Ch.27Chapter 4. Lambert Drive (12)

“Y-you, do you have some kind of sexual frustration or something like that?”

Cassandra was so shocked that she finally let go.

“It was just for explanation. About hunger. You’re hungrier than usual, right? The more you eat, the more you want to eat. No? Haven’t you felt uncomfortable?”

The emblem of the ‘Disease Crisis Management Bureau’ under Cassandra’s large chest fluttered in a crumpled state.

“Y-yeah, that’s right. I was. The more I ate, the hungrier I felt. Why does that happen anyway?”

“First. Get out of the human unprotected zone. Once you leave the zone, the symptoms decrease significantly. Though you’ll still get hungry if you don’t eat.”

“What else?”

“Second, you need to distinguish between real hunger and fake hunger. Even if your stomach is whining that it’s hungry, it might actually be lying. Eat regularly at set times and maintain a balanced diet. Why are you looking at me like that?”

“…No, it’s just surprisingly normal. I thought it would be something like ‘if you’re hungry, eat a lot,’ that kind of advice.”

It’s quite surprising. Real hunger versus fake hunger. I heard this from my PT instructor when I was controlling my diet to build my body, and now I’m hearing it again.

“Cassandra doesn’t lie. And the last part is the most important. It’s related to you too.”

I turn the steering wheel. The end of Rambert comes into view. It’s time to leave this long, winding intestine-like neighborhood. Once we get through that straight road past the corner, we can head out into the wasteland… She claims to be a doctor, and whether it’s true or not, she seems to know quite a bit.

“Really? What is it?”

“The third is—”

Woooong!

A police car jumped out from the alley ahead and drifted. It stopped in the middle of the road, and a fat, blood-covered man tumbled out. He held a bottle of alcohol in one hand and a .357 revolver in the other. The revolver’s muzzle gleamed.

“Duck down!”

I yanked the seat back. With a grinding sound, the driver’s seat reclined. It was like suddenly lying flat on my back. Bang! A hole appeared in the windshield, creating a butterfly-shaped crack. “Kyaak!” Cassandra collapsed on top of me.

“Hold tight!”

I wrapped my left arm around her body. Something sticky felt a bit ominous, but there was no time to check. Bang! Bang! More holes appeared in the windshield. While lying down, I pressed hard on the accelerator. The van made a woooong sound as it charged forward.

Bang! We narrowly avoided hitting the police car. Instead, we hit the idiot standing there with the gun.

* * * * *

The police chief of Rambert. A gang leader. A man who met a tragic end for the crime of loving many women. Above all, a man who loved a strange place as his homeland. That’s how the man saw himself.

He always thought an end would come someday. Deep down, he knew it. That he would pay for his sins someday. But he never imagined it would be like this. It was better than he had imagined.

“This is Rambert, which I love. I protect what I love.”

He saw the black van. Behind it was a fire truck spewing tear gas-mixed water. Looking at it now, it resembled a whale.

“Come, whale that destroys everything but conquers nothing! Let’s compete, let’s see who wins!”

The vengeful man ran forward, firing his revolver. The black van approached like fate. It hit the man with a thud.

The man wanted to see the face of death. The face of the one punishing him.

But there was no face. Just someone in the driver’s seat holding a woman in a strange position. It looked unmistakably like that kind of position.

“…Ah, what a shame. I should have tried that too… I couldn’t even imagine… These young people nowadays! Cough.”

With his broken and twisted neck, the man muttered.

“Woe shall befall you.”

The man coughed.

“Woe shall befall you. Those who live on the earth. Woe shall—”

He heard the song of the Valkyries who were said to take warriors to heaven. With his eyes sinking into blood, he saw twelve angels crossing the sky.

And then, the man breathed his last. Though he couldn’t close his eyes, he managed a smile.

* * * * *

“Ah. Ow. It hurts. Cassandra hurts.”

Cassandra whimpered.

I stopped the car for now. While still reclined, I carefully turned Cassandra’s body. “Aack!” The bullet had grazed her, but the wound was wide and bleeding quite a bit. This is troublesome. Even a skilled doctor can’t treat their own back.

Gunshots came from the fire truck behind us. They shot right through the fat man’s forehead.

“Cash transport vehicle! Cash transport vehicle! Are you hit? Are you badly injured? If you can hear me, please hold down the horn!”

I tried to reach for the steering wheel, but Cassandra grabbed my arm.

