Chapter 32 Chapter Thirty-Two

Theremon has never had the experience of living in the wild. After thinking about it, he still feels that he is a man living in the city.The green grass, the trees, the fresh air, the empty sky... He didn't care at all, they had no special attraction for him.For many years, his life route has been a fixed three-point-one-line style based on the city, shuttling back and forth strictly according to the familiar route, first confined to his small apartment, and also in the office of the Chronicle, and thirdly The point is the Six Suns Club. And now, suddenly, he was a forest dweller. Strange that he would like it here.

The place called the "forest zone" by the residents of Saro City is actually a small forest zone in the southeast of the city, extending for dozens of miles along the Sepidan River.This piece of forest land used to be larger, a large piece of wasteland through the central part of the province, has been extended to the sea, but most of the area has been used for farming, the remaining part has been built into suburban residential areas, the university spent 50 years The twists and turns established the then new campus.In order not to be swallowed by urban development, the university encouraged people to preserve the remaining land as parks.Moreover, there has been a law in Salo City for many years: any request from the university must be met by the government.In this way, the last piece of ancient wasteland was left behind.

This is where Theremon found himself now. The first two days were bad.Affected by the sight of the stars, the mind remains in a semi-confused state, and he cannot formulate any clear plans.The first thing is to keep life going. The city is burning... everywhere is smoky and hot, and from a height you can even see the flames leaping from the roofs.Therefore, the idea of ​​going back is unwise.As he was recovering from the eclipse, as soon as the confusion of the day resurfaced in his mind, he continued to walk down the slope from the campus until he found himself in the woods. This was done by many others, some of whom looked like university personnel, others who might have been the remnants of the mob who ransacked the observatory on the night of the eclipse.The rest, Thelimon speculates, may be suburbanites who were forced to flee their homes after the fire broke out.

Everyone he saw looked just like him, not fully recovered.Most of them looked worse than him... some of them were completely insane and unable to take care of themselves. These people are disorganized, mostly unaccompanied loners.They wandered through the woods, in groups of two or three, following their own mysterious routes.The largest group Theremon saw was eight people, and from their appearance and clothing they seemed to be a family. It's scary when you meet someone who is really crazy.They were blank-eyed, drooling, with drooping jaws and dirty clothes.Like a walking corpse, talking to itself, singing to itself, dragging slow and heavy steps, wandering in the open space, occasionally prostrate on the ground with hands and knees, dig out groups of muddy grass roots, and chew them in large mouths.They mess around.It seemed to Theremon that this place was like a gigantic madhouse, and perhaps the whole world was like that.

Those who are deeply affected by the manifestation of the stars are generally harmless, at least not to other people.Their minds are too damaged to take any interest in violence, and their physical organism is so damaged that effective violence will do them no good. But there are some people who are not so crazy... look almost normal...these people do pose a serious threat. These people, Theremon soon realized, fell into two broad categories.The first category consists of those who have no ill intentions towards anyone, who think that there is a high probability that the darkness and the stars will appear again, and are often hysterical.These people are flamers.They had been living a routine life until the disaster happened... ordinary people, hard workers, happy neighbors.As long as Onas is in the sky, they are very peaceful.But as soon as the main sun begins to set and evening comes, the fear of the dark will overwhelm them, and they will frantically look around for something to burn, anything, anything they can get their hands on.While two or three other suns might still be in the sky when Onas sank, the light of these few small suns did not seem to be enough to dispel the fear these men had of the dark.They are the kind of people who burn down the city around them, burning books, papers, furniture, roofs in desperation.Because of the burning and destruction of the city, they were forced to flee into the forest, and now they are trying to burn it down too, but it will not be easy.Because the forest is dense and green, a large river flows along the edge of the forest, and several small streams that flow into the large river provide enough nutrients for the dense forest.Even if the green branches are pulled down, it is not easy to set them on fire.As for the dead twigs and leaves all over the place, they have been completely soaked by the recent rains, and those that may be burning have been found for bonfires, and will not start any fire.By the second day, such dry branches and dead leaves are extremely rare.Thus, the arsonists, owing on the one hand to the conditions of the forest, and on the other hand to their own insanity, have so far had little success.Despite this, they managed to light two large fires in the forest, which, luckily, since they had exhausted the fuel in the vicinity, extinguished themselves after a few hours.If it had been hot and dry for several days, these men might be able to set the whole area on fire, as they did in Salo.

