Closing Ties

Hino looks over. "See, Jumper, you sure aren't liked around here, it seems." He gives a condescending comment to him.

The barkeeper continues, "Hefty price for that place; after all, it's a pile of information for you." His selling point was in the game; he knew the importance of this to Hino.

"How about I offer information worth more than the future of this place? Your future can be saved with it " He offers a promise of intrigue and mystery behind his words.

The barkeeper looks down and starts to consider; his mechanical limbs start to go under his chin, expressing his thoughts, "Is this a promise?"

"Yes, it is." The simplicity spoke way more than anything could; this kid was the real deal in what he knows.

Hino looks expressionless; he was steady and firm. 'This is going well; I should have covered everything with this. K4 might get rather mad, but it's necessary.'

"Deal", the barkeeper was exhilarated.

They both lean in next to each other; they know business at heart, and neither would scam the other.

"What I offer is the truth: there will be a flash of white light that envelops the world the moment the broadcast time elapses, and that is one year."

The barkeeper asks, "How much time has it been already?"

Hino had no issue remembering, 'It's been three months since the broadcast in September, then another three months of K4 being modified, and it took us two weeks to get here with the train.'

"It's been six and a half months; you have around half a year, it seems, to find a deep safe place, but that was only the bonus..." He played his cards right, not revealing the truth behind what will happen soon.

The barkeeper's mouth widens and lifts slightly, his eyes maddening. "You offer such a snippet? Everyone knows that information, so why tell me it?"

Hino doesn't reply. 'He needs to offer me the location of the laboratory for the time of attack on Shilo. I was right to come here alone without K4; she wouldn't have a clue in this.'

A silence fills the bar; their eyes lock onto one another, clearly knowing the outcome. The barkeeper goes to the back for a couple of minutes; tonnes of scruffling and knocking of boxes could be heard. He then comes back out with his mechanical limb holding a sheet of paper.

He comes back to the stools. "Let me show you." He draws a box representing the city, stretching out a tunnel back to where K4 is out of the trade passage; instead of doing their turn, if they kept walking straight, it would lead to a deeper three-way passage.

He starts to outline the three passages, showing two dead ends and the passage on the left containing an out-of-place brick that, if pushed, unlocks a grey and white door, which he couldn't unlock.

The map was pretty well drawn and definitely readable; Hino gives a satisfied look to the keeper.

"This is good; I will tell you the secret I hid at the start." He becomes duller and focused.

He leans forwards again on the countertop in front of the stools. "Shilo will be attacked in two weeks exactly; this entire place will be wiped to the ground."

The barkeeper exclaims, "This is not truth! What lies are you spreading to me...?"

"No lies, no truth; what I offer is only what I know to be the truth, and I promise you this truth is correct, but I can't explain why." He didn't even adjust or flinch; he got used to the hard truth.

The barkeeper puts his hand on Hino's left chest; he feels a pressure on his chest. 'Is he checking my heartbeat? That's smart for someone like him.'

With a heartbeat checked, it was normal, too normal. The barkeeper now knew the truth too; he was sure of it. Hino's body language didn't falter, his heart didn't race, and he remained normal.

"I need to leave this immediately; we all do..." The barkeeper goes into a frenzy.

Hino, not amused by this development, decides to start walking away. "Do whatever you wish now." Jumper follows with him behind, a bit embarrassed by a child outplaying his conversation skills, forgetting to ask about his family.

Both of them welcomed various sights and smells from the outside. Hino puts the map in his bag, and Jumper starts to lead him back to the port, passing back the same streets like before. The sights were the last he had to endure, at least.

Before the port in the last street, Jumper feels a firm hold upon his back, a nimble, tender grasp onto him. He turns around, looking down at the short woman in front of him; she looked middle-aged, her eyes were big and brown, she had blonde hair running through her, and her clothes were pretty humble.

"It's been a while, Jumper..." Her quiet voice sent a shiver down Jumper's spine; his eyes started to swell and tear up.

He instantly embraces her in a huge hug; she returns the favour back to him. "I missed you so much, honey." His words were barely audible to her, but she knew it was a good word.

"You were fighting to get back to us this entire time, weren't you?" She started to tear up too; they both have a moment of silence before finally she lets out another call.

"Your dad is back!" Her call reveals a child; he looked pretty young, like a six-year-old. He had a coat on and a hat; his boots tremor quietly on the floor of the street as Jumper rushes over, picking him up crying.

"Yeah, I'm back." He then rushes back to his wife; the family all hug together while Hino watches from ahead.

'It seems even the useless can find some sort of happiness in this world – a loving family, a wife and child. What will he do now?' Hino was confused; he never understood happiness like this. His parents dying made only a shimmer of memories which lay dormant come back.

The cries of joy filled the street; the grotesque, disgusting town was now a place of reunion and ties. Hino watched the underground transform into something else, not just a place where bottom feeders of Shilo reside but more of a community. His perspective shifted.

'This place granted him happiness. What right do I have to comment on who and where happiness can form? At the end of my journey too, there was no sadness other than an emptiness I can't fill, but no sadness.'

Hino heads alone to the port; he gets one final look back at Jumper with his wife and child, his happiness; his situation left an empty scar on the inside, something was bugging him, but he couldn't grasp why. He turns back around, going onto the wooden platform with the old man waiting for his return.

"Did you find what you wanted?" He was curious about Hino.

Hino's eyes dart over at the man. "I think I did." He walks towards the boat once more, taking a seat in the middle like before; the man also then goes with him onto the back. Hino reaches out, giving it a gentle push into the grey sea of whatever it consumed.

The old man starts rowing the boat back towards the trade passage where K4 remains waiting for him. The city from behind starts to fade away, getting smaller as time passes by. The dieselpunk buildings were definitely way better off without Hino there as well.

'Now with this, we can finally fix humanity for once and for all, hopefully, or at least get closer,' he reminisces about the first laboratory; the horrific scenes of death and decay, the grotesque smell and eerie atmosphere left a traumatising expectation again.

The boat starts to get in view of K4; she sits down on the wooden platform still, rather motionless, probably waiting to be reconnected once her system detects movement or sound. The boat starts pulling in, tapping off the wooden platform, causing a thud and K4 to reawaken.

"took around an hour," K4 reminds him, standing up from her sitting position.

Hino takes out the map he got from the barkeeper. "I got what you wanted." He steps off the boat of the old man onto the wooden platform. He then shifts towards K4, showing the drawn map from the barkeeper showing a precise way to get there.

K4 looks back at the old man, "Get going already; you did good." With her go-ahead, the old man starts to row back to the city.

"Hino, I'm proud of you!" She gave a sense of satisfaction, even giving as far as a tap on the shoulder; she was pretty satisfied.

"Time for the laboratory once more, isn't it?" She starts climbing back up the wooden staircase with Hino behind her; they both reach the top and look out at the distant city from the tunnel above, knowing this might be their last time seeing it.