Chapter 19
“Nearby, hoo, there’s a restroom nearby. If we go farther there’s a shelter too, so should we go this way?” “Yes, I think we just need to go a little farther.”
Baek Jin moved the screen and checked whether there was a dead end. Then, after confirming the way to the shelter, he reached out and helped the student and the woman up.
It felt exactly like returning to his childhood. The bracelet on his wrist felt even heavier as he remembered the time when he had been powerless, with no ability, and had only been beaten.
But now was not the time to fall into old thoughts. Getting out with the child in his arms and the people following him came first.
“Kyaaah!”
At that very moment, at a scream from close by, the three people’s gazes met. They began running at once.
If it were after evacuating people, he could kill the variants, but for now there was nothing he could do but flee, and his insides burned.
They ran and ran. When he wondered if they had taken the wrong way because the building that should have appeared by now didn’t, a sign came into view. Relief burst out with his breath.
Restrooms 500M Shelter 2 800M
“Sh, shelter!”
At the student shouting in a lowered voice, Baek Jin nodded. The distance wasn’t far, so it would be better to go to the shelter. From what he had seen earlier, if they turned the corner and went straight, it was the shelter.
Just as he stepped faster to pick up speed, a short scream, ah!, came from the student, and someone yanked Baek Jin’s arm hard.
“You can’t go that way!”
An armed soldier stood before his eyes. Baek Jin braced his body so he wouldn’t drop the child in his arms and barely kept his balance.
“Are, are you an esper? Did you come to save us?” The student who had fallen got up with round eyes.
“Currently there are many variants at the shelter, so you must not approach.” “Are you an esper?” “…….” “You’re taking us with you, right?”
The student clung half-hanging onto the soldier’s arm as he spoke. The soldier looked at him expressionlessly and said he was a guide. Then the expression that had been colored with hope slowly erased, then crumpled completely.
“……We’re screwed. Fuck. Ah, Mom……”
Baek Jin felt puzzled by the student’s appearance. If a guide was here, it meant battle had begun, and there were espers nearby, wasn’t it? But as if used to this situation, the man continued.
“A rescue team is currently coming. There are no variants nearby, so please go back the way you came.” “Let’s go, hyung! Noona, get up too! There’s no time for this!”
As if there was nothing more to hear, the student turned away. But the guide, despite being ignored, faithfully covered their rear. They couldn’t drag out time in one place for long, so Baek Jin pressed down his uncomfortable feelings and bowed his head to the guide.
“…Thank you.” “Yes, please hurry.” Tat-tat! Tat! Ta-ta-tat!
From all sides, the sound of gunfire firing simultaneously came. Judging that this place was no longer safe, Baek Jin didn’t stop turning his head even as he ran. Should they go to the rescue team as the guide said, or should they hide for now? If they had to hide, where should they hide? All around were only grass and trees.
He immediately raised his head and examined the trees, but if a civilian climbed a tree alone and fell, they would only become prey for the crocodiles.
Drawing the surrounding terrain in his head, Baek Jin turned at a fork not toward where the rescue team was, but in the opposite direction. When they arrived at the restroom building, dragging the student who said it wasn’t this way, people were visible pounding on the firmly closed door.
“The door! Please, open the door!”
“Please!”
But the door did not open.
“Huh, hyung! Where, where do we go!” “Now, huh, I can’t go anymore…….”
Baek Jin helped the woman, who was bent half over catching her breath, to her feet and headed to the back wall. Fortunately, the building with its flat roof and considerable height was in perfect condition for hiding bodies. There were five people in front of the restroom, plus the student and woman who had come with him, and the child in his arms. There was enough room for everyone to hide, so now they just had to hold out until the rescue team came.
Letting out a ragged breath, Baek Jin asked the student calmly.
“What’s your name?” “Kim Hye-jun…..” “Hye-jun, climb on top of the building and hold out until the rescue team comes. It’s during battle, so you’ll be rescued soon.” “Hy, hyung……” “Let’s lift the baby up first.”
He handed the child to Hye-jun, who nodded with a frightened face. Only now did feeling return to his arm, which he hadn’t straightened once the whole time he ran holding the child.
Baek Jin stepped back a few steps, then ran straight and clung to the building. Putting his toes into a slightly dug-out crack, he easily climbed onto the building, well over two meters high. After his long mercenary life, this much was not difficult even without using his ability.
