Chapter 86
* * *
Bang—!
A gunshot rang out from the rooftop where Harrison and Hose had climbed.
I was atop the clock tower with Eden, scanning the surroundings. How did we get up here? Through the police station’s underground passage, of course.
The clock tower was located right next to the station, so reaching it hadn’t been difficult.
Moreover, by some stroke of luck, the Kintne survivors hadn’t managed to occupy Brunel yet. It was all thanks to those problematic soldiers who were trying to kidnap Eden.
Watching the ongoing firefight and the monsters sprinting between the buildings through a spare pair of binoculars, I felt a slight sense of nausea.
“It’s actually surprising that trained soldiers are struggling against a civilian militia.”
“I believe it’s a matter of numbers. Plus, there are the monsters to deal with.”
That was true. There appeared to be at least ten armed Kintne survivors, while the soldiers numbered only three at most.
I handed the binoculars over to Eden and looked toward the roof of Happy House visible on the hill in the distance. I caught a glimpse of Victor and Knox.
Right now, there were three factions in this small village of Brunel: the Happy House family, the Kintne survivors, and the soldiers masquerading as the Royal Army.
From a roof near the clock tower, Harrison and Hose signaled by waving a flag with a cherry drawn on it. It meant everything was ready. Now, it was Vanilla and Emmy’s turn to give their signal.
Eden, who had been watching the flag, turned to me.
“Why on earth do you have so many of those handkerchiefs?”
At his question, I scratched my cheek sheepishly.
Before heading out for the operation, we had made flags to distribute so we could easily communicate signals. It just so happened that I had a large supply of identical fabric perfect for making them.
In other words, that cherry-patterned handkerchief Harrison and Hose were waving was something I owned in bulk.
“Back when I was active as a cricket player, my mother and father had them mass-produced as gifts for the other players.”
My parents were notoriously over-the-top when it came to showing love for their daughter. Their enthusiastic support was legendary. I remembered wanting to crawl into a hole out of embarrassment whenever I saw the other players’ faces back then.
Eden lowered his gaze to the flag in my hand. Below the drawing of a cherry, the name Cherry Sinclair was embroidered on the handkerchief.
“You were a well-loved daughter.”
I shrugged at his words.
“Sometimes excessively so. Thanks to that, I was a bit of a late bloomer when it came to growing up.”
In fact, if I hadn’t remembered my past life, I probably would have met the end of the world without ever having matured.
Just then, I saw a flag waving from the direction of the plaza. It was Vanilla and Emmy.
“Sir Eden. There’s the signal.”
At my word, Eden set down the binoculars and shouldered his light machine gun. While waiting for the signal, we had already identified the positions of all three soldiers posing as the Royal Army.
“Well now, is today the day I get to relieve some stress?”
Eden laughed, looking excited as he loaded rounds into the machine gun. He was hopeless.
Without hesitation, he aimed the weapon into the air and began a merciless barrage.
Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat—!
Rat-tat-tat-tang!
He fired continuously without pause. And he did it very loudly.
As expected, the soldiers who spotted Eden emerged from the building and attempted to approach the clock tower.
That confirmed our suspicion that their goal really was to ‘kidnap’ Eden.
Anyway, as soon as the soldiers rushed out of the building, the Kintne survivors didn’t miss the opportunity and opened fire. This, in turn, exposed their own positions, making them targets for Hose and Harrison.
Furthermore, an important aspect of this plan was that the soldiers weren’t the only ones who could hear the gunfire. The monsters remaining in the vicinity began to swarm toward the noise.
I gripped my axe and looked down. It wasn’t enough yet. More monsters needed to gather.
* * *
Next to Hose and Harrison, who were providing cover for the area around the clock tower, sat a single hostage. It was Charlie from the Kintne survivor camp.
They had left him alive because Cherry had asked to keep one person, but he was being incredibly defiant.
“Can’t I just kill him?”
When Hose grumbled, Harrison spoke firmly.
“Don’t forget the young lady’s instructions. Just stay put.”
“Seriously, Mr. Lawyer, you really only have eyes for Lady Cherry.”
Suddenly, a series of loud, rapid gunshots echoed from somewhere. Hose looked toward the clock tower.
