Chapter 217 - A Story of 'Barrage is Power'
At almost the same time the boys stormed the grounded passenger ship, the construction of a defense system in anticipation of an emergency was progressing on the quay. Because it was the Reclaimed Land, they had only been wary of intrusion by the infected or rioters from the land side until now, so the situation of a large passenger ship crashing in like this was, as expected, unforeseen.
For now, there was no movement inside the ship, but because the possibility of infected being inside was high, preparations for evacuation from the Reclaimed Land were progressing in parallel with the investigation of the ship. Children, the elderly, and the sick and wounded who couldn't fight were put on buses and evacuated to the forward base built on land. It was a movement following the escape plan in anticipation of an emergency, but an unexpected trouble had occurred here.
"The buses aren't leaving yet?"
Such a voice was heard while Aki was carrying desks for barricades to the quay. Han, who was ordered to be the commander of the defense unit on the quay side, was talking about something with other security personnel with a furrowed brow. Hearing the story, the buses placed on the land side in preparation for evacuation were unable to move due to engine trouble, and it seemed the evacuation was not progressing as planned.
Because the engine sound of a car could cause the infected to be attracted, it was ideally desirable for vehicles to be electric vehicles that produce little or no engine sound. However, they couldn't secure enough vehicles to carry everyone in the Reclaimed Land, and they couldn't secure the fuel to move dozens of cars, and a large-scale convoy would be difficult to guard.
Therefore, the original plan was to repair city buses that had been abandoned in the city, apply modifications to improve their defensive power, and use those vehicles to evacuate many people in the event of a situation where the Reclaimed Land had to be abandoned. However, if the buses, which were the key to evacuation, didn't move, evacuation would take time, whether they were repaired or other vehicles were used.
"Our job is to kill the infected at all costs if they come outside; hurry the preparations!"
Han raised his voice, and Aki piled up the barricade materials in the designated place. She assembled chairs and desks and placed JSDF light machine guns there. Machine guns were powerful weapons of which there were only a few even in the Reclaimed Land, but now that firepower was needed.
Beside the security personnel carrying ammunition boxes in both hands to the defense position, the storming of the passenger ship was beginning. Seeing the figures of Sato and the boy storming through the breach in the ship's side, Aki couldn't help but stop her feet. She was impressed, in a way, that they could step into a place where they didn't know what was inside. If it were her, she surely couldn't do it no matter what weapon she was given.
If possible, they wanted to surround the entire quay with barricades, but they had neither the materials nor the time to make them. They did their best just to install barbed wire in addition to the existing fences. While the work was still being continued, one of the security personnel peering at the liner with binoculars raised a small voice upon noticing something.
"Ah..."
"What's wrong?"
"I felt like something just moved behind the window..."
At those words, everyone stopped their hands and looked up at the giant ship. Even saying "behind the window," there was a considerable height from the quay to the cabins, and looking up from below, only the ceiling part of the rooms could be seen. Aki also picked up the hunting rifle she had been assigned and peered through the attached scope.
Behind the window of the liner seen through the crosshairs of the scope, dirty curtains hung down, and the state of the interior could not be discerned. She continued looking through the scope for a while, but no particular change could be felt.
Just as she was about to return to work, Sato's voice, in a slightly panicked tone, was heard from the radio Han was holding. However, whether the radio waves were not being received well, it could only be heard with noise and intermittently. But even so, they could hear that Sato was panicked and the fact that there were infected inside the ship.
As soon as they heard those words, Han ordered everyone to take their positions. Aki also pulled the bolt handle of the distributed hunting rifle and chambered a bullet in the chamber. Immediately after, something like faint gunshots was heard from the direction of the ship. The people on the spot realized that the radio from earlier must have been a warning that there were infected in the ship.
"Should we send reinforcements?"
"No, we can't; we can't spare any more personnel."
Among the members who were losing their composure, only Han, who had military experience, was calm. As he said, in the first place, the personnel in the Reclaimed Land were at their limit. Those who stormed the ship were among the most skilled in the Reclaimed Land, but even so, they could only dispatch a few people to explore the vast ship.
In preparation for the landing of the infected, and additionally, if people were spared for the guard of non-combatants who were progressing with evacuation and the security of the forward base set up on the land side, the defense system would collapse if even one person were missing from the current location. Of course, Sato and the others who stormed in knew that rescue wouldn't come even in an emergency, but even so, doing nothing felt like abandoning them, which brought a sense of guilt.
In the meantime, the members of the storming team jumped out from inside the ship. The number was four. The figures of Sato and the boy were not there.
