Chapter 149: The Smell in the Dark
To check on the Leviathan’s status.
And then.
[Title]: South Key West Curfew Lifted
[Author]: Aqua
"...!"
The moment he saw the freshly posted notice.
His eyes went wide.
-----
As of the current time, 4:49 AM.
The Leviathan, which had halted in the waters 125 miles south of South Key West, has resumed movement.
The Leviathan’s current position is estimated to be in the waters near Cuba, and it can no longer be observed from South Key West harbor.
Accordingly, the nighttime curfew declared across the South Key West area is hereby lifted.
-----
The news he’d been waiting and waiting for.
The instant he read that the Leviathan had vanished beyond observation range, Walfred sprang to his feet.
"Let’s go see your big sister, Elsa."
"Okay. Let’s go!"
Elsa smiled brightly.
Carrying Elsa on his back, Walfred left the temporary quarters. Soon after, he ran headlong into Aria, who looked like she’d just woken up.
"Hunter Walfred? You’re up already?"
"The Leviathan is gone."
The moment he saw Aria.
Walfred got straight to the point.
And then.
"...! Understood. I’ll get ready right away!"
Seeming to grasp exactly what those words meant, Aria threw on her cold-weather gear at once and came outside. As they were leaving the Hunter residential area together.
A familiar face greeted him.
"Ah! Mister."
It was Alice.
She waved, already fully prepared to depart. It was almost as if she’d known in advance that Walfred would be setting out right then.
"Alice? How long have you been..."
"About thirty minutes or so. Nobody told me when we’d be leaving, and I couldn’t really sleep anyway."
Alice smiled sheepishly.
She fell in naturally behind Walfred. Then she spotted Elsa clinging to him like a cicada and her eyes went round.
"Um, Mister?"
"...?"
"I’ve actually been wondering since yesterday..."
She hesitated for a moment.
Then Alice asked carefully.
"Who’s that little girl?"
"I’m Elsa!"
The question had barely left her mouth.
When Elsa answered right away.
Maybe thanks to a good long sleep, she was bursting with energy. Alice bent her knees slightly, meeting Elsa’s eyes as she asked.
"Elsa? Is that your name?"
"Yep! And this is my daddy."
"...! D-daddy?!"
Alice jolted in shock.
Eyes wide as saucers, she turned to Walfred and stammered.
"Mister! W-were you married?"
"No."
"B-but she just called you Daddy..."
"It just sort of ended up that way."
Walfred gave a vague non-answer.
As if he had no intention of explaining the whole story.
"Uh, this seems like some complicated family business, so I won’t pry..."
Alice subtly edged away.
With that exchange behind them.
Walfred’s party passed through the long tunnel and finally left Coral Cave Shelter. The moment they did, Aria activated her skills as if she’d been waiting for it.
"Wind Walk! Gale! Wind Spirit Step!"
Along with the three buff skills.
He felt his body grow incredibly light.
Light enough that it almost felt like the wind itself was pushing at his back. Feeling his movement speed surge explosively, Walfred kicked off the ground at once.
Toward South Key West, where Jenna was.
---
Whoooooosh!
A blizzard raged like mad.
The world was dyed pure white, and she couldn’t see a thing in front of her. On top of that, her body seemed frozen through and would barely move.
After a while, Jenna realized.
She was buried in snow.
’...It’s cold.’
A vicious, flesh-cutting cold.
But the pain didn’t last long.
Her whole body was freezing over, and every sensation was rapidly going numb. Her eyelids grew heavier and heavier, drooping lower and lower.
’Am I going to die like this?’
Her vision blurred more and more.
Then, just as even her consciousness began to fade.
She saw someone sprinting toward her from far away, frantic. Who is that? Jenna held her closing eyes open and stared at the person’s face.
In that moment.
She saw a familiar face.
’Uncle...?’
The person approaching her was Walfred, her uncle and only family in the world. Looking like he might burst into tears at any second, Walfred clawed through the snow.
Then he pulled Jenna into a fierce embrace.
’It’s warm.’
Her frozen body felt like it was gently melting.
A deep sense of relief brought a smile to her face.
And then.
"...Jenna!"
A voice rang out from nowhere.
Someone shook her roughly. Her vision cut to black, and Jenna woke from the dream.
