"I wish I knew... I just keep getting the feeling we missed something..." Torako said.
"Speaking of missing... This latest incident with Akagami and Sakuma... It makes you think of all the other people who died, doesn't it?" Miyauchi said sadly. Torako stopped walking at looked at her with wide eyes.
"... That's right!" Torako said.
"Huh?" Miyauchi said as she and the others stopped to look at Torako.
"That's right... Why has Akagami-san not died yet? It's strange that no one has died, isn't it?"
"What do you mean?" Miyauchi asked.
"Mm, I get it, Fukui. We had to think about the 'corpses'!" Yarai said.
"Yeah, that's exactly it!" Torako said as she started walking again. The others moved with her. "We were focused solely on 'why has a biohazard occurred'... We didn't pay attention to the unnatural state of the corpses."
"Wh-What... What are you guys saying...?" Miyauchi asked.
"It's thank to you I get it," Torako said.
"Huh?" Miyauchi said.
"The real reason for my feeling uncomfortable... We didn't think about the dead bodies that we saw in the beginning. That more than a hundred people died around the gate all at once!" Torako said.
"But weren't you the one who kept calling attention to the fact that they died all at once?" Miyauchi said.
"That's just it! Didn't we say that of the people who caused the biohazard, more than a hundred of them went around with bacteria clinging to them? That kind of thing is impossible with that number of people. Others likely ran from place to place... judging by Akagami-san's condition, it would take them some time to die," Torako said. "But by looking at the situation, it's only likely that over one hundred people were infected all at the same time!"
"Huh? Isn't something like that impossible?" Miyauchi asked.
"No... There's only one way..." Yarai said.
"W-What are you saying..." Miyauchi asked.
"We all saw it," Yarai said.
"The dining hall," Torako said.
"Di... Dining hall...? What do you mean by that?" Miyauchi said.
"With dining halls, there's only one thing people do there," Torako said. "They ate it."
"Ate it!?" Miyauchi said, appalled.
"The biohazard that occurred here several decades ago didn't infect people through contact... It infected them orally!" Torako said. "If it was in their food, then it's possible the bacteria killed them with a fever. It might have been mixed in with the drinking water."
"Whether breakfast or lunch... they were aiming at a time when all the people in the tower ate together," Yarai said. "There's no other possibility for more than one hundred people all dying at one time!"
"Infected orally..." Yashiro said.
"So as long as they haven't gotten it in their mouths... then Akagami and Sakuma won't die?" Miyauchi asked. "B-But how are we going to prevent that? The bacteria moves around, right? Then, while we're here..."
"Let's go!" Yashiro said, taking off into a run.
"!?" the others said.
"Huh?" Miyauchi said.
"Yashiro-san!" Torako called as they hurried to catch up to him.
"The dining hall!" Yashiro said. "There might by some chance be something that had been left behind that could save them!"
YOU ARE READING
Burning Bright
FanfictionTorako is a girl who just transferred to a new middle school. She doesn't have any friends yet, but that's about to change. She's been plunged into a world where you can't survive alone. Teaming up with a guy named Yarai seemed like a good idea at t...
