Chapter 219 - A Story of the 'Hara-Hara Tokei'
(T/N: The title refers to a famous 1974 manual for making bombs, but here it likely puns on the 'hara-hara' onomatopoeia for suspense/nervousness.)
The security personnel who had left the coast where the passenger ship had run aground were continuing their retreat toward the shopping mall while covering each other. Even though there were only dozens of meters to the place where the transport trucks were parked, they couldn't simply turn their backs because the infected were before their eyes. A mere short distance felt as if it were many kilometers.
Handheld ammunition was almost gone, and everyone was fighting the infected by switching from automatic rifles or shotguns to handguns. The ammunition for the shotgun the boy held was also already gone, and he was swinging an iron pipe spear toward the approaching infected.
"No ammo! Does anyone have ammo!?"
Such voices were heard from here and there, but even if they had it, there was no one who could hand it over. Everyone had their hands full with the infected trying to attack them, and no one had the leeway to hand bullets to others. It was supposed to be that they would stop after advancing twenty meters to support the retreat of the other team, but those who were able to do that were less than half of the total. No one had the leeway to cover others; they were desperate to protect themselves.
In the midst of that, the boy was serving as the rearguard at the very end of the column retreating to the shopping mall. He hung the shotgun, which had turned into a stick due to lack of ammunition, on his back and fought the pursuing infected by swinging the iron pipe spear. He would finish one, sprint to retreat, then turn around and defeat another before retreating further... he repeated that.
The iron pipe spear was already half-bent, and the blade at the tip was quite chipped because he had repeated thrusts many times. While others were running toward the shopping mall, the boy, who stopped and looked back, aimed at an infected who was approaching in a standout manner and delivered a spear thrust.
The spear delivered from the lower level pierced the infected's eye socket, piercing the eyeball and reaching all the way to the brain. The sensation of the skull shattering through the spear and the convulsions as the infected died were transmitted, and the boy felt a bit unpleasant, but he didn't have time to care about such things now.
"It broke!?"
The moment he tried to pull the spear out, the spear's blade broke from the base, as if it had finally reached its limit. Swinging what had returned to being just an iron pipe, the boy struck the head of another approaching infected. The tip of the spear slammed into the infected's temple, and he struck them further after they fell. Confirming the infected's head was caved in, the boy threw away the spear that had become bent and started running.
"Come here quickly!"
Dozens of meters ahead of the boy, Sato was leveling his carbine, pumping his few remaining bullets into the infected trying to approach the boy. While the boy and Sato were running at the very rear, the other members had been able to advance safely, but how long would that hold?
The left and right of the road leading to the shopping mall were construction sites for apartments and commercial facilities, and buildings left in the middle of construction were lined up like gravestones. In a place where the lively voices of children should have been heard, what was echoing now were the roars of the bloodthirsty infected.
The boy and Sato ran desperately, aiming for the truck that had been parked about fifty meters away from the coastal position. It was a truck for transporting materials used at the construction site of the Reclaimed Land, and the hoodless cargo bed was dirty with dry mud. The security personnel waiting for the boy and Sato were shouting "Get on!" with desperate expressions, scattering their few remaining bullets toward the infected from atop the truck.
The boy kicked away a pursuing infected to gain even a little distance and tried to scramble onto the truck's cargo bed. Before the boy could get onto the cargo bed, the truck started suddenly, and the infected who had been reaching out their hands toward the boy vanished into the rear in no time—.
Or not. The infected started running after the truck, overflowing onto the road under construction like a flood. There is a difference between the running speed of a truck and a human, but even so, the infected possess inhuman physical abilities. They were chasing the truck at a speed faster than a normal human runs.
Even so, that distance gradually opened. Beyond the gravel road, which wasn't even paved with asphalt, was the shopping mall where the boys had lived until today.
They thrust the truck headfirst into the product loading entrance of the shopping mall and lowered the shutter of the entrance. However, since it's obvious that a normal shutter will only serve as a time-saver before the brute strength of the infected, there was no option to hole up here.
The boys got off the truck with weapons that had almost no ammunition and headed toward the plaza in the center of the shopping mall. The vast shopping mall, where children played and adults did housework until yesterday, was deathly silent, and no one was moving. The only ones remaining were a few personnel to support the security unit that had been on the coast until just now, but they too had already begun preparations for withdrawal.
The plaza, which secured a vast space for events, was a place for the residents of the Reclaimed Land to interact, but now several desks were lined up, and weapons were placed on top of them. They were weapons prepared in case of withdrawal, but there were almost no guns, and even if there were, they were hunting shotguns at best. Most of the powerful weapons such as JSDF automatic rifles and police submachine guns had been taken by the boys who had been fighting on the coast until now and the security personnel guarding the refugees evacuating to the land.
Placed on the desks were crossbows, including handmade ones, and handmade spears and axes like the one the boy had been using earlier. They were better than nothing, but what was wanted now were guns and ammunition.
