Chapter 113: Entering The Yamanashi Prefecture

Mmph! Mmmphhhhh~!

"Come on! We’re running low on supplies! Can’t you squeeze out a couple more ounces?!" An arrogant voice barked before a click of the tongue was heard. It wasn’t as if they were behind schedule, but the owner of the voice just had to nitpick about every little thing when it came to his business.

"Sir! Any more than this and she’s going to die!"

"I don’t care! We can always replace her! Just get it done and over with!"

The lights in the musky, dimly lit room flickered a couple of times as flies buzzed around it. Just from one look, anyone would be able to tell just how unsanitary the place was, and yet there was a hospital bed, curtains, and medical materials littered all over the room.

"Just one more vial. That’s it." The man clad in medical overalls and a mask declared before going with the usual procedure. He didn’t bother repeating himself, nor did he wait for the nitpick of the man running the entire place.

"Suit yourself. I told you we can always replace her."

"Right. right." The man playing doctor shrugged off their boss’s comments before he took another vial.

Once again, the lights flickered, and then it completely turned off as the muffled voice of people lingered in the hallways. A metallic creaking noise was heard, and then the door to the damp room closed once again. It was another day, another booming business.

...

A couple of hours later,

The once bustling city of the Yamanashi Prefecture greeted them just when the first light peered from the horizon, dashing the grey and purplish skies with the striking orange-scarlet color. Waves of warm light enveloped the skies as the view slowly brightened.

From its silhouette, the Yamanashi Prefecture held its former glory, but when the lights flooded in, its sorry state of a wrecked city flamboyantly appeared, souring the mood of whoever caught sight of it.

"So this is the Yamanashi Prefecture. I can’t believe it held a population of millions back then. And now those millions are infected, ready to bite our asses off when they get the chance." Shig commented.

Although Shig didn’t mention it, he actually found the group of four suspicious. As someone who survived this far into the apocalypse, he met a plethora of people and clashed with different personalities. There were even times when he had to resort to lies and deceit in order to steer clear of trouble.

Even then, the group he joined right now was weird and nothing short of impressive.

First, there was the guy Hybrid who could do pretty much anything, Takemi Kazuichi. He wasn’t that muscular, but he carried the uninfected lady in the group all the way through the night. Halfway through their journey, Arisu also passed the small girl to him, and he carried the two of them without much difficulty.

Second, there was Arisu, who had a keen sense of smell. She could smell an infected from a mile away, and when she scouts, she was faster than any Hounds he’d ever encountered. That’s why Shig was impressed by their teamwork.

Then there was the little girl, Amaya, who is a Canary. Even if a horde was coming their way, they would steer clear of them because of the unique trait that forced the infected to avoid her. As for Tris, she’s also a peak human, she was lacking in the stacking department, but she’s a pretty good all-rounder that covered the holes of the group.

And then there was him, Nakashima Shig, who didn’t contribute to anything. A couple of moments ago, he offered to carry Kazuichi’s duffel bag since he felt useless. But when Kazuichi handed him his bag, it weighed more than him, and he couldn’t even lift it up the ground. He didn’t bother asking what was inside when he silently handed it back to Kazuichi.

"Thanks," Kazuichi said. He meant that he was grateful enough that Shig offered to help. However, Shig misunderstood what he meant, and thought that Kazuichi said it to add salt to his wounds.

With a sigh, Shig nodded his head and he didn’t say another word.

The rest of the trip was spent with the occasional small talk and some somewhat prying questions about his sister. Even then, Shig never brought up his sister’s name. No one asked, after all.

"Do you want to stop over at our shelter? I can take you there and you can stay with us for an hour or so before the auction starts. The auction’s usually held in the middle of Yamanashi Prefecture. However, only those on our side were invited. The ones who aren’t wouldn’t be allowed to go in since another war might ensue." Shig explained.

Apparently, the Yamanashi Prefecture was now divided into four factions. And these factions were constantly at war with each other. Kazuichi couldn’t believe that these people have a lot of time to kill in an apocalypse, but he didn’t bring up such blatant comments.

Then again, this entire thing was made possible because of the existence of Hybrids. In a way, if it weren’t for the apocalypse, these things wouldn’t have occurred. That’s why, the outbreak was to blame— in retrospect, the Hybrids in these four respective factions contributed to this blame-game as well, since they were the ones who kept on lashing out at each other...

... or at least, that’s how Kazuichi understood the entire ordeal.

"It’s not like humans are going to fight each other during this zombie outbreak, right? It’s those Hybrids who’re doing everything behind the scenes." Kazuichi commented before another thought occurred in his mind.

"That, or maybe a couple of rich people who are drunken in power are trying to monopolize everything... they’re probably trying to conquer as much land area as they could so when the outbreak had abated, they’d have more land than ever. It’s far-fetched, I know, but it’s possible."

"That’s what I was thinking too. I think those Strongholds behind the four factions are owned by rich people. That’s why they had the gall to gather in Hybrids and expand their territory." Shig seconded before he changed the topic. "In any case, we’re here. Let’s go inside. Our shelter’s not that big."