Chapter 6 : Hallucinations

At the same time, Zakar wrenched the steering wheel, and the car rolled down the soft grassy slope.
Hannah gripped the handle tightly, enduring the shaking.

‘Did this bastard buy an off-roader just for this kind of crap?’

Just as the car came to a precarious stop right before falling into the river, a huge splash erupted from the water’s surface and something shot out.
And then it exploded into pieces in mid-air.
Zakar slid his seat far back and fired the emitter several times.
As the chunks of black flesh fell and slid down the car window, Hannah also switched her weapon and similarly aimed the emitter, gauging the movement of the water.
They hadn’t discussed a single word of the plan.
There was no need.
Zakar and I thought the same way.
In the most efficient way that would yield the maximum results.
When Zakar turned on the car’s blinkers to further provoke it with the light, crash, the car window shattered, and a tentacle shot through and lodged itself between the two of them.
Hannah, who had opened the door and rolled out at the perfect timing, now used the car door as cover and pulled the trigger.
It was then that she faintly heard the sound of a dog barking.
Turning her head towards the pale object that had entered her field of vision, she saw a woman who had fallen in fear on the riverbank and a large dog barking fiercely beside her, protecting its owner.
They must have been unlucky enough to be taking a walk around here.

“…Damn it.”

‘The siren went off a while ago, why is the deployment so late?’
‘Does it make sense that they can’t even control civilians properly?’

As a black tentacle cut through the water and stretched straight towards them from a distance, Hannah aimed the emitter and desperately thought.
There was a person and a dog within the radiation range.
The amount of X-rays from the emitter dangerously exceeds the standard limit.
100 times that of an X-ray.
Private Howard’s words weren’t just talk.
He must have felt severe nausea and vomiting from acute radiation syndrome.
Even if a human wearing an electromagnetic protective suit gets hit once, they can somehow be checked and let go, but…

“Aaaah!”

Hannah put away the emitter and rushed out, rolling with the woman to avoid the attack, then pulled the trigger.
Black flesh rained down like hail.

“B-Bill!”

The tear-streaked woman cried out from under Hannah.

“The dog is right next to you, stay still!”

“N-no. M-my, my boyfriend…”

Boyfriend?

Just as she furrowed her brow, she felt a presence in the bushes next to them.
She saw a man, who had been lying down and out of sight, twitching with his waist bent at a right angle.
An angle that no living person could have.
With a cold judgment, Hannah silently aimed the emitter at its head.
And at that moment,

“Han…nah…”

Her eyes widened, and her fingers froze.

“…I’m back…”

‘It’s a hallucination.’
Definitely.

“You… betrayer…”

The moment she met the man’s black eye sockets as he raised his head, Hannah not only fired the emitter until it was discharged but also pulled out her pistol and frantically fired at the already limp corpse.
Until the face was not only mashed but disintegrated and dismembered, and blood splattered everywhere.
She didn’t even notice that the screaming woman had gone quiet.
When the magazine was empty and she was just pulling the trigger with a click, someone roughly grabbed her wrist and pulled it up.
The hand that twisted and subdued her as if to crush it brought her painfully back to her senses.

“Captain Hannah Tara.”

It’s Zakar Kairos.

“First Company will take over from here.”

Her eyes focused at the sound of his sharp, cutting voice.
At the same time, her ears also opened up, and the sounds of sirens, murmurs, and the voices of soldiers controlling the road rushed in all at once.
It felt like time had stopped for her alone, and she had only just returned to reality.
Her eyes shifted to the side.
The members of the 1st Company, who had approached at some point, were standing there watching her as if she were a madwoman.
As the strength drained from her arm and it slowly fell, a gruesome piece of the corpse that had been attached to her rolled onto the ground.
She saw the woman lying unconscious under her.
Only the dog was whining and licking its owner.
As she pushed herself up on her legs, it growled desperately in the growing shadow.
As if it had seen a monster that would kill its owner.
Zakar put a towel, which he had received from someone, over her head as she stood there blankly.
As she wiped the blood from her face, she scanned the bustling surroundings with her eyes.
‘I’ll have to explain… about the excessive force.’

“…That just now,”

“Go back. I’m in no mood for things to get more troublesome tonight.”

Zakar cut her off and turned away.
She grabbed his arm because, for a moment, she couldn’t think of the right words to call him.

