Apocalypse Shelter Administrator

The Sewer

People unconsciously pepper their speech with adverbs like "extremely," "so," or "absolutely." These words are often overused without much meaning, usually to emphasize their feelings. However, Artemis is different.

[I'm really grateful I'm not a living being.]

When she uses an adverb like "really," it means something different. Her language is quantitative. Every word, including adverbs, has a specific value, and she never deviates from that standard. Though she's a difficult woman, once you get used to her, she's also a surprisingly easy conversational partner in some ways.

[If I had to smell this stench, I wouldn't be able to stand it. It's awful here.]

We are currently moving through the sewer.

"I don't really smell anything either. My helmet doubles as a gas mask."

I tapped my helmet. It's a security model focused on mobility, so its protection and endurance are limited, but it's more than enough to block the sewer stench all day long.

"Traveling through the sewers was a good decision. I can't believe no one else thought to take refuge here."

[When humans are in crisis, they generally follow four behavioral patterns. First, they scream, revealing their location. Second, they hide in easily accessible places. Third, they follow the crowd. Fourth, they calmly assess the situation and find the most effective solution.]

"The first group probably died first, the second might have lasted a bit longer but eventually died too."

The supervisor, for example, died quite well.

[The third group would be the kind who knock on the district gates and get massacred.]

"Then shouldn't some of the fourth group be here? This seems like a really good hideout."

[Unfortunately, the fourth group is small. Most of them have people they need to protect or duties to fulfill, which limits their options. Besides, haven’t you heard the saying ‘the darkest place is under the lamp’? In an emergency, a manhole cover is surprisingly easy to overlook.]

My footsteps echoed through the narrow, enclosed sewer, but there was no chance of being ambushed here, thanks to her sound detectors performing at full capacity.

[Even though I recommended it, staying here is distressing. Please pick up the pace.]

"Isn't it not that bad? You can't even smell anything."

[To me, smell is both a sense of smell and sight.]

Bzzt… Bzzz…

The shoulder cam mounted on my shoulder panned around the area ahead.

[You might not see it, but I can. The air here is filled with countless particles, like heavy snowfall. Each of those snowflakes is a mass of bacteria, stained with shades of green and brown.]

For Artemis, there probably isn't much distinction between sight, sound, and smell. Vision is the reflection of light passing through the retina, converted into electrical signals by the optic nerve, and then interpreted by the brain. Hearing is the conversion of sound waves through the eardrum and cochlea into electrical signals, which are then interpreted by the brain. And smell is the conversion of particles passing through olfactory receptors into electrical signals, which are then interpreted by the brain.

Humans can't individually perceive these processes. We lump them all under the vague term "sensation," but for a machine like her, each step and each type of sensation is clearly delineated. For her, the differences between the senses might be like the boundaries between the colors of a rainbow. "This part is purple, this part is blue." You can’t neatly separate them.

"Then just don't look. There aren't any dangerous enemies here, and sound detection alone seems more than enough for this."

She then played back an audio log.

[Even if I miss something, you’ll catch every single fly, right?]

[Of course.]

This was a conversation we had before we left the upper security room while attaching the shoulder cam.

[I don’t go back on my word. Until this journey is over, my eyes will remain open to monitor every threat that comes your way.]

I was moved.

"You're really an amazing woman, Artemis."

She had already saved my life several times.

[I prefer gifts over words.]

"You’ll get one soon, I promise."

We reached our destination while we were talking. Thanks to the underground tram, we had shortened our travel time significantly, so there wasn’t much distance left to cover in the sewer.

Looking up, I saw a ladder and a manhole cover above. We had designated several escape points close to the lower district's control room, and this was the first one.

We would have to open the manhole cover to emerge in an open area, but it would be problematic if there was a horde of infected right next to it. And what if I was unlucky and opened the cover only to lock eyes with the mutant? I’d end up like a whack-a-mole, getting pounded back into the sewer. I’d rather avoid that.

Having multiple candidates for a safe exit point is only natural.

"Wait a moment."

Before climbing up, there was a routine quest I needed to complete.

Bzzzt— Zzzzzip— As I unzipped, the shoulder cam slowly turned away. The sound of trickling liquid mixed with the flow of the sewer water as a yellow stream joined the murky current.

"Huff." I climbed up the rather long ladder and pressed the sound detector against the hole in the manhole cover. If there were footsteps, breathing, crying, or anything else that would indicate the presence of those creatures, I should be able to pick up on it.

"Hear anything?"

[Quiet. Your voice is echoing down here, making it hard to measure outside.]

I shut my mouth. Once you climb up to a certain level, the ladder is surrounded by a round concrete wall, which amplifies sound. While this reduces the risk of falling to your death if you lose your grip, it does make it harder to detect noises outside.

