“Can the lab be infiltrated? They have to be coming from there.” “I think we could set it up if we wanted,” Julius answered briskly. “At this point I wouldn’t mind going to my father about it, but I got a lead from one of my own connections, so—” He broke off when Harvey stopped smoking to blink and stare at him out of the corner of his eye. Julius tensed reflexively, figuring he was about to get teased again. “Wh-what?” “What you’re about to do is treachery. Do you get that?” “That’s a fine thing to say when you’re the one who asked me for help.” “I’m not going to force you. I can take you hostage and manage something on my own.” If that’s not “force,” Julius wondered, what is? “I’m kidding.” “Liar.” “Yup. I’m serious.” “……” After a bit of reflection, Julius dropped his gaze to his feet and said solemnly, “I just want to know the truth, that’s all. I want to know whether what I’ve believed in all this time, what I’ve never doubted, was really there…Whether maybe there was never anything there at all…” Had God really been in the place that he’d had his eyes on all this time, that he’d been aiming for all this time? I don’t need God. “God” never does anything for us, Kieli’s voice said in the back of his mind. “Doesn’t the Church exist to help people…?” “…Are you asking me whether this world needs the Church? What do you want me to say? My answer’s obvious.” It hurt to have his honestly dejected question smacked down like that, but Julius realized that he’d been the insensitive one for asking it, so he couldn’t make any retort. To an Undying on the run from the Church, the Church’s God was the enemy; obviously he wouldn’t need it. I don’t need God— But…was that really true, though? “I still don’t think the Church is unnecessary, even now. After the War ended and this planet’s cities were plagued with starvation and plundering, it was the Church that gave them food, built them heating, and helped restore order. That’s—that’s really true, if nothing else. I’ve always wanted to be able to help the planet like that, too…” But right now what Julius had aspired to was shrouded in a gray haze, and he couldn’t see it so well anymore. What was it that he’d believed in all this time? The man next to him only gazed casually with his mismatched eyes over the parapet at the city sprawling below them and puffed on his cigarette. Julius didn’t even know whether he was listening or not. It wasn’t as if he could expect an answer anyway. And he hadn’t said those things hoping for one, really, but in the end he still ended up hoping for some kind of response, at least. Silence fell for a while. The restless flow of people on the connecting bridge continued without pause. “Julius,” his companion said. Julius, who’d long since given up on getting a reaction from him, waited nervously to see what would come next. “Do you seriously think you can save all the people on this planet?” Harvey asked, as though he genuinely couldn’t understand it. The hopes that had just built themselves back up again crumbled to dust in Julius’s soul with such force he could almost hear them. Indignation and shame made his face blaze bright red. “Wh-what, you got a problem with that?!” And then something moved heavily on the other side of Harvey. The other side—outside the parapet. Julius opened his mouth in an “o” of shock, but he didn’t manage to get any words out in time. Harvey seemed to get the picture from his expression anyway, because he immediately tried to dodge, but the swiping talons sent him flying backward, where he slid along the parapet. One of those monsters sprang into view, leaping up and over the parapet from underneath the bridge, which it must have crawled up somehow without their noticing. Unable to really respond right away, Julius only squeaked in surprise and backed up a few paces. Panic spread swiftly through the foot traffic on the bridge, too. He heard screams from every direction. The thing’s throat gurgled with something almost like a human moan as it came toward him on sticky, squelching feet. His gaze fixed on its pupil-less eyes, Julius couldn’t force his trembling legs to run. Squelch…squelch. The sound of its dragging footfalls echoing with strange clarity, it stuck out its tongue to lick a red hunk of flesh speared on its talons. “Julius, get down!” Before his body could respond to the voice, his heel slipped where he’d tried to step back, and he fell on his rear end. Something shot through the air above him just a hair’s breadth from his head; and the monster, who’d been almost upon him, was knocked sideways by a blow to the temple. It got back up right away, though, without seeming to have taken much damage. One eyeball bulged out grotesquely from the impact, but it only tilted its head curiously, maybe not quite understanding what had happened, and then transferred its attention from Julius to the man who’d gotten in its way as it slowly stood up. “Get back. You’re in the way,” Harvey said bluntly, and stepped in front of him. He held what looked like a steel pipe, which