Return Before the Apocalypse: The Countdown Only I Remember

Chapter 5 - The Hunger We Hide

“That was so much worse than before. How many people do you think will survive, Kil?”

Kil raised his left hand and held up all five fingers.

“What? You're saying half the population's gone?”

Kil kept all five fingers raised.

“Most likely, only five percent of the city's population survived.”

“Y-you're kidding, right? There's no way only five percent survived, is there?”

Kil shook his head slightly, then sighed.

“Your family's powerful. That may give them a chance. But I don't know what happened to them, Axel.”

“Kil! You have family, too, don't you? Aren't you scared something might happen to them?”

Kil looked at Axel's pale face. His own mouth tightened.

“I have an unreliable little brother. Of course I'm worried about the kid. But…

“Since there's nothing I can do right now, all I can do is hope he's okay. Beyond that, I can only survive and try to find him when circumstances allow.”

“We have to wait for things to get better?”

“Things may never get better, Axel. We'll try to find them once we're strong enough.

“As for hoping the world will go back to normal… let's forget about that for now.”

Axel lowered his eyes, then looked toward the roads beyond the wall. Kil waited, unable to offer him anything more.

“Forget it! Come help me!”

Leaving Axel behind, Kil headed downstairs. He found a bucket in a storage room, then went into the backyard.

An old well stood there. Since the faucets and water pump no longer worked, he used a pail and pulley to draw water.

Kil studied the clear water and nodded.

“Just as I heard back then. Besides the garden, there's a reliable water source to keep us alive.”

After a moment's hesitation, Kil drank. Cool water soothed his throat, and his shoulders loosened for the first time since the blackout.

He cleaned the bucket, filled it with water, and carried it up to the roof.

Axel stared in confusion when Kil arrived with a bucket of water.

“What are you trying to do, Kil?”

“Curious? Then help me.”

Kil walked straight to the pile of zombies. He casually dragged out a corpse, taking care to avoid its claws and teeth.

Then he took his fire ax. A zombie's skull split open with a sound like a walnut being cracked.

CRACK!

Axel, who had been about to help, turned pale. He backed away several steps and vomited.

Ignoring him, Kil reached into the skull. The brain felt soft, slimy, and springy beneath his fingers.

After removing it, he examined the point where the cerebrum met the cerebellum. There was a clean white lump of flesh about the size of a chicken's egg.

Kil took a knife, sliced off the white growth, and tossed it into the bucket of water. Then he repeated the process with another zombie's head.

One head, then another. He worked through dozens, stopping only when the bucket was full of clean white flesh.

“Whew… That was exhausting.”

Axel looked from the pile of corpses to the fresh-looking white meat in the bucket, bewildered.

“What's that, Kil?”

“I happened to notice it while killing the zombies. Since it's the only part of their bodies that looks so clean…

“It seems like it might be edible.”

Axel looked at the meat. He was so hungry that it did look delicious. But remembering that it had come from zombies—who had once been human—made him go pale again.

“You're not seriously going to eat that, are you?”

“If it disgusts you, let me try it. I've burned through enough energy since the blackout.

“We've been fighting since the blackout. Adrenaline won't keep us standing forever.

“Sooner or later, hunger will slow us down.”

“There's clean water behind the house. You can go drink some first.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Clean all this up.”

Kil surveyed the corpses around them. They were more than an eyesore; they smelled terrible, too.

“I'll help you first.”

Axel picked up a corpse by its clothes, keeping his face turned away from the open skull.

By early afternoon, the roof was clean.

They sat there, looking exhausted. Axel could not help swallowing when he saw the bucket of white meat.

“Are you sure that stuff is edible?”

“I'll try it first if you don't believe me.”

“But if we eat it… won't that make us cannibals?”

Kil looked at the meat rather than at Axel.

“Think of zombies as animals wearing human disguises. Humans eat other creatures' meat all the time, don't they?

“Just think of it as eating exotic meat.”

Axel stared at him. “Exotic meat?”

The faces beneath those split skulls had looked human enough.

Trying to change the subject, Axel suddenly remembered something.

“Hey, Kil, are there any crystals or pearls inside the zombies?”

“So we can absorb their energy and cultivate?”

“Yes!” Axel nodded.

“Sorry to burst your bubble, buddy, but there's nothing like that!”

Axel's face fell.

“That lump of flesh is the only special thing I've found. If there's a benefit in it, eating it is the only way to find out.”

Axel stared silently at the bucket, then turned to Kil.

“Isn't there another way?”

“Another way?”

“Yes. Something that doesn't mean pretending these weren't people.”

Kil's mouth tightened. He could endure the thought of eating it. He had no answer that would make Axel want to.

“No! There's no such thing as normal and humane in this world anymore!”

He picked up a piece of white meat and approached Axel with a grim expression.

“Huh? Kil? Buddy? What are you trying to do?

“No. You can't do this, buddy! No—”

Kil pushed the meat into Axel's mouth, pinned his arms, and planted a foot across his feet so he could not pull away.

Axel kept biting down and finally had no choice but to swallow. Once he had, he fell silent.

Kil stepped back. Axel wiped his mouth and pulled his arms close when Kil moved again.

“It tastes like sashimi? Refreshing, a little sweet, and slightly fatty?

“Wait! This meat is…”

He clutched his stomach in distress. He felt nauseous but could not throw up. He pointed at Kil, only to fall silent again when he saw his friend calmly taking a bite and chewing.

“You're really eating it, Kil?”

Kil shrugged at the question.

“So? Should I eat nothing and keep fighting zombies until I die?”

Axel watched him chew. He had no answer, but he kept his hands around his own portion.