Chapter 111 - Episode 0-1-1 (or Episode 12.5): A Story of Surrounding and Beating with a Stick
This is another flashback. Chronologically, it takes place immediately after the flashback in Episode 12.
"An emergency declaration is currently in effect. All citizens are to strictly lock their homes and must not go outdoors under any circumstances. Movement of the general public is currently prohibited. Please remain calm and await instructions from your local government."
Five days had passed since the first infected person appeared in Japan. Having failed to escape by helicopter and losing consciousness, I was fortunately picked up by a JSDF truck that was in the process of retreating. However, they weren't taking me to a safe place; for the time being, they were moving away from the sports park, which had become a hive of infected, and were aiming to rendezvous with other units. After the truck reached its destination, I was essentially cast out into the world with nothing but the clothes on my back.
In the riverside urban area where the truck dropped me off, it seemed that large-scale infection had not yet occurred. However, the residents of the town were attempting to escape toward the east, and long lines of cars stretched across the roads.
No shelters had been opened in that town. Even though distribution had stopped, there weren't even rations. It seemed that television broadcasts would occasionally appear again, but they were merely repeating government announcements and streaming damage reports. The radio was still functioning, but it, too, consisted only of recorded broadcasts.
Cast out from the JSDF truck, I decided to head east for the time being, following the flow of people. While trying to stay away from crowds as much as possible, I moved east. I didn't have the slightest intention of turning back west.
That said, just as it had been in my own town, there weren't any shelters in this town either. The emergency declaration, established in the wake of past earthquakes and terrorist incidents, had been issued for the first time, and it seemed a curfew was now also in effect. With the threat of the infected looming, I couldn't wander around outside forever; I had to find a safe place quickly. Occasionally, gunshots could be heard from the town. Thin black smoke rose toward the sky from various parts of the city, but the sirens that usually accompanied fires were nowhere to be heard.
From the disaster prevention wireless speakers installed throughout the town, repeated calls were made for citizens not to go outside, but very few followed those instructions. Most of the citizens were attempting to escape out of the town, toward the east.
As I walked along the road, I could see residents hurriedly preparing to evacuate. One family was tying bags and trunks even to the roof of their car, trying to take as many belongings as possible. A man, perhaps lacking a means of transportation, carried a giant rucksack and pulled the hand of a woman who seemed to be his girlfriend as they headed east. Looking at a sign displaying a map of the town, it appeared that a large river flowed on the eastern side of the city. It seemed people intended to cross the bridge and evacuate further east. In this surrounding region, the infection was reportedly spreading in the west, but the number of infected seemed to decrease the further east one went.
It was only natural that they were trying to flee the town. The threat of the infected was being broadcasted heavily on television, and seeing the influx of many people being chased by the infected from outside the town, they would think it wouldn't be strange for the infected to appear in their own town as well. Those trying to shut themselves in their homes and wait for the situation to subside seemed to be only a small fraction.
However, because everyone was thinking the same thing, the lines of people trying to evacuate quickly caused traffic jams. Every road leading to the bridge seemed to be congested, and the line of cars hadn't appeared to move at all for a while. In every car, there was a father showing a face frustrated by the traffic, a mother in the passenger seat operating a cell phone or radio to gain even a little information, and children with anxious faces in the back seat. Everyone was trying to move forward even an inch, and the distance between cars had narrowed to the point where a person could barely pass through.
In contrast, the sidewalks were relatively empty, likely because fewer people were attempting to evacuate on foot. Because they had the leeway, the people of this town were trying to evacuate with as many belongings as possible. Besides, a car could go much faster than running.
The left lane of the road was kept clear for emergency vehicles with fences and poles erected here and there, but one wondered how long that rule would be followed. For now, because there was no imminent threat, people were following the rules, but if an infected person appeared before their eyes, a massive panic would surely break out as everyone scrambled to be the first to escape.
Suddenly, a roar echoed, and I saw a group of boys dressed like a biker gang charging into a convenience store by the roadside, carrying metal bats and iron pipes. They pried open the lowered shutter with a crowbar, smashed it with bats, broke the window glass, slammed the cash register onto the floor, and scooped up the money inside. One of the boys pulled out a knife and told a middle-aged man, who seemed to be the owner, to hand over the cigarettes lined up behind the register. The owner, who had apparently come to work at the convenience store alone because he couldn't afford to flee even in this situation, was pitiably facing the crisis of being looted.
"They're doing whatever they want..."
That said, there wasn't anything I could do. Even if I charged into the convenience store and said, "Peace is best for everyone! Let's stop fighting," the end result would just be me getting beaten to a pulp by the emboldened boys. Inside the convenience store, the boys were letting out strange cries and knocking over products lined up on the shelves. The only thing I could do was pretend I hadn't seen that sight and continue walking endlessly along the sidewalk. It wasn't just me; among the people walking the road, not a single person tried to help the convenience store owner who was being attacked right then.
