Chapter 202 - A Shield Hero-ish Story
I've been busy, so this is my first post in three months.
I won't disappear (will of steel).
"Eh, you are...?"
A man dressed in black clothes like a clergyman. He looked to be in his late twenties. Aside from being a bit thin, he appeared perfectly healthy.
And on both sides of him, several children about middle school age were lined up as if they were his attendants. They also looked healthy, but something was wrong. Aki felt an indescribable sense of incongruity.
"Where is this? Why did you bring me here?"
In response to that question, the man maintained a slight smile and said nothing. Silence was his answer, it seemed.
Instead, a boy about middle school age standing next to him answered with an innocent smile.
"We brought you here because you're a feast."
"A feast?"
Did he mean they were going to serve me a feast? The atmosphere wasn't one where such carefree things could be said. Above all, the boy's expression, though he was smiling, was eerie.
"More importantly, Sensei, when are we eating? Let's eat soon!"
"That's right! We haven't eaten for a month already."
The other children chimed in, but they didn't look like they had been fasting for a month at all. However, looking at the strange sculpture of corpses before her and the eerily smiling children, Aki felt a mounting sense of dread.
"Now, now, you mustn't be in such a hurry. More importantly, what happened to this person's companions?"
"Um, Akira and the others should be killing them."
Before she could feel terror at a child innocently talking about killing, Aki worried about what had happened to the boys. She was the only one kidnapped and brought here; Sato and the boy were nowhere to be seen.
Could they have been killed? That thought crossed her mind.
"You people, what on earth do you want!?"
Aki shouted and struggled to undo the rope binding her hands, but the tightly tied rope didn't loosen in the slightest. Seeing Aki like that, one of the children turned an anxious face toward her.
"Stop it, Onee-san. If you struggle, the meat will get tough."
"Get tough?"
"Yeah. The meat of people who struggle is tough and doesn't taste very good, so please stay still."
It was the moment her bad feeling hit the mark. These people were eating humans. Moreover, they showed no sign of doubt or guilt about it.
These people were eating humans. Not metaphorically, but in the literal sense.
"Sensei, it's bad!"
A child entered the room. Contrary to the tone of voice, the expression seemed to be lacking in emotion.
"It looks like Akira and the others were taken out. What should we do?"
"Aww, Akira and the others are weaklings."
"They're all talk."
Did "taken out" mean they were killed? Why did they seem so strangely calm even though their comrades had been killed? To say they were used to death from seeing so many people die—it was somehow eerie.
"Is that so? That is a shame."
On the other hand, the man the children called "Sensei" seemed perfectly composed. He was likely the one who had directed the children who attacked Aki and then the boys. It was easy to imagine that many had died by his orders, yet he remained detached.
"Well then, everyone, please go and make sure to finish those people off this time."
"Can we eat them if we kill them?"
"No. Didn't I tell you before? You are only allowed to eat one person per week."
The children looked dissatisfied at the words of the man called Sensei, but when urged with "Now, go," they filed out of the room. Carrying axes and iron pipes in their hands, they were likely going to kill the boys now. Aki thought she had to stop them somehow, but with her hands tied and her weapons confiscated, there seemed to be nothing she could do.
"Then, how about making them into jerky?"
"I shall allow that. Now, go quickly."
"Okay. A woman's meat is soft and delicious, so I can't wait."
The children left with their weapons as if they were going on a field trip. Left in the room were only Aki and the man called Sensei.
"...You, do you plan to kill and eat me?"
Aki glared at the man with all the bluffing she could muster. In truth, her body felt like it was about to start shaking with fear, but she managed to endure it with that bluff.
Even if this man tried to kill her, she had no means of resistance in this situation with no weapons and her hands tied. Even so, she had no intention of unsightly wailing and begging for her life. Like the boy who fought until the end no matter what, she intended to fight through to the end without yielding.
The man took a folding knife from his pocket and deployed the blade. The knife, with the bottom half of the blade serrated, was sharp and pointed; it would easily be able to pierce and tear through a human body.
The man approached with the knife in hand. She was scared thinking about how much it would hurt if she were stabbed, but even so, she was someone who had already experienced many life-or-death situations. She didn't intend to make a fuss now.
The blade of the knife was thrust before her eyes, and Aki reflexively closed them. She prepared herself for the blade to pierce her and for her consciousness to vanish. However, that moment never came.
Feeling a light impact on her wrists, she opened her eyes to find the rope that had been binding her hands until a moment ago was gone. Scraps of the rope with their ends cut were rolling at her feet.
"You, what do you want?"
Apparently, this man had cut the rope for her. But why? Why would people who capture and eat others go out of their way to do something like freeing their prey?
Aki immediately scanned the surroundings, looking for something that could serve as a weapon. There was a folding chair a short distance away. If the man didn't have a gun, she might be able to resist by swinging that.
