Flowers Blooming in the Wasteland

"My fingers are getting weaker and weaker. I can't use her anymore. Instead of taking her into a coffin, it's better to give her to someone who is worthy of her." Dandy grabbed some 10mm bullets from another pocket. To Celeste, "By the way, her name is 'Brown of Thorns'."

"I'll keep it safe." Celeste put the gun away.

"I know you will." Dandy clenches his fingers again and releases them, "Let's go."

"Why do you keep doing this?" Celeste finally couldn't help asking curiously.

Dandy replied calmly: "The skin on my fingers is so festered that it can no longer be exposed to the air. If I don't move often, it will stick to the gloves."

"It must be very painful." Celeste felt that it would be very painful just by imagining the feeling of the scab of the wound being torn open.

"Don't worry about me, sweetheart." Dandy showed an indifferent smile, maybe this smile used to be charming, but now it only makes him look more ugly, "When the time and degree of pain exceed a certain limit, don't It hurts. Does it sound scary? So get out of here and don't become like me."

"Yes." Celeste obediently responded.

Dandy inexplicably wanted to rub his head. When he stretched out his hand and saw the leather glove on his hand, he shrunk back dejectedly and laughed at himself: "Sometimes I think about this world. It’s really fucked up, either enduring hunger or suffering from illness, sometimes I am very surprised, why don’t we people shoot ourselves down? We have already become such a ghost, there is no hope of healing, and it is impossible to stay The next generation, let alone have no future to look forward to, enduring the torment of illness every day, and the only purpose of living seems to be to continue to eat the food that can slowly eat us to death."

"Because survival is the instinct of living beings." Celeste said in a straightforward tone.

"...Yeah." Dandy smiled helplessly, "Okay, sweetheart, did you see that road sign? Go straight in that direction and you will be out of the city. I will send you here. This area is still There is radiation, you have to go at least another two kilometers before you can stop and rest, understand?"

This is already the edge of the city, there are not many wreckage of the building, and there is no wind and snow raging today, and the field of vision has become very wide. After arriving here, Celeste should not get lost again, but he did not set off immediately, but He looked back at Dandy and said, "Do you want to go to Hummingbird Town with me? We have food and clean water. As long as you leave the radiation area, your body will always get better."

"You are such a kind little sweetheart, but thank you for your kindness, I don't want to go back to the wasteland again." Dandy said, "It's no point dragging my crippled body to continue fighting for my life, at least in this ghost place , People don’t have to compete with each other because there is enough food, because no matter how much they occupy, they can’t live for long. Instead, they have learned to share and love each other, and they will be taken care of even when they can’t move. Eyes. I just want to live out my last days here, but you have a long life to live. Go and never come back."

"You don't want me to come back and see you?"

"Listen to me clearly, don't, don't, come back, unless you are wearing a super high-performance full-body airtight protective suit. And don't even think about seeing me, my health is already very bad, and I won't live long." Dandy said, "Okay, don't look at me like that, don't say anything sad, just go."

"...goodbye," said Thurlist.

"Goodbye." Dandy sighed and said goodbye, then turned around and walked towards the ruins of the city without looking back.

Celeste sat down to rest after walking two kilometers as he said, and asked Marth: "Since my medical robot can't be used by them, is there any other way I can help them? "

"If you can provide clean drinking water and food with less radiation, it will definitely improve their health, but this is exactly what is most lacking in the wasteland." Masi said, "Now the wasteland is full of Refugees who are dying of starvation and poor health, if the master wants to do good deeds, this kind of opportunity is like picking up stones on the ground, but why does the master want to help them?"

"Yeah...why?" Celeste muttered thoughtfully, stood up and continued walking towards home.

---

Celeste left food for Fu Yunlan before leaving, and said that he might come back very late, so Fu Yunlan didn't suspect it until after dinner time. Lister went home for dinner.

Because he slept too much during the recuperation period, his work and rest has been chaotic, and he went to bed early after dinner.

Fu Yunlan had some messy nightmares, and she didn't realize that Celeste hadn't come back all night until she suddenly woke up the next morning and found that the bed was so cold that there didn't seem to be a trace of heat.

Fu Yunlan was frightened awake from the dazed state of just waking up, and regardless of what the doctor said about his injuries, it was best not to go out, so she grabbed her coat and rushed to the barracks of the garrison.

