Editor’s Survival Guide — Chapter 15
Chapter 15. Episode 3. The Hospital That Hunts Humans (6)
The 「Moving Gun」 took aim at Baek Sa-ra.
Even Baek Sa-ra, who had been moving lightly, lowered her body and kicked off the floor.
She charged as though slicing away the distance between them.
Then she brought both machetes mercilessly down upon its entangled arm.
Bang—!
Why did the collision of blade and gun produce an explosion?
The 「Moving Gun」 staggered once, then aimed its muzzle at Baek Sa-ra again.
But it was too slow.
No, Baek Sa-ra was too fast.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
After evading the muzzle, Baek Sa-ra struck it again and again.
I knew little about kendo.
Even so, I could tell what Baek Sa-ra was doing was neither kendo nor swordsmanship.
What Baek Sa-ra displayed now was dismantling and butchery.
Nothing more and nothing less.
Under the successive onslaught, gun barrels showered from the 「Moving Gun」’s arm.
Driven into a corner, it flailed that arm in a desperate struggle.
Leaving her machetes embedded in both its shoulders, Baek Sa-ra kicked off the ground.
Her supple body traced a parabola over its head.
Then, the instant she landed, she spun and kicked its legs out from under it.
Crash—!
The 「Moving Gun」 fell with tremendous force.
Baek Sa-ra willingly climbed on top of it.
Then she took hold of the machetes she had temporarily left in its keeping.
Baek Sa-ra pulled hard with her arms crossed.
The sharp machetes met like scissors and carved a long opening through its upper body.
As though it felt pain, the thing thrashed and shook its metal-sphere head.
That metal head crumpled with a crunch.
It made no sound, but appeared to be screaming.
Clack—clack—clackclackclack—
Its arm warped, and still more gun barrels surged from it.
This did not look good.
Apparently, the time had come.
It was preparing to fire indiscriminately.
Baek Sa-ra must have known that too.
But instead of retreating, she flung away one machete.
Then she seized the bastard with her empty hand and began chopping into it as though splitting firewood.
Bang—bang—bang—!
It looked as though she meant to sever its arm completely.
But despite Baek Sa-ra’s violence, its upper arm only swelled larger and larger.
Dozens of rifles adhered to it in a half-melted mass.
Red and blue blood vessels spread like a net to bind the guns in place.
Those repulsive components began locking together with metallic squeals.
At a sense of impending disaster, I hurriedly dropped facedown.
A moment later, gunfire poured down like rain.
Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat—!
Everything nearby broke apart amid the suffocating roar of gunfire.
Stone dust scattered over my head as well.
I covered my ears and curled myself as tightly as possible.
My face was buried in Black’s corpse, but I had no choice.
After a long while, the nightmarish noise stopped.
I removed my hands from my ears and slowly raised my head.
The hospital lobby had been utterly destroyed and transformed into a wasteland.
Beyond the thick cloud of dust, I could see the 「Moving Gun」 split halfway through.
It had been torn open from shoulder to abdomen, and Baek Sa-ra’s machete was embedded deep in the wound.
Baek Sa-ra, by contrast, stood before it apparently unharmed.
Had she defeated it……?
Hope swelling within me, I looked at Baek Sa-ra.
Clatter—!
But with a metallic noise, her blade fell to the floor.
Baek Sa-ra, who had stood perfectly straight, staggered backward as well.
Drops of blood scattered with her steps.
Zzzzt—zzzzrrk—
The 「Moving Gun」, meanwhile, began joining its split body back together.
It writhed with a sound like a shifting mass of meat.
It was an obvious opening, yet for some reason, Baek Sa-ra did not retrieve her weapon.
She merely looked quietly in my direction.
Her behavior was strangely calm.
She looked as though she had already given up and accepted the outcome.
I met Baek Sa-ra’s gaze, then forced myself upright.
Ah, but—
Standing made me feel even more like I was going to die.
My head spun, and my stomach churned.
I wanted nothing more than to sink back down…….
But I forced myself to endure and raised the handgun Baek Sa-ra had given me.
As I said, I did not know how to fire something like this.
My vision still refused to focus properly too.
But that was all right.
I had no particular intention of hitting anything.
Bang—!
I aimed not at a target, but into empty air, and pulled the trigger.
The gunshot drew all attention toward me.
The 「Moving Gun」 in particular stared as though spellbound.
It had good reason.
I had removed my mask and exposed my bare face.
Clack—clackclackclackclack—!
After seeing my face, the 「Moving Gun」 twisted its muzzle around hysterically.
For some reason, Baek Sa-ra was also staring at me in horror.
It seemed I had stamped my face firmly into its memory.
Then I turned without hesitation.
And threw myself in the opposite direction from both of them.
As I rolled violently over the pile of concrete,
Thump—!
I felt a vibration that had become rather familiar.
The vibration of the 「Moving Gun」 firing a high-powered round.
After tumbling all the way down, I looked back without even feeling the pain.
A round hole had appeared in the pile of concrete.
As I thought.
It fired those rounds only at targets whose faces it had seen.
I had avoided it by throwing myself into that roll, but there was no time to sigh in relief.
Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat—!
The sound of popcorn exploding rang out behind me.
The pile of concrete I had rolled across was breaking apart under repeated impacts.
Thank goodness.
The 「Moving Gun」 had left Baek Sa-ra and begun pursuing me.
To draw the monster away, I ran from the lobby toward a corridor.
But damn it.
Once it began firing indiscriminately, its movement speed grew faster than before too.
At the gunfire closing the distance in an instant, I threw myself around a bend in the corridor.
Rat-tat-tat-tat-tak—!
Bullets poured past a hair’s breadth behind me.
Wow. I had truly just returned from the brink of death.
