The 93rd Broadcast
- 2030, August 6, 8:00 -
“This is pretty bad…”
She looked out of the window and grimaced. Even when indoors, the sound of the wind and rain still seemed to strike deep into her guts.
She had no way of knowing a typhoon had come.
She was most worried about the barricade.
A mass of tables, chairs, shelves, and whatever else, all tied together with tough rope. It had held up well all this time. For good measure, she had also reinforced it several times over, yet there was no guarantee of safety with such weather.
It was entirely possible a horde of infected would rush into the building in their attempt to escape the storm. And if it happened, the barricade might not last.
There was no intelligence to be seen in the infected, yet they still acted on some kind of logic. Instinct, perhaps, if they possessed such a thing. They did not jump from the rooftop if they saw survivors on the ground. They did not mindlessly bite, instead attempting to hold their victims still with their hands first.
She worried.
Furthermore, she hadn’t been patrolling the barricade as frequently for the last few days. Were the ropes slacking? Was it falling apart anywhere?
Her worries kept growing.
She put her feet on the floor. A throbbing pain stabbed into her ankle. She had attempted first-aid, tried to fix it in place with fabric ripped from clothing, but it still showed no signs of healing.
This was no sprain. This was a broken bone.
She didn’t want to admit it. Unfortunately, she couldn’t avoid facing reality anymore.
She sighed.
The food wouldn’t last another week. If she wanted more, she’d have to leave her safehouse and brave the horde.
Ever since the end of the world, horrible ideas of how she would meet her own end had always been in a corner of her mind. She never thought it would start with an attempt to fix the air conditioner.
A moment of carelessness had decided her fate.
The room flashed. Seconds later, the thunder came.
Looking out the window, she could see masses of rotten flesh falling to the ground, battered by the sideway rain and lashed by the winds. Were she nearby, she imagined she could hear their groans.
Even the trees were bent to an angle she’d never seen before.
It really is starting to look like hell on earth, she chuckled.
There was nothing funny about it, but she laughed, and the thought of this very scene kept her laughing.
After her laughing fit was over, the thunder rumbled once more.
There was no peace to be had.
It was a morning in midsummer, yet the sky stayed depressingly dark.
She could not hear the children following along to the usual morning exercise program. She could not hear people riding their bicycles and mindlessly ringing their bells. She could not hear the businessmen and women lazily complaining about the heat. She could not hear anything.
Pouring. Rumbling. Rattling.
Nothing but the sounds of rain and thunder. She listened.
Pouring. Rumbling.
Pouring. Rumbling.
Pouring. Rumbling. Rattling.
She stood up without a word and picked up a pole nearby. A laundry pole, sharpened on one end.
Pain lanced through her ankle, but she ground her teeth and endured.
With support from the pole, she slowly moved forward, one step at a time.
Pouring. Rattling. Rumbling.
She moved towards the barricade, swallowing the gasps of pain that came with every single step taken.
Why was this happening to her?
All she wanted was to enjoy her life.
Pouring. Rumbling. Rattling. Clattering.
Mixed between the sounds of rain were something else. Sounds of something odd, barely noticable at first, were slowly growing more audible.
Rattling. Rumbling. Rattling, clattering, clacking-clacking-clack.
The barricade entered her sight. The dependable fortress that had kept her safe until now, a two-meter tall bulwark made of piled-up furniture. Impregnable.
It was shaking.
Rattle-rattle-rattle-rattle.
“Grrrrrhhh…”
“Urrggggg…”
“...I knew it.”
She heard those familiar spine-chilling groans, and through the gaps in the barricade, she glimpsed dirt-colored skin.
There were probably about ten. Likely many more.
It wouldn’t take long for them to breach through. If she left them alone, the barricade wouldn’t last another hour.
“Fine, let’s do this.”
She prepared herself and nonchalantly took a step toward the barricade.
“GRAAAGH! AAGGHH!”
Upon noticing her presence, the infected began slamming into the barricade. She paid them no mind and placed the pole against the barricade.
“Ouch… That really smarted.”
She placed one leg on the table in front of her and started climbing the barricade. The same thing she’d always done when outside. Easy. She just needed to ignore the pain.
On the other side, the infected were getting rowdy. Their instincts to bite another living human were driving them to smash into the barricade with increasing strength.
