Chapter 59. Full-Scale Rescue of Survivors.
Chapter 59. Full-Scale Rescue of Survivors.
I stayed with them until they'd stabilized, then I left and found a way back to Earth.
"..."
"..."
When I finished my story, nobody in our group said a word. The old man and my father-in-law turned their heads away with dry coughs, my mother-in-law dabbed at the corners of her eyes with her sleeve, and Chaeyeon and Jia quietly sniffled.
'Huh... Was it really that touching...?'
"Brother, that truly moved me...! But after that, were you never able to meet them?"
"Well... I never saw them directly, but I heard news from time to time. I heard they went on to found a nation for the other races. So I did meet its citizens now and then."
And I mean... I shrugged and moved on. From my point of view it was a calm and touching(?) story, but beside me, Terion wore a deeply troubled expression, crossing his stubby little arms and deep in thought.
"You, have you truly never once met them directly?"
"Those I was closest to held significant offices in the nation, so I didn't get to see them."
"I ask on the off chance, but do you know what the elves' phrase 'look at the full moon on the day the fruit ripens' means?"
"Huh? It means something?"
All of a sudden he went stone-faced and toddled up in front of me on his tiny legs to scold me.
"That is an elf proposing marriage to someone they have set their heart on!!!"
"Huh?"
"...!?"
"What?!!?!"
"Ha, you essentially accepted a marriage proposal and then unilaterally annulled the engagement!"
At his flabbergasting words I squeezed my eyes shut and drummed my fingers on the table.
"To my knowledge, elves have a custom: once they choose a partner, they stay together until death. If by chance they also crossed over and you end up meeting them... be prepared to get slapped..."
Terion shook his head, muttering to himself, 'You'd be fortunate if a slap was the end of it...'
"Sihu..."
"Oppa, you're total trash..."
"Son-in-law... I'm sorry. I don't know what to say?"
I got savaged by the whole group. It was a bummer(?)...
* * * * * * * *
We paused the clamorous meeting and agreed to continue the rest of the discussion later that evening. I was spacing out alone at home when Chaeyeon, Jia, and my mother-in-law came in. And unexpectedly, my father-in-law followed them in from behind. With the karma I had accrued, I couldn't look them straight in the eye as I greeted them.
"You're here...?"
The five of us sat in the living room, and an awkward silence hung in the air, no one saying a word.
"Son-in-law, I wouldn't mind if you had three wives."
"W-what are you suddenly saying..."
"Cheon Sihu! You've already got two, so what does it matter if there's one more?"
He was spouting lines straight out of some trashy harem male lead. Right in front of his own wife, no less. When I stayed silent, my mother-in-law spoke up, and Jia chimed in from beside her.
"Son-in-law, didn't that girl also lose her parents and spend a long time looking only to you?"
"That's right! Oppa, how pure and devoted is that! When we meet her, I'll take good care of her!"
"We'll see about that later... if they cross over, I'll think about it..."
"Ahem, we've already discussed it!"
After that, we ate dinner and gathered again at the assembly hall. The awkward atmosphere still hadn't cleared. The president cleared his throat once and spoke.
"Ahem, based on what has been confirmed so far, the survivors are receiving treatment without incident. And regarding the water supply, fortunately we have located a mineral spring that the rural residents used."
"Are the reserves sufficient?"
"Yes, they are sufficient. We plan to call in personnel and use a pump system to draw the water here. We have also restored communications to some extent, so we plan to distribute flyers in earnest and search for survivors."
"By any means necessary, we must not allow anyone who would harm the group."
"Certainly. The issue is what method to use to judge them. To put it bluntly, we cannot rule out the possibility of them pretending to be innocent in order to infiltrate us."
"Don't worry about that. Terion will handle it."
I had explained to the group that Terion was fundamentally an undead. Naturally, he can sense the aura of corruption that emanates from humans. Of course, I can sense it too. Killings committed as an unavoidable act of self-defense for survival can be taken into consideration, but anything else is grounds for expulsion, no exceptions.
"We have already finished producing the flyers. Then, we will trust in Terion and proceed with distribution."
It wasn't strenuous work — just flying helicopter routes and scattering them — so the distribution went quickly. We received so many calls that the worry about a lack of survivors became meaningless. The phones kept ringing without a moment's pause, so we split into multiple lines to take the calls.
"Are there more survivors than we expected?"
"It's not so much that, it's that the survivors are desperate, so they're calling multiple times or refusing to hang up."
