Chapter 192 - The Wildcat Does Not Sleep
"Alright, here is fine. Stop the car."
At Sato's words from the passenger seat, Rei, who was gripping the steering wheel, stepped on the brakes. The sliding door of the slowly stopped minivan opened, and several men stepped out from within.
"The driver will standby here. Be ready to move the car at any moment."
"Understood."
"Also, if ten minutes pass after communication with us is cut off, escape with just the two of you. At that point, we'll be dead."
"...Understood."
Aki, who was accompanying them as the minivan's driver this time, followed Sato's instructions despite a slightly dissatisfied expression. They couldn't exactly drive the car directly up to the building where the survivors were taking refuge, so the vehicle unit was to standby in a safe location a short distance away. It was expected that a large number of infected would be near the building with survivors; it was obvious that if they drove there, they would be surrounded in an instant.
"Be careful."
Aki called out to the boy's back as he prepared to head toward the destination. Answering silently with a raised hand, the boy split off from Sato and the others and began running in a different direction. Holding an assault rifle fitted with a suppressor in both hands and carrying a packed backpack, the boy ran through the darkness-shrouded city, comparing his map with the surrounding terrain. In less than an hour, dawn would break.
The boy was heading for the rooftop of a multi-tenant building located several hundred meters away from the building where the survivors had taken refuge. From there, he would have a full view of the street and the building, allowing him to support the rescue team led by Sato.
The target building was, naturally, pitch black due to the power outage, and the elevators weren't working. However, there was no sign of people inside. Of course, there seemed to be no infected either.
The emergency staircase door, which would normally be closed to prevent intrusion, had fallen off its frame and was lying on the ground, perhaps due to aging. If the door were closed, it could buy some time to escape in the unlikely event he was spotted by the infected, but there was no use wishing for what wasn't there.
The boy took a hand grenade from a pouch on his vest and tied a wire to the safety pin. Then, after securing the grenade to the handrail with duct tape, he tied the wire extending from the safety pin to the handrail on the opposite side. With this, even if the infected noticed him and climbed the stairs, it would buy at least a little time.
He ran up the nine flights of emergency stairs, huffing and puffing, and reached the roof. The entrance to the roof was locked with a padlock, so he destroyed it with an axe and entered. Gondolas and cranes used for exterior wall cleaning were left abandoned on the roof, but there was no one else besides the boy. The visibility was good, providing a full view of the target building and the street in front of it.
"This is Deadman, I've reached the roof."
"Good. Can you see us?"
The boy spread a blanket he had brought on the ground and placed the assault rifle on its bipod atop it. Taking out his binoculars and looking down, he could see Sato and the others hiding in the shadows of cars. On the main street, several figures were wandering the road. They were infected.
"Yes."
"Can you see the target building?"
At those words, the boy searched for the building located several hundred meters away. He activated the night vision device mounted in tandem with the scope on the assault rifle's rail. In the darkness, things that had been invisible until then became clearly discernible within the green field of vision.
The building where the survivors had reportedly fled seemed to have previously housed a department store or something similar, and it was the largest among the buildings lining the main street. Several passenger cars were abandoned at the front entrance, and one of them had crashed into the building's entryway. It seemed they had abandoned their vehicles there and taken refuge inside.
"Several cars are abandoned at the front entrance. It seems true that they fled into that building."
"Are there infected?"
"A few are loitering in front of the entrance. They likely followed the ones who fled and went inside the building."
"Understood. We will begin moving now. While we advance, eliminate the infected near the building."
In preparation for nighttime combat, Sato and the others were naturally carrying night vision devices as well. However, night vision devices have the disadvantage of narrowing the field of vision when worn, making it difficult to deal with infected when they approach closely.
Furthermore, while all their guns were fitted with suppressors, except for the carbines held by Sato and Chiba, they were all handmade suppressors. Naturally, they were inferior in quietness and durability compared to military-grade products. Also, since the gunshot could be heard at close range, there was a possibility of being discovered if they fired near the infected.
The boy's role was to provide cover so that Sato and the others could reach the building without having to fire as much as possible. From the boy's position, even with a handmade suppressor, the gunshot would not be audible to the infected on the ground.
"Understood."
The boy replied and peered through the assault rifle's scope. He centered the reticle on an infected close to Sato and the others, who were moving from shadow to shadow of street trees and roadside cars, and pulled the trigger. A somewhat muffled gunshot that resonated in his gut rang out, and in the scope, the infected's upper half of the head was blown away as it collapsed to the ground. There was another infected loitering, so he aimed for that one too. The infected, whose head from the forehead up was gone, collapsed behind a scrapped car, scattering brains, and disappeared from view.
