Only I Am Not Attacked In A World Overflowing With Zombies Volume 2 Chapter 18

It was after 7:00 p.m. Her brothers had already had their bath and Mizuki was drying their hair.

“Wait, it’s still not dry yet, hora hora”

With loud cheers, her brothers were scuffling. They appeared to be having fun. With a wry smile, Mizuki wipes away the moisture.  They put on their pajamas and she takes them to the living room.

She gets milk from the kitchen and fills three gla.s.ses. At that time, her father’s voice could be heard from the living room.

“Riot….?”

“Eh?”

“No, on the news….”

Her father said with a dubious voice as he watched the news. She peeked at the T.V. from the back, and a banner was flowing across the screen reading “Urgent News”. A news caster read the report in a monotone voice. At a station near the Tokyo metropolitan area, there was a large scale riot taking place. There were even reports of a few casualties.

“Mom, come here. Looks like there’s a riot. It’s urgent news.”

“…..ara? Really?”

Her mother poked her head out of the kitchen. As the three of them were watching, reports came one after another. It wasn’t just limited to the Tokyo metropolitan area, riots were happening all over the city. The cause was unknown. The number of casualties was also unknown.

“For there to be riots in j.a.pan….”

Her mother muttered in a worried voice. As the news continued, the name of a familiar place came up. That place was just five stations from their neighborhood. Her father spoke with a dumbfounded expression,

“Isn’t it getting close……”

At that time, discomforting sirens could be heard outside their house. It was from the speakers which came on every night at 5 o’clock to play children’s songs. As the city speakers normally only came on to play these m.u.f.fled and difficult to hear songs, they were something you tuned out; but now, the three of them listened intently. They turned off the T.V., stood still, and kept quiet. A broadcast started, and with intermittent speech, it told them to evacuate to a certain area immediately.

(TL: The way the author wrote this paragraph was confusing, redundant, and unorganized. I took the liberty of reconstructing it so that it makes more sense.)

“…………..”

The living room was wrapped in silence.

Mizuki’s father stood up,

“Kaa-san, prepare rucksacks for everyone. Mizuki, take care of your brothers.”

(TL: The father refers to the mother as mother. IDK if I should write wife, honey, mother, or what… so I just left it as kaa-san.)

“Y, yes.”

In a hurry, her mother stood and left the room. Mizuki, with an anxious feeling thought,

‘Isn’t evacuation a bit over-kill?’

It wasn’t disaster-level news, and even if there were riots, they were still far away. She didn’t think they would come out this far. Mizuki took her brothers to their room and they changed from pajamas to outdoor clothes. The brothers looked up at Mizuki and spoke.

“What is ‘Riot’?”

“Eh? U—um….. when a bunch of people go on a rampage. It’s a big fight, I guess?”

“They’re fighting?”

“That’s right. And fighting is bad, okay? Now then, you two get your bags ready, we are leaving now.”

“Okay.”

They packed a change of clothes and a towel in their backpacks, Mizuki also packed her own things. With their bags over their shoulders, they went downstairs. There, their father was preparing the car in the garage. Plugging in the car engine, the headlights lit up the dark driveway.

(TL: I think it is an electric car. I have no idea how they work, so I did my best.)

Seeing that, Mizuki was surprised. The shelter was nearby the elementary school, it wasn’t so far away that you would need a car. Even if you walked, it would only take about 10 minutes.

“We’re taking the car? I think walking would be…..”

“I have a bad feeling. It is better to get there quickly.”

Suddenly, down the driveway in the light, a man with an anxious look on his face could be seen. It was Takasaki-san, the husband of the house next door. Mizuki’s father stepped away from the car and talked about something with Takasaki-san.

“Mizuki!”

Turning towards the voice, a tall boy with black hair could be seen standing there. He was the only son of the Takasaki house and Mizuki’s childhood friend.

“A-kun…..”

“You’re evacuating too? I wonder what’s going on, with the riots.”

“Yeah…. I’m not sure but, my dad says we should evacuate just in case.”

At that time, her mother finished closing up the house, and came to the garage. She was carrying biscuits, canned food, and other emergency food, along with bottled water.

“Ara, Atsus.h.i.+-kun, good evening. Something troubling has happened huh. Mizuki, please pack these in your bag.”

