Chapter 26 - Chapter 24: The Story of Burning Love
(T/N: The author includes a note about accidentally deleting their draft while playing Kantai Collection.)
After passing the car dealership and continuing to ride west, I came across a familiar river. The river we tried to cross but couldn't; I had returned there again.
I changed my course and turned the handle to the north. The number of infected running after me was not decreasing, but rather, it was continuing to increase. It's natural that I'm being found since the radio-cassette player on the rear luggage rack is playing songs at high volume and I'm riding while honking the horn like crazy.
"Uwah..."
When I was about to pass by an abandoned passenger car, an infected person with both hands stretched out jumped out from the shadows. For a moment, I almost hit the brakes, but I summoned my courage and revved the accelerator. In the nick of time, I succeeded in dodging the infected person without being caught by the stretched-out hands.
Even though I've gotten quite used to it, after all, today is the first time I'm driving. I instinctively try to hit the brakes out of fear of an accident, and I almost made a mistake in steering many times. Just a while ago, when I decelerated to turn at an intersection, I almost stalled the engine by mistake. I managed to take distance from the infected, but at that time, I was really nervous thinking I might die.
Even now as I'm riding while leading the infected like a comedian being chased by a hundred-man squad, their number is steadily increasing. In fact, right in front of me, infected are jumping out of houses and buildings one after another, and there are even infected who suddenly appear from the shadows like before. I tried to look back occasionally to grasp the number of infected, but I had to give up after counting to ten. To begin with, the sight reflected in the side mirror is already filled with infected.
"Just how many are there...!"
I cursed that, but it's not like the infected will disappear. First of all, my current role is to keep diverting the eyes of the infected until Naomi-san and the others safely secure the vehicle and return to the apartment. I have to maintain this situation for at least another twenty minutes or more.
I've already thrown all the Molotov cocktails. I was tempted by the urge to throw the hand grenade in my pocket, but this is the last resort for blowing up the tank truck and wiping out the infected. If I use it here, I'll end up being chased by the infected until I run out of fuel. If that happens, only death is waiting.
However, it's nostalgic. It's only an event from a few weeks ago that I was heading north along this river, but it feels like many years ago. On that day, I was exhausted in both spirit and soul, and in the end, I almost killed Yui and Mana-chan out of complacency.
At that time, my head was dizzy, but I remember the terrain around here mostly. The abandoned vehicles and the shape of the road on the course are all just as I remember. If so, if I ride for another minute, I'll be in front of that apartment again.
When I glanced at my wristwatch for a moment, quite a lot of time had already passed. Surely Naomi-san and the others have already secured the car. All that's left is to pass in front of the apartment one more time to attract the surrounding infected again and dash to the tank truck.
I turned the handle to the left and passed in front of the apartment again, leaving behind the bridge blocked by the truck and bus. The shutter of the underground parking lot entrance I came out of was wide open. Naomi-san said that once they secured the car, they would go straight to the underground parking lot, load the luggage, and head to the meetup point.
I wonder how much more time it will take? Anyway, I want to get away from the infected quickly. Having confirmed the further increased infected in the side mirror, I couldn't help but think so.
After that, I continued to ride on the road I passed earlier for a while, but the infected following me hardly decreased. Since all the infected who were in front of the apartment are now following me, it's safe even if Naomi-san and the others return to the apartment.
After riding north for several minutes, houses instead of apartments and buildings began to line the left and right of the road. It must be because I've moved away from the center of the town. Blackened rubble can be seen in places in the residential area, perhaps because fires broke out here and there, and passenger cars were left abandoned in various places on the narrow roads, perhaps because people made mistakes in operation while trying to escape from the infected. Every time I decelerate to avoid those obstacles, the distance to the chasing infected gradually closes. Because I'm unconsciously dropping the speed since I can't afford to cause an accident, I can't take distance from the infected well.
When I checked the small map taped to the handle part, I found that I was at a place a few hundred meters away from the tank truck. However, the number of infected has not decreased at all; can I wipe out that many with an explosion?
The infected seem to have gathered in the center of the town, and there don't seem to be many around here. Even so, I can't be careless. The visibility is poor because of the intricate alleys, and there are many obstacles. If I'm attacked when I've decelerated, it's the end for me.
There's still plenty of fuel, and the engine is rotating in good condition. But how long will that last? Fear gradually dominates me.
The moment I returned to being alone, it's this. Even though I've been saying I don't want to take responsibility for other people's lives, I become anxious once I'm separated from everyone and become alone. After all, do I want to be with everyone?
I don't know. One thing I can say is that I have to put off thinking about that. If I die here, I won't be able to think, and I won't be able to tell the truth to Mana-chan someday. Right now, I must only think about living.
Eventually, the figure of the tank truck stopped as if to block most of the road appeared ahead. It seems the driver fell into a panic and tried to run through the narrow residential area to escape from the infected, but got stuck on the way and it was left abandoned. There's no way to know if the tank truck driver was saved, but I'm grateful to the driver who left the vehicle there now.
I revved the accelerator and increased the speed further. The body of the tank truck blocking the road like a wall gradually approached before my eyes, and I was suddenly tempted by the urge to hit the brakes. However, I no longer have the leeway to decelerate for safety one by one. The infected are pressing right behind me.
