41. Departure, Return. (2)

It’s raining.

It was a clear night with a full moon, but as the sun was about to rise, it started drizzling.

And then, it turned into a downpour.

The summer sky is so unpredictable.

I looked up at the sky, feeling the rain.

I didn’t know when so many clouds had gathered.

“Ready!”

One U.S. soldier shouted, and the soldiers standing in a double file formation aimed their rifles at the distant sky.

“Set!”

They placed their fingers on the triggers.

“Fire!”

Bang!

And then, they repeated it.

The bodies of the U.S. soldiers recovered from the collapsed buildings were mangled and unrecognizable.

The fallen soldiers.

With no coffins available, the U.S. soldiers had gathered the bodies, wrapped them in American flags, and decided to cremate them in a simple ceremony. They had dismantled furniture and stacked it on one side of the runway.

They placed the flag-draped bodies on top of the wood.

Then, they poured gasoline.

At the cremation site.

U.S. soldiers, dressed in their uniforms without dress uniforms, stood in formation and fired salutes.

After a few salutes, one U.S. soldier set fire to the wood.

The gasoline-soaked bodies and wood began to burn fiercely, even in the downpour.

A few civilians and soldiers, who were friends or family of the fallen, wiped their eyes.

As if to wipe away the rain.

There was no eulogy.

After the end of the world, too many had died, both for us and for them.

They just watched the fallen burn.

After the funeral, as people were leaving, a U.S. commander with a cane approached me.

Under the umbrella held by his subordinate, the U.S. commander said:

“Do you need an umbrella?”

I chuckled and glanced up at the sky.

“I’m fine. It’s refreshing.”

Saying that, I looked at the U.S. commander.

This man was still severely injured.

Not just his leg, but his head was heavily bandaged, covering one eye.

I thought it was just blood preventing him from opening his eye, but it seemed he had injured his eye.

He shouldn’t be getting wet in the rain.

I asked:

“What happens now?”

The U.S. commander smiled bitterly and said:

“We can’t launch helicopters in this weather, so who knows. I might have a drink.”

A drink?

“Is… the preparation complete?”

The U.S. commander nodded.

“We’ve been loading weapons for a while. Only one Chinook’s worth is left. Remember?”

Ah.

The weapons from the armory I saw last night.

…There were so many, but it was just one Chinook’s worth?

Loading all the weapons from the armory would provide enough for solid defense.

The ammunition was stacked in boxes.

I slowly nodded.

“I’ll take good care of them. Thank you.”

The U.S. commander shook his head.

“You earned them. You deserve them.”

He chuckled and said:

“I remember you were quite seriously injured the last time I saw you. I won’t ask how you recovered so quickly without any bandages. I’d probably be surprised if I heard the answer.”

Hearing that, I chuckled as well.

The U.S. commander said:

“I want to say ‘see you again,’ but I’m not sure if I do. I’m worried about what we might face next.”

He nodded to the U.S. soldier holding the umbrella.

The young U.S. soldier handed me a plastic box that looked like a toolbox.

What’s this?

As I took it, the U.S. commander said:

“It’s a satellite radio. We don’t know how long communication will last, so it’s good to be prepared.”

Ah.

A radio.

The U.S. commander smiled and looked at me.

“I hope we can stay in touch. We’ll help you when we can, and you can help us when you need it.”

He extended his hand.

I looked at his hand and chuckled.

“It might be hard to help each other when these people go to the U.S.”

He smiled and said:

“Even just sharing information would be valuable, wouldn’t it?”

He continued to hold out his hand and smiled.

Sharing information.

…Hmm.

It’s still good to have allies, even if they’re far away in another country.

I shook his hand.

His hand, wet from the rain, was firmly grasped and slowly shaken.

Meanwhile, Seong Ga-yeon whispered to me:

“Seong Hoon. The villagers.”

Villagers?

Turning around, I saw people walking over.

…I understand why they’re here.

I glanced at the U.S. commander and asked:

“Do you have some weapons to give them?”

The U.S. commander looked at the villagers and slowly nodded.

“That’s not a problem… How about this. I’ll instruct the Chinook to unload a few boxes of ammunition and weapons. You can distribute them to the villagers.”

Hmm?

Why go through this trouble?

The U.S. commander smiled and said:

“The villagers don’t like us anyway, and we’re leaving soon. It would be good for you and the villagers to have a stronger relationship.”

Um…

Will it really work that way?

Seong Gyu-hyuk whispered quietly:

“Let’s do it that way. There’s a deep rift between the two groups, and giving them weapons won’t make them suddenly get along.”

I slowly nodded.

“Let’s do it then.”