The second category of people, those wildly unstable people who roamed the forest, posed a more immediate threat, in Theremon's view.Regardless of any social constraints, these people are bandits, hooligans, murderers, psychopaths, and murderers.Like unsheathed knives, they wandered the quiet forest paths, looting at will and killing those unfortunates who annoyed them. Each of them was glazed-eyed in varying degrees, some from mere fatigue, some from depression, some from madness.Therefore, when you meet them in the forest, you can't judge how dangerous he is at all.Judging by appearance alone, you have no way of knowing whether the person approaching you is a harmless deranged, bewildered insanity, or the kind who is full of rage and kills on sight for no reason. people.

So you have to learn very quickly to be wary of anyone stalking in the woods, any stranger can be a threat.You may be talking kindly to him about the experience since the evening when the sun fell, and some casual remark in the conversation will offend him, or because he admires a certain accessory of yours, or simply hates your face... Suddenly, he It will howl at you like a beast. There is no doubt that people of this class have been criminals from the first, and that seeing the collapse of society around them free them from any What bondage.But others, Theremon guessed, were at peace until their hearts were shaken by the stars.They suddenly find all the constraints of civilized life gone, and they forget the laws that made life civilized, and, like teenagers, become selfish, concerned only with their own needs...but they have grown-ups Strength and perseverance.

If you hope to survive, the only way is to avoid people who you know or suspect are extremely crazy.Pray that they will kill each other in the first few days, leaving a safer world for those who are less predatory. During the first two days Theremon met three of these dreadful lunatics.The first one was tall and thin, with a face like a devil, and jumped into the creek with a smirk, and asked Lemon to pay him the toll. "Leave your shoes, or your watch!" "Get out of the way!" said Theremon.The man went berserk, and taking advantage of Theremon's inattention, he seized his club and charged at him, roaring and uttering a battle cry.The man slammed the short stick at the top of his head, and Theremon had no time to think about it, so he had to duck his head to avoid it.

He heard the whistling of the club and was almost hit.The stick flew over his head and hit the tree beside him. The huge force broke the tree in two and hit the attacker's arm. The short stick fell from his weak fingers, and he was gasping for breath in pain. . Theremon immediately mounted the man, grabbed his injured arm, and yanked it relentlessly upward, causing him to bend over in pain, gurgling and groaning, and crumpled to the ground.Theremon poked him with a stick, pushed him down, and soaked his face in the stream, where he remained submerged. Theremon wondered how easy it would be to keep his head in the water until he was drowned.Whether to do it like this, he was conflicted for a while deep in his heart.

He will kill you without hesitation.kill him.Otherwise, if you let him go, you will fight him again?If he follows you through the forest to get revenge on you, the consequences will be dire!Drown him now, Theremon, drown him! The idea is extremely seductive.But only part of Theremon's brain was willing to accept the jungle morality of the New World, while the rest recoiled at the very idea.Finally he let go of the man's arm, stepped back, and waited, club in hand. At this moment, the man completely lost his combat power, suffocating and panting heavily.He jumped up from the edge of the stream, dripping from his mouth and nostrils, and sat on the bank shivering, coughing, and struggling to breathe.He sullenly stared at Theremon in horror, and he had no strength to get up, let alone fight again.

