Chapter 114 - Episode 0-1-4: A Story Where the Smell of Napalm in the Morning is Exceptional
This is late, but this work has passed the first selection for the Net Novel Awards. I am grateful for everyone's support.
The screams of people being eaten alive by the infected were beginning to be heard even from the lower parts of the apartment building. My plan to strictly lock the doors and hole up was immediately ruined. In any case, in a situation where there wasn't enough food and I didn't know when the electricity or water would stop, holing up wasn't a very good idea anyway.
However, I didn't know where I should go after leaving this apartment building. The infected were coming from the west side, but the bridge for going east was blockaded by the JSDF. The gunshots had stopped a while ago, perhaps because all the people trying to cross the bridge had been shot dead, but if there were those trying to cross again, fire would surely erupt from the muzzles they brandished once more.
To the south of this town is the sea. That being the case, I have no choice but to flee north. I'm not very familiar with the geography since I just arrived, but even so, the probability of survival will increase even if only slightly compared to staying here.
I quickly rummaged through the room where no one was to secure a knapsack and hurriedly tossed in the water and food that were in the refrigerator. In the room that seemed to be for a child, a metal bat covered in scratches was also placed. Since a school uniform and a baseball uniform were hung on hangers, was the owner a high school student?
I slung the knapsack over my back and, with the metal bat in one hand, quietly opened the entrance door. Due to the onslaught of the swarm of infected, doors that had been closed until now opened one after another, and I could see residents wandering back and forth in the hallway. They, too, had realized that this apartment building was not safe.
I looked down from the hallway of the apartment building, but the infected were pressing right in front of the apartment building. If I don't leave here now, I will lose the opportunity to flee forever. I told the panicked residents to flee, but I wonder how many people's ears those words reached.
Perhaps because it was an emergency, the elevator had stopped. I ran down the stairs three steps at a time and descended to the first-floor entrance while out of breath. A group of four who seemed to be a family living in this apartment building earlier was about to go outside through the automatic door. However, as soon as the automatic door opened and the family went outside, multiple human shadows pounced toward them.
The children's screams and the shriek of the father whose neck was bitten into echoed throughout. Those attacking the family were infected. And there wasn't just one or two; there were five. Two first attacked the father who went outside, and the remaining three attacked the children and the mother.
"Help me!"
A boy who looked to be only about an elementary schooler pounded on the window glass of the automatic door and shouted. However, to prevent the intrusion of suspicious persons, the automatic door of the entrance would not open from the outside unless one used a key or called a resident via the intercom to have the lock released. The infected bit into them without mercy even as they pounded on the door. Fresh blood soiled the window.
"Ah, damn it!"
Helping them is impossible. I knew that. The attacked family is still alive, but everyone has been bitten. Whether they will manifest symptoms and join the ranks of the infected or die first.
One of the infected who noticed my figure through the glass began to punch the tempered glass door. At this rate, the door will also be broken soon. I decided to go outside not from the front entrance but from the first-floor hallway.
The hallway was surrounded by a wall about the height of an adult's chest, but it wasn't a height that couldn't be climbed over. First, I tossed the bat outside, and then I climbed the wall and went out into the parking lot. Several people were being attacked in the parking lot as well. Those being attacked were not residents but people who seemed to have fled to this apartment building from outside.
An infected who noticed my figure stopped gorging on a corpse and rushed toward me. Fortunately, only one is coming toward me. I brandished the metal bat I picked up and timed it. As soon as the infected jumped into range, I struck the infected's head with all my might from diagonally above, as if swinging down a sword. A disgusting sensation of something being crushed was transmitted to my hand.
The infected who took a strike from the metal bat to the crown of its head fell to the ground, but it was still trying to stand up. If it were a human, it would be a blow that would guarantee a trip to the hospital, but for an infected, it didn't seem to be much. I swung down a finishing blow to the forehead of the infected that had raised its head. The infected's face literally distorted, and blood began to flow from its nose and ears. The infected, whose eyes were halfway popped out, fell to the ground again and began to convulse, but this time there was no sign of it getting up.
I defeated one, but I can't be relieved yet. The infected who attacked the family must still be near the front entrance, and there is no doubt that many other infected who came from outside the town or were residents of this town are still in the surrounding area. If I don't leave this place quickly, I will end up being chased by the infected, who will surely increase one after another.
I went outside the apartment building from the parking lot. Already, several corpses were rolling by the roadside, and all of them were ones that had been horribly eaten away. If I dawdle, I will also join the ranks of those corpses.
From the direction of the bridge, gunshots could be heard again. There was a risk of taking a stray bullet, but I decided to head north along the river. Right now, people are gathered along the river. Even if infected come, the more prey there is, the lower the possibility that I will be targeted. It's a cruel thing, but I have no other means than to do so.
...I went out onto the riverside road thinking such things, but a hellish scene was already unfolding there. A swarm of infected was attacking the many people who had thronged the bridge to evacuate to the town across the river.
Because people were packed so tightly that even cars couldn't move, the people attacked by the infected weren't even able to flee. Screams and roars were flying everywhere, and death shrieks vibrated the air.
"Help me!"
Through the destroyed gate, people ran toward the JSDF that had retreated to the town on the opposite bank, seeking help. However, the answer to them was a storm of bullets from a volley. The JSDF had begun firing toward the people who weren't even rioters but had come seeking help to escape from the infected. It didn't matter if they were adults or children, men or women.
