Chapter 65 - The Story of Shining in the Storm
A gray sky and a strong wind blowing. The wipers were incessantly moving back and forth across the window, wiping away raindrops, but since the rain was falling as if striking just as they wiped, it had almost no meaning. The wiper rubber pushed tree leaves stuck to the windshield outward.
Apparently, a typhoon was making landfall in this region. Rain began to fall yesterday, and wind began to blow since this morning. And now, a strong wind was blowing so hard it seemed it might overturn the car, and rain like a bucket being overturned was striking the vehicle body.
What was even worse in this situation was that we were being pursued by the infected. In the rearview mirror, the figures of the infected chasing the car remained reflected through the rear window. Even if they lost their posture due to the strong wind or slipped and fell in puddles, the infected continued to chase the car while raising roars.
The trigger was a trivial thing. We, who hadn't considered even for a moment that a typhoon was coming, got in the car as usual this morning and started running east. However, we were hit by heavy rain and strong wind midway, and while frantically looking for a place to take refuge, we happened to encounter a group of infected.
It was because visibility became poor due to the heavy rain and we couldn't notice that infected were nearby. And the infected have been pursuing us for over ten minutes with their sturdy legs. While raising shouts and gathering companions.
"Can't you run faster!?"
"Impossible! If a strong wind blows from the side when I'm putting out speed, it might actually overturn!"
Naomi-san, who was holding the steering wheel in the driver's seat, replied in a loud voice that didn't lose to the sound of the rain striking the vehicle body. Yui in the passenger seat is spreading the map and confirming the route, but she has been doing nothing but detouring or turning back many times for a while now.
Apparently, fierce combat between the infected and the police or JSDF took place in this city; barricades are built on the roads, and unmanned patrol cars are parked as if blocking the road. Corpses of police officers struck by the rain were not just one or two. Perhaps stray bullets flew, the window glass of buildings is broken and bullet holes are carved in the walls. There were also many wrecks of cars that had burned intensely.
It seems the city fell into great confusion when the infected occurred; there are also cars that had caused accidents as if blocking the road. Even if there are roads on the map that a car seems able to pass, it's unknown how they are now. It's a common thing, but it's fatal in a situation where we're being pursued by the infected.
"This place is no good either...!"
Naomi-san, who was about to turn left at an intersection, frantically returned the steering wheel to straight along with a click of her tongue. My body couldn't keep up with the sudden change of direction, and I struck my body hard against the seat. Looking ahead of the intersection she was just about to turn at, two dark green large trucks were stopped as if blocking the road. They were JSDF vehicles.
A large bus, apparently a police personnel transport vehicle painted in white and light blue, is also stopped. If we searched, we might find some weapons, but there was no such leeway now.
"For now, I'll try defeating a few."
"But more might gather from the gunshots..."
Yui's anxiety was also reasonable, but the infected are raising roars while chasing the car anyway. Although the rain sound is acting as noise, infected who apparently heard those roars have been increasing one after another for a while now. If we didn't defeat a few here, the lead group was starting to approach a distance where they might touch the vehicle body.
When I opened the power-sliding ceiling window, large raindrops suddenly blew into the car. My upper body instantly became soaking wet, but I couldn't care. If I didn't defeat the infected, the next thing to wet my body would be warm, bright red blood instead of cold rain.
I pulled out the M1A automatic rifle equipped with the conversion kit found at the military shop from inside the car and fitted the 20-round magazine also taken from the military shop. Because I had replaced the wooden stock with a pistol-grip type metal chassis to attach a flashlight for dark places and a laser sight, the automatic rifle was heavily weighted.
Leaning out from the open window, I leveled the rifle. I extended the buttstock, composed of two iron pipes and an adjustable cheekpiece, and peered through the optical sight attached to the mount rail on the receiver. I overlapped the reticle, projected onto the lens using a laser hologram, onto the torso of one infected approaching the rear of the wagon.
I pulled the trigger just like that, but naturally, it didn't hit. Both they and we are moving, and on top of that, it's difficult to set the aim due to the strong wind and the shaking of the vehicle body. Even after firing five shots, not a single one hit, so I ducked back into the car for a moment and pulled out the shotgun.
The infected had already approached a distance where, literally, they could reach the vehicle body if they extended their hands. The bright red, bloodshot eyes of an infected running while dragging the hem of tattered trousers and disheveling hair turn here. Toward that head, I fired the sawed-off shotgun.
This time, perhaps because it was at point-blank range, the infected who took the buckshot in the face flipped over and was instantly left behind. The infected chasing the car tripped over that corpse, and I unintentionally laughed at that scene like a comedy. However, this time a new group of infected came from another intersection, and I soon lost the leeway to be laughing.
"Just how many are there...!"
Among the newly joined infected, there were those who appeared to have wounds as if they had been shot. Besides, there is a man whose clothes are charred black and who is exposing skin burned into keloids, and a female infected whose cheek is torn and who also looks as if she is smiling.
I pull the trigger toward them, but there is no sign that the infected will decrease even if they increase. When I broke the barrel of the sawed-off and ejected the empty shell, the plastic shotgun shell rolled off the roof of the car with a dry sound.
Repeating firing and loading several times, I finally realized it was useless no matter how much I shot. From atop a shaking car, it only leads to a waste of bullets. Either shake off the infected quickly, or else defeat them all somewhere. There are only those two paths for us to survive.
Passing by the side of an overturned light passenger car, I turn left at an intersection I don't know how many I've turned. Then, what spread out there was a main street sandwiched between buildings and shops on both sides. Corpses were rotting and turned into bleached bones here and there, and among them, several empty shell casings shining dully in gold are scattered. There was also a barricade with piled sandbags, as if the JSDF had laid out a defensive position.
