Black Badger

People stared at Trevain with stunned expressions.

It didn’t take long for surprise to turn into anger. They were the sort brimming with a sense of entitlement. There was no way they’d tolerate being treated like this.

One man, his face flushed red, pointed at Trevain.

“Who do you think you are, barking orders at us?!”

“Then get out.”

Trevain looked even more irritated than usual.

He’d thought he was here for a sweet vacation, only for a major incident like this to explode in his face. There was no way he’d be in a good mood.

“If you don’t want help, shut up and crawl into a corner! I’ll do exactly what you want.”

“Black Badger’s mission is to rescue civilians!”

“Which is why I’m telling you to line up in two columns!”

Baang!

Trevain slammed his fist into the shelter wall.

The wall caved inward.

Judging by the fact that it didn’t punch all the way through, he’d held back at least a little.

People sucked in sharp breaths.

Then they all hurriedly formed lines. Of course, a few still refused to back down. Some civilians loved threatening Badgers with the rule that “Black Badgers cannot harm civilians.”

A burly man with fists the size of his head threatened Jason.

“I’ll report how you treated us!”

“Go ahead. Just be prepared to make it back alive on your own.”

Naturally, that didn’t work on Trevain.

He spoke flatly and stepped in front of the people lining up in two columns.

It was almost funny how, even while grumbling, he diligently controlled those who were lining up properly.

“There are only two field Badgers here, so it wouldn’t be strange if we can’t save everyone.”

The color drained from the faces of those who’d been lingering without lining up.

A few who’d stubbornly kept their mouths shut quickly rushed to join the line.

Of course, there were still those wearing openly dissatisfied expressions.

“Are Badgers always this rude?”

Impressive, really.

Did they not value their lives? Surely they had plenty to lose.

“Who was the one who shoved a camera in our faces first?”

As Trevain shot back, tendons stood out along his jaw.

“Hey. Camera owner. What’s your name?”

“Why do you need my name...?”

“You not answering?”

Even to me, the fist he clenched while muttering looked threatening.

Did he just wake up?

Or did he, like me, get looked down on by people after arriving on this island?

From the moment Trevain had slammed the brakes in front of the shelter, he’d been on the verge of exploding.

At this point, he was basically taking his anger out on civilians.

Sensing the ominous atmosphere, the man who’d been holding the camera shut his mouth.

When Trevain added one more line, the man’s face even turned pale.

“Never mind. You don’t look like you’ll survive anyway, so why bother remembering your name.”

“Is that a threat?!”

A woman shrieked in a shrill voice.

“Are Black Badgers deciding whose lives are worth saving now?!”

“Please quietly go stand at the back of the line.”

The senior replied through clenched teeth.

It was obvious he was holding back his anger only because the other party was a woman.

“If you dawdle and die, that’s on you.”

“Let’s leave behind those who don’t want to be rescued.”

Shashinsky said this calmly from within the line, where he’d been standing disguised as a civilian.

People’s gazes shifted from Trevain to Shashinsky.

The man, whose skin was so pale blue veins showed through, held his elbow and looked at Trevain.

“It seems time is being wasted because of a few individuals. As you said, perhaps it would be best to leave behind those with many complaints.”

He was a truly capable relief pitcher.

People who agreed with Shashinsky began shouting that the troublemakers should be left behind.

Public opinion flipped in an instant.

No one resisted anymore, not in a situation like this. Grumbling under their breath, everyone lined up in two columns.

Trevain clicked his tongue loudly.

“Anyone here with human hands who can drive manually, not autonomous.”

Hands rose into the air.

Shockingly, there weren’t even four.

Since Shashinsky and Erhart had raised their hands, there were actually only two civilians who could drive.

“Is this for real?”

Unlike me, Trevain didn’t bother hiding his thoughts.

“Are you all greenhouse flowers or what?! Only two people can drive normally?”

“Can’t we just use autonomous driving?”

“If the autonomous system goes down after a Creature attack, we’re screwed.”

When a woman in line asked, Trevain answered in what passed for a polite tone.

Then he told me to go outside and check how many drivable vehicles there were.

There were plenty of cars.

Just not enough drivers.

There were no buses or trucks to pack people into, either.

“No choice. Drivers take the first two cars and the last two cars, and we slot autonomous vehicles in between. Half-wit, you get on the last vehicle. I’m taking the front. Doctor goes in the rear.”

“Yes.”

“Okay.”

“Women and children, please board the front and rear vehicles.”

Trevain flung the shelter doors wide open.

The people lined up flinched.

But nothing happened. Just several luxury vehicles abandoned in front of the shelter. A cold breeze brushed past their skin.

I guided people to the cars together with Trevain.

A few men resisted, but Trevain didn’t indulge their complaints. He barked at them that if they had a problem, they shouldn’t get in.

“If you don’t want to ride, get lost!”

Trevain planned to sit atop the first ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) vehicle, and I intended to sit on the trunk of the last one.

For reference, Shashinsky drove the very last vehicle, and the one directly in front of it was driven by Eric Erhart.

I was a bit surprised that an Elder could drive.

“Hasn’t your skill rusted?”

“By your standards, perhaps.”

Erhart smiled faintly and tapped the steering wheel.

“But not so much that I can’t drive. I take the wheel myself from time to time.”

Seriously?

Despite Shashinsky grumbling about why he’d bothered raising his hand at all, he didn’t drag Erhart out of the driver’s seat, which meant the man really could drive.

Erhart waited leisurely as people boarded the vehicles, then even approached me to make conversation.

“Do you see any familiar faces?”

He meant doctors.

I let out a sigh and shook my head.

“Other than that empty-headed couple, everyone’s a stranger.”

“Hm. So you still don’t know who the rumored doctor is.”

“Is he really here?”

