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Published at 13th of July 2022 05:41:35 AM


Chapter 13

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Chapter 13 – To kill or to spare

I wonder why I feel so sick. I didn’t feel this bad when I killed my neighbor Tanaka… Nor at the day my grandfather died.

While trying to sort out my feelings, I ended up rummaging through my pockets, and as I did this, I found it. The source of those unpleasant feelings was right here… Antidote. The item I got yesterday was on my pocket all along.

If I had been a bit calmer. If I had thought more carefully… I could have prevented this situation.

As I started to think about what could have happened, a terribly unpleasant sensation took over my body, and I could not hold it back for long before all sorts of things flew back from my stomach. I vomited it all out. I let it all fall out of the window…

This isn’t like me. I’m sorry that I didn’t think of a solution when I had the opportunity to help them out, but I shouldn’t be worrying about what has already passed… Let’s use this as a lesson. I will not make this kind of mistake again.

As I made this decision, I turned around to leave the classroom that I was resting at, but then I saw Rika standing right in front of the door, she said, “Uhn…” Understandably, she was looking a bit troubled right now

“You need something?” I asked her.

“We’ll be discussing how to handle the situation of the Mizutanis… Dad would like your opinion on it, senpai.” Rika answered… Mizutanis though? Who are the-

Ah… Must be those two men who became zombies, as well as the rest of their family, “Okay. I’ll be right there.”

As soon as I said that, I hurriedly drank a bit of water from my bottle before spitting it out through the window again.

After that, we both left the classroom and started walking together. I felt a bit awkward, but eventually managed to say, “Sorry that you had to see that…”

Rika however, smiled a bit and said, “Don’t worry. I’m glad I could see it actually.”

“You were what…?” I couldn’t help asking her.

“You’re also a human. You also have weak points. That’s important on its own right.” She explained.

“I’m not that different from everyone else… I’m also pretty worried about this whole situation, you know?” I told her.

“I know, right!? Yet I’ve been hearing some people say some horrible things like ‘she has no feelings’ or ‘she’s just like a robot, she has no fear’ and the like, you know!?” She replied.

“Ah… I see.” Was all I could give as an answer. I was trying to lay low and be as inconspicuous as possible, but I guess it was a bit too much to ask for after calmly swinging my sword to kill zombies like I did a small while back…

Well, I suppose I’ll just have to worry about this later, for we were about to reach the meeting point. The third classroom of the second years.

***

Me and the adults were all sat together in a circle. Everyone was using chairs, though one old man in particular was in a wheelchair. Though this one had no wound on his shoulder at least… We were 17 people total, and were discussing what would be the fate of both Mizutanis. Mrs. Mizutani was, of course, also present.

“It’s too dangerous!” Mr. Sasaki, the English teacher, exclaimed that.

“But…” Mrs. Mizutani still didn’t seem to accept what we needed to do now.

Rika’s father, Asada Gozou, decided to intervene, “I have known you and your family for quite some time now, Mrs. Mizutani, and I’d really like to help you out in any way that I can, but… I’m afraid we cannot call someone who is still moving after being stabbed on the chest, a human.” He told her.

“B-but…” She still had a hard time accepting it.

“Look, we don’t know much about your husband’s condition, but if we go by what is in movies, there is no way to turn back once you have become one of them.” Mr. Sasaki said plainly.

“Wait, how can we just go assuming that the things we saw in movies is how those things behave in real life!?” The PE teacher, Suzuki Asaka, intervened.

“What other choice do we have? So far everything we saw is consistent with what we’ve seen in movies… At this point, it wouldn’t surprise me if this was caused by some biological weapon made to replicate the exact experience of the… Of those things we know of.” Mr. Sasaki told her, refusing to budge, though also avoiding to say the word ‘zombie’ out loud, even though we all knew what he meant.

In more peaceful times, I’d probably have laughed at someone seriously talking about biological weapons making zombies, but… After seeing what we have seen so far, nobody dared laughing at his comment.

Though I wonder if there is any merit into thinking about why this is happening… Does it really matter if this was someone’s plan or not?

At this point, Mrs. Mizutani was already crying and trembling non-stop. There was a woman hugging her and trying to comfort her, but Mrs. Mizutani still tried to cling to hope somehow, “Forever… Can’t we just… Keep them there?” She asked.

Mr. Sasaki was clearly feeling horrible right now, but still, he made his reply, “I’m deeply sorry for your husband, but… It’s too dangerous. Everyone already saw how strong someone that was bitten is. Even if they’re slow, they can still tear people apart with their bare hands… There is no way to guarantee that they won’t be able to break the classroom’s door and endanger everyone inside the school.”

… Coming to think of it, I didn’t try worrying about it much so far, but the zombies’ power is definitely out of the ordinary. I really should be more careful when handling them from now on.

“C-can’t we lock down that area and stop people from getting near…?” Mrs. Mizutani asked.

“How? Their movements are unpredictable, we can’t be sure they’ll act according to our plans… Moreover, we can’t be sure that no children will move closer to that place. I understand how you feel, but we must make sure that no one else is hurt by this now.” Mr. Sasaki seemed to be hurt by every word that he spoke, but he made sure to deliver the message.

The room became silent. Nobody tried arguing any further. Everybody understood that Mr. Sasaki was right after all… But he was the one willing to take the hateful role of being the bringer of bad news. It was quite courageous of him.

If only he was as good at teaching English as he was at convincing others of his point… Maybe I wouldn’t hate English if he was.

“Then…” Mr. Asada, who was our leader of sorts, took a deep breath before continuing, “I understand that it won’t be of much help, but… Mrs. Mizutani, I’m sure that your husband wouldn’t want to continue living the way he is right now.”

Mrs. Mizutani just started crying even more than she was before. As she sobbed, the women near her hugged her and tried to calm her down… There wasn’t much more that they could do aside from comforting her.

“Then… Regarding the fate of Mr. Mizutani…” As Mr. Asada said that, everyone’s eyes turned towards me at once, “It’s hard to say it, but…” well, I thought it would come to this, “It’s alright if you don’t want to do it. You’re still a student after all… But… I mean… You just… Seem used to this. I think.” He seemed to be having a really hard time saying it. He seemed to be desperately trying to find the right words for this.

I’m not used to this though. It just dealt with the zombies because I needed to. But it seems that this act alone ended up automatically having me decided to be the executioner, because I am the only person to have handled them so far.

It made me remember a time back in elementary, where I was forced to erase the blackboard because nobody else wanted to do it… I hate this feeling.

“I can do it.” I told them. But then I continued, for I was not going to let them push all the work they don’t want to do on me, “However, I think everyone should start getting ready to do this sort of thing. For I’m sure that it will be necessary for others to act in the future.”

Nobody replied for a while. They did not seem to think I was wrong… but they did not seem willing to dirty their hands either.

Mr. Asada decided he needed to break the silence, “If you ever end up being charged for murder because of this, you have my word that I’ll testify for you. I promise that I’ll tell anyone that asks, that it was me that ordered you to do it.”

I think he was trying to make amends and trying to offer me some relief, but unfortunately those words provided me no comfort.




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