Chapter 55 - Subway (4)

There had been no need to warn me not to touch the walls. One look made it obvious I shouldn't. I frowned at the dark red walls, which looked as though slabs of muscle clung to them. They were even writhing.

Toothed mouths dotted the writhing walls.

What a sight.

Fortunately, the floor was relatively normal, and the walls weren't doing anything that could be called an attack. They were unpleasant to look at, but nothing happened.

There was a strange, fishy smell.

Grateful that I could see again, at least, I followed my senior. He ran without stopping.

We ran along a strangely narrow stretch of track. I frowned as the passage grew tighter and tighter. The ceiling grew thicker as we went. Mouths attached to it opened and closed, dripping saliva onto the tracks.

This was the worst.

“This way.”

I caught sight of artificial light, then platform screen doors came into view. Unlike the previous station, every screen door here stood wide open. My senior sprang onto the platform, and I hurried after him.

The walls here looked a little cleaner?

Once again, the scene resembled a subway station in the early hours of the morning. A long corridor with no end in sight. Lights casting a pallid glow over its emptiness. Our steady running footsteps echoed through it.

I ran after my senior for a long while.

Until another sound joined them.

JINGLE

A clear sound. It came from behind us. Despite his earlier warning, I nearly stopped. The moment the bell rang, it felt as though every other sound had been erased.

It was behind us...

But I didn't stop. I had to run. There were people who would be pursuing us. I kept moving after my senior, who never looked back.

JINGLE

Closer. Louder than before. Once again, every sound around me vanished. I pressed my lips together and fought to keep moving.

He'd told me not to follow the bell, but hadn't said anything about the bell following us, had he? What would happen if it caught up?

Should I take a quick look back?

I debated whether to call to my senior running ahead or look behind me.

Then I turned my head slightly to the right.

JINGLE

There was nothing there. The corridor was empty. The bell was clearly ringing only a few steps behind me, but there was nothing where the sound came from. Just the pale subway station we had run through. Beyond the gaping screen doors, I could see the dark red creature, but the corridor where the bell rang held nothing.

Not even a gnat.

The hair on the back of my neck stood on end.

“Hey!”

My senior's sharp shout jolted me out of my stare down the empty corridor.

“Snap out of it!”

When had I stopped?

I'd only turned my head a little. I didn't remember stopping. Blinking, I stared at him as he rushed back to me. I knew I needed to run toward him, but for some reason my feet wouldn't move.

He seized my arm.

“Several Badgers have been devoured by that sound.”

He started running, dragging me with him. Hatred and fear colored his voice.

“Don't listen. Focus on another sound. No, sing something, or talk to me.”

“What do you mean, devoured? There's nothing around us.”

“I don't know either. No one's ever seen what's making that sound.”

How did that make sense?

I couldn't understand being devoured by something with no physical form. Nor could I understand something making a sound without one. Yet the sound was clearly coming from behind me.

At any rate, he'd brought me back to my senses. With his hand still gripping my arm, I ran in step with him, trying not to listen as the bell began to ring again.

I needed to talk.

“What do you mean, devoured? Do they disappear?”

“No. We find their bodies drained of moisture, shriveled and dry.”

“What?”

“Usually they lose their senses like you did, then run off after the bell. Like they've fallen under the Pied Piper's spell. If we chase them down and bring them to their senses, they live. But every Badger we couldn't catch, who disappeared, was found with nothing left but an empty husk.”

Now I understood why I'd been told not to enter the subway. I'd rather face the two-story creature that shot electricity. I found myself missing the Pig I'd encountered beneath the Library of Beginnings. With those, all I had to do was hit, stab, dodge, and cut off their limbs.

JINGLE

A clear, pure sound.

My senior must have heard it too, because his grip tightened on my arm.

“Questions. Ask questions,” he said through clenched teeth.

I didn't refuse.

“How much do you know about me? What am I?”

“Not much in detail. They only told me as much as they needed to.”

“My old comrades? The ones I supposedly betrayed?”

“Yeah.”

“What did they say?”

His eyes rolled toward me as we ran. Meeting his gaze, I studied the deserter again. Deep green eyes and blond hair so pale it was nearly white. Now that he'd cut off his beard, his features looked gentle.

His voice drowned out the bell.

“Bronze skin, bright yellow eyes. Over 180 centimeters tall. Snow-white hair. They said you used to wear it down to your waist. Strong, open features. And you'd be carrying a sword.”

“... That's what they told you?”

“Yeah. Told me to bring them whoever matched that description. Even gave me a rough location. The moment I saw you struggling on top of that fungus, I knew you were the traitor they meant.”

“How do they say I betrayed them?”

The answer didn't come at once. Stairs appeared, and we ran up them. Ticket gates came into view. Without hesitation, we ran toward the gates on the opposite side, passed through them, and raced down the stairs.

Would the bell follow us this far?

The moment I thought it, I spotted a flattened lump of hide at the foot of the stairs.

“They didn't give me the details,” he replied, jumping over the unidentified lump. “Just that you'd betrayed your own kind. That you'd become so infatuated with humans you'd forgotten what you were. So they were going to drag you back and kill you.”

“Why not just kill me on the spot?”

“They said they wouldn't give you an easy death.”

“This is driving me insane. I don't even remember what I did wrong.”

“I was hoping to hear it from you. It's driving me up the wall too. What did you do?”

Platform screen doors stretched before us again. This time, they were all closed, with a train standing behind them. Still holding my arm, he ran toward the doors and pressed something repeatedly.