“Probably? I don’t know his face either, so I can’t say for sure.”

Spitfire not knowing someone’s face.

That implied the doctor was either connected to Colton or to Yekaterina. If Eric Erhart didn’t know, that was what it meant.

One of our kind?

Or someone deeply familiar with our kind—perhaps one of the lab personnel who’d witnessed the beginning of the First War?

There was no time to dwell on it.

Everyone had boarded, and it was time to depart for the emergency Core.

Trevain hopped onto the front vehicle and spoke.

[We’re moving.]

After climbing onto the trunk of the car Shashinsky was driving, I nodded.

“Yes.”

The moment I answered, engines roared.

Lights from autonomous vehicles switched on.

The cars, lined up along the coastal road, set off toward the emergency Core.

***

I hope nothing happens.

Feeling my fever rising, I prayed earnestly.

Flying Creatures wouldn’t come, and the Ice Dragon never attacked first.

With no Creatures on land, wouldn’t nothing happen?

That thought shattered just five minutes after we started driving.

“Aaaargh!”

People screamed inside the cars.

“Kyaaah!!”

“Aaah! Aaah!!”

They panicked at what they saw outside the windows.

Bracing against the fierce sea wind, I gripped my sword.

Hippo-sized Creatures were crawling out of the sea.

What made it worse was how fast they were for their size—and how many there were.

Their grotesque appearance didn’t help. Despite having four legs, atop their round necks was something like a starfish’s mouth.

Tadadadadang!

The senior opened fire.

I watched the swarm approaching the road, gauging the timing to swing my blade.

I could fire it now, but the shock of a sword strike might make the moving cars swerve.

It’d be far safer to stab them once they got close enough.

Just a little closer.

A little more—

Screeeech!

Baang!

[Fuck!]

Along with the shriek of skidding tires that stabbed at my ears, Trevain shouted over the comms.

[You—!]

Bang! Baang! Bang!

Collisions followed.

One terrified vehicle hit the accelerator and crashed. That crash instantly turned into a chain reaction. When it slammed into the car ahead, that car was shoved into the next, and so on, all the way to the front.

Bang!

The senior tumbled off the top of a car that had been shoved forward.

I wanted to ask if he was okay, but there was no time. Cars behind the crash slammed on their brakes in succession.

Screech, skreeeek, screech!

The emergency collision-avoidance systems activating in panic pierced the ears.

“What are you doing hitting the accelerator?!”

Someone sobbed from inside a stopped car.

“How can we stop here?!”

The convoy came to a halt.

I barely avoided rolling off the trunk, thanks to the distance Erhart had kept from the car ahead.

The last two vehicles stopped without colliding.

Ahead of them stretched a narrow road, utterly wrecked by multiple collisions.

“Ugh...”

Those caught in the pileup groaned from inside their cars.

Tire marks scarred the road, smoke rising into the sky. The scene of a massive traffic accident filled my vision.

The injured were ordinary people. They couldn’t spring out of their overturned cars like Badgers.

Cursing in the imperial tongue, I jumped down onto the road.

Samuel leapt out as well.

“I’ll handle the injured, so deal with those things!”

The doctor Black Badger boasted about shouted as he ran toward overturned vehicles.

I nodded and drew my sword.

Sword in hand, I walked toward the swarm of Creatures, then bent down to look at Shashinsky seated in the driver’s seat.

“Please lend Samuel a hand.”

Shashinsky nodded silently.

The first thing the aide did upon exiting the car, however, was check on Erhart.

The Elder stepped out with a spotless face.

Seeing he was unharmed, Shashinsky let out a breath of relief, and Erhart patted his shoulder.

“Help organize the accident.”

“Doctor!”

Samuel shouted as he dragged someone out of a crumpled car.

“Doctor!”

He was calling for the rumored doctor.

But no answer came.

Even as the attending physician urgently asked for help while checking the wounded, no one stepped forward claiming to be a doctor.

Someone did run toward me.

“Let’s go.”

The man said it to me.

“The living should live. Let’s leave those who don’t look like they’ll make it and get out of here!”

“Please look after the women and children.”

I replied calmly and walked toward the beach.

“After you load them, depart when I give the signal—”

The man didn’t wait for me to finish.

He twisted away and ran back to the road. I didn’t turn around, but the curses, the sound of an engine revving, and a woman screaming, “Take this child too! Please!” told me everything.

He ran off alone.

He wouldn’t have an easy time surviving.

As if encouraged by his actions, similar sounds followed a few more times. I even heard Erhart chuckle and murmur, “We’ll have to bill him for the vehicle later—if he survives.”

Whoever stole the Elder’s car wouldn’t live long.

Thinking that, I stopped on the sand just as someone approached me, keeping some distance.

I looked at the man with a ferocious expression and smiled faintly.

“Are you all right?”

“Clear out the monsters.”

Trevain said gruffly as he pulled the pin on a grenade.

“As the monster among monsters, this should be nothing to you.”

Baaaang!

The grenade was thrown.

Chunks of Creature flesh scattered in all directions.

Civilians screamed shrilly. Their ears, dulled by the explosion, picked up the sound of their miserable sobbing. Samuel barking orders at Shashinsky and Erhart, too.

Trevain shouting for people to get out of the way because he was flipping a car.

I bent forward in the hazy view.

Better to unleash a sword strike while I still have the strength to hold it.

Before the fever rises further.

“Go back to the sea.”

Baaaang!

I muttered as I worked.

“It’ll be better for both sides.”

A white line sliced through the air.

The bisected Creature offered no reply.

***

On the blood-soaked shore,

Trevain approached me as I stood there leaning on my sword.

He stomped over, snapping irritably about where I’d thrown my comms unit, then stopped beside me and suddenly fell silent.

Only after the quiet became strange did he speak.

“What the hell happened to you?”