Chapter 347

Isaac let out a scornful snort.

“That was pointless.”

Malcolm spoke as if wronged.

“It’s not as if I thought you would mourn Gezar’s death. Nor did I think you would claim the body out of any moral obligation.”

“Then what exactly are you expecting from me?”

“I heard that Alpha rarely live beyond thirty-five on average. I heard Gezar’s interview with reporter Spencer, so I had some idea.”

“So?”

“I hate Hybris, but I do not think Alpha and Hybris are entirely the same thing. You and Baekgyeong are both Alpha too, aren’t you?”

Supporting his injured arm with his other hand, Malcolm continued slowly.

“Gezar lived a long time. There may be a secret left in his body—something that delayed his death.”

“Even if that were true, it has nothing to do with me.”

“Do you mean that?”

Isaac looked down at Malcolm for a moment, then spoke with a hardened expression.

“Gezar Bazelli’s body needs to be cremated.”

“Why the hell would that be?”

“If the handicap of lifespan disappears for Alpha, this world will become far more chaotic. It would be no different from an alien invasion. Humanity would end up reduced to Alpha’s pet dogs.”

“I don’t know about that. I don’t think being Alpha is uniquely horrifying. I’ve met countless vicious criminals in my life. I know evil is not bound by species.”

Isaac raised his chin slightly and checked the clock hanging on the wall, as though making it clear he had no intention of discussing the matter any further. Malcolm stared at him with narrowed eyes, then seemed to give up on persuading him.

“If you intend to refuse my goodwill, I won’t stop you. If no one claims Gezar’s body a month from now, it will be processed as an unclaimed corpse and cremated anyway.”

“Good. I hope that happens.”

Isaac nodded, then led Malcolm Knox—who still had not quite given up—outside. The temporary lodging had already been cleaned thoroughly. The Knox family, along with Siron and Baekgyeong, were sitting on the sofa waiting for Isaac and Malcolm. After explaining the route to Hannah and Angela, who would be driving, Isaac got into the newly purchased Tahoe with Siron and Baekgyeong. Then they set off for their respective destinations.

The new car was excellent. It ran over the deeply gouged road without much disturbance. Sitting in the seat, it almost felt like floating. But when they had just left the country road, merged onto a larger road, and were only about two kilometers away from the route leading into the city, something went wrong.

The edges of Isaac’s vision darkened, and his heart began to beat irregularly. He jerked the wheel and slammed on the brakes. The car barely stopped at the edge of the road before lurching forward and then rocking violently from the recoil. He had nearly smashed it into the roadside guardrail and wrecked it before they had even had a chance to enjoy having bought a new car.

Isaac jumped out of the vehicle, grabbed the guardrail, and doubled over. A savage wave of dizziness and nausea rose up as if the whole world were turning upside down. But instead of throwing up what he had eaten, only bitter acid spilled out. Clutching the guardrail, Isaac waited for the violent pain that he knew would come next.

It was his first seizure in a very long time since the last one. As if the death that had once been racing toward him had slowed its steps, the seizures that had come weekly had abruptly grown infrequent after a certain point. As he narrowed down the reason why they had stopped, he had reached the conclusion that the Rut Suppressant might have triggered the change. Baekgyeong had ambushed him with a Rut Suppressant injection, dragging him out of Rut, and after that he had not suffered a seizure once.

That was why, before entering the underground drainage tunnels, Isaac had stolen Baekgyeong’s Rut Suppressant and injected it into himself. If the hypothesis he had formed was correct, then no seizure would occur. But betraying his expectation, the seizure had returned once again.

Still, the time he spent swallowed by pain was not long. Compared to the agony of the past, when he had writhed miserably like someone who had swallowed weed killer, this seizure was so brief it almost felt refreshing. For barely five minutes, he did nothing more than retch up acid while suffering pain and dizziness so severe he wanted to shoot himself in the head. Isaac decided to suspend judgment on the hypothesis that Rut Suppressant alleviated the seizures.

“Don’t even dream of getting behind the wheel again. If we’d been on the highway, we’d all be fucking dead.”

Baekgyeong said it in a cold voice to Isaac, who was still shaking off the aftereffects of pain. Isaac agreed completely.

“Fine. The wheel... you can have it.”

