Chapter 100 - Chapter 91: The Story of Our One-Day War with the Resident Officer
With this time, it's the 100th chapter including the prologue and the prequel. I'm grateful to everyone who always reads.
If it weren't for the red lamp under the eaves or the patrol car in the parking lot, the police box would have looked like nothing more than an ordinary two-story private house. The golden Rising Sun emblem, the symbol of the police, displayed at the entrance is dirty with brown clumps that seem to be splattered blood.
Many light trucks and wagons were parked in the parking lot of the police box, drifting an atmosphere as if it were just before evacuation. However, the fact that the cars are parked like this means the people who had gathered here failed to escape. The windows of the cars were broken, and the doors were left open. If parts of mummified corpses are rolling here and there, it wasn't a difficult thing to make such a prediction.
"Are there guns, I wonder?"
Aoi let out a disappointed voice. In this situation, even if they luckily find a police officer's corpse or something and obtain a gun, it could be that they've shot every last bullet. A gun without bullets is just a lump of metal. It would only serve as a substitute for a hammer.
"We're going to confirm that now."
The boy said so and threw a rusted empty steel can that had been rolling by the roadside into the parking lot. The empty can, which seemed to have been discarded for years, rotated in the air, fell into the parking lot, and made an unexpectedly loud sound. A few dozen meters ahead of the boy holding the submachine gun, a single silhouette jumped out from inside the police box with the door left open.
The silhouette that came out from inside the police box was wearing a police officer's uniform. The white shirt that should have been pure white was dingy, and the sleeves of the blue uniform were torn. And from the holster on the waist, the silver grip of a handgun is protruding.
"I'll do it."
The boy restrained Aoi, who tried to jump out carrying the crowbar she brought from the school, with his hand. One more appeared from inside the police box, and another appeared from behind the building. The one that came out from inside the building following after was a middle-aged woman wearing an apron, and the remaining one was an infected who seemed to be a white-haired elderly person. The infected, now totaling three, started to wander the parking lot while letting out groans.
"What are you going to do? It's decided that when we fight, it's only one at a time, right? Shall we leave this for later?"
"No, we just have to defeat them one by one."
Many passenger cars are left in the parking lot, and many of them are one-box cars like wagons or vans. There are many blind spots, and on top of that, the infected are scattered and wandering the parking lot. If they move from shadow to shadow of the cars, they might be able to defeat them all without being noticed.
"First I'll do it. Next, you two do it by sharing the work."
Saying so, the boy starts moving while keeping his posture low from the abandoned vehicle by the roadside where they had been hiding. After confirming that the infected are not facing here, he hid in the shadow of one of the wagon cars stopped in the parking lot in front of the police box and switched his weapon from the submachine gun to an axe. And after confirming that the other two are each looking in completely different directions, he vigorously swung the axe down on the neck of the female infected who was wandering right next to the wagon car.
After dealing one more blow to the fallen infected just in case, he beckoned, "Come here". To be honest, she didn't want to do it, but she couldn't be saying such things. Aki and Aoi also moved to the shadow of the wagon car through the same route as the boy.
"One person per one. Luckily, both are facing different directions and the distance is also separated. You two defeat them at the same time."
Aki ended up doing the police officer, and Aoi the elderly person. While moving while hiding in the shadows of cars respectively, they approach the infected swaying in separate places. The infected police officer Aki was to defeat had hardly moved from almost directly in front of the police box entrance. However, fortunately, his gaze was facing the direction where the empty can was thrown—the exact opposite direction from Aki.
It seems Aoi has also reached her position. Confirming that the boy, who had switched back to the submachine gun, gave the signal, Aki vigorously jumped out from the shadow of the car. Expecting that the boy would back her up in case of a mistake, she swung the bat in her hand.
As expected, the infected who noticed the footsteps approaching from behind looked back, but by then she had already swung the bat down. The tip of the bat swung vigorously hit the infected's nose directly. Along with a dull thud, nosebleed spurted out, and the sensation of the infected's front teeth breaking and the nasal cartilage being crushed was transmitted.
Yuko, the teacher, said she became unable to move the moment she saw the infected's eyes. Aki, who looked away from the infected's eyes so as not to follow in her footsteps, delivered one more hit with the bat to the head of the infected who collapsed after receiving a blow to the face. There was a cracking sound, and the infected's forehead caved in.
