A story of an elementary schooler
The light illuminated the figure of a young girl sitting with her back against the wall behind a jumping box. She was probably in the upper grades of elementary school. I couldn’t help but say that she was a little girl, but I don’t think that’s an accurate description. I have a habit of referring to younger girls, even those in their early teens, as little girls. Just to be clear, I’m not a lolicon. Not at all.
«Big brother……?»
I heard the girl looking up at me mutter under her breath. I wondered if she mistook me for someone else. If so, the brother must be dead or infected because there are no other survivors as far as I can see.
«Hey, you, how long are you going to hold that machete?»
As I stepped into the gym warehouse, Yui’s words finally reminded me that I was still wielding the machete. If you look closely, you’ll see that the girl is frightened at the sight of me.
«Oh, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. We’re human, we’re not your enemy.»
«Yes, we are. That’s right. They’re not here anymore, so don’t worry.»
As I lowered the machete and Yui knelt down to speak to her, the girl suddenly began to cry. The fear that she had been suppressing until now overflowed all at once, and she began to cry. The girl jumped into Yui and pressed her face against Yui’s chest.
«I’m going to look outside. Call me when you’ve calmed down.»
She wouldn’t stop crying for a while, so I decided to stay outside. If there were any infected people nearby, they might come due to the sound of the girl crying, and besides, I was not very good at dealing with little girls. It would be better to leave it to Yui, who was the same gender as her.
After confirming that Yui nodded, I left the gym and headed back into the gymnasium, which smelled thickly of blood. The floor was still littered with dead bodies, and every time I walked, the pool of blood under my feet made a watery sound.
Most of the corpses were children. The fact that this was a junior high school was probably one of the reasons there were so many children. There was a residential area nearby, so perhaps the people who lived there had evacuated their families here.
Many of these bodies were badly damaged. The skin on their necks had been bitten off, and the bodies that had bled to death before becoming infected were still better. Many were missing arms and legs, or their stomachs had been ripped open and their internal organs pulled out. There was even a corpse that was almost cut in half, having been devoured around the abdomen.
The cause was probably that the infected had begun to starve. The infected are not like zombies in the movies, but human beings who have gone berserk while still alive. Therefore, they need to be fed and nourished in order to survive.
Now that many people have become infected, there are inevitably fewer people to feed on than the total number of infected people. In addition, since people are living in hiding from the infected, the chance for them to find food is greatly reduced compared to the time when there were so many that they could only run away.
When the infected first appeared in Japan, there were still very few corpses being eaten like this. Apparently, infected people can move with less nutrition than humans, and they are able to take in nutrients from food (humans) more efficiently, so they can move around more energetically after eating a bit of human body.
For this reason, most of the corpses at that time were clean corpses that died immediately after being eaten, at most, the parts with important blood vessels or in the neck. If the bite didn’t kill them instantly, they would eventually turn into infected people, so there were not many corpses left.
But now, the infected devour every inch of the prey they kill, as they are forced to go on a diet and are starving because they cannot find any human prey. Three months have passed since the first outbreak, and there is still no sign of the infected starving to death.
Perhaps it was because children’s bodies are soft, but many of the corpses of the children had been eaten in many places. Not only the soft limbs, but also the flesh of the face was eaten away, and there were bodies with white skulls peeking out. It was a disgusting sight, even for me who thought I was used to dead bodies after living a survival lifestyle for the past three months.
I wondered how many people were living in this shelter. From the number of dead bodies, there must have been at least a hundred, but the number of infected people who had killed them must have exceeded that. There was nowhere to run in the cramped shelter, so the infection would spread quickly.
I wondered if the children here had been eaten alive one by one without being able to escape. I shudder to think of their final moments. It must have been unimaginably painful to be eaten alive.
The reason I want a gun is not only to protect myself. I wanted a gun not only to protect myself, but also to be able to kill myself when the time came. It would be incredibly painful to cut my neck or wrists with a knife, and I don’t want to jump from a high place. With a gun, I could just point it at my head and pull the trigger, and I would be dead before I felt any pain. In that way, a gun is a very attractive suicide tool.
I don’t think I’ll be able to get my hands on a gun, though. There were empty shell casings on the ground, so there must have been someone with a gun in this shelter, but even after leaving the gym and searching for a while, I still couldn’t find a gun. Unlike in novels and games, guns are not so easy to find.
While I was looking around the gym for something I could use, I thought of the weapons and supplies I had. One machete, one crowbar, and a Maglite that could be used as a baton. Considering the fact that there were two of us working together, we only had enough water and food for one day at the most. The shelter must have had a large stockpile of supplies since it had fed over a hundred people for three months, so we had to hope that there was still some left.
Suddenly, the air shivered and a warm breeze blew, and at the same time, the sound of an explosion echoed through the ground. I looked up to see the school building burning even more fiercely. I wondered if the sound of the explosion was caused by the combustible materials left in the school building catching fire. I thought it was okay earlier, but depending on the direction of the wind and the intensity of the fire, it might spread to the other school building, which was still safe. Before that happens, I need to find and collect my supplies and get the hell out of here.
