Chapter 180 - A Story of a Stealthy Operation
Through the lens of the optical sight [Holographic Sight], he could see the back of the head of an infected standing still with its head down. The boy made fine adjustments to his aim and overlapped the red dot of the sight onto the back of that head. After that, if he pulled the trigger, the bullet would fly straight to the place he aimed for with that dot. But the boy did not pull the trigger yet.
With a rushing sound, the waterfall-like rain struck the boy's body. From the brim of the hat he wore, rainwater was incessantly dripping onto the ground. If he weren't wearing a hat, he likely wouldn't even be able to keep his eyes open with the striking raindrops and flowing rainwater.
While leveling the carbine, the boy turned only his head to the side. Sato, who was crouching on the opposite side of the road and leveling a carbine in the shadow of a utility pole, held up his left hand while gripping the gun's grip with his right hand. He opened the held-up fist once, and then clenched it. After that, he held up three fingers.
It was a signal to shoot simultaneously after a 3-count. The boy nodded and put his finger on the trigger. In a building several meters away from the infected the boy was targeting, there was another infected. If he wanted to finish even one off, he could, but it would be troublesome if the gunshot were heard. Combined with the silencer, the gunshot would be considerably thinned by the sound of the rain, but it was better to be careful.
Sato's fingers went down one by one, and the held-up left hand became a clenched fist. The boy confirmed that with his peripheral vision and pulled the trigger. Along with a muffled gunshot, he saw something red spray from the back of the infected's head through the sight, and its body, which had lost its strength, collapsed onto the ground. Simultaneously, Sato also fired, and the other infected fell almost at the same time. Even with 5.56mm rounds with reduced propellant to increase the silencing effect, they had enough power to kill an infected if aimed at the head from point-blank range.
After confirming that no other infected came jumping out from inside the building, Sato waved his left hand. With that as a signal, four human figures appeared from the shadows of utility poles and abandoned vehicles and ran toward the building where the two infected had been. Sato stood at their head, and the boy was at the very end.
Inside the building that seemed to have once been a warehouse, only a rusted forklift and rotting wooden pallets remained. The boy, who was the last to step into the building, immediately looked back to confirm if there were any human figures following. There was no one following. Neither human nor infected.
"Short break, 5-minute rest."
The words Sato uttered were the bare minimum, but they were enough. The physical exhaustion of those who had been hit by the cold winter rain was intense, and they felt like they wanted to sit there forever, let alone for 5 minutes.
"Hey, take this off. It's hard to move."
Among the group sitting in silence, only the young man whose wrists were tied with tie-wraps said so. Only he, unlike the boy and the others, did not have a weapon.
"Shut up. If you have a complaint, I could just cut through that tie-wrap along with your body, though."
When Chiba, who was checking the state of his gun, said so, the young man fell silent and lowered his bound arms. The young man was a survivor of The Brotherhood whom the boy and the other had helped.
The boy and the others were now in a place not that far from the former Brotherhood base. They had departed the reclaimed land on bicycles to recover supplies remaining at the base, abandoned the bicycles near here, and now the Brotherhood base, where likely no one remained anymore, was right under their noses.
The name of the Brotherhood survivor they had brought along was Fushimi. The members they helped were being detained on the reclaimed land to guard against rebellion, but only Fushimi was allowed to act with the boy and the others. It was because he held useful information.
First of all, the whereabouts of vehicles suitable for transporting a large amount of supplies. Following that, the passcodes that locked the weapon and ammunition armories.
The Brotherhood had been gathering a large amount of electric vehicles from all over town for power supply and transportation to the base, but among them were commercial electric vehicles like vans and trucks that weren't generally on the market. Those were things that had been supplied by automobile manufacturers to delivery companies for the purpose of testing, and they were at the level of prototypes. There were only about several of each, but they could transport a large amount of supplies without making noise. Performance-wise, they could sufficiently run from The Brotherhood's base to the reclaimed land.
And as for the weapon and ammunition armory passcodes that Fushimi knew, if the information he provided was true, the boy and the others would have ended up on a fruitless errand. According to Fushimi, on that day The Brotherhood was destroyed, just before Chiba and the others rebelled, the armory passcodes had been changed.
To prevent damage during a rebellion, the weapon armory's dial key numbers were changed periodically, but it was said they were also occasionally changed at random times. Chiba and the others had obtained the dial key passcodes for the purpose of seizing the armory before starting the rebellion, but unluckily, it seemed they had been changed to different numbers immediately after that.
If that were true, even if they managed to reach the base, they would have ended up returning without being able to do anything. Since they were housing weapons and ammunition, blowing the door was also not realistic. There were ways like burning through with a torch, but they couldn't stay a second longer than necessary inside the base overflowing with infected.
As for those infected, they didn't know how many remained at the base. There would be individuals who had left the base while chasing the surviving, escaped members, but the boy and the others saw that the majority remained at the base as they were.
