Chapter 43
Of course, Knox didn’t have the luxury of time to think more deeply about Cherry. Unlike Cherry, Knox didn’t possess super strength, and unlike Eden, he didn’t know how to handle a sword or a gun.
“Help me…. Please help me, Doctor.”
Just then, a voice calling for him drifted from somewhere. Knox, who had been pressing his back against an alley wall, turned his gaze toward the sound.
A middle-aged man was pinned beneath the debris of a collapsed building.
Knox rushed toward the man.
“Are you alrigh—”
After clearing away the rubble crushing the man’s lower body, Knox momentarily lost his voice.
Thin rebar rods were impaled through the man’s lower half. It wasn’t just one or two. From the look of it, the man couldn’t even feel the pain in his legs anymore.
‘There’s no hope.’
Knox’s mind went blank.
He couldn’t save him. Not again. It had been like this for two days straight, ever since Brunel had turned into a nightmare.
He hadn’t been able to save anyone.
“Please save me…. Help me.”
The man muttered in a fading voice. Knox knelt in front of him for the time being.
The man was clearly dying. His eyes were already beginning to flutter shut, losing focus.
Nevertheless, Knox took a firm hold of the man’s blood-stained hand.
“I will help you.”
He didn’t want the man’s final memory to be the feeling of a desperate plea for help being ignored.
“My daughter is waiting…. Doctor, I can’t die like this. My daughter… is she safe…?”
“Your daughter will be safe. I promise you.”
“I feel like… I’m having a very, very unpleasant dream, Doctor. How did things turn out like this…. I… I worked so hard….”
“God will know. He knows how hard you’ve lived. This is a dream. So everything will be alright.”
“Haha…. Thank… you…. Thank… you….”
The man’s eyes slowly closed for the last time. Knox grit his teeth.
The feeling of watching a life extinguish right before his eyes was devastating beyond words.
Was it a mistake to have always gone around saying that life was boring because everything went exactly as he planned? He had certainly never wished for an extreme situation like this to happen.
Knox let go of the man’s hand, now completely devoid of breath, and stood up.
A wave of helplessness washed over him in the face of this bleak reality.
Grrr.
Immersed in despair, Knox was startled back to his senses by the sound of a beast nearby.
He had been delayed for a moment, but he had to hurry and hide before the monsters arrived. He couldn’t afford to lose his life in such a futile way.
K-boom—!
Just then, another thunderous roar echoed from the direction of the village square. It was the sound of the square’s statue collapsing.
That commotion was undoubtedly caused by Cherry Sinclair and that catapult of hers.
‘What is she doing? What’s the point of throwing stones? If she makes that much noise, the monsters will only gather more—’
Knox, lost in thought for a moment, soon spat out a curse under his breath.
‘Dammit. So that’s why.’
Knox guessed that the two people in Happy House were likely Cherry and Eden, though he couldn’t be certain. The two had been inseparable the entire time they were in the village.
‘They’re in a safe place, so that’s their game.’
They were clearly making loud noises in the village to lure the monsters away from the vicinity of the mansion. Just to save themselves.
‘Those bastards.’
Knox ground his teeth at Cherry and Eden’s selfishness. He was completely unaware of the fact that they had fired the catapult specifically to save him.
It seemed there were no more survivors left in the village. At least, not as far as Knox could see.
Knox hid in the alley and looked out at the street. Hiding wasn’t a permanent solution. He had to escape this godforsaken village.
Then, the clock tower caught his eye.
