WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Natty

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◈ Black Badger ◈

Chapter 55: Subway (4)

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I did not need anyone to warn me not to touch the walls.

At a glance, they looked like something no one should touch. I frowned at the dark red walls, which looked as though they had lumps of muscle clinging to them. They were even writhing.

Between the writhing walls were mouths full of teeth.

What a truly incredible sight.

Thankfully, the floor was relatively normal, and the walls did not do anything that could be called an attack. They were unpleasant to look at, but nothing happened.

What a strange fishy smell.

In any case, grateful that my vision had returned, I followed my senior.

He ran without stopping.

We ran along strangely narrow tracks. I frowned as I felt the passage narrowing further and further. The ceiling grew thicker as well. The mouths attached to it opened and closed, dripping saliva onto the tracks.

This is the worst.

“This way.”

Just as artificial light came into view, we reached platform screen doors.

Unlike the last station, every screen door here stood wide open. My senior quickly leaped up onto the platform. I hurried after him.

The walls are cleaner here, at least.

The sight of a subway at dawn unfolded before us again. A long corridor with no end in sight. Lights casting a pale glow over the empty hall. The steady sound of our running echoed through it.

I ran after my senior for quite some time.

Until another sound joined in.

Chime.

It was a clear sound.

It came from behind us. Despite my senior's earlier warning, I nearly stopped. The instant I heard that bell, it felt as though every other sound had been erased.

It's behind us....

But I did not stop. I had to run. There were people chasing us from behind. I kept moving, following my senior, who did not look back.

Chime.

It had drawn closer.

The sound was louder than before. Once again, every sound around me vanished. I pressed my lips together and tried not to stop.

He told me not to follow the bell sound, but he never said the bell sound could follow me. What happens if it catches me?

Should I take a quick look behind me?

I debated whether to call out to my senior ahead of me or look back.

Then I turned my head slightly to the right.

Chime.

There was nothing there.

The corridor was empty. The bell was clearly ringing only a few steps behind me, yet the place it came from was vacant. The pale subway we had just raced through. Beyond the gaping screen doors, I could see dark red creatures, but there was nothing in the corridor where the bell rang.

Not even a fly.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood up.

“Hey!”

My senior's sharp cry snapped me out of my stare at the empty corridor.

“Get a grip!”

When did I stop?

I had only turned my head a little. I did not remember stopping. Blinking, I watched my senior rush toward me in a few long strides. I knew I had to run to him, but for some reason my feet would not move.

My senior grabbed my arm.

“Quite a few Badgers have been eaten by that sound.”

He dragged me along and started running.

His voice was filled with hatred and fear.

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

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

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

How did that make any sense?

I could not understand being eaten by something without a physical form. I could not understand how something without a form could make a sound, either. Yet I could clearly hear it behind me.

Still, this man had brought me back to my senses. With my arm caught in his grip, I matched his pace as we ran.

I tried not to listen to the bell as it began ringing again.

I need to keep talking.

“What do you mean by eaten? Do they disappear?”

“No. They're found as shriveled corpses, drained of all moisture.”

“What?”

“Usually, people lose their minds like you did and run after the bell. Like they've been enchanted by the Pied Piper. If we chase after them and bring them back to their senses, they live. But every Badger who vanished because no one caught them was found with nothing left but their shell.”

Now I understood why I had been warned not to enter the subway.

I almost preferred the two-story-tall creature that shot electricity. I missed the pigs we had encountered beneath the Library of Beginnings. All we had to do with them was hit them, stab them, dodge them, and cut off their limbs.

Chime.

A clear, crystalline sound.

Perhaps my senior heard it too, because he gripped my arm tightly.

“Ask me questions. Ask.”

His voice was strained.

I did not refuse.

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

“Not much in detail. I only heard as much as they needed me to know.”

“My former colleagues who say I betrayed them?”

“Yeah.”

“What did they say?”

My senior rolled his eyes and looked at me as we ran side by side.

I met his gaze and observed the deserter again. Dark green eyes and blond hair nearly white. With his beard gone, his features looked soft.

The man's voice drowned out the bell.

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

“...They said that?”

“Yeah. They told me to bring back anyone matching those traits. They even gave me a rough location. The moment I saw you struggling atop that mold, I knew you were the traitor they were talking about.”

“How did they say I betrayed them?”

He did not answer right away.

A staircase appeared. We ran up it. Then came the ticket gates. Without hesitation, we ran through the gates across from us and down another staircase.

Will the bell follow us this far?

The moment I thought that, I saw a flat lump of skin lying at the bottom of the stairs.

“They didn't explain that in detail.”

My senior answered as he stepped over the unidentifiable lump of skin.

“They only said you betrayed your own kind and got so caught up in humans that you forgot who you were. So they said they'd drag you away and kill you.”

“Why not kill me right away?”

“They said they wouldn't let you die peacefully.”

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

“I wanted to hear it from you too, but this is maddening. What the hell did you do?”

Platform screen doors spread out before us again. This time, every one of them was closed. A train stood behind them. Still holding my arm, my senior ran toward the doors.

He pressed something repeatedly.

Whirr. The screen doors opened.

