Episode 47: Retribution for Banishment

On the roadside before dusk, four boys resembling high school students pulled a bicycle.

Their expressions were filled with anger and frustration.

"Damn them, how dare they kick us out."

The boy leading the group spat out a curse.

The backpack piled in the bicycle basket bulged, but contained little food.

Two kilograms of rice, three kilograms of other supplies—rent could not be paid.

That was why they were evicted from the hotel.

"It's unnatural for young ones to die first, old man. The order should be for the old to go first."

"This country's gone mad."

The four boys took turns venting their grievances.

They had originally been housed in shelters designated by region.

But in a gymnasium with mats laid on the floor, they were forced to sleep in clusters, and made to work endlessly—building barricades, gathering supplies.

The supplies gathered through dangerous efforts were taken, and only rations were distributed.

That was enough to make them sick of it. They left the shelter voluntarily.

"What now? Go back to the shelter?"

"Impossible. They'll just say whatever they want."

"True. We only got back a portion of what we collected."

When leaving the shelter, they had reclaimed a portion of the supplies taken.

They had carried them countless times. They knew the warehouse locations well.

The items were theirs. No permission to remove them should have been needed.

But they expected the others to say whatever they pleased.

"Again, they'll use us. Elderly, women, children, the sick."

"Seriously, shut up."

The shelter's people had treated young men who didn't complain as tools.

From the elders, the unspoken belief was clear: their own children and grandchildren were precious, but others’ children were expendable resources to be sent on dangerous tasks.

A mother with an infant crouching down, holding her child, was not entirely incomprehensible.

Yet the elders, women, and the sick consistently appealed to their vulnerability, pushing the expectation that young men should bear the risks while they remained safe.

Even teenagers, high school age, were not exempt.

Middle schoolers had been sent out to work in hazardous conditions.

They each carried the subjective weight of supporting five to six people.

Among their peers, deaths were common.

As for what the elders had done, they had merely stood at the front, asserting authority. The conclusion was simple: 'Old men die first, by order of precedence.'

The shelter was worthless. The system that allowed such a structure was worthless too. That was their verdict.

The hotel that kicked out the young ones was useless. The world itself was useless.

"Things were going well at first."

"It's because of the competition for supplies. Most places are probably already taken."

The first few months went smoothly. Supplies were acquired without issue.

There was still insufficient recovery of materials. Houses yielded what was needed.

Feasts were held with stacked food. The collected alcohol was consumed.

But as time passed, supplies within the city were steadily taken. Expiration dates passed. Only unusable items remained.

Recently, scavenging houses has yielded nothing for days.

"Seriously pissing me off. I'll make the hotel folk pay."

"What are you going to do?"

Making them suffer is not the issue. The hotel's defenses are strong.

Human blows will not break reinforced concrete walls or stainless steel doors.

"There's a large Shopping Mall over there."

The boy at the front turned his face. The one behind him nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, the one that died about a year after the Zombies appeared."

It was a well-known Shopping Mall to the local residents.

A nationally recognized retail group had leased a wide stretch of rice paddies and built a massive facility.

Then, a Home Center rose directly in front, a massive apartment complex on adjacent land, and a mid-sized hospital from a nationwide medical chain followed in succession, developing rapidly.

And the pandemic began in the hospital behind.

They could not halt medical operations. They maintained strict control. But an infection outbreak occurred. Zombies overflowed from the hospital and poured into the Shopping Mall.

Two years ago, they could not control the Zombies, but barely maintained order.

The government urged private companies to massively increase production and reassured citizens they were safe. Looting was nearly nonexistent.

Shoppers filled the store. The newly arrived Zombies overwhelmed them. They fell within moments.

Chukann City received no aid from the Self-Defense Forces or police. It collapsed without intervention.

"Let's ride our bicycles through that area and go back to the hotel. We can get revenge, right?"

"Wait, seriously? You're doing a Zombie marathon?"

They checked not for ethical reasons, but because they were in danger.

The hotel that had expelled them had no claim on their conscience.

The Shopping Mall and the hotel were both located in the suburbs. Neither was far.

But the Shopping Mall held many Zombies.

If we push the Zombies from the store into the hotel, we could get a large amount of supplies.

"Ah, seriously?"

The Shopping Mall still held a large amount of supplies.

Thinking of that scene, they swallowed hard.

"The store is open. It's a straight path from the front entrance to the back exit. The Food Store is on the left. If we run through while ringing the Bell, all the Zombies there will come."

"Inside the store? Could we do that?"

"It's been two years. The prey have been hunted. The numbers must have decreased."

"That's true."

Zombies search for prey to spread infection.

Newly turned Zombies are intelligent enough to seek out prey. If no prey is present, they will go searching.

Even if some Zombies remain inside the store, after two years, they would have lost the ability to lie in wait.

"If there are too many Zombies on the route, we can ring the Bell loudly in the Parking Lot and escape."

"Then we can make it."

They reached certainty. The plan was nearly flawless.

"Let's have another party."

"Sure. It's been ages since we last splurged."

They mounted their Bicycles and moved toward the Shopping Mall.

The journey was simple. Few Zombies were present.

Arriving at the Shopping Mall and the Home Center directly ahead, both buildings remained nearly unchanged from three years prior.

The Parking Lot held many vehicles. Signs of Zombie activity were evident. Yet, within sight, only five Zombies walked the Parking Lot.

