The Dark Between Suns
Steno laid out everything she had heard from Mayor Seus in full, and Hina boiled it down into a few clean sentences.
Each sun appeared on a roughly two-hour cycle of driving.
Between one sun and the next lay darkness so absolute that no light reached it—where you could not see an inch ahead.
City halls rose at the heart of each sun, cities formed around them, and people gathered to live in their glow.
The mayor who resided in the city hall issued identification and oversaw the rations.
Every stretch of ground repeated without end; no matter which way you went, nothing changed.
"Nothing especially useful there."
Hina said it while looking up at the roof.
Minel, still perched astride the ridge and staring quietly into the bright sun, answered in a low voice.
"I'll need to check another city myself."
"Didn't you say the mayor seemed suspicious? Shouldn't we go to city hall first? If we ask how the rations work, we might get answers."
"Another city first."
Minel climbed down from the roof and took out the car Steno had lent him.
The moment he got in, Hina spoke in a startled voice.
"You're going alone?"
"I'll leave Isil. It's stronger than I am."
Hina looked at him with worry in her eyes—worry not for herself and Chori, but for Minel.
That, more than anything, let Minel trust her.
It meant keeping him and Chori safe would not be particularly hard.
"Wait a second. I'll talk to Chori and get you some food."
"I already have plenty."
"Take something good, like steak. Just in case."
Hina went into the house and came back almost at once.
In both hands, astonishingly, she held seasoned fried chicken and a cola.
Just what kind of place was this Backrooms, anyway?
She passed the food through the window and spoke in a peculiar tone.
"This looks like some kind of chicken dish... it is delicious, right?"
So it was a dish that did not exist in Hina's world.
Minel answered lightly.
"One of the best."
"……."
"Want one?"
Hina sniffed the aroma, then immediately shook her head.
"I'm fine. Safe travels."
Minel gave a short laugh and turned the key. Hearing the sound, Isil came flying from somewhere with a whoosh.
"Is protection required?"
"Watch Chori."
"Understood."
Isil flew off somewhere else as if the matter no longer concerned it.
From that direction came Chori's bright laughter; the two seemed to have grown quite close.
Minel started the engine and set out with the sun at his back, driving endlessly in one direction.
Because the scenery outside the window repeated without end, holding a single course was not difficult.
Houses and hills, the same stretch over and over.
The only difference that accumulated with time was the angle of the sun lighting the world.
And perhaps the brightness was affected as well; after an hour, the world was dyed red as if at sunset.
Before long the sunlight vanished completely, and the world drowned in absolute dark.
Minel groped for the car's headlights.
No matter how he felt over the dashboard, no light came on, and he frowned.
"Maybe because it's an old model..."
Beside the wheel, under the dash—no matter how he turned and pressed, nothing responded.
Inside and outside the car remained pitch black.
Without the inertia built from driving the same route over and over, he would already have veered off into something strange.
Growing frustrated, Minel suddenly felt a small protrusion under his foot.
"Don't tell me..."
He carefully pressed it with his toes.
Click!
In that instant the headlights blazed to life, cutting a path through the dark.
Of course it would be a foot switch.
Two beams tore out of the headlamps and ripped the darkness open.
Just as he thought he could finally see ahead—
An unexplainable shadow lunged into the middle of the road.
A shape half person and half tree, and the moment the light hit it Minel's eyes went wide.
"What is that?"
He jerked the wheel on instinct.
The old chassis screamed and lurched sideways.
Iron wheels hammered the dirt and the whole car shook as the silhouette that had burst from the dark scraped past the window.
Crash!
Something like a massive branch clipped the body and bounced away.
The headlights swept left and right. The light shook and shredded the shadows on the ground, and the low forms carpeting the road flashed into view.
Spines protruding from their backs.
Long, torn muzzles.
Legs like wire.
Hounds.
"This again..."
Not one or two.
Like a school of fish swimming through the surface of water, an uncountable number of Hounds crossed endlessly between dark and light.
If he were surrounded here, with not a single point of light, survival was not guaranteed.
He immediately drew Noise, set it on the windowsill, and fired.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
With each muzzle flash the dark lit up as if lightning had struck.
Through those flashes the number of Hounds easily exceeded a hundred.
It was certain.
Stop, and he dies.
Left. Right. Behind.
Black masses swarmed as if to cling to the wheels.
Dirt and grit scraped the glass like sandpaper.
"No monsters, huh..."
He floored the accelerator. The engine made a sound like it was swallowing scrap metal. The body jolted and bounced.
Then one Hound leapt onto the driver's door. Claws punched into the steel plate; fangs flashed through the window gap.
Minel put another round from Noise into it.
Bang!
The Hound's head twisted halfway and it was shoved back, but another behind it seized the doorframe and hauled itself up.
Even the one that had taken a bullet to the head charged again.
Noise could only buy time.
Minel finally decided to draw Silence.
The sharp sound of the blade leaving its sheath cut through the heavy engine noise.
But the window gap was too narrow to swing it.
"Well, it'll understand."
He reversed his grip and jammed the tip into the door hinges. Silence's edge sheared the hinges clean through.
Shring—!
The hinges parted and the steel plate flapped like a wing. Minel drew his leg up and kicked the dangling door with all his strength.
