Only I Am Not Attacked In A World Overflowing With Zombies Volume 2 Chapter 28

The site of the fire was located on a university campus.

Stopping across the street from the campus, Yusuke stops his bike, lifts his visor, and looks at the campus questioningly.

The surroundings were lit by moonlight, but were still dim.

Facing the front gate, there stood a five story building, shrouded in darkness.  Across the avenue, there is an enormous tree engulfed in flames.  They flames had stripped the leaves off of it, leaving it nothing but burning branches, illuminating the darkened ground beneath it.

(…..Was the fire accidental?  It would be great if there was no trouble, but…..)

When heading to the mountains, cutting through here would be the quickest route.  For that reason, Yusuke wanted to confirm the area was safe.

It would take a considerable detour to avoid this area.  It would be fine if it was just him, but he had Mizuki and her brothers with him as well.  Because of that, he wanted to avoid a long journey.

In the vicinity, Yusuke could see zombies here and there.  They were draw to the university, but the main gate was closed, blocking their entrance.

Suddenly, the sound of an engine resounded from the back of the campus.

(….What’s that?)

Gripping the handles of his bike so that he could escape at a moment’s notice, he looked toward the direction of the sound.

What had appeared was a silver mini-van.  With something riding on the top of it, it charges at the main gate.  Noticing the closed gate, the mini-van tries to come to a stop, but it didn’t make it in time.  With the high pitched screech of the tires against the ground, the mini-van plunges into the stone pillar at the side of the gate.  The front of the van took heavy damage as the sound of the metal frame ripping open resounded through the darkness of the night.

The thing riding on top of the mini-van was thrown over the gate, and rolled to a stop on the road.  Stretching it’s limbs, the thing gets it’s feet under itself and stands up.

The thing that had been riding on top of the van was a man in a black coat.

Ignoring Yusuke who had braced himself to escape, the man turns and sprints towards the van.  Jumping over the gate with nimble movements, he comes up to the window of the van and bashes it with a rod he removed from his waist.  The window shatters in an explosion of gla.s.s, and a women inside lets out a high-pitched scream.  The man thrusts his arm into the window, and drags out the screaming woman.

With a savage hostility radiating off his entire body, the man slams the crying woman into the iron bars of the main gate countless times.  The zombies gathered on the other side became excited by the spurts of blood flying through the bars, and reached their hands through.

After a while, the woman became quiet, and the man releases his grip on her.  Her body collapses on the ground.

The man then takes a hatchet out of a sheath on his waist, and swings it down on the woman’s neck.  Her head separates, and rolls on the floor.  Picking up the severed head by the hair, the man lifts it in front of his face as if admiring the expression of agony left on it.  The blood spurting from the severed neck began pooling on the floor.

After a while, as if the man was now satisfied, he tosses the head aside and begins opening the main gate.

The gathered zombies rushed through the gate and flocked to the woman’s corpse.

Observing that scene, Yusuke’s finally reacted.

“Oioioi…..”

Unintentionally, his voice leaked.

“…….Is it a….. zombie?”

His movements were too good to be a zombie.

However, it didn’t appear as if the zombies around him were going to attack him.  He is standing leisurely, turning to leave.

Staring at his back, Yusuke becomes troubled for a moment.

He wants to know everything about him.

But he doesn’t know how much risk was involved.

However, Yusuke quickly prepares himself, and makes a decision.  Even if he was attacked, he could get away on his bike.  If he let’s him leave without learning anything about him, it would be dangerous.

Yusuke revs his bike, letting the engine roar.

The man in the black coat turns around at that noise.  The surrounding zombies don’t react, and continue their meal.

The man’s entire body seemed to be covered in scars and various wounds.  The black coat had several rips and tears.

However, what drew his attention more than anything, was the man’s face.  His nose had been broken off and you could see the nasal cavity bone.  (TL: Not sure what to call it.)  His cheeks were gouged out, exposing his bare gums beneath.  His eyes were sunken deep into their sockets, creating a ghostly appearance.   The only parts undamaged, were his eyes themselves, his forehead, and his short black hair.