The main entrance to the Shopping Mall had glass shattered into fragments. The interior was faintly visible.

Beyond, a faint glow from the Opposite Exit appeared, like the mouth of a Tunnel.

The bicycle's light activated automatically, so darkness posed no issue.

"Alright, let's go!"

In moments like this, momentum was essential.

Before hesitation could set in, the leading man pushed his bicycle forward.

First, toward the Home Center.

The others followed closely, not wanting to fall behind.

"Alright, ring it!"

Upon reaching the Home Center entrance, he repeatedly rang the bicycle bell.

The bell rang sharply, chime after chime, rapid and insistent.

Without waiting to see the result, he turned directly toward the Shopping Mall.

The Shopping Mall was entered from the front, exited from the rear.

Inside, the floor was more damaged than expected.

Items had been taken and scattered, left untouched by anyone who came after.

Expected to ride the bicycle, but had to watch carefully or risk crushing someone under the wheels.

"Good, ring this one too. Yeeeee!"

The bicycle bell rang—chirp, chirp—echoing loudly through the silent store.

From the food store on the left, the cake and confectionery section on the right, the souvenir corner and pharmacy in the far left, the restroom and service counter in the far right, and the cash counter, zombies emerged one after another.

"...Seriously?"

The boy leading the group flinched at the unexpected number of zombies.

Dozens were visible. Hundreds more were coming from deeper inside.

Wanted to shout stop ringing the bell, run now—but it was too late. Three people behind were still ringing it loudly.

"Damn it!"

Had to escape. That was the only thing that mattered.

He drove the bicycle straight toward the exit.

Ahead in the direction of travel, zombies were advancing from the side passage.

He swerved left to avoid the zombie on his right, spotted a zombie emerging from the pharmacy on his left, and hastily veered right.

His companions were moving behind him.

A sound of a bicycle falling came from the left rear.

He was certain it was the zombie from the pharmacy.

The moment the bicycle fell, the pain was too intense to scream.

Then came a wordless cry.

"Damn it."

The exit came into view. He burst into the world of light.

Glancing back while pedaling, two bicycles emerged from behind.

The third did not.

The two behind him turned to look back as he did.

And then he saw it.

Ahead of his companion, who was looking back, a Zombie emerged from behind a car.

"Hey, front!"

"Ah—ahhh!"

By the time his companion noticed the Zombie, evasion was impossible.

He overcorrected the handlebars, tipping sideways and falling.

A Zombie lunged forward, jaws wide open, as a human collapsed before it.

The hesitation vanished when he saw dozens of Zombies spilling from the back entrance of the Shopping Mall.

Not dozens. Hundreds followed behind.

"Take them all to the hotel."

That was the only path left.

For the past three years, sacrifices had been constant.

Even the shelter relied on sacrifice to obtain food.

If sacrifice yielded food, then that was the correct choice.

He rang the bell—chirp, chirp—again and again, matching the speed of the lead zombie, pulling the entire group along with precise control.

Some zombies dragged belts behind them.

The sound carried, and the large group remained intact, following without losing numbers.

A mass far exceeding the total number of high school students formed a long line.

"Hey, what now? Should we pass by the hotel?"

Asked by a follower, he hesitated slightly before replying.

"If we pass, they’ll pass too. Take only the fast ones and circle around the hotel."

"Why?"

"The hotel fools will see zombies through the room windows and shout. Then the zombies will notice. They’ll focus on the hotel. We push them there."

"Oh, I get it!"

The zombies were not chasing them. They were chasing people.

Draw their attention to another human, then use the bicycle to create distance.

They nodded in agreement. They entered the hotel’s parking lot, ringing the bell.

A few dozen fast-moving zombies had already moved ahead and were following them.

Many humans were already watching from the hotel rooms, gesturing and pointing toward the other side.

Someone shouted directly at them.

“Hehehe, making noise. Idiots.”

They moved to the back of the hotel, passed the service entrance used by guests, and circled the building.

They emerged from the opposite side into the parking lot, where several zombies stood scattered.

“Idiots. Don’t stand still. Move to the front of the guest rooms!”

The guests were fools. The zombies were fools too. He shook his head in disbelief. He rode the bicycle through the gaps between the zombies.

The others tried to move the same way, but the zombies shifted into a包围 formation.

"Hey, shit."

The fast-moving zombies were not far along in their transformation. They were the clever ones.

The Shopping Mall held not only those who had become zombies two years prior, but also those who had gone to retrieve supplies and were attacked.

He realized this only now.

"Damn it."

He stood on the bicycle at the same moment the zombies surged forward.

Some were newly turned, pretending to be ordinary zombies.

They judged they could not catch up to the bicycle. They held back, moved with the group, watched for an opening.

A zombie’s hand grabbed the rear rack of the bicycle.

He dismounted as the bicycle stopped moving forward. He tried to run, was seized, pulled down.

The attacker was a young man zombie, in his twenties.

A zombie of that age would not have done this.

"Let Japan die!"

Kicking the zombie's abdomen as he was pulled down.

The zombie shifted slightly backward but leapt forward, landing on top.

Holding his left hand out in front, he took the bite on his left hand and struck the face with his right. That was the end.

"Damn it."

Zombies approached from all sides, biting into his body one after another.

Angered, he struck back with several blows.