Dinner was subdued that night. Not just silent while everyone ate, but beforehand as well. Zaria went down a few minutes early to try and make dinner alone. It was a pleasant surprise to find everyone else already in the kitchen. Yamashita-kun explained that when they had a loss, everyone worked together to make a goodbye meal. There was a pot with rice going on the stove, and Zaria could smell chicken baking in the oven. The teenagers were all working together at the counter, arranging frozen fruit on skewers in colorful designs. Saito-san was left to watch over the cooking food, the older gentleman likely out on guard duty.

"What can we do to help?" Zaria asked, hesitating to intrude on the group during their mourning.

"Dinner will be ready soon. You should rest some more," Saito-san assured them with a sad smile.

Zaria followed Gu Cheng back into the dining room. Her eyes kept going to the slightly darker section of the floor, the smell of cleaner so strong that her nose ached. She could clearly see Adachi-chan, trapped underneath the thing that was eating her as she faded away. She kept walking, past the seat that Gu Cheng had lowered himself into, and into the hall.

The front door offered no escape, the smell of cleaner just as strong that way. She turned toward the closed off room past the clinic, opening the door to the calligraphy room and ducking inside. The door closed as she was standing at the bare desk, her fingertips propping her up.

"Are they all going to be able to eat in there? When they just carried the bodies of people they knew out?"

"Things might be different for them than it is for us. They have lost others. That doesn't mean they aren't grieving, but what should they do? Close off the room? Never use the front door again?"

Zaria glared at Gu Cheng, but he was not looking at her. His eyes were wandering across the scrolls decorating the wall. "She was learning english. None of them know that. She thought they would make fun of her, especially after their world ended. Do you know why she still wore her uniforms every day?"

He looked to her, shaking his head silently.

"She told me 'School start again one day'. She hid how strong and smart she was because she was pretty, and that's all anyone wanted her to be. But she was so sure that everything was going to end up okay that she lowered herself to clean up after all the boys that she was saving just weeks ago out in the streets. Because she just wanted everything to go back to how it was. And she died in there, and I had to kill the thing that was EATING HER," she lowered her voice, taking a deep breath, " and then I put a chair leg through her head. And I can still see her body there. But if I don't go in there and ignore that, then I will be just a weak girl like they all thought she was."

Gu Cheng listened as she spoke, his hands in the pockets of his sweatsuit. "They are all sad that she is gone, too."

"I know they are! But she died, and none of them knew who she really was! SHE didn't even know who she was yet! And the guard, I never learned his name. I just called him the guard! And then he was killed, and I had to pull his corpse off of someone and kill him again. And I can't even be happy that we have finally figured things out between us because I have to go eat dinner two meters from where I drove chair legs into people! I'm not weak dammit!"

There were footsteps approaching, and she was worried that he was going to try and hold her, but he walked to the other side of the desk and sat in the chair there. Folding his arms on the surface, he leaned across and looked up at her angry face. "No, you are not weak. Not a single person in there wants to eat in that room, and they didn't have to do what you did. Two of them came afterward and didn't see the actual bodies. They won't think anything of you not wanting to be in there right now."

"No, but I would. I need to be there to show we are all together." Zaria drug her hands through her curls and stared at the wall through the window. "Thank you for not babying me."

He smiled, that subtle raising of the corners of his lips. "I have learned that you don't like that."

A sad smirk was his response from her. Zaria walked toward the door, ready to face the memory of the afternoon. Her hand stuck out behind her, and she waited in front of the door for him to take it. When cool, firm fingers wrapped around her own, she gave them a squeeze and exited the room.

The smell of lightly seasoned chicken covered some of the smell of bleach. Since joining the group, she had not seen them pull the frozen chicken bags from the freezer often. There were not many bags left after more than six months, and there was not the ability to get more. The only reason their electric worked was because of the solar panels layered on the roof . Nowhere else that they could see had so much as a light still on. Once the frozen chicken was gone, it would be spam and beans as their only protein from then on.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Everyone else was either sitting already or bringing the last of the serving dishes in. No one was speaking. Zaria moved toward her seat, hesitating when she saw it was missing. Her face stilled. Pure habit must have made her grab that chair earlier in the day. Gu Cheng tugged her hand gently, guiding her toward the chair that usually sat empty next to his own. It was closer to...certain areas. She straightened her shoulders, took a deep breath, and allowed him to pull the new chair out for her.

The room was silent except for the clink of serving spoons moving things to bowls and metal chopsticks lightly hitting porcelain. Saito-san ate very little before rising and making a bowl to take out to the gentleman they all called Sensei who guarded at night. When she returned, she stared into her own bowl before beginning to eat with determination.