They stood there staring at each other as if glaring.

There was intelligence in the eyes that were staring at Yusuke.

In spite of that, no life could be felt from him.

(So it’s a zombie after all…)

Besides spirit, there was no hostility or anything that could be felt from the man.

Inadvertently, looking at the black coated man, he sees clothing near the cuff of the coat and is reminded of something.  It was a familiar navy blue uniform.

Hanging on his waist next to the sheathed hatchet was a baton.  (TL: nightstick)

(A cop….?)

A zombie’s power was relative to the body while it was living.  If a child were to become a zombie, they wouldn’t exhibit super human strength, but if a large male were to be turned, he would be a threat.

Unexpectedly, the man turned and ran away.

(s.h.i.+t-)  (TL: Yabe)

Yusuke put his bike in gear.

That man was obviously not a normal zombie.

Fortunately, it didn’t look like it would attack him.  What he hand to do now was capture it.  He needed to know more about the irregular zombie.

Besides, that skull man was dangerous.  If that kind of zombie was around, troublesome things were sure to follow.  If Mizuki and her brothers were attacked by it, there’s no way he could protect them.

Tracking him down, he would look for a chance to trap him.

Deciding on that plan, Yusuke twists the grip on his bike, and follows after the zombie.

There was almost no one on the campus.  The smoke rising from the fire site near the main gate had blackened the surroundings.  There were no lights on in any of the buildings, shrouding them in darkness.

With Yusuke trailing behind, skull man runs up onto the sidewalk, and disappears inside of a research building.  Yusuke left his bike and followed him inside, but arriving in the first floor control room, there was no sign of him anywhere.

Readying his handgun, Yusuke quiets his footsteps while climbing the stairs.

Inside the building was dark.  The only source of light was from the moon s.h.i.+ning through the windows.  He had a flashlight, but he didn’t want to give off his location until he had to.

(This is kind of bad huh…..)

It was bad that he lost skull man, but that wasn’t all that bothered him.

It would be fine if it’s a zombie, but he wanted to avoid encountering other survivors in close quarters at all costs.  The person he meets could end up being unfriendly.

There was no sign of skull man in the labs on the 2nd floor, and just as he was thinking he should head back, he hears a sound.

Silencing his breathing, he explores in the direction of the noise.

It was coming from a room close by.  He silently approaches the door to the room and presses his ear against it.  Something was moving around inside.

Readying his handgun and hesitating briefly, Yusuke calls out in a small voice.

“Is anyone there?”

There was no reaction to his voice.

The noise continues inside, unaffected.

(Is there no one inside….?)

Yusuke breathed deeply to calm himself.

Blood had gone to his head a little.  (TL: Not sure what expression to use, so I did the literal.)

His adrenaline was going and his heart was pumping wildly.  He turned the doork.n.o.b slowly, and pushed the door open with his foot.  Immediately pressing against the wall, he waited for movement inside the room.

The sound kept coming, unaffected.

Keeping his pistol out in front of him ready to fire, he slowly leans his upper body into the doorway, peeking into the room.

In the darkness at the back of the room, something about waist height was moving.  Holding the pistol with his right hand, he reaches his left hand into his and pulls out a flashlight.  Only s.h.i.+ning the light on it for an instant, he understood what it was.

It was a female zombie without limbs.

With her neck strapped to a pipe on the wall, she was moving her stumps like a crocodile.  (TL: wtf)

Her mouth was filled with a thick rope she had bitten into.

Yusuke entered the room, closing the door behind him.

Turning on the flashlight again, he observes the woman.

She was a burnette woman with her hair died red in a bobcut.  She looked like a college student.  Her mid section between her cut off limbs was covered in a thin film. (TL: I’m pretty sure it’s s.e.m.e.n.)

With a s.p.a.ced out look in her eyes, she looked up at him.

Her naked body had dried dirt caked on here and there.  With the nasty smell drifting off of her, it was evident that she had been used.

Her voluptuous white b.r.e.a.s.t.s standing atop her chest, had several long nails driven into them.  Her thighs were littered with numerous cuts.  She was probably played around with as a toy for fun.

