Chapter 140 - Chapter 124: The Enemy of My Enemy Is...
The boy and the three members of The Brotherhood stared at each other for less than a second. However, to the boy, it felt like dozens of seconds, and the same was likely true for the three men.
The one who tried to fire the first shot of the battle was from The Brotherhood. Among the three members, a brown-haired man who looked to be in his late teens tried to point the pistol in his hand at the boy. Seeing his index finger on the trigger, the boy also tried to point his Type 89 rifle at the brown-haired man. However, the gunshot did not roar. The other two members of The Brotherhood hurriedly restrained the brown-haired man's pistol.
The reason the two didn't let him shoot wasn't to help the boy. It was because they didn't want to further stimulate the swarm of infected still lurking in large numbers in the school.
In an instant, the boy scanned the members of The Brotherhood and speculated that they had come to this school for the same purpose as them. The men of The Brotherhood have several automatic rifles and submachine guns hanging from their bodies. The duffel bags slung from their shoulders were bulging unnaturally here and there, and pistol grips peeked out from zippers that wouldn't close completely.
Whether they were things left in the school or taken from the infected JSDF members they defeated on the way here. Perhaps lured by the metallic sound of the guns clashing against each other, one infected jumped out from the staff room behind the men. And upon seeing the boy and the men of The Brotherhood staring each other down, it let out a roar and pounced on the four of them.
The first to move was the short-haired man with a stocky build who seemed to be the leader. The man, who looked to be in his late twenties, drew a short sword he had slung across his back like a ninja, rather than using the rifle in his hand, and slashed at the throat of the pouncing infected. The short sword, which looked like a military knife made larger, seemed to have a blade length of 50 centimeters. The other two also had short swords slung across their backs, but each had a different detail as if they were handmade.
The blade of the short sword swung down diagonally and properly slashed the infected's throat. The blade bit deeply into the infected's throat, and its head was almost half-severed. The infected, whose head dangled toward its back, collapsed in the corridor, spraying fresh blood from the cross-section of its throat. However, because of the roar it had let out just before, the fact that humans were in this school became known to the other infected.
On the stairs behind the boy, rough breathing along with the groans of infected were approaching. The infected who were on the first floor had heard the roar just now and were coming up to the second floor. Other hurried footsteps were also heard from various places in the silent school. Not wanting to miss the long-awaited prey, the infected in the school were trying to gather.
Multiple footsteps and the rough breathing of those rushing could be heard from the first floor as well. Did they move from another wing through the connecting corridor, or did they come out from a classroom the boy hadn't seen yet?
There was no longer time to stare each other down. The boy turned on his heel to go down the stairs, but remembering that the infected were on the first floor, he hurriedly headed for the third floor. Meanwhile, the men of The Brotherhood also ran after the boy, perhaps thinking of hiding somewhere for the time being. On the way, they encountered an infected that had come up from the first floor, but the short-haired man again slashed its throat with his short sword and defeated it.
The reason the boy didn't try to go down to the first floor was because he tried to escape from the eyes of the infected for a moment. There's a possibility that infected are still on the first floor, and in fact, he heard the footsteps of infected. Even if he went outside, the infected outside the school might also gather after hearing the gunshot. If that happened, even if he went down to the first floor, he'd just end up being discovered and chased by the infected coming from the outside.
Even if there were no infected outside, it's easy to imagine that he'd be shot by the men of The Brotherhood behind him in the next moment. Even if it was an action of plunging into the nest of infected, the boy wanted to face the infected rather than humans. He couldn't take on three humans with guns.
In that case, it would be better to hide somewhere in the school where the infected wouldn't find him, and think about escaping after calming down. The infected persistently chase humans once they find them. However, if the prey disappears from their sight, they wander around the place where they last saw the human, and finally go somewhere else.
Since he's carrying food and water, it's fine even if he holes up for a few days. He just has to escape without being found when the infected's attention becomes scattered. But before that, he has to hide somewhere.
The boy aimed for the music room that every school has. A music room has a soundproof structure, so the sounds inside don't easily leak outside, and the door is thicker than a normal classroom, so it's perfect for holing up. He doesn't know where the music room is in this school, but the boy speculated it would be on the top floor from experience. The elementary, middle, and high schools the boy had attended were all provided with a music room on the top floor, perhaps so as not to bother the neighbors.
Meanwhile, the three men of The Brotherhood were also running after the boy. He doesn't know if they are also looking for a place to hide like the boy, or if they are trying to kill the boy by any means. However, he really didn't like the situation of being followed by enemies. But since it would let the infected know their location, they probably won't fire. But since he doesn't know what the enemy is thinking, he didn't want to be followed. On the other hand, with the infected coming from behind now, he didn't have the leeway to go out of his way to stop and deal with the men of The Brotherhood. He could only ignore The Brotherhood and at most do something annoying to stall them.
