Chapter 181 - A Story of 'Where Is the Doctor!'
They reached the next Food Storage without much trouble. Infected are only interested in living things like humans, and the members likely prioritized going to get weapons over carrying out food amidst the confusion. There were no corpses around the Food Storage, and there were no infected either.
Food Storages were also established in various dispersed locations, and although the facility the boy and the others reached was relatively small-scale among them, enough food was stockpiled to fill the food shelves of a supermarket. All of it was preserved food, and there were even JSDF combat rations among them.
"Thanks to there originally being a canning factory around here, we didn't lack for food. There were truckloads of products just before shipment."
Fushimi said so and picked up a canned good in a cardboard box. The reason The Brotherhood was able to rise was likely because they possessed a large amount of food from an early stage. Even if you have weapons, you'll starve to death if there's no food. Conversely, if you have food, you can use it as a selling point to gather people and things.
"Alright, for now let's take back as much as we can of what's here today. Fushimi, lead us to where the trucks are."
"The trucks are near the Weapon and Ammunition Depot. Shall we stop by there too?"
"...Yeah, let's replenish our weapons and ammunition first."
The boy, Sato, and Chiba's group were carrying guns, but they only had about two magazines' worth of ammunition each. If they were found by infected and ended up in a battle, they would use it all up in no time. He wanted to replenish the ammunition before that, and if they took guns back, the people on the reclaimed land could also defend themselves.
The boy gripped the foregrip attached to the carbine and leveled the rifle. The wound on his arm where the Leader had stabbed him with a flat-head screwdriver hadn't completely healed yet. For now, he was just applying ointment to the wound, wrapping it in plastic wrap, and encouraging recovery. Although he was disinfecting it, anxiety about infection remained. Even so, since the residents of the reclaimed land were almost no help as a fighting force, if he could move, he had no choice but to go out even if he was injured.
As they proceeded further, the burnt smell became more and more noticeable. The fire seemed to have been completely extinguished by the rain of the last few days, but even so, the strong smell of a fire site was still wafting. It was the smell of things burning, and the smell after meat had burned.
How many members were able to survive in that fire? the boy wondered.
Suddenly, he heard the noisy groans of infected, and the boy stopped his feet. Occasionally, along with roars, he could hear the sound of something being struck.
"Do you hear it?"
"Yeah, let's go. However, first we observe."
The boy understood what Sato was trying to say. It had been confirmed by everyone before departing the reclaimed land that if there were survivors, they would rescue them as much as possible. Although Chiba and the others had shown reluctance, they had agreed not to harm them as long as they didn't resist, as they would be sources of information and labor.
Likely the fact that the infected were making a fuss meant that there were survivors. However, the boy and the others had little ammunition on hand. If there were survivors and their number exceeded the ammunition on hand, it would be difficult to rescue them. In that case, they would have to secure ammunition first.
Also, only Sato and the boy had guns with silencers. The Brotherhood also seemed to have been making their own silenced guns, and they might be able to get them if they went to the armory. But since they didn't have them now, practically only the two of them could fight.
As they proceeded toward the noise, ahead was a two-story concrete warehouse. Infected were surrounding it in a circle, and would their number reach several dozen or more?
The infected were violently striking an iron door on the first floor. The thick metal door had its window glass broken and was greatly distorted. But it didn't look like it had been broken through yet.
"What is it?"
"Isn't someone inside?"
Just as Chiba said, a human figure poked its face out from a second-floor window. Was it a man in his 30s? As soon as he saw the boy and the others, he shouted in a loud voice, "Help me!" The man's voice asking for help naturally entered the ears of the infected surrounding the warehouse. At that even louder roar, the boy and the others hurriedly hid themselves. With the man's voice just now, even more infected might gather.
But from the man's perspective, it must have looked like the boy and the others were going somewhere. A piteous voice saying, "Wait, don't go!" could be heard, and the infected's roars drowned it out.
"What do we do? That guy seems to be in a state of being trapped in that warehouse."
"There's nothing in that warehouse. Even if we risk danger to go inside, it's empty; there's no value in helping him."
Various supplies stored in each warehouse were described on the hand-drawn map, but nothing was written for the two-story warehouse from earlier. In other words, there was nothing inside.
That man had been chased by infected and had managed to escape into that warehouse, but he had become unable to escape because he was surrounded. Because it's a sturdy warehouse, invasion into the interior is being prevented, but that's all. Since he has no weapons to repel the infected, he has no choice but to be helped by someone or to die slowly of hunger and thirst as he is.
The infected surrounding the warehouse were increasing further because the man was making noise. If they left the man alone, the boy and the others could proceed while reducing the possibility of being attacked by infected. But——.
"Wait, that guy is a doctor."
