WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 238: Suspended Sentence (10)

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“Do you have a daughter?”

The question came from the composed Ranger. The Green Beret answered, his face hard and square.

“Probably.”

“Probably?”

“I think of her as my daughter. She doesn’t.”

“That’s unfortunate.”

“Nothing I can do about it. Even I know I’m not the kind of bastard who can play father. You married?”

“There’s someone I have in mind.”

“Don’t.”

It was a rather rude thing to say, but the Ranger did not seem especially offended.

“Hmph.” Captain Long snorted and swirled what little remained in his glass.

“It’s not something you should do. If you want to be a husband and a father, you have to quit this shitty soldier’s life. Maybe it’s different for soft, bookish types like the Air Force or Navy. But you’re a Ranger, aren’t you? Probably won’t work. You’re a long way short of us Green Berets, but in the end, you people are real pieces of shit too. Even if your wife clings to your pant leg and begs, you’ll end up coming back to some goddamn battlefield full of shitty comrades and shitty enemies.”

“Once the quarantine war ends, I’m thinking of leaving the service and running a farm with that person.”

“Bullshit. You’ll be divorced before long, or even if you dodge divorce, you’ll end up a slave wiring living expenses home. And that’s assuming this war ever ends in the first place.”

Gyeoul listened while maintaining his firearm. No matter how good the technology was, neglecting weapon maintenance came with a price. A failure to fire at the decisive moment was the kind of accident that decided life and death. Scrape, scrape. The sound resembled brushing teeth. He scrubbed the disassembled bolt with a brush. A little carbon fouling dissolved into the gun oil. It was only a simple cleaning, so he did not remove the extractor pin.

His eyes stayed on the Captain. That stubborn face looked like a scab over a wound. Thick. Gyeoul asked him.

“So do you regret getting married, Captain?”

“...I shouldn’t have done it.”

“Do you hate your daughter?”

“...”

“If you could go back into the past and decide whether to have her or not, what would you do?”

“...”

Gyeoul smiled faintly.

“I wish my father had been like you.”

“Huh.” The Captain looked baffled, but the boy meant it honestly. As long as there was love, clumsy was enough. Even if things went wrong in the end and they came to hate each other, it was better than having nothing from the start.

“Let’s stop ruining the taste of the liquor.”

Glancing at his young superior as if displeased, the Green Beret brought up a new topic.

“What were the mutant bastards you killed like?”

“What do you mean, like?”

“You know. If there was anything special, let’s open up to each other. Seems like there are plenty of things the higher-ups won’t tell us, so the people running around in the field should at least share information. Knowledge is power. If we want to survive somehow and fuck up the zombies, I mean.”

Then he shouted at his subordinates.

“You bastards! Anyone who can’t get up tomorrow gets left behind! Watch your asses! If someone staggers when an emergency hits, I’ll put a bullet in your asshole!”

The Alpha Team members answered with dark laughter. It looked like they had a fair number of empty spots.

A dog’s bark suddenly mixed in. It came from the Rangers’ side, followed by someone saying, “What the hell, why is there a dog here?” For all the rough language, it was funny how one of them quietly got up and craned around. After searching every pocket, the person pulled out a chocolate bar. Another Ranger pointed it out. “You crazy bastard. Dogs die if they eat chocolate.”

“Something special.”

Lieutenant Palmer sank into recollection.

“Now that I think about it, we ran into failures unusually often. Same with the young ones. The younger ones in particular were all naked. I doubt I’m the only one who experienced that.”

The expression failures already showed that Lieutenant Palmer shared an 「Insight」 similar to Gyeoul’s. Even as a Ranger, a Lieutenant would have limits on what information they could access, but it also meant field commanders who could think would end up reaching similar judgments.

“Probably because the proper ones went east.”

The Green Beret was the same, as expected. He passed the turn to Gyeoul.

“Looks like the dumb desk jockeys and shit-star generals don’t trust us, so they’re hiding all kinds of things. Honestly, it pisses me off. We’re crossing the line between life and death every single day... Major, you’ve got the rank, so you must know at least a little more. Even without the rank, you must have experience to match your results.”

It was exactly what Gyeoul had expected from Dr. Campbell of the Health Service unit. Any commander naturally wanted to gather information. On top of that, Gyeoul could glimpse personal competitiveness toward him. What the hell is so special about this bastard that his record is so flashy? More than me, after I ruined my life being a soldier?

“Well. It’s not like I have free access to classified information, and the scope of your question is too broad. I think most of what I know is something you’ve already guessed too, so tell me what you especially need confirmed, or what you really can’t figure out.”

At Gyeoul’s words, the Lieutenant and Captain exchanged looks. Naturally, the Captain went first.

“That Humpback you mentioned earlier. What do you think that bastard does?”

“...”

“It’s always like that. The enemy shooting at me right now bothers me less than the enemy I know nothing about, the one I don’t know where it is or what it’s doing. I know what the other special mutants are, but all the information about that Humpback bastard is classified, so it gets on my nerves. Even if it’s classified, I can guess from how things are going, but that’s still only a guess.”

“Have you encountered one?”

“One of my team members said they saw it from a distance, but they couldn’t maintain contact. The traces were loud, though. It was a forest, but there wasn’t a single intact tree around. Even the ground had been dug up.”

“Let’s hear what you’re guessing first.”

“I see it as a chow truck. One that makes the things it feeds grow damn fast. Otherwise, I can’t explain what we’ve seen so far. Isn’t that right?”

Certainty sat under his thick brows. Gyeoul nodded.

“I personally agree. I can also understand why the higher-ups classified it. Most soldiers, and civilians too, believe that if they keep killing them, someday it will end. Even if they give birth, it takes twenty years for them to become adults. But say there’s a special mutant that can grow juveniles into adults in less than a year. Morale would drop hard. Civilians would get depressed too.”

The Green Beret showed disappointment at the qualifier, personally.

The Ranger officer, though, had the same opinion.

“Right. For a special mutant, the fact that it doesn’t appear on the front doesn’t feel like it’s simply because there aren’t many of them. It feels like it has no combat function. Keeping a logistics unit in the rear and protecting it is common sense.”

“Hey, the problem starts with the monster bastards acting with common sense.”

“They wouldn’t gnaw trees for no reason, so they probably digest them. I’m also bothered by how often cockroaches appear. I suspect they may have formed a diversified supply system.”

“You’re saying those things raise bugs and eat them?”

“Wouldn’t they? If Humpback’s ability is what we suspect, feeding that to ordinary mutants is also a problem. Progeria-ridden things would pour out in droves. I suppose they could handle that by eating them too, but either way, it seems unfavorable for increasing numbers.”

“...It is strange that those bug bastards don’t know to fear people.”

A normal cockroach should have run away from people. Gyeoul remembered the bakery in Point Reyes Station. There had been an unusual number of cockroaches, and a broad, flattened trace. There was a high chance it was evidence of another special mutant that had yet to be discovered.

“No need to be too pessimistic. Judging from how our thoughts line up this far, you two must have fought a lot of immature groups on the way here. Am I right?”

Gyeoul asked, and the two agreed.

“It does seem like it would have been dangerous if we’d dragged things out any longer. Mutants have Metabolic Suppression. If endlessly increasing adults entered Metabolic Suppression, lay dormant, then poured out all at once... it might have been on a scale the current blockade line could never stop.”

Captain Long rubbed his dry face. Individuals that entered Metabolic Suppression could hold out for years without eating or drinking, so even if the Air Force blocked the route coming up from South America, it meant that someday a horde so large it would be meaningless to count could have appeared.

There were other interesting stories too.

“I’ve seen something unusual,” Lieutenant Palmer began.

Gyeoul asked back while finishing his weapon maintenance.

“Something unusual?”

“A mutant bit another mutant.”

“It wasn’t eating a culled individual?”

“It only bit it. It didn’t particularly look like they were fighting either. I spent a long while wondering whether it was simply abnormal behavior by a single individual, or whether it had some meaning, but I couldn’t find an answer. Have either of you seen the same thing?”

“I haven’t,” the Green Beret said, and Gyeoul sank into thought.

“It might be infecting it.”

At those suddenly tossed-out words, the Captain reacted.

“What, is it biting them again in case there’s one that’s less infected?”

“That’s not it. Couldn’t it be a process of spreading some trait?”

“Trait?”

“There’s something I’ve found strange for a while. When I first fought the Trickster, that was at Atascadero State Hospital, and the only ones that monster directly affected were fetal mutants.”

“I saw that combat record too.”

“The adult mutants that had been all over the city probably didn’t appear because the Trickster couldn’t call them. The ability... or organ that sensed radio waves may have existed only in the newly born generation. But look at them now. They’re moving in an organized way across a very wide area.”

“Hmm... So, even if they don’t become special mutants... certain improved traits can spread through reinfection?”

“That’s just something that came to me now after hearing what you said, Lieutenant Palmer. I’ve never actually seen mutants doing that either. Maybe this could be another ability of the Humpback. Nothing’s certain.”

