Don't Block the Commute, Or Else
"Ah, fuck. Why does the commute home always turn into a goddamn shitshow?"
Ban confirmed the feel of the box stuffed in his inner pocket and raised his machete.
A thin mutant's fingers, gripping the window frame, were scraping the glass as it tried to climb inside.
Without hesitation, he kicked the entire window out with the toe of his combat boot.
Clang—!
The already cracked thick glass shattered outward, and the mutant's face was crushed along with the flying shards.
Just as the creature lost its balance and fell from the outer wall, Ban stepped onto the windowsill and launched himself into the air.
[Watch out!!]
Along with Haze's urgent shout, his vision flipped. Two stories up.
A freefall onto asphalt would have shattered his ankles, but Ban twisted mid-air and aimed for the old awning jutting out above the first-floor entrance.
Riiip—!
The rotting canvas couldn't withstand his weight and tore open.
It was enough to slow his descent.
Ban executed a clean breakfall and immediately sprang to his feet.
A sharp pain shot through his knee, but he had no time to worry about it.
The aftereffects of the frequency alarm were far worse than he'd imagined.
"Grrraaaah—!"
Walkers that had been wandering outside the building and those inside the lobby poured out in grotesque waves toward the broken windows and entrance.
Their eyes were bloodshot to the point of rolling back white.
Ignoring the scent of his camouflage cream entirely, they closed in from all sides, drawn solely to the source of the sound—Ban.
[Ban! I'm turning the car around and heading down to you right now! Hold on!!]
Yui's frantic voice blasted through the in-ear, but Ban shouted back, veins bulging.
"Are you an idiot?! Don't bring the damn car down here! With this many, even a Humvee will just turn into a meat wall and we'll all die! Head to the elevated road entrance, open the back door, and wait!"
[Then how the hell are you supposed to cover six hundred meters alone!!]
Ban's gaze cut through the darkness toward the distant elevated highway entrance supported by massive concrete pillars.
A straight-line distance packed with hundreds of corpses.
"Haze! Just clear the path in front of me!"
Ban shoved the machete into his waistband and pulled the submachine gun slung across his back to the front.
The crisp metallic click of the safety disengaging rang out.
"Hey, Eve! Frequency alarm? What the hell is that thing? These bastards are only charging at me!"
Ban yelled while squeezing the trigger.
[It's an anti-theft device installed on transports to lure Walkers with a frequency! Once you're in the car, I'll handle it somehow! Please, just make it back alive!]
"They really built some fucked-up shit, goddamn it!!!!"
Tatatatang—!
The submachine gun's muzzle lit up the darkness as it spat out a storm of bullets.
Four Walkers that had reached right in front of him had their heads blown open and collapsed.
The gunfire echoed around the ruined building, but thanks to the high-frequency alarm, every Walker in the area was already converging anyway.
No point worrying about stealth.
[You need to get here as fast as possible!! The frequency device and gunfire might draw them from the Dead Zone too! If that happens, it's really over!!]
Yui's urgent voice.
'No shit, I know that, fuck. This is insane.'
BOOM—!
At the same time, Haze's heavy sniper rifle roared from the overpass.
A tracer round detonated the heads of the Walker pack blocking Ban's path.
As blood and bone fragments rained down, Ban broke into a full sprint across that path.
"Move, you disgusting bastards!"
Tatatang—!
Ban sprayed bullets while shoving through the rotting corpses in his way.
When the magazine ran dry, he swung the empty gun like a club, smashing the jaws of charging Walkers, then used the fallen bodies as stepping stones.
[Ban, there's a thin gap at your nine o'clock! Turn that way!]
Haze's orders came through the in-ear.
Thud! Thud—!
Haze's covering fire from the overpass kept clearing his route.
Every time a bullet punched through, rotten blood sprayed into the air, but the gaps were instantly filled by more corpses.
