Episode 178 [ On the Road (1) ]
Before the Independent State of Manchuria and EV signed an agreement.
Kyung-hoon met Shane and Bailey again upstream of the Colorado River.
The two arrived safely at the source of the river, but the boat, robot, and dog were all in disarray.
“I’m glad you’re safe.”
whine.
At Kyung-hoon’s words, the dog stuck out its tongue and lay down on the ground.
In a world full of monsters, going up the river by boat was a tedious and dangerous task.
Sometimes we sailed leisurely all day long.
But other than that, the fighting continued.
Unfamiliar monsters threw stones from the canyon, and strange fish monsters jumped out of the water.
Boats capsized and battles broke out on the water.
When the ship reached the dry canyon, it was almost impossible to move any further.
“As expected, since we were on our way upstream, we couldn’t see any high-level monsters. “There was no great risk.”
Shane said, moving his rattling joints.
Kiing.
But the dog didn’t seem to agree with that.
“Were there any traces of anyone?”
Shane shook his head in response to Kyunghoon’s question.
“It was all swept away. “There were villages that built defensive walls like in LA City, but there was almost nothing left.”
“Could it be a wave?”
“well. If you put up a defensive wall, it means you’ve blocked it for quite some time. “I don’t know why it failed.”
In response to Kyung-hoon’s question, the robot shook its head. Too much time has passed. There wasn’t much way to find out now.
The group went straight up the canyon.
Gyeong-hoon took only the engine containing the mana stone and threw the tattered ship away. Unfortunately, I could no longer use the radio that had fallen into the water.
It was like throwing trash in the Grand Canyon, a national park, but there was no one left to say anything.
It was a pretty rough canyon, but none of my colleagues had a hard time climbing up.
Kyung-hoon’s new shiny jeep was sitting on the flat canyon.
A newly brought walkie-talkie was installed in the back seat of the car, and a soft dog cushion was placed next to it.
Bailey was the first to jump into the car and settle down on the cushion.
-The car was repaired by maintenance workers all night… I don’t know how long it will last.
Eve whispered in Kyung-hoon’s ear. Now, even Eve didn’t think the car would be fine.
This is the desolate western border of the Grand Canyon. There were no humans, animals or monsters in sight.
Kyung-hoon laid out a map on the bonnet of the car and explained the route.
“Once you pass through the Navajo Nation and into Colorado, the eastern part is mostly flat. “If we don’t encounter any monsters, it won’t be long before we can reach the East.”
It was a long way through the American continent, but it was much easier to travel because the wide plains continued and the density of monsters was low.
Moreover, Bailey was playing the role of Monster Radar better than expected.
If it was a wide plain, it would be possible to avoid most monsters.
“If there are no problems, it will arrive in about two weeks.”
When there were no monsters and the road was intact, it would have been possible to cross the road in four days, but now that the road was damaged, it would take two weeks.
Moreover, the time was set on the assumption that the monster would not catch it.
But Kyung-hoon nodded at Shane’s words.
It was clear that the sea route to get here and the journey ahead were too difficult.
Even though it was driven by a quiet mana stone electric car, there was no way it was safer than walking.
Moreover, a trip without Kyung-hoon and Eve was bound to be more dangerous.
But no one here said anything like that.
There was someone waiting. Even if it got dangerous, I had to run quickly.
While Shane and Kyunghoon were checking the map,
wow wow.
Bailey barked from the car. At the same time, Eve spoke.
[It’s time.]
Kyung-hoon checked the time. It was communication time.
Bailey the dog also seemed to let me know that it was time to communicate.
“that’s interesting. “How do you set the time so accurately?”
Kyunghoon looked at the puppy with a curious expression.
But Shane and Eve didn’t find it very surprising. This was because the AI could not have had the time wrong.
Kyung-hoon walked to the car, feeling somewhat alone.
Although it was a new radio, Shane set it up skillfully.
Cheezy.
The frequency was tuned and Shane started broadcasting first.
“CQ CQ this is Bailey Mobile. Bailey Mobile. We have now arrived at our Grand Canyon…”
It was a call sign with a dog’s name.
It was a call sign with no unique code or rules, but since it was wireless communication between the two of us, there was nothing to worry about.
Woah! Woof!
Bailey called with his name in it. Hearing the call sign, he barked excitedly,
“…waiting for your response. Standing By.”
After saying that, Shane pressed the button on the radio.
Everyone in the group listened to the radio.
You would hear the same broadcast as always, but you would hear the survivor’s Morse code through it.
[Sigh…]
But there was no answer. There was no sound.
Shane, who had been waiting, pressed the button on the radio again.
“The noise is bad. Please adjust it again. Standing By.”
[Noise…]
It wasn’t a lot of noise. The New York broadcast had stopped.
Kyung-hoon glared at the radio with a serious face. Shane stopped holding the microphone. Eve also said nothing.
