Chapter 15 - Chapter 13: An Unfamiliar Ceiling Story
"It's an unfamiliar ceiling..."
As I woke up, what entered my blurred vision was a ceiling with white wallpaper and a small chandelier hanging from it. As I looked left and right, I realized I was apparently in someone's house. I was lying on a high-end-looking leather sofa, and the room was filled with various interior decorations of all sizes. The table near the sofa and the shelf visible beyond it were all items that looked like they cost a lot of money.
It was dark in the whole room, perhaps because it was night, and moonlight was shining in from the window behind the sofa. As I tried to sit up to check where I was for the time being, a sharp pain immediately ran through my right hand. Looking at it, the wound on my wrist from when I broke the window was closed with an H-shaped adhesive bandage. It looked like the wound would open again if I peeled it off, so I decided not to touch it for now. Luckily, the bleeding had stopped.
The sharp pain woke me up completely, and I wondered again where this place was. What I remembered then was the figure of the mysterious woman I saw just before I lost consciousness. Could it be that she saved us?
If that wasn't a hallucination of mine while my consciousness was hazy from blood loss, that woman defeated over a dozen infected all by herself and saved us. Can a woman do such a thing? Maybe a strong man could, but a woman couldn't stand up to the infected unless she had a gun or something. Even Yui and Mana-chan, though they are children, could only run away—
Come to think of it, where are those two?
In an instant, my previous easygoing mood vanished. Only unpleasant imaginations came to mind. Now that the world has become one with no laws or anything, it's not rare for people whose suppressed desires have exploded to go into a "hyah-ha" state. What if that woman was connected to such people and the two were caught by dangerous men?
I stood up to go look for the two, but my vision suddenly went dark, and I collapsed onto the sofa again. Apparently, I had lost more blood than I expected. In this state, I wouldn't be able to run, let alone fight. The current me might be downed by a single punch from a little girl.
...Let's calm down. It hasn't been decided yet that the worst-case scenario has happened. If that woman were a comrade of those "hyah-ha" people, would she go out of her way to save me, a man? When medical supplies and everything else are precious? On top of that, she hasn't even restrained me.
If I were a crazy person only interested in Yui and Mana-chan, I would have killed the man long ago. He might bring trouble later, and I wouldn't share limited food or medical supplies. Though since I don't know the thoughts of a crazy person, I can't deny the possibility that I was saved on a whim.
Anyway, the top priority right now is to calm down and grasp the current situation. I have to first know where this is and who saved me...
"Ah, you were awake."
The door suddenly opened the moment I made that resolution. I instinctively looked back at the room's entrance at that voice, but I couldn't tell who was there because the moonlight didn't reach it. At least it was a woman's voice just now, and it wasn't Yui's or Mana-chan's voice.
I immediately looked around for anything that could be a weapon, but there was nothing. There was a plastic bottle with water on the bed, and I reached out my right hand to grab it. As I writhed in agony from the sharp pain again, the invisible figure at the entrance laughed as if amused.
"It's okay, I'm not planning to do anything to you. Also, if you push yourself too much, you'll bleed again."
From the sound of the floorboards creaking, I could tell "that person" was approaching. One can say they have no hostility as much as they want. In front of me as I instinctively braced myself, "that person" appeared, illuminated by the moonlight.
"Fah!?"
The moment I saw that face, I accidentally blurted that out. Blonde hair and skin so white it was translucent. A high nose and blue eyes.
No matter how I looked at it, she was a foreigner. I've heard there were many foreigners who couldn't return to their home countries and were left behind when the virus landed in Japan, so there's a reason for a foreigner to be in Japan now, but...
I looked at her body from top to bottom. Her age was a bit older than me, maybe in her early 20s. She would fit the image of an American college student. The parts that should be out were out, and the parts that should be in were in; she had a marvelous physique. Is she a gravure actress or something?
