“Now, if the culprits are trying to conduct a large-scale human experiment, there are too many possibilities to guess what their ultimate objective might be. However, the most promising outcome that can be obtained by infecting so many people with the virus at once is to find individuals who react differently from everyone else. In your case, Kousaka, you didn’t lose your consciousness when you were infected, and you can become a zombie whenever you wish. Even if your arm gets cut off, you can regenerate it immediately. That’s a quantum leap in medical science. The gigantic zombie we saw the other day grew in size after it was infected and was extraordinarily strong. Increasing the size and strength of the human body are technologies people have only been able to dream about until now. If the world wasn’t in this state, I bet there would be countries that would consider using it for military purposes.”
“You think their goal is to find people like me and that gigantic zombie?”
“We can’t deny that possibility. And if my hypothesis is correct, the culprits will try to capture you at any cost. After all, analyzing what’s happening inside your body and understanding the power of zombies would mean they could make people all across the world immortal and able to immediately heal from any injury. No one wants to die or have their loved ones die. Even if all this began with an evil plot to cause a zombie crisis throughout Japan, I imagine it wouldn’t have been hard to gather people who wanted to collaborate.”
“I see what you’re getting at… This all being some sort of massive human experiment does seem more likely than it stemming from a desire to annihilate the human race.”
“I believe so. And if there really is an organization that spread the zombie virus so they could experiment on humans, they’re likely to be someplace they set up in advance, waiting to see the results. Once they gather the information they want and find out that you exist, I think they’ll try to contact you immediately.”
“So it doesn’t really matter whether the culprits want to exterminate the human race or conduct an experiment, they’ll still be after me…”
“Right. Which is why I think we have to be wary of whether people who want to join our community might be enemies. I also think it’s best not to spread the word that you can turn into a zombie since it’s dangerous.”
“……”
After hearing Ichinose’s hypothesis, we suddenly realized that it would be harder than we’d thought to survive in this zombie world.
After breakfast, the five of us piled into the blue sedan. Haruka was driving, and Ichinose rode shotgun, holding the map. Everyone’s homes happened to be north of the dorm, so that was where we were headed first.
Five minutes after leaving, we hit a traffic jam—though, of course, no matter how long we waited, it wouldn’t pass. Just as I’d thought, many of the roads were completely blocked off by crashed cars. A huge number of zombies were prowling about, and they came toward us as soon as they heard the sound of the car engine.
We were quick to give up and look for other routes when things looked dangerous, since we didn’t want to risk being unable to make a U-turn. Ichinose used a pen to mark the closed-off roads on the map, and it was soon covered in red ink. We would probably be able to pass through if I zombified and moved the cars one at a time, but with so many of them, I had no idea how many days something like that might take. Even with the cars blocking the way, I could continue on foot, so I thought I’d come back another day to scout the area alone.
Oh, wait—I can’t go too far since I have to kiss Tsukishiro every six hours…
In the end, we decided that it was impossible to visit everyone’s homes today and instead focused on finding water purifiers and other equipment. With that goal in mind, we turned around and began heading for the large home improvement center we’d seen earlier.
“…We’ve been driving for quite a while, but we haven’t seen a single survivor…,” Haruka said softly, clutching the steering wheel as the atmosphere in the car became gloomy.
“I thought people would come out when they heard the sound of a car engine,” Ichinose said.
“Even if they noticed that we were here, it might be hard for them to come outside. We could go and rescue them if they shouted…”
“But a loud noise would attract zombies…”
“Yeah…”
Going back and forth like that, we eventually reached the home improvement center. The parking lot was full of zombies, most likely because it was along a main road.
Countless white, cloudy eyes set their sights on us, and the zombies began to approach, drooling from their slack-jawed mouths.
I got out of the car and started capturing the zombies one by one. I had a metal bat with me just in case, but I put it on the ground and worked my way through the horde using hemp ropes instead. It was faster to crush their heads if all I wanted to do was reduce their number, but I’d decided not to kill them unless Haruka and the others were in danger.
The zombies in the area gathered together, reacting to the sound of the car engine. There were twenty of them just in my field of vision. With my back to the car, I worked tirelessly, grabbing them and tying them all up.
“—Noooo!!”
Suddenly, I heard the high-pitched scream of a woman coming from the store.
It had to be a survivor. Was she being attacked by zombies?
I wanted to go and check on her right away, but I couldn’t leave Haruka and the others—
“Kousaka!! Go!! We’ll stay clear of the zombies and drive around in the car!!” Haruka called out, and my hesitation evaporated.