Hero Pandemic chapter 46: House
Yumi´s POV
"………..Sniper?"
It is two kilometers from here to the sniper point. It’s definitely a miracle to make it a success. But how can you properly snipe a zombie in this darkness and in this downpour? How could you perceive the existence of zombies in the first place?
As a possibility, Kaede was watching me from the beginning to the end. If so, she may have noticed the existence of a zombie.
But Kaede was looking at the whole story of the escape, instead of sending a lookout, helping to escape……what are the benefits? What the h.e.l.l is the sniper thinking?
Kaede stopped there because of bad knowledge and head turning. It was because the idea of the sniper couldn’t be read at all.
Kaede didn’t know why the sniper has helped, but I who knew the sniper was able to move faster than her.
"Kaede-san, lets go!"
In such a situation, I stood up and took the arm of Kaede who doesn’t move and ran ahead without thinking where to go.
(Why did Ai-san to me……?）
There are many doubts, but now it is best to leave this place. We would die if we stop, we should think so.
Thunder resounded with a roar and several zombies were seen in the front as the vicinity glowed up brightly.
It’s better to detour…. Two shooting sounds were heard when I think so. The emitted bullet pierced the head of the zombie on the right accurately.
After a momentary rush, we run like sewing between the remaining zombies.
Run, run, run――――I couldn’t hear the gunshot when I noticed it. Although the zombies haven’t disappeared yet, it probably has fallen out of the effective range to the drift. There is no more a miracle like that.
However, such a miracle was more than enough at one time. There were very few zombies wandering around the fence. Of course it is not enough to fill, but at best double-digit ……still, it is a great number though that the living area is so near. The location with more zombies is a bit farther than here.
If you settle so far and die, it would be better for you to die before you have a strange hope.
“Let’s first find a place to take a rest”
When I nodded to Kaede´s proposal, I was carefully advancing forward.
“There is……no one”
Walking for about ten minutes, the two of us were sneaking into a house where the fence collapsed.
There is no sign of people and naturally no zombies.
The room is dusty, but three months have pa.s.sed since the pandemic. It probably isn’t that no one lived there.
“There are no foods in particular”
We open all the doors in places where people can enter even a little and search for items that can be used at the same time but there is nothing.
“Is there something in the kitchen?”
"……Maybe"
I take a glimpse of the window that we broke to invade. Considering the possibility of zombies coming in from there, I want to close the shutters, but if there is a zombie in the house, we won’t be able to escape immediately.
However, if I think about the worst pattern of zombies before and after, I might want to close it.
(From the height, it doesnt fit zombies……）
Eventually I thought so and did not close the shutters.
“Ah, I’m going ahead”
“……That’s right, please”
I stop Kaede who was trying to go to the top and I advanced forward. Due to the problem of physique, there is a high possibility that I can cope when something happens.
Of course, when attacked by a male zombie, even I have no chance, but I can earn time even if momentarily more than Kaede. There is a chance that help will be in time if there is a moment.
As a matter of course, getting ahead of your opponent is a bad hand itself, so we act carefully.
But the old house sounds crisp just by walking and when I open doors it sounds annoying.
“The building is bad, isn’t it? ……It’s like a grandma’s house”
“Ri……Right. I guess so. Though my house is like this”
From me that is an urban child, the house isn’t like an apartment, but a house that can be called grandparents’ house. I knew it wasn’t natural, but I couldn’t understand it.
Especially words of defense don’t come up, while we silently walk in the hallway. In retrospect, there was a “reception room” plate on the top of the door that came out.
Once again after confirming the surroundings, we left the drawing room and the entrance is on the left. Just to be sure, I opened the shoe box, but there was no zombie just because of the moldy smell. The door is locked properly.
This time, the reverse, leaving the drawing room to open the right room.
There is a corridor in the front of the reception room and there is a room on the other side, so Kaede observes it.
Giii, the door crowed.
Tick, Tack, Tick, Tack…..the pendulum clock sound echoes.
As soon as we entered the room there was a switch on the left side but I could not turn on the electricity thinking that the base people were looking for it.
Instead I launch the smart flashlight application and light up the room while paying attention not to spread the light with the palm of my hand.
Apparently it seems to be a room like a study room, because it is full of bookshelves. Is it because the bookshelf is blocking that there are no windows? Certainly direct sunlight isn’t friendly to books, so it may be reasonable.
Releasing my hand that is covering the camera part, there seems to be no place where zombies hide such as storage in the visible range. Even if there is, it is behind the bookshelf.
"Kaede-san. Here, a storage may be behind the bookshelf, is it okay?”
“Well. I don’t want to spend too much time in a crowded room”
I leave the study room with Kaede’s consent.
When we got out to the corridor again, there was a staircase on the left side a few steps from the drawing room. I thought it was a steep gradient for a old man, but I remembered the interaction with Kaede and said nothing this time.
Looking at Kaede, she seemed to have understood this intention and shook her head. It seems good to postpone here as well.
Leaving the stairs behind, just in front of it ……looking out from the drawing room there is a gla.s.sed door on the left. I tried to slide with a little effort, but the gla.s.s made a loud noise.
"……."
I listen carefully, but I cannot hear any sound. If there is no response with the current sound, there may not be a zombie in this house.
While rubbing slowly and badly, I slid open the polished gla.s.s door with a sound that reverberates through the house.
"……If there is no response after making a sound so far, isn’t there somebody here?”
“Do not let your guards down. ……But well, maybe we can afford to find food here quickly”
At the end of the door was a kitchen. There is a large dish rack on the left, ten people can eat at the same time. There is a refrigerator and a rice bowl on the right hand. It looks like a country table.
I first opened the refrigerator with a high possibility of having food.
“Ah! Kaede! The things which seems eatable are a mess!”