I wandered around outside for the next ten minutes and returned to the gym. The lit–…… girl who had been hiding in the gym storage room seemed to have calmed down after crying for a while. Her eyes were red and swollen, but she was not crying.
«So, can you tell me your name?»
Yui asked, and the girl answered, «Aina, ……. I’m not sure if it’s my imagination or not, but she’s been glancing at me for a while now. Well, it’s not surprising that Aina is scared of me, since I met her while I was aiming a machete at her.
She’s got a pretty healthy body for someone who’s been living in an evacuation shelter. Her thighs peeking out from the hem of her shorts are amazing, even for an elementary schooler. Well, I’m not a pervert, so I wouldn’t say I want to rub against her thighs.
«How long have you been here, Aina?»
«I don’t know for sure, but maybe since the day before yesterday…….»
There is one small window in the gymnasium. Seeing the sunlight coming in from there, Aina seems to have confirmed that two days have passed. The window was so small that even Aina, a fifth grader, could not get through it, and there were iron bars on the outside to prevent the glass from breaking when the kids played with the ball. The bars were bolted to the wall so tightly that a kid would not be able to break them.
«The day before yesterday, there was suddenly a lot of noise outside, and I heard the voices of the teachers who went to see what was going on, and then suddenly the lights didn’t come on, and then I went to the gym…………»
It was in the early days of the virus epidemic in Japan when Aina and other children from nearby elementary schools were evacuated to this junior high school. At that time, the number of infected people in this area was still small, and Aina was safely reunited with her parents at this junior high school, which was designated as an evacuation center, and has been living here ever since. Although the number of students is small now due to the declining birth rate, the school used to be quite large, and a lot of supplies were stockpiled in preparation for disasters.
The supplies were enough to sustain the evacuees for three months, and in fact, Aina and the others were able to live there without any inconvenience. In addition, there were hunters with guns, and the number of infected people in the area was small, so even if the infected people attacked once in a while, they were able to fight them off.
But the day before yesterday, there was a sudden commotion outside, and the infected came rushing into the gym. Aina, who was in the gym, didn’t know the cause, but it didn’t seem like the infected had come in from outside or anything. The evacuation center was monitored by a rotating group of adults, so if there were any infected people wandering around, they would have been found immediately. The fact that an infected person suddenly appeared inside the shelter suggests that, as I had predicted, someone had entered the shelter with a bite, developed the disease inside, went on a rampage, and attacked the other survivors.
I don’t know what actually happened, and I have no way of knowing, nor does it matter. I’m sorry to say this, but now that the human race is on the verge of extinction, we can’t afford to care about dead people.
«So many of those people came into the gym and my friends were……….»
Tears welled up in Aina’s eyes again as she remembered the scene when her friends were killed. Yui hugged Aina again to calm her.
Those people, huh? In my opinion, the infected people are infected people, but in Aina’s opinion, they are still in the category of people.
«The teacher then pushed me into this gym and closed the door. She told me to hide inside until I calmed down. But I heard a scream right after, and I didn’t dare to try opening the door.»
These days, as of three months ago, there are good teachers, even in the midst of all the talk of corruption in school education. There was no body in the gym, so perhaps he had been attacked by the infected while trying to protect Aina, and then joined the ranks of the infected. Either way, his sacrifice was not in vain.
The teacher must not have intended to lock Aina inside either. If that was the case, was the heavy metal shelf lying in front of the door a pure accident? Either way, Aina was saved because the door didn’t open.
«All the time since then, I heard screams coming from outside the door. I covered my ears and closed my eyes, and before I knew it, it was morning. But when I finally dared to open the door, it didn’t budge, and I realized that I was trapped.»
If it had been me, I would have gone crazy. It was nothing but torture to listen to the screams of my friends and family being eaten alive all night long.
To top it all off, being locked up in a small warehouse would have driven me insane. I can’t even keep my spirit up for a day. And yet, Aina had remained sane for two days in this gym warehouse. It’s amazing.
«I called out for help, but no one answered, and I couldn’t go out the window because of the bars. I was despairing that I would starve until death …… when the two of you came to my rescue.»
Then Aina turned to me and bowed deeply.
«Thank you so much! If you two hadn’t come, I would have been …….»
She’s a good girl, a really good girl.
What a nice girl with a cute face who can say thank you properly. Now that the police and the law are gone, and ethics have collapsed, people like her are rare. Everyone has lost the luxury of putting the other person first, and I have rarely seen anyone show respect to another person.
«Hey, you’re creepy.»
I was about to retort to Yui, «What do you mean by creepy?» but then I touched my cheek and realized I was grinning sloppily. I’m not sure if I’m a pervert or not.
«You did a great job.»
Yui said and hugged Aina. I’m sure it’s not my imagination that I saw tears in her eyes as well.
«I’m Tachibana Yui, nice to meet you.»
«I’m–«
«Oh, he’s just a pervert. You can call him a pervert too, Aina.
