Capítulo 28: The Gray Terminal
Before they made their further way towards the Gray Terminal they had to cross the rope bridge made of wooden planks over a deep valley. Bridge looked very old and worn out, it felt as if the planks might break by their weight. If there was any normal person, he wouldn't have dared to take a step on the bridge. As they walked on it, the bridge shook and made a creaking sound. At the bottom of the valley was a river with trees on its sides. It was quite the task to keep balance on the bridge, but for Leo, it was the same as walking on the flat ground, he walked without holding onto ropes.
As for Bolt, he wished for wooden planks to break or for him to fall off the bridge so that he could use this chance to fly. But nothing sort of happened, they crossed the bridge uneventfully.
Around one in the afternoon they came out of the forest. In the bright hot sunlight, as far as they could see there were smoky junk piles. Their eyes could cover only a small region, after that their vision was obstructed by the smoke.
"What is this place?" Bolt asked, he had never seen so much junk in one place.
"This is our destination, Gray Terminal," Leo said.
"What?! This is Gary Terminal?" Bolt said in shock. "You meant to say the people we intended to save live here?"
"Yes." Leo nodded.
Bolt had thought Gray Terminal was some kind of normal town. "How is it possible for people to live in such a place?"
"No one is living here willingly. After being shunned from mainstream society, they had no choice but to live here. They make their living by scavenging the junk accumulated here," Leo explained.
They entered Gray Terminal by the path formed between the junk piles. A strong unpleasant smell struck them.
"Arghhh…" Bolt pinched his nose in reflex. Leo was going to do the same but he stopped. He could've used his second brain to filter out the smell, but he didn't. He decided to experience the condition in which people are living here, of course, he would never be able to fully experience how actually they are living, but even this little experience would be able to give him the idea of the harshness of their lives. Before that he adjusted his sense of smell to the normal levels, or else he might just faint right there.
As they walked between the junk piles they observed everything around them. Piles were made of random discarded things: wooden barrels and boxes with holes, broken furniture, bricks, broken wheels and ladders, empty cans and bottles, broken toys and dolls, rusted metal pipes, large rusted metallic containers with holes, broken parts of the ships such as broken mast and torn sails, damaged kitchenware, broken wooden carts, old clothing, wooden planks, sacks filled with garbage, rusted heavy chains, tin sheets, and many other things. Everything was dusty and dirty.
After some time they got used to the smell, of course not completely, but bearable enough to stop their urge of pinching the nose.
On the way, Leo saw a metal pipe similar to what those three brothers had. He picked it up and swung a little in the air. He wasn't allowed to use weapons in the fight, he just picked it to copy their style.
After walking a little further, they could see a very tall solid stone wall in the distance. "That is the wall surrounding the city." Leo pointed in the direction in which he could see the upper portion of the gate. "The Great Gate, the entrance to the city, lies in this direction. Mountains of junk from all over the country pass through this entrance to here. And the residents of Gray Terminal use this Great Gate to visit the city to sell recycled products." Leo told Bolt some general information.
There are almost no people in the regions closer to the Gray Terminal border to the shore and the forest. Because there is nothing valuable to be found there, everything had already been picked up. Areas closer to the Great Gate have a higher quality of junk, which meant a higher chance of finding something valuable. So the concentration of people goes on increasing from the border to the Great Gate.
Hence until now, they hadn't seen a single person, but as they got closer and closer to the Great Gate they started seeing people. Most people's expression was tired, weary, hungry, and a little bit of hope. They wore dirty ragged clothes.
Leo had thought wearing old and worn-out clothes would be able to let them mix in with the people living here, but now he realized how laughable his thinking was. Compared to what people wore, their clothes seemed brand new.
Everyone was looking at them, their clothes were one of the reasons for this, but that wasn't much significant. What made most people look towards was Bolt's face. He could become an object of attention even in the most prosperous place in this world, let alone here. In this place, he was like a searchlight in the pitch-black darkness.
"What a pretty boy!"
