January 17
A chain of explosions killed off quite a few of the rats. The swarm shrieked and squealed as corpses piled up, the survivors scattering in panic.
Behind them, dust and smoke clogged the narrow breach, while in the vast underground space ahead, Kyoko and Miranda stumbled onward with Brent between them, desperately searching for a way out.
The rodents that had recovered from the blast came scrambling after them on their stubby legs, surging toward the moving "meal cart" with manic hunger.
This underground complex was divided into one identical block after another, every section decorated in exactly the same style. It was maddeningly hard to tell them apart. And now that night had fallen, with the skylights blocked by snow, there was no way to orient themselves by outside light.
Even while fleeing, Kyoko kept scanning the surroundings. Then she spotted a place where the emergency lights were denser than elsewhere. Their green glow illuminated a long, sunken corridor.
"This way!" she called, taking the lead and dragging Miranda toward it.
Ahead of them stretched the passage lit by eerie green light.
They were almost out.
"Past this door! Hurry—hurry!" Kyoko vaulted through an open security door first and turned, waiting for Miranda to catch up.
The moment Miranda crossed the threshold as well, Kyoko spun back around and drove the iron door shut with a kick. It slammed perfectly into its frame.
Bracing herself against it, Kyoko used her free hand to lock it from the inside.
That made them safe—for now.
The rats hurled themselves against the metal with frantic scratching and banging, but it did nothing to shake Kyoko or Miranda's relief. The creatures could smash their heads bloody against it all they liked; they were not getting through. Other than the door, the only other route into this basement corridor would have been through the ventilation system, but the vents connected up to ground level, and these half-crazed rodents were nowhere near clever enough to take that path.
With that barrier between them and the swarm, the two girls could finally slow down.
Normally, a corridor like this would connect to the B2-level storage area, where there would be elevators and fire stairs. As long as they could reach the surface and get back into that warm apartment, it would all be over.
Just as they both let out a breath—
The blanket in their hands gave a warning groan.
The cloth was starting to tear.
"Huh? Of all times for this worthless thing to fall apart now?" Miranda snapped, staring in frustration at the small rip that had opened.
"Set her down for a second. I'll switch to another blanket," Kyoko said.
Miranda had no objection.
Still, this thing really had a sense of timing. Why now?
Miranda grumbled under her breath, completely failing to appreciate everything that cheap blanket—worth less than ten dollars—had already been through today.
Behind them, the rats might have been ferocious, but they were not going to gnaw through alloy steel in a matter of minutes.
Once Brent was rewrapped, Kyoko stood and took a better look around the corridor.
Aside from the cold, it looked strangely ordinary. Most of the basement unit doors were shut tight, though a few stood open. There were no bodies in sight.
Only a lot of scattered household trash.
For a moment it almost felt like an untouched refuge beneath the apocalypse.
Then Kyoko's eyes narrowed.
Trash.
And not old trash, either.
The sight of it made her stop dead.
"What is it?" Miranda asked.
"Maybe survivors really did live down here for a while," Kyoko murmured. "But if that's true… why'd they leave? There's no sign of a fight."
"Could the survivors here have been the same people we ran into in the sewer?" Miranda offered.
That did not seem quite right. More likely, whoever had sheltered here had fled because of the Monarch-class infected that used to nest nearby.
"Possible," Kyoko said. "Still, be careful."
What worried her was not survivors—it was traps.
If they made one wrong move and triggered something here, dying on their own doorstep would be too absurd to bear.
Having learned her lesson from earlier recklessness, Kyoko now kept a deliberate, cautious pace, determined to take nothing for granted.
"Kyoko, is that blood?" Miranda's helmet lamp had picked out something red on the floor ahead—clusters of footprints.
Following the beam, Kyoko saw that it really was bloodied footprints. They ran from around a corner all the way to where the two of them stood now.
"Yeah. Looks like someone was hurt badly here. This kind of bright red is usually human."
Calmly, Kyoko crouched and rubbed at the dried stains with her fingers.
