Short, Light, Free

I think I’m the world’s first bomb specialist.

It was 1937, mid-June.

It was a hot summer and I was a hunter stationed in the southern face of Beiping.

My family lived close to the forest outside of Beiping City.

In order to hunt better, I chose that location, which coincidentally saved me from some troubles.

Because it was that year that the ghosts invaded Beiping.

Everyone in the city was captured by the ghosts and the government couldn’t do anything to save the people.

And because I was outside the city, I had been unaware of the situation inside until a fleeing woman informed me.

She was carrying her child and relayed the story to me hysterically.

I couldn’t remember most of them except for the fact that the ghosts were killing humans and setting the city on fire.

They plundered shops and houses and defiled every woman they saw.

The woman said that she and her son were the only ones who managed to escape out of the four generations of her family that was living together.

She also said that the city was about to be emptied out and the ghosts would soon reach my area.

She told me to flee with her but I refused.

Run? I had a family.

I thanked her for the warning and waved her on.

She rolled her eyes at me, looking at me like I was already a dead man walking.

She then ran wildly, further up south, with her child.

I took my hunting gun, entered my house and hid in a corner.

Ghosts?

I was interested to see if they were humans or ghosts.

I set an animal trap on the ground in front of the door.

Shortly after, I heard strange sounds coming from outside.

They seemed to be talking but I couldn’t understand their accent at all.

Grumbling and mumbling… these must be the ghosts that the woman was talking about.

I shifted to the windows and in a half-squat position, used my finger to break a small hole in the protective paper.

I peeked through it and saw two soldiers in camel-colored uniforms.

They each had a long gun in their hands and were searching the area outside my house.

Judging from their pace, they were going to come in very soon.

I turned and half-squatted behind a room door.

I disabled the safety lock on my gun and got into position.

The footsteps of the two ghosts came increasingly close.

Dang!

The ghosts must have used their guns to knock against the door.

Bang!

They kicked the door down and I held my breath.

I’ve killed many animals in my life but not humans.

The first ghost came in and an anguished wail followed soon after.

He had stepped on the animal trap.

I raised my hunting gun and took aim at the ghost’s head.

I knew that they were the ones who invaded us. I knew that they’re the ones who wiped the entire city out.

I would be killing someone if I pull the trigger.

One second.

Two seconds.

The ghost shouted, pulling me back to my senses.

We locked eyes and suddenly, he raised the gun in his hands toward my face, yelling, “Baka!”

In the next breath, I pulled the trigger.

Bang!

The bullet shot through his hat and into his head but it wasn’t powerful enough to pierce through his skull.

He must’ve survived that blow since he did not stop moving.

He screamed as he fired a shot and I dodged it before smashing my hunting gun against his head.

He fell to the ground, motionless. I’ve killed someone.

But if I didn’t kill him, he would’ve killed me.

The ghost outside ran over upon hearing the commotion.

Cautious, the ghost called out a few times but gained no response.

He started firing at my house.

One shot, two shots.

Their gun was evidently much more powerful than mine.

I hid in the innermost room, waiting for the right opportunity.

I took out the second bullet from my pocket and inserted it into my gun.

After eight shots, I figured the ghost wouldn’t stop.

On the ninth shot, I screamed.

I wanted to mislead him into thinking that he got me. It seemed to work.

He fired one last shot.

I waited with my gun in position.

He came in as expected.

The moment he came into view, I pulled the trigger.

I missed and hit his left shoulder instead.

I pounced on him and held my gun against his neck.

My mind went blank. All I knew was that this man had to die.

I forgot how long it took for his neck to change color.

A purplish black mark.

He was deader than dead.

I loosened my hold on the gun and looked around.

There weren’t any other ghosts. These two must’ve been the explorers.

I dragged the corpses into the room and searched their bodies.

I put on one of their military uniforms and tried their guns.

Indeed, they were better than my own.

Even the bullet inserting method was different.

I took a long time and I wasted four bullets in the process, but I managed to get the hang of it.

After getting rid of their corpses, I started doing some calculations.

I dug a small hole underground that was about two meters deep.

I put a wooden board and a table on top of it to cover it.

I stood guard by the window and observed the situation outside for three days.

The ghosts mostly came in teams of three.

When a team of more than three lurked around, I would hide in the underground passageway.

These ghosts would simply scan the room and leave. I’ve never been found.

If there were only two ghosts, I would wait.

Since I was wearing their uniform, they would enter the house and greet me.

And then I would pull the trigger.

My achievement was decent.

I had killed seventeen ghosts over the course of three days.

I removed their clothing and threw their bodies by the road.

The outside of the city was filled with dead bodies, anyway, so without clothes, these ghosts were basically unrecognizable.

On the fourth day, the rest of the ghosts exited Beiping City.

They advanced toward the south so I hid in the underground passage for one whole afternoon.

I only left when I could no longer hear the team’s footsteps.

I strolled along the boundary of Beiping City and I saw that there were still a number of ghosts stationed within the place.

I returned home upon noting the situation.

Is China already done for? Did these ghosts really kill so many of us this easily?

I pondered over my situation in the dark, not daring to turn any lamps on.

Every day, I slept in the underground passage.

Food wasn’t a problem since I was a hunter.

I would even exchange the hunted meat for wine in the past. Of course, it was impossible to do so at this point.

I wasn’t sure of the situation elsewhere but I figured that the ghosts had occupied other places as well.

These ghosts possessed much better weapons. Ten of my guns might not even beat one of theirs.

It took them three days to occupy Beiping. Perhaps in three months’ time, the whole of China would be conquered.

Thinking about it made me break out in cold sweat.

Forget it, I’ve already killed so many ghosts.

It’s good enough.

Better a bad life than a good death so might as well live as the day comes.

The next morning, I was awakened by loud sounds from outside.

Were the Japanese back? I made no sounds out of fear.

The shuffling sounds persisted for the whole day.

Something wasn’t right.

I mustered up the courage to sneak over to the windows.

There weren’t many ghosts far away but they were bending down as if they were burying something.

What were they hiding?

Gold? Treasure?

They sure did bury a lot of those things.

I didn’t step outside.

Another day and night passed before these ghosts returned to Beiping.

An area of a few hundred square meters outside of Beiping City was covered with densely packed and filled holes.

What were those? I was extremely curious.

I decided to check it out when I was sure that the ghosts would not reappear.