A Cautionary Story
With one of the school buildings ablaze, we couldn’t afford to stay in the shelter for long. When I told Aina that I was only looking for Aina’s family as part of my search for necessary supplies, she nodded her head. I was expecting her to be selfish like a child, so to be honest, I was a bit disappointed.
When I took her out of the bloody gymnasium, Aina closed her eyes and seemed to be enduring something. Even I don’t want to see such a scene when I think that my close friend might be among the miserable corpses, but that won’t be the case from now on. Until the day before yesterday, Aina had been protected by adults and had been able to live a peaceful life, but from now on, she would have to fight for herself in order to survive. I know it sounds cruel, but I hope she gets used to dead bodies before too long.
«So, do you know where the food is?»
«It’s all in the kitchen. I’ve helped out a few times.»
Well, of course, I thought as I glanced around me. The only place in the school that was equipped to cook meals was the kitchen, and even here they were cooking in the kitchen and distributing them to the refugees. I hope the survivors didn’t take advantage of the chaos and take all the food with them.
According to Aina, the infirmary also had medicines, bandages and other medical equipment. I haven’t had a cold in three months, and I haven’t been injured. It doesn’t matter how much you try to treat the bite of an infected person, though.
In the early days of the virus epidemic in many countries, many people who were bitten by infected people rushed to hospitals to be treated. This turned hospitals into nests for the infected, resulting in the loss of many valuable doctors and medicines. The nature of this virus is such that if you are infected, you are out. Therefore, it is useless to stop bleeding or disinfect the bite.
When the virus arrived in Japan, the government was trying to create an antiviral drug, but I don’t know if it was ever completed. Even if they did, the means and targets for administering them have been drastically reduced.
That’s why medicine is not a priority. If a novice were to take out a medicine and use it at random, he might get sick, and it was important to secure food first.
«Hnnn!»
I swung the machete down from above with a suppressed cry of enthusiasm, and the blade pierced the neck of the infected person who was wandering with his back to me. As long as the infected were human, they would not be able to move if their nerves were damaged. With the sharp feeling of the machete smashing into his spine, the infected person who had lost control of his body almost fell. I grabbed his clothes from behind his back to avoid making a loud noise, and slowly lowered him to the floor before striking him in the head with a final blow.
«Hii!»
Aina let out a small scream as she watched the machete grow out of the infected person’s head. I’m not sure if she’s used to dead bodies yet, but she held her mouth with her hand and turned away from me. Yui stroked her head to reassure her.
«Good, this way.»
I looked around from the stairs to the left and right of the long corridor, and when I was sure nothing was moving, I called them over. They had been watching me on the dance floor as I dealt with the infected, and they approached quietly, trying not to make a sound.
There seemed to be a few infected people left in the school building, as if they hadn’t gone after the survivors. In fact, I killed two of them before entering the school building from the gym, and I’ve just killed one now. It’s a good thing I was able to sneak up on all of them from behind when they were wobbling around on their own, but if there were several of them in a group, I would have chosen to run instead of fight.
«So, which way to the kitchen?»
«I’ll show you now, please follow me.»
With that, Aina walked down the corridor, dodging at least a meter away from the infected I had just defeated. To protect her, I walked beside her, machete at hand, while Yui, holding a crowbar, followed behind, keeping a wary eye on the rear. She may look mature, but she’s still an elementary school girl who’s afraid of scary things, I think to myself as I look at Aina.
The carnage seemed to have taken place inside the school building, and traces of it could be seen here and there in the corridors. There was a puddle of blood and a number of bright red footprints. There were also pieces of flesh and a right arm, which I didn’t know if it belonged to a man or a woman. Aina looked as if she was going to be incontinent at any moment, but if she was going to live from now on, she couldn’t throw up at the sight of a dead body or two. I know it’s cruel, but I wanted her to see things as they were so that she would be prepared for whatever she might see in the future.
Yui was opposed to showing Aina the body. She seemed to be saying, «You’re not human, showing a child a horrible scene!» But in the end, she gave in. It seems that Yui knows what’s best for Aina. However, she still thinks things by the standards of the time when the world was peaceful, so sometimes she doesn’t understand what I’m trying to do.
By the door of the large classroom with the plate of the cooking room, there was a dead body that apparently belonged to a man leaning against the wall. I say «apparently» because the entire body was blown off from the chin up. There were also bloodstains and bullet holes on the wall, suggesting that he had been bitten and, in desperation, had put the muzzle of a shotgun in his mouth and pulled the trigger. The gun was then taken away, and there were only red plastic casings on the floor.
«Wow…….»