Zaria did not put much into her bowl, shaking her head slightly when Gu Cheng moved to add more. She knew she would not be able to eat it. There was no wasting of food in this world. Anything that was not finished from the serving bowl would be put into containers and then moved into the refrigerator. Anything leftover in a personal bowl was waste. With so little available to them, waste was anathema to them.

When the bowls are empty, chairs moved back with subtle scraping noises on the wood floor. Nobody spoke for some time. Eyes were pointed downward, hands still where they lay on laps.

The first to speak was Saito-san. Gu Cheng whispered the translation in Zaria's ear. "We have lost more of our family today. We do not have the luxury of sending them off properly, but I will set up the incense and other items near the door in the morning."

No one spoke or contributed in any other way, and after a moment, she continued. "We no longer have the numbers to continue as we have done before. Seven remain. There might have been less if not for someone saving those of us with duties that kept us in the home. We are now short a gate guard, a gatherer, and those who kept us all fed and everything clean. We need to discuss how we will continue."

Ito-kun, the young man who had styled himself the leader of the gatherers before the arrival of Gu Cheng, spoke angrily. Gu Cheng stopped translating after a few words and snapped at him. Zaria could not understand what was said, but she got the gist from the first part that was repeated in English. The group devolved into an argument, four of the others raising their voices. The room began to get cold as Gu Cheng refrained from ordering everyone around and held in his anger. Zaria rubbed her temples, the voices overlapping and ringing gongs in her brain.

"Stop." She slapped her hand forcefully on the table. There was instant silence. She stood up and faced the lot of them. "We are past the point of sticking to the ideas of traditional roles now." She managed not to glare at the young man who suggested that the women were responsible for cleaning up after him. Gu Cheng firmly repeated her words in Japanese. "Saito-san has kept you all alive by treating your wounds all this time. She deserves respect not just as your elder but as someone far more skilled and trained than any of the rest of us. Her job is not to dump the piss from your pot just because she is a woman. I won't do it because we are all near adults and nobody here needs to be babied. Everyone here has a skill. They should all be used. Nobody here has to clean up after anyone else. I have a suggestion, if everyone is calm enough to listen."

Zaria waited until Gu Cheng finished speaking, watching the faces of the others. Ito-kun and Yamada-kun seemed irritated, but they were quiet, so she continued.

"Yamashita-kun has been working on a way to communicate quietly over distance and setting up a remote monitoring system to help the gatherers. Yamashita-kun, after I am done, perhaps you could explain. Anything that could offer some warning to the gatherers could keep tragedy away in the future." Yamashita-kun nodded, and she continued. "The gatherers are down to three, but they have been working well together. I would leave it to those three to discuss if they believe it could safely be done with just three. But for the next few days, I think they should rest, and Gu Cheng can explain later our reasoning. As for Saito-san, she has no less to do with fewer people to care for. We are all in more dangerous positions with fewer eyes looking for danger, and her work may actually increase. More chances have to be taken, fewer of us watching each other's backs. There will be more injuries as a result." Zaria paused when Saito-san cautiously raised a hand.

"If there is not an emergency, I do not mind making simple dinners as well. But if I need help with them and ask, I hope to receive help."

"That is very helpful. Thank you, Saito-san. I will help when able as well. It may be less often than I would like. I will be taking over the daytime gate duty." She could see Gu Cheng was unhappy, but she kept going. "As for cleaning up dishes, rooms, all the things that we no longer have someone to do, we clean up after ourselves when it is a personal issue, and we work together on the rest. If anyone has not seen the waste set up in the backyard, then they need to learn it. Does anyone have any objections or ways to improve this idea?"

Zaria sat back down and watched the reactions of the others. It was obvious the boys still felt rankled, but they had nothing to complain about because they were not being asked to do pot duty for anyone but their selves. When nobody objected, Zaria indicated that Yamashita-kun should speak his part. She already knew his plan, so she zoned out a bit as Gu Cheng began the translation.

There were many things that concerned her about her own plan, but there was nothing she could think of to do anything better. Weapons were a big issue. While wrapping the body of the guard, she saw the initial bite that brought the infection into their home. The zombie that had been waving through the gate had gotten his arm somehow. The only weapons the guards had were bats and a long kitchen knife. How nobody had not been bitten while getting close enough to stab before was a miracle and a mystery. They needed a weapon better suited for guards, as well as a better setup. When it rained, for instance, they stood in it with umbrellas, leaving them with one hand to defend their self.

Zaria closed her eyes, listening to the quick talking that she still could not understand, and began to think of better plans.