Chapter 167 - A Story of Panzer Vor
They had defeated the guys who built the barricade, but this time the boy and the others were in the position of being pursued. Because it took time to defeat the guys entrenched in the barricade, the distance with the other Brotherhood detachment pursuing from behind had closed.
"I'll stall those guys. Sato-san, please chase the Leader!"
The distance with the Leader was becoming greatly separated. In the current situation, they didn't have the leeway to chase the Leader while fighting pursuers. If one of them stalled the pursuers here, the other could chase the Leader with all their might without needing to pay attention to their rear.
In this case, the boy thought he was the suitable one to remain. He had the heavy machine gun, and Sato's combat skills and physical abilities were superior. If failure was not permitted in the job of finishing the Leader, it should be entrusted to the one with the higher success probability.
Sato also seemed to agree, saying "Understood, I'm counting on you," and proceeded after glancing at the boy. On the other hand, the boy remained on the spot, set up the bipod of the machine gun on the hood of a nearby abandoned car, and pointed the muzzle toward the path they had just come from. From here to the weapon storage where the Leader was heading was almost a straight line.
The boy stared at the path he had just passed through the sights of the machine gun. Although he called it a path, it was a loading area between warehouses, and abandoned cars and empty containers were left everywhere. There was plenty of cover, but that was the same for the Brotherhood pursuers.
The boy readied his gun and held his breath in the darkness. Then, at that moment, the streetlights that had been silent until now suddenly began to emit dazzling light.
The power generation facility must have been restored or switched to a backup power source. With this, he could no longer do the trick of meeting them under the cover of darkness. The boy braced himself and placed the machine gun magazine that had been inside the backpack he was carrying on the ground.
Eventually, a door of one of the warehouses opened, and a man peeked his face out from there. A Brotherhood pursuer. As soon as the boy saw that face, he pulled the trigger. A gunshot far louder than that of a handgun thundered, and the buttplate of the stock repeatedly struck the boy's shoulder hard.
The several bullets fired missed the target and shattered the mercury lamp that was above the man's head into pieces. The man hurriedly pulled his face back, and the voice of him telling the following comrades "They're waiting in ambush!" echoed.
Members showed their faces slightly from building windows or the shadows of pillars and fired toward the abandoned car the boy was hidden behind. The boy also fired back, but he didn't have time to aim and shoot. He was doing his best just to stall the members' feet and earn time until Sato caught up with the Leader.
The members also thrust out only their muzzles and shot without exposing their bodies, so they didn't hit the boy. The boy fired bullets into those places as soon as he saw the figures of the members, but the members used their numbers to gradually close the distance with the boy.
The machine gun ran out of ammo, and the boy opened the feed cover for ammunition supply. As soon as the machine gun's muzzle flash stopped, he felt the presence of the members who had been hidden until now starting to move all at once. The boy continued the machine gun's ammunition supply work with his left hand while gripping a handgun in his right hand and shot appropriately by thrusting out only his hand. He didn't intend to hit; it was no problem if he could prevent the members from approaching even a little.
He placed the handgun that had run out of ammo on the hood of the abandoned car and readied the machine gun whose loading was finished. While gripping the grip of the machine gun set up on the bipod with his right hand, he grabbed the handgun with his left hand and somehow reloaded it after ejecting the empty magazine.
Inserting the now-shootable handgun into his belt, the boy continued shooting at the members. But something was strange. Suddenly, the members stopped any further advance, looked at each other's faces, and retreated as if a wave were receding.
Even so, a few bullets flew, but he didn't feel they were shooting with the intention of killing the boy. It was bullets that seemed to say it was fine if they could silence the boy's muzzle.
"What...?"
The boy couldn't hide his confusion at the members retreating at this timing. By any chance, did Sato defeat the Leader, so they lost control and were escaping? Or perhaps the intrusion of infected into the Brotherhood's base became more than expected, and they had no choice but to go for reinforcements.