Just as she’s told, she packs the goods in hers and her brother’s bags. Her brothers were designated to carry the bottled water.

“Well then, I’m going back. See you later.”

“Yeah.”

Mizuki smiled and waved her hand. ‘Because we live next to each other, we should see each other at the shelter right?’ She feels her anxiety fade a bit.

Suddenly she remembers that she left the hair dryer behind. Mizuki wondered if she should go back and get it. It would be troublesome if people saw her bedhead – she thought. As she thought this, her father finished his conversation, and returned to the car.

“It looks like we’ll be evacuating with Takasaki-san. We’re leaving now.”

Mizuki gave up on the dryer, and together with her brothers, climbed into the back seat of the car. Continuing after them, her mother sat in the pa.s.senger seat. After her father checked his seatbelt, he started the car.

About half way to the elementary school, we could no longer travel by car. There was insane traffic. There were cars lined up down the street as far as the eye could see. Honking and yelling could be heard everywhere. You couldn’t move forward at all.

There were strange lines mixed into the noise. Apparently there were fires just out of sight.

“……..It’s impossible huh. Let’s get out here.”

Mizuki’s father cut over to the side of the road and parked in front of a shop. From there, the five of them got out of the car. Noticing the keys were seemingly left in the car, Mizuki spoke up,

“Dad, the key?”

“It’s fine to leave them! People would be troubled if they couldn’t move it.”

“O, okay…..”

Though she was worried whether the car would be stolen or not, Mizuki stayed quiet and nodded. That it took until now to realize that they should abandon the car to evacuate to the nearby elementary school, she didn’t understand.

There, someone’s figure was running up to them. It was Atsus.h.i.+.

“Mizuki! Is your car okay?”

“Yeah, it’s because we are in a hurry.”

Her father noticed Atsus.h.i.+,

“Atsus.h.i.+-kun, you’re by yourself? Where are your parents?”

“They are taking the car to the house and coming back as it seems we won’t be able to get there with it. It was decided that I would go on ahead by myself. Can I accompany you guys?”

“Is that so…. Alright, we’ll go together.”

When the Takasaki family’s car U-turned into the opposite lane, several people jumped out in front of them. A dull thud resounded as their car crashed into them. One after another they fell as the car ran over their collapsed bodies, until it came to a stop.

“They’ve done it….”

Mizuki’s father mutters, dumbfounded. A puddle of blood spreads from under the car.

“Eh…..”

His mind coming to understand the situation, Atsus.h.i.+’s voice leaks. In front of his eyes, his parents ran over people.

“Let’s go! We have to help them!”

To her father’s voice, Mizuki comes to her senses. Even if she is told to hurry, the earlier spectacle left her frozen. The car door opens, and as the fl.u.s.tered Takasaki couple is standing in front of the bodies, men running from the side road jump out at them. The husband and wife are dragged to the ground and scream. With crazed motions, the men slam the couple’s arms to the ground, press into them, and bite their face.

“Wa…..”

Without thinking, Mizuki’s father stops in his tracks.

“Wa, what the……?”

Dumbfounded, his voice leaks out. Within his line of sight, several more shaking figures appear. Some are drenched in blood, other’s limbs are broken. The atmosphere was completely abnormal. Right then, beside him, a girl’s scream was heard.

He looks back, and not even five meters away, from the shadow of the side road, a ma.s.s of people were pouring out. They all had similar hollow eyes, staggering as if they were sick. In the next moment, as if their earlier slowness was a lie, the ma.s.s of people began to move. They haphazardly attacked the people in the line of traffic.

Mizuki rigidly stared at the middle age woman approaching her. It was a normal old lady, one you would pa.s.s by on the sidewalk without even noticing. With her hands hanging loosely at her sides as if on a brisk walk, she came closer. Both her hands and her mouth were dyed red, and her eyes were hollow. Right when her hands were about to reach Mizuki,

“Run away!”

Her father crashed into the woman’s body. The woman is slammed into a car, and while staggering, gets back up. Screams arise from their surroundings, as if they were a herd attacked by a predator, and people scattered.

Mizuki instinctively searched through the surrounding crowd of people, and found her brothers standing between two cars. She grabbed their hands, squeezing them tightly; and while pressing through the crowd, ran away.