“The more you learn about these monsters, the more fucked they are.”

“We can still shoot them all dead.”

“Hah.” The Captain looked at Gyeoul in disbelief once again. He had only been swirling the same glass for a while now. For all that, he was still a Green Beret in the end. Even if the operation was effectively over, he did not let his guard down completely. He smelled of alcohol, but his words and actions were not those of a drunk man.

At last, he poured the remaining liquor out onto the ground.

“Right. We’re going to shoot them all dead. It’s the only thing I can do as a father, too.”

“...”

“I’ll kill and kill again so that little girl has nothing to be afraid of. I don’t give a damn what happens to the wife. Hm, at least they’re not human, so there’s less burden when killing them.”

Lieutenant Palmer chose the next words carefully.

“Is that so? I still feel uneasy often. Aren’t they victims of a plague?”

“Ever cracked open one of their heads?”

“...Not on purpose.”

“I’ve cracked open all kinds of heads since long ago... Ah, don’t look at me like that. I wasn’t sane when I did it either. Felt like I was going crazy. Fanatics with bombs strapped to their bodies. Bastards massacring civilians. Crazy bitches putting anti-tank rockets in kids’ hands. What the hell was inside their heads? You get curious. It’s not like looking at it actually told me anything, though.”

The Green Beret snorted out of habit.

“But these mutant bastards are different. Very different. Compared to the normal things I’d seen before, I mean. You get what I’m saying? They aren’t people. A personality is inside this skull.”

The Captain jabbed at his own head.

“Here. Inside the head.”

“...”

“You’re a Ranger, and you’re acting naive. You’ll die that way. If only you die, that’d be lucky.”

After that, their conversation, half discussion and half grumbling, continued until late. At the end of it, the Ranger said,

“I hope we finish reclaiming the mainland soon.”

It was an optimistic hope.

“We suffered like hell, but it was worth it. We killed quite a few high-value targets. We’ll probably switch from defense to offense before long. The mood is pretty good.”

“If only it works out that way.”

“We’re not like Russia, surrounded by land on all sides. If we can somehow push down to the Isthmus of Panama, the maritime blockade will get easier, and the density of ground defenses will rise tremendously too... When that time comes and I get a long leave, I’m going to marry her.”

“Ha, I told you to stop.”

“Seeing you, Captain, makes me feel even more like I should.”

“Insane.”

Gyeoul smiled faintly.

============================ Author’s Note ============================

#Q&A

Q. UnlimitedOne: @An anecdote that shows the characteristics of the Ranger Regiment(...) A brief lull. We’ve seen Russia too... Depending on whether Morgellons is expelled from the U.S. mainland, they might end up going to the cold land :3 I wonder how much childlike innocence our control AI has found... Actually, maybe it has created childlike innocence instead?

A. It is difficult to answer anything about future developments. ;_;

Q. Majikar: @Reading this on my way home from work made me smile. Thank you. Thank you always for the good writing.

A. I should be the one thanking you for looking kindly on it.

Q. FlyingDori: @Oh, you have a deep understanding of Catholicism. Where did you excerpt it from? Those were words that would only come from priests who have studied theology deeply... It was impressive... As always, I enjoyed reading.

A. If I excerpted something like that, it would be plagiarism. I did not specifically reference anything for the interpretation of the Canticle of the Sun, and for the rest, I read the Pope’s words on why evil exists in the world, along with the views of several theologians. I found the supporting Bible verses there too. Overall, you can see it as something reconstructed to fit the theme of the novel.

That said, the expression that Job was struck down in everything he had was taken directly from the Pope’s words.

Q. Gardheim: @This has nothing to do with the work, but somewhere around Jozankei Onsen in Sapporo should be fine. Fukuoka to Sapporo is probably farther than Fukuoka to Seoul, right?

A. Ah, I’m more worried that agricultural and marine products from Fukushima are actively distributed. Jozankei Onsen... I’ll keep that in mind if I ever go there. I do wonder if that day will come. I am a lowly creature who has still never gone overseas. Haha.

Q. PleasePickUpSoap: @I heard you’ve been active as an anti-aircraft tank lately. Is the reason updates are delayed because your anti-aircraft tank work is busy?

A. Mm, I’m not sure. Since I said from the beginning that I would update 3 to 5 times a week, except for the Chuseok holiday, I don’t think I’ve ever updated fewer than 3 times a week...

It is hard, though. Not only writing, but because there are other circumstances too.

Footnotes:

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