The boy thought of such a convenient thing for an instant, but in the next moment, he came to his senses at the voice that flowed from the radio's speaker.
What is that...?
That voice was the members of the Brotherhood who had defected and risen in arms in response to Sato's attack. After a stunned voice flowed from the radio, the communication was suddenly cut off along with noise. At the same time, from the direction Sato had headed, a roar of something being destroyed thundered.
"Hey, run! Quickly!"
Along with that voice, the one who showed his face from the shadow of the building was Sato, who had just gone to chase the Leader. But something was strange. With a panicked face, he was running at full speed toward the direction the boy was in. The reason Sato was panicking was understood immediately.
Right after, something large appeared from the shadow of the building. For an instant, the boy thought it was a large box.
The boy's analogy that it was a large box was not necessarily wrong. Whether one could call that thing, which had eight tires and a heavy machine gun mounted on the roof, a box was questionable, though.
"Run!"
Immediately after Sato shouted, a gunshot incomparable to that of a handgun or rifle thundered, and something hot passed over the boy's head.
The one that appeared chasing Sato was a JSDF armored vehicle. It must have originally had camouflage applied, but now that armored vehicle, painted entirely in the Brotherhood's symbol color of black, apparently had Brotherhood members on board. The heavy machine gun mounted on the roof moved on its own even without a gunner and aimed at the back of Sato, who was running right in front.
But Sato seemed to have grasped that the armored vehicle was aiming at him. By lying flat on the spot just before the heavy machine gun spat fire, the fired bullets all shot through the walls of the factories standing on the left and right. However, the power was considerable, and the reinforced concrete factory walls were literally shattered into pieces upon receiving the bullets.
On the other hand, the unmanned gun mount didn't seem to be very maneuverable. When Sato, who had lain flat on the spot and waited out the bullets, turned on his heel toward the direction he came from and ran away, the muzzle of the unmanned heavy machine gun also tried to chase Sato. However, even though it was at low speed, it seemed difficult to aim while moving, and in addition, the movement of that gun mount was slow, and Sato had hidden his figure somewhere before the gun mount could fire again.
The driver of the armored vehicle must have recognized the boy's figure, as its speed suddenly increased, and that vehicle body, as large as a large truck, came straight toward the boy. Right after the boy hurriedly jumped aside, the armored vehicle vigorously rode over the abandoned car the boy had been hidden behind until now and crushed that vehicle body as if stepping on a paper box.
The boy realized the reason why the Brotherhood members had retreated. This armored vehicle must be the trump card they had stored in the weapon storage. They retreated so as not to be caught in its attack.
The armored vehicle's gun mount began to move again and tried to aim at the boy. The boy quickly dove into one of the warehouses standing on the left and right. Fortunately, the metal door had been blown off entirely from the door frame by a stray bullet from the heavy machine gun.
Although he hid inside the warehouse, the armored vehicle's gunfire began again before the boy could even take a rest. Orange tracer bullets smashed the windows and dove into the warehouse, and the bullets easily penetrated the concrete walls and blew the pallets and wooden boxes inside the warehouse to pieces.
Immediately after the boy lay flat on the spot, a machine gun bullet that had penetrated the wall passed over his head. A fragment of crushed concrete hit his forehead, and for an instant, the boy's vision went pitch black. After the warehouse wall had correctly become a honeycomb state, the armored vehicle's engine sound gradually moved away.
It didn't seem like they were leaving this place thinking the boy was dead. The proof was that the gunfire continued, and a roar of something being destroyed was thundering somewhere. Furthermore, not very fortunately, the armored vehicle would not move from around the warehouse where the boy was hiding.
When he looked outside through a hole made in the wall by a machine gun bullet, the Brotherhood members who had vanished until a moment ago had returned. They were deploying around the armored vehicle, surrounding the warehouse where the boy was hiding. Perhaps because they had obtained the powerful reinforcement of the armored vehicle, expressions of leeway could be seen on the members' faces.
