No30 Ch5

The three of them froze, staring at the source of the sound.

Aslan, who was taking out a rifle, Anton, who was looking at the Andrei brand above the armory, and Liella, who was standing at the back.

Number 31…? We’re not the only ones?

“… .- .-..monsters.-..- … .- people are changing.-.. .-.. please-”

“Help..- … .”

“… .- this damn Abyss Project!!!”

Before her frozen mind could comprehend the meaning, the red light went out with a snap.

At the same time, a tremendous roar echoed from the upper floor, and they reflexively covered their ears and pressed themselves against the wall. It was the sound of the third floor collapsing. Creak. The ceiling warped, leaving long, distinct marks as if someone had touched it with their hand. Liella tilted her head back in terror.

Creak, creak, something huge was passing through the upper floor. Aslan, who had cocked his rifle next to her, was aiming the barrel along its trajectory. As if by agreement, everyone held their breath. This is crazy. This isn’t normal. This place.

After a long time of being frozen like the dead, the thing passed overhead and disappeared into the darkness, and they barely managed to breathe again.

The first to speak was Anton, his expression completely gone.

“What… was that?”

Sweat was clearly seeping through the man’s glasses as he muttered something that was neither a monologue nor a question. Aslan slowly opened his mouth to a question no one could answer.

“I don’t think we’ll be able to go to the communications room for a while.”

“…No going, no going. I don’t know what that was, but if we meet something like that, we can’t even run away… We have no choice but to stay on this floor and wait for rescue….”

Anton was muttering like a madman. The outside, the first floor, and the third floor are all dangerous. But Liella barely managed to recall some helpful information in the midst of it all.

“Wait, wait a minute. The communications room isn’t the important thing… Did everyone hear the radio just now?”

The two men, who had been looking at the ceiling, turned to her at the same time. She took out the radio, which was now only making static noises, with trembling hands and pressed random buttons, saying.

“It definitely said number 31. If that’s the number we’ve been seeing since we woke up, then this is number 30.”

And, based on the logic of numbers, there are at least twenty-nine other teams in the same situation. Did those people wake up without memories too? Were they attacked by monsters? All the same?

“It can’t be a professional exploration ship. Those voices just now were too young. They sounded like teenagers. They were asking for help…”

She couldn’t finish her sentence. Liella tried not to imagine what had happened to the girl who sent the radio message. She hoped someone else had received the transmission. Desparately. It felt like someone was playing a cruel joke on them.

“Now that we’ve received a signal, we might be able to send a radio message from here.”

Aslan, who had slung the rifle over his shoulder, reached out his hand as if he had read her mind. Liella looked at him with trembling eyes and carefully handed over the radio she had been clutching to her chest. The cold sound of a click echoed in her ears at that moment.

Aslan turned his head first, and Liella belatedly turned to her right. And she was stunned by the incomprehensible situation.

The person who had taken out a pistol from the armory and was aiming it was none other than Anton. Why?

Why?

As if her bewilderment was clearly visible on her face, he took a step back and kindly told her the answer.

“I don’t have any personal feelings. But hearing about the radio reminded me of a very important part.”

“…Are you talking about the part where ‘people are changing’?”

“Yes. It’s always good to be careful. Three people are injured, and you’re the only one who’s fine. Now, hands up. Both of you.”

So, Anton thought they were infected with something like a zombie. That because they were injured, they would become monsters. Liella turned pale and looked up at Aslan. He stared at Anton for a moment, then obediently raised his hands and gestured to her. It seemed like a signal to follow his instructions, so she hesitated and raised her arms. She couldn’t tell which was more terrifying, being aimed at by someone she had been working with until just now, or the implication of the word ‘changing.’

But no. There were no signs of infection. She recalled the wounds she had seen with her own eyes and clenched her bandaged fingers tightly. A sharp pain cleared her mind.

“What are you planning to do?”

“Like I said, I don’t have any personal feelings. I also know that it’s good to stick together in a place like this. I’m sorry. Let’s just stay quarantined for about three days. You two will stay in the medical facility over there. If nothing happens, we’ll be together again.”

Anton’s face was expressionless, but beads of sweat were forming on the bridge of his nose and sliding down. He seemed to think that Aslan was about to draw his gun and aim it at any moment.

“I have no complaints about quarantine, but considering the number of people, it seems more appropriate for us to go to the living quarters.”

“I’m considering the possibility of germs, so I’d appreciate it if you cooperated.”

