I'm still alive

'Daddy!'

The sun and the fresh spring breeze brush my face with a voice that I miss so much.

But when I opened my eyes, all I could see was not my longing being, but an empty space with nothing left.

I raise my head and look at the sky so clear.

The streets, which were always filled with residents of Eden, remained dusty, and the barriers we fought fiercely were covered with traces of time.

And I began to walk slowly, so naturally, stepping on the steps leading to the barrier.

"Brother, the stairs are very old. Carefully come up."

And the old man, who was slowly following me, did not forget to take care of Kim Joong-won, who was rushing over there.

Creak, creak.

The stairs, which have never been forgotten for four years, make familiar noises every time we step on them.

I'm thinking of fixing it every time, but they both blink so often that I forget it every time.

So with different ideas, we climbed up the barrier and put our bags on the guard post.

And I enjoyed the fresh morning air for a while, looking at the front of the city.

A gray city, a cradle and coffin that shows the traces of our lives while we are afraid.

I slowly lift the bow on my back forward and start moving my steps counterclockwise.

It's Eden now that only me and the old man are left.

But we were still in this position, maintaining only the vestibule of the fortress.

And the Wall Patrol, the beginning of the day, was an important task that we never missed, whether it was snowing or raining, during the four years we lived in a containment area.

And Kim Joong-won, who became the first outsider to walk the barrier, groaned like a dog who had to go to the back.

I'd like to ask you a lot, but you seem to be reading the room.

At the sight, the old man smiled helplessly and slowly approached him.

Soon, he begins a conversation with a friendly shoulder-length approach unique to the elderly.

"You wonder why I couldn't go out earlier?"

"Yes? Yes."

The man stammered, but instinctively nodded whether he was curious.

In his face, the embarrassment of the present situation, the slight injustice of not being able to get out of here,

And in the meantime, there was a curiosity about Eden's ruins and us.

But the old man took a telescope out of his pocket, licking his dry lips with his tongue, whether or not.

Then he hands the old telescope to the man and beckons as if he were to look over there.

"Do you see the alley on the side of the biggest building over there? Look there and under the car. It's just in time."

Are they together? What? While receiving the telescope with a puzzled look, the man steadily followed the instructions and lifted it up.

Then turn your head in the direction the old man points to, and gulp down the dryness so that you can hear the sound.

The eye that looks into the telescope, and the field of vision that penetrates.

Oh my gosh!

At that moment the man is startled and swallows a short cry.

The old man, however, held the staggered man's shoulders as if he had anticipated all the actions and helped him not to fall on the floor.

And the man who had been helped by the old man in an awkward posture asked us, stuttering with a pale face.

"What is that? There, there! There's something...….”

The man put the telescope down on the guard post desk and started making all sorts of fuss.

But we only quietly shut up, understanding even the fuss of such a man.

Because I and the old man, who had been through all sorts of hardships, were left speechless the first time I saw them.

The old man quietly picked up the telescope that was lying on the guard post desk and asked the man who was still pale.

"You see? Now you see?”

The man nods frantically at the old man's short question.

At the sight I smiled bitterly, and at the same time turned my head toward the sight the man had seen through the telescope.

There was a reason why we had to stay here for four years, where the eyes were so glazed, in that shady place.

‘ .’

As soon as I turn my eyes, my firm eyes tremble.

Blood from the fingertips circulates through the blood vessels and tears down the nerves.

A huge threat that sends out combat signals all over the body, even though it is a long distance.

Before living with the skin-licking hostility, I opened my eyes thinly and stared at the place.

I feel all over my body.

I breathe out quietly and open my eyes wide.

And when our eyes meet with the black ones, the sunlight that was shining on us is obscured by the clouds for a moment.

"Gee-yee-yee-yee-yee-yee.

A chilling sound like opening a rusty door that has been neglected for decades.

And the eyes of those who were making such cries were empty as if they had been eaten by crows.

But that empty space was clearly facing us,

The two hideous holes, whose nose did not exist, were fluttering to sniff out human beings.

"Hmm......."

And the man, who faced them head-on through a telescope, still sits on a chair at the guard post with a small moan, as if fear is still lingering.

