Book 4 Chapter 5
My head was assaulted by an intense dizziness and headache.
The pain felt like having an icepick shoved into my temple, but that was what finally clued me in: I wasn't dead yet. I still wasn't sure what had happened, but it apparently had not been a mid-sized nuclear bomb dropped on Las Vegas.
I forced my eyes open while pathetically collapsed on the floor. That floor was now slanted and the outer wall was entirely missing. I wasn't sure if I should call it a "normal bomb", but it apparently had not directly hit this building. This was no more than a side effect of the open-air explosion.
A scorched smell filled the outside air.
The cityscape should have been illuminated by a deluge of light from the electronic signs that automatically changed based on their program control, but it was instead burned with red and black. And in the night sky stained with black smoke, several unfamiliar silhouettes formed a V shape. Something like beans formed lines as they were dropped to the surface.
Were all of those bombs with the destructive power we had just experienced?
"Ha...ha ha."
None of it felt real.
We were right here, but the destruction felt so far away. It was like seeing something happening on a screen. Did people just give up on the world like this when they were faced with a result they couldn't change no matter how hard they tried?
But in truth, we had been lucky.
If the bomb had been just 10 meters closer, the shockwave might have squeezed the organs inside our bodies. Our limbs and heads were still attached and in this case that meant fortune had been smiling on us.
But just as I thought that, I felt something wet on my palm.
"...H-hey, Truth..."
You're kidding, right?
"Sorry, but I screwed up a little. Ha ha. I've escaped so many close calls online, but this is the first time I've felt death so close in reality..."
We had been in the same location.
She was collapsed right next to me. The conditions should have been the same. And yet a finger-thick piece of rebar from the building wall was piercing Anastasia's camisole and the belly below it!
"Wait, what is this? Please wait!! Anastasia!?"
"How many times do I have to tell you it's Maiden...?"
Unable to get up, I crawled over and held that small body in my arms. And yet that pale-faced friend smiled at me.
Was she trying to mask the pain? No, there was no way she could bear it.
So had her sense of pain already left her...?
"If it gets bad, please leave me behind."
"No! What is this!? Why are you giving up so easily!? Put up more of a fight! Cry and scream and ask for help!! Can you not stop looking down on everyone even now!?"
"What are you...talking about? This is a special deal. I wouldn't bother putting on this front for someone I didn't care about. Truth, if you weren't here, I would be acting like an 11-year-old kid already. I'd be stupidly crying and thrashing about, probably tearing the wound wider in the process. But I don't want to show that side of me. Not to you."
A short distance away, Erika got up with a hand on her head, looked to us in surprise, and then bit her lip a little. Her sharpened canine tooth...no, her vampire fang sank a bit into her soft lip.
Was she saying that choice might be necessary?
Was she saying that would be better than doing nothing as the fragile vessel of this life broke?
...Was she saying she should bite her?
I shook my head.
No. I couldn't have her commit that crime. Once I started down that slippery slope, I would begin "saving" everyone that way. And I couldn't do that.
Besides, this small girl had drawn out what little strength remained in that injured body to say this to me.
So could I really just grab onto my sister's skirt and hide behind her? I had to respond in kind. I had to stand up to protect this life!!
"Anastasia..."
"What, were you so moved that you're going to confess your love?"
"I will save you. And I won't let anyone in this world say otherwise."
That small friend was at a loss for words.
No.
That pretty and arrogant face crumpled like she had been caught off guard. It looked like a dam was about to burst. She probably wanted to cover her face, but she could not move her hands properly.
She finally moved her trembling lips to speak.
"...You're an idiot."
We couldn't remove the rebar piercing Anastasia's gut here. That would only increase the blood loss.
"Maxwell, does this smartphone still work?"
"Sure."
"Check the Herbal Science intranet to see if we can perform first aid here."
"No. The connection is down. The server itself has been destroyed, so it is inaccessible."
"Then search for a nearby hospital! America spends more on medicine than anyone, so this city of the rich and famous has got to be as flooded with doctors as lawyers, right!?"
"But will you be performing the medical treatment? She will clearly need stitches for her abdominal cavity and blood vessels."
"I don't know what the laws are here, but they have a lot of those remote operation stations in this country, right? Maxwell, search for a medical manual in some university hospital or another. If possible, find software for a serious game meant to teach surgical technique. Use your processing power to start learning it through repetition until you have it all down pat. Maxwell, you supply the actual technique based on my requests!!"
