Chapter 225 - Chapter 208: An "It's My Life" Story
The dump truck he was driving for the first time was quite different from the cars he had used before. Even when he turned the wheel, it wouldn't turn immediately, and if he turned the wheel suddenly, it felt like it might roll over due to the high center of gravity. Perhaps the endorphins in his brain were fading, as the pinky and ring finger of his left hand, which had been eaten by the infected, were starting to emit intense pain, but even so, the boy gripped the wheel several times.
Since he was now heading toward the infected who had been chasing him until now, groups of infected appeared one after another in front of the boy. Even for a large, powerful, and sturdy dump truck, damage would accumulate if he continued to hit people. But right now, there was no option to detour or take another road. In any case, his location had been given away by the loud engine noise, and above all, he didn't know how much longer he could maintain his consciousness as a human.
The boy shifted gears and stepped on the accelerator, plunging the dump truck into the group of infected in front of him. Immediately, the sound of infected colliding with the dump truck and flesh being crushed and bones being shattered by the large tires echoed throughout the driver's seat. Infected who were sent flying left bloodstains on the windshield and disappeared from view, or ended up under the vehicle.
The speed dropped from hitting the infected, but the dump truck didn't stop. Finally, the windshield, which seemed to have reached its limit, came off along with the frame, and an infected that had been hit flew into the driver's seat from the impact. Immediately delivering a blow to its head with the axe he had placed beside him, the boy looked for the fuel warehouse that was his objective.
He was less than 100 meters away from the fuel warehouse he had passed just a moment ago. However, a horde of infected was loitering in front of the warehouse doors, and the warehouse entrance was behind that group. The boy made up his mind and stepped on the accelerator pedal so hard it almost touched the floor.
The diesel engine made a loud noise as if letting out a roar, and the dump truck, gaining momentum, plunged into the horde of infected. The blood spray and flesh fragments of the infected rained down mercilessly into the driver's seat, which was missing its windshield, staining the boy's face bright red.
After advancing a few meters, the dump truck's speed dropped sharply, perhaps because the tires slipped on the blood and fat, or because the bodies of the infected that had crawled under the vehicle got caught in a strange place. From the broken windows, infected one after another leaned their upper bodies in, reaching out their hands to bite the boy and drag him down.
The claws of the infected tore through various parts of his body, and several bit into the boy's arms as he gripped the steering wheel. Flesh might have been bitten off somewhere on his body, but he didn't have time to care anymore. The outer wall of the warehouse was pressing in before his eyes.
The next moment, with a roar, the truck collided with the warehouse wall, and the boy's vision went white for an instant. An impact so great it felt like his body might be torn apart by the digging seatbelt assaulted the boy, but if he hadn't been wearing a seatbelt, the boy would have been thrown from the driver's seat and slammed into the warehouse wall, becoming a red stain.
The infected who had been trying to climb into the driver's seat from the windows were sandwiched between the warehouse wall and the dump truck, their lower bodies crushed like tomatoes dropped on the ground. Even so, the fact that they were still groaning and trying to bite the boy with just their remaining upper bodies was a testament to their incredible vitality, but it seemed they couldn't move in a situation where their lower bodies were crushed by the truck.
The boy, who had once again learned the greatness of seatbelts, didn't have time to relax. There were still many infected who hadn't been run over by the dump truck, and they were beginning to swarm toward the boy.
Opening the warped door of the dump truck, which had stopped while emitting white smoke, and kicking away a nearby infected to distance it, the boy ran toward the warehouse entrance. As if being chased by the roars and footsteps of the infected heard from behind, he unlocked the combination padlock on the door of the office adjacent to the warehouse. The boy, who had played the role of security personnel in the Reclaimed Land, fortunately knew the number for the fuel warehouse padlock.
The warehouse had a large iron door that vehicles could enter directly, but it took time to open and close because the door was heavy, and it was obvious he would be eaten by the infected pressing in from behind during that time. As soon as the boy jumped into the office and closed the door, the infected who had chased him began knocking violently on the door.