"Judging by how it's weathered, this has to be at least a month old."
She kept moving as she spoke, analyzing the traces as she went.
It was obvious enough. Fresh blood had a distinct metallic smell. These stains had long since lost that. Instead, they had passed through multiple stages of aging—reddish-brown, then greenish-brown, then yellowed, then gray.
Which meant more than one blood source.
She could tell from the different states of decay alone.
At first, blood coagulates and begins to dry, losing its fluidity. As moisture evaporates, it contracts, separates, and forms a thin film, turning brown. Then oxidation sets in, bringing out greenish tones. Later the red blood cells break down further, the color yellows, and eventually the stain turns gray. Once fully dried, the edges develop fine crack-like fissures and granular protrusions.
Kyoko pinched a section.
It crumbled to powder.
The footprints were chaotic, overlapping in places, as though someone had staggered, stumbled, turned around, and stepped through the same spots again and again.
Then Kyoko thought of the mutilated female infected they had seen earlier—the one whose limbs had been cut off and whose body had been abused beyond recognition.
This had to be where it happened.
Sure enough, at the end of the trail, she found a wall splattered with old blood.
This was the scene of the crime.
"Stay close, Miranda. Let's follow it a little farther and see what's ahead."
Something in Kyoko's gut twisted.
The idea was absurd, but she could not shake the feeling that some lingering, resentful spirit was begging her for help. Those sobs and cries they had heard in the sewer earlier… could they really have been…
That infected woman's fate was too horrific to imagine. The idea of seeing anything like it a second time made her stomach turn. Whatever had done that deserved to die.
Following the trail all the way to the end of the corridor, they found the stairwell on the left, barricaded shut with furniture—and directly ahead of them, the blood trail ended at a locked basement room.
"Do you want to go in?" Miranda's voice dropped. More than anything, she wanted to get out of here. Why investigate this now, of all times?
"Miranda… if there's really something in there, then whether we bother it or not, it may come after us anyway."
Kyoko genuinely wanted to force that damned door open and see what lay behind it.
Her tone had unconsciously sharpened.
What if there was still someone alive in there?
If some kind of monster was inside, she wanted it dead.
"But what about Brent?" Miranda asked. That was the real issue. Brent was still unconscious. If there was some kind of special infected inside, they were in no condition to handle it while carrying a wounded person.
"Yeah," Kyoko said after a pause, her tone softening again. "That's true."
She realized then that the sight of those mutilated victims—and the story their bodies hinted at—had pushed her into anger.
After thinking it through, she forced herself to back down.
"…Let's go. I'll come back and check this place another time."
There was resignation in her voice, but also restraint.
For now, getting home mattered more.
"Okay. Let's just go home," Miranda said gratefully. At this point, the wetness in her trousers was beginning to freeze against her skin.
The stairwell was blocked by furniture, and the vent shaft was jammed shut with miscellaneous junk. That left them only one option: move the barricade and clear the stairs so they could escape that way.
Miranda stood guard nearby while Brent was laid down on a relatively clean patch of floor.
Kyoko set down her gun, slapped the dust from her gloves, and got to work.
Meanwhile, back at the safe house—
"Oh come on, they're still not back—what's going on?" Doris sat restlessly by the window, peering into the darkness below, hoping to catch the flicker of a flashlight or the flash of fire.
But there was nothing like that.
Only the glow of flames in the commercial district.
"Stop panicking. We've been hearing gunfire and explosions ever since they left, and the sounds have only been getting closer. That means they're not far away. My Kyoko will bring them back."
Huaxiu's voice was full of absolute trust.
To her, Kyoko was practically a war god. There was no way she would fall so easily to a few infected.
Unlike Doris, Huaxiu refused to let herself collapse into helpless anxiety. While the three older girls were out, the two of them needed to stay calm and hold the house together.
To be fair, both she and Doris had done quite well earlier in the day, while there was still daylight.
Doris, in particular, had not been nearly this frazzled before.
Without Miranda around, she had looked distracted—but she had still done every task properly.
