Chapter 151: Disposal Targets
In that instant.
A kick came flying out of nowhere, launching the Hunter into the corner, where he crumpled.
It was Walfred.
Startled by the sudden turn of events, the two girls stared at him. Then, in voices thick with fear, they asked.
"W-who are you...?"
Their faces were taut with wariness.
Just as he was about to tell them not to worry.
"Huh? Erin?"
"...! A-Alice!?"
Alice, who had caught up a moment later, saw one of the girls and her eyes went round. The girl clearly recognized Alice as well.
If they knew each other, there was no need for him to butt in. Leaving the rest to Alice, Walfred pressed on to the source of the burning smell.
’An incinerator room?’
It looked like a place for burning garbage.
But what on earth were they burning to produce a stench this foul?
Walfred went straight for the door.
It was locked, but that didn’t matter.
Crunch!
He tore the door clean off.
And then Walfred and Aria stared, eyes wide, at the horror laid out inside the incinerator room.
"...!?"
"Th-this is!"
Aria clapped a hand over her mouth.
She began to retch. Walfred, face hardening, looked down at the incinerator room floor.
The source of the stench.
What lay sprawled there were human corpses, already burned to charcoal.
’Three of them.’
Two men and one woman.
Then he spotted a large afterimage fragment lying near the bodies. Walfred reached out with the hand that bore the Mark of the Afterimage.
The moment he grasped the fragment.
Flash!
With a streak of light.
A memory of the past overlaid itself on the scene around him.
What came into view were three people, two men and a woman, bound with rope and forced to their knees. And five Hunters looking down at them.
[Cough, cough!]
The three had clearly been beaten badly already, and they kept spitting up blood. Then one of the men, face contorted with fury, snarled.
[Edward, you...! Do you have any idea what you’re doing right now?!]
The shout had barely faded.
When the man called Edward nodded.
[Clearing away the obstacles that don’t know their place and keep blocking my path, one by one.]
[Doing this when we need every Hunter we can get!]
[I know. But...]
Edward smiled coldly.
[I have no use for Hunters who stand in my way.]
[You...!]
[Hunters like you, Ruby.]
The woman was drenched in blood.
Edward drove a brutal kick into the woman he’d called Ruby. Ruby coughed up a mouthful of blood and shot back.
[Cough, cough! Do you really think the chief will sit still when she finds out about this...?]
[Ha, and what exactly can that bitch do if she doesn’t sit still? More than half the Hunters came over to my side a long time ago.]
Edward’s lips curled into a sneer.
[You already know it too, don’t you?]
[What are you...]
[Elma. That woman’s body is so broken down she can’t even fight properly anymore. She’s S-rank in name only.]
His voice dripped with mockery.
With those contemptuous words about Elma, Edward rose to his feet. He glanced at the watch on his wrist and muttered.
[Look at the time already.]
He turned back to the three captives.
And smiled pleasantly.
[I’m a busy man, so let’s end the small talk here.]
The words had barely left his mouth.
When the Hunters waiting behind him brought over plastic containers and dumped their contents over the three captives’ heads.
The reek of fuel stung the nose. Gasoline.
At that, raw terror bloomed across the faces of the two men beside Ruby.
[W-wait! Just wait a second!]
[I’ve changed my mind! Edward, I’ll serve under...!]
[Too late.]
Edward snapped his fingers.
And then.
Fwoosh!
A small ember sparked to life in midair.
The instant it touched the gasoline, the three bodies were engulfed in pillars of flame.
[Aaaaaaargh!]
[H-help me! Aaaaagh!]
Horrific screams rang through the incinerator room.
They writhed in agony, rolling wildly across the floor, but it was nowhere near enough to smother the ferociously burning flames.
The three bodies cooked red, then quickly charred black. Having reduced the three of them to charcoal, Edward turned to the subordinate behind him and asked.
[What was next on the schedule?]
[Disposal of the freeloaders.]
[Ah, right. That was it. Then gather the first batch of disposal targets and handle them according to plan. When it’s all done, collect the cold-weather gear and other supplies separately. No sense wasting them.]
[Understood. Um, but...]
[What?]
[What should we do with these bodies?]
The three corpses, burned pitch black.
At his subordinate’s question, Edward propped his chin and pondered for a moment, then shook his head and answered.
[Leave them for now.]
[Just leave them here?]
[Yeah. We’ll clear them out all at once later.]
With those final words.
The afterimage memory faded away.
"..."
Walfred was at a loss for words.
After a while, he recalled the name of the man who had burned people alive.
’Edward.’
Judging by the circumstances, one of the hardliners.
A dangerous man. And now that Walfred had seen his cruelty firsthand, his anxiety only grew.
The fear that Jenna might have gotten caught up in that madman’s schemes. So, just as he was rushing out of the incinerator room.
"What? I-is that true?!"
Alice’s cry struck his ears.
A voice full of shock.
A moment later, Alice spotted Walfred coming out of the incinerator room and called out to him urgently.
"M-Mister! Something terrible happened!"
"Why? What is it?"
"Jenna, they said the Hunters took her away!"
"...What?"
Walfred’s face went rigid.
"What are you talking about?! Why would they take Jenna!"
"That’s, well..."
"...We’ll explain."
The two schoolgirls spoke up.
Originally, the Brooklyn Girls’ Academy students, Jenna included, had lived in Sector B, where the young women were gathered.
But since no rule confined them strictly to that sector, Jenna often stayed in Sector K, where the children who’d lost their parents were housed.
"There are kids in Sector K that Jenna especially dotes on. So yesterday she said she was going to Sector K again to sleep with the children, but then..."
"But then?"
"Before dawn, the Hunters suddenly dragged everyone in Sectors K and L out of the shelter. Jenna got swept up in it too."
The girls’ faces darkened.
"...The problem is what comes next."
"We heard that Hunter talking earlier. The reason they dragged everyone from Sectors K and L away is that they’re all disposal targets..."
Disposal targets.
The moment he heard those words.
Walfred recalled the memory he’d seen through the afterimage fragment in the incinerator room. The words Edward had spoken after burning three people alive.
[Then gather the first batch of disposal targets and handle them according to plan. When it’s all done, collect the cold-weather gear and other supplies separately. No sense wasting them.]
The puzzle finally clicked together.
The first batch of disposal targets meant the non-Awakened of Sectors K and L. Jenna had been swept up in it and marked for disposal.
The moment that realization hit.
Something in Walfred snapped.
"...Where did they go?"
"P-pardon?"
"Jenna! Where did they take her!?"
Walfred’s voice had lost all reason.
His raw ferocity left the schoolgirls trembling, scared out of their wits. Even so, one of them raised a finger and pointed in a direction.
"W-west of the shelter... They said they were taking them somewhere about two miles from here..."
The answer had barely left her lips.
When Walfred shot up to the surface.
"M-Mister?!"
"Hunter Walfred! Wait for us!"
Alice and Aria called after him urgently, but their voices never reached his ears. He bounded up the stairs in one go and burst out onto the surface.
Then, with a maddened, blade-like wind lashing against him.
Walfred kicked off the ground.
’Jenna!’
Please let nothing have happened.
Please let me not be too late.
With that desperate prayer, Walfred tore across the snowfield stretching west of the shelter.