Lying on the flat rooftop and lowering his upper body halfway down, Hye-jun stretched out both hands and lifted up the child, who had cried himself exhausted, fallen asleep as if fainting, and woken again.
“A little more! Baby, hands up, hands up!”
Though terrified, the child immediately stretched out his arms. Baek Jin used his strength in an instant to lift the child, placed him in the center of the rooftop, and without delay jumped back down.
“Step on my shoulder and go up first. I’ll lift people up, so pull them from above. Look after the child too.” When he knelt on one knee on the ground, tapped his shoulder telling him to climb, and urged Hye-jun, who hesitated and couldn’t readily step on it, to hurry, Hye-jun seemed to make up his mind and placed a foot on one of Baek Jin’s shoulders. Baek Jin rose slowly just like that and even served as a support so Hye-jun could climb all the way up. Next was the turn of the woman who had come with them. Likewise, when she stepped on Baek Jin’s shoulder and climbed up, Hye-jun, who had gone up first, pulled the woman up.
“Look there!” “Please lift us up too! Please!”
People who belatedly saw the woman climbing onto the building swarmed in an instant. Forgetting any order, pushing each other to climb first, footprints began to be left on Baek Jin’s white short-sleeved shirt.
“Hurry up! Hurry!” “Fuck, don’t push!” “Me first! I’ll go up first!”
Should he save even people like this? At the sudden thought, he flinched in surprise, but it was in fact his true feeling. Baek Jin had never fought a fight without compensation. He had no obligation to protect anyone, and if he moved alone, he could meet Seo Young-woo without any harm, so rescuing people itself was no different from a loss for Baek Jin.
“Hyung, hyungah…….”
Then, at a voice from above, Baek Jin raised his head. The child he had carried in his arms and run with all this time was staring at him. Then tears fell drop by drop to the ground.
“Sorry. Just hold on a little more. Your mom will come get you.” Erasing his stray thoughts, Baek Jin brought the person who had been pushed to the very back to his side first and knelt again. He lifted them onto his shoulder one by one onto the roof, and finally, as he knelt again for the woman standing beside him as if waiting for her own turn, it happened.
“F, fuck! Get away! Save me, save me!”
The voice grew closer and closer, and soon an adult man’s figure appeared. But behind him, more than five variants were chasing him.
Baek Jin pulled the arm of the woman, who was surprised and didn’t know what to do. In this situation, if they stayed like this they would be nothing but prey, so he had to get her up first.
“Why, why aren’t the espers coming! Fuck! I’m going to die like this!” At the screaming of the man running toward them, variants gathered more and more.
“Hurry and climb on!” “Ah, ah…….” “Miss, hurry!”
The woman, whose attention had been stolen by the approaching variants, belatedly came to her senses at the voices shouting from above. The woman who immediately stepped on Baek Jin’s shoulder and stood braced one hand on the wall and barely kept her balance. But perhaps from fear, she couldn’t lift her other foot from the ground.
The variants drew closer and closer. If he went up first like this, he wouldn’t be hurt, but the woman might not be saved.
He was thinking of running with the woman on his back if he had to, but the man running from behind grabbed the woman by the hair and pulled her back just like that.
“Aaah!” “Fuck, move! If you’re going to be eaten, be eaten alone! That way at least one more person lives!” The face of the woman, falling backward into despair, came into view.
“Hyu, hyung! Behind you! Behind!!!”
The student’s voice shouting from on top of the building sounded only small. The crocodile approaching with its mouth open as if to bite looked as if it would swallow the fallen woman at any moment.
Baek Jin, who had run out as if bursting forward, immediately lifted the woman into his arms. Because he was an esper. Because there was someone who saved him for no reason, he thought first that it was right for him to save someone too.
The man was climbing the wall alone. Fortunately, confirming that there were still people on top of the building reaching their hands down, Baek Jin pulled up his remaining strength and hoisted the woman onto his shoulder.
“Don’t give up! Get a hold of yourself, miss!” “Hhic, I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.”
The woman took people’s hands and stood stepping on Baek Jin. Watching her climb safely onto the building, Baek Jin finally let out a choked breath, and at that moment it happened.
“Ugh!”
In that instant, pain spread from his calf as if flesh were being torn away. Baek Jin’s face crumpled completely.
Blood flowed. Watching the bright red liquid seep into the ground, he thought he would have to give up climbing the building. If he stayed here, the people inside the restroom would not be safe because of the smell of blood.
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