Chapter 70 - The Story of Returning to the Start
Along with the sunrise, I woke up. My whole body hurt because I had been sleeping on hard concrete, but since I left the sleeping bag in the car, it couldn't be helped.
Looking at the clock, it was a time just past 5:30. In the old days, it was a time when I would have been sound asleep wrapped in a warm futon. If I were a working person, it's about the time I'd start waking up, but the city remains silent. Even if it becomes 7 o'clock or 8 o'clock, there will be no one who leaves home for work.
"It's hot..."
The dazzling morning sun is already starting to evaporate the rainwater that had accumulated on the roof. Perhaps because the typhoon passed, I feel as if the temperature rose all at once. Even though it was chilly until yesterday, now it's warm enough even in short sleeves. It's as if it has returned to summer.
There is not a single cloud in the sky I looked up at. The voices of birds chirping echo in the silent town.
Raising my upper body, I stand up and look around the school from the roof. As usual, the figures of the infected are not seen. What can be seen are the road where not a single car is running, and several roadside trees that apparently were knocked down by yesterday's typhoon. The cherry tree planted in the schoolyard was broken midway. Whether it was rolled away by the wind, the soccer ball that was in the corner of the schoolyard last night is not seen.
Just as I was about to go call Yui and Naomi-san, I remember that one of them is already not in this world. Although I was able to sleep immediately yesterday because I was tired, I saw nightmares many times. The scene when I let go of Naomi-san's hand at the collapsing bridge was flashing back many times in my dreams.
Perhaps because I was having nightmares, in contrast to the sky that had cleared up perfectly, the mood upon waking was the worst. It's natural; there's no one who can sleep peacefully after letting an important companion die by their own hand.
Yesterday's scene was revived in my head again, but I tried not to think about that. Naomi-san's death is a sad thing, but even so, I can't be in grief forever. Stopping is synonymous with death; I'll be caught by the infected. To not die, I must run around or continue to fight. Now is not the time to be thinking about the dead.
First I should discuss with Yui as the two of us what to do from here on. Proceed, return, or stay.
The first choice was to procure a new car or supplies somewhere and head east again. But, for what purpose do we head east, I am already becoming not knowing. Previously I was heading east relying on the rumor that there is a safe place in the Tohoku region, but that too is suspicious in this situation.
The second choice is to return across the river, recover the wagon, and turn back the way we came. Weapons, ammunition, and food are piled in the wagon, but the infected have no interest in those. If they haven't been taken by another survivor, the car and supplies will still remain exactly as they were. After securing those, this time we head west.
But heading west, what do we do? Do we turn back the places we've passed through until now and taste the memories filled with pain again? Probably no matter where we head, the question "why?" will follow.
The last choice is to stay in this city. Just like elsewhere, there are infected in this city too, but compared to the city across the river, they are markedly few. If it's the same no matter where we go, staying here might also be one way.
It's also conceivable that a swarm of infected was waiting at the end of continuing to proceed. If we proceed east from here all the way, we'll come out to Tokyo, the capital of Japan. Out of 12 million people, what percentage turned into infected? If we also combine the population of the entire metropolitan area, there will be countless infected.
So we live as just the two of us in this city. While waiting for the time when all the infected die out and the government is reconstructed, we live while helping each other and holding our breath. That might not be bad either.
Besides, I now am quite tired. I want to relax around here. I wanted time to think and organize various things calmly.
Returning inside the school building, I go down the stairs. As usual, the inside of the school remains silent. Is Yui also still sleeping?
That too can't be helped. Yesterday she was continued to be pursued by the infected, and on top of that Naomi-san died and she became just the two of us. It's natural to be sleeping from fatigue. If it were possible, I too would like to do so. But the reason I don't do so is because the older person among these two is me, and I am in a position where I must protect her.
The door of the classroom where the plate of 2nd Year Class B was hung, where Yui is sleeping, was closed. Since it was left open when I went out last night, Yui must have closed it later. I, who put my hand on the handle of the sliding door, notice that it is locked.
"Yui, are you sleeping? It's already morning."
There was no answer. Apparently she closed the door and locked it last night, and slept just like that. Since what is fitted in the door is frosted glass, the state inside the classroom is hardly known.
When I knock on the door, something moved beyond the frosted glass. Something stands up and comes toward the door.
"Did you finally wake up..."