Infected don't move around much to conserve physical strength except when they find humans or other prey. On a rainy day like this, even more so. Perhaps to avoid being hit by rain and exhausting their physical strength, infected often move inside buildings. Thanks to that, moving outside is not that difficult, but one must be cautious when stepping into a building.
On the road, one corpse is rolling. It's not something dried out from being exposed to wind and rain, but a fresh corpse. Is it an infected, or a member who was killed after fleeing this far? The reason that's unknown is that the corpse is severely damaged.
The flesh of the face is bitten off, and the limbs have become almost entirely bone with meat clinging to them. Likely it was eaten by stray dogs. A little distance away from the mangled corpse, another corpse was currently being eaten by a pack of stray dogs.
The dogs, whose mouths were dyed bright red, were they originally kept by humans? A pack of about 10 was swarming around the corpse and devouring its flesh. Several crows also flew down to the corpse that had become almost entirely bone and began to peck at the little meat remaining on the skull.
Even though it was a familiar sight, it wasn't a very pleasant thing to watch. Come to think of it, do dogs and birds not get infected? the boy thought. He occasionally saw stray dogs eating infected corpses, but it didn't look like anything unusual happened because of it. Though, if it were an originally violent stray dog, nothing would change even if it were infected.
Those stray dogs were also being eaten by infected. It was a strange food chain where stray dogs ate human and infected corpses, and infected ate stray dogs, and stray dogs ate those infected corpses...
Or, he wondered vaguely if this was what nature would look like from now on. Humans are already no longer the masters of the Earth. They were replaced in that position by the infected, but if the infected do not engage in reproductive activities, they will perish before long. After that, flora and fauna will flourish on an Earth where humans are gone. The traces of former civilization will be swallowed by nature and vanish without a trace——.
"5 minutes have passed; move out."
At Sato's voice, the boy stopped being lost in thought. The pack of stray dogs was still devouring the corpse, and several could be seen fighting over an arm that had been eaten and become fragile and torn off.
What's different between humans and animals is the point that they can talk using words. But if conflict doesn't vanish even when using words, humans are the same as animals. The boy and the others, who went outside again, were immediately struck by the large, cold raindrops. While feeling his body temperature drop all at once, the boy and the others, carrying large backpacks, began to walk toward The Brotherhood's base.
The dogs, as if they had no interest in the boy and the others, were still absorbed in the corpse.
As they approached the base, the number of corpses rolling on the ground increased. Among them were those of infected they had shot down when the boy and the other were escaping. The blood had been completely washed away by the rain, and the corpses of infected whose limbs had been blown off by heavy machine guns looked like discarded, broken mannequins.
The fire had long since been extinguished. However, a burnt smell still wafted. As far as could be seen from the outside, nothing moving could be seen in the warehouse district that had become the base.
"Wait."
Sato stopped Chiba and the others who were about to charge in and threw a stone toward the North Gate, which remained open. The stone rolled while bouncing loudly, but it didn't make a very large sound. The sound of the rain was interfering.
"What will we do? Shall we try shouting in a loud voice?"
"I won't stop you if you're going to do it alone, though. Is it impossible to lure them out with sound from a distance? It's dangerous, but we have no choice but to advance while being cautious."
If an infected were nearby, it would come jumping outside at the sound of the stone hitting. However, the sound of the rain is louder than that.
With Sato at the head, followed by Chiba's group, and the boy bringing up the rear, Fushimi, whose hands were tied, walked in front of the boy. Although he was wearing a poncho, rain entered through the gaps and stole body heat from his body.
Sato clenched his left hand and thrust it upward. It was the signal for "Stop." Each of the group hid behind a nearby object, and the boy also pulled Fushimi into the shadow of a nearby rusted truck. Sato picked up a piece of asphalt and threw it toward a building whose door remained open. The window glass of the open door shattered, and an infected immediately came jumping out from inside.
Thinking there was prey after hearing the sound, the infected, who was dripping drool from the corners of its mouth, opened its bloodshot eyes wide and shook its head left and right. But before its gaze could turn toward where the boy and the others were, Sato pulled the trigger. A slight gunshot could be heard even from several meters away, and the body of the infected, which had a fist-sized hole opened near the top of its head, slowly fell. The sound when it fell onto the ground was drowned out by the rain and couldn't be heard.
The boy also leveled his gun and waited for a while. But there was no sign of other infected jumping out. Likely, the only one inside that building was the one they just defeated. Sato signaled "Advance" again with a hand signal and stepped into the building that the infected had just jumped out from.
The boy took out a hand-drawn map, which was strictly packed, from a vinyl bag hanging from his neck by a string. What they were about to step into now was the building described as the "Fuel Depot" on the map. Strictly speaking, it might be more correct to call it a warehouse.
It was called a fuel depot, but it was a place for storing gasoline for refueling vehicles, and it seemed to be one of the smaller ones. Since it's very dangerous to concentrate flammable fuel in one place, they seemed to have dispersed and stockpiled it in various places according to purpose like this. It could be said to be lucky that the fuel depot closest to the base's entrance and exit hadn't burned in the fire.