"How is it possible for a boy to be this pretty?"
"He must be from High Town."
"Yeah, it's guaranteed. He should be from noble's family."
"I don't think I have seen a noble pretty as him."
"Do you think he is from the royal family?"
"Maybe. Who knows? I don't think anyone here has seen someone from the royal family."
"Why did he come here?"
"Did he come here to mock us?"
"I heard nobles enjoy seeing harsh lives of poor people like us."
"One thing is sure, nobles are rich. He must be loaded. Does anyone want to rob him?" A muscular man with a blind eye asked.
Hearing him everyone turned quiet, greed flashed through their eyes, but they controlled themselves, they knew not to mess with a noble. A few years ago, a noble came to Gray Terminal alone and got a little hurt by someone. At that time many people were killed as a punishment and to warn them from such a thing happening again.
Seeing nobody showed any intention of robbing, the man with a blind eye snorted at them disdainfully. "Cowards!" He spat on the ground.
Actually, he also wasn't brave enough to rob a noble, so he tried to provoke anyone so that he could sneakily steal in the chaos, but his strategy clearly failed.
No one was provoked by his comment, they cherished their life more than money. They looked at the man as if he was a fool, they thought, "If you are so brave, why don't you try robbing them?"
The man hesitated for a while, but in the end, his greed won over his fear. He gritted his teeth, pulled out a knife, and walked toward the boys.
"Fuck! He is gone crazy!"
"He is really going to rob them!"
"Someone stop him!"
An old man wearing a conical straw hat stood in the path of that man. "You should stop your foolishness. It's not only you will die, but many others will also be implicated with you."
"Fuck you, old man." He forcefully pushed him aside and continued to walk toward the boys.
The area they were in, was still far from the Great Gate, so most people here were weak and old. No one was strong enough to stop this man. So immediately everyone ran away, they didn't want to have any relationship with this incident. The place turned silent. Now there were only Leo and Bolt, the old man who fell on the ground, and the man who wants to rob them.
Until now Leo and Bolt just watched everything amusingly.
The man stood in front of them, he tried his best to make a scary face, but still, they could see the fear on his face and his legs were a little shaky, it was taking a toll on his mind to keep fear suppressed. He was scared but he still wanted to rob them. He wasn't scared of them, but their identity, what they represented.
Leo and Bolt thought if you are so scared, why bother robbing.
"H-Hand over everything you have," he said stutteringly.
Even though they were being robbed, they felt pity for the man.
Leo sighed, he didn't feel like beating this man. Leo swung the metal rod in his hand at the boulder big as a barrel near him. "BAM!" It broke into pieces.
Leo smilingly looked at the man. "Ah. What did you say? Can you repeat it again?"
The man started sweating seeing this, he backed away with staggering steps. "I…. I.. didn't-" He was so scared that he couldn't voice his words. The man turned tail and ran, his eyes white and wild as startled horses'.
Leo felt a little bad about scaring the poor man.
Bolt walked to the old man and helped him up. "He must be your bodyguard," the old man said while looking at Leo.
Bolt did not comment anything on this, he had a mischievous smile on his face as he imagined something. "Thank you for trying to protect us." Bolt thanked him.
"No, no. I wasn't trying to protect you, I was just looking out for ourselves," the old man said with a little embarrassed and guilty face.
"Whatever the reason was, it doesn't change the fact that you tried to stop him from robbing us," Leo said.
Old man though they are certainly weird meant kind, to him nobles and kindness were antonyms of each other. "Our lives are very harsh, many of us don't even know if we can be still alive tomorrow. So we try everything possible to keep ourselves alive. So I beg you, please do not hold against that man or any of us," the old man tried to kneel in front of them.
Leo quickly stopped him. "What are doing old man? Don't worry nothing will happen. In fact, we aren't some nobles you think of, so there is no need to worry."
"Okay old man. Keep yourself safe. See you later." They said goodbye to him and left in the direction of the Great Gate.
The old man's mouth remained open for a long time even after they left.
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