A train stood before us. My senior pried open its door with his hands.

We ran into the dark train.

“We should be okay now, right?”

“Don't let your guard down until we leave the station.”

Without releasing my arm, my senior strode toward the front of the dark train.

I frowned and nodded. Trying not to step on the miscellaneous things scattered across the train floor, I obediently let him lead me. There were objects whose purpose I could not guess. Planks. Cabinets. Small chairs.

We soon reached the driver's cabin.

“Senior.”

By now, I was no longer surprised that this man knew how to drive a train.

At last, I watched as he released my arm and prepared to operate the train. He made a quiet humming sound as he busily worked the controls.

The console began to glow in various colors in the darkness.

I looked at the man's profile as he concentrated.

“Why did you desert?”

My senior did not look at me for a long time.

Clatter. The train began to move. The sound of power flowing through the engine.

A train that had clearly not carried passengers for a long time began to run along the tracks. I watched the tracks rushing past behind us.

Would we escape faster, or would they catch us first?

His answer came slowly.

“A long time ago.”

I quietly waited for him to continue.

“Once, Sophia pointed a gun at Ye-hyeon.”

Who is Sophia?

I was not tactless enough to ask. He had omitted the explanation because he thought I did not need one. The man was intelligent. Even after only a few hours together, I could sense his quick, lively mind.

The silence did not last long.

“Her lover was sacrificed during an operation. It was on Ye-hyeon's orders, but it wasn't his fault. A series of things happened that no one could have predicted. No matter how many times I think about it, the order Ye-hyeon gave back then was appropriate. If everyone can survive through one sacrifice, shouldn't one person be sacrificed?”

“Yes.”

Someone had to make that decision.

Someone had to bear that weight. A position where, even if lives could not be calculated, one still had to count them. Ye-hyeon was someone who had gained power in exchange for carrying the weight of lives.

I pitied Ye-hyeon, who had to send one subordinate to their death back then. The choice had been easy, but the result could not have been. It must have hurt.

He was a man made of good intentions.

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

Weariness seeped into my senior's voice.

“Never imagining that years later, I would be seized by that same impulse.”

“I'm sorry.”

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

It did not seem like my senior had heard me.

I watched him sitting in the driver's cabin, staring ahead. Lost in thought, he let out a mocking laugh that seemed directed at himself.

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

“Do you hate Ye-hyeon?”

“I pity him, but I hate him too. I tried not to hate him, but it was pointless.”

The man buried his face in both hands.

His body curled into itself. It was as though the grief he had shoved aside had settled heavily upon him.

For a long time, I listened to the train running along the tracks and waited for the man to crawl out of his despair. I knew well that nothing I said would help. A switch inside him had been flipped. My senior was back in that time now.

My senior raised his head after the train passed through a gently curving tunnel.

“What's your name?”

...What?

No. You don't know my name? You know I'm not human, and you know I'm a traitor?

Stunned, I looked at him before answering.

“Hildebert Taleb. Please call me Hilde.”

“My name is Jin.”

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

“Jin Silver.”

“...Nice to meet you.”

“Tell the Head of Personnel something for me.”

I did not understand.

As I blinked, Jin suddenly rose from his seat. He turned around with a perfectly calm face, as if he had never been sad. Then he strode over and flung open the cabin door.

I stared wide-eyed at my senior as he stepped into the train car.

Is he leaving?

Was he going to return to his base, leaving me on this moving train?

Well, he had helped me enough.

But I wanted to know exactly what he intended, so I turned and followed him.

Jin had already reached the end of the first train car.

My senior opened the door leading to the second car.

I shouted at the top of my lungs.

“Jin!”

“Tell Joo I'm sorry.”

Jin turned at the threshold and smiled.

A sorrowful smile that made my heart sink.

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

KABOOM!

The train exploded.

More precisely, the cars behind us exploded. A deafening roar. A wave of scorching wind. Beyond the open door lay a scene of devastation. Train cars torn apart. Ash-gray cars crashing into the tracks and exploding.

Thankfully, the train car beneath our feet was intact.

But beyond the severed cars, I could clearly see the tracks rushing past.

And the thing that had cut them apart.

The thing standing at the end of the train that remained in motion.

It was a person.

With blackened whites of their eyes.

“I'll buy you time, Hildebert. Run.”

Jin stood in the doorway and drew his gun from his waist.

Then he looked at me again and smiled with pure innocence.

“You'll stand on humanity's side again this time, won't you?”

“Wait.”

“Their leader woke up a few months ago. He came to find me and said so. He said all he needed was to catch you.”

Jin's faded hair whipped wildly in the wind.

Something with blackened whites of its eyes closed the distance from within the train. Its claws raised, it slowly crossed the second car. I gritted my teeth and took a step as Jin stepped into the second car.

His gun was aimed at the doorway.

“Become Ye-hyeon's winning card, Hilde.”

Bang!

The train was cut apart.

I threw myself forward, but I missed him by a hair. Lying flat in the first car, I desperately called his name. But no answer came.

Tragically, the train did not stop. As it rounded a curve, what remained disappeared from view.

My cheeks grew wet.

Darkness settling in, sounds fading away.

I cried without a sound.

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