WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 220: The End of April (7)

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The alpaca herd that was always on their usual route was gone. Gyeoul raised his fist.

"Stop."

Animals raised by humans from the start had developed a strong attachment to one place, so they lingered around the ruined ranch. That was why he had been watching them from the beginning, as a kind of sign. If the herd disappeared, there had to be a reason. Was it a wild predator? Deadly beasts were rare in the empty spaces civilization left behind.

Gyeoul followed the tracks with his eyes and pushed through the brush. He had left the iron bar behind because they had plenty of ammunition, but with the silenced anti-materiel rifle measuring 1.55 meters long, he did not need to dismount.

Between the split-hoofed prints were, as expected, traces of the two-legged plague.

"There are shoeprints mixed in. Could survivors be getting chased?"

That was "Ale" Alejandro, distinguishable only by the accent. Gyeoul shook his head.

"Look here. The tread pattern is too smooth for combat boot soles. They'd have to be worn down for a very long time to leave prints like this, and the Central Valley front only collapsed recently. Some of them were probably wearing those shoes before they were infected. Ordinary mutants don't know how to untie shoelaces, and they have no reason to."

So it was time to prepare for battle. Judging from the visible traces, it was a small group. Whether this was all of them, or only advance scouts moving ahead of a larger horde, they would only know after checking.

At that moment, new information updated on the tactical PDA. It said some of the highlighted targets were presumed to be chasing survivors. Gyeoul narrowed his eyes.

If the survivors had contacted them directly, the message would not have used the word presumed. Nor were there any other units scalping near the highlighted targets.

'Have they started decoding their signals?'

The Trickster's jamming covered several frequencies at once. In other words, even when sending a signal, it used multiple channels at the same time. It was like breaking one message into fragments according to a fixed rule and scattering them. The concept was close to the frequency hopping humans used, which made it much harder to decode.

Still, they had had a long time to observe it. There were few things time and budget could not solve. The power of a properly maintained government sometimes exceeded Gyeoul's expectations.

In any case, none of the updated targets were within immediate reach. The operational area was so wide that each target was much too far from the next. From here, continuing as they were seemed fine.

"Are there any traces of a Trickster?"

"No. But it may be moving with them within radio range."

Even if there was not, it was better to deal with them before leaving. The Company's base was nearby. As long as they had plenty of ammunition, a group of ordinary size could not threaten the unit, but if they were attacked first, the noise would inevitably grow. That meant raids could follow like falling dominoes. If their luck was bad, several groups might merge.

Gyeoul led the mobile unit with 「Tracking」.

At some point, the blood trail stretched out. The footprints decreased. Only the tracks of two-legged things remained. A cool wind carried a foul smell. For now, only Gyeoul sensed it clearly. They no longer needed to follow the tracks. 「Combat Sense」 estimated the rough distance from the wind speed and the density of the smell.

"Something smells rotten."

Morales wrinkled their nose. Morales was the fastest among the team members, with an alertness worthy of the rank.

"There they are."

In the direction Gyeoul pointed, mutants were gathered in the shade beneath the tree crowns. Even after being told the direction, the team members could not identify them right away. The distance was about 250 meters. With the brush so thick, it was almost like searching for a hidden picture. Morales let out a tense sigh.

"Hah, you can see that? Why did those things drag their food all the way there?"

"It's daytime. In their own way, they're preparing for air strikes."

"What the……."

The sigh deepened. It was not as if Morales did not know the plague was clever.

In any apocalypse, the sky remained humanity's domain until the day the world ended. That was one reason the living plague preferred abandoned cities and shade.

Gyeoul ordered the team to keep low. Ordinary mutants did not have eyesight much better than humans. Even a ghoul would not find them easily.

The mobile unit members were still not used to lowering themselves or lying down while on horseback. In truth, it would likely remain difficult. But making them dismount and lie down was possible. Horses did not lie down in dangerous places, but when they trusted their riders, they obeyed orders. Even as the stench of breathing death made them uneasy, the horses lying on their sides were the result of steady training.

"Do we attack like this?"

The tense soldiers braced for combat. But Gyeoul stopped them.

"Wait. I think there's another group, even if we can't see it from here."

"Sir?"

"Look. They aren't touching the prey."

With correction, the sprawled alpacas were visible even to the naked eye, but the team members did not have that. Gyeoul detached the scope from the rifle and handed it to Schultz, who looked puzzled. Schultz inspected the enemy through 10x magnification and tilted their head.

"You're right. You could say they're waiting for something."

In the meantime, Gyeoul widened his field of view a little more. No matter how much correction he had, if he did not look long enough, he would miss things. Judging by how they were resisting their appetite, it was a group that included at least a ghoul, or something on that level. He had to locate that one in advance.

'Found... it. Quietly taking them out one at a time from the outside will be hard.'

The enhanced mutant was standing on a branch right under the tree crown. Unlike the ones that had chased the war correspondents, the gray, rotting monster was agile enough to climb trees.

The ghoul kept snapping its head back and forth. It seemed to be watching every direction. The mobile unit was lucky not to have been spotted. Or perhaps the host's eyesight had not been very good to begin with. No matter how enhanced a mutant was, there was nothing to be done if the base material was poor. The differences in intelligence among the same type proved as much.