Immediately after I felt relieved, a roar that seemed likely to echo throughout the school roared from inside the classroom. It's not Yui who just woke up groaning; this is the roar the infected raise when they find prey—!
By the time I noticed that, it was late. Why is an infected inside the classroom? What happened to Yui? Those questions floated in my head in an instant, but before giving an answer, suddenly the door before me was blown away from the inside.
Like a scene from an action movie, the door bent from the middle rolls into the corridor. I, who narrowly avoided the door that came flying, saw something jumping out from inside the classroom. I don't know why, but anyway an infected is there. Having leveled the rifle in my hand, I set my aim on the head of the human figure coming toward here. Just as I was about to pull the trigger—.
"Eh?"
What came out of my mouth was a stupid voice that didn't suit the tense situation.
The face of the infected before my eyes was familiar. The female infected with short black hair disheveled jumps at me while raising a beast-like roar. The alarm in my head was ringing at maximum volume saying 'if you don't shoot now you'll be killed,' but I couldn't pull the trigger.
"Yui, is it...?"
From the face to the hairstyle, and even the clothes, an infected exactly like Yui was before me.
What kind of joke is this? Is Yui kidding around? Is she pretending to have become an infected and trying to surprise me?
Before asking, Yui rushes. I instinctively thrust the rifle I was leveling before my body, but I couldn't even prevent the impact. The rifle, which I hadn't wound the sling around my body, was blown out of my hands, and I myself sit on my rear on the spot.
"Yui, what are you doing! If you're kidding around, stop it right now!"
The answer was a roar. The eyes of Yui, who was dripping saliva mixed with blood from her mouth and rushed again, no longer had human-likeness found. What was filled in the bloodshot eyes was only the color of bloodlust similar to a beast trying to kill the prey before its eyes. The same existence as the infected I've seen many times until now was there.
"Stop!"
I pull out the pistol and instinctively fire one shot toward the ceiling. But Yui didn't return to her senses nor flinch, and jumped straight at me. Grabbing my throat with both hands, she tries to bite into me with her teeth bared.
At the point where her face approached to within a few centimeters from my body surface, I let go of the pistol and grabbed Yui's head with both hands to somehow try and distance her. It was clear she was trying to kill me.
Yui's hands digging into my neck gripped with an even stronger force, and I can't breathe.
"Stop...! Let go...!"
Yui is no longer human. She's an infected. Instinct was telling me so. But I couldn't accept the reality before my eyes.
I too grab Yui's neck, and distance her face by extending both hands. Failing to bite into my wrist, the sound of teeth clashing 'kachi-kachi' is emitted from Yui's mouth.
Yui, who got astride me, let go of her hands from my neck. Instead she beats my body recklessly with both hands. I felt as if I had become a drum. I almost stopped breathing from being beaten on the chest, but if I let go now, she will kill me.
Yui thrust her right index finger into my forehead, and scratched greatly downward just like that. Along with the sensation of the skin of my face tearing, a burning pain runs. Intuitively realizing that Yui is trying to crush my eyes, I frantically turned my face away.
Yui's claws that were thrust in tore my forehead, and pass over the eyelid of my right eye. The sensation of the eyeball being pressed from above the eyelid finished in an instant. Yui's claws passed over the eye socket, and tore my right cheek just like that. The wound that was torn was hot as if a branding iron were pressed, and I unintentionally raised a scream.
I somehow managed to avoid having my eyes crushed. But blood that overflowed from the wound entered my right eye, and I can't see anything. I, who saw with my left eye Yui whose fingertips were dyed bright red trying to swing down both hands again, instinctively let go of my hands from Yui's neck. And in the posture of being on my back, I vigorously pushed her body away from below.
Yui staggered her upper body, and in that opening I crawl out from under her body. Having pulled out a knife, I swung the blade down on the right arm of Yui, who sat down after losing her posture.
The knife blade tore the skin of her right arm, but Yui doesn't show even a fragment of a sign of being in pain. On the contrary, raising an even more angry-like groan, she grabbed the knife blade and forcibly snatched it from my hand. Blood drips from Yui's hand that gripped the knife blade, leaving dotting marks on the linoleum corridor.
Without a doubt, Yui has become an infected. I had to admit the reality.
