Chapter 248: Ch 248: One left behind
The train is coming in.
And I don’t know how much longer the talisman in my hand will hold out.
Everything points to one thing.
’Hurry!’
Get down to the platform via the stairs right now.
"This wayy."
Assistant Manager Lee Seonghae, who had the best sense of direction,
practically bolted like an animal and started retracing the exact route we’d
taken.
I’d been sketching it in my head too, and everyone had probably tried to
memorize it in the same way, so no one got turned around. We just ran after
her.
Breathing.
Footfalls.
...And far off, the vibration of an approaching train.
In an instant the way back drew near. The sounds of us pushing through
trees and fog rang out in the hush.
And finally, the stairs came into view. A clear, open line of sight with no
fog. A way that would send us somewhere else...
Exit No. ■
Stairs going up.
"..."
"..."
I reflexively looked up that way, at all kinds of things piled madly in front
of the rolled-down shutter, at the dried, bloody footprints, at every manner
of attempt to block any connection with the outside.
The stairs leading out into Sekwang Special Metropolitan City.
Wait.
Wait a second.
’Why?’
And it hits me like a smack to the head.
"The etiquette...!"
"...!!"
Sekwang Station (Forest of Final Moments) Etiquette
3- If you run near the ticket gates, an exit will appear.
We swiped at the gates and then immediately started running.
So, we arrived at an ’exit’.
A chill ran through my heart.
’How did none of us remember this?’
With this many people, it makes no sense that not one person caught it.
And I realized. Even now, called up by the shock...
’It’s quickly evaporating from my head.’
Like fog seeping in.
’It’s a gimmick.’
The information on the bulletin board doesn’t stay in your head for long.
But there’s no time to feel chagrined.
’Hurry.’
We have to go back...!
"Bronze-ah. Reorient!"
"Yes."
Wait. Hurriedly, I added.
"Agent, do not look toward the exit."
Who knows what we might see.
"...! Yes."
After confirming Agent Bronze’s nod as he raised the colored glass, I
urgently checked the item.
...Half of the evil-warding talisman I was holding was covered in inky
mold.
The silk thread was rotting.
’...It sped up.’
Coming to the wrong ’exit’ clearly had a bad effect.
At this rate, the time left that it could hold out was probably...
Barely five to ten minutes.
’Hurry.’
"I’ve found the gates...!"
"Okay. This time, let’s not run."
We moved our feet.
Careful not to be judged as running, careful never to have both feet off the
ground at once. Under extreme tension and focus, we set off again. As soon
as we reached the ticket gates, we retraced our route back toward the
station.
We found the transit card reload machines.
Most of the evil-warding pollock was now buried under black-purple mold.
From the reload machine, we walked back along the way we’d come.
The silk thread looped on my ring finger snapped.
The path we were walking grew more and more muddled as the fog
thickened...
Drip.
Cold sweat fell onto the talisman.
By now the talisman was almost unrecognizable as a shape.
More than half of the threads looped on my fingers had snapped.
’Hurry.’
Not being allowed to run felt like torture.
Part of me thought maybe we could run now, but having already tripped the
rule once, we couldn’t risk it. We kept walking.
We walked.
And.
And...
Stairs.
The way down to the platform.
"...!!"
Everyone, barely able to breathe, went down the stairs. Clutching the
remaining threads tied to the evil-warding pollock, I stepped too.
And.
And...
We broke out of the fog.
"..."
"..."
The moment our feet hit the platform—
"Haaaah..."
"Huu."
People slumped down.
’We’re alive.’
The instant we all felt the same gut certainty, our tension deflated and a
thick sense of relief spread through the air.
I stared up at the ceiling, sucking in air.
Then, when I lowered my head, I saw there was just a single strand of silk
thread left.
I swallowed.
’We almost died.’
[Oh, a thrilling exploration with an exhilarating twist in the middle,
Friend!]
Sure. A friend who fronted me a hundred million won can say whatever he
wants.
And finally, even among the rest of us, a few half-joking remarks began to
flick back and forth.
"When that exit popped up, I thought, welp, we’re dead."
"Hahaha!"
"Thank goodness we made it downn!"
It felt like the subtle distance between individuals from the two feuding
organizations, Daydream and the Disaster Management Bureau, had shrunk
a bit.
Some kind of strange solidarity had formed, it seems.
