Chapter 199 - Assassin's Creed
This is the first post of 2021.
I will definitely finish it this year (how many times has that been).
The police station that was the destination was enveloped in a strange atmosphere. Office desks and chairs were piled up as barricades in the front entrance porch, and iron pipes with diagonally cut tips were sticking out from various places. Countless bleached skeletons were rolling in front of that barricade, and it was easy to imagine that a fierce battle had unfolded between the people who holed up in the police station and the infected.
"It seems there's no one inside."
Sato muttered. One part of the front entrance barricade was greatly collapsed. It seemed the infected had surged into the station from there.
"The back gate is open."
Aki, who was scouting the surroundings, returned and reported. The police station has a main gate facing the road and a back gate connecting to the parking lot, and that back gate was open.
"Was it broken?"
"No, there were barricades and such, but there's no sign of it being broken. Maybe the people who were inside opened it when they escaped."
As Aki said, when they went around to the back gate, the sturdy iron door was cleanly open only there. The gate is a type that opens and closes by sliding on a rail, but it wasn't forced and knocked off the rail either.
In the parking lot beyond the back gate, patrol cars and ambulances were parked haphazardly, and furthermore, barricades were also constructed along the walls. Several fire trucks were lined up against the wall, perhaps to sweep away the surging infected with water discharge.
Here too, after several months had passed, many dried, rotted, bleached skeletons were rolling. But compared to the number scattered in front of the main gate, it's remarkably few.
"The main gate was breached, and they likely attempted an escape as a do-or-die gamble. Since the gate is open, there must have been those who managed to get away."
"And people who couldn't escape..."
"There would have been."
In that state, it didn't seem like there were any survivors inside, but even if there were no humans, there's a possibility that there are infected. Besides, since barricades are already constructed in the police station, it might function as a base again if they repair some parts. Since there were people in the station, there's a high possibility that supplies remain inside.
"Let's go."
Sato announced shortly, and following Sato who readied his suppressed carbine, the boy also readied his gun and followed. Aki followed after them at a slight distance.
When they entered the parking lot from the back gate, traces of people having escaped from the station in a great hurry were left everywhere. A minivan where the driver had died inside the car after having an accident in a panic and crashing into a wall. A bus with its door left open, seemingly because they were caught by the infected just before boarding. Shell casings rolling on the asphalt ground.
"Wait."
Sato restrained the two with his hand and picked up one empty shell casing that was rolling on the ground. He threw the shell casing, which was of a handgun bullet size, into the back entrance that was left open. After a while, a clear sound of metal clashing was heard from inside the building.
Everyone readied their guns and prepared for infected, but even after waiting for about a minute, no movement was felt inside. It seemed no infected remained in the station.
Because it's been a long time since the infrastructure died, and also because boards are nailed to the windows from the inside in various places perhaps to prevent the intrusion of infected, the inside of the station was pitch black even though it was daytime. Sato, standing at the lead, turned on the flashlight mounted on his carbine and illuminated the pitch-black corridor. In the corridor are many doors and plates displayed saying "Traffic Safety Section," "General Affairs Section," and "Community Safety Section."
When the circle of light from the flashlight moved from the wall to the floor, several rolling corpses were illuminated. Perhaps because the decay was slow since it was inside a building, unlike the corpses outside, they aren't completely skeletonized. Even so, they are missing limbs, perhaps having been ravaged by wild dogs.
There are several corpses wearing police uniforms and equipment, but the overwhelmingly large number are those wearing casual clothes, or suits and school uniforms. While the police corpses are ravaged, the corpses in casual clothes have bullets pumped into them. The police officers likely met the infected who destroyed the barricade at the front entrance and intruded into the station.
Empty shell casings are scattered as far as the back entrance. They must have retreated while firing their guns. It doesn't seem like they were wiped out.
Just in case, they look around all the rooms on the first floor. Perhaps having been diverted to barricades, the office desks, chairs, and sofas in the rooms were all taken outside, and blankets and plastic sheets were spread on the floor. Since small clothes for children were hung on hangers and dried, it might be a room where evacuees were living.
And as they proceeded toward the front entrance on the first floor, the corpses increased further. Perhaps they were resisting for a while even after the infected intruded, as a barricade made by piling up sofas and benches was made in the lobby, but in the end, those also didn't become much of a deterrent. One corner of the barricade collapsed, and corpses of infected are lying there as if piled up.
They went around and confirmed the inside of the three-story police station, but neither infected nor survivors remained in the station. What was left behind was a mountain of corpses, and the information the police officers gathered when this police station was still functioning.
In the large conference room on the second floor, maps and imitation paper were pinned all over the walls, showing the traces of the police at the time of the pandemic trying to respond to the situation while being confused. On the maps, places where accidents occurred and roads are blocked, places where citizens are seeking rescue, and places where communication with dispatched officers was cut off are drawn by hand.
On the imitation paper pinned next to it, the number of dead people that seemed to have been tallied was written along with the time. The numbers that were written in clean handwriting at the beginning also gradually became messy as time passed, and finally, they are almost scribbles. As if in conjunction with that, the number of dead also rapidly increased its digits, and in the last line, it was written like this:
"Number of dead: Impossible to tally"
On the copy paper scattered on the floor, articles regarding the infection status that seemed to have been downloaded from news sites are printed. Even in a situation that had never happened before, the police officers were likely trying to gather information somehow and respond to the situation. In the end, no one in the world succeeded in responding, though.