Eden was sitting casually on the clock tower railing, firing a repeating rifle into the air. Even from a distance, it was clear he was grinning as if he were having the time of his life.
Just then, the movement of monsters entered Hose and Harrison’s line of sight. The creatures were swarming around the clock tower, causing the soldiers who had been approaching to hesitate.
“Huh? But there are even more monsters than I thought. Isn’t the clock tower going to collapse at this rate?”
“The young lady will handle it. You focus on sniping the Kintne survivors. Looks like there are eight of them left.”
“Damn, that’s still a lot.”
But they were no match for Hose. His opponents were civilians at best; even if they happened to know how to use a gun, they weren’t professionals like him. The sheer number of stray bullets in their volleys toward the soldiers proved as much.
In contrast, Hose was an extreme professional. A weapons expert and a sniper whose primary tool was the Sharps rifle.
Following Harrison’s instructions, Hose tracked the source of the gunfire directed at the clock tower and pulled the trigger of his sniper rifle.
Bang—
A hit.
Click. Hose reloaded his rifle and counted the remaining enemies with Harrison.
Seven left.
* * *
Communication with Charlie, the sniper on the roof, had been cut off.
Frank, the leader of the Kintne survivor camp’s scouting party, sensed the chaotic atmosphere pervading Brunel while he was firing at the soldiers in front of the clock tower from a second-story window.
Furthermore, someone at the clock tower had been firing non-stop for a while now. The sound of gunshots filled the air. It sounded like someone had a light machine gun.
“Damn it, who is that psycho?”
There was a madman on top of the clock tower, firing wildly into the air like a lunatic. It was a man in a police uniform.
“Of all things, it’s a cop. Sh*t.”
Spitting out a thick curse, Frank checked the situation outside the window.
He couldn’t hear any return fire from his allies below the building. They must have been taken out by the enemy—but all three soldiers were within Frank’s line of sight, weren’t they?
‘Then who took them out? The monsters?’
But it couldn’t be the monsters; those things were distracted by the loud gunfire and were all heading toward the clock tower.
Their numbers had already dwindled significantly. At this rate, they might actually be overwhelmed and wiped out. Frank had no choice but to reveal himself.
When he stepped out into the street, the scouts who took it as a signal also emerged from the buildings where they had been hiding and waiting.
“It’s a full-scale war now!”
Frank shouted to his scouts as he loaded his rifle.
Even then, these amateur scouts had no idea that there was a third party sniping them.
The reason they thought so was simple. Brunel was an even smaller village than Kintne. Moreover, as far as Frank knew, no one in Brunel would possess illegal weapons like Elle did. Nor was there anyone capable of taking down their scouting party by force.
Frank spoke to his scouts.
“Either way, the opposition is just three armed soldiers and one crazy cop in the clock tower. We can take them. As long as we avoid those damn monsters.”
“Boss. But I think those damn monsters are the problem right now?”
The scout who dared to talk back to Frank received an incredibly chilling glare. Only after the man shrunk back and shut his mouth did Frank look back at his scouts with a satisfied expression.
“What about the Brunel slaves?”
“We’ve locked them in the Village Chief’s house.”
Frank nodded contentedly at the other scout’s words and looked at the monsters beginning to surround the clock tower.
“Jacob, Marc, you stay in the rear with me. The rest of you go in as the vanguard to clear the monsters and reach the clock tower.”
“What? B-but Boss. There are so many monsters, shouldn’t we all suppress them together? Otherwise, we might die…”
“I suppose I’ll have to report to Elle that you didn’t follow my orders.”
The scout who was protesting shut his mouth, his face turning pale.
Jacob and Marc stood quietly by Frank’s side. If you got on his bad side, you might not receive a reward from Elle even if you survived the mission and returned.
Ultimately, the four scouts had no choice but to take the lead and enter. Frank followed them from the rear with Jacob and Marc.
“Once they move in, only the monsters will be left in this village. We can just sweep the monsters away later with additional reinforcements. That won’t be an issue.”
Frank spoke confidently to Jacob and Marc. And Jacob and Marc, thinking much the same, scanned their surroundings.