The one who said that was Fushimi. Fushimi leaned out from the shadow of an object even while his hands were tied and squinted at the man who was still asking for help from the second-floor window.
Behind the man waving his hand from the second floor, he felt like he saw several human figures. Since it was a small window, the state inside wasn't clearly known, but there was no doubt that several people were in that warehouse.
"A doctor? Ah, there was someone like that too."
"He was a guy who only gave us treatment for simple injuries, though."
Chiba and the others cursed like that.
The Brotherhood only needs people who can fight or people who have some kind of skill. Conversely, the moment someone stops being such a person, they become worthless.
There are doctors in The Brotherhood too, but they only see injuries that can be returned from immediately or that have no fear of aftereffects at all. People with serious injuries or illnesses require manpower for nursing and only consume precious medicines. Also, since they can't fight or procure supplies, they become completely useless eaters.
That's why they don't help the seriously injured. Just as Yuko was left to die without any treatment after being shot by the boy.
Maybe that man was the very person who left Yuko to die. When he thought that, some dark feeling wriggled in the depths of the boy's heart. Of course, the one who literally pulled the trigger for her death was the boy. But at that point, there was a sufficient prospect of her being saved. If a doctor had been there and she had received proper treatment, she would have been saved. But she was left to die without receiving any treatment, and her death had been hidden from Aki and the others for a long time.
However, it was no use saying that now. He was driven into a desperate corner and was asking for help. If he left such a person alone and let him die, he would be the same as them.
"Let's help him. It's better to have a doctor. No matter what kind of guy he was."
"...So he says, but what do we do?"
Sato looked at Chiba and the others, but surprisingly they didn't object. They likely understand that it's better to have at least one doctor for living from now on.
Among the people on the reclaimed land, there is no one who has medical knowledge. Even if there were, at most they would have learned how to do cardiac massage at a driving school or something. At this rate, there was even a possibility that people would die from light injuries or illnesses because proper treatment couldn't be done.
For that, a doctor was necessary. Even if that guy was a Brotherhood person, it was better than not having one.
The boy and the others searched the area and found a large wooden board and a charred piece of wood near the warehouse. And on the wooden board, they wrote in charcoal in large letters, "We're going to help you so be quiet," and placed it where the doctors could see it from the window. Even if they were to help, they needed them to stay quiet or they would be in the way of the work. Besides, if infected continued to gather around the warehouse indefinitely, the difficulty of the rescue operation would keep jumping up.
The doctors must have seen the boy and the others' handmade sign, as the voice asking for help from the warehouse stopped. In the meantime, the boy received the rifle's spare magazines from Sato and moved to the second floor of a nearby warehouse. On the other hand, Sato and the others left the boy behind and headed for the Weapon and Ammunition Depot, which was their original destination.
To help the doctor, it's first necessary to eliminate the infected, but the boy and the others had little ammunition on hand. It's fine for now because the infected's attention is drawn to the doctor, but if they are found, they will naturally end up in a battle. But with the current small amount of ammunition, they would be crushed by the violence of numbers in no time.
Also, he didn't know if they could definitely help that doctor. Moreover, they also had to carry out the recovery of weapons and ammunition, which was their original purpose, in parallel. Even if they helped the doctor, if they couldn't recover weapons, even escaping from here would become difficult.
For that reason, Sato and the others headed to recover weapons and ammunition first, leaving the boy behind.
The boy took up a position a little distance away from the warehouse where the doctor was stuck and confirmed that there were no infected around. No matter how much he was wearing a silencer, if he fired from point-blank range, the gunshot would naturally be heard. Though, since the infected are currently distracted by the bait before them, they likely won't notice the boy's presence even with a little firing.
The boy placed the backpack he was carrying on the bed of an abandoned light truck to make a simple shooting rest, and stood the carbine's foregrip on it as a substitute for a monopod. He peeked through the lens of the optical sight mounted on the accessory rail right above the receiver and overlapped the red dot projected on the lens onto the head of an infected surrounding the warehouse.
And on the rusted bed of the light truck where the paint had peeled off, he lined up the spare magazines he had received from Sato and the others earlier. It was to continue firing without the leisure of taking magazines out of pouches one by one, but there were only 5 spare magazines including the ones he originally had.
Instead, he had handed over all of his handgun magazines to Sato and the others except for one spare, but even so, the situation where Sato and the others had almost no ammunition now remained unchanged. The boy prayed that Sato and the others would reach the armory without encountering infected.
But if they secured weapons and ammunition, the rest would be easy. Before Sato and the others returned, he had to eliminate even one more infected and make it so the doctor inside the warehouse could escape safely.
"Well then, shall we do this?"
The boy muttered in a voice so small no one could hear, and pulled the trigger of the carbine in his hand.
I look forward to your opinions and impressions.