WeTried Translations
Translator: Coughing Baby
Editor: Coughing Baby
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Little Prince in the Ossuary
Chapter 88
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Night by the Lake (6)
There was no reason to waste even three minutes. After gathering the officers, Gyeoul questioned the old man. The more they knew about Captain Harris, the better. Troop size, condition, weapon details, all of it. If they understood the situation and tried talking first, they might avoid a fight.
The odds were low, of course. Still, trying anyway was how the boy operated.
The old man spoke without much confidence.
“I think... maybe around sixty men.”
“That is not very precise.”
“I am sorry. Since dawn that day, all we have done is run. We kept fleeing through hills and woods, so we could not check how many were chasing us.”
“Then what is your estimate based on?”
“He originally had about a hundred troops under him. And when the massacre happened, I remember more than twenty soldiers trying to protect us. The fight itself was one-sided. All they could do was buy time. Still, Captain Harris’s side must have taken some losses too.”
“Maybe...”
Gyeoul let the words trail off. Combat was not simple addition and subtraction. In clashes between groups, the gap in fighting power could be the square of the gap in numbers.
‘It was an accidental clash, so there were plenty of variables, but I cannot be sure. I need to assume the worst. That way the second-worst will feel lighter.’
The old man did not know much. He was an ordinary civilian. He had neither the need nor the ability to assess military equipment. They would have to infer a lot. Even so, one useful detail came out. He said they had fought five times to shake off pursuit. In truth, calling them battles was generous. Neither side could see well, so they just fired blindly.
The sheriff was apparently very brave. Just as Gyeoul had seen today, she sometimes stayed in the rear with people like the old man, and sometimes alone, luring pursuit in the wrong direction.
“Time is up. Let us go in for now.”
Gyeoul tapped his wristwatch as he spoke. They moved through brush beside the road instead of using the road itself. No one knew where enemies might be. They could end up facing U.S. troops and mutant groups at the same time.
Radio static still carried fragments of Gyeoul’s voice. The signal was weak, which meant distance. But a Trickster could have intentionally lowered its jamming strength.
The survivors were hiding in an Engineer Corps office. This place was so remote they probably could not find anywhere else to shelter from the wind and rain.
‘The problem is, Captain Harris will probably find this place easily too...’
Avoiding contact altogether was best, but that was looking less likely by the minute. He might even deduce why Gyeoul and U.S. troops had come this far. There was truly nothing around here except the dam.
The door stood open. The sheriff waited inside. Anxiety had not fully left her face, but she looked better than before. Ever since Gyeoul removed her restraints, a little trust seemed to have taken root. Even so, Gyeoul did not let his guard down. The other civilians were another matter.
About ten meters away, he removed the old man’s restraints. He told him to go in first, then gave a low warning only the soldiers could hear.
“Be careful with the civilians. Their distrust of soldiers runs deep, so they might try to seize weapons.”
That was the polite way to put it. He deliberately did not call it an attack, choosing words with the soldiers’ mindset in mind.
“We know the basics. Do not worry.”
Jeffrey answered.
Jeffrey and three squads took exterior security. One squad and the rest entered the office with Gyeoul. Besides the old man and the sheriff, there were people shivering violently. It looked more like cold than fear. Even the sheriff had looked haggard, but she was still in the best condition among them. No one appeared armed. It seemed they had only two rifles in total.
People were huddled together, sharing body heat. Even after the soldiers entered, they stayed clumped together, afraid but unwilling to separate. It had to be that cold. Only two people stood apart: a heavily pregnant woman and her husband. The medic groaned.
“My god. A pregnant woman? How did you keep running?”
The sheriff answered.
“We have a horse. We tied it up a little farther away.”
The medic checked the woman and his face turned pale.
“Something we can burn... quickly!”
