[Rogue One] A Blue Robin's Tale

6,

"What the medical department is doing doesn't make any sense." An anti-epidemic soldier leaned against the car door holding a diarrhoea, talking eloquently, his voice muffled and magnetic after being processed by the helmet.

"How do you say that?" His companion spoke with a West Coast accent and sounded in his twenties.

"What do you think blood tests are? They might have been useful a few years ago, but now?"

"Uh...sir, I don't quite understand."

"My God, our team is all from medical school, I remember correctly? Have you graduated yet?" The soldier called the officer smashed the butt of his gun on the subordinate's helmet, making a "dang" sound.

"Do you mean that the virus has evolved a latent infection?" The young soldier replied immediately.

"No, not necessarily. But their incubation period has been extended. I met a few infected people in New York last time. It is said that they passed the blood test, but they suddenly became ill two months later and killed four or five people. .I bet there are only a few bitten and smeared people in this group right now." The high-ranking soldiers pointed to the survivors queuing up in front of them one by one.Several of them were dragged in a certain direction by the arms of the soldiers, crying desperately trying to break free.

"...What to do then?" The young soldier was frightened.He saw a four or five-year-old girl with a long and narrow wound on her leg, who was being held in the arms of a soldier, her eyes were full of curiosity.He turned his face away, but the helmet kept him from covering his ears.Soon there were heart-piercing screams from a certain direction, and the sound of raging flames laughing in the air.

Then he was shot again.

"That's something that doctors and nurses should consider. Keep your eyes open for me. This is what we should do. This is what is called 'meaningful'."

"Sir, I don't think this is too..." The young soldier hesitated to speak, before he finished speaking, two figures suddenly passed by in front of him, and he quickly picked up the gun in his hand that was about to fall to the ground.

"May the Lord be with them." He vaguely heard the man in black say.

Baze pulled down his rolled sleeves, folded the blood-stained medical tape into a small piece and threw it into the trash can by the side of the road.

"Fortunately, it's almost over." Chirrut changed his tone, "Just pass today."

"what you mean?"

"Apocalypse."

"today?"

"It's all about scaring people, actually." Chirrut smiled and shook his head, "I tend to care about more realistic things."

Baze followed him over a rotting tree trunk, his boots thumping in the mud.It had just rained the day before, and the color of the woods had been dyed dark green.There are no roads for people to walk here, and small puddles are distributed between the thick layer of humus, and sometimes unknown reptiles can be seen passing by in fear on the fallen leaves.

A few birdsong wafted through the canopy, which Baze identified as the call of a bluebird.Further in is a place where the sun cannot reach, and he is a little worried that he will meet the vampire hiding in the deep forest.But Chirrut's steps were steady and brisk, as if he had walked in the forest countless times, and the long hem of his clothes was not wet at all.This may represent "safety".

Three or two bluebirds flew over Baze's head in shock.

■

"Is there only one kind of bird in the hell? God damn it."

The archbishop in white complained in a low voice, and waved away the birds flying around.He just stepped into a not-so-shallow puddle, splashing mud spots all over his trouser legs.

"Krennic." The virologist walking aside indicated with his eyes that there was a third person.

However, the blind youth has sensed Archbishop Krennic's dissatisfaction.He let go of the hand holding the corner of the latter's white shawl, staggered and walked a long way, and disappeared in the shade of greenery in a short while.

"Chirrut, what are you doing, don't run around..." The archbishop just wanted to catch up, but his friend grabbed the shawl again.

"I've already said that it's not a good idea to go into the woods after the rain." Galen met Krennic's dissatisfied gaze, "I also said you would regret choosing to wear white casual clothes."

The archbishop roughly grabbed the shawl back, "I don't have much time left, it has to be now. As for white, that's what the military means. You should know that I'm out of action in Jeddah—oh, of course you don't." Would mind that, Dr. Erso."

Galen deliberately slowed down his pace.

"I'm sorry, Krennic. Really." He cast his eyes on the fallen leaves under his feet, "I did communicate with Washington about the underground bunker, but..."

"But what?" the archbishop insisted on striding forward, "but the premise is that I have to get out."

His shawl got caught on a low tree branch, and he staggered forward, wondering how everything was in the way.