"Harper, Schultz. Watch the flanks and rear."

Even Gyeoul might be slow to notice an approach if it came from the direction the wind was blowing.

Two hours passed after that. The restless wind shook the grass stuck into their ballistic helmets for camouflage. The soldiers shifted in their uncomfortable positions, and the afternoon sun burned at the backs of their necks.

"They're coming."

Bingo. Dry joy and fierce smiles appeared on the team members' faces. Morales muttered.

"The ambush paid off. I thought it would take longer, but we found it this easily."

Under the deep blue tree crowns, the Trickster finally appeared. In truth, the longer wait alone had convinced Gyeoul that a special mutant would appear. A group led by a ghoul or Grumble had limits on how far it could spread out. Only a Trickster could control different groups at distances that took over an hour to cross, as long as they were within radio reception range.

'Still, it's quite slow. Is it saving calories?'

It seemed prioritizing human hunting had made it hard to get enough nutrients.

The monsters' changes over time were not limited to combat power. Metabolic suppression was one example. Usually, they either hardened completely or moved, one or the other, but enhanced variants could regulate their calorie consumption more freely than that. There were cases where their bodies were hardened while their consciousness stayed intact.

The radio, meanwhile, stayed quiet. Even if it was not for jamming, there should have been at least one transmission for communication. Maybe it had even acquired the ability to focus radio waves. If true, there was a high chance it was gamma-grade. As he had already considered, a rise in grade did not always mean a rise in combat power.

It was prey worth hunting.

"Lieutenant... no, Major. Should we request an air strike? Handling them directly looks a little tricky."

Morales pointed at the communication equipment.

By tricky, Morales meant the individuals that had clearly been infected recently. The ones wearing body armor and ballistic helmets were one thing, but Morales had no idea how the two Heavy Infantry wearing Centurion armored suits had gotten infected. Maybe a gap had opened somewhere. They did not look easy to kill with rifle rounds.

"No. They're too close. If we're exposed while moving, it'll get annoying. I do want to check whether air support works properly... But this isn't the time. I'll take out the difficult targets."

They would have to get far away to avoid friendly fire. Even if they were not discovered, there was a chance the mutants would change their minds midway. If their location changed, an air strike or anything else would be useless.

The base was also close. A blast on a completely different level from gunfire might draw in groups from very far away, so it would be wiser to request air strikes only once they were farther out.

In any case, the distance was 250 meters, so an ordinary engagement would be more than enough. Gyeoul prepared to snipe.

"That rock over there is about 120 meters away. Only shoot the ones that cross that line."

At that distance, experienced soldiers should be able to land hits. Morales identified the reference line and answered.

"Hua. Begin whenever you're ready."

Gyeoul set aside his other rifle and steadied his breathing. He planned to fire as many shots as needed, then switch weapons. The less they needed to resupply special ammunition types, the better.

At the end of his steady sight line, the Trickster's head was visible. Even without a telephoto lens, his aim was clear. Beneath the long sight line, the wild grass rippled bright with spring color. He read the wind from that.

Bang-!

Even after passing through the suppressor, the sharp sound echoed clearly. The pale head exploded a split second later. Puh-uk! The impact was so heavy that one could feel the sound just by watching. A death that made its enhancement grade meaningless.

Before they could react, he fired again and again. Bang, bang! Each time the smell of gunsmoke thickened at his nose, each time the heavy recoil struck his shoulder, each time his whole body was pushed back a little, another head shattered. The mutants that had been Heavy Infantry had their faces burst inside the bulletproof glass. Thick protective goggles scattered into hundreds of pieces, and the inside of the half-torn protective gear flowed down thick and bloody. The two armored suits became heavy camouflage-colored shrouds.

Kyaaaaaak-!

The ghoul leaped down from the tree. The line of fire that had predicted its jump pierced it the instant it landed. Puhak! The monster spat blood and flesh. The chest it clutched no longer had a heart. Its upper body, torn front and back, bent at an impossible angle. The lodged round broke ribs and burst at the spine, making bloodshot eyes bulge out.

Boom! Boom! Belated rest for the infected U.S. soldiers. Dirty helmets shot into the air. The blast pressure of armor-piercing high-explosive rounds had blown away both skulls and protective gear. The next target was hit in the abdomen. Before such overwhelming power, body armor was meaningless. Liquefied intestines poured through the punched-open hole. The soldier that still had a gun slung over the shoulder broke apart together with the weapon.

The continuous shooting was closer to destruction than killing.

The outrageous burst of firepower produced more rest than the ammunition it consumed.

"Senor……."

Alejandro called to God in gloomy Spanish. Even if they had become monsters, they were dressed as U.S. soldiers.

Clack! The magazine was empty. The chamber locked open. It had taken only 4.5 seconds to fire ten semi-automatic rounds. In that time, the leaders of the mutant horde had closed a full 50 meters. They were the ones that had started running the moment they heard gunfire. The plague's choir rushed in. Gyeoul switched weapons at once and killed the booming tenor first. Its whole body was muscle, and it had probably been just short of becoming a ghoul.

