Ch.159Chapter 20. Patriot (11)

    A black panther on the rooftop was nursing its cub. The mother yawned a couple of times and then lay down with her eyes closed. She seemed to have found a safe place to feed her young.

    “Let’s go for now.”

    I gently took Cassandra’s wrist. Cassandra, who had been terrified, barely managed to nod. We retreated as quickly as possible without making any noise.

    We rode our electric bicycles again toward our destination. There weren’t many zombies in sight.

    “Do you think they got eaten?”

    I wasn’t sure how many carnivores had been in the zoo, or how many had survived after becoming zombies.

    Suddenly, traveling by electric bicycle felt like an extremely dangerous endeavor. We might easily shake off zombie humans, but could we handle four-legged beasts?

    I think we’ll need to answer that question sooner than expected.

    Cassandra and I were moving along the road. The four-lane road was quite spacious, and we could easily bypass most obstacles.

    That was until we encountered the lion.

    “I was wondering where everything went.”

    And of course, it was standing right in our path, blocking our way.

    The lion looked terrible. It was as if it had jumped into a fire pit and back out—half its face was completely scorched and blistered. Golden fur that had regrown between the charred black mane glistened in the light.

    “Grrrr.”

    Despite its condition, the beast glared at us with one normal eye and one milky white, burned eye. It was clearly infected. At its feet lay piles of bones, most of which appeared to be human.

    “H-hiiieek…”

    Cassandra’s voice sounded choked. I aimed my submachine gun at the lion. An MP45 submachine gun. Good enough for taking down zombie humans, but could it handle a half-burned lion?

    “Cassandra.”

    “Y-yes?”

    “Do you have any fire?”

    “Fire? Oh, n-no… I don’t have any.”

    I had let my guard down. I thought we’d just quickly check out the house and it wouldn’t be difficult. If I had known this would happen, I should have brought an assault rifle.

    “Grrrrrr…”

    The zombie lion walked forward in front of the pile of bones. But it didn’t come any closer. It seemed to be assessing us—whether we were something to ignore, monsters coming to claim its territory, or clueless prey. The first two options were fine, but the third was not.

    “Cassandra. Listen carefully.”

    I conveyed my makeshift plan in a low voice. Cassandra seemed quite flustered but responded, “I-I can do it.”

    That’s all I needed. I let out a shout.

    “Hey, lion!”

    Lion… lion… lion…

    The echo spread between the buildings. The lion frowned, clearly displeased.

    “I need! To get! Through there! So! Move aside!”

    “GRRRROARRR!”

    Birds flew up somewhere with a flutter. Strange animal cries—kya-gak, kya-gak—could be heard. The lion shook its massive head. The completely burned half and the intact other half created a bizarre harmony.

    “I said move!”

    I shouted as I accelerated the electric bicycle forward. Maximum speed. I drove straight toward the lion. Fortunately, there were no obstacles between the lion and the bicycle.

    Despite the sudden acceleration, the bicycle shot forward smoothly. The lion leaped up with a whoosh.

    “Now!”

    I threw myself off the side of the bicycle. I trusted my rider’s jacket, helmet, and bag as I flung myself away boldly. They cushioned the impact considerably, but it still hurt enough to make me clench my teeth.

    But the pain vanished when I saw the lion’s front paws smash the front wheel of the bicycle. Thump. Thump. My temples pounded as if they would burst. I raised my MP45 and aimed at the bicycle.

    The battery.

    Overcharged batteries can explode. What would happen if it got hit by a bullet?

    A stray bullet hit the lion’s head. The lion shook its head violently as if annoyed. The battery crumpled and then—BOOM—exploded right in front of the lion.

    “ROAR! YOWL! SNARL!”

    With an undignified scream, the beast retreated in panic. Just as I expected. Having been severely burned by fire before, it was sensitive to explosions. Even after becoming a zombie, the memory of fear remained.

    “Cassandra!”

    Cassandra’s bicycle stopped beside me. With her support, I barely managed to stand up, but my back gave out and I involuntarily cried out in pain.

    “Can you feel your legs? Any sensation?”

    Cassandra asked quickly. I pressed my legs a couple of times. I couldn’t feel much. Instead of waiting for an answer, Cassandra roughly pulled me into an embrace.

    “Lean on Cassandra!”

    She hugged me and sat on the bicycle. Before I could even make a sound, she took off. The world in front of me seemed to be moving away. It was an optical illusion.

    “Hold on tight! Don’t fall off!”

    Cassandra shouted in my ear. She was right. If we had been facing the same direction it might have been different, but I was now perched on her. If I sat awkwardly, the bicycle would lose balance.

    The bicycle wasn’t going as fast as I expected. It was probably because there were two of us riding. Above all, it was difficult to hang on. Her large chest made it hard to press close. Cassandra grabbed my waist from behind and pulled me firmly toward her. Our private parts were almost touching.

