“Apocalypse Forecast” Chapter 86: The Tracks Go On

“Ground Control to Major Tom... Ground Control to Major Tom...”
In the darkness, two figures were walking slowly.
One looked exhausted, carrying an overly long iron whip on his back, hanging his head listlessly, with sweat staining his shirt. The other, as if he were on a picnic, was walking leisurely, shaking his head while wearing earphones, singing happily to his own background music.
“Commencing countdown, engines on. Check ignition and may God's love be with you...”
The slightly off-key singing echoed through the darkness, waking the bats wherever they went.
Huai Shi turned around, looked at the pale-faced Shen Yue behind him, approached, and put his arm around his shoulder.
“Don't cry so much, brother.”
Huai Shi shook his fist.
“The fate of Xinhai depends on us.”
“What can a Sublimator from the first floor and a useless person from the third floor do?”
Shen Yue looked at Huai Shi weakly.
“This isn't a picnic. Sorry to interrupt your fun, but could you be a little quieter? At least before we die.”
“Alright, alright. I know you're having a hard time.”
Huai Shi sighed, reached into the hole in his chest, and... pulled out an ice-cold cola.
“Here, brother, have a cola.”
This was also something Wu Ya had put in the travel bag. Huai Shi didn't know if she realized what he was thinking—why would she put something like this between bullets and grenades?
But, putting other things aside, one has to say the refrigerator function is amazing!
The cola, cooled by primitive means using Huai Shi's 'body temperature,' seemed to calm Shen Yue down a bit. Shen Yue drank most of it in one go, wiped his face with his sleeve, and said,
“Sorry. Don't laugh at me.”
Shen Yue forced a smile.
“I've been afraid of fighting since I was a child, and even after becoming a Sublimator, I've always stuck to support. I was always with Jin Mu...”
Shen Yue said.
“If it weren't for Jin Mu, I would have died long ago.”
Mentioning Jin Mu's name made Shen Yue's eyes red again.
A long-time partner. For Shen Yue, Jin Mu's existence must have been very significant.
“Is that so?”
Huai Shi scratched his head.
“No wonder he was worried about you even when he was dying.”
Shen Yue was silent, but after a while, he asked anxiously,
“When Jin Mu died...”
“He passed away peacefully.”
Before Shen Yue could finish his question, Huai Shi spoke up.
“I did it myself. He didn't suffer.”
Shen Yue flinched, then said painfully,
“Thank you.”
Huai Shi sighed, took Jin Mu's badge out of his pocket, and pressed it into Shen Yue's hand.
“Cheer up, brother. You are a third-floor Sublimator, after all. Jin Mu trusted you for many years. Don't let him down now that he's dead.”
Shen Yue gripped the badge in his hand, put it in his pocket as if afraid of losing it, and said even more painfully,
“I'll do my best.”
Although he was originally a purely auxiliary type, he had at least received basic shooting training. The constitution enhanced by the third-floor Stigmata was more than twice as strong as Huai Shi's.
Even if he was carrying a travel bag, holding machine guns in both hands, covered in magazines and grenades, and looked like he would die in a few minutes.
Huai Shi shook his head and said no more.
But if they kept walking on foot, he didn't know how many more hours it would take.
Just as they passed a temporary maintenance station, Huai Shi stopped, happy to find something covered in a dust cloth among the clutter.
“Wait a second, we have a replacement for our feet.”
Saying this, Huai Shi jumped off the tracks into the maintenance area, and with a rattling sound, pushed out a hand-operated trolley used by inspection workers.
The two of them worked together to carry it and placed it on the rails.
Perfect!
Fortunately, times had progressed, and what they found wasn't the hand-pumped trolley seen in traditional cartoons that would fit an American mine, but one with a handle and tires.
But now that they couldn't find gasoline, they still had to pedal it with their feet!
As Huai Shi was happily circling the trolley, Shen Yue couldn't help but swallow, pointing at the red eyes behind the maintenance station that had been disturbed from their sleep by the noise.
“Isn't this situation dangerous?”
“It's fine. We have a car!”
Huai Shi took the lead and jumped onto the trolley, then beckoned to Shen Yue.
“Hurry, hurry, hurry, pedal! If we go at full speed, they won't be able to catch up!”
Before Huai Shi's words were finished, the piled-up junk exploded, and a swarm of rats poured out like water from a large hole in the back wall.
But where did all these rats come from?
They were almost the size of stray dogs, each one covered in pus, thin and bony, letting out hungry screams. The way they moved in a swarm was like black-gray water.