With much effort, she reached the top of the barricade, and once more she took the pole into her hands. The swarm of infected squirmed and writhed below her.
She forced a smile on her face, pushing herself past the nearly-paralyzing fear.
“Hey there, everyone. What are you here for, and why do all of you look so unhealthy? Just making sure, you didn’t come here because you heard my program, did you?”
“Graaagh!”
“Thought so. Can you go home, please? I would really like this barricade to stay intact. And please stop banging on it, it’s shaking a lot.”
“Aaagggh!”
She readied her makeshift spear. Aiming at the head of the nearest infected, she thrusted.
Splat.
“Graagh…”
It felt disgusting, like crushing a rotten pumpkin, and the sensation seemed to stay forever on her hands.
She checked that her target was no longer moving and tried to pull back the pole.
“Hey! Stop that, stop pulling! No seriously, fucking STOP!”
Another infected had grabbed the pole and was trying to pull her down. She shook it off, then promptly made a hole in its head.
But it was still moving. She then aimed and made sure to stab through the brain this time.
“Graagh! Waagh!”
As always, all that came out of the infected’s mouths were meaningless grunts and groans.
She continued stabbing.
“God, so damn annoying! This is supposed to be a zombie movie, where the hell are the sniper rifles? The shotguns? Not even any handguns! Right, because this is Japan, that’s why!... Ow ow ow should not have put weight on that side.”
“GRAAAHH!”
The swarm was being cleared out, and she could now afford to start casting glances down the hallway, where they had come from. That horrible feeling of stabbing into flesh still lingered. She’d gotten used to it by now.
“Whoa, too close. That was your friend, don’t climb on them! Right, just one left. I guess I might actually come out of this alive after all. No, I will. I have to.”
“GRAAAGH!”
And the last one went down. She had survived, even with her injury. But just as relief was about to overcome her, she noticed something.
“...You’ve gotta to be kidding me.”
Coming from down the hallway was a large number of infected, scrambling over themselves to get to her.
“Hah. Hahah.”
A dry chuckle left her throat.
“Ahahahahah.”
“Graaagh! Waaghh!”
They were slow, but they weren’t stopping.
The pole trembled in her hands.
The pain in her ankle that adrenaline had allowed her to forget now returned at full force.
“Why…”
“GRAAGH! AAGH!”
“Why is this happening to me?! What the fuck have I done to deserve this?! Stop ruining my life!”
“GRAAARH!”
“Today was supposed to be a special episode!”
“GAAARGH! WAAARGH!”
“SHUT UP! SHUT THE FUCK UP!”
“AARRGH!”
Despite the anger in her voice, there was barely any strength in her hands as she readied her makeshift spear. A drop of black liquid dripped from its tip.
The second wave was here.
- 2030, August 6, 19:20 -
“...hello everyone. It’s time for the Apocalypse Radio. I’m your host, A. I’m broadcasting from the center of the world, and I believe that my voice will reach you.
“............
“...Umm, so today was supposed to be a special episode, but it’s… not.
“...Do you believe in heaven? I… don’t know. Sure I may be a genius… but not even a genius knows everything.
“And I’m sorry for springing this on you so suddenly, but… the Apocalypse Radio will end after today - well, actually, it’ll be on a hiatus after today. Ending it is too sad for me. I know I said I would do this forever. I’m sorry again.
“To explain the reason why… well… I think you can guess. Actually, I’ll just say it… I got bitten.
“I messed up… oopsie… so, uh, yeah. At first I was fighting on top of the barricade, but my foot hurted so much I got distracted and fell down… I’m pretty, but I didn’t think I was the clumsy-cute type…
“...Ok, stop! No more depressing stories! How am I forgetting so many times that this program is about positivity only?! Depression begone! I got bitten, so what?! Can’t do anything about it anymore, so why worry?!
“That just means even the talented sportswoman, genius, and knockout beauty that I am is still human. A moment of carelessness mixed with a dollop of misfortune can be a combination that’s beyond anyone’s capability. In fact, had this happened to anyone else, I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t able to keep broadcasting like this! I got bitten, but I still survived and even went back to continue the program! I really am amazing, right?
“That’s right. I’m amazing! Just look, I’ve survived until now all by myself! And a girl too at that - yeah I know it’s not really a thing you say in this day and age - but I am a girl, the prettiest one on the planet! Surviving alone is an achievement!
