Ah, what a pain!... This meager stash is all I could hold onto. Those rural lords are nothing short of insufferable. As if the monthly tariffs weren't already unbearable, they've gone and raised them once more... Thousands are suffering in hunger just to satisfy their own insatiable appetites. It's enough to make me want to punch their obnoxious faces.
Forget it… A person can only dream so far. Those guys are practically monsters. I'll be squashed like a bug beneath their palms the moment they sense a threat, would they even consider anything I do a threat, doubt it, but I'm better off not finding out the answer to that. For now, complying is the safest bet at surviving…
Yet, it won't be long before we meet our demise. At the rate we're going, we'll be out of food by the end of the month, and that's if we can withstand days of hunger. Honestly, I can't see our supplies lasting even a week under normal circumstances. I'm sure the others have realized this by now— there's no escaping our fate, unless we find a new target to raid soon. Since our time in this hell hole is steadily reaching its end, I don't know if I should be grateful or something…
Growl!
Sigh… I'm starving, I don't think I've had a bite since I left base, the stuff I got are hardly worth calling food according the jackass of a guard, we get to keep this out of the lord's generosity towards his people. What a load of crap, bet he couldn't handle how terrible this heap of junk tastes. As they say, another man's trash is another man's treasure I guess.
They won't mind if I take a bite right… Eugh!, this tastes terrible as usual. Figures, expired four years ago. I'm surprised my taste buds still works at this point, it's probably been years since I ate something that wasn't expired and tasted like sour dough…
Thanks to the ash still blocking the sunlight, the normal temperature is below 40 degrees, and with this much load on my back, not to mention how hard it is to walk in a landscape filled with snow that reaches down your ankles. I'm already out of breath after walking a couple of miles… Still, it's not as bad thanks to these makeshift snow shoes, though it's nothing but a wooden plank tied to my feet. It's anything far from perfect but at least it keeps me from sinking in. Wish they would have made it more comfortable though, my ankles are seriously feeling the brunt of it.
We're probably going to have to find a new place to raid soon, but where the hell are we going to find one, the whole place is basically deserted possibly the whole city too, have been out here for days and I've yet to encounter a soul, if we're excluding the trash of a domain lord and his workers, there's no one else around this part of the city.
Climatic, huh. With how silent everywhere has gotten we'll probably have no other choice but to raid them soon. Hahahahaha, robbing the very people we submitted too. Tch, there's no way we stand a chance of winning, especially with how weak we've gotten, even if we were at full strength it still won't matter... so no matter what— we're doomed to die I guess.
[Damn—This is F**king pathetic— No thinking how bad things have gotten this world's truly f**ked up]
[Cough! Cough!… couldn't have said it better myself]
[Holy sh-]
Where did this old coot crawl up from— has he seriously been taking shelter in the trash can, I can hardly call that rusty tin a shelter, the things far from it's lifetime, both of them.
I'm surprised someone can actually fit in it. A-And, how in the world is he still alive his body is halfway in the trash but with his torso alone. His whole body is practically covered in frostbite, not to mention how he's as lean as a twig. Seriously, the dude's so fragile, I think just a flick of my finger and his body would shatter to a mess.
[What's with the face kid… you look like you've seen a ghost]
[Well— I'm practically looking at one]
[Hahahahaha! Cough! Cough!, quite a Jokester you are]
Damn and I thought I'd seen all the weirdo's the world had to offer, guess you find something new once in a while. And there he goes eating a bug— wait that's new it's my first time seeing insects around here, plus it's probably my first time seeing a guy swallow it whole but what the heck. He seems to be enjoying his fine dining, best leave him to it.
[Hey kiddo why don't you chat with this old man a bit]
I don't know about that, from the look of things the coot seems to be mentally unstable— really this guy looks like he's got more than one screw loose up there. Yessh!, how can you keep scratching with frozen fingers in so many, questionable areas. Seems he couldn't handle the strain of the disaster and went bonkers over time. Ain't the first person I've encountered with such condition and he probably won't be the last, well ain't my problem it's best to ignore lunatics like him. At this stage they tend to get contagious.
[I'm sorry but I have somewhere to b-]
Why the heck did I agree— forget it the old dude might have some useful info, even if he might be a little nutty, he's the only person I've encountered so far.
