Chapter 169 - A Story of Running in a Stolen Car
The Leader and the others apparently boarded another armored vehicle and headed toward the destroyed West Gate. The boy felt discouraged hearing there was another armored vehicle, but he was told it was a different type of vehicle from the one Sato destroyed earlier. It was small with thin armor, and although it was equipped with a heavy machine gun, the operation was manual only.
"I'm not doing that kind of thing again."
"Of course."
They destroyed the armored vehicle, and the fact that both were safe at that time—though the boy was in tatters—was because good luck continued. But that luck doesn't necessarily last forever. Even earlier, there were many possibilities for the boy to die, and in fact, it wouldn't have been strange at all if he were dead. It wouldn't have been strange if he were disjointed by machine gun bullets or crushed by the rubble of the collapsed floor. The reason the boy is still alive now is nothing more than good luck continuing.
"The other vehicle is the type where the gunner has to operate it directly outside the vehicle, so a bomb isn't necessary. It'll be settled if you snipe the gunner."
"If we're found, we're the ones in trouble, though."
As they approached the West Gate, the thundering gunshots were increasing in intensity. The gunshot of the heavy machine gun, which he had become completely familiar with, vibrated the air, and the blazing flames dyed the sky orange. Since they are allowing intrusion of infected even into the base interior, it seems quite a large number of infected are surging in.
"By the way, how are Sato-san's comrades doing? Did they escape?"
"No, they are managing to chase the Leader for me. Though they've already stopped the gunfight and seem to be concentrating on tracking."
When the armored vehicle they just destroyed came out from the weapon storage, several members of the rebel unit were apparently disjointed by the heavy machine gun. Having witnessed the wretched deaths of their comrades, they seem to have completely lost their will to fight. Sato said it's better not to expect them to launch an attack on the Brotherhood, even though they are somehow holding their ground.
The Leader is apparently taking command of the infected countermeasures at the West Gate. The Brotherhood was also pushed to the point of allowing intrusion of infected into the base for a time, but with the deployment of the armored vehicle, they seem to be managing to prevent further intrusion.
The proof was that as they approached the West Gate, the corpses rolling on the ground increased. Those corpses, wrapped in tatters of clothes and emaciated, would be those of the infected. No corpses of members were seen.
Although it's called a gate, the reality was an entrance/exit made by surrounding the Brotherhood's base with medium-sized buses with tires removed and concrete barriers lined up between factories and warehouses, with a large metal door attached to the gap. At the West Gate facing the residential area, watchtowers equipped with machine guns and searchlights, and concrete blocks to prevent intrusion by vehicles were provided, but the watchtower had collapsed due to the bomb Sato planted, and the concrete blocks had been easily climbed over by the surging swarm of infected.
Around the destroyed gate, many corpses are rolling. Corpses that have become mangled from receiving gunfire are rolling everywhere, but more infected are surging from beyond them.
"Ammo is running out! Someone go to the depot and get some!"
A member leaning his body against a concrete block and readying an automatic rifle shouted so. There are nearly ten members engaged in defense around the destroyed West Gate, and countless empty shells are scattered around them; the fact that they are losing leeway was conveyed even to the boy and Sato in the distant place.
A bulldozer was advancing, moving concrete blocks to try to block the destroyed gate. Infected surged toward the bulldozer whose driver's seat was covered with steel plates and punched its body messily to try to pull out the driver inside. But the bulldozer didn't care about the infected and, conversely, while crushing them with its tracks, placed a concrete block in the service path where the gate leaf had blown off.
But to stop the momentum of the infected, one concrete block was too few. Just as throwing one stone into a river cannot stop its momentum, the infected are continuing to attempt intrusion through the gaps between the concrete blocks.
The Brotherhood, which is trying to meet them, was also starting to have sporadic gunfire. They seem to have consumed too many bullets. For them too, a large-scale attack on the base must have been a first-time situation. They had already consumed the bullets on hand, and several people could be seen running toward the depot.
Among them, the one thundering a particularly large gunshot vigorously was the armored vehicle positioned behind the members. Unlike the one that attacked the boy earlier, that four-wheeled armored vehicle, which looked like a jeep with armor pasted on, was firing its roof-mounted heavy machine gun toward the infected. The machine gun was also not an unmanned gun mount, but the type where a crewman comes outside and operates it directly.
Against the swarm of infected climbing over the makeshift barricade, the state of the Brotherhood being panicked was clearly understood. They probably have no experience receiving such a large-scale attack on their base. They might have killed infected loitering around the base or infected they encountered in the city, but a swarm of infected surging to their own base might have never happened until now.
Of course, the Brotherhood also anticipated receiving an attack from infected and constructed watchtowers with gun mounts and barricades at the service gates, and provided bulldozers and concrete blocks so that they could immediately repair a gate if it were destroyed by some trouble. But the watchtower from which they could shoot down at the infected had collapsed due to the bomb Sato planted, and the hole opened in the service gate was also larger than expected, and the repair work is not progressing as they thought.