"Sure. Accessing the necessary data... Completed trace from a medical data sharing service that connects hospitals to remote operation stations. The closest such station is in the underground parking lot for the Desert Dream casino. That is a 10 minute walk from Herbal Science. However, the road layout on the map may no longer apply after the bombing, so be careful."
"A parking lot?"
"It is a medical truck for a VIP's personal doctor. It is equipped for surgery inside. The client must have been very worried about their health."
"That's a step beyond always having an ambulance on standby. Did they just walk around with a mini-hospital at all times? They probably should have put more effort into going jogging than getting medical tests run..."
At any rate, we knew what to do.
I looked around the room. The Class Rep...was still passed out. Unlike Anastasia, she did not seem injured, but her condition was the normal one. I was the weird one for getting up so quickly despite not being an Archenemy.
Herbal Science had collapsed, my sisters were freed, and the data on Ayumi's preservative had been spread across the globe. That should have left nothing for us to do in Las Vegas.
"Erika, Ayumi. I now have one more thing I have to do. You two take the Class Rep and get out of here. If the military is heat treating Las Vegas, the bombs shouldn't fall on you if you head out into the desert."
"What are you talking about, Satori-kun? We can't let you take the best part for yourself."
"Fuguu. I'd be too afraid to let a normal human head out there carrying an injured person. There are gels everywhere and 2-ton raindrops are falling from the sky. Those are powerful enough to blow me to pieces if one lands on me."
...I had an excellent family.
After bowing once to show I understood, I got straight to business.
"Let's get going!"
It was possible I could not change the result here no matter how hard I tried.
But I wasn't going to let anyone say that.
We'll tear down all the barriers in the way, Anastasia!!
We pulled two poles off of a steel rack and attached a double layer of lab coats between them for a makeshift stretcher.
Anastasia was pierced front to back, so we could not carry her on our back or in our arms. After placing her on the stretcher on her side, Ayumi and I picked it up. Erika carried the unconscious Class Rep on her back.
With both my hands full, I could not hold my smartphone. I had no choice but to place it on the stretcher next to Anastasia's head.
"Let's go, Ayumi. Don't drop her."
"I won't, I won't."
The building was in bad shape. The ceiling could collapse at any time, sending down chunks of concrete larger than a refrigerator.
"There will be gels and Herbal Science survivors outside of this floor, so be careful."
"Onee-chan."
"Leave it to me."
If Erika came into contact with those gels, she would be eaten just like anyone else. And I was afraid to have her as our vanguard when she had the Class Rep on her back, but I couldn't be picky.
"She isn't going to fight," casually said Ayumi while carrying the stretcher. "She's a vampire, so she can regenerate her body. If she wants to, she can tear off an arm or a leg and throw it to them as bait."
"Erika, you idiot..."
I just about yelled at her despite the situation. I didn't want that beautiful family member doing that! The virtual sisterly fight had been bad enough!!
However...
"I was prepared to do that, but they aren't interfering."
"You don't need to do that. ...But is this due to the bombing?"
The emergency stairwell had been destroyed in places and we could see the sinister red and black nightscape beyond. A sauna-like heated wind blew in through the holes. Even without the direct flames reaching them, the gels' actions may have been greatly restricted. Or perhaps the intense noise and vibrations had messed with their sensory organs.
The answer didn't really matter.
We didn't have time to stand around.
If we could keep going, we had to.
"...It'll be okay."
Never before had someone else's life felt so close by.
"It'll be okay, Anastasia."
I had to repay her. With that alone on my mind, I kept my feet moving while making sure I did not trip on the stairs.
The weight on the stretcher didn't bother me.
In fact, how light she felt actually worried me.
We somehow made it back to the first floor entrance. All the glass was broken and we stepped out from the half-crushed entrance.
A red hell spread out before our eyes.
Gaudy Las Vegas was nowhere to be seen. I had no idea why it was all burning so well, but flames erupted from all the windows of the reinforced concrete buildings. The black forms unnaturally wriggling near the windows had to be the gels. I could only pray they were not survivors.
I grew faint just from breathing in and out. The stench of smoke lingered in the depths of my lungs. I was once again worried about Anastasia on the stretcher.
