Chapter 344 (1)
Chapter 344 Part 1
“Ian. Let’s report it as soon as we get out.”
“Okay. Please help us, mister.”
“I’ll be your witness, bro.”
“If you have nowhere to stay, you can come to my place.”
Ian Weaver smiled faintly.
He was carried by Raymond Wish, and Lee Hyun-woo walked beside him with a slightly pale face.
Lee Hyun-woo couldn’t carry Ian Weaver because of his injured leg.
“It’s a relief, if anything.”
“That’s right.”
Cynthia Lindberg and Jackson Miller whispered with relieved faces behind them.
The atmosphere had calmed down a bit because of Ian Weaver’s story.
It wasn’t a good story, but everyone felt more hopeful.
Raymond Wish looked at the boy walking next to him.
His face was pale and drained, but it started to regain some color.
Lee Hyun-woo held onto Ian Weaver’s clothes like a lifeline.
“It’ll be okay.”
“…Huh?”
“The building is sturdy, so it won’t collapse completely. They must be avoiding it well like us. If they’re near the south gate, they might have been rescued first.”
Raymond Wish comforted him, and Lee Hyun-woo clenched his lips.
Tears welled up in his eyes, but he quickly wiped them away.
“…Your family too.”
“Yeah.”
They both knew how slim the chances were, but they decided to think that way.
They just decided to do what they could do right now.
“Tell me if you’re tired. I’ll turn on the phone light for you.”
“I’m fine. We need to save the battery.”
Lee Hyun-woo answered with a shaky voice and fixed his eyes on the bright spot that Raymond Wish shone.
***
The dark road twisted and turned.
The survivors wandered around to go north.
They hesitated at the forked roads and came back when they encountered dead ends.
The theater was dark too, and the audience seemed to wander under the ruins with the survivors as their eyes were fixed on the screen.
How long had they walked?
Vroom.
The unfamiliar vibration sound was heard again.
The survivors flinched and looked up reflexively.
“Are there still bombs left to explode…?”
Raymond Wish listened carefully.
Front and back, left and right, up and down.
There was no place to let their guard down.
“It sounds like it’s from behind.”
“Let’s go forward.”
Jackson Miller lifted Ian Weaver and Lee Hyun-woo moved his feet with Cynthia Lindberg.
Raymond Wish moved cautiously, looking around.
That’s when it happened.
Something was caught wrong, and the debris collapsed like dominoes.
It happened in an instant.
Boom!
Between the dust that rose up and the stones that fell down, Raymond Wish saw Jackson Miller and Ian Weaver.
He saw the pile of stones that was about to pour down on them.
His body moved before he knew it.
‘I didn’t think of this at all. My family is waiting for me….’
Jackson Miller, who was pushed by something, fell forward to protect Ian Weaver as much as he could.
‘…Stupid guy.’
The vibration subsided and one by one they got up slowly.
The dust settled down.
“…Mister…!”
“Raymond!”
And they saw the scene that made two adults and two children sit down in despair.
Raymond Wish lay on the floor, breathing roughly, and his waist below was buried under a pile of stones.
“…Go.”
“Just hang in there for a moment. We’ll, we’ll…”
Cynthia Lindberg didn’t know what to do and fumbled around.
Jackson Miller, who handed Ian Weaver to Lee Hyun-woo, quickly dug up the pile of stones. He tried to get Raymond Wish out somehow, but he looked panicked too.
“…We can, we can clear it…”
Lee Hyun-woo held Ian Weaver’s hand tightly as he sobbed silently.
His face was drained of color.
It felt like he was having a terrible nightmare.
Why?
He thought they could finally escape together…
He finally got to talk to Raymond…
Thud thud.
Sand fell as if the aftershock wasn’t over yet.
“…Jackson. Cynthia.”
The two adults who were called by their names closed their eyes tightly and opened them again.
They felt like crying at this situation where they had no choice but to make this choice.
Cynthia Lindberg took out a water bottle and some food from Ian Weaver’s bag.
“We’ll leave this water and food here for you.”
“…Take it with you.”
“Here! We’ll leave this here! So… please hold on until we call for rescue.”
Raymond Wish smiled weakly and said.
But he didn’t answer.
“…Let’s go.”
“But mister…!”
Unlike the hesitant children, the adults moved quickly.
Cynthia Lindberg hugged Ian Weaver, who was crying silently, and Jackson Miller dragged Lee Hyun-woo.
The eyes of the two children didn’t leave Raymond Wish, who was buried under the pile of stones.
Raymond Wish closed his eyes to avoid eye contact with the children. He knew how painful the last look of the left behind was.
Thud thud, bang!
A pile of stones fell between Raymond Wish and the survivors.
“Ah, mister…”
“Hyun-woo. Snap out of it. Let’s go out and call for rescue. The faster we go, the higher the chance of saving Raymond.”
Cynthia Lindberg said as she hugged Ian Weaver, who was crying.
Lee Hyun-woo nodded his head with a tearful face.
***
Cynthia Lindberg held Ian’s hand. Jackson Miller took the last place, knowing that the back was dangerous.
Lee Hyun-woo hesitated to take the lead.
Jackson Miller smiled softly and said.