[Hope you don't mind me holding you up. It's been quite a while since I saw someone around]
[Same… I thought everyone around here were dead]
[Dead? I didn't realize that, thought everyone was just holing themselves in]
[You're kidding right— wait you're serious… you seriously think everyone's been locking themselves in all this time]
[Wasn't that the reason why no one was out and about]
Holy cow, I might have underestimated how nutloose this guy was, he was like a child that didn't even understand the situation he was in even though he looked like he had borne the brunt of it. I actually had to explain the world disaster to him from the beginning, something that I thought everyone would have probably etched into their soul after experiencing it first hand. Though I couldn't blame the guy people tend to force themselves to forget the hardships they've been through. The harsher it was, the more they try and convince themselves to forget about it… I too have memories I'd be better off without.
With that being said, lecturing a man in his seventies about the current society wasn't much trouble. Only giving him the gist of things got covered in about fifteen minutes. I left out most of the cruel and gruesome details he probably forced himself to lock up. At this point I'm beginning to wonder who's getting information out of whom.
[Oh quite intriguing I didn't know I missed that much, I have been out here for quite a while, it's become hard to tell the time. The last time I met someone was during the purging war]
Yep, he's definitely out of it. I could explain how that's basically impossible or I could just spare myself the hassle of another lengthy explanation and go with his flow... I'm better off picking the latter.
[You could say that. It's my first time running into a new face in a couple of months. Most of the people I know are either dead, or just a couple of steps away from it]
But is this guy for real? You can't seriously expect me to believe you haven't met a person for that long. A lot of people were still very much alive during that period even if you tried hiding away there's no way anyone could have survived so long on their own.
Now that I look closer there's a lot of things this guy doesn't have going well for him. It's really a miracle he's still alive, not only is he literally the figure of a stick, almost every part of him is suffering from severe frostbite… What the heck is he thinking, staying out here with a condition like this? Better still, where's he even finding the energy to hold a conversation.
[Y'know, I can't say for certain the last time I met my son— he was about your age]
Hell no, the last thing I want to get into is listening to some old guy yap about his sorry life— it's probably going to end up with the cliche shit that he wounded up dead with regret or something.
[Cough!, It's not what you think kid, he's still very much alive. As a matter of fact I wish I could see him at least one last time]
Uh, did the guy read my mind or something?Still why's he continuing the conversation like it's something I want to get into. I honestly don't care about whatever condition your middle aged kid is wounded in.
[Ohh, if that's the case why the hell are you living in a trash can? Why don't you ask him for help instead of suffering out here in the cold?]
Take the hint, when someone says something this objective and difficult to answer it probably means; he has no intention of getting into a conversation…
Did I hit a sore spot? Ever since I mentioned that, the old man's barely moved a muscle. He just keeps staring off… it's not the reaction I was expecting, but guess he got the memo one way or another.
[It's because he's the very one that dumped me here]
[...]
That was anticlimactic. sigh!, I'm in for it now…
I don't get why the old coot told me about his son, even after giving him too many signs I wasn't interested. But still as the dude rambled on it sounded like he had his fair share of struggles. At first I thought it was about his anger towards being thrown away after watching his son kill his mother to conserve food but it didn't seem that way.
The more he talked about him, the more he felt remorseful about his son.
I don't get whether it's out of parental love he still has for the guy or he's just still out of it.
I've seen a lot of betrayals during my time, it's nothing new, during a cataclysmic event like this almost everyone you trust can and will turn on you in a matter of seconds if it serves for their betterment. Heck, it's like their personalities would flip one-eighty, except this part will show their true selfish, despicable and uncaring nature and it's always those parts that show their actual desires… it's just never pretty. Possibly the dude son might have been one of those inner sickos. It was probably too much for him to handle so he warped his mind over and over until it jumbled into a complete mess.
Either way he's certainly the first I've seen with such a mindset. And while I do want to say he's the most humane person I've met so far— It's not the right of someone like me to judge who's humane and not… I probably lost that right a long time ago.
[Thanks for listening to this old man's tale]
[It wasn't anything much, but if you don't mind my asking, why'd you stay in the bin for so long. You could have just left whenever you wanted]
[... since I'd be nothing more than a walking prey why bother. Plus where would an old man like me even wander off to. Cough!]
