Chapter 10 - Episode 9: The Story of the Bridge on the River Kwai
After escaping from the junior high school which had turned into a slaughterhouse, we headed further east. There seems to be an evacuation center further east from here, as written on the map I found in a room of the elementary school, and we decided to aim for there for the time being.
If it were just me alone, I wouldn't have headed for an evacuation center and would have spent a life moving from one empty house to another as I had until now. But since we've come to act together as three including me, it's already difficult to take such a lifestyle. If there are three, the amount of supplies consumed also naturally becomes triple, and furthermore, as long as we lead a life, noises will inevitably occur. Since the risk of being noticed also becomes triple, I had no choice but to change the route.
Of course, if a good property is found, I intend to lead a life of hiding again as before. But for that, favorable conditions must be met. An apartment as high as possible so that noise doesn't reach the ground, and a supermarket or convenience store for supply procurement in the surroundings. Properties equipped with multiple safe escape routes in preparation for receiving an attack seemed to be quite few.
Four days after leaving the elementary school, we were taking a break at a convenience store we found on the way for supply replenishment.
Since this was a city that seemed to have a population of several hundred thousand, I've come to see apartments frequently after entering the town. Because this is a suburb, many people were living here as a bedroom community previously. Or rather, I haven't seen a single human until now, though.
The fact that the population is large means that the number of Infected is also large. The Infected who increase exponentially, the more humans there are in the surroundings, the more the speed of infection expansion also increases. This town also seems to have had many residents turn into Infected early on.
Since Infected live by eating humans, inevitably they will aim for places where humans are. Because they would starve to death if they stay in places where there are no humans forever. The Infected of this town also went out of the town chasing survivors, or they don't encounter Infected instead of not seeing living humans.
"It was lucky that supplies still remained..."
I enter the shop from the automatic door left open and mutter that. There are traces of people visiting the convenience store several times, and more than half of the food and drinks had disappeared from the shelves. Are there still survivors in this town, and are they visiting here frequently for supply replenishment? Or did that person die a long time ago, and are there no living humans besides us?
Just in case, I go around the shop with a metal bat in one hand and confirm safety. Employee waiting area, backroom, toilet. I checked even under the register, but there were neither humans nor Infected.
"Alright, you can enter."
When I announce that, whether she had been enduring until now, Mana-chan runs to the toilet at full speed. If it's a boy, it's okay to do it around there, but as expected, a girl can't go like that. Even Yui is doing her business in the toilet, and especially Mana-chan is not yet used to it because she was spending time in an evacuation center where electricity and water were usable until now.
When I told her that we use mineral water to flush the toilet, she was wide-eyed. If we don't intend to stay long, it's okay to leave it as is, but if we don't want to be noticed by smell or whatever, we should flush the toilet water properly.
"Well, now there are sources of foul odor everywhere."
"That's true too."
Yui, who immediately scavenged the cosmetics shelf and obtained sanitary products, answers absentmindedly.
As the temperature rises, the abandoned corpses have started to emit an intense putrid smell. Until now, the temperature was low, so the progress of putrefaction was slow, and in the meantime, wild dogs or crows ate them and the putrid smell of corpses didn't bother me much (of course, I'm used to it too), but now the season is summer.
Even now, although the number of survivors has decreased, there are people who go outside for supply procurement or whatever and are killed by Infected. Or like Mana-chan, the place they were evacuating was attacked, and although they fled, they were eventually caught and killed. In addition to that, recently Infected who starve to death are also appearing here and there, so those corpses have started to emit an intense putrid smell.
Even though I'm used to it, after all, if possible, I want to live without smelling the putrid smell. It would be good if there's a good hideout somewhere.
After securing some food and water at the convenience store, we departed. In addition to the blazing sunlight, the heavy luggage on the back robs physical strength relentlessly, but this can't be helped. I am the oldest among us, and the only male. Yui is a junior high student, and Mana-chan is even an elementary schooler. Inevitably, I have to carry a lot of luggage.
Because Mana-chan joined, the amount of luggage we have to carry also increased. Food and water for one more person increased, and it's necessary to carry various other supplies too. When I was alone, I was able to manage with food and water for one person, but since the girls who are inferior in physical strength joined, I had to carry luggage other than my own portion.
Why did I help the two, I thought so several times after leaving the evacuation center. It's less likely to be found by Infected if I'm alone, and I'm light when running away. Since there's no need to divide supplies with companions, I can live for a long time with few supplies.
Despite that, why did I help Yui and Mana-chan? I couldn't understand that myself either. I might have just met living humans after a long time and affection moved me.
However, because I took on two humans, the responsibility I must fulfill also increased significantly. From now on, I have to pay attention to the safety of Yui and Mana-chan, not just myself.
Because I'm the oldest, I had become the leader before I knew it. Which road to take, where to take a break. It had become my role to decide such things. Furthermore, because the two are non-combatant girls, it's inevitably me who becomes the main to fight when encountering Infected.
I was feeling fatigue from that. The two think it will be okay if they do as I say, and they hardly oppose what I say. It must be evidence of trust, but the feeling that I must answer that trust further cornered me.
I was just a male high school student until only three months ago. It's not that I'm doing martial arts and have higher combat ability than others, or that I'm clear-headed and a genius military strategist. My merit is just that my feet are faster than others, and I've survived until now with that. I haven't survived because I have special talent.
Such a human came to carry the lives of two people all at once. That had become a burden.
