing the yard shattered. I shone the light from my phone toward it and saw a middle-aged, male zombie trying to get inside. I immediately launched myself at him, forced him outside, tied up his arms and legs, and put him on the ground.
My room was no longer safe. That said, it was too dangerous to go out into the dark hallway with no idea of how many zombies were out there.
I brushed off the shards of glass and opened the window, coming to the conclusion that it was safer for us to go outside in the moonlight.