“But, well… to be honest, I had wanted to meet someone before my end. Doesn’t have to be my family, not even my friends, just someone. What a shame… really…
“...........”
“...I’m sorry. I know I said I was going to be positive, but there’s just something I really want to say. Just think of it as my last wish. Your host, A’s last wish… Eheheh, thank you so much. I’m just going to pretend you said yes.
“I’ve always been scared. Of course I’m still scared now. So many thoughts going inside my mind, like whether or not I’ll still be conscious when I turn zombie, or if I’ll feel pain, and I can’t stop shaking just thinking about them. But they’re not the scariest. There’s something I’m afraid of more than anything else. I’ve been afraid of it since the beginning.
“All this time I have been broadcasting from the center of the world, and I’ve been believing that my voice will reach you. So I want to ask… are you there? Are you really there?
“I don’t know how many times I’ve had the thought. Dozens, actually probably hundreds. Maybe everyone else in the world had zombified. Maybe there’s no other survivors… After all, it’s been months. Three months since I started this program. Including the time before that, that’s half a year that I haven’t met any living person.
“What if I was left alone in this world? Or maybe it’s the other way around. What if I alone was taken to hell? I’ve had this thought for so long.
“...When I first started this program, I thought everyone was already gone. It’s all zombies now, it wouldn’t matter. I had kind of given up, in a sense. But I also wanted to cling onto that last ray of hope, that I’m not alone… I think that’s why I started the program. I couldn’t give up entirely. I said all that about bringing light and positivity to this dark world, but the truth is that I was just scared of being alone.
“I had hope. That if I continued, it might reach someone. That only the people in the area around me are gone, and there are still someone outside listening in, and would help me. Of course, by the time a month had passed, I figured it was false hope anyway. It’s all over everywhere. And yet… the longer I continue this program, the more I feel like I’ve become an actual famous person. I wonder why…
“I guess it was a form of escapism for me… The brain can cook up anything just to bear with the stress. By the way, this was actually what I was studying in college. Just never thought it’d happen to myself. Ahahah… I don’t even know why I’m laughing. It’s not funny.
“So it’s why I was so contradictory. I kept saying I wanted to meet someone, but I just said it’s the center of the world, never telling where it actually is. I know I wouldn’t be able to bear it if I said the location and no one came. I mean, just think about it. I could handle being alone… actually, considering what I’ve been saying these days, maybe I’m not handling it… but… but if I say where I am, and nobody comes, then it’s like the entire world is telling me that I really am alone. And I wouldn’t be able to take that.
“I was too scared to make it a certainty. It’s why I’ve been beating around the bush. I kept telling myself that you exist, that you’re not coming simply because I haven’t told you where… I said my injury had healed even when it hadn’t, because maybe you’d think I’m useless baggage, and you wouldn’t need me. Because I thought no one would come if they knew.
“...what was I even doing. Of course no one’s here. I haven’t told anyone where I am. So messed up.
“But that’s just the way humans are, right? I’m normal, right? I am!... I’m… not wrong, right?
“My leg has actually stopped hurting now. It used to be so painful. Well, to be more accurate, I barely feel anything from it… I guess that means what I think it means.
“I don’t want to be like them. I don’t want to spend an eternity wandering around to find living people. So… so I’m going to tell you where I am now.
“This place has electricity. It has water too. There’s… only a little bit of food left, but there’s a supermarket nearby. It should be enough for one person to last for a year. I worked really hard, so even the barricade is still intact. It’s nearly a perfect safe zone. After all, even a frail girl such as me lasted for half a year here.
“I just have a promise to ask of you. You can use anything here, just save me. I don’t want to wander around forever. If you really are there… then please. I don’t have the courage to kill myself. I’m too much of a coward for that.
“This is where I am. The center of the world is ______. I repeat. The center of the world is ______. Please come here.
“...Things are starting to look kind of blurry now. It’s time to end this program. I want the host to stay me.
“Goodbye everyone. I’ll see you… Ahaha, whoops. Habits die hard.
“Farewell, listeners! This has been your host, the mysterious pretty girl A!”
- The Apocalypse Radio, 93rd broadcast. Audience number: 1 -
[Previous Chapter] [Main] [Next Chapter]
0 comments: