Story Reader / Border Pact / Southwood Road / Story
Commandant.
She's on the table. Hopefully in time...
?
Judging from the depth of the footprints and the tracks of the rickshaw...
"They can't be too far off"?
...Babylonia, Babylonia, this is Gray Raven.
Gray Raven, Babylonia. Quite rare for you call on a direct line. What is it?
We're hoping you could retask a high-definition long-range telescope to this area.
Map coordinates uploaded.
What are you looking for?
Heat signals and biological signals of uninfected beings or groups.
Calibrating...
Strange... the biological signals' coordinates are right on top of your own.
...?
!
We may not know their exact position, but one thing's for sure: they have us surrounded.
With our Constructs, we can fight our way out, but that also means making enemies.
After a while, a figure appears from the shadows.
...Who exactly are you?
So the CPF... hasn't been reactivated yet?
Not yet.
Has the downtime been extended again...? [Beep]!
The man, clad in a tattered worker's outfit, slams a fist on the tiles nearby. If it were a human fist, it would definitely have hurt.
Ly—I mean, the little girl... How is she?
Don't worry, I just spoke with the base. She survived the operation.
Operation?
The amputation. It's the only option for those infected by the Punishing Virus.
...
We're very sorry. We didn't have a choice...
I can accept that. It's a better outcome than death.
I've seen them... Those who died from the Punishing Virus.
...
Can you explain more about that "reactivation" you mentioned?
Sure. No loss to me anyway.
As you can tell, we lived in that gigantic structure where you found Ly—I mean, the girl. Unfortunately the CPF there was often out of order.
When the CPF did its job, we worked hard transporting rations and weapons out of the warehouse. Whenever it shut down, we'd have to face swarms of the Corrupted.
The most recent downtime period lasted especially long. So one day, my daughter, Lyrie... she snuck into the buildings to look for food.
On that very day, the Corrupted broke through our lines. We'd run out of ammo, so we had to leave everything and run...
If you were telling the truth about the CPF not yet reactivating...
All we could do was abandon all hope of returning, and carve out a living somewhere else before more of us starved.
...Really?
Yeah. Your daughter is still with us, so don't go anywhere!
She already lost a leg. She can't lose her dad too.
...