There were signs they had tried and failed to start a fire. It looked like they had piled paper into a steel cabinet and rubbed sticks together. Soldiers rushed to smash furniture in the office. The loud noise made Jeffrey, who was on outside security, peek in. He saw the pregnant woman and flinched in shock.
As the commander, Gyeoul should have stopped them. There was no perfect way to block light from leaking out. Even in heavy mist, it would be visible from hundreds of meters away.
He did not stop them. He pulled out a matchbook and tossed it to the medic searching for fire. It was from an MRE, made to ignite easily even in damp conditions.
A soldier used gravel-like military fuel as tinder. The fire grew in an instant. The colorless room brightened. Still, it was not enough. To warm everyone, the fire had to get much bigger. Broken desks and chairs were piled into the cabinet holding the fire.
Gyeoul scanned the office. There was nothing to cover the windows, but there were sheets of paper they had planned to use as tinder. He gave an order.
“Soak the paper and stick it over the windows.”
If they had enough, they could have layered multiple sheets to block more light, but there was not enough. They left the north-facing windows alone and focused on the other directions.
Gyeoul asked the pregnant woman’s husband:
“When is your wife’s due date?”
“Her water already broke. Labor could start at any time.”
The husband answered through clenched teeth. His face looked like every emotion had melted together. The medic scrubbed his face hard with both hands. He seemed overwhelmed by the situation.
The mood among the other survivors was uneasy. They seemed displeased with the couple. The sheriff and old man were glaring back at them. They stood near the middle, trying to block at least some of the hostile looks aimed at the couple.
‘What a mess.’
He could easily imagine their days on the run. Caring for a pregnant woman must have made people uneasy. The others probably felt she was a burden.
‘When life gets heavy, people usually throw away their conscience first. It is the heaviest thing to carry.’
Even the soldiers who understood the situation were showing impatience. Gyeoul’s voice, shredded into fragments over the radio, tested them even more.
[Crk... kzzzt... If you encounter U.S. troops of unknown affiliation, treat them as potential hostiles... Meerkat, Meerkat... All responsibility... tch... will be mine... You may use live fire... civilian massacre charges... Meerkat, Meerkat...]
Changing frequencies did not help. The chance that Captain Harris had not heard Gyeoul’s warning was very low. Gyeoul remembered Atascadero, the first encounter with a Trickster. The comms soldier had grumbled that for a monster, its performance was absurdly good.
“Promise me.”
The husband spoke while holding his wife. His bloodshot eyes fixed on Gyeoul.
“Promise me you will not abandon my wife.”
His voice sounded frayed. The husband himself also seemed feverish. Looking closely, his eyes were unfocused.
“Yes, I promise. But can you trust my promise?”
“You are Ensign Han.”
The man pronounced Ensign Han almost like a proper noun. It made sense. Gyeoul’s field promotion to Lieutenant had also served to calm public sentiment after the fall of Camp Obispo. To this man, Gyeoul was still Ensign Han, the hero of Santa Maria. He called him Ensign even while looking at his rank insignia.
Gyeoul formed a gentle smile with practiced ease.
“Thank you for trusting me.”
Fame had its uses in moments like this. The survivors stared at the boy officer as if spellbound.
At the medic’s urging, the soldiers pooled MREs. Since these people seemed to have barely managed one meal a day for several days, it was hard to feed them high-calorie rations as-is. They heated water with flameless ration heaters and thinned the main food. Taste was not a concern. The pregnant woman ate first, then everyone else.
While they did that, Gyeoul stepped outside for a moment. Jeffrey beckoned him over. He was lying in the brush under the rain with a waterproof map spread out, his expression tight with tactical worry.
“What will you do now?”
“First, we complete the mission. The pump house is only 500 meters farther.”
“And after that? I think the best move is withdrawing as fast as possible.”
“We cannot move easily with a pregnant woman here. They said her water already broke. We probably need to stay until she gives birth.”
“Oh, my lazy Lord. Why do you always handle things like this?”
