Hiding the House in the Apocalypse

42. paradise (3)

“what? Health screenings? What is it?”

“Medical check.”

“aha. But is it possible?”

Among my neighbors, the health condition is suspected is the sniper’s mother and daughter.

I persuaded her and decided to have a health checkup together.

“Camp Dutch Goose.”

muttered Rebecca looking at the old US military base with gloomy eyes.

“What kind of place is it?”

An air base that stores tactical nuclear weapons.

This is the approximate information I have.

As soon as the war began, the U.S. forces quickly recovered strategic assets and emptied their bases.

“This is where my husband was.”

“husband?”

“I was in Daegu. My husband is here.”

“Where is your husband?”

“I must have gone to America.”

“I’m glad.”

“I’m looking for it on the Internet.”

Although her eyes were bloodshot as if she had been browsing the Internet all night, she gave strength to her eyes and revealed a strong will.

She added quietly, holding her daughter’s hand.

“I don’t want to make a daughter without a father.”

I understand what you mean.

He looked at her and spoke with sincerity.

“Husband, I hope you find it.”

I entered the US military base with Rebecca and her daughter.

Now, it is not the US military who occupy the base, but the people of Park Chul-ju.

They seemed quite surprised when I brought strangers with them.

“What, what?”

“foreigner? Is it an American military uniform?”

“What is the child?”

Amidst the buzz, a man approached me.

He is Seong-Jun Seong, the son-in-law of Cheol-Jun Park.

“Something? Who are these people?”

“They are my relatives.”

“A relative?”

Pilseong Kim tilted his head and looked at Rebecca.

“Relatives, is that right…?”

“This is my sister’s wife. So, that’s my sister-in-law.”

“Aren’t you called Jesu?”

“Ah, I’m a bit cosmopolitan, so I’m ignorant about degrees.”

Seong-jun Seong-jun made a face asking what it had to do with that, but didn’t say anything.

I was left to think that I was an ignorant person.

“Come this way.”

Seong-jun Seong-jun led us inside the US military underground facility.

The facility is somehow tidy, and one of them has been decorated as a pretty decent infirmary.

Inside the infirmary, there were medical beds, IVs, and medical instruments neatly arranged on silver trays.

Rebecca, who was dissatisfied inside, also held her daughter’s hand tightly when she saw the scenery of the infirmary.

Looking at the well-organized medical equipment, it seems that trust has been gained.

“Where is the doctor?”

When I asked, Seong-jun Seong-jun suddenly put on a white coat, turned on medical lights, and put on a reflector and stethoscope.

“I am a doctor.”

Seong-jun Seong-jun held out his cell phone with a bitter smile and showed himself in the past.

He was a university hospital doctor, that is, a professor.

“Okay, let’s begin.”

examination has begun.

Blood was drawn, the mouth was opened, a cold metal was placed on the tongue, blood pressure and eyesight were measured, and tests were performed, such as beating the knee with a strange hammer.

Seong-jun Seong-jun looked at me with a bit of surprise.

“I heard that you live in poor conditions…”

“I live a life in harmony with Mother Nature.”

“okay. But if you live in the great outdoors, most of them die.”

an accurate comment.

If he is simply thrown into Mother Nature, this Park Gyu will also die.

“How about me?”

“You are very healthy. You are as healthy as our president.”

My turn is over.

Next is the sniper’s daughter.

Rebecca whined, but Seong-jun Seong-jun spoke fluent English and had a knack for soothing people.

I was worried that Rebecca would be talking nonsense, but at least as long as she spoke English, she didn’t make mistakes.

Uncharacteristically for an American, Suu reacted incomprehensible to some of Seong-jun’s difficult terms.

Each time, Rebecca stroked Su’s head and whispered in his ear.

The look was pretty good.

I thought I brought you here well.

After Rebecca’s mother and daughter’s examination, Seong-jun Seong-jun approached me.

