Chapter 39 Chapter Thirty-Nine

Even with so much to see along the way, Theremon was unprepared for what happened on the Great Southern Highway.A traffic engineer's worst nightmare wouldn't be this bad. At every intersection in the southern suburbs, Therimon and Sifna saw abandoned vehicles on the street.No doubt many motorists, horrified by the sight of the stars, stopped and fled on foot, hoping to find shelter from the sudden flash of light in the sky.The light of the beam is terrifying and overwhelming. However, although the abandoned cars are scattered in the quiet urban residential area, although they are disorderly, there is a little space between each other.In those areas, there was not much traffic during the eclipse, just commuting.

Not so with the Great Southern Highway, which is packed with intercity commuters... when disaster strikes, it must be crazy. "Look," Theremon whispered timidly and amazed, "look there, Sifna!" She shook her head in amazement. "Unbelievable, unbelievable." There are cars everywhere... piled up in a mess.The wide highway was almost completely blocked by them, an impenetrable wall of broken vehicles.They faced in all directions, some were overturned, many were charred skeletons.The fuel spilled in several places was as golden as a small lake.Shattered glass casts an ominous sheen on the road.

There are abandoned cars and dead bodies of drivers everywhere. This was by far the scariest sight they had seen.A large number of dead bodies lay in front of them.There were bodies that fell to their deaths when their cars slammed on the brakes, some were squeezed between two colliding vehicles, some were crushed under the wheels.And a large number of corpses are like poor abandoned toys, scattered all over the roadside, their limbs are stiff, showing a strange shape of death. "Perhaps when the stars appeared, some drivers stopped immediately, while others accelerated, trying to get off the road and make their way home, and then crashed into the stopped vehicle," Sifna said. There were others who were so dazed that they almost forgot how to drive... Look, they just drove off the track and this one here, must have turned around trying to go back through oncoming traffic open……"

Theremon felt the creeps, a terrible and huge pile of vehicles.The cars collided in all directions, spun, flipped over, flew across the road, and flew to the other side of the highway.People in the car escaped, ran to seek shelter, and were run over by other vehicles that happened to arrive. There are no less than fifty ways cars collide, and everything goes haywire. He smiled bitterly. Sifna asked in surprise, "What amuses you, Therimon?" "I'm just laughing at my own stupidity. You know, Sifna, when we approached the road half an hour ago, I had this longing in my head that we could get in someone's abandoned car, with the fuel on Full, ready to go, drive to Armando? That's it, it's so comfortable. I didn't expect the road to be completely blocked... Even if we were lucky enough to find an available car, we would drive less than 50 feet away..."

It seems that walking along the road will be very difficult. "Yes, but we have to." Resolutely they embarked on the long journey to the south. In the early afternoon, when the warm light of Onas fell on the ground, they chose their way among the piles of corpses on the road.Crawl through the wreckage of twisted cars and try to ignore the horror of the assorted charred bodies, puddles of dried blood, and all. Theremon felt suddenly desensitized to it, which was perhaps even more frightening.After a while, he stopped paying attention to the blood clots, those bulging dead eyes, and the great disaster that happened here.Climbing over mountains of broken cars and squeezing through piles of metal is tough and dangerous at any time.He needs to concentrate and has no energy to find survivors, not to mention the pointless search.Anyone trapped here for so many days is now certain to die.

Like Theremon, Sifna adapted quickly to the nightmarish conditions of the Great Southern Highway.She chose a path together with him without saying a word, stopping for a while, pointing fingers, planning to get out from the pile of wreckage;In fact, they are the only survivors of this road.From time to time, they saw people moving south in front of them, and even people coming from the south, but they didn't meet anyone.Like ghosts, they either flashed past and disappeared into the wreckage in a hurry, or climbed up and down with extreme tension and fear, and quickly disappeared into the distance.

What are they afraid of?Theremon wondered.Is it because we are afraid that we will attack them?Now, is everyone an enemy? About an hour or so after setting off, they finally saw a man with a dirty appearance, going from car to car, reaching into the pockets of the dead and searching for their belongings.He carried a large bag of "trophies" on his back, and his body swayed under the weight. Theremon cursed angrily and drew his gun. "Look at that filthy ghoul! Look what has become of him!" "No, Theremon!" When Theremon fired at the Marauder, Sifna pushed his arm.The bullet hit a nearby car, sending off a shower of sparks.

