Chapter 226 - Final Chapter: A Story About Simply Running and Fleeing
That explosion sound reached the ears of Aki and the others, who were moving away from the Reclaimed Land. For a moment, the car windows vibrated, followed by a thunderous explosion that was ear-splitting even inside the car, as if lightning had struck nearby. Everyone in the car knew that the one who caused that explosion was the boy.
And Aki understood that she would never meet the boy again. He had run all over the Reclaimed Land alone to protect everyone, and died satisfied that he had protected them all. Even so, was it her ego to wish he hadn't died?
Everyone in the car was silent. Everyone felt more or less guilty for leaving the boy alone to let the injured escape and leaving the Reclaimed Land after he was bitten. But there was no doubt that there was nothing they could have done in that place. Just like the boy, everyone had been fighting desperately.
"...I got word from the guys who arrived at the safehouse first. Everyone is safe, apparently."
Sato, gripping the radio, said as if squeezing the words out. Despite a passenger ship carrying a massive amount of infected crashing into the Reclaimed Land, it was close to a miracle that all the residents were able to escape with only one death.
Though that one person was the boy who had likely blown himself up just now, taking a massive amount of infected with him. I was always being helped by him, Aki thought. Even this time, the boy had completed the dangerous exploration of the passenger ship's interior and fought to buy time for the residents to escape. And then he even served as a decoy to let the injured Sato and the others escape. And yet, to die alone and lonely at the end.
What was his life? What did he think, and then die? It might not be something to think about again in the current world where many people are already dead, but even so, Aki wanted to know more about the boy.
And she stared at the black notebook she was gripping with both hands. The diary he had entrusted to her when they parted. She had intended to return it when he came back, but that opportunity was lost forever.
There was still time before they arrived at the safehouse. No infected were chasing the convoy. Aki gently turned the cover of the notebook.
On the first page, a name, address, phone number, and email address were listed. A common, ordinary name of someone who lived far away from the Reclaimed Land. Below that, an 'X' had been added in front of the names of his family members, showing Aki that his family was already gone from this world.
I won't forget you, Aki muttered.
From the first time they met until now, she had been helped by the boy many times. Though they had been antagonistic at times due to misunderstandings, her life had been saved many times. Without even being able to repay that debt, she could no longer reunite with the boy.
Then, at least, she alone would remember what kind of person he was. She had heard it in some manga once. A person truly dies when they are forgotten by everyone.
Millions, tens of millions of people have already died and become infected. It might be pointless to remember one more person newly added to the endless line waiting for a funeral. The next one to die might be herself. Even so, as long as she was alive, she would continue to remember the boy and pass on his story. By doing so, she could postpone the time the boy truly died, even if only by a little. That was the best Aki could do now.
Aki turned the pages of the notebook. What was chronicled there was the story of an ordinary boy who lived anywhere, simply running, hiding, and desperately trying to survive.
Bright sunlight piercing through closed eyelids pulled his consciousness back to reality.
Who am I? Where is this? His body swayed, and in a field of vision where the left half was invisible, bright sunlight pierced his eyes.
He intended to quickly look away from the sun, but even shaking his head was a slow movement like a turtle's crawl. And seeing the burning building at the edge of his vision, he remembered who he was.
I wasn't dead yet? the boy thought as he looked at the warehouse enveloped in flames. The warehouse that had once been used as a fuel storage facility had its outer walls and roof blown away, with only a few steel pillars remaining. Red flames and black smoke rose high into the sky, and occasionally an explosion sound was heard, perhaps from gas cylinders catching fire.
Thanks to his vision swaying excessively, the boy understood that he seemed to be drifting in the sea. There was no doubt that the explosion of the grenade had ignited the vaporized gasoline and released gas, causing a massive explosion that took the infected with it, just as he had aimed for.
The miscalculation was that the grenade he used to blow himself up had left his hand and moved away, so he had been outside the grenade's lethal range. And the massive amount of infected who had piled on top of the boy to devour him had accidentally played the role of a shield, and miraculously, the boy had avoided directly receiving the blast of the grenade and the fuel it ignited. Because the warehouse was along the coast, the boy, who was caught in the explosion, wasn't killed instantly, and was apparently blown into the sea along with the infected, their corpses, and the debris on the blast wave.
Looking around, several corpses were drifting around the boy. The limbs and necks of all the infected corpses were twisted in strange directions, and some had their torsos torn apart, making him realize the power of the explosion once again. To not die instantly while being almost at the center of an explosion that blew up a warehouse—should he call it bad luck or good luck?
But that good luck was meaningless. While floating in the sea, the boy looked up at the sky. His fate had already run out the moment he was bitten by an infected. Besides, he no longer had any sensation in his body. He couldn't move a single finger.
In fact, he didn't even know if his arms and legs were still there. Perhaps his limbs had been lost due to the explosion, but he no longer had the energy to check. He could only see the state of his own torso, which had entered his vision for an instant when he looked at the warehouse, with countless large and small fragments stuck in it.
The burning warehouse grew smaller and smaller in his vision. Apparently, he was being washed out to sea by the ebbing tide. Even if he transformed into an infected offshore, there was no worry of attacking anyone. He might bleed to death before that, but in any case, it was certain that the life known as himself would vanish.
"Alone until the very end, huh..."
He should have died when he blew himself up at the warehouse, but because he had clumsily survived, he couldn't even die while taking the infected with him. All the boy could do now was look at the blue sky while bobbing in the waves. Even the infected don't want to go to the other world with me, huh. My journey so far started alone, and it seems it will end alone.
The sky was clear, and a blue sky stretched out. It was a blue sky too good for dying. No, if he could die under such a blue sky, would that in itself be a good memory?
"...As I thought, I don't want to die..."
He had intended to make up his mind at the warehouse, but because his lifespan had been slightly postponed, regret welled up again like this. It might be the first time he thought the blue sky was so wonderful. He wanted to see it more, but that wish would not come true.
But well, he was glad the last sky he saw in his life was a beautiful blue sky. Since he had been through various terrible things, perhaps God had shown him this blue sky as a small apology.
Whether it was due to the warm sunlight, the massive blood loss, or whether the time had finally come for the virus to reach his brain and turn him into an infected, the boy was very sleepy. He no longer felt the coldness of the seawater or the pain in his body from being bitten or having fragments stuck in it.
Drifting in the sea and looking up at the sky. The fear of death, the feeling of nostalgia for the past, and the feeling of missing the parting with Aki and the others all faded away. He just understood that he didn't have to think about anything anymore. And the boy felt a sense of relief somewhere that he wouldn't have to feel anything anymore.
The sadness of losing someone, the fear that he might die—I will never taste those again. I no longer have to fear death, hide, and run and flee.
In the dazzling sunlight, the boy's consciousness gradually faded. The world was stained white.
With this, the main story of "A Story About Simply Running and Fleeing" is finished.
Thank you very much for staying with me for 12 years.
Since the main story is finished, the epilogue will start from next time.
It's not the final episode yet. It'll continue for just a bit longer.