Chapter 88 – Home of the Other Survivors

I decided to walk first.

It is true that I am reluctant to meet other survivors.
But I’ve been here to find survivors since the beginning. I couldn’t choose the option of just going back now.

A little further north, even in the northern safe zone.
Even on flat land, they were gathered on flatter ground.

Uncomfortable walking around in plain sight, I made my way back through the forest to where the survivors were. So I ended up dragging out more time for no reason, but thanks to that, I was able to unilaterally scout the survivors over there with a telescope while hiding in the woods.

“Three, six, nine… About 17 people.”

Their village… Is a village a collection of houses?
There are no houses like houses, so I don’t think it can be called a village. Village… It doesn’t seem like either.

Anyway, they just gathered on the flat ground.
There is no house or hideout. Just flat
They sat in groups of two or three and talked, some wandering aimlessly around. Another was spread out on the floor as if taking a nap.

… Is this really the home of a group of survivors?
No matter how much it rained and the weather continued to be sunny, how did you live without a roof?

It has been over a week since I came to this island. It was a story that if they had come at the same time as me, they would have endured for a week in that state.

Moreover, by looking at their clothes, you can tell that they are from the same class as the survivors we encountered earlier. A gathering of ragged, sloppy, unwashed and undressed drifters.
Have they really given up being human?

“It’s over.”

A sigh came out of my mouth.
It was like the men who were clumsily hunting just a moment ago. I couldn’t eat or wash properly, so I was hungry and tired on my face.

“Come to think of it…”

This group had a high proportion of women.
Is the male to female ratio roughly 5:12?

If you add up the fact that there were 7 men just before, the number was roughly correct.
I guess I left all my female partners here. It seems that this is their home base.

So, a total of 12 couples, male and female?
Among them, 7 males are hunting, and the other 5 are in the home base?
All 12 women are here.

However, the condition of the men remaining in this base is…

“… There are no homeless people.”

At least, most of the people sitting and talking are women, and most of the remaining men are lying on the floor. I couldn’t tell if he was sleeping or dead.

“…”

What is certain is that this group has no future.

Resignation and annoyance permeated their faces. Faces waiting for someone to do something rather than trying to do something. At the same time, it was a group of defeatists who had no intention of moving on their own.

– Sabak. Sabak.

“Huh?”

Sound of stepping on grass.
When she turned her head, she saw a woman coming into the forest from a short distance away.

Alone? What are you trying to do?
She watches that way through a telescope. Young woman with short hair. She seems to be about the same age as Seunghee.

The woman came into the woods and squatted down.

“…”

He must have come to see the ball.

Does that mean there aren’t even toilets here?

I knew why the men’s equipment was poor.
They really didn’t even have that much coin.

Lower the telescope

I couldn’t see it because of the grass, and I didn’t want to see it.
Looking at the face, it seems that the background was fine, but it was in poor condition because it was so twisted. When I go home, I have a pile of food, but I didn’t want to pick up the snacks that fell on the street.

But…
Even if it wasn’t like that, I wanted to tell a story.
How do you live like this?
What are you doing for a living?

Silently, I approached the woman doing the errands.
No other survivors are marked nearby on the map. Even if the woman was alone like this, the other survivors were not interested.

… If I had been a hunter, this woman must have been her life dead.
Although she is wary of her surroundings, her nerves are not in the forest, but in the other group of survivors. He didn’t expect anyone to come out of the forest.

“Hey.”
“Hick!”

When the woman doing the errands got up and pulled up her panties.
I, who was waiting behind me, quietly spoke to the woman.

As expected, the woman looked startled as she had never imagined who would be behind her.

“Quiet. Unless you want to die.”
“Hey, hey hey…”

I thought I was going to scream, so I put a branch to the woman’s neck. It was an act to scare by imitating a knife.

“I was wrong, help me, help me…”
“Quiet. Just answer the questions correctly and I’ll let you go.”

… Maybe my approach is wrong.
Did I scare you too much? The woman began to weep.

“Come into the forest. Because it stinks.”
“Right…”

The woman whimpered, but entered the forest obediently.
I grabbed her from behind and led the way in.

“What is your name?”
“Sniff. Inyoung Lee…”
“Age is?”
“Twenty years old…”

Enter the forest moderately and stop.
Then the woman began begging her hands like flies.