Inside the warehouse was dim, and Sato, who was leading, turned on the flashlight attached to his gun. In the hallway, the corpse of an infected shot through the head and empty shell casings glinting in the light were rolling. It seemed there was a member who had visited the fuel depot when this base was attacked.
"I hope it hasn't been carried away."
However, those words of Sato were for nothing. When they opened the warehouse door, a swarm of drums lined up in the middle of a vast space was waiting for the boy and the others.
The number of drums wouldn't be less than 50. With this many, it would be enough to move cars. However, it was a meager amount for dozens of people to keep warm. Perhaps no Brotherhood member had thought of carrying out heavy drums while they were busy escaping from the infected.
"For now, let's take back at least this much today. At this rate, everyone will freeze to death."
They secured the fuel. But to carry this back, they had to secure a truck for transportation. With an electric passenger car, at most two drums would be the limit to load inside. At that rate, they would have to make dozens of round trips just to carry back the amount here, but with a truck, it would be easy to carry it all at once. Fushimi said there were electric trucks, but if they weren't there or couldn't be used, in the worst case they would likely end up escaping from here using an ordinary truck.
"The closest place from here is... the Food Storage?"
"It's exactly between here and the Weapon and Ammunition Depot. Let's check there too. Ichikawa, you stay here and keep watch so no one else enters. Avoid firing."
Leaving Chiba's comrade called Ichikawa behind, the group was about to head for the Food Storage. Food looted from the residents of the reclaimed land and other survivors should remain there.
"Hey, is there a need to go through the danger of coming here to get food? If everyone fishes, we can get as much fish as we want. The sea is close."
When Fushimi said so, Sato stopped his feet, glared at him, and said coldly.
"You're a genius. If you can catch enough big fish to feed dozens of people every day, we should do that. If you think that by just having everyone hang fishing lines at the pier from morning to night on rainy days and snowy days, without securing weapons and ammunition or fuel, without repairing broken barricades, without keeping watch or doing anything else, and just eating fish you can get all the necessary nutrition, then there's no need to come for food procurement by risking danger."
That might be a peaceful scene, but it couldn't be said so when lives were on the line. Fishing as a hobby on a holiday is different from fishing as a fishery conducted to fill the stomachs of dozens of people every day. If they continued a diet of, say, one small goby a day, everyone would quickly starve to death.
"If we go out to the open sea in a fishing boat, we can catch lots of big fish."
"Maybe. If we don't consider the fact that fishing boats that can go out to the open sea were almost entirely destroyed by the JSDF during the pandemic, then we could do that too."
"We can use rowboats. That much should remain."
"Even though the Japan Coast Guard and nothing else is functioning? Even though no one will come to rescue us, do you think of heading out to sea in a small rowboat? If you can do it, you try it; you'd be swept away and your distress would be confirmed in no time. Anyway, I understand well that you look down on fishing."
Sato said as if to admonish him.
"Until now, you guys were just eating things you stole from others, so you might not understand, but procuring food is a difficult thing. Whether it's agriculture, fishing, or livestock farming, great hardship accompanies filling the stomachs of many people. Before the pandemic, you could eat as much food as you wanted as long as you paid money; that was only because many people were working to fill our stomachs. Now that those people are gone, we have no choice but to risk danger and find the food that was left behind. Even if a group of amateurs did agriculture, results wouldn't come immediately. Fishing is a dangerous job where people die every year even in peaceful times, and livestock farming has no time to rest with feeding and managing the health of the livestock."
In the past, you could buy anything as long as you paid money. Any amount of food was lined up in convenience stores and supermarkets, and when the expiration date came, it was thrown away. The boy thought that obtaining food was easy. But that was only because someone whose face he didn't know was sweating and repeating research, and maintaining methods for efficiently producing a large amount of food with expensive equipment, facilities, and high-performance fertilizers. Now that that's gone, there's no way it would go well even if an amateur imitated them.
They, who had been filling their own stomachs with looting until now, likely didn't understand that. For The Brotherhood, food was not something they worked hard to make or procure, but something that could be easily obtained just by pointing a gun and killing people.
"If you value your own life, throw away that way of thinking. Otherwise, even if you are lynched by the enraged people of the reclaimed land, I won't say anything."
When Sato said so, Fushimi fell silent with a sulky face. The boy wondered if helping him was really the right answer. If he still held such an arrogant way of thinking even after being helped, he might really start a rebellion before long. What Chiba and the others said would become reality.
"Even so, it's the first time I've seen Sato-san get that worked up. It was unexpected."
"I'm from a fishing village, and my father was a fisherman. On top of that, we were poor; that's why I get angry when I see people looking down on fishing."
"...Your parents?"
"My father went missing after an accident at work before I entered high school, and my mother died of illness just before I joined the JSDF. So there's no need to worry about my family."
After saying only that, he started walking toward the Food Storage this time. The boy also couldn't say anything to Sato's unexpected past and had no choice but to follow his back.
I look forward to your opinions and impressions.