Han Limeng bypassed him, jumped over the creek, and quickly left here, walking into the depths of the forest. For ten minutes he did not fully grasp the implications of what he had done.Then he stopped suddenly, and a fit of sweat and nausea, and a fit of violent vomiting tormented him, made him unable to stand up by himself for a long time. Later that afternoon, he realized that his wanderings had brought him to the edge of the forest.He looked out from the bushes and saw the deserted road. In the square on the far side of the road, there were a large number of ruins of high-rise brick buildings. He recognized the building. It was the Pantheo, the cathedral dedicated to God. There is not much left of the church.He crossed the road, watching in disbelief.Looks like the fire started in the center of the church...they set the pews on fire? . . . the fire surged up the narrow tower above the altar, catching the wooden beams.The whole tower collapsed and knocked down the walls.The square was littered with broken bricks, and corpses protruded from the ruins. Theremon had never been particularly a believer in God, he didn't know anyone who said "My God" or "O God" or "O God Almighty" as loudly as anyone else!But the real God, or any belief that did prevail, was always at odds with his way of life.Religion to him was something grotesque.He also goes to church from time to time to attend a friend's wedding...of course, like him, the friend is not a believer...or to attend some services as a news program arrangement to perform official duties.But since his confirmation at the age of ten he had not entered any holy church for religious purposes. Even so, the sight of the church in ruins moved him deeply.He had attended its inauguration more than a decade ago when he was a young journalist.He knew the building had cost millions of credits, marveled at the exquisite craftsmanship it contained, the moving music that echoed throughout the hall...the Guissymore hymn to God moved him.Even he, a godless man, could not help feeling that if there was a god anywhere in Kargash, it was certain (and it must be) that it would be here. God let a building like this be destroyed! Knowing that the madness of the appearance of the stars would destroy even their own Pantheor, yet the stars were sent! What does that mean?If they really exist, how to explain the unknowability and unfathomable mystery of God? Theremon knew that no one would rebuild the church, no one would restore it to what it had been. "Help me," a voice called. The faint voice interrupted Theremon's meditation, and he looked around. "Here, here." on his left.Yes, Theremon saw the golden vestments gleaming in the sun.On the far side of the building, half buried in the rubble, was a man who, judging from his ornate attire, was clearly a priest.His body from the waist down was crushed by a heavy beam, and he was gesticulating with the last of his strength. Theremon ran towards him, but just as he took a dozen steps, a second figure appeared in the distance from the collapsed building and ran towards him.It was a thin, brisk little man who scrambled over the bricks with animal-like agility towards the trapped priest.Great, thought Thelimon, together we will be able to pull the beam off him. But when there were still about 20 meters away, he stopped, terrified.The quick little man had reached the priest, bent down, and with a knife he slit open the priest's throat quickly, like opening an envelope. Now he was busy cutting the string off the priest's vestment. He looked up and glared at Theremon.His eyes were full of fierce light, which made people feel frightened. "Mine!" he howled like a beast in the jungle, "Mine!" and swung the knife. Theremon trembled with terror.For a moment he stood frozen in place, startled by the diabolical swiftness with which the muggers dismembered the priest's body.Then, sadly, Theremon turned and left quickly, crossed the road again, and entered the forest.For a pastor, there is no point in doing anything. That night, while Tano, Sisar, and Dovim cast dim sunlight in the sky, Theremon allowed himself to sleep fitfully for hours in the thick undergrowth.But again and again he woke up imagining some madman with a knife crawling up to him to steal his shoes.For a long time before Onas rose up, he didn't feel sleepy.When morning finally came, he was surprised to find that he was still alive. Half a day later, he encountered another type of killer for the third time.This time he was passing a lawn near a bend in the river when he saw two men sitting in the shade of a grove across the road playing a game of dice.They seemed calm and peaceful enough, but as Theremon got closer to them, he realized there was an argument going on.Then, without thinking, one of them quickly took the bread knife that was on the rug beside him, and stabbed the other man in the chest with great force. The man with the knife smiled at Theremon. "He cheated on me. When you know what it is, it makes you angry. I can't stand it when a guy tries to cheat on me." That was all too clear to him.He grinned and rattled the dice. "Hey, do you want to play?" Theremon stared into those mad eyes. "Sorry," he said as casually as possible, "I'm looking for my girlfriend." He kept going. "Hey, you'll find her later! Come on, have fun!" "I think I see her," cried Theremon, quickening his steps, and leaving the place without looking back. After that he dared not wander through the forest again.He found a relatively secluded forest glade, hid in a remote and hidden corner, and built a small shelter for himself under a protruding rock.Nearby is a berry bush full of edible red fruit.As he shook the leaf opposite the dwelling, a garden of yellow nuts with delicious black kernels rained down.He looked carefully at the creek in the distance, wondering if there was anything in it that he could prey on, but there seemed to be nothing in it except for small carps.And he knew that even if he caught these fish, he would have to eat them raw, because there was no fuel for the fire, and besides, he couldn't light it. Living on berries and nuts was not a noble way of life, according to Theremon, but he could bear it for a few days.To his credit, his waistline is shrinking, the only