"Why did you do that?" asked Theremon. "I just frightened him." "I thought...you..." Theremon shook his head. "No," he said, "but it's all right, he's not hurt, and look . . . he's gone!" The Marauder heard the gunshot and turned quickly, staring at Theremon and Sifna with a wild look in surprise.His eyes were blank, and a stream of saliva dripped from his lips.He stared at them dumbfounded for a moment, then, dropping his bag of "trophies," he climbed frantically and desperately on top of the car and sprinted away, quickly out of sight.

They continued on their way. This is a walk that is both arrogant and fearful.Tall overhead signs gleamed on postposts to show how short their journey on the highway was, and mocked their poor progress.They had only traveled a mile and a half by the time sunset reached Onas. "At this rate," Theremon said sadly, "it will take nearly a year to reach Amgando." Once we get the hang of it, we'll go faster, Sifna said, but not with much certainty. It would be much easier for them if they walked along some streets parallel to the road, instead of walking directly on the road.However, that is impossible.Much of the Great Southern Highway is made up of viaducts, supported on massive columns, spanning vast expanses of woodland, swamps and industrial estates, and bridges over mining fields, lakes and streams.So for the most part, they have no choice but to travel on the highway, and navigating around this endless wreckage is very difficult.

They followed the side of the road as much as possible, where the density of wrecked cars was lower.Looking down the road, they saw that the chaos was still going on. So long after the house burned, the fire is still raging, stretching towards the horizon.Occasionally a small band of lonely, hopeless refugees struggles through the rubble-strewn streets dazed and bewildered, preparing for some hopeless, desperate relocation.Sometimes there are larger groups, more than a thousand people, camping collectively in an open place. Everyone is huddled in isolation, seemingly paralyzed, almost motionless, and their willpower and energy have been completely lost.

