Chapter 152: Thrown Away
A blizzard raged savagely.
Jenna trudged through knee-deep snow. All around her, the crunch of footsteps mingled with ragged breathing.
"Hah! Haah!"
"Whew, whew!"
People were gasping for air.
No wonder. Two hours had already passed since they left the shelter. They were nearly at their physical limit.
"...Haah."
Jenna, too, breathed hard as she forced her trembling legs to keep moving.
Then, little by little, dawn began to break. As the darkness lifted with the faint morning light, she could see the people struggling through the grueling march.
The moment she saw them.
’Huh?’
Jenna’s eyes widened.
It had been too dark to notice when they left the shelter, but now she saw that most of the people walking with her were elderly, sixty and up.
Or else children around Mindy’s age or even younger. Hunters had names for people in these age groups.
Dead weight, freeloaders, mouths to feed, and so on.
Derogatory terms for children and the elderly, who consumed food while offering less labor and productivity than able-bodied adult men.
People classified as the non-productive, or non-working, population. The moment Jenna realized this, a wave of unease washed over her.
’Come to think of it...’
She remembered what the hunters in the shelter’s so-called hardline faction always used to say.
That the non-productive population, who did nothing but hinder survival, should all be banished from the shelter.
Jenna’s brow trembled.
’Are they really going to banish us?’
A chilling thought, and rising dread.
But she quickly shook her head.
’No, that can’t be.’
Because the shelter had Elma.
She was one of the relatively sensible ones; there was no way she would have accepted such an insane plan.
And if they pulled something like this behind her back, the fallout would be more than they could handle. Jenna shook her head once more, brushing off the unease.
Some time later.
"We’re here."
The hunter at the front came to a stop.
The hunters pointed at the snow-covered slope stretching out ahead.
"The gate is just past there."
"The climate inside is pretty warm, so go on in and thaw out for a bit."
At that, people’s eyes lit up.
In their experience, the climate inside a gate was often completely different from the outside.
Shivering with cold, people squeezed out their last bit of strength to climb the hill. Jenna moved her feet too, soothing Mindy and the struggling children along the way.
And the moment they reached the top of the hill.
"Huh? This is..."
Confusion bloomed across people’s faces.
Of course it did. All they could see below the hill was a sheer cliff and a massive pit.
The blue vortex marking a gate’s entrance was nowhere to be found.
"What is this?"
"Where’s the gate...?"
People turned back to the hunters, bewildered. The hunters, meanwhile, had already positioned themselves behind the crowd, arms outstretched in unison.
And in that moment.
"Wind Blast."
At someone’s murmured signal.
Fierce wind began to gather between the hunters and the crowd. Compressed to its limit, the wind soon exploded with a deafening roar.
Boooom! Krakakakakaboom!
Wind pressure formed in the blink of an eye.
The explosive gale it unleashed slammed mercilessly into the defenseless crowd.
"Aaaargh!"
"Eeeek!"
"What!? What’s... Gurk!"
In the space of a blink.
In that split second, hundreds of people went plunging down into the pit.
Jenna was no exception.
"Aaaaah! J-Jenna...!"
"Mindy! Hold on tight!"
Even as she tumbled down the slope, Jenna never let go of Mindy’s and the children’s hands.
They rolled all the way down to the deepest part of the pit, yet surprisingly few were injured, thanks to the thick blanket of soft snow piled at the bottom.
"Waaaah! Mommy!"
"Ugh! My back..."
The people who had been shoved into the fall looked up, unable to hide their shock.
What came into view were hunters staring coldly down into the pit. People clamored and shouted up at them.
"Wh-what is the meaning of this!?"
"What the hell are you doing...!"
Fierce protests poured in from every direction.
But the hunters’ expressions didn’t so much as flicker. Then the burly man who had led the hunters opened his mouth.
"Still haven’t figured out the situation?"
"What are you...!"
"You were brought here for disposal."
"...!? D-disposal?!"
The verdict struck like a bolt from the blue.
People’s faces went white.
Meanwhile, the hunters spat icy venom at the people in the pit.
"Parasites. No use to the shelter at all, just wasting precious food."
"If you’ve got a shred of conscience left, then at least have the decency to die quietly."
"For everyone else’s sake."
With those final words.
The hunters turned away without a hint of regret. People frantically scrambled up the slope, screaming.
"N-no! Don’t go!"
"Take us with you!"
"At least take our grandson, please...!"
But no answer came.
The hunters’ footsteps were swallowed by the blizzard and quickly faded. People struggled desperately to climb the slope and escape the pit.
