Mandy Donovan had a habit of locking up anything important and was long used to passwords.
The moment she got her wristband, she set passwords for all the privacy and payment functions.
At Etta Moore’s urging, Gary Moore set a password too.
“Housing in the New Sharn District should be cheaper than in the Old East District.”
“We’ll see when we get there.
We’re taking a train tonight—aren’t you excited?” In Mandy’s head, the word “train” conjured images of old-fashioned, green-painted behemoths, new-generation bullet trains, and high-tech maglevs.
She wondered what trains in The Wasteland were like.
Her imagination ran wild!
There was another huge benefit to going to the New Sharn District.
Her body, which was moderately contaminated, would slowly see its contamination levels decrease after spending a long time in a low-contamination environment.
‘Gary and Etta are probably in the same boat.’
“I’m excited,” Etta nodded vigorously.
And why wouldn’t he be?
Riding a train was one reason.
The other was that they were finally leaving the Old East District.
That nagging old woman wouldn’t be able to bother them anymore.
Gary was excited on the inside, but he appeared far more composed than expected.
“I am!”
‘You couldn’t tell from his tone whether he was excited or not.
This kid is way too mature for his age.
Still, mature kids are easier to deal with.’ Mandy patted him on the head.
After more than ten days of digging coal, she was covered in grime herself, so there was no room for anyone to judge.
“We’re going to be living together from now on, so I expect you not to hide things from me or lie to me.
If you do, I’ll get angry.”
‘The kids are still young and don’t know any better.
They need some early conditioning.
If they grow up to be handsome young men, I’ll make us a real couple.
If not, we can just stay roommates.’
Seeing the two boys nod obediently, Mandy couldn’t have been more satisfied.
Until she saw the train station.
POP!
And just like that, her expectations vanished.
The train station was surrounded by a tall fence, with only two entrances open—a pair of turnstiles.
Beyond them, all you could see was a sea of heads, tattered bundles held high, and wailing children hoisted overhead.
Those with tickets scanned their wristbands to get through.
A dense crowd thronged in front of the turnstiles, swarming and shoving their way forward.
People were cursing!
People were shouting!
And others were weeping miserably.
The noise was so deafening it made you want to rip your own head off.
“Over there!” A squad from the Defense Force rushed over in a vehicle, jumped out, and shoved their way through the crowd toward a single person.
The one they grabbed was a man with a look of pure terror on his face.
He struggled frantically.
“Let me go!
I’m not going with you!”
The people waiting to push their way into the station immediately grew quiet when they saw the Defense Force making an arrest.
A clearing suddenly appeared in the space that had been packed shoulder-to-shoulder just a moment before.
The man, pinned down by the Defense Force soldiers, his face a mask of anguish and fury, cried, “I don’t want to go!
Don’t take me!”
The soldiers holding him down said nothing, just kept him pinned firmly to the ground.
Another soldier pulled out a pair of handcuffs and cuffed the man’s hands behind his back.
The man couldn’t break free, and despair slowly washed over his face.
“So what if I’m a Space Ability User?
I don’t want to join the Defense Force!
I don’t want to—”
Everyone who saw and heard what was happening had a look of terror on their face.
But no one dared to ask why.
No one dared to help.
They could only watch as the Defense Force dragged the man away like a helpless chick.
Mandy’s hands trembled slightly.
This was the second time she’d seen something like this since she’d arrived in this world.
The last Space Ability User who was taken away was never seen again.
This was exactly why she tried so hard to keep a low profile and blend into The Wasteland.
‘My Space is something I can never, ever reveal.
And I will never bring out any items from it—items that don’t belong in this world—unless I’m absolutely sure it’s safe.’
“Space Ability Users are extremely rare,” someone finally whispered.
“Every single one they find gets forcibly recruited.”
“Shh!
Are you trying to get yourself killed?
Shut up if you want to live!”
The conversation about Space Ability Users came to an abrupt halt.
The crowd swarmed toward the turnstiles once more.
The scene was seared into everyone’s minds, but no one dared to mention it.
By the time Mandy finally squeezed onto the train, she was drenched in sweat.
The bamboo basket on Gary’s back had been forced around to his chest.
When he finally boarded, the basket was crushed flat.
He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that its contents were still intact.
“Our seats are back here,” Gary said, having memorized their numbers.
Once all three of them were aboard, he forged a path ahead, leading his brother and Mandy through the crowd.
It was a three-person bench.
Mandy took the spot by the window—or what passed for one.
It was really just a window-shaped panel on the wall.
