That was pretty advanced, but my attention wasn't on the little shoulder bag. It was on a glint of sunlight reflecting off something inside the bag, which had spilled its contents all over the ground!
"Car keys!!"
I hurried over and snatched up the keys. I didn't have time to deal with all the other junk!
The moment I got them, I pressed the unlock button. Suddenly, at the very end of the row of cars, a white SUV flashed a few times and let out a sound that nearly rang through the entire street!
"Beep, beep~"
Great!! It really worked!
But the distance...
No... There was no time to think!!!
I gritted my teeth and dashed out, charging toward the white SUV. The zombies on the other side of the street saw me move and charged over, howling even more furiously!
The car was only a few dozen meters away, and the zombies were a little farther off. At that moment, the car happened to be right between me and the zombies.
As I ran, I tightened my grip on the dagger and watched the zombie draw closer and closer!
"Die!!!"
With a sharp shout, I leaped into the air and raised the dagger high. I'd thought the zombie would come right beneath my blade, but what happened next was the last thing I expected...
It jumped up...
"What!!!"
I barely had time to gasp before a tremendous force slammed into me. Pain bloomed in my chest as I watched the zombie's hands clamp around my breasts!
"Damn it!! Even I hadn't touched them yet!!!"
The squeeze stirred up a complicated mess of emotions in me. Embarrassment? Shock? Fury...
I'd meant to bring the dagger down hard, but that blow completely threw off my balance and sent me crashing to the ground!
"Ugh!!!"
A sharp, dull pain flared in my back. After everything spun around, I realized I was lying on the asphalt. The zombie was clutching my breasts with both claws, and it wasn't doing it gently. Its grip was so strong that it felt like my chest was about to be crushed!
"Just die!!!"
"Squelch!!"
Before the zombie could bite me, I drove the dagger straight into its skull. I shoved my knee upward and pushed the zombie, already twitching in its death throes, off to one side!
But... as I pushed it away, I saw another figure lunging at me from behind it!
Another one!!
The second zombie was already pouncing. I couldn't worry about the bursting pain in my chest, so I quickly rolled out of the way.
"Thud!"
The zombie missed and slammed its skull into the ground. As I rolled, the corner of my eye caught its head bouncing off the pavement and landing again.
Yikes... That must've hurt!
I sprang to my feet, but the zombie struggled to turn over. Their bodies... especially their waists, seemed incredibly stiff. Was it because of the mutation?
As I wondered, I charged at the zombie as it tried to get up and stabbed it!
"Squish!!"
"Graaah~~~"
The moment the military knife pierced it, the zombie let out a strange cry. I didn't have time to wonder why it had screamed as it died. I stood up and looked toward the approaching zombies, then at the car, still six or seven meters away...
"There's no time! I can only..."
I gritted my teeth and watched the zombies charging at me. Then I slowly closed my eyes, recalling that feeling of intense concentration!
"Vmmm~~~"
A strange sound entered my ears, and at the same time, that feeling surged into my heart. When I opened my eyes again, everything before me had slowed down.
So slow that... I could clearly see the rotten, spoiled organs protruding from the zombie's torn-open belly!
So close. When I'd closed my eyes just now, the zombie had still been six or seven meters away, about level with the car I was trying to reach. Had it covered all that distance in the time it took me to close my eyes?
And... there was something about this zombie that bothered me. It seemed different from the others, though I couldn't say exactly how. Its movements looked more human, and in this nearly frozen scene, it was clearly running faster than the other zombies!
"Is this... a new kind of mutant? It doesn't really look like one..."
I was surprisingly calm. My state of mind was just like entering Sage Mode, completely undisturbed. I couldn't feel any emotional fluctuations at all.
I strode forward. Even though I didn't feel particularly fast, I was still moving much faster than the zombie in front of me.
Out of habit, I stabbed the dagger into its head, pulled it out, and kept walking toward the car. For some reason, I couldn't run in this state. The most I could do was take longer strides.
But I continued walking at my usual pace, because my mind had somehow calculated exactly when the zombie and I would reach the car!
In this state, I even had time to look back. The zombies behind me were only about twenty meters away. They'd already passed the hospital's rear entrance and were running toward me.
My calculations were spot-on...
By the time I put my hand on the car door, the nearest zombie was still at least two meters away from me...
...What was this, exactly?
Still thinking, I opened the car door and slipped inside, pulling it shut behind me. The moment the door closed, there was a "thump," and I snapped out of that state. A powerful wave of exhaustion washed over me.
### "Phew..."
But... just as I'd started to relax, a deep, ragged breath suddenly sounded beside me!
In an instant!
I whipped around!
"Graaah!!!!"
A zombie!! It was a zombie that looked like a child around seven or eight years old!!
And this child-sized zombie wasn't making the usual zombie growl. It was letting out a piercing scream!
"Just die!!"
I swung the military knife in my hand. It was almost pure instinct, but to my surprise, this short little thing was incredibly fast!!
It... could bounce around inside this spacious car!!
"Thump!" My military knife struck empty air, and the little zombie leaped in front of the windshield in an instant. The moment I turned around, I instinctively drew the pistol from my waist!
As I pulled out the gun, a horribly twisted face appeared in my view!
"Graaah!!!!"
"Bang!!!"
I pulled the trigger, the gun aimed at the chin of the little zombie right in front of me. In an instant, the little zombie shuddered violently. Almost as fast as a flash of lightning, its head suddenly burst with a "pop!" Red, black, yellow, and other viscous fluids sprayed all over the ceiling of the car!
"Splut, splut, splut~"
The thick fluid struck the fuzzy ceiling, then dripped down like rain, making a squelching sound. The stench was so foul that I immediately threw up,
"Ugh..."