Then, I saw a JSDF armored vehicle, which seemed to have been patrolling the city, driving toward us in the emergency vehicle lane. The long, narrow armored vehicle, equipped with a total of eight tires on the left and right, stopped near the convenience store. The rear hatch opened, and JSDF personnel wearing gas masks dismounted. Some of the members held transparent polycarbonate shields, like those held by police riot squads, and gripped batons.
A member leaning out from the roof hatch suddenly fired a mounted grenade launcher repeatedly toward the convenience store. Amidst the screams of the people at the sudden gunfire, the launched grenades did not explode upon hitting the ground; instead, trailing tails of white smoke, they bounced off the ground several times and flew into the convenience store. Immediately, thick white smoke billowed out from inside the shop as if a fire had started, and the owner and the boys came flying out, coughing with tears and snot running down their faces. What they had fired were tear gas canisters.
One of the JSDF members aimed a gun equipped with a tank on the side of the barrel and a disk-like magazine attached in front of the grip, and fired without warning at the boys who had been looting. Along with the sound of leaking air, as if an airsoft gun had been fired instead of a gunshot, one of the boys who had brandished a bat and tried to rush the JSDF member collapsed to the ground as if he had taken an uppercut. Since no blood was flowing, it was likely a non-lethal weapon. Several more non-lethal rounds were fired after that, and the violently coughing boys were blown back.
"Restrain them."
When the person who seemed to be the commander said that, the members climbed over the passenger cars blocking their path in the roadway, stepping on the hoods as they went to secure the boys writhing near the convenience store. There were civilians in the cars lined up on the road, but they didn't care. The window glass of a passenger car stepped on by the soles of hard boots cracked white, and a man in the driver's seat raised a voice of protest.
The JSDF members fired non-lethal rounds at those trying to flee and struck those who tried to stand up and resist with batons, large shields, and the butts of their rifles. They delivered kicks with their boots even to those who had their hands up in surrender or were crouching on the ground, forcing the captured boys face down and tying their hands behind their backs. The convenience store owner was caught in the crossfire and pinned down, but the JSDF members didn't even listen to his cries of "I'm the victim!" as they restrained everyone who came out of the convenience store.
The tear gas diffused into the surroundings on the wind, and the people on the sidewalk began to cough. Perhaps it had drifted to where I was, as my eyes stung as if I were cutting onions, and a pungent odor hit my nose. I hurriedly covered my mouth with a handkerchief, but the tears and coughing wouldn't stop.
Soon, a dark green military truck arrived, and the restrained boys and the convenience store owner were tossed into the back like tuna. And just as the JSDF members were about to withdraw, leaving the destroyed convenience store behind, the people who had been caught in the crossfire of the tear gas attack crowded around them.
"What are you thinking? There are children here!"
"What are you going to do about my car? Pay for the repairs!"
"That was going too far no matter how you look at it, firing so suddenly!"
Parents holding children crying from inhaling tear gas and the owners of cars that had been used as stepping stones by the JSDF members raised voices of protest. However, the commander merely announced a single word, "Withdraw," and didn't even look at the people. When a man whose car windshield had been broken stood in the commander's way, he said with absolute composure:
"Return to your homes immediately. A curfew is currently in effect. It is dangerous to be outside. Go home at once and await instructions from your local government."
"Don't screw with me! We finally managed to escape, and you're telling us to go back home now?!"
There were likely those who had no home to return to in the first place. I was one of them. The home I should return to had burned down and was gone, and the town where I lived was now a hive of infected. Returning to such a place was as good as suicide.
"Don't give orders so high and mighty! In the first place, what authority do you have to do this? Even if they were guys committing robbery, to spray gas in a place with so many people... and on top of that, you even wrecked the cars!"
"Under public security mobilization per Article 78 of the Self-Defense Forces Act, and the provisions regarding the use of weapons in Articles 89 and 90 of the same, we are permitted to use weapons to maintain public order. Follow instructions immediately and return to your homes."
"You're not a robot, so stop saying the same thing over and over! What are the people who lost their homes supposed to do?!"
Voices of agreement rose from the people, and drivers who had lost their patience with the traffic jam that wouldn't move at all also got out of their cars and surrounded the JSDF members who were trying to board the armored vehicle.
"We have the situation under control. The situation will settle down soon. Return to your homes, lock your doors strictly, and wait for instructions from your local government."
"Under control? Don't lie! Then why are more than half the TV channels not broadcasting?! The radio and TV are just repeating the same things over and over!"
"I heard the towns west of here were attacked by infected and wiped out! They say it's bad if we don't hurry and flee east!"
"What are the police and JSDF doing anyway? Doing something at a time like this is your job, isn't it?!"
Just as one of the crowd tried to grab the commander's collar, the commander drew a handgun from the holster on his thigh. Then, he pointed the muzzle at the forehead of the man who was about to grab him.
"Enough. I am telling you to go home quietly!"
"Y-you're pointing a gun at the citizens...?"
"I will simply order it if necessary."