Whether there was an explosion, the asphalt of the road is greatly gouged. The tire was taken by that crater, and the vehicle body bounced greatly. I almost got thrown from the roof and frantically grabbed the vehicle body. This must be the place where the most fierce battle was unfolded.
The wind increased its force further, and a sign blown away directly hit the window of a building and broke the glass. The branches of the roadside trees were greatly bent and seemed about to break at any moment.
Even in such conditions, the infected are still coming after this car. When I was inwardly marveled at that persistence, Yui in the passenger seat raised her voice, "Look out!" Along with a loud 'Don!', the car stopped suddenly along with a braking sound like a scream. I, who struck my back hard against the window frame, collapsed into the car, unable to endure it.
A dull pain ran through my back, and I raised my body while letting out a groan. I was about to open my mouth to say "What on earth...!" when I grasped what had happened from the scene spreading beyond the windshield.
As if blocking the car's path, a concrete utility pole was fallen. Crushing the roof of a passenger car left at the roadside, the utility pole tilted diagonally exposed its mud-smeared root part, and snapped electric wires are extending to the ground like the corpses of snakes. Thanks to having applied the emergency brakes, it seemed a direct hit was narrowly avoided. If we had gone straight for a few more meters, the fallen utility pole would have crushed the driver's seat of the wagon.
However, the path was blocked by the collapsed utility pole. The main street was a wide road with two lanes on each side, but the lane on the opposite side is blocked by the wrecks of buses and passenger cars that have burned black. Even if we tried to turn back, the swarm of infected was pressing in right behind us. A passenger car is not built sturdily enough to run while running over many people. If we forced our way into the swarm of infected with the car, the tires would immediately slip on blood fat, and the infected would break the windows and intrude into the car.
"Abandon the car. Everyone take your luggage and run beyond the utility pole!"
Naomi-san's decision was swift, and there was no one who voiced an objection to it. I opened the side door and jumped out of the car with the rifle and the backpack filled with luggage in hand. I also threw out the backpacks for Naomi-san, who habitually went to the trouble of turning off the engine, and Yui in the passenger seat, and ran toward the east, where the car had been heading, with my backpack on my back. Having crawled under the collapsed utility pole, the two who had recovered their own luggage followed after.
There are still weapons, ammunition, and food left in the wagon, but it seemed we had to abandon it. It would be putting the cart before the horse to lose our lives by obsessing over supplies. Besides, in preparation for such a situation, ammunition and three days' worth of food are in the backpacks for taking out in an emergency. We can fight for a while, and we won't starve. If there is an opportunity, we might be able to return here and take back the car.
"Where should I go!?"
I look back, fire one shot at the infected who were swarming the utility pole blocking the road, and shout. I, who wasn't in the passenger seat, hadn't looked much at the map of this area.
"Straight! There's a bridge ahead! Let's cross it and hide somewhere!"
Hearing 'bridge,' I remembered the time I met Naomi-san. At that time too, we were being pursued by the infected and were running after abandoning our luggage. What's different is that Naomi-san joined in place of Mana-chan, and that we now have guns.
Unless we escape from the vision of the infected, they will follow us anywhere. On the other hand, we can't carelessly jump into buildings around there. It's because we don't know what is inside, and if there's no place to hide, it's the same as turning ourselves into rats in a bag.
Abandoned vehicles will have dead batteries, and they won't move without keys. We have no choice but to run and cross the bridge, and hide somewhere beyond it.
One infected swarming the utility pole crawled under it and ran toward here. I fire one shot toward its chest. The infected shot through the chest collapsed on the spot and stopped moving. I overlapped the reticle on the head of an infected that passed under the utility pole as if being pushed out similarly, and shot. Intense recoil and gunshot shook my body.
The automatic rifle has larger recoil compared to a pistol, but the fact that its power is large was also attractive. The infected, whose pain sensation is apparently paralyzed, will continue to attack humans as long as it's not a fatal wound, whether they are shot in the limbs or have a hole in their abdomen. To deal with them, it's either to destroy important organs such as the head or heart in one shot, or to make them unable to move.
A 7.62mm large-caliber bullet has enough power to sever an arm depending on where it hits. If an infected, no matter how tough, takes such a bullet in the torso, it won't stand a chance. If it hits the limbs, it shreds muscles and breaks bones, dulling the movement. If they don't feel pain, I should just physically seal their movement.
Firing several more shots, the bolt stopped while retracted. Having fired all 20 loaded bullets, the bolt stop operated. I quickly searched the pouches of the tactical vest I'd taken from the military shop, took out a new magazine, and shoved the empty magazine into the vacant space. There is almost no prospect of obtaining 20-round magazines for the M1A from here on. I can't leave it behind.
Slamming in the magazine and lightly pulling the bolt handle, the bolt, which advanced on its own by the force of the spring, sent the first round into the chamber. It became possible to shoot again, but I turned my back to the infected again and started running toward the bridge that was said to be ahead. I don't have the leeway to stay in this place forever and shoot the infected. Pushed by the swarm of infected that were crowding like a cluster, they were sliding off the roof of the passenger car that the utility pole had been supporting.
The utility pole that had been blocking the advance of the infected like a bar rolled to the ground with a roar, and the infected began to run energetically again. If caught, we too will join the ranks of the corpses rolling countless numbers in this city.
I don't want to die. Even though I have no meaning or purpose for living, I was continuing to run, driven by that instinct. The wind, which had become even stronger, is blowing while making a sound like the groan of a monster.
I look forward to your opinions and impressions.