It was a request in name only, but it was close to a threat. Besides, if germs were the problem, what about Dylan, who was already in the living quarters?

“Are you planning to transport the injured?”

“I can lock the door. I’m going to go there now and give him food and protect him in the dark.”

“That’s imprisonment. What about the toilet?”

Liella, who had been listening quietly, asked in horror. Looking at Anton, who was only giving a strange smile, she felt sorry for Dylan for the first time. Even if he was a bit messy, he wasn’t a dirty person.

At that moment, Anton, who had been talking to Liella, urgently pointed his gun at Aslan.

“What are you doing? I told you not to lower your hands!”

Anton, who had been trying to be polite until now, screamed in a shrill voice like a different person.

Liella turned to Aslan with surprised eyes. He had turned off the backlight of his watch and was shouldering his rifle. She wondered if he was that angry about Dylan’s treatment, considering he had obediently raised his hands just a moment ago.

“I have a question. Did the living quarters happen to have stairs leading to the upper floor?”

Aslan, who was aiming past Anton’s shoulder, asked in a low voice.

“What?”

“I hear a strange noise.”

Anton’s expression became strange. It took him a few seconds to understand those words. When the three of them closed their mouths, the echoing hallway became as quiet as a mouse. No, not perfectly quiet. There definitely was…

“Don’t try anything funny!”

The moment a ghostly whisper was caught, the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. It was ‘it.’ They had to run and not look back. But Anton frowned and turned his shoulders as if he were deaf. No!

“Get out of the way!!!”

As soon as Liella, who had turned pale, shouted, hundreds of wriggling black bugs burst out of the darkness.

As soon as the man became a beehive, Aslan fired his gun without a gap. The bullets indiscriminately pierced Anton and the darkness, scattering the flesh and fluids of the corpse haphazardly on the walls. His glasses and head were shattered, and his heart was pierced. He’s dead, he’s dead! Liella covered her ears and screamed. Only after the light in Anton’s hand shattered with a clang and darkness fell did Aslan grab her arm and start running.

No, this isn’t right.

Another person died.

Why did this happen? Where did it go wrong? Because we didn’t check if there were stairs? Because we were in the hallway for too long?

Even though she was running in pitch-black darkness, the bloody afterimage flickered vividly. She imagined tripping over the corpse. The radio message from earlier kept repeating in her ears. Help me, monsters, please!

This damn Abyss Project!

Bang! When she came to her senses at the sound of the door closing roughly, she was already inside somewhere, gasping for breath. Liella, who had slid down to the door, was crying. She felt the hot liquid flowing down her cheeks, wiped it away painfully, and sobbed.

“Give me, give me a gun too. Anything. I’ll fight. I can’t just keep running away.”

It’s scary. It’s so scary I’m going crazy. The number of people is decreasing. I might be next.

The more she gasped for breath, as if it would break, the more stuffy her chest became. It didn’t feel like she was breathing properly. She was dizzy and clung to her clothes, panting, when she heard the man calling her name in a low voice.

He was groping for her hand as if looking for something. A medical kit? She didn’t even remember where she had dropped it. The only thing her left hand was clutching like a lifeline was the radio.

“It hurts…”

When she squeezed her stuffy chest, Aslan grabbed her chin somewhat roughly and lifted it. The next moment, their lips overlapped, and everything was erased. Except for the hands that cupped her cheeks and the man who lowered his head. She was simply overwhelmed by his addictive breath and intense warmth.

She breathed. Whose breath is this?

Liella trembled as she felt a sensation of melting from the point of contact.

Reality faded away, and her head was dizzy with a thick, cold scent. Humid air, a dark room, the silence of old objects rusting.

A large hand, big enough to cover half of her face, dug into the back of her head, and the slipped radio fell to the floor with a thud. It was only later that she remembered that it was an emergency treatment for hyperventilation. Only after the pain that felt like she was going to die disappeared…

“How did you know I had hyperventilation symptoms?”

Liella slowly stretched out her arms. The gesture meant to convey that she was fine ended up burying her deep in his embrace due to their difference in build. As her hand touched the protruding shoulder blade on his back, even though it was a very small movement, she felt Aslan stiffen momentarily. The tightly tensed muscles gradually relaxed.

She didn’t push away the crumpled uniform he was gripping because she knew there was no special meaning or reason for this. It was just to catch her ragged breath. That was all.