End of the World Broadcast

Chairs left desolately in an empty office.
Using them as a bed, I spent the night, and what greeted me when I opened my eyes was…
…legs that had stiffened like stone and extreme muscle pain.

“Aaaargh….”
Groans escape me involuntarily from the leg pain that has been constantly transmitted since the moment I woke up.
I know. I know, okay? I moved my body too much these past few days, even by my own standards.
Walking tens of kilometers a day on snow-covered roads where my feet sink in deeply.
Climbing up and down the 10M shelves many times, relying on just one unstable ladder.
Decisively, climbing buildings with dozens of floors twice. Even this time, with a heavy bag on my back.

“I guess I went a bit too far this time…”
All this time, wandering around various cities alone has made my body quite strong.
To the point where I’m confident that my stamina, leg muscle density, and body fat percentage wouldn’t lose to any decent athlete.
It’s a remarkable thing when I think about my old self who, due to respiratory problems, couldn’t even run around, let alone exercise properly.
But due to various factors including poor food conditions and innate limitations such as height and skeletal structure, my body has almost reached its limit.

Even when muscle pain comes after moving diligently all day, I no longer feel like my muscles are growing.
It’s just a pure, simple pain, as if I’ve punched a hard stone wall, that comes rushing in proportion to how much I overexerted myself.
That’s why I didn’t move to the point of straining my muscles unless it was an emergency, like having no food to eat…

“…I was too excited.”
For the first time, I’ve made contact with survivors. I was too excited at the thought that I might soon meet survivors.
So is this pain now the result of my body rebelling against my reason, which lost self-control to the point of not caring about my physical condition, telling me to come to my senses?

“I thought I’d be fine in a day or two, but looking at my condition, I might need to rest more.”
Groooan, I frown in pain and touch the controller to activate the drone.
Then, messages like [Aren’t you overdoing it?] or [How much are you moving?] greeted me.
It’s probably a coincidence, but it feels like a bit of a sting.
If I could have received those messages in real-time yesterday, I wouldn’t have moved this much. The more I think about it, the more regrettable it is.

“Ugh, hello everyone. I got up safely today… Ah. I wonder if the word ‘safely’ is inappropriate. It’s not life-threatening, but as I expected yesterday, muscle pain has arrived. And it’s extremely severe. To the point where I can’t move my legs at all.”
Putting aside my regrets, I wave at the drone that’s risen into the air and greet it.

“Ah. I wish I had wings that could let me fly freely through the sky like that drone. You can’t even imagine how terribly my legs hurt right now.”
Though it’s hidden by thick pants and a coat, my legs are currently suffering severely, with muscles tensing and relaxing on their own, sometimes even cramping, as I pay the price for not taking care of my body.

“From now on, I’ll be humble again… and only move to the extent that doesn’t strain my body. I didn’t realize while moving around, but I really did overdo it these past few days. You sent me worried messages even though you’re seeing me for the first time, which says it all.”
I showed the drone the message window that appeared on my controller.

“You know. In the future, if it seems like I’m overdoing it─ I’d like you to send me worried messages like yesterday. Of course, I’ll be careful myself, but when I’m with you, I get excited without even realizing it.”
It’s happening now too. Just until a moment ago, I was grimacing in extreme muscle pain, but from the moment I started broadcasting, I’ve been smiling broadly, except when wincing when my muscles tense up.

“Of course, there’s a time barrier of a day between you and me, so even if you give me warnings like this, I won’t be able to understand them right away. So─ it’s a bit embarrassing… but I’d like you to send me a worried message or… a message asking about my well-being once or twice every day.”
It makes me happy just knowing that someone is concerned about my health.
And it reminds me of my parents who were worried about my health right up until I went into a long sleep.

“Knowing that you’re worried about me, I’ll smile and be careful in any situation. Yes. Just like a desert fox waiting for the Little Prince.”
The difference is that the desert fox is in the position of waiting for the Little Prince who is traveling.
And I’m the one who is directly going to find you.
I hope that we can both be safe until I can reach you.

“Hmm… but staying like this is a waste of food and time. Is there no way?”
It was comfortable and enjoyable to chatter about various things while lying on the bed made of chairs.
But I was also sorry thinking about the canned food that would pile up until the muscle pain disappeared.
And I didn’t want to suffer from the irregular pain that would continue to come until the pain disappeared.

