Steel steam and flame

Afterwards, the two of them each revealed their identities and gradually became familiar with each other as they spoke.

The middle-aged uncle's name is Puno, and he is the only employee stationed at this station. He has been here for a long time, probably about ten years, and has become familiar with the surrounding situation.

"I didn't expect anyone to come to this station." Puno said with emotion. He took out a new metal cup from the cabinet next to the large table and gave Cassia a full cup of cold coffee, which was unique. "There is nothing good anymore. The climate changes here are so drastic that it is difficult to preserve fresh things for a long time. I don't drink alcohol myself. I used to drink. Every time the train stopped here, I always asked them to bring it to me." I came with a box of wine. But one time I drank too much and it delayed things and almost died, so I gave up from then on. I am the only one here, so getting drunk is not good."

Puno expressed his satisfaction and took out a few more bags of biscuits to eat. There was indeed nothing decent here. Cassia shook her head and said not to mind.

"No one has gotten off the station here for a long time, and there are no supplies that need to be replenished recently. Those high-speed trains also stop here symbolically. As long as it is recorded in the difference machine, they will leave immediately without leaving any time." Puno went on to say in a fairly fluent sentence, "No one from the army has come recently, and I haven't seen them for more than half a year. They will only come in advance when the train is about to arrive. Usually here Apart from me, there is no one around. There was someone here to accompany me before, a child I picked up, who seemed to have been abandoned by his family, at the last station."

"I cried a lot at the time and didn't know which way to go. No one wanted me at the last station. I only knew that my family was leaving by train, so I walked along the railway line. But the direction was reversed. You came to me." Puno smiled, as if he was talking about something happy. "When I came here, my voice was hoarse from crying, and I was still crying. But it was fortunate that this was the case, otherwise the brown bears and other animals around would be destroyed. If the ferocious animals are lured out, they won’t be able to reach me in the end.”

Cassia laughed along with her.

As he spoke, Puno drank the half cup of coffee in the metal cup, threw a few biscuits into his mouth, and then poured a full cup of cold coffee into the cup again: "The communication machine is broken, and I have been working on it all afternoon. It's still not healed, and I haven't even taken a bite of the meal." He explained, and then suddenly remembered and asked Cassia why he came here. Coming here is not just for sightseeing, there must be something going on.

"You're not here to replace me, are you?" Puno asked with a cautious expression, but it was obviously pretending. "It's surprising that the people who manage the railway line think that there are still living people living here. That's the thing. I haven't been paid for several years, so I should have forgotten about this place. I thought about leaving before, but thinking about it at this age, not too old or too young, I decided to stay here in the end. You can After living here, a lot of daily necessities were moved here from the military trains every time. I also earned pocket money by selling animal pelts to others, including those guys on the high-speed train, and some very good captains."

"No, I'm just stopping here for a while, and then I have to go to the battle line."

"Soldier?" Puno looked Kasialai up and down carefully. He was not wearing a military uniform, nor did he have the obvious smell of a soldier. He was probably a student, he thought.

"They are indeed very similar in stature," he commented. "They are not journalists from newspapers and periodicals, are they? Those train captains often bring old newspapers and periodicals to me."

"That's right." Cassia nodded, not wanting to explain too much in this regard, "So I want to ask how to get to the front from here. Apart from these buildings, there is nothing else around."

"This is a bit difficult to handle." Puno said regretfully, "You seem to be not very lucky. The communication equipment happened to be broken today. It doesn't matter if you can fix it, but I spent an afternoon doing it myself. I’ve read the instructions several times and still can’t find a way.”

"It's the only communication tool between here and the other side of the battle line." Puno pointed to the communication machine on the side. "If something happens here, it will be transmitted to the imperial army on the front line through it. No. What kind of means of transportation? There are mountains all the way back here, a very wide wasteland, used to separate the front areas. The army also takes their own small trains when they come here, the kind with only a few carriages. If there is When the heavy trains come here, they rely on that kind of thing to transport goods. The size and target of the heavy trains are too large, and it is very easy to attack, so they are not allowed to run directly along the railway line into the battle line. "

"This is what I have heard from those in the army for more than ten years." Puno added, "It is the child who was abandoned by his family. Later, when he got older, he was relisted many times in the past few years. Frequently, he became familiar with the group of people in the army, so he followed the soldiers who came here and joined the army soon. It was still in peacetime, and it was not clear how long it would take for the war to start, and there was no choice. It’s not very authentic for him to follow me and guard this station.”

Cassia nodded in agreement.

Puno said sentence by sentence, "Later, he was allowed to go to the battle line. At any rate, he is now a lieutenant. I don't know the specific rank. He still comes to see me occasionally. I can be regarded as half of his father." Right." There were some wrinkles in the smile on Puno's face, "He got those shotguns from the army, as well as this film machine, otherwise no one would be able to stay here for a long time."

Cassia asked if there was any other way. He could also go to the front line. Whether to notify the army or not was not important.

"It seems unlikely." As he spoke, Puno had already finished a bag of biscuits. "I am trying to repair the communication machine. I have been using it for several years. Although problems often occur, I can do it myself. It was solved. I don’t know what happened this time. There are several houses here, and there are quilts and other things. It’s not troublesome to stay here at night. There is no charge, it’s all free.”

Puno smiled and said, "Would you like to take a look at what this communication machine is about? I got it very early when I was young and didn't read many books. If the instructions weren't very detailed, I wouldn't be able to do anything about this machine. .”

Cassia nodded and took the somewhat worn instruction manual to read. It was easy to understand and listed some solutions to the problems, as well as the model number of the communication machine at the end.

Sure enough, it was military equipment, but based on the model number, Cassia recalled the general rules within the empire for compiling serial models for various types of machines, and judged that this was obviously a refurbished communication machine that had been eliminated more than ten years ago. product.