Chapter 13: Ghostly Laughter

Could that have been a form of comfort?
Well, I don’t know.

[Classified Research Facility. Use of deadly force is authorized.]

As I indifferently shone my light on the warning sign on the wall, I thought.
‘I really don’t get along with Zakar.’
Two hours had passed since we started the search.
So, after a short break, it had already been two hours and twenty-three minutes since we started searching the messy rooms for a possible layout.
Hallway, lab, lab, security door.
Hallway, lab, lab, security door.
In a structure so similar it could induce drowsy driving, the only discovery, if you could call it that, was finding an emergency rescue box on the wall.
I hate to admit it, but perhaps because of the discomfort of being face-to-face with Zakar, I felt more grounded in reality than before.
‘Is this another debt I have to repay?’
If the search drags on, I might have to repay it by treating his injury.
He probably took care of it himself, but since I didn’t want to be heavily indebted to Zakar, I coldly kept a mental ledger.
He was the first person to notice my trauma since Major Müller.
Recalling my superior who, with a rare serious face, had recommended a discharge after my fifth year, my thoughts quickly drifted to the situation outside.
With a considerable number of Abaddons having escaped and the aftermath of the unexpected earthquake, it was bound to be chaotic.
‘I need to get out quickly and help.’

“Do you want to grab a drink today?”
“I expected that, but I didn’t think you’d actually ask. For now, let’s just say it’s a date request.”

The carefree voice from a time when I knew nothing flickered faintly, like a memory from a past life rather than just a few hours ago.
What kind of expression would Major Müller have if he knew that most of his subordinates, after all that effort of reinforcing and training them, had died not because of the Abaddons, but because of the collapsing building?
He might say that’s just how life is, like he did once.
That you can’t predict anything.
That on the way to a restaurant reserved for a proposal, you could be hit by a car from the side while looking at the ring at a red light, or that a global pandemic could break out while you’re preparing to immigrate, and the city could be locked down.
He said that no matter how much you plan and try, everything gets swept away in the face of a huge current.
Some things are not our fault.
But… Hannah remembered the faces of the guys who had been laughing and talking vividly until that evening.
No one who hasn’t seen it firsthand can ever know the gap between that and the moment they became a mushy corpse.
When life leaves a human being, that momentary difference cannot be defined simply by whether they are breathing or not.
Everything is gone from a corpse.
They die so insignificantly that anyone who sees a young person’s corpse comes to realize the truth of the world.
How futilely dreams and jokes can be shattered.
How absurd and meaningless life can be…
We are dreaming a very short and beautiful dream.
A dream that is a tragedy because it must end, without a single person knowing what the next chapter of the dream holds.
As my feet got wet with uncharacteristic sentimentality, a wide square appeared beyond the corner.
Hannah, who was on guard at the front, stopped first and signaled to Zakar.
The huge hole in the center of the square was clearly the path the Abaddons had used to come up just before the massive earthquake.
It probably went straight from the 7th basement floor to the 1st floor.
While the basic structure of the research institute was long hallways, for some reason, this area was wide open.
There were sunken caves like anthills here and there on the walls, and next to one of them, she saw a three-dimensional plaque with the words ‘13th Military Science Research Institute’ in white letters, which was undeniable proof.
It looked like the entrance before going into a hospital or an office.
As she thought that far, Hannah frowned at the pungent, sharp smell.
The smell that had been piercing her nose since she woke up in the basement had now become so severe that it made her nauseous.
As if this were the source of the stench…
Stench.
As she casually thought of the word, her fingertips suddenly stiffened.
It was because of a thunderous phrase that flashed through her mind.

“…‘Hole, stench.’”

‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’

“‘Covered pit, 13th Military Science Research Institute.’”

Goosebumps erupted all over my body.
With widened eyes, I whipped my head around, and the man who had thought of the same thing spoke with a blank face.

“It sounds just like your email.”

‘Right. My email.’
Along with a faint chill, this time the scene before her eyes was imprinted on her mind, one by one.
A huge hole.
An inexplicable stench.
A cave covered with a black membrane.
And above all, the words ‘13th Military Science Research Institute’.
It was exact.
It had been describing this scene from the beginning.

‘My lover and my betrayer. Come here. Let’s go together.’

