Chapter 185 - A Story of Day of the Dead
The meal that day was spaghetti. It was nothing more than dried noodles boiled and mixed with tomato sauce made from canned whole tomatoes, but in these times, it could be called a fine meal. Of course, all the ingredients were brought out from the Brotherhood's base.
"How long has it been since I've been able to eat something like this..."
Among the residents of the landfill, who seemed to have been unable to eat a decent meal for a long time, there were even those who shed tears while eating the spaghetti. This was because the food that was originally in the shopping mall at the landfill and the food left in the city had all been requisitioned by the Brotherhood. Because of that, the residents of the landfill seemed to have been fishing, catching birds, and in bad times, even catching and eating rats.
It was natural for them to eat with joy. Although there were no seconds, the food was served in slightly large portions as compensation for their past hardships.
Regarding those rescued from the Brotherhood's base, they are being detained separately from the residents, just like the other members. As for the doctor, it was decided to grant him freedom of movement under surveillance. According to his testimony, there was no fact that the doctor was involved in active murder, and since his skills are useful, it was decided to have him be of service to the residents.
Among the rescued individuals, there were also two technicians. One reportedly held qualifications related to electrical work and was involved in the power supply at the Brotherhood's base. The other had metalworking skills and had apparently been attaching handmade suppressors to the firearms equipped by the Brotherhood. The suppressor on the submachine gun possessed by the members who attacked the boy and Sato's safe house was also apparently made by him.
Regarding the three people—the doctor and the technicians—it was decided to handle them differently from the other members. Also, regarding Fushimi, who contributed to the supply procurement this time, it was decided to grant him a certain amount of freedom in his actions, although under surveillance, just like the doctor. As for the other members, although detention will continue for the time being, freedom will be granted to those who show a cooperative attitude. It takes manpower to monitor them, and above all, there is a shortage of people everywhere right now. Rather than keeping them locked in a room in an apartment, if they were not going to be hostile, it was a situation where we definitely wanted them to become allies.
"Aren't you eating?"
It was Aki who asked that with a plate of spaghetti in one hand. While the boy and the others were heading for supply procurement, she and the others had apparently been performing repair work on the shopping mall, which is the main living base for the residents. Her face was dirty with dust, but she looked energetic.
"No, I'll eat. I'll eat, but..."
The boy looked down at the spaghetti. The tomato sauce was as red as blood, and the muscle of the corned beef added as a meager ingredient looked just like the muscle fibers of a torn-apart human. The moment he saw that, the boy remembered Yuko's end and instinctively covered his mouth.
"Wait, are you okay? Should I go call the doctor?"
"No, I'm fine, I'm fine. It's nothing."
"No matter how you look at it, it's not nothing. Something happened, didn't it?"
Aki and the others know that Yuko died. However, they don't know what happened after that. They don't know the gruesome fact that her body was pulverized, turned into compost, and scattered in the fields. They don't know that the vegetables they were also eating were grown with fertilizer made from corpses.
The boy and the others decided to keep that fact hidden on purpose. Only a very few people, including the rescued doctor, know that the corpses were being reused as fertilizer. Originally, the work of turning corpses into fertilizer was pushed onto prisoners and those judged to be of no value within the Brotherhood, and those people were also killed as human experiments or to reduce the number of mouths to feed and became fertilizer themselves. As long as the boy and the others keep their mouths shut, no one will have to know the fact that they were eating vegetables grown with corpses.
The boy also thought that would be better. There is not a single good thing about informing them of such a cruel fact. It would only inflict immeasurable psychological damage. Especially Aki and the others must never know. Not only did the teacher they respected die, but her body was pulverized and used to make their meals—it's too cruel.
"Hey, something happened, right? I might not be very reliable, but if it's something within the range of what I can do, I'll listen to your consultation, you know?"
They were words from kindness, but for the current boy, they were too painful. He could never consult them about such a thing. Originally, it was he who took Yuko's life. On top of that, he doesn't want to thrust any more gruesome facts upon them. Yuko died—that fact alone is enough for them to know.
"No, it's really nothing. I'm fine."
"...I see. If you say so much..."
Saying so, Aki sat in a chair. The food court of the shopping mall had become a place for the residents to eat, and everywhere, people were happily bringing spaghetti to their mouths. Everyone seemed to be rejoicing at the first decent meal in a long time.
However, they couldn't just be rejoicing. The food brought out from the base this time is only a little compared to the demand. If they do nothing, they will soon fall into a food shortage again even if they economize. The boy and the others were scheduled to head to the Brotherhood's base for supply procurement again in the near future.
"By the way, is your arm okay?"
"It still hurts a little, but there's no problem with moving it."
The boy said so and rolled up the left hem of his jacket. A bandage is wrapped around his arm, but the wound is mostly closed. There was no bleeding, and it hurts when he moves it, but that was all.
It's the wound from when the Leader stabbed him with a flathead screwdriver during their fight. This wound will likely heal without problem, but surely the mark from being stabbed will remain for a lifetime. When he forcibly pulled out the flathead screwdriver to save Aki, the bent tip part got caught and the wound widened.
Every time he sees this scar, he will surely remember the Leader. And he will likely continue to carry the regret of his deeds and the fact that he couldn't stop them for a lifetime.
Even so, the boy thought it was a selfish thing. He had seen many corpses until now. Those eaten to death by the infected, where the distinction between male and female could no longer be made. Those hit by tank shells or heavy machine guns and blown to pieces. Those who fell in heaps due to indiscriminate killing by chemical weapons, with expressions of suffering and agony stuck to their faces. Those who were charred black in bombed towns. He had seen any number of corpses in terrible states.
However, the boy felt nothing even when he saw those corpses. Even if he thought they were in a terrible state, he did not feel anger or sadness. Because those were the corpses of people the boy didn't know. There was just the fact that many people had died, and the state of the corpses was not important. That's why the boy had never buried or mourned any corpses he encountered in any place until now, and had left them as they were.
Such corpses are rolling everywhere in the city. Corpses eaten by stray dogs or birds, or exposed to wind and rain, rotting, skeletonizing, and falling apart are rolling all over the place. Now, corpses have become part of the scenery, just like empty cans or plastic bottles rolling in the city. Even if he sees such a corpse, the boy no longer thinks anything.
But when he heard that Yuko's body was pulverized and scattered in the field, anger welled up toward the Leader, and he blamed himself severely for creating the cause for that.
Even though he had hardly cared what happened to other people's corpses until now.
Until the world became like this, death was the thing furthest from the boy. His grandparents were still healthy, and no one around him had died. Death was something that could only be known through dramas or news, but even so, the boy knew that a person's death is solemn and must be handled carefully.
But in today's world, death was nothing more than something rolling all over the place. Corpses are left to rot, and there is no time to even bury them. Dignity has vanished from corpses.
That's why the fact that Yuko's body was turned into fertilizer might not be something that should be cared about that much. The boy accepted Yuko's death along with the fact that he killed her. But the fact that her death was humiliated by the Brotherhood never leaves his head.