Chapter 61 - The Story of Maximum Range
A dry gunshot echoed through the open window. The sound rang out twice, then three times in rapid succession, and the window glass shattered into granular fragments with a clatter. One bullet pierced the interior and struck the rear window, creating a spiderweb of cracks.
"What the...!"
I instinctively moved to hit the brakes, but Naomi-san, in the passenger seat, extended her leg and stomped on the accelerator pedal right over my shoe. Having apparently woken up at the first gunshot, Naomi-san seemed to have already grasped the situation.
"Don't stop!"
With that shout, she thrust her hand out from the side and seized control of the steering wheel. My foot hurt from being stepped on, but the situation was so dire I couldn't afford to care. It seemed we were under fire from a sniper lurking in that apartment building.
"What, what's happening!?"
I barked "Get down!" at Yui, who had also woken up, while Naomi-san leaned out from the passenger seat, jerking the wheel left and right. Muzzle flashes flickered again on the apartment balcony, and the side mirror on the driver's side was blown away. Yui held Mana-chan, whose face was stiff with terror, and lowered her head.
The gunfire continued. After five shots, there was a brief pause, then another five shots were fired. Since there was almost no interval between each shot, it was likely a semi-automatic rifle. And the pause after five shots was because they were changing magazines. Semi-automatic rifles with a capacity limited to five rounds are sold as hunting rifles even in Japan.
Even while exposed to the gunfire, a corner of my mind was calmly considering such things. However, every time a spark from an impact scattered before my eyes, my consciousness was yanked back to reality. Getting sniped out of the blue while driving down the road—this was just like a conflict zone in the Middle East or Africa.
The possibility of being attacked by fellow humans had always been in the back of my mind since the incident in Osawa Village. But to be attacked so suddenly. It seemed we weren't the first victims that sniper had targeted. Most of the corpses and vehicles left on the road earlier were likely victims of the sniper firing at us right now. And at this rate, we were liable to join them.
That said, this was a straight road with good visibility. With shops and houses lining both sides, it was difficult to escape the sniper's line of sight in the car immediately. There was an intersection past the gas station, but to flee into it, we would have to pass directly in front of the sniper.
"Where should I run!?"
Even when I shouted, Naomi-san didn't answer, perhaps having her hands full with the steering. She was likely zigzagging the vehicle left and right to make it harder to aim, but the car was still a substantial target. Thanks to the evasive maneuvers, bullets stopped flying through the windshield, but in exchange, the sniper began targeting the engine section at the front of the vehicle.
Multiple sparks scattered across the hood along with a high-pitched metallic sound, and suddenly, white steam erupted with a coughing noise. The tachometer numbers dropped visibly, and the car wouldn't accelerate even when I floored it.
It seemed the engine had been destroyed. An armored vehicle might be different, but a mere passenger car isn't sturdy enough to stop rifle rounds. A bullet that pierced the hood seemed to have lodged itself in the engine.
"Listen, everyone get out once the car stops! Once you're out, run to nearby cover or a building. Absolutely do not stop, and run in a zigzag! Got it?"
I didn't have the luxury to answer. Perhaps because the car's speed had slowed, making it easier to aim, bullets began to rain down again. The rearview mirror vanished after taking a hit, and a bullet that grazed the side of my head slammed into the headrest. I heard screams from Yui and Mana-chan, but I felt like screaming myself.
Even so, I began calmly preparing to escape. First, I checked that I hadn't been hit anywhere, then confirmed that the pistol was seated in the holster at my waist. Since the backpacks containing our luggage were in the back seat and the trunk, we had no choice but to leave them behind. If we just stayed alive, we might be able to retrieve them later.
The car continued to crawl forward on inertia but eventually came to a complete stop. I opened the door at Naomi-san's cry of "Get out!" and tried to grab the shotgun placed between the driver and passenger seats as I exited. However, the shotgun's sling or something must have gotten caught, as I couldn't pull it out easily.