Although I don't put it into words, I was quite tired both mentally and physically. The pressure that the lives of Yui and Mana-chan are hanging on me, and the fact that I have to walk long distances while carrying heavy luggage. In addition to that, various factors overlapped and were increasing my sense of fatigue.
We, who were about to cross the river passing through the center of the town and proceed further east, were stunned by the unexpected sight.
The reinforced concrete bridge spanning the river had its central pillar vanished from the base, and the bridge girder had fallen into the river. The reinforcing bars growing from the foundation part which is barely remaining while being tattered are vivid.
"This bridge, what happened to it...?"
"It was probably blown up, by the JSDF or USFJ."
In the early stages of the pandemic, they took a method where the JSDF or USFJ cut off traffic in various places to prevent infection expansion. To shut in the Infected who are the source of infection, they physically cut off the means of movement.
Only authorized aircraft were able to take off and land from airports, and all trains were stopped. Tunnels and highways connecting various places were also blocked. However, Infected have human bodies; they follow survivors anywhere they can go with human feet.
For that reason, bridges spanning rivers and such were blown up. It was a last resort to restrict the movement of survivors along with Infected, but since the number of survivors itself had decreased by then, it didn't seem to be much of a problem. Besides that, they were bombing towns where Infected occurred in large quantities, but eventually, they couldn't contain the virus.
This bridge might also have been blown up by the JSDF as part of a Infected sweep operation. They lured a large number of Infected onto the bridge and blew it up, defeating a large number of Infected at once. Or did they blow it up while retreating to delay the pursuit of Infected? Either way, it's clear that this bridge cannot be passed.
"What shall we do, swim across?"
"Don't say reckless things, it's impossible to swim across this river while carrying this luggage."
From what I can see, the river flow doesn't seem very fast. But the depth seems to be quite a bit. It's difficult to swim across while carrying heavy luggage. There's a high possibility that we'll sink on the way and never float up again. Even though it's summer, I don't want to do life-threatening river play.
"We have no choice but to search for a bridge we can cross. I hope a safe bridge remains somewhere."
However, that possibility seems low. If they intended to cut off the movement of Infected using the river as a natural obstacle, it's meaningless unless they've blown up all the bridges from upstream to downstream. If they were thinking about the time after the Infected died out, one safe bridge might remain for human movement, but that would be in a place where people hardly enter, probably quite far upstream in the mountains. Places where humans don't pass, Infected don't pass either.
The river is quite winding, and it was impossible to confirm the state of the upstream with binoculars. Avoiding the south side of the town which was a densely populated area and where the city center was, we start walking along the river toward the north for the time being.
The bridge further upstream was also destroyed and unusable. In addition to the fact that I hadn't slept much until now, fatigue overlapped with the fact that we had to cross the river by making a large detour, and my attention and judgment were falling unconsciously.
When walking toward the north listlessly, one high-rise apartment comes into view. It's an apartment that would be at least 15 stories or more, which must have had a lawsuit occur due to sunshine problems or whatever at the time of construction. Because the height of the surrounding buildings is low, it also looks like a cactus growing suddenly in the wilderness.
"I wanted to try living in such an apartment..."
Yui grumbles. As for me, I think such a high apartment, going up and down would be very troublesome.
That aside, that apartment might be a fairly good property as a hideout for the time being. If we live on the top floor, we'll definitely not be found by Infected, and even if we make a bit of a fuss, the sound won't reach the ground. If we block the stairs, there's no fear of Infected intruding. Since electricity is stopped, the drawback would be that we have to walk relentlessly to the upper floors.
"What shall we do? Shall we rest at that apartment today?"
"Um, if possible, I want to cross the bridge and go to the east side of the town, though..."
The one who said that reservedly was Mana-chan.
I still haven't told Mana-chan that her family is dead. Because of that, Mana-chan still believes that her family is alive somewhere. The reason we are proceeding toward the east is also because of that; Mana-chan probably wants to reunite with her family as soon as possible.
My heart ached at that, but I decided not to mind it now.
"I see, then let's proceed north until we find a bridge we can cross."
As the apartment becomes larger and larger in the field of vision, I saw a bridge spanning the north side of the meandering river. When I peeked with binoculars, there are no signs of it being destroyed or becoming unusable. After going upstream for an hour, we were finally able to find a safe bridge.
That bridge seems to be near the high-rise apartment earlier. Even if there's some problem with the bridge, it's good that we can spend a night at the apartment. It's better to have many choices.
But I was full with finally finding a bridge we could pass, and I was just rushing toward the bridge without even confirming the surrounding situation. Yui and Mana-chan seemed to have said something, but such a thing doesn't enter my head even a bit. The current me was only thinking about crossing the bridge early. Taking advantage of the fact that no silhouettes of Infected were seen until now, I don't even do such a thing as stopping and confirming beyond a corner one by one.
Even when I saw the bridge entrance blocked by a large bus that seemed to have plunged in due to an accident or whatever, I didn't stop walking. There should be a gap that one person can pass somewhere, if not, we can just climb the bus and cross. While I was crossing the last T-junction while my heart danced at the bridge approaching a distance of a stone's throw, when I casually looked at the left side of the road, I opened my eyes wide.
Dozens of Infected, whom I hadn't seen even once since entering this town, were loitering on the road.
Adults, children, men, women, salarymen, housewives, students. All kinds of Infected are wandering around on the road listlessly. And their gazes, which were drifting in the void, suddenly pierced us who appeared in front of them all at once.