The U.S. commander smiled and turned around.

“I’ll leave the villagers to you. Ah, Mr. Hoon. That’s your name, right?”

Mr. Hoon, again?

I found it a bit odd and chuckled, turning to look at him.

The U.S. commander said:

“I have some good whiskey in my room. Come by if you want.”

Um…

I don’t particularly enjoy drinking.

Could you give me some cigars?

Meanwhile, the villagers were gradually approaching.

I nodded at the U.S. commander and turned around.

The sound of the U.S. commander and the umbrella-holding U.S. soldier walking away mixed with the approaching footsteps of the villagers.

And the sound of someone running to the hangar. Probably to relay the U.S. commander’s orders.

The special forces and I stood there, waiting for the villagers to approach.

The first to speak to me was the large man who had aimed a gun at me.

He walked over without an umbrella, drenched in rain, and awkwardly scratched his head, bowing to me.

“I… I’m sorry for what happened a few days ago.”

“You shouldn’t aim a gun at people. You’re not a robber.”

Seong Ga-yeon said.

Her voice was quite sharp.

Her expression showed she was quite angry.

The large man couldn’t respond and kept bowing, repeatedly saying “I’m sorry.”

Seong Ga-yeon was about to say more, so I raised my hand to calm her and looked at the large man.

Behind him, about a hundred villagers had gathered.

Some seemed to be farmers from the village, and others were survivors from the nearby town.

It looked like they were all gathered in one village now.

About a hundred…

I said:

“Why are you here? Do you need weapons?”

The large man couldn’t even say yes or no, just bowing his head.

An old man stepped forward and nodded.

“Yes. We came to discuss that with you.”

The old man.

His face was familiar.

He was the one who had worried about my safety during the fight with the monster cat.

I smiled and said:

“If you have weapons, what will you do next? Will you point guns at people and rob them again?”

The large man’s face turned red, and he bowed his head deeply.

The old man shook his head.

“Of course not. Sir, look at us. We are not soldiers or robbers. We are farmers. We just planted our crops, and now this happened. We don’t have enough people to tend to these vast fields.”

…Farmers.

Now that I think about it, this place had enormous farmland.

Huge farmland surrounding the large U.S. base, which was the size of a city.

The old man said:

“We need weapons to protect ourselves. If dangerous beasts appear while we’re growing rice, barley, peppers, and cabbage, it wouldn’t be good, right?”

…Farmland.

Crops.

…This could be…

Quite good?

I tilted my head and asked:

“Do you use farm machinery?”

“Yes, we do. Why wouldn’t we?”

“It’s going to get harder to get fuel, though?”

Then, an ajumma (middle-aged woman) stepped forward and said:

“We have cattle and pigs. There’s a livestock farm behind us.”

Ah.

They plan to farm in an analog way.

I tilted my head.

“Have the cattle and pigs changed?”

The ajumma sighed and said:

“Many have changed. But, fortunately, some are still alive. After receiving weapons from the U.S. soldiers, the first thing we did was cull the changed ones. We still have many survivors, so they should be fine for farming.”

Living livestock to work the fields.

I suddenly became curious.

“Do you have any livestock that have given birth? How are the young ones?”

The ajumma said:

“The young ones born from the survivors are all fine. None of them are strange.”

I slowly nodded.

Not bad.

I nodded and said:

“Alright. I’ll give you weapons. But there’s a condition.”

The large man looked up.

“A condition…?”

I smiled.

“There are quite a few survivors in Seoul. I’ll give you weapons in exchange for crops. If you need any other support, we’ll provide it.”

I glanced at Seong Gyu-hyuk.

Is this deal okay?

Seong Gyu-hyuk whispered to me:

“The President wouldn’t object to this.”

He wouldn’t.

Giving away a portion of the ten-ton weapons, which were not even ours but provided by the U.S., in exchange for food.

Helping people protect themselves and also helping them.

President Min Jeong-woo wouldn’t object to this.

“What do you think?”

The farmers looked at each other.

Their faces brightened.

The old man said:

“We’ll take whatever you give us. If you need rice, of course we’ll provide it.”

…Good.

I stepped forward and looked at the large man.

He looked up at me, his eyes tense.

The man who had aimed a gun at me.

The old man had stepped in kindly and gently, but now a strong man was needed.

To protect the farmers who would grow our food, we needed a strong man like him.

“…Can we consider this an alliance?”

I extended my hand.

The man looked at me, then at my hand.

With a somewhat emotional expression, he shook my hand.

“…I’m really sorry for what happened before. Of course. Just give the order. I’ll follow it.”

I chuckled and patted his shoulder.

It’s fine.

This solves our food problem.