Chapter 31
Chapter 31
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 31
Chapter Title: Down the Cliff
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The moment the gun barrel poked through the gap in the door.
Dever twisted the muzzle—barely inside—straight up toward the ceiling. The errant magazine slammed into the car roof with a deafening clang, crumpling it inward.
“You surv—mmph!”
Dever clamped his hand over the shouting enemy's mouth and yanked the man inside. In the cramped driver's seat, the two burly men grappled savagely.
Meanwhile, Beth was locked in her own desperate struggle for survival.
As a Kovah Army soldier reached out to brush aside her dangling hair, she thrust the syringe forward. The needle, filled with anesthetic, sank deep into the man's thick forearm.
Seizing his moment of confusion, she grabbed for the gun. But the vast difference in strength meant the barrel wouldn't come free easily—it sprayed bullets wildly throughout the car's interior.
Fearing Dever might get hit, Beth clenched her teeth and held on, her face draining of color.
“You must have a death wish!”
The muzzle the man had trained on her slowly swung Beth's way.
It was the limit she could no longer endure. She squeezed her eyes shut tight. Then came the sharp crack of a gunshot, followed by a spray of warm, metallic fluid across her face. Snapping her eyes open, she saw the man's eyes rolling back white.
Glancing aside, she spotted Dever shoving off the corpse dangling over him, still clutching the Kovah soldier's rifle.
Behind their car sat just a single empty Porter.
“We need to move. Tires are shot.”
Dever climbed out of the driver's seat first and hurried around to haul Beth from the passenger side. He roughly wiped the bloodstains from her face with one large hand, pressing on urgently.
“Head straight for the Nexus evacuation flag. If the sun sets, we're dead. We go now. Got it?!”
Beth nodded furiously. Heat radiated from the massive hand cradling her face.
“Save your own skin.”
He tore the red cross armband roughly from her forearm.
“Don't look back. Just run.”
The man laced their fingers together tightly, as if they were each other's sole lifeline, leaving no gaps between their grip.
Their target was one place and one place only.
Corpses hurled past by shell blasts or tanks erupting in flames didn't even register.
In that instant, one Kovah soldier—flung by grenade shockwave—hurtled toward Dever. Recognizing the enemy on instinct, the man barreled straight into him.
The brutal hand-to-hand fight erupted without a chance to assess.
The man mounted atop Dever threw his weight into choking his throat.
“Nngh... Jens! Go!”
A few paces away where she'd sprawled, Beth spotted the dropped gun enter her view. No time to question why he'd suddenly called her by house name.
Fearing he might spot her glance shifting and switch targets, Dever deliberately avoided looking at Beth as she approached.
Her hand shook violently as she belly-crawled to grasp the rifle. Shuddering legs forced her to inch forward on all fours.
She jammed the muzzle against the enemy's murderous back.
Pulling the trigger jolted her whole body.
Dever heaved ragged breaths with the limp Kovah soldier pinned atop him. Staggering to his feet, he seized Beth's hand where she sat stunned and hauled her upright.
“Don't look.”
The sun plunged far too swiftly, and the Nexus evacuation flag seemed to recede ever farther.
“It's Dever! Capture Dever Cliff alive!”
“Damn it.”
This time Beth grabbed and pulled his hand first, but her feet froze in place. He stared in the direction opposite the evacuation vehicles.
Toward the sheer, empty drop.
Dever bolted down the steep hillside.
“Capture the woman alive too!”
Dense trees and thick underbrush choked the base of the precipitous slope. The sky, awash in purple, dragged premature night up from the valley floor.
Only one path forward.
“Hold on.”
Dever crushed Beth against him until she could scarcely breathe, then hurled their bodies down the slope.
Even amid the chaotic tumble, bullets whizzed after them. Rough gravel shredded their clothes against the ground.
Their bodies bounced skyward then crashed down again and again, but Dever clutched her fiercely in his arms, keeping them locked together.
Suddenly, it hit Beth.
I'm not dying alone... I'm dying with this man.
A heavy thud rang out, and darkness swallowed her vision.
In utter blackness, she groped blindly. Her battered body protested as she struggled upright, but she couldn't see a foot ahead.
Beth scanned frantically. There—sprawled across a heap of brush—was the familiar uniform. Dever lay there in ruins, eyes closed.
A faint pulse throbbed at his neck. But shaking his arm drew no response.
Only now did she notice his chest, soaked slick with blood.
She patted herself down, but the medical kit she'd slung over her shoulder was gone. No telling how much time had passed.
White vapor puffed from her ragged breaths.
Leave him like this, and he might die. She had to wake him somehow. Fearing a gunshot wound, she couldn't shake him hard—her hands roamed his body in panic.
