Koushun Takami - Battle Royale

Beyond the bullet-ridden front windshield the view suddenly opened up. The truck was descending the mountain. Under the sunset, the flat field widened between the mountainous woods.

Shuya realized something urgent and said, “Shogo. We’re heading into a forbidden zone—”

“Don’t worry. I know what I’m doing.” Shogo answered as he looked ahead. “Did you hear? The forbidden zones are B-9 after 7 p.m., E-10 after 9 p.m., and F-4 after 11 p.m. Add those to the map.”

Shuya remembered too. He pulled out the worn out map from his pocket, spread it out on his thighs, and marked off the areas while the truck shook.

The truck descended and passed by houses. It entered a road equally wide, but paved this time. The southern mountain was visible beyond the row of fields. On the right was a low hill. On the left approximately two hundred meters away was a residential house (it seemed to be in a forbidden zone). There were two more ahead slightly to its left. And then beyond were scattered houses leading up to the residential area on the island’s eastern shore. In front of that region there was the field, now hidden in the shade of the low hill, where they first encountered Kazuo . One more hill over was the school, which was also hidden from view.

Shogo slowed the truck down and continued forward. And now the wide longitudinal road crossing the island was right there in front of them.

They passed through the fields and came onto the road. Shogo turned the wheel and turned it again. He stopped the truck in the middle of the road, its engine idling. Shogo then lunged at the cracked front windshield with his fist and knocked the entire window out onto the front of the truck. The glass made a shattering sound.

“Check the map,” Shogo said, his hand back on the steering wheel. Shuya picked up the map again. “According to my memory we should still be able to take this road all the way east. Am I right?”

Shuya checked the map with Noriko. “Yeah, that’s right. But F-4 ahead is going to be shut off at 11 p.m.”

“That won’t matter,” Shogo said, his eyes glaring ahead. The black, rain-drenched asphalt stretched out in a straight line. “So this road should be okay right up to the eastern residential area?”

“Yeah, we’re fine up to the front of the curve.”

Shogo nodded in response.

Shuya poked his head out of the window again and looked back. “What about Kazuo?”

Shogo looked at Shuya. “He’ll be coming. How could he not? Take a close—” he said when an old, worn out, light-olive minivan suddenly appeared after turning the curve of the mountain road they’d just descended. Shuya immediately realized it was the vehicle parked by the house they had just passed by.

Shogo adjusted the rearview mirror, looked at it, and said, “See?”

It quickly closed in on them, and the moment Shuya confirmed Kazuo was sitting in the driver’s seat, a burst of shots came exploding out. Shuya tucked his head back in. The bullets hit the truck with a clanging sound. Shogo shifted gears, and the truck moved out onto the wide road, heading east.

As Shuya leaned out of the window looking back, Kazuo’s minivan also got on the same road. Shuya fired his Uzi. Following Kazuo’s reflexes, the minivan smoothly moved to the right and dodged the shots.

“Aim good, Shuya.”

By then Kazuo’s minivan had sped up and caught up to them.

“Shogo! Can’t you drive faster!?”

“Calm down,” Shogo said and steered the wheel slowly from left to right—probably so Kazuo couldn’t aim at the tires. Kazuo began shooting again, and Shuya tucked his head in. It seemed Kazuo had also smashed his windshield so he could have better control of his gun. Shuya leaned out again and fired away at Kazuo’s torso. Kazuo steered away and dodged the gunfire. He hardly ducked.

The row of shells popping out of the ejection port suddenly stopped, and the Uzi trigger mechanism made a locking sound. Shuya realized he was out of bullets.

Shogo leaned over Noriko and gave him another magazine. Before Shuya could take it, Kazuo’s minivan suddenly came up to them. Shuya pulled out his CZ75 and fired away. Undeterred, Kazuo came at them.

“Damn,” Shogo said. His profile broke into a slight grin. “You’re dead wrong if you think you can beat me driving.”

Shogo suddenly made a sharp turn. He simultaneously pulled on the side brake with his left hand. Shuya was thrust to his side. The truck spun around the entire road like a car in a chase scene.

While the truck spun around, Kazuo’s minivan came racing at them. The familiar rattling sound burst at them from the driver’s seat. The rearview mirror shattered above Noriko’s head.

“Duck!” Shogo yelled. But Shuya was busy firing away at Kazuo with his CZ75.

It was a miracle Kazuo’s machine gun bullets missed Shuya. But Shuya’s shots also ended up missing Kazuo too. As the truck’s front bumper skimmed by the minivan’s left frontside, Shuya got a close up view of the eternally frigid eyes of Kazuo Kiriyama.

The tires screeched against the wet surface. The spinning finally halted. By the time it stopped, the hunter and the hunted were reversed. Shogo had managed to dodge the front of Kazuo’s minivan, completing a full spin. Kazuo’s minivan was in front. Shogo immediately accelerated forward. The engine whirred away with a sudden surge of power, and the pickup lunged forward towards the back of the minivan. Kazuo was turning around.

“Fire away, Shuya! Everything you got!” Shogo yelled.

He didn’t have to be told. Shuya squeezed the trigger of his reloaded Uzi with all his might and fired away with the gun on full auto. He knew the scorching, empty shells were bursting out at Noriko, but he couldn’t be concerned about that. The minivan’s rear windshield burst apart. Along with a popping sound, the rear hatch opened up. Then the right tire was blown out with a popping sound. Shuya was out of bullets, but the minivan was now tottering over to the edge of the road.

Shogo stepped on the gas. He pulled up to the left side of the minivan, swerved the wheel, and smashed the right side of the truck against the minivan.

The blow was hard on them, but it was nothing compared to the damage it did to Kazuo’s minivan. At first, it lost control, then it slid to the right side of the road, and flew over its edge. The next moment it landed into the lower field and nosedived to the ground. Cabbage leaves flew up into the air.

Suddenly, it was still.

Shogo stopped the car parallel to the minivan and stepped on the emergency brake. He looked over its roof.

“Give me the gun, Shuya,” Shogo said. Shuya gave him the Uzi. Shogo changed the magazine, extended his arm out of the window, pointed the gun at the minivan, and pulled the trigger. Shogo’s hand shook vertically. Even from the front passenger’s seat Shuya could tell the minivan was getting pummeled with bullets.

Shogo reloaded another magazine and fired away. He inserted another magazine and emptied that one as well. Meanwhile, Noriko was inserting spare bullets into the emptied out magazine with her wounded hand. After she was done, Shogo took that too and fired away. Noriko loaded more magazines. Slightly bent over, Shuya looked at Noriko’s hands, then at Shogo’s, and finally at the minivan.

They went through this round once, then twice. Because the Uzi was a 9mm weapon, they ended up using the bullets from the same caliber CZ75 and Noriko’s Browning too.

The Uzi trigger device indicated the magazine was empty with a locking sound. It was out of bullets. Blue smoke drifted up from the short muzzled Uzi. The narrow cabin was filled with the odor of gunsmoke. How many bullets had Shogo fired? The Uzi Shuya had taken from Yukie’s group came with five extra magazines and plenty of spare bullets, but if they were to include the bullets from the CZ75 and the Browning wouldn’t the number go up to two hundred and fifty? Or three hundred?