Sifna pointed to a burnt-out church on top of a hill across the road. A small group of ragged men were crawling under the collapsed wall, prying away the remaining gray stones with shovels, planing them loose, and throwing them into the yard. "It looks like they're tearing it down," she said. "Why would they do that?" Theremon said, "Because they hated the gods, and they blamed them for everything that happened. Do you know Pantheo, that cathedral at the edge of the forest, with the famous frescoes of Tamildi in it? A day or two after sunset I've seen it. It's burned down... just rubble, everything is destroyed, and a half-conscious priest poking his head out of the rubble. Now I know it wasn't an accident that burned it up , someone set the fire on purpose. I thought the arsonist was trying to steal the vestments, but it doesn't seem that way, maybe it's just out of hatred." "But the priests didn't cause..." "Have you forgotten the cultists so quickly? For months, Mondial... has been telling us that what is about to happen is the vengeance of the gods? And priests are gods incarnate, aren't they, Sif Na? If they lead us astray, then they should be punished like this, well, the priests themselves are responsible for the manifestation of the stars. Perhaps, people will think so." "Those cultists!" Sifna said gloomily, "I wish I could forget about them. What do you think they are doing now?" "I think they escaped the eclipse unharmed in their towers." "Yes. They must have passed the night in good condition, for they were prepared for it. What did Arzanor say? They have formed a government at the northern end of Salo, have they not?" Theremon stared gloomily at the ruined church across the road, and said in a dull voice, "I can imagine what kind of government that would be. Ephrashid. Every day that Onas rises, Mundy New moral codes are issued every year. The law prohibits all forms of entertainment, and the guilty are publicly punished every week." He spat in the air, "Damn it! Come to think of it, Fremont was in my hands that night , I could have easily strangled him to death, but let him go..." 'Theremon!' "I know. What good would that be? Just a cultist? Let him die. Let them set up their government and tell everyone who is unfortunate enough to live north of Salo what to do and what to think. Why should we care? Aren't we heading south? What the cultists do is none of our business. When it comes time to settle, they'll be a government of fifty rivals quarreling, a government of maybe 5,000 Government. Each district will have its own dictator, its own boss." Theremon's voice dropped suddenly, 'Oh, Sifna, Sifna..." She took his hand and said calmly, "You're blaming yourself again, aren't you?" "how do you know?" "You're so excited, Theremon, and I know you have nothing to be guilty of! No matter what you write in the paper, it's going to happen, do you understand? Can one man change it all? It's What this world is destined to experience, is inevitable, is..." "Doomed?" he said sharply. "What a strange word you use! I mean the vengeance of the gods?" "I didn't mention the gods, I just meant that Kargash 2 was bound to come. It wasn't the gods' errand, but just because of the laws of astronomy, eclipses were bound to happen, and sunset and Star……" "Yes," said Theremon dryly, "I think so." They continued on, crossing a stretch of road with little traffic.At this time, Onas had already fallen, and with the sunset, Xisa, Tano and Dovim came out.A cool wind blows from the west.They hadn't eaten all day, and now they stopped, bivouaced between two crushed cars, and unwrapped some rations they'd brought from the hideout. But despite his hunger, he found he had no appetite and had to force himself to swallow the food bit by bit.The stern faces of the corpses turned to him from a nearby car.He'd been able to ignore them when he was on the road, and now sitting on what used to be the best road in Salo province, he couldn't get their image out of his mind.Sometimes he felt that he himself had murdered them. They made a bed out of seat cushions that had been thrown from the crashing car and slept close together.It was a sleepy sleep, and perhaps it wouldn't be so bad if they had slept on the hard concrete. Shouts, hoarse laughter, and singing throughout the "night" came from a distance from time to time.Once Thelimon woke up, looked over the edge of the elevated road, and saw a campfire in a field far below, about 20 minutes east of here.Is anyone else sleeping under the roof?Or the impact of the stars is so great, he wondered, that people all over the world are Move out, like he and Sifna, to camp out in the open, in the familiar perpetual sun? He finally dozed off again towards dawn.But when Onas rose from the east, turning from pink to golden yellow, he woke up from intermittent, terrible dreams.Afterwards, he could barely sleep anymore. Sifna was already awake.She was pale and her eyes were red and swollen.He forced a smile. "You are beautiful." He told her. "Oh, you can't even boast," she said. "You should see I haven't washed my face for two weeks." "But I mean..." "What you mean," she said, "I understand." They walked 4 miles that day, and it was such a hard walk for them, it was a tough walk! "We need water," Sifna said when the wind started picking up in the afternoon. "We have to take the exit on the next slope and try to find a spring." "Yes," he said, "I think it must be." The descent made Theremon uncomfortable, since from the beginning of the trip they had been on the road.Now, in the midst of the cars colliding together into a wreck, he almost felt, strangely, coming home.A group of refugees was moving in the open fields below...strange, he thought, how could I call them refugees, as if I was only on holiday myself...and there was no telling what trouble they might get into. Indeed, Sifna was right, they had to go down and get some water.Almost nothing was left of what they had brought.Maybe, before they got back on their way to Amgundo, they needed to avoid these damned, endless streams of broken-down vehicles and these dead, wide-eyed corpses for a while. He pointed to a street sign not far ahead and said, "Half a mile to the next exit." "In an hour, we