Crazy Squid

"You didn't hear that just now?"

Dr. Myeong's unease never got a chance to settle.

"A sound? I didn't catch anything."

"Maybe not..."

"You're wound too tight. Ease up."

"Mm."

The truth was, I'd heard it too. Only faintly, and only because it was a fair way off: a monster's heavy thud, and right after it the crack of a shot. A handgun, if I had to guess. The former hunter the Chief had called in? Or it could have been the Gentleman, the one they'd taken hostage. The sentry had been carrying an assault rifle, so it probably wasn't him. Whatever had happened, the plan didn't change. No sense making Dr. Myeong any more anxious than he already was.

"Hey. Even if those two are still alive, like you said... getting them out is impossible, isn't it?"

The Chief had surely heard the gunshot as well. I was playing dumb straight through, and he was keeping time with me. Good. He had the sense for it.

"Go in after them and all you'll do is add to the body count."

"Figured as much..."

There was one thing still nagging at me.

"That former hunter you called. He doesn't use anything but cold weapons, does he? Firearms, I mean."

"Not exactly. He carries a gun, of course."

"What kind?"

"I don't know every piece of kit he packs around."

Whoever had fired, if they'd run into the monster down here they would have had a light on them. No question. If the thing had soaked that light up and charged itself, we were in trouble. And if it had learned, on top of that, that attacking a human meant it could get light, we were in worse trouble still.

"...Let's move, before that squid shows up again."

Dr. Myeong hurried his steps. Less afraid of seeing the monster again, I suspected, than of watching a hostage die.

"Chief. You really think we can win a fight, so long as that former hunter of yours turns up?"

"Coming from the one who called for backup, it's a little awkward to say, but—"

"Not a chance?"

"Not a chance."

Only one option left.

"We move now. Dr. Myeong right behind me, the Chief behind him. We don't provoke the thing. We run, and that's all."

Click.

"I'll keep the light low as we go. Stay right on me."

"Mm."

"Let's do it!"

A dead sprint. The last strategy we had, and the best one.

Sssk.

"Postman? That sound's been grating on me for a while."

A hand dragging along the wall as we moved forward. Fair enough that it grated.

"It's a superstition. Bear with it a little."

"A superstition?"

"Call it a ritual for staying alive."

Which was nonsense. I was communing with the underground. A path I would never walk again. No—a path I had to make certain I would never need to walk again. Even so, I had to prepare for the chance.

Sssk. Sssk.

"...Why are you copying me?"

"You said it keeps you alive, didn't you? Then we should all be doing it."

From the few times we'd crossed it, the thing's hearing didn't seem all that sharp. It hadn't so much as reacted to the sound of us talking. Brushing a wall, speaking low—that much shouldn't matter.

"Hey, Doc. You too. Get on with it."

Sssk.

Dr. Myeong, lover of science, set his hand to the wall without a word of complaint.

"What are you doing? You don't believe in superstitions."

"It doesn't cost anything."

Watching him, I started to wonder whether Geofront's absurd plan might actually have made a kind of sense.

The real aim was surely to thin the population, and the purpose written into the notice was obviously some plausible-sounding filler they'd tossed in at random. I could only hope they hadn't actually meant to kill two birds with one stone. Whatever it was, I couldn't stand to let things roll the way those people wanted.

Sssk.

"Woo Jungkook."

"What."

"Do you get through life on apologies?"

"If you've got breath for small talk, save it."

Sssk.

The underground was quiet. The three-part rasp of hands along the wall left me strangely at ease. The feeling that I wasn't wandering this place alone.

"Doc."

"Hm?"

"This superstition of touching the wall, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and apologizing. Not much difference, is there?"

"...You mean they both don't cost anything?"

"You catch on quick."

And so we climbed the stairs, until at last the destination showed itself far ahead.

"Stop."

A familiar sight: the way choked with collapsed rubble. The crawl hole along the bottom was still exactly as we'd left it.

"Hm? Why stop already? Let's get closer."

"Something's wrong."

Badly wrong.

"What? What is it?"

Dr. Myeong, stuck tight at my back, poked his head out.

"Huh? I think there's light past the hole. The backup the Chief called?"

That was part of why I wasn't going any closer. It wasn't the whole of it.

"There's a bigger problem."

"Hm?"

"The way's still blocked, and the only passage we've got is that little hole. So how did the monster get past it and come after us?"

"Ah... you're right."

A chill went through me. Elder Heo—this would be the place to bury him, no question.

"Chief."

