Ch.87Chapter 12. New Life (2)

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Drive, plant.

I don’t care whether the stake, about the length of a mop handle, gets pulled out or breaks.

Sharpening the end of the stake, stabbing it into a zombie’s body, wounding them—that’s enough.

The zombies attack their injured comrade. While they’re busy devouring their victim, I pick up a stone and throw it with a thud. That’s one more prey for them.

The zombie hit by the stone crawls desperately toward me. Another zombie sinks its teeth into the crawler’s legs and buttocks. Not a scene worth watching, so I walk back to the pickup truck.

Both women are sitting in the pickup truck’s bed. Cassandra is sharpening the end of a wooden pole, while Camilla holds a rifle, keeping watch. As I approach, Camilla hands me another pole.

“Johan. Didn’t we clear this area before?”

We’re currently stopped in the plains near our safe house—a fire station on the outskirts of Hampton. There are quite a lot of zombies. Just as expected.

“I left some security measures.”

“What kind of measures?”

“Remember the zombies on the second floor of the fire station? I left them there. If we leave them, they’ll rot, and that will attract all the zombies in the area.”

Cassandra stops whittling the wood. Camilla also looks a bit disgusted.

“Why would you do that?”

“I told you. Security measures. With zombies crawling around, potential thieves won’t come near, and conversely, if zombies are lying around, it means humans are nearby, so we should run away quickly.”

Hearing my answer, Cassandra resumes carving the pole with her hunting knife. Swish. Swish. She skillfully shaves along the grain.

“You’re used to living in places like this.”

“No choice if you want to survive. You should be too, Cassandra.”

“I wonder if a lab doctor can adapt so easily.”

Camilla shakes her head. Cassandra stops her hands again.

“I’ll be right back.”

The atmosphere feels tense. I take the pole and walk leisurely toward the zombies.

Did I misjudge?

I thought putting the two of them together would help them become friends, but it’s not working at all. The situation seems to be getting worse. It’s not about who’s better or worse—their personalities are just too different.

Cassandra, well, aside from her peculiar way of speaking, she really doesn’t communicate well.

More precisely, she speaks in a way that “makes sense but requires you to listen to the end to understand the full context.” When I was young, adults would say, “Smart kids talk like that.”

Because their thoughts move faster than their mouths can keep up, it sounds like they’re skipping parts, but once they speak calmly, they can be quite articulate.

But Camilla is the complete opposite. She’s somewhat impatient, has clear likes and dislikes, strong opinions, and occasionally shows a hot temper.

Not that Cassandra is docile either.

“Well, being docile doesn’t prevent fights anyway.”

I approach another group. A zombie stands in a reed field at an awkward height between knee and ankle.

The pole is long enough, the zombie approaches me, and I mindlessly stab it in the stomach.

“GYAAAAARGH!”

In that moment.

Something felt off. As soon as it screamed, the surrounding reed field shook all at once. I ran without looking back.

I could see Camilla aiming her rifle in my direction and Cassandra gesturing wildly.

I sprinted back to our vehicle in one breath. Looking back while catching my breath:

“W-what, what was that just now?”

Camilla is still aiming her rifle. Cassandra speaks instead.

“…When the zombie impaled on the spear screamed, zombies crawled out of the reed field all at once. They can’t walk properly. Now they’re eating their comrade.”

Does she mean the ambushing zombies moved in response to a signal?

“Camilla. Did you see it too?”

Camilla lowers her rifle. She glances at Cassandra, then shakes her head.

“Well, from what I saw, they came out simultaneously. It looked like they ‘detected’ you, not ‘heard’ the sound.”

“No. They came out after hearing the sound. Cassandra saw it clearly.”

“They came out regardless of the sound, I’m telling you. I saw it through the scope.”

“Cassandra has good eyesight.”

“Oh, really? This scope can magnify, you know?”

“How far is it from here to there anyway?”

This is going to turn into a fight. Or maybe it already has.

“Stop. Please stop. What’s wrong with you two?”

Seriously, what’s wrong with them? Both Cassandra and Camilla glare at me. Cassandra lets out a mocking laugh, while Camilla gets angry.

“Are you getting mad at me now?”

“No, I’m not getting mad…”

“Hey. Give me that pole. Johan, let’s switch.”

Camilla takes the pole and walks away. I pick up the rifle and keep watch. The lonely road through the wilderness remains unchanged, as does the strange harmony between dead trees and lush weeds.

“Johan.”

“Yes?”

“Cassandra is lonely and scared. Can I hug you?”

“Only from behind.”

Something soft and squishy touches me, but it sends chills down my spine. For no reason, I find myself grinning.

Camilla looks over at us and shakes her head in disbelief. Her long red hair flutters in all directions.

* * * * *

We arrived at the safe house late in the evening. Fortunately, everything was as we left it. Except for the zombies wandering around. We lured them to a suitable spot, then entered the basement.

“Clear.”

“Clear here too.”

“Good work.”

