There are people on the train.
Not just Ms. Go Youngeun, but people who look like ordinary civilians too.
“……!!”
♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪
But there was no time to get lost in emotion!
“F-first, get on!”
“Yes!”
At Ms. Youngeun’s urgent words, I and the others shoved ourselves into the subway car….
“No!”
Something leapt out from behind Ms. Youngeun and shoved at my shoulder as though jabbing me.
It was the handle of a mop wrapped in duct tape.
“…!”
And then all sorts of things came rushing out at once and began shoving me back.
“Get off, get off!”
“Don’t let them on! Like we know who they are!”
“No…!”
The people inside the train were jabbing at our group with makeshift sticks made out of all kinds of household items, pushing us back out the door.
The rejection on their faces.
Aversion to outsiders.
Fear.
“Don’t get on!”
“W-wait a second. They’re people I know! They won’t create a dangerous situat—”
“The fuck are we supposed to know about that!”
A middle-aged man in a padded jacket barked at Ms. Youngeun.
“Hey! Then you get off, why don’t you!”
“Yeah! Get off!”
“Sir, calm down!”
‘Fuck!’
At this rate, they were about to drive Ms. Youngeun out too.
‘It’s escalating…!’
Even if we forced our way in physically here, it would still hurt Ms. Youngeun.
My mind spun quickly.
‘Something we can negotiate with.’
These were people who had probably been trapped in Segwang Special City for years.
Something direct, something that would hit home for them immediately.
“We’ll share food!”
“…!”
“We have something edible! Packaged food!”
Pretending to take something from my pocket, I pulled out one ration pack and held it up, shaking it in my hand.
“…!”
Hunger like greed flashed across the faces of the people.
“We have more extras.”
“Then hand it over first!”
“If you let us board, we’ll give it to you!”
I pulled the food back. The people looked at one another in confusion….
“Hurry. The doors are closing!”
And then.
The screen doors are closing.
The moment the people inside the train exchanged looks and drew back slightly, we quickly stepped inside.
“……Whew.”
We were on.
Jiiiiing…
The train began to move.
But inside it, we stood facing the people who looked like ordinary civilians as if separated from them.
“……”
“……”
‘…About twenty of them.’
An experience of meeting a large number of civilians inside a Ghost Story.
The agent who would be the most used to a situation like this spoke first.
“…Are you citizens of Segwang Special City?”
“What kind of question is that, like you aren’t….”
The middle-aged man in the padded jacket, who had been mumbling, suddenly understood the implication.
“You’re not? You came in from somewhere else? You people came from outside, didn’t you!”
“……!”
“Uh—recently? So there’s a breach somewhere, and you came in through it??”
“Yeah! Otherwise there’s no way you’d look that intact!”
The people surged closer, murmuring.
“Can you get out? How did you get in?”
“There’s a way out?”
“They got in! I think these people know how to get out of here….”
Their reaction was close to madness, like…