Chapter 47 - Chapter 45: A Tale of Killing People
It had become a troublesome situation; that was my honest thought. The three men and women were staring at me with frightened eyes and hadn't uttered a word for a while. It's natural since I brought out a gun and threatened them not to talk, and it's helpful, but I couldn't accept that I was being thought of as if I were a criminal or something.
Because they were the ones who started it first. I just responded out of necessity, and originally I wouldn't have had to threaten them in a place like this. The ones who are bad are all the people of this village, and I am innocent.
"W-Why in this house... do you intend to take us hostage?"
The middle-aged woman who had been in the room, who was called Akemi, opened her mouth. I was about to say "shut up," but at this rate, I don't know what they might do driven by anxiety. Here, I need to let them know that I am not a bad person in order to calm them down.
"It was unexpected that you guys were here, I was just trying to hide from the guards."
"Then, if we don't do anything, you won't lay a hand on us?"
"Of course, I'm not a murderer."
Though, I probably don't have persuasiveness saying that with this appearance. After all, my current body is stained bright red with splashes of blood everywhere, and I'm hanging a large amount of firearms and bladed weapons as if I were a walking armory.
"Now it's my turn to ask questions. Why are you three in this house? You don't seem like a family, and I don't remember seeing you in that bunker."
"We are neighbors. Since gunshots started to be heard and there was a contact from the government office not to go out of the house, we were gathered in my house."
"Are there other residents nearby?"
"No, only us three live in this area. Believe me."
I have no way to confirm if those words are true, but I thought it was probably true. If a gunfight suddenly starts in a village you thought was safe, almost no one would want to be alone. It's natural to think of gathering with as many people as possible.
Apparently, they hadn't participated in the ritual of feeding me to the infected that was being held in the bunker in the northern part of the village. The young man who let me escape said Yamato and the others were showing the villagers the sight of the infected eating humans to plant a sense of guilt in them and make them easier to control. But that bunker couldn't possibly accommodate all the villagers. Surely the village residents were divided into several groups and were witnessing the refugees being eaten by the infected in turns.
And the three in front of me hadn't gone to the bunker today and had stayed in their own homes in the southern part of the village. There, they heard the commotion that started from Naomi-san repelling the guards who came to detain us after I escaped, felt danger, gathered nearby residents, and were barricaded in this house. It seems I happened to enter there by bad luck.
"Good grief, why did it come to this..."
I couldn't help but mutter that. Why did it come to this, that's my honest feeling now. Just when I thought I finally found a safe land, it was a den of crazy people who offered refugees as fodder to keep their family members who had turned into infected alive. It's more than just bad luck.
On top of that, there were residents in the house I broke into. I searched for something that could restrain them, but there were no ropes or the like in the dim room. In the first place, it's difficult for me alone to restrain three people. While I'm tying one's arms, I might be counterattacked by the remaining two. Even if I ordered one to restrain the other two, they might intentionally loosen the restraint to create an opportunity for me to let my guard down and turn the tables in an instant.
It's frustrating, but I can't win against three people. Right now I have no choice but to keep watching the three and wait for the guards to disappear from around the house. I should think about their treatment after that.
"It's all your fault, you know. Because you guys look up to such a crazy man as a leader, it came to this."
"Then what should we have done? If Yamato-san hadn't been here, we would have been wiped out long ago, and I didn't want to lose my child! This is something that can't be helped!"
The woman called Michiko, who had urinated in the hallway earlier, suddenly raised her voice.
"My son was infected in this village and is in that bunker now. Although he lost his reason and sanity, Kenta is still alive! I don't want to let Kenta die, even if someone else becomes a sacrifice!"
Apparently her son was caught in the spread of infection in the village, which drove Yamato to his madness, and turned into an infected. And she couldn't kill her son and seems to have locked him in that bunker.
It was a completely troublesome story.
"Something that can't be helped? Don't screw with me, if you love your son that much, you should be the first to be eaten. Have you guys ever thought about the hearts of the people who are killed for 'no choice' without any fault?"
"You've killed many people in this village too, haven't you! Being so blood-stained, having so many guns, try saying how many people you've killed!"
Being told that, I felt my blood boil. It's also 'no choice' that I killed people, but that's because the people of this village tried to kill me. I just fought to survive; I'm different from these people who kept killing others to keep their family members, who were no longer human, alive.