As something, whether it was a tremor or fear, wrapped around her spine, her legs moved as if possessed.
The 10-meter-diameter hole in the floor wasn’t the problem.
The entrances surrounding the square like anthills were strangely bothering her.
Only one was covered with a black membrane like a door, and as she got closer, it looked similar to mud or black sand grains to the naked eye.
When she pushed the muzzle of her rifle into the source of the stench, it went in smoothly without any resistance.

“It’s empty.”

Muttering, Hannah stirred it around with her rifle and then shone her light on it this time.
Then, the covering of earth opened up as if tearing a thin membrane, and slid away from the light.
‘What on earth is this material?’

“It’s stairs. They seem to be earthquake-proof, so they’re intact.”

Hannah said, shining her light on the stairs inside.
She could feel Zakar, who had come up behind her, bending down slightly and staring intently inside.
The man, who had been scanning the inside with a blank expression, asked.

“Are you going in?”

“If they called, it’s polite to go and meet them. If you’re not up for it, you can stay here.”

The email had called her here.
Let’s assume the military was really cultivating Abaddons.
How could the person who knew that have been so sure that she would come down to the 5th basement floor?
That she would encounter this exact scene?
She was curious about what would be waiting for her if she went up as instructed.
Her intuition was good.
She didn’t feel any danger.
Just a vague sense of unease.
Zakar seemed to feel similarly, as he collected a sample of the black membrane in a dump pouch without any objection.
When that was done, Hannah carefully touched the soft membrane, like a curtain, and passed through it.
As her arms, legs, and entire body were pulled inside, she felt a strange sensation she had never felt before, and her hair stood on end.
After confirming that nothing had stuck to her body, she carefully climbed the stairs.
It seemed like an ordinary emergency exit staircase.
Feeling Zakar following behind her, Hannah shone her light on every corner of the strangely neat and clean staircase.
There were no cobwebs or stone dust.
As if the commotion from a few hours ago had never happened.
‘What is this? Is this possible?’
As she turned and went up four and a half flights, her suspicion grew heavier.
It was because for the first time, she heard a sound, a murmuring voice, brush past her ears.
‘A rescue team?’
‘Already?’
‘But they shouldn’t have the time to come this far.’
Without letting her guard down, Hannah quickened her pace.
Finally, she saw an iron door.
The moment she opened the doorknob and stepped back,

Squeak-

Her eyes were blinded for a long time by the bright light, like a white field at the end of a long tunnel.
For about a second, with her eyes narrowed, her light-adapting eyes sent the image reflected on her retina straight to her brain.
The scene of a brightly lit back alley in a bustling downtown at dawn, people gathered here and there, laughing and talking, and then a night breeze brushing against her cheek and shaking her hair.
‘A dream? No, a hallucination?’
There are no alleys like this in the factory zone.
The massive earthquake, did it even happen?
Why isn’t there a single place that’s been damaged?
She could see some men who were doing drugs nearby snickering in her direction.
Hannah, who had been standing there blankly for a moment, immediately drew her emitter.
In the Abyss, there were people who saw strange hallucinations due to the electromagnetic waves.
But even after shooting the ground several times according to the response manual, there was no change in the scenery.
At the presence, she looked to the side and saw Zakar’s ice-cold profile.
‘My expression in the mirror is probably similar.’
Before she could say anything, he, like someone trying to catch a ghost, turned around and threw open the door that hadn’t fully closed yet.
Hannah followed him down.
They had climbed four and a half flights of stairs.
But one flight was enough to go down.
Instead of a black membrane, she opened a jingling door and entered a pub with a nice atmosphere.
In the woody pub, which seemed to be trying to recreate the atmosphere of the 2000s, the voice of Kieran Jaxx was interestingly echoing.
A song of his she had never heard before.

“Haha.”

Zakar was the first to laugh out loud, as if he found it amusing.
As if he were someone who knew how to laugh even at something not funny at all, his charming smile caught the attention of a passing waitress.
He looked down at the frozen Hannah and said.

“You’re not going to tell me we’re having the same dream, are you?”

“Of course not. My mind isn’t idle enough to dream of you.”

As she bit the inside of her mouth, a sharp pain spread along the mucous membrane.
This was undoubtedly reality.
Covered in blood, they looked around at the peaceful surroundings and finally looked at each other, the only two incongruous beings in this world.
And Hannah asked, as if whispering to a mirror.

“Where are we?”