Chapter 68 - Last Puff
“Did it break already!”
“Jin, hurry and go! This community will collapse without you!”
He could no longer prolong his decision at this point.
“...Please. Please stay safe.”
“It might be humans who desire something they can’t achieve.”
The monologue-like words the man uttered were etched into Jin’s mind as he started running to the vehicle behind them.
“Shigeto! You hurry too!”
“Stay healthy. …If someone like you had been my teacher, I might have gone down a different road.”
“I’m happy you say that. Look, hurry and go. Hey, the old men will stay here!”
“W-what are you saying! You won’t be leaving me!”
“We will! Death is the truth for people who don’t have long left to live!”
“You, and you call yourself a teacher! How can you tell people to die!”
“I didn’t tell you to die! Just that you should remain!”
“Isn’t that the same thing!?”
“No! I’m saying that f you want to live, survive with your own strength! Don’t hold back the young people!”
Saying that, the man forcibly made four people stay, including those he disliked, and closed the door from the outside.
“Go!”
At the same time as he said that, several cars carrying Jin and the others started to move.
Some members of the Truck Brigade, barely visible through the armored windows, were weeping.
Seeing it with his own eyes, the man fiddled with something in his pocket.
“Umm…”
Rummaging around his pocket, he fished up a cigarette.
He had prepared it for a day like this so that he could have a last puff of a cigarette.
Lighting it up, the man’s gaze followed the large herd of zombies.
The herd, though moving sluggish, had come right behind the corner.
“To have the nerve to gather in a swarm like this… Even my students weren’t this enthusiastic.”
The man cast the cigarette on the ground.
“No one will get angry at me for littering now, huh. …Well, come on then. It’s time for special coaching.”
The man swung around a bat.
“Jin…”
“Don’t say anything.”
“...But, tears are…”
“I am not crying. A leader doesn’t shed tears. Be quiet and drive.”
“...Will something like this happen in the future too?”
“Who knows. However, as long as you’re alive, you have to be prepared.”
“It’s my fault for that amount of zombies to gather. If I hadn’t made a tumult like that, it shouldn’t have ended with that many zombies gathering. That was my fault.”
“Don’t blame yourself. Don’t only say things like that. Riku, if we go with the way you think, it’s my fault for forcing the supply of goods in the shopping center while knowing the risk.”
“...”
A heavy mood covered them, and behind them, Misa made an appearance.
“Huh? What is that?”
“Hmm? What is it?”
“Somehow, there’s something red, on top of the roof!”
“Something red?”
“Yeah. It jumped up while coming this way!”
“Jin!”
“No way!”
Jin opened the window leading to the roof to check, and the vehicle shook from a big impact.
“Ugh!?”
Jin raised his voice as he tumbled down.
“What happened!?”
Since Riku was driving, he couldn’t see Jin’s situation behind him.
Was what he thought, but he thought of checking it through the mirror and directed his gaze onto it.
As he did that, he saw that a large dent had formed in the roof.
“It’s that one…”
“What?”
Stop the car! Hurry and stop it!”
At the same time as Jin shouted, a giant claw collided with the windshield, and his field of vision disappeared from the cracks in the glass.
“Aaahhhhh!!!”
He stepped on the brake as hard as he could and severed the handle.
The tires gave a high-pitched scream and started slipping, and as he thought the car would fall to the side, it turned over, and with a big shake, it stopped.
“Ugh…”
Riku pressed down on his head as he sneaked something away from the seat.
The door was crushed and couldn’t be opened.
Looking to the back, Jin had been buried in a mountain of supplies.
“Ji…n…”
Stretching his hand out to Jin, red liquid clung to his hand.
“T-this is…”
He stopped himself before saying it and frantically stretched out his hand again.
A small hand grasped his hand.
“Misa?”
“Riku… It’s cramped.”
Riku twisted his body to look for gaps in the mountain of supplies.
As he did that, between the supplies, he saw Misa being caught in an opening.
“Are you okay? It doesn’t hurt?”
“No.”
Somehow, she didn’t seem injured.
Riku moved the supplies out of the way and pulled Misa out of there.