Chapter 59 Continue to Wait

We did nothing but wait for three days. During these three days, the only thing I paid attention to was the hole in the meteorite the two of them had disappeared into. I think only those who have been in such a situation could understand just how long and anxious this wait was.

During this time, I tried to enter the hole more than once, but each attempt ended in failure. It really wasn’t a passage ordinary people could climb up. The highest I managed to climb was only ten meters, and even that left me completely exhausted, my calves shaking so bad that they felt like jelly.

As for the rest of our group, Uncle Three’s men were too afraid to try and Fatty obviously couldn’t fit. The only one who could have possibly gone in was Black Glasses, but he never showed any interest in doing so—I figured he probably felt that he might not be able to make it out if he went in. Overall, the atmosphere was very depressing. Mop urged us to leave several times, saying that the two of them had probably died inside the meteorite, and since it was impossible for us to go in, we should save our energy and rations for getting out of here.

I refused to accept that this was the end result after all the hardships we’d gone through to get here. I covered my head to try and block out his words, my mind only focused on one thing: what had happened inside the meteorite?

Chen Wen-Jin had not only untied the rope, but she did it deliberately. And that smile she gave me before she left… it almost felt like she had planned this long ago. So, she knew what she would encounter inside, and that there might be a situation that would prevent her from coming out.

The whole way here, Chen Wen-Jin’s words had sounded very fatalistic. I couldn’t even imagine what her life had been like over the past few years. Maybe she found that there was no way to stop her transformation, so she became desperate enough to end her own life. But what about Poker-Face? Why didn’t he come out? It didn’t make sense to apply the same logic to him, so I was sure something must have happened to them.

But what could it be? Without any clues, I simply had no idea where to direct my thoughts. Were they lost? Maybe the winding tunnels inside formed an endless maze that made it impossible to get out once you went in. But that didn’t explain why Chen Wen-Jin untied the rope.

My mind was full of nothing but anxious thoughts. I stared at the hole so long that I saw it whether I was resting with my eyes open or closed.

I don’t really want to describe what happened after that.

On the fourth day, Mop and his men began to complain non-stop. I was in a very bad mood and almost got into a fight with them several times, but there was still no movement from the hole. At one point, I even wondered if Chen Wen-Jin and Poker-Face ever existed at all, or if this was all just a figment of our imaginations.

As the uneasiness and anxiety became more oppressive, a part of me started to think that maybe Mop and his men were right. But there was another part of me that refused to agree, so I continued arguing with them. This disparity almost brought me to the brink of collapse.

On the sixth day, Mop and his men finally left. They had originally hoped to rely on our expertise to get them out of this place, but now they refused to waste any more time and resources waiting around. In their opinion, the matter was very clear—even if Poker-Face and Chen Wen-Jin were still alive, they would be dead in a few days. Black Glasses patted me on the shoulder, silently asking me to leave too, but I refused. He sighed before following the others, leaving me and Fatty alone in this place.

They had taken a lot of the food with them—definitely more than the average person’s share—but I couldn’t be bothered to argue with them anymore.

Fatty had actually tried to persuade me to leave as well, but he knew how stubborn I could be. After going through everything and finally arriving here, even if it wasn’t a perfect full stop, it should have at least been a short pause, not an abrupt break like this.⁽¹⁾ I was suddenly starting to realize just how foolish I was. What the hell was I even doing here? Was this really the end? I absolutely refused to accept it.

Fatty had no choice but to accompany me. The two of us just looked at each other and continued to wait. I suddenly remembered an absurd play called “Waiting for Godot”⁽²⁾, and couldn’t help but want to cry—as it turned out, my own absurd play was actually a tragedy.

I can’t remember how many days this lasted, but it must not have been long since we didn’t finish our limited supply of food.

After Mop and the others left, I nearly fell into complete despair. I was so close to breaking down that I couldn’t even think about what I was doing there. All I could do every day was stare at the hole in the meteorite above us, which, according to Fatty, was the behavior of a madman.

One day, I woke up in a daze after having fallen asleep. I had been sleeping comfortably these past few days, so all the wounds on my body had finally healed. Fatty was supposed to be keeping watch, but he had also fallen asleep and was now snoring loudly close by.

I didn’t see any reason to wake him up, so I quietly got up and went to stand below the hole. I didn’t know how many times I had stood there looking up at it, but there was still nothing to see. I stared blankly at it for more than ten minutes before deciding to eat breakfast. Fatty and I had very little food left, but after rummaging around, I found a half-eaten biscuit left over from yesterday. As I started chewing on it, I suddenly heard a strange sound, like someone singing or talking in their sleep.

Thinking it was Fatty muttering in his sleep, I didn’t pay any attention to it and just finished eating my biscuit. But when I went to wake him up, I was shocked to find someone lying between me and Fatty.

I snapped out of my daze and took a closer look, only to find that it was Poker-Face.

He was huddled in a blanket, not moving at all, but I could see that he had obviously lost weight.

When did he come back? While we were sleeping?

At first I thought I was dreaming, but then I realized that I wasn’t and I nearly went crazy. I immediately rushed over, grabbed his blanket, and shouted, “You bastard! Where the hell have you been?!”

I pulled him up, wanting to punch him, but when I saw his face, I knew right away that something was wrong. His expression was very strange, not at all like his usual one, and his eyes were vacant. I could see that his lips were constantly quivering and his whole body was shaking, as if he were possessed by an evil spirit.

I felt my heart thump and immediately kicked Fatty awake. Then I lifted Poker-Face up, pressed my hand to his neck, and called his name. He didn’t react at all, not even so much as a twitch of his eye. It was almost like he couldn’t hear me at all.

I suddenly had a very bad feeling. Fatty came over, looked at us, and asked me what was going on. When I said I didn’t know, he pressed his fingers against Poker-Face’s temples and looked at his expression before exclaiming, “Fuck, no way. Has Little Brother lost it?”

“Impossible! Don’t spout such fucking nonsense,” I said before turning to shout at Poker-Face, “Stop pretending! You can’t fool me! I know you’re just pretending!” But all he did was shiver, huddle there listlessly, and mumble something from time to time.

I leaned in closer to his mouth to try and hear what he was saying, only to realize that he was mumbling the same phrase over and over again in quick succession: “There’s no time.”

<Chapter 58><Table of Contents><Chapter 60>

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TN Notes:

(1) The author decided to toss in some music terms. Why? Idk. Full stop is like the end of music piece. A pause (or rest) is a musical pause that’s the length of a whole note before the music picks up again. Abrupt break isn’t a music term or anything but I picked it cuz I thought it suited the context. If you want to keep with the theme, just imagine the music coming to a screeching halt.

(2) “Waiting for Godot” is a play by Samuel Beckett in which two characters, Vladimir and Estragon, engage in a variety of discussions and encounters while awaiting Godot, who never arrives. More info here.