[A very classic psychological phenomenon. The mechanism differs a bit,
but you could liken it to the suspension-bridge effect!]
Right.
’Whatever works.’
It felt like we’d be able to handle things without red faces even after we got
out.
"Once we get out, we should have an after-party or something. Didn’t you
civil-servant sirs say you like spicy beef tripe hot pot? How about it, do you
like hanwoo too?"
"Oh man, I’m crazy for it, Ms. Civilian."
"Agent, please..."
"Sir Highborn Geezer, you look like you could put away a good pound
yourself, why’re you acting modest."
"...?!"
"Can I come tooo?"
"Of course."
We all knew we weren’t actually going to go out for a team dinner like that,
but a few rounds of meaningless banter went back and forth, just to ease the
tension and get our heads straight.
♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪
"It’s coming in."
A signal again that a train is approaching.
’Does it come more often if there are passengers in the station?’
I didn’t know about the frequency, but if this could get us out of here, that’s
even better.
Of course, we’d have to see whether it was truly a way to get out of the
ghost story altogether...
"There were people on that train, so I’m hoping it connects to some other
supernatural zone, at least. Right, Grapes-ie?"
"...Sure."
Anything is better than the very heart of an annihilation-sanctioned
Disaster...
And also.
"...We should be ready in case the people on the train aren’t normal."
"Obviously."
Given passengers on a train that appears in a ghost story, statistically, we
couldn’t rule out that they too were contaminated humans.
The train is approaching.
I saw the agents swapping to gear meant for dealing with people, and the
Daydream employees tidying up their items.
Some of those were probably items that wouldn’t work here but were being
adjusted just to have them at hand.
’Says the guy who’s flat broke and has nothing on him.’
I stifled a sigh as I watched the evil-warding pollock charm trembling in my
sweaty hand.
It was already nearly ruined.
A hundred million won for five lives isn’t a bad deal, but thinking of it as
single-use still stings...
Thunk.
"..."
I watched it hit the floor.
The persimmon-woodblock, now covered in mold, lay there crumpled
beyond recognition.
The last strand of silk that had been dangling from my hand snapped and
fell.
The talisman was completely...
Broken.
"..."
"Hold on. Roe, that..."
It’s not something that could break just from weight alone.
It’s an item.
...Which means.
Right up to the moment it snapped, it had still been functioning as a ward.
"..."
Stiffly, I turned my head toward the platform stairs.
...Fog was spilling down the passage, rolling out of the concourse.
’Ah.’
Right. The concourse is part of the subway station.
If we’ve been counted as passengers at this station.
If our presence is now known to the station.
Then the forest in the concourse knows about us too...
Enough to chase us.
Up to now, the only reason it hadn’t chased us onto the platform was
because the talisman had been blocking our presence in our stead.
But now that it snapped.
"Back—"
The very next moment.
Fog came pouring down below the stairs and completely blanketed the
platform.
"...!!"
The platform, wrapped in fog, seemed to grow unnaturally wide, and
shadows of trees began to appear.
Trees with hanged corpses on them.
...And nooses without corpses.
– In the ■■■ Forest, notorious as a so-called ’suicide hotspot’, new bodies
have been discovered. The latest are five unidentified male and female
corpses found hanging side by side from trees near the subway connecting
passage.
– According to witness testimony, it is presumed that they attempted to
board a subway train but gave up and ultimately chose to take their own
lives. Their final recorded words were...
– Don’t you want to give up too?
"Dodge."
I ducked my head. I tried to grab the shoulder of the person next to me, but
once again, what my hand found was a corpse.
I shook it off, panicked.
"Everyone, to the screen doors!"
Thankfully, voices still carried.
And within the fog, I could faintly see the trail of blue fire and hear the
sound of a bell.
A presence driving back the fog.
"Over here!"
I hurried toward it.
As I got closer, a silhouette took shape in the fog. Agent Choi, by the screen
doors!
Passengers are requested to board safely and observe proper etiquette.
"As soon as the train doors open, we—"
Hook.
"...Agent?"
Just now.
Just now, right before my eyes, didn’t Agent Choi get caught by a noose and
get hoisted up, dangling into the tree?
Huh?
What... is this?
