Chapter 223 - Chapter 207: A Story About Having No Choice But to Kill Anymore
Aki felt as if she heard gunfire coming from the Reclaimed Land again. She felt that way because gunfire was echoing all around her as well, so she couldn't be certain.
The mainland base established around the bridge was also on the verge of falling; infected had been appearing incessantly for a while now, only to be shot dead by the security guards. However, because their own ammunition was running low, the gunfire had become sporadic.
It wasn't quite the tsunami of infected seen at the Reclaimed Land, but groups of several infected were still continuously arriving near the bridge. At this rate, the sound of gunfire would draw even more infected—a literal horde. By the time they tried to flee in a panic, it would be too late. Everyone knew that if they were to abandon this base and head for the safehouse, now was the only time, but no one spoke of it. They couldn't bring themselves to say it.
The boy was still left on the Reclaimed Land across the bridge. They had called out many times over the radio, but there was no reply, perhaps due to a malfunction or the signal not reaching. But the fact that gunfire might have been heard was proof that the boy was still alive. In the current Reclaimed Land, the boy should be the only human left alive.
"Sato-san, it's impossible! Let's leave this place!"
One of the security guards let out a cry that sounded almost like a scream. Gunfire echoed in short bursts, and an infected clinging to the fence and barbed wire strung around the mainland base fell with blood pouring from its head.
Sato, who had injured his leg, was sitting in the passenger seat of a vehicle left for the escape, but he had the door flung open and was aiming his rifle, shooting the approaching infected. But even those bullets were running low. He had been able to replenish some of the ammunition he had exhausted at the Reclaimed Land at the mainland defense base they reached after crossing the bridge, but even that wasn't a plentiful amount. At this rate, they would run out of ammo again in less than five minutes, and then they would be at the mercy of the infected.
"Wait just a little longer, he's still..."
"The number of infected has been increasing for a while now! Besides, we don't have any ammo left!"
At those words, Sato's face seemed to twist slightly. Perhaps the boy was already dead. Even if he was surviving, they didn't know if he'd make it in time. He couldn't afford to take everyone remaining here down with him after waiting for the boy until the very last second. Yet, he also wanted to bet on the possibility of him reaching this place alive. Various thoughts seemed to surface on Sato's face.
But Aki didn't think they could hold out in this place for even another five minutes, just as the security guard said. Aki herself was on perimeter watch with a handgun she had replenished with ammo, but her true feeling was that she wanted to leave this place right now and move to the safehouse. She had been in dangerous situations several times before, but she never wanted to experience that feeling of truly preparing for death while being chased by a horde of infected again. She wanted to run away right now.
But she couldn't abandon the boy. Just as her thoughts were about to start going in circles, a beep sounded from the radio speaker, followed by the boy's voice.
"Ah— ah— can you hear me. This is..."
He was alive. That fact made her happy, but Aki immediately felt something was off about the boy's voice. He sounded somehow drained. It might be strange to expect someone to be energetic in the middle of continuous combat, but even so, something was wrong. It was a voice that sounded as if the life had been sucked out of it.
She had a bad premonition. Perhaps Sato felt the same, as his eyes met Aki's for a moment. And that premonition soon became reality.
"...I'm sorry, I messed up."
Meanwhile, at the Reclaimed Land. The boy spoke into the radio while holding his own right hand up in front of his face.
On the back of the boy's right hand, the marks of human teeth were clearly engraved. The wound itself wasn't that deep. The skin was torn open and bleeding, but the bleeding wasn't that bad and he could move his hand normally. If treated, the wound would likely close completely in two weeks.
But the problem was what had caused that wound. And the one who had bitten the boy's hand was the long-haired female infected lying at his feet. The upper half of that infected's head had been blown away by several 9mm rounds fired into it, and her brains were spilling out; she was definitely dead this time.
But he had been too slow to kill her. The infected he thought he had killed with a shot to the head was still alive because the bullet hadn't penetrated, and she had lunged at the boy, who had let his guard down due to fatigue. And this was the result.
Countless viruses exist within the mouth of an infected, and when bitten, they enter the human body. And the bitten human, due to the virus, ends up joining the ranks of those who bit them.
For a moment, the thought crossed the boy's mind that if he amputated the bitten right hand, the virus might not spread through his body and he might avoid becoming an infected. He didn't know if it was true, but apparently, some people had avoided becoming infected thanks to immediately amputating the bitten part. If he could remain human in exchange for losing a part of his body forever, that might be a good idea, but the boy mocked himself while touching his own neck.
Saliva was also stuck to the neck area of his high-neck shirt, and when he lowered the collar, there was a wound there as well. This, too, had been done by the female infected.
This wasn't a very deep wound either, but when he touched it, blood smeared thickly onto his fingertips. The female infected who lunged at the boy had first bitten his neck. Thanks to immediately pushing her body away, he had avoided having the blood vessels in his neck torn out, and it ended with just torn skin, but the fact remained that he had been bitten. Agitated by being bitten, the boy's movements slowed, and the infected had proceeded to bite his right hand, at which point he had emptied all the bullets remaining in his magazine into her head, killing her.