The corpses rolling on the ground are all those of infected who died from being shot, and no Brotherhood members killed by infected were seen yet. But if bullets on hand run out and even more infected surge in, they will be forced into close combat with the infected.
While bullets on hand were running out, there were two members trying to go to the depot to get ammunition. They were about to pass right by the side of Sato and the boy who were hidden in the shadows, but they didn't notice the two. They must have been very panicked; without even being vigilant of the surroundings, the two ran toward the depot.
"Where is the Leader...?"
The boy and Sato watched the surroundings, but the figures of the targeted Leader and the others were nowhere. He wondered if they were inside the armored vehicle and strained his eyes, but he couldn't watch the state of the vehicle interior from the small windows. At least, the man shooting the machine gun mounted on the roof of the armored vehicle didn't seem to be the Leader.
"Hey, look."
Looking in the direction Sato pointed, he could see a human figure watching the state of this side from a window on the second floor of a building slightly away from the service gate. Is it a member? he thought, but if it were a member, it was strange that they didn't fire despite looking here.
"My collaborators. It seems they managed to stay without escaping."
Apparently, they were Sato's collaborators, the Brotherhood rebels. Although they were people who wouldn't have been strange to have lost their will to fight and escaped after the earlier combat where they lost their comrades, they managed to continue tracking the Leader.
"The Leader seems to be inside that building. Apparently, he's doing front-line command."
Sato, who had been exchanging words with the collaborators with a radio in hand, pointed to a one-story concrete building near the service gate. It was a building that seemed to have been a security guard's post when this was an industrial park. Steel plates with slits were stretched over the windows, and the state of the room interior could not be watched. An antenna extended from the roof toward the sky, and it was clear that the post was the front-line command post at this West Gate.
Taking command at the very front himself is not only to grasp the situation one by one but also to prevent the members from harboring dissatisfaction. If the Leader, who always preaches the law of the jungle, were to take command from a safe rear only in times of emergency, the Brotherhood's values would collapse from the foundation.
"So, how do we get to that place?"
Although the members' eyes are toward the surging infected, they weren't so foolish as to have everyone fixated on one point. Several people are not joining in the interception of infected and are vigilant of the surroundings, including the rear. They just haven't been noticed yet; if the two were to go out from the shadows to head to the post, they would immediately be found and receive gunfire.
If they are found by the members, there is no doubt that the armored vehicle's muzzle will immediately turn this way. They luckily destroyed the armored vehicle with both of them safe earlier, but he was not about to do the same thing twice.
"First, neutralize the armored vehicle. The driver is outside; we'll take him down along with the gunner."
The driver's seat door of the armored vehicle opened, and he could see the state of the driver coming outside and firing. He probably thought it was better to dismount and join the combat than to continue sitting in the driver's seat in a stopped state. From the position where the two were, it was a distance they could sufficiently aim for.
The problem was the heavy machine gun gunner. From the position where the two were, the hatch doors flipped up to the left and right were in the way and they couldn't aim at the gunner. But if the gunner turned ninety degrees sideways, his head would be wide open. The armored vehicle's roof hatch protects the gunner with the machine gun's bulletproof plate in front and two-part doors on the left and right, but there is no bulletproof plate or anything behind.
"Ghost to Rogue, I'm neutralizing the armored vehicle's machine gun now. Fire toward the armored vehicle from there and draw the gunner's attention."
Rogue must be the Brotherhood rebels. When Sato said that to the radio, a panicked voice immediately returned.
Hah!? Don't screw around, are you telling us to be decoys!
"An instant is fine; if the machine gun's muzzle turns that way, we can neutralize the gunner from here."
If we're shot, we'll die!
The boy thought, What pathetic guys. Certainly, if they had witnessed their comrades being disjointed by a machine gun, it's understandable to be frightened. But hadn't they raised the flag of rebellion against the Brotherhood with the resolve for that risk? Even if they complained now, they, who have no place left in the Brotherhood, have no choice but to fight and win here, escape, or die.
"Don't be crying now! If you guys don't do it, we'll tell the Brotherhood your location and leave here quickly."
Finally, Sato started threatening, and finally, the rebels seemed to feel like listening. The place where they are now is the second floor of a building near the West Gate, and if members surge in, they will be suppressed in no time.
"Listen, the chance is once. When the gunner rotates the machine gun to aim at the building, the rear will be wide open; aim for that moment. I'll shoot the gunner, you do the driver."
The driver and the gunner needed to be suppressed simultaneously. The driver dismounted the armored vehicle and was intercepting infected himself right next to it. The driver alone could be aimed at anytime, but if they did that, the gunner who noticed the driver was killed would immediately pull back into the vehicle and move the armored vehicle. Conversely, even if they only took down the gunner, similarly the driver would return to the vehicle and move it immediately, or the driver would move to the gun mount and this time bullets would fly here.
The boy readied the rifle seized from a member and aligned the sights on the driver who was firing while kneeling next to the armored vehicle. The members engaged in defense near the West Gate have not noticed the boy and the others yet. But if bullets flew toward them, it was easy to imagine that they would counterattack immediately.
