Chapter 17

Chapter Information
Chapter 17

Title	Nowhere Man
Volume Number	5
Chapter Number	17
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Previous	Chapter 16
Next	Chapter 18
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17 Thumbless Maeda — Maeda's thumb has been bitten off.

"I've Been Bitten."

The Bokor's severed head has bitten off Maeda's right thumb. As he screams Yoshioka, Yamanoi and Iwakura go over to see what's the matter. Once they see what's going on, Iwakura's instinctive reaction to help kicks in. He shouts out various ways to help Maeda's wound like applying pressure to it, bandaging it, or disinfecting it. But Yamanoi's cold and analytical nature kicks in. "We have to assume he's been infected." Enraged, Yoshioka takes Maeda's machete and slashes the Bokor's head in two. But Yamanoi is deep in thought.

Why did the Bokor look so happy before it died? Then he realizes the truth-- all the while, from Maeda's house to the JSDF to the Academy, the Bokor has been fixated on Maeda. He has been trying to infect him all along. But why Maeda...?

17 Maeda runs from everyone — Maeda runs from Cell 4.

Yoshioka snaps Yamanoi back to reality by asking if Maeda will become one of those monsters now that he has been bitten. Yamanoi, cold as ever, says 'yes.'

Maeda is terrified. Will he really become one of the infected? Is there no other way around this? How can his friends say such a thing?

And then it hits the fan. Iwakura is now armed with the machete and he tells Maeda to hold still. Maeda runs for his life-- his best friends are about to kill him! He watched as Yamanoi shot a bitten inmate without hesitation, so why not him too?

As he runs he is spotted by the Nakazaki brothers. They ask him if he's slacking off on the job of clearing away the monsters. Then they see his bleeding hand and realize what has happened. One of the brothers swings a baseball bat at him, offering to kill Maeda as a human instead of a zombie. Maeda dodges the attack and runs away. The brothers yell to everyone that there is a zombie on the loose, and before he knows it, most of the inmates are chasing after him. He manages to out run them and hid in some bushes.

17 Iwakura raises a cleaver — Iwakura prepares to amputate Maeda's arm.

As Maeda hides he can see what the rest of the inmates are doing. Some of them have chained infected people to posts and are using them as target practice. Other inmates are dissecting bodies. Maeda looks on in fright-- this will be his fate once he turns into a zombie. So he runs and heads for the only place he knows-- cell four.

He opens the door, and there they are. Iwakura. Yamanoi. Yoshioka. All waiting for him and telling them not to make things anymore difficult then they have to be. Maeda turns to run away but is grabbed and thrown to the ground by Yoshioka. As he screams for help Iwakura looks down on him, machete raised and ready to strike.

"Maeda. I'm sorry."