Глава 8

Central District

H—help me...!

We're Reunion too! Why are you doing this? You Sarkaz always bite whatever hand feeds you!

...What's happening?

The Sarkaz barricading the street are massacring Reunion...

Captain?

Need to help the casualties.

You are, Captain?

Mmhm. I'm going.

Ngh... urgh... why, why! !

How did Reunion get like this... how did it get like this?! Weren't we gonna unite? Weren't we gonna be... be a family of our own, each other's kin?!

See you—

Stop.

Heavy-weapons throwers, careful!

Giant, floating weapons...

Was that you, Feline? You did that? You're—a Caster?

Put your weapons down.

It's okay now. Go.

Go... go where? We've already... my teammates, my old friends, they all... they all...

Qing, help him.

Got it. Come here, brother. Those Sarkaz just don't see.

I'll say it again, Sarkaz. Put your weapons down.

You think we'll stop resisting just because you're holding a weapon.

We don't think that way.

Then you want to be killed?

We don't have much of a choice.

Attacking your own comrades, hurting your own kin—

When were the Infected ever our kin? Our kin only numbers Sarkaz.

You couldn't have said that when you joined Reunion.

Betraying, harming your family, playing other people's feelings...

Disgusting.

Watch out for those weapons! Move!

Rosmontis, stop...!

Ah, Amiya.

Raidian just sent it out—the last message Dr. Kal'tsit gave us was that we should take care around the special Infected...

They're likely a variant of the special Infected from Lungmen, and we don't know if they'll infect others in progression!

Sarkaz warriors, listen to me!

There are some... Sarkaz with a deep infection, and they're catalyzing the other Infected!

We need the other Infected to withdraw from their current areas... Your block still has Infected survivors apart from you, and they're all non-combatants!

Even if we won't pass through here, I still hope we can all lend a hand to ensuring the safety of those Infected!

That's impossible. They wouldn't do that. They have no conscience.

We... we've seen it. We went out on our own.

We can't pull back. If they come this way... we'll have to get rid of them. We can't let even more Sarkaz get infected.

You might get infected yourself.

Who gives a damn.

You want to end up like them too? Those monsters controlled by Arts? You don't give a damn if you do?

Not the first time we've been made out to be monsters, is it?

...Oh, um... ah.

This city's toast. Sooner or later, sure, we might end up like them. But if we can exterminate them, then everything gets a little easier. Some people can still live on.

As long as Talulah isn't dead, this city will be annihilated.

If W can't kill her, there's no chance you can.

If you don't stand with the winner, you can't win; in war, if you can't win, you die.

But if you keep hurting any more Infected, then this might be where you die.

And what if I die, then? What if I turn into one of Mephisto's Herd, huh...?

Mephisto's a monster, too. We kill other Infected because we're all monsters.

All we want is for the Sarkaz not to suffer any further, but when you think about it, what if we suffer?

When you leave here and go whatever, will they look you in the eye?

Do you not know your end, being an Infected?

Of course you know. The moment you leave that tiny little squad of yours, you'll die.

You'll be despised, wrung by the neck, lashed, whipped, and hung.

Or you'll be driven out of the cities, run vagrant, and you'll starve, bitten to death by the beasts.

You can't live on.

And you have no dignity.

...What do you know?

Warrior...

Tell me. That you're not fighting for Talulah.

She's... strong. With her, the chance that more people live on is better.

We don't care if we kill a few more for it.

Get lost. Next time, I'll cut you in half.

Feline. If you want to pass through here, then just kill us...

We sure don't want to see our own end up that way. That's if you can kill us, though. Hahah.

You really are the most unsalvageable people.

What...? What?

What was... that sound?

Oh, no...!

The block we're in is nearing the ones the command tower closes off its entrances with... Reunion is likely trying to raise the entire sealing layer to cover any way in!

We're almost out of time!

Sarkaz. I'll give you one last chance. If you don't want to get mangled, pull out.

...Heh. Hahah.

Amiya.

I'll settle this.

Cautus. Hah. What do you think you can do?

Black lines...? That's—

*Pant*... *pant*. Ugh...

What's the... state of things?

We've suppressed all consciousless Sarkaz mercenaries.

O—okay, that's good, ngh... Are there other Infected.. here?

We have news, but I can't say whether it's good or bad. Recon operators looked around a little. There are, all over this block. And most of them... are in terrible shape. They must've been passive Infected, imprisoned in concentration.

Any passage through the... sealing... layer?

Yeah, this part leads to an engineering passage. Should be able to directly enter the structural control area, hack their remote panels. They can't do a thing about that.

Otherwise, for the open passages, recon ops have sighted at least four battlegrounds, all of them guerrillas against other Reunion...

The combat situation seems intense...

The guerrillas are strong, but the Talulah-aligned Reunion have the terrain advantage, and Sarkaz mercenaries backing them. They won't be able to push through for a while.

It's okay, Amiya. Captain, us engineers will sneak our way in. We'll cut the energy supply to the whole sealing layer.

Can you do it?

Definitely.

That's too risky.

Entering the core city was risky in the first place.

No objections, then?

We're going.