Shadow Slave

Sunny had no particular reason for this visit, apart from simply wanting to check on how the old man had settled in. From his first impression, the dormitory apartment was too small and bare-bones for someone of Professor Obel's stature.

There were five compact bedrooms connected to a shared living room, kitchen, and bathroom, with three of the bedrooms occupied by other people. He could hear a child's voice behind one door, which meant that there might have been entire families of refugees living here. In that regard, maybe the fact that the Professor and Beth each received an entire room for themselves was already a privilege.

'Still... what the hell...'

Maybe he should not have been surprised. Professor Obel was indeed a distinguished scientist who had made great contributions to humanity, but the Antarctic Center was the administrative center of the whole Quadrant. With two hundred million people concentrated in Falcon Scott, there must have been a whole lot of distinguished people waiting for their turn to be evacuated.

Beth led him to the kitchen and put a kettle on the stove. Now that they were not busy trying to keep the caravan from falling apart, Sunny noticed that the young woman looked a bit haggard in comparison to how she had been at LO49.

There were dark circles under her eyes, a slight uncertainty to her movements, and a grim slant to her brow. Beth's temper, however, had not changed one bit.

"Tell me straight... is the wall going to hold?"

Sunny lingered for a bit, stumped by the frank question.

"How should I know? Sure, it is going to hold... until it doesn't."

Beth scoffed, pouring synthetic tea into three cheap alloy cups.

"And yet you seem to be terribly calm."

Sunny scratched the back of his head in confusion.

"Do I seem calm? Well, I guess I am. I mean, what's the worst that can happen?"

The young woman stared at him with outrage.

"Death! You can die!"

thought about it

die, of course. But death is definitely way better than some

subjected to by his shadowy steed. It seemed that he had

course, his aloofness would look strange to

but at that moment, Professor Obel finally appeared - sparing them both

How nice of you to spare time

tea. At first, Sunny was the one doing most

a big assault tomorrow. Make sure to

shared a glance. For some reason, the young woman seemed to be unhappy

when an air attack alert is activated.

nodded, then hesitated for a while. Eventually, he

are you still here? I would think that you would be put on the priority list for the

a member of a certain group,

across the strait first, with all the rest placed in a long queue by a randomized algorithm. Various factors could affect one's "weight" in the algorithm, though - families with young children had a

affected the algorithm, which meant that non-citizens from the local version

'Figures...1

on one of the first ships out of the

the old

are you

young woman turned to Sunny

or not, the old f... the Professor gave up his position on the priority list, saying that he wouldn't leave without his assistant. And since I have nothing to do with the high-value group, we are both stuck in the standard selection group now. Gods only know when we'll be assigned a placement

blinked a couple

"Is that true, Professor?"

man looked down

kids don't understand. I am an old man, you know? My bones still hurt from the long weeks

this time, Sunny was inclined

of bullcrap

the Professor simply did not want to leave Beth behind... which

the kid he had heard earlier barged into