Volume 2 Chapter 28 (1/2)

The site of the fire was located on a university campus.

Stopping across the street from the campus, Yusuke stops his bike, lifts his visor, and looks at the campus questioningly.

The surroundings were lit by moonlight, but were still dim.

Facing the front gate, there stood a five story building, shrouded in darkness.  Across the avenue, there is an enormous tree engulfed in flames.  They flames had stripped the leaves off of it, leaving it nothing but burning branches, illuminating the darkened ground beneath it.

(…..Was the fire accidental?  It would be great if there was no trouble, but…..)

When heading to the mountains, cutting through here would be the quickest route.  For that reason, Yusuke wanted to confirm the area was safe.

It would take a considerable detour to avoid this area.  It would be fine if it was just him, but he had Mizuki and her brothers with him as well.  Because of that, he wanted to avoid a long journey.

In the vicinity, Yusuke could see zombies here and there.  They were draw to the university, but the main gate was closed, blocking their entrance.

Suddenly, the sound of an engine resounded from the back of the campus.

(….What’s that?)

Gripping the handles of his bike so that he could escape at a moment’s notice, he looked toward the direction of the sound.

What had appeared was a silver mini-van.  With something riding on the top of it, it charges at the main gate.  Noticing the closed gate, the mini-van tries to come to a stop, but it didn’t make it in time.  With the high pitched screech of the tires against the ground, the mini-van plunges into the stone pillar at the side of the gate.  The front of the van took heavy damage as the sound of the metal frame ripping open resounded through the darkness of the night.

The thing riding on top of the mini-van was thrown over the gate, and rolled to a stop on the road.  Stretching it’s limbs, the thing gets it’s feet under itself and stands up.

The thing that had been riding on top of the van was a man in a black coat.

Ignoring Yusuke who had braced himself to escape, the man turns and sprints towards the van.  Jumping over the gate with nimble movements, he comes up to the window of the van and bashes it with a rod he removed from his waist.  The window shatters in an explosion of gla.s.s, and a women inside lets out a high-pitched scream.  The man thrusts his arm into the window, and drags out the screaming woman.

With a savage hostility radiating off his entire body, the man slams the crying woman into the iron bars of the main gate countless times.  The zombies gathered on the other side became excited by the spurts of blood flying through the bars, and reached their hands through.

After a while, the woman became quiet, and the man releases his grip on her.  Her body collapses on the ground.

The man then takes a hatchet out of a sheath on his waist, and swings it down on the woman’s neck.  Her head separates, and rolls on the floor.  Picking up the severed head by the hair, the man lifts it in front of his face as if admiring the expression of agony left on it.  The blood spurting from the severed neck began pooling on the floor.

After a while, as if the man was now satisfied, he tosses the head aside and begins opening the main gate.

The gathered zombies rushed through the gate and flocked to the woman’s corpse.

Observing that scene, Yusuke’s finally reacted.

“Oioioi…..”

Unintentionally, his voice leaked.

“…….Is it a….. zombie?”

His movements were too good to be a zombie.

However, it didn’t appear as if the zombies around him were going to attack him.  He is standing leisurely, turning to leave.

Staring at his back, Yusuke becomes troubled for a moment.

He wants to know everything about him.

But he doesn’t know how much risk was involved.

However, Yusuke quickly prepares himself, and makes a decision.  Even if he was attacked, he could get away on his bike.  If he let’s him leave without learning anything about him, it would be dangerous.

Yusuke revs his bike, letting the engine roar.

The man in the black coat turns around at that noise.  The surrounding zombies don’t react, and continue their meal.

The man’s entire body seemed to be covered in scars and various wounds.  The black coat had several rips and tears.

However, what drew his attention more than anything, was the man’s face.  His nose had been broken off and you could see the nasal cavity bone.  (TL: Not sure what to call it.)  His cheeks were gouged out, exposing his bare gums beneath.  His eyes were sunken deep into their sockets, creating a ghostly appearance.   The only parts undamaged, were his eyes themselves, his forehead, and his short black hair.

They stood there staring at each other as if glaring.

There was intelligence in the eyes that were staring at Yusuke.

In spite of that, no life could be felt from him.

(So it’s a zombie after all…)

Besides spirit, there was no hostility or anything that could be felt from the man.

Inadvertently, looking at the black coated man, he sees clothing near the cuff of the coat and is reminded of something.  It was a familiar navy blue uniform.

