Chapter 162
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 162
Chapter Title: Distant Bridge, Allermeder (9)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
A chill rose from the ground. The darkness, carrying the stench of water, was colder than the temperature itself. It was a moonless night. With the new moon due to rise, the thin moonlight would only shyly appear at dawn. The synesthesia of the night amplified the cold. Tan Guosheng shivered. It was a mild fever. Winter felt the functional decline in his body as well. He hadn't had a proper chance to recover from the exhaustion that had continued since dawn.
For now, they needed to retreat. But before that, one last scan of the surroundings. In the stifling view of the night vision goggles peering through the thick fog, the world was reduced to a small circle with a radius of 20 meters. Within it, there were no opportunities or clues. Winter signaled to Tan Guosheng with hand signs.
The two crawled to cover in the rear.
"What if we force our way through with a vehicle?"
The officer suggested.
"The remaining distance isn't far. If we can somehow get it started, it won't even take a minute to reach the inland waterway. With fog this thick, we don't have to worry about Taow's throws. Accuracy would drop a lot. The same for pursuits. How could it predict our collision course?"
Not necessarily. The National Defense Ministry's Biosecurity Strategy Research Institute, foreseeing a silent entity's capabilities earlier, had warned that the Trickster might possess joint combat ability. Meaning it could go beyond simply relaying information and remotely control other variants' abilities.
It was an unproven hypothesis. At this point, it was data shared only within the U.S. military.
There was no need to take uncertain risks. Winter opposed for another reason.
"Could we find a vehicle with a battery that's not drained?"
Anti-theft devices would likely be off by now. The officer replied stubbornly.
"Among all these vehicles, there must be at least one intact. Or we force-start it somehow..."
Even with a dead battery, there were ways to start it. A few methods.
"That would be even more dangerous. Our position would be exposed while trying. No guarantee it works either."
They were muffling their footsteps. Gear-shifting noise would be worse. To be sure, they'd have to push the vehicle. It would take time, and the movement would be too large.
"Plus, we have to consider the fuel's condition. It'll have a lot of impurities. If the filter clogs by some chance, that spot becomes our grave."
What Winter pointed out was a low probability, but hard to ignore. It was something he'd experienced in the folds of accumulated apocalypse. Stale fuel extracted from abandoned cars was low-quality. Engines or generators running on it would soon have their internals wrecked.
At best, it could only be used for heating or other purposes.
The groaning officer suggested another possibility.
"If we check the trunks, there might be fuel stabilizer. Or weapons..."
Fuel stabilizer dissolved coagulated fuel mixtures.
But it lacked realism. How long would it take to check each one? No keys either. Noise was an unresolved issue. Breaking glass was one thing; this was another level.
Damn. The officer trailed off and groaned. He knew it was無理 himself.
But his idea wasn't worthless. Fuel, fuel. Winter muttered, peering under the van he was leaning against. He was looking for the drain plug. The cap for draining problematic fuel. Could he unscrew it by hand? Winter gripped the hex bolt and twisted with force.
Screek. A small friction sound. The bolt loosened. It had been tightened firmly, but Winter's grip strength surpassed a hydraulic motor. Volatile scent leaked from the widening gap. Little by little, faintly.
"That's it! We can set it on fire to draw their attention! Great, perfect!"
The excited Tan Guosheng whispered in admiration. Winter agreed.
"The smell alone is enough bait. Let's spill as much fuel as possible. Even accounting for evaporation over the year, it'll be enough for a massive blaze."
A fire of sufficient scale would grow on its own. If done right, it might spread across the road to the other side. That would create cracks in the surveillance if it forced the Trickster to retreat from high ground.
They acted immediately. But the officer couldn't loosen the plug alone. Winter moved busily. He left them loose just before they'd fall off. Opening too many at once might let variants catch the scent too early.
There were surprisingly many abandoned cars. It meant the infection spread that rapidly. Yet the fact that the city's survivor count was in the tens of thousands proved the variants' intentions once again.
"Got a way to ignite it?"
To the asking officer, Winter showed a Zippo lighter.
"A gift from a comrade."
"Good."
He checked the condition by opening the lid. As long as the flint wasn't dry, it would light in any situation. The downside was oil leaking easily, but reliability mattered most to soldiers. That was why Zippo lighters were loved for so long.
They stripped rags from a corpse abandoned in the middle of the parking lot. It was a skeletal remains, scattered. Predators had cleanly stripped it. Teeth marks remained on the scattered bones. Signs of crushing to suck marrow too.
The deceased's clothes were damp, but no issue. Soak in fuel and done. Bundle, light, toss under vehicles, then flee.
Afterward, they ran a mental rehearsal. Memorized plug locations for each vehicle, planned escape routes after opening all tanks.
Crouched like a sprinter at the starting line, Tan Guosheng asked Winter.
"Shall we start?"
"Wait a moment, please."
Winter removed the spare magazine from his pistol. With mechanical hand movements, he ejected the live rounds. Click-click-click. He pulled his opposite hand—the fixed axis—tightly, minimizing the sound. The puzzled officer soon understood Winter's intent. A trick often seen in movies.
Of course, "often" was by human standards. Even a cunning Trickster wouldn't anticipate this. It was fresh even to people at first.
"Isn't setting the fire enough? Seems like overkill to waste ammo like this."
He grasped the intent but thought it excessive preparation.
Winter disagreed.
"A sudden fire is too obvious. Atas... um, adding gunshots makes it more convincing. More numbers will converge. That gap secured is worth one magazine."