Naomi-san also tried to take the rifle she'd placed in the back seat, but perhaps judging it too dangerous after seeing sparks from an impact on the chassis right before her eyes, she gave up and started running toward the supermarket at the side of the road. The sliding door of the back seat opened, and Yui leaped out from there. Meanwhile, Mana-chan, who was sitting behind the driver's seat, opened the rear right door and got out of the car.
It looked like I'd have to leave the shotgun behind. If I dawdled here obsessing over the gun, my head might be blown off the next second. As the distance closed, the sniper's fire was becoming more accurate; the open door I was using for cover was riddled with holes from incoming rounds.
"Hurry!"
I urged Mana-chan on and spun around, sprinting toward a passenger car abandoned at the roadside. Several times along the way, the asphalt shattered at my feet, and fragments pelted the hem of my jeans. My body felt light without the shotgun or backpack, yet those few meters between the car and the roadside felt like hundreds.
Amidst the echoing gunshots, I kept running, desperately moving my limbs. Then, I dove into the shadow of the rear of a van abandoned half-mounted on the sidewalk, as if performing a head-first slide. The distance to the apartment was less than 200 meters, so I was still within the sniper's range, but I had at least escaped their line of sight and had a sturdy shield.
Safe for now. As I took a breath of relief, I realized Mana-chan hadn't arrived yet. I turned around to shout for her to hurry, but the words never left my mouth.
"Mana-chan...!"
Mana-chan was lying face down in the space of a few meters between the abandoned vehicle and the car we had arrived in. Blood was flowing from her leg, and she was staring at me with hollow eyes. Perhaps not yet understanding what had happened to her, she lost her balance trying to stand up, and only then did she seem to realize she'd been shot.
"...Aaahhh! Aaaaaahhh!"
A scream rose, and as Mana-chan tried to clutch her shot leg, blood suddenly sprayed from her arm, which twisted in an unnatural direction. Her arm, half-severed from the upper arm, rolled limply onto the road, and a further high-pitched scream tore through the air.
"Mana-cha—"
The moment I instinctively started to leap out from behind the van to help her, I felt the sensation of a bullet grazing the space in front of me along with a gunshot, and I frantically pulled my face back. The rifle round that missed me hit the ground right before my eyes, and the ricochet flew into the show window of a video rental store, shattering the glass into powder.
"What's wrong? Is Mana-chan okay!?"
Yui's voice echoed from the other side of the car, toward the supermarket where she was supposed to have headed. Through the car with its doors left wide open, I could see Yui and Naomi-san also hiding behind an abandoned vehicle. However, from their position, Mana-chan's location seemed to be a blind spot, and they apparently hadn't grasped what had happened yet.
"Mana-chan's been shot! This is bad, we have to help her somehow..."
"Help her? Isn't she over there!?"
"She's collapsed right by the car. If I try to help her, I'll get shot!"
I looked for an opening several times to dash out quickly, but the moment I exposed even a bit of my body from the van, a bullet would come flying. Yet if I left Mana-chan like this, she would bleed to death. With her limbs shot, she couldn't even crawl on her own.
As if mocking me, the asphalt around Mana-chan splintered. Groaning in intense pain, Mana-chan desperately tried to crawl across the ground to escape the gunfire. However, her right hand was half-severed with bone and muscle exposed, and the flesh of her left leg had been gouged out by a bullet. In such a state, she couldn't move even a single meter.
No, the sniper was likely actually mocking us. Deliberately tormenting Mana-chan to shoot us when we leaped out to help. It was a sickening tactic. If I tried to help, I'd be shot; if I prioritized my own safety, I'd have to keep watching my companion die before my eyes.
Perhaps irritated that I wasn't showing myself, a stray bullet struck Mana-chan's left hand, which was reaching toward me. Her left index and middle fingers were severed from the base, and an even louder scream rose.
"It hurts... help me..."