"Replenish ammunition! We're leaving here immediately!"
Perhaps out of consideration that they would have exhausted their physical strength in the fight, plastic bottles of water and precious chocolate bars were placed on the desks, but there was no time to rest leisurely. This was because a report had come in from those who had remained in the shopping mall and were now checking the external surveillance camera footage in the security room, saying that the infected had reached the shopping mall.
At the fact that he had to leave the shopping mall he was used to living in, the boy felt loneliness and regret. If that luxury liner full of infected hadn't drifted to the Reclaimed Land, they should have been able to live here in peace. They had carried in a large amount of supplies from the outside, made fields, and prepared the infrastructure to somehow create an environment where they could live. To have to abandon that. Even supplies remained in large quantities.
He should have been prepared for such a situation. Even so, the boy felt it was regrettable that he had to abandon the safe haven he had finally obtained.
"You use this."
As if to bring such a boy back to reality, Sato pushed a JSDF automatic rifle onto him. To think an automatic rifle that could fire in bursts and had decent power still remained.
"It's the one that was being repaired for a malfunction; apparently it was just fixed. It'll be more useful if you have it than the other guys."
The carbine the boy had when storming the luxury liner had been broken in half when he fell to the quay and had been abandoned as useless. He fitted a magazine he received together with it into the automatic rifle and pulled the bolt handle. With a metallic clatter, the first round was sent into the chamber. No failure to close or anything seemed to have occurred.
"Spare ammo?"
To the boy's question, Sato silently held out two magazines. Since thirty rounds are in one magazine, it meant there were only ninety rounds of ammunition including the one currently loaded.
But that was the same for everyone else; in the first place, it was surprising that spare ammunition still remained. Since they had taken out almost all weapons and ammunition in preparation for the defense battle on the coast, this must be the literal last of the stockpile. If they used this up, there would be no more.
The boy loaded bullets into the empty magazine of the handgun that had remained in his holster, and picked up a spare iron pipe spear. Looking, everyone around him was also picking up prepared metal bats, iron pipes, axes, and so on.
In place of the few hand grenades, several handmade pipe bombs were also prepared. They were simple items made by stuffing gunpowder inside a double iron pipe, filling the outside with metal fragments like nails, capping both ends, and extending a fuse from one side. Compared to hand grenades made for military use, the power was greatly inferior, but even so, throwing one into the middle of a swarm of infected would likely defeat several.
He stuffed one pipe bomb and a lighter into his pouch and looked around to see if there was anything else that looked useful as a weapon. However, only about that much remained as weapons that seemed like they would be useful.
"The infected broke the shutter! Get out of here quickly!"
Sato shouted at the radio from the security room and started running in the lead. They didn't have the leeway to fight. Everyone had already exhausted their physical strength in the earlier fight on the coast, and on top of that, with little ammunition remaining, they had no choice but to prioritize escaping. The infected had already begun intruding into the shopping mall. Soon, a swarm of infected would also come rushing into this plaza.
Cars were parked outside the shopping mall, but they could only go as far as near the bridge. To prevent intrusion from the land side, the original reinforced concrete bridge had been blown up, and in its place, only a simple drawbridge operated by a crane was now installed. Since it wasn't a very sturdy bridge, they couldn't cross to the land by car as is. They had no choice but to abandon the cars in front of the bridge and get into other cars prepared on the land side after crossing.
On the way to the parking lot outside, he passed in front of a bookstore. That was the store the boy had been using as his own living quarters, and inside the store, an outdoor folding bed and a lantern were placed, with books piled up around them.
Come to think of it, I hadn't finished reading that novel yet. A single novel placed at the head of the bed caught his eye, and the boy thought such a thing. Probably, he would never return here again.
There were no infected in the parking lot facing the land side yet. However, now that the infected had already intruded into the shopping mall, he didn't know when they would show themselves in the parking lot. They joined up with those who had been monitoring in the security room and jumped into three vans left for the security unit's escape as if leaping into them.
The boy, who slid into the car through the sliding door, sat directly on the rear cargo bed, which had no seats, and leveled his gun toward the outside. Immediately, along with roars, infected showed themselves from the shadow of the building. Soon those figures increased in number, and dozens of infected ran across the parking lot toward the boys.
"Everyone's on! Go!"
Sato shouted at the driver, and the convoy departed the shopping mall. The boy hesitated whether to shoot the pursuing infected, but he couldn't waste a single bullet now. The diesel engines roared, and the three vans started running with the shopping mall at their backs.
It's not even one kilometer from the shopping mall to the bridge. They should be able to reach it immediately. Just as he thought that, the boy noticed that the distance with the vehicle at the very rear was opening more and more.
"We stalled! Please, wait for us!"
Such a voice was heard from the radio. The speed of the van at the very rear dropped more and more, and eventually it stopped completely. And beyond that, he saw the figures of the infected running toward the convoy.
Waiting for your opinions and impressions.