While running up the stairs, an infected who seemed to have noticed the commotion on the floor below showed its face unsteadily. Immediately, the boy readied his rifle like a bat and swept the infected's legs while running. The men of The Brotherhood who followed the boy stabbed the infected, which tried to let out a roar while falling, with their short swords and struck it with the buttstocks of their rifles. To finish it off, the large man kicked the head of the fallen infected with all his might, and along with a sound like snapping a dry branch, its neck twisted in a strange direction.
Without looking back at the convulsing infected, the boy and the men of The Brotherhood ran toward the music room. They encountered infected several times on the way, but each time the boy tripped the infected and the men following him finished them off. Although they were humans meeting for the first time, and enemies at that, strangely their breathing was perfectly in sync. Because they completed those actions before the infected could bark, for now, the situation of the four being chased by a large swarm of infected has been avoided. Even so, infected remained in various places in the school building, and because they appeared one after another in their path and they had to defeat them, they were losing time and stamina.
Among the infected remaining in the school building, there were several wearing JSDF camouflage. They didn't have weapons, perhaps having dropped their guns when they became infected, but the pouches they wore contained rifle ammunition and hand grenades. He was struck by an urge to collect those, but now he was at his limit just escaping. The men, like the boy, didn't look at the corpses of the JSDF infected either, although they didn't discard the duffel bags filled with weapons they had collected until then.
After defeating the fourth infected, the classroom with the "Music Room" plate finally came into view ahead. The door was left open, but from that music room, one female infected wearing a sailor uniform appeared unsteadily. The female infected recognized the boy and the others, opened her eyes wide, and opened her mouth wide. Just before a roar could rise from her wide-open mouth, the boy delivered a flying kick with all his might toward the infected. Without caring about the infected that was blown away, the boy tried to slide into the music room, but he slipped his feet upon landing and ended up jumping into the music room headfirst while literally sliding.
Against the infected the boy had kicked, the men of The Brotherhood swung their short swords and finished her off. Then they stepped into the music room with the door open as if it were natural, and closed that door right before the eyes of the boy who was in the middle of trying to stand up.
For the boy, who was trying to close the door before the men could enter, this situation could be called the worst. Even if he could escape from the eyes of the infected, this made him a rat in a bag. The small sound of the door being locked was heard, and the men all took up their weapons.
"It's you, isn't it? The one who killed my comrades at the warehouse the other day."
The large man pointed the tip of his short sword, still dripping with the infected's blood, at the boy and said so in a low voice. The comrades he killed at the warehouse must be the people of The Brotherhood. He didn't think they would believe the boy no matter how many words of denial he piled up here. There were many people from The Brotherhood who retreated from that place, and it's only natural for them to pass the boy's information to their comrades.
They must have cross-referenced the information heard from their comrades and judged that the boy in front of them was an enemy. The other two had already drawn their weapons. The brown-haired man, who seemed to have invited this situation by mistakenly firing, also readied his short sword, and the other pointed the muzzle of his pistol at the boy.
The reason they don't try to shoot and kill the boy right now is because even though they escaped into the soundproof music room, they don't want to end up being chased by the infected again. In the music room, which has a soundproof structure, conversations and such don't leak outside, but as expected, loud gunshots cannot be blocked. If they fire, at that moment, the infected will surge, and with their superhuman strength, they will break the walls and doors of the music room and invade inside.
There was no room for discussion. The boy also pulled his axe from the holder on his waist and readied it in his right hand. The reason all three men don't ready short swords is probably to prepare for an emergency. The large man with the short sword and the brown-haired man come forward, and the remaining one steps back slightly and points his pistol at the boy. In the worst case, he seems to want to finish the boy even if he has to fire. That's how much the boy is apparently considered a threat by the people of The Brotherhood.
A strange sense of solidarity sprouted while they were finishing the infected, but after all, an enemy is an enemy. Once the common threat is gone, they are only destined to fight again. The boy also readied his axe and faced the men with his back against the wall. If it's a gunfight, there's a possibility of winning even one against two, but in a melee, the one with more numbers simply wins. Even if he doesn't land a powerful blow, if he gradually wears the boy down, the men will eventually win.
The possibility of winning was extremely low, but if he doesn't fight, that possibility also becomes zero. In the worst case, he'll have no choice but to fire and counter. In that case, the infected will be added to the opponents he fights, and the possibility of getting out of this school alive will become even lower, though.
I look forward to your opinions and impressions.