"The bomber formation seems to be bombing another part of the city."
Erika was staring off into the distance with the unconscious Class Rep on her back.
With the powerful and deep sound of explosions, all the dust on the ground burst up in a band of destruction beyond the buildings. There would be no escape if we were caught by that. The air around us would be compressed and crush us beyond recognition.
Ayumi spoke to me while staring up into the night sky which burned red as it reflected the flames.
"Onii-chan, let's head around back."
"Fine, but will that really help?"
"Yes, that is the right answer. They seem to be dividing Las Vegas into blocks to trap and eliminate the gels with walls of flames. So they appear to be dropping incendiary bombs along the main roads."
"But then we won't be able to cross those walls of flame either. ...No, wait."
A message reached the smartphone on the stretcher.
"Sure. Most casinos have a separate exit using an underground route. Those straight-line tunnels never intersect, but look something like a spider web when all viewed together."
...In that case, not even all of this would be enough. What if the gels fled underground to escape the walls of flames?
I had my doubts, but it was possible the military(?) was not done yet. The gels seemed unable to eat rubber or plastic, so it was possible the military had generally divided up the city so they could send in flamethrower units in thick protective suits to spread the fire inside buildings and underground.
But could fire actually "kill" the gels?
It was true they avoided fire, but we had yet to see one finished off by it. What if this widespread burning with incendiary bombs and flamethrowers made the military think they had won, but once they waited for the fires to die down and tried to check on the remains, the gels were revived?
"A 10 minute walk is within the same block. We shouldn't need to search out any of the secret tunnels."
Whatever the case, we had to hurry to the indicated casino's underground parking lot. If the rich person's surgery truck was buried in rubble or enveloped in flames, we wouldn't be able to treat Anastasia.
Once we carried the stretcher into a narrow alley, the lack of the fiery glow left our surroundings very dark. I was worried about my footing. And perhaps due to the heated wind blowing through, I quickly began sweating. I felt an oppressive wall of heat.
The heat created by burning the city struck my face in the form of wind. It felt as unpleasant as being forced to rub my cheek against a burned corpse.
"Shh. Stop, Onii-chan."
While taking the lead with the other end of the stretcher, Ayumi twisted her hips and faced forward as she spoke. She whispered as she viewed the rubble-strewn road dyed in shades of red and black that was visible beyond the alley exit.
"There's something moving behind the third pile of rubble there."
I gulped. Who was it? A person, or a gel? Either way, our safety was not guaranteed. Anyone who had survived this long was a dangerous sort of person who had made harsh decisions to ensure their survival. ...Not that we were any different. And while lugging around the heavy stretcher, we would have a hard time fighting back or fleeing if whoever it was held plain hostility for us.
Which side were they on?
Even my heartbeat seemed too loud as I desperately viewed that out-of-reach area as if to make it my own.
And finally, the figure crept out from behind cover.
"!? A gel!!"
This was bad. Ayumi and Erika were Archenemies, but they would only have their arms and legs eaten if they tried to defeat this gel barehanded. But could we escape while carrying a heavy stretcher!?
"I'm...fine. Truth, you hurry up and...run away..."
"Quiet, Anastasia. I don't want to hear any more out of you."
However, Erika spoke to me slowly and gently while carrying the unconscious Class Rep on her back.
"Calm down, Satori-kun. Just settle down."
"...?"
I was puzzled, but then the gel made its next move.
That red slime was supposedly blocking our path, but it crawled off in a completely different direction.
"The gels pursue their prey by sensing the movements of the air by digesting the small particles in the air via their surface area, right?" said Erika. "With everything burning after the bombing, the air currents have grown complex and all the soot and smoke has filled the air with far more particles than normal. I doubt their senses are working properly."
Oh, right.
This was a hellish scene where orange-glowing tornadoes passed by after an abnormal updraft locally swallowed up some flames. This environment was beyond any naturally occurring on earth.
"Onii-chan, let's take this slowly. Nice and slow. We can sneak past it right now."
"..."
I could not carelessly respond.
I couldn't breathe, like my throat was clogged. All I could do was obey her instructions. Even if its senses were messed up, the gel was still well within eyesight. It felt like running into a giant bear in the forest and having it refuse to go away. If it changed direction on some kind of whim, we would all be wiped out.