The old man quietly touched the man's shoulder, and I spit on the floor, swallowing a sharply pointed nerve as if I were about to shoot.

Yeah, I understand a scared man.

It's not just because they look ugly.

They reminded me of the chilling slaughter and the Surado as if they were facing a tiger.

These monkfish were designed to make people with life naturally afraid.

And under that pit,

The asses from hell gathered like cockroaches, hiding themselves in the dark shadows of Hanji, even if they did not like the sunlight shining brightly on the gray city.

A wriggling, sickening sight.

But the old man quietly brooded over the familiar sight and began to moan at an outsider whom he had met for a long time.

The whimpering was a recitation of tiredness in the recollection of life that we had been through.

"You know the pit where they come out? There are a few here, too. Four years ago, only the ones who looked like humans came out, and one day, the ones that looked like they were rubbing in the mud in the biggest pit. "But they were the ones who came out as soon as Dong-yoon got better."

The old man snorted as if dumbfounded and took out a cigarette from his inside pocket and asked.

Now, that cigarette that I was saving for a few left at a nearby convenience store.

The old man, however, breathes a sigh, lighting his cigarette generously, perhaps because of his bitter taste.

"I thought it was funny at first. So I went out alone as usual without thinking. But the first time I met them walking around, I thought I was really going to die. I've been through all sorts of things."

If a variant was like a lion, those black things were like piranhas occupying the grey river.

The viciousness and tenacity of which even that terrible strain is no match.

The city, which has faced frequent cataclysmic changes, will only come with the arrival of a true predator and foggy plague with the power of a powerful group.

"When I got myself together, I was worried. My life right now, more than my safety......... what will happen if they run out of the containment area.”

Their appearance hung invisible shackles on me and the old man who tried to escape the blockade after their complete recovery.

The braking of the extension line, which stopped like fate, gave us another mission, and told us that the struggle for life had not yet stopped.

And the old man continues to talk, emitting cigarette smoke that is full of remorse, as if he was recalling those days.

"Smart guys. I'm sure they know how to think and communicate with each other. And four years later, I'm still looking for a chance to get out of the containment area. To find more meat, meat they love so much.”

They instinctively knew where more meat, or more people, was.

A group of piranhas running through the aquarium was in a precarious balance with this Eden barrier and we take advantage of the opportunity to quietly watch those who might move at any time, walking along the barrier with weapons as always.

And the old man, one of those lonely guards, looked back over the years and recited quietly.

"We must stop it."

Four years. This was a time when this action was repeated to stop those guys trying to get out of the containment area.

And the man who was listening quietly to it quickly rolls his eyes, inferring why he can't get out of here right now and why we haven't gotten out of here for four years.

And the conclusion at the end of all the arrangements eventually made the man's head drop weakly.

Phew

a deep sigh of a man blaming his ill-fated life

The old man gave a smiling, dejected man a pat on the shoulder.

In this gray city where we will be staying together in the future, he gave us a strong note of the law that we must not forget.

"If you're not hiding in the corner of the room, Dong-yoon always stays near the l00m. When you eat, when you poop, or even when you fall asleep.”

"......yeah? Why?"

The man looked up at the old man with a face in his agitation, saying, "What nonsense is that?"

However, the old man's face, which was always full of playfulness, was full of seriousness and spleen.

I turned my head completely at the end of the look, and checked the clock on my left wrist.

Twenty minutes after climbing the barrier, it was about time to move on to the next barrier.

And as I began to move my steps, the old man gave the man his last lesson.

"Think about it. Common sense, do you think it makes sense for two of us to block this vast area? Even if it's just a pit, it's hundreds of meters wide! And yet, if you've been keeping them at bay, you've had the means of two of us being able to rubbed off for four years. It's easy for ordinary people to live with their lives. Right?"

The old man followed behind me, who was going down the barrier at the end of the horse.

And the man staring at us from the guard post followed us, who began to move away with a sigh,

Soon asked the old man, stammering.

"Well, what is it? Is there a reason?"

It was a matter directly related to survival, but it was also a reason that naturally aroused human curiosity.

And maybe men are half the same.

He followed me eagerly as I moved to fulfill my next schedule, asking outright why we have been able to hold out.