“It spoke.”

“……”

“The civilian corpse I shot… with the tentacle inside, it said the same thing as the email from Ian.”

“……”

“I know it sounds crazy. I can’t believe it either, so when that woman wakes up, I need to get her testimony. Ask her if she heard it.”

“She’ll probably pass out again from the trauma if she sees your face.”

“Do I look like I’m kidding?”

“No, I’ll take care of it, so shut up and go back now.”

She stared at him silently, not trusting him, and Zakar glanced at her hand gripping his arm, then leaned his head close and whispered.

“Or you can stay here and explain why you were with me on this beautiful night.”

The strength naturally left her hand.
Looking around, she saw a few soldiers who, while controlling the area, were paying attention to them.
In a closed group, rumors spread fast.
Even more so if you have many enemies.

“Zakar.”

The man who was walking away stopped without turning around.
It felt awkward to even say his name, but she had to say what she had to say before she left.

“I won that dart game earlier. Keep your word.”

It was the middle of the night when she returned home by taxi.
She stood in front of the entrance for a long time, and only when her legs started to go numb did she realize how much time had passed in a blur.
When she came to her senses and went into the shared bathroom, the single mother living next door screamed, and she almost made two women faint in one day.
Recognizing Hannah, she grumbled in her native language, or rather, the dialect that would have been her native language before the whole world was unified, about how she didn’t know what the soldiers were up to, and then quickly left.
‘Yeah, what are we up to?’
While those who oppose the unification policy of uniting the whole world are frequently engaged in battles in disputed territories, the Allied Forces are also killing civilians under the pretext of them being terrorists.
I volunteered for the Abyss special forces because I hated being part of that hell, but sometimes I ask myself if this was really what I wanted.
What am I protecting while turning a blind eye?
Was this the dream I swore with Ian, linking our pinkies, in that broken school?
Swoosh.
Sometimes, no matter how much I wash, I smell of blood.
Other than that, I feel like a fool who knows nothing.
I tilted my head back, letting the water hit me, and then closed my eyes.
I hugged my shoulders and curled up.
On my right shoulder blade, a magnolia branch is drawn over a childhood scar.
When I cower like this, I wonder if a flower will bloom.
As I shrink, does the pain bloom more brightly?

“…Haa.”

I held my breath, then opened my dazed eyes to the sound of dripping water.
On a day like today, I should just not sleep.
I’ll be plagued by a nightmare more terrifying than sleep paralysis.
Coming out into the long hallway, Hannah stopped in her tracks when she saw a familiar figure.
The man, who had been ringing the bell with one hand raised, turned to look this way, his other hand loosely in his pocket.
His gaze fell from her dripping wet hair to the gray T-shirt that was getting soaked by the falling water droplets.
‘Is it over already?’
I thought it would take more time to clean up.
I looked at my watch and saw that more time had passed than I thought.
Hannah blinked, then for some reason, feeling tired, she brushed her hair back and started walking.

“It’s open. The bell has been broken for a long time.”

She said, opening the door as if to show him.
Zakar looked at the slightly ajar gap and slowly lowered his eyes.

“You’re fearless, living near a slum.”

“If someone tries to rob my house, they’re the fearless one. I’ll catch them and kill them no matter what.”

She answered, jutting her chin towards the surveillance camera that stood tall like a utility pole beyond the open-air corridor.
The shared CCTV, standing high between the two apartment buildings, had eyes on both sides, monitoring each floor of both buildings at once from a high place.

“And it’s a hassle to carry a key every time I shower.”

She explained briefly and grabbed the doorknob, but a stronger force closed the door again.
She looked at the thick arm resting above her head for a moment, then leaned her back against the door and turned around.

“Why? You saw me coming out of the shower, and now you’re turned on?”

“Of course, there’s that. But since there are eyes watching, I thought I’d test it.”

Zakar replied indifferently and, with his arm still propped up, he lowered his head.
With our eyes open, our lips met, and with nowhere to escape, our breaths mingled as if trapped.
Of all days, today, when I was tired and exhausted, and my self-destructive impulses were at their peak.
At the same time that a hot, wet tongue pushed in roughly, a hard thigh dug between my legs, pressing against my groin.
In the dim light of the hallway, the blood-stained clothes and the basket of toiletries fell to the floor.
The ripe night air smelled sweet and melancholy, like a trampled peach.