A member who had poked his upper body out from an armored vehicle's hatch fired a heavy machine gun, and human bodies were torn apart one after another on the bridge. Members poking their faces out from sandbags and barricades pulled the triggers of the machine guns and rifles in their hands.
"To all units, to all units. Intrusion of a large-scale infected group into the town has been confirmed. Therefore, in accordance with regulations, all citizens on the opposite bank are hereby designated as potential infected. Kill all citizens. Repeat, kill all citizens. Furthermore, the entire urban area will be bombed at 21:00 hours, and the US military will conduct an attack with chemical weapons. Units remaining in the town must withdraw immediately. Even if withdrawal is not completed by 21:00 hours, the bombing will be carried out. Repeat..."
Perhaps a member had dropped it when the JSDF and the crowd clashed, as such a voice was leaking from the speaker of a portable radio rolling on the ground. I reflexively picked up the radio and pressed my ear to the speaker. The same transmission had been repeated since a while ago.
That's why the JSDF isn't rescuing the citizens but is continuing to fire. We have already been designated as enemies who wouldn't be strange to become infected at any time, rather than citizens to be protected. The JSDF entrenched at the bridge was firing regardless of whether they were fleeing people or the infected chasing them. Furthermore, the line of fire extended not only over the bridge but even to the riverside road. A sweep of machine gun fire was showered toward the people trying to escape from the demonic hands of the infected. Regardless of the presence or absence of infection, everyone was being turned into corpses one after another.
"Everyone, run! This place will be bombed soon!"
I shouted so, but I wonder how many people's ears my words reached. The radio I had just picked up was blown away when I was pushed from behind and was hidden by people's feet. Now that it has come to this, I have no choice but to flee. A powerless person like me can't help anyone.
On the riverside road, infected and people were mixed together, and a hellish scene of agony and screams was unfolding, but it was convenient for fleeing. Because a chorus of screams was echoing throughout the town, the infected were rushing to the place of the people gathered in front of the bridge. When I moved away from the riverside road, the sight of infected soon vanished.
The time is 8:00 PM. Since 21:00 hours likely means 9:00 PM, there is only one hour left until the bombing. If I don't escape the urban area, which is a densely populated area, by then, I will be turned into a charred remains.
Fortunately, I won't have to go north on foot. This is because bicycles with no locks were left abandoned all over the place. They were likely left by people who were attacked by infected or judged that even moving by bicycle was difficult. I straddled a nearby one and began to pedal with all my might toward the north.
Perhaps a power line was cut somewhere, as the streetlights all went out at once. However, because things were burning all over the place, there was no lack of light. If it's something that burns, anything was there. Cars, houses, and humans.
Despite the bridge being blockaded and being showered with indiscriminate gunfire just by being along the river, I passed people running toward the east many times. Do they not yet know that they have been designated as potential infected and are targets for killing? I thought about calling out to them, but they, who were in a panic from the fear of being attacked by infected, ran away toward the river without even stopping.
"Whoops..."
On the way, I heard the sound of a diesel engine vibrating the air, and I hurriedly got off the bicycle and hid in the shadow of a utility pole. Immediately after that, I saw several JSDF armored vehicles driving toward the east. They must be units escaping to the town across the river so as not to be caught in the bombing. JSDF members were attached to the machine guns on the roofs of the armored vehicles and were guarding the surroundings. Even if I went out and sought help from them, who had received orders to kill all citizens, an answer of lead bullets would return. I remained hidden in the shadow of the utility pole until the JSDF convoy passed by.
As I proceeded further and further north, buildings became sparse, and apartment buildings and such could no longer be seen. Apparently, fields and rice paddies spread to the north of the urban area. The number of residents originally living there also seemed to be small, and no fleeing people or infected could be seen.
Under the moonlight, I continue to pedal the bicycle toward the north on the dark road. Looking at my wristwatch, it was just about to turn 9:00.
While echoing an engine sound close to an explosion and blinking wingtip lights, several fighter jets forming a formation can be seen circling over the urban area. Something fell from the belly of a fuselage illuminated by the flames on the ground. They seem to have dropped bombs. I don't think a place like this surrounded by rice paddies with only a few houses will be bombed, but I hurriedly abandoned the bicycle and jumped into a nearby irrigation canal.
From the direction of the town, larger fires than before rose one after another. Delayed by several seconds, an explosion sound like thunder reached my ears as well. The formation conducting the bombing was not just one; multiple formations were going around dropping bombs throughout the town.
Surely by now, everything in the town is being burned. The people who had rushed to the river to cross the bridge must have either been caught in the bombing or all died from gunfire before that. The people who died in this town surely won't end at a thousand or two thousand.
Surely the same thing is unfolding not just in Japan but all over the world. I thought such a thing while gazing at the burning urban area from afar.
It can't be helped to sacrifice the small to let the large live. Even in peaceful times, such a thought was permitted under democracy. But no matter how you look at this, the humans who were sacrificed are too many compared to the humans who survived because of it. It's a form of sacrificing the large to let the small live.
But it might become necessary to do so from now on. Among those who have cut away dangerous elements, only a very few people will be able to survive. The JSDF defending the town on the opposite bank judged many citizens as potential infected and took measures to kill everyone so that infected would not intrude into the town. They made the decision to protect a small number of people whose safety had already been confirmed, rather than many who were uncertain elements and could become dangerous existences. And while I was on the side that was cut away, I somehow survived.
Will the time come when I also have to make such a decision? While staring at the town burning from the bombing, I thought such a thing.
Next time, the timeline will return to the present. The Academy Arc is almost over.