We rushed over to the soldier.
Lifting him up, we took off his mask. It doubled as night vision goggles. The lenses bulged out like the eyes on a deep-water ocean fish. We then removed the soldier’s armor. Then we were able to see his uncovered face.
Yuri shined the light onto his head.
He was older than I’d expected. Older, but not elderly. I would have guessed him to be about forty years old at the most. He had deep creases in his face. His hair was a light brown and his eyes had an amber tone. Those eyes looked up blankly. We hadn’t opened his eyes, they were already open, but they barely showed signs of life.
“Who are you?” I asked the soldier.
No response. A faint moan was all that trickled from his halfopen mouth.
Huh? How irritating. I slapped him across the cheeks five times, or so. I am not sure if it was due to my shock therapy, but a glitter of light glimmered in his pupils.
Before missing my chance I repeated my question.
“Who are you? Why are you wearing this?”
“Oo… ooaa… oo-oo…,” the soldier groaned painfully.
“Answer me!” I insisted.
“Ooaa, Bo-Boralura…”
“Huh?”
I was perplexed. Boralura? What the hell was that? It sounded like some kind of name.
“Ab-absolute… Absolute…”
He spat the words out fearfully. This was starting to make sense. If I was right, after “Absolute” should be “Children of God.” That was the group that followed the master, according to Landis.
“Kei, look at this!” said Yuri. She was pointing at the back of the soldier’s neck.
“It’s an ID tag!”
She was indicating a small gold-colored pendant around the soldier’s neck. On its face was engraved the soldier’s name, blood type, as well as the number of the ore group he belonged to. It also had Chakra Development Company’s name—
The soldier’s name was Petrovich. He was a miner from Mine #11.
The armored warriors were actually CDC miners!
“Let’s get this guy outside,” I said. “If he regains consciousness we can start getting some answers.”
“Mugi, can you carry three?” asked Yuri. “This guy looks pretty heavy.”
“Let’s get him out of all this armor. That should lighten him up.”
“I wonder…”
Yuri didn’t trust me. Unlike metal armor, this special armor was made from a lightweight material. Removing it would only lighten him up by a couple kilos.
“Let’s ask Mugi,” I responded. “You got that flashlight, so if worse comes to worse we can walk, or we can take turns on Mugi, if he’s up for it.”
“Yeah, okay…,” said Yuri, obviously uncertain. This was dangerous. Once she decided to make a decision, this flip-flopper took at least two days to reach it. If I were to let her, she’d stand on that spot without moving for who-knows-how-long.
Instead of waiting for Yuri’s opinion I decided to get Mugi’s read. We still didn’t know how long this tunnel was. I was fine with walking, but preferred to ride on Mugi’s back if that was an option.
“Mugi…,” I turned to him and called his name.
Hey, hey, hey!
He’d been here a second ago, but now he was gone.
“Mugi! Where did you go?!”
I grabbed the flashlight from Yuri and shined it up and down the tunnel as panicked creases formed on my forehead.
I illuminated both the way we’d come from and the way we were going.
There he was! He was just a little ways down the tunnel. He was low to the ground staring at the wall. He was baring his fangs and his black fur stood on end. I couldn’t hear his voice, but looking at his position, there was no question he was growling ferociously.
A cold sweat trickled down my back.
Mugi’s mood. His actions.
It was the warrior’s counterattack.
That was the first thing that came to my mind.
I quickly brought the light up to illuminate the wall he was facing. If it really was the armored warriors mounting another attack there should be another hole in the tunnel wall, or something like that there.
At least I thought so, but there was nothing there. Just the plain wall. So Mugi was having a standoff with a wall. But he was still acting as if there were some terrible monster there.
Another cold shiver moved down my spine.
If it wasn’t the armored warriors, then it must have been something else… something worse. It could be an unseen enemy that could pounce on us from the wall, or maybe the ceiling
There was only one creature I knew that fit that description.
“Gyaon!”
Mugi jumped. Getting a good push off the ground, he got up high.
I was right.
“Yuri! The fangs!”
I laid Petrovich down and stood up. Without thinking Yuri also jumped up.
I then turned off the flashlight.
My body was slammed from behind.
I rolled down the now completely dark tunnel. Stopping at the wall I pulled out my heatgun and held it to my chest.
Not the wind, but something blew through the tunnel. The pressure pressed my body back. It was hungry for blood, the evil body of this invisible beast.
“Gyawaoo,” Mugi cried. He bayed and chased after the fangs.
What could the fanged creature be trying to accomplish? Was it getting us? Or was it…
“Hyee!”
There was a scream. From the back of the darkness. It came from where I was a few moments ago. That voice. It wasn’t Yuri?
It was the death cry of a man.
So that was the target.
With no hesitation, I turned on the flashlight. I quickly scanned the area looking for Petrovich. He was there. Yuri was with him. I didn’t see Mugi anywhere. He had chased the invisible fangs into the darkness.
“Kei!” Yuri called me. Keeping the heatgun ready, I ran over to Yuri.
“It got him.”
Yuri was propping up Petrovich’s torso.
Petrovich’s body was covered in blood. There was a giant bite taken out from his side. His head, neck, chest, and abdomen. Scooped out of his armor. This was an adult-sized monster, as there were only the marks of two giant teeth. Yet his body had been ravaged. The reason he wasn’t cut completely in half must have been because Mugi’d started to chase the fanged monster.
“Mgyau… fu… fo… fu…”
Mugi had returned, breathing heavily through his nose. It appeared it had gotten away again. Along with Mugi, Yuri and I stood up from Petrovich’s body, dispirited. Right when we had a strong witness literally in our hands, in the blink of an eye he was gone. It hit us pretty hard.
“I guess we just leave him here,” said Yuri. She was talking about Petrovich’s remains. I hadn’t thought about it until that point, but she was right. We wouldn’t have anything to gain from trying to bring his body out.
“Shall we get going?” I said to Mugi, after pausing a few moments to calm my nerves. Mugi got down on his knees, making it easier for us to get up on his back.
Yuri straddled Mugi’s back first. Then I was about to jump on.
It was right at that moment.
It came with a whoosh.
For a second I thought I was dizzy. I was exhausted from lack of sleep. That’s what it felt like, at least.
But that wasn’t the problem.
It came again with a rumble.
It was a violent vertical shake.
I realized then that it wasn’t vertigo. It was an earthquake. This wasn’t what happens when you are dizzy.
I reached out to Mugi to use his body as support.
But I made a mistake.
My outstretched hand touched nothing but air. I had misjudged the distance.
I lost my balance and fell forward.
Aah! Maybe I really was dizzy…