Either way, there was only one possibility.

"There was another path besides this one. Completely blocked, right?"

"Right. That one's packed solid with fallen rubble. That's why we came through the hole."

"Any other way across to that side?"

"None. Those two are the only paths."

Come to think of it, the moment we'd first met the monster had been strange too. At first there had definitely been a thud from far off, and then, before we knew it, the thing was right where we were. We'd been coming through the crawl hole, and the other path had definitely been sealed. With both ways shut, how had it closed in on us? Had it punched through the blocked path without a soul the wiser?

"Can we go look at that other blocked path?"

"Sure."

A short detour, and there it was. A path sealed tight, without even a crawl hole.

"What is this? There isn't some other route the Chief doesn't know about?"

"...There isn't. The layout isn't even that complicated. Getting lost would take more work than finding your way."

I didn't understand it, but it didn't matter right now. However the monster had been getting around, all we had to do was get out. What was certain was that the crawl hole was all we had. We came back to the passage where the hole in question showed itself.

"Postman, maybe waiting for the backup isn't a bad idea?"

"First we see what's on the other side of that hole."

If the monster was in there, whoever had come to help would meet it before he ever got a chance to talk to us. He might go down without ever getting a shot off. I approached the hole slowly, one careful step at a time. I hadn't said a word, but Dr. Myeong and the Chief were being just as careful. Their footsteps were so quiet I had to check they were still behind me.

And so we reached the crawl hole. I didn't even need to strain to see past it.

Kueh...

A low, sickening sound. The monster, charging itself on light. Had the backup already gone down? I left Dr. Myeong and the Chief waiting a little way off and went to the hole alone. While it was taking in light, the thing went into a state of extreme excitement. Its fighting power climbed, but its sense of what was around it dropped off a cliff. It stopped seeing anything at all.

Kueeeh... khyul, hyul.

I peered quietly inside. Corpses scattered everywhere, in the work uniforms of the Waste Disposal Squad. The ones who came back after finishing the patient transfer? Why had they come all the way down here to die? At any rate, they'd made their exit after kindly donating three flashlights. Three beams of light. That checked out. One of them was flickering, broken by the shock of the fall, by the look of it. From where I stood I could only see a single flashlight.

Kreh...

How long had it been like this? Since I'd heard the gunshot? If so, a fair amount of time had passed. It would have drunk in an enormous amount of light. I pushed my upper body into the hole. Crawling in a little farther, I could finally see all three flashlights. Don't even need a Core ability for this. Three fixed targets, fired in succession. One round each. Two seconds was plenty.

Bang. Bang-bang.

A flash. Good. Darkness, just the way I liked it.

Khyul?

I yanked my torso back out of the hole. A tentacle raked in through the opening a hair too late. That was close. But then—

Kkeuhyuuul!

A cracking sound, and the crawl hole twitched. I switched the flashlight on toward the far dark and checked it by the spill of light.

"Fall back!"

"Huh?"

"This thing bulked up!"

A tentacle gone thick and hulking was tearing the crawl hole apart.

"What are you standing there for! Run! Back the way we came!"

"D-Doc, follow me!"

The Chief, suddenly out in front. Dr. Myeong right behind him.

"I was never any good at running!"

"You only have to be good right now!"

"That's not how it works!"

"It is!"

The rubble heaved. Raw strength alone, a breath away from punching through the blocked path.

"Ah—I'm going to fall!"

"Turn your flashlight on and light what's in front of you! You fall, you're finished!"

KWAANG!

In the end, the thing broke through.

Thud, thud, thud, thud!

For a second I thought a grenade launcher had opened up somewhere. It was the sound of tentacles hammering the floor as it charged.

"Postman! Which way do we go?"

"No safe room?"

"Ah—the room where they launch the signal flares! The walls are thick, and the door's steel!"

"Hurry!"

That was when it happened.

"Wh-what do we do? I think I've gone deaf!"

"No. You haven't."

The underground had gone quiet. The thing that had been charging so loudly was gone between one instant and the next. All that was left was the three of us, panting.

"Hah... When I get back to headquarters, I'm telling them I'm done being station master. I really can't do this anymore."

"Hehh... The squid got tired of chasing us too, right?"

A tentacle monster in a frenzy doesn't get tired. At most, the energy it charged runs dry and it collapses. So it hadn't taken in all that much light after all. Lucky.

"Hahh... I think my heart's going to burst..."

"Relax. It won't burst from this. You're a doctor and you don't know that?"