Camilla and I lower our pistols simultaneously. With perfect timing, Cassandra turns on the LED light. She holds it at waist height, but the light is blocked by her chest, making her face invisible.

“…I’m hungry.”

Camilla plops down on a chair. But when she sees Cassandra and me heading to the food storage together, she jumps back up.

“I’ll bring it for you.”

“No. I want to choose my own.”

The food supplies are still intact. Cassandra can’t take her eyes off the “Kibele” canned products.

“By the way, Cassandra. Thanks. I did what you told me, and I felt less hungry. But how did you know Kibele canned food shouldn’t be eaten as is?”

“It contains ingredients that stimulate hunger.”

Camilla drops her water bottle, and I nearly bite my tongue. Cassandra calmly picks up a “Raki” brand can. It’s bread with strawberry jam.

“Wait, what? What’s in it?”

“All Kibele food products contain appetite-enhancing ingredients. They activate specific cells in the brain.”

Camilla, seemingly dumbfounded, gulps down an entire 500ml bottle of water. I’m also stunned and ask:

“They put that crap in there? Why?”

“When people are hungry, all they can think about is eating. Freedom, struggle, whatever it is. You need to eat to survive, right? It’s not in products exported abroad. Only in domestic Elza products. Elza people are… used to it.”

“…I’m not eating.”

Camilla tries to leave. I grab her arm.

“Let go.”

“Camilla. Don’t act like a child.”

I had to say it. Of course, Camilla didn’t stay quiet.

“Child? Child? Did you just call me a child? You expect me to stay calm after hearing this? Not just me, but Elza people have been eating Kibele all their lives! It tastes awful, but it’s the cheapest!

Poor kids would starve without Kibele! And it’s not just kids! Adults, poor laborers, they absolutely depended on Kibele! And now I find out it has this crap in it! Oh, but you grew up abroad, you didn’t eat this stuff, so it doesn’t matter to you, is that it?”

“Kik.”

It was a sneer. Cassandra laughed. Camilla immediately glared at her.

“Did you just laugh?”

“It’s funny.”

“What is?”

“You normally don’t believe a word Cassandra says, but you take this at face value and get angry. It’s cute.

Your judgment doesn’t seem consistent. It’s very interesting. How a person becomes lenient in some areas and strict in others.”

Thwack.

Camilla couldn’t hold back anymore. She threw a punch at Cassandra’s face. But it was caught. Cassandra had caught it with her palm.

Camilla is quite strong, but so is Cassandra. Neither woman seemed to be giving ground.

But perhaps physical endurance has its limits. Cassandra gradually lost strength, while Camilla seemed to be pushing harder.

I walked past the two women locked in their power struggle. I sat on a box and opened a bag of chocolate. It was a Kibele product. I chose it deliberately.

It had peanuts in it, and the more I chewed, the more peculiar the taste became. Not the kind of taste you’d expect from chocolate, but more like corn syrup, or the mild sweetness you get from chewing a well-baked potato for a long time.

“It’s true. I am getting hungry. I should eat something else.”

Making a fire underground is taboo. Especially in a place without proper ventilation like this.

But watching these two women in their power struggle made me want to just cook some stew.

I lit the solid fuel and opened a Kibele can. Beef stew with tomato puree. I pulled the lid wide open and waited; it didn’t take long to start bubbling.

“Eeeeek!”

“Nggghhhh…”

Camilla and Cassandra were pushing against each other with interlocked fingers. But their position was… somewhat awkward. Clearly, Camilla was dominating.

The problem was that Cassandra’s chest was too large.

The closer they got, the more their chests pressed against each other. Their breasts were slightly squished together.

Each time, it was Camilla who tried to pull away. Well, I understand to some extent. If I were wrestling with a man and our parts touched, I’d feel uncomfortable too.

“D-don’t rub against me!”

Camilla shouted.

“You stop pulling away and stay still!”

Cassandra fired back.

“Oh, it’s done.”

I covered the solid fuel to extinguish it. Knowing it would taste bland on its own, I crushed an unsalted cracker and added it. Surprisingly, this balanced the flavor.

“Thank you for the meal. Well, not as good as my cooking, but still pretty tasty.”

Growl.

Both women’s stomachs rumbled in unison. Well, the basement was filled with the aroma.

“Eeek!”

Camilla was the first to break the balance. She boldly extended her leg and swept Cassandra’s ankle. A textbook fighting technique. But.

“Kyaaak!”

Perhaps because she disliked their chests touching, she pulled her body back. The technique was too shallow, and Cassandra responded by clinging forward instead of falling. The two came so close they could almost kiss.

Their stomachs touched, so the pressure on their chests was even more intense. I stared intently at the provocative scene, momentarily forgetting about my meal.

“Hey.”

“Johan?”

The two women finally backed away from each other in disgust. I put aside my empty can and asked them:

“So what do you want for dinner?”

And so the night deepens.

* * * * *

“Johan.”

Camilla came to my room. Carrying her cot and blanket.