BXBX NOVEL Chapter 19: The Little Prince in the Ossuary (19)
Another day had dawned.
Around 8 a.m. a voice mixed with minute static flowed out from the radio that Gyeoul had brought with him.
[Radio check. This is Able, Able. Banana, Banana, do you read me? Over.]
Apparently, the rescue mission was assigned to Able Company, the company under the command of the very racist captain, Magath. Sure enough, the call sign they used to refer to Gyeoul’s team was banana, the racial slur for Asians. Their disregard could be seen even from their use of radio lingo when communicating with civilians.
Converting it into an ordinary sentence, it would sound like this:
[This is Able Company. Refugee volunteers, can you hear us clearly? You may speak now.]
Gyeoul picked up the receiver.
“This is… the refugee volunteer, Han Gyeoul. We hear you Lima Charlie, five by five. How do you read? Over.”
Lima Charlie meant loud and clear in military code, and five by five indicated the signal strength and readability of the transmission signal on a scale of five.
[Able, read you loud and clear. Able Actual wants you to correct your call sign. Your call sign is Banana. Respond with your call sign if you copy. Over.]
Able Actual. It was the call sign that referred to Captain Magath. Gyeoul couldn’t believe he was making them call themselves Banana. It was just as absurd as making an African American guy call himself negro. ‘So childish,’ Gyeoul thought.
The people standing next to Gyeoul took glances at him to check if he was okay. Some of them were even feeling resentment. Only the boy who had trouble with him last night and some of his friends had the urge to laugh. Gyeoul couldn’t help but feel disgusted seeing their mouths twitch.
“…Banana, we copy. But Able, do me a favor. These people do not know how to communicate with radio lingo. I do not care if you call me Banana or not, but I’d appreciate it if you could use words that everyone here can understand. Over.”
The radiotelephone operator answered after a short silence.
[Okay, Banana. Now, Able Company Oscar Mike… launched the rescue mission at 8 a.m. How’s the situation over there?]
“We have found 34 civilians, 21 of them are students, the rest are adults. No one’s injured or sick, all of them are in good health.”
[Understood. Do you think you can lead them and evacuate to 24th Street’s intersection?]
It was a preposterous demand. They were asking them to escape by themselves knowing that the majority of the civilians with him were merely kids. The faces of those who were listening to the radio next to Gyeoul crumpled. The Control AI displayed rows of messages in holograms.
「AI Advice (Lvl 8 Insight): Your mission may change depending on your answer. If you choose to lead the civilians by yourself, Able Company will no longer move from their current position and you will be expected to join with Able Company 60 minutes before EENT at the latest. The rewards may vary depending on your performance.」
「Estimated difficulty (Lvl 8 Insight): Near impossible」
「AI Advice (Lvl 8 Insight): The chances of success are very low. If you accomplish the mission, you may receive 37 times the rewards.」
There was nothing to think about. Gyeoul had over thirty unarmed people with him, about twenty of whom were middle school students. Escaping with these people was pure nonsense.
“That’s impossible. Only three civilians are armed with guns, two pistols, and one shotgun. And these people I have here, they’re not trained soldiers. They are civilians. If something happens, things will easily spiral out of control.”
And after another moment of silence, the operator returned an answer.
[All right. Stand by in your current position. Able will continue with their mission. Out.]
And the communication ended there.
Gyeoul turned on Time Acceleration thinking that the mission was over. If no particular event happened during the skipped time, the game should resume after Able Company arrived.
However, Gyeoul’s speculation was way off the mark. When Time Acceleration ended, what greeted him was the loud noise of ceaseless gunshots and explosions. The origin of the noise was not from inside the gym, but it wasn’t far away from it either. A deafening roar then followed. A roar that couldn’t have belonged to a human. The people inside the gym began to gather around Gyeoul in panic.
Gyeoul picked up the receiver and tried to get in touch with Able Company but to no avail.
“Hey, little boss. What’s going on out there?” Asked Jejung, apprehensively.
“The U.S. military uses suppressors with their rifles, but as you can hear there’s just a lot of gunshots being fired out there. That means they are using firearms that cannot be equipped with suppressors, which I think should be the heavy machine guns on the vehicles. And that leads to the conclusion that Able Company is facing something that is forcing them to use heavy firearms.”