We would normally never take this path. Whether some unexploded ordnance was going to detonate or not, you wouldn't want to approach it if you could avoid it.
...But that only applied when Anastasia's life was not in danger.
I gulped and matched my pace to Ayumi's as we slowly carried the stretcher. We walked over the unsteady footing of rubble. It was something deep in my mind instead of my vision that made me feel dizzy. No matter how far we walked, I could still feel the grim reaper clinging to my back.
"Looks like...it's fine."
Erika finally said that after looking back.
I released the breath that had been caught in my throat the entire time, but this was no guarantee. It was all over if a red slime suddenly rose up from the gaps in the rubble below our feet. And this was a large road, so we could also be hit by the bombing.
Reality was heartless, so we could run across a literal dead end at any moment.
Not even the world's most powerful air force had done a perfect job. The gels had been driven back, but they were still crawling around Las Vegas.
"Pant, pant."
"Satori-kun, watch your breathing. I know this can't be easy, but if you take too many deep breaths, you'll hyperventilate and rob yourself of the ability to think."
"Then what am I supposed to do...?"
"It's relatively easy to control if you synchronize your walking pace with your breathing rhythm. Although to be honest, that's a Bright Cross technique."
"..."
For some reason, I couldn't immediately accept that advice. Did a skinny guy like me really have that kind of sweaty stubbornness? It honestly surprised even me.
"User, you have arrived at your destination."
"?"
"This is the Desert Dream casino. It may be hard to tell since the top half of the building collapsed and the electronic sign has fallen down."
It was like something out of a war movie.
It had likely been a high-rise building with things like a theatre or mall inside, but more than half of it had broken off and covered the smaller buildings with rubble. All of the external walls were scorched black. The sparks bursting from the ground likely came from what had once been the electronic sign.
I would never have known what it was without being told.
"Maxwell, where's the entrance leading underground?"
"The shortest route would be to enter the partially collapsed building and head down the stairs. There is also a slope behind the building for cars to directly enter the underground parking lot, but based on its location, it is buried beneath all that rubble."
We had to risk our lives to the very end.
It wasn't just the gels and bombing. Our surroundings were overflowing with all kinds of death.
With glass shards crunching below our feet, we entered the building. It was already a dark night, but the building's wiring must have been severed because it had almost no lights on.
"...An electric fire could start at any moment."
"The gas lines are also a worry," added Maxwell.
Not even the emergency exit lights were on, so my smartphone's backlight came in handy. With some advice from my vampire sister who, as a denizen of the night, had excellent night vision, I managed to find the stairs down to the parking lot located to the right of the metal detector gate.
The door was bent and wouldn't open, but Erika raised her wonderfully beautiful leg and performed a kick with the sole of her foot while still carrying the Class Rep on her back. The entire metal door bent and flew inwards.
"..."
While supporting the stretcher with both hands, I twisted my head to look down the stairs. We could not relax even after coming this far. It was game over if a bunch of gels had taken refuge here to escape the flames.
"The gels react to disturbances in the air. Since there was no reaction even after Miss Erika kicked down the door, it is unlikely any are hiding on the stairs."
"Unlikely isn't impossible, though. Let's get going."
The gels disliked heat. If anyone had had a free hand, it would have helped to grab a metal pipe from the burning wreckage to use in place of a red hot poker, but we could not be picky here.
We descended the dark stairs one cautious step at a time. After reaching the last step, I took a quiet breath. Then I passed through the door and entered a large space.
It was an underground parking lot.
"Maxwell. Where exactly is it located? Although I imagine the security cameras and intranet must be down given the state of the building."
"Sure. That is not a problem. I can determine the location using footage from the vehicle in question's drive recorder. It is the medical truck on the 4th column and 15th row. It is the size of a delivery truck and the mirrors of the surrounding vehicles show that the side bears a cross design with two snakes wrapped around it. Use that to search."
"Asclepius, huh?"
But triumphantly showing off that trivia was of no use in an emergency. We had to get to the surgery truck to save Anastasia.
Half of...no, about a third of the underground parking lot was buried in rubble because the ceiling had collapsed.
The surgery truck had just barely escaped harm. Some pebble-sized fragments must have hit it because the windshield was white with small cracks and the chassis was dented.
"To breathe life into the medical equipment in the back, you must first head to the driver's seat and start the engine."
