Chapter 40 – Rescue Operation (8)
A procession of countless women is visible across the screen. What you can see beyond it is a ferry boat on the sea.
Knock knock.
I tapped the armrest of the chair with my index finger.
[Are you still thinking about it?]
Prisoners come to the docks. We will start boarding soon. Now is the only time to separate the top criminals.
Order of the city.
Respect for life.
When I first established the rescue plan, I thought about cutting out the top criminals without difficulty, but my mind was shaken when it became a reality in front of my eyes.
Dozens and hundreds of people are abandoned and die at a time of my choice.
Couldn’t there be people who were involved accidentally or who were brought in because the investigation went wrong?
Perhaps there are people who are sincerely rehabilitated and are reflecting?
Leaving all of that
Even if I am a criminal who is sure of his guilt and has no remorse, can I make him die on my own?
You can think of it as a weak excuse. Reasons not to leave them behind kept popping into my head.
“At times like this, it would be convenient to have an acacia leaf. Leave, take, leave, take while doing it.”
I pretended to pick off the leaves one by one.
[There it is.]
“Yes?”
An acacia leaf was floating on the screen of the central control room.
[Do you want to rip it off?]
A bloody laugh emerges.
“It’s just what it says.”
It’s not something you decide by chance.
[Boarding will begin soon. Admin, please make a decision.]
Rose, who was conducting the scene, asked.
The question I am thinking about right now is whether it is all migration or partial migration.
Knock knock.
I’ve never had a problem like this before in my life.
“If there is no right answer…”
A long procession of women is seen on the screen. Most of them are lethargic and exhausted, but what they see in their eyes is hope and vitality.
“It would be right to face the consequences of my choices until the end.”
Maybe you will regret this choice. But that regret is also something I can take responsibility for. But even so…
“If this place is the last ark in the world, I want to put life in it, not survival.”
Unlike the outside world, which has become an extreme competition for survival, there is plenty of room here.
“Burn them all. There is no partial transport. It is power transport.”
[All right.]
I buried myself in a chair.
[Are you anxious?]
Lying is meaningless in front of Artemis.
“Any. I wondered if I might have made an easy decision because I was so tainted with abundance and peace.”
[I’ve run various simulations, but the possibility of problems with city maintenance is very low.]
She showed her ticket. It is about the job, job ability, and physical ability that prisoners had.
[Most of them were unemployed, prostitutes, simple production workers, service workers, office workers, and self-employed people. There are no people with threatening technology or the power to challenge our system.]
“I guess so. It’s a group of prisoners, but they’re all women after all.”
In the case of male prisoners, there are a lot of engineers, carpenters, and engineers from each field, so they secretly create dangerous things when surveillance is weak.
Even if you don’t have the skills, if you have a former military, criminal organization, or CEO, you can rally the prisoners and cause an accident even if the control is loose for a while.
Compared to this group of male prisoners, female prisoners will be much easier to control.
When salt bullets from riot control shotguns lodge in the stomachs of their fellows, which group of men or women disperses faster and farther?
If the prison guards at the sea prison were male, the rebellion would not have occurred.
Even more, there are machines and monitors that are much more terrifying than male prison guards.
[There is plenty of room on the ship, so board slowly. No one leaves If you cause trouble during the boarding phase, the prisoner will be punished immediately.]
Drones roamed everywhere with announcements on.
[The first prisoner has boarded.]
Rose reported.
Since then, countless women have come over the stairs and stepped into the boat.
Shoes, slippers, sneakers, bare feet.
White feet, apricot feet, brown feet.
Various feet stepped into the boat.
[It’s safe here. All the infected on board were wiped out. There may be blood and battle marks, but don’t worry. You are safe.]
Drones roamed everywhere, playing crowd control broadcasts.
While heading to the island from the port, all the corpses of the infected were removed, and some blood and flesh were also cleaned.
But there was neither the time nor the manpower to perfect it. There were signs that the women would panic at the bloodstains everywhere, but the guard robots around them calmed them down every time.
No matter how ferocious they looked, the women were calmed down by beings with powerful fighting power standing guard around them.
[The occupancy rate has passed 50%.]
Rose reported.
There are a lot of people, but since we are leading over 2,000 people who have suddenly gathered, time is bound to increase.
There were also problems in between.
Match!