"No weapons remain. Did the police officers take them and flee, or did someone take them after that?"
Sato, who had looked around the station once, peeks his face into the conference room and conveys that. In a Japanese police station with good public order, not much in the way of weapons besides handguns would be placed. It's said that special units and firearm tactical units equipped with powerful firearms were also dispatched and were dealing with measures at the time the pandemic occurred, but even those shouldn't be that many in number.
"But the information left here is precious. We have to thank them."
The "them" Sato says would be the police officers who worked hard to protect the citizens until the end. The information within the city they gathered for us will surely be useful in future exploration.
Information such as where the road is blocked or where infected are occurring in large numbers would surely have taken a considerable amount of time if we were gathering it with our own feet.
While looking through the imitation paper and copy paper pinned to the wall, there was something that caught his eye. The boy pulls and removes the copy paper that was pinned to the wall with a thumbtack and hands it to Sato.
"JSDF movements...?"
In the handwritten text using a felt-tip pen, it's stated that the JSDF has begun moving north of Tochigi Prefecture. It says that after completing the move, they will block all roads leading north to make them unusable and construct a safe zone there. Though, underneath that, it was added in red ink as "Unconfirmed Information".
Come to think of it, Shimizu, the leader of the university students who led the children we rescued before, was also saying the same kind of thing. That the JSDF has established a safe zone in the Tohoku region, and the reason rescue doesn't come is because there is no strength that can be spared.
"Is this true, I wonder?"
"Who knows. Our job was VIP rescue, not containment of the infection spread area. There might have been a movement to try to construct a safe zone somewhere, but at least I haven't heard such a story until communication with headquarters became impossible."
If so, would it be information that came in after Sato was left behind in the city? The boy thrust that copy paper into his pocket and also looks at the other papers. The number of protected citizens and their names, ages, and genders. The remaining amount of supplies like food and water. The current weapons and remaining ammunition for handguns, and so on.
Every time time passed, the color of fatigue began to be seen in the handwritten characters, and they became messy. The police officers who remained at the police station must have been fulfilling their duties to the end with a sense of obligation to protect the citizens, amidst the thought that they themselves wanted to flee.
I'm a far cry from them, having run away. The boy thought so while looking at the paper scattered on the floor.
Meanwhile, Aki, who was entrusted with the security around the back gate, suddenly felt like she heard something like a footstep.
She had confirmed that there were no infected in the surroundings in the prior investigation, but there is also a possibility of just in case. When she announced over the radio that she heard something like a footstep so she was heading to confirm, a reply of "Understood" came from Sato immediately. With this, even if something happened to Aki and she became unable to reply, Sato and the others would surely notice the abnormality immediately and rush over.
Just in case, she released the safety of the submachine gun and proceeded toward where the sound came from while taking a posture where she could shoot at any time with the buttstock firmly against her shoulder. The sound was heard from outside the grounds of the police station.
If it's an infected, I'll shoot. If it's anything else, I'll see the situation and ask for Sato's instructions. Even if it's an enemy, I won't pursue deeply. Aki brought out the gate from the back gate while remembering the rules decided in advance.
On the sidewalk along the wall surrounding the grounds of the police station, one figure was seen. It's the figure of a child.
An infected? Just as she thought so and put her finger on the trigger, Aki notices that a sobbing voice is being emitted from that figure. Infected absolutely never cry or anything.
"A child...?"
When she muttered reflexively, that figure raised its face. It's a girl with short hair. Her age would be an elementary school student or thereabouts.
Although she's wearing clothes that are tattered here and there, her complexion is health itself. No sign of being skin and bones is seen either.
Why is there a child in the middle of a city full of infected? Are there survivors somewhere? Where did she come from? Was she watching us entering this police station?
Various thoughts came to her mind, but she remembers what she should do is report first. At the moment she was about to take her left hand, which was gripping the handguard of the submachine gun, to the radio on her waist, she saw something small flying from the edge of her vision along with a hyu sound.
"Go—...!?"
Immediately after, she received an impact like her temple was hit with all one's might, and Aki's consciousness was swallowed by darkness in an instant. The sight she saw just before losing consciousness was the face of the girl who had been crying until now, smiling with the corners of her mouth turned up in a smirk.
Immediately after Aki collapsed on the sidewalk, several figures appeared from the shadows of nearby buildings and scrapped cars. Unlike the girl, those figures wearing clean winter clothes rush toward Aki who collapsed without a sound. One of them was gripping a slingshot in their hand.
They quickly take away the submachine gun Aki had in her hand and remove the radio that was on her waist. And when a large-built one carried Aki's unconscious body like a rice bale, they left several people on the spot and went away beyond the buildings.
The several people who remained on the spot, after merging with the girl wearing tattered clothes, step into the grounds of the police station that Aki had just come out of. In the girl's hand, a sharp folding knife was gripped before she knew it.
I look forward to your opinions and impressions.