40k: Midnight Blade

Chapter 54 54. Numbness and Hatred

The rain kept falling, like a terrible punishment.

The stench of acid rain would make anyone who smelled it feel miserable for the first half of the month, and feel sad for their tortured nasal cavity. But as time passed, they would no longer care about the torture.

Because new torture has come.

Factory.

In Nostramo, factory is four syllables. It is difficult to pronounce, and if it is pronounced according to the full name of the factory, the syllables will increase to a terrible level.

So the workers only use four syllables to call it.

Anyway, what difference does it make to work in which factory? The final result is to get sick and die in the shantytown. They have expected this and don't feel sad.

After all, most people have long been numb.

A skinny man squatted in the corner of his house, hunched over.

His posture is weird. If a person wants to squat comfortably, he shouldn't bulge his back like that, but he did it.

Not only that, he didn't even feel any discomfort.

The acid rain hit the broken wooden board above his head, invaded his home through the gaps, and created shallow puddles on the ground. The man's expression was dull, and he didn't intend to speak or do anything about the puddles formed by the rain.

He just endured it.

There was a faint cough outside the door, and a footstep. In the rain, these two things got closer and closer until the sound of a door being pushed open overwhelmed them.

"Joseph!" A man shouted hoarsely at the door. "More!"

". What?"

"More dead people!"

The person who shouted him said in a tone mixed with fear and some complex emotions. "He did it, there is no mistake! There is blood on the wall, and there are words!"

Joseph coughed and stood up slowly. His skinny body slowly unfolded in the darkness, looking shockingly ugly. The man coughed and began to put on his only coat.

Then he asked, "Did Le went?"

"He went, and he wrote down the words!"

"He just wrote them down," Joseph muttered. "He can't read."

"Stop talking, come here!" The man who called him turned around excitedly and walked away. His sick body had never been so excited. There was a light flashing in his turbid eyes, a light different from numbness.

But it was not hope.

Joseph shook his head and walked out of his house slowly.

There were already many people walking on the road in the shantytown. They didn't need to go to the factory to work recently, but at this time, it was quite confusing to see so many people walking in a certain direction together.

Fortunately, Joseph didn't.

He knew what they were going to do.

He followed the team silently and walked slowly in the acid rain. The stinking rain wet his hair and clothes, and the exposed skin was burned and painful, but he didn't care at all.

- There was also that light flashing in his eyes.

After walking for an unknown period of time, they arrived at their destination. A tall spire overlooked these thin, half-dressed ghosts in the gloomy rain. They looked up and stared at it.

Joseph heard some light conversations coming from the front of the crowd, so he began to move forward. This was not easy for his body. He began to pant after squeezing through a few people, but he didn't feel tired, just kept moving forward.

A few minutes later, he arrived at the front of the crowd.

"Eternal Night" he heard someone muttering to himself, with an uncontrollable fear in his voice, but it was not just fear.

Yes, Eternal Night.

Joseph's eyes widened - he didn't know how to describe his feelings at the moment, he just knew to look, and he could only look.

The steps in front of the unmanned spire were covered with corpses, lying in all directions, and the gangs stared at the sky with lifeless eyes. Acid rain fell from the sky, smashing into their eyes, smashing them to pieces, and also bringing a little blood.

Several lines of characters cast in blood stared at them quietly on the wall next to the corpses.

"Joseph." A voice called softly, and then a man patted his shoulder. Joseph turned his head and saw a pale and young face. "Le" "It's terrible." Le said. "He has killed more and more recently, and he is everywhere, isn't he?" "Yes." Joseph answered blankly and turned his head back. He stared at the corpses. After a while, Joseph suddenly asked: "Did you write it down?" "Yes." "Did Calles and the others find someone who can read?" "It is said that there is an old man in the east of the city. He used to do the accounting for the adults in the factory. He can read a little bit." Le said, shaking his head. "But we are not sure if this is true, because many people have died in the east of the city recently. We are leaving." He took Joseph's shoulder and led him back. Some violent shouting and scolding came from behind them, and even mixed with a few violent gunshots. Joseph trembled all over and buried his head deeply. "It seems that we are unlucky this time." Le said in a low voice. "They actually came on a rainy day, don't they stay at home?"