This made me want to throw up, too. A dead body shot in the head by the Self-Defense Forces, policemen, or hunters is nothing short of awful. The contents of the head were visible, and the mixture of white skull fragments, brain plasma, and squishy brains was like a soup.
«I don’t want to eat meat for a while…….»
Yui seemed to agree with her. Aina finally couldn’t take it any longer, so she stuck her face into the bag she had brought with her and started to throw up.
The evacuation center had been able to run the generator, and they had been using the refrigerator to store food. But with no one to supply fuel after the raid, the electricity had been cut off, and with the temperature rising lately, I was worried that the food might have gone bad inside.
I peeked into the kitchen through the polished glass in the door. But the curtains were closed and the room was dark, so it was hard to see if anything was moving.
I put my hand on the doorknob and the door opened easily. I turned on the Maglite and looked inside. A ring of light revealed a cooking room with a sink and a gas stove here and there. Fortunately, there was no one in sight.
I leave Aina, who still doesn’t feel well, and step into the room first. In the corner of the room, there are several cardboard boxes and a refrigerator that seems to have been brought in from outside. There were probably more cardboard boxes in the room, but it seemed that someone had taken them during the raid, and they had been ransacked.
Looking at the inside of the cardboard boxes, we were fortunate to find a lot of canned goods. In the other boxes were dried noodles and water. It was enough to last us for a month. But of course, it was too much to take everything with me, so I had to narrow it down to some extent.
«Wait a minute, don’t open the curtains.»
As soon as she entered the cooking room, Aina tried to open the curtains that were still closed. She wanted to make the room brighter, but if she opened the curtains, the infected could be discovered through the window glass if they were outside.
«That’s why. I know it’s dark, but can you bear with the light?»
«Yes, I’m sorry…….»
It was cute to see her pouting.
«Yui and Aina collect the food here. I’m going to go around the school a bit.»
«Where are you going alone? Or rather, wasn’t it forbidden to go alone?
«We have to find Aina’s family, right? We don’t have much time, so we’ll have to split up.»
«What do you mean you don’t have time?»
After catching the almost empty backpack I threw at her, Yui suddenly looked around and said.
«Speaking of which, it seems like it’s getting hotter.»
The flames in the school building next door are getting stronger and spreading faster. It seems that many combustible materials were brought into the school building during the long evacuation period, and these ignited and spread the fire throughout the school building. There was no way the fire department would be able to get there even if we called 119.
«But it’s not safe to go alone, if you’re attacked, we won’t know anything, will we?»
«Don’t worry, it won’t be a problem, I’ll ring this in case of emergency.»
Then I held up the burglar alarm I had picked up earlier in the gym. It’s the kind that you pull on a string to ring, so you can hear the alarm anywhere in the school building. Of course, if there were infected people nearby, it would attract them to the school.
«I’ll only use this in a real emergency. So when you hear the alarm, run and get out of the school without me.»
There was no doubt that I was in a critical situation when the alarm went off. It might be a situation where my whole body is being bitten and I have to use my last bit of strength. In that case, it would be almost suicidal for the two of them to try to save me.
«But……»
«Don’t worry, do I look like the kind of person who would die that easily?»
«You do.»
«Huh?»
I’ve heard that if you flag your own death first, you can avoid a dead end later.
When I said that, Yui giggled.
«Well, I guess it can’t be helped. We don’t have much time, that’s for sure. Besides, you’re not going to die even if someone kill you.»
«Am I a cockroach or something?»
«You’re as tough as a cockroach. Have a safe trip.»
Apparently, she agreed. Then I borrowed a picture of my family from Aina.
«It’s the only one I have, so please don’t lose it.»
What she handed me was a photo of all four members of the family, apparently taken at a photo studio as some kind of memorial. Perhaps it was taken some time ago, but it made Aina look younger than she was.
Next to Aina, there was a family smiling kindly at her. There was a small fat man and a woman who looked like what Aina would look like when she was older. There was also a boy in his mid-teens who looked like the man. He seemed to be the older brother that Aina had mistaken for me.
«Does someone of your family have a different face or style lately?»
«My dad has lost a lot of weight. He hasn’t eaten much, and he’s been moving around a lot.»
The last three months of fighting the shortage of supplies and infected people has been like a forced diet. I haven’t weighed myself exactly, but I’ve probably lost at least five kilos. I’ve also lost a lot of flesh. I can only hope that Aina’s father’s face hasn’t changed too much.
As I was about to leave the kitchen, Aina gently grabbed my hand from behind.
«Well, it may be rude of me to say this, but…….. please be careful. Also, thank you for everything you’ve done for me.»
I’m not going alone because of lack of time.
It was because my intuition told me that Aina’s family was dead.
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