Battle Royale

"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?

With its left-side front passenger's seat and roof facing them, the minivan was honeycombed. It looked more like a strange beehive in the shape of a car.

The sky was orange now. Shuya couldn't bother to look at it, but judging from the light, he assumed there was a nice sunset in the western sky.

"Did you get him?" Shuya asked. Shogo was about to reply when—

The minivan proceeded to move. It was backing up. It cut across the edge of the field and backed up to the shoulder of the road. Once again, towards the back of their truck.

Shuya was speechless. Not only was the van's engine still functioning, Kazuo was still alive and operating the vehicle. Shogo had wagered everything by emptying their entire bullet supply and yet...Kazuo was still alive!

Beyond the bullet-ridden vehicle, Kazuo's upper body sprung up like a jack-in-the-box. With a machine gun. With the rattling sound, the small window above Noriko's head shattered. Two holes were punctured into the steel board next to it. The truck was a domestic model made of flimsy steel, so Shuya was surprised it had actually remained unscathed this long. This also might have been thanks to the washer and refrigerator lying on the rack. Or maybe, Shogo had loaded them, anticipating this situation.

"Damn it!" Shogo shifted gears and moved the car out. "Shoot, Shuya! Back me up!"

Shuya fired his CZ75 at Kazuo's minivan. Kazuo fired back, the bullets landing right next to Shuya's face as sparks flew from the steel frame of the truck.

Shuya immediately emptied his gun. He changed the magazine and fired. Then he realized, once I shoot this round, I'm out of bullets. We'll only have Noriko's Browning and her extra magazine. That's it.

While he hesitated, Kazuo fired. He heard the rattle. A zinging sound. More sparks this time from the refrigerator on the rack. The small door on the freezer swung open and fell out.

"Shogo! I'm out of bullets!"

Shogo calmly steered the wheel. "His machine gun will be useless too. He doesn't have time to reload it."

Just as Shogo said, single shots came at them now. BLAM, POP. The seat by Noriko's shoulder exploded.

"Noriko! Get down!" Shuya yelled, stuck his arm out of the window, pointed at Kazuo, who now held a gun in one hand, and fired. He was out of bullets. He took the Browning from Noriko's hand. He fired again.

To the left of the pickup, between the houses and the field, was a warehouse burnt to the ground. That must have been what Shogo had been referring to, the building that went up in flames in the late night explosion. Now they had less than two hundred meters before hitting the curve that led to the residential area on the eastern side of the island. "Hey, Shogo, that's—"

Shogo replied, "I know," and swerved the wheel to the left. The left side of the truck under Shuya's body floated up. But once it regained its balance, the truck leaped onto the unpaved road. It was another road twisting through the fields, heading back up to the northern mountain. Kazuo followed after them in the minivan.

Shuya aimed and fired. Kazuo ducked and fired away. This time the steel board right next to Shogo's head was punctured.

"Shuya! Just keep on shooting until you're out! Don't let him shoot!" Shogo yelled, hunched over the wheel. Shuya noticed the left shoulder of his school coat was torn and bleeding. He'd been hit by Kazuo.

Shuya was about to protest, but he leaned out of the window and fired. Shogo might plan on escaping into the mountain again. If so, then the thing was to make sure Kazuo couldn't shoot. Or by some stroke of luck, maybe I'll end up hitting him—

He fired.