The next day, I was awakened before dawn by the vibrations Mai made as she slipped into my bed. I guess it was time for a kiss.
We looked at each other silently so we wouldn’t wake the others and then began kissing. Yet the person sleeping on the bottom bunk nearest the hallway woke up. Who was it that was sleeping there? …Oh, that’s right.
I stiffened involuntarily as Kamiji looked around, then quietly left the room. I wondered if she was going to the bathroom.
“That was…kind of thrilling,” Mai said, laughing after our kiss was interrupted.
“Yeah, though it isn’t like we were doing anything wrong.”
“We weren’t…? I think kissing in a room full of people is fairly indecent.”
“…Now that you mention it, I guess you’re right. We’ve been kissing in front of the others so many times that my senses have gone numb.”
“I see… So is that why you tried to fondle Hyuuga’s breasts here last night?”
“Huh…?!”
“Even if you’re whispering, the person in the next bed can hear you rather well.”
“…I’m sorry…”
“I know that the two of you are lovers, but I don’t think it’s right to do something like that in the same room as everyone else.”
“I’m really sorry…”
…Huh? Hadn’t Mai tried to come on to me in this same bed yesterday…?
“…For the record, please forget what I suggested yesterday. Just consider it me talking in my sleep.”
In the dark of the room, Mai hung her head. I guess that had been weighing on her.
“Does that mean we should also have our early morning kiss outside this room? I thought it would be a nuisance to the others if we made noise going outside and woke them up.”
“I wonder what we should do about that… We can’t exactly ask everyone for their opinion…”
She had a point.
“Anyway, let’s talk about this some other time,” I said. “It would be a bother if Haruka came to warn us again like she did yesterday…”
“All right… But I haven’t taken in enough of your saliva yet…”
Mai started sucking on my lips again and, after licking up the saliva in my mouth, returned to her bed, grinning from ear to ear.
It was almost six AM by the time we assembled in the cafeteria and started breakfast. Since the blackout, I’d started basing my day around the movement of the sun, which had made me an early riser.
We were having breakfast Japanese-style again. It was an elaborate meal consisting of rice, natto, miso soup, fried eggs, grilled salmon, and spinach with sesame seeds. Haruka and Mai, who were in charge of the cooking, worked hard to keep everyone healthy.
Just then, I remembered something important.
“Hey, Ichinose. It’s been a while since you drank that filtered water. How are you feeling?”
Ichinose stopped stirring her natto.
“I haven’t noticed any unusual symptoms so far. Maybe it depends on the person’s constitution, but I think I’ve proven that, at least in my case, it’s fine to drink the filtered river water.”
“Good. I’m glad you didn’t get sick. Thank you for putting your body on the line.”
Grateful from the bottom of my heart, I bowed my head.
In that case, it seemed like our worries over drinking water were gone.
“Okay, then as for our next objective…I want to build a room that’s strong like a fortress on the fourth floor,” I told my six dorm mates. “I’ve been thinking there’s a possibility that zombies might raid this place while I’m out, so I think it’d be best for us to have a room where everyone can hole up.”
Mai was the first to agree with my plan.
“That’s a good idea… If we decide on a hiding spot ahead of time, then we could all meet up smoothly in the event of an emergency.”
Ichinose was the next to raise her hand, and her words came out in a bit of a rush.
“I also agree. First, I think we’d need to reinforce the door. It would be ideal if we could replace it with a steel one, but even hammering a steel plate on the outside of the existing door should be effective. And we should leave all the windows on the fourth floor unlocked so we can run out to the hallway from any room. Also, we could install wireless speakers in the hallway and play music or sounds remotely to lure zombies to where we want them to go. And we could set up a sturdy rope so we can quickly move to the veranda of the floor below. We can have drills when we have time…”
“Right… Ichinose, have you been thinking about the need for us to hole up for a while?”
“Yeah. When I couldn’t sleep at night.”
“It’s a big help. Is there anything else we should have in our safe room?”
“Weapons, in case we have to force our way through zombie-infested hallways. Our goal isn’t to kill zombies; we just want to clear our way, so something like a long pole might be good.”
“A long pole? You mean like one of those big two-pronged ones they have in schools for catching intruders?”
“That works. If you have a chance, I’d like you to get us a few of those. I also considered Molotov cocktails as a weapon to take down zombies from a distance, but it’s probably better not to use them in the dorm.”
“Molotov cocktails…?”
“You fill a glass bottle with gasoline or kerosene, light it, and throw. When the bottle breaks, it starts a fire.”
“Okay… That sounds great, but you’re right; it’s probably best not to use it here.”
“Yeah. We can still make some, since we can throw them at zombies that come near the dorm. I found some kerosene left over from last year in the storage room.”
“Can we let you take care of that?”
“Sure. And if possible…we should get ahold of handguns.”
“Can you even get a handgun in Japan?”
“The police should have some.”
“Oh, right.”
Why hadn’t I realized something so simple…? I should have taken them when I saw zombies wearing police uniforms…
“So if you see a zombie in a police uniform, check and see if they’re carrying. I think the holster should be around their waist. The problem is that we aren’t likely to find spare bullets, so once we run out, that’s it. It’s not impossible to make bullets of our own, but they use gunpowder, and it would be quite a challenge.”
“Ichinose, you sure know a lot.”
“It’s just things I’ve picked up. I’ve only read about guns in mystery novels, so I could have some things wrong. By the way, we might be able to learn how to make bullets if we can go to a library.”
“There’s so much to do, I’m getting lost… For starters, we should look for steel plates for reinforcing the safe room door, wireless speakers, sturdy ropes, forked poles, and guns, right?”
“Yeah, that’s about all I can think of at the moment. The other thing we need to do is stockpile some preserved food and water in the safe room we build on the fourth floor so we can hole up there for a while.”
“Okay, got it. What’s it like on the fourth floor now, anyway?”