Julius guessed had come from the broken parapet. As he raised it, blood oozed out of a tear in the sleeve of his greatcoat. When he gritted his teeth hard and closed his eyes for just a second, a liquid like coal tar began to seep from the wound. His skin initially started to knit itself back together, but before long the liquid dried up and Julius could see him totter for a moment. “A-ahh…ah…” I have to help him. I have to do something. Turmoil and fear still held his throat closed, and his brain hadn’t thought any of it through clearly before his body charged forward. With a loud yell, Julius full-body tackled the monster. He slammed it into the parapet, and he tried to keep going and push it right over, but its claws caught at his neck and almost brought him down with it. “Julius!” The shout was accompanied by a hand reaching out and grabbing his arm right in the nick of time. The monster plummeted down without him. Panting and clinging to the parapet with Harvey still gripping one arm, he looked down at the city below. A shiver ran all the way down his spine. The arched exits from the waterways that wove through every neighborhood in the city, dotting the towering inner walls partitioning it, were gaping open. And he could see droves of those greenish, drowned-corpse-like monsters crawling out of every one of them. A muddy green color overtook the inner walls as if foul water were oozing out. Julius stood riveted to the spot, staring at the horrific sight with the panic of the crowds running around on the bridge behind him for background music. Then a ball of fire was launched into the flock of monsters crawling along the walls toward them. Julius couldn’t tell from where. Watching them going up in flames and plummeting down from the walls filled him with even more nausea than relief. He saw Security Forces soldiers with armor plating over their pure-white clerical robes appear in the town below. One platoon of them, brandishing their lit torches, came running up to the connecting bridge. Julius recognized a familiar, heartening face at the lead. “Dad!” “Julius?! Are you all right?” “What’s going on—” Julius’s father noticed the lanky man with him and stopped in the act of leading his troops toward them. The two of them stared narrow-eyed at each other from a distance. It wasn’t the time for a standoff, though; the monsters that had temporarily backed off under the torches’ flames were already pressing close again. His father glanced over the parapet down to the land below and cursed softly. “They all came out of the sewer exits at once. They’ve shown up in the ordinary residential districts, too.” “What about Kieli? I heard she went to Lord Sigri’s house—” The words had hardly escaped his mouth before Harvey was suddenly climbing up onto the parapet and getting ready to jump down. “H-hang on a second! Don’t jump from all the way up here!” Julius cried, panicked. He instinctively seized the collar of Harvey’s greatcoat to stop him, which ended up more or less cutting off the man’s airflow. “Are you trying to kill me?!” Harvey bellowed, rubbing his neck with one foot still on the parapet. “Hold on. The young lady isn’t at Lord Sigri’s. I got word that they’d run away,” Julius’s father explained calmly, taking hold of Harvey’s arm. “Run away?” “We’re guiding all the people in the residential districts to the cathedral. Try going there.” After he’d heard out Julius’s father with narrowed eyes, Harvey nodded once and turned on his heel toward headquarters. “Julius. You go, too.” “What about you?” “This is my job.” Heart aching for his father staying behind to lead his men, Julius obeyed, wrenching himself away to take off running, too. As he made his way through the confusion, occasionally bumping into the people running this way and that, he called out to the tall form in priest’s robes ahead of him. “Hey! Can Security Forces weapons take down monsters like that?” “No,” the man replied immediately, without even turning around. “The only way is to penetrate their hearts and break them. They’re…my kind.” His tone was emotionless, but he spat out that last part as if it tasted bad. When they cleared the footbridge, the main gate into the Church headquarters’ forest of steeples came into view. The front gate was jam-packed, overflowing with people fleeing town for the safety of the cathedral. They shoved each other, everybody trying to make it through first; old men fell to the ground amid the chaos; children sobbed as they were separated from their parents— Unbidden, Julius’s feet came to a stop. “…I’m going back. I should at least be able to help guide the evacuees.” Harvey turned to give him a dubious look. Julius met his eyes evenly and said in a strong voice, “You go look for Kieli. If you keep going straight ahead, you’ll see the cathedral soon.” “…I don’t need you to tell me that.” He was used to the needling by now and simply raised one hand in response before veering back in the direction they’d come from. “Julius,” said a voice behind him. He turned