Hanging on his waist next to the sheathed hatchet was a baton.  (TL: nightstick)

(A cop….?)

A zombie’s power was relative to the body while it was living.  If a child were to become a zombie, they wouldn’t exhibit super human strength, but if a large male were to be turned, he would be a threat.

Unexpectedly, the man turned and ran away.

(s.h.i.+t-)  (TL: Yabe)

Yusuke put his bike in gear.

That man was obviously not a normal zombie.

Fortunately, it didn’t look like it would attack him.  What he hand to do now was capture it.  He needed to know more about the irregular zombie.

Besides, that skull man was dangerous.  If that kind of zombie was around, troublesome things were sure to follow.  If Mizuki and her brothers were attacked by it, there’s no way he could protect them.

Tracking him down, he would look for a chance to trap him.

Deciding on that plan, Yusuke twists the grip on his bike, and follows after the zombie.

There was almost no one on the campus.  The smoke rising from the fire site near the main gate had blackened the surroundings.  There were no lights on in any of the buildings, shrouding them in darkness.

With Yusuke trailing behind, skull man runs up onto the sidewalk, and disappears inside of a research building.  Yusuke left his bike and followed him inside, but arriving in the first floor control room, there was no sign of him anywhere.

Readying his handgun, Yusuke quiets his footsteps while climbing the stairs.

Inside the building was dark.  The only source of light was from the moon s.h.i.+ning through the windows.  He had a flashlight, but he didn’t want to give off his location until he had to.

(This is kind of bad huh…..)

It was bad that he lost skull man, but that wasn’t all that bothered him.

It would be fine if it’s a zombie, but he wanted to avoid encountering other survivors in close quarters at all costs.  The person he meets could end up being unfriendly.

There was no sign of skull man in the labs on the 2nd floor, and just as he was thinking he should head back, he hears a sound.

Silencing his breathing, he explores in the direction of the noise.

It was coming from a room close by.  He silently approaches the door to the room and presses his ear against it.  Something was moving around inside.

Readying his handgun and hesitating briefly, Yusuke calls out in a small voice.

“Is anyone there?”

There was no reaction to his voice.

The noise continues inside, unaffected.

(Is there no one inside….?)

Yusuke breathed deeply to calm himself.

Blood had gone to his head a little.  (TL: Not sure what expression to use, so I did the literal.)

His adrenaline was going and his heart was pumping wildly.  He turned the doork.n.o.b slowly, and pushed the door open with his foot.  Immediately pressing against the wall, he waited for movement inside the room.

The sound kept coming, unaffected.

Keeping his pistol out in front of him ready to fire, he slowly leans his upper body into the doorway, peeking into the room.

In the darkness at the back of the room, something about waist height was moving.  Holding the pistol with his right hand, he reaches his left hand into his and pulls out a flashlight.  Only s.h.i.+ning the light on it for an instant, he understood what it was.

It was a female zombie without limbs.

With her neck strapped to a pipe on the wall, she was moving her stumps like a crocodile.  (TL: wtf)

Her mouth was filled with a thick rope she had bitten into.

Yusuke entered the room, closing the door behind him.

Turning on the flashlight again, he observes the woman.

She was a burnette woman with her hair died red in a bobcut.  She looked like a college student.  Her mid section between her cut off limbs was covered in a thin film. (TL: I’m pretty sure it’s s.e.m.e.n.)

With a s.p.a.ced out look in her eyes, she looked up at him.

Her naked body had dried dirt caked on here and there.  With the nasty smell drifting off of her, it was evident that she had been used.

Her voluptuous white b.r.e.a.s.t.s standing atop her chest, had several long nails driven into them.  Her thighs were littered with numerous cuts.  She was probably played around with as a toy for fun.

“How barbaric…..”

He unintentionally let out his voice.

Yusuke also treated zombies like things, but as expected, this kind of treatment made him raise his eyebrows.  He had no interest in hurting things which resembled humans.

“This is the end of the world huh…. seriously….”

He pulled out a knife and cut the rope sealing the zombie’s mouth.  The zombie looked up at him with a blank look in its eyes.  Her mouth looked strange, and upon closer inspection, he could see that all of her teeth had been pulled out.

(……I’m not one to lecture others, but as expected, this is……)

Thinking this, he cuts the rope around her neck.

Suddenly, he heard the door behind him open.

Following that was the sound of something clicking into place.

Feeling a great chilled down his back, Yusuke immediately rolled on the floor.