    I could see the lion regaining its senses and charging after us.

    “C-Cassandra.”

    I gasped for breath.

    “Tell me.”

    “Behind us, the lion… speed…”

    “Shoot it!”

    I had the submachine gun in my arms. But it felt strangely light. With a foreboding feeling, I felt the bottom of the gun. No magazine. It must have fallen off when I tumbled earlier.

    “Pistol.”

    The pistol was inside my jacket. It was awkward to reach there while pressed tightly against Cassandra. Cassandra shouted:

    “Left thigh!”

    Reflexively, I felt her thigh. I grabbed an Beretta pistol. My body wasn’t responding well, but it was easier than drawing the pistol from inside my jacket.

    The lion was following us, dripping blood and saliva. I calmly waited for it to leap. Beast hide and skull might be thick enough to stop bullets, but not the mouth and throat muscles.

    The bicycle slowed down slightly. The lion opened its jaws and leaped upward. I quickly fired two shots. The lion closed its mouth and tumbled on the ground. As if on cue, the world behind me rapidly receded.

    “Kuh, kuhk…”

    My arms went limp, but I didn’t drop the gun. I felt dizzy.

    “Don’t pass out!”

    Cassandra screamed at the top of her lungs, but even that was hard to hear. Suddenly, my empty left hand was grabbed by hers.

    “What are you—”

    Cassandra placed my hand on her chest.

    “Q-quickly, squeeze it…”

    Reflexively, I spread my palm and pressed lightly. A strange moan escaped her lips. As luck would have it, we were both wearing helmets with earphones and headsets, so her breathy sounds circled around my earlobes. The pain disappeared and my mind cleared instantly. The world was rapidly moving away from me, but that didn’t matter.

    “Ah. Ahnng… it, it tickles…”

    I wished she would either let go of my hand or stop squirming, but it was difficult to say it out loud, so I just stayed still. The bicycle gradually slowed down until it finally came to a complete stop.

    “Um, excuse me.”

    “Yes, Cassandra.”

    “We’re here.”

    “Oh.”

    I lowered my hand that had been squeezing. My back had definitely been hurting and the pain had spread to my legs, but now it didn’t seem to matter much.

    “Are you okay, Johan? Can you move?”

    “I’m fiiiiine!”

    I was glad I was wearing a helmet. I could hold back my scream. Before I could speak, Cassandra undid my belt. I tried to resist reflexively, but she stepped hard on my foot.

    Then she pulled at my pants as if she would tear them. There were bruises all over my legs, but that wasn’t the problem.

    “…Hmm. Perfectly fine. You’ll be alright.”

    Having just been fondling her body, there was nothing I could do. While Cassandra opened the bicycle bag, applied ointment to my wounds, and wrapped bandages around them, it continued to assert its presence.

    Cassandra didn’t show any sign of being flustered. She had probably milked it a few times before, so it wasn’t completely awkward. That is, strictly from a doctor and researcher’s perspective.

    “Pull up your pants. And don’t do that again.”

    Coincidentally, she caught me once during the process. Cassandra, who had seemed composed, turned her head away briefly at that moment. Fortunately, no one was following us. Despite all the chaos, this place was eerily quiet.

    “Is this…”

    “Yes. It’s the town.”

    I returned the pistol to Cassandra. I took a spare magazine from the bag and reattached it to the MP45. I tried moving my legs in various directions. The pain was subsiding quickly.

    I pushed the bicycle slowly and took a look around.

    “Strange.”

    “It’s too quiet, isn’t it?”

    Just as I was starting to worry that beasts might have claimed this territory too, I spotted a corpse sitting on the road. It was staring blankly at the sky.

    Similar bodies were sprawled in every alley. Flies buzzed around their white eyes, but they didn’t move at all.

    It was a bit difficult to get used to, but it was a sight I had seen many times before. There was nothing particularly unusual. We passed by the corpse.

    An uneasy feeling crept up my spine.

    I examined the corpse again.

    It looked the same as before, but one thing was different.

    The fly that had been crawling on its eye was gone.

    And I could now see a pupil that wasn’t there before.

    I fired my MP45 almost simultaneously as it lunged up.

    The zombie with its head blown off fell backward.

    “GYAAAAH!”

    The ones who had been lying down suddenly all stood up at once. They crawled on all fours like beasts, approaching low to the ground. I fired rapidly. Zombies climbed over the residential walls. I shot each one as they poked their heads over, but one of them managed to leap up with a growl.

    “Johan!”

    Cassandra fired her pistol. It hit the shoulder. The bleeding creature bit down hard on Cassandra’s arm. Cassandra punched the zombie’s forehead. The one with its forehead crushed flew backward.

    That was the last one.

    “Cassandra. Your clothes…”

    There was a hole where she had been bitten.

    A sharp hole, about the size of a fang.


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