Just as I was about to instinctively ready the crossbow, a muffled vibration sound suddenly echoed in the house. It was as if the door were being knocked—no, someone was actually knocking on the door.
"Don't move from there. If you move even a step or make a fuss, I'll kill you."
Saying so, I headed toward the window facing the south side while keeping the crossbow pointed at the three. When I gently opened the blackout curtains, I saw several men loitering in the garden. And the sight of them gripping shotguns and handguns in their hands was reflected, illuminated by the moonlight.
Apparently, the guards are going house to house to confirm the safety of the residents. I saw the three sitting on the sofa look at each other, and I clicked my tongue. Since they haven't broken down the door and burst in, fortunately the argument just now didn't seem to be heard outside.
However, the guards must also know that there are residents in this house, and if there's no answer for a long time, they'll get suspicious and break in. Even if not, they'll think I might be hiding in a house without residents and will break in anyway. As expected, I didn't have the confidence to take down several men with guns at this close range.
The best way is to send one of these people to respond to the guards, but in the unlikely event that person leaks that I am here, I'll be a rat in a trap. That said, I can't keep watching nearby forever so that the residents don't betray me.
"Old man, are you there? A troublesome kid is wandering around this area, so we're going around the houses to confirm the residents' safety! If you're there, please come out, otherwise we'll enter without permission!"
Hearing such a voice from the entrance, I no longer had time to hesitate. I pointed the crossbow at the old man and instructed, "Go."
"I'll be the hostage. Can't you let the other two out?"
"What are you saying? An old man like you who doesn't have much life left has low value as a hostage. If you successfully turn them away, these two will be able to live much longer. But if you talk too much or invite the guards into this house, I'll kill these two before I die. In that case, you will be the one who killed these two."
If this old man informs the guards of my existence, I'll be surrounded by them and annihilated in no time. To prevent that, I needed to take out insurance. If he knows that the two younger women might be killed depending on his actions, the old man should also be careful not to do anything foolish.
To convey that I am serious, while pointing the crossbow at the old man with my right hand, I pulled the handgun from my belt with my left hand and pointed it at the two on the sofa. My dominant hand is the right, but at this close range, I can't possibly miss.
"...I understand. If I successfully turn them away, you won't lay a hand on Michiko-san and the others, right?"
"Yeah, I'll think about it."
After comparing the faces of the women sitting on the sofa and mine, the old man went out to the hallway and headed for the entrance. While listening to the sound of the floorboards creaking becoming gradually smaller, I returned the handgun to my belt and pointed the aim of the crossbow at the two.
"...Kid, it's not too late even now, why don't you surrender to the guards? This kind of thing is wrong!"
"I've already killed several people, it won't work even if I say I surrender now. Besides, even if I can avoid dying on the spot, I'll just be made fodder for the infected you guys are keeping, so it's the same either way."
I don't have the option of surrendering. There are only two choices: to keep fighting with all the residents of this village as enemies and escape alive, or to give up and be killed by the guards or become fodder for the infected. And naturally, I choose the former.
Right now the young man must be going around setting explosives in the bunker where the infected are squirming, but if I were caught by the guards, everything would be ruined. Besides, Naomi-san and the others are probably waiting for me. The more the meeting with me is delayed, the more the chance to escape from this village will be lost. If I am killed here, Naomi-san and the others will surely wait for me, who will never come, until it's too late.
That's why I can't afford to be caught or die here. No matter what I have to do, I must meet up with the three alive.
The voices of the old man and the men who seemed to be guards can be heard from the entrance. The guards seem to be advising the old man to evacuate, but the old man is answering that it's dangerous outside and there are few guards, so he's staying in the house. Mixed with the troubled voice of the man continuing to persuade the old man, a trembling voice echoed right nearby.
"Please help, God..."
The woman who had been in the living room all along, Akemi, seemed to be praying with her hands clasped.
I had never believed in God until now, and I probably never will. If there is a God, why did he make such a world? God seems to have made humans separate from beasts, but those humans are now attacking humans who are not yet infected, just like beasts. If such a world is allowed, there's no God or anything.
Perhaps the people of this village, the women in front of me and the old man earlier, and even that Yamato, were all good people. Everyone must have been good people who thought of their families more than anything else. If it were peacetime, they would have been people who would have been good subjects for a home drama.
But in this world now, family and loved ones are only a weight. The people of this village, because they thought of their families too much, couldn't kill the infected who had turned into beasts in human form. That's why they locked them in the bunker and resorted to the atrocity of giving refugees as fodder.
