Chapter 166 - A Story of Commando
The boy and Sato started running, chasing the Leader. Currently, the rebel faction within the Brotherhood also seemed to be launching attacks aiming for the Leader's life, and the Leader's whereabouts were being sent from them through the radio. According to that, the Leader, along with several members, was heading toward the weapon and ammunition storage.
On the other hand, the infected in the city also seemed to have finally noticed since they were making such a racket, and gunshots that seemed to be members shooting infected approaching the base could also be heard. The gunshots were still sporadic, but as time passed, the number of surging infected would also increase.
But for now, the Brotherhood didn't seem to have the intention of abandoning this base. That was natural; this was an important base for them. They were accumulating all kinds of supplies here, starting with weapons and ammunition and other fuel, food, and daily necessities. Abandoning this place meant abandoning the abundant supplies that were the source of the Brotherhood's strength.
They likely wouldn't take that choice until the very last moment. Therefore, the choice for now seemed to be to repel the incoming infected and protect the base to the end.
They headed that way, don't let them escape!
From the radio seized from the corpse of a member, the roars of the rebels could be heard. Early on when the fighting started, perhaps fearing information leakage, the Brotherhood side had changed the frequency of the radios. The boy focused on grasping the movements of the rebels by changing the radio frequency to the one they were using.
The Brotherhood seemed to be acting in two groups. One unit was for suppressing the boy and the rebel faction, and the other unit was for repelling the infected approaching the base. Thanks to that, he was grateful that the number of members pursuing them was small, but basically, in a gunfight, the one with more muzzles wins. The boy and the others were chasing the Leader and being chased by the members. In this situation, they had no time to stand still and exchange fire, and just keeping the figures of the Leader and the others in sight while continuing to run was the best they could do.
As for that Leader, he was currently heading toward the weapon and ammunition storage leading several subordinates. That route wasn't constant either, passing through buildings or running outside, it was all over the place. They were probably trying to shake off the boy and the others somehow. But it seemed they couldn't spare many people for stalling, and for now, they seemed to be choosing to escape rather than fight.
Following after the Leader and the others was not very difficult. Doors and the like were left open after they passed, and many traces remained. Even if the backs of the Leader and the others became invisible, following after them was easy.
And the Leader and the others now seemed to be moving inside a concrete building that had apparently been a factory's Administrative Building. Looking at the map handed over by Sato, the weapon and ammunition storage was straight ahead of the Administrative Building. It must be the shortest route to the destination.
The door of the Administrative Building remained open. The boy and Sato watched the state of the inside, but perhaps because they hadn't recovered from the power outage yet, the interior of the Administrative Building was almost pitch black, with only emergency lights dimly lit.
Members were pursuing from behind, and already bullets were flying along with roars. Sparks from impacts scattered on the exterior wall of the Administrative Building, and the two quickly entered the Administrative Building and sealed the entrance by knocking over a locker for cleaning tools that was near the door. With this, the worry of being shot from behind was gone for the time being.
"I have night vision. You follow behind me."
Sato said so, attached the night vision device to the helmet mount, and put it to his eyes. Sato, who had attached a night vision device with four lenses to secure his field of vision, was just like an eerie alien. The boy, who had been captured until now, didn't have such a convenient tool and had no choice but to follow obediently behind Sato.
The factory's Administrative Building seemed to have had no one entering or leaving for a long time, and dust was piled on the floor. However, when illuminated with a light, several footprints remained in the piled dust.
In contrast to the clamor outside, the inside of the Administrative Building was silent. Were enemies lurking here, or were they continuing to move with the Leader? The boy and Sato proceeded forward while occasionally tracing the footprints on the floor with flashlights.
"Dangerous!"
Sato suddenly shouted that and pushed the boy away. Over the head of the boy who thrust his face into the dusty floor, a bullet that flew along with a gunshot grazed by. Sato, while firing a carbine rifle with one hand, pulled the boy into the shadow of a reinforced concrete pillar.
The ones shooting from across the hallway were three members who were supposed to have been acting with the Leader. They had made a makeshift barricade by piling up office desks and chairs in the middle of the hallway and were aiming at the boy and the others from there. One had a light machine gun and had set up the bipod of the machine gun on a desk, adding gunfire to the concrete pillar the boy and Sato were hiding behind. The remaining two also carried automatic rifles or submachine guns in their hands and were aiming at the boy and the others. Flashlights roughly tied to the barricade illuminated the pillar the two were hiding behind.
"Those guys intend to stall us."