around to see that Harvey was still standing there looking at him. When Julius paused for a moment and gave him a strange look, he went on rudely. “I think the way you seriously believe someone like you can save the planet is so stupid it’s funny.” “G-gee, excuse me! Don’t call me back just to say that!” Julius shouted, his face beet-red with anger. The other man abruptly smiled at him. “But…honestly, I also think you’re amazing for being able to seriously believe it.” The smile was softer than his usual smirk. I didn’t know he could smile this way…This unexpected side of Harvey plus the unexpected words made Julius fall silent in surprise. “Hang in there!” The man in priest’s clothes took off with that cheer. Julius stood rooted to the spot for a while, watching him go until his coppery head disappeared into the chaos. Hang in there— For some reason, hearing those words from the man he’d always longed to catch up to made him want to cry. You’re the one who’s so beaten up he can hardly walk, and you’re cheering me on? “……You hang in there, too.” There was no way Harvey could still hear him. Still, Julius murmured the words and prayed that they’d be heard anyway. Then he spun around and took off running in the opposite direction. From where she sat next to Kieli, Beatrix abruptly began darting her eyes all around them. “What is it?” Kieli asked quizzically. “…Mm, nothing. It’s fine.” The woman who’d cut off the golden hair she was so proud of without a trace of regret smiled reassuringly at Kieli from beneath her black shawl. One section of that poor lopped-off hair was wrapped around Kieli’s wrist as a good-luck charm. After they chatted awhile, a middle-aged woman sitting in front of them shot a glare. They exchanged looks and fell silent. They both wore black clothes and black shawls. Pilgrims in dark-colored hats sat jostled up against each other in the pews packing the cathedral filled with gentle pipe organ background music. The great hall with its high vaulted ceiling was wreathed in a cool tranquillity at odds with the amount of people crammed into it. The faint scent of oil paintings wafting around them was the same one from Father Sigri’s house. Had it worked its way into their clothes? The pipe organ music ended, and a high-strung-looking old man dressed in long, pure-white robes trimmed in gold appeared on the balcony at the front wall. Though Kieli personally couldn’t sense the slightest bit of godly power in him, reverent sighs escaped the congregation around her at the sight of him. “I see that’s not Father Sigri,” Beatrix whispered, still staring forward. It was true; Father Sigri had stood at the platform for the worship service Kieli’d observed the other day, but today it looked like a different Elder would be giving the sermon. Straining her eyes, she made out Father Sigri waiting in the wings at the rear of the balcony, where he wouldn’t be conspicuous. He had his right arm in a sling. Oh, I get it. I guess he’d just unnecessarily upset the crowd if he stood on the platform looking like that. “Who’d have guessed you came from such a high-class family, huh?” Beatrix whispered half-teasingly. When Kieli frowned in distaste, Beatrix shrugged a little and winked at her. “Hey, it’s a good thing, right? You found a parent.” Kieli shook her head back and forth. The fabric of her shawl swung from side to side, slapping against her cheeks. “You’re not happy.” Kieli shook her head. “Why not?” “…Because the Church is the enemy for you and Harvey,” she said darkly, looking down. Beatrix, on the other hand, answered in a cheery, offhanded voice, “Eh, tiny issue.” “It’s not tiny!” Kieli’s own voice rose before she knew it, and that same middle-aged woman sitting in front of them glared again until they exchanged another look and shrank back a little. Beatrix lowered her tone to whisper, “Do you think Ephraim would sweat a little detail like that?” “Well…no…” “Your happiness is always top priority. For him, and for me. We’re not worried about us, as long as you keep moving forward. So…I’m sure lots more rough times are waiting ahead, and it’s okay if you run away or stand still sometimes, but…never turn your eyes away from the future.” Her whisper next to Kieli’s ear was soft, but so firm and strong. With the left hand, the one wearing her good-luck charm, Kieli grasped Beatrix’s right hand where it lay next to her on the pew and squeezed her beautiful fingers. “Stop it,” she said in a scratchy whisper. “All of you—all of you stop saying things like that, like you’re about to die. I don’t want that. Don’t leave me alone…” Her own voice was weak and pitiful, but even so, what she said was her most heartfelt wish. Her prayer. She bit her lip against the threatening tears. Beatrix’s hand squeezed hers back firmly. Then she said in her usual utterly confident voice, “It’s okay. You won’t be alone. You’ll get to see Ephraim.” “…Yeah. And you’ll be with us forever, too, Beatrix.” Forcing her tears back, Kieli squeezed her hand more tightly and nodded. While they’d been