Free Web NovelChapter 46: Almost Dead (3)
The door swung open, pushed by a pale, slender arm. The hand was graceful and soft, bathed in the cold white light of the corridor, with a thin ring on the ring finger.
The hand extended into the room, but the figure remained stationary.
"Has Goldalyn come home?" the figure outside asked.
Birdie clenched her teeth, slowly pulling out her knife. Even before the blade was exposed, her eyes were already red. She knew who was outside. Over the past ten years, she had visited the Polluted Zone Five countless times, always deliberately avoiding this area, because he didn’t want to encounter this person, nor did she want to see her mutant state.
Just then, a soft hand reached out from the side, holding back Birdie’s hand on the knife. Birdie, with tears in her eyes, turned to look and saw Kestrel standing beside her.
"No, Goldalyn hasn’t come back yet," Kestrel suddenly spoke.
Everyone in the room was startled by Kestrel’s voice, unsure why she would suddenly speak up at such a time. Maybe it was because Kestrel wasn’t familiar with the rules of the Polluted Zone, they figured.
They assumed that she didn’t know that in this place, this room was considered a "local resident’s" space within the Polluted Zone. Engaging in dialogue with a mutant was risky and could easily provoke them, making it a deadly act.
Kestrel stood in the room, calmly looking at the hand that had reached into the room. Behind Kestrel’s seemingly small figure, countless immense shadows seemed to surge. She slowly and gently repeated, "No, your Goldalyn hasn’t come home yet."
The outside of the room was eerily silent, and cold sweat dripped from the alpha members’ foreheads.
Everyone had a vague idea of who the person outside might be, and no matter how powerful they were, they didn’t want to fight here. No one wanted to have a life-or-death battle with Birdie’s "mother."
After what felt like an eternity, the person outside said softly, "I see, she’s not ready to come home yet."
The pale arm was withdrawn.
There was silence outside the door, no more sound.
Kestrel’s tendrils began to chirp: "Well, it’s not that we can’t communicate."
"That gave me a start."
"It’s still a bit scary"
"What should we do, I feel like she’ll be back."
"Don’t let me come out next time, I’m scared."
A cool breeze rolled in from the open doorway, and the cold starlight shone quietly on the floor through the door gap.
Birdie stared at the open door for a moment before quickly regaining her composure. She knew that in such a place, if she wanted to survive, she couldn’t allow herself much time for reminiscence or sadness.
"We can’t stay here," she said. "Let’s go."
They ran up the stairs of the corridor. On the walls of the staircase, there were a few missing person notices. The content of the notices was a mother who had lost her daughter, looking for her daughter named Goldalyn.
Birdie ran past the missing person notices on the wall without a word. The little girl in the photo was very young. Birdie, ten years ago, still had long hair and an obstinate, lively expression.
In the Polluted Zone, time almost doesn’t pass. The mother’s effort searching for her child ten years ago is forever plastered on the street corner.
Birdie couldn’t really remember why she had fought with her mom all those years ago. Life had been tough for them back then. Her mom was always yelling at her, and Birdie was stubborn, always clashing with her mom.
"If it weren’t for you, I’d have it much easier," her mom would say. "You better leave, and don’t you dare come back."
It turns out, her mom, who always seemed harsh in Birdie’s memory, did care for her. After Birdie left, her mom posted flyers everywhere to find her, but Birdie was gone. She thought she’d never had the chance to come back to that small and worn-out house that always haunted her dreams.
Birdie ran up the stairway to the rooftop, her sturdy wings appearing behind her. She was ready to take Kestrel and fly away.
Kestrel handed Birdie a missing person flyer that she had torn down from the wall.
"Why are you giving this to me?" Birdie turned her face away, not pleased.
"Just keep it. Don’t you want it?"
Birdie bit her lip and eventually accepted the old flyer that she never got to see ten years ago. She carefully folded it and tucked it into the deepest pocket of her shirt.
Under the night sky, the alphas leaped from rooftop to rooftop. The area was high, providing a view of the distant sea.
The music in the air became more cheerful. On the golden beach, dark figures climbed out from the sea, soaking wet, forming a line. They dragged trails of water towards the lit-up streets.
A giant, glowing figure washed ashore with the waves. After squirming for a moment, it stood up. Its soft underbelly climbed over houses of different heights, slithering through the streets, moving faster and faster.
"Is that... thing... heading towards us?" asked Kestrel, who was flying with Birdie, pointing at the rapidly moving creature.
The alphas looked and saw the giant, gradually forming creature. It was climbing over different terrains at an extremely fast pace.
Clearly, it was coming straight for them.
Birdie chose a deserted wasteland with no buildings as their battleground.
Even though they didn’t know why the monster was after them, it was better to face one mutant than a horde of them on the streets.
It was only when it got close that they could see the creature in its entirety. It had a face that could be considered handsome, with silver curls and gray-blue eyes that were gentle yet deep. On its wet hair, it wore a captain’s hat.
Kestrel felt like he had seen the hat before. On the Mary, the captain who had been dead for many years also wore a hat just like it.
Underneath the handsome face was a male human body fused with various chaotic marine creatures. This huge, bizarre, twisted fusion was not of this world. fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm
Seven or eight arms covered in shells sprouted from its back and underarms, its soft belly feet drooped on the ground, its back was covered in colorful scales, and it had a slug-like tail.