Aki approached the chair while remaining facing the man. As long as she didn't know the man's intentions, she couldn't feel safe.
But the man took an unexpected action. He dropped the knife he was holding onto the floor and sat down right there, devoid of strength.
"I'm... tired..."
Those words escaped the man's mouth. It was the voice of a very exhausted man, different from the somewhat madness-tinged, calm tone from before.
"Enemy, 100 meters!"
Just as Sato said, children armed with weapons swarmed out from the shadows of the buildings. Some of them were aiming what appeared to be handmade bows, and the boy immediately raised the shield in his hand.
The riot shield, equipment left behind at the police station, was made of transparent polycarbonate and was an excellent item that could even stop handgun bullets. Immediately after Sato hid behind the boy holding the shield, the released arrows attacked the two of them.
"Uoh...!"
Although the risk of penetration was low, it was still not a good feeling to see arrows flying at you through a transparent shield. The boy and Sato kept their posture low and advanced while hiding behind the shield.
Several of the released arrows hit the shield directly, and each time, a large impact hit the boy. The arrows, with sharp metal fragments as arrowheads, left numerous scratches on the surface of the shield, but they snapped without penetrating and scattered on the ground.
It was Sato who had decided to bring the shield for Aki's rescue, and that judgment was correct. Since the two of them were charging into enemy territory, being subjected to concentrated fire was unavoidable. The shield, intended for trained riot police officers, was heavy, and carrying weapons on top of that made it quite a weight, but the boy thought it was the right choice to bring it now.
"Is Aki close?"
"The signal is getting stronger. She's up ahead."
Sato, holding the radio that served as the beacon's tracking device, answered. Indeed, the electronic sound emitted from the radio's speaker had become louder and clearer than when they were at the police station. There was no doubt that Aki's location was close. That is, unless the people who kidnapped her had placed Aki and the gun containing the beacon in separate locations.
Meanwhile, the children who had suddenly appeared charged toward the boys with their weapons raised. It was an assault supported by bow fire from the rear, but it seemed no one was equipped with guns. Did they simply not have guns, or did they not know how to use them? Or were they too small in stature to use guns?
Only children were showing themselves; there wasn't a single adult. Whether they felt not even a shred of fear, some of them even had crazed smiles as they charged with handmade spears. Their appearance overlapped with the infected, making the boy feel nauseous.
They weren't attacking the boys because they were threatened or forced by someone. They were coming to kill the boy and Sato of their own will.
Sato poked his muzzle out from behind the shield and pulled the trigger. Along with a muffled gunshot through the silencer, a child was shot through the chest dozens of meters away.
Even if it wasn't a fatal wound, a normal human should have been rendered unable to move by the intense pain. However, the shot child, as if feeling no pain at all, picked up the dropped spear and kept charging.
"What is with these guys...!"
The boy also pulled out his handgun, poked only his hand over the shield, and just kept pulling the trigger. It was shooting without any semblance of aim, but in this situation where the children were literally right under their noses, even bullets fired at random would hit someone. Even so, they didn't stop.
"We've crushed the projectiles, just keep firing!"
Apparently, Sato had shot the archers at some point; before he knew it, the arrows flying from the front had ceased. The boy stood up and swung the shield at the face of a child who was closing in right before him. The one who had been about to kill the boy just now was a girl about middle school age with a machete.
The corner of the shield, weighing several kilograms, dug into her face, and he could feel her nose being crushed and her front teeth breaking. The girl let out a groan and dropped the machete, but she seemed to still intend to fight. As she tried to pick up the machete, the boy, still holding the shield, fired the handgun he held in one hand.
With no time to aim properly, he hammered all the remaining bullets in the magazine into her. Two rounds pierced her chest and one pierced her neck, her body jolting violently each time. Even so, when she still tried to stand up, a handgun bullet shot through her forehead, and the girl finally fell and stopped moving.
It's hell, the boy thought.
Children who weren't even infected, attacking without showing a hint of fear. Sato and himself, killing them one after another. He thought he had seen plenty of hellish sights, but this was a situation worse than any of his previous experiences.
It wasn't the first time he had been attacked by children. In a world like this, even children would attack others to steal supplies in order to survive.
But they had attacked people out of a simple desire to survive and the fear that anyone other than themselves was an enemy and that they might be killed if they let their guard down. To avoid starving to death, and to protect themselves. Those two things had driven the children to murder.
But from the children currently before his eyes, he couldn't feel either of those. What was there was simply the desire to "want to kill people." Attacking in order to kill. That was the principle of action for the children currently attacking the boys.
In that case, neither discussion nor threats would work on them. The only paths left were to run away or to eliminate all the threats that were attacking.
And since he had the goal of saving Aki, he couldn't choose the former. The boy and Sato continued to pull their triggers to kill the children.
I'm waiting for your opinions and impressions.