Sato started the countdown, and the moment it became zero, muzzle flashes blinked from the second floor of the building on the south side. Sparks from impacts scattered on the armored vehicle's hatch doors acting as bulletproof plates, but the gunner was uninjured. Even so, perhaps surprised by the sudden gunfire, the shooting stopped for an instant.
"Enemy! 9 o'clock direction!"
Someone shouted, and the members all at once turned that way and started firing toward the building without a moment's delay. But because the gunfire to the front stopped, the infected all at once closed the distance to the destroyed West Gate. Several people immediately turned to the front and resumed gunfire toward the infected.
"Machine gun, aim at those guys! We'll manage the infected here!"
The member who seemed to be the leader shouted so and pointed to the building toward the armored vehicle's gunner. Against an opponent with guns, it was natural to think of shooting them through along with the building walls with the destructive heavy machine gun. The gunner nodded and rotated the machine gun to face south. The boy and the others, who were to the northeast of the armored vehicle, waited for the moment when the gunner's rear would be wide open for just an instant.
"Now!"
In the process of turning the muzzle to the south, for just an instant, the gunner's back became fully visible. The front and left and right are protected by bulletproof plates, but there is nothing behind. The back of the gunner readying the heavy machine gun was not blocked by anything.
The boy and Sato fired simultaneously. Inside the sights of the rifle the boy readied, the driver who was shot through from behind in the chest collapsed to the ground while scattering blood. Subsequently, he pointed the muzzle toward the gun mount, but he could see the gunner, who had already been shot in the back and lost his strength, leaning over the heavy machine gun.
The heavy machine gun didn't spit fire, but the rebels seemed to have already escaped from the building. It would be difficult to get their cooperation any further. Their will to fight has already been lost.
But they were able to neutralize the armored vehicle, the biggest threat. The other members are busy meeting the surging infected and don't seem to have noticed yet that the armored vehicle's gunner and driver were taken down.
At that moment, the door of the post opened and one man came out from inside. It was a man he had seen before, an executive who was the Leader's guard. The one who came out from the post following him was the Leader, the target of the two.
"That bastard...!"
Instinctively, the boy readied the rifle and pulled the trigger toward the Leader. But before that, the Leader hid in the shadow of the post, and the fired bullet only gouged the post's wall.
Just before the boy fired, the Leader was looking toward the armored vehicle. He must have judged it dangerous, seeing the figures of the shot gunner and driver.
"Enemy!"
As expected, if gunshots thundered twice from behind, the members also noticed the abnormality. A member who looked back shouted and fired toward the two. In front of the boy who was about to respond, one Land Cruiser stopped vigorously in front of the post, and he could see the state of the Leader boarding the rear seat. The guard executive also boarded the rear seat while flashily firing a submachine gun on full auto, and as soon as the door closed, the Land Cruiser started suddenly.
"He's escaping!"
The reason they didn't board the armored vehicle slightly away was probably because they considered the possibility of receiving gunfire while going that far, or they intended to escape in the SUV from the start.
Seeing the Land Cruiser moving away, the boy couldn't stay still and jumped out from the shadows in the midst of gunfire.
"Ah, hey, wait...!"
He heard Sato's voice trying to hold him back, but the boy didn't stop. The members tried to fire toward the boy who showed himself, but Sato fired a warning shot.
Near the two, several cars that the members seemed to have ridden to the West Gate were parked on the roadside. The boy dove into the driver's seat of one of them, a large SUV, a Pajero.
Perhaps to make it so the members could move the cars anytime, the key was left inserted. Furthermore, the Pajero was fortunately an automatic specification. The boy doesn't have a driver's license, but if it's an automatic, he can move it just by stepping on the accelerator, so he knows how to drive. But he had never driven a manual car even once.
When he twisted the key, the engine started immediately along with the vibration characteristic of a diesel engine. Several bullets aimed at the boy flew and cracks entered the window glass. On the Pajero, which is a passenger car, naturally no armor was applied.
"I'll chase him!"
Leaving those words to Sato, the boy started the car. He would be leaving Sato behind, but he couldn't let the Leader escape.
"That guy, doing something reckless..."
On the other hand, Sato also muttered so, seeing the Land Cruiser moving away and the boy's Pajero chasing it. He had become alone, but the boy's judgment in that situation was correct. If they had waited for Sato or discussed what to do, the car the Leader was on would have escaped further away.
That said, dealing with the members alone is a bit tough. But the number of infected intruding from the destroyed gate is gradually increasing. The members have to deal with Sato while dealing with the infected in front of them. If he utilizes this situation, it won't be impossible to turn the tables.
Sato looked at the armored vehicle that remained silent. The armored vehicle where the driver and gunner died is positioned between Sato and the members. To get there, he had to run through a road without cover all at once.
It's dangerous to give the armored vehicle to the members, and if he can board it, it will become much easier to deal with them. Sato took a deep breath and then jumped out from the shadow of the building he had been hidden behind until now.
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