concentrating on each other, a general stir had begun to ripple through the people around them. Even the middle-aged woman who’d glared at them whenever they talked was deep in conversation with the man next to her, frowning about something. Beatrix and Kieli hadn’t noticed it when everyone else had, since they hadn’t been listening in the first place, but at some point the Elder’s sermon had broken off. A wave of wariness swept over the congregation from the front of the room to the back. What’s going on…? Kieli straightened her back to sit up taller and peered through the heads of the crowd at the balcony. While the worshippers in their pews and the priests standing nearby all exchanged quizzical looks, the white-robed Elder on the balcony stood statue-still as though the sermon had completely vanished from his mind, staring pale-faced into the empty air. For just an instant, Kieli saw a figure floating there above him. “Beatrix…!” As she started and grabbed Beatrix’s arm, a woman’s shrill scream rose from somewhere in front of them. Without warning, the Elder’s body folded forward and pitched over the railing, plunging down from the balcony. Maybe to the congregation it looked as if he’d jumped—but Kieli had clearly seen an inky shadow grab the old man’s robes and shove him. From where she sat, she couldn’t see where he’d land, but she was pretty sure it was over ten meters from the balcony to the floor of the hall. There was an awful, heavy thunk. Screams rippled through the hall, and all the worshippers rose to their feet at once. “Beatrix, did you see that? Just now—” “I saw it. Don’t get separated from me.” As the confusion swiftly engulfed the crowd, the two of them stood up, too, and pressed close to each other with their hands clasped tightly. What happened? Why did he fall all of a sudden like that…? Did he slip? No, I saw it! I saw someone push him! Unsettled whispers—it all overlapped perfectly in the back of Kieli’s mind with the events from when she’d been a baby, the ones she’d seen in the paintings. She felt a vivid sense of déjà vu at the sight of the priests beginning to clear the bustling congregation from the room. This meant the next thing to happen would be— Soon after the people started to follow the priests away, an enormous shadow fell over the electric lights illuminating the great hall. Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh! Kyahahahahahaha! Eerie animal laughs from all sides blended together and echoed off the arched ceiling. The torches adorning the walls crackled and shot out sparks, then exploded in a wave from the front of the hall to the back as if someone were raking the place with gunfire. All the lights were snuffed out, and the only illumination in the hall was the faint outside light from the stained-glass windows. Her vision hadn’t adjusted to the dimness yet, but she could make out people screaming, people huddling together in fear, people curling themselves into little balls with their arms around their heads. With her hand in Beatrix’s so they wouldn’t get separated, Kieli was shoved by the confused crowd from all sides, jostled this way and that. Then she spied a baby on the ground between the legs of the crowd, lost or left behind by its parents. “Kieli—?!” With a cry, she shook off Beatrix’s hand and ran to the baby, snatching it up just before it could get stepped on and cradling it safely to her. “Are you okay?” The instant Kieli peered into the face of the baby wrapped in its blanket, she gasped. The infant, not even a year old by Kieli’s guess, came wide awake and fixed her with a murky, pupil-less gaze. It twisted its mouth into an unpleasant grin. Hyahahahahahaha! The baby burst out laughing in a shrill, crazed voice, its plump young face filling with wrinkles before Kieli’s eyes until it was old and shriveled. “No!” Kieli cried, and tried to let go, but the baby hung fast to her clothes with far too much strength for such tiny young hands; and no matter how hard she fought, she couldn’t pull herself free. The baby’s shrill laughter echoed on and on, out of place in the midst of the crowd’s confusion. She was stricken again by that vivid déjà vu. The next thing to happen. The next thing to happen would be— “That child did it! She’s demon spawn!” someone yelled, pointing at them. The hysterical shouts wove their way through the crowd, spreading like wildfire among people who were already at the height of fear. They fell into a frenzy and mobbed Kieli, surrounding her and jostling as they tried to snatch the baby. Her situation was the exact same as her mother Setsuri’s had been back then. The past was repeating itself. It was just like that day. As Kieli’s clothes and hair were pulled at from all directions, the creature in the blanket that had clung so hard to her and refused to let go abruptly vanished. The baby with the ancient face dissolved into a shadowy black mist, gliding smoothly up to the ceiling without a break in its crazed laughter. Looking up, Kieli’s eyes met those of a narrow-faced