Chapter 108 - The Story of How I'll Blow That Pretty Face Away
Leaving Yuko and Rei in the camper van, the leader man went outside and sighed. The words Yuko said earlier pierced the man's heart.
No one wants to do this kind of thing. But he excused himself that it couldn't be helped. To him, who led 39 evacuees, there was an obligation to obtain necessary supplies like food no matter what.
This group of evacuees was something that had naturally formed as people fleeing from the infected gathered. Their origins, ages, and genders were all different, and the reason such a group was currently united was solely due to fear of the infected. But if food ran out, everyone would lose their composure, and eventually, that fear would turn into fear toward their companions.
The leader had served as a department manager at a certain trading company. When evacuating, there were several people from the same company, and he, who had the highest position among them, naturally settled into the leader's seat.
As they continued their flight from the infected, the number of people in the group kept increasing. In proportion to that, the supplies consumed and the number of people to be protected also increased. Women, children, and the elderly were not combat forces, but they couldn't be abandoned.
While losing several companions in battles with the infected, the group continued to drive toward places with few people, and as a result, they arrived at this campground. The abandoned campground, in a village that was originally somewhat depopulated, seemed like it would become a new world for them with few infected inside or outside.
Even before arriving at the campground, the leader would attack other survivors whenever they happened to encounter them and steal their supplies. Large cities with plenty of supplies had many infected and couldn't be approached, and on the other hand, in suburbs with few infected, it had become difficult to obtain food, perhaps because survivors who visited the shops earlier had taken everything.
If it can't be obtained from anywhere, there's no choice but to steal from those who have it. It didn't take long for such a conclusion to be reached. The fact that the amount of food they could loot from the first group of other survivors they attacked was large was also a factor in why they couldn't stop the act of collecting supplies from survivors. Rather than wandering through dangerous cities in search of the few remaining supplies while fearing the infected, it was quicker to attack people who were hoarding food to survive.
Everyone in the group, of course, was initially opposed to the act of looting. However, as the crisis of starvation approached, fewer people said such things, and the adults in the group had come to tacitly approve of the looting acts on the condition that they didn't kill people.
Not hurting people as much as possible was to show that they were living as humans. It was easy for them, who even had guns, to kill someone. But if they went around attacking and killing people as their desires dictated, they would be the same as animals. Only not killing people was the mental support for the survivors.
"By the way, those three are late, aren't they?"
A young man cradling a hunting shotgun muttered while looking toward the entrance of the campground. They had left three people behind to catch the two survivors who were said to be still there, but they were too late. Even though they should have returned long ago, the three showed no sign of appearing.
"They might be having trouble. Let's wait a bit longer."
"Rather than that, let's take those two and go to that academy quickly. Let's settle the talk early."
The young man showed a vulgar smile. He used to be a guy who even hesitated to punch someone... the leader realized that the group was changing. As a result of being exposed to various fears and stresses for a long time, many people, mainly among the young, were taking radical actions or holding violent thoughts. Even though they were staining their hands with the non-humanitarian act of looting to live, recently many of them seemed to be considering exercising violence as a purpose.
"No, the more negotiation materials there are, the better."
"While you're saying that, what if the companions of those two solidify their defenses? Even though they also have guns, we have more people. Let's just go and kill everyone without negotiating."
"You...!"
As expected, that statement couldn't be ignored. Just as he was about to raise his voice, a shout of "Saori has come back!" was heard from the direction of the forest. Saori was one of the three who had been sent to attack Yuko's companions.
The leader and the young man looked at each other and ran toward the direction where the shout was heard. Something was wrong. If they had returned after capturing Yuko's companions as planned, the sound of a car engine would be heard. However, no such sound was heard.
Furthermore, the name heard was only Saori's. If everyone had returned, they wouldn't go to the trouble of mentioning a name individually. Does that mean only Saori returned?
When they went to the parking lot near the forest, there were companions with guns and a girl whose body was covered in mud and wounds. It was Saori, one of the three left in the village, who used to be a high school girl. Her hands were tied behind her back, and she was made to bite something; her half-face was wrapped round and round with towels and duct tape, and her face, which fell into the pretty category, had become a pitiful sight. Saori, who had likely fallen many times as the knees of her jeans were worn out and she had wounds on her face, was frequently looking toward the forest as if fearing something.
"What happened, what's wrong?"
"Saori suddenly jumped out from the forest. She was frequently looking back as if she was being chased by someone."
Upon hearing those words, the leader took out a handgun and a transceiver and instructed companions with weapons to gather at the parking lot. It was clear that the attack, which was supposed to have gone to attack Yuko's companions, had failed. Saori was tied up and returned alone. It was not an ordinary matter.
"Where are the other two?"
"They are nowhere to be seen."