“How barbaric…..”

He unintentionally let out his voice.

Yusuke also treated zombies like things, but as expected, this kind of treatment made him raise his eyebrows.  He had no interest in hurting things which resembled humans.

“This is the end of the world huh…. seriously….”

He pulled out a knife and cut the rope sealing the zombie’s mouth.  The zombie looked up at him with a blank look in its eyes.  Her mouth looked strange, and upon closer inspection, he could see that all of her teeth had been pulled out.

(……I’m not one to lecture others, but as expected, this is……)

Thinking this, he cuts the rope around her neck.

Suddenly, he heard the door behind him open.

Following that was the sound of something clicking into place.

Feeling a great chilled down his back, Yusuke immediately rolled on the floor.

The next moment, the sound of air escaping and a metallic bang range throughout the room.  (TL: The author uses *Pashu* so it is either a silenced weapon, or not even a gun.  Crossbow?)

Scrambling to his feet, Yusuke escapes through an open door.  While he is doing this, he catches a glimpse of a figure standing at the entrance.  With a big build and a wide stance, the person was facing him.  It seemed he had some sort of shooting device.

The place he fled appeared to be the doc.u.mentation room.  There were cabinets and steel desks, but there was no exit.

(s.h.i.+t.)

Kneeling behind a desk in a shooting position, he calls out to the next room.

“Oi!  I’m human!  You’ve made a mistake!”

The response was more shots fired.  The door sways as it is. .h.i.t by long nails, making dents and hitting the floor.

It appears to be a nail gun.  The safety device had been removed and it was gas powered.

(It can’t be helped, I guess I’ll startle him a bit.)

Yusuke pulls back the hammer on the revolver and points it toward the door.

His intention is to get the man to expose himself, not to kill him.  There was a lot of risk and he didn’t want a battle here.  It was better to intimidate him, and use that chance to escape.

Listening to the casually approaching footsteps of his opponent, Yusuke times his shot.

Just as he was about to pull the trigger, he hears the man screaming in despair.

He can hear the sound of something being kneaded, along with the repeated shots of the nail gun.  The nails. .h.i.t the walls of the room and ricocheted everywhere.

Getting up and peeking through the door, at the bottom of the dark figure was the female zombie from earlier.  She seems to have freed herself from the rope around her mouth that he had started to cut before the man appeared.  With a low growling sound, she was wriggling her limbless body while biting into the mans legs.

She had no teeth so there were no mortal wounds, but the man seemed to have panicked after being attacked by a zombie.  Waving his nail gun around, he shoots nails all over the place.

(Abune-)  (TL: Dangerous, or look out.  He says it to himself.)

Yusuke ducks his head as a nail ricochets nearby.

The sounds of scuffling went on for a while, but then quieted down.  In panicked footsteps, the man leaves the room.

(TL: For those who are confused, I think he had moved from the desk to the door way, then after peaking, he stayed on his side of the door while listening to the fight.)

Cautiously peeking into the room, he sees the female zombie lying in the floor with countless nails sticking out of her.

Her eyes, which were faced toward the ceiling, had lost all light.  Her forehead had been punctured by several long nails.

Slowly, Yusuke steps inside the room.

There was no sign of the man close by.  It seemed he fled.

Only the tragic corpse of the limbless zombie was left.

“…………”

Offering a prayer with one hand in silence while keeping a look out on the corridor, Yusuke leaves the room.  As expected, he didn’t feel the need to search anymore.

As he reached the stairs, down another corridor, he heard the cries of the man from earlier resounding.

Looking down it, at the end of the corridor, the man from earlier was backpedaling while rapidly firing his nail gun.

Ahead of him was a figure that looked like a raptor ready to pounce on it’s prey.

It was skull man.  After a moment, the nail gun stopped firing, and the man was. .h.i.t in the face.  With a loud crack, he flew into the air, into the wall of the corridor.

Keeled over and groaning, the man is grabbed by the neck.  Like that, he is dragged to the back of the corridor.

It all happened in the blink of an eye.

Yusuke hesitated, wondering what he should do.