I clutched my pounding heart and looked around.
Information boards stood everywhere, but as expected, I could not read the words on them.
But that was all right too.
I remembered the cross-sectional map of the hospital that Baek Sa-ra had drawn.
I considered my surroundings and the corridor’s layout for a moment.
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Then I chose a general direction and ran.
When I pushed through a door, a fairly large space opened before me.
This was the Emergency Medical Center.
Complex medical devices and wheeled stretchers filled the space in every direction.
I dragged one of the stretchers outside.
Clatter—clatter—
Then I shoved it toward the end of the corridor with all my strength.
The stretcher raced over the smooth floor until it struck the wall.
After I repeated the process several times, a crude barricade stood at the far end of the corridor.
Rat-tat-tat—!
But the instant five or six stretchers had piled up, bullets poured over them.
The steel beds crumbled as lightly as stalks of straw.
Hey, that was seriously enough……!
Growing desperate, I ran back into the Emergency Medical Center.
Then I placed a white cylinder on a stretcher and pushed that one with all my strength as well.
Rrrrrattle—!
It rolled more slowly than the others and stopped at a suitable position.
In the meantime, the 「Moving Gun」’s muzzle loomed over the miserable wreckage.
After confirming the bastard had arrived, I dove into the Emergency Medical Center and dropped facedown.
Clang—kaaang—ping—!
Metallic noises. The sound of something breaking.
Then an immense explosion erupted.
KABOOOM—!
The floor shook as though an earthquake had struck.
Every pane of glass around me shattered and rained down.
A wave of terrible heat swept through as well.
Eeeee—
Flute-like tinnitus rang inside my skull.
I had tried to protect myself, but the impact was far from trivial.
Enduring my dizziness, I looked back toward the corridor.
It had been covered in black soot.
Evidence that flames had licked their way through.
I had placed an oxygen cylinder on the last stretcher I sent rolling.
The 「Moving Gun」 had fired as habit dictated and made it explode.
It had effectively blown up its own body.
I staggered upright.
Then I cautiously peered down the corridor.
The site of the explosion was pitch-black, as though no light reached it.
The air carried acrid smoke and a revolting, gamey stench.
Had I truly defeated it this time?
……I should never have thought that.
Something seemed to stir, then rose, shedding a cascade of ashes.
It was the 「Moving Gun」, its shell melted and limbs blown away.
Impossible. It had endured that explosion?
It bent at the waist and twisted its body.
Then the portions missing here and there began growing back.
Zzzzt—zzzt—
The 「Moving Gun」 convulsed as it restored its body.
Was it my imagination that those movements looked painful?
No. I thought I was right.
Its smooth head turned toward me.
It had neither eyes nor expression, yet I felt unmistakable hatred.
The revived bastard raised its muzzle.
I turned at once, and that nightmarish sound rang out again.
Rat-tat-tat-tat—!
Damn it! How much longer did I have to keep doing this?
I sprinted toward the emergency exit at the back of the center.
But the bastard was too fast.
With a rapid burst, holes appeared in the direction I had meant to take.
I had no choice but to hide behind the nearest wall.
The moment I concealed myself, the 「Moving Gun」 began firing indiscriminately.
Every facility in the emergency room burst apart as merrily as fireworks.
Even the walls and floor slowly melted like cotton candy caught in rain.
At that rate, the wall at my back would not hold for long either.
Damn it. How much time had passed?
How much longer did I have to endure……!?
Bang—!
As I fretted, a piece of scrap metal fell from above.
I looked up and saw that the ceiling was a wreck as well.
The ceiling panels had long since been blown away, and even the internal structure was collapsing.
What had already fallen was a ceiling-mounted air conditioner.
What threatened to fall next was a massive chunk of concrete.
“Ghk……!”
I hurriedly pushed off the floor.
Boom—!
By rolling aside, I barely avoided being crushed to death.
But beyond one line of fire lay another.
Still sprawled on the floor, I froze.
The 「Moving Gun」 stood before me.
There was nothing between us.
Apart from a distance of only ten meters, absolutely nothing obstructed us.
Its muzzle took aim at me.
None of its movements were particularly slow, yet every one engraved itself into my mind.
It felt as though time had deliberately slowed to carve my death into me.
No. I……!
In that instant, the 「Moving Gun」 exploded.
No—it was shot.
Bang, bang, bang—!
Eardrum-ripping gunshots continued at a rhythm as precise as a metronome.
Under that mechanical fire, the 「Moving Gun」’s limbs were blown away in sequence.
Its arm flew off, followed by its leg.
Its main body was steadily driven backward until it vanished from my sight.
In its place, people dressed like special forces flooded in and filled my vision.
Even after subduing the 「Moving Gun」, they continued to fire.
Unable to tell whether I was dreaming or awake, I watched in a daze.
Eventually, the person in front raised an arm.
The gunfire stopped all at once, plunging the surroundings into silence.
Then the person with the raised arm spoke in a voice I knew.
“「Moving Gun」 silenced.”
I lifted my head.
The helmet concealed the person’s face.
But what was with the long hair protruding from beneath it?
I knew exactly one man with that voice and hair of that length.
Stupidly, I stared at the man who could only be Cha Si-eon.
Cha Si-eon glanced at me in turn and muttered,
“Otter rescue successful.”
……What was this indescribable feeling?
He had unquestionably saved my life, yet I wanted to strangle him.
It felt as though I could. As though I should.
For my own sake and for a better world.
I had both the will and justification, yet could not move so much as a finger.
My body was as heavy as waterlogged cotton.
Damn it…… I’ll deal with you later…….
Having long since surpassed my limit, I groaned in frustrated dissatisfaction.
Then I fainted with magnificent heroism.