But escape was impossible.
The slope wasn’t merely covered in snow; it was frozen solid, a sheet of pure ice. And it towered dizzyingly high.
"...Ha, haha."
"How, how could they..."
"You sons of bitches!"
The moment they realized escape was hopeless.
People reacted in all sorts of ways.
Some laughed hollowly as if they had lost their minds, some sobbed, and some spewed curses, venting their rage.
"Jenna, what do we do now...?"
"D-did they just throw us all away?"
Mindy and the children huddled close around Jenna, their voices trembling with worry. Jenna forced a smile and pulled them all into her arms.
"It’s okay. Someone will come save us, I’m sure of it."
"Save us? Who?"
"The shelter chief, of course."
S-rank hunter, Elma.
The way Jenna saw it, this had to be the hardline hunters acting on their own.
If Elma found out about this?
She would send a rescue team for sure. Jenna believed that, refusing to let go of hope.
"Kids, come in closer."
Spreading her arms wide, Jenna gathered Mindy and every last one of the children into her embrace.
Determined to share what little body heat she had and hold out as long as she could. As she fought against the biting wind and cold.
Whoooosh!
The blizzard grew even fiercer.
Unable to hold on any longer, people collapsed into the snow one by one. They had walked snowy roads for over two hours since the crack of dawn, and their strength was completely spent.
"Ah, ahh..."
"...Honey."
An extreme cold snap of 76 below zero.
And on top of that, snow pouring down like mad.
For people already at their physical and mental limits, it was impossible to bear.
Most had already breathed their last or lay buried in the snow, unconscious. Those still faintly clinging to life numbered fewer than a few dozen.
And,
"Cough, cough!"
Jenna was slowly reaching her limit as well.
Shielding the children meant taking the full brunt of the snowfall on her own body. She kept brushing off the snow that piled onto her, but her movements grew duller as time passed.
The chill sank into her bones, freezing her body until her arms would barely move.
’...So cold.’
By now, her voice barely came out.
After a few dry coughs, Jenna felt her eyelids growing heavier and heavier.
She couldn’t fall asleep.
She had to hold on somehow.
The thoughts came, but her body, eaten away by the cold, no longer obeyed.
’Am I going to die, like this?’
Her vision grew hazier and hazier.
Beyond it, mounds of snow, large and small.
As she quietly gazed at them.
An inexplicable sense of déjà vu came over her.
’...Ah.’
Jenna’s eyes widened slightly.
Come to think of it, the situation she was in now was exactly like the dream she’d had before waking this morning.
The raging blizzard, and even the way her eyes slowly closed as she was buried under the heavy snow. All of it.
’Then...’
Just like in the dream.
Would Uncle appear? Clinging to that futile hope, Jenna smiled faintly.
And just then.
Ding!
Out of nowhere, inside her head.
Something like a clear bell rang.
And.
[□□□ □□: □□]
[■■□ □□□□□□]
[──□□: ■.]
Translucent letters lined up before her eyes.
Her vision had blurred so completely that she couldn’t make out exactly what they meant.
Still, the moment the letters appeared.
A tiny bit of strength returned.
How to describe it? It felt as if her utterly drained stamina had suddenly recovered just a little. Enough strength came back to twitch her fingers, but that was all.
’I have to, move...’
Maybe she had been exposed to the cold for too long.
Her body wouldn’t listen.
The little stamina she had recovered drained away again in an instant. Her eyes began to close once more. As she stared blankly past her fading vision.
Whoom! Craaaash!
Something plummeted from the sky.
With a thunderous roar, the snow piled on the ground heaved and shot into the air. A moment later, Jenna realized what it was.
A person.
’Could it be, the shelter chief...’
Had she come to save them?
She hoped so. Then at least these children trembling in her arms could live.
Meanwhile.
"...a! ...!"
The one who had dropped into the pit looked around frantically, desperately shouting someone’s name.
Watching, she felt a momentary flash of envy. Who could they have come searching for, to call out a name so desperately, so frantically?
’I wish it were, Uncle.’
Then at least she would have no regrets.
With that futile hope.
Jenna’s vision darkened further.
And then.
"...!"
He came running this way.
Toward Jenna.
Soon he pulled Jenna into his arms and said something to her, but her mind had already drifted too far away to make out the words.
’...Even so.’
There was something she had to say.
Jenna gathered every last scrap of strength and pushed a thread of a voice past her lips.
"Take care of, the children..."
With that final, wrung-out whisper.
Jenna quietly closed her eyes.