Doomsday America.

Chapter 406 You're welcome, kid.

Perhaps this is the true meaning of religion and faith.

Looking at Father Hogan and the seriously wounded man, Gavin couldn't help but swallow hard, his Adam's apple bobbing for a moment.

After a brief moment of stunned silence, Gavin did not enter the room, but stood silently at the door, waiting for the interaction between the priest and the wounded to completely end.

This was not a short time; the priest talked with the wounded soldier for a full seven or eight minutes before finally standing up from the edge of the bed, holding the wounded soldier's only remaining left hand.

Upon seeing this, Gavin seemed to wake from a dream, and immediately strode into the ward, walking briskly to the bedside.

Hearing footsteps, the two, engrossed in their conversation, turned around simultaneously.

Father Hogan paused for a moment when he saw Gavin, while the seriously wounded man instinctively groaned and took a deep breath as he turned his head, seemingly stimulated by the pain.

At the same time, the priest asked Gavin in a low voice.

"Your Majesty, it's you! I noticed someone waiting outside the door several minutes ago."

"Please forgive me for thinking that it was another wounded soldier awaiting confession, but I never expected it to be you, Your Majesty."

At this point, Father Hogan gave Gavin an apologetic smile.

In response to Father Hogan's apology, Gavin took a deep breath and shook his head.

"There's nothing to apologize for, Father. Waiting is my decision, my choice, and it has nothing to do with you."

At this point, Gavin lowered his head and looked at the figure lying on the hospital bed.

The figure looked extremely miserable. Not only was his body covered with various detection devices, but his physical condition alone was beyond what an average person could endure.

Because a person only has four limbs, but the patient in front of us is missing three!

His legs and left hand had completely disappeared by this moment!

Many people may have seen a movie called Forrest Gump.

In that movie, the company commander whom the protagonist Forrest Gump met when he joined the army lost both legs in the Vietnam War, which caused him to break down, despair, and fall into a long period of despair before finally regaining the courage to face life with Forrest's help!

And now—

The wounded soldier in front of Gavin was even more seriously injured than the company commander in Forrest Gump!

The company commander in Forrest Gump lost both legs, but at least he could still walk by supporting himself with his two hands.

But this wounded soldier only has one hand left, so he will likely have difficulty moving and taking care of himself for the rest of his life.

Those who have truly been sick might understand the despair this injured person faced.

Often, for people suffering from serious illnesses, the real despair is not the fate of death they are about to face, but the feeling of being destined to become a burden and a drag, causing countless troubles to one person after another who loves them!

That feeling is truly despair-inducing!

One can only imagine the unimaginable despair that must be weighing on the heart of this injured person right now.

However, when Gavin looked at the wounded soldier seriously, there was no sense of deep despair on the soldier's face.

On the contrary, his expression still showed some pain, as if he was enduring pain and itching.

But despite all that, he still managed to force a smile. He stretched out his only hand and gently grasped Gavin's.

Seeing the man's actions, Gavin quickly reached out and took the only hand in his own.

Noticing Gavin's actions, the wounded man paused for a moment, then tried to smile and teased Gavin.

"Boss, don't be like this. You are indeed a super great boss, but you should treat me like a priest."

"Look into your eyes, boss. I see you're sad for me, I see you're upset because of me, I see you're thinking about how to arrange my future, and I see you weighing things up."

"Pity is a measure, boss, and the sadness in your eyes proves that I'm so bad that I deserve everyone's sympathy."

"See? I used to drive away everyone who came to visit me with my bad temper because I couldn't help thinking like that."

"Perhaps some people don't understand why, even though no one loves me more than my mother, I still don't want to see her in the hospital room?"

"It's just that the more she cares about me, or the more she grieves for me, the more her emotions become knives stabbing at my heart, cutting it again and again!"

"It wasn't until the priest talked to me a few times that I finally felt a little better—hiss!"

As he said this, even though he hadn't touched any wounds, he still instinctively hissed in pain.

He inhaled as he looked at his missing leg.

