Chapter 18: The Tunnel

“It’s the Nexus Tunnel.”

Hannah muttered, looking at the familiar place.
A place where the sun doesn’t shine.
People who don’t know about the Abaddons.
The worst combination.

“My combat uniform?”

At the same time as her question, the laundry fell into her arms.
As she put on her combat uniform out of habit, Hannah gauged the optimal route.
‘Ah, I don’t have a motorcycle.’
‘Damn it, can I catch a taxi?’
That worry disappeared as soon as they left the motel and encountered delivery motorcycles.
There was no need to even discuss it with Zakar.
They both immediately got on the black and white motorcycles in front of them.

“Hey, hey?”

“We’ll just borrow it for a bit and put it back. Or the police will return it.”

The delivery driver, whose motorcycle was stolen in the brief moment he got off, became smaller in the side mirror as he shouted.
‘How many magazines are left?’
‘Is the emitter discharged yet?’
She wasn’t a model citizen, but she was a law-abiding one.
As she casually felt a sense of regret, Hannah ignored every single traffic light and pulled the accelerator handle of the white motorcycle.
She could be sure she was going in the right direction by the procession of police cars and ambulances with their sirens blaring.
Fortunately, the special forces didn’t seem to have been deployed yet.
Hannah, who was narrowing her eyes and observing the controlled road, strongly accelerated the moment the barrier went up for a police car to pass.
Vrooom.
Like a racing car just before the finish line, she and Zakar passed under the closing barrier almost at the same time, without either of them being first.
As they sped away, overtaking the police and police cars that had come out blowing their whistles, they came to a long stop, leaving skid marks on the asphalt, just as they saw the tunnel where people were gathered.
The two of them, who had made a grand entrance, immediately drew everyone’s attention.

“Don’t turn off the engine. It’s a biometric model, so if it turns off once, it won’t start again.”

She warned as she saw a police officer in a navy blue uniform approaching.
Zakar, who didn’t answer her, brushed his disheveled hair back and got off first.

“We are Nemesis, an Allied Forces classified operations team. From this moment on, we will be in control of this operation. The intervention of the district police is excluded, so please withdraw your personnel deployed in the tunnel immediately.”

He explained to the approaching police officer in a toneless voice.
Perhaps because of his black attire from head to toe and his imposing physique, the words he spat out with a thick face had a strange persuasiveness.
Come to think of it, there wasn’t a single lie in it.
It was just not in this world.
The police officer, overwhelmed by the air of a man accustomed to giving orders, moved his lips, then looked at the combat uniform, which was by no means fake, the captain’s rank insignia, and the Allied Forces mark in turn, then quickly turned around, saying he would call the person in charge.
She could see a man in plain clothes in his forties over there frowning as he heard the story.
‘I don’t have time to waste on this crap.’
Hannah looked back at the pitch-black tunnel, which was impossible to see even an inch ahead, with cold eyes.

“We haven’t received any contact, but could you please state your unit and rank again?”

“Captain Zakar Kairos, of the Nemesis special forces.”

“Kairos…”

The man’s eyes narrowed at the well-known name.

“I was also in the Allied Forces, but I’ve never heard of that unit before. Since there are procedures, I will first request your identity confirmation from the military. Also, since the current situation is too much for just the two of you,”

“The two of us are enough. And you can confirm our identities as you wish, but if we don’t go in right now, the number of casualties will only increase.”

As Hannah cut him off firmly, the man’s expression became displeased.
She continued without giving the other person a chance to speak.

“Since this is a classified operation that requires the highest level of security, the information we can give you now is limited. But it’s not too late to confirm our identities after we go in.”

Coincidentally, at that moment, a piercing scream that could be heard even by a normal person’s ears echoed through the tunnel.
The murmuring stopped for a moment, and she could feel the people becoming agitated in the air.
The smell of death.
As a civilian wrapped in a blanket burst into tears and collapsed, she could see a slight conflict in the eyes of the police officer who had maintained a poker face.
He seemed to be anxiously radioing, then looked intently at Hannah once, and then at Zakar once.
They waited, casually checking their magazines.
Then, as if he had decided that he had nothing to lose, he finally made a decision.