Why did it suddenly happen like that? This was clearly a ghost story that
lures victims, but since we’re registered as station users, there’s no need to
lure us? Because the talisman that had been holding it back broke like a
breached dam? Because we violated the etiquette? No...
Just now.
He died?
He di—
"Shit."
...
...Assistant Manager!
I forced my wits back together and shoved through the fog, searching for a
voice. The assistant manager should be, should be somewhere around
here...
Hook.
Another figure snatched by a noose and yanked upward.
It vanished into the fog.
– Don’t you want to give up too?
I froze.
’...Ah.’
The platform was already completely smothered in trees and fog.
Maybe everything I just saw was a hallucination? Could it all have been an
illusion? I mean, there’s no way two people would just suddenly die like
that, so then...
But other presences...
"Agent Grapes!"
Agent Bronze.
"Agent."
Silhouettes came toward me. Beside him I could make out Assistant
Manager Lee Seonghae. The glow from the little glow-in-the-dark star
sticker stuck to the back of her hand lit the fog just enough to see.
We were almost right next to the screen doors.
Beyond the fog, I could faintly see the light from the open train doors.
"Get on n—!"
This time.
I saw it.
A noose shot out of the fog, seized Agent Bronze by the neck, and yanked
him upward.
He was snatched up into the fog.
"...!"
I grabbed his lower body on reflex. At the same time Assistant Manager Lee
Seonghae grabbed his feet.
But it was pointless.
Because it was around his neck.
With a pressure that made no sense, the noose slipped through our hands
and went up.
Crack. There was only that sound.
The sound of a neck breaking.
"..."
The screen doors are now closing.
I hurled myself toward the train.
My scrambled head wouldn’t settle on any proper conclusion, just reeled.
Escape. Are we really escaping like this? Isn’t there anything we can do?
It’s already too la—
...!
And this time I saw it.
By the light of the glow-in-the-dark star on Assistant Manager Lee
Seonghae’s upraised hand as she ran, I saw the cord dropping through the
fog.
A noose.
It was one of our turns.
’No.’
I shoved Assistant Manager Lee Seonghae, almost throwing her through the
closing train doors.
At the same moment.
– Don’t you want to give up too?
A noose caught my neck and yanked.
Hook.
Pain.
Pressure.
Can’t breathe.
...
Death.
Blackout.
* * *
* * *
"Haa—!"
"Agent!"
Ryu Jaekwan opened his eyes. He was panting like mad. The crushing pain
and constriction at his neck, the shock, reverberated through his chest and
body.
He raised a hand to touch his neck, but someone stopped him.
"Calm down. You’re at HQ!"
...HQ?
He snapped into focus.
A modern room strung with warding ropes and talismans. A bed, the smell
of disinfectant and rice...
The bureau’s contamination infirmary.
"..."
He finally let the strength drain from his hand. The infirmary agent peering
down at him sighed in relief and spoke.
’A nightmare?’
Is that possible? Had he had a nightmare as a kind of supernatural disaster?
Then where did the nightmare start? What if where he was now was
actually a dre—
"We told you not to use the well as a transit path anymore! And you just had
to use it... Everyone who used it has been unconscious for two days
straight. You’re the first one to wake up, Agent Bronze."
"..."
"I’m sure Agent Choi was the one who told you to use it—"
"Wait, agh, wait a moment."
Ryu Jaekwan asked urgently,
"Did the well actually function?"
"It functioned, sure! All of a sudden here at HQ, a supernatural disaster and
a bunch of Daydream employees all appeared unconscious together. It’s
absolute chaos."
"..."
"And since everyone being unconscious felt artificial, we figured you’d all
been hit by some weird supernatural phenomenon... Agent?"
Agent Bronze clutched his neck again.
’...My voice won’t come out properly.’
And there was this strange tightness, like a lingering auditory hallucination
clinging to him.
...Like a noose.
"Are you alright? We’re planning a full work-up, but..."
"Yes."
There was odd pain, a trembling in his body. It felt like some uncanny
aftereffect remained...
He’s alive.
’I didn’t die.’
He realized it.
Sekwang Special Metropolitan City.
The reason they could connect to a place erased from reality, a place that
couldn’t even be perceived.
It is a dream.
Through the well, they had entered Sekwang City in a dream.
And then...
"Ah, it sounds like the others are regaining consciousness. But... it seems
like one Daydream employee is still out."
They had left one person behind.