January 17
As they ran, both of them flipped up the visors of their riot helmets. Smoke and soot had already stained the transparent shields, and some sections had been scorched yellow, badly affecting visibility.
Gunfire crackled nonstop ahead.
With her sharper hearing, Kyoko could immediately tell it was the sound of a semi-automatic pistol firing.
That meant Brent had already been forced into close-quarters combat.
The gunshots rattled like beans exploding in a hot pan. Her opponents were not just infected anymore—there were armed thugs mixed in there too.
Kyoko's first thought was that it had to be the Apostles again. There was no time to waste. A few moments later, anything could happen.
She tried using the 3x optic on her assault rifle to check the situation across the hundred-meter stretch ahead, but saw nothing through the scope. No visible enemies. Only a few infected stumbling onto the road again. Their tricycle was nowhere to be seen. Everywhere she looked, there was only snow and abandoned debris.
Whoever they were fighting must have come from the other side of the street. The buildings there blocked the entire line of sight.
"Damn it. This isn't working."
Lowering her rifle, Kyoko cursed under her breath.
From some random corner behind them, more infected had emerged, drawn in by the noise.
"Kyoko, watch out!" Miranda shouted.
Kyoko had been so focused on the front that she never noticed movement nearby. Only after Miranda's warning did she react, throwing herself into a roll behind a wrecked car.
The instant she hit cover, several heavy thuds rang out. Then glass shattered with a crack, spiderwebbing before exploding onto the ground in a spray of shards. A streak of red light flashed right across Kyoko's field of vision.
Holding the Italian T-148 flamethrower, Miranda had fired the moment Kyoko cleared the line.
A torrent of blazing red-orange fire roared out, reaching nearly sixty meters.
From behind the car, Kyoko could see infected charging straight through the flames, their clothes burning, utterly fearless.
But getting through the wall of fire brought them no reward.
Kyoko's bullets met them head-on.
The infected dropped one after another under the impact of the 6.8mm rounds.
Their still-burning corpses, along with meltwater fouled by black sludge, turned the snowy ground into a filthy mess.
"Kyoko, are you alright?"
Still gripping the flamethrower, Miranda jogged over anxiously.
"I almost got showered in broken glass. But Brent's the priority right now. Let's move."
Kyoko answered steadily, though the close call had left a lingering chill in her chest.
To her, infected were not the real problem.
Glass was.
A large pane shattering could mean widespread cuts, abrasions, bruises, even fractures. Tiny fragments could lodge in flesh and go unnoticed, only to cause inflammation, infection, or granulomas later. Multiple wounds of varying size and depth would make treatment much more complicated.
And there was still that radioactive fallout from the earlier contaminated rain. Even if it probably was no longer a major issue, sharp edges of glass could still carry rust or other pollutants and increase the risk of infection.
Even dressed in thick winter clothing, layered tactical gear, and reinforced by her own unnaturally tough physique, Kyoko had no intention of underestimating broken glass.
The two of them did not linger over the battlefield.
Gunfire from Brent's side was still going, and it seemed to be getting farther away.
It was hard not to worry.
It was obvious now: the enemy was chasing Brent.
Listening carefully, Kyoko realized the shots were coming from a large public park.
That was bad.
The place was far too open. Inside the park, there would be very little cover worth using.
And worse, the enemy knew where they were. The explosion from earlier had been huge, and black smoke was still rising. Unless the enemy happened to be blind, deaf, and brain-dead, there was no way they would ignore that.
Anyone with half a brain would already be covering the approach roads. If she and Miranda ran straight to the entrance, they would be walking into a kill zone.
This was a small city to begin with, and many of its residents had fled when the disaster started. The commercial district Kyoko was currently in was not even a residential area, so the infected numbers here were relatively low.
As they ran, Kyoko casually hosed down a small cluster of infected blocking their path.
She led Miranda in search of a shortcut to the park.
Then she spotted a place from before the apocalypse—somewhere she had been in the old days. If she remembered right, there was a side route from here that would get them there faster.
"This way, Miranda! Watch your step—obstacles, snow, ice. Move!"
She shouted over her shoulder and made a sharp turn into a narrow alley.
Her boots almost slipped out from under her on the ice.
"Hah… hff…"
Miranda, whose physical fitness was only around normal human levels and who was still burdened with heavy armor, was being pushed to her limit. She could not spare the breath to speak, only to grunt in acknowledgment through ragged breathing.
It did not take them long.
Battling slippery snow, surprise attacks by infected, and the ever-present possibility of a hidden human sniper, the two of them reached the outer edge of the park in just seven minutes.
The gunfire inside was still intense.
Kyoko and Miranda did not pause for even a second.
They could still hear Brent's Remington M24 mixed with the chatter of small-caliber automatic fire.
Brent was still fighting.
Using Miranda as a foothold, Kyoko climbed onto the roof of a low one-story building to get a better view into the park.
From that vantage point, she confirmed there was no one nearby, and her bullet-time ability gave no warning of immediate danger.
But the tall trees inside the park, though stripped bare of leaves, combined with the blanket of white snow to block sightlines badly. She still could not make out the actual fighting.
Between the road and the park entrance lay multiple corpses—soldiers in full gear and infected alike—scattered across blood-soaked snow.
One figure closer than the others was still breathing heavily, a rifle fallen nearby.
Kyoko immediately shot it in the head.
What normal human grows moss-like plants all over their skull?
"Miranda, over by that car—grab that rifle."
It was a Type 89 assault rifle used by the Self-Defense Forces. Miranda picked it up and also stripped two magazines from the corpse's tactical vest.
"Swap the mag and follow me. Hurry."
Dropping down from the roof, Kyoko broke into a run again with the effortless speed of someone standing at the very edge of human physical limits.
They needed to push farther into the park.
Kyoko's target was a decorative artificial hill. The heaviest gunfire was coming from somewhere beyond it.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 132)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter140)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter95)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter165)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 145
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 135
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 95
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 155
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 125
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 105
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 62
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 80
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 66
Uma Musume: From Beginner 80
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 62
Uma Musume: I Want All 65
I Can Copy Unique Skills 53
Summoning an Evil God, but the 41
Supernatural Multiverse 45
My Harem Is Indescribable 35
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 46
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