“……f.u.c.k.”

Raising his handgun in front of him again, Yusuke chases after the back of skull man.

Even though he was dragging that violent person in tow, skull man’s pace was fast.  While following them with some effort, Yusuke goes through a corridor and arrives at another building.

Looking around, the skull man is no where to be found.

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Suddenly he sees a light.

It is leaking from the center of nearby double doors.  As if invited by the light, Yusuke steps inside.

Inside was a wide open area.

It was a concert hall with an open 2nd floor.

Right now he was at the 2nd floor entrance, and below him was a stage with a staircase connected to it on both sides.  As if surrounding the entire hall, there were aisles going down both sides.  Along the railing of the 2nd floor balcony, lighting equipment had been placed.  Along the aisles were a number of doors.

The hall was not lit up by the lights, but from the smoldering pile of charred wood and burnt chairs near the stage.  It would appear that this was the site of the fire.

Standing there, he could smell a putrid burn smell come up from below.

With that smell filling his nose, he fought to hold back his vomit.

“What is this place…”

He mutters this while covering his mouth with his hand.

If he looked closely, he could see that human bones had been scattered around.  Unknown meat was hanging from seats here and there, with dried blood scattered everywhere.  It was like a scene at a slaughterhouse.

Abruptly and without notice, two figures rose from their seats on the first floor.

They were girls.

With half eaten bodies and disheveled clothing, it was obvious the two were zombies.  In the thin darkness, faintly illuminated by the glare of a flames by the stage, they gave off a mysterious appearance.

While standing, the two zombies stared up at him.

They had the same inorganic look as skull man.

Yusuke took a step back without thinking.

They weren’t attacking, but there was pressure in the stares the zombies directed at him.  Normal zombies don’t even recognize Yusuke’s presence.

“What is this…..”

It wasn’t just skull man.

There were multiple irregular zombies here.

At that time, from the aisle to his right, a man’s screams rose.  Looking in that direction, he sees something strange.

A diving board-like structure extends from on of the aisle out a few meters over the hall below.

In a doorway near the aisle, skull man appears.  He is dragging the nail gun guy from earlier behind him.  The man which was illuminated by the flames was young and around the age of a college student.  With a sobbing voice, he screams.

“No!  Hiiii…….. don’t!!!  Stop…….. forgive me…….”

Without paying attention to the struggling man, skull man climbs the platform, and drives the man down the plank.  Unable to keep his balance, the man stumbles and it appeared as if he would fall.

Barely catching the board as he falls, he hangs from the board with both hands in mid air.

“Hiiii…… Hiiii…..!”  (TL: high pitched screams.)

The man looks up at skull man looming over him as he gasps for breath.

As if looking down on him, skull man watches the man from above.

Skull man slowly opens his mouth, stretching his bare cheeks, and revealing a heinous smile.

In the next moment, Skull man brings down his hatchet towards the mans hands.

With blood splattering into the air, the mans fingers were cut off, and he screams as he falls into the hole.

Yusuke unintentionally raises his voice.

“That guy!”  (TL: Aitsu)

After confirming that the man had dropped down the hole, Skull man loses interest and disappears back through the double doors.

Re-gripping his handgun, Yusuke follows him.

Going through the doors, he finds himself in a pitch black room.

Taking the flashlight out of his pocket with his left hand, he turns it on.  It looked like it was the control room for the concert hall as there was various equipment lined up along the walls.

There was no sign of Skull man.

Carefully, Yusuke s.h.i.+nes the light around the room.  There were things everywhere.  Cords rose up from behind the equipment in complicated patterns.

Confirming that there were no hiding spots in the room, he discovers a door in the back.

It was open with moonlight s.h.i.+ning through it, leading outside.  It appeared he had left the building.

Peeking through the door, he looked left and right down the hallway, but was unable to see Skull man.

“…..s.h.i.+t.”

Sighing, Yusuke lowers his gun.

(I shouldn’t follow any further than this.)

Leaving the room, he returns to the concert hall.

Below the aisle, the female zombies were eating the man from earlier.