"Understood. Anastasia, we're going to gently lower you."
"...Honestly. Just do what...you want with me."
"That isn't something a girl should say so readily. Ayumi."
"Got it. Gently, right?"
I lowered Anastasia's stretcher to the floor to free up my hands. Released from that burden, I felt a tingling pain in my arms. I also made sure to duck down and check below the truck for any red gels.
I of course did not have the key to the surgery truck.
"Maxwell, what about the door lock? Cars these days generally use EM or IR right?"
"No. Perhaps because it is a medical device, it is more strictly locked than a normal vehicle. The one lock requires both a digital and analog key, so I alone cannot unlock it."
"Oh, I see."
I grabbed a piece of concrete rubble the size of a phone book and smashed the driver's side window. Glass scattered everywhere. I discarded the block, reached inside the window, and manually unlocked the door.
Incidentally, the alarm did not go off. The windshield was broken back when the rubble had pushed in, so the alarm may have done all its blaring back then.
"Satori-kun, why does your manliness seem to increase five-fold in an emergency?"
That made me a little worried about how Erika normally saw me, but I didn't have time to question her. I brushed the glass shards from the seat and then climbed in.
"Maxwell, what should I do now? How do I ignite the engine? The battery alone won't be enough, will it?"
"Downloading diagram from Excess's development server. Follow my instructions and remove the cover below the steering wheel."
Cars these days would not start up just by connecting some torn wires like in an old police drama. Everything was controlled by encrypted signals, so the system would actually lock down if it received an improper current.
But things changed if you connected the internal wiring to a terminal with good program control.
"Wow, I didn't expect it to match the smartphone's connection port so perfectly."
"That would be a result of looking ahead to the possibility of a fully self-driving vehicle. I can enter the vehicle's system through the maintenance cable."
When you turned the steering wheel, it did not directly exert a force on the tires. Instead, an electric signal told a servo (a type of motor) to exert the force on the tires. As you've probably already guessed, you could do whatever you wanted if you messed with the program in between. This could be used in a dangerous way much more easily than attaching a bomb below the car. Since these things were AI controlled with their ports fully opened to the internet, it kind of felt like the world wanted to be destroyed.
With a loud roar, the truck shook and the headlights activated. The digital displays for the speedometer and fuel gauge appeared in the darkness.
"What will you do, Maxwell?"
"With the engine ignited, the connection is no longer necessary. I would prefer to stay with you."
I needed Maxwell to control the remote operation station. I pulled the connection cable from my smartphone, hopped out of the driver's seat, and made my way to the back.
When I threw open the double doors, I found a thick but translucent plastic sheet partition and lots of high-tech equipment including robot arms and computers. Overall, it looked like a dentist's chair that had been upgraded to an SSR card.
"Okay, Maxwell, I need your help. I have no idea what to do. Before even getting to the surgery itself, I don't know how to professionally sterilize anything."
"Sure. I have analyzed the manual and undergone repetition learning. I have contacted the slave medical system and taken master privileges. Please follow my instructions, user."
"It's all up to you. Save my good friend."
"Sure."
I honestly don't remember much of what happened after that. It was a lot like entering an unnecessarily luxurious multi-purpose smart kitchen and making an unfamiliar meal while viewing a cooking site on my smartphone. The sterilization level was less like that of an operating room where not even a loose hair was allowed and more like an emergency outpatient clinic for patients needing immediate care. Plus, Anastasia had a piece of rebar piercing her and that meant we could not remove her clothes, so there was only so much we could do.
Erika, Ayumi, and the Class Rep remained outside the truck. There wasn't much space inside with all the equipment and there was the sterilization issue.
But there was one thing that was burned into my mind.
And it of course was the thing I least wanted to remember.
"I am prepared to stop the bleeding, apply stitches, and provide a transfusion. Please pull out the rebar that is plugging the wound. I cannot continue if you do not."
"Pull it out? Me!? I-I thought you were going to do it all!"
"No. The surgical station's arm is designed for precision, so it is poorly suited for this kind of heavy lifting."
"What about anesthesia? Anastasia is still awake!"
"No. We do not have time to slowly apply general anesthesia. Also, placing her under anesthesia in her current weakened state could put her life at greater risk."
"C-can't we at least do some localized anesthesia...?"
"A lot of time has passed since she began bleeding. We do not have time to wait for anesthesia to take effect."