The next moment, the sound of air escaping and a metallic bang range throughout the room.  (TL: The author uses *Pashu* so it is either a silenced weapon, or not even a gun.  Crossbow?)

Scrambling to his feet, Yusuke escapes through an open door.  While he is doing this, he catches a glimpse of a figure standing at the entrance.  With a big build and a wide stance, the person was facing him.  It seemed he had some sort of shooting device.

The place he fled appeared to be the doc.u.mentation room.  There were cabinets and steel desks, but there was no exit.

(s.h.i.+t.)

Kneeling behind a desk in a shooting position, he calls out to the next room.

“Oi!  I’m human!  You’ve made a mistake!”

The response was more shots fired.  The door sways as it is. .h.i.t by long nails, making dents and hitting the floor.

It appears to be a nail gun.  The safety device had been removed and it was gas powered.

(It can’t be helped, I guess I’ll startle him a bit.)

Yusuke pulls back the hammer on the revolver and points it toward the door.

His intention is to get the man to expose himself, not to kill him.  There was a lot of risk and he didn’t want a battle here.  It was better to intimidate him, and use that chance to escape.

Listening to the casually approaching footsteps of his opponent, Yusuke times his shot.

Just as he was about to pull the trigger, he hears the man screaming in despair.

He can hear the sound of something being kneaded, along with the repeated shots of the nail gun.  The nails. .h.i.t the walls of the room and ricocheted everywhere.

Getting up and peeking through the door, at the bottom of the dark figure was the female zombie from earlier.  She seems to have freed herself from the rope around her mouth that he had started to cut before the man appeared.  With a low growling sound, she was wriggling her limbless body while biting into the mans legs.

She had no teeth so there were no mortal wounds, but the man seemed to have panicked after being attacked by a zombie.  Waving his nail gun around, he shoots nails all over the place.

(Abune-)  (TL: Dangerous, or look out.  He says it to himself.)

Yusuke ducks his head as a nail ricochets nearby.

The sounds of scuffling went on for a while, but then quieted down.  In panicked footsteps, the man leaves the room.

(TL: For those who are confused, I think he had moved from the desk to the door way, then after peaking, he stayed on his side of the door while listening to the fight.)

Cautiously peeking into the room, he sees the female zombie lying in the floor with countless nails sticking out of her.

Her eyes, which were faced toward the ceiling, had lost all light.  Her forehead had been punctured by several long nails.

Slowly, Yusuke steps inside the room.

There was no sign of the man close by.  It seemed he fled.

Only the tragic corpse of the limbless zombie was left.

“…………”

Offering a prayer with one hand in silence while keeping a look out on the corridor, Yusuke leaves the room.  As expected, he didn’t feel the need to search anymore.

As he reached the stairs, down another corridor, he heard the cries of the man from earlier resounding.

Looking down it, at the end of the corridor, the man from earlier was backpedaling while rapidly firing his nail gun.

Ahead of him was a figure that looked like a raptor ready to pounce on it’s prey.

It was skull man.  After a moment, the nail gun stopped firing, and the man was. .h.i.t in the face.  With a loud crack, he flew into the air, into the wall of the corridor.

Keeled over and groaning, the man is grabbed by the neck.  Like that, he is dragged to the back of the corridor.

It all happened in the blink of an eye.

Yusuke hesitated, wondering what he should do.

“……f.u.c.k.”

Raising his handgun in front of him again, Yusuke chases after the back of skull man.

Even though he was dragging that violent person in tow, skull man’s pace was fast.  While following them with some effort, Yusuke goes through a corridor and arrives at another building.

Looking around, the skull man is no where to be found.

Suddenly he sees a light.

It is leaking from the center of nearby double doors.  As if invited by the light, Yusuke steps inside.

Inside was a wide open area.

It was a concert hall with an open 2nd floor.

Right now he was at the 2nd floor entrance, and below him was a stage with a staircase connected to it on both sides.  As if surrounding the entire hall, there were aisles going down both sides.  Along the railing of the 2nd floor balcony, lighting equipment had been placed.  Along the aisles were a number of doors.

The hall was not lit up by the lights, but from the smoldering pile of charred wood and burnt chairs near the stage.  It would appear that this was the site of the fire.

Standing there, he could smell a putrid burn smell come up from below.

With that smell filling his nose, he fought to hold back his vomit.

“What is this place…”

He mutters this while covering his mouth with his hand.