WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Natty
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Black Badger ◈
Chapter 39: Escape (2)
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John Mueln did not speak first.
I didn't mind and went straight to the point. I didn't give him a long introduction like, Hello, senior. I'm Hildebert Taleb, the new recruit. Even if I did, he wouldn't listen to a word of it.
I simply threw out the question.
“How do we kill a Fire Shield?”
A brief silence.
Had it been about five seconds? Mueln calmly broke the silence over the phone.
[Three ways.]
As expected, he answered the question faithfully, like an AI.
[Spray it with a huge amount of water until it is extinguished, then kill it with physical attacks.]
“Yes.”
[Heat it to death.]
“Oh... yes.”
[Or trap it and suffocate it by depriving it of oxygen.]
None of those would be easy.
I looked at the stairwell door we had come down through. There was still no sign of the Fire Shield coming down. The door sat quietly closed in the darkness.
But before long, it would blow the door open with a pillar of fire. If it came down into the underground parking garage, things would get much worse. There were a lot of cars here, so the moment the Fire Shield breathed fire, the whole place would become an inferno.
I looked at the cars parked by the electric vehicle charging stations in the distance.
If those caught fire, they wouldn't be easy to put out.
Had coming down to the parking garage been the wrong move?
But if we hadn't come down here, we might have been crushed to death by the debris that collapsed a few minutes ago. Thinking about it, this had been our only choice.
At this point, we had to keep the Fire Shield from entering the underground parking garage or escape as quickly as possible.
I frowned slightly.
“How much water does it take to extinguish it? It didn't go out even when we sprayed it with a fire hydrant.”
[Enough to drown it. A fire extinguisher or hydrant won't be enough.]
“What if we burst a water tank in front of it?”
[It depends on the size of the tank, but it should work.]
“Thank you. Ah, how sealed does a space need to be to suffocate it?”
[Any reasonably enclosed space will do.]
Mueln stopped talking there.
After remaining silent for a moment, he asked back.
[By the way, who are you?]
So he had just answered because the phone rang.
He must have picked up on reflex. It wasn't a video call, but I smiled brightly anyway. Kudo, who had been watching me, raised an eyebrow as if he'd just seen something truly bizarre.
Ignoring everyone's reactions, I answered cheerfully.
“I'm a junior who respects you, senior!”
[It says Test Subject 0.]
This asshole.
Anger flared up, but I quickly got myself under control.
At least he didn't recognize me.
I needed to hang up before he remembered I existed.
I called out in a sunny voice.
“Thank you for your cooperation. I'm busy, so goodbye!”
Click.
I ended the call. After shoving my phone into my pocket, I looked up.
The chairman stared at me in stunned silence. Kudo blinked expressionlessly. The children were gathered around Kudo's Japanese sword, watching it.
The chairman muttered in disbelief.
“John Mueln answered your call, and you hung up on him first? On that scientist of the century? And he was patiently answering every one of those trivial questions?”
“Why are they trivial? Our lives depended on those questions. Senior, did you hear him?”
“There are too many cars.”
Jonathan Kudo voiced the thought I had been having.
He rested a hand on the hilt of his Japanese sword and looked down at the children.
“I'll lure it to the water tank. You run to the exit with the civilians.”
“Yes.”
“You can still run, right?”
He looked at my injured leg.
Ignoring the heavy, numb pain, I smiled.
“Didn't I tell you I wouldn't slow you down?”
“Go.”
Kudo raised his head and met my eyes.
Dried blood and rubble. Scorched hems. Yet he still looked strangely composed.
Like the spotless Japanese sword at his waist.
“Now.”
Boom!
The door exploded.
“Mom!”
“Fuck, again!”
“Big bro! I'll run on my own!”
“Don't be stupid.”
I scooped up shrieking Becky Ende and Luke, who was saying something far too bold for a child.
“Be careful, senior.”
No answer came.
But I didn't look back. Ignoring the pain in my thigh, I searched for the underground parking garage exit.
An arrow marked Exit appeared faintly in the darkness.
I ran after it. The chairman began running after me too, spitting out a string of curses.
Becky cried hard.
“Becky Ende! Don't wear yourself out crying!”
Even as we crossed the parking garage packed with cars, Luke said something that didn't sound like it came from a child.
“They teach us in kindergarten! If you see a creature, don't cry. Hide or run away!”
Boom!
A car exploded.
The parking garage suddenly brightened, and heat slammed into my back. The heat was tremendous.
I glanced back and saw that an electric vehicle had exploded. I swallowed a curse.
Ominous gray smoke began rising from the burning car. Biting my lip as I ran, I looked at the man panting beside me.
“Spit on your clothes and cover your nose and mouth.”
“What?”
“Unless you want to die from breathing in toxic fumes.”
“Becky Ende, spit!”
Luke understood me perfectly.
“Spit on it!”