man in glasses standing off to one side of the balcony, seemingly rooted to the spot, just looking on with a ghostly pallor—her father. Before she knew what she was doing, Kieli extended a pleading hand toward him through the crowd of people for help. He took in her outstretched hand—and abruptly turned his gaze away, disappearing into the shadows of the balcony. Some momentary half-formed hope broke inside her with an audible snap. The same despair her mother had felt flooded her heart. Demon spawn! Demon spawn! Kieli was the only one left penned in by the condemning crowd now, but their frenzy showed no signs of stopping. They kept on yelling and yelling as if possessed. The place felt almost like the exact opposite of a cathedral in the Church capital whose authority extended throughout the world; it could have been the gathering place of some violent heathen religion. “Kieli! Kieli—” She could hear Beatrix’s faraway voice calling from across the throng of people, but she couldn’t see her. Crazed faces surrounded her from all sides. Their railing was only a jarring sea of sound now, just violent percussion that held no meaning. I’m scared…I’m scared…! The fear robbed Kieli of the strength to resist them or shout anymore. Help me, help me, HARVEY—! When she finally couldn’t help calling out for help to the man who wasn’t here, she heard it: “Stop it! Stop it!” Someone was plowing his way through the crowd toward her, shouting. It wasn’t Beatrix, and it wasn’t Harvey either: It was the narrow-faced man in glasses, jet-black robes flapping as he ran through the crowd, elbowing the rioters violently aside to get to her and then immediately grabbing her arm. “Stop it! I said let her go, you idiot!” the man shouted at one of the rioters who’d been pulling Kieli’s hair and decked him. One of the highest-ranking priests, someone who was supposed to be a man of character. Turned on a normal believer. Called him names. And hit him. With a closed fist. In the center of the still-roaring chaos, Kieli gaped up at her father’s desperate face as he crouched protectively over her, feeling almost like a bystander to some situation she had nothing to do with. The possessed expressions of the people pressing in on her and the commotion all around her—all the things she’d been so scared to death of a second ago—felt awfully distant and unreal. Her father was shouting abuse at them, but she couldn’t really hear it. There was the warmth of her father’s body as he held her. That was the only thing she could sense. “Lord Sigri’s taken leave of his senses!” “Right now we need to take care of the late Father’s body!” She heard shouts, muted and far away. Her father’s voice shouting back, on the other hand, abruptly came through crystal-clear. “Forget about a few senile old fools who were practically dead anyway and do some work!” One of the highest-ranking priests, someone who was supposed to be a man of character. How could he say such a thing? Kieli couldn’t believe her own ears. “Why are there so many people here?!” Beatrix cried, irritably punching various people who blocked her path. She was sure there hadn’t been so many people in the great hall during the service, but for some reason waves of them were pouring in from outside; by now they were all so tightly crowded together that they could hardly move. At this rate, she suspected they’d already crushed that Elder’s fallen corpse underfoot. “Kieli!” she shouted, casually hitting (with a closed fist) whatever random person happened to be getting in her way. Beatrix had seen her escape the hall with Father Sigri, so she did think the girl was probably okay for now, but still. “Ah! I found you!” That priest, Yoshiu or whatever his name was, forced his way through the crowd to her. He caught at her clothes as if to make sure she wouldn’t get away from him again, his hand scrabbling somewhere around the waist of her dress. “Watch where you’re grabbing!” “Huh? Oh! Ah—” The priest hurriedly let go of her, and then a confused look passed over his face as he wondered where he should grab. His hands sort of hung in the air as he thought. While he was thus preoccupied, a shove from behind sent him face-planting forward into her chest. “I-I’m so sorry!” he babbled, and immediately jerked away. As he rubbed his bruised nose, he took a fresh look at her and blinked. “You’ve cut your hair straight!” It’s impossible to stay on guard around this guy…Beatrix sighed in disgust. “What’s all this fuss about, anyway? Why are all these people coming here?” “Oh, that’s right! You see, something terrible has—” A scream cut off the priest’s explanation. It came from somewhere over the entrance—in no time, people were retreating from that direction, pushing their way back toward Beatrix. Across the wave of people, she saw a large greenish form. “Oh, no, they’ve made it here!” the priest shrieked pathetically, hiding behind her. In the center of the doughnut-shaped ring of people running around in panic, a single monster with skin gone mushy like a