Chapter 4 - Disposal Criteria
Sector B was the remains of a parking structure. Rebar and concrete tangled into a maze. The second fight broke out in those narrow corridors.
BOOM. CRACK.
"AAAGH!"
The scream was short and raw. A massive slab of concrete came down on Jeong Noah's right leg. Not a direct hit from the monster -- the thing's tail had clipped a support pillar, and the pillar did the rest.
"Ngh-- ahhh-- my, my leg--"
Noah's face drained white. He clawed at the ground. His right calf was bent at an angle calves don't bend. Compound fracture. Bone through skin. Red soaking into gray concrete.
S-Class defense type or not, raw tonnage doesn't negotiate.
"HEY! Big guy! Get up!"
Runa shouted while batting away the monster's forelimb. But Noah couldn't stand. Not because of the pain -- the leg had structurally stopped being a leg.
"I c-can't. I can't feel it. Help me -- just drag me!"
Noah reached out with a shaking hand. Yoon Serin, the closest, flinched and stepped back.
"Are you insane? Drag you? That thing is RIGHT THERE!"
"Serin! Please!"
The monster swiveled. SHHHHK. It had caught the scent of blood. Prey was broken. Instinct kicked in -- the creature ignored the others and locked onto Noah.
Then, through the in-ear comms, a mechanical voice.
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[Code Black issued.]
[Agent Four, Jeong Noah. Right lower extremity compromised. Mobility: zero.]
Rescue chopper? Fire support? A flicker of hope crossed Noah's eyes.
What came next was a death sentence.
[Combat efficiency below 20%. Recovery value: none.]
[Order issued. Abandon Agent Four. Proceed to Sector C immediately.]
Time stopped. Noah's mouth hung open.
"...Aban...don?"
Leave him? He was still breathing. His heart was still beating.
"Tell me I heard that wrong. They said leave him?"
Gayeon smacked her earpiece, disbelief all over her face.
"Hey! Control! He's alive! If we just treat him--"
[Repeat. Proceed immediately. Delay will be classified as collective insubordination.]
Control's answer was final. To them, Noah wasn't an injured child. He was a cart with a busted wheel. Dead weight. Cut the loss, save the parts that still roll.
"These fucking people..."
Runa spat the words, but even he didn't move toward Noah. The monster was right there. Carry a kid with a shattered leg and run? Both dead. Even a twenty-year-old brain could do that math.
The kids' eyes wavered. Fear, guilt, and underneath it all -- the filthy relief of knowing it wasn't them. A silence built from cowardice dressed up as obedience.
Inside that silence, only Noah screamed.
"Don't go... don't go, guys. I'm not dead. I can still move. I'll crawl. Please..."
His fingernails scraped across the ground and grazed Serin's ankle. She shrieked and yanked her foot away.
"I'm sorry! But they said if we take you, we all die!"
Serin spun and ran. Runa and Gayeon averted their eyes, shuffling backward. The excuse was airtight. We're not abandoning him. We're following orders.
Then--
CLANG.
A sharp ring of metal cut past Noah's ear. The monster's jaws were an inch from his throat when a crude iron spike smashed upward into its snout.
Han Seorin.
Instead of running, she was standing in front of Noah.
[Agent One, Han Seorin. Is this insubordination?]
A warning tone blared through the comms. Seorin glared at the monster and opened her blood-smeared lips.
"Don't get it twisted."
Her voice had no warmth in it. Not even close.
"I'm not saving him. He's still useful, so I'm keeping him."
She glanced back over her shoulder.
"This guy dies, who's taking hits next? You? Any of you volunteering?"
Serin and Runa stopped mid-retreat. Not because of morality. Not because of guilt. Because of math. Pure, ugly, self-serving math.
"You need a meat shield. A missing leg doesn't stop him from holding a shield."
Seorin took a hit from the monster and screamed through it. The hand gripping the spike was trembling, but her eyes were burning.
"ARE YOU DEAF? You want to live, then grab him and RUN!"