“Ngh...”
The groan, like a miracle, snapped her gaze to his.
His eyes cracked open narrowly, blinking slow.
“You're alive...”
Those words washed relief through her. Tears spilled endlessly as the knot of emotions unraveled.
Dever simply watched the woman weep pitifully, her sobs hitching.
Everything remained unknown.
Chasing her to the battlefield. Hurling them off the cliff. An endless chain of gambles he couldn't guarantee.
Yet he'd shouldered it all because...
Better than letting Beth Jens die.
The mission's unexpected success drew a wry chuckle. His back screamed with every exhale, but it was nothing.
“You hurt?”
She shook her head.
“Then we're good.”
After steadying his breaths, Dever pushed himself up. Coppery blood seeped from his clenched teeth as he stifled a groan.
“Everyone around me seems short-lived. Guess you saved my skin today.”
You saved me, she thought, yet here you say I saved you.
As she trailed him toward some unknown destination, Beth found the words strangely off.
Beneath a massive boulder a few steps away, in a shallow depression, Dever half-leaned against the rock. Beth hurried to help as he fumbled his uniform jacket with his left hand.
Dever draped the jacket over her shoulders.
“That damn rag... ngh.”
Beth checked his back at once. She couldn't peel off the shirt for a clear look, but the gunshot from the market had clearly torn open again.
Her tear-streaked black eyes stared at him anxiously.
“If you're this worried... why'd you leave me behind?”
Dever couldn't bring himself to add me.
Only then did Beth notice the key peeking from between his gaping shirt. That worn, stained key she'd always thought mismatched him.
“Enough. I'm not telling you to cry.”
White mist billowed from every word.
“Knew you never listen.”
The man patted his belly. His hand pointed to the bloodied shirt. Baffled by the odd gesture, Beth's eyes darted about.
When she didn't catch on, a chill settled in his gaze. This time, a hollow laugh escaped Beth's lips.
If even that icy stare brings comfort, then I'm truly mad.
“Climb up.”
No stump to perch on, no rock to sit—climb what?
Dever seized the arm of the woman glancing around and pulled.
Suddenly astride Dever, Beth's eyes went wide. His hands encircled her waist, vivid and warm.
“Quit squirming if you don't want to freeze. Hug me tight. I'm freezing too.”
His mention of the cold startled her into hunching over and embracing him. Shame had vanished long ago. Far greater was her dread of what this might cost him.
Her body was frozen through, but pressed close, it beat being alone.
“Fall asleep and you die.”
His low voice tickled her ear.
He wasn't one for idle threats. He'd joked about corpses in the cart to the market, only to take a bullet proving it.
Beth molded herself even closer, seamless.
“Cold makes you drowsy. Keep talking.”
Dever offered his hand.
“Anything.”
Her much smaller hand hesitated before taking it.
Beth drew a slow breath. She craved no heavy topics.
Why call me by house name?
“They saw us together. Now the enemy'll hunt you too. Women change houses when they marry. Better than your real name.”
He glanced down at the woman against his chest.
“Got a house name you like?”
Playful question, but she shut it down stone-faced.
“Cliff. Beth Cliff.”
Beth simply tightened her arms. His low chuckle rumbled through his chest to her ear.
After the brief laugh, heavy silence descended.
“That wasn't on you.”
In the quiet, Dever voiced the thoughts he read in her.
“Regret won't change it. Today, you didn't kill a Kovah soldier—you saved me. That's all that matters.”
Regret. Beth turned the word over silently.
No regrets. Had she chosen otherwise in that moment, this man might have vanished right before her. Whatever the price, she wouldn't have picked differently.
Even if that price was an unbearable weight of guilt.
“No sleeping.”
His gentle urging soothed her.
“If you're listening, tap my back.”
His sharpness melting into coaxing—that was good.
Instead of nodding endlessly, Beth tapped his back twice with her fingers.
“Yeah, like that.”
A deep sigh echoed through his broad chest. Whatever he pondered, his steady heartbeat quickened bit by bit.
“When you were the one about to...”
He paused, readjusting his hold on the woman in his arms. Her breathing rose and fell against his fingertips, unfiltered.
“Wasn't ignoring you. I tried to save you.”
Shoot that woman.
The days she'd bitterly cursed him.
“Never left you behind. Not once.”
She believed him now. His words.
“You listening?”
His tone sharpening, Beth smiled soundlessly. She felt his chest settle from her light taps.
“Really hate Cliff that much?”
She tapped again.
“Hell. Knew it was a cursed house.”
Beth bit her lip. She sensed the truth hidden in those words.
The jacket pocket draped over her shoulder.
A round canister, speaking his heart in her stead—though unseen.