Sorting supplies throughout the building, tending the planters, helping maintain the safe zone—Doris had proven more than capable. Even Huaxiu had to admit that.
Pulling herself out of that brief reflection, Huaxiu headed for the kitchen to reheat the food they had already prepared.
When Kyoko and the others came back, they would need a proper hot meal waiting.
Suppressing the unease inside her, Huaxiu unclenched her hands, swept aside the ponytail falling across her chest, and went back into the kitchen.
"Stop staring. Load the bolts. Otherwise if individual infected get past the defenses, we'll waste mines on them," she called back.
"Got it," Doris answered.
After Huaxiu disappeared into the kitchen, Doris pulled open the quiver at her feet and took out a bolt nearly half as tall as she was.
Since it was a compound bow, using it was not as difficult as it looked. Even a thin, soft-bodied girl like her could handle it.
Big Sister… when are you coming back?
Outside, the snowfall was thick enough to coat every infected in a pale new shell.
The cold beyond the walls felt just like Doris's heart—icy and raw.
She missed her sister terribly.
From the kitchen drifted the faint smell of cooking.
Inside the safe house, everything was still proceeding according to plan.
Back to Kyoko—
"All done. Let's get Brent home."
Kyoko Takajo wiped the sweat from her face, breathing heavily as she spoke to Miranda.
Ordinarily, with Kyoko's superhuman physical traits, moving furniture like this should have been easy. Back when she was fortifying the safe house, she had hauled large appliances around without much trouble.
So why was she so exhausted now?
Part of it was today's nonstop combat, of course.
But the real problem was that the person who had built this barricade had filled the furniture with concrete.
The pile blocking the stairs weighed well over a hundred kilograms in total. Even a superhuman would struggle with that.
"Let's just get home. I'm seriously at my limit," Miranda muttered, voice thick with longing. If she did not change clothes soon, what she had wet would freeze solid.
Gun in hand, Kyoko pushed open the stairwell door.
There was nothing behind it.
No infected corpses. No blood from a previous fight.
Only scratch marks gouged into the door itself—signs that infected had clawed at it before.
Looking at Brent, Miranda could not help speaking silently in her heart.
Brent, honestly… you slept through the whole trip. You're supposed to be the bodyguard protecting your lady, not the other way around. When you wake up, I'm definitely punishing you. But first, let's get you home.
After a quick check of the area beyond, Kyoko returned and gave the all-clear.
No immediate danger.
Time to move.
Kyoko and Miranda lifted Brent again and started upward.
They had just reached the first basement level—
When it happened.
Behind them came the sound of a door opening.
It was the room.
The basement room Kyoko had almost forced open earlier had opened on its own.
Creeeak—
The rusty iron door's groan made Miranda freeze in terror.
Kyoko instantly spun around and raised her weapon, aiming down toward the darkness below. Something stood just beyond the edge of her tactical light.
"Who's there? Get out here—"
Her brain was finally starting to misfire from exhaustion. Instead of shooting first, she had actually tried talking to the unknown thing.
The instant the words left her mouth, she snapped back to herself.
Whether it answered or not, she pulled the trigger.
Miranda, standing at the rear of their formation, was even more terrified. She let go with one hand, yanked out Brent's sidearm, and started firing too, not even bothering to aim.
Between them, they emptied both guns in seconds.
What happened to the figure below—
Neither of them saw clearly.
Miranda's pistol locked empty. Kyoko had no time to switch weapons.
Without another word, the two girls grabbed Brent and ran up the stairs as fast as they could.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 132)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter140)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter95)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter165)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 145
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 135
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 95
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 155
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 125
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 105
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 62
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 80
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 66
Uma Musume: From Beginner 80
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 62
Uma Musume: I Want All 65
I Can Copy Unique Skills 53
Summoning an Evil God, but the 41
Supernatural Multiverse 45
My Harem Is Indescribable 35
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 46
"I'm just a Valkyrie passing through." 26
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 36
My patreon : patreon.com/queen_sin