Surviving in the 121st Century - Chapter 57



Only Noblemtl

Under the clear, sunny sky and faint fluffy clouds, the closer we got to the city, the more obvious the harsh conditions there became.

A building with one side of its wall completely collapsed, a road that was caved in by bombs, a wrecked tank, and a blimp left in ruins. And people on top of the ruins.

Those who had tied tents to the ends of the remaining buildings to make a roof and erected wooden beams as pillars to make a temporary shelter had, by far, a very splendid mansion. That’s because most of the other rabitos were just leaning against the walls of the collapsed buildings with a single blanket over their heads, staring blankly into space with their eyes wide open.

There was not a single house in sight. Most of the buildings in Solkain had collapsed at least on one side, either the roof or the walls, so it was difficult to distinguish between the inside and the outside. Everyone went into any building without any problem and just grabbed whatever was there.

As he slowly passed through Solcain’s main street on his two-wheeled motorcycle, Jincheol saw the countless figures of Rabitos. The Rabitos of Solcain usually showed one of three appearances.

One was the fighters. They were fighting in the dark corners of the alleys, or in the houses of less-decayed buildings. Those who wanted to take one side, and those who wanted to protect the other.

Another group was those who were leaving. They were moving in the opposite direction of Jincheol, carrying bundles, bags, and other things. It was clear that they were people who were leaving this terrible city, even if they didn’t know where they were going.

The last one. They were miserable. Just like I saw a moment ago, they were just sitting in a corner of a building, a pit, or a rubble, holding onto their own bodies and not moving. Some were already holding onto their cold corpses, while others were holding onto their injured limbs and just sitting there blankly.

And all those countless rabbits saw Jincheol. It was natural for them to see him moving his two-wheeled vehicle in the middle of a chaotic street.

Amazement, hostility, disgust, anger, fear, jealousy, or just empty stares at other races.

Those who left Solkain and those who stayed here all had mixed views of Jincheol. However, since he was three or four heads bigger than Rabito, it seemed that they could not carelessly pick a fight with him.

At that moment, the Doljukkeot truck that was following behind stopped. I turned my head and saw Ramien, with a frozen expression like a wax doll, getting out of the passenger seat.

She approached Jincheol and whispered.

“···It’s so horrible.”

“Do you know the way?”

She didn’t answer, but turned her head to look at Rabito, who was crouching beside the steps of the entrance to a collapsed building. She had a small sling hanging on her chest, and inside it she could see the baby Rabito. The baby was barely moving. It was lying there, too hungry to cry.

But already, Mother Rabito was just lying there with her arms and legs spread out, her eyes wide open. Beneath her body, a puddle of black blood had dried up.

Ramien, who had been blankly staring at the two people, suddenly approached them. Jincheol stopped the motorcycle, got up, and slowly followed her.

“···”

Ramien approached the baby and mother, but when he stood in front of them, he hesitated as if he didn’t know what to do.

Jincheol slowly approached her from behind and said.

“I told you last time. If you decide to take action, you have to accept the responsibility.”

“···I already have Maro, so I can’t take care of a newborn baby. I, I have to find Ipani.”

Ramien stopped her hand that was reaching forward while trembling slightly and straightened her body. She looked down at the baby who was gasping for breath with a hardened face. And Jincheol, standing behind her, was also looking at her, the baby, and the mother’s corpse with an old and desolate face.

“···”

But the next moment, Ramien reached out again.

Her hands were urgent. She unwrapped the swaddling cloth from Rabito’s body, which was already starting to stiffen, and hurriedly picked up the baby’s body. Surprisingly, the baby, who had been lying down until now, began to move a little at her touch. A small sound similar to crying came out.

Hearing that, Ramien looked back at Jincheol with a smile. Jincheol, who had been frozen, also looked at her face and smiled slightly.

“Does Stone Fist know how to cook baby food?”

“Well, I wouldn’t be surprised if he could make a bowl of instant baby food. Just think of the way he handles Maro.”

“yes?”

Ramien ran to the truck in a strange manner, keeping his upper body strong so that the baby would not shake, but moving his legs quickly. Suddenly, he heard the voice of Doljumuk, who was sitting in the driver’s seat.

I’m a bodyguard, not a nanny! Come on, help me out. I’ll even give you some extra money. … Hey! Put the baby down! You’ll break its neck if you lift it so hard! It looks like it’s weak because it hasn’t eaten. Do you think the baby will eat anything? … Damn it! This wasn’t a condition when we first signed the contract!