The boy thought, How can you guys afford such leeway in this situation where infected are also gathering at the base? With the armored vehicle, unlike a normal car, there was no worry about infected crowding around and breaking windows or doors to get inside, and if they used the mounted heavy machine gun, they could surely wipe out even a swarm of infected. Furthermore, since it was a vehicle originally intended for use on a battlefield, running over infected would have almost no effect on its driving performance.
If they turned the armored vehicle to the destroyed West Gate, they should be able to hold out sufficiently even if infected surged in, yet they were bringing it out for the assassination of the boy and Sato without doing that. Was killing the two their top priority, or was it an expression of confidence that they could repel infected even without the armored vehicle, or had they already given up on maintaining this base?
"Hey, are you okay?"
Since he heard Sato's voice from somewhere, he looked back, and in the midst of the light from outside shining through the bullet holes in the wall, something crawled out from the darkness. That human figure, which approached the boy with swift low crawling, was Sato, who had become white all over with concrete powder and dust. Apparently, Sato had also escaped into the same warehouse as the boy.
"Sato-san, were you safe!"
"Yeah, somehow. You're not injured either, right?"
"I nearly ascended for an instant just now, but well, I'm safe."
While exchanging such words in low voices, the boy and Sato looked at the state of the outside through the holes in the wall. As expected, there was no sign of the members going anywhere. But there was no sign of them intruding into the warehouse either. They probably intended to surround the warehouse with the armored vehicle at the center and shower every corner of the building with heavy machine gun fire.
Looking at the armored vehicle, the roof hatch opened, and he could see the crewman who had leaned his upper body out from there loading bullets into the heavy machine gun. For an instant, he thought that if he sniped the crewman who was now reloading the armored vehicle's machine gun, a gap to escape would be born, but the boy immediately corrected that thought. To the left and right of the crewman were armor plates, behind was the hatch door, and in front was the machine gun; there were too many obstacles around the crewman. Even if he aimed from the front, the machine gun would act as a shield and the bullet wouldn't hit. Furthermore, the moment the boy fired, his location would be revealed to the members, and they would surely intrude into this warehouse immediately, or the heavy machine gun fire would begin again before that.
When the crewman who finished reloading pulled back into the vehicle and the hatch closed, the machine gun began to move unmanned again and this time started firing toward the second floor of the warehouse. Along with the gunshot that vibrated the air, countless concrete fragments rained down on the ground. After thoroughly adding gunfire to the second floor so as not to be counterattacked, they probably intended to have the members intrude.
"Where did those guys get such a thing..."
"They probably recovered things abandoned by the JSDF. I caught a glimpse of the inside of the weapon storage earlier, and there was another armored vehicle inside."
"Eh, then do we have to deal with two armored vehicles? That's impossible. And where did the Leader go?"
Even just one was more than a tough opponent, yet there were two of those armored vehicles. But only one was currently attacking the boy and the others; where did the other one go?
"It seems the other one went to deal with the infected. The Leader went on that armored vehicle."
"Then does that mean we let him escape?"
"No, my surviving comrades are chasing him. Though, I don't know when they'll give up and escape at this rate."
The Brotherhood rebels who were in league with Sato also seemed to have suffered some victims from the armored vehicle's gunfire earlier. If they lost heart and gave up chasing the Leader and escaped, this battle would be the boy and the others' loss.
Outside, the armored vehicle continued firing at the second floor of the warehouse where no one was. If gunfire were added to the first-floor part again, this time there would be no cover left.
"We have no chance of winning at this rate; what should we do..."
"I have an idea. Though, it's a plan where I have to have you take on a dangerous role again; will you take it?"
The boy remembered the time they broke through the barricade where the machine gun was installed. That was also a sufficiently dangerous attempt, but this time it would be an even more dangerous operation. After all, the opponent was an armored vehicle against which their gunfire was ineffective.
