Chapter 72
Accelerated Plans
Ethan silently observed a rather spacious, underground chamber that they'd dug out through the past two days. Wooden beams stood erect scarcely about, forming a module that helped hold up the ground from collapsing. Sarah had some experience with simple building from her early military days, and for everything else, there was Google.
However, this chamber wasn't meant for habitation–it was too damp and humid, not to mention ravenously cold. At night, temperatures dropped to almost below freezing even though it wasn't even proper winter yet, and even if they did extend the electricity and install a heater in it, the room was too large and would consume a good chunk of their generator's output. Even if they did bring a secondary one to act as a backup, there was no need to be wasteful just yet.
Rather, the chamber was for the girl standing next to him, wearing a lumbering, winter jacket.
"Is there enough space?" Ethan asked.
"There is," she nodded.
"How much time will you need?"
"A week, at most," she replied. "I… I know it's slow, but–"
"That's plenty fast," Ethan interrupted her and patted her head lightly. "Don't overwork yourself, okay? Come out frequently for some fresh air. Even though we installed some basic ventilation, it's still just that: basic. Besides, Layla's rather curious about you. You should play with her if you'd like."
"I… I do," Delilah nodded, glancing up at Ethan. "Thank you."
"Thank me after you're retired rich in the country, no longer needing to make portals to everywhere." She laughed lightly as Ethan shifted about and left, leaving her alone.
Stretching lazily, he came back up only to see a scene that he'd seen a couple of times in the past two days: Ronald, Elijah, and Sarah were training. While Sarah's Class was beyond worthless in terms of fighting, she was still a soldier. She not only taught them the basics of hand-to-hand combat but also general battlefield tactics–mostly things Ethan couldn't be bothered to do.
Ethan, after all, learned fighting in a different way and viewed it through an entirely different lens. In some ways, Sarah was far more suited for teaching them than he was, as his fighting style was extremely selfish and isolationist.
She was showing them how to disengage someone larger than them by using some grappling techniques, repeatedly hammering into them that they were simply to gain some distance and not advantage. It was all rather pointless–to Ethan, at least–as the kinds of monsters they'd be facing in the coming months could not be 'grappled' in any capacity. It seemed that Sarah was under the impression that a lot of foes in the Tunnels would be humanoid… but the Tunnel they just returned from was an exception rather than the norm.
Human lookalikes, and even just humanoid creatures, were few and far between. It was mostly monstrosities that evolved beyond reason, amalgamations of numerous things into one, and misshapen atrocities that had no place among the living. However, if for nothing, the technique she was teaching them would be useful against other people.
As far as Ethan was aware, with Sarah's dismissal as the lead, the HUMAN project also came to a halt, at least within Michael's sphere of influence. Chances were that other military bases had their own pet projects ongoing, but for better or for worse, they never quite got to the level of evil that the one headed by Sarah did. Parts of Ethan were still extremely distrustful of her–but that was simply who he was. He didn't even trust Elijah fully and he knew the boy's personality to the roots as well as what he did in the past life, so there was no way he would trust a woman he believed to be completely psychotic just from spending a couple of weeks near her.
However, she was the one to volunteer to come, naming herself a sort of liaison between their little group and the military. Though she didn't understand why, she did understand that she was an element that Ethan seemingly wanted to control.
"Hm? Do you want to join us?" she asked as she noticed him approaching.
"If you all really like sore and bruised muscles," he replied. "We'll leave for China in about a week. That's how long it will take Delilah to cook up the half of the portal here."
"We won't leave for China," she said. "Depending on the logistics, we'll either go to South Korea, Japan, or in the least likely scenario, Taiwan. From there, we'll have to figure out transport ourselves. China, like a lot of other countries, had largely closed its borders to outsiders. Getting in, especially Shanghai, will be extremely difficult."
"..." Ethan knew that it would be difficult. However, probably not as difficult as Sarah had imagined. "Isn't that why you're here, Mrs. Military Personnel? To help us sneak in?" Sarah's eyebrows twitched for a moment as she reached for a nearby towel and wiped her sweat off.
"Thanks to the General, we have one way in," she said. "But he had to pull a lot of favours for it. It's one of the last few remaining ways for anyone to enter China illegally. However, it involves a lot of–"
"Don't worry about it too much," Ethan smiled lightly. "You won't be going to China, anyway."
"I… won't?" she frowned.
"You're useless in fights. And once we leave the Tunnel, they will let loose a hell upon us. Ronald, Elijah, and I can survive to some extent on our own, but we'll also have to protect Delilah, another person who's rather useless in combat. We won't have room to protect you too."
"So… where will I be?" she asked.
