Chapter 200 - Johnny Mad Dog
Because communication with Aki became impossible, Sato and the boy immediately laid out a state of alert. Two minutes had passed since Aki sent a communication saying she would look at the situation outside because there was a noise, but there is neither a follow-up report nor a reply to the call from here. Thinking there is no mistake that something happened, the two immediately head to the back gate with guns in hand.
If she was done in immediately after sending the communication here, there is a possibility that the enemy has already intruded into the station. But the boy was more concerned about whether Aki was safe than his own safety.
Sato seemed to be thinking the same thing. Originally, the one who said "I'll keep watch outside" was Aki, but the one who approved it was Sato. He surely also thinks that although there were not enough people, he shouldn't have let her keep watch alone.
Just in case, Sato called out on the radio once more, but as expected, there is no reply. When the two readying their guns come out to the parking lot from the back entrance, a figure was standing in the middle of the parking lot.
Aki? He thought so for a moment, but immediately understood it was different. The figure is small. It was a girl of middle school age or thereabouts, wearing tattered clothes.
"A child...?"
The boy had muttered that reflexively. Next to him, Sato points his gun at the surroundings with a suspicious face.
"Help me..."
At the girl who implores that way with a trembling voice while shedding tears, the boy almost takes a step forward reflexively. I have to help her. Just as he thought so, the boy returned to his senses at a sense of incongruity he felt.
A girl wearing tattered clothes, all alone in a place like this. If you think normally, you would reach the conclusion that she's a survivor who lived in this city while escaping the eyes of the infected. But now that he has experienced various things, the boy had become unable to think in a normal way.
In the first place, why did she know that the boy and the others were in this police station? In a situation where you don't know where the infected are, there's no way she was just taking a walk. In other words, she must have been watching the boy and the others coming to this police station, or keeping watch.
Having reached the same thought as the boy, Sato was also readying his gun at almost the same timing as the boy.
"Stop!"
Pointing a gun at a child is a taboo, an act that would be unforgivable as a soldier, but now is a world where you must not think in a common-sense way. The boy also has experience of being attacked several times by starving children. Considering that, even if the opponent is a frail girl, it's better to be cautious until you know who she is.
"Help me..."
"Stop there, if you don't stop, I'll shoot!"
He was keeping his voice volume down in caution of the infected, but Sato warned with a clear voice. The colors of bewilderment and fear were floating in the eyes of the girl who had a muzzle pointed at her, but even so, he cannot lower the gun.
To the girl who stopped on the spot, Sato announced "Raise both hands." The girl did as she was told with a fearful look. Within the visible range, she doesn't have a weapon.
"Shall I do a body check?"
"Naturally."
"I'll go. Sato-san, provide cover."
It wasn't an action from a lecherous heart like wanting to touch a girl's body. If the girl was hiding some weapon, or if a companion was aiming from afar, he had to have Sato provide cover. Considering the skill with a gun, Sato was the right person for the cover role; it was just that kind of thing.
Sato hides his body in the wall of the back entrance of the police station and only thrusts the gun outside. The boy switches from the carbine to a handgun and slowly approaches the girl. He cannot do a body check with one hand occupied.
"Raise both hands."
When he says it slowly but clearly, the girl did as she was told with a frightened face. She doesn't have a gun or anything. But even so, there is no certainty that she is not an enemy.
It was when the boy was slowly approaching the girl while readying his handgun, and the distance was about to become less than 10 meters. Sato behind him shouted "Enemy attack!" and the gunshot of the rifle with a suppressor rings out. Immediately after, something flew from the edge of his vision drawing a parabola and fell over the boy's head.
That which fell while drawing a tail of white smoke was an arrow with something like an empty can attached to the tip. When that arrow hit the ground, white smoke immediately spews out from several holes opened in the can and envelops the surroundings.
"It's gas!"
Sato shouted, and the boy hurriedly covered his mouth and nose with the muffler he had wrapped around his neck. Several more arrows with smoke pots fell, and the parking lot is immediately enveloped in white smoke. The figure of Sato, who had captured the position of the arrow's archer and was adding gunfire toward the firing point, became invisible, blocked by the smoke.
It was bad that he took his eyes off the girl who should have been right in front of him, distracted by being under a surprise attack. When the boy looked back, the figure of the girl who had been raising both hands with a frightened look until just now was not there, and instead, she was right before his eyes, having swung up a knife she gripped in a reverse grip while harboring madness in her pupils.
"This girl...!"
He receives the knife swung down along with a strange cry with the handgun he was readying just in time. A folding knife that was painted black even to the blade so as not to reflect light. If he was stabbed with such a thing, it wouldn't end with just an injury.
The handgun that received the knife's blade was blown away by the impact, and the girl leaps at him again. When he released a front kick at her body reflexively, the girl who received that shoe sole with her stomach was blown away while emitting a dirty scream.
"Are you safe!?"
Sato's voice is heard, but his figure is not visible because of the white smoke. Since his throat and nose don't hurt even if he breathes the gas, it's likely not for the purpose of killing, but a smoke bomb for a smoke screen. Although he had assumed receiving an attack since they went out to the city, it was much more dynamic and large-scale than expected.
