No one would offer the Infected any help. We were no volunteer army. We had nothing like the 'Brave Wok' from the age of Mikhail the Huge Ears. We had no city of our own, and we hardly even had fields to hill up.
'The Originium grows on our skin, and the scant few weapons we hold are stark. The snow in our mouths melts into our water, our stomachs are filled with grass seed and bark. '
And so they sang. I learned a good few of those in short order.
We were just some Infected with nowhere to go.
I became more and more sure. Coming to the Northern Tundra first was the right choice. Nothing but people with nowhere to return, and nowhere to go, wherever you went.
The Infected in the cities, singled out by the common folk. The races of each country looking on one another with suspicion of their differences. Only out on the tundra do people become a little simpler.
I wanted to go back south. But this time, I probably wouldn't be going alone.
Infected dying of frostbite and hunger on the tundra is not the same as Infected dying of their illness on their own land.
The Infected should pioneer their own city. If Ursus doesn't allow it, then Ursus should be changed.
Exile, abdication, leaving the country—in the end, you were still a homeless vagabond. Whenever you told of a place that'd admit the Infected, you were telling a fairytale.
If the Infected wanted to regain their dignity, they needed strength, unity, and a change in the status quo.
If we could gain the backing of the Infected guerrillas, then maybe this quest of ours would have some chance of success.
It was important for the Infected to regain their confidence. It was crucial for us to have any sense of meaning in our lives.
Those patrolmen set up new sentries around the abandoned city. Those black-swaddled, black-shelled vermin... chewing away at the crops, leaving not even a scrap for us.
Talulah
...This city's been derelict for over ten years, now.
Talulah
Its core facilities were towed away, and none of its inhabitants stayed behind. The buildings and city plates left might someday be pulled apart and picked clean, too.
Infected Fighter
Which noble's turf was this, originally?
Talulah
Baron Neva, knifed to death in a riot. Every possible heir of his within a hundred kilometers had already been uprooted.
Infected Fighter
Who did it? Sounds vicious.
Talulah
Royalists. The First Army had plenty of them.
Infected Fighter
I don't get it. Talulah, you said a few days ago, right? The Great Rebellion was carried out by the current Emperor and the old military noblemen?
Infected Fighter
So why would the army help the Emperor kill nobles?
Talulah
The principal force driving the Great Rebellion was the age before it... those Ursus military nobles who stood to gain everything from Ursus's epoch of relentless outward expansion.
Talulah
After the new Emperor ascended, it was natural they'd spit out every city, all the resources, and the entire population they'd swallowed up.
Talulah
At that time, most of Ursus's army was under the direct control of the military nobles. But the royalists were no slow thinkers. One fewer noble meant one less share of the spoils.
Talulah
Then, once they'd disposed of those nobles, the silver made its way back to their pockets. The risk was high, but they had the capital to make that foray.
Talulah
And that's why, during the Great Rebellion, past the cities all saving their own hides, the royalists probably inflicted the biggest losses on the families with a hand in the rebellions.
Talulah
So they say. If it was the actual rebel armies who held the advantage in the Great Rebellion...
Talulah
Then the royalists would've been hanged and the Emperor placed under house arrest, consent forced by the prerogative of all those goddamned putrefying nobles littering the military.
Talulah
All the lordly dukes and their armies would've split Ursus up into countless smaller regimes—at least, internally, they were sure things would go that way.
Talulah
And don't forget, back in reality, all those young officers on the rise after the Great Rebellion played out weren't siding with the new Emperor. They were probably just siding with the money.
Infected Fighter
...I see. At the end of it all, it was still fought for money.
Talulah
Correct.
Infected Fighter
Hah. You have answers for everything, don't you, Talulah?
Talulah
...The one who taught me all this was so arrogant, he didn't even care how much I took in. I could probably rattle that crap off without even thinking about it.
Infected Fighter
That's enough. God knows you're plenty smart. Why come here, then? You already said any place a person could live is long gone.
Infected Fighter
How'd you figure anything out of all their nonsense ramblings these past few days... how'd you figure out the Patrol Unit would be here?
Talulah
All the villages in the area were planning to move. If a Catastrophe's not coming, then that only leaves one reason.
Talulah
It's the rotten patrolmen, coming to stay. If it were some army passing through, the villages wouldn't dare think of moving.
Talulah
It should be because the harvest season's just ended. The Patrol Unit will carry out their routine inspections now, making sure the tax collectors haven't gone into the villages yet.
Talulah
The nearest city still operating is Shiraziberg. It's mainly light industry. It's only stopped over here to procure resources at most.
Talulah
Most villages in the vicinity don't have a landholder protecting them, so those rotting patrolmen have flocked in from all over. They must've seen things were ripe for the picking.
Talulah
...Originally, they were just a ragtag organization of rogues tracking down the Infected. Now they're all old geezers on a rampage who'll stoop to any low.
Infected Fighter
Then let's wipe them out. Our days here'll be a lot more peaceful if we do. We should.
