A Middle-aged Man Who Returned From Another World Becomes Unrivaled In The Apocalyptic World – Vol 1 – Chapter 9

Chapter 9 : Fuji kaede 2

 

The designated evacuation center was the high school I was going to attend in the spring, and it was about 15 minutes away from my house by car.

However, within 10 minutes of leaving the house, the traffic was so bad that it was hardly possible to go on.

“It’s like we’re not getting anywhere…”

My father tapped his fingers on the steering wheel and couldn’t hide his frustration. A traffic light in the distance turned green, then red, and then turned green again. After repeating this several times, the car was unable to make the slightest movement.

“Was there an accident? We are stuck here.”

My father swerved and stopped the car in the parking area of a nearby store. I could see other cars coming in one by one.

“It can’t be helped, it doesn’t take a long time from here, let’s walk.”

I get out of the car at my father’s words. People came out of other cars in the parking lot one after another, and everyone seemed to think the same way as my father.

As I walked alongside the traffic jam, I could see from a distance that there was some kind of crowd of people at the intersection, under the traffic light I had seen earlier. The sound of a horn was making some kind of noisy.

I thought that it was an accident or something, and as I closed the distance, I heard the sound of people’s voices mixed in with the screams, and somehow a vague uneasiness began to creep up from deep in my chest.

“Mom.. are you okay..?”

I ask my mother, who is standing next to me. What exactly do you mean by okay?

I don’t even know that, but my mother squeezed my hand and responded to a vague question..

Then, I noticed some figures appearing from a side street. 

At the time, I thought they were people who had gotten out of their cars and were heading for evacuation like us, but they looked strange and their steps were unsteady and unreliable. But at the time, I was so focused on the scene at the intersection that I didn’t pay any attention to it.

And then one of the figures came straight at us and attacked my mother, who was standing next to me, as if he was covering me.

”That is…”

My mother was pulled down to the ground and laid on by the man.

“Damn it!”

My father immediately reacted and pulled the man off her from behind and threw him away.

I thought for a moment that he had told me at the dinner table that he had been doing Judo all the time in school.

“Are you okay!?”

“……”

My father woke my mother up and turned his attention to the man he had thrown away. It looked like he had fallen strongly to the ground,  but the man didn’t seem to respond and slowly got up.

“Kya!”

“Hee!”

I noticed that the people who had walked with me to this point had also been attacked by the figures that had appeared. Screams can be heard not only from the side, but also from the front and the back. I couldn’t understand what was going on and just stood there cowering.

“Kaede!”

At the same time, my father roughly pulled my hand. I managed to hold my knees just in time as they were about to fall.

Screams could be heard from the front and back, and we ran out across the roadway, unable to escape into the side streets where the figures appeared.

Some people just get out of their cars and run away. Perhaps someone passing by in the immediate vicinity would attack them. The horror of it had created a panic in the crowded place.

I couldn’t trust anyone except my mother and father who were holding my hand.

We just kept running and running, dodging figures as they appeared, sometimes with my father pushing them away. He took me by the hand and we arrived at the home center.

“We are lucky to have a workplace nearby.  Anyway, we need to evacuate inside the building.”

I was told that my father worked at this home center and was the store manager. My father let us in through the main entrance and quickly locked the door. After thinking for a moment, he took out his phone, turned on a small light, and led us by the hand into the dark store.

I have been to my father’s office a few times, but it looks so different from what I usually see, and the quietness of the store, combined with the commotion that I can still hear outside the store, gives me an eerie feeling.

“Ouch…”

And my mother who was standing next to me restrained her arms and leaned her body slightly against me.

“Mom!?”

“Did you get hurt somewhere!?”

My father shines a smartphone light on my mother. I saw that the arm part of her coat was unnaturally torn, and blood was flowing from it.

“Did he have…a knife or something…?”

As if trying to hold in his anger, my father clutched his phone.

“Let’s just go upstairs, there should be a first aid kit in the staff room.”

And that’s when my father walked forward.

Bang, bang, bang, bang, I heard a sound and looked in that direction and saw many figures stuck in front of the glass of the store.

“Huhh”

I can only stand with my eyes wide open breathless at the horrific sight. Both my father and mother seemed to be immobilized by the bizarre scene, as if they had stopped for a moment.

But then.

Snap.

It was a small sound. And then, immediately there was a loud cracking sound, and slowly, as if in a rush, a figure from outside came into the store.

“This way!”

My father moved quickly, took us by the hand, and ran to the fire escape. The fire door was fastened roughly, and we ran up the stairs. 

Perhaps my father already had something of a conviction that this was not an ordinary person at this time.

As soon as we reached the third floor, the top floor, my father moved all the furniture for sale in the furniture section to the escalator and set up a barricade.

 

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