Suddenly Saori raised her voice, but because she was made to bite something, it only sounded like a groan that didn't make sense. The leader tried to remove the towel and duct tape that sealed Saori's mouth, but it didn't go well perhaps because it was wrapped many times.
"Tell everyone to be on alert. Those who can fight gather at the parking lot with weapons, and others wait inside the cars."
It was unthinkable that Saori had come from the village to the campground on foot. She must have been told to guide them to the campground after being caught by Yuko's companion. And she must have escaped by taking advantage of an opening. Otherwise, no reason for her being tied up and coming all the way here through the forest came to mind.
And there was a high possibility that the one who caught Saori had noticed her escape and was following her. If that person showed themselves, they would come to the parking lot facing the forest. Since he didn't know how many people were coming, he wanted to gather as many people as possible.
"Wait, I'll take it off now."
The leader was struggling with the duct tape wrapped around the girl's mouth to hear the detailed story, but it would take time if he peeled them off one by one. He had no choice but to take out a knife.
"I'll cut it with a knife, so don't move."
Members with weapons were gathering one after another at the parking lot. Even though they were called weapons, only a few people had guns, and others had projectile weapons like crossbows or archeries, but the majority of the members were only equipped with blunt instruments like bats or iron pipes. Since most of the survivors they had encountered until now didn't have guns, they could intimidate them sufficiently even with few firearms. Even so, because they were few for protecting companions and families, he had decided on this attack, but the leader regretted that judgment. If he was going to do it, he should have waited a bit longer and properly grasped the opponent's combat force before doing it.
He carefully inserted the knife blade into the gap between the towel wrapped around the mouth and the cheek, and cut the towel and duct tape little by little by shaking it back and forth. It was an excessively strict way of wrapping for just sealing the mouth. Saori seemed to be made to bite something, but its identity was unknown as it was covered by the wrapped towel and duct tape. Judging from the size, was it a ball or something?
While companions with guns were guarding the surroundings, the leader finally succeeded in cutting the towel wrapped around Saori's mouth. In the next moment, along with the sound of a spring extending vigorously, something hit his forehead directly. At the same time, along with the towel that was wrapped around Saori's mouth, a fist-sized object fell to the ground.
"What...?"
The object that fell to the ground was painted dark green and had a shape like a lemon. From its tip, white smoke was slightly puffing out. The leader had seen the shape of that object before. His hometown was a prefecture where yakuza continued to fight, and he had seen something similar in a photo on a warning poster distributed by the police at elementary and middle schools.
"A hand grenade...?"
Why was such a thing in such a place? What came to his head at the very end was not a revolving lantern reflecting on his life or a feeling of regret, but just pure doubt.
The boy was watching from the forest the scene where the men gathered at the parking lot were being shredded all over their bodies by the fragments of the hand grenade along with the explosion sound. He was grateful to the girl for obediently heading to her own base. Although that girl had been blown apart at her limbs by the explosion that occurred at her feet and had died.
The boy had purposely made it so the girl would escape. Frequently asking for directions, making mistakes, and eventually heading in the opposite direction of the campground were all to make her reach the campground alone. The rope tying her to the tree was tied loosely in advance, and furthermore, nicks had been put in with a knife.
At first, he had considered a frontal assault, but although the performance and number of guns were superior here, he only had two arms. Aoi, whom he had brought along, couldn't be considered a combat force, and if it became a gunfight, eventually the number of guns and humans handling them would matter. For that reason, the boy set a trap using the girl he caught, and made a plan to reduce the enemy's combat force and launch a surprise attack.
Companions would try to protect the girl who returned alone. At that time, for the sake of caution, those with guns would surely come too. He thought if he succeeded in causing an explosion at that time and involving the girl's companions, he could reduce the enemy's combat force all at once. Thinking so, the boy made her bite a hand grenade after torturing her. A hand grenade doesn't explode immediately even if the safety pin is pulled, but explodes after the safety lever is flicked away by a spring. The reason her mouth area was wrapped round and round with towels and duct tape was to prevent the safety lever from flying away until the gag was cut.
And the boy's aim went well. The girl headed to the campground, which was their own base, without knowing she was purposely let escape, and was protected by her companions. For the sake of caution and protection, the girl's companions gathered at the parking lot one after another, and there the gag was cut, the hand grenade's safety lever was released, and it exploded.
An ordinary person wouldn't think that their companion was made to bite a hand grenade. A trained soldier would doubt the possibility of a booby trap and call a bomb disposal squad, but unfortunately, they were ordinary people before the pandemic occurred. The feeling for their companion to make her comfortable quickly backfired.
Injure one person and attack the companions who try to rescue them. Such a tactic was described in a book written about snipers, and actually, the boy himself had been subjected to the same thing by the previous owner of the rifle. The boy, who thought to achieve the maximum result with minimum effort, took it as a matter of course to take such a measure.