Retort food and a large amount of canned food were stocked in the refrigerator. In this case it will be possible to rest several days here without consuming our own food.
In the meantime, we look for safe routes and aim for another safe area…… basically it was possible to predict that it will be repeated.
“Really, I wonder if this will be enough for a week”
Canned foods are compact and easy to carry, but they are inefficient. Because it cannot be carried too much, it is better to consume them here.
“If inside a house, it’s okay to warm it up”
"That’s right. But don’t use hot water. The gas water heater sounds quite a lot and smells very unique”
"Understood"
Of course hot water can only be boiled with a gas stove, so I reached out to a type of retort food that boils in water.
"Does Kaede want to eat anything? It is better to warm a chilled body――――!!?"
I heard the sound of heavy things falling from the second floor.
There is only this food. Perhaps there are people. Or is that person already dead?
If it only was something that was unstable that fell down……I called out to Kaede while having such a feeling that such pale thoughts were broken down.
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Hero Pandemic chapter 47: Nursing
Yumi´s POV
“Second floor……is it?”
“Probably”
There is a possibility that there is a ceiling, but it might be thought that there is something on the second floor here.
“It’s an option that we didn’t hear anything――――"
"No"
"Alright"
Haa, with a breath, I dropped my arm that was stretched to the retort food. And when I take out the burle that is attached to the package, I grasp it strongly and check its feeling.
"Kaede, do you think there is a zombie?"
“It’s near the base, so I’m afraid that living humans will go to the base"
Kaede is paradoxically saying that its a high possibility of being a zombie.
Certainly, living humans will normally head for the base. People who aren’t ordinary are thought to go to places where there are fewer zombies and places where goods may remain, even though they are not going to base. Even if they plunder it is not suitable here.
“So the only thing……”
“No, Yumi-san. It’s not the same, it’s not the only thing we have to do, the faster you do it……the easier it is”
Surely that"s what I thought. I was trying to justify myself by pretending to be driven.
If we don’t want to kill each other, we just need to find a place with no zombies. However, we wont do it because its quick.
“That’s right…… Let’s do it, so that we can live comfortably”
I dared to say so. I can’t help it because it’s such a world……if you think so, you will be crushed by guilt someday. It is not chosen and I choose it by myself. There is a big difference.
And once I choose it myself……it will be easier if it gets out.
My idea was transmitted to Kaede who nodded deeply.
“Well then to the second floor……!!”
*Pipipi*, a mechanical sound that encourages power saving. Of course, the source of the sound came from the refrigerator which wasn’t closed properly. It should have been closed, but apparently I used too less power.
"Close it properly"
"I´m sorry……"
In a hurry, pushing the door with subtle gaps, I can feel a mysterious elasticity. Apparently something was caught and it couldn’t be closed.
The door alarm stopped without any problem when I pressed the door switch to stop the sound.
When I searched for the cause without being bothered by the sound that stopped, I immediately understood that an elongated packet was the cause.
(Meat……? Maybe we could eat it)
The meat might be safe because it is in the partial rather than a chilled room.
I thought that it might be high-quality meat because it was wrapped politely, and when the package was opened――――a human’s hand was inside.
"Hii!?"
When I drop it involuntarily, it rolls and knocks against the foot of the table and stops.
It was undoubtedly a hand. It is precisely the part from a elbow, so it may be close to saying an arm. The fingers were slender and long, which proved to be a female hand.
"Tsu"
Kaede is also speechless, staring at the arm while opening and closing her mouth.
Both of us aren"t surprised even if there are arms and legs rolling around at this time. It is not unusual that limbs and internal organs are rolling on the ground in this present j.a.pan. Even though there is something strange that there is a strange thing rolling around, but I don’t feel a sense of disgust even though I hate it.
However, if it is in the refrigerator, it is another story. In the world today, there is only food in the refrigerator. It was incomprehensible and unknown that an object of fear which is an arm came out.
At the same time, it proves that Kaede’s idea was wrong.
Kaede thought that ordinary people aren’t here and people who aren’t ordinary will never be here either.
But of course there are exceptions. There’s a reason why we can’t leave here.
The sound of the upstairs and the human arm who had been put in the refrigerator……there is only one answer.
"Zombies……are kept here"
"Such……!"
It might be misleading to keep a zombie. The resident here might be giving human arms to the zombie(s) and to let human who caught a cold eat porridge.
As a matter of course it is certain that it is not divisible so much as a loved one becomes a zombie, apart from whether it is right or wrong.
"……Let’s get out of here”
“I agree”
We concluded so.
The bait of a zombie which might be here might have been killed or it might be a human who died. It is not to be decided by imagination, but it is too risky to meet people who are diligently raising meat for those who have become zombies.
“Kaede……if Kaede’s important person becomes a zombie, what will you do……?”
“Well……I will kill……that poor thing. ……But surely, I don’t know until that time will come”
I closed my eyes. Imagine Kazuya who became a zombie in front of me.
"……"
I was thinking to drop the crowbar that I had in my hands, but grip it in panic.
It’s just imagination. I don’t need to kill Kazuya myself. I thought that I understood the feeling of the resident here a little and it might be a option to be eaten by Kazuya and become a zombie, too.
I do not like such a dangerous imitation, but I want to talk to the resident here.
“Are you okay?”
"Yes……thank you very much. Let’s go”
The two of us went outside and headed for the next house.
It was dangerous this time but fortunately, neither human nor zombies were met. But that was lucky. It happened that the residents were out of the house by chance.
Was it was a mistake to leave the base……I thought so, but neither of us said it.
I knew it was originally wrong. Just because I realized it strongly, my heart hasn’t broken yet.
Each hope takes a step in my chest. Even if the cliff is one step ahead, it is not possible for me to go back any longer.
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