The Midnight
It was past eleven o'clock at night, and we were walking slowly down this blood-red hallway, relying only on moonlight.
Suddenly I looked into the distance and saw artificial lights leaking from one classroom.
The lighted room was labeled '2-3'.
"Excuse me. Are you alive?"
Although I wanted to send Shōta to the classroom on the third floor where Risa and Minami were waiting for us, but since it is not in the middle of the experiment it would be better to leave them alone to get some rest. So instead I respected Shōta's kind but fundamentally strange opinion that he would have to find food for them since they would probably be hungry.
"Wow. You have plenty of food! Can't you share some of them with us?"
One of the middle school students in the classroom had been quietly having chocolate bars and snacks with a plastic tea bottle in one hand. He made a terrified face once Shōta opened the door suddenly. But he still responded to Shōta's request and threw one of the snacks, which had not yet been opened, at Shōta's feet with a shaky hand.
I was thinking that anyone would act like that if a muddy, black guy suddenly came out of blue in a super high mood and started begging for food.
"Wow. Thank you very much."
"Hey, Shōta. We're not here to scavenge for food."
Kazuhiro grabbed Shōta by the collar and pulled him like the owner of a misbehaving cat.
"No. This is mine."
"We've got plenty for you, so back off a little bit."
Kazuhiro pulled Shōta to the outside of the classroom door, only he, himself backed into the classroom and closed the door.
"Well then. Let me ask you something."
"So, you guys are seventh graders right?"
As I spoke softly, one of the middle school students who was different from last time slowly opened his mouth.
"Yes."
"Four of you, Is that all of the seventh graders?"
I scanned the four of them roughly.
"I don’t know. Perhaps there might be some others still alive."
"Would you mind asking your name?"
The middle school students looked at each other.
"I’m Ichirō Somezaki."
"Kurumi Mishima…"
"My name is Hiroyuki Kikkawa."
"Tsutomu Shiraishi."
I took out the student notebook in my pocket with a pen stuck in it, opened it to a random page, and wrote down the name of each student.
"How many middle school students originally?"
"I don’t know the specific number. There were three classes in our grade. Tsutomu, Kurumi, and I were in class 3, which had fourteen students, as I recall. Only Hiroyuki was in class 2 and…"
"I guess there were eleven students."
Hiroyuki, who was gulping down a cup of oolong tea beside Ichirō, took his mouth off the bottle and spoke.
"But because there is no survivors from class 1, the number of all middle school students is…"
"That’s fine. It must have been hard for you, losing so many friends."
Kazuhiro, who was behind me, had his back to the door and his arms crossed.
"Yes..."
Ichirō saw Kurumi leaning against the wall behind him.
Kurumi was sitting in gymnastics way, her face buried between her knees. Although I could not see her expression, I could see her shoulders shaking slightly.
"Her boyfriend was murdered by her parents…"
"I see. But for that boyfriend of yours, you have to live, right?"
I encouraged her awkwardly.
"Well, it looks like those four are the only middle schoolers left alive at the moment."
"Yes. I asked each of them what they were doing when the first experiment began, but none of them had a solid alibi."
"Make sense. It would be suspicious if they could remember where the other guys were in a situation like that."
"Hey, still not there? I’m too hungry that I might starve to death."
Shōta was next to me, waving an empty snack bag around.
"I said it's right next to your classroom. Don't you even know where your classroom is?"
Kazuhiro was disgusted with Shōta, who was always going at his own pace no matter what the situation was.
"And how can you eat such greasy food when it's already twelve o'clock at night? And in such a bloody hallway."
"If we are hungry, we will eat something. It's a normal thing, isn't it? I can eat food in the toilet or in the grave if I'm hungry."
Shōta looked triumphant.
"Look, you can see it now."
Kazuhiro pointed to a small light at the end of the hallway.
"Yes. I was longing for it. My food!"
"Hey don’t run the hallway at midnight."
Shōta ignored Kazuhiro and continued his sloppy run toward the lights. As he ran, dried mud fell from his clothes and hair as if it were a signpost.
”If this keeps going, we will definitely die."
Kazuhiro muttered in a voice that even I, who was standing next to him, could barely hear.
"Aaaaah!"
"What?"
Kazuhiro and I rushed out at once.
"What happened!"
Once inside the classroom, Minami was in tears and Risa looked as if she had seen a ghost.
"Shōta…"
"You came back to life…"
"Huh? umm, yes."
Shōta had his mouth full of the snacks that had been placed in front of them.
"What a relief."
Seeing Risa and Minami's faces relax for the first time in half a day, I couldn't help but smile as well.
"Huh? Are you a survivor?"
I turned around and Kazuhiro pointed to a corner of the classroom.
I looked closely and saw someone sitting quietly and looking at us.
"Yes. His name is Hiroto Momii. He is the survivor of middle school students."
"Well, it’s good to have more survivors."
"Why don't you come over here, too? We can have some snacks together."
Risa gave a sad look on me at my words.
"He was traumatized that he couldn't speak anymore. He was a bit of a shy person from before, but now that this happened, it got even worse…"
"I see..."
I suddenly thought of Kurumi Mishima.
"Everyone feels hard, isn't it."
"Hey, Shōta. Let's stop eating and get to sleep. Tomorrow's experiments starts at 8:30 a.m."
"Huh? Okay. I got it."
Although he said like that, Shōta never stopped eating.
”You'll get fat if you eat this late at night, Shōta."
"Shōta, you have to chew a lot."
I could hear Kazuhiro and the others laughing in my ears, and in my field of vision, everyone was smiling happily and cheering with glee.
"I would be happy, unless we are alive…"