"Never mind. I hate that bluebird. And I don't like being with a blind man who's going to jump up and kill me at any moment."

This time Galen simply stopped. Krennic turned to look at him, and found that his face was still unmoved.

"Krennic, we have to talk about Chirrut."

Then the archbishop stood facing him, with his hands folded on his chest. "You think I'll agree to let him stay in Jeddah?"

"He's not like other sources of infection."

"But he's blind, and it won't be long before he's killing everyone. And then they'll start saying 'that's what the orphan Krennic picked up did it'."

"But you can't hand him over to the Institute of Biology, you can't imagine what they can do."

"Then what brilliant vision do you have, Dr. Erso?" Krennic sneered, "Have you forgotten what happened here before?"

"I haven't forgotten." To his surprise, Galen replied without any hesitation, "That was a major pathological mistake, not your fault."

He took two steps forward, looking calmly into the archbishop's eyes: "Orson, Lyra's death was not your fault."

"I'll take care of Chirrut for you, and I'll figure out how to protect him. That's my answer."

■

Chirrut, who was walking in front, slammed on the brakes, and Baze stopped quickly.

What appeared before them was the end of the wall.Mottled vines occupied the entire wall, extending from the ground all the way up, covering half of the sky.The huge wall that surrounds the entire Jeddah was built 30 years ago.It was shortly after the end of the Great War, the ruling branch was still in power, and the first sight of blood-sucking monsters appeared on the ground-but at that time they were not cannibals.The federation spent more than a year deploying manpower, and finally surrounded all cities with walls.Now it seems that it is indeed a wise move.

Chirrut walked to a position some distance away from the wall with ease, squatted down and groped among the fallen leaves for a while, and then there was a loud thunderous noise from a long distance below the ground. Only when Baze got closer did he see that the ground was covered with a pure white hatch, about the size of the chassis of a medium-sized tourist vehicle.On it is a combination lock, and the green words "UNLOCKED" flash on the solar light screen.

"The password is my birthday." Chirrut twitched the corner of his mouth playfully, pulling a metal handle to lift up the "car chassis".Below that is a bottomless passage, with metal bars for climbing along the vertical walls.

Baze couldn't help whistling: "Underground bunkers? I thought religious cities would reject such things."

"It was bought by Archbishop Krennic at the price of his own rank." Chirrut probed into the dark passage, pretending to be shocked, "He is the only priest in the entire church who insists on building an underground bunker."

"Where is he now?"

"I don't know." Chirrut sighed, "He was expelled."

The bird that got the name "Orson" appeared in front of Baze just in time, and Bloodhunter stretched out his right hand to accept it.The feathers of the little blue bird shone brightly in the dim sunlight.It looked at Baze, then at Chirrut, and finally landed on the edge of the dark passage, imitating Chirrut's movements and poking its head inside.

"The bunker was just completed a few days ago. The help provided by Washington is very limited, and it is impossible for the church to disclose this matter to the believers. The only manpower is the priest in the church." Although Chirrut's tone was calm, Baze still heard There was a bitter sense of powerlessness.

"But the Lord will not abandon His faithful lamb." Chirrut clenched his hands on his knees into fists.

■

"The sky turned blood red and the ground turned scorched earth?" Krennic sneered through his nose, "That's it."

"You want to tamper with ancient books?"

"Just to add a sentence at the end: But the Lord will not forsake His faithful Lamb."

Galen stood beside the archbishop.In front of them is the huge wall that separates the outside world from Jada, and most of it has been buried in the green vortex, and the beige wall with huge numbers printed on it can be faintly seen between the vines.

With his back to them, Chirrut was squatting on the ground pushing the fallen leaves aside.

"He often came here to play with his dog when he was a child." Krennic motioned Galen to follow him. "I only found out two days ago that there was a military base in this place more than 70 years ago."

A military green iron gate faintly appeared on the cleaned ground, already rusted due to the moisture in the forest. Chirrut didn't speak, and struggled to open the iron door, and a narrow corridor was immediately displayed in front of the other two.Some kind of corrupt atmosphere seems to have finally found an outlet, sweeping up from below.

"Have you ever gone down?" Galen asked Chirrut.The latter shook his head. Galen bent down and looked down the corridor for a moment of silence, then looked up at Krennic.