The man was foaming and spurting blood from his mouth while convulsing.  It wouldn’t be long now.  It couldn’t be helped that Yusuke didn’t watch any further.

Tearing his line of sight away from the man, Yusuke looks at the surroundings.

The board that the man had been pushed off was connected to a platform with a staircase that had been built in the aisle, looking increasingly like a diving board.  All around it were pools of dried blood.

(…..no, is it really a diving board…..?)

One word came to mind.

(Execution platform….)

It was something built by humans.

(…………)

Yusuke returns to the control room.  On top of a desk, he found strange items that he hadn’t noticed when he previously inspected the room.

It was a compact video camera and a bundle of mini tapes.  s.h.i.+ning the light on the tapes, he sees that dates are written on them as well as names.  If the man’s name was there, then so were the girl’s.

He felt a strange sense of uneasiness.

“……….”

He stared at the tapes for a while, but finally grabbed one and put it in the camera.  He turns on the power and the screen on the side opens up.  It still had some battery.

Just in case, he blockaded the entrance to the room with machinery.  After making sure there would be no hindrances, Yusuke presses the playback b.u.t.ton.

It was the scene of a human executing a human.  Bound and crying, a young man is hauled to the execution platform.  The camera was diligently taping his appearance.  Off screen, stupid laughter is heard along with people screaming for the person to jump.

As the young man desperately tries to resist, he is prodded by a handmade spear, made by attaching a knife to a long rod.  Stabbed with the spear, the man becomes bloodied and soon loses his footing on the board, falling down into the hall.

Cheers arose from the surroundings.

The camera turns and changes locations before fixing itself again.  It showed the view from the handrail at the top of the hall, looking down.

The young man was crawling along the floor, dragging his body as he flees to a corner.  Chasing after him are two zombies.  One of the zombies climbed over a seat and began eating the man.  The camera zoomed in while shaking, capturing the figure of the predator. As the person holding the camera made elated sounds for excitement from the seen they were capturing, Yusuke began to feel sick.

The two zombies below had flocked to the man that was pushed down.  With his screams coming to a stop, the man stopped moving.

“…………..”

Yusuke stopped the video.

“…………..Fuu.”

Letting out a breath and leaning back in his chair, he looks at the dark ceiling.

(………..)

(A lynching?  Entertainment?)

It could have been that they were trying to overcome their fear of the zombies by keeping them like cattle.  Like keeping a tiger or lion in a cage.

There were still more tapes.

Opening the video camera, he puts in the tape with the latest date.  Fast forwarding it, he skims through the tape.

The content was similar.

The man from the first tape had become a zombie.  Every victim that was pushed down, had added one more zombie to the hall below.

He interchanged the tapes while looking through them.  When the 3rd tape showed a certain man, Yusuke paused it.

It was only a small hunch, but he thought the man wearing the coat in the video was that cop. His face was swollen and it looked like it had been beaten.  Both of his hands were tied behind his back.  His pants had a large tear in them around his thighs, and the leg beneath was bloodied.

He fast forwarded through the tape, so he couldn’t understand the conversation.  However, he could see the cop’s uncompromising att.i.tude through his actions.  Up until the last moments it seemed he was trying to persuade them, but he was stabbed deep in the stomach with a spear and fell down to the hall below.

“…………..”

Yusuke silently changed the tape.

After the zombies below had reached 10, their numbers stopped increasing.  Before the person could turn into a zombie, they were completely eaten.

The cop was among those that flock to the victims when they fall.  His face had been gouged out when he was turned into a zombie.

He had the same appearance as Skull man.

“This is bad….”

Yusuke mutters to himself.

As he went through the tapes, he noticed the zombie’s behavior slowly change.  They started out like wild beasts, but every time they ate a human, their movements became slightly more human-like.

Even Skull man’s movements had been the same as a normal zombie in the beginning.

However, in the 2nd half of the tapes, he had a look of hatred in his eyes.  As if looking for an opportunity to attack.

A s.h.i.+ver similar to fear ran up Yusuke’s spine.

(While filming this…. those guys, why did they not notice this strange behavior?)