In the explosion just now, seven men who were her companions were involved besides the girl. Since two had already been killed by the boy himself, only about six men who could fight remained. There were five people who had guns.
There are two more people who have guns. It's troublesome that he couldn't kill everyone, but he can manage if it's about three people. The boy readied the M1A rifle in his hand and peered through the mounted scope. Three people with weapons were running toward the parking lot from the direction where camper vans and large passenger cars were parked. They must have come to check what was going on after hearing the explosion sound.
The boy aligned the scope's reticle with the chest of the running man and pulled the trigger twice. The man with a metal bat was shot through the chest and performed a head-first slide, and those running after him stopped their feet in surprise. Without missing that opening, the boy continued sniping from the forest. The distance was not even 200 meters, a distance the boy's skill could sufficiently aim at.
Hearing the gunshot and explosion sounds and witnessing their companions being shot, the survivors seemed to be falling into a panic. Screams echoed from the back of the parking lot, and children's voices were mixed among them. He had grasped that there were children in the survivors' group, but if they resisted, he wouldn't show mercy even to children.
There were also those who tried to escape from the parking lot, but the boy showered bullets onto their backs. As long as they had weapons, they remained a threat even if they had lost their will to fight. Even if it was a bat or a kitchen knife.
He shot two more people, and after confirming no one was coming toward the parking lot, the boy switched the scope's magnification to 1x and came out of the forest while holding the rifle. At the parking lot, a hellish scene of carnage was unfolding with the groans of the injured and splattered blood and flesh, as some were involved in the hand grenade explosion and were seriously injured yet luckily——or unluckily—alive.
"H-Help..."
A young man whose belly was torn open by metal fragments and had spilled his internal organs onto the ground was trying to reach out his hand to the boy. The boy brushed away that hand with the rifle barrel and fired one shot at the young man's head. If there were those still alive, he would surely deliver the finishing blow. And after taking out the ammunition from the guns they had dropped so they couldn't fire, he headed toward the stream where camper vans and such were parked.
While echoing the engine sound, one wagon was trying to escape while scattering gravel. In the driver's seat was a man with a desperate look, and in the rear seat, the figure of a woman could be seen. He wondered if they were a family, but it was a trivial matter. At the wagon running while showing its side, he fired the rifle with concentration toward the driver's seat.
For a rifle bullet that could even penetrate a bulletproof vest, a car door was no different from a piece of plywood. Several of the fired bullets penetrated the door and pierced the flank of the man who was driving. The wagon, which lost control, plunged into the stream and was immobilized.
While the boy was changing the rifle's magazine, the wagon's rear door opened, and a woman bleeding from her forehead jumped out as if rolling. She looked around and recognized the figure of the boy who had shot them, and then she swung both hands and started running toward the boy while letting out a bizarre cry.
Whether she was desperate from panic or trying to strike even one blow with bare hands. Either way, it was clear the woman was trying to attack him, and the boy swung the rifle to his side with the sling and drew a handgun. He fired the handgun twice toward the woman who was about to pick up a stone at her feet and throw it. The woman shot in the chest fell into the stream, and the clear water started to turn bright red with the flowing blood.
"24 people left, huh..."
A long rifle was unsuitable for close combat. The boy delivered the finishing blow to the driver of the wagon that plunged into the river, and approached the group of stationary vehicles while readying the submachine gun that had been hanging at his side with the sling. Children's crying and women's screams were leaking from inside the cars, but he pretended not to hear them.
"You bastard!"
From the shadow of one camper van, a man with a shotgun jumped out and pulled the trigger. Instinctively hitting the ground, he fired the submachine gun in semi-auto. The man who took two bullets in the belly and one in the head fell on his back.
A young woman's face could be seen in the window of the camper van. He thought it might be the captured Yuko or someone, but it was different. When he looked back at her face as she trembled with fear, the woman hurriedly pulled her face back. From inside the car, children's screams could also be heard.
"Uwaaaaaaaaah!"
Letting out a voice like a scream, a young man leaning out from the window of another camper van fired a revolver. Not a single one of those bullets hit the boy, and they pierced the car that was behind him. Along with the sound of a window breaking, the heard screams became even louder. Toward the head of the young man who continued to pull the trigger without even noticing he had run out of ammunition and was just rotating the cylinder, the boy calmly took aim and fired. The body of the young man, splattering blood and skull fragments from his head, vanished across the window. The revolver dropped from his hand fell outside the car with a dull sound.
With this, there should be no more people with guns. In the campground where only screams could be heard now, the boy raised his voice.
"Teacher, I've come to pick you up!"
I look forward to your opinions and impressions.