Oh no, that’s terrible. I was trying to introduce myself. And now you’re calling me a pervert?
I said my name again. It’s not fear or contempt in the way that Aina looks at me. It was a mixture of happy, yet disappointed, emotions.
«Have we met at…… somewhere?»
I asked her boldly as she kept looking at me. This is a long way from my hometown, and I’ve never been here before, so there’s no way she knows my face.
Aina looked around in the air as if in a panic, and then looked down. Then, in a small voice, she said.
«You know, you look like my brother…….»
I heard that Aina had an older brother who had evacuated here with her.The older brother has been missing since the day before yesterday when they got separated in that mess. He seemed to be close in age to me, and we were similar in height, so she mistook me for her brother when we entered the warehouse.
«Was your brother that perverted too?»
«No, he was just normal.»
Wait a minute. Why are you assuming that I’m a pervert?
«So, I have a favor to ask you……»
I had a bad feeling about this.
«Um, can you help me find my parents and brother?»
My bad premonition came true.
I knew that I would definitely be asked to do that, but it was quite unbearable to be told face to face. Aina’s beautiful eyes stared straight into mine, and I couldn’t help but turn my head away.
It was highly unlikely that Aina’s brother and parents would survive «as human beings». If they were still in this shelter, they would have been looking for her long ago. It wouldn’t be surprising if they had noticed us coming in through the main gate and had taken some action. And yet, the fact that they’re not here means that they’re most likely either a corpse or an infected person who has gone after the survivors.
There is also a small chance that they have somehow managed to escape and are still alive. But in that case, it would be next to impossible for us to track them down. We don’t even know where they’ve gone. And now that the evacuation center has been destroyed by the infected, there is no one who would bother to come back after somehow escaping.
Searching all over the school would not only be pointless, but could also lead to heartbreak for Aina. Even if Aina’s family had been there, they would have been reduced to miserable corpses. Do you think an elementary school girl would be able to accept such a reality?
So, what Aina should do now is to gather the necessary supplies and leave this shelter as soon as possible. The fire in the school building might spread, or the infected might come back. Before that happens, we should get the hell out of this bloody corpse-filled shelter. Of course, in that case, she would have to abandon her family whether they were alive or not.
Yui must have sensed this, because she looked at me with a pained look. She was wondering in her heart whether we should tell Aina the truth or not. I don’t know if Aina is expecting what happened to her family, but telling her what we think is like telling her to give up her family.
I can’t say such a thing to a girl who is still in elementary school. Yui’s eyes told me so. It’s true that if I confronted her with the reality here, she might lose the will to live at once. No one would do such a thing to an elementary school student. That would be too cruel.
Well, I’ll do it because I think it’s necessary.
«Let me tell you something, it’s useless to look for them.»
«Hey, you……!»
Yui said reproachfully, but I restrained her with my hand and continued.
«If Aina’s family is still alive, they’re not here. There were a lot of dead bodies hanging on the fence around the schoolyard, so there must have been a lot of people trying to escape. If they were alive, I’m sure they’d have already escaped this place and be somewhere far away.»
I didn’t say that they were probably dead. I’m not that inconsiderate.
«If they had escaped, I don’t think they would have come back here. Coming back to a place where you’ve been attacked once is as good as suicide. That’s why Aina-chan should get out of here as soon as possible, because we don’t know when the infected will come back.»
«I know. But whether I’m alive or dead, I just want to find if they are in this school. If I don’t, I’m sure I’ll regret it.……»
It seems that Aina doesn’t think that her family is lucky enough to have survived. Seeing the devastation, any hope she had was immediately shattered.
Looking at Aina’s bowed head, I clicked my tongue internally. It wasn’t that I was annoyed with her for trying to take an action that I knew was futile, it was that I was once again disgusted by the cruelty of this world, where elementary school children have to assume that their parents are dead. A girl of Aina’s age should have been playing around by now, but the virus and the infected have ruined a peaceful world.
«Please! If there’s anything I can do, I’ll do it!»
«Hmm?»
Didn’t you just say you’d do anything? Didn’t you say you’d do anything?
«Eh…. then take off your clothes first.»
Seeing Yui raise the crowbar, I kept my mouth shut. Aina’s eyes are moist and pleading, and Yui’s gaze, which is a mixture of scorn and reproach, pierces me, and the air becomes awkward at once.
It would be easy to refuse Aina’s request here, get what you need and leave quickly. But can I do such a sloppy job? I don’t want to be branded as a pathetic man who can’t fulfill a single wish of a school girl.
I knew that it was inefficient. I also know that what Aina-chan is about to do will only increase the damage to her heart. Butーー.
«……I understand.»
At that moment, Aina-chan’s eyes lit up. Looking at Aina with a big smile on her face, I remembered how I had tried to refuse even her only wish a few seconds ago, and I hated myself for that.
……Well, I have to get what I need in this shelter, too.
It’s not like I’m a tsundere or sweet on women or anything like that. Its different.
MtlEnjoyer 