“Your sister-in-law and her daughter are in good health. What is the average of this era? Vitamin deficiency is a concern due to chronic malnutrition. More detailed results will be known only after the blood test results come out.”

Seong-jun Seong-jun stood up from his seat.

“The blood test will take about a day.”

Haru.

I think it will feel quite long.

Pretending to tighten his belt, he asked in passing.

“Are you going to Jeju Island together?”

“yes?”

he saw me

“Are you going to Jeju Island with the chairman?”

“no. I am not going.”

“Did you like the plane?”

“Gulfstream. It is a toy for world-class rich people.”

“Who controls it?”

“I have a pilot. Our president also had a pilot’s license when he was young. Oh, and I have a license too. Even though I have an American light aircraft license.”

A smile bloomed on Seong-Jun Sung’s lips as he talked about the plane.

“Is your wife with you?”

Seong-jun Seong-jun erased the smile from his lips and shook his head.

“I died in the last shelling. with the child.”

With an expressionless expression on his face, he told the horrific truth.

He spoke so carelessly that it sounded like he was talking to someone else.

“sorry.”

“There is nothing to be sorry about. It is an unavoidable reality. There are countless people who have suffered much worse than me, so I have to say that.”

Seong-Jun Seong sighed.

“If you have nowhere else to go, ask Pilseong Kim. They will find you a good spot.”

“A good seat?”

“You know the legionnaires, right?”

“Of course I know”

“They are always recruiting talented hunters. It is said that a junior Kim Pil-seong is in charge, but maybe you know him?”

“A junior?”

“yes. It’s a woman.”

“Your name?”

“well. well there. It seems that he was short. My age looks similar to that one. I feel a bit younger, but I was definitely not in my early to mid-twenties.”

Just then, a woman entered the clinic.

“professor. Pilseong Kim is looking for you.”

“Ah yes. Wait.”

Seong-jun Seong-jun asked me for my understanding and left.

Before leaving, he turned to me and said a word.

“Oh, the blood test results will come out tomorrow. Please come back one more time. Is it close?”

After he left, Rebecca joined Mother and Daughter.

Both of them look very satisfied.

Suu even had a popsicle bar in her hand, but Rebecca bent down to take a bite full of her daughter’s.

Suu tried to nag her in English, but Rebecca couldn’t answer properly because her mouth was full of cold things, and she clutched her head, wondering if she had a headache because she suddenly ate a lot of cold things.

“mom. too bad.”

After the commotion subsided a bit, the mother and daughter stared at me at the same time.

“thank you. Skeleton.”

“thank you.”

I sent them both back first.

The two of them rode their bicycles amicably and proceeded slowly towards the green meadow.

I was lost in thought for a moment as I watched them disappear.

“・・・・・Whoa.”

Who is the person in charge of the Corps faction that Seong-jun Seong-jun talked about earlier?

Maybe Daram Kim.

Is it Kim Da-ram, who has lost contact now, has no way to know the news, and even had his walkie-talkie taken away by someone else?

Daram Kim is a good guy.

He got along well with me, was quick to notice, and was good at handling things.

Of course, there are also downsides.

He has a personality that is overly demanding.

He never forgave, especially if he harbored a grudge.

The attitude of calling Lee Sang-hoon Mr. Lee Sang-hoon to the end is because something happened to him.

It seems that the goal of that emotion has not been resolved even in the same situation where they are treated the same in the same workplace.

There is a good chance that she will join the Corps.

if she is alive

That would be a good thing.

But why?

this cool feeling.

The object I saw yesterday, presumably a nuclear bomb, bothers me.

Above all, Seong-jun Seong-joon bluntly revealed the truth in the judo newspaper.

When asked if I was going to Jeju Island, he said yes.

It’s completely different from Ji Young-hee’s words.

Ji Young-hee said that the destination of the plane was Japan.

Japan, Jeju Island, airplanes, nuclear bombs, chaebol presidents, and Daram Kim.

“…”

I just have a bad feeling about it.

