After leaving the cemetery of the Hubleys, Hayes asked the old man about the address of Peak's home, but the old man did not know. After all, there were hundreds of thousands of people living in this area. However, according to Hayes' description, the old man guessed that they They should live near Xudui, which is the most inaccessible place in the entire town, because it is also the location where the reactor crashed when it was used as a factory area. There used to be very serious radioactive contamination. Even though the radiation level is now very low, the residents still Will instinctively stay away from there. Only the most desperate people will live there and search for garbage that can be sold amidst the sound of Geiger counters.
So Hayes rushed towards that place. At this time, people were still coming and going on the street. Few people noticed these strangers wearing breathing masks. In fact, as the largest scrap distribution center in the area, here There are always a lot of outsiders, and there are also a lot of "weird" people inside. Mutations and deformities seem to be the norm in the bottom nest.
After walking on the street for a while, the three of them followed the old man's directions and turned to an empty alley. When they reached the end of the narrow alley, they found a right-angled alley parallel to the main road.
At this time, Hayes' keen ears heard a painful gasp. He hesitated for a moment, took out a silver pistol from a slender holster next to his abdomen, and followed behind him. The two made a silent gesture and carefully moved to the other exit of the alleyway, close to a wall.
Under the weak light, four figures were struggling. One of them fell to the ground. He was wearing an Astra Militarum uniform with obvious signs of damage. There was a metal crutch beside him. His right leg could be clearly seen from the crotch. The other three were the attackers. They were all young men, wearing very typical attire of hive thugs and gang members, leather pants + leather jackets, mohawks, dyed reddish brown or dark blue. color.
Soon, the two grabbed the arms of the fallen man and dragged him up.
Hayes finally saw clearly that it was a man with stubble on his face, missing his nose, one ear, and obvious burn marks on half of his face. He recognized at a glance that the man must have been a soldier. It was a trauma he was all too familiar with.
There is an old-fashioned player hanging around the soldier's neck, which plays Hayes's most familiar slogan intermittently -
Suspected to be a fatal flaw in any armor
< br>An unfaithful thought is as dangerous as a hundred bullets.
Death itself is the reward
It is better to die for the Emperor than to live for oneself
A good soldier needs to know nothing but hatred.
That seems to be just an old servitor. The repeated hoarseness brought Hayes back to the scene of squatting in the cabin with his comrades, laughing and playing.
At this time, the third one who also looked like the leader turned the stick in his hand and said with a smile:
"Old man, if you want to have a few more teeth left to eat mud cakes, just hand over the medal honestly. I don't have the patience."
"No--"
The veteran groaned:< br>
“Hope is a luxury product. There is no choice between the emperor and the abyss.”
“Let me recite sutras for you, right?”
Just as he raised his stick, Hayes appeared nonchalantly in the glimmer of light.
The man holding the veteran's right arm immediately roared and pulled out the dagger from his waist.
“You are——”
Before he could finish speaking, he fell down and a hole was burned through his chest.
The smell of burnt flesh and blood filled the air. Hayes was very familiar with this smell. He used to hate it, but now he misses it.
The other two stared at Hayes and the pistol in his hand in disbelief, but Hayes no longer gave them any chance to explain, and the muzzle of the pistol flashed twice in the dimness.
The blinding light spot hit the chest of the young man holding the veteran's right arm, and another shot hit the leader's abdomen. The eyes of the two people bulged out in shock, and when the sticks fell to the ground, , two corpses collapsed to the ground.
For Hayes now, killing someone is as common as drinking water, and there is not even the slightest fluctuation in his heart.
Jalina, who had experienced a dark childhood, was not surprised by death. Andina also grew up in the nest and had seen all kinds of chaotic scenes, so they were not surprised at all when Hayes directly shot and killed three people. , instead took the initiative to look around the alley to see if anyone was approaching.
“Are you okay?”
Hayes knelt down to help the veteran up, and took the crutches on the side, but the other man seemed to be still silent in his prayers, still mumbling to himself.
"Don't shrink before death, don't be weak in front of heretics." "Brother? Which army are you from?"
Hearing these words of Hayes, The veteran was stunned for a moment, then turned his head, and for the first time his gray face looked brighter.
“You are.”
"My name is Hayes, and I am from the 310th Regiment. Our leader is Arni."
"The 310th Regiment!?"
The man's eyes widened, and then a smile appeared on his face, and then Grabbing Hayes' arm, they both stood up.
"I am from the 219th Regiment. If I remember correctly, we should have fought together in that damn place Endymion."
Hayes also laughed and nodded vigorously. .
"Ah, yes, yes, your regiment's position seemed to be to the east of us at that time, and I followed the company commander to visit your place."
Although the two met for the first time, they fell in love instantly. Like brothers, they burst out with passionate emotions.
"My name is Kang, and I belong to the regiment artillery."
As he spoke, the man turned off the player hanging on his chest.
"Brother Hayes, are you from here too?"
"I'm not, I'm here to find someone. Do you know the Peak family?"
"Peak?"
The veteran named Kang turned his head and thought for a while.
“I have a little impression.”
“I live over there in Xudui.”
"Oh, when you mentioned it, I remembered it. He was right behind me in the recruiting team. I used to see him and his younger brother when I went to pick up trash in the ruins. I probably know where they live."
Then he took the initiative to take the three people of Hayes to that place. As for the corpses on the ground, there was no need to pay attention to them at all. After all, death in the bottom nest was very common.
On the way, Hayes learned what happened to Kang.
In a battle of bloody skeletons, his troops first landed and lost half of their men in an accident. Later, when they entered the battlefield, due to information errors, they encountered an unexpected siege by many enemies. As a same The cannon fodder regiment, the 219th Regiment, was almost defeated, but the commander of Kang's artillery unit turned the tide at the critical moment, risking the tactics of close-range shooting with bayonets attached to the artillery, using continuous shelling from an extremely dangerous distance to smash the enemy's charge line and destroy it. The enemy's only armor was destroyed, and Kang himself used the basilisk to kill the enemy's commander with a precise shot. In the end, after the war, less than a thousand people in his regiment survived, and Kang's artillery regiment had less than three Ten people survived.
It was also because of his bravery that after the war, Kang received a Medal of Courage, the easiest thing for an Astra Militarum soldier to obtain. Since then, their regiment has been stationed in place, and Kang also stayed in the field hospital. He stayed for more than half a year, and only returned to his hometown last month with the pension.