The parking garage kept growing brighter.
Cars exploded everywhere. They had been struck by the pillars of fire the Fire Shield was shooting around. Still, Kudo was successfully luring the creature away. There was some distance between us and the exploding cars. I forced myself to set aside my concern for my senior and ran.
It was good that the fire lit up the inside enough for us to see the way.
There was no time to cover my mouth. I just ran until my thigh felt like it was on fire.
Boom!
We entered the exit.
A narrow, endless ramp. Without looking back, I ran up the exit lane.
I tried not to think about Kudo. He was a Badger with exceptional recovery, so he would be fine. He had plenty of field experience, and they said he had participated in and survived the Second War....
My goal was to get these people out.
“W-Wait.”
The chairman, running beside me, stopped on the ramp.
“I can't run anymore....”
“Catch your breath.”
Panting, I looked back at the chairman who had stopped.
Then I looked at the man sinking down and the beginning of the ramp, which was growing brighter and brighter.
“I'll get the children aboveground, then come back.”
“What?!”
The chairman raised his head in horror.
“You're leaving me behind?!”
“I'll be back in a minute. I'll come right back and carry you.”
“Don't go!”
The man shouted with eyes full of terror.
He stopped covering his nose and mouth with his spit-soaked clothes and raised his voice.
“I said don't go! Tell that boy to run on his own and carry me! He says he can run! Fuck, if you can't protect me, you're all finished too! Finished!”
“Big bro, I can run.”
“I'll be right back.”
It was faster to run even one second sooner than to argue.
Looking straight into his despairing eyes, I spoke clearly.
“I'll be back. Right away. Keep your nose and mouth covered, and stay prone.”
“Hey, please....”
“Big bro, I'm really okay.”
I turned around.
I ran up the ramp again, keeping my eyes away from the man who had stopped. I ignored Luke muttering, “I can run, big bro. That man is really famous. It would be bad if someone famous died.”
Becky was hiccuping through tears. She tightly covered her nose and mouth like her brother told her to, but she didn't stop crying.
Listening to her, I ran until my legs felt ready to burst. Toward the entrance where white sunlight poured in.
Sometimes in life, you have to choose. You have to choose between the worst option and the lesser evil. Had I not always chosen the lesser evil, even while suffering over it?
To prevent more people from dying, I had ranked lives that could not be ranked....
Watching those I left behind die with eyes full of resentment....
Wait. When was that from?
There was no time to dwell on the question. I reached the surface. I put the children down. Camera flashes seemed to be going off everywhere, but I ignored them and moved.
I got three portable oxygen masks from the firefighters who ran over. In an instant, they put an oxygen mask over my face.
I stopped them from going inside.
“If something goes wrong, I'll call for rescue.”
The firefighters immediately fitted a radio earpiece onto me.
After thanking them, I grabbed two oxygen masks and ran back inside.
To reach the people still there.
* * *
Hot air was rising through the parking garage entrance.
The smoke was so thick that it took me some time to assess the situation. Narrowing my eyes, I ran down the ramp.
The air is too hot.
I suddenly worried about the chairman, a civilian.
Then I spotted him lying face down.
I rushed over and put an oxygen mask on him.
A human silhouette wavered at the bottom of the ramp.
“Senior!”
I shouted at the man coming up the ramp, soaked like a drowned rat.
“Are you all right?”
There was no answer. But he didn't look well. He slowly climbed the ramp with the expression of someone suffering severe dizziness. He seemed to have inhaled a great deal of toxic gas.
Pulling the limp chairman close, I rolled an oxygen mask down the ramp.
“Put it on!”
The mask rolled and rolled downward.
It stopped exactly where I had intended. Kudo slowly bent down and grabbed the rolling mask.
At least he could move.
Relieved, I picked up the limp chairman.
Fortunately, the chairman was still conscious as well. Held in my arms, he looked up at me with eyes full of resentment.
“Let's get out.”
I met his angry gaze directly.
“I'm truly sorry for leaving you behind.”
But now it was over....
The chairman suddenly flailed.
I looked at the man in confusion as he thrashed his limbs as though trying to pull a phone from his pocket.
“What is it?”
Was he hurt somewhere?
“Are you in pain...?”
Bang!
Thud!
A deafening roar. A roar from above. It was a noise too difficult to describe.
Before the noise, I had clearly seen something cut through the air and rise upward. But I had no time to wonder what it was.
My ears soon began ringing, and I realized something was pouring down from above.
I instinctively covered the chairman.
A distant pain immediately struck my back. The impact was so strong that it felt as though my senses were fading instead.
Sound. Endless sound.
As I shielded the chairman from the collapsing ceiling, I heard my senior's urgent voice. The man, smooth and graceful like a sword, shouted something desperately.
I could not answer.
Only one word reached me clearly.
“Taleb!”
At least he did not seem to be buried.
With that thought, I lost consciousness.
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