To the point where the air around me felt stuffy.

As I was about to get up to get some fresh air, someone was standing by the door.

An elderly man, tall and neatly dressed in a suit.

It’s Park Cheol-joo.

he is staring at me

Do you have anything to say?

As I watched, he approached me with slow steps.

“Do you have a pistol?”

He glanced back.

I wondered if they were looking at the man with the gun, but they didn’t pay much attention to Park Chul-ju.

Could it be that the bodyguards are too indifferent to the bodyguards?

I thought so and asked.

“A pistol?”

“Can you sell me one? Dama. With everything.”

“Where are you going to use it?”

“It’s for leisure.”

“Don’t you have a pistol, Chairman?”

Park Cheol-ju put his hand in his pocket and put a cold, heavy object in my hand.

it’s gold

“ESFP.”

He said

“I’m actually an ESFP.”

I don’t know what he’s talking about.

But those eyes were desperately longing for my pistol.

I handed him the pistol I was holding.

“Do you know how to use it?”

“I don’t know.”

“If you put it like this, the safety device will be unlocked. If you hold this part and press it, the magazine will come out. You know that when you pull the trigger, the bullet comes out, so I’ll skip it.”

Park Cheol-joo listened to my explanation earnestly from beginning to end.

The madness I felt when I first saw it was nowhere to be found.

Is this the real face of this man?

A thought came to me suddenly.

He put his pistol inside and glared at the plane with wrinkled eyes.

“The Ogasawara Islands. Do you know where?”

“I’ve heard the name.”

“It’s a nice place. It’s not the most beautiful place, but it’s my favorite place. So it’s like a paradise.”

“It’s paradise…”

“Is there a paradise for you too?”

“well.”

I remembered my air-raid shelter.

It does not mean paradise in the dictionary sense.

I just thought of my air-raid shelter because there is no place like my air-raid shelter in a realistic sense.

“I like it here.”

“Then it is paradise.”

“is that so?”

A paradise with a toilet in the middle.

What kind of paradise is such a paradise?

“I haven’t found paradise yet. I thought I made one, but they broke them all. Well, even if they hadn’t blown it, the conclusion would have been the same.”

“why?”

“Even a place that I thought was a paradise eventually shows its flaws one by one. Don’t you call a place you don’t like a paradise?”

At that point, I noticed someone walking from the other side.

It’s Ji Young-hee.

“Paradise ceases to be paradise.”

“Maybe. Then wouldn’t it be meaningless to be a paradise? What if you keep seeing flaws?”

“I tend to seek a new paradise. So it’s an endless journey. You find one paradise, get disappointed there, and head for the next one. I am also disappointed there.”

“It’s like Zeno’s paradox.”

“okay. It’s like Zenon’s tortoise. It looks like it will catch up, but it doesn’t catch on. by the way.”

Ji Young-hee, who was approaching us, called Park Chul-ju.

“President.”

Park Cheol-ju turned his head and glanced at Ji Young-hee before continuing.

“Isn’t the process of finding paradise itself fun?”

He gazed at his plane again with a pleased look.

“Ogasawara. Come on Ogasawa.”

Park Cheol-joo turned around, repeating the paradise he was currently envisioning, as if reciting a spell.

After he left, he asked Ji Young-hee.

“Are you going to the Ogasawara Islands?”

Ji Young-hee nodded.

“yes. Didn’t I tell you before?”

“When are you leaving?”

“I don’t think it will take long. A couple of days?”

“okay.”

As soon as I returned to the shelter, I contacted Woo Min-hee.

*

It had to be.

I think the destination of that plane is Jeju Island.

They put a nuclear bomb packed with malice in a pretty packaging case called the fallen chairman of a chaebol to strike a grievous blow at the Jeju government for betraying them.

It’s a possible scenario.

But before we talk, there’s something I want to ask you.

“Isn’t Jeju Island important?”

“huh.”

Woo Min-hee answered dryly.

“why? It won’t matter.”

