Chapter 89 - The Story of Doing It Without Hesitation
Aki continued to vomit for a while after that, to the point where she thought her stomach contents would be emptied. She truly thought she should have skipped breakfast if this was going to happen. The inside of her mouth was sour with stomach acid.
Yuko was slumped at the eaves, in a state of daze. Rei seemed to be trying somehow to regain her usual pace, but even so, her face remained stiff. The only one who was unfazed among them was the boy.
Aki had seen a corpse before. When her mother died of illness when she was in middle school, and when she was called to a relative's funeral. But she couldn't treat what she just saw the same way as those.
After all, a human who died had rotted and been left as is until becoming a skeleton. Without being mourned by anyone, they had been in this place all this time. There was no dignity, nothing; wasn't that just the same as an object? That's not a human way to die. A dead human should be treated more courteously and buried; they shouldn't be left alone in a place like that forever.
"That one died in early spring, the clothes are for spring. Even after the pandemic, this village was likely safe for a while."
The backpack held by the boy, who came out of the entrance saying so, looked like its contents were bulging. The boy pushed the backpack toward Aki, who had raised her face, saying "Hold this." Inside were canned goods, bottles of water, and a whole first-aid kit.
"...You can really do grave robbing without a second thought."
Rei said, perhaps intending it as sarcasm. However, the boy answered "I'm used to it" without a change in his complexion.
"...You could have at least told us one word in advance. That what's in the kitchen is a corpse. If you had, we could have prepared our hearts."
"Prepare your hearts? What are you going to do with that? Listen, right now it's a situation where corpses are rolling around outside. Cities where corpses that were killed by infected and left as is, eaten by dogs, swarmed by maggots, pecked by crows and eventually rotted are all over the place aren't rare. Besides, there are more dead humans than living ones. Even so, if you need to prepare your hearts for every single corpse, you'll never be able to move."
Aki also got angry at the words the boy directed toward Yuko.
"Aren't you going a bit too far just now? It's true that as you say, it might be a natural sight now for corpses to be rolling around here and there. But as Sensei says, I think preparing one's heart is also necessary. To resolve oneself that the world has become like this..."
"Resolve? No. If I gave you time, you all would have just tried not to think about the corpse. Why the corpse is here, why it was left until it became like this, without thinking about the essential things, you'd just be frightened by the corpse. Not looking at what you don't want to see, not thinking about what you don't want to think about—that's what humans do. Even if I gave you a grace period, you would have just turned your eyes away. You all said you wanted to see the current state outside the academy, so I brought you; this is the world today. If you have a complaint, scream it at the world, not at me."
She felt like she had been poked in a sore spot. If the boy had said in advance, "There's a rotting corpse here," Aki would have been preoccupied with not looking at that corpse, or with not being shocked even if she saw it, by being conscious of something else. She surely wouldn't have thought about the fact that a person was killed, or that society had become so chaotic that no one would mourn that corpse.
It was true that what the boy was saying was correct. If it really wasn't rare for corpses to be left here and there, they would see many corpses in the future. They couldn't make a fuss every time, nor could they keep turning their eyes away.
"Corpses are already like toppings that color daily life. No different from utility poles or traffic lights, objects that are everywhere. Yes, objects. Not former humans, just think of them as lumps of meat that emit a foul odor."
"You don't have to say it like that—!"
"Then what are you going to do, Sensei? Are you going to go around burying every single corpse? Do you intend to call a monk and hold a funeral? Though, I don't think there are any monks still alive now. If you can't do that, it's better to stop treating corpses as dead humans. If you think about every single one being someone who was human, you'll go crazy."
When her mother died, they could hold a funeral. But in this social situation, that likely wouldn't be granted. If there were a line of dead people waiting for a funeral, it would surely continue endlessly to the other side of the horizon.
It was true that what he was saying was correct. Since society had become like this, they could no longer treat dead humans as they did in the past. But Aki still wanted to scream loudly that this was wrong.
The boy's words were something that bought everyone's antipathy, but Aki soon learned through her own body that they were correct. After finishing checking the house to some extent and waiting for everyone to recover, the boy headed to the next house. The next house was in a place surrounded by rice fields several dozen meters away, and Aki and the others crossed the rice fields, which were dry because agricultural water wasn't being supplied, to head to the next house.
The rice fields where the water had receded were covered with weeds like the others. While pushing through the overgrown weeds, a dry sound of something breaking with a 'paki' came from under her shoe. Aki, who stopped and looked at her feet, tasted a feeling as if her heart was literally going to jump out.
What Aki had stepped on was a human skull. Half-buried in the soil and weeds, the right half of the skull, which was facing up, was crushed to pieces. The eye socket that had become a cavity on the other left half, which had barely escaped the sole of her shoe, was looking straight at Aki's face.
"What's wrong, don't stop."
"Bo-bo-bo-bo-bone-bone-bone..."
"I should have told you just now not to make a fuss over every single corpse. Most likely a stray dog or something brought it here and then abandoned it."
The boy had a face as if he were annoyed, as if to say don't make him say it many times.
Parts other than the skull were not found, at least in the vicinity. Maybe the rest was buried under the soil, but Aki already didn't have the courage to check. The unpleasant sensation and sound of having crushed the skull still remained.
Was this person a man, or a woman? Now that they had become bones, even that was unknown. Looking at the size, it didn't seem to be a child, but...