“Please prioritize the rescue of the survivors.”

Hannah drew her emitter as if she had been waiting.
And she looked back at the tunnel entrance, which was silent despite the withdrawal radio call.
In the darkness where all the lights had been destroyed, it would only be counterproductive for a police officer with a gun to go in with a flashlight.

“The only way to deal with the Abaddons is with electromagnetic waves. They are attracted to light and flee from energy higher than ultraviolet rays. Please be sure to remember this.”

Before entering the tunnel, which was like the entrails of some unknown beast, Hannah said it as if she had just remembered.
And before the police officer could finish muttering ‘Abaddon,’ she activated the pistol-shaped emitter.
‘If he’s the person in charge of a case of this magnitude, he should have the memory and mental capacity to pass on the information.’
She put in the earpiece that would read her brainwaves, aligned the collimator, and put her fingerprint on it, raising the output to 50%.
The number 5 appeared on the side and then disappeared.

“Zakar, how many shots left until discharge?”

“Five.”

“Mine too. We have to finish this as quickly as possible. It won’t take more than 10 minutes for them to find out we’re lying.”

She whispered quietly as she strode in.
The tunnel curved and became darker and darker.
As she raised her gun with her back to the light, a low voice came to her heightened hearing.

“The numbers are a coincidence, but want to make a bet?”

“What’s the content?”

“Who catches five of the nine inside first. The winner gets whatever they want.”

“Fine.”

As she walked, a car with no signs of life finally appeared in front of them.
Zakar, who had kicked the car body a few times with his gun as if to check if anyone was awake, smashed the window with a clang and opened the door.
The manual for when civilians were mixed in on site was simple.
Never shoot into the darkness.
No matter how much you feel where ‘they’ are, just lure them out.
Vrooom-
As the white sedan’s eyes flashed on and illuminated the long tunnel, they could see cars that had crashed here and there and bodies lying in pools of blood.
At first glance, it looked like a rear-end collision, but it was different.
The moment Zakar made the driver’s corpse step on the accelerator, a human fell from above.
Hannah, who had been waiting alertly, pulled the trigger at the ceiling.
Aiming error –0.5 milliradians.
Output 50%, release.

“One.”

BOOM!

The car, which was hit by the tentacles that had exploded in mid-air, sped forward and hit the writhing, rising corpses.

“Two.”

As she aimed at each of their heads and shot, Hannah hid behind a tunnel pillar to avoid the tentacles.
When the car sped off and crashed into the wall, as if by arrangement, they split the tunnel exactly in half along the lane line, and Zakar took care of the right side.

“Three, four.”

Fortunately, there weren’t many.
The last one left,

“Five.”

Feeling a presence that had bypassed her from above, she turned around, but a low voice cut in instead, and a strong explosion erupted from behind her.
Hannah, with hot fragments splattered on her head, reflexively frowned and bit back a curse.
As she wiped a piece of tentacle that had splattered on her cheek and looked up, she saw the man, who was aiming his gun, stretching his lips into a smirk.
The number 0 was displayed in blue on the slide of his gun.
‘…If only my elbow were okay.’
As the headlights of the car that had crashed into the wall went out, the tunnel rapidly lost its light.
As she stared intently in the darkening vision, vrooom, the faint sound of an engine breaking the silence began to be heard from a distance.
Judging by the heavy sound, it was an armored vehicle.

“7 minutes. No time. Find a car we can ride.”

Instead of acknowledging his victory, Hannah checked her watch and spat out curtly.
And she bent down to the dead police officers to secure ammunition.
Since Sector 17 had done them the favor of unifying the pistol models of the military and police, she had to resupply when she could.
By the time she had collected about 8 spare magazines, she finally heard the sound of a large number of military boots getting off in front of the tunnel.
It was really time to go.
A sleek black car just then started its engine and turned on its headlights.
Hannah looked around the tunnel, which had been thoroughly cleared, one last time, then opened the car door and got in.

“Take the 3rd street. There are no CCTVs there.”

The man in the driver’s seat stepped on the accelerator without answering.
The car gradually exited the tunnel and entered the bright daylight, which was enough to make her stomach churn.
Never in their wildest dreams did they imagine that someone on the bus was filming all of this.