She touched it.
‘It really is fake.’ All right, her expectations for this train had clearly been too high.
“Why are there so many people?
I thought not many people took the train.”
Gary had Etta sit in the middle and took the aisle seat himself.
“Some of the drifters are being relocated to City Zero in the Old East District.
The train will be less crowded once they get off.”
“How do you know so much?” Mandy asked, looking curiously at the people crowding the aisle.
They were dressed much like her, all grimy and covered in dust.
You couldn’t tell them apart at a glance.
The only difference, if there was one, was in their eyes.
The kids fresh from the welfare centers had a lost look in their eyes; you could see it on their faces.
The passengers with a clear destination had a wary glint in their eyes.
Then there was a group whose eyes roamed freely, brazenly sizing up others’ pockets and bags.
Their gazes were greedy and sinister, filled with the fearlessness of those who had nothing left to lose.
‘The eyes really are the windows to the soul.’ Mandy closed her own “windows.” She wouldn’t even consider using her supplies to help these people.
Everyone had their own struggles.
Even if she exhausted all the resources in her Space, how many people could she possibly save?
Oh, she’d helped people in the past.
But instead of being grateful, those she helped had latched onto her like leeches, and it didn’t stop until she’d become a lone wolf in the apocalypse.
From that day on, she’d stopped being a do-gooder.
The air in the train car was a complex stew of odors, long past the point of being able to identify any single one.
“This happens every day,” Gary said.
“The drifters get sent over, they run back, and then they’re sent back again.” He had heard that there were no resources in City Zero, and anyone with the slightest skill had already fled to make a living somewhere else.
“You really don’t know anything about the drifters?”
She did know a little, but what Mandy understood was different from what Gary was talking about.
She saw things on a deeper, more fundamental level: reality, human nature.
‘The little guys are still so young.’
Mandy shook her head.
“I followed all the rules at the welfare center.” ‘Yeah, right,’ she thought.
‘At the welfare center, apart from the mandatory foraging, I spent all my time gathering charcoal to sell to the officials for points.
When would I have had time to worry about things that had nothing to do with me?’ “Is there anywhere to buy food on this train?”
Their bamboo basket only held tools now, no food or water.
What she really wanted to know was if the train had a dining car.
This train was really something else.
You couldn’t tell what its original color was; the exterior was just a mottled patchwork of rust.
The inside was even more primitive.
The seats looked like discarded park benches.
And most unbelievably of all—each car actually had its own stove and chimney.
“Are you hungry?” Gary asked, then looked at Etta.
“Etta, are you hungry?”
A girl in the seat across from them spoke up.
“The farthest stop is the New Sharn District.
It’s a three-day trip.
We just have to endure it.”
“You were assigned to the New Sharn District, too?” Mandy wasn’t an extrovert, but she wasn’t an introvert either.
Back at the welfare center, she’d kept social interactions to a minimum just to survive.
But now, surrounded by strangers, she didn’t have to be so guarded.
The girl shook her head.
“I was assigned to the New Southeast District.
It’s even worse than the Old East District.
Guess I got unlucky.” The boy sitting next to her was silent, radiating an almost palpable air of dejection.
“You’re going to the New Sharn District?
You’re so lucky.”
The Wasteland didn’t have clearly defined cities, so Mandy was completely in the dark as to where the New Southeast District was.
She just played along.
“Well, it’s still just moving to a new place to live, right?”
From some corner of the car, a voice piped up, “Fourth City in the New Southeast District was wiped out by Mutant Beasts from the sea.
Just last month…”
As soon as the words were out, soft sobs began to echo throughout the car.
The girl across from them started crying, too.
The boy, who had been silent until now, spoke up.
“We’re the ones being sent to rebuild Fourth City.”
Hearing this, even the hard-eyed drifters couldn’t help but show a flicker of sympathy.
As the train rumbled on, the crying gradually faded, replaced by numb expressions on everyone’s faces.
When the future was this bleak, who could possibly be happy?
Even an old hand like Mandy felt the mood getting to her, making her want to cry.
The thought of buying food vanished.
‘Three days.
It’s only three days of going hungry!’
Passengers got off in waves.
New passengers surged aboard.
The faces across from them changed again and again.
By the evening of the second day, the train was noticeably less crowded.
Etta couldn’t help but clutch his stomach, his face twisting into a pained expression.
“Gary…
Mandy…
I can’t take it anymore.”
He was so hungry his stomach was churning with acid.
If a Mutant Beast appeared in front of him right now, he felt like he could take a few raw bites out of it.