“Isn’t there any way? I do have painkillers I’ve been saving… but I don’t want to use precious medicine for such a trivial matter.”
The handgun, painkillers, and some medical tools I’ve packed in my bag were prepared assuming the worst situation.
Just muscle pain… well, it’s not trivial enough to call it “just,” but anyway, it’s too wasteful to take them because of muscle pain.

“Come to think of it… I think in the distant past, when muscle pain was severe, they said to do light exercise or massage with a ball like this.”
Rummaging through my bag for anything that might help, I found the fluorescent ball I discovered in the supermarket yesterday.
The ball, which emits a soft light even in darkness, was packed in case my flashlight ran out of power or I needed a marker…
It seemed sufficiently usable as a massage tool, being appropriately hard yet durable.

“This will probably hurt… right?”
Even when I gently kneaded with my hands, it hurt, so pressing with a ball like this would definitely be extremely painful.
Knowing that, I slowly bring the ball to my thigh.
Without stimulating the muscle, just lightly rolling it over my pants, my muscles contract in surprise on their own, causing pain.
If I press firmly and give a strong stimulus in this state… what would happen?

“Ugh… Ugh……”
Thinking that the pain I’m feeling now could be felt several times more strongly, my pupils shake violently, and the strength leaves my hand holding the ball.

“But, but! If I can walk even a little bit faster!”
I don’t have a sexual preference for enjoying pain, nor am I an ascetic trying to shake off suffering and find enlightenment by self-flagellation.
Therefore, the act of causing myself pain is scary and very repulsive.
But with the sole thought that enduring a moment of pain could save many things, I firmly grasp the ball and press down hard on my tightly knotted thigh from top to bottom.
Then, the muscle, which was so stiff it could be described as “lumpy,” moved greatly due to the stimulus from outside.

“~~~~~~~~~~~~~~!!”
I let out a silent scream at the immense pain that came instantly, a pain that went beyond simple pain to burn my nerves and even stir my head.
Did I press too hard, or was the position bad?
Was the problem that I tried to carelessly use knowledge I had only encountered in writing, the idea of “using tools like balls to loosen tight muscles”?
There was no time to think about such things as my head went white with pain, and I shook my body wildly left and right.

Crash──!
I ended up falling under the chair.

“Mmmph, mmg, hmmm……”
Damn, damn it, damn it all, such harsh curses come out naturally because it’s so painful and agonizing that tears are streaming down.
The violent pain makes a mess of my head, as if what I just did was like poking a sleeping dog with a stick in a house with a “Beware of Fierce Dog” sign.
But, but.
If this action, this pain, can speed up recovery even a tiny bit.

“─I can, I can endure it. I can do it. I can do it…!”
Even just bringing the ball in my hand close to my thigh makes my body flinch and brings tears to my eyes.
But I could endure it. I had to endure it.
I bit my lip firmly and once again pressed the ball hard on my thigh, pushing it along the muscle.

“Ugh, huh. It’s too much, too much now. Now my head, my head really hurts too…”
And how much time passed?
Screaming many times, rolling on the floor.
Rubbing my thighs and the upper part of my calves with the hard ball. And placing the ball under my legs and using my weight to stimulate the back muscles.
Looking at the intensity of the pain, it was a terrible act that could be called self-harm, but after repeating this, I was able to move my legs quite freely compared to when I first woke up.
The wisdom of the ancient ancestors was not wrong.
…Setting aside that the process was so terrible that I never want to go through it again.

“…Even so, my thighs and calves are still very tight.”
It was only to loosen the tense muscles, not a panacea that eliminates all pain, so there was still pain coming from the tense muscles.
But it’s something that I can now walk with legs that were so stiff they couldn’t move from the chair.

“Going down the stairs would still be difficult. Without overdoing it, I’ll just look around for anything useful inside today and take a rest…?”
Standing on my feet and moving my body this way and that to loosen my tense body.
When I tilted my back to look at the ceiling for a back stretch, my eyes met directly with the drone filming me from above.

…Since when has it been filming me from there?
Could it have been there the whole time from the beginning?
Then does that mean everyone saw a grown adult holding a fist-sized ball, massaging their thighs and calves while crying?
Screaming and rolling around, then hitting my forehead on chair wheels or the corner of a desk and flailing about again?

“Good grief.”
I seriously considered not checking tomorrow morning’s chat.