After that, there was a loud clattering sound as Doljumeok rummaged through the supplies piled up inside the truck – food taken from the revolutionary army, cooking utensils collected before, etc.

Jincheol stood there with his hands in his pockets, staring up at the sky.

Large-scale urban warfare was hell, both for the soldiers who had to fight there and for the residents who originally lived there.

The city is a place that cannot survive without external blood transfusion. Fierce battles are natural, but if that blood transfusion is cut off, countless people who originally lived in the city will naturally suffer from hunger and thirst. However, escaping outside the city is a life-threatening gamble. Several civilian families will have to go through the front lines where bombs and landmines are exploding.

People are dying, hospitals are paralyzed, order and control are disappearing, and people who are pushed to the limit are becoming extreme. They are not doing it because they want to, but because they have no choice when they are pushed to the edge of life. The citizens who survived later recalled or made excuses that they had no choice.

As he had survived until the end of the war, Jincheol also saw people who cursed him for being full of it. After all, they were people who said that a nuclear bomb didn’t explode in the middle of the city and everything was completely destroyed. Jincheol understood them too. To be exact, he tried to accept it.

Otherwise, I felt like I wouldn’t be able to endure it even if I survived until then.

“Jincheol! Let’s go! I can figure out where to go! Just go that way!”

Jincheol, who was looking up at the sky and clouds, turned to look at Ramien when she shouted. He saw Maro holding a baby in her arms and feeding something to her mouth inside the truck, and Doljumeok organizing the messy luggage.

Jincheol turned his head again and looked at Rabito’s body. Under the stairs of the collapsed building. That scene was captured in Jincheol’s eyes.

“···”

Jincheol, who had been taking in the scenery there with his deep, dark eyes for a moment, turned around. The two-wheeled vehicle and truck started up and they left the place.

The road became a mess again. Collapsed buildings, ruins, people crouching like vagrants, people struggling to leave with their luggage, and even beggars. However, thanks to the appearance of Jincheol and Doljumeok sitting in the driver’s seat, none of them spoke to him first.

As I walked along the streets that were neither ruins nor a city, at some point the surroundings suddenly became completely open. It was desolate because all the buildings around had collapsed.

Jincheol tilted his head to the side and looked toward the truck. The truck had stopped in the face of the desolation. As he slowly approached the truck, Ramien looked at the scenery with a face as if her heart was about to burst, and her eyes were red and filled with tears.

She said.

“From here… it’s the northern street…”

“Really? Then let’s keep going.”

“···huh.”

Jincheol took the lead again, his motorcycle and the truck both moving forward with a loud jolt due to the debris of the building and the broken road.

After a while of walking through the desolate piles of rocks, Jincheol, who was ahead, suddenly stopped after turning around a slightly larger pile of rocks. When he stopped, the truck also stopped, and when the truck stopped, Ramien, who was inside, got out of the truck with some anxiety and ran to where Jincheol was.

“···!”

Her expression, which had been filled with anxiety, changed to one of surprise. The place they were looking at was chaotic, with tents, vehicles, and people all gathered together.

Jincheol tapped Ramien on the shoulder and went ahead. Ramien, who had been blankly staring at the people, came to his senses at the touch and quickly returned to the truck.

It was a stronghold made by the revolutionary army and those who helped them. It seemed that the buildings had been pushed aside, making the terrain flatter, which made it easier to secure a wide space. There, dozens of revolutionary army members, including the injured, the hungry, and those who had committed crimes, were struggling to control them.

At first, they were wary when Jincheol and his group approached, but when they handed them a box of preserved food from the back of the truck, they began to tell their stories freely. At times like this, there really were no rabbits more innocent than this.

“Urata’s occupying forces withdrew after taking what was useful in the city. They promised to come back later, but I haven’t seen them. Those generals can’t even control Urata’s territory, so how can the occupying forces come back?”

A revolutionary officer wearing a red belt took a can and said so. Doljumeok and Maro were in the truck, and Jincheol and Ramien were in their place. It was the answer to the question of where Urata’s army had gone.

Jincheol, who was about to ask more, stopped asking and started talking when he saw Ramien looking at him with earnest eyes.

“I’m looking for someone.”

“Who? At least there’s no Esai in our garrison?”

Okay. First of all, Snow isn’t here. Jincheol continued.

“No. Find one person, Rabito.”

“···Do you know how hard it is to find one person in this chaos?”

“That’s because I have no one to ask.”

