Глава 16

One by one, one by one! We'll be here for fifteen minutes, there's no need to—

—push...

The operator falls quiet. No one is pushing, no one is squeezing.

They just keep walking forward silently.

...I've never seen an evacuation so orderly.

Not even the famously disciplined First Army could do this.

That's a good thing, right?

It's not normal, is it? It's as though they don't have survival instincts.

Alright. Maybe I'm overthinking it.

And you, aren't you worried about your captain in the rear?

Our captain is the most experienced of us by far.

The operator stands on tiptoes, trying to see past the end of the procession that is indistinguishable from the pitch-black ice, looking for her captain.

All she sees is the bright red in the distance.

Did they really stop there...?

The enemy is shelling the ice!

I couldn't reach the driver. Someone needs to tell her to keep the vehicle running and be ready to roll at a moment's notice.

Do you read me?!

R-Roger!

You should get on, Eloysius. I'll take care of things here—

No, you go first and talk to the driver. For your captain.

I—

I'm staying here.

It was a torch that distracted the Army.

It began with a single torch that someone at the end of the procession raised.

No one heard if he said anything. No one asked why he did it. He simply stopped, lit his torch, and began to walk in the opposite direction.

Who lit the torch? I thought they said no lights—

It's Kian.

Kian? The one who made flint for everyone? I saw he gave some firewood to Darya just now.

It's him. He's walking back. But that's where all the soldiers are! Is he trying to get himself killed?

He's doing the same thing that Darya is doing.

But we're so close to safety—

I have a flint too, and some firewood.

What are you doing?

They're shelling the ice. They won't let us go. If we don't do something...

We all die.

But I want to live! I want to go to Grypherburg!

We would have died in the mines, remember? Like all other Infected in Ursus.

But if we can help the folks on the front lines survive, and the young ones who came to our aid...

People will remember what happened here long after we old-timers are gone.

One torch passes its flame to another.

One miner forsakes his life, then a second, and a third...

One by one, the miners who have not yet boarded the vehicles raise their torches and walk in the opposite direction.

Towards Kian, towards Darya, towards the trail of footsteps that led here, and towards the impending threat.

Th-They can't... bury us.

Not anymore.

You're right. They can't bury us quietly anymore, not in the snow, in the mines, or in the lakes!

We'll take the torch from our brothers and sisters, and we'll light the way...

We'll make sure that all of Ursus sees—

And knows that we once lived.

The miners who chose to stay behind raise their torches high in the cold night.

They form a bright belt of fire on the ice, one that the gunners cannot miss.

'Ursus will not bury this night the way it has buried many others,' they firmly believe.

The red eyes gaze upon the firelight.

The guns continue to fire, and the ice continues to crack, sending more miners into the gaping crevasses.

They shout and keep their torches high to the very end, with only a slight trembling in their voices.

Of course they are afraid. Of course they are fearful.

But they keep their torches raised, trading their lives for the lives of those behind them.

The Rhodes Island personnel try to stop them, but no one listens.

They're still firing, Amiya! Eloysius's vehicles are full, and the next batch hasn't arrived yet—

Amiya!

Why... why are they doing this?

We have to stop them. We can't let—

I can't stop this many in my current state.

But there must be something we can do.

Mantra...

I can feel it. I can feel their...

Their... anger.

It's so powerful. It's like it's burning them to ashes.

No...

I won't let them.

This—

This slaughter has to stop!

Anger. The same anger.

An emotion that Amiya has always fought to suppress, one that she would never allow to run unchecked.

Anger lights up her eyes, ignites her heart, and flows to her fingertips.

'Even if I don't take revenge, even if I never hold a grudge, I still have the right to rage on forever!'

The cerulean and black sword of wrath once again appears in her hand.

Ying Xiao—

A clean swing. Blue fire bursts from the tip of the sword, the highly concentrated energy drawing a wall of fire on the ice in the blink of an eye—another long and clear boundary.

On one side, the cracking ice and the shells repelled by the wall of fire.

On the other, the little Cautus and the torch-bearing Infected.

You...

Amiya points her sword at the shore, at the Army that has herded and slaughtered people like livestock.

'You go no further.'

Blue fire rages at her sword-tip, a warning to the murderers, be it the guns, the soldiers, or the battleships. Until the flames cease, until the score is settled—

None shall pass.

'Sir, high-powered Originium signal, twelve o'clock, source unknown!'

'Slow down and observe.'

'Yes, sir.'

...Did they cease fire?

No, they just slowed down.

You've stopped some of their attacks, Amiya. Rendezvous ASAP.

The other vehicles will arrive soon! Let's get out of here!

...No.

I'm staying until everyone is out.

Wait... something's coming!

A vehicle's coming toward us at high speed from the west, but it's not one of ours—I think it's a truck!

They drove onto the ice!

On alert—

Raidian! Finally got this thing to work. It's us! Me, Doctor, Ksenia—