I took both hands off the handle and took the hand grenade out of my pocket. In movies, people often pull out the safety pin by biting it with their mouth, but according to Naomi-san, if you actually do it, it's not just a matter of a tooth chipping. Hands-free driving is dangerous, but to make the hand grenade explode, it was necessary to make both hands free for a short while.
I gripped the main body with my left hand and passed the finger of my right hand through the ring of the safety pin and pulled it out vigorously. When the safety pin, which had its tip bent to prevent falling off, was pulled out, the safety lever was about to fly off by the force of the spring, but I pressed it down by mobilizing all the grip strength of my left hand. Naomi-san said the hand grenade explodes several seconds after the safety lever comes off; if I make it explode here, it will end with only defeating a few infected at most. It's necessary to time it right and throw it at the tank truck.
I made up my mind and revved the accelerator to full open. The bike accelerated with a jerk, and the needle of the meter tilted vigorously to the right. Oh, I thought this might be bad, and immediately after, along with the sound of something breaking, I succeeded in passing through the gap between the tank truck and the block wall. Perhaps because I was operating the handle with one hand in addition to having just started driving, I seemed to have leaned too far to the right, and the right side mirror has disappeared after hitting the block wall.
For now, I've broken through the biggest barrier, but there's no time to be relieved. The infected are pressing right behind. I threw the hand grenade toward the body of the tank truck and ran without looking aside.
There was a crossroad on the road ahead where the tank truck was stopped, and I tried to hide by turning the handle to the right. Immediately after I somehow turned at the intersection, along with a roar that pierced my ears, a hot wind blew against my back. Having lost my balance from the blast, I was thrown off the bike and plunged headfirst into the thicket at the front of a house.
It seems I succeeded in the explosion, I realized that in the world where the sound had disappeared. Without time to think that I would have died instantly if not for the helmet, countless fireballs dancing in the air jumped into my vision. It seems that when the tank truck exploded, countless burning fragments scattered. Some of the fireballs drawing a parabola were following a course to fall straight over my head.
"You've got to be kidding me!"
My whole body pained from the impact of being thrown off the bike, and my head was dizzy with ringing in my ears from the explosion, but I somehow succeeded in standing up. I dragged my pained body into the garden and rushed into the window of the living room on the first floor facing the garden.
Immediately after I jumped into the living room along with the fragments of the glass broken by the rush, I saw a particularly large fireball fall at the entrance where I was lying just a while ago. With a loud boff! sound, the thicket vigorously began to burn, and the dry sound of fragments hitting the roof echoed throughout the house.
As if another explosion occurred, I saw a particularly large pillar of fire rise over the roof of the house. This explosion was much larger than the previous one, and the glass broke from the blast and danced in the room. I quickly covered my head with a cushion that was at my feet and lay flat on the spot, but the heat of the explosion reached even this house which was some distance away.
A few minutes later, I finally raised my head and timidly stood up. Beyond the window which had become only a frame after the glass broke, black smoke is rising toward the sky. My hearing has also mostly recovered, and I could hear the death cries of the infected. Along with the smell of gasoline, a nasty smell of burning hair and meat is drifting.
"...Did I do it?"
When I stepped into the garden, I stepped on something, so when I looked, what I stepped on was a torn-off human hand. It seems to be from an infected person caught in the explosion; looking closely, charred pieces of meat are rolling around here and there.
The roars of the infected that were heard so much are no longer heard. When I made up my mind to go outside the house, the figure of the bike which had been miserably crushed after hitting the block wall jumped into my vision. Naomi-san said it's a bike that moves even if dropped from the second floor, but it probably won't run anymore because the tires are flat and the holes are bent. Either way, from here on, it's on foot. If I were making engine noise, I'd end up being chased by the infected until the meetup point.
I saluted the bike, took the axe in one hand, retraced the path I came from, and peeked out from the crossroad I turned earlier. The tank truck caught in the hand grenade explosion is burning violently, and infected are lying on top of each other in the surroundings. All of them have their bodies bent in strange ways, and some even have parts of their bodies missing, perhaps because they were torn off by the blast.
Behind that, they must have directly been bathed in the burning gasoline; infected were walking unsteadily while their whole bodies were engulfed in fire. There is no such speed in those movements as when they were chasing me until just a while ago. Their bodies don't move well because of severe burns.
Since the infected don't have the idea of putting out fire, they can only wander around while raising groans like "ah" and "oo" even if their whole bodies have become human torches. If it goes on like this for another ten-odd minutes, they might die of shock, or they might burn out completely and die.
Perhaps their eyes were blinded by the flames and fragments; the wandering infected show no sign of noticing me. With this, I have fulfilled my objective. I succeeded in pulling the infected away from Naomi-san and the others, blowing up the tank truck, and defeating most of them. All that's left is to meet up with the three.
I plunged into the thicket, smashed through the glass window, and my whole body pained and blood was flowing, but I had no time to rest here. The fire is spreading more and more, and it's starting to spread to the houses around the tank truck one after another. If I stay here, I'll just become charred.
I took a spare map out of my pocket and started walking toward the meetup point with the axe in one hand.