Chapter 231 - Epilogue-5: A Brave New World Story
"...This is the Government of Japan. We are now informing all citizens listening to this broadcast. ..."
An inorganic female synthetic voice was flowing from the radio. It was a voice she had heard many times in the past two weeks.
"Currently, the Government of Japan is maintaining governing functions in Hokkaido.
However, organized activities of the administration, police, fire departments, and the JSDF in Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu, and Okinawa have ceased. No rescue activities will be conducted.
Relatively safe areas have been secured in Hokkaido.
If you are capable of movement and judge that reaching Hokkaido is possible, please attempt to move at your own responsibility.
However, protection and rescue by the government or the JSDF are not being conducted.
Since movement involves significant danger, please judge carefully.
If movement to Hokkaido is difficult, please remain at your current location and prioritize survival.
Avoid unreasonable movement and strive to secure as safe a base as possible.
Citizens of Japan, please do not give up.
That was the broadcast from the Government of Japan. ..."
"Turn it off,"
Sato, sitting in the passenger seat, said while keeping his eyes on the window. Aki, gripping the steering wheel, said nothing and operated the steering switch to turn off the radio. It was a recorded broadcast that just repeated the same content anyway. Besides, being told "don't give up" by a synthetic voice didn't give her any energy.
More than half a month had passed since Aki encountered the JSDF unit that was conducting reconnaissance activities on the mainland.
After that, Aki managed to contact the main body with the radio that became usable, joined them, and told Sato and the others everything she saw and heard. Sato and the others were also half-doubting at first, but as Aki said, the jamming waves were canceled, and it was decided to aim for Hokkaido after the recorded broadcast from the Provisional Government that moved to Hokkaido started.
Because the jamming waves stopped, they became able to contact survivors in other regions too. In exchanges via amateur radio, it seemed there were still many survivors in various parts of Japan. The Kanto region is almost annihilated, but in other regions, there are people surviving in small numbers.
It was also around the same time that recorded broadcasts from the government started flowing on the radio. Though, the content broadcast was all the same, and for Aki who had heard the current situation of Hokkaido from the reconnaissance team members she encountered, there was no truly new information.
That the government is surviving in Hokkaido. That the JSDF and police are not active in other regions and have no plans to conduct rescue activities. That if you want to come to safe Hokkaido, come at your own responsibility... it didn't touch at all on why the government had maintained silence until now or the reason why jamming waves were coming out.
Aki thought that was natural too. If the truth that they had decided to abandon other regions to protect only Hokkaido became known, the government that is barely surviving might blow away. It will eventually be found out, but they might intend to hide it for now.
As a result of examining the information Aki brought back, the survivors' group reached the conclusion to aim for Hokkaido. It was clear from the radio broadcast that had started being transmitted from the government that rescue wouldn't come even if they stayed in that place, and food and fuel were becoming insufficient. Although no deaths had occurred yet despite repeated attacks by the infected, the number of sick and injured people was continuing to increase, and everyone was exhausted.
Since then, the survivors' convoy started advancing aiming for the north again. Because the jamming waves stopped, drones and radios became usable, so there was no more need to send the reconnaissance team far away on bicycles at risk, but the fact that they encounter infected wherever they go remains the same. Furthermore, because there was a story that there are many infected in urban areas, the convoy ended up advancing through the mountains.
Large vehicles such as buses, which were unsuitable for driving on narrow and steep mountain roads, were abandoned, and life in narrow cars further exhausted the survivors. Even so, the reason they aimed for the north was because they held the hope that there was a safe place in their hearts.
In this way, the convoy reached the Shimokita Peninsula over two weeks. Because Hachinohe City and Misawa City to the south of the Shimokita Peninsula have large populations, they were judged as danger zones, and the convoy entered the Shimokita Peninsula in a form of advancing northeast from the inland side. The Squad Leader of the reconnaissance team Aki encountered had said that the regions facing Aomori Bay on the Shimokita Peninsula also have infected, so after entering the Shimokita Peninsula, they go north along the Pacific side.
The Squad Leader had said that there is a JSDF base on the mainland at Cape Oma in the northwest of the Shimokita Peninsula, but there are two ways to go to Cape Oma: advancing west along the Tsugaru Strait or advancing clockwise around the peninsula and going north along the Mutsu Bay side. However, the clockwise route was judged dangerous because the possibility of encountering infected is high as it passes through Mutsu City which has a large population, and the route along the Tsugaru Strait was chosen.
However, since the route along the Tsugaru Strait also advances along the coast, there is a possibility that there are infected in the port towns along the way. Therefore, Sato, Aki, and others preceded as a reconnaissance team by car to confirm if Cape Oma is truly a safe place.
The western side of the Shimokita Peninsula has mountains lined up and the only flat land is along the coast. The roads are not that wide, and furthermore, because they are roads along the sea, the road surface was deteriorating rapidly due to the influence of large amounts of snow melting agents sprinkled specifically in heavy snowfall areas in addition to salt damage. Because the administration that maintains and manages the roads also lost its function, the deterioration of the roads advanced rapidly, and there were places where the road shoulders had collapsed.
Silence filled the interior of the SUV, which swayed greatly up and down every time it climbed over a lump of battered asphalt. Turning off the radio was one cause, but the biggest reason was also because everyone held expectations and anxieties about whether there truly is a safe place ahead.
The recorded broadcast said to come to Hokkaido if you can, but what if that acceptance policy had been retracted? The decision to accept evacuees in Hokkaido was also something she heard was decided suddenly after a military clash within the Provisional Government, and it might happen that the policy is retracted suddenly too.
"Don't think about unnecessary things. I'd hate to crash after coming this far."