The revolutionary scratched the back of his head, then looked at the canned food, Jincheol, and Ramien in his hands one by one, sighed, and nodded.

“Who are you looking for and where do you live?”

“Epani! Epani Enjexon who runs Biotiful Flower!”

The revolutionary army turned around and spoke, looking at Ramien, who had suddenly intervened, strangely.

“Hmm… Biotiful Flower. It seems you run a flower shop. If so, then please follow me for now. There are quite a few people who survived on the flower street. Thanks to you, there are some people I know.”

The soldier led Jincheol and Ramien to the main hospital bed. And before the soldier could even introduce himself, Ramien ran ahead, shouting.

“Mrs. Witkay!”

“Who are you, Ramien? Aren’t you Ramien?”

Rabito, who was sitting on his sickbed, staring blankly into space, was delighted to find Ramien. He hugged her tightly and even shed tears.

“You’re alive, you’re alive!”

“Madam too···! I’m so glad that you’re alive···!”

Mrs. Witkay was a rabbit who ran a large flower shop on the northern flower street. She smiled, saying that although her shop was also destroyed in the air raid, she was fortunate to have survived.

Ramien, who had been holding her in his arms and shedding tears for a long time, soon came to his senses and raised his head.

“Mrs. Witkay! Ipani! What about Ipani?”

“Epani? Epani···”

She glanced at the revolutionary army member next to Jincheol in response to Ramien’s question.

“···Epani left the city.”

“Yes? Then Ipani is alive? Right?”

“Yes. She didn’t lose a single limb in the air raid. That was really lucky.”

“Really, really, you’re alive! Really···! What a relief··· What a relief···!”

When Ramien heard that Ipani was alive, she lost her strength and collapsed. She lay face down on the bed, burying her face in it and mumbling that she was relieved. Then her ears perked up.

“···But why did you leave the city?”

“That is… I can’t move because my leg is injured, but for her to be here in perfect health….”

The middle-aged woman named Witkay glanced at the revolutionary army again. Then the soldier sighed and continued speaking.

“A healthy young person is not given priority in terms of food and supplies unless they are serving in the revolutionary army. We also have limited medicine and food, and if we distributed it to every citizen of Solkain, we would be lucky to last for only a day. So for those with sound limbs, the best way to survive would be to leave the city.”

“···Then, where to?”

He said, slightly avoiding eye contact with Ramien, who was blankly looking up at him.

“They probably went east. I heard that people have set up camp in the forest there to get food. Maybe some of our soldiers are there to help.”

“Your soldier?”

He turned his head at Jincheol’s question.

“Yes. They are friends from the Kapitan headquarters. I heard that the ‘White Butcher’ is among them. Do you know him? He’s also an Esai.”

“It’s not the same Esai.”

Jincheol gave a vague answer and organized the route. They had come all the way to Solkain excitedly, but the people that Ramien and Jincheol were looking for were not there. Still, it was a good result to confirm that Ipani was alive and to confirm Snow’s location.

“Jincheol···!”

Jincheol also nodded at Ramien’s voice calling him. Ramien stood up with sparkling eyes and handed Mrs. Witkay one of the canned goods he had brought. The woman smiled with the corners of her eyes drooping.

“thank you···”

“What, ma’am? It means so much to me to hear that Ipani is alive… Oh, but, uh, your child…?”

The woman’s smile faded. No, her entire face became blurry. She lowered her gaze to the bed without saying anything.

Naturally, Ramien’s expression became dizzy. She stood next to her wife, mumbling, unable to say anything.

Then, the woman’s hand gently pushed away Ramien, who was standing blankly next to her.

“I’m fine… Stop, stop, just go…”

“···I’m sorry, ma’am. I’m serious.”

Ramien came out of the hospital bed with such a stiff expression. And he didn’t say anything until they arrived at the truck. He just looked at the baby Maro was holding in the backseat with complicated eyes.

Meanwhile, the revolutionary army member who was guiding Jincheol on his motorcycle spoke to him.

“Are you leaving right now?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“Please provide your name. We are currently issuing certificates to donors.”

“Warranty?”

The soldier shrugged his shoulders and answered Jincheol’s question, “What is that?”

“It is a promise to return several times what was donated someday. Who knows? Someday Solkain will be rebuilt and the guarantee will become a bond worth several times the amount.”

Jincheol shook his head and started the engine.

“What about a guarantee? That’s not what I gave it to you for.”

“But please tell me your name. Anyway, I need to write down the documents to show who I got it from, right?”