"I refuse." The archbishop retreated one meter away at some point, "Let them open the passage a little wider and clean the bottom. There should be no problem."

Galen nodded in agreement. "But the point is not this. How do you plan to use that sentence to make the whole city hide in underground bunkers?"

"Simple, it's full of bluebirds. They never nest outside of this wood."

Then they all set their sights on Chirrut.The blind young man sat at the base of the wall, the only place where he could get sunlight.There were birds all over his body, and he looked like he was wrapped in a royal blue tulle from a distance.

"Let everyone believe that the Lord made His lamb follow the bluebird. As long as you follow the bluebird, you can find hope." The archbishop seemed to be muttering to himself.

"I remember you saying you hated bluebirds."

"Did I say so?"

"you said before."

"Galen Erso." The archbishop narrowed his eyes and looked at the virologist in front of him, with a proud smile on his lips, "Maybe we will be enemies somewhere, but it shouldn't be here."

"I'm honored. Archbishop Krennic." Galen returned a placid smile.

There was the sound of wind from the helicopter blades in the sky. The sunlight on Chirrut's body disappeared for a moment, and he raised his head to look at the sky with those cloudy eyeballs.

"Goodbye." He heard Krennic's voice.

"Goodbye," Galen said.

■

"What you need to do is to evacuate all the citizens near the church to an underground bunker." Chirrut used a ballpoint pen he found somewhere to scribble on a paper towel, "Let them follow the bluebird."

"What about you?" Baze took the tissue, looked at it carefully for a long time but gave up understanding.

"I need to make sure everyone is near the church. Don't worry, the whole church will follow me to prevent me from falling."

Then Chirrut teased himself again.

"This is probably the last time we'll sit here. Don't want a story?"

"Tell me, there are not too many stories." Baze also laughed out of nowhere.

"Long ago, on a cold winter day, a bluebird had to stay overnight in a city because he was left behind. There was a statue of the Happy Prince in the city. Also two bright sapphires. Only his heart is made of lead. The happy prince asks the blue robin to give his gems to sick children, starving playwrights, little match girls, and poor people So the blue robin stayed with him every day. Until one day the happy prince had no gems on his body, and there were only two holes where his eyes were. The blue robin also froze to death at his feet. People Melted down the prince's statue, and dumped his broken leaden heart and dead birds on the rubbish heap."

Baze thought there was more to come, but after a long silence, Chirrut did not speak again.

"Wow." He could only sigh, "This ending is not so happy."

"Baze, do you know why the bluebird didn't leave the Happy Prince until he died?" Chirrut asked abruptly.

"why?"

■

"Why?" Chirrut frowned.He ran his fingers over the rough pages, annoyed that he still hadn't mastered the basics of Braille.

"Galen, I know I'm not a kid lying in bed waiting for a story. I'm only getting the outlines of the plot right now, but I have to know why."

In the warm darkness, Chirrut heard an inaudible laugh from beside him.Then a gnarled hand placed his right hand over the rows of Braille.

"Around here. Use what you memorized yesterday." Galen's voice came over. "You shouldn't start with such a long article—I know I can't stop you."

Chirrut groped for a while, with an inexplicable look on his face.

"I guessed right." He tried to smile.

Two short birdsong rang in his ears, Chirrut stretched out his hand, and immediately felt the heavy weight on the index and middle fingers.

"Galen, are you really going to just leave like this?"

"The K-2SO project has just been approved, and I must go to Washington immediately to meet with the R&D team."

"I really won't..." Chirrut thought for a while, and then put it another way, "Can I really live with other people? You can lock me up in the basement of the monastery."

"You'll be fine. You have to trust me." Galen patted him on the shoulder, "The virus mutates in your body very quickly, which is unprecedented. It only takes away your vision and magnifies other sensory function, we might even call it...evolution."

"Well," Chirrut grinned, "it would be even better if it evolved to give me back my vision."

"This is the purpose of K-2SO. We will try to speed up its evolution based on the virus in your blood. Maybe we can really observe that its impact on the host is close to zero at a certain stage."

"It's an unprecedented idea."