The right hem of Yui's trousers is rolled up, and the bandage wound around her ankle is unraveled and crawling on the floor like a snake. And from the gap of the bandage dyed red on her right ankle, I witnessed the marks of human teeth oozing blood.
Probably the time she was bitten was that time at the bridge when I was trying to pull Naomi-san up. When I was trying to help Naomi-san, Yui was trying to fight the approaching infected even while having injured her right ankle. And I clearly remember her being pushed down by an infected at that time.
At that time Yui said she wasn't bitten. But that was a lie. Whether she noticed she was bitten at that time or not, I don't know. But looking at the bandage wound around her ankle, eventually Yui knew that she had been bitten.
"Why..."
Why didn't you tell me. If you had, I—.
No, I probably wouldn't have been able to do anything. For now there is no means to prevent infection, and I am not a doctor or a scientist. I would have only been able to be bewildered and wander around.
If there is something I can do, it's only to kill the person who was bitten before they completely lose their reason. She might have been afraid of that. Since I saw Naomi-san to her death with the word "it can't be helped," I will surely be killed if I'm bitten. Thinking so, she might have kept silent to me about being bitten.
'Everything has already ended, it's all over.'
Abruptly I remember the exchange with Yui last night. The reason she accused me of having sacrificed Naomi-san to save Yui, and the reason she was saying 'there's no more from now on,' was all because she knew she had been bitten.
And I couldn't notice that.
'At the point where they're infected and their reason is blown away, that guy is dead. Why must innocent living humans be sacrificed for a dead person? You guys are just escaping from facing reality, just glossing it over by attaching plausible reasons.'
The words I said to Yamato once in Osawa Village revive in my head. The one who wasn't trying to face reality was me. Even though there were as many chances as I wanted to notice even yesterday, I couldn't. Even though it's normal to think she might have been bitten when Yui was attacked at the bridge, I believed her word and didn't perform a body check or anything.
I just didn't want to notice that possibility.
I feel as if I now understood the reason why Yamato was trying to keep his infected child alive. But I don't have the right to make the same choice as him. I accused Yamato, who was continuing to sacrifice survivors to keep his daughter alive, and pressed him to kill her quickly.
'The one who's kidding around is you! You are escaping from the reality before your eyes. If I were your child, I'd want to be killed before my reason is blown away and I attack other people. I think so, and Mother must have had the same thought. That's why I killed Mother, so she wouldn't kill anyone else anymore.'
I said this to Yamato. That if an important person turns into an infected, I'll kill them.
And now, before my eyes, my important person has turned into an infected and is attacking. Then the path to take is one. I am not allowed to make any choice other than that.
Again Yui raised a shout, and threw away the knife in her hand. The knife dyed bright red with her own blood rolled to the corner of the corridor along with a dry metallic sound.
My whole body hurt. Whether because I was being strangled, my head is still dizzy, and my chest which was beaten hard is painful. Whether my ribs are broken, a pain as if pierced with a cold knife runs through my chest every time I breathe. From the wound on my face that was torn as if half-gouged by claws, blood is still overflowing.
Even so, I must do it. What I should do now was to release her.
"Forgive me..."
Again Yui rushes while raising a roar. I gripped the revolver pistol that had been thrust into the vest's pouch.
My right eye, which is my dominant eye, has blood flowing in and visibility has not recovered yet. Leveling the pistol with my left hand, I overlapped the aim on the head of Yui, who had turned into a beast in human form.
I hesitated for only an instant. I pulled the trigger.
The .38 caliber bullet released hit the left side of Yui's forehead. Bright red blood jumped out from the back of her head, and strength was lost from her body. Even so, whether from inertia or her final persistence, Yui's body did not stop.
Leaning against me, finally Yui's body stopped. In the back of Yui's head, who fell to the floor, a hole large enough for a fist to enter is open due to the bullet that pierced through. The pink lump peering from there is brain matter, and the white fragments would be skull.
Yui's body no longer moved. Light rapidly vanishes from those eyes.
Tears did not come out. There is no sadness either. What is spreading in my chest now was only a purely black void of darkness.
Yui is dead. Even though it should be a sad thing, I was feeling relief somewhere at that fact. If I'm alone, I won't have to experience the fear or sadness of losing something important anymore. I don't have to take responsibility for anyone's life anymore.
But I have become all alone again.
Protagonist correction (it's not said that the people around him can also survive)