It's a frustrating thing, but I was grateful that my parents died. Because my father died and I killed my mother with my own hands, I've managed not to be tainted by the crazy air flowing in this village. If my parents were still alive and missing, I surely would have agreed with their actions too.
Eventually, along with the sound of the door closing, the sound of footsteps creaking the wooden hallway was heard. The number was one; apparently he successfully turned the guards away. When I pulled the curtain, I saw several human figures walking away with their backs to the house.
"Somehow, I got them to leave here. I was told to come to the agricultural cooperative office together, but I refused saying it's dangerous to walk outside with few guards. They said they are evacuating the residents to the office and will return as soon as they gather manpower."
"Eh...?"
That means, they will return to this house again once they gather guards for protection.
What have you done, was my honest impression. I just wanted them to be turned away, but he did something unnecessary. If I stay in this house as I am, I'll be surrounded by even more guards next time. Even if I restrained them and left them in this house, once the guards returned, the old man and the others would talk about me being in this house.
Will it be 5 minutes or 10 minutes until the guards return? Either way, the time left for me is short. If I don't make a decision right now, I'll be a rat in a trap this time for sure.
Tie them up and leave them? No, as I thought earlier, that would create a gap for me. If I'm attacked by the other two while tying one, I can't do anything. Even if I entrusted someone to tie them, they would intentionally loosen the restraint to create an opportunity for escape or counterattack.
Even if they don't counterattack, if they inform the guards of my existence immediately after I leave this house, the meaning of hiding in this house will be lost at that point. The guards will know I am nearby and will gather personnel to conduct further searches. If that happens, escaping will be increasingly difficult.
A means that doesn't give the three in this place an opportunity for counterattack, and further doesn't give them an opportunity for escape. With my poor brain, only one solution came to mind.
"Now, they've already gone. Quickly leave here and escape from the village."
"It's enough now, right? Release us."
"We'll never talk to anyone about you being here."
The three opened their mouths in turn, but the crossbow I lifted was the answer.
"The situation has changed."
Along with those words, I pulled the trigger toward the old man who was standing right by the door. The launched bolt shot through the old man's chest, and faster than his body could fall, I pulled the axe from the holder on my waist. And before the two women could raise a scream, I swung down the axe with all my might toward the woman, Akemi, who was sitting on the sofa.
The axe swung down from diagonally above pierced deeply into her neck. Michiko, the one who remained, opened her eyes wide, and her mouth was opened to raise a scream. But at that moment, I picked up the ashtray that was on the table and threw it toward her head.
The sturdy and heavy stainless steel ashtray hit her face while spinning. Along with a dull thud, that face was distorted, and blood dripped from her crushed nose.
"W-Why...?"
"It's what you said earlier. That this is something that can't be helped. So..."
I pulled a bolt from the crossbow holder at my side, straddled her as she fell on the floor, and thrust the bolt into her throat with force. The woman was opening her mouth like a fish out of water, but she can't even breathe with a hole in her throat. While looking at the face that was turning pale in contrast to the throat stained bright red with fresh blood, I continued.
"If I don't kill you guys here, I might be killed immediately. This is something that can't be helped, sorry."
Though, it was doubtful if she was listening to those words. The woman who had stopped moving with her eyes rolled back might have already departed for the next world. Even if not, she'll surely be dead before the guards return to evacuate the old man.
With this, at least the possibility of the three attacking the moment I turned my back, or them reporting to the guards immediately after I left the house, was gone. The guards will know I was in this house after seeing the corpses, but I can gain enough time to leave this area before then. Another chase might start, but will I be able to meet up with Naomi-san and the others before then?
I pulled the axe from the neck of the woman who had died while sitting on the sofa, and recovered the bolt stuck in the old man's chest. I went back the way I came and went out from the back entrance, but the figures of the guards were not seen around the house. Are they going around other houses, or did they go back to secure manpower for protection? Either way, I won't have to have a gunfight for a while.
Suddenly the faces of the three I just killed came to mind. All three were non-combatants who didn't even have weapons and didn't even attack me. Was killing them really "something that can't be helped"?
No, let's not think about it. They are residents of this village and are comrades of the people who tried to kill me. That's enough reason to kill the three.
However, even if I told myself so, the dead faces of the three didn't disappear from my mind.