He tried locking it just in case, but it would likely be broken soon by the infected's superhuman strength. The boy hurriedly passed through the office and opened the door to the adjacent warehouse.
At that moment, the smell of vaporized fuel overwhelmed the boy's sense of smell. Inside the warehouse, various fuels such as gasoline, kerosene, and propane gas found in the Reclaimed Land and its surroundings were gathered. Drums and cylinders were literally piled up like mountains, supporting the lives of the survivors in the Reclaimed Land.
To prevent a disaster if this much fuel caught fire, and to facilitate transport when brought from the mainland, the fuel warehouse was not located deep within the Reclaimed Land where people's living bases were, but was established in a distributed manner in warehouses along the coast near the mainland. Since the time left for the boy was short, that was fortunate in that it was close to the sea and the travel distance was short.
He had reached his destination. In that case, he just had to do what needed to be done. Since people wouldn't be returning to this Reclaimed Land anyway, the boy was free to use the fuel gathered here however he liked.
The boy first operated a lever installed on the warehouse wall to close the doors near the ceiling. Normally, the skylights were left open so that vaporized gas wouldn't accumulate, but what the boy was about to do was the opposite. It would be a problem if the gas escaped.
After closing the windows, the boy opened the lids of the stacked drums and pushed them over with all his might. Immediately, gasoline began to flow onto the floor, and the boy continued to open the lids of other drums and push them over. The warehouse floor was quickly soaked with gasoline, and vaporized gas filled the warehouse.
He didn't have time to knock over all the drums, so the boy proceeded to open the valves of the LP gas cylinders. The LP gas cylinders had been gathered from gas company offices and apartments.
Roars of the infected were heard from outside, and the warehouse's iron door had been being beaten violently like a drum for some time. From the office the boy had entered, the infected seemed to have broken through the locked door, as the sound of something breaking was heard. All the doors on the path leading to the warehouse were closed and all the places that could be locked were locked, but even so, it wouldn't take more than a few minutes for the infected to burst into the warehouse. Looking closely, he could see that the warehouse's iron door, which was being violently beaten by the infected, was coming off its rails, perhaps due to the force.
The vaporized gasoline and the released gas mixed together, filling the warehouse. Whether it was from inhaling too much gas or because his body, which had been bitten in various places, had bled too much, his head began to feel dizzy, but even so, the boy didn't stop. Realizing he didn't have much time, the boy went around pouring kerosene from plastic containers onto the unopened drums and gas cylinders. If he was going to do it, he'd do it flashily; the more company he took with him, the better.
The large iron door of the warehouse finally warped, and the infected peeked through the gap. There was no more time. Contrary to his dizzy head, his body felt heavy, but the boy opened the valves of a few more cylinders to release gas and headed toward the back of the warehouse.
A lot has happened, he thought. A life review is apparently something you see just before death, and in the boy's mind, the figures of the people he had met and parted with on this journey appeared and disappeared.
Mother... the first infected I killed. She was the symbol of the world that had gone crazy.
Yui... if I had been more careful, I wouldn't have let her meet such a lonely end. I'm sorry.
Naomi-san... she might have been saved, or she might not have been. But if I hadn't abandoned her and hadn't given up until the end, something might have changed.
Mana-chan... you died because of me. If I had acted more cautiously. I'm truly sorry.
The people of the crazy village who were trying to keep their infected family members alive. But now, I feel like I understand their feelings a little. If I were to become an infected, and if there were a way to go back afterward, I wouldn't want to be killed. But I had no choice but to kill them to survive.
The Leader of The Brotherhood. I didn't become what you said I would. Since I killed you, I've come this far without abandoning anyone. It's the result of living so as not to become like you, so I might even thank you for that point.
And Yuko-sensei. I'm the one who killed you. If I had been more calm.
Yuko had seemed carefree because she was cooped up in the peaceful academy, but it was because she, as a teacher and the only adult, guided Aki and the other students that they were able to survive. She was a person who tried to believe in anyone first. Because of that, she was as good as killed by the boy's accidental shot, but if the boy had possessed even a tenth of her heart that tried to believe in others, perhaps he wouldn't have committed the meaningless slaughter he had repeated until now.