My gaze stopped around her waist. Two half-moon-shaped sheaths hanging from the belt of her hot pants, and the grips protruding from them. What she had were knives with blades that looked like they were 30 centimeters long.
This is bad. If I did something she didn't like, I might be literally dismantled in an instant. How do you say "I have no hostility" in English? I haven't had an English class for over three months, so it doesn't come out of my mouth immediately.
"A-Ah, I can-notto supiiku ingurisshu."
It was a perfect monotone. But this was the best I could do right now. What they taught at school was English for exams, not English conversation for smooth communication with foreigners. As I regretted not having done an Eki-mae Ryuugaku or something, the sound of her amused laughter reached my ears.
"It's okay! I can speak Japanese normally, so you don't have to force yourself to use English."
It was a fluent pronunciation without a trace of an accent, making me wonder if she was Japanese. In front of me as I stood there with my mouth open, the woman continued to laugh while holding her stomach. While my face became hot with shame at the terrible pronunciation, I felt a little miffed, thinking she was laughing too much. There, I finally remembered that there were infected swarming outside.
"Um, you should keep your voice down... The infected will notice you."
"It's okay. This is the 15th floor, and this room is soundproofed."
"15th floor!?"
As I instinctively leaned toward the window, the cityscape illuminated by moonlight was visible far below. Was there such a tall building nearby?
...Come to think of it, there was. The wide road leading to the bridge blocked by the truck and bus that we tried to escape to when we were being chased by the infected. I remembered that a high-rise mansion faced that road. Could it be that we are in that mansion now?
If I strained my eyes, I could dimly see the river and the bridge spanning it to the east. No mistake, this is the high-rise mansion where we had that pointless discussion.
If so, this place is not that far from that house where I fainted.
"I happened to be looking outside and saw you being chased by those things. So I headed toward where those things were running and encountered you."
"But there should have been dozens of infected?"
"It's okay, I defeated all of them."
Saying so, the woman lightly tapped the knives hanging at her waist. Were those called Gurkha knives, the knives used by a fighting tribe in Southeast Asia? I had seen them once on the internet before; if you were slashed with something like that, whether it's a neck or an arm, it would surely fly off smoothly.
And there, I belatedly realized that I couldn't see Yui and Mana-chan. And that I hadn't asked the woman's name.
"I'm sorry, there should have been two other girls with me, but where are they now? And this is late, but could you tell me your name?"
When I asked that, the woman answered with a smile.
"My name is Naomi, Naomi Walker. I'm American. I'm 21."
"My name is..."
"I know, I heard from those two. Yui and Mana, right? Those kids are sleeping in the next room."
It was a scene full of incongruity to see a blonde-haired, blue-eyed American speaking Japanese fluently, but I didn't care about that now. What's more important is that the two are safe. This requires the premise that Walker-san isn't lying, but there would be no merit for her to lie. Since she went out of her way to help us like this and carried us to a safe place, I might be able to consider her trustworthy.
As I thought that, the sharp pain returned to my arm as if relieved. Perhaps because I had awkwardly extended my arm to take the plastic bottle earlier, a little blood was seeping from the closed wound.
"No good, you shouldn't move your arm awkwardly. It's a wound that really should be stitched at a hospital."
Walker-san hurried over and looked at the state of my wrist. It's a trivial thing, but she smelled quite good.
"Um, Walker-san, shouldn't this wound have been stitched?"
"If I were a doctor and had anesthesia and needles and thread for suturing, I would have done so. Also, you can just call me Naomi. I don't really like that kind of stiff Japanese way."
"But, won't the wound not close like this?"
"If an amateur stitches poorly, it'll only get worse, and besides, I've joined the wound with adhesive bandages and glue, so it'll close eventually. And this way, pus and such can come out easily too."
When she said, "Do you want me to stitch it now? I think you'll faint from the pain though," I politely declined. Waking up and fainting again would be no joke.
I look forward to your opinions and impressions.