I see, he makes a point; almost everyone living around here has long reached their limit. Most people have already been pushed to the extreme to divert into cannibalism… I should say I'm quite lucky myself as I haven't encountered those creepy ass faces trying to cook me up and make me dinner.
But still if he knew he was doomed to die why didn't he just kill himself. I know committing suicide isn't something everyone would opt for but if you ask me that's an easy way out, it should at least be better than whatever he's going through.
[Say, What's in that bag of yours. You've been holding onto it like it was going to waddle of your hands]
[Ohh this, It's nothing!]
Talk about being insecure… looking at him. He doesn't seem to be the type to ruthlessly attack others, not to mention he couldn't try even if he wanted to.
Sigh!, There's still not a single sign of life around,
[Here…]
at least, let his final moments not be on an empty stomach.
[Haha- cough!, cough!… What are you doing kid, save your food for someone useful— I'm on my last leg, you'd just be wasting it]
Obviously, I realize that. I'm beyond selfish when it comes to things like this… but a man can only suffer for so long.
[You can think of it as a payment for the tale… plus, it's not like it tastes any good]
Though it's not that I enjoyed listening to his chatter. But, it was probably better than nothing.
[You really have a big heart… Alright kid— Thanks for the food]
Bet you wouldn't have said those words if you knew half the things I'd done or the amount of bloodshed it took to get these things. Though you're better off not knowing how damned this place we live in is. A heart doesn't exist around here anymore. Every single one should've died long ago… emotions can only get you so far before screwing you over.
[Damn— Thinking how bad things have gotten this worlds truly f**ked up. Those were your words]
[Did you really have to repeat it word for word]
[Hohoho, Pardon me then. Cough! Cough! But, the world has changed completely from what I remember. Cities have probably become wastelands where everyone is scavenging for their next meal. And with the rise of domain lords it's getting even harder to secure any resource]
[How th-]
Why does he know about domain lords, they just recently started appearing after the purging war. I thought he lost his memory from around that time period.
[You would be surprised how gossip can spread so fast even in a frozen wasteland]
Isn't he now just going back on his words? Well I figured it was a far fetch to survive that long without encountering a single soul.
With his memory flipped back on, I chatted with the old man for a little while longer. Some would think I did it out of pity, but while it probably was at first. I lost that mindset along the way. This time I stayed because it was nice for some reason, like I was talking to an old friend. During our chats I couldn't find a single flaw with him. He sounded like he had come to terms with everything he had been through which for some reason pissed me off, was it possible to live a life like this without regret.
Honestly I think the reason I got along with him so much was because he reminded me a lot of dad most of the time… How ironic though both amazing people yet they were met with such unfair deaths because of their son... Even with the old man's last breath he still kept conversing like a normal person, not afraid of dying in the slightest, though his last words still kinda bothers.
[Kid… a lot of changes happen no matter how big or devastating it may be. A change can be viewed as both a blessing and a curse depending on which perspective you choose to view it from. As long as you are willing to ride the change rather than be swept by it, the journey will be worthwhile. after all that's how we humans have always evolved]
Wonder what he was getting at with the lecture.
The old coot passed away after that, I can't tell if he had been waiting for someone to talk to for a while but he sure looked satisfied with his ever so yet pathetic life. It was still a little strange why he had said that while touching my forehead, guess he wanted to feel the warmth of someone else... Nevertheless, I couldn't just leave his body sitting out like that. He at least deserved to lay somewhere more respectful than a trash bin.
Hmm… He's lighter than I expected, even with his body so lean. How's one person this light to carry? I almost fell over from using to much forc-
[Hold up!… W-what's… W-what's this supposed to be!?… old man]
I thought I'd seen the worst of it all, but this takes it to a whole other level, can someone seriously be this ruthless.
[H-Hey old man… you really are something else]
Now I feel like an idiot for asking why he didn't leave when he wanted to. If I knew you were in such condition I wouldn't have criticized you so much.
What's this I'm remorseful for someone else… I thought I lost those kinds of emotions a long time ago.
These feelings will hinder my judgement going forward. But It's good, it's good that I still have some faint emotions inside, somehow I'm still human…
I'm still not sure how you managed to survive so long or why you even wanted to survive in the first place.
It's a shame I never met him earlier and under better circumstances I probably would've gotten along with him. Hopefully we'll meet again in the next life. That time I'd like to get to know you… the full you and not just your torso.