Chapter 49 - Chapter 47: A Tale of Turning the Tables
Without even time to thrash around from the pain of the shot arm and the arm kicked by the boot, I, whose weapons like the rifle and handguns were all taken away, was made to walk to where Naomi-san and the others were while being held at gunpoint by Yamato. The three seemed to have been tied with both arms behind their backs and gagged. That's why they couldn't move at all just now, nor could they issue a warning to me.
"Interlock your hands behind your head and kneel."
Along with a chillingly cold voice, something hard hit the back of my head. I can't counterattack while being held at gunpoint, and above all, I can't fight satisfactorily with an injured arm. I, who forced my aching left arm up and interlocked both arms behind my head, knelt on the battered asphalt.
Counterattack? There's no way I can do it; all my weapons have been taken away. Even if I hid a weapon, Yamato wouldn't be stupid enough to fall for the same trick twice. A surprise attack is effective because it's done once; doing the same thing twice or thrice is the height of folly. If I show any suspicious movement, Yamato will blow my head off right now.
Though, I'll probably be killed eventually even if I'm quiet. After all, I killed Yamato's comrades and made a mess of this village. Even if I say I agree with his ideas now, there's no way he'll forgive me. Right now I just have to wait intently for a chance.
"Is this all of them? I had trouble finding you guys."
Along with those boastful words, Yamato took a distance of about 5 meters and finally lowered his gun. That said, I'm not foolish enough to jump at him immediately. If the distance is this far apart, fire will burst from the muzzle before I can touch his body.
"Kaburagi, contact all units. Tell them to gather the residents and assemble at the office immediately."
"Roger."
The one who showed his face from the shadow of the car with those words was Kaburagi, the policeman who guided us to the office on the first day we came to this village. Behind Kaburagi, who gripped a handgun, there is another human figure. It was that young man who helped me when I was about to be taken back to the bunker.
The word "betrayed" ran through my mind for a moment seeing the young man with Yamato and Kaburagi. But if he had intended to catch me from the start, I should have been caught when I met him in front of the bunker. If so, I can assume he is still on my side.
And since he doesn't seem to be detained, it seems what he was trying to do hasn't been exposed to Yamato either. Looking closely, the backpack he was hanging from his shoulder, which contained many sticks of dynamite, has disappeared. Apparently the young man set the dynamite in the bunker where the infected were confined as originally planned, and then joined Yamato and the others.
Perhaps sensing my anxious heart, the eyes of the young man who turned toward here seemed to be saying "don't worry." If he were our enemy from the start, he wouldn't do such roundabout things. So I can assume he is still on my side.
Whether he will take action to help us, or whether we'll be abandoned just like this. If he chooses the latter, I'll just shout out what the young man is trying to do. If I do that, the young man will also be regarded as our comrade and treated as a traitor. To prevent that, he will definitely help us.
"You've done as you liked in my village. Thanks to you, everything is a mess."
"That's 100 percent the responsibility of you guys, not my fault. If you guys had killed the infected quickly, it wouldn't have come to this. Don't shift the responsibility of running away from a decision onto us; we just tried to survive."
"You'll understand eventually once you have a child. You want your child to live no matter what the sacrifice, no matter what the state. That's what being a parent is."
The same exchange as the one held inside the bunker was repeated. I'm not a parent yet, so I don't understand his feelings, and in this state of the world, I don't even know if I can stay alive until I become a parent. But as a human being before being a child, I want to be killed before I become something that is no longer myself and goes around killing someone. Losing memory and reason, and going around eating people driven by murderous intent and hunger. I don't want to join the ranks of such people, and if I am no longer myself, I can say it's the same as me being dead.
"As a child myself, I think that's wrong, though."
I muttered that while enduring the pain in my left arm. Fortunately, the bullet seems to have only grazed my arm; although a sharp pain runs through, my left arm moves properly and the bleeding is subsiding. If this is the case, I'll be able to fire a gun too, but unfortunately not a single weapon is left at hand.
"I don't have time to hold a debate with you, so I have to restore the village order quickly. Thanks to you guys stirring things up, it's in this state."
The northern sky is stained orange by the fire at the gas station, and fierce gunshots are heard from the south.
"Shouldn't you abandon this village? It's already over anyway."
"Maybe so, but I can't leave Aki and the others behind, can I? I'll stay in this village no matter what anyone says, I won't forgive those who try to run away."
Your comrades are already preparing to run away, though. The existence of the many vans and trucks I passed on the way came to mind and those words almost came out of my throat, but I stopped. If I say it, Yamato might become even more enraged.
Even so, I didn't think this man was that stubborn. When I first met him, I thought he was a kind and reliable person who embodied my image of a police officer as it was.
No, he actually must have been a kind and reliable person. That can be seen from the fact that he had kept this village surviving until now. The one who changed such a Yamato was probably the death of his daughter. I might not be in a position to say this and that as I don't know the circumstances well, but if Yamato's daughter were still alive now, he wouldn't have become such a crazy person. The village would have been a proper shelter, and people would have been able to live with hope that a peaceful era would return someday, even while being afraid of the terror of the infected.
