Chapter 45 - Area D (2)

The seniors sprang out of the military vehicle in an instant.

“Bring Hilde out, will you?”

Ami spoke casually, then slipped out the door too.

She must have been talking to Walker. He and I were the only ones left inside.

Walker, who surprisingly had the least seniority after me, made no reply. But William Walker had an immense presence even with his mouth shut.

The largest man I had ever seen took a firm grip on my arm and leaped out the door, dragging me along.

What strength. It matched his build. Walker had the sort of face that would have made me avert my eyes without fail if I passed him on the street.

I landed in the cold wind.

A vast horizon stretched before me. A decaying city filled my view: deserted buildings and worn-down asphalt.

Unknown things crowded close all around us.

The field guide cried out.

[Creature: ‘Plague God.’ Level 6. Inflicts damage by ramming its rotting body into targets. Its true body is a black parasite living inside a host. The host dies one week after turning into a Plague God. Highly aggressive, with some specimens possessing potent venom...]

[Creature: ‘Witch.’ Level 5. Floats through the air toward targets and fires energy blasts. The more skilled the Witch, the more powerful its blasts. Spears and swords are more effective against it than guns. Its weakness is...]

[Creature: ‘Young Goat.’ Level 4. Shoots venom from three split mouths. The more skilled the Young Goat, the more eyeballs it possesses. Its weakness is...]

[Creature: ‘Flying Insect.’ Level 4. Its small body cuts through the air before it detonates itself. Travels in swarms, causing successive small explosions. Its weakness is...]

[Creature: ‘Young Goat.’ Level 4. From three split...]

[Creature: ‘Young Goat.’ Level 4...]

BANG! BANG! BANG!

A goat's head burst.

“I'll take the goats,” Aki announced, tucking bobbed hair behind one ear. “Let me know if you need help anywhere else.”

“Jason! You and I will take the Plague God!”

Richard Green ran off carrying a gun as big as his torso.

The Plague God approaching from a distance was the largest of the creatures. The most intimidating, too. Did being level six really warrant such a difference from the rest?

Tvein clicked his tongue and loaded his gun.

“The rest of you, clear out everything around us!”

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!

Headshot! Headshot! Headshot!

Aki's bullets burst the goats' heads with perfect accuracy, at a breathtaking pace.

I stayed where I had landed, watching the seniors clear out the creatures. My hand had reflexively gone to my scabbard, but I couldn't work out where to fit into their rhythm.

I'd only get in the way if I jumped in carelessly.

Walker released my arm and strode heavily forward.

“Recruit.”

His voice was a deep rumble, his back still turned to me.

“Yes, sir.”

“Get the vehicle back upright.”

What?

“It's our only ride.”

Why were we so poorly equipped?

The Library in Area E had several self-driving motorcycles.

Of course, I turned at once without arguing and ran toward the military vehicle lying all alone on the asphalt.

I grabbed a wheel of the vehicle lying on its side and put my strength into it. As I pressed down hard on the wheel, the vehicle rose smoothly and settled upright.

“Oh. There we go.”

CRUNCH.

Something was crushed behind me.

I whipped my head around and saw Walker's enormous fist. Blood and saliva dripped between his tightly clenched fingers.

I stared blankly at the man who had crushed a Flying Insect to death with his bare hand.

Where was his weapon...?

“The Flying Insects are swarming around you.”

Walker swung his blood-seeping fist.

He whipped his arm around like a pitcher, his thick arm crossing my view at incredible speed. The dead Flying Insect sailed through the air like a baseball.

The curled-up corpse cut through the gray air and struck the Flying Insects heading toward us.

THUD! THUD!

The creatures plummeted after being struck by their companion's corpse.

So this man fought barehanded.

“Stick by the vehicle. You're in the way.”

With that blunt instruction, he swung fists even larger than Richard Green's. I watched in astonishment as the Flying Insects died in droves under his frighteningly fast punches and bombardment of corpses.

Was there any need for me to get involved?

Watching Walker move away from the vehicle after bursting all the insects buzzing toward us and bombarding them to death with corpses, I felt certain there wasn't.

Ami had said they all ranked among the top ten, “even including Yun, Yehyeon, and Ska.”

Like Ami, Richard Green and Jason Tvein were war heroes who had survived the First and Second Wars. But Aki and William Walker had joined through open recruitment. They had never experienced war, nor, I was told, had they lost family to creatures or anything of the sort.

They had risen above experience on the strength of innate talent.

Aki had apparently represented an outlying core in shooting. I had heard William Walker used to be a fixer in Center Core.

[“In terms of sheer talent, they might be better than anyone else in the Badgers, don't you think?”]

Ami's words lingered in my mind.

The ambush had been sudden, but defending against it posed no problem.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT!

Aki's gunfire kept coming. Walker punched an energy blast apart (was that even possible?), then burst the ghostlike Witch's head with his hand.