Sato said that and tried to thrust out a muzzle from the shadow of the pillar for an instant to fire. But due to the gunfire being added intermittently, he couldn't create a chance to show his face easily.
The place where the members had built the barricade was at the end of a long corridor. Since there were no rooms or the like at its sides, they couldn't go around through rooms instead of the hallway. Furthermore, even if they tried to approach, there was no cover beyond where the two were now, so if they tried to proceed, they would be exposed to gunfire.
"What do we do? Do we go back and look for another path?"
"There's no such time. Besides, I don't want to run into the guys who were chasing us either."
If so, there was no means left other than a frontal breakthrough. But how were they to silence the enemies who had built a barricade and were shooting from the end of a long hallway? Furthermore, in the current situation where gunfire was being added incessantly, they couldn't even show their faces to watch the state.
But it was clear from looking at the concrete pillar that was crumbling into pieces that they didn't have time to be leisurely. While being stalled here, the Brotherhood unit pursuing the two might catch up. Furthermore, if they stayed here, they would let the Leader escape. That was the aim for which those three were remaining here to stall the boy and the others.
"So, what are you going to do?"
"Listen, move exactly according to the instructions I'm about to give. If you make a mistake, both you and I will die, but if it goes well, we can break through here."
The boy, having heard Sato's plan, grimaced at that method. No matter how he thought about it, the danger was too great.
But for now, he couldn't think of any other good method.
On the other hand, the trio who were adding gunfire to the boy and the others across the barricade on the opposite side of the corridor were wondering at the lack of movement from the boy and the others.
To stall them, they added gunfire intermittently with the machine gun, and the other two also joined in the shooting occasionally. The reason the three remained here, built a makeshift barricade, and met the boy and the others was partly due to the Leader's orders, but above all, it was because they thought if they raised an achievement here, they could aim for an even higher position.
In the Brotherhood, whose motto is "Those without power have no right to live," one's position is decided by how much one can be useful to the Brotherhood. Excluding the Leader, the founder of the Brotherhood, and the engineers who don't join in combat, many of the executives are those who excelled in combat, such as former yakuza, former police officers, and former JSDF soldiers. In other words, how many enemies one can kill decides how much one can be promoted in the Brotherhood.
Also, the degree of contribution to the Brotherhood changes depending on the degree of execution of orders. If one executes orders properly, points go up. Conversely, those who continue to fail in executing given orders are regarded as useless.
The enemies are two, and moreover, just by stalling them here, comrades will sandwich them. There was no job as easy as this. The three behind the barricade, for the time being, thought only of stopping the movement of Sato and the boy and scattered bullets.
Suddenly, from the shadow of the pillar where Sato and the others were hidden, something was thrown. That thing, which looked like a spray can and bounced on the floor several times, spewed white smoke while rotating and filled the hallway with a smoke screen in an instant, blocking the members' view.
"It's smoke!"
Did they intend to escape under the cover of smoke, or were they planning to attack this way? Thinking so, the members fired toward the depths of the smoke filling the hallway. It was to keep them pinned down even if Sato and the others deployed a smoke screen and their figures couldn't be seen. If they were incessantly showering them with bullets, no matter how their figures couldn't be seen beyond the smoke, Sato and the others wouldn't be able to move so easily.
The light machine gun was fired in bursts, and the 5.56mm bullets connected by belt links were cheerfully sucked into the machine gun and spat out from the muzzle. Countless empty shells fell to the floor and made small metallic sounds.
No counterattacking bullets flew from beyond the smoke. Perhaps they gave up and escaped, thinking they couldn't pass here. Just as the man who was shooting the machine gun thought so, the machine gun that had been cheerfully spitting out bullets until just now became silent. It ran out of ammo.
"Reloading."
The opponent might have escaped long ago, but he should at least convey that he was reloading. Along with those words, the man opened the feed cover of the machine gun to reload. Just as the gazes of the other two readying guns next to him turned toward there for an instant, something jumped out from beyond the smoke screen.
The one who appeared from within the smoke was the boy who had been hidden in the shadow of the pillar until just now. The boy readied the submachine gun in his hand toward the barricade and pulled the trigger. The bullets didn't hit the men who were in the depths of the barricade, but even so, at the sudden attack, the men instinctively ducked their heads. They hadn't expected him to proceed toward their machine gun nest.
"This...!"
They tried to raise their heads to respond, but immediately sparks from impacts scattered in front of them, and the members lowered their heads again. Suppressive fire. He wasn't shooting thinking to hit them, but they couldn't move due to the fear that a bullet might hit.