But he couldn't be saying that. Whether escaping or chasing the Leader again, they had to do something about the armored vehicle.
"But as long as that armored vehicle is there, there's no chance of winning, right? Leaving aside escaping, we can't chase the Leader without destroying that."
"That heavy machine gun can be remotely operated, but it's unexpectedly not very maneuverable. Aiming is through a periscope, and rotation and elevation are operated by handles. Furthermore, since no kind of infrared night vision device is mounted, if they want to aim quickly, the crewman has no choice but to lean out from the hatch and operate it."
Certainly, even when being chased by the armored vehicle earlier, not a single bullet hit the boy despite being at point-blank range. If they were operating it remotely by turning handles based on a limited field of vision from inside the vehicle, it would certainly be difficult to aim at a target moving around at point-blank range. Conversely, from a distance, they should be able to send bullets to the targeted place accurately.
In other words, against a target at point-blank range, the crewman has no choice but to operate the machine gun directly. But it's meaningless if there's no means of attack even if one approaches. Furthermore, around the armored vehicle, members acting as infantry are deployed. Approaching is difficult, and even if one approaches, it's nothing more than a suicidal act if there's no means to neutralize the armored vehicle.
"Don't worry, there's a means to destroy that."
Sato said so and took something out from the backpack he had been carrying until now. That thing, about the size of a two-liter plastic bottle, was a recoilless rifle shell that the boy and Sato had found from a sports park where the JSDF had been deployed once upon a time. But without the essential recoilless rifle to fire the shell, they couldn't destroy the armored vehicle safely from a distance.
"That is?"
"A bomb. I've modified it to detonate with a timer. I kept it even though it was heavy thinking it might be useful for something, and to think it would be useful in a place like this."
The boy and Sato should have picked up two shells, but another one was nowhere to be seen. When he asked, he said he used one when destroying the West Gate of the base. Looking closely, a digital wristwatch with the strap removed was attached to the tip of the shell, and a wire extending from its circuit board part was stuck into the hole where the fuse originally was.
"If you set the timer in stopwatch mode, it detonates the moment the time becomes zero."
"But for that, you have to get right up close to that armored vehicle."
"That's why I said it was dangerous. While one of us is drawing those guys' attention, the other approaches the armored vehicle and throws the bomb. I intend to throw smoke right before to steal those guys' vision, but even so, approaching will involve considerable danger."
In other words, it was either becoming a decoy and being turned into mincemeat by the armored vehicle, or receiving gunfire from the members in a flesh-and-blood attack. Either way, it was an operation with a high probability of death, but if they stayed hidden in the warehouse, the result would be becoming full of holes along with the concrete walls.
The armored vehicle's heavy machine gun, which had finished firing at the second floor for the time being, became silent again. Once they finished loading the machine gun that had run out of ammo, this time they would likely add gunfire to the first-floor part. In the first floor of the already hole-ridden warehouse, no cover that seemed able to escape the gunfire remained. If the next machine gun strafing started, both would be turned into mincemeat.
"...Make sure you do something about that."
The boy said so and, while keeping his posture low, headed toward the second floor of the warehouse. Since he wasn't accustomed to handling bombs, approaching the armored vehicle and throwing the bomb was Sato's job. Sato's role, having to approach the armored vehicle, was also sufficiently dangerous, but since the boy would draw the members' gazes all at once and attract the attack, the danger level was even higher.
Although the reinforced concrete stairs had become tattered from receiving machine gun strafing, he was somehow able to go up to the second floor. When he peeked outside from the large hole that used to be a window until just now, the armored vehicle's heavy machine gun didn't seem to have finished its loading work yet. He could see the crewman who had leaned his upper body out from the hatch pulling a lever clatteringly.
There was no time but now. The boy readied the machine gun and pulled the trigger toward the members on the ground.
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