Chapter 228 - Epilogue-2: A Commando Story
From then on, Aki and the others continued their northward advance. Sometimes encountering infected, sometimes encountering other survivors and adding them as companions, it was a slow movement prioritizing safety, but fortunately, they were able to continue their journey without a single person dying.
However, as they advanced north, the communication failure worsened even further. Previously, noise occasionally mixed into the radio communication, but from around the time they entered Iwate Prefecture, the radio became almost unusable. They could manage to communicate over a distance of about several hundred meters, but beyond that, they could no longer receive radio waves.
Sato speculated that someone might be jamming the signal, but Aki couldn't understand who was doing this for what purpose. The infected don't use radios. If radio communication is jammed, it's the humans who are troubled. Or is there something they'd be troubled by if communication was made?
However, this also became a troublesome situation for Aki and the others. Aki and the others had been using drones to confirm the course to some extent before sending out reconnaissance members ahead of the main body, but those drones became unable to fly due to the jamming waves. Though they were drones, they were little more than radio-controlled toys, but since they were equipped with cameras, they could confirm the surrounding situation in real-time. Though the number was small, they were convenient tools for scouting the surroundings without risking danger, but now the radio wave situation was so unstable that if they tried to fly them, they might lose communication and crash at about 100 meters.
And it was the same for the radios carried by the people in Aki's reconnaissance team. Previously, they could communicate with the main body about 10 kilometers away if they set up an antenna, but due to the strong jamming waves, only noise could be heard from the radio incessantly. They couldn't even receive radio waves from 1 kilometer away, and the distance the reconnaissance team could precede was significantly shortened. Because radio communication was almost unreliable, reports on the reconnaissance situation had to rely almost entirely on word of mouth, and the distance the convoy could advance in a day became significantly shorter than before.
"Shouldn't we just give the reconnaissance team carrier pigeons?"
Even what someone said as a joke was considered in all seriousness, but since no one knew how to train carrier pigeons, it was naturally rejected.
In this situation, what became a concern was who was conducting the communication jamming. They also thought that some radio base station might have malfunctioned or something and was transmitting radio waves at high power, and those radio waves were causing trouble. But in a situation where the infrastructure had collapsed long ago and electricity was not running, would it be possible to continue transmitting radio waves at high power for many months? Even if an emergency generator was provided, it wouldn't last for a month.
Since the infected don't use radios, communication jamming is not necessary. In that case, if someone is intentionally conducting this communication jamming, the target is definitely humans. The organizations in Japan that possess the knowledge and equipment capable of emitting jamming waves would be the US military or the JSDF, but why would they need to do something that hinders the activities of survivors?
But there is also a good thing. To continue communication jamming over this range, a certain amount of personnel, equipment, and above all, a large amount of power are necessary. The people conducting this radio wave jamming possess those even in the current Japan. She had heard many times the story that the JSDF and police had secured safe zones in the Tohoku region, and that might be true.
She didn't know why the JSDF or US military, in any case, who and for what purpose were conducting communication jamming, but even so, Aki's group continued their movement aiming for the north.
———And now, Aki is running alone through an unfamiliar town, out of breath. What she hears from behind are multiple footsteps and roars.
Looking back, several infected were opening their mouths wide, their bloodshot eyes wide open, chasing Aki. Aki stopped for just a moment, leveled the submachine gun she was carrying, and pulled the trigger on semi-auto.
Along with a light recoil, a slight gunshot through the silencer echoed in the houses, and a flower of blood suddenly bloomed on the chest of the infected running in the lead. However, an infected won't stop just because a single weak handgun bullet hit it. She pulled the trigger several more times, and the bullets fired from the gun's own good accuracy mostly hit the infected, but none died.
Aki turned her back to the infected and started running again with a click of her tongue. She didn't know where she was running because she didn't have the leeway to look at the map. Anyway, right now she could only think about taking distance from the infected chasing her.
It was fine up until she set out to scout the main body's course as usual. However, because the reconnaissance team couldn't use radios due to communication jamming, they had been repeating the action of frequently returning to the main body to report verbally, and everyone was exhausted. It was the same for Aki, and because she had been doing the action of advancing a few kilometers, confirming safety, and returning every day, she was tired and her attention was scattered.
Perhaps due to fatigue, Aki advanced without sufficient confirmation of her surroundings and accidentally got spotted by the infected. At first, she was escaping on a bicycle, but the tire stepped on broken glass or something and went flat, and since then she has been running desperately on her own feet.