But the bullets loaded in the submachine gun the boy had were twenty-five at most. Such a thing would run out of ammo in an instant. When the boy's shooting stopped, they just had to add gunfire from here again.
There were no obstacles in the corridor, and if exposed to gunfire, there was no place to hide. They acknowledged the courage to come toward them, but courage and recklessness are different things. The members hidden in the barricade looked at each other and waited for the timing when the boy would reload. Although they couldn't see the boy's state because they were hidden in the barricade, the time when the gunfire stopped would be when he died.
Short bursts of two to three rounds were repeated, and each time the metallic sound of bullets piercing office desks and lockers echoed. But that gunfire stopped abruptly. Understanding it was the moment the boy's submachine gun ran out of ammo, the members leaned out from the barricade and readied their guns.
But before the members could pull the triggers, another human figure appeared from behind the boy who was jogging toward the barricade. It was Sato, who had been hidden behind the boy's back until now.
Sato went in front of the boy and fired his carbine rifle while advancing. And this time, when the boy hid behind Sato's back, he quickly loaded a new magazine into the submachine gun that had run out of ammo. During that time, the two continued to advance and steadily approached the barricade.
The members, who thought only the boy was coming toward the barricade, fell into a panic at the incessantly flying bullets. They pulled back into the depths of the barricade again, but a bullet penetrated the shoulder of one who didn't make it in time, and a scream echoed in the hallway mixed with the sound of gunfire.
Sato's carbine rifle ran out of ammo, and this time the boy went in front. While Sato was reloading, the boy continued to fire so that the members couldn't raise their faces from the barricade.
The idea Sato came up with was to deploy a smoke screen to make the members waste bullets, and at the moment the machine gun, the biggest threat, ran out of ammo, to charge toward the barricade.
However, if only one person were shooting, they would take the members' counterattack the moment they ran out of ammo. There was also the idea of one person advancing and one person remaining on the spot for cover fire, but in the smoke screen, there was a fear of shooting a comrade from behind.
Therefore, they had no choice but to take a somewhat desperate tactic of advancing together and, while one was shooting, the other would hide behind his back and advance by firing alternately so as not to let the gunfire cease.
It was a dangerous method where the one acting as a shield might fall to the enemy's bullets, but in a situation where there was no time, there was no other good method.
The boy's submachine gun ran out of ammo again, but Sato didn't come in front. Having approached the barricade sufficiently now, there was no need to continue firing. Behind the boy's back, Sato pulled the safety pin of a hand grenade and threw it vigorously.
The hand grenade, thrown in a shallow arc, bounced once at the edge of the barricade and fell right in the middle of the barricade. The members had raised their heads to counterattack because the gunfire had stopped, but right after, the explosion that occurred behind them took their lives in an instant. The members hadn't noticed the hand grenade thrown into the barricade until the very end.
On the other hand, the boy and Sato were lying flat on the spot and covering their ears to wait out the blast. The blast passed over their heads, and the glass of every single window shattered into pieces. The desks and chairs constituting the barricade, which hadn't been firmly fixed, were blown away and fell into the hallway making high-pitched sounds.
In a hallway with a low ceiling, one couldn't throw a hand grenade far, so they had no choice but to get this close, but if they had made one mistake, they would have died too. Next to the boy who fearfully raised his face, Sato was already readying his gun and boarding the half-destroyed barricade.
Inside the barricade destroyed by the hand grenade, a tragic scene where fragments and meat fragments were scattered was spreading. The member who had been shot in the shoulder and was lying on the floor had turned into a red lump in the shape of a person whose face could no longer even be identified, perhaps because he took the blast at point-blank range. The two who had been trying to counterattack Sato also took the blast from behind, their limbs twisted in strange directions, and they died with countless metal fragments embedded in their heads and backs.
"This, we can use it, right?"
What Sato handed over to the boy who stood up was the light machine gun the members had been shooting from within the barricade until just now. Looking at it, it didn't seem to be broken. Apparently, the member's corpse acted as a shield during the explosion.
The boy threw away the submachine gun that had run out of ammo and received the light machine gun. The already loaded machine gun weighed ten kilograms, but for the two now, it was a powerful weapon. He had found the same machine gun at a JSDF defense base with Sato before, and at that time he had been taught how to use it.
When he also slung the backpack containing spare bullets he found inside the half-destroyed barricade, his body suddenly became heavily weighted. But with this, there was no longer any worry about running out of ammo. No matter how many enemies came, he would show them he could scatter them as much as he wanted.
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