Chapter 50: The World Above

Would there be a city outside the station?

Or was the station itself inside a city?

What kind of people would we meet?

Was it still desert outside?

All sorts of thoughts without any logic poured out in a rush, following Alice’s bustle.

When the backpack was packed, when I slung the metal case on again and Alice slung her pack on again, the train had already come to a stop at the platform.

Just as in Eden, a metal plate extending from the bottom of the car formed a surface that let us walk solidly onto the platform.

I turned.

MKR4-003 stood properly at the front of the locomotive door, looking at us.

“Thank you for taking care of us all this time.”

Now that it had come to this, I did not know what to say.

I only looked at her and, after a long struggle, squeezed out that one sentence.

“You’re welcome.”

MKR4-003 said it evenly.

Like the platforms in Eden, this one was a stretch of pitch dark as well.

Current from the roof of the engineering vehicle spread in all directions, flashing as it lit a few corners of the platform.

As the electric light passed, those broken walls, the floor, and the rusted steel frames all looked renewed.

A faint sour stink and smell of mold hung in the air.

In the flickering light, some living thing seemed to fly off toward the distant tunnel.

Near the engineering vehicle, though, it did not feel gloomy at all.

“Restoring the station’s basic infrastructure is estimated to take thirty minutes. However…”

Perhaps thinking I did not know how to get out, MKR4-003 opened her hand quite casually.

After a whoosh at my ear, a spherical object with a lens drifted slowly down into her palm.

She blinked and said, “There is an emergency exit at nine o’clock. It looks as if it leads to the surface.”

“A-all right.”

To be honest, there were times I really did not know how to talk with MKR4-003.

I nodded.

A pitch-black platform.

That, frankly, I had not quite expected.

The traces of ruin, and a floor so covered in earth that its original shape could no longer be seen, told me this platform had been abandoned for who knew how long.

Aside from bats and other cave-dwelling animals, there was probably nothing left.

While I was still hesitating, MKR4-003 held the sphere out to me.

“Miss Yulin, this is a CKK-82 survey drone. I give it to you.”

“Eh?”

Before I could react, the metal sphere lifted from MKR4-003’s hand and regarded me with the eye made of that red lens.

“Th-thank you?”

“You’re welcome.”

MKR4-003 went on.

“We have now merged with the Ipsis Ring-Star Railway. As long as I follow the line, I will be able to find the main line.

“I will repair the main line as the engineering vehicle proceeds. If possible, you will later be able to move across the stellar ring more quickly, and reach anywhere you wish to go.

“Given the present situation, I cannot predict the scale of the work or the time it will take… Therefore…

“May we meet again, Miss Yulin.”

Meet again, if fate allows…?

Looking at MKR4-003 and the little cart poking its head out from behind her, I only felt a melancholy that came before parting.

But MKR4-003 said, “If the auxiliary facilities on the main line can be repaired, I may be able to locate the Bapluntas faster than you, Miss Yulin. We can exchange information through the drone’s quantum communication module. Please do not worry, Miss Yulin.

“It is only that we will be acting separately.”

“I-I see…”

What was this.

After spending these few days together, there were feelings between us after all.

It was clearly a parting, and yet after MKR4-003 said that it felt much lighter.

I looked back at her one last time.

She still stood properly in front of the locomotive — as if waiting for me.

The spherical drone floated ahead of us.

Its little light source could not reach far, but it made walking much easier.

As the map updated, the structure of this station gradually grew clear within it.

The engineering vehicle’s repairs would not reach this far.

Following the drone into a corridor, we were met by a very heavy, heavy stench.

The corridor was narrow.

The broken walls made it feel as if they might collapse at any moment.

The mud and dust underfoot mixed into a very slippery feel.

As I kicked a stone aside, a brownish-yellow insect shot past my foot in the drone’s light.

!!!

“What’s wrong, Yulin-chan?”

It was a good thing Alice was still behind me.

I had nearly sat down on the floor.

“N-nothing.”

It was too unsettling, because this was something I had not been prepared for at all.

I had thought it would be as Alice had said — that there would be a human village near the subway station, and that the station itself would be a lively market.

I had not expected the station we arrived at to be, of all things, an abandoned station with no one in it.

Things like this happened, didn’t they.

Alice had not expected it to be like this either, but as a native of this world she accepted the fact before her sooner than I did, as expected.

Was this good luck or bad luck?

It really was rather ambiguous.

We turned a corner, and what came into view seemed to be a staircase.

Just as ruined, just as covered in earth and sand and stone.

But directly ahead of the stairs a thread of light leaked faintly through a crack in a door.

[Uncorrected  Eden Calendar Year 8994, June 22nd  15:33]

It was afternoon outside.

In the drone’s light I could see that the end of the stairs seemed to be an iron door.

I reached out and knocked.

The iron door gave a dull sound.

Ah.

Sand…

If I had known, I would not have knocked.

Of course, the gesture immediately shook a whole floor’s worth of sand and rusted flakes down from this iron door that had not been opened in who knew how many years.

As the sand and debris fell from the crack, the light beyond outlined the shape of the door.

From the light that leaked through, the door did not look all that thick.

But Alice’s strength was still not enough to open it, as expected.

The parts that could move had probably rusted solid long ago.

While I was thinking that, the drone suddenly put out a red light and scanned the entire iron door.

Then a red laser shot from the drone and quickly heated the iron to a glow.

So… so strong…

The drone looked smarter than the two of us.

Yes.

That little drone simply carved a hole in the door with its laser.

Under Alice’s and my shocked gazes, the iron plate cut from the door fell to the ground with a clang, and the scene beyond the door spilled through.

This was too useful…

MKR4-003, thank you once again.

The air outside was so fresh.

The smell of grass, wrapped in the fragrance of earth, rushed against us as I followed Alice through the doorway.

A blue sky I had not seen in so long.

White clouds drifted at ease across the clear sky in the rustle of the wind, casting deep blue shadows over the boundless open country.

Behind us was a small wood.

The exit we had come through slept in the shade, wrapped by those trees.

Looking out ahead, scattered trees grew across this vast grassland.

A few birds beating white wings in the sunlight were drifting slowly from the treetops toward the distance.

Farther still, everything sank into a stretch of gray-blue and could no longer be seen clearly.

I could only make out a wash of pale green.

It was as if there were a towering mountain range in the distance, and yet not quite.

Stepping out of the shade, we drew in a deep breath of fresh air.

There was still a touch of muggy heat in the wind, but it already felt much more comfortable.

After a full week underground, the feeling of air full of the scent of nature drawn into the lungs was so open, so pleasant.

Truly full of the unknown.

Full of the unexpected.