drowned corpse’s ambled drunkenly forward. ……So those are the Undying failures Kieli told me about. “Well, this is just peachy,” she complained to nobody in particular, and tested the weight of what she gripped underneath her shawl. “L-let’s run!” Urged forward by the priest, who’d been more than ready to run from the beginning, Beatrix joined the tide of people fleeing from the monster for the time being. The crowd didn’t seem to be running away from the monster attack so much as they were running to get ahead of everyone else. Screams rose up as people shoved each other aside or fell down. The cathedral that had been so wreathed in tranquillity a few short minutes ago was turning into a war zone, with all the ugliness of human nature on display and everyone acting as if the evil spirits had taken over their bodies. And then the priest running in front of her gave a little cry and turned around, sort of hesitantly marching in place, so that Beatrix nearly crashed into him. “What was that for?!” Beatrix started to complain, but he was already slipping past her and jogging a few meters back the way they’d just come. An old woman lay doubled over on the floor right in the middle of the brutal chaos; probably she’d fallen and hadn’t been able to get up. “Oh, dear Lord…dear Lord…” She was pressing her forehead to the floorboards, curled up around shaking clasped hands and muttering a string of prayers. Other people were stepping over her for the moment, but someone would step on her any second now. “Grandma, what are you doing?! Get up!” The priest embraced her and tried to help her stand. And that was when a great heavy shadow fell over their heads. With the old woman in his arms, the priest looked up and froze, all the blood draining from his face. The monster’s claws came slashing down. “Oh, for crying out loud!” Regripping the scissors underneath her shawl, Beatrix lunged without hesitation at the monster. Clang! She blocked its claws with the tip of the blades, then plunged them into one of the monster’s eyes. If the thing really was an Undying, the blow wouldn’t be even close to fatal, but it flinched back for a moment when she stole half its sight, and she took that opening to ram her shoulder into its torso with all her strength and send it flying. “Give me a break! I’ve only got this stupid thing for a weapon!” She kept on griping as she adjusted her hold on the scissors and squared off with the enemy she knew would probably be back on its feet any second. She spared a glance at her own shoulder and clucked her tongue. Apparently she’d been clawed. There was a huge tear in her dress and a gaping wound on the exposed arm underneath. The monster’s eyeball regenerated, and her own wound healed itself in parallel. Tumult swept over the people standing frozen around them. “M-monster!” someone screamed. And who did they mean? Beatrix didn’t even have to wonder. Obviously they wouldn’t need to shout that about the thing that looked like a monster; they must be talking about her. Terror spread among them in the blink of an eye, and the petrified congregation started to run off in all directions again. It was nothing new, but Beatrix couldn’t stifle a frustrated grumble. Boy, does it ever get on my nerves how everybody has to freak out and call me a monster over a little thing like this— “Um!” a timid voice suddenly spoke up from right nearby, as opposed to the retreating voices of all the other people scrambling to get away from her. The priest had secured the old woman and was peeking his ashen face out from behind the shelter of a pew back. At her sidelong glare of annoyance, he cringed a little as he asked her with hesitant concern, “Are…are you all right?” Beatrix gaped at him with her mouth hanging open like a fool. The priest watched her face timidly, trying to gauge her mood. She gave him a faint, wry smile. “I’m fine. I almost wish it were stronger. You’re in the way here, so hurry up and escape.” “Y-yes, ma’am!” She watched the priest start moving deeper into the cathedral, helping the old woman along with him, out of the corner of her eye. Then she turned to face the monster again. The better part of the crowd had been retreating into the passageways at the rear of the cathedral, as if pressed back by the monster who’d appeared at the front door. Judging by the way the screams were growing fainter, the evacuation seemed to have mostly finished. All right then, what to do now? Sure, she’d cracked a joke about wishing it were stronger, but if she were honest, she hadn’t exactly thought much about how to compete with an enemy that had the same immortal qualities she did. She glanced over its shoulder and let out a distinctly unrefined “Ugh…” Several more monsters were shambling up the steps leading to the cathedral entrance with their swaying side-to-side gait. They distracted her for only a split second, but her opponent took advantage of it to launch itself at her in a bizarre leap she couldn’t believe came from a bipedal walker. “Shit!” Beatrix seized one of