WeTried Translations
Translator: Coughing Baby
Editor: Coughing Baby
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 442: Stuffed Paradise (4)
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The funeral did not end with just one.
After receiving word that Esther was in critical condition, Gyeoul went to Fort Bliss in El Paso. The CDC quarantine facility had been set up there. It was consideration from his superiors, allowing him to be there for the girl's final moments.
Fort Bliss, as Gyeoul saw it from the transport aircraft, was an enormous military base. At a rough guess, it seemed to stretch ten kilometers from east to west.
From what he heard, it had not always been that large. Because of its location near the former U.S.-Mexico border, it had been expanded several times as one of the main rear bases of the current quarantine front. With Biggs Army Airfield to the north and El Paso International Airport to the south, it was well suited for handling air logistics. To the east there was nothing but wasteland, leaving nothing to get in the way of expansion.
The quarantine facility had been built in that wasteland. Its barbed-wire perimeter kept a fixed distance from both Fort Bliss and downtown El Paso. Esther's cooperative attitude aside, in terms of biological contamination, she was still dangerous.
Only one two-lane road led into the facility. The vehicle carrying Gyeoul crossed the parched ground. Since this was a region where rain almost never fell outside summer, sandy winds sometimes blew across the dry wasteland. Gyeoul could tell from the sound of tiny grains tapping against the car body.
At least the quarantine facility itself had been built properly, with no obvious weak points. There were also quite a few bouquets left by civilians around the barbed wire. It was thanks to the White House announcing Esther's existence as planned. Colorful sheets of paper attached to the fence fluttered in the spring breeze like butterfly wings. They must have carried messages of support and gratitude. The soldiers standing strict guard almost looked out of place.
That was a relief. If the sick girl had to end her life somewhere filled only with desolation no matter where she looked, it would have hurt Gyeoul quite a bit too.
Another relief was that there were no protesters worried about safety. Thinking about it, the residents who remained in El Paso had gone about their daily lives with the blockade right next to them when the quarantine war was at its height. They were not the kind of people who would make a fuss now because one pitiful girl was near the city.
「Wow...」
When they finally met again inside, Esther was lying face down on the floor, looking at Gyeoul by moving only her eyes.
「You really came. I wanted to see you.」
She apparently no longer had the strength to move. Her body was clearly falling apart. Since nobody knew what kind of mutation might occur inside her body as it collapsed in real time, the people staying by Esther's side had no choice but to speak with her through thick reinforced glass.
The environment beyond the glass was far from a sterile room. Esther was not an ordinary patient. Near a high-end audio system were records she must have enjoyed listening to. Beside them was a pot filled with fresh flowers. A cross hung on the far wall, and below it lay a large Bible bound in imitation leather, with dried blood-colored ooze stuck to it.
Gyeoul stood with his hand on the glass for a moment, then struggled to choose a greeting.
"Have you been well?"
It did not seem like the right thing to say to a dying person, but Gyeoul thought it might be better to treat her normally until the final moment. He did not want to disturb the peace Esther was showing now.
「Yes.」
Esther pulled up the corners of her mouth.
「I have been well. It is a shame that I cannot help people more, though.」
"Don't feel too bad about that. You have already saved so many people. Without you, the southern front would have had to fight a much harder battle than it is fighting now. You know how grateful people are to you, don't you?"
After the announcement, civilian broadcasts had also covered Esther's story, so there was no way she did not know.
There were also plenty of people who had already felt her help, directly or indirectly. Lieutenant Colonel Capston, who had told Gyeoul over the phone that something felt strange, was a prime example.
Now a colonel.
From what Gyeoul had heard, promotion to brigadier general in the near future was also considered highly likely. Maybe not as fast as Gyeoul, but Capston was rising at a frightening pace.
People like Capston, who had felt Esther's influence firsthand, would naturally be sympathetic toward the sick girl. Even if it had caused them moral dilemmas, they could not blame Esther for that. In the end, more soldiers had avoided dark fates because of her.
「I know. I do, but...」
Esther coughed harshly for a moment. Blood mixed into the spit that flew from her mouth.
「Still, it is a shame. Since He gave me this much pain, I thought the Lord might use me for something more important.」
"..."
「I suppose that was an arrogant attitude after all. I made the same mistake as Job.」
Even though it must have been a natural hope, Esther was blaming herself again.
"The same mistake as Job?"
「Yes. Hoo...」
At Gyeoul's question, with a faint heat stirring inside him, Esther caught her ragged breath and blinked.
「Job said this. "But He knows every step I take, and when He has tested me, I will come out as pure as gold..."」
This was the part where Job insisted on his innocence. Gyeoul knew some of it. He had heard about it from a nun at the ranch near the Russian River, and he had also gained experience going back and forth through the pages of the end. Job was a good man of deep faith. At least toward other people, he had done nothing wrong.