His left knee is experiencing phantom pain again. Damn it, even though he doesn't have a knee anymore, he still experiences frequent pain in his ankle or foot.

That's really strange.

And Gavin.

The wounded soldier, though unable to hide his disappointment, spoke with philosophical depth.

Gavin couldn't help but gasp.

This injury almost turned this young man into a philosopher!

As he took a breath, Gavin took out the apple that the wounded soldier's mother had given him.

He absorbed the information the wounded soldier had given him and spoke to the wounded soldier as naturally as possible.

"So before Father Hogan talked to you, you were so grumpy that even your mother was afraid to talk to you?"

"No wonder she asked me to bring you fruit after we met. I thought she only lived a few hundred steps away. Was she so lazy that she didn't even want to walk a few hundred steps?"

"Ha ha!"

As soon as Gavin finished speaking, the wounded man in front of him immediately burst into laughter.

While laughing, the injured man loosened his remaining left hand from Gavin's grasp, then reached out to take the fruit and placed it on his bedside table.

"Really? My mom still doesn't dare to come see me?"

As he casually asked the question, the injured man turned to look out the window.

He couldn't see where his mother was through that window, but he continued talking while looking out the window.

"Boss, I was really irritable the other day. Besides my mother, I even cursed my company commander Martin."

"After all, our company has the most chaotic and numerous responsibilities among all the field operations. One minute we have to help this, and the next we have to support that. During the operation in which I was injured, my squad and I, under the company commander's assignment and the captain's leadership, participated in helping the Fifth Company attack the Thunder Regiment in Oklahoma."

"Okay, it's a survival base set up by basketball enthusiasts, with less than two hundred people in total. I thought we had it in the bag."

"But the Thunder Corps' base is in the forest, damn it, they're on a mountaintop, and their mountain paths are riddled with traps."

"The most ridiculous thing is that my teammates and I relied on the reconnaissance experience taught by Company Commander Martin to check all the traps and safely break into the enemy camp."

"But the explosion of the ammunition depot during the battle caused more than one wall to collapse, and I was crushed by one of them, breaking both my legs."

"You're questioning my right hand. My shoulder was hit by a bullet, a bullet from a heavy machine gun. There was only a thin strip of flesh still connecting it to my body."

"I am a warrior, boss. I assure you that I am worthy to enter your Valhalla and be witnessed by you, because I was fully conscious and watched everything that happened to me until I lost my legs and right hand, instead of falling into a coma."

"But what I saw back then wasn't the me I am now, lying on the hospital bed like a caterpillar, still laughing and joking."

"At that moment, all I could think about was pulling out my spare pistol, firing a few more shots, and then finding an opportunity to die from another bullet."

"Because at that time, all I wanted was to die. I didn't expect to be alive, or maybe I simply didn't want to live anymore."

At this point, the injured man turned around as much as possible, looking towards the fruit bag his mother had brought him.

There were a few apples and two avocados in there.

No matter how hard he tried, his body only turned a dozen or twenty degrees, but at least he had an angle to pick out the fruit.

So he took out an avocado, smiled, handed it to Gavin, and continued.

"Boss, since I've been so brave, could you peel an avocado for me yourself? I want it cut into three pieces, so we can each have a piece."

"Of course you can, kid. But when you were cursing your company commander and your mom, you should have cursed me too. Otherwise, I always feel like I don't hold a place in your heart as high as your mom and company commander!"

Gavin made a joke, casually took the avocado, and then raised his hand to pull out the sterling silver knife from his chest.

Upon seeing the knife, the wounded man paused for a moment, then couldn't help but exclaim in amazement.

"Wow, it's this! I can actually eat fruit cut with Odin's right hand!"

"What?!"

Upon hearing the wounded soldier's sudden shout, Gavin froze. He gripped the silver knife and asked the wounded soldier with a bewildered expression.

"Wait, what the hell is Odin's left hand?"

"Haha, boss, it's your silver knife!"

The wounded soldier immediately explained excitedly to Gavin.

"That's a legendary knife, boss, just as legendary as your executioner's sword!"