Green and Tvein were practically turning the Plague God into a sieve.

Where was Ami?

[Creature: ‘Mad Buffalo.’ Level 5. Individual specimens are not particularly powerful, but they always travel in herds...]

“Mad cows incoming!”

Ami shrieked from midair.

“Run! We'll all get trampled to death!”

The ground shook.

I turned to follow Ami's gaze and saw a cloud of dust shrouding the bases of the decaying apartment buildings.

What was that?

Stunned, I watched a goat creature fly through the air and a herd of distorted water buffalo emerge from the dust cloud.

There were creatures like those too?

What was the point of creatures like that even existing? And why did they just keep coming here? Was I the problem, or was it the area?

Both?

“Hey! Start the engine!”

Tvein was already running toward me, bellowing.

“Get the vehicle moving!”

“What?”

But I didn't have a license.

“Are you blind? Can't you see that?”

“I can, but...”

“It's hands-on training!”

Ami swooped down from the sky with a bright smile.

“Hilde, get in the driver's seat! Brake on the left, gas on the right!”

Wow. So simple.

There was no time to argue. Without thinking, I ran to the vehicle I had righted and flung open the driver's door.

I sprang into the seat, the road stretching out beyond the half-shattered windshield. I heard people jumping in. Walker. Aki. Tvein. Green.

Ami slipped into the passenger seat.

Wait. I thought I knew how to do this.

“Hilde, that's the ga—”

SCREEEECH!

I floored the gas.

The vehicle shot forward. Ami, who had been pointing at the pedal, cried out, “Aah!” and toppled forward before catching herself. I heard reflexive exclamations from the seniors in the back too.

But there was no time to turn around and apologize.

In the rearview mirror, I could see the buffalo herd closing in.

I pressed the gas again, picking up more speed. The battered military vehicle wouldn't go as fast as I wanted, but it had the advantage of plowing right over the ruined road.

I just had to maintain this speed. I turned the wheel to avoid a rapidly approaching obstacle.

“Aah! Hey! Signal before you turn!”

“You're good at this!”

Tvein was complaining, while Ami leaned forward beside me and laughed merrily.

“Hilde, so it was just the license you didn't have!”

Apparently so.

A forgotten memory surfaced. As I held the steering wheel, another scene overlaid my vision, bringing back a memory I missed.

A memory of driving.

Someone had been sitting beside me. Someone with an androgynous, friendly voice. A whisper: [“You'll get your license in no time.”]

Ah. They had almost always worn a white lab coat. Their hair had been two-toned. Black and blue? Blue and purple?

In any case, -- had held that person in contempt. They knew nothing, -- said, couldn't even begin to guess what would inevitably happen.

But since they were friendly toward us, we ought to be nice to them on the surface.

-- would say that while brushing aside black hair that hung like a curtain.

Who could have guessed we'd live this comfortably?

By the way, we've got some time to spare. Care to spar with swords?

Like the good old days?

THUMP!

A mad buffalo rammed the rear of the vehicle.

“Don't stop!”

Richard Green's deep voice rang out as he opened the roof hatch.

“Never mind them, just keep driving! We have to thin them out at some point anyway.”

“Richard. I'll do it.”

Ami slipped from the passenger seat into the back.

In the rearview mirror, I saw her leap up through the open sunroof. She was still wearing those unusual boots.

Was she going to use them to fly up and kick the buffalo down?

Even as I drove along the seemingly endless road, I kept glancing at the rearview mirror.

Richard Green made no particular objection, and Ami vanished from view.

For about two minutes...

CRUNCH!

An enormous noise came from behind us.

Startled, I looked at the rearview and side mirrors. But the windows and mirrors were all covered in blood. I couldn't see anything.

What the...?

“I bundled about twenty of them together and took them out.”

Ami slipped back into the vehicle.

“There's a mountain of corpses now, so that should put some distance between us.”

Green gave a deep grunt of acknowledgment. The other seniors sat there, perfectly calm.

The smell of blood filled the vehicle. I had to make an effort not to gape stupidly at Ami as she casually brushed herself off.

I had no idea what she'd done. Judging by the bits of creature bone and flesh splattered on both side mirrors, I didn't think she'd simply kicked them down.

Bundled about twenty together?

The person who had always seemed like a youthful little sister to me threw off her jet-black outerwear and returned to the passenger seat.

Then she smiled at me.

“You can slow down a little now!”

“... Yes, ma'am.”

“If you go too fast, it'll be a harder impact if we hit something.”

“Let's take it slow. You really are a good driver, though.” I just kept nodding as Ami chatted amiably to me.

I ignored Richard Green grumbling behind me, “You should have gotten your license ages ago if you're this good,” and Aki asking Walker, “Was that recruit from your world, by any chance? Why didn't he get a license?”

I opened the window, wiped the side mirror with my hand, and kept driving.

Until we reached our destination.

* * *

The safe point stood in a wide-open wasteland.