[This place won't work.]

Her judgment was quick.

[Within a 10-meter radius, there are eight entities. And they're not just regular infected.]

"That giant mutant from last time?"@@novelbin@@

[No, this one's small. Like dogs or cats. If they swarm us, they'll be tough to handle.]

I definitely don't want to face something like a zombie dog straight out of a video game. I'd rather deal with larger, stronger, but slower humanoid types.

Ssssshhh— I grabbed both sides of the ladder and quickly slid down and headed to the next point. But the second point was a failure as well. As we approached the third point, something unexpected happened.

[Jinsoo.]

"Huh?"

[Run. Now!]

I immediately sprinted toward the third ladder hole. There was no need to waste time asking, "Forward?" or "Backward?" If it were a situation where I needed to run back, she would have specified "Run back." In a battlefield, even a few seconds can mean the difference between life and death.

As I neared the ladder that led to the surface, I started to hear something, too. At first, it sounded like a flock of morning sparrows chirping together.

Thud! When the ladder was close enough, I jumped and grabbed the rung above my height. I quickly pulled myself up, grabbing two rungs at a time and climbing rapidly. As soon as I reached about 80% of the way up, I pulled out a shotgun and aimed it downward. The sound was already right below me.

"Squeeeak!"

The source was a swarm of rats. There was a black mass of rats covering the sewer passageway where I had just walked, and the unpleasant cacophony of squeaking filled the air. In truth, the sound wasn’t much different from the chirping of sparrows, but the former is fresh and cheerful, while the latter is disgusting.

"Are they infected too?"

[Not enough data. Their cries don't differ from those of regular rats. Hold on! Some of the rats in that swarm are dying. I'm detecting the death throes of the rats.]

I couldn’t discern any difference with my own ears. It was just a loud, chaotic mass of squeaking.

Once the rat swarm passed, and I received confirmation that they were all gone, I descended the ladder. The third point was also a bust. Around this manhole, there were even more infected swarming around.

"Hey, wait a minute."

There were rat corpses scattered all over the passage, from one end to the other.

"Something's been eating them?"

Most of them were missing chunks of flesh, as if something with powerful jaws had taken a bite out of them.

[Take a look at this.]

A video started playing on my PDA. Just like what I had seen earlier, a black wave passed by, nothing unusual to my eyes. Then, the video slowed down and zoomed in on one part. Among the black wave, there was a single rat that was three to four times larger than the others.

"That must be an infected one."

[Probably.]

As it moved, it opened its massive jaws and took a bite out of the rat next to it, then continued running as if nothing had happened. The bitten rat spun in the air and then collapsed, quickly disappearing into the following swarm. It happened so fast, and with the tunnel packed with rats, it would have been impossible to notice without careful observation. A few more infected rats passed by afterward.

"Were they running away, not just moving? Trying to escape from a former comrade who turned into a monster?"

[It might have been a deliberate hunting strategy by the infected rats from the start, like whales herding schools of herring.]

"I guess I need to retract what I said earlier. Anyone who sought refuge in the sewers and encountered something like that…"

Infected creatures that swarm over you like that are more dangerous than ordinary humanoid infected. You can't outrun them, nor can you hide in a narrow space.

"What do we do, Artemis?"

[About what?]

"It seems like things are even more messed up than I imagined… The Earth is…”

I hadn't expected the infection to target only humans, but actually seeing it with my own eyes sent chills down my spine. If even a strictly quarantined shelter ended up like this, what must the outside world be like? The nature I once knew, that lush ecosystem, might be changed forever.

"My dream was to make a lot of money, buy an RV, take a retriever, and go camping in the mountains."

That's impossible now, isn't it?

[If you want, I could create a small forest in the shelter.]

Artemis tried to comfort me in her own way.

The fourth manhole was a hit.

[It's safe here.]

Slide—

I've never been more cautious about making noise in my entire life.

Peeking through the small gap, I raised my eyes. The ruined cityscape came into view, with numerous infected wandering in the distance. However, there was nothing immediately threatening if I left now.

Slide— Thud— After slipping out, I left the manhole open. I might need to escape back through it in a hurry.

Hiding behind the car directly in front of me, I glanced around and was at a loss for words.

"So this was the cause of the explosion."

At a glance, the air quality around me was clearly bad. It was like one of those days with severe fine dust. The difference was that the air had a greenish tint. And far off in the distance, I could see the source spewing all of this.

Gwoooong!

It wasn't so much a monster as it was a structure. It might even have its legs anchored on both sides of the area. It made an eerie sound, like a mix of an animal's howl, the blare of a conch shell, and the creaking of a massive tree swaying in the wind.