The snowstorm outside has stopped today, and there is still no one on the street, but the barracks of the garrison are extremely lively, not only the garrison captain Li Kailin, but also the mayor Li Jiesi and several people from the mercenary group are there. They got together to discuss something solemnly, and when Fu Yunlan pushed the door open with a "bang", everyone turned their heads and stared at him blankly.

"Lan...you, why are you here?" the mayor stammered.

Fu Yunlan asked straight to the point: "Cherister didn't come back all night, do you know where he went?"

They looked at each other, Li Jiesi said: "Lan, you sit down first, don't worry about listening to me, the thing is like this, yesterday we also found that Celeste was missing, and at the same time, there was a person who led him Guards, we searched overnight..."

Fu Yunlan interrupted him: "You disappeared last night? Why didn't you tell me right away!"

Li Kailin said: "At that time, we were not sure whether he was missing or went to repair things in a corner we didn't see. We didn't come to tell you right away because we were afraid of affecting your wound. We have been looking for it all night. , combined with all the signs, Celeste was betrayed by the guard and kidnapped premeditatedly."

Fu Yunlan's wound began to ache again.

"Captain..." Heita was about to say something, but Fu Yunlan raised her hand to stop him: "Do you know who did it?"

"It's not clear who did it, but we found footprints of more than a dozen people near the barbed wire fence. The people who came were well-trained. They should not be ordinary bandits or refugees, but other forces." Li Kailin said , "Since it was other forces who went to great lengths to kidnap Celeste, they should have taken a fancy to his repair talent. We can at least be sure that he is safe now."

"And then?" Fu Yunlan suppressed her anxiety and anger as much as possible, "He has been taken away all night, why don't you rush after him and waste your time here?"

"I'm sorry, Captain." Li Kailin said, "At that time, there were only two people beside me. I didn't know what was waiting for us in front of me, so I didn't dare to chase after us rashly, so I had to come back and find someone from the mercenary group."

"We were discussing this matter just now..." Heita said, "No matter who kidnapped Celeste, according to our current situation, I am afraid there is no way to start a war with any of the surrounding forces."

Li Jiesi sighed and said, "That's right, we don't have enough troops or supplies right now, it would be good if other forces don't come to attack us..."

"So? Are you going to leave it like this?" Fu Yunlan looked at them in disbelief. Although he had long understood that there are not many people in this world who can think about others, he was still a little bit moved by the indifference shown by these people. Chilling.

Li Kailin lowered her head and didn't dare to look directly at him. Li Jiesi mumbled and explained: "Lan, I know Celeste is very important, especially to you. But he has been taken away for so long, we don't care After chasing him and finding him, if we want to snatch him back from other forces successfully, we will have to pay a heavy price of casualties. With our limited strength, if more people die, who will guard this town in the future? What's more, even if we fight to the last person, it will be difficult to defeat those forces that have been prepared in other people's territory."

Heita sighed: "Accept the reality, Lan, we really can't do anything."

Fu Yunlan didn't try to persuade them anymore, but stood up silently, and said to Heita, "Give me back my gun."

He has calmed down from the panic and anxiety at the beginning, and his tone is as clear and crisp as when he gave orders to his subordinates during the battle. After Heita complied habitually, he suddenly came back to his senses and asked, "What are you doing?" What to do?"

Fu Yunlan took off the magazine of the assault rifle and checked it. After confirming that the condition of the gun was normal, he walked out: "I have to find him."

"Are you crazy? What's the difference between this and death?" Li Jiesi stopped him immediately, Fu Yunlan stopped, looked at Li Jiesi motionless and said: "I'm not crazy, I know very well that I'm What to do, get out of the way."

Under his gaze, Li Jiesi had no choice but to take a step back to let the door open: "Lan, I beg you, don't be impulsive, I know it's heartless for us to do this, but Celeste's kidnapping is already a huge problem." Lost, if you have trouble, what will this small town do in the future?"

"...You have to preserve your strength. There is nothing wrong with that. I don't blame you." Fu Yunlan said, "I don't know what the future of the town will be like, but when everyone gave up on me, he didn't give up on me. Everyone has given up on him now, and I can't give up."