The person at the very rear was seen wildly firing into the ship in a panicked state. The moment the last person came out from the breach in the ship's side, the waiting security personnel hurriedly piled up concrete blocks and sandbags to seal the hole.
"What about Sato-san and that guy!?"
"Those two will evacuate via another route!"
Immediately after Han, who had heard the story via radio from the returning storming team, said that, someone was heard shouting "Infected!"
Looking up, human shadows prowling near the cabin windows could be seen even from the ground. And on the outdoor passages provided on each floor, several human shadows emerged unsteadily from doors that had been left open. Whether they had noticed the commotion inside the ship or simply went outside because the door happened to be open. When Aki confirmed those human shadows with the scope of her hunting rifle, they were clearly not normal humans.
Immediately after, Han, leveling a rifle with a handmade silencer, pulled the trigger, and a muffled gunshot echoed in the surroundings. Through the scope, the human shadow was seen collapsing from the head with blood flowing, and vanished from sight.
"Shoot the ones that come outside."
At Han's instruction, the members with guns equipped with silencers fired toward the infected who had come outside the ship. That said, because there was distance and the infected were moving, it was difficult to finish them with one shot, and half the bullets fired struck the ship's wall and sent up sparks. Even so, several bullets hit the torsos of the infected, and once their movements dulled, the bullets that swarmed further turned the upper bodies of the infected into red-stained lumps of meat.
Even a poor shot hits if they fire enough. Though, the problem was that they didn't have the numbers to fire that much. Even so, at first, they were able to quietly process the infected who had come out onto the observation deck and outdoor passages.
However, while everyone was firing many shots, a particularly loud gunshot thundered on the quay.
Looking, the silencer attached to the hunting rifle a security personnel had been firing had completely burst, no longer fulfilling its role.
In Japan, where guns themselves are not available, silencers are not sold, and the silencers Aki and the others held were all handmade by modifying oil filters or flashlight tubes. Naturally, their durability was far inferior to the real thing, and they would break from the heat of firing after a dozen shots.
In the first place, being handmade items, there was no guarantee of durability. Therefore, it was decided to replace them after ten shots, and Aki and the others were also firing while changing silencers. However, it seemed someone had accidentally pulled a defective one. The handmade silencer blew off at the moment of firing, leaving only the attachment part, and rang out a flashy gunshot.
Everyone had stopped their hands without thinking. He felt as though the infected who had come out onto the ship had also stopped their movements and were facing toward the quay. It should have been only a momentary silence, but to Aki, it felt like an event of many dozens of seconds.
What broke that silence was the roar of the infected who were on the observation deck. The infected had now clearly recognized that humans were on the land. That roar surely reached the infected who were in various parts of the ship as well.
Even though they should be two hundred meters away from the ship, Aki felt as though she could hear the footsteps of the swarming infected. The next moment, from all the doors leading to the ship's interior, such as on the outdoor passages and observation deck, swarms of infected were seen jumping out.
As soon as the infected visually recognized the figures of the humans on the land, they leapt from the decks and passages toward the quay. Despite the considerable height, they jumped outside without hesitation. The infected have no fear of death. Therefore, they don't even consider things like jumping and breaking their legs or hitting their whole bodies hard and dying; they just try to bite the prey before them.
The infected who jumped outside the ship first all failed in their landings, falling headfirst or hitting their whole bodies and dying instantly. The infected who didn't die were also struggling on the spot after breaking their legs during landing. Dozens of infected died from that alone. However, the infected descended to the quay one after another. There were many infected who still fell headfirst or hit their whole bodies hard and died, but among them, some infected also emerged who safely landed by using the corpses of those who had crashed and died earlier as cushions. Furthermore, the infected who jumped from places without much height also landed without taking much damage to their physical functions and were approaching the position on the quay while dragging their legs.
"Shoot, keep shooting!"
Han gave an instruction that was simple and optimal for this situation. Now that things had come to this, there was no point in sniping the infected one by one with silenced guns. They had no choice but to shower a large amount of bullets and turn the swarm of infected into minced meat anyway.
The machine guns at the gun emplacements, which had been silent until now, spat fire, showering bullets toward the infected jumping from the ship. With burst fire every few shots, they shot down the infected on the decks and passages, and Aki and the others also used hunting rifles and JSDF rifles to pull the triggers toward the infected who had landed.
Aki thought they were a swarm of ants crawling out of a nest after finding food. And even in the midst of that, what she was concerned about was the figures of the boy and Sato, who remained inside the ship without contact.
Waiting for your opinions and impressions.