"Thank you. To put it less implicitly, it's what the group threw at me." Galen said with a wry smile.He looked at Jyn, who was sitting on the edge of the market not far away, playing with an automatic pistol, and Cassian, who was a head taller beside her.

"Chirrut, can you promise me one thing?"

The blind youth raised his head.

"Never let Jyn leave Jada."

■

Baze has long discovered that Chirrut's behavior is almost untraceable.He never tells those around him before he does something astonishing, so that every time he surprises his loyal blood hunting friends.So in general, Baze is always on edge whenever Chirrut is around, whether it's in a church confessional or a vampire in the suburbs.

"I'm going to kiss you. On the lips."

When Baze heard Chirrut say this, he first tried to connect this string of characters into a logical and complete sentence in his mind, so that he could interpret it for himself.But before his brainstorming was over, the cold, soft and moist signal had already been received between his lips before his brain.Apparently Chirrut had never kissed anyone, because no one would ever want to sit shoulder-to-shoulder with him on the steps, fighting for the same air.But he doesn't hate exchanging such a quiet and long kiss with anyone, even if he is a priest who is not good at kissing, and the other party is a blood hunter who is not good at kissing.Because Baze saw that his eyes were closed, and his eyelashes fluttered slightly like cicada wings; because he gradually put his cool fingers on Baze's cheeks, just like how many days ago he was groping under the street lamp trying to remember this strange friend Because when he slowly sucked Baze's upper lip, the breath between them was warm and sweet, even as if it contained the smell of malt and yeast.

Baze's mind, which had been blank for a moment, began to function.He remembered who the last time he had kissed was next to a neon bar sign in a dark alley, and they were both holding half-empty wine bottles in their hands, and then they all smashed on some other people's heads.

So he had never really felt a kiss like this, nor had he found a chance to remember a kiss like this moment.

After all, Jada has no alcohol.

Baze thought the kiss could be longer, until he found that Chirrut had withdrawn from it as quickly as if he was running away, and was sitting upright like a normal person.It's just the rare blood on his cheeks that betrayed him.

"Why did you remind me in advance? You didn't have this habit before."

"You have to know, as a priest, you generally don't kiss with other..." Chirrut lowered his head and coughed, pretending to be cold, "...people of the same gender, kiss. No, they I rarely kiss other people."

"So you're reminding God?" Baze suspected he was infected, and found himself laughing too.

"If He had known in advance, maybe he would... well, he would, more able, accept it."

Baze watched Chirrut gesturing solemnly, and finally laughed out loud.

"Oh god, what the hell." Chirrut buried his face in his hands.

■

"Bodhi, you've made it, I mean it."

Jyn trotted to catch the pilot's helmet, almost cheering.

Bodhi made a silent gesture to her, and pointed to Chirrut who was standing not far away feeding the birds.

"Forget it, he can hear us no matter how softly we speak." Cassian said loudly on purpose, and then the three of them cast curious glances in the priest's direction.

"I still don't think Chirrut will stop us," Jyn said. "He's the most anxious one after losing touch with my dad."

"Then why don't we leave tonight?"

They looked at Bodhi.

Bodhi is the only fighter pilot in Jeddah - even though he was a student of Idu when he came here.Unfortunately, he encountered engine failure during a test drive of a private jet and made an emergency landing in Jeddah.Later, he got to know Cassian, a young defender of Jedah, and Jyn, who came to Jedah from Washington as a child, and learned that they planned to go out of the city to find Jyn's missing father.

It took him a year to retreat, and another year and a half to quietly practice driving in open spaces outside the city.

He didn't tell his two friends that he slipped out to escape training, and he didn't tell them that he came here not because of engine failure, but because of unskilled operation and forced landing.

Fortunately, there is no need to expose these terrible facts.

"Then..." Bodhi looked back and forth between Jyn and Cassian, "Let's go tonight."

He quietly looked at the black figure in the distance.

Of course, he did not tell the other two people who gave him encouragement and support during the year when he retreated.

That evening, Chirrut sat on the steps of the church.He heard the sound of the plane's engine running in a certain direction overhead, and imagined the appearance of the plane in the warm orange sunset in his mind.

A bird hopped on the back of his hand and chirped.

Just call you Jyn.he said suddenly.

TBC.