I had to grab and pull on the rebar pierced straight through the 11-year-old girl's belly.
I felt dizzy the entire time.
"Fortunately, the rebar itself was not bent, so it has no large protrusions," explained Maxwell. "If you pull it straight back, slowly but surely, you will not harm the surrounding tissue."
But when I actually grabbed it and applied force, I felt a horribly soft resistance. A tremor ran through my fingertips. Clenching my teeth was not enough to stop them from chattering.
"...Ha ha. Don't cry, Truth. There's a girl right here."
Anastasia's will seemed far stronger than mine as she lay helpless on that high-tech chopping block.
"No matter how this turns out, I'm still thankful. So don't hesitate. We'll be friends no matter what happens."
I felt like I was doing something terrible. Like I was supposed to be saving someone yet was actually tearing them apart on the inside.
Still, I managed to pull the finger-thick rebar all the way out.
The thread of tension snapped.
I fell back onto my butt with the horrific bloody rebar still in my grasp.
My smartphone vibrated to warn me.
"I will now begin stopping the bleeding and applying stitches. There is no time to remove Anastasia's clothing. I will need to tear a portion of her silk camisole, so please acquire ex-post-facto approval."
"Yeah..."
"I will perform the surgery, but it would help if you could change Anastasia's orientation per my instructions."
My memories ended there. I assume I changed gloves and re-sterilized myself after touching the floor and then became a clumsy machine controlled by Maxwell rather than a human. I wouldn't have been able to bear it if I hadn't just given myself over to the series of instructions: right to left, top to bottom.
However.
"Wait a moment. User, this is somewhat odd."
"What, Maxwell!? Please don't tell me there's been some kind of trouble! We've already removed the rebar plugging her wound!"
"No, there has been no trouble with the surgical procedure and this is not an accident. It is unexpected, but it is a welcome miscalculation."
?
What was Maxwell saying???
"Removing the rebar should have caused a great quantity of bleeding, but there has been an unexpectedly small amount. This would normally not be possible."
"Did it just so happen to miss any major blood vessels or organs?"
"No. Given the location, that would not be possible. Also, the bleeding is already coming to a stop. This recovery speed would be impossible for a human."
"Wait! You don't mean..."
Anastasia was still conscious.
But she looked up at me and then turned her head to look away. That sort of confirmed it for me.
Maxwell provided the answer.
"Sure. It is extremely likely that Anastasia is an Archenemy."
Maxwell mechanically continued the work.
I felt dizzy seeing those inhuman fingers push inside someone's body, pierce a needle into them, and pass a thread through.
Once the work was complete, Maxwell covered the entire wound with a large piece of gauze.
"The full task has been completed as requested. Once I have confirmed her condition is stable, I will inject some morphine into the affected region. That will complete the surgery, but it may have been unnecessary from the beginning."
"..."
It was done.
Anastasia was alive.
I could hear her impudent comments once more.
...This should have been the time to shed tears of joy, but my mind was full of distractions, telling me just how pathetic the human named Amatsu Satori was.
Anastasia smiled a little from the operating table.
I recalled what she had said during the surgery: No matter how this turns out, I'm still thankful. We'll be friends no matter what happens.
She probably hadn't intended to deceive me.
She simply hadn't had a chance to tell me and had it revealed on the operating table. Just like when someone with a secret navel piercing got appendicitis.
"...Tell me, Anastasia."
"It's Maiden. Darn, I guess I couldn't hide it. If it was something I could just tie a rag around at the scene, I could have passed it off as a miraculous survival, but there was nothing I could do with this professional operating table."
She maintained her unnecessarily feminine Japanese even when speaking self-deprecatingly.
"I'll tell you everything."
"Okay."
"But let me ask one selfish question first. Truth, are we still friends?"
"What kind of question is that?"
I spat out the question.
And when the 11-year-old girl's eyes opened wide, I continued.
"Of course we are. If we weren't, why would I carry you across a bombed and gel-covered city and enter a half-destroyed building that could collapse at any moment?"
Anastasia said nothing for a while. But seeing the look on her face was enough.
No matter what secret she had and even if she wasn't even human, there was no way she was an enemy.
"My handle is Maiden. I borrowed it from a certain Archenemy."
She finally began her explanation.
Her shoulders looked a lot less tense than