The tense officer didn't question the mid-sentence slip.
The swallowed word was Atascadero. The first Trickster encountered at the state mental hospital had naturally used a feint. Though these were different individuals, assuming at least one would catch on was safer.
Winter scattered twelve pistol rounds behind. Enough range for fire to spread. Opposite the escape route.
"Alright, go. Don't miss the rendezvous. Avoid firing while moving if possible. I'll handle most situations."
Winter would judge the timing. The officer nodded readily.
In moments, gasoline began leaking from dozens of cars. High volatility meant the smell spread fast. Humidity was already high.
Shrieeeeek-!
Shriek, shriek. Sharp cries echoed. Signals raising voices from all directions. Winter sensed countless presences. An instinct blending his own senses with compensatory ones.
How many plagues lurked in this night? Their scale vibrated the ground. Mostly barefoot, yet this much. Perhaps using fog and darkness was a miscalculation. Against humans dominating the sky, they were ideal conditions. Couldn't rule out larger-scale activity than usual.
At the same time, unmoving numbers wouldn't be negligible.
'There were ones holding positions even in daylight.'
Their group actions surpassed ant swarms, exceeded bee hives. In broad daylight, Winter had noted the monsters' division of labor. Even as many pursued him and Tan Guosheng, sentries held key points.
Sounds of splashing through puddles overlapped. Ominous dissonance. But they slowed once somewhat close. Not mere illusion. 「Combat Sense」 captured distances proved it. They seemed to have learned what this smell meant.
Yet the volatile flood met stagnant water. Diffusion accelerated. Winter inferred from the variants' agitation. From the high water tower earlier, water trails were the city's cracks. Like a giant hurling a stone at glass-like ground.
'It'll shatter into pieces.'
Soon, flames racing every which way would fragment the variant horde.
But the moment gunshots rang, they wouldn't give up easily. Winter's prediction.
The escape route was inside the shrubs. Under an abandoned car in a dead end on all sides, Winter tossed the lit clothes. Judging by gasoline flow, about 30 seconds until ignition. A group funeral. Plenty of companions for cremation.
"All that's left is waiting."
At Winter's words, Tan Guosheng shivered. Not just from chills. Anticipation and excitement.
The two lay prone, awaiting the night's climax.
A kind wind blew. In a momentary revealed distant view, variants were confused. Due to gasoline rapidly spreading along water paths. Shadows dithering at the scent of pyres from all sides.
Boom!
Combustion began with a small explosion.
A wall of fire charged. Hot brushstrokes swept the ground unhindered. Sometimes lines, sometimes areas. Vivid colors painted abstract light-and-shadow art.
Kwaaaah! Aak! Kaaaaah!
Under starless sky, human-like screams echoed. Writhing shadows like primitive rituals. Like Native Americans circling sacred bonfires. Dying gasps of burning diseases alive caused chaos even among the unscathed. Stark contrasts stretched toward the sky. Ground-born beams like polarized light. Gulp. Tan Guosheng swallowed dryly.
Bang-bang! Bang-bang-bang!
Finally, the awaited gunshots rang out. Precisely, pistol rounds detonating in chain reaction.
"Lieutenant Colonel, now! We have to move!"
The officer panicked at the quiet shout. He hadn't anticipated this scene.
"Cross through those rampaging things?"
As he said, the variants' chaos was horrific. Ones sizzling in light and heat leaped every which way, ensnaring others who lost control and flailed cluelessly.
"No chance but now! Hurry!"
Rampaging out-of-control variants would hinder Trickster's watch. Even if Winter and Tan Guosheng slipped in, they'd blend in.
Winter forcibly raised his charge. Inducing action before thought.
Once running started, no stopping.
"Damn, damn, damn...!"
His small mutters mid-run were clear. Human voices differed from monsters' even whispered. By Winter's standards, anyway.
Thud! Impact from his fist. Winter knocked out one that spotted them amid chaos. Just the start. More noticed amid the pandemonium. Couldn't use guns. Would waste the scattered bullets.
Kwaaaah!
A cry alerting fellows to the two humans' flight. Useless. Amid extreme chaos and myriad death rattles. Distinguishing warnings from overlapping noise overwhelmed average variants. Even ghouls.
Through burning smoke, Winter held straight course. Zigzagging here risked losing direction even for him.
'Grumble?'
Dancing flames, shaking shadows. Amid them, an especially huge silhouette: Beta Grumble. Passed behind it. Sensitive to scent like hounds, but couldn't distinguish two humans amid all the roasting flesh smells. Tan Guosheng looked near-fainting. Cough, cough. Unsuppressible coughs burst. Fine. Smoke-inhaling monsters hacked too.
Finally, the water's edge appeared. Brackish ripples following the flow. Corruption-filled sea with flotsam was welcoming now.
A line of fire blocked the path. As Tan Guosheng slowed, Winter shoved his back. No slowing.
"Don't panic! Just jump!"
"Uwaaaah!"
The officer balanced between instinct to stop and the push. Leaped in time. Closer to Winter half-throwing him, accelerated.
Splash! Unfamiliar chill climbed from toes. Reflexive breath stuttered.
Swimming, Winter looked back at the 200 meters passed.
Mist laden with light became smoke-laden thunderclouds, writhing in updrafts.
Fire spread to roadside buildings. The rooftop Trickster seemed trapped. Its silhouette, backlit by flames, glared through the fog.