EP 28 – No Country for Superman (20)
“… … The city has disappeared from the map.”
“What? What are you talking about.”
“Where the city of Wairuz used to be, there is nothing but the desert. The terrain has changed.”
“… … You must have searched the wrong coordinates.”
The observer, who pushed the tide, manipulated the satellite map. However, no matter how many coordinates are entered, the photo does not change. The monitor is just floating in what appears to be the middle of the desert.
“Hey, I can’t do this… … .”
The speed at which the observer presses the enter key has been increased. In the end, he gets mad and hits the button repeatedly. The watching assistant deterred the observer.
“Why are you doing this, boss? … ! It’s right there!”
“My parents are there.”
“… … .”
The city was a far cry from the front line. A large number of refugees resided, and most of them are indigenous peoples who could not escape abroad due to lack of money.
The observer held the coordinates for a long time and manipulated the satellite map. But the monitor is still showing the desert.
No matter how many coordinates are entered, the map does not change. It still shows the middle of the desert.
It was a desert.
It was a desert.
* * *
“Call the Air Force, you bastard!”
“This is the ADF Aviation Headquarters. LCC-19 Respond. Repeat. This is the Australian Defense Force Aviation Headquarters. An immediate air strike from the 7th Fleet is needed… … .”
“I don’t have time, so tell me. Are you a monster? Is it an earthquake? … … No, why is a bastard who doesn’t even know that the commander is sitting here!”
The Australian military was in total chaos. When the bad news overlapped one after another, the entire workforce fell into a panic.
In the first place, less than 24 hours had passed since the prime minister fled at night and the soldiers took power. Less than 12 hours have passed since the United States suddenly dropped 32 nuclear bombs.
But there was another accident.
“… … A monster from the basement came up and a city was covered with sand? Does that make sense? Haven’t you guys gone crazy as a group?”
Therefore, Lieutenant General Herbert’s sudden summons was justified.
And to convince the lieutenant general, a two-minute satellite image was enough.
“Uh, um… … uh… … okay.”
After viewing the video, Lieutenant General Herbert’s mouth was shut. A video in which one person is executed is called a snuff film, but a video in which 70,000 people die is a disaster film.
In this living hell called Australia, even a man like a military general was not a normal person, so the lieutenant general quickly regained his senses and began to deal with it.
“What is the current situation?”
“After the earthquake that destroyed the building, the ground rose and a huge mountain was formed. And the sand poured down like a landslide, and the city was buried. The culprit was observed using satellite images, and it is still moving in real time.”
“Where is the monster moving?”
“On our way to Perth.”
“… … Perth city? Or the Perth area?”
“Isn’t there already a monster in the vicinity? It is a place where people live wherever they go.”
Australia has an extremely low population density. So all the population is concentrated in a few cities. And unfortunately, Perth was one of the biggest cities.
Perth, a coastal city in the southwest, has a simple population of 900,000, and about 2 million if you include nearby residential areas.
Of course, that is an old story, and considering the current situation when mankind has been pushed to the edge of the continent, about 3 million. Or close to that.
“So… … A monster who destroyed a small town with a population of 70,000 in one blow. Are you saying you are moving to a place where 3 million people live now?”
“It is already there.”
“I wish it was a lie.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Ugh.”
The lieutenant general has accepted the terrible reality.
It wasn’t too difficult because we were already living in a terrible reality.
“Drop a nuclear bomb.”
* * *
The nuclear bomb was transferred to the bomber. It wasn’t a very pleasant option to fire a nuclear missile at a target that moves irregularly rather than in a certain area.
However, in order for the bombers to move in a sky full of monsters, they needed the help of a squadron of fighters. Bird strikes happen by chance, but they run on purpose.
Therefore, the nuclear bomber squadron departing from Darwin Air Force Base decided to cover a distance of about 2,000 km in 1 hour and 30 minutes. It was planned to be 30 minutes behind the maximum speed.
“So our goal is to last an hour and a half.”
“All right.”
“However, if you remove troops from the front, the front will be pushed back. These days, because of the ants, millions of small ones are more scared than one big ones. First respond with a combat helicopter.”
The Australian Command’s judgment was relatively appropriate. It is a strategic disaster, not a tactical threat. It would not have had much of an effect if the army had to be put into the army.
