Chapter 1 - The Beginning of the Nightmare
“I’m home…”
As I opened the rusty metal door to the apartment, I informed that I had returned in a mutter.
However, no one answered.
Which is to be expected.
I, Tooru Saejima, was a high school student.
Both of my parents were on an overseas business trip and there was no one in the apartment.
After locking the door, I put my stuff in the hallway and sighed.
The whole day today was plain too.
Undressing with nimble fingers, I put the clothes in the washing machine, then entered the bathroom.
Although it was winter, I hadn’t stored bathwater.
I had various pretexts like saving water, but above anything else, it was because it was inconvenient.
Warm water came out of the shower, and my body warmed up.
I lifted my hand, picked up the shampoo, and lathered it.
It had a faint smell of citrus, and soon, the whole room was filled with the scent.
“How niceeee.”
Rinsing off the shampoo, I washed my body next.
After finishing washing my body, I properly wiped myself with a bath towel and put on underwear.
I changed into lounging wear.
My room wasn’t wide to that extent, but there was still plenty of space, and anime posters were put on the walls.
Putting my stuff on my desk, without opening it, I threw myself on the bed.
“Phew. How cold, how cold…”
I covered myself in the futon.
Homework? What’s that is it good?
Going earlier to school to do the homework was fine.
…No, you couldn’t call that homework, huh.
Without focusing my thoughts on that, sleepiness descended on me.
“Yaaawwn…”
Yawning big once, I let go of my consciousness without fighting against the drowsiness.
I didn’t notice the screams from somewhere following afterward.
Sunlight shone through the curtains.
It was noisy outside for some reason.
Maybe they’re doing a demonstration parade or something.
Suddenly looking at the alarm clock beside the bed, the time showed that it was already 11 o’clock.
Then, three classes had already passed.
“The teacher will be mad at me again…”
Saying that, he stood up.
Bang… Bang… Bang…
“What?”
I heard constant banging on the door.
It wasn’t knocking, but the sound was as if both hands swung down on the door by gravity.
“Who… The teacher shouldn’t have especially come here, right…”
He headed for the entrance first.
Bang… Bang…
As I thought, there was a constant knocking.
“How weird…”
Putting on shoes, I checked through the peephole on the door.
And then, on the opposite side of the door, I met the eyes of the visitor.
“A-aargh!?”
No, the expression of meeting their eyes might be weird.
Because the visitor didn’t have any eyes, it was dark where they should have had eyes.
“W-whatwhat…? Am I dreaming?”
Looking through the peephole again, I hadn’t been mistaken.
Only, the bloodstained man without eyes kept banging on the door.
“W-what should I do…! Before anything, I should call the police!”
Going to the living room with my shoes still on, I barricaded the door with tables and chairs, then called the police.
Beeep… Beeep…
“Hurry… Hurry and pick up!”
Bang, bang, bang, bang.
The banging on the door speeded up.
Click.
The call came through.
“Hello! Is it the police? A suspicious person is…!”
“This is the Shimoi Police Station. Presently, the line is exceedingly busy. Please call back after some time. This is the…”
I hung up.
“No way…? For the police line to be busy, is this for real!”
I opened the curtains.
There, an unbelievable sight entered my line of sight.
“What …is this?”
Fire and smoke were coming from downtown.
Police officers fired against civilians, and civilians took the bullets head-on without care and continued to rush on them.
Crawling people, crying and screaming voices.
Colliding cars.
“Whatwhat!? This is!!”
It reminded me of a scene of an alien invasion against Earth in a movie.
The buildings were destroyed by the aliens’ mother ship attack and everything was terrible.
It was a strange feeling like I was still dreaming, and like my feet weren’t touching the ground.
It was probably from seeing such a scene so different from reality.
The knocking sound on the door continued.