The infected was now only convulsing slightly, and there was no sign of him getting up a second time. At the same time, Aki came to her senses and realized the gravity of what she had done.
I have killed something that was a person. Seeing the dark red blood being absorbed into the asphalt, Aki realized that. The existence in front of her that she just defeated was once the same human.
If you don't do it, you'll be done in, and the infected is already an existence similar to a hungry beast that has lost reason and memory. Even if she makes such excuses, the guilt that welled up in her heart wouldn't disappear. The reason the boy said not to look at the eyes, she understood now.
"Good, well done."
The boy says so in his usual emotionless tone, as if not caring at all about Aki's state of mind. Already his gaze was directed not at the infected's corpse but at the holster on his waist, and the boy, who confirmed the infected was dead, crouched down and pulled out a silver automatic handgun from the holster.
He pressed the button at the base of the grip to discharge the magazine, and when he lightly pulled the slide, the 9mm bullet loaded in the chamber showed its face. The remaining bullet confirmation holes of the magazine are filled with golden bullets for seven out of eight rounds.
Even in this situation, it's hard to think that the issued bullets were left locked in a safe. The boy, who thought so and flipped the corpse over, found an obviously private orange pouch on the waist, mixed with the pouch for the baton or handcuffs attached to the belt. When he opened the pouch of a size where a mobile phone would fit perfectly, four magazines loaded with eight 9mm bullets each rolled out from inside.
"Forty rounds in total..."
Even a police officer in such a countryside, perhaps assuming confusion, had been issued more spare bullets than usual. Even so, considering the future, forty rounds of ammunition are too few. A handgun is only for self-defense against infected. And there is no possibility that a handgun or ammunition that hasn't been maintained for months can be used reliably.
However, it's better than nothing. The boy cut the lanyard for loss prevention connected to the handgun with a knife and threw it into his backpack. Even though it's precious ammunition, he can't possibly use it without disassembling it once and seeing the state. If it misfires and his finger is blown off, he won't be able to look at it.
Apparently, the people who gathered at this police box were trying to escape somewhere. In the wagon cars and minivans with doors left open and windows broken, there were several corpses still sitting in the seats. Mummification has progressed, and the skin of the face is bitten off so that even the distinction of male or female cannot be made, but considering from the clothes or the canes rolling on the floor of the car, the ones riding must have been only elderly people. Aki, who finally recovered, noticed that the corpses left in the car were still wearing seatbelts.
They put the elderly who couldn't escape on their own into cars and came as far as the police box, but were attacked by infected there. Would it be something like that? The fact that the situation was so sudden is shown by the handgun remaining housed in the police officer's holster. Surely they were killed without even the time to shoot the gun, or did the police officer first turn into an infected at this place?
When she was thinking about such things, she felt sick again. Aki didn't want to admit the fact that she had killed something that was once a person. Even they, before they were infected and lost their reason, were people who lived normal lives. The boy said they won't be cured anymore, but even so, the fact that they are living doesn't change. Even if they lost their reason, their hearts continue to beat.
"It's, like, complicated, isn't it..."
Aoi, who defeated another infected, came to Aki's side and said while staring at the back of the boy scavenging the corpse. Why is that boy able to act while being so detached? That was a wonder to Aki. Of course, there would be the fact that he lost his companions...
Even Aoi seems to be shocked by her first combat. The body of Aoi, who gripped the bloody crowbar, was slightly trembling. Seeing that, Aki thought about calling out something, but appropriate words didn't come to mind.
"I'll go see the inside."
The boy, who pulled out the handgun from the police officer's corpse, says so and steps into the dim police box as soon as he turns around. Following after him can be done after resting a little more.
In contrast to the ruin outside, the inside of the police box remained unexpectedly clean. Sand and mud that entered from the open door are drifting on the floor, but other than that, no traces of destruction can be seen. When the infection occurred, there was probably no one in the office.
Beyond the counter right in front of the entrance, sofas and tables for reception are lined up. Furthermore, the door in the back must lead to the living quarters. Even if it's a police facility, a police box is a place where a police officer lives with their family. There should be food and such.