"Want me to burst yours first?"

The Chief caught himself and killed his flashlight, and Dr. Myeong followed. Darkness came back, and with it a settling calm. Finding comfort in the total absence of light—that was a first.

"That... offer. Three Cores, and you'd open the passage on the other side. Is it still good?"

Looked like his head had finally cleared.

"It's always good."

"Hoo. First I need to stay alive."

In the dark, the Chief groped along my arm and pressed the Cores into my hand. His fingers were frantic, as if begging me to just take them. A passage that ran straight from Sublevel 6 up to the surface. It came out past the safe room, so we only had to keep going the way we'd been running. The monster would be behind us. We could breathe.

"Hehh... Then let's move. Fast."

"You're pushing it."

"I want out fast even if I have to push it. Hoo..."

"Same here. Postman, take the rear. I'll lead from the front."

The moment the Chief said it and switched his flashlight on ahead of us—

KWAANG! Thud!

"Wh-what!"

Something dropped straight through the ceiling and hit the floor.

"Crazy squid!"

The monster. It took the beam dead-on.

"Kill the light! Run the other way!"

"How long do I have to keep being good at running!"

"I'm never being station master again!"

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

"The squid was definitely behind us! What happened!"

"Chief! What's above the ceiling?"

"Hahh—what's up there! The vent's open, can't you see!"

A passage tied into the ventilation shaft. Piping would run through it.

"Isn't a space like that narrow?"

"The inside of a subway station ceiling is bigger than you'd think!"

"Big enough for one person, at most?"

"Hehh...! Room to spare even after you're in!"

The thing wasn't large to begin with. It could move through the station as freely as a person. And a tentacle monster's body was made to cram into tight spaces. The trunk was like metal and wouldn't crumple, but even with the whole of it laid flat, the tentacles meant its movement wasn't restricted. I lit the ceiling as I ran. Tch. So that was it. Holes scattered across it. The place was already wrecked everywhere, so I'd overlooked them. I'd taken them for cracks from the air raid, or just from age. If every one of them was a trace of the monster coming and going, it made sense. Those thuds it made—those would have been the sound of it dropping out of the ceiling.

"Hahh, hah... But! You said that thing was heavy! The ceiling couldn't hold the weight—hahh!"

"Stop talking and run!"

Thud! ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Thud! Thud! Thud!

The answer was the suckers. Once it got up above the ceiling, it clung to the solid sections overhead and moved that way.

"Hehh...! I'm not deaf right now, am I? It's not just me who can't hear it, right?"

The thing had slipped back into the vent.

"Keep running!"

Twaang!

Before the words were even out, a single tentacle stabbed down through the ceiling, drawn to a point.

"Eek!"

"Keep running!"

Twaang! Thud! Twaang!

"I-I almost got hit!"

"Didn't ask, so shut your mouth!"

Lucky the thing couldn't see through solid matter. Its aim was miserable.

Twaang!

But if it kept trying, one of them would land eventually.

"This is actually better!"

"How is any of this better!"

A passage inside a ceiling is bound to twist and bend along the way. Different from us, who could run ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the shortest line straight.

"We keep running and get out, same as we planned!"

At this pace, it would be enough.

Shwook.

But the bright outlook didn't last.

"Urk!"

A tentacle shot out through the vent and wrapped the Chief's middle in an instant.

"You insane piece of marine life!"

Dr. Myeong, right behind him, drew a knife at once. Something familiar—looking closer, it was the dagger I'd given him.

"Hraaah!"

He cut with a form cleaner than I'd expected, but—

Khyul!

Severing a tentacle in one stroke was too much to ask. Not with a dagger that short.

"Hhk!"

And worse. The cut itself had been clean enough, but he couldn't hold the force of the swing, and the dagger left his hand.

Clang.

A mistake beginners make all the time. He'd managed the slash without breaking stride, but what came after was the problem. The Chief was still caught. Dr. Myeong hesitated, just for a moment.

"Run... Doc."

I'd already come to a complete stop well before that. Good thing I communed with the place. Blue light flooded the whole passage. Cutting a tentacle took an edged weapon, and I didn't have anything that would do. Failing that, if I put enough standard rounds into it...

Whoosh!

While I hesitated, a wind blew in. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠By the time I turned toward where it came from, someone had already brushed past my side.

Shwaaak!

A long blade split the tentacle clean. A glaive. This is the backup? The former hunter the Chief had called.

"...Postman. So we meet again."

Someone who could see ahead even in the dark. It was him.