"Advancing."
With those words, Sato and the others, guns at the ready, proceeded along the sidewalk. Infrared lasers attached to the guns danced wildly within the night vision field of vision.
"Target, 11 o'clock. Behind the garbage truck."
Sato and the others stopped their advance. Looking closely, two infected appeared side-by-side from behind a garbage truck abandoned on the road. The distance from Sato and the others was not even 30 meters. Because the garbage truck had been in the way, they hadn't been visible until now.
"I'll take the one on the right, you take the left. I'll leave the timing to you."
Because the distance was close, even with a suppressor, there was a possibility that the gunshot would be heard by the infected from Sato's position. He wanted to avoid the situation where the gunshot was heard by the other one; if so, it was necessary to take down both simultaneously.
The light point of Sato's laser sight overlapped with the head of one of the infected. The boy aimed at the other infected walking a short distance to the left and fired. At the same moment the infected the boy aimed at had its head pierced, the other one also collapsed to the ground, drawing a streak of blood in the air from its head. Sato had fired at the exact same time the boy's bullet impacted.
"Nice shot. Advancing."
The squad began advancing again, and the boy changed magazines in the meantime. He had confidence in his marksmanship, but he didn't have much experience sniping targets several hundred meters away. However, although he had missed a few shots, so far he was successfully supporting the rescue team on the ground.
While Sato and the others approached the target department store, he finished off the infected in that vicinity beforehand. Perhaps due to the commotion when the survivors fled into the department store, several infected were loitering near the front entrance. Since there was no way only a few had followed, the other infected must have gone inside the department store after the survivors. As expected, he couldn't provide support inside the building.
"Deadman to Ghost, I've mostly cleared the infected near the target. No problem to advance."
"Understood, Deadman. Thanks for the support. Standby at that location until further orders; keep watch on the surroundings."
Replying with an "understood," the boy observed the surroundings with his binoculars. The eastern sky began to brighten. The sky was gradually turning into an ultramarine color.
This city, too, had become a ghost town like any other. A city where only traces of destruction remained, with numerous bleached skeletons lying about. Through such a city, Sato and the others were now running to save a few lives.
The boy thought his decision wasn't wrong. If he only thought of his own safety, he could have just stayed holed up in the Reclaimed Land and done nothing. But no one chose that. In order to keep living as human beings, they had decided to help people who were currently in a crisis.
"We are now storming the interior of the building."
"Understood. Good luck."
Sato and the others split into two groups and approached the front entrance where the minivan had crashed. Through the binoculars, he could see one squad guarding the rear while the other guarded the front, peering into the building's interior through the shattered glass doors.
"The interior is pitch black. Turn on the lights."
At Sato's words, Chiba and the others turned on the flashlights attached to their respective guns. Indoors, where there are many hiding spots, the poor visibility of night vision devices is fatal. You might realize something is right under your nose. And if you are caught by an infected, it's difficult to pull them off because of their monstrous strength. They would close the distance in an instant and bite into your throat.
Turning on the lights would increase the possibility of being easily found by the infected, but Sato seemed to have prioritized visibility. They turned on the lights and illuminated the interior. There seemed to be no infected on the first floor, as he heard the voice say "Clear".
"Where did those guys hide?"
"If there's a place where the infected are gathered, that's likely where they took refuge. Anyway, hurry, we don't know how much leeway we have."
"Be cautious. Keep in the back of your mind the possibility that this might be a fake distress call meant to ambush us."
Sato said calmly. Sato was moving with survivor rescue as the priority, but it seemed he was indeed assuming the worst-case possibility. However, considering this situation, there certainly were traces of someone having fled into the department store. He truly hoped the survivors had taken refuge inside the building and were still alive.
As morning approached, the number of infected loitering on the road also increased. The boy vaguely knew that the infected had the habit of spending the night inside buildings or ruins and coming outside during the day. However, that was only when there was no prey. If there were humans, they would chase them regardless of day or night.
"Hurry up..."
No report of Sato and the others finding the survivors had come over the radio yet. The boy began firing bullets one by one into the heads of the infected who had started wandering the road. He tossed the empty magazines into his backpack, and the empty shell casings rolling on the concrete roof bumped into each other, making a clear metallic sound.
I look forward to your opinions and impressions.