“Can you tell me a little bit about what you’re doing?”

“suddenly?”

Woo Min-hee’s voice changed sharply.

I felt a deep displeasure.

Normally, I would have cut off the conversation there.

But it can’t be.

“It’s important.”

“senior. Do you know what your situation is?”

“know.”

“You are a civilian. It’s because I didn’t say anything, senior, depending on your point of view, you could be accused of being a legionnaire?”

“······Woo Min-hee. please.”

I couldn’t see her, but I lowered my head.

For a while, only breathing could be heard over the walkie-talkie.

After a moment of silence passed, she heard her silly laugh.

“Senior Park. He was someone who could do a favor.”

“…”

“Didn’t you ask for it sooner?”

she asked mockingly.

There is no answer to ridicule.

There is only silence disguised as reflection.

After a heavy silence, Woo Min-hee opened her mouth again.

“That’s when. If you had asked Kang Min-min back then, you wouldn’t have lived in a strange place like you do now, right? Honestly, didn’t everyone know that seniors were given a higher position than seniors Lee Sang-hoon? Come to that now…”

A sharp metal sound from beyond the speaker suddenly scratched my eardrum.

Maybe scratching something with a prosthetic hand?

It’s quite a bad taste behavior, but rather, I thought it was like Woo Min-hee and waited for an answer.

“I will close the rift.”

The result of waiting was really worth it.

I asked, feeling my heart race.

“…Is this a possible story?”

“We have succeeded in closing the least intense rift in India. Although it is an achievement after already losing 99.8% of the population.”

“······!!”

I unknowingly clenched my fist.

If I had flammable substances in my eyes, my pupils might have been burned.

Lee Sang-hoon was standing in front of me.

That nasty guy was smiling at me.

After all, is he trying to stab me in the back of the head?

The rich boy who lagged behind me for 10,000 years.

I had to hold back the laughter.

Because Woo Min-hee hates hearing noise other than words.

Instead, I waited for her next words, feeling the blood rushing through my heart.

“Kang Han-min and Na Hye-in are closing the rift now. By making great sacrifices.”

she told the truth

“Don’t post it on the internet. If you upload it, I will come to you right away.”

“What is the Internet?”

“If you don’t want to, don’t. Then hang up?”

Then I should respond with the same truth.

“I found the nucleus.”

I talked about what I saw.

Stories about Chul-Ju Park, private planes, the Chinese, Pil-Sung Kim, the Ogasawara Islands, and nuclear weapons.

Woo Min-hee’s impression was short and heavy.

“It must be Jeju Island.”

she snorted.

“The purpose must be to drop nuclear weapons on Jeju Island.”

I’ve never liked Minhee Woo, but in general, her thoughts matched mine.

she chuckled.

“Daram Kim, maybe that’s what he was thinking?”

“Daram Kim? Are you in the legion?”

“Isn’t it?”

“You don’t know either?”

“Doesn’t the senior smell?”

Woo Min-hee’s cruel smile was drawn in front of my eyes.

Perhaps right now she is smiling in the dark laboratory, moving the fingers of her prosthetic hand that can create a wave pattern.

“He. You sang Jeju Island, Jeju Island songs, right?”

“… it’s not like that.”

“If it is a paradise I cannot have, I would rather destroy it. Isn’t that a fitting idea for a woman like Janus?”

I think so.

Daram Kim.

If she was alive and had entrusted herself to the legionnaires, wouldn’t she want to kill all the traitors on Jeju Island who abandoned her and did not accept her?

Wouldn’t he want to burn down the paradise he once envisioned?

“Thanks for the info. You did a good job getting in touch. If I hadn’t reported it, I would have never known.”

“… this way.”

“There will be an all-out battle. Senior is avoiding Because you might die.”

War will soon break out in my realm.

It’s a disaster I called.

But it is unavoidable.

Jeju Island cannot be lost.

There is a paradise left behind by my comrade Lee Sang-hoon.

named hope.