“Are you okay?”

Siron had approached without him noticing and placed a hand on his back as he asked in a conflicted voice. It was not simple concern. It was the reaction of someone physically realizing that Isaac’s death was drawing close.

Isaac gathered the saliva in his mouth, thick with the taste of blood, and spat over the roadside. Then he merely nodded. He could not turn his head toward Siron. For some reason, it felt shameful to let him see him dying in such a weakened state.

The concrete walls gleamed damply with moisture, and water dripped from the ceiling into the surface below with the steady rhythm of a metronome. Lewis was wandering through the pitch-black underground drainage tunnels with a flashlight in hand. He could not remember when or why he had returned there. The guilt of leaving people behind in the tunnels had surely drawn him back.

Icy water had risen to Lewis’s knees. Breathing deeply in fear, Lewis shone the flashlight over the surface.

Pale, swollen faces submerged beneath the water were staring up at him. It was as if a transparent floor lay between him and them. The water swallowing his knees was so deep that it reached the bottomless abyss of hell.

In that instant, countless corpses stretched their hands toward him. Their arms moved up and down with the current as if waving at him. Hands reaching out in clusters like bouquets seized his calves. The sensation was horrifying and disgusting.

Lewis tried to wrench himself free, but the water had already risen to his waist. It swelled rapidly and swallowed him whole. He could feel the water forcing its way into his lungs with sickening clarity. The moment he thrashed in agony, feeling his breath about to snap, his eyes flew open.

He jerked upright, gasping as though suffocating. He could not breathe. It felt as though someone were constricting his airway by force, the oxygen he drew in pitifully insufficient. Something was clamped tightly over his nose and mouth. Lewis tore it away and checked. It was a clear plastic mask attached to a tube.

Only then did the sensation of reality slowly return. Lewis realized he was lying in a hospital wearing an oxygen mask. And that was not all. His body was covered with all kinds of medical devices.

Confused, Lewis searched through his last memory. Because it was tangled with the dream, it did not come back easily, but after a long while he realized he had never directly seen the corpses in the water. What he had truly experienced in reality was different from the dream. The temporarily reinforced tunnel had collapsed, and beyond it the Alpha had drowned.

Lewis had watched that scene in helpless despair. Isaac’s attack had damaged his spinal nerves, leaving him unable to walk. He had been carried out of the tunnel on Baekgyeong’s back in humiliating fashion, and at some point after that, he had lost consciousness.

Lewis felt all the blood in his body turn cold. He still did not dare check whether his lower body remained paralyzed. Only after dragging the moment out for a long time did he finally try to move his toes. To his astonishment, they twitched ever so slightly.

Lewis felt adrenaline surge through him. Gripping the rail beside the bed, he barely managed to raise his upper body. A stabbing pain shot through his waist, and he clenched his teeth and waited for it to pass through him. He lifted his hospital gown and examined the gunshot wound in his lower abdomen. But the wound was wrapped in bandages, making it impossible to tell how much it had healed.

Lewis looked around the hospital room. He was in a private room. The walls were a pale ivory, and the floor was covered in light gray linoleum. Across from the bed stood a table and a sofa, and on the table a smartphone of unknown ownership was charging.

White blinds were drawn over the window. Through the narrow slats, the outside view entered in strips like a sliced painting. A dense forest stood out there. At first Lewis did not notice anything strange. He stared at the scenery blankly for a long time before finally realizing what was wrong.

In Baggers City, October was still thick with green. Thanks to the warm temperatures typical of a southeastern coastal city, the trees stayed lush for a long time. Only in December, and even then only depending on the species, did parts of them begin to turn. But the trees visible through the blinds were mostly tinted a pale brown. Either several months had passed while he was unconscious, or he was no longer in Baggers City. It had to be one of the two.

At that moment, footsteps sounded beyond the closed door. At least two—no, three or more. Thinking he should observe the situation first, Lewis lay back down and covered his nose and mouth with the oxygen mask again. A moment later, the door opened.

He could feel the change in the flow of air against his skin. The sound of thick rubber soles dragging against the floor came first, like a little girl walking in her father’s oversized slippers. The footsteps carried a bright rhythm, almost like skating. They were unmistakably Anna’s.