Bailey also looked serious. Perhaps because he felt it, he buried his head on his leg and looked around.
The group continued trying to communicate.
But even after an hour and two hours, there was no answer.
***
The antenna on the roof was not visible.
The only thing that was intact in the broken building was And it was the antenna that was connected to the radio.
The antenna was lying on the ground.
The antenna had withstood wind, typhoons, and cold waves. There was no way it could have broken like this.
The girl looked at the broken antenna.
The cut surface was smooth. It wasn’t a natural breakdown.
Her lips trembled.
‘I knew it.’
Her frightened eyes looked around.
There was no sign of any other monsters. But now she couldn’t trust her senses.
She forced herself to straighten up.
‘It’s nothing. It’s okay. There’s no problem.’
She forced her stiff body to enter the building.
Once inside the door, she quickly ran down to the basement.
In the basement of this building was her bunker.
*
She wasn’t in a bad mood until a little while ago.
Suddenly, she started looking for food . It became difficult, but unlike before, each day was happy and rewarding when she thought about the humans and Bailey.
However, the happy feeling disappeared the moment the communication stopped.
And the moment she found out that the antenna had been cut off, her mood fell into the abyss. Although she
did not see it , it became difficult. She knew very well that there were monsters in New York with greater intelligence than humans. It
was the army led by those monsters that killed the soldiers and survivors, including her parents.
But she had no idea that they were listening to her communications.
She entered the bunker and glared at the radio, which was only hearing static.
“I knew. That my location was also transmitting.”
Otherwise, there was no way she had sent Morse code and cut off communication.
The thought continued.
The monsters knew she was here. But she had been safe all this time.
And then suddenly the trap the mutants broke and it became difficult. Hunting.
As her thoughts gathered, an unexpected conclusion emerged.
She brought both hands to her mouth without realizing it.
“Then the reason I bought anything so far wasn’t because of my skills or characteristics?”
Although she had the ability to travel between the material world and the non-material world, there was no way a young girl could survive among monsters alone with that alone. “The stronger and better awakened
people all died. There was no way I could survive.”
Many awakened people died to save her, but her survival until now was close to a miracle.
No, it was not a miracle.
“It was a trap. I was the bait.”
A bait to catch and eat the people running to meet her.
The bait informed the situation here, so the hunter was trying to take the bait.
She cursed at herself for having been fooled all this time.
“Fool! Fool! Monster! Same bitch!”
The reasoning she had just come up with was not something the young girl would have thought of all at once, but she could only blame herself.
That was when.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
A loud noise was heard overhead. It was
the first sound she had heard since she was left alone in the bunker. Monsters were knocking on the bunker door.
I didn’t know when this bunker was discovered. Is it a year ago, five years ago, or from the beginning? It was
a door that had never been opened and was not meant to be opened, but I didn’t know how long I could block it .
There was nothing.
She looked at the walkie-talkie.
[Chijijik…]
The walkie-talkie was only making noise.
It was a walkie-talkie that I turned on out of habit, and it was an item that gave me hope.
That’s why I couldn’t hand it over to the monsters. Now it was time to say goodbye.
Her She lifted an iron pipe lying nearby
and hit the radio.
Bang! Bang!
The machine shattered and the tape inside shattered.
Her father’s voice was breaking. It was
a voice she was tired of hearing every day, but she I couldn’t help but cry when I saw the tape being released.
The girl was crying and swinging the metal pipe. When
the radio broke, she ran out of the room.
There was not enough time. We had to get our things before the guys came in.
Food, clothes, and hunting gear. Field.
She came back soon and had a small bag on her back.
It was a subspace bag.
She looked at the broken radio with sad eyes.
If the bag had been as big as an adult’s bag, the radio would have gone in…
But it was not the time to be sad.
She put the last photo frame on her desk into her bag.
She never forgot what her parents said:
‘Run. Don’t stop. You have to live. If you survive, you’ll meet other survivors!’
A lot of memories and things remained in the bunker, but now it was time to leave.
Bang!
I heard the sound of the iron door breaking.
It was several floors away, but seeing it coming all the way here made it seem like an extremely strong monster had arrived.
Whoosh!
The siren sounded
and boom . !
The sound of explosives exploding was heard. It seemed like a booby trap had exploded.
But it was too much to stop the monsters. The
monsters’ footsteps could be heard.
She carried her bag and went out into the hallway.
It was a small bunker. But for a long time, she It was the house she lived in.
She did not go up.
The only entrance was the door that had just been broken down, but she did not go through that door in the first place. She
put her hand on the wall.
Her entrance was behind this wall.
Behind this wall, a dozen meters away, in the ground. The sewer was flowing.
The inside of the sewer was quiet.
She activated the trait.
Woooow.
The wall trembled and the translucent girl pushed herself into the wall.