The frequency pouring from the box acted like a massive magnet, pulling every Walker nearby straight to Ban.
"Haa, this fucking bullshit... There's no end to them!"
While swapping magazines, a Walker lunged from the side and grabbed his tactical vest.
Ban stomped its knee joint with his right foot, breaking it, then kicked it in the chest to create distance.
Or rather, he tried to.
The fallen Walker tripped others, creating a tiny opening, but it was immediately filled by more rotting heads before he could even breathe.
Tatatatatang—!
Ban poured bullets without mercy.
The submachine gun's barrel glowed red-hot.
Piles of corpses stacked wherever the rounds passed, yet the incoming Walkers knew no fear.
[Ban! What do we do? Look over there! The Dead Zone!!]
He didn't need the warning through the in-ear.
At the edge of his vision, the darkness at the entrance to the Dead Zone bordering the Gray Zone began to ripple as one.
This wasn't a normal Walker horde.
The hundreds of Walkers that had been scattered around the ruined building were nothing compared to the tsunami of corpses flooding across the black asphalt.
Tens of thousands of rotting bodies charging at once made the ground tremble faintly.
A true hell where even heavy artillery would eventually be buried under endless layers of rotten flesh and bone.
And that hell was now opening its massive maw toward Ban, reeking of death.
[Ban. This is... really...! Yui, reverse the Humvee right now and ram it in!]
Haze had lost her usual composure, her voice filled with unmistakable urgency.
[Got it! Ban, whether you get crushed or not, I'm pushing through, so just head toward the car...]
"Shut the fuck up! I told you to wait! You all wanna die together or something?"
Ban was genuinely pissed. He'd clearly told them not to come, yet they refused to listen.
[M-Master! Then what are you going to do?! There's no way to reach us!]
Eve, huddled in the back seat, cried out tearfully, but Ban had no time to answer.
Click.
The submachine gun's bolt locked back, signaling an empty magazine.
No more spare mags left.
Ban slung the burning-hot gun behind him and yanked the grip of the weapon holstered on his thigh.
His signature weapon. A ridiculously oversized 12-shot hunk of metal.
The sharp metallic sound of his thumb cocking the hammer rang out.
Bang! Bang—!
Cannon-like reports thundered.
The brutal, destructive rounds blew apart the heads of Walkers in front and punched through the ones behind, carving a path.
After firing all twelve, he reloaded as fast as possible and fired again.
An endless cycle.
Click. Click—
Eventually, even the revolver rounds ran out. Roughly three hundred meters still remained.
Ban shoved the empty gun into his vest and drew his machete in one hand, combat knife in the other.
Between Haze's support fire and his own desperate fighting, he'd cleared quite a few, yet the disgusting Walkers still kept coming in waves.
But the real problem wasn't in front—it was behind.
[Ban! Don't look back!! Just look forward!!]
Yui screamed at the top of her lungs. He didn't even need to turn around. The smell alone was on another level. The foul stench of the Dead Zone was already drifting all the way here.
"These bastards are fast as hell."
Crunch! Crack—!
Ban sprinted forward, brought his machete down on a Walker's head, kicked it aside, and kept running.
The same sequence he'd been repeating since earlier.
Even as he tried to push toward the entrance ramp where the Humvee waited, every step forward was blocked by several more.
In that hellish stalemate, the vanguard of the Dead Zone horde finally caught up and reached out with rotting hands.
"Ha, this is fun. Been a while since I've been in such a fucked-up situation."
Ban let out a hollow laugh and hooked his finger through the pin of a grenade inside his vest.
Gray Zone stragglers packed the path ahead. Behind him, the Dead Zone tsunami surged with jaws wide open.
No worse sandwich existed.
Just as Ban irritably pulled the pin and prepared to throw the grenade at the Gray Zone horde in front—
A Dead Zone Walker's rotting hand that had closed the distance from behind grabbed his shoulder.
"Get off me, you bastard!"
