Chapter 121 - Chapter 104: A Story of Simply Running and Escaping
Along with the impact, seeing his flank dye red, the first thing the boy felt was an intense heat. It was as if a red-hot iron rod had been thrust into his side, and in the next instant, it turned into agonizing pain.
A groan leaked from his mouth, and strength drained from his body as he collapsed onto the ground. Even so, seeing the men covered in white powder attempting to exit the supermarket while shouting "Don't move!", the boy pulled out his handgun and fired wildly with one hand. Several rounds struck the door frame of the entrance, scattering sparks.
"Drop your weapon, resistance is futile!"
A JSDF member was aiming his rifle through a window with broken glass, but the boy screamed "Shut up!" and fired another shot. Each time he fired, the recoil vibrated through the wound in his abdomen, inflicting further agony.
The blood flowing from his body soaked into the asphalt ground. While suffering from an excruciating pain he had never felt before, the boy still tried to distance himself from the men by even a single step. He aimed the handgun with his right hand and crawled along the ground with his left.
Seeing this, the JSDF member shook his head as if to say "It can't be helped." He exchanged looks with the other men, and just as he was about to ready his rifle, a familiar roar echoed through the city. It was the roar used by the infected to call their kin upon finding prey.
"We're leaving."
The moment the JSDF member heard that roar, he paid no more mind to the boy who had attacked them and urged the other men to pack their luggage. To them, the heavily wounded boy was no longer a threat of any kind; they prioritized escaping from the infected that would surely be closing in on this location. Thanks to the loud gunshots, the infected throughout the city would now be heading for this supermarket.
The boy also knew he had to escape from here, but his body wouldn't move as he wanted. He had only been shot once before, but at that time, the bullet had merely grazed his arm. This was the first time a wind-hole had been opened in his stomach.
He could see the figures of the men leaping out of the supermarket and running off somewhere. Soon, even their backs disappeared around the corner of the intersection, and the boy was left all alone in the deserted city.
"It hurts..."
He managed to push up his upper body and tried to stand. However, at the same time, further intense pain shot through his body. The abdomen is a place packed with important organs like the viscera. Having been shot there, it wouldn't have been strange if he had died instantly if things had gone poorly.
The boy prayed that his internal organs weren't damaged. If a bullet had harmed an organ, the prospect of survival was almost zero. Personnel like doctors had mostly been killed at the start of the infection, and even if any survived, they weren't here. An unlicensed doctor with scars all over their body might perform their own laparotomy while reflecting themselves in a mirror, but the boy had neither the knowledge nor the skill to perform surgery.
At any rate, he had to leave this place—no, this city. Immediately after thinking that again while fighting the intense pain, something leaped out from across the road intersection. Clad in a tattered school uniform and looking around with bloodshot eyes, there was no mistake it was an infected. The infected saw the boy lying on his back on the road and let out a great roar. Simultaneously, two more leaped out from behind the infected in the school uniform.
"Uwaaaaaaaaah!"
Whether it was a scream of terror or a shout to psych himself up, the boy let out a wordless cry as he raised his torso and pulled the rifle that had been rolling beside him. Then, quickly aiming and turning on the laser sight, he pulled the trigger recklessly. Most of the fired bullets vanished into the void, but several pierced the bodies of the infected. The infected in the school uniform, its head blown off from the forehead up, collapsed onto the road as if tripping, and its snake-like brain matter was scattered on the ground. He shot the other two infected as well, but roars were echoing from all over the city.
"I have to run..."
It felt like the strength was about to drain from his legs at any moment, but he managed to stand up using the rifle as a cane. After swapping the empty magazine, the boy began to run toward the apartment building where he had parked the car, dragging his heavy body. Though he called it running, the speed was hardly different from a fast walk, and he could feel more blood flowing from the gunshot wound in his abdomen with every step he took. Pain that felt like it was tearing his body apart assaulted his entire being just by walking.
On the way to the apartment, he encountered several more infected. If possible, he didn't want to use a gun that made loud noises, but at this point, he didn't have time to choose his means for survival. He shot the infected that tried to pounce the moment they saw him and rushed into the apartment parking lot without looking aside. More infected would likely gather after hearing the gunshots, but he had to leave this city as quickly as possible. If he dawdled, the infected from all over the city would swarm his location.
He threw the blood-stained duffel bag into the back seat, leaned the rifle against the passenger seat, and sat in the driver's seat. Perhaps because he was in a hurry, or because his thinking was becoming dull due to blood loss, the ignition key wouldn't slot in easily. He managed to insert the key with fingers slippery with grease and turned it to start the engine. Revving the accelerator to full, the wagon jumped out onto the road, tracing a curve so sharp he thought it might hit the parking lot gate.
Fortunately, no infected were visible in front or behind. However, if he let the engine noise echo through the deserted city, it would still inform the infected of his location. Immediately after switching to electric drive mode, a gunshot echoing from afar rattled the window glass.
Mixed with single gunshots, the sound of rapid fire also reached him through the window. Those men were likely fighting the infected. At the very least, while they were fighting, the infected would surely head in that direction. Thinking vaguely about such things, the boy drove the car toward the east. He didn't think about why it was east. Right now, he only thought about escaping this city as quickly as possible and treating the wound in his stomach.
After driving for about ten minutes, the boy finally stepped on the brakes. The town of Kudan had already vanished far into the distance behind him, and a moderately desolate suburban streetscape spread around him. The boy judged that there would be no infected here, or even if there were, the numbers would be few.
He cast off his chest rig and rolled up the hem of his blood-soaked jacket. Steeling his resolve to look at his flank, he saw a hole not even the size of the tip of a pinky finger, from which blood was flowing. The round the JSDF member fired was likely a Full Metal Jacket bullet with high penetration. If it had been a Hollow Point bullet, which expands upon impact, his internal organs would have been churned into a mess by now, and the wound would be in a state too horrific to look at.
He didn't know if his internal organs were damaged, but the boy prayed they weren't. If they were, there would be no way to treat them. There was no one here who could perform surgery.
At any rate, stopping the bleeding was the top priority. His body was unsteady from the intense pain and blood loss, but even so, his obsession with living was strong. To survive even a minute or a second longer—that alone dominated the boy's mind.
However, it is difficult to stop bleeding from an abdominal wound. If it were a limb, bleeding could be stopped by tying off the thigh or upper arm. But that cannot be done for the abdomen. To stop the bleeding, there was no choice but to close the wound directly.
The boy got out of the car without his rifle, wearing only the holster with his handgun. Then, he pulled a portable gas stove, a first-aid kit, and the small bag of narcotics he had found previously from the back seat and entered a nearby private house.