Jincheol thought for a moment and then smiled and answered.

“Then write ‘hijacker’.”

Then, the two-wheeled vehicle with its engine running started to move forward. The truck followed suit. The soldier took a few steps back and watched them moving away.

“Hijacker? What’s your name…?”

*

East of Solkain. It was late that afternoon when I discovered human traces at the edge of the forests, hills, and mountains where the grasslands and plains ended.

Jincheol stopped his motorcycle and looked at the felled trees. He could see three or four traces of trees with only the stumps left in front of him. They weren’t very old. At most, they were from a few days ago. Jincheol said as he pulled up next to the truck.

“This seems to be the right place. The sun is setting, but let’s look around a bit more. We can spend the evening at the camp they built.”

“···”

But Ramien looked a little dazed. Jincheol, who had brought up the subject, looked at Ramien with a stone fist, but he just gave him a blank stare with an expression that said, “I don’t know.” That bastard, that really…

Then Ramien said.

“···For a mother who has lost a child, is the newborn baby simply a substitute for the previous child, or is it a new life that heals her deep wounds?”

Jincheol glanced at Maro and the baby in the backseat after Ramien said that. The baby was sleeping soundly, as if the Doljumeokpyo baby food was going well, and Maro was carefully holding the baby in his arms and gently rocking him so that he wouldn’t wake up.

Jincheol said.

“That’s for her to decide.”

“···Right? It’s not something I can talk about lightly.”

Ramien smiled bitterly and looked at Jincheol. It was clear what she meant. It seemed like she was thinking about leaving this baby with the woman who had lost her child. Jincheol looked at her with a similar smile. This kind of problem is too difficult. Then and now.

At that moment, a low, dull noise rang out from far away beyond the forest. Jincheol raised his head. His face hardened. It was because it was a familiar sound, although it was a little different.

Machine gun. The sound of a powerful machine gun firing hundreds or thousands of rounds per minute.

Ramien and Doljumeok also became serious after seeing Jincheol’s stern face. Jincheol was about to ride his motorcycle right away, but changed his mind and stopped abruptly, getting off the saddle. In a forest like that, it was faster to just run.

He spoke into the truck.

“If you hear gunshots coming closer or if something feels strange, don’t think twice and just run.”

“You, you?”

“I need to find out why there’s a gunshot wound here.”

Ramien was speechless at his answer. Unlike her, Doljumeok answered briskly.

“Okay! We’ll wait here! If anything goes wrong, we’ll come running right away, so have a safe trip!”

“···”

The loud voice of the stone fist. It was a thick and threatening voice, but for some reason it felt annoying. Jincheol thought about dragging the bastard out, but decided to put it aside for later enjoyment and turned around and ran towards the forest.

The twilight of the dusk cast straight shadows beneath the straight trees. The shadows stretched out again, covering the space between the trees, and the forest was dense with trees leaning upward and trees crawling along the ground.

Jincheol’s body ran like the wind, passing the procession of trees and shadows.

Jincheol, who had become accustomed to the changes in his body over the past few months, ran as if he was flying through the complex forest. It was a different speed from when he ran in the Atukai tribe. The forest scenery was blurred and poured in front of Jincheol, then flowed behind him and disappeared.

While running like that, the sound of gunshots was heard again. Jincheol immediately found his bearings and ran towards them. The fallen leaves and grass on the ground were thrown high with a thud from the sudden change in direction.

After running for a while, stepping on the grass, I went over a hill and a certain scene came into view.

In a small clearing in the forest, clumps of blood were strewn here and there, and among them was the tearful figure of Rabito, hiding three or four children behind his back. And in front of them was a giant in black armor – that is, by Rabito’s standards – holding a heavy machine gun and aiming it at them.

Jincheol’s eyes quickly scanned the clumps of blood. There was no armor among them.

The black armor made him look like a medieval knight resurrected with modern technology. He was a head or two taller than the average Rabito, and his creaking black armor, smooth joints, and large ammunition cans strapped to his back with machine guns attached to them all seemed to be built to intimidate anyone who came face to face with him.

At that moment, Rabito, who was standing against the gun barrel with tears in his eyes, discovered Jincheol. His eyes widened. It was because of the speed at which Jincheol got closer in an instant.

The black armored man who saw that gaze quickly turned around at the thunderous voice that followed and aimed his gun.

“Hey you little shit-!”

But faster than the gun firing, the armored body was hit in the chest by Jincheol’s flying kick and fell backwards with a loud thud.