And when the old man hears the question, he slowly sweeps his hair, which has turned completely white, and recites it quietly.

"There's a natural enemy ahead of us.”

The old man's eyes were clearly on me, and the man follows the gaze with a stupid face and makes eye contact with human Kwak Dong-yoon.

And at that moment the dark clouds that were blocking the sun retreated as if they had waited, and the sunlight that matched the warm spring began to shine upon us.

In such a warm spring, my body is tired but I walk along the empty streets of Eden, moving my steps like a machine.

And the old man continued his words, pointing his finger at the path I had gone too far.

"One day Dong-yoon got really angry and threw out dozens of them. But by the next day, they didn't even approach the Eden Wall. So we put our heads together and thought about why."

Where did the regret of his life disappear, and the man walking by the old man's side, with his ears pricked, was concentrating on the past story.

And the old man began to speak in a serious manner in front of an outsider who had the right learning posture.

"Have you ever seen mutants spewing from a dakyu? They can't access it because of that collection. But that's what happened to Dong-yoon and those black guys. The mean, vicious hyenas, late to notice that this is a tiger's den."

Quiet streets and cities.

The mission we've done for four years without missing a single time was to go around their territory one by one.

It's as if I'm putting dirty bugs in a barrel and building a fence of my existence to keep them from running out.

The old man closed his mouth at the end of the horse, and the man quietly followed me.

I can feel the gaze from the back of my head and my head itches.

I take a light step like a person going on a picnic, scratching my back head.

I missed my party more today.

* * *

"Huhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... Mr. Kim, I'm so sorry...…!!”

A middle-aged man named Choi fortunately came to his senses before sunset.

As soon as he came to his senses, he burst into tears when he saw Kim Joong-won, who opened the door and came in after eating the white porridge that the old man had brought him.

At the moment of coming and going between life and death, a middle-aged man burst into tears, embracing Kim Joong-won as if he had faced many lanterns.

"Choi, you son of a....... Whoooooooong...….”

They seemed to be not on the bad side.

Kim Joong-won hugged a middle-aged man for a while and burst into tears as if he had survived while cursing Choi, who brought him to his extremity.

Of course, it's a touching scene of reunion, but we turned our heads without saying anything because we had no reason to see two bearded men hugging each other.

And as time passed, Choi stood up, stopping tears, and bowed to us.

"I really don't know how to repay you......... If the midfield were dead, I would not be ashamed to see you. Thank you very much, Mr. Dong-yoon."

In the meantime, we don't give tired and troublesome meaning to saving people.

However, thanks from a good man's heart sometimes instilled a reason for the meaningless movement.

And I and the old man now felt proud of this sincerity after a long time.

I shook my head to a middle-aged man with his head down.

"No, you're fine. Does the food suit your taste? Would you like some more porridge?"

There were many factors that made us suffer.

However, the most difficult of them was loneliness and longing that had been raging like the winter wind.

And today, unexpected, a guest from outside in such a long time brought a fresh spring breeze to our hard-hardened sensibility.

We made coffee and ate snacks that we had saved for the first time in a long time, and heard the news that we had not known before and the stories of our group.

Perhaps because they had crossed over a small adversity, the conversation worked well, and the room was filled with simple laughter.

And by the time he ran out of coffee, the old man slowly began to get to the point.

"You'll be out in 13 days, too, won't you?"

Because the old man scared me that I couldn't go out, the liberation of the blockade was just around the corner.

We're not idiots, so we've been hearing live from the radio that Yongpal and his party are coming towards us.

Those who came in from outside know that, of course, of course.

And to the old man's question, the two don't eat snacks, but nod their heads in a daze.

"By the way......... As you know, wouldn't it be a little dangerous for our kids to come here? So we're going to do a simple welcoming ceremony and clean up, and I'd like you to help us. I've prepared everything, so just give me a hand. It's all right, right?"

The way he spoke was clearly a request for understanding, but the eyes of the ferocious old man were by no means a request.

Choi, who had been forgetting snacks before, started hiccups the moment he met the old man's eyes.

Next to it, Kim Joong-won slowly laid down the snack with a gasp.

And I let the chestnut pangs that I had saved for later eat before them without a word.

What's the minimum hourly wage these days?