Right now, in his mind, Yusuke doubted that they were even zombies.

The zombies which acted like commuters at the station next to his home, and the zombies at the supermarket whom prowled around as if shopping.

Here and there in the city there were zombies moving as if repeating the lives they had.

As the ma.s.ses of zombies wandered around aimlessly, Yusuke had always wondered why a few of them had these patterns.

Within his mind, one hypothesis emerged.

(Once the zombie feeds on a human, only then do they gain knowledge…..)  (TL: Holy s.h.i.+t, Tokiko was feasting on his sperm, that is why her behavior changed.  We may see her again yet.)

If he thinks about the small amount of zombies following a pattern, it would seem that only a small amount of them change.  For instance, even if they were to eat a bunch of humans, at best the would be able to remember some parts of life as a living being.

However, in regards to regaining knowledge if you eat humans………

He remembers Skull man’s figure.

How he took the man to the execution platform and pushed him off, and that heinous smile.

It was a pure hatred for humans.

Looking at the video, there were 10 zombies at the bottom of the concert hall.  They had nearly been released.

The fed zombies had regained intelligence like Skull man, and were now dangerous.

“………s.h.i.+t!!”

Yusuke slams the video camera into the floor.

(s.h.i.+t s.h.i.+t s.h.i.+t s.h.i.+t, for those pieces of trash to do something unnecessary like this!  Once the zombies become a threat, then what did they intend to do!  f.u.c.king idiots!)

Breathing roughly, Yusuke stands up.

“…………..”

He thinks carefully.

(……….We have to detour around this area, it’s too dangerous.)

Deciding this, there was no longer a reason to follow Skull man.  He should check to make sure the detour route is safe, but he decides to return to the supermarket first.

It is also dangerous to stay in the city.  If the zombies in the city regain their intelligence, then grouping up with a lot of humans would be even more dangerous.  It would be safest in the mountains.

Deciding on a plan, Yusuke removes the blockade and exits the room.

Walking out of the entrance to the concert hall and continuing down the corridor, Yusuke stops.

A few meters ahead of him was a young girl dressed in rags.

In her right hand was a severed head, with its hair entangled in her hand.

It was the head of a man, his face contorted in a painful expression.

In her other hand was a spear, wet with blood.

“…………..”

Yusuke and the young girl stared at each other.

She looked like she was in high school.  Looking at her, she had a crying mole under her right eye.  She was pretty, but she had a big bite marks all down her collarbone.

(TL: I looked up crying mole or “Nakibukuro”, it’s just a mole under their eye, which supposedly is there due to them crying)

She was a zombie.

The young girl s.p.a.ces out, looking at him with a blank expression.

She had long black hair and her feet were bare.  (TL: Sadako?!)

Naked except for the rags on her body, she had the appearance of a savage young tribe girl.

Suddenly the girl looked out of the window.  Following her gaze, he also looked out of the window and saw a ma.s.s of things folding over each other.

With it faded into the darkness, Yusuke couldn’t make out what it was.  Focusing his vision, he tried to make it out in the moonlight.

After a while, he sees them,

(…….Humans……?)

Yusuke swallows a breath.

It was a mountain of corpses.

Hearing footsteps in the corridor, Yusuke returns his line of sight.  The young girl had turned around and was leaving.  The severed head in her hand swayed as she walked.

At that time, off in the distance, he could hear the screams of a girl.

Yusuke realized it.

This campus was their hunting grounds.

Watching the receding back of the young girl, Yusuke stood still.

When her back finally disappeared in the darkness, Yusuke let out a big breath.

“…………Haa…………..d.a.m.n.”

He stops thinking and heads towards the stairs.

There was nothing he could do here.

As if dispelling the cold feeling within him, he quickened his footsteps.

(TL: Wouldn’t it be interesting if there was a time lapse between when Yusuke was attacked by a zombie, and when he came back out of his apartment?  And he was a zombie and eating people the whole time, enough to regain all of his intellect and memories, thus thinking that he isn’t zombie, but he really is.  Though I’m sure there are some things that already disprove this theory, it would be a cool Fight Club-esque plot twist. xD)