should be there." "Probably less than an hour," he said, "the road ahead looks clear. We've got to get off the road, do what we need to do, as fast as we can, and then, better, get back here and sleep. In two It’s much safer to put up a bed in the car so no one can see it than to risk sleeping in an open field.” Sifna thought that made sense.This section of the road was relatively uncongested, and they quickly walked towards the exit of the slope ahead, faster than before.After a while, they came to the next street sign.It tells people that the next exit is a quarter mile away. However, their progress was severely hindered next, and they found that this place was blocked by a large pile of broken cars. Thelimon thought that they might not be able to pass for a while. There must have been a series of horrific crashes here, far more horrific than anything he and Sifna had seen before.Just in the middle of the road, two large transport trucks collided face to face, like two beasts fighting in the jungle; dozens of passenger cars behind them slammed into them at high speed, flew up and flipped in the air, and then fell behind The car on the road blocked both sides of the road, forming a huge obstacle that protruded from the railing of the road.The crushed doors and bumpers protrude from all sides, sharp as knives; the broken glass scattered on the ground makes a mournful sound when the wind blows. "Here," cried Theremon, "I think I've found a way... through the opening up here, and over that truck on the left... No, no, that won't work, we've got to go down there Walk……" Sifna stepped up and leaned against him.He told her what problems should be paid attention to... There are a large group of overturned cars in the distance, like knives with their blades pointing upwards, so she must be very careful... She nodded.From below, they crawled slowly and painfully over the dirty glass shards and frozen fuel pools.Halfway through, stop and rest before continuing through the large pile of obstacles at the far end. Theremon was the first to get out. "My God!" he murmured to himself, looking at the scene before him in bewilderment, "what to do now?" There was about 50 feet of empty pavement at the other end of the huge wreck, and beyond that was another obstacle.Instead, it was a man-made neat stack of doors and tires, eight or nine feet high. Theremon saw about two dozen people in front of the barricade, and they had set up camp on the road.He was too focused on other things while walking through the wreckage, so he didn't hear the sound from the other end. Sifna crawled out to be beside him, and he heard her let out a cry of surprise and shock. . "Keep your hands on your gun," Theremon told her quietly, not to draw it, or look like you were shooting. "There are too many of them." Half a dozen strangers approached them at a slow pace from the road. They were strong-looking men.Serimon watched them approaching without moving, and he knew that the road to enemies was narrow.With difficulty they climbed over the knife-sharp wreckage, with no hope of escape.He and Sifna were trapped between two piles of barricades, with no way out.They can only wait to see what happens next and hope these people are sane. A tall man with drooping shoulders and indifferent eyes walked up to Theremon in a calm manner, faced Theremon and said, "Hey, buddy. This is the checkpoint." "The word is said very loudly. "Checkpoint?" Theremon repeated coldly. "Then what are you checking?" "Don't play tricks with me, or you'll find out what it's like to have a knife on your head. You know exactly what we're checking, so don't ask for trouble." He gestured to the others.They gathered around and patted the clothes of Theremon and Sifna gently.Theremon angrily pushed the searching hand away. "Let's go there," he said forcefully. "No one is allowed to pass without inspection." "Whose permission?" "My permission. Do you want us to search, or do you want us to give you some color to see..." "Theremon," Sifna whispered uneasily. He suppressed his anger and signaled her not to act abruptly. Reason told him it would be foolish to resist, for the disparity in their numbers and strength was too great.If they refused to search, they would be in trouble, and what the tall man said was not a joke. To be precise, these people don't look like bandits.The tall man spoke with an official tone, as if this was a border, maybe a customs office.What are they searching for?food?arms?Will these people take their pocket guns away?It would be better, Theremon told himself, to surrender all they were carrying than to die in vain by insisting foolishly on their freedom of passage. But to be treated roughly like this...on a free public highway, to be forced into obedience...is still somewhat... However, how can they hand over the pocket gun and food? There are still hundreds of miles to Amgando. "I warn you." The tall man began. "I warn you, don't touch me. I am a citizen of the Federal Republic of Salo, and no matter what has happened, this road is still freely open to all citizens. You have no right to order me." "He talks like a professor," one of them said, laughing, "and is lecturing in all his rights!" The tall man shrugged. "We already have a professor here, we don't need any more. Without further ado, bring them over and have them inspected, head to toe." "let me go……" A hand grasped Theremon's arm.He quickly raised his fist and stabbed someone hard in the bones.This seems to be his trick.Another scuffle, another fight awaited him, and he decided to fight to the end.In an instant, someone hit him in the face, another grabbed his elbow, and he heard Sifna scream in rage and terror.He tried his best to pull away and punched out his fist, but unexpectedly he was hit.He lowered his head, rushed over, and punched that face hard... "Hey, wait a minute!" cried a new voice. "Stop! Butera, let that man go! Fred Noll! Tarpin! Let him go!" The voice is so familiar. But who is it? The searchers backed away.Theremon, swaying a bit, struggling to keep his balance, looked at the speaker. A tall, wiry, intelligent-looking man was grinning at him, with piercing eyes in a dirty face... Someone he knew, yes. "Benny!" "Theremon! Sifna!"