A fight broke out between the prisoners. Is it different from male prisoners that it started with a slap rather than a fist?
But when the fight started in earnest, fists and kicks came and went.
Both of them had hair close to short cuts, so they didn’t show the usual appearance of holding their hair up and going into grappling.
The surrounding prisoners also did not move excitedly or discouraged around them as clichéd.
With an annoyed expression on his face, he just walks away, saying, ‘Go somewhere else and fuck you guys’.
They were soaked in starvation and fatigue for too long.
The prison guards who were sitting together also buried their faces between their knees as if they hated everything.
The soles of their feet, blackened with dirt and dust, seemed to represent their state of mind.
Even if the prison guards came forward, it would be useless anyway. His authority has long since evaporated because he was imprisoned for a long time with his clothes taken away due to a rebellion.
Clap!
Therefore, it was the security robot that moved.
Bang!
“Kyaaaaagh!”
The fight stopped with a shriek as the shotgun fired.
Salt grains that had hit the iron ceiling fell to the floor.
As the two security robots approached the two who had started a fight, the women sitting on the street hurriedly moved away.
[Both sit down.]
Said the guard robot.
[Hey, hey, I have no intention of rebelling!]
One with a bleeding nose sat on his knees with his hands on his head. She was quick on her eyes.
The other man, who was standing there glaring at Kofi, was hit in the shoulder by a butt wielded by an approaching robot.
I collapsed on the spot with a brief scream, and screams erupted from all directions in a short distance.
The woman with a nosebleed put her hand on the back of her head and prostrated herself in front of her. That’s the attitude taken by criminals pointed at by American police. She doesn’t seem like a woman who would die easily wherever she goes.
The guard robot’s gaze lingered on the back of her head for a while before withdrawing.
[There is only one warning. This is an emergency situation, so if you don’t follow the instructions quickly, you will be subject to military sanctions. We have been entrusted with unlimited powers of control.]
The security robot stared at the moaning prisoner on the floor.
[Kim Shin-young. 1 week of solitary confinement and 1 month of observation period for disruptive behavior and failure to follow instructions in an emergency. Execution will be carried out following essential check-up, sanitation, medical, and eating measures upon arrival at the shelter.]
Then I looked at the woman with a bleeding nose lying flat on the floor.
[Park Min-ji. Solitary confinement for one week due to disorderly conduct in an emergency. Execution will be carried out following essential check-up, sanitation, medical, and eating measures upon arrival at the shelter.]
[Yes, yes. Sorry.]
Park Min-ji was choked by her robot with her head slashed.
The women around them were terrified at first, but their eyes widened when the guard robot said, “Checkup, sanitation, medical care, and eating measures.”
There were no further riots after that.
It was thanks to the harmony of the fact that everyone was so tired, that it was in an emergency situation, that you shouldn’t look bad for the owners of the new place, and that the bosses paid close attention.
The next problem to come was hygiene.
The inside of the ferry was reminiscent of a gutter, with people crammed everywhere, including chairs and floors.
When they first discovered the island, the women who took a bath holding on to their hungry stomachs were an outlier.
Most of the prisoners spent their days lying in a bath or something, feeling hungry and helpless. As the time went on, the current level of cleanliness of the body was terrible.
“Will it smell awesome? I don’t know if it’s going to be an epidemic or not.”
[It’s not too late to get here. That much time will be fine.]
Artemis said.
“How about Rose?”
[As you said, the smell is amazing.]
Said Rose.
[Uweek.]
At that moment, a woman in the corner stepped out of the ferry and grabbed her handrail, causing her to vomit.
Tension came. She hadn’t even started yet, so it wouldn’t be motion sickness. Could it be a disease?
[Don’t worry. Simple vomiting due to bad odor. This is already the 3rd case. Everyone hasn’t eaten, so it’s close to nausea.]
Rose walked over to the woman, gave her a pat on the back, checked her condition, and sent her back to her seat.
Women sitting here and there looked around with tense faces, and a security robot passed between them.
[Boarding completed.]
By the time I thought there would be no more people to listen to, everyone boarded.
“Go right away.”
The ferry started up, and it moved forward vigorously across the sea.
Numerous women on the boat trembled in anxiety and hope as they watched the sea prison recede.
Empty docks, empty prisons.
In this way, another residence falls into silence.