The boy apologized in his heart to everyone except the Leader. I've survived until today by sacrificing you all, but it seems my life ends here too. But since I saved dozens of people at the end, you'll overlook it a little, right?
The boy was remembering the figures of Aki and the others he saw escaping in the cars earlier.
That's right. You guys move forward. I'm ending here and can't live anymore, so you guys live more for that. Don't give up halfway like me, and move forward while believing in and cooperating with your companions.
No matter how terrible the events are, never bend yourself, and keep moving forward without backing down.
As a result of not being able to do that, I couldn't believe in anyone and thought only of myself, meaninglessly taking many people's lives. But unlike me, who was lonely, you guys, who have many companions now and in the future, won't become like that. Don't give up until the end, and live to the fullest.
"Ah— I don't want to die..."
The boy said, looking up at the sky. Perhaps the clouds had cleared, as a single ray of bright sunlight shone through the skylight.
Where would Aki and the others, who escaped from the Reclaimed Land, go? For now, they would probably hide in the safehouse for the time being, but since there aren't that many supplies, they can't stay there forever.
Come to think of it, the survivors were saying that to the north, there is a safe land protected by the JSDF and police. I don't know if it's true, but the Tohoku region has significantly fewer people compared to the metropolitan area. The number of infected would be fewer for that, so it might be safer than here.
Ramen, seafood bowls, local chicken, and beef—the Tohoku region would have many delicious things. I wanted to eat something delicious at least once before I died. While thinking that, the boy took the grenade out of the pouch slung across his body.
It was a grenade only about the size of a fist, but if it exploded, anyone within a radius of several meters would surely die instantly from the fragments scattered by the blast. He could die in an instant, and he could also cause a massive explosion by igniting the gas filling the warehouse. He didn't know how many infected he could take with him, but if he detonated the grenade while holding it, at least the boy wouldn't die while having his whole body devoured and suffering slowly.
He returned the safety pin, which had been bent to prevent it from falling out, to its original position and brought the grenade to the front of his chest with his left hand, which was trembling perhaps from blood loss. The time to use this had finally come.
The iron door finally came completely off its rails and fell to the floor with a roar. It was fortunate that sparks didn't fly when it came off, but in exchange, countless infected flooded into the warehouse all at once. The door leading to the office also blew away along with the frame, and the infected who had been chasing the boy swarmed in with footsteps like a tremor.
There were still many things he wanted to do. Movies he wanted to see, games he wanted to play, and novels he wanted to read remained. If he entered university, he wanted to join a club and try drinking parties and mixers. And he had dreamed of a future where he would one day marry someone important, just like anyone else.
Such a future would never come, but even so, the boy was satisfied. I did what I could. It was a life of less than 20 years, but I can say with pride now that I lived enough. Since I was able to save the lives of many people like Aki at the end, there's nothing else to wish for.
The grenade held in front of his chest. The boy passed the thumb of his right hand through the ring at the tip of the safety pin and pulled it vigorously. With a slight feeling of resistance, the safety pin was pulled out, and——————.
"Ah."
From the impact of the safety lever springing away by the force of the spring, the boy accidentally let go of the grenade. Whether he lacked strength in his hand due to excessive blood loss, or whether he couldn't grip it well because his ring finger and pinky had been bitten off, the grenade flew from the boy's hand toward the infected.
"I messed up."
With this, he couldn't die instantly by taking the blast of the grenade at close range. The grenade that left the boy's hand and fell to the floor was kicked away by the infected swarming one after another, moving further and further away. Instead, what approached were many infected. Baring their filthy teeth and reaching out their hands, they pushed the boy down to the floor.
My life was always like this. The boy laughed. He always made a careless mistake at the crucial moment.
But well, including that, it's my life (It's My Life).
The infected bit into the boy's body as he lay on the floor. Immediately after the bloodshot eyes of the infected and their wide-open mouths filled the boy's vision, the grenade that had fallen to the floor exploded.
The boy's vision was enveloped in light in an instant, and then he could see nothing.
I look forward to your opinions and impressions.
The next chapter will be the final chapter of the main story.