Sato, sitting in the passenger seat, said as if seeing through Aki's anxiety. Even that Sato had been placing his gun on his lap the whole time, and his hand was gripping the gun's grip in a posture where he could shoot at any time. Even Sato probably couldn't completely believe the government's broadcast from the bottom of his heart.
Even so, right now they have no choice but to believe the broadcast and head north. The other survivors waiting in a place about a dozen kilometers away from here are exhausted from the long journey and fear of the infected. This vicinity would be the limit for continuing the journey too.
Passing through several fishing ports, the SUV Aki and the others were in was running west on the road facing the Tsugaru Strait. There was no sign of people at all in the fishing ports and towns, and only traces of combat where the JSDF had presumably eliminated the infected remained.
Did the people who lived there cross to Hokkaido, or did they all turn into infected? Or were they killed as dangerous elements spreading infection———Aki had a bad imagination seeing the houses full of bullet holes.
When she turned her gaze to the right, she could see the sea surface with whitecaps and, far beyond that, something like land faintly. It's the land of Hokkaido that Aki and the others are aiming for. Not a single boat was going back and forth in the strait, and only birds that seemed to be seagulls were flying in the sky. There is no sign of people anywhere.
Despite it being a strait of at most 50 kilometers, Aki and the others don't know what is waiting ahead.
When they came to a place about 5 kilometers away from the target Cape Oma, a wall suddenly appeared in front of Aki and the others who were advancing on the winding road. She stepped on the brake instinctively, and the seatbelt dug into her body.
"What..."
The colorful wall of red, green, and so on seemed to be made by stacking containers. The wall, which was covered in rust here and there, was situated in front of Aki and the others as if blocking the coast from the steep slope beside the road, and a large iron door was provided in the middle of that wall.
Aki, who reached for the gun she had leaned against the seat, was restrained by Sato.
"Wait, look at that."
Saying so, Sato turned his eyes to another container placed in front of the wall. To prevent forced breakthrough by vehicles, there were containers placed somewhat smaller so as to be staggered on the road in front of the wall, and something was sticking out from on top of them.
It was a machine gun. One machine gun each, with a machine that seemed to be a camera for remote operation attached, was attached to the roof of the containers. And Aki finally noticed that the muzzles were pointing at them.
"Let's get out. Don't hold weapons."
Aki also understood how much power the machine guns pointed at them had from her life in these past few months. They are machine guns that can easily scatter a human and easily penetrate a car body. If they made a strange move and those muzzles spat fire, they would be made full of holes along with the car before they could reverse the car and leave this place.
Aki stopped the engine and got out of the SUV with Sato. As if to drown out the sound of the waves, a man's voice was heard saying, "Don't move! Hands up and stop there!"
Along with that voice, multiple figures appeared on top of the wall. It was clear that they were JSDF members, dressed in green camouflage and holding automatic rifles in their hands. The muzzles were pointed at Aki and the others, but Aki was feeling relief instead of fear.
Finally, the long journey has ended. She feels that way.
The story that there is a safe place in Hokkaido was true, and they no longer have to spend every day running and hiding while fearing being killed by the infected or attacked by outlaws. Thinking that, the strength left her legs and she almost slumped on the spot, but because she was told "don't move," she managed to continue standing with her hands up as told.
"Survivors, huh. Only two?"
A JSDF member questioned from on top of the wall, but Sato, who had both hands up, shook his head.
"We're the advance team. More than 50 people are waiting in a place away from here."
"50!? To think that many survived..."
At Sato's words, the members pointing guns at Aki and the others muttered "Seriously..." one after another and looked at each other's faces.
"We heard on the radio broadcast that if we come this far, we'll be taken to Hokkaido. Is it true?"
"Yeah. Though, you guys are the first ones who actually came... anyway, welcome. You did your best."
The member who talked to Aki and the others seemed to be the commander of the unit guarding this place. When that captain shouted "Open!", the iron door in the middle of the wall opened slowly, and several JSDF members holding guns came out from there.
"We'll do a body check just in case. For safety, weapons are confiscated from here on."
"Yeah, I don't mind. We don't need guns anymore..."
Those words of Sato seemed to be said to Aki instead of himself.
As Sato said, the weapons they had never let go of 24/7 are no longer necessary from now on. What lies ahead is a safe land protected by the JSDF and police, and they don't have to fight themselves.
The members searched Aki and Sato's bodies and took away handguns and knives. Giving up the guns that had become so familiar to her body that she could think of them as part of her body was something absolutely unthinkable until just a little while ago. But in the first place, until now, when she held weapons instead of a smartphone or a stylish bag, was what was strange. Until before the world ended, Aki was an ordinary high school student who could be found anywhere.
From now on, will they be able to return to that peaceful life? Even if everything doesn't return to the way it was, will they be able to return to those days where they could believe without any basis that today would be the same as yesterday and tomorrow would be the same as today, with the small daily pleasures as their sustenance?
No, it's not about whether we can. We will do it. Aki made that firm resolution.
Aki realized only after the world collapsed that the peaceful and convenient life they were leading was established because many people whose faces and names she didn't know were working hard. The majority of those "someone" must have disappeared by turning into infected or being killed.
If they leave it to someone else and just vaguely wait for someone to restore the original life, those days will surely not return. We who are surviving now must rebuild the world. Surely that is the mission given to the people who survived.
The JSDF member body-checking Aki said "What's this" and took the black notebook Aki had tucked away.
Since it was clear it was not a weapon, that member seemed to lose interest immediately, but Aki found herself saying, "Please don't throw away that notebook."
"Yeah, I'll return it if it's not a weapon... is it such an important thing?"
"Yes, an important companion entrusted it to me, an important———"
But even if the world is rebuilt, that boy who entrusted this notebook to Aki is not there.
That fact was, for Aki, something very regrettable.
I look forward to your opinions and impressions.
It'll truly end in a few more chapters.