WHIRR

The screen doors opened.

The train stood before us. He forced its doors open by hand, and we leaped into the dark interior.

“We should be all right now, shouldn't we?”

“Don't let your guard down until we're out of the station.”

Without releasing my arm, he strode toward the front of the dark train. Frowning, I nodded and let him lead me, trying not to step on the miscellaneous objects littering the floor. Some things were there for purposes I couldn't fathom. Planks. Cabinets. Small chairs.

We soon reached the driver's cab.

“Sir.”

By now, something as minor as his knowing how to drive a train no longer surprised me. I watched him finally release my arm and prepare to get the train moving. He gave a “Hmm” and busily worked the controls.

The control panel began to glow in different colors in the dark. I watched his profile as he concentrated.

“Why did you desert?”

For a long while, he didn't look at me.

CLUNK

The train began to move. Power hummed through its motor.

The train, which surely hadn't carried passengers in years, began running along the tracks. I watched the rails sweep rapidly backward.

Would we escape faster than they could pursue us?

His answer was slow in coming.

“A long time ago.”

I waited quietly for him to continue.

“Sophia once pointed a gun at Yehyeon.”

Who was Sophia?

I wasn't tactless enough to ask. He must have left that out because it didn't need explaining. He was a sharp man. We'd only spent a few hours together, but I could feel his quick intelligence at work.

The silence didn't last long.

“Her lover was sacrificed during an operation. It was on Yehyeon's orders, but it wasn't his fault. A string of things happened that no one could have predicted. I've gone over it a hundred times, and his orders were right for the situation. If sacrificing one person lets everyone else live, shouldn't that person be sacrificed?”

“Yes.”

Someone had to make those decisions.

Someone had to bear that weight. It was a position that demanded counting lives, even if they couldn't be measured. Yehyeon had gained power in exchange for shouldering the weight of those lives.

I felt for the Yehyeon who'd had to send a subordinate to their death. The choice might have been easy, but living with the outcome couldn't have been. It must have hurt.

He was a man made of good intentions.

“I was one of the people who stopped Sophia.”

Weariness seeped into his voice.

“Never imagining I'd be seized by the same urge years later.”

“I'm sorry.”

“In the end, I was worse than Sophia.”

He didn't seem to hear me. I watched him slumped in the driver's seat, staring ahead. Lost in thought, he gave a derisive laugh that seemed directed at himself.

“Sophia eventually lowered her gun and turned away. She kept serving faithfully afterward. But I couldn't overcome my grief and hatred, so I deserted.”

“Do you hate Yehyeon?”

“I pity him, and I hate him. I tried not to hate him, but it was no use.”

He buried his face in both hands. His body curled in on itself. It was as though the grief he'd pushed aside had settled heavily over him.

For a long while, I listened to the train running along the tracks and waited for him to crawl out of his despair. I knew nothing I said would help. A switch inside him had been flipped. He would be back in those days now.

He lifted his head after the train passed through a gently curving tunnel.

“What's your name?”

... What?

Wait. He didn't know my name? He knew I wasn't human, knew I was a traitor, but not that?

I stared at him in disbelief, then answered.

“Hildebert Taleb. Please call me Hilde.”

“My name's Jin.”

He raised his head, met my eyes, and smiled faintly.

“Jin Silver.”

“... Nice to meet you.”

“Pass a message on to the head of HR for me.”

I didn't understand. As I blinked, Jin rose abruptly. He turned, his face perfectly composed, as though he'd never been grieving. Then he strode over and flung open the cab door.

I watched him step into the passenger car, my eyes wide.

Was he leaving? Leaving me on a moving train and heading back to his base?

Well, he'd already helped me a great deal.

Still, I wanted to ask exactly what he intended, so I turned and followed. Jin had already reached the far end of the first car. As he opened the door leading to the second, I shouted at the top of my lungs.

“Jin!”

“Tell Zhu I'm sorry.”

Jin turned in the doorway and smiled. A smile so sorrowful it seemed to make my heart sink.

“That I couldn't overcome it in the end. He really did try to get me back on my feet.”

BOOOM!

The train exploded. More precisely, the rear cars exploded. An eardrum-splitting roar. A rush of hot air. Devastation unfolded beyond the open door. The severed train. Gray cars smashing into the tracks and exploding.

Fortunately, the part of the train we stood in was intact. But beyond the severed cars, I could clearly see the tracks rushing past.

And the thing that had cut them off.

The thing standing at the end of what remained of the moving train.

It was a person.

With the whites of its eyes burned black.

“I'll buy you time. Run, Hildebert.”

Blocking the doorway, Jin drew a gun from his waist. Then he looked back at me with a bright, unclouded smile.

“You'll side with humans again this time, won't you?”

“Wait.”

“Their leader woke up a few months ago. Came to me and said all they needed to do was catch you.”

Jin's faded hair whipped wildly in the wind. The thing in the station was closing in, slowly crossing the second car with its nails poised. I clenched my teeth and stepped forward. Jin stepped into the second car.

He aimed his gun at the threshold.

“Be Yehyeon's winning card, Hilde.”

BANG!

The train split apart. I lunged, but missed him by a fraction. Lying prone in the first car, I frantically called his name. No answer came.

Cruelly, the train didn't stop. As it rounded a bend, everything left behind vanished from sight.

My cheeks were wet.

Darkness settled, and the sounds grew distant.

I wept without a sound.