With those words, the JSDF members aimed the rifles they had slung over their shoulders, pointing the muzzles at the crowd surrounding them. In an instant, the circle of people surrounding the JSDF members retreated by a meter and fell silent. Through the goggles of their gas masks, I could see that the members' eyes held irritation and anger at being showered with abuse, and above all, the color of fear. They were afraid of when the people surrounding them would become infected.
Whether as a threat or because he seriously intended to fire, the commander cocked the hammer of the handgun he held with his thumb.
"In the first place, those citizens have gone mad and are going around killing people. When operations against the infected are carried out in the future, there is a risk of losing your life as collateral damage if you are outside. That is why you must go home."
The man nodded his head up and down shakily, and the commander lowered his gun. He ordered the withdrawal once more, and the members boarded the armored vehicle.
"Criminal acts taking advantage of the chaos will be met with force, and criminals will be strictly punished. The headquarters is also considering shooting those who commit assault, looting, or acts of murder except in self-defense and disrupt order! Furthermore, all roads leading to the east of the town are blockaded, and passage for anyone other than authorized personnel is prohibited. Return home immediately or head to a designated shelter!"
When the commander, who had received a megaphone from a member, said that, the people returned dejectedly to their cars or to the sidewalk. However, not a single person tried to return in the direction they had come from. Though, the cars couldn't move forward, backward, or change direction anyway because the roadway was clogged.
Just before the armored vehicle carrying the JSDF members and the truck carrying the boys who had been looting started to move, I pointed at the truck and spoke to the commander, who was leaning out from the armored vehicle's hatch. The middle-aged man who had been attacked at the convenience store was still tossed in the truck along with them. Even though he was a person who had nothing to do with me, it was pitiable for him to be mistaken for a perpetrator looting along with the boys and be hauled away as a criminal.
"Um, that middle-aged man who was caught with them seems to be the owner of that convenience store. He was even having a knife pointed at him and being told to put out cigarettes. So he's a victim, not a perpetrator."
"I see, understood. Thank you."
When the commander spoke something into his radio, the middle-aged man with bruises on his face climbed down from the back of the truck. He glared at the JSDF members who had beaten him to a pulp and caught him by mistake, but in the end, he returned to the destroyed convenience store without saying anything.
The truck and armored vehicle departed, leaving only the people enveloped in misplaced irritation and fear behind. I thought public order might have improved somewhat with the JSDF stepping forward, but it seemed to be the opposite. Manpower had become so scarce that the JSDF had to catch looters in place of the police.
Come to think of it, despite there being this many people, the sight of police officers engaged in crowd control was nowhere to be found. Even the JSDF members were merely standing in groups of a few every few kilometers, telling people to return to their homes. The police might have already fallen into a state of collapse. While police officers are the first to rush to the scene when infected appear, the police's weapons are considerably meager compared to those of the JSDF.
And in the JSDF members dealing with the situation, the color of fatigue could be seen. They, too, were terrified of the infected. When would the people around them turn into infected and attack? A colleague, a subordinate, or perhaps a superior might become infected and attack. Or perhaps the citizen standing before their eyes was already infected. Just thinking about that would likely cause considerable stress. The JSDF members were equipped with firearms, but that merely increased their probability of survival compared to the general public. If the infected could be easily dealt with with guns, the infection wouldn't have spread on a global scale.
The fact that they had fired tear gas into a place with unrelated civilians without any warning and beaten the looting boys to a pulp was proof of that. Only five days had passed since the first infected appeared in Japan. However, for the people in the police, fire department, and JSDF dealing with the situation on the front lines, one could say it had been a very long five days.
The commander had said the bridge was blockaded. To blockade rather than restrict passage meant they absolutely did not want to let people through from there. In other words, there might still be a safe place on the eastern side of the town across the river. Because they didn't want to let people who were at risk of being infected into that place, they were likely blockading the bridge and trying to drive people back to their homes.
I certainly sympathized with that commander and could understand what he was saying, but even so, I wanted to go to a safe place as soon as possible. Originally, I should have been able to evacuate the day before yesterday, but that had gone to ruin because the infected had swarmed the sports park that was being used as a heliport.
I was afraid of dying. Ever since I fled the middle school where only a mountain of corpses remained, if I wasn't thinking about something else, the disastrous scene at the middle school would immediately float into my mind. The people who were eaten alive, and the figures of my father and mother, who had turned into infected, whom I had laid hands on myself...
Even though it was none other than me who had opened the cauldron of hell.
Only I survived, and thus I continue to flee from the infected. Simply following the instinct to want to live.
That was why, even if the JSDF tried to stop me, I wanted to go to a safe place no matter what. If they were blockading the bridge, I would just have to find another entry route somehow. Since I wasn't infected, I should even have the right to evacuate there. Everyone has the right to live. Though, it's questionable whether I have the right to say such pretty things.
Because of the tear gas diffused by the wind, my eyes and nose still hurt. I've heard that tear gas can be washed away with water. Seeking a place to wash my face immediately, I began to look for a town map.