enviable result of this disaster.The best thing to do is stay here and hide until everything calms down. He was convinced that everything would calm down.People would recover sooner or later, at least he hoped so.He knew it had been a long time since he had seen the stars and caused confusion in his brain. As the days passed, he felt more and more stable.From his point of view, he seems to have returned to the way it used to be. Although his body is still a little shaken, maybe a little jittery, but this is also reasonable.Fundamentally at least, he feels sane.He realized that there was a good chance that during the twilight he would have been less hurt than most others, more resilient, much stronger, and better able to withstand the terrible shock of that terrible experience.But maybe everyone else will start to recover too, even those who were more shaken than he was.So he wanted to get out of the woods and see if there was any feasible way to restore the world, presumably it would be safe. But he told himself that what he had to do now was to lie still so as not to be murdered by those psychopaths running around outside.Let them kill as quickly as possible, and then wearily crawl out to observe the movement.It was not a very courageous plan, but it seemed sensible. He wondered what happened to the others who were with him at the observatory when the darkness came.How's Beanie, and Sherin, Arthur, and Sifna. Theremon and especially Sifna.Always wanted to venture out and find her.The thought haunted him all the time.During his hours of solitude, he imagined and was always intoxicated in this artistic conception: in the forest, they walked arm in arm, walking through this perverted and terrifying world together, forming a mutual protective alliance... Of course, from the beginning he was attracted to her.He needn't have bothered.He knew all the qualities that attracted him, and though she was pretty, she was one of those women who had absolute self-control and didn't need the company of any man or any woman.From time to time he tried to ask her out, but she kept a decent distance from him. Theremon was so sophisticated in the world that he knew that no flattering words would be enough to breach such a fortified defense.He had concluded long ago that valuable women were too easy to be seduced; you could show them possibilities, but in the end you had to let them seduce you, or you couldn't change their opinion.As for Sifna, things were against him from the very beginning, and she had been very angry with him... and justified, he thought regretfully... At one time, by misunderstanding, he had also been angry with Arthur and the people in the observatory. Helped people with cynicism. At any rate, he felt at last that her obstinacy was weakening, that she was beginning to take an interest in him, despite her own nature.Why else had she defied Arthur's orders and invited him to the observatory on the night of the eclipse?For a brief period of that night, it seemed that the real contact between them began. But then came the darkness, the stars, the mob, the chaos, everything was out of order.If only she could be found... We'll work well together, he thought, and we'll be a huge team...smart and practical, capable and adaptable.No matter how far civilization evolves in the future, we will find a good place for ourselves in it. Even if there had been a psychological barrier between them before, he believed she would seem trivial now.This is a new world, and a new mindset is necessary if you are to survive. But how would he find Sifna?As far as he knew, all lines of communication were closed.She was only one of millions of people in this area, and the population in the forest alone might number tens of thousands, and there was no definite reason to think that she was in the forest.She could be fifty miles away, probably dead, and finding her would be hopeless.It's harder than finding a needle in a haystack the width of several county towns, and the needle is changing its position every moment.To find Sifna, or anyone else he knew, he had to rely on some kind of coincidence, and all kinds of coincidences were extremely remote. The more Theremon thought of the possibility of finding him, the more certain he was of finding her.After a while, it seemed that the victory was in hand. Perhaps it was his new seclusion that made his mood more and more optimistic.He sits by the stream for hours every day, watching the fish swimming in the water and meditating, and has nothing else to do.He kept re-evaluating everything, looking for Sifna's ideas from seemingly impossible to just impossible, from impossible to difficult, from difficult to more challenging, from challenging to feasible, from impossible to difficult. Workable enough to be totally doable. He told himself that he should go back to the forest and get some hope from those who were sane.Tell them who he's looking for and what she looks like.Use your journalistic skills to get the word out and capitalize on your popularity as a local celebrity. "I'm Theremon 762," he'd say. "You know, it's from the Chronicle. Help me, and I'll pay you. Do you want your name to come up? You want me to use Are you famous? I can do it all. The newspaper is not in print at the moment, but it doesn't matter, it will be republished sooner or later, I will be with it, and you will see your own name on the front page without prejudice Middle. You can be sure of that. Help me find the woman I'm looking for, and..." "Theremon?" A familiar voice, high-pitched and cheerful.He froze for a moment, squinting his eyes left and right to find the position of the speaker. He walked for two hours in a row, looking for someone willing to come out to replace Serimon 762, the famous reporter of the "Chronicle" in Salo City.But so far, he has only found six people.Two of them stood up as soon as they saw him; the third sat where he was, singing softly to his bare toes; Two kitchen knives; the remaining two stared at him intently.When he told them what he wanted, one didn't seem to understand at all, while the other laughed maniacally.There is little hope of relying on them. Now it seems someone has found him. "Theremon? Here, here, Theremon. Here I am. Don't you see me, man? Here!"