Even if he amputated his bitten right hand, he had also been bitten on the neck, so there was nothing to be done. If he could stop the bleeding and perform emergency treatment, he might be able to survive even if he cut off his right hand from the wrist down, but no human could survive having their neck cut.
They say the closer to the brain the bite is, the faster the transformation into an infected becomes, but the time also varies depending on individual differences and the amount of virus that entered the body when bitten. He had heard stories of it taking as little as a few minutes or as long as a dozen hours. But he had only heard rumors of people who didn't turn into infected after being bitten. Though there are time differences depending on an individual's physical resistance, ultimately, they become infected. That fact threw the boy into the depths of despair.
The boy brought his mouth close to the radio's microphone. Whether the signal wasn't reaching or the speaker was broken, there was no reply from Sato or Aki even after waiting. Thinking they were probably listening, the boy pressed the radio's transmit button.
"I was bitten. In other words, I'm finished. I can't go over there anymore, so everyone, please escape from here quickly."
He intended to act cheerful, but he could tell his own voice was trembling. When he thought about how he was now going to join the ranks of the infected he had killed so many of, only despair welled up.
But now that it had come to this, there was nothing to be done. The only paths left for the boy were to wait until his head went blank and he lost his reason and intellect to become an infected, or to meet his end while still human before that happened. Either way, it meant the death of the person known as himself, so there was no difference.
In that case, the boy looked back. If he couldn't live much longer, he would at least decide how he died.
"I'll... settle things myself. I refuse to join their ranks."
And the boy began walking toward the bridge again. However, it wasn't to cross the bridge and escape the Reclaimed Land. It was quite the opposite.
"It was my own will to stay here. So if I die, this is my own responsibility, don't worry about it."
It was true that when he decided to act as a decoy, there was no other way. Everyone except the boy and Aki was injured and couldn't move satisfactorily.
If it had been the boy before he came here, he would have abandoned them as dead weight and chosen to escape alone quickly. But the boy chose to stay behind alone to let everyone escape. He had been prepared for this to happen at that time.
"I guess I'm getting what I deserve. I killed too many people. So, well, I suppose this is karma or something."
He had killed so many people that he couldn't count them on the fingers of both hands. Driven by fear, he had ruthlessly continued to kill others just so he alone could survive; the boy thought the time had come to pay the price for that.
He released the radio's transmit button, but as before, the speaker didn't make a sound. If everyone wasn't listening to this, it was just a monologue, and the boy thought his own actions were ridiculous. But he felt lonely that he couldn't talk to them at the end.
Truthfully, there were more things he wanted to do. He wanted to talk more, and he wanted to know more about everyone. There were places he wanted to go if the world ever became peaceful, and there were mountains of movies left that he wanted to see. There was even a novel he was in the middle of reading in his room at the shopping mall, so he wanted to know its ending.
But those were all now impossible dreams. Whether it was in a few minutes, a few dozen minutes, or a few hours, the boy would join the ranks of the infected. He would become a monster that sought out survivors to eat while drooling from its mouth with bloodshot eyes, without possessing even a fragment of memory from when he was human. That was the same as being dead.
Then there was only one thing to do. Rather than waiting with fear for his reason, intellect, and memories to be lost, it was far better to settle things for himself.
The boy looked at the pouch hanging from his suspenders. Inside was the grenade he had taken from the soldier infected along with the handgun earlier. If he used that, he could certainly die, but it would be a waste to use it just for himself.
The boy pressed the transmit button again.
"It's a shame I can't hear your voices, maybe the radio is busted. I wanted to talk one last time."
An infected came running from behind. He leveled the handgun and fired. Even though he was about to die, strangely, his heart was calm. The fatigue he had been feeling until a moment ago had lightened; was it a change in mindset, or had the transformation into an infected already begun?
Glancing at the infected he had shot through the head, the boy swapped the handgun's magazine. There was only one magazine left for the stolen handgun. Even so, it would probably last long enough until he reached the bridge and fulfilled his purpose.
"Goodbye. Thank you for everything. And please don't forget that a person like me existed..."
As before, the radio speaker remained silent. The boy muttered one last word and then threw the radio onto the ground. He couldn't talk to anyone anymore anyway, and if he kept talking to himself any longer, it seemed he wouldn't be able to stop. He wanted to put all his thoughts into words and convey them, but there was no time left. Since he had been bitten on the neck, he didn't know when he would become an infected, so he couldn't afford to waste time.
If he was going to die anyway, the more company he took with him, the better. It was a shame his companions were infected who couldn't understand words, but they were already as good as dead as humans, with only their hearts still beating. In that case, it would be better to properly send them to the other world this time. That's what you call compassion.
Suddenly, the faces of his companions crossed his mind. The companions who had died before the boy's eyes before he met Aki and the others. Their figures, which had been tormenting the boy as hallucinations afterward, were no longer visible now.
"I'm coming over there now too."
Having said that much, the boy laughed to himself. Even if there was an afterlife, the place a boy who had killed many people would go would be hell.
But finally, it was ending. The sadness and suffering he had tasted so much of in this hellish world would soon have nothing to do with him. Thinking that, he felt as if his heart had eased a little.
I look forward to your opinions and impressions.