“No. Don’t. Let’s just go.”

“Your wound is big. I can’t treat it.”

“Don’t abandon me. Please, I’m begging you. Don’t leave me behind. I-I can heal from this quickly. Please just listen to Cassandra!”

She’s not a woman who will take no for an answer.

“Sorry.”

I raised the seat. I held Cassandra’s chest with my left hand. I couldn’t grab her back. “Urgh!” Meanwhile, I pressed the horn long and hard with my right hand.

A broadcast came from the fire truck asking for medical support for the vehicle ahead. I checked the side mirror. People wearing the same jumpers as Cassandra rushed out.

They all had handcuffs on one wrist. Coincidentally, they were all familiar faces… people I had met at the apple warehouse.

“Cassandra. I can’t take you with me.”

Above all, those people are doctors. I don’t even want to imagine what would happen if I got caught by angry doctors. Cassandra closed her eyes. But that didn’t stop the tears flowing endlessly.

“…Try not to eat food from Cybele Inc.”

“What?”

“If you must eat it, mix it with something else. Fry it, grill it, or boil it. Don’t eat it raw or just heat up the can. At least pour water in and boil it.”

The doctors were almost upon us. I waited, holding the driver’s door.

“Why?”

“Because at Cybele Inc.—”

I flung the door open.

“Ouch!” One doctor who got hit by the door collapsed. “W-what?” I quickly handed Cassandra over to the hesitant doctors standing there. The pile of people tumbled down.

“Cassandra, stay healthy!”

I stepped on the accelerator with the door still open. I pressed too hard. The engine stalled.

“Oh.”

This is as awkward as running into a friend at the bus stop right after saying goodbye.

“No, please! Wait just a moment!”

Cassandra punched the doctors trying to restrain her. Seeing her hit already swollen areas again, she really is a vicious woman.

But I can see her back bleeding more. Even if it’s not immediately life-threatening, I can’t take her with me. Her fellow doctors will treat her well.

Vroom, the engine started. I drove off. It was bumpy, but it moved well enough.

I turned the corner. The town exit came into view. Beyond the exit, I could see a sandstorm blowing into Rambert. Gang members who had left Rambert were returning.

As expected. They’re trying to form an encirclement at the exit to trap us.

I hit the brakes and reloaded the M4 and rifle bullets. I used the buttstock to push off the shattered and tattered bulletproof windshield. If that thing collapses inward, I’ll be in more danger. Better to have none at all.

I mounted the gun and waited.

“Come on.”

I flashed the high beams on and off while waiting. Even Buddha, Jesus, and Mohammed would surely be greatly angered by high beams to the face. So there’s nothing better for provocation.

I heard music.

It’s a melody I know. The Ride of the Valkyries. But it’s strange. Why do I hear music? I checked if the radio was on, but it wasn’t.

Sound. Sound. Something is mixed with the music. A familiar sound. The sound of helicopter propellers.

* * * * *

The fire truck had a higher cabin than the cash transport vehicle, and the Liberation members had binoculars or scopes. Thanks to this, they could see the situation ahead better than Johan.

“Sister Camila. Is that…?”

The bikes and vehicles ahead were all in poor condition. It made sense since they were retreating after fighting hard in Rambert, but there was something more.

Their expressions and attitudes.

These weren’t the same men who had been killing and dying with grins on their faces. They kept looking back with terrified expressions. One rider even tumbled forward after looking back. The vehicle behind ran over the fallen motorcycle and rider and just continued on.

‘There’s something behind the gang.’

Camila shuddered. She recalled the horizon that had writhed at the factory district chimney. Lower than the dust raised by passing cars, but denser and more packed.

Like the dust raised when a person drags their feet walking through the wasteland.

The ominous music grew louder. From the dust cloud behind the gang, dots like flies began to emerge. The dots soon became elongated rods, then twisted and contorted lines.

Zombies. No. A wave of zombies. Zombies spread wide enough to fill the horizon, drooling with hunger, running like dogs that had spotted prey.

The vibration was the sound of zombie footsteps. Hundreds? Thousands? There was no way to know how many. Only that there were enough to shake the ground.

“S-sister. Sister. This…”

“What the hell is this, a zombie horde?”

“Where did so many zombies come from…!”

The answer fell from the sky.

Splat, red liquid splattered on the windshield. It was enough to obscure the view.