「Then Yahweh said, "Will the faultfinder contend with the Almighty? Let the one who accuses God answer Him." And again, "Would you deny My justice? Would you condemn Me so that you may be righteous?"」
For Job to call himself truly innocent, even if it was true, was the same as saying that the God who had tested his innocent self was not righteous. So Yahweh made Job realize that arrogance. Even expressing that injustice became a sin that insulted God.
It was a passage saying that because God was a being beyond understanding, people must not judge divine providence by human standards of good and evil.
After explaining this much, slowly, Esther finished like this.
「No matter how innocent Job was, he was only a person without sin by human standards.」
"...From the perspective of someone without faith, that story always sounds unfair."
At Gyeoul's words, Esther smiled with difficulty.
「To be honest, I feel a little that way too. Kihihit.」
The girl, who did not lose her laughter until the end, lived only six more hours after Gyeoul arrived.
「Ah...」
The words Esther left in a murmur at the final moment.
「I can see the stars.」
The cardinal and pastors who had helped Esther with her life of faith until now grew red-eyed as they prayed to God for her rest.
"...God of boundless mercy, source of all love. May this poor soul become a shining star in Your kingdom and finally reach eternal life. Amen..."
Listening to that prayer, Gyeoul sank into troubled thoughts. He wondered what it would have been like if there were a god in the world who loved people by human standards.
After the medical team confirmed complete death, Esther's body entered cryopreservation procedures. Even though a funeral would be held, there would be no burial or cremation. Esther had agreed to donate her body while alive. Even though much research had already been carried out, Esther's body still held great value.
The morning after the funeral, Gyeoul boarded a flight bound for Carlisle.
There was no suitable flight in the military transport schedule, so Gyeoul had no choice but to use a civilian airline despite expecting discomfort. Of course, the ticket would be covered as a public expense. The problem was the affection and interest of the citizens he encountered along the way. The path became completely blocked.
This crisis that was not quite a crisis was resolved when airport security and airline staff guided Gyeoul to the first-class lounge. Not only the lounge, but his actual seat was upgraded to first class as well. It was something that sometimes happened as a courtesy to soldiers, so Gyeoul did not bother refusing.
In exchange for getting a seat with guaranteed privacy, he had to tolerate the captain boasting about it over the in-flight announcement. A profit-seeking airline would not spend money solely to show respect. It was all done in the hope of building a positive company image and earning good word of mouth.
The one-way flight of more than 1,600 miles would take almost five hours, including one transfer along the way.
On this airline, first-class in-flight meals were supposed to be reserved in advance, but Gyeoul was served a course chosen at the airline's discretion.
The appetizer was three slices of tender roast beef and a pretzel roll with cream. After he emptied the plates one by one, broccoli soup came out, and after the soup came a salad of lettuce, cucumber, cherries, and sugar-coated walnuts. Not one item seemed to include ready-made food.
The main dish was a steak two finger joints thick, with a little blood still seeping out. The sirloin, crisp-seared on the outside, gave way with surprising softness when he pressed the knife into it.
The texture was just as good.
Tasting it, Gyeoul gave a bitter smile without meaning to.
This was not the first time, but... even after going through something so heavy, a meal still tasted good when he was hungry.
For dessert, there were crackers spread with cheese and a sundae ice cream piled with chocolate syrup and fresh strawberries. While Gyeoul ate the ice cream, the TV in front of his seat showed Kramer calling for health insurance reform. When he put on the earphones, Kramer's powerful voice came through.
「...Humanity has already faced the threat of extinction due to disease. To make sure such a crisis never repeats itself, we must create a society where poor people can also enjoy a sufficient level of medical service! The MacMillan administration made efforts in its own way, but the results were never satisfactory!」
「We cannot stop at the level of the state brokering private insurance sales for low-income citizens. We need a system led directly by the state!」
「First, I will take measures so that all insurance plans apply at all hospitals without exception. Honestly, does that make any sense? I clearly have insurance, yet I cannot receive benefits because the hospital has not signed a contract with that insurer? Anyone can see how absurd this is after thinking about it for even a moment, yet we accept it as nothing more than a familiar custom.」
「Even in life-or-death emergencies, the reality for most American citizens is that they have to search separately for an emergency room where their insurance applies. Otherwise, even if they receive all the treatment they need, they will die because they have no money. As long as this fear spreads through American society, we can never be free from the shadow of the end...」
The news then showed specific figures for citizens' support of President Kramer.
93.8%.
It was an unprecedentedly high approval rating. Until then, the highest had been the 89% recorded by the George W. Bush administration right after the 9/11 attacks. Even that was hard to compare, since the approval rating had not lasted long. Kramer's popularity had followed a long upward curve, then reached its peak around Ground Zero Vacuum.
With the citizens' passionate support behind Kramer, plans were being made to boldly fix old contradictions in American society that even President MacMillan had not dared touch.
Gyeoul thought.
Inside the fence, an excellent leader.
Because actions like this drew such powerful attention, relatively less attention would inevitably be given to American interests, in other words, to what was happening outside the fence.
Footnotes:
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