Jeffrey muttered nonsense with his forehead on the ground, saying that if this kept up he would convert to the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Strange gibberish. Probably an old joke.
After gloomily knocking his head down a few times, Jeffrey spoke again.
“This is bad in every way. Enemy info is uncertain, a mutant group is approaching, and we have to fight a defensive battle while stuck in place.”
“That is enough complaining. We need to split forces.”
“Ugh. You are joking, right?”
“We still have to do the mission, and we cannot leave civilians unattended even for a moment. But we also cannot drag all of them around with us. I already saw people showing mild hypothermia. For them, 500 meters is not short at all. It could be a brutal distance dividing life and death.”
“So we still split forces?”
“We use horses. We can go and return quickly.”
“How many are going? One engineer has to go for sure, then one escort? Is that not too risky? Those half-dead bastards might already be coming down from above.”
“I am going with them.”
Jeffrey slammed his head down again.
“...This is insane.”
“We have to keep our firepower from scattering. My guess is, Captain Harris may have numbers, but not ammunition. Forest firefights burn through ammo fast, do they not?”
“I thought the same after hearing the old man. I have my issues with that sheriff, but she did that one thing very well, right? If she were a little younger I would have proposed. Older women are not my type.”
“Stop joking. We do not have time.”
When Gyeoul hardened his face, the young platoon leader looked embarrassed. Gyeoul continued.
“If, by any chance, fighting starts while I am gone, force it into attrition. That alone will make them hesitate to approach. We are disadvantaged because we cannot move, but this is a defensive fight. We can offset that. Set traps around us too.”
“We already set a few. Claymores and all. We did not use many because I thought we might move, but now we are holding this ground. No need to save the rest. While you are gone, I will scatter other explosives too. Once we rig Tripwire and Detonation cord, they will not approach carelessly. The forest belongs to whoever claims it first, right?”
A Tripwire was wire hooked to a mine or explosive detonator and pulled tight, usually at ankle height. If touched by accident, it triggered immediately. Detonation cord was a bit different. That was a cord-form explosive.
Either way, both were ideal for traps. In relentless rain and darkness, while walking through deep tree shadows, using Perception to detect well-hidden traps would be extremely difficult.
“There is one thing, though.”
Jeffrey started to speak, then stopped.
“If that captain really shows up...”
The young Ensign clamped his mouth shut.
“No, never mind.”
They were about to fight fellow U.S. soldiers. His mind could not be at ease.
Long talk would only hurt. Gyeoul patted Jeffrey’s shoulder.
“I will leave it to you, second-in-command. Good work.”
“...Yes, sir. Go and come back fast.”
Since they could not freely use radio, soldiers relayed updates in person. They had already been exposed, but there was no need to broadcast their full situation.
Gyeoul went back inside the office. The sheriff was still eating. He had thought she was strong, but she was quietly wiping away tears. How long had it been since her last warm meal? He did not want to interrupt, but he could not delay the mission. Gyeoul spoke.
“Sheriff. Sorry, but you need to guide us to where the horse is.”
“The horse? Why?”
Her first reaction was immediate suspicion. Gyeoul explained.
“Please do not suspect me. I came here to stop the Salinas Dam from collapsing. I cannot leave you here unattended, so only I and one other person are going quickly and coming back. Please cooperate.”
“I did not mean to suspect... haah, I am sorry.”
Gyeoul had a soldier return her gun. He gave her spare magazines too.
“I will trust you.”
The sheriff opened her eyes wide, then gave the boy officer a light bow.
None of the three engineers knew how to ride. In the end, Gyeoul sighed and took the reins himself. The engineer who volunteered to go looked amazed.
“When did you learn horseback riding?”
“Right now.”
The soldier took the boy officer’s answer as a joke. Gyeoul turned the horse north and looked down at the sheriff. She was in a point-shooting stance, glaring into the forest darkness.
“Go back inside, Sheriff.”