the six-person pews and swung it with all her might into the monster. It hit dead center and broke apart. It seemed to only slow her enemy down; by the time the broken pieces of pew hit the floor, it was already right there in front of her. Out of its mouth, which gaped so wide she found herself wondering if its jaw was dislocated, peeked a rough tongue covered in viscous saliva and bumpy taste buds. “Bea!” she heard a voice call. By that name she thought her family had called her a long, long time ago. By that insanely abbreviated nickname used by only one person left on this planet. At the same time, something skated along the floor toward her, spinning. Her reflexes knew what it was and had her ducking to pick it up before her brain even registered it. A black big-bore gun with an ammo belt dangling from it. Wielding the bulky weapon in a two-handed grip, she leveled it at the enemy’s heart. Whump! The thick gunshot sound unique to the carbonization gun rang out. The point-blank shot turned its whole chest to soot, leaving nothing but a gaping hole, and its nerveless body collapsed forward straight into her, pinning her to the ground beneath its heavyweight-class corpse. Beatrix screamed. The spongy feel of its skin, slack and moist just like a drowned man’s, made her flesh crawl. “Gyah! No! Gross, get off me!” She thrashed her arms and legs like an overturned beetle until someone grabbed her arm with that same call of “Bea!” and managed to drag her out from under the slimy body. When she turned around to look at it, half-crying where she sat on the ground clutching the man’s arm, she saw its charred stone heart tumble out of the hole in its chest. The corpse had returned to a mere corpse, never to move again. “Phew…” When Beatrix heaved an undignified sigh, she felt one of her ribs twinge. I guess that thing broke it in the fall…Ah, well, it was bound to heal up again before long. She just blocked out the pain and banished it from her thoughts to look at the guy who’d come to help her out. They grinned at each other. “Yo.” “Long time no see. You alive?” They bumped fists. As two-year reunions between them went, that was about as emotional as it got. Beatrix’s first impression was that on the one hand, he was disgustingly unchanged (well, not that she’d changed either), but on the other, he was now just about as far away from “whole and healthy” as you could get. The prosthetic hand she remembered from two years ago was gone, along with most of his right arm, and his left eye was a different color. Maybe he’d gotten another one. He returned her slightly disgusted gaze with a gaze of his own and blinked. “Something’s different about you. Oh, you don’t have enough hair!” “I don’t have enough? What kind of way is that to say it?!” She decked him. Then she shrugged and laughed softly, reaching out with that same hand to ruffle his copper-colored hair. “You’re as beat-up-looking as always. It’s very you.” “Qu-quit that!” The gruff way Ephraim tried to bat her hand away was so funny that she wanted to do it again. “How’re you doing, Pops?” she asked the radio dangling from Ephraim’s neck, looking down, but the only answer from the speaker was a burst of static that seemed to object to the “Pops” thing. “Huh? Pops?” She looked back up at Ephraim. “It broke, and it won’t go back to normal…” The way he lowered his eyes and bit his bottom lip despondently left her at a temporary loss for words, but she rallied. “Don’t look so sad. It’ll work out. You’re the one who’s always saying ‘It’ll probably work out somehow.’” Beatrix tugged on his bangs to drag his face up, then smiled at him. “It’s a good thing you’re here—hurry up and go find Kieli. I think she went around behind the cathedral. This thing still has bullets left, right? I’m borrowing it.” Maybe he’d stolen it from a soldier he’d come across or something; the giant ammo belt unique to the carbonization gun still had plenty of rounds left in it. “Bea?” She stooped to pick up the carbonization gun. Ephraim caught her arm just as she finished standing back up. His copper eye peered at her worriedly. He’s onto me, eh? With a self-deprecating smile, Beatrix put a hand to her side. The broken ribs were almost healed already. “I’m fine. I’ve still got a little business to take care of, though. I’ll catch up with you later.” While she’d been busy getting squashed by corpses and whatnot, she’d seen the newly arrived failures chase the pilgrims deeper into the building. In the same direction as that priest had taken off with the old lady. There was no going back now…Once you saved a guy the first time, you had to look after him till the end, or it left a bad taste in your mouth like nobody’s business. “Beatrix,” she heard him call one more time just as she was about to run off with the carbonization gun slung over one shoulder. “Mm. What?” she said, stopping. She kept her tone casual, but she knew perfectly well that when he called her by her actual full name, he was trying to say something serious.
Chapter 112
32 min read