“That can’t be…”
“Besides, I hear different kinds of explosions. And judging by their loudness, they must be using at least three types of explosives. One of them should be grenades, and the other two, considering what the U.S. military has, must be bazookas and C-4s. What worries me is that they’re still engaged in battle even after utilizing that much firepower. They must have encountered quite a large swarm.”
“…”
When Gyeoul’s analysis reached this point, his three teammates each showed different reactions.
Jinseok looked defeated and dejected. “You seem to know a lot for your age… How can you guess that much just by listening to the noises…?”
“Anyone could come to this conclusion if they think calmly.”
“…” The young man bit his lip in indignation.
Gyeoul let Jinseok be. For the community’s sake, someone with a high competitive spirit such as him could serve as a good stimulus.
Yura, the only person with no problems with her pride, was honest.
“I don’t know how you can keep calm in this kind of situation. I mean, from what you said, you are the one who should know the best that the rescue team might not arrive.”
“That’s because people need a goat.”
“A… goat? What do you mean…?”
“That’s kind of a long story. I’ll tell you when we get back to the camp.”
His words contained an indirect remark. It was as if he had implicitly said ‘We’re going to make it back anyway.’ If he had just said ‘We can make it back safely!’ directly, It would’ve produced the opposite effect. Saying that out loud would just mean that he had doubts in his mind.
Yura’s face brightened up a little.
“Hey, what are you chatting about over there?”
Some of the non-Koreans looked askance at Gyeoul’s team. A hint of rage flickered in their eyes. Why they were carrying such anger was unknown to Gyeoul. Perhaps they needed someone to blame for this situation.
“We were just talking about how I think the rescue team is struggling out there.”
Almost immediately, Gyeoul was faced with a furious backlash from one of the men. The man raised his voice, pointing his finger at the boy.
“Ha, don’t be fucking stupid! America has the best army in the world! They cannot be having trouble dealing with those walking corpses!”
A struggle to not have his hope denied. Gyeoul knew it was better to not bicker with such a person.
“Maybe you’re right. I was just telling them my thoughts after all.”
“Just keep your mouth shut if you don’t know shit! And don’t make people nervous with your stupid thoughts! The rescue team will come!”
“I hope so, too,” Gyeoul replied with a feigned smile.
An awkward silence hung between them for a while, until new voices began to come out from the radio.
[Break, Break! This is … five! Able o … all back! … mission aborted! … Romeo Point… evacuate…!]
Despite the good reception, the words were hardly understandable due to the speaker’s heavy breathing mixed with the gunshots and explosions in the background. Everyone inside the gym froze.
Starting from that point, transmissions poured out from the radio. Barely any of them were understandable, but one thing for sure was that there was one word being repeatedly mentioned.
‘Monster?’
Gyeoul wondered what monster they could be referring to. It was too early in the game for a variant mutant to make an appearance. But they couldn’t have called normal mutants monsters.
‘This mission is going to be harder than I thought.’
The rattles of gunfire were getting fainter and fainter every second. At this point, anybody could guess what was happening outside.
One of the students knelt down and began sobbing. The cry quickly spread among the students and the whole gym became a sea of tears.
The screaming voices flowing out from the radio disappeared one after another until only one person remained speaking.
[Hello…? Anybody there? Somebody talk to me! …Please…]
The soldier on the radio was so desperate that he even gave up speaking with radio lingo.
“This is Han Gyeoul. I’m listening, so go ahead.”
[Oh! Oh, my God! Thank you. I forgot you were listening! I know you’re in no condition to come and help me but… I’m just glad I have someone to talk to…]
“Are you hurt?”
[Yeah… I hurt my leg really badly when I rolled down from the stairs. I think I broke my leg.]
“How many people are with you?”
[All by myself. We got scattered while we were on the run. Oh god, I hope they’re alive.]
“Are you in a safe place right now?”
[Safe place? Well, I don’t see anything that can kill me for the moment. I don’t know how long it’ll last though. Haha.]
The man’s laughter was tinged with despair and anguish. Gyeoul noticed that he wasn’t saying something he should’ve said by now.
“I’ve noticed that you’re not asking me to save you. Is your injury that serious?”
[Oh, my injury is not the problem. How can I ask you to rescue me when that monster’s wandering around out there?]
“This ‘monster’ you’ve been talking about, we have no information about it. Could you please describe the monster for us?”
[…]
Then, suddenly, the radio went completely silent. It wasn’t until Gyeoul started worrying whether or not he had fainted that the man in the radio spat out an answer.