"I'm taking these guys back to the bunker. Nakamura, tie this kid up and put all 4 of them in the truck."
"W-Wait a minute. Why are we going back to the bunker?"
"It's decided, I'm giving them to Aki. They haven't eaten for more than two weeks, so if we don't hurry, they'll die."
At such a disturbing conversation, I raised my face and saw the young man staring at Yamato with a bewildered expression. The name Nakamura that came out of Yamato's mouth was the young man in front of me, and Aki seemed to be Yamato's daughter. There I remembered that I hadn't heard the young man's name even once, but right now the talk about taking us to the bunker was more important than that. Is Yamato still obsessed with keeping his daughter, who turned into an infected, alive even in this situation of the village?
"Yamato-san, it's regrettable but I think it's as that boy says. This village is already over. And what you are trying to do is also wrong. It's time to let Aki-chan rest. That is just a monster in the shape of your daughter."
"Are you trying to defy me? You haven't forgotten who helped you, have you?"
"Of course. And because I was helped, I want to do something for you."
Apparently the young man feels the same as I do. Yamato, who only thinks about feeding us to his daughter even though fires are occurring everywhere and the infected and guards are currently waging a battle, must have lost his sanity.
Perhaps he didn't like that his subordinate rebelled; Yamato's expression distorted.
"...I'll say it again, put these guys in the truck."
"I'm sorry, but I cannot comply."
No sooner had he said it than the young man pointed the muzzle of the shotgun in his hand at Yamato. Yamato, who was pointing his gun at me, couldn't respond to the sudden situation and could only freeze in a posture of about to point his handgun at the young man.
"Let's stop this already. You keep killing many people, and what happens to your daughter then? You're not thinking something sweet like a medicine to turn the infected back will be developed in the future, are you?"
"I want Aki to stay alive, that's all."
"No, you're just afraid of killing your daughter with your own hands. You actually know it, don't you? That Aki-chan won't return to normal anymore."
The young man said so, and while holding the shotgun with one hand, he glanced at the wristwatch on his left arm.
"The only thing we can do is to give them their quietus so they don't kill anyone else anymore. It's enough already, let's let Aki-chan sleep."
"I won't let anyone kill Aki. If you interfere, I'll kill whoever it is. Even you, Nakamura."
While both were glaring at each other, Kaburagi was just surveying the state of the two with a face devoid of emotion, and no sign of trying to break in and help either was felt. I thought this was a chance to rebel, but Yamato's muzzle is still pointed at my head. In front of my eyes as I pray that Yamato doesn't accidentally pull the trigger in his rage, the young man looked at his wristwatch again.
"It's already too late."
"What—"
In the next instant, a flash ran at the foot of the mountain spreading to the north. A few seconds later, a large explosion sound, different from that of the fire, shook the air, followed by the sound of something collapsing. The bunker where the infected were confined should have been at the foot of the mountain to the north.
Apparently the young man achieved his goal. Between the young man with a somewhat satisfied expression while still readying his gun, and Yamato who was staring blankly at the north where the bunker was, in contrast. The dust rising under the moonlight is clearly visible even from here.
That bunker, which was said to have been constructed by the former Imperial Japanese Army in preparation for the final battle on the mainland, must be under the soil now with the ceiling collapsed. The infected who were inside are naturally buried alive. They might even have died instantly under the heavy rocks. Even if they were alive, this village now has no equipment or manpower to rescue people buried under a large amount of earth and sand. And no rescue team will come.
It's safe to assume that all the infected confined in that bunker died. Perhaps finally understanding what happened, the strength left Yamato's body and he collapsed to his knees on the spot. Since the muzzle finally moved away, I hurriedly moved away from Yamato and rushed to the side of Naomi-san and the others who were lying at the side.
"Naomi-san, are you safe!? Did these guys do anything strange to you!?"
"We're fine. I'm glad you're safe too. More than that, what on earth happened?"
"That person set bombs in the bunker where the infected are confined and blew it up. This Yamato's daughter who became an infected was also inside."
As soon as I removed the gag, Naomi-san's energetic voice was heard and I was relieved. Since I don't have a knife, I gave up on cutting the ropes tying their arms behind their backs, and just as I was about to remove Yui's gag next, Yamato's sobbing, kneeling on the ground, reached my ears.
"No... no... it's a lie, right, Aki...!"
Along with those words, a scream burst from Yamato's mouth. Looking at the side profile of Yamato who was looking up at the sky and howling while shedding tears, I realized that I had overlapped him with myself when I killed my mother.
When a family member turned into an infected, I killed my mother, and Yamato chose to keep his daughter alive even after she became an infected. But maybe it's possible that the opposite choice could have been made.
I thought of my parents as important, and Yamato must have loved his daughter. There's no mistake that we both thought of someone as important. What differed was only the decision. But if my mother had turned into an infected in a state almost no different from a normal human, would I still have been able to kill her?
Thinking so, the man in front of me who had killed dozens of people looked a little pitiful.