The long robe on her body was in tatters.
Even the underskirt beneath it was only a few scraps of cloth still clinging together, stuck directly to her skin as if they had been burned on.
Bloody water kept flowing from her body.
It was already impossible to tell whether it was the monster’s or her own.
The moment a hand so much as brushed her, a piece of skin would peel away.
Not a single patch of the skin exposed under the rags was intact.
The only complete part was the face that showed outside.
Her entire body was pitted and holed as if it had ulcerated, muscle and blood vessels showing beneath the skin, with flaps of hide hanging from the outside of her body.
I did not even dare touch her again.
It felt as if one touch would peel all the skin from her body and leave that terrifying subcutaneous tissue bare.
What do I do?
What should I do?
I, who had likewise been swallowed by the monster, must have been in the same state as Alice before I woke.
Like something that automatically met an enemy, I had probably been saved by my Halo.
But although my Halo could repair my body, even the clothes on me, it could not save this person who had given me warmth, who had given me healing.
Is she still alive?
In that moment, that was what I thought.
[Scanning]
Without meaning to, I examined Alice’s body carefully.
As [Presumptive Diagnosis] flashed by, the following lines popped into the center of my vision:
[Skin tissue integrity 30%. Muscle tissue integrity 89%]
[Nystagmus]
[Respiration faint. Nasal breath accompanied by rustling]
[Heart sounds weak. No obvious skipped beats observed]
[No obvious burn traces observed]
[Visual diagnosis: cerebral hemorrhage or nervous-system disorder. Airway obstruction. Extensive skin ulceration]
[Searching nearby active medical equipment. Found: fully automatic surgical treatment pods ×4]
[Nearest fully automatic surgical treatment pod found. Distance 2.7 km. System integrity 80%. Capable of ordinary general surgery. Ordinary tissue reconstruction]
[Recommendation: use sterile cloth to isolate the patient simply. Please wait for an automatic transport vehicle]
[Error: no transport vehicle online in the service zone. Error: no emergency-treatment equipment online in the service zone]
Service zone?
At some point an icon shaped like [I] had appeared in the upper right of my vision.
Beside the icon it read [Connected to Eden Network. Current Zone C-16].
It had probably connected somewhere during the time I was unconscious.
Eden…
Is this Eden?
It really does have some connection to me.
Being able to access the network here at least proved that I once, perhaps, lived here?
Even if I had no memory of living here at all, even if I understood nothing about this place, just being able to connect to the network here gave me a sense of homecoming.
It felt like not having gone home for a very long time, then one day coming back, turning on your phone, and seeing the Wi-Fi signal light up.
A sense of homecoming.
But this was not the time to think about that.
I looked down at Alice.
The prompts about diagnosis and treatment were still displayed in the upper left of my vision.
The text was not hard to understand.
Even the sci-fi terms I had never encountered, I could still tell that the fully automatic surgical pod was Alice’s only hope.
No sterile cloth.
No transport vehicle.
Even if I had to crawl, I had to take Alice and find that surgical pod.
My clothes.
I did not know whether they counted as sterile cloth, but it was better than leaving Alice’s ruptured wounds exposed in an environment full of rotting flesh.
There was no time to think it through.
I undid the bow at my chest, pulled off my clothes, tore them with force, and covered Alice with them.
Carrying a person on my back was so hard.
Without the Halo’s assistance I really was just a very ordinary, very ordinary girl.
I remembered how yesterday Alice had carried me so far across the desert, while I started panting after only two steps with Alice on my back.
I looked up at the buoy marking a position beyond the wall.
It displayed [2.7 km].
So far.
Really so far.
Even on flat ground, with every step I could feel my legs trembling.
What I carried on my back was Alice.
Alice, already at her last breath.
She was bleeding inside her skull.
The skin on her body had almost completely broken down.
Her breathing was faint.
Her heartbeat was almost imperceptible.
Pressed against the clothes wrapped around her body, bloody water kept dripping, little by little, down my back onto the smooth metal floor.
Hold on, Alice.
Hold on a little longer and we will be there.
…
Yes.
I never thought a scene that only appeared in anime or movies would happen to me.
Watching movies and television, as a viewer you can never feel the weight of the life on your own back.
She crushed the breath out of you.
She made every step hard.
But you would not give up.
No matter how heavy.
Precisely because it was that heavy.
And because of the feeling of not wanting to lose her.
…
[2.5 km]
[2000 m]
[1300 m]
[100 m]
I had probably used up all the strength of my lifetime.
If I had not been forced like this, I felt I could not have done it at all.
Aside from one turn, the whole way was almost a straight line.
The whole way was very empty.
Although the ceiling overhead was still metal, it felt like a plaza.
Very empty.
Aside from the ring of walls around the plaza and a scant few pillars, there was almost nothing.
When I reached the wall, the position the buoy marked had an open door.
I went in.
Inside was a corridor, and the place the marker pointed to was through a door on the right side of the corridor.
I almost dragged my own legs through that door.
It was a room.
The door of the room closed automatically the instant I entered.
Then a blue circle lit up on the floor at my feet.
When I stepped back, the floor inside the circle split to both sides.
After that, a capsule-shaped device with a transparent glass cover rose from underground and locked into the exact center of the circle.
A faint motor sound.
The capsule pod was extremely sensitive.
As if it could see me, it turned straight toward me, then stood upright, then opened the glass cover.
Just put her in?
Thinking that, I finally laid Alice into the surgical pod.
In that instant a stone in my heart finally landed.
Before I could even let go of Alice’s hand, two black straps extended from both sides of the capsule and fixed Alice to the platform.
Immediately after, an orange ring-band projection lit up around the outside of the capsule, scrolling the words [Please step back] [Please stand outside the warning tape].
Hah.
Thank goodness.
This equipment could work normally.
To be honest, when I first walked into this room and saw cabinets and jars scattered everywhere, shelves already smashed out of shape and the like, my heart was still hanging.
It felt like a facility that had been abandoned for a very, very long time.
But when I stepped back outside the band of light, the lights in the entire room suddenly went out.
Then a voice prompt came from somewhere I could not place:
[“Detected abnormal output from the power-supply equipment. To guarantee surgical quality, backup power will be enabled and surgical diagnosis and treatment will begin.”]
[“Please wait. Preparing disinfectant aerosol…”]
[“Equipment self-check complete. Software integrity 100%. Hardware structural integrity 80%.”]
[“Meets basic requirements for ordinary general surgery. Meets basic diagnostic and treatment needs for ordinary tissue reconstruction.”]
[“Warning: unable to establish connection with the Archive Bureau. Diagnosis and treatment will proceed offline using the local archive.”]
[“To interrupt the operation, say [Stop surgery]… Waiting…”]
[“No interrupt command received. Executing diagnosis and treatment offline using the local database.”]
[“Disinfectant aerosol prepared. Surgery will begin shortly. Please maintain a safe distance.”]
Whoom—
The surgical pod closed its outer glass cover, then slowly lifted, rotated, and lay horizontal inside the ring on the floor that shed orange light.
It paused for a moment, as if confirming the platform was stable.
The system issued another prompt:
[“Executing disinfection procedure…”]