A car barreled down the freeway in the night, its interior a mess of jumbled radio transmissions.
“This is Squad One! Confirming the sinking of Squad Four!”
“Squad Six is done for. The rest is up to you! Aaaagh.”
Occasionally, the sound of something bursting would echo, causing the radio transmissions to cut out. The man sitting in the passenger seat clicked his tongue as he adjusted the radio channel.
“Dammit. They’ve already taken out half of us,” he muttered, shifting his gaze to the rearview mirror. The girl in the back seat, Holy, felt the man’s eyes on her and grimaced.
This situation was undoubtedly her fault. Even she knew that. But she didn’t have the power to do anything about it now.
Averting her gaze in frustration, Holy stared at her reflection in the cracked glass of the window.
She saw a girl with blue eyes and silver hair done in a half-up style. The girl was so frail that she looked like she might shatter to pieces from a single blow. Light from the streetlamps reflected off her pale face, and her lips were trembling involuntarily.
Holy was scared, no question about it. She was also overcome with guilt, regretting her decision now that so many people had gotten involved upon her request. And she didn’t even know if she’d had any real confidence in her choice to begin with. That was why she was so frightened.
Holy shook her head, dismissing her doubt. At this point, it was far too late to turn back.
The car she was in had its headlights off and was speeding alongside the large river that ran through the northern region of the Balga Empire. Against the pitch-black sky, free from even the glow of the moon and the stars, they could see several rotary-wing aircraft shining spotlights on the river.
The aircraft were chasing high-speed boats running along the surface of the water. The boats’ crew members had just contacted them over the radio. Each time an explosion went off over the river, another batch of people who were trying to help her escape lost their lives.
Unable to bear it, Holy bit down on her lip.
“We’ll be arriving at the scheduled port momentarily. It’ll be do-or-die while our guys divert our pursuers’ attention.”
Between radio transmissions, the men in the vehicle started the final briefing session. As Holy listened to them, she finally realized the urgency of the situation.
“The Informationist aiding us isn’t going to make it in time. We depart as soon as she gets on the boat. Got that?!”
Four men, all with bloodshot eyes, were in the cramped vehicle.
The car crossed lanes and sped into the port. Even as they raced between the stacked shipping containers, flames continued to rise from the large river.
At last, they caught sight of the boat they were seeking. The car moved toward the black high-speed craft bobbing on the waves. However, the driver slammed on the brakes well before they reached the appointed location.
Holy lurched forward, her whole body slamming into the seat in front of her. The inside of the vehicle was in an uproar, and the driver raised his voice.
“Fuck! They got here before us—”
The moment the driver shouted, there came the sound of gunfire, and a crack spread across the windshield. The driver’s head shot up, and something sprayed inside the car.
Fluid dripped from the ceiling onto Holy’s cheek. For a moment, time stood still. She felt like a scream might erupt from her twitching lips, but the angry bellows of the other men in the vehicle rang out before that.
“It’s an ambush! Get out of the car!”
The remaining men crouched as they made their exit, dragging Holy out along with them.
For the briefest of moments, they grimaced at the cold outside air enveloping their bodies. The next instant, they were assailed by a barrage of gunfire.
Holy let out a small scream at the shards of glass raining down from above their heads. The man crouched next to her took her in his arms to protect her, letting out a hearty yell that could be heard over the sound of the gunfire.
“Run to the ship!” he shouted. “She’s gotta get away, no matter what it takes!”
The men exchanged looks to confirm one another’s intentions. The hope to evade death disappeared from their eyes, replaced by a resolve to throw everything away. They were putting their lives on the line. They stood up solely to protect Holy.
The men started running, keeping Holy in the middle to protect her. Although she was terrified, she had no choice but to follow their lead.
The path ahead was obscured by darkness. Her only guideposts were the glow of the flaming corpses on the surface of the river in the distance.
Holy ran frantically, her breath visible in the cold air as she exhaled. She was already parched from the extreme tension, and she couldn’t breathe properly. She felt like she might fall over at any moment.
From an outside perspective, she undoubtedly wasn’t even running correctly. She was leaning forward, her center of gravity swinging from side to side, and exerting herself so much that her vision kept going dark.
But reality betrayed her determination, delivering a cruel twist of fate.
Out of the corner of her eye, Holy saw the man running next to her collapse. He fell flat on his face on the ground, like a marionette whose strings had been cut. Then the man running behind her screamed. The shriek was only half out of his mouth before it was silenced by the sound of gunfire.
The boat they were aiming for was only about 160 feet ahead of her. If they could just board that rugged high-speed craft, they would be saved. So then why did it look so far away? The several dozen feet remaining blurred with Holy’s tears, seeming endlessly distant.
Just then, Holy felt a hand creep up from behind and wrap around her neck. A chill ran through her, her heart practically stopping, and she reached out toward the man running ahead of her to seek help.
“W-wait!”
The man looked back at the sound Holy’s voice, but a bullet grazed past the tips of her fingers, the lead mass piercing the man between his brows like a hot knife through butter.
The moment after Holy saw this, a spatter of blood stole her vision. She quickly wiped her face but not soon enough to avoid stumbling spectacularly over the fallen man’s body.