"Well, you have a choice," Ethan said, yawning. "You can stay here and watch Layla. Or you can come with us to the secondary location, whether that's South Korea, Japan, or Taiwan, and watch her there. You'll have to fly back alone, however, so I'd recommend the first option."
"... you trust me with your kid?" she asked suddenly.
"Not at all," Ethan replied. "But… the ways of the world care little for whom I trust. I absolutely have to go to these Tunnels, one way or another, and these kids need to go with me. So, you're here through the process of elimination. I trust you're enough of a human to not use an innocent child as a bargaining chip. But, in case I'm wrong, and you do decide to fuck around… I'll find you, tear you apart limb by limb, and then kill everyone you've never known in your life while you watch. And after it's all said and done, we'll both go to hell together, where I'll be able to skin you alive some more."
"Some rather gruesome things just roll right off your tongue, don't they?" she said.
"... I've done worse," he said simply before turning to Elijah. "You lost some weight, eh?"
"Just a bit," the boy replied sheepishly.
"It's a good thing. For this Tunnel, you'll have to run around a lot." Ethan said, waving them off as he left for the lodge, ready for his midday nap.
"What did he mean by that?" Sarah asked the other two as he left.
"Hm?"
"He sounds like he knows what kind of a Tunnel it will be." She said, frowning. Elijah and Ronald smiled helplessly, shrugging.
"Who knows?"
"He likes to pretend to be mysterious. Just ignore him."
"... really?"
"Sure." Naturally, she didn't believe them–but they didn't bother concocting a complex lie. There wasn't really a way to explain it besides the truth, but they remained silent, recognising it wasn't on them to divulge that truth.
"Ah, whatever," Sarah shrugged it off; it wasn't her mission to dismantle the man known as Ethan and understand him from the inside out–it was simply to ensure a semi-working relationship. "Let's continue. Remember the last grab? Well, what you do in case they manage to resist, is you shift your weight and then…"
Four days passed by rather swiftly. Within the underground chamber, Ethan watched the mass of azure energy swirl about in a circular pattern, a gaping maw of spacetime inviting him in. Naturally, if anyone walked through it, they'd end up entirely shredded down to the finest quarks as the 'entrance' did not have an 'exit'.
Delilah looked visibly exhausted as, despite him telling her to take it easy, she worked relentlessly on the portal, managing to finish it within four days instead of a whole week. This was, after all, who she was. A psychotically devoted soul whose belief trumped everything for her, even her own self-worth. In some ways, she was similar to Elijah–two young kids who developed a noble desire to do work for others with the difference being what kind of noble desire they served.
"Good job," Ethan said, smiling. She smiled back, beaming. The words she needed to hear… Ethan couldn't even reprimand her. At least, not yet. "You finished it in just four days."
"I… I wanted to surprise you." Mind was a strange, elusive thing, misguidedly understood worldwide. By all accounts, she should not have just dropped her guard around him so immediately and so forcibly. It made no sense–not from the evolutionary perspective, anyway. But, mind, after all, was not a holistic thing. It was trying, trying to understand how people navigate everyday woes. Thoughts, desires, realities, fantasies… all things hummed their own songs, but a mind was uniform. Composed of them all. Trying to satiate all the hunger.
"You more than did," he said. "Is there anything you want as a reward?"
"No, no, it's fine! I wanted to do this!" There was something tragically adult within her childlike gaze. By right, all children ought to explore the world unchained, free of the woes of the adults. But some do not get that freedom–they get held down by the vices of reality. And they develop a part that seems so adult-like that they begin being treated as adults. Delilah wasn't entirely so–she was still a child, naively so, but there was something unbecoming within the gaze of a thirteen-year-old girl.
"... and I want to reward you," Ethan said. "Isn't that how things go?"
"I… I don't know," she mumbled, lowering her head. It's dangerous, Ethan sighed inwardly. It was too dangerous to leave her as-is. However… he didn't really have a reasonable plan to change her. What she needed was years of therapy and simply a chance to grow up… but he couldn't afford to let her go. He had hoped that being around Layla would diminish some of her budding fanaticism… It's still too early for any massive changes, anyway, he thought. I'll give it half a year. If nothing changes… I'll have to shut her down.
"Let's go back up," he said. "I'll fix you a nice meal, at least. Alright?"
"Yeah!" Heavy hands held his heart; there were voices within, the vices of any greedy man. She was so easy to exploit, so easy to work to the bone, to break, to command, to utterly and perpetually hold within his grasp… but, for some reason, he couldn't devote himself to it. Perhaps it was because she was just barely older than Layla and he saw some of the girl in her, or perhaps it was that there was still a little bit of human left within him, the last straw that held him back from breaking apart completely. The last to go, in the end, was the instinct to protect the young. For when that is gone… the society, large or small, has no future left but to burn.