"The veterans in the camp often talk about that knife. They say that you used this knife to send your parents away, and you also used this knife to send many of your friends away, including that old lady from Ranch 6666."

"Although I never met that old lady, people say she meant a lot to you, and so does this knife."

"So, the guys all call this sword Odin's left hand. This sword is destined to kill many people that Odin finds painful, just as Odin would strangle one of his children with his left hand!"

"Oh, this—"

Listening to the wounded soldier's passionate explanation, Gavin glanced suspiciously at the silver knife in his hand.

Then, Gavin turned the hilt of his knife and said with a wry smile.

"Don't be disgusted by this knife; it's been used to kill people and zombies. I've disinfected it many times."

"Haha, you don't mind at all, of course I would! Thank you, boss!"

Seeing that the wounded man didn't seem to care, Gavin carefully cut the avocado into three pieces with a silver knife.

After peeling the fruit, Gavin handed the bright green flesh to the wounded soldier before passing it to Father Hogan.

Father Hogan hesitated for a moment while holding the avocado, then patted the wounded man's exposed belly and said...

"Child, perhaps you should see your mother. You should know that her worry for you will not lessen in the slightest whether she sees you or not."

"Indeed, you are right, Father."

The wounded soldier immediately nodded, then turned to Gavin and said in a relaxed tone.

"Boss, I think the priest makes sense."

"During the time I was injured, thanks to the priest's care, I understood many things."

"Whether it's my attitude towards the world or some possibility of my future life."

"In short, I feel that I have the courage to accept the world and to be accepted by everyone."

"So please tell my mother after you leave that I want to apologize to her."

"I'm really sorry for the anger I took at him in the past. I won't do it again. And I miss her so much, I really do."

At this point, the wounded soldier put the avocado in his mouth and then solemnly grasped Gavin's hand.

Just then, the ward door opened again, and old Bert swaggered in.

When he saw Gavin, old Bert couldn't help but pause for a moment, then chuckled and said...

"Ah, you two seem to be having a good chat, so why did Treon send me over?"

"Do you want to fight? Or rather, Pete, do you want to fight with Gavin too?"

"Judging from what your mom said, you've been really short-tempered lately, and you might even give Gavin a good scolding."

"After your mom heard that Gavin was coming to see you, she rushed to find me and asked this old man to come over so that she could shut you up if you were cursing Gavin."

"So you'll do that, kid?"

"Ha ha ha ha!"

Amidst loud laughter, old Bert swaggered arrogantly toward the hospital bedside.

He shoved the priest aside with a shoulder, and old Bert plopped down on the hospital bed, glancing at the wounded Pete's mutilated limbs.

To be honest, even someone as worldly-wise as him couldn't help but purse his lips at this moment.

However, he quickly returned to normal and continued to speak casually to Little Pete.

"Your temper isn't bad, Gavin, did you get yelled at?"

"No, old man, Pete has already achieved enlightenment, you know? It's a kind of awakening!"

Gavin shrugged at old Bert.

Upon hearing this, old Bert nodded in satisfaction, and then continued speaking to young Pete.

"Enlightenment? Haha! That's right! Damn it!"

"A Texas man wouldn't act like he's going to die over a little injury; that's not cowboy behavior at all!"

"Besides, your injuries aren't serious. You can still take care of yourself normally, right?"

"Shuen, who lives three rooms next to you, was hit by shrapnel and will have to live with a urinary catheter for the rest of his life. And Eric, in the seventh room on the second floor, his private parts and a chunk of flesh on his thigh were blown away, you understand? They were completely blown away!"

"Compared to them, you're practically a superman right now, because not only do you not have any more serious injuries, but you also still have your left hand that can function normally!"

"If they knew how you were doing, I guarantee they'd be incredibly envious of you right now!"

At this point, old Bert grinned mischievously and rummaged around inside his denim jacket for a while.

Then, he suddenly pulled two magazines out from his lower back.

"Ta-da! Look what this is! This is the latest fashion magazine from February, and the last one before the apocalypse!"

"I knew you'd need this!"

"You're welcome, kid!"