Mana-chan, her face a mess of blood and tears, looked at me as if seeking salvation, but as long as that sniper was there, I couldn't move a single step from here. However, since Naomi-san and Yui were on the opposite side of the road across the car, I was the only one who could help Mana-chan now. But if I leaped out to save her, I would be pierced by a bullet the next moment—
"What's Mana's condition?"
This time I heard Naomi-san's voice. Unlike Yui, Naomi-san sounded calm as usual, but I noticed her voice was trembling slightly. She too might be shaken by the fact that Mana-chan had been shot.
"She's been shot in the limbs. We have to treat her quickly!"
"I get it. To save Mana, we have to do something about that sniper, but the rifle is inside the car. So I'll go retrieve it and take down the sniper; you two distract him."
For a moment, I regretted leaving the rifle and shotgun in the car, but if I hadn't moved without obsessing over the weapons back then, I would have been the one shot instead of Mana-chan. In any case, unless we took down the sniper, not just Mana-chan's but our lives were in danger. If infected people drawn by the gunshots arrived, we'd have to deal with both the sniper and the infected.
"Do something... what should we do? Just fire wildly?"
"Shooting from here won't hit anything. Listen, when I give the signal, both of you leap out from cover at once and run! That way, the sniper will hesitate on which one to shoot. In that opening, I'll return to the car and shoot him with the rifle."
"Leap out? Then we'll be the ones shot this time!"
I wanted to save Mana-chan. But on the other hand, the feeling of not wanting to die was squirming in the depths of my heart.
If Yui and I both started running in different directions at once, the sniper might indeed hesitate for a moment on which one to shoot. But what if they had decided which one to shoot from the start? Yui might be shot the moment she leaped from cover, or I might die.
"But there's no other way right now! Got it? Leap out on the count of three. Keep running in a zigzag toward the front; if you stop, you'll be shot!"
Without waiting for an answer, she abruptly began the count. There was nothing to be done now.
If I didn't move from here, at least I wouldn't be shot and die. However, Mana-chan before my eyes would certainly die, and if Yui were the only decoy, she would be the next to be shot and die. Above all, unless we defeated the sniper, we couldn't move from here, and if that happened, only a slow death awaited us.
"Dammit...!"
I cursed and leaped out from behind the van at Naomi-san's cry of "Now!" Simultaneously, multiple footsteps were heard beyond the car, as if Yui and Naomi-san had also begun their actions.
I braced myself to be shot immediately, but the bullet came flying a beat after we leaped out. The windshield of the van I'd been hiding behind shattered, and a tire that took a hit burst, causing the vehicle to tilt. Perhaps they were shaken, or perhaps it was hard to aim because we were running, but they lacked their previous accuracy.
I ran straight for a few meters, then to the right, then ran a bit more and zigzagged to the left. It seemed the enemy had set their sights on me rather than Yui, as bullets had been splintering only around me for a while now.
Had Naomi-san not returned to the car yet? The next moment I thought that, my vision suddenly tilted along with the sensation of something hitting my toe. In an instant, the asphalt road approached my eyes, and I instinctively shielded my face with both hands.
To trip in a place like this. As I frantically raised my face, I saw the sniper on the balcony looking this way. The distance was about 150 meters. They were too small to see anything but a silhouette, but they were definitely looking here.
Even without seeing it, I knew the muzzle was pointing here and strength was entering the finger on the trigger. Why am I always like this at the crucial moment—!
The next moment, a loud gunshot roared. However, I was not dead.
The one who fired the gun wasn't the sniper. When I looked back, Naomi-san, who seemed to have reached the car in the nick of time, was leveling a rifle with gunsmoke rising from the muzzle. And the muzzle flashes that had been flickering like a strobe on the balcony until now were no longer visible.
"Am I... saved?"
No, one person had not been saved.
Relieved that bullets weren't flying, I stood up and looked back. What I saw there was the figure of Mana-chan, who had breathed her last in a pool of blood as if a bucket had been overturned, her hand still reaching out toward me.
I look forward to your opinions and impressions.