On the wall right next to the entrance, a single photo the size of a calendar decorated in a frame was displayed. A man in a police uniform and a woman in plain clothes standing side by side in front of the police box. Probably the police officer who lived here and his wife. And he recognized both of their faces. The police officer is the corpse rolling in front of the police box, and the woman is the infected the boy himself defeated.
Surely the couple together turned into infected. The boy, who was about to remember the end of his own parents, had unconsciously turned over the frame hung by a string. Deciding not to look at the photo, he starts searching for anything useful.
Documents are scattered on the counter, and the receiver of the phone connected by a cord is swinging in the air while being off the hook. The boy, who stepped into the reception space in the back, found a safe about the size of a small refrigerator placed in the corner of the room. The door of the safe, which usually seemed to house spare ammunition, was left open.
On the whiteboard with casters placed in the reception room, a rough map of Japan is drawn with a black pen. Next to it, a map of the village is stuck, and the names of districts and the number of residents are also written on the side. Various places on the map of Japan were painted over with a red pen, and numbers were written along with them. The map of this prefecture spread on the table was similarly painted over in red in several places.
"These numbers..."
Aki and Aoi, who finished their rest, stepped into the police box and gazed at the whiteboard. Both had faces that didn't know what was what, but the boy understood the meaning of the numbers written on the whiteboard and the painted-over map.
"Surely it's the number of dead. The ones painted red would be the regions where the infection was expanding."
The map drawn on the whiteboard was a rough one, but even so, she knew that the regions painted red were only large cities. They were all cities she heard in the news when this disease started to become popular in Japan, saying that many infected were occurring.
The map on the table would be the same. The places painted red are the regions where infected occurred, and the numbers are the number of residents seen to have died there. The city where the boy had stayed until the day before he visited the academy was also painted over in red.
"Okinawa, Shikoku, Kyushu... isn't it total annihilation?"
"But Hokkaido seems to be safe."
"Well, I wonder. Just before the radio waves became unable to enter, I heard news that an infected occurred even in Hakodate."
It's unknown when this map was drawn, but it's probably based on accurate information. After all, this is a police box; and a large amount of news regarding the expansion of infection was entering the police in real-time.
The copy papers scattered on the floor had become wrinkled after absorbing moisture. When he picked up one of them and turned it over,
"NO REINFORCEMENTS"
"PREPARE TO OPEN EVACUATION CENTER AT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL"
"PREPARE TO RECEIVE EVACUEES"
"BLOCK ROADS EXCEPT FOR ONE LOCATION"
and so on, phrases seen as instructions from the prefectural police headquarters were scribbled. Surely this was written at a time when the police were still functioning. At that time, they were still able to plan evacuation to the extent of making evacuation plans. Though, the plans made were rarely implemented, and among them, successful evacuation plans would have been only a handful.
"The people here, didn't they evacuate?"
"Rather, this village was probably designated as an evacuation destination. According to the government's initial evacuation plan, people who evacuated from infection expansion regions were to head for islands or depopulated areas far from human habitation. If there are few people, there are few infected, and if there is no human traffic, there is no fear of infection."
However, since quarantine was not carried out in a 100 percent perfect state, people who were infected but hadn't developed symptoms yet inevitably got mixed into the evacuees. On top of that, infected also move while chasing humans. As a result, many evacuees rushed to regions that had luckily avoided the occurrence of infection in the early stages, and then the infected who chased them ended up attacking the evacuation destination regions.
This village was also placed in such a situation. Thanks to being in a place far from human habitation, it was somehow able to overcome the early stages of the epidemic. However, because the people who came from outside the village were infected, many residents died or turned into infected. There would be almost no people who survived, and even if there were, they would have escaped from this village long ago. It's safe to think that there are no living humans in this village now.
"...No one is coming to save us anymore, are they."
That fact was thrust upon her again, and Aki felt that hope was being lost more and more. As far as looking at the map, infection is occurring all over Japan. Since infection is expanding even in such a countryside, there would be no safe place anymore. Neither the government, nor the JSDF, nor even the police where her father works are functioning now. Even if they seek help, no one will come.
"What are you talking about, no one was going to save us from the start."
Aki thought that the boy's words in response were somehow lonely.
I'm waiting for your opinions and impressions.