Countless red eyes stared fixedly at Huai Shi and the others, and the next moment, the swarm of crazy rats rushed toward them.
Shen Yue didn't need Huai Shi to urge him; he jumped onto the trolley and started pedaling with all his might.
There was a creaking sound of metal rubbing, the trolley shook, dust fell from between the gears, and then it slowly began to move and accelerated.
As if a motorcycle were being chased by a siren behind it, running wild.
A third-floor Sublimator is still a third-floor Sublimator; even if he couldn't fight, he was stronger than Huai Shi. Huai Shi's pride in his own upgraded physical abilities was short-lived, as he was completely overwhelmed by Shen Yue.
A wild wind hit his face.
Shen Yue pedaled at a speed that made his legs a blur, and the trolley creaked and groaned. Huai Shi began to worry that Shen Yue might pedal the trolley to pieces.
Is this guy, by any chance, a genius at running away?
Just as Huai Shi was scratching his chin and thinking, he heard Shen Yue's scream.
“Huai Shi, Huai Shi, Huai Shi...”
Shen Yue called the boy's name repeatedly, looking almost unable to breathe, and pointed to the front of the trolley.
“It's not just that you're calling my name, is it... Whoa!”
Huai Shi looked in the direction Shen Yue was pointing and was shocked.
“Why are there so many?!”
In front of the trolley, before they knew it, strange beasts with red eyes were crouching... like a zoo, not just rats, but dogs, rabbits, snakes, monkeys, and even deformed tigers...
Just a glance showed they were of various shapes and sizes.
The only thing they had in common was that they were big. Whether fat or thin, they were all big. Even the mantises were the size of arms. They were all dripping dark green drool from their mouths, as if they had finally found food after being hungry for a long time.
Those swarms, mutated in the 'Abyssal Stagnation' and already unrecognizable even to their mothers, were chirping, waiting for two pieces of fresh meat.
“What should we do?”
Shen Yue looked like he was about to cry.
“Don't hesitate, we have to do it!”
Huai Shi took a machine gun out of the travel bag and disengaged the safety.
“If we run, we die; if we don't run, we die, so why be afraid? I'll deal with them, you just drive.”
Saying this, Huai Shi shouted loudly.
“Here we gooooo!”
Huai Shi took a grenade and, waiting for the distance between them to close, threw it hard into the darkness ahead.
The roar of the explosion echoed from the depths of the darkness.
The shockwave blew away the miscellaneous rats and mantises, and the flying shrapnel caused foul-smelling blood to spray out.
The blazing flames illuminated Shen Yue's pale face, distorted by the wind pressure, and the machine gun spitting fire in Huai Shi's hands.
“—Happy New Year, brother and sister!”
Amidst Huai Shi's roar, bullets flew, and red flowers bloomed in the air. In the spray of blood, a shadow hanging from the ceiling opened its mouth wide toward Shen Yue.
It was a snake as thick as a barrel.
Even from several meters away, the stench was enough to choke Shen Yue to death. Seeing the snake open its huge mouth to attack, Shen Yue was so startled he almost jumped up.
The snake trembled.
A flash of lightning.
The lightning bolt pierced into the snake's lower jaw, ran around freely, and disappeared into the air in an instant.
The next moment, the big snake's lower jaw fell off its head, and foul-smelling, sticky blood sprayed onto Shen Yue's face like a fountain, flowing into his wide-open mouth.
Shen Yue gasped and slumped onto the trolley. He thought he was going to vomit his intestines out.
Even while on the verge of fainting, his pedaling didn't stop at all; this could only be called a natural talent.
The injured big snake convulsed violently and fell from the ceiling. Amidst Huai Shi's gunfire, the big snake writhed in anger, and its tail swept across, cutting through the wind.
The fire of the 'Wraith' burned again.
Amidst the filling 'Ashes of Kalpa,' Shen Yue screamed as if he had seen a ghost, and the monsters attacking from all sides began to convulse as if they had been electrocuted.
In the spreading mist, Huai Shi's left hand stroked the blade of his axe. Lightning sparked. Huai Shi held the Axe of Wrath high and swung it down with all his might.
As if struck by lightning, the big snake was torn apart.
Blood sprayed into the air.
In the red-stained iron mist, the demon's eyes shone!

Translator's Note:
・“Ground Control to Major Tom”... Part of the lyrics to David Bowie's song “Space Oddity.” Huai Shi has hummed David Bowie songs before.
・“—Happy New Year, brother and sister!”... A famous line from the 2000 Chinese film “Devils on the Doorstep” (original title: Guizi Lai Le).

Translator's Comment:
I love how Huai Shi is oblivious to the atmosphere? Or chooses to ignore it? Also, he was surprised by the hole in his chest, yet he uses it to cool his cola...