The problem was that combat helicopters were also not very effective.
“The air-to-ground missile failed because it was underground. In addition, two helicopters crashed due to a nearby sandstorm.”
“… … okay?”
“Wherever it moves, there is a huge sandstorm. Besides, like a real desert snake, the body shakes and moves from side to side… … They drive almost the entire desert.”
Although the surreal scene wasn’t imagined in my head, the satellite imagery showed a small typhoon of sandstorms.
The general managed to keep his sanity and keep his composure. I didn’t just survive in this living hell.
“… … What about the Knights Society?”
“It is coming. They say it will take three hours.”
“Well, a supersonic bomber takes over an hour… … Are there no teleporters?”
“No.”
“The situation is really going crazy.”
There was absolutely nothing wrong with that statement.
The monster is still active in a province with a population of 3 million. Several villages have already been caught up, resulting in thousands of casualties.
If you go to the downtown area where more than 900,000 people are densely populated… … .
At that time, it will be a situation where destruction really shimmers.
The general made a decision in front of the tactical map.
“… … Were there 6 S-Class Manastones right now?”
“That’s right.”
“Hang it on a helicopter and send it off. Let’s throw the bait to the earthworm.”
Superhumans aren’t the only ones to absorb manastones. Even monsters have ecosystems.
With about 6 S-class Manastones, it would be possible to lure that SSS-class monster.
“… … Lure that damn worm in the direction of Wise Hill. Let’s get it as far away as possible from densely populated areas, and then hit the nuclear bomb directly.”
“Hold on, Commander. You want the monster to be Wise Hill?”
“What.”
“There… … Isn’t that where people live?”
“okay. Wise Hill is a small town with a population of about 8,000. Its upper town, St. Capre, is a refugee zone of about 110,000 people, and its lower town, J-Pa, is also an urban center with 40,000 people.”
The lieutenant general responded as if it was too obvious.
“The problem is that the other side is a place where more than 900,000 people live, and there are roughly 2 million people gathered around it.”
“But, Commander. You can’t evacuate 8,000 people in 20 minutes. In addition, ordinary people cannot use vehicles because of oil… … ”
“Hey. It’s my luck that the monster hasn’t attacked the city center yet. It could crush 900,000 people right now. Besides, what if there is a monster in the city center when the nuclear bomb arrives?”
The lieutenant general shrugged casually.
It was because his military life was too tumultuous to hesitate to make such a judgment.
“Simple. To protect 900,000 to 2 million, 8,000 people are sacrificed.”
“… … .”
“It’s not that difficult of a calculation, is it?”
* * *
Wise Hill was a typical Western country village. A country house with a large yard and a garage with a shotgun.
A place where light airplanes spray pesticides on wheat fields that fill the horizon, and on a gloomy night, sheepdogs with pistols hang out and drink alcohol through their nostrils.
In such a ubiquitous rural village, the image of a common disaster movie was being drawn.
“Ahhhhhhhh!”
“Hey, let us ride too! burn it! You motherf**ker!”
“I will go there at once. I’m waiting with the kids, baby!”
People were running away from the tsunami coming from the horizon. What was a bit odd was that it was a tsunami made of sand storms. The earthquake was also quite severe.
Those who hid oil in their cars did a little better, those with pistols shot and killed the driver and took the car, and those who didn’t even ran away carrying their children and running away.
And, as with all disaster movies, on the outskirts of town, an old man was sitting on the side of the road, watching the tsunami from afar.
“… … .”
The wrinkled old man waited patiently for his approaching death.
When the cataracts clouded the pupils and tears welled up in the eyes.
Someone came up from behind and asked the old man.
“Old man, what are you doing here?”
“… … Uh, sir, that’s a surprise!”
The old man looked back in surprise.
An Asian with a pretty smile was looking down at him.
she asked the old man.
“Aren’t you running away?”
“… … I’m tired of running away.”
It was close to a will. Both the old man and the woman knew this, and the old man coughed and began to recite his will.
“There is no point in a life of running away.”
“… … is that so?”
“okay. Whether it’s porridge or rice, you have to light the fire to get something to eat. … Anyway, there’s no point in running away. Hmm!”
The old man tried to utter a plausible saying, but his tongue twisted and he finished his speech hastily.