Talulah
We don't have the capacity.
Infected Fighter
Huh? So what the hell are we here to do?
Talulah
—'Aegis.' 'Aegis' are attacking the sentries here.
It isn't easy to make contact with them. We've been piling up information for three whole months, and now we've finally scooped an opportunity.
Infected Fighter
Didn't care much when you said a few days ago we were looking for another group, but if I'd known you were looking for... for guerrilla fighters. Man.
Infected Fighter
But. Um. You have an easy time linking up with the southern city Infected. Is it really that hard to get in touch with these guys?
Talulah
If you want to survive in the city, you need to be proactive about your intel and collaborators.
Talulah
If you want to survive out on the tundra, what you need is solid tactics and a lifestyle that keeps Ursus's spies guessing at all times.
Talulah
The Infected have plenty of Messengers, and the Infected have their own methods and channels to get the signal out.
Talulah
The guerrillas? The guerrillas will only ever talk to the tundra Infected.
Talulah
The guerrillas don't want to be found, that's the thing. Neither do they want to join up with anyone.
Talulah
They accept the Infected into their own group, and train them to become fighters. They're probably not exactly like I'm hoping, but the guerrillas are still undoubtedly going strong, with no signs of slowing down.
Talulah
—At the very least, there have been two small guerrilla bands who've exchanged resources with Infected settlements ten kilometers out.
Talulah
Even if the local Infected won't talk, it wouldn't have been the Army who left those fire pits outside their villages.
Talulah
Okay, here's what they're here to do: destroy this freshly built sentry outpost, and make sure the patrolmen go down with it.
Talulah
Everyone, sit tight here. Be on alert. Patrolmen could be fleeing through these parts.
Talulah
It's a long way out from Shiraziberg, and the sentries have barely set up. They won't hold out.
Talulah
They'll retreat. As long as they haven't been annihilated by the guerrillas, that is.
Talulah
Hide yourselves. If we run into two or three Patrol Unit bands at once, we won't be able to take them.
Infected Fighter
Talulah?! Are you going alone?
Talulah
Let me. If we want to make contact with the guerrillas, we'll need to show them we're not hostile.
Talulah
And if we end up skirmishing, you could just as easily escape.
Infected Fighter
Are you treating us like cowards?!
Talulah
I've never met people braver than you. And that's why, to your fellow Infected compatriots, you are crucial. If they want to be alive down the line, that's all the more reason they need you.
Talulah
Which is the better choice: you live, or we sacrifice more for my sake? It should be plenty obvious.
Infected Fighter
——
Infected Fighter
You're still looking down on us.
Talulah
I've put in a great deal of thought into this decision. And everyone will be better off, by the way.
Talulah
So don't run your mouth.
Infected Fighter
You're just pissed, now!
Infected Fighter
Like we're not all burning inside! If you think we don't understand you, newsflash—it feels like you don't bother getting what we think, either.
Infected Fighter
A 'decision' means nothing to us. We came back with you all the way from the Northwest... and it wasn't for any 'decision.'
Infected Fighter
You fight well! You let us all eat, you taught us a hell of a lot more than we knew before.
Infected Fighter
I don't understand you well, but as far as I'm concerned, you're different from the city-dwellers, or even the Infected in the mines.
Infected Fighter
You just don't want us to die, right? Talulah, look at us. Think we're scared? We're no cowards!
Infected Fighter
Bet it never crossed your mind. Compared to drifting endlessly, we're a hell of a lot more prepared to die with you!
Talulah
What if I told you I saw this coming long ago, and just hoped you wouldn't do it this way?
Infected Fighter
Why?
Talulah
Because I won't die.
Talulah
It's okay. Let me go. Less casualties this way, too. Besides, I'm—*chuckle* 'the Deathless.'
Talulah
In the words of a repulsive monster.
Infected Fighter
Wait... Talulah, like hell we let anyone look down on us! We don't want them to think we're begging for them. Just let us come with you!
Talulah
No!
Talulah
Only executioners rank people by the murder in them. You've already won respect for the fact that you stepped forward.
Talulah
If anyone looks down on you, that's the one who truly deserves to be scorned.
Infected Fighter
......
Infected Fighter
Fine.
Infected Fighter
—Wait, Talulah! You're seriously going with just a single sword?!
Talulah
A list of names and a book of frequency numbers, too!
Talulah
Remember, my friends! These are far more important than my sword!
She didn't run into the stomach-dropping terror that was the guerrillas. She didn't catch sight of their iconic aegis. She never so much as glimpsed a single worn-out Ursus armament. Nor any of the fabled towering Sarkaz who walked with the guerrillas, even.
For better, or for worse... she encountered the Yeti Squad.
And it was cold.
She lit a fire, and jumped into the last of the Patrol Unit's watchtowers, out of the startled, certain gaze of a white-wrapped group of Yetis.
Careful the list doesn't burn. It's so cold, though. Too cold, she thought.
