We dove behind the first wreckage, moving as lightly and as silently as we could. It was the first of the four wreckages that provided us a path across.

We waited a bit, before Lily sent the message.

[Clear.]

No one moved yet, as I carefully poked my head before one of the numerous holes in the wreckage.

The beast's head was still turned away.

[Clear.]

We were moving again, silently crossing the open road before ducking behind another.

Again.

[Clear.]

[Clear.]

It was on our move to the third wreckage that our luck, or more accurately, my luck ran out.

Midway through the sprint, perhaps due to my condition or just an insane stroke of bad luck, I misjudged the distance between my legs, misstepping and stumbling into Maki.

Before she fell, the girl grabbed me, using her weight to drag us both to the ground and roll the rest of the way there. Lily dove in right behind us.

Maki still held me close behind the wreckage, both of us frozen in our prone positions as her gaze faced the grey sky.

A message popped up from her.

[Whatever you do, do not move.]

However, it seemed our nightmare scenario had really come to pass, as Lily sent a message not long after her.

[T-there's movement.]

Then came the sound.

Like a twisted chorus of vocal cords, all meshed and fused together, forced into emitting the equivalent of a low, vibrating growl.

The sound of dozens of things lazily shuffling through the snow soon followed.

Even Maki seemed to grow anxious, as her eyes constantly darted towards the alley of the middle ring, weighing the odds of us outrunning the beast.

I squeezed her hand tight.

[Don't run. You'll never make it.]

Our only hope was waiting this out.

The distorted growl drew nearer.

Steady.

The shuffling came dangerously close.

Steady.

Then it stopped. None of us moved an inch.

The beast let out a low growl, before gradually… the damned thing retreated.

The sound of shuffling grew farther, and farther away, until it disappeared entirely. We still held our positions until eventually Lily sent a message.

[No more movement.]

Maki shot a look at my hand, still firmly grasping hers. Naturally, I released it, still too worried about the monster to even feel any sense of embarrassment at the situation.

The girl slowly pushed herself off the ground before carefully peeking beyond the wreckage.

"It's gone…"

She didn't even need to tell us what to do after that, as we all scrambled to our feet before making a beeline for the nearest alleyway.

We finally reached the middle ring.

---

The building I'd chosen to be our camp in the middle ring was located near the outer edges of the ring, so we were lucky enough to not encounter any monsters on the way there.

We came to a stop at an alley behind the building. Maki wearily turned to face me.

"Is this the place?"

On the other hand, I still felt somewhat shaken by my slip-up earlier.

"Uh, yeah, it is."

I tried distracting myself with the building.

I'd chosen a concrete corporate block as our hideout this time, for the protection but more importantly, for its intact fire escape.

Crawling along the length of the building was a red, rusted ladder.

While I couldn't say much about the integrity of the thing, it was the only one that looked even somewhat intact.

This way we wouldn't have to clear the entire building to get to the rooftop.

Maki narrowed her eyes a bit before nodding.

"Cover me."

She walked towards the metallic back door of the building. We couldn't use the front since that part faced the main road.

She took a step backward before sending a kick near its handle. The sound of metal scraping metal scratched my ears as the door shifted but still held.

Maki gave it a puzzled look, then wordlessly sent another kick at it.

This did the job, as whatever rusted lock had been holding the door in place very quickly snapped under the force of her kick.

Flashlights quickly revealed the room behind it to be a storage area. At least that's what I could tell from the dusty, collapsed metal frames and pieces of brownish, rotted debris littering the floor of the room.

'At least it doesn't smell bad.'

I sighed before stepping in after Maki.

The only other door in the room was another metallic one, some distance away from us. Given that the only exit route sent us right to the alleyway, it was overall a much better hideout than our previous one.

The only possible downside was the absolute lack of any furniture that could serve as firewood, but with the predator out and about and no blizzard to cover for us.

We wouldn't be needing one anytime soon.

I slid down the wall of the room, eventually landing in a sitting position. I rested against my bag.

'At least we don't have to brace our bags against the door this time.'

I found Maki standing before the other door. As though sensing my gaze, the girl turned to ask.

"Are we clearing this building as well?"

I blinked, before shaking my head.

"There's no need to. You saw the ladder out back, right? I can use it to get to the roof."

The girl's eyes narrowed.

"Isn't the entire point of this simulation hunting monsters?"

I could only give a wry smile.

"If it's monsters you want, then don't worry. There's enough of them where we're going."

Especially if we hunted the predator down, we wouldn't need to care about these small fry. The girl merely narrowed her eyes even further.

'How's that even possible?'

In the end though, she just nodded.

"You seem awfully well informed about all this."

I let out a hollow laugh at that.

"What can I say, it's just good research."

"Right… research,"

With that she dropped the topic.

'I have to deal with that suspicion of hers.'

Well, to be honest, I already had a plan. It wasn't one Song would like though, but that was her problem, not mine.

'I just have to manage until we reach her team.'

I let out a shaky sigh before closing my eyes. Only for a voice to pop up after a while.

"Hey."

I scuttled back instantly, my eyes flicking open to find Lily beside me.

'Oh.'

"You startled me."

The girl scratched her hair while letting out an awkward smile.

"Didn't mean to, sorry about that. It's just that you've seemed… a bit out of it since 'that' happened."

Had I?

'Who am I kidding?'

I rubbed my forehead before facing Lily.

"I'm fine. I'm just sorry about that mistake I made earlier."

Her eyes widened a bit in realization.

"Ohh, I- it's fine. We all make mistakes sometimes, don't we?"

Maki added sharply from the side.

"Yeah, we narrowly escaped dying because of it, but everything's fine, no?"

'So that's sarcastic Maki.'

Her voice soon softened though.

"Just be more careful next time, burdens are the worst."

I looked at my shaking palms, before clenching and stilling them.

"Yeah, I will."

'Am I always going to be like this?'

It was a really sobering thought. I'd been through this before. Back on Earth, when my cancer had started visibly rearing its ugly head.

At first, it showed up in small places, affecting me in ways that I could still ignore. Then, like the damned cancer it was, it spread into every aspect of my life.

Taking away my capabilities one by one, until before I knew it I was bedridden.

What hurt the most hadn't been the pain and discomfort the vile thing caused me, even though those had been hell in their own right.

No. What hurt the most was my sheer helplessness through it all.

I could only lie there like a lame duck, sucking the life out of my mom and sister to extend my own. In the end it'd killed them

The feeling of losing control of my own body, of losing the one thing that was truly mine. It was such a horrible, awful feeling that I wouldn't even wish it on my worst enemy.

Okay… Maybe I would.

But I wouldn't let it happen again, not to me, not to this body, not to Maki.

While I didn't have any answer to Maki's problem, I did know the answer to mine.

'Train like hell.'

I owned this body. This burden and the bastard that had given it to me could collectively fuck themselves.

I steadied my shaking hand again before turning towards the sound of movement coming from the side.

Lily was bringing out a can of rations again.

I grimaced internally at the sight. Still, I gritted my teeth before taking mine out as well.

Even though my stomach kept rumbling, and my head felt like it was stuck underwater, I was going to eat.

I had just made a resolution. I wasn't going to back out now.

'This body will obey me.'

I took a spoonful… before promptly spilling out the contents of my stomach.

It appeared I still had a long way to go.

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