Story Reader / Main Story / 28 Polaris Bond / Story
Here, time seems a divine grace stripped away.
This place is dominated by guns, bacteria, steel, blood, fire, and death.
Load, aim, shoot, and eject.
The Lee-Enfield rifle in her hands, capable of firing ten rounds in half a minute, becomes a rhythm of survival.
Good aim!
I'm still not at my best! If my master were here, he could fire thirty rounds in a minute!
Aim for their heads, stop wasting bullets!
If you're so good, why don't you do it?
Alright, let's enjoy the peace while it lasts, stop arguing.
Hey...
Wow! There's somebody still alive!
Come, have a seat here.
Why are you so clean?
Dressed all in white, did you just come from a funeral?
Show some respect. We even got farmers with scythes out here too!
You're good at breaking up fights.
Hey, where did you come from?
What is this battle—or this war?
Where did those monsters come from, and how long have you been here?
No idea, not a clue.
All we know is that in two days, when reinforcements arrive, we break through.
That's nonsense. Didn't you hear that from Kaka?
And Kaka's been dead for three days!
How do you know it's been three days?
I've been keeping track!
In this endless darkness, how can you tell one day from another?
So, you're waiting for reinforcements?
Yes.
Where are they?
Not here yet.
So, you've just been here all this time?
What else can we do? There's nowhere to go.
I've been here... about five days now.
See, I told you so!
Time here is messed up.
Some bastard must be messing with time around here!
If you ask me—
Alright, alright.
Hey, want some food? I just made it!
No... thanks.
It's a...!
Dying in battle...
But still holding this gun.
Keep fighting... until...
Suddenly, the crimson air seems ignited. A brilliant white light from the plains far away lights up the entire battlefield, a towering mushroom cloud squeezing the sky.
A few seconds later, a deafening boom follows—
Reinforcements! They've arrived!
The reinforcements are supporting us!
An explosion of this magnitude...
Retreat! Quickly! Or you'll die!!!
Get down!!!
A hot wind, laden with high-energy particles, sweeps across the battlefield.
It peels off the skin, burns the fat, dismantles the muscles, tears apart the organs, and crushes the bones.
Later, when I reach the sea of corpses and blood, the soldiers are nowhere to be seen.
They might be part of that sea now, claimed by the war itself.
I know, it's part of war, a price that must be paid. I shouldn't be so sentimental.
Yet, something still urges my "heart."
It makes my hands search the ground, filling my nails with blood and dirt.
It compels me to search and dig, despite the futility.
Time becomes indistinct.
All that remains are bodies melded with metal.
This is what war leaves in its wake.
I couldn't save anyone.
I could only watch as a wild blaze of fire and smoke licked the sky, the scorching wind searing my skin.
I stagger to my feet; the only other living thing is a vulture.
Across the expanse, far in the distance, I see another figure struggling to rise amidst the flames.
He is frail, his body bent over like an oversized newborn.
He isn't a survivor.
He is just like me.
We both defied death.
But night now re-ascends, and it is time for parting. All is seen.