The stronger ones approached faster. So it was enough to shoot them in the order they led the charge. By the time the bouncing casings counted about twenty deaths, Morales shouted.

"Fire!"

Dudududuk! Dududududuk! The small, dull gunshots sounded like hail pouring against a car window. Their hit rate was high. The mutant horde caught in the net of fire was being whittled down in real time. Countless ones tripped over corpses underfoot and fell. Still, they only reached out blindly and ran, and because none of them were thinking, nothing changed.

The wave of death fully collapsed 30 meters in front of the ambush point.

"Good work, everyone. Let's make sure they're finished and pull out."

Gyeoul rose and ordered them to confirm the kills.

"Morales, report to command. Tell them we got one."

"Understood."

The satellite communication terminal was opened. During the communication, the PDA's information updated.

Gyeoul was about to recover dog tags from the infected soldiers' bodies when he noticed the belly of an already dead corpse wriggling. As he stared down at it from horseback, the soldiers who had been pulling their triggers now and then gathered one by one.

"Uh, is this what I think it is?"

Schultz shuddered.

"Probably. Don't shoot yet."

Gyeoul tapped the camera, and the soldiers gave him uneasy looks. Still, there likely had never been footage of a scene like this captured up close. If there had been, they would have encountered it in some form already.

The wriggling under the oozing skin finally tore through the flesh and came out. A distorted new life. Kehek! Kehek! Kyaaaaaak! The young thing spat amniotic fluid with wet coughs and let out a sharp cry. The umbilical cord connected to the dead mother dragged across the dirt.

Without Gyeoul needing to order them to step away, the soldiers backed off on their own.

Schultz groaned.

"Major. Is this worth it? The fact that these things can reproduce is already known."

"Shouldn't we know how soon after birth they become dangerous? We never found proof, but the time Fort Roberts nearly fell was also presumed to have been caused by fetal mutants. If people see this, it may prevent cases where they relax because they think the situation is over and then get hit."

"Ugh……."

Meanwhile, the thing that had not even opened its eyes yet squirmed and bit through the umbilical cord. It was surprising that it already had teeth. Since teeth were needed for spreading infection, they seemed to develop in the fetal stage. As it crunched through the tough, firm flesh, it flicked its pitch-black tongue. The Infection Protrusions stood out.

Then it opened its eyes. After smacking its mouth a few times, it spotted the humans watching. Kaeak! A hunger that welcomed people. Gyeoul checked his watch. It had not even been a full minute since it came out.

"Everyone move farther back."

Thinking of Atascadero, he could never let his guard down. He did not know how many months old those had been, but they had jumped several times their own height.

The newborn monster's scurrying speed rose sharply. Xcel shook his head uneasily. The instant the small monster finally sprang upward, Gyeoul pierced the crown of its head with a single shot. The sound of soft bone breaking. A brief gasp. Then silence.

The U.S. soldiers' bodies were scattered around the alpacas marked with bite wounds. After recovering the dog tags, Gyeoul chose the next target. There was still a long stretch of daylight left.

============================ Author's Note ============================

#Nightmare

I had a nightmare last night, but the only thing I actually remember is sine, cosine, and tangent.

What kind of dream was that supposed to be...

#Q&A

Q. Calpis: @If you compare John Basilone and Gyeoul, who has stronger combat power? The anti-materiel rifle suddenly made me think of it, so I'm asking.

A. Right now, Gyeoul is stronger.

Q. OneChance: @It seems like Tricksters don't always emit radio waves either, so how do they estimate the rough location?

A. Since I'm not sure whether this will be mentioned later in the story, I'll answer here... They exchange and compare results detected from several points. You can think of it as similar to triangulation. For them, though, it is instinct, not calculation.

Q. Scan_Born: @So you got imprinted on... It reminds me of that comic where someone asks, Owl, do you pour sauce on sweet-and-sour pork? and the owl goes hoot...

A. I have decided to hate owls from now on.

Q. PleasePickUpSoap: @ (omitted) In truth, the best reproduction method for the Alien is the airborne infection prototype. I think it makes enough sense to view the choice to go with parasitism as the creation of a child between David and Elizabeth, meaning a living being that could serve as an intermediary. (omitted) The current understanding is that evolution itself does not evolve in an efficient direction. And I also think the reason it cannot simply be called B-grade slasher material is that the characters' actions matter most.

A. You left many comments, so I had to shorten the content. After reading what you said, it makes sense to me. Haha. The Alien as a child. It truly overflows with childlike innocence.

Q. Sincere: @How do five people stand night watch? T_T That means they have to stand full night watch every day without anyone off duty. People who have served in the military will know how horrible that is. T_T

A. In my case, an incident where someone defected to North Korea happened during my service, so they sent new recruits heavily to the GOP, and the FEBA manpower dropped by half.

Because of that, night guard duty was extended to 1 hour and 30 minutes. To make matters worse, Gangwon Province had record-breaking heavy snow that year, so night snow-clearing duty was added for a while. Standing duty twice in one night made me feel like I was dying.

Footnotes:

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