"Stop talking." Joseph responded in a low voice, his tone was urgent. "Hurry up and go."

"What are you afraid of?" Lie said in a pretended calm tone. "He's looking for them."

They stopped talking and just followed the crowd, squirming little by little in the acid rain. The scolding still didn't stop, but the crowd didn't resist.

They are already used to it.

Walking - continuing to walk, the neighborhood they walked through was gradually driven back to the original shanty town under the malicious or indifferent gaze of the gangs. The moment he entered here, Joseph finally breathed a sigh of relief.

He grabbed Li and whispered, "Don't say that next time."

"What kind?"

"You know what it is, Lie. If they hear you, you'll die."

"Then die." Lie said nonchalantly. "They will die anyway, and he will kill them for me."

"How do you know if he can?"

"He will definitely do it," Lie said firmly. "Did you see him kill anyone else? No. Right? All gangs, and those two that day."

"Only you saw it," Joseph said quietly. "To be honest, even I don't really believe it. How could those adults die?"

"Forget it if you don't believe it, Joseph."

Lie shook his head: "Anyway, that's it."

"etc."

"What's wrong?"

"Aren't your walls already filled with writing?" Joseph asked. “Those words, do you still have space on the wall for them?”

Lie was stunned for a moment. He thought for a while and nodded: "It's full."

"Then come to my house." Joseph turned around and began to lead him to his house.

There are many coughing people on the roadside who are being baptized by acid rain. Some people are dead, while others are still alive. They were indifferent to the burning of acid rain, and just stared coldly at the gloomy sky without saying a word.

They didn't look at them.

A few minutes later, Joseph opened the door and walked in, avoiding the puddles on the ground, and Joseph did not close the door. He knew it would take a tiny bit of light to do what he wanted to do next.

"Your wall is not bad." Lie said.

"Rotten wood." Joseph smiled. "It's not bad."

Lie also smiled. He bent down and pulled out a coal from his shoe - which he had obtained from another man in exchange for three days of food rations.

Coal can leave marks on walls.

He approached the rotten wooden wall and began to write meticulously, taking every stroke very carefully.

".Do you think he is really, uh, a ghost?" After a while, Joseph suddenly asked.

"I don't know." Lie whispered.

"you do not know?"

"Of course I don't know, Joseph, I haven't seen him but he must exist, doesn't he?"

"That's right," muttered Joseph. "He definitely exists."

He nodded, and then smiled unconsciously. "He definitely exists."

"Besides, they couldn't find him." Lie also smiled. "They were looking for him every day, but they just couldn't find him."

"So, he's a ghost?"

"I have no idea."

"He must be," Joseph said firmly. "I heard Thumbtack say that only ghosts can do this kind of thing."

"The thumbtack has been dead for a long time, Joseph."

"He said it anyway."

Lie sighed. "Well, he said it—I'm done."

Joseph was taken aback. He immediately stepped forward and waved his arms stammeringly: "Can I, can I - can I have a look?"

"Of course." Lie bent down and stuffed the piece of coal into his heel.

He said dullly: "But you can't understand it either."

"Don't you understand?" Joseph said unconvinced.

"No one understands it - so if you want to see it, go ahead and see it."

Lie stood up and sighed.

They stood side by side like this, observing the wall in the narrow and dilapidated shack with a bit of broken light projected from the outside world. The three lines of black words were so obvious and so difficult for them to understand.

They couldn't understand the language they were speaking.

After a while, Lie spoke softly.

"I hope they all die," he said softly. "What about you, Joseph?"

"Me too." Joseph said blankly. "But will he help us?"

"He will." Lie used that confident tone again. "He's already helping us."

The rain continued, and from far away blocks beyond the hearing of these poor workers, there were chaotic gunshots and screams alternately.

Damn, I forgot to post my my my on time.