Chapter 121: The Hidden Logbook
How much time passed like that?
’That makes eighty-seven.’
The end of the long screening process was in sight.
Twenty people remained.
After a quick stretch, Walfred ran an interim tally before the next person in line came in.
’Skinwalkers rooted out so far: 36.’
Thirty-six out of eighty-seven.
That meant 40% of them had been monsters.
And there was one more notable detail.
Every single one of the seven Hunters he had encountered so far had been a Skinwalker.
’At this rate, it’s safe to assume every Hunter who returned from the investigation of the strange phenomenon is a Skinwalker.’
Walfred let out a hollow laugh.
At this point, calling the place a monster den suited it better than calling it a shelter.
Just then,
Knock knock!
there was a rap at the door.
It seemed the eighty-eighth survivor had arrived. Walfred spoke in a dry voice.
"Come in."
"Ah, Hunter. It’s me."
The one who appeared was Donovan.
Seeing his sheepish expression, Walfred asked, puzzled,
"Something you need to tell me?"
"Yes, well, I came to let you know that Sylvia, the eighty-seventh visitor just now, was the last one in line."
"...That woman was the last?"
No, that couldn’t be right.
The shelter had 107 members. They had inspected 87 so far, so twenty should still remain.
When he asked as much, puzzled,
"The truth is, those twenty people’s whereabouts are unknown."
an answer he had never expected came back.
"As of roll call this morning, there was no change in the head count, but when we checked a little while ago, all of them had vanished without a trace..."
After the screening began,
Donovan had gone around the shelter’s interior, checking whether the number of survivors matched the number recorded on the list.
And in the process, he had discovered that twenty people had disappeared without a trace. At Donovan’s account, Walfred quietly narrowed his eyes.
’In that case...’
It was safe to assume that all twenty of the missing were Skinwalkers. Otherwise, there was no reason for them to disappear right when the screening was underway.
Even more so at this late hour of the night.
Walfred looked at Donovan, intending to get the names of the missing twenty.
But right then,
"Um, and also..."
"...?"
"Colton has disappeared too."
"What?"
An unexpected report came back.
Colton, gone? Walfred asked again, his voice heavy with doubt.
"Wasn’t he with you?"
"He was, but he stepped away about thirty minutes ago. He said he’d go check on Dawn for a moment before the night got any deeper."
"Dawn? Who’s that?"
"Colton’s daughter."
Ah, come to think of it, he did say he had a daughter.
As Walfred recalled the memory,
Donovan continued his explanation.
"But no matter how long we waited, he didn’t come back, so I sent someone to look into it..."
"And they couldn’t find him?"
"...That’s right."
Donovan let out a heavy sigh.
That wasn’t the only bad news. Colton’s daughter, Dawn, was also nowhere to be found.
The moment he heard the rest of the story,
several possibilities came to mind.
’Either he was ambushed and devoured by Skinwalkers on his way to see his daughter, or...’
He was devoured after meeting her.
Whichever it was, at present the most likely scenario was that he had been eaten by Skinwalkers. There was no other reason for Colton to disappear.
’This is getting to be a headache.’
Walfred furrowed his brow.
After taking a moment to organize his thoughts, he turned to Donovan and gave his orders.
"For now, seal every entrance to the shelter, then go to the isolation zone and wait there with the others."
"Yes? Th, then what about Colton and Dawn...?"
"I’ll look for the two of them myself."
At Walfred’s words that he would search in person, Donovan’s face brightened. Afterward, Walfred stepped outside the shelter with Elsa and scanned the surroundings.
In search of any traces there might be.
And a little while later,
"This is..."
he found dozens of footprints.
They were nearly erased under the snow, but they were unmistakably human footprints. He soon also worked out that every one of the tracks led south.
’They went toward Brunswick.’
The place where the strange phenomenon had occurred.
Given the circumstances, there was no doubt that was where they had gone.
But he couldn’t give chase.
What if he went there, and the Skinwalkers lurking nearby attacked the Wine Cave shelter?
’Then it’s total annihilation.’
At present, the only Hunter in the Wine Cave shelter was Walfred. The moment he left his post, the shelter would be completely defenseless.
Colton and his daughter, fate unknown.
Forty survivors whose lives were certain.
Walfred’s deliberation didn’t take long.
Clank! Creeeak!
Walfred returned to the Wine Cave shelter.
He lightly pushed open the sealed barricade, then headed inside with Elsa.
When he entered the space where the people were isolated, everyone who spotted him came his way.
"H, Hunter!"
"Colton and Dawn, are they..."
"I couldn’t find them."
At Walfred’s answer, deep despair fell over Donovan’s face.
"But I did find out where they went."
"...! R, really?"
"Yes."
Walfred nodded.
He described in detail what he had seen. The discovery of dozens of footprints, and the fact that the tracks stretched out toward Brunswick. All of it.
"Th, that’s where the strange phenomenon happened, isn’t it?"
"Don’t tell me those people were all...!"
The people’s faces darkened.
They seemed shaken by the possibility that all twenty who had vanished from the shelter were Skinwalkers.
Just then,
"There’s something I want to ask."
Walfred addressed the crowd.
Once everyone’s attention was on him, Walfred met their eyes and said,
"Does anyone here know anything about the strange phenomenon that occurred two weeks ago?"
A few people answered that they did, but for the most part, all they knew was the bare fact that a strange phenomenon had occurred.
No one knew what the phenomenon actually was, or what had happened there.
Just as he was sighing in frustration,
"U, um..."
someone raised a hand.
The woman in her twenties with brown, chin-length hair.
It was Whitney, the former nurse who had come in second during the screening earlier.
"Have you checked the logbook?"
"Logbook?"
"Yes. The Pharmacist wrote a shelter management log every day. I thought maybe there might be something in it that could serve as a clue..."
At those words, Walfred’s eyes widened.
"Where’s the logbook?"
"I, I don’t know that much either. But she always wrote it in her office, so somewhere in that room..."
The moment Whitney finished speaking,
Walfred turned and headed for Helen’s office. Then he began ransacking the room, looking ready to overturn the bookshelf and every drawer in it.
Slam! Crash, clatter!
How long did it go on?
Behind the bookshelf flush against the wall, in a hidden recess, Walfred discovered a single notebook.
A rather thick black notebook.
Then, the moment he saw the words written on the cover,
[Shelter Management Log]
"...Found it."
Walfred’s eyes gleamed.