"Well, I imagine that's what happens when a lifeline drops right at the moment you were about to give up on living. So, how do you intend to rescue them?"
"We have in fact discussed this matter among the military generals and the advisory staff. First, we were told landing a Chinook helicopter on an apartment rooftop is impossible."
"In that case, if the number of survivors at a location is large, it will be quite a headache."
"The only method is to hover the Chinook in the air and use a rescue harness to haul them up one or two at a time. The problem is the noise the helicopter generates. So our basic plan is to ask them to come up to the rooftop right before we depart."
"Will it be possible for them to push through the zombies and reach the roof?"
"If coming to the roof is impossible, we plan to rappel down directly and bring them up to the roof ourselves."
"With our currently stockpiled food, can we accommodate all the survivors identified so far?"
"Yes, not lavishly, but it is possible. If we hold out a little longer, we can begin harvesting crops. Perhaps the heavens helped us, because the crop yield is higher than expected."
"In that case, all we need is to bring in more containers and modify them."
"Yes, we plan to have them stay in temporary tents and then assign them living quarters in the order they arrived, as the containers are completed."
"Which survivors do you intend to rescue first?"
"After discussion, the result was that we will rescue the survivors in the hospitals first, and then prioritize the technicians."
"Then the people in regular office buildings or apartments can be rescued last."
"...Does that not trouble you at all?"
"As I've said before, I am not some kind of hero. Naturally, people who will be useful to the group take priority. If that makes you uncomfortable, just think of it as the president making a selection for the good of the group. Or you can simply use my name."
Did he think I was being cold-hearted? No, my thinking is completely different. When the world has come to this, it's only natural to prioritize rescuing people the group needs. For someone who's supposedly a politician, worrying himself over something like that...
We were about to commence rescue operations immediately. The first priority was the survivors gathered at the various hospitals; the second priority was the survivors gathered at the industrial complexes; and the third priority was the remaining groups of people. The senior officers all assembled at the assembly hall for a final briefing. I asked Lieutenant General Go Seong-hyeon, who was in charge of the group's key military force and armaments.
"Lieutenant General Go, if we take one large hospital and one block of an industrial complex as a baseline, how long would the operation take?"
"Hm... this is a very difficult question to answer. The fact that they've survived up to now means they've managed to protect themselves and have cleared out zombies to some degree. If we're only rescuing the survivors, in that case it can be done quickly. But if your objective also includes retrieving supplies from the industrial complex and the hospital, it could take much longer."
"Come to think of it, for the hospitals, we'll have to account for the zombies that were patients, too."
"Right now, the special mission agents and the other soldiers are ready. Both the Chinook and the regular helicopters have finished their inspections as well."
"Every single day for those survivors must be hell. Let's not drag this out — we'll depart immediately."
"Yes, Excellency. We will depart at once, then."
* * * * * * * *
The rescue operation was progressing more smoothly than I had expected. For places where immediate rescue wasn't feasible, we either dropped supplies by helicopter or, in the case of private homes, used drones to deliver enough food to solve their immediate starvation. With everyone busy with their own tasks, I was having a separate conversation with the president.
"How many people have been rescued in total so far?"
"I haven't received an exact report, but the number is close to roughly one hundred. Particularly in the industrial complexes, there were many survivors in family units."
"Then the hospital personnel are mostly individuals?"
"Yes, as you'd expect, the industrial complexes have many people living there as families, and since it was a rest day when it happened, the majority were at home. Conversely, in the hospitals, as the crisis erupted, people swarmed into the hospitals, hence the situation..."
"And how is the supply of materials progressing?"
"The hospitals: medical tools, hygiene and disinfection supplies, treatment and emergency supplies, beds, and so on. And for the industrial complex, we plan to transport the heavy equipment by attaching slings to the Chinook."
While receiving the report, the good news was that there had been no one who disobeyed instructions, and no friction with the troops conducting the rescues. Naturally, there were also no wounded. In addition, there was another matter: they had set up tents and were categorically separating male and female doctors to rigorously examine the survivors for any signs of infection.
If an infection were to be revealed, of course, the plan was to expel them. We can't have the entire group endangered because of one person, can we?
"Then we should gradually start rescuing the people gathered in companies and in ordinary private homes."
"Hm... well, on that note, we received an unusual report from the troops who went out on the rescues."
"An unusual report?"
"Yes, they said there was a group refusing rescue. And instead, they regularly requested food supplies..."