The Creatures That We Are

Chapter 100: Blood Trails

At the center of the car was a pool of half congealed blood still spreading in all directions. From the dragging trails and the splattered red stains, the one doing the bleeding was very likely to have been cut into pieces.

“Take a good look around,” War Tiger said with a lowered voice. “And stay alert.”

The five of them split up and searched around in the car. Gao Yang made sure to check his system. His Luck points hadn’t seen an unusual jump, which meant that they weren’t currently in danger.

He tracked a pronounced trail of blood to the door that opened to the platform. There was something stuck under it. Gao Yang crouched down and realized that it was a segment of finger.

His hair stood on end. He turned to call out to the others, “Look.”

They all came up to him, and their faces darkened when they saw the finger.

White Rabbit took out a pair of rubber gloves from her waist pack and freed the finger from under the door. She inspected it for a moment before taking off the platinum ring and putting them in a plastic bag, stuffing it into her waist pack.

“Initial impression,” White Rabbit said, “It’s the ring finger of an adult woman. There’s no inscription on the ring.”

“What do you think, Gao Yang?” War Tiger asked with narrowed eyes.

After a bemused moment, Gao Yang shared his pessimistic guess. “The woman was probably killed by monsters. Not one, but a group. She struggled, but still got dragged out of the train in the end. When the door closed, she tried to grab onto something, leaving a cut finger in the car as a result.”

War Tiger nodded noncommittally.

“What do we do?” White Rabbit asked War Tiger. “Go to the next car?”

“We wait.” War Tiger looked up out of the window.

They all turned around to follow his gaze. Flickering light started breaking up the thick darkness outside, and the light sources began to take more concrete shapes. They were advertisement screens the train was rushing past.

They were slowing to a halt.

“We’re finally getting to a station,” Officer Huang said. He didn’t sound too thrilled.

“True. The train has been running for so long. I’d say 10 minutes at the least.” White Rabbit made a rough estimation. “I thought it’d never stop.”

As if in response to that, the train stopped.

Click.

The door opened. There was a group of twenty to thirty people waiting to board the train. Most of them were wearing winter coats or down jackets with a scarf keeping their necks warm, and they didn’t look up from their phones at all, their expression lifeless.

The moment the door was fully open, they swarmed toward the train.

Officer Huang had already unholstered his gun, and Qing Ling and Gao Yang held tightly onto their respective weapons.

Standing at the very front, War Tiger stopped them with a low voice, “Don’t move. Don’t say anything.”

The air seemed to freeze. Gao Yang almost forgot to breathe.

The first passenger to board the train was a middle-aged man dressed like a blue-collar worker. He saw the mess of blood in the car when he was just about to set foot on the train, and it gave him pause. For a fleeting moment, the numb look on his face turned into confusion, and his eyes lost focus.

But then he turned back like nothing had happened and returned to the platform, waiting for the next train to come.

Clearly, he was a wanderer, and he had just gone through the process of self-correction.

The same thing happened to the other passengers who had planned to get onto the train, and they returned to the platform like it was the normal thing to do.

Beep beep beep—

The thirty seconds crawled by, and the door was going to close.

Just when Gao Yang was going to let out a sigh of relief, however, someone boarded the train like nothing was wrong.

He looked like a highschool student. Shouldering a messenger bag, he walked in with his back slightly hunched and a pair of large white headphones covering his ears, bobbing his head to the tune he was singing along to. “All are brave. The wound on your forehead. Your difference and the mistake you made...[1]”

Naturally, he also saw the blood stains covering the entire car, as well as the five people who were armed to the teeth and clearly on high alert.

“Whoa!” The boy jumped and shouted dramatically. “What the hell, dude?”

The five of them didn’t respond immediately.

After a few seconds, Gao Yang said with a smile, “We’re shooting a commercial.”

He found it ridiculous the moment the lie left his mouth, but he couldn’t come up with a better one under such short notice.

“Right, a commercial,” Officer Huang chimed in with an awkward smile. “For a thriller.”

“Holy shit.” The boy pressed a hand to his chest and said with lingering shock. “I almost had a heart attack.”

“Why don’t you catch the next train?” White Rabbit added, and she supported her words with a sweet smile. “We’ve reserved the whole train.”

“Oh, of course. Yeah.” The boy turned around immediately.

Gao Yang’s heart was in his throat. He muttered to himself, Don’t turn back. Don’t turn back. Please don’t.

But then the boy stopped before walking out of the train and turned back, pulling off his headphones and giving them a bright smile. “Five awakeners. This must be my lucky...”

Before he could finish, War Tiger thrust his shortsword toward the boy’s throat.

The boy dodged it with an agile sidestep and quickly retreated to the other end of the car.

All the while, his body was going through a rapid transformation. His muscles bulged, his veins thickened, and his eyes flickered with a bloodthirsty crimson. The hair on his skin grew in density and hardiness until it became a greenish gray pelt, and his face changed dramatically into that of a wolf.

He opened his maw of red fangs and howled with his head tipped back.

Awooo—

The five of them had to cover their ears. The howl assaulted their eardrums like blades.

Gao Yang’s heart sank. It was a wrath monster, a summoner to be exact!

In response to the piercing howl, the wanderers outside the train fell to the floor, transforming into all manners of monsters in the blink of an eye after violent trembles and spasms.

Without pause, they made a mad dash for the train.

“Leave their leader to me. You take care of the rest.” War Tiger immediately rushed toward the summoner.

Bang, bang, bang!

Officer Huang made the shots. The three monsters leading the charge collapsed to the ground after their heads blew up, splattering brain matters everywhere.

Yet the other monsters continued to swarm in without delay or hesitation.

One of them resembled a dog and dodged all of the shots by leaping from side to side with unusual agility. It then lunged at Officer Huang and bit at his neck.

Thankfully, White Rabbit kicked it away at the last moment, sending it flying.

It slammed into the ceiling of the train and then landed heavily on the floor.

Before it could get up and fight back, Qing Ling cut off its head with her Tang Dao, leaving a trail of splattered blood on the bench.

“Fire!”

Meanwhile, Gao Yang raised both hands and shot two torrents of fire out of the door, the flames devouring the three monsters about to charge in. They squirmed and whined and struggled, their bodies stuck between the closing train door.

Bang, bang, bang!

Officer Huang dual wielded two guns and made a quick series of shots, detering the other monsters from getting into the train.

Then the train started. The monsters on the platform were left futilely running after it along the platform.

Soon, the station was left behind, and the train rushed into the dark tunnel. White Rabbit kicked the three charred monsters out of the car. The automatic door shut properly this time.

“Done.”

White Rabbit dusted her hands and turned around. What she saw put a frown on her face.

Gao Yang followed her gaze. At the end of the car, War Tiger was in a stalemate with the summoner.

1. Lyrics of Eason Chan’s Lonely Warrior, the Chinese theme song for the animated series Arcane. ?