Why is this person's remains in a place like this? As the boy said, were they killed in some other place and a stray dog or something brought them here? Or were they killed by an infected at this place, and the other parts are buried under the ground? When she started thinking about such things, Aki realized how terrifying what she had done was.
After all, she had stepped on and damaged remains. Remains that should have been treated courteously. If this person were alive, what would they think? No, in the first place, what kind of person was this? What did they think when they died—.
"I told you not to think."
Before she knew it, the boy was standing in front of her. Aki had become so deeply lost in thought that she hadn't noticed such a thing.
It was true, as he said. If she thought about what kind of person they were, how they died, and what they thought at the very end every time she saw a corpse, she would lose her mind.
Corpses were rolling around everywhere.
In the house surrounded by rice fields, there was no corpse. Instead, there were bloodstains as if a bucketful had been splattered, and a window glass that was significantly broken as if something had jumped out from the inside.
In the house beyond that, there were two mangled corpses. Apparently, they were eaten by stray dogs or stray cats after they died. The corpses were so severely damaged that one couldn't distinguish between male and female.
Because she had vomited many times, Aki's stomach was already empty. For the time being, she wouldn't be able to eat meat.
Rei hadn't vomited, but she seemed close to her limit. Conversely, Yuko seemed to be starting to regain her composure. Whether her senses had become paralyzed she didn't know, but for Aki now, she was grateful just to have a person she could rely on. Yuko followed behind the boy, who was pushing further into the village, while rebuking and encouraging Aki and Rei.
By the time the fourth house came into view, the boy walking ahead suddenly stopped. He raised his left hand and made a 'stop' gesture.
"It's an infected. Don't make loud voices."
Infected—at those words, Aki caught her breath. The existence she had only seen through a screen until now, the culprit that had dropped the world into this hell, had finally appeared before them.
When she crouched on the spot, the overgrown weeds hid Aki and the others' figures. About 50 meters ahead, a Japanese-style house with a wide garden was visible. From that entrance, which was left open, a single figure showed its form. From a distance, it only looked like a man with unsteady steps who was drunk, but...
"Is that really an infected? Not just a normal person who survived?"
"There's no way a person who's wearing a short-sleeved shirt would be wandering around outside when it's this damn cold. Besides, if it were a normal human, they'd first clean up the corpse rolling at their feet."
As the boy said, the figure loitering at the eaves was wearing a short-sleeved shirt despite it being midwinter. And at the entrance, another figure was slumped on the ground and not moving. Only the lower half of the body was visible from here, but Aki knew it was a corpse.
The boy handed over binoculars, and they observed the figure starting from Yuko. When it was Aki's turn, she looked through the binoculars she received.
As long as its back was turned, it looked like a normal human. It might even look like someone who was putting on a brave front or was resistant to the cold, had lost their key and was locked out, and was at a loss at the entrance. But the next moment, the figure turned around.
Those eyes were dyed bright red, and blood-mixed drool was dripping from the corner of the mouth. The skin also looked somehow pale. Aki's intuition told her it wasn't a normal human. Carried by the wind, a groan could be heard.
"It's a good opportunity; I'll go demonstrate how to take down an infected now."
Saying so, Yuko grabbed the arm of the boy who was about to stand up after pulling an axe from his holder.
"What is it, Sensei? Don't tell me you're going to say don't take that down. Unfortunately, my heart isn't wide enough to love my enemies."
"It's not that. That really isn't a normal human, right?"
"I suppose so. Looking at the clothes, I think that one got infected around summer. Did it come to this village chasing humans who were fleeing, or did it come here after being bitten somewhere and then develop the symptoms? Either way, you can tell that isn't a normal human, right, Sensei?"
There wouldn't be a human who would loiter at the eaves in short sleeves in the cold, ignoring the corpse at their feet, and dripping blood-mixed drool. No matter how you looked at it, that wasn't a normal human.
"If you're that curious, why don't you go and check for yourself, Sensei? If that was an infected, you'll die, though."
"No, I didn't mean it like that..."
"Then please quietly do as I say. If there are other infected, I'll have you all help take them down too."
The reason Aki and the others brought weapons wasn't just for self-defense. It was to prove they wouldn't be dead weight by taking down infected. That was also the reason they accompanied the boy's scouting this time.
"Sneak up from behind, one blow to the neck. Finishing blow once it falls. You remember, right? Then, please watch."
With those words, the boy this time slipped out of the thicket of weeds beside the road and walked toward the private house without making a sound. When he moved to the front of the low fence surrounding the grounds, he threw a pebble from behind the infected.
The thrown stone fell into the thicket several meters ahead of the infected. An unexpectedly loud sound resounded, and the infected ran toward the thicket with a groan. And while it was looking around the surroundings like an animal looking for prey by turning its head left and right, the boy approached from behind.
After that, it was finished in an instant.
First, as the boy had told Aki and the others, he swung the axe blade he held high with all his might into the infected's nape. The blade of the military axe, which could even cut steel chains, bit deeply into the infected's back of the head, and into the head of the infected that had collapsed after strength left its body, the boy swung a finishing blow. A sound like 'zaku', like splitting a watermelon, could be heard—or so she felt.
After the infected's body convulsed significantly once, it stopped moving. Under that body, a bright red pool of blood spread.
"See, it's easy, right?"
The boy who returned said that as his first words. In those eyes that had caught the blood splatter on his cheek, she still couldn't find any emotion.
I await your opinions and impressions.