“Mister. Please save me please save me…”

The clothes are military uniform, the face is a mask, and the voice is low.
It was natural for him to be called uncle. Rather, it was better.

“Only answer the questions. Then you won’t die.”

I threw back the twig she was holding in her hand.
The woman was blank and she was watching it.

“How many people are in your group of survivors?”
“Uh…”

When I ask, he hesitates while rolling his eyes.
It was obvious that he was trying to lie.

“Don’t think of cheating and answer me. Because I already counted the numbers.”
“S, twenty-eight.”
“28 people? Not 24 people?”
“Ah, that, that, the four of them fight and go out…”

A woman visibly taken aback by my words.
24 people seems to be correct.

“Are you going to fight?”
“Yes. It’s hard to live here… I said I would go out and live separately…”
“Do you know where he went?”
“No… I went into the woods, but I don’t know after that.”

Hmm. So, there are at least 4 more people in this group of 24 people?
The 4 people who went out might be more dangerous than the 24 people here. At least you have the will to do something.

“Are there any other survivors besides you?”
“If there are other survivors… I just saw it for the first time.”

He looks at me and says.
It didn’t seem like a lie at all.

“Hey, hey, where is this place? How can I go back? What are you really filming?”

She said that she talked a little bit and if the tension was relieved, now the woman started asking me.

“The story isn’t over yet. Do it after my story.”
“Ugh… Yes…”

As soon as I say one word, I become sullen.
Somehow, the reaction is similar to Seunghee’s.

“Why are you living like this? Don’t you have a hideout?”
“Ajit… That is our hideout.”

A woman who answered blankly. By over there, you mean the bare floor.

“Did we all start right there from the beginning?”
“No… I was a little bit far away, but everyone nearby gathered here…”
“What about cell phones?”
“I don’t have, but my brother does… Oh, I came with my older brother, but others came with older sisters, younger brothers, uncles, nephews, and, uh, mothers and sons.”

They are all similar. It seems that two members of the family are being brought together.

“So, why are you so poor?”
“Poor… That’s what I want to ask…”

Muttering sadly
Doesn’t that mean you live in poverty because you want to?

“Didn’t you have sex?”
“Yes?”
“Didn’t you have sex?”

Papa pat. A woman suddenly backing away.

“Uh, uh… “

Then he looks around to see if he is looking for a weapon.

“Calm down. Because I know you don’t know anything.”

This woman doesn’t seem to know that she gets her coins when she has sex and can use them to buy her stuff.

She’s already been on this island for a week, how could she not know that?

But if you think about it, it’s simple. If I had tried to hide it too, I would have been able to hide it without being noticed by her mother. What this island is, how to get coins, what missions are, everything. All you have to do is hide your phone and keep it a secret from your partner.

“Didn’t your brother seem to be hiding something?”
“Hiding… ?”
“Okay. Like men secretly talking about something.”
“Ah.”

It seems that there is something to catch up on.
And seeing that, I had something to point out.

“What did your brother say about this island? How do you judge this place?”
“Brother is… I said it was a reality show. Surviving on an uninhabited island…”
“Right.”

Are you cheating on her unkempt sister?
Maybe this woman’s brother really believes that. It’s all a reality show. So when you can’t stand it anymore and put your hand on your partner, the camera pops out and the survivor is eliminated.

Maybe this woman’s brother really thinks that way, so he doesn’t want to lay her hand on her brother. I’ve probably been through that kind of mission a few times. Of course, other men do too.

“That’s ridiculous.”

How could this be?

It seems like this might be the case.
First of all, the surrounding environment was a problem.
It’s safe here. It is too safe.

The weather is good enough to sleep on the bare floor, there are no dangerous animals, and there are no killers who kill people for nothing.

If I had been through a dangerous situation that would take my life back and forth, I wouldn’t have been able to think so carefree. But there was no such risk to them. They were just living like this.

It might have been a different story if they were in crisis, like Caylee, who only came to ask for help after her son became critically ill. But because it was so safe, they just wasted eight days.

“Excuse me… Now, may I ask?”

A snarky girl asks.

“No. No.”
“Hey.”

Now, what should I do?

In fact, what I was going to do was decided from the beginning.
It does nothing.