“You can avoid it faster than you with your injured leg.”
“…Yes.”
He didn’t have time to waste like this.
Lee Hyun-woo grabbed the compass.
North.
He had to go north.
As soon as possible.
But his misfortune didn’t end there.
Boom!
A bomb exploded nearby, and Jackson Miller, who had claimed to be faster than Lee Hyun-woo, couldn’t dodge the falling debris.
Lee Hyun-woo burst into tears as the passage was blocked in front of him. He didn’t even know if Jackson Miller was alive or dead.
He had disappeared, the person who had saved him from the beginning to the end.
He wanted to say thank you, thank you for saving him…
Cynthia Lindberg hugged the two crying children.
She was the only one left to protect them now.
“…Let’s go. We have to go. We need to find the rescue team…”
Cynthia Lindberg swallowed her tears and fear.
***
Lee Hyun-woo, holding the compass, limped ahead.
Cynthia Lindberg followed him with Ian Weaver in her arms.
“Sis. There’s no more road.”
Lee Hyun-woo’s words made Cynthia Lindberg sigh inwardly.
That must be true.
They had walked for a long time.
They might have reached the end of the first basement floor at the north gate, or the collapsed rubble might have completely blocked their way.
Cynthia Lindberg decided to think positively.
“Let’s go up!”
“…Up?”
“The north basement floor is not that big. I think we’re almost there!”
Cynthia Lindberg’s cheerful voice brightened Lee Hyun-woo and Ian Weaver’s faces.
“Really?!”
“Can we get out? Can we save the uncles?”
Ian Weaver’s words made Cynthia Lindberg nod her head with a forced smile.
“That’s why we have to go up.”
“Yes!”
When they shone a light, they saw a hole above them.
Lee Hyun-woo slowly climbed up the rocks.
The rocks were not fixed, so he slipped a few times, but he managed to get into the hole.
“Can you move?”
“Yes!”
“Then I’ll lift Ian up! Catch him from above!”
Cynthia Lindberg lifted Ian Weaver up with a swing.
Lee Hyun-woo grabbed Ian Weaver’s arms and pulled him up.
A faint hope began to bloom on Lee Hyun-woo’s face.
“You did well. Ian. Sis. Sis, hurry up…”
Lee Hyun-woo reached out his hand. Cynthia Lindberg reached out her hand.
The misfortune was sudden.
The explosion that made him angry by now sounded again.
The pile of rocks that Cynthia Lindberg was climbing on poured down.
Lee Hyun-woo and Cynthia Lindberg’s hands touched briefly and then parted.
Cynthia Lindberg slid down.
“…It’s okay, it’s okay! Hyun-woo! Go ahead!”
“Sis!”
In the midst of falling debris.
Cynthia Lindberg disappeared without a scream.
His eyes became dizzy and his heart pounded wildly.
He felt like throwing up from the warmth left on his fingertips.
He couldn’t save them all. He failed again.
He was left alone again.
Only me…
A warm embrace wrapped around Lee Hyun-woo, who was about to fall into panic again.
Lee Hyun-woo startled and opened his eyes.
There was a child with a worried look on his face.
Still.
Lee Hyun-woo met Ian Weaver’s eyes and bit his inner cheek.
His heart ached at the sight of him being scared and sad but still thinking of Lee Hyun-woo first.
There was still one person left.
“Let’s go! Ian!”
He was the only one who could protect this child now.
“Let’s call the rescue team and come back!”
Lee Hyun-woo tried to sound cheerful.
Ian Weaver’s expression brightened up and Lee Hyun-woo finally understood how the adults felt.
****
Lee Hyun-woo and Ian Weaver crawled through the passage.
Their faces were scratched by protruding rebar, and their palms and knees were wounded.
The two exhausted children crawled for a while, rested, and moved again.
“It’s blocked…”
The passage that had been narrowing down was completely blocked.
They tried to move the rocks, but they didn’t budge.
The last light from their phone went out as well.
Darkness.
The darkness that swallowed everything came upon them.
Lee Hyun-woo’s body shivered.
Ian Weaver noticed that and buried himself in Lee Hyun-woo’s arms.
The narrow passage was filled with just two children.
When he felt the warmth, Lee Hyun-woo hugged it reflexively.
They had been through a lot, and both of them were mentally and physically drained.
The two children comforted each other with their warmth and talked.
“…Brother. Uncle Raymond said he would live with us if we get out of here.”
“…Really?”
“…Brother too.”
“…Should we?”
Lee Hyun-woo smiled faintly. Ian Weaver’s breathing became fainter.
Song Yu-jung, who had been motionless since Raymond Wish was buried under the rocks, wanted to check if the two people on the screen were breathing.
The other viewers also leaned their ears to the speakers, hoping to hear the children’s breath.
—–!
Then, a sound was heard.
Lee Hyun-woo’s eyes snapped open.
Song Yu-jung clasped her hands tightly at the faint sound that didn’t even have subtitles.
A sound was heard.
It could be the vibration of the explosion, or a hallucination that only he could hear. But Lee Hyun-woo wanted to restore the cooling body temperature in his arms.
He wanted to save him.
This child at least.
“…Sa…!”
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