As he coughs at the embarrassment and looks at his eyes, this Asian man seems to be impressed by the nonsense, so he comes to sit next to him and slumps down.
The woman asked the old man. The old man seemed to have lost his mind a little at that gentle smile.
“Is running away bad?”
“… … It’s not bad. It’s just comfortable. But it’s a problem because you can’t just go the easy way in life.”
“is that so?”
“… … Well.”
The old man suddenly recalled his life.
All of a sudden, he forgot all the fear of death and seemed to be immersed in the conversation with the woman.
“I am actually from Alice Springs. Exactly 1967 kilometers from here. Until then, there was a time when there was no funny conscience that old people and women had to get in the car, so I pushed out the seats of the young people and got on the evacuation bus.”
“… … Are the young more useful than the old?”
“It’s not a real problem. For the survival of the country, the more likely people had to be evacuated first. I had an old man like me evacuated, so I just ate and sat down. If the youngsters had evacuated, wouldn’t they have picked up some junk from the rubble and sold it?”
“… … Should we save only those who have the ability to pick up junk?”
“At least in Port Augusta. When the behemoths attacked southern Australia, then the government left the old men and women behind and boarded ships with engineers, high-ranking officials, and strong men. The rest of them all died while rolling their feet in the harbor.”
“Then how is the old man alive?”
“It’s me who sneaked into the trunk of some chaebol. One crazy b*tch loaded five or six bags almost the size of a human on the ship. It was a bag full of jewels and cash. Without those bags, the whole family would have been able to board the evacuation ship.”
“Didn’t you say that young people should live before old people?”
“This sounds like a big deal! Ah, thoughts are thoughts and reality is reality. I want to live, isn’t it human nature? It’s my opinion that you shouldn’t evacuate the elderly first, but it’s just crazy that I don’t evacuate!”
“You’re not running away now.”
“… … .”
The old man had a pierced expression on his face.
I looked up to the horizon, and a sand storm was near. The earthquake is getting worse, and the dark shadows are also approaching the village.
The old man sensed death.
And he revealed the sincerity that was in the deepest part of his heart.
“… … There are things more precious than life.”
“… … .”
“When I escaped from Alice Springs, I abandoned my son and fled. He was born with a sick body and suffered for his parents all his life. My wife also died from a vase because of him. I also didn’t want to see a head-to-head bastard being sued for doing stupid things on the Internet while only drinking alcohol on Heo Gu-Hun’s Day… … ”
The old man’s eyes reddened.
“I endured until the end when other people thought about it rationally and told me to cut the ties, but it felt really cool to throw it away like that. But now that I think about it, this is not cool. There is a hole in my heart.”
“… … .”
“I… … Is it normal for me to want to see him?”
The woman answered clearly.
“The more you hate it, the more you love it.”
She got up, brushing off the dust. Suddenly, a sandstorm rages in front of your eyes. A huge tsunami was about to wipe out the village.
Before the storm of sand that covered the sky, humans were really small and small. Far away, in the dark and yellow hell, a huge shadow trembling arouses the underlying fear.
Feeling the heartbeat pounding in tension, Hong Seon-ah smiled like this.
“Probably. I think it’s best to just do what you want.”
“… … What other nonsense is that?”
“Conscience, morality, national interest… … I’m just saving because I want to save. What do you have?”
Her hair fluttered violently in the strong winds of sand.
She covers her eyes with the back of her hand and steps towards the storm.
With a confident smile that resembles someone else on her lips.
“Whatever the reason. Because what is right is right.”
“… … .”
“Hey, old man! Is there anything you would like to do if you survived?”
The old man wondered if this was a crazy b*tch, but responded quickly as if he was possessed by something.
“… … Cola! It’s already been three years since I haven’t had a Coke!”
“Pepsi? Coca-Cola?”
“No, now that… … ! Oh, anyway, Pepsi!”
“OK! Receipt!”
The world was as dark as night. A sandstorm came and obscured the sun. A huge earthquake heralded disaster imminent.
The old man lies on his face in fear and waits for death, and Hong Seon-ah, who blocks the old man’s face, gazes at something in the dark and opens his arms.
and,
Flames spread in the eyes of the old man who raised his head in the warm heat,
Before the old man’s eyes stood a huge fire wall that had stopped the storm.