Thud!
The driver's door flew outward. Several Hounds slammed into it and toppled like bowling pins.
But in that brief moment other Hounds poured from the dark, filled the gap at once, and began shoving their muzzles into the car again.
Grrrr!
Grrrr!
Beast-stink and the reek of foul saliva flooded the cabin together. The junker was light; even the Hounds' bites alone set the whole car rocking.
The obstructing door was gone. Minel swung Silence in a blur.
Shring.
Shring.
Shring.
The nearest one's neck was severed and its whole body went flying.
At once he slammed the next one's jaw up with the flat, then cut down through it.
He swung and cut and stabbed without end.
The interior of the car began to be plastered with Hound flesh and blood.
Then Minel accidentally stepped on the light switch again.
He thought the lights might go out—but instead an even stronger beam blasted from the headlamps.
Sudden high beams.
White light reflected at once from dozens of yellow eyes around him, and for a moment their bodies locked.
Minel wrenched the wheel hard and drove in S-curves. The ones charging from behind crashed into each other and fell away.
Even so, three agile ones matched him alongside. Pressing their bodies parallel to the car, they arched their spines like bows, ready to spring.
Minel extended Silence low and dragged it along the dirt beside the wheels.
Ssscrrrape—!
Dust exploded from the tip like a torrential rain.
The sudden dirt blizzard cost the Hounds a beat.
In that gap Minel let the blade describe a light circle.
Shring—!
Outstretched forelegs were all severed and fell away. The Hounds' pitiful screams were left behind.
From the rear the density of the pack grew denser. Wind howled; the wheels skidded along rutted grooves.
Minel checked the rearview mirror and snapped off short bursts from Noise.
Flashing glare punched holes in the dark.
But the dark filled them at once.
"I should've brought Isil..."
His breath came short. His palms were wet.
A Hound that had closed in quickly thrust its long neck all the way to the driver's floor; its tongue touched the pedal.
Minel twisted his elbow and stabbed the tongue, and at the same time drove Silence straight down.
Thunk—!
The thing's head sank under the pedals and blood sprayed. He yanked the blade free and shoved the gear higher.
The headlights flickered once more.
The way ahead seemed to open wide.
Far off to the horizon, shadows in the dark came surging.
An endless wave of monsters.
Sunlight.
Only sunlight was the answer.
Minel laid the sword sideways, parallel to the chassis. The blade, vibrating at the same speed as the running car, sliced the air.
Again he raked three that dug in from the left in a single stroke.
Shring—!
Metal and flesh mixed and whipped away on the wind.
The car did not stop. The speedometer needle trembled. The engine howled as if it would burst any second.
The Hounds still followed.
Closer, bolder, more of them.
Was Steno right that the suns repeated periodically?
Should he U-turn even now and race back toward the original sun?
The thought had barely crossed his mind when the distant horizon brightened, just a little.
As if someone had forcibly torn a canvas, a single red line split the dark.
"Finally..."
Minel gripped the wheel and floored the accelerator again.
The old engine roared as if emptying everything it had; the wheels scraped the ground and threw sparks.
The car shot in a straight line, racing madly toward the light.
Behind him the Hounds' footfalls, breaths, and cries still came.
But the only thing Minel's gaze fixed on was that crack of light ahead, growing larger by the second.
Red became orange; orange became gold.
As if matching Minel's speed, the world was forcing dawn into being.
Along the track the car tore open, the sun was dragged upward by force.
Then, at some point—
The Hounds' sounds cut off at once.
"Hah... hah... hah..."
When Minel looked back, there was nothing there.
Not the Hounds' blood, not the shredded tissue—nothing.
Even the musty stench that had stabbed his nose was gone.
It was hard to tell whether the pursuit a moment ago had been real or a vicious nightmare.
Only the countless claw marks still raking the car's body were the sole proof that it had been real.
Minel stopped the car in front of a nearby empty house.
His heart hammered; his vision was tinged red.
The life-and-death fight had sent his Wildness boiling; he felt as if he might lose his reason at any second.
Minel hurriedly pulled out the seasoned fried chicken and cola Chori had given him.
One bite and a pleasure so intense it nearly unseated his mind rose from his tongue.
At the same time every scrap of Wildness the fight with the Hounds had raised was blown away in a single breath.
"Hah..."
Minel sucked the sauce from his fingers.
After a thirty-minute nap he stepped out of the house clear-headed.
Now it was time to meet the mayor of the newly arrived city.
He went outside, took the car out again, and drove toward the sun.
The sun climbed higher; people began to appear in the houses he passed.
Arriving at the city hall where the sun lingered, he got out of the car and knocked on the main gate.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
The door opened and Mayor Seus appeared.
"Oh? You... what brings you here?"
Minel was not flustered in the least.
He had already expected something of the sort.
He slipped into the act at once.
A bright smile painted itself cleanly across his face, completely hiding what lay underneath.
"I heard from Steno. Someone traveled in one direction for three months looking for the entrance to the fifth floor. I wanted to hear that person's story."
Mayor Seus seemed a little surprised by Minel's newly polite manner, but he soon welcomed him warmly and gripped both of Minel's shoulders with both hands.
His eyes were full of the gladness of meeting an old friend.