Because the radio waves don't reach due to communication jamming, she can't ask the main body for help via radio, and in the first place, the radio is attached to the luggage rack of the bicycle she abandoned earlier. In other words, she can't call for help, and there is little possibility that someone will come to help. Aki has to manage this situation on her own.
Since she left her heavy luggage with the bicycle, Aki was currently light. What she had were just weapons. She had been training her body since the world became like this, but even so, her legs gradually became heavy.
Looking back, the number of infected chasing Aki had increased to about ten. In a town where not a single car engine sound is made, the roars of the infected reach far. That had drawn even more infected. Even if she tried to eliminate them so they wouldn't shout anymore, she would be overtaken by the other infected while she was leveling her gun and shooting.
"Why...?"
Even so, Aki, who had continued running, involuntarily leaked that upon seeing the sight that appeared ahead. Cars were filling the road densely. Not to mention the roadway, cars had even mounted the sidewalk and were completely blocking the way. Buildings were lined up on the left and right of the road, and it didn't seem possible to slip through to the side.
It seemed she had no choice but to walk on top of the cars, but first, she would be overtaken by the infected and dragged down while she was climbing onto the roof of a car. On the other hand, she could no longer pull back to the previous intersection and take another road.
Just as she made up her mind to advance into the group of abandoned cars blocking her way, she heard a man's voice from somewhere saying, "Get down." She hadn't felt anyone's presence until just now; was it a hallucination? She thought so in the back of her mind, but her body moved on its own.
The moment Aki crouched down on the spot, she knew bullets were flying over her head along with muffled popping sounds. Gunshots with silencers, she realized because a silencer was also attached to Aki's submachine gun.
Looking back while still crouching, the dozen or so infected who had been chasing Aki were falling one after another with blood flowing from their heads and chests. And in front of Aki, who was crouching, feet wearing camouflage pants appeared suddenly.
When she raised her face, two men in camouflage and vests with several pouches attached were walking toward the infected while firing their silenced carbines. Both were accurately aiming at the heads and chests of the infected and pulling the triggers. For the running infected, they first fired two shots into the chest, and then hammered one more into the head when they lost their posture and their movements slowed. Even for the infected who fell to the ground, they were shooting the head, perhaps as a precaution.
The infected who were chasing Aki were annihilated by the pair of men in less than 10 seconds. Aki was looking up at the faces of the pair of men without knowing why, but her arm was grabbed and she was forced to stand up. The one who made Aki stand up was a man wearing a baseball cap, which was out of place with the camouflage.
"Are you alone?"
Men with unshaven beards, perhaps not having shaved for many days. Only the pupils peeking from behind them seemed to be shining glintingly.
"Well?"
Being hurried like that, Aki thought for just a moment and then nodded her head. If she returned to the main body, there would be many companions, but right now she was the only one in this place. Besides, the other man was aiming his gun at Aki, and she could see his finger on the trigger for an instant. There was even an atmosphere that she would be shot if she didn't answer immediately.
Immediately after Aki shook her head, the roar of an infected was heard from behind again. It meant there were still more of those who chased Aki.
The other man———this one was wearing a boonie hat, a hat similar to a straw hat———said to the man in the baseball cap, "More are coming." The man in the baseball cap showed a gesture of thinking for a moment, then shook his head and started running, saying, "Follow me."
She wondered if it was really okay to follow them, but being hurried from behind with "Hurry," she couldn't just stand still. Aki also hurriedly followed the man in the baseball cap, and the other man followed while pointing his gun backward.
She was confused by the men who suddenly appeared, but even so, Aki observed their appearance while running. What the men were wearing was the same JSDF camouflage as Sato. But the guns and equipment also looked different from those of general members she occasionally saw on TV news. Perhaps because there was no worry of a gunfight against the infected, what they were wearing were hats instead of helmets, and instead of bulletproof vests with thick plates, they were wearing something called a chest rig with several pouches for magazines and grenades attached to the front of their bodies.
Are they JSDF members? Or just gun enthusiasts who got their hands on real guns? Aki suddenly became anxious, but the way they annihilated the infected just now told that they were people who had received sufficient combat training.
The biggest concern was whether they were dangerous people like raiders, but now that it had come to this, there was nothing to be done. She vaguely knew that if Aki took even a slightly hostile action or showed a sign of resisting, they would shoot without mercy. All Aki could do now was follow the men's instructions.
If they were dangerous people, they wouldn't go to the trouble of helping Aki who was being chased by the infected. The fact that they helped her even though it wouldn't have had any effect on them if they abandoned her meant they must have a certain amount of conscience or common sense. Aki desperately told herself that and followed the man in the baseball cap ahead.
I look forward to your opinions and impressions.