“My name is Kathleen Hayland. I would like you to call me by name.”
That was the sheriff’s reply. Her voice was still so hoarse that even basic tone color was hard to hear, but compared to their first meeting, much of the edge was gone. Gyeoul nodded.
“Okay, Kathleen. Go back in and wait. I will be right back.”
Then he snapped the reins. The gentle, maned animal moved smoothly.
============================ Author's Afterword ============================
#Dumb Jokes
There was a quiz maker called [How long would you survive if a zombie outbreak happened?]. This was my result.
-Tunguska’s main weapon is Brain-Melt Attack, and the number of zombies eliminated is 110,000.
Survival period: 30 days
People saved: 4
Cause of death: dumb jokes
So that is what it says. How did it know the author cracks dumb jokes so well...
From now on too, I will keep cracking dumb jokes until Earth is destroyed. Please keep supporting me.
#Q&A
Q. sa2002-nim: @Are you going to heaven after drinking that tea?
A. In the Dreamland where I live, there is no heaven.
Q. ZERO4-nim: @With love from Russia!
A. Not many people know that movie these days... good to meet you.
Q. MasterKalsolum-nim: @tea from heaven I was hungry and too lazy to cook, so I dumped three triangle kimbap into a bowl, crushed and mixed them, and it tasted better than “combat rations.” Shocked.
A. I think it has already been seven years since the author last ate triangle kimbap. I have no idea what they taste like these days.
Q. Ghozt-nim: @I want to get into Cthulhu, is there an intro book you would recommend for beginners? For reference, my childlike innocence is low, so I can only read modern standard Korean.
A. The Wise Life textbook... just kidding. Every Korean translation of Lovecraft collections is famous for translation problems, so there is not really one I can recommend. Either ignore the translation issues and read the collections, or just look things up on a wiki.
Q. qoewh-nim: @Guraeng!, O Great Old One, do you know Will! and Mercy?
A. Hmm... what is that?
Q. SpearOfGlory-nim: @I heard someone fired a Javelin at three guerrilla infantry. So now do we launch B bombers for those war criminals?
A. I think it would be better to sell the bomber and use it as a bribe. If they had paid those guerrillas with the missile sale money and advised them to retire in an island country like Tuvalu, maybe they would have listened. Haha. I am joking.
Q. NeoGGM-nim: @As expected, to a Great Old One, radiation is just seasoning. No, just a snack. On Discovery they used a Javelin to remove three men “estimated” to be shooting AKMs from 1.6 km... in Korea that would be unimaginable...
A. No, it is possible in Korea too. It is a country that spends 6.8 trillion won on barracks reform and still insists it needs to spend more. The author lived in a barracks with a collapsed outer wall... trembling with rage...
Q. Naelleumi-nim: @Listen. If you really come three times a week, author, I will... I will... lock you up without mercy. Eat chocolate with the sponsor coupons and just write like a dog! (Sending sponsor coupon lol)
A. My god, eating chocolate and writing like a dog... you have incredible childlike innocence. The author salutes you. Still, I will not give up on three times a week. Hahaha. The future belongs to dreamers.
Q. GeonjeonhanSummoner-nim: @If you drink black tea and your head becomes two, one head can raise childlike innocence and the other can think about serialization...?! PROFIT!!
A. I do not think a head shaped like that would be normal...
Q. RGZ95-nim: @In post-apocalypse stories there is always that military civilian massacre, 8.8...
A. I think it is something that can often happen when social control collapses. 8_8
Q. Goguguma-nim: @I am enjoying this!! Author-nim, could we maybe see Gyeoul playing other games too, even as side stories? Like racing, fantasy, modern, murim, stuff like that!
A. Or BL... no, never mind. That was just the author talking to himself.
Q. HuchureulHuchuHuchu-nim: @I am an author addicted to radiation. Press recommend to pay your respects.
A. Press recommend and show your Joy.
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