What she saw next was a girl who looked to be around fourth grade. Someone she’d gotten to know here at the shelter, a child who was especially attached to her.
"Mindy...?"
Jenna called the girl’s name.
Seeing that Jenna was awake, Mindy quietly relaxed. But only for a moment. Her face soon clouded with worry again as she spoke.
"You have to get up. Hurry."
"What’s this all of a sudden?"
"Th-the Hunter men, they showed up out of nowhere and told us to wake everyone who’s sleeping, so..."
The Hunters were here?
Jenna’s eyes went round as she looked in the direction Mindy’s finger was pointing.
Mindy was telling the truth.
Sure enough, a dozen or so Hunters in combat gear stood at the entrance.
"These little shits. How long are you going to sleep?"
"Get up already, will you?!"
The Hunters were roughly shaking awake people who’d been deep in slumber. The commotion startled hundreds of people out of their sleep in a panic.
Once everyone was awake.
The man who looked to be the highest-leveled among the Hunters stepped forward.
"At around 2 AM this morning, a new gate appeared roughly two miles from the shelter. As of now, its extermination has just been completed."
After laying out the situation like an official notice.
The man addressed the crowd.
"Upon review, we’ve confirmed that the gate contains soil suitable for farming. To begin reclamation work as quickly as possible, everyone will now move to that gate."
"...What?"
The words had barely left his mouth.
When people asked back, startled.
"W-we’re moving now?"
"The sun isn’t even up yet..."
It was a hard order to understand.
Monster activity increased before daybreak. That was why, until now, labor had always started only after sunrise.
The crowd began to murmur.
Just as grumbles of discontent started to surface.
"Shut your mouths!"
The man bellowed.
Face twisted in a snarl, he swept the crowd with fierce eyes and gave his orders.
"You have five minutes. Grab your things and get out here!"
At his high-handed attitude, people wore looks of pure disbelief. But not a single person voiced their complaints openly.
Something about the Hunters’ expressions wasn’t right.
How to put it? It felt like a single word of backtalk would earn you a fist to the face on the spot. People grumbled quietly, their voices held down low.
"They said they were relocating us to Coral Cave..."
"Planning to work us to the bone before that, are they?"
"Whew, my whole body aches, every inch of it."
One by one, people pulled on their cold-weather gear.
Jenna hurriedly dressed as well. Then she personally bundled the young children who’d lost their parents, Mindy included, into their winter clothes one by one.
And suddenly, the dream from earlier came back to her.
’That was a pretty vivid dream.’
Jenna tended to dream a lot even at the best of times, but tonight’s dream had been unusually lifelike. It was the first time she’d ever felt cold in a dream.
And she’d seen her uncle’s face for the first time in ages.
’If only it hadn’t been a dream...’
How wonderful would it be to really see him again? Jenna let out a quiet sigh. Just then, Mindy abruptly spoke up.
"...Jenna."
"Hm?"
"Do you smell something weird?"
"Something weird?"
Jenna tilted her head.
Following Mindy’s lead, she sniffed at the air, and sure enough, an acrid smell was drifting in from somewhere.
The smell of something burning.
But it wasn’t like burning paper or cloth. It was closer to the smell of burning meat.
Just then.
"Time’s up!"
"Quit dawdling and get out here now!"
The Hunters barked again.
Those who’d finished preparing were shoved along by the Hunters, all but pushed out the door.
The moment they came up to the surface, a gust of frigid wind cut straight through to the bone.
"Ugh, urgh...!"
"Is it because it’s so early? It’s freezing out here."
"Of all the times to..."
Shivering to the last person, the crowd formed up into ranks. And as they did, the faces of the Hunters nearby came into Jenna’s view.
Lips pressed shut.
Facial muscles pulled taut.
Even anxious, harried expressions, as if something was chasing them. It was so unlike their usual selves that Jenna felt an unease she couldn’t explain.
’What on earth is going on...’
What could make them look like that?
The question wasn’t Jenna’s alone. The other people around her noticed the Hunters’ stony faces and voiced the same doubts.
But no one stepped up to actually ask. The air the Hunters gave off was that grim, that heavy.
"If everyone’s here, we move out!"
At the booming shout.
Some three hundred non-Awakened, Jenna among them, and twenty armed Hunters left the shelter behind.