Suddenly, a figure jumped out from the smoke. It's the girl the boy kicked away just now. He gives up on picking up the handgun he dropped and almost readies the carbine. But faster than that, the girl rushes toward the boy while brandishing the knife.
And one more person, someone appeared from the smoke. The one who rushed in while swinging a halberd made by tying a knife and an axe to the tip of an iron pipe was a boy of about the same age as the girl. But unlike her, this one is wearing very good clothes.
The girl swung down the knife along with a strange cry, and just as the boy avoided it by a hair's breadth, the halberd's blade attacks him. He jumped back and somehow parried that blade too, but the girl rushes in again and he has no leeway to ready his gun. He no longer knew where Sato was beyond the smoke, or if he was still alive.
It seemed they didn't just happen to come here, but had prepared to attack the boy and Sato in advance. Moreover, they are coordinated. They don't seem to have guns, but they seemed to be used to fighting, such as bringing it to close-quarters combat after taking away visibility with smoke bombs to overturn that handicap.
The boy also took his hand off the gun and took the axe he was used to using. And when he received the girl's knife swung down with the axe's back, he delivered a punch to her stomach with his free hand. He almost swung down the axe at her who folded her body into a 'ku' shape while emitting a groan, but the boy with the halberd intruded. Whether he was used to using the weapon, his hand movements were smooth.
The people increase further. Several children holding Japanese swords, axes, or iron pipes in their hands rush toward the boy. Even though he has a gun, they seemed to not be afraid of anything.
The boy made up his mind and advanced, daring to approach the boy swinging the halberd. By closing the distance, the fear of being slashed by the axe at the tip or the protruding knife blade vanished, but instead, the long iron pipe handle attacks the boy.
But perhaps because it was an attack that missed the distance, although the halberd's handle hit the boy's left arm directly, he didn't feel much pain. When the boy grabbed that handle with his left arm, he gripped the carbine's grip with his right hand, readied it at his hip with one hand, and pulled the trigger. When he showered bullets from point-blank range at the boy who became unable to move because his prey was grabbed, a nasty smell of burning flesh from the muzzle flash drifted.
Every time he pulled the trigger, the body of the boy right under his nose shakes gaku-gaku. When the boy, who felt a solid response of having surely finished him off by shooting 5 shots into the torso, let go of the halberd's handle he was grabbing, the boy's body collapsed to the ground.
"You bastard...!"
Children still coming toward him. Their ages are from upper elementary school students to high school students. There are no adults, and there are no people who have guns. Why are there only children?
But thinking about such a question was for later. And now he had to take down the children who are readying weapons and trying to kill the boy and the others. He cannot do nothing for the reason that the opponent is a child. Even if the boy called out to them to throw away their weapons, they would likely try to kill the boy and the others without paying any mind.
That's why he had no choice but to shoot now. In order to survive, he has to kill the opponent. It's a simple and clear rule that dominates the current world.
The boy also doesn't want to actively kill anyone, and he thinks it's best to do so if they can get along. But that is strictly an ideal, and if the opponent doesn't have that intention, he has to fight.
Even for the boy who is struggling to return to being a proper human through numerous events, he understood that in order to pull through the current situation, he has to kill the ones who attack even if they are children. If he doesn't survive, he cannot even look for Aki who went missing.
In the white smoke, he shot a boy who rushed in while readying a short sword at his hip. Even a 5.56mm rifle bullet, which is said to have weak power, exerts a vicious destructive power on a soft child's body. The stomach of the boy who was shot was torn, and he collapsed to the ground while spilling his internal organs.
He shot a girl of about middle school age who had a metal bat in her hand. The bullet the boy released hit her head, and from the forehead up was crushed and vanished. Pink brain matter scattered, and the body that lost strength was still continuing to move forward, but it falls after taking a few steps.
"Is this a lie...?"
But the boy doubted his eyes at the sight before him. The boy who should have collapsed after being shot in the stomach earlier stood up and came toward the boy again. While dragging his internal organs like a rope from his torn stomach, he picks up the short sword he dropped and brandishes it toward the boy.
The rifle bullet he released reflexively blew away his right arm from the elbow down, which was gripping the short sword. But the boy, as if he didn't feel pain, pulls the short sword from his own right arm that was torn off and rolled on the ground, and switches it to his safe left hand. Despite bleeding profusely from the cut surface of his right arm, he didn't seem to care about such a thing.
His eyes glaring at the boy are unusually bloodshot, and saliva is dripping from the corners of his lips. Along with a groan he didn't understand, the figure of the boy rushing in despite suffering heavy injuries was just like an infected itself.
He takes his hand off the rifle that ran out of ammunition and picks up the handgun he dropped earlier. And the boy, who centered his aim on the head of the boy rushing in, pulled the trigger until the bullets in the magazine were gone. At the head of him who was shot in the neck and chest and collapsed to the ground again, he fired again after switching the handgun's magazine. That body shook greatly once, and this time it stopped moving.
"What on earth are these guys..."
Children rushing in while readying weapons along with roars. The boy stopped thinking and readied his gun.
I look forward to your opinions and impressions.