“…Blood?”

They activated the wipers, but they just rattled against the bulletproof panel. They wished they could use the tear gas being sprayed.

Through the flowing blood, they saw something floating in the air. In a rectangular wire cage, they could make out human figures. A naked person bleeding and zombies with broken necks and rotting skin.

The person’s body was covered in blood. They convulsed and struggled, trying to back away. The zombie seemed to be trying to eat the bleeding person but was blocked by something, scratching at the cage frame.

Because of this, the cage swung like a pendulum. With each swing, the tilt became more severe. The person sprayed blood everywhere, and the tantalized zombie became more frantic.

The man’s face became clearly visible.

“Hoot?!”

Camila dropped her binoculars in shock. Yes. The human desperately trying to survive was Hoot.

“Hoot? Did you say Hoot? …My God, you’re right. That’s Hoot… it’s definitely Hoot.”

Thick wires were attached to the top of the cage. Camila looked up. Though obscured by blood, what revealed itself didn’t matter anymore.

A helicopter. An Elza Army Aviation helicopter. A “Huey” with miniguns and rocket pods on both sides, plus infantry on board—a gunship.

Twelve helicopters passed over them. The eerie melody mixed with the helicopter rotors sounded like an ominous prelude.

The helicopters aligned in a crescent shape. The center protruded forward, with both ends trailing behind. The helicopters fired their miniguns simultaneously.

Gang vehicles exploded like swatting fat mosquitoes.

Riders who died with their bikes were the lucky ones. Some gang members were thrown out as vehicles flipped over. Hungry zombies rushed over them, snarling. It was almost a blessing that the sand dust covered the gruesome scene.

Bike gang members who couldn’t go forward or backward tried to scatter to the sides. It was a good attempt. Until the helicopters slid smoothly. The minigun fire stopped, but the helicopters had personnel armed with rifles and grenade launchers.

A car hit by a grenade flipped over. A rider shot in the back fell off. The helicopters, maintaining their crescent formation, hovered briefly above the zombies’ heads. The zombies could be seen jumping up as if the falling blood were holy water.

The helicopters reversed their formation. With the formation flipped, they flew back this way. Now the ends protruded forward and the center was tucked in.

“It’s an encirclement.”

The zombies continued charging in the same state.

“Those bastards are planning to surround Rambert with zombies!”

* * * * *

Elza 1st Army Aviation helicopter.

Intelligence Officer Letitia looked at her superior with an excited face. Eliminating both the local zombies and the entire gang in a single maneuver was impressive. But Virginia Helford merely picked up the radio with an emotionless face.

“White Knight to Hound. Have you recovered it?”

– Hound to White Knight. Confirming recovery. Status stable.

And they had recovered the bag bomb too.

Thanks to the Helford family’s influence and the surveillance satellite she had provided, Letitia’s intelligence department had been able to pinpoint the exact location of the bag bomb.

“Good.”

That was the extent of Virginia’s reaction. She didn’t seem particularly happy or sad.

“Battalion Commander. Can we execute the next maneuver?”

“It’s possible, but we’re low on fuel. We might not be able to perform complex maneuvers. It’s already hard to balance the helicopters. When are we going to drop those, um, ‘weights’ hanging below?”

“Now.”

“Excuse me?”

“Let’s drop them now.”

The battalion commander didn’t ask twice. Wires snapped from all twelve helicopters. Cages containing zombies and humans fell into Rambert. The sound of zombies collectively going berserk pierced through the music and rotor noise.

But Virginia still picked up the radio connected to the loudspeaker without emotion.

“Should we lower the music?”

“No. Sound is also a weapon. Just make my voice louder. Ah. Ah. Testing. Testing. Is this okay?”

The military police officers covering their ears nodded hastily.

“Attention ground personnel. Attention. This is Virginia Helford, commander of the Elza 8th National Military Police Special Task Force. I will now conduct an inspection in accordance with the Special Management Guidelines for Human Unprotected Zones.”

Virginia looked down at the ground. Letitia thought she saw contempt, like someone looking down at a bug they had just stepped on.

“Everyone disembark unarmed. I repeat. Everyone disembark unarmed. After identity verification, all will be transported to Hampton. Non-compliance will result in immediate execution. There will be no warnings. I emphasize. There will be no warnings.”

Virginia glanced at her wristwatch and added:

“You have 30 seconds left.”