Chapter 11
I didn’t need to be wary. They were faces I was well acquainted with—Yoon Jeong-woo and Lee Jimin.
“Oh, what’s up!”
They approached me with surprise as soon as they saw me.
“Hey, Min Ahyeon. You’re alive?”
“Long time no see? I thought you died since I haven’t seen you in so long.”
I chuckled at their banter.
“What are you talking about? If I died, you all would be dead too.”
“That arrogant confidence! You haven’t changed at all!”
“Stop saying I haven’t changed. I’m sick of hearing it all day.”
They burst out laughing and took seats next to me. But something was strange. I didn’t see the other guy who usually tags along with this group.
“Why are there only two of you? Where’s Jeong Min-jae?”
“Ah…”
At my question, the playfulness instantly drained from their faces.
“He’s dead.”
“……”
Oh no.
I clenched my fist tightly, trying hard to suppress the bitter feeling.
“Dead or infected?”
“Dead. By his own hand.”
“That sounds like him.”
After briefly making the sign of the cross for Min-jae, who chose to die human until the end, I carefully asked them.
“Min-jae wouldn’t have died so easily. Where was this?”
“Don’t even ask…Fuck, it was really shitty.”
Yoon Jeong-woo downed the beer in front of me in one gulp.
“Those zombie bastards were acting weird.”
“…What?”
The mutant-infected research documents I had received from Shin Hae-jun earlier came to mind. I listened intently to their story.
“Ahyeon-ah. You know, Min-jae was pretty good at shooting, right?”
“Not bad.”
“But he couldn’t hit a single one.”
“What?”
“He missed every shot. He kept shooting but those zombie bastards just kept charging. Not a single one went down!”
“Oh. So he got bitten then.”
Yoon Jeong-woo and Lee Jimin let out long sighs with bitter expressions.
“Well, maybe Min-jae was just off his game that day, but still…it doesn’t seem like he’d go out in such a pathetic way.”
“That’s true. As foul-mouthed as he was, he could shoot well.”
“Regardless, we need to be more careful from now on. Something seems off. There are all kinds of stories coming from around Pohang too.”
Listening to their conversation, a voice echoed in my mind. For a moment, I was lost in thought.
“I’ll help you find him. Your brother.”
It would have been a lie if Shin Hae-jun’s words hadn’t shaken me. In truth, I wanted to grab him by the collar and beg him to tell me where Woo-joo was.
But there was one reason I didn’t. I couldn’t trust Shin Hae-jun. How could I trust someone who turned a blind eye to tens of thousands of residents without batting an eyelid? Someone who showed no ounce of sympathy for the deaths of the residents, someone who couldn’t be found even a bit of goodwill in?
So even after he mentioned the research facility or claimed to have pinpointed its location, I didn’t give it much thought. I had a strong premonition that if I believed his words and followed him, I would only be used and discarded.
However…..
‘Mutant infected have been sighted in Korea.’
I recalled Shin Hae-jun’s words.
“You’ll work with me to secure specimens of the infected. Your compensation will be information about your brother. Is that enough?”
Tap tap. I drummed my fingers on the table, deep in thought. Since ‘mutant infected’ didn’t seem like an idle rumor, I didn’t think Shin Hae-jun would be bluffing excessively with me either. Having reached this conclusion, I abruptly stood up.
“Min Ahyeon! Where are you going?”
Lee Jimin grabbed the shaking table, asking. I gave him a brief answer.
“To make a deal.”
🕂
Shin Hae-jun was sitting on a rather uncomfortable wooden chair. He had his unusually long legs stretched out, tapping his toes as he yawned. Behind him stood several soldiers in military uniforms, carrying bags on their backs.
Actually, there was no reason for Shin Hae-jun, who should have been at headquarters, to be at the Seoul Shelter base. Most of the soldiers didn’t even know he was coming, so they were on high alert, trying not to make a sound. The man before them was a general with stars on his shoulder boards—not someone of equal rank to them.
Military culture was already hierarchical, but after the outbreak of the infection, this violent culture became even more entrenched.
Individual humans are weak, but they become strong when weak individuals come together. The idea that strength grows with numbers applies to any organism. Thus, humans desired to form groups, and the choice was the military. The military gathered weak humans, armed them with weapons, and allowed them to unite. The will to survive and resistance to weakness were enough to bring them together.
However, since they were incredibly weak as individuals, they naturally obeyed those above them. Those who commanded and led them, who were superior, were the ones directly above them, the ones with vertical authority.
Therefore, it could be said that the military had already swallowed up the Korean government, with all personnel being replaced by soldiers. Members of the National Assembly quietly disappeared, and the President did not come out of the residence. The public face was Commander Shin Ki-tae, the second highest power after the head of state. Moreover, since he was also Shin Hae-jun’s adoptive father, Shin Hae-jun’s power went beyond just being a lieutenant. Shin Hae-jun was a tool of the commander, carrying out all his orders.
“I’ve heard an interesting rumor.”
Shin Hae-jun spoke softly as he retracted his tapping toes.
“Apparently there are quite a number of useless people roaming around inside the Seoul Shelter these days.”
In truth, the shelter was a limited space. Especially in Seoul, only areas like Jongno and Mapo managed to erect concrete walls to create fortresses. With a metropolitan population nearing 10 million, only securing 2 districts was severely lacking space. Accommodations inside the shelter were desperately scarce, resulting in a situation akin to Hong Kong’s Kowloon Walled City. Thus, the military aimed to regulate the shelter’s population, forcing people to desperately prove their “usefulness” in order to survive inside.
Shin Hae-jun asked the lieutenant standing furthest to the left.
“Lieutenant, what do you think?”
After a moment’s contemplation, he responded.
“I will ensure that the visitor logs are checked and provide you with the information.”
“Huh?”
Shin Hae-jun’s brow furrowed slightly. The lieutenant hastily added.
“No, I mean, we will prioritize screening mercenaries and information brokers today.”
Only then did a smile appear on Shin Hae-jun’s face.
“Lieutenant, you almost disappointed me.”
“I will correct it, General.”
“Good. Keep correcting it in the future.”
Shin Hae-jun lit a cigarette and exhaled smoke, half-closing his eyes with a languid sigh. He didn’t seem to be deriving much enjoyment from this act. He found more amusement earlier when with Ahyeon. Shin Hae-jun briefly reminisced about Ahyeon before taking another drag.
Min Ahyeon.
One of the successors that Shin Hae-jun taught directly, who had garnered quite a bit of attention for winning medals as a national representative in shooting competitions before deciding to enlist in the military. However, as soon as Shin Hae-jun saw her, he knew why she had joined the military. She was another experimental subject like himself.
Of course, he didn’t know which research facility she had been in or what experiments she had undergone. However, the traces of chips embedded in her earlobe indicated that she was a fellow experimental subject, and Shin Hae-jun began to observe her more closely.
Shin Hae-jun learned that the tips of her hair had a subtle white glow, her skin was translucent enough to see veins, the area between her eyes and nose was sunken, her nose tip was heart-shaped, and there was a mole under her lips.
Furthermore, he learned that she was much tougher than he had initially thought. She was like a sturdy pine tree, always standing tall and refusing to bend her opinions even in the face of injustice and the resulting consequences.
It took him three years to learn all of this, but Shin Hae-jun finally felt like he truly understood her.
Then came the day when the infection outbreak occurred.
🕂
Thank you for reading! ♡