Ban reflexively twisted his shoulder and elbowed the creature's head away, but at that exact moment, the grenade slipped from his hand and dropped to the ground.
The grenade rolled across the asphalt and fell straight into an old manhole hole in the middle of the road.
Clink. Plop.
"......Huh?"
[Ban! At this rate, really... Wait, what did you just do?!]
Haze's flustered voice hit the in-ear.
He'd just dropped the explosive meant to clear the path into the sewer.
What the hell kind of move was that?
Rumble rumble rumble—!!!!
Just as Ban cursed and reached for another grenade, the ground began shaking violently.
BOOM BOOM BOOM—!!!!
The asphalt behind him erupted like a volcano.
BOOOOOOM—!!!
A massive pillar of fire shot upward in succession.
Tens of thousands of corpses that had been charging from behind were blasted into the air and set ablaze.
The pressure didn't stop, swallowing the sewer and blasting forward.
Whoosh—!
The insane blast tore straight toward the entrance ramp where the Humvee waited, sweeping the Walkers blocking the path aside like bowling pins.
A literal burning miracle of Moses.
Burning corpse fragments painted the sky in grotesque patterns.
A straight three-hundred-meter path to the destination opened up as if by lie.
"......Wow."
Ban let out a dumbfounded laugh as he watched the Walkers get flung aside.
Impossible, but everything except the ground he stood on had been completely wrecked.
He had no idea if it was shoddy sewer construction or what, but the butterfly effect from one grenade was massive.
[...Insane...]
[...What? What just happened?]
The previously noisy in-ear went silent.
Ban didn't hesitate and sprinted through the burning asphalt.
Walkers on either side staggered after him while burning, but they couldn't match his insane speed.
Far ahead at the end of the ramp, Eve, who had thrown the Humvee's back door wide open, screamed at the top of her lungs.
"Masteeeer!! Run faster!!"
Ban prepared his final leap and threw himself into the back of the Humvee.
"SLAM DUNK!!!"
He charged with full fighting spirit.
Bang—!
The moment the door shut, the Humvee's heavy tires screeched against the asphalt as it shot forward.
"Haa, haa... Man. Thought my lungs would burst. Am I alive? Yeah, I'm alive. Fuck, haven't been that close to shitting myself in a while."
Ban lay sprawled in the cargo bed, sweeping back his sweat-soaked hair.
Eve approached and looked down at him, her expression a mix of worry and relief.
'She must've been really worried.'
Ban pulled out the box from his inner pocket, still flashing red like mad and emitting an inaudible frequency.
"Agh, seriously, nothing but bullshit all day. Eve, can you do something about this?"
Ban handed the box to Eve, who had knelt down and was gently stroking his cheek with her usual sly smile.
"Yes! You worked so hard. I know the circuit structure! I can fix it!"
"Haa... Still, thank god."
Yui muttered quietly while checking Ban's face in the rearview mirror.
Even if he was a little hurt, the only person who could come back alive from that kind of mess was this guy.
Yui abruptly turned her head, trying to hide her reddening cheeks, and yanked the steering wheel roughly.
Haze's figure came into view, waiting in the distance.
The moment Yui hit the brakes, Haze climbed into the passenger seat with practiced movements.
The instant the door closed, Haze turned around and stared straight at Ban.
Her face was expressionless, but her eyes still held the shock from what she'd just witnessed.
"...Using a chain reaction of methane gas to secure both retreat and advance at the same time. No matter how I think about it, I can't believe that's human judgment. You really are something else."
At Haze's sincere, awestruck words, Ban simply smirked while lighting a cigarette.
"Let's go. Time to clock out."
"I was already flooring it without you telling me!"
Yui slammed the accelerator. The Humvee's heavy engine roared into the night sky.
Ban lay back, relieved to taste his favorite cigarette again after surviving.
The commute home had been way more fucked up than usual, but at least it was over.