Chapter 31
Dealing with the regular infected creatures that followed wasn’t much of a challenge. We cleaned up the surroundings before finally being able to examine the mutated infected up close.
“Ugh…”
I knew my bullets had cleanly pierced through its brain, but I couldn’t shake off the dreadful feeling. It wasn’t just the relief of the creature no longer moving, it was something much more sinister.
“How many of them have merged together?”
I muttered to myself as I slowly circled around the mutated infected. It looked like there were at least four infected creatures merged together… It gave me a headache just thinking about it.
“This is just the beginning, isn’t it? No, it’s already begun.”
I realized that countless more mutated infected would emerge in the future. As this thought crossed my mind, the uneasiness I had ignored while confronting the mutated infected with my scope in the speeding car engulfed me.
“Maybe I should start keeping an RPG in the car or something.”
“Dreadful indeed.”
With a throbbing headache, Shin Hae-jun, who had been standing beside me, furrowed his brow.
“I have no idea what these bastards’ purpose is.”
He crouched down near the head area where brain matter was oozing out from the perforations left by the bullets, examining them closely as he lit a cigarette. His meticulous inspection, combined with his smoking, made him resemble a researcher.
Shin Hae-jun lit the cigarette and took a deep drag.
“The layers of flesh… Phew.”
He kept inhaling and exhaling the smoke deeply, his cheeks sunken in. I watched him silently—I hadn’t seen him smoke at all on the drive here, but even in front of this horrific mutated corpse, he was puffing away like it was nothing.
Shin Hae-jun tapped the ash off his cigarette, his brow furrowed in contemplation. As his lips met the white filter and pulled away, trails of fragrant smoke rose. The small, red ember illuminated his sunken eyes, casting a sooty shadow. Damn, he really was annoyingly good-looking.
I forced myself to look away from his striking features.
Luckily, it seemed he hadn’t noticed me staring, and instead of teasing me, he began recounting his observations from the analysis he had just conducted.
“Viruses don’t usually behave like this. Normally, they either move to spread or utilize hosts, but this situation is like…”
“Whether the host dies or not, it seems like they’re trying to wipe out humanity with all their might. Seeing infected hosts merged like this makes it even more apparent.”
It was as if the regular infected alone were no longer enough to subjugate humanity. But should we interpret this as evolution? I’m not so sure. This mutated infected seems to have combined in a crude, almost toylike manner, rather than through any sophisticated process.
“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking.”
He exhaled a long stream of smoke, agreeing with my assessment. Flicking off the ash, Shin Hae-jun called out to me in a surprisingly light tone.
“Lieutenant Min.”
“Yes?”
“Do you believe the claim that the virus emerged as the glaciers melted?”
“…”
I couldn’t readily answer.
That question Shin Hae-jun just asked… It was a conspiracy theory and a plausible hypothesis that had been lurking in the corner of my mind for a long time.
As I told Shin Hae-jun on our way here, I had encountered infected creatures long before the global outbreak of infected incidents. The terrifying power and behavior of those infected creatures were evident.
Of course, I had never spoken these thoughts aloud. Not only did I not want to foster unnecessary fear, but to those who knew nothing, it would be a useless conspiracy theory in itself. Even if I tried to spread my claim and persuade others, they wouldn’t believe me anyway. My mouth would just hurt and make me seem odd in their eyes.
But Shin Hae-jun was different.
He already knew about the research facility’s existence and had directly experienced my unique physique with antibodies. He seemed to believe my words. After some hesitation, I responded in a somewhat guarded tone.
“I did mention it, didn’t I? That there were infected creatures in the research facility. That was long before any talk of ice melting or anything like that.”
So, I don’t believe it.
Shin Hae-jun silently nodded, gazing at the lit end of his cigarette.
“…I see. So that’s how it is.”
After a few deep drags, the cigarette had burned down to just the filter, the acrid smoke drifting out casually. Somehow, he looked somewhat melancholic standing there amidst the fumes. Despite fighting together, sharing our struggles, and conversing all this time, there was a distance… a distance that felt inexplicable. It hinted at some part of him that I didn’t know about.
“Aren’t you surprised?”
“It’s as if you knew about the existence of the research facility and what they were doing there all along.”
When I posed the question, how did Shin Hae-jun react?
Ah, yes. That’s how he responded.
“No comment.”
That’s really strange. If he had truly been unaware of the facility’s existence, he likely would have responded with something more denial, not a simple “no comment.” The fact that he didn’t even show any surprise when I brought it up was already peculiar.
As I carefully organized my thoughts, I stood facing Shin Hae-jun as he ground out the cigarette butt.
“General.”
“What?”
“About the research facility.”
“Go on.”
“It’s connected to the military.”
Shin Hae-jun’s hand, about to take out a new cigarette, hesitated for a moment. I seized that moment and continued.
“That’s why I enlisted. I gave up a secure future as a national representative. Because it’s clear that something is happening within the military.”
Shhhk. Shin Hae-jun lit the new cigarette, taking a deep drag. The thick, hazy smoke deepened the melancholy I had sensed in him earlier.
I watched his face silently. And I looked into his eyes. His quivering lips, were barely perceptible.
But Shin Hae-jun refused to meet my gaze.
“I don’t understand why you’re telling me this.”
His response sounded overly casual and indifferent, almost too indifferent for words that came after a long silence.
This only confirmed my suspicions further—Shin Hae-jun must clearly be aware of something as well.
So I deliberately emphasized each word, putting more force behind them.
“I’m telling you because I think you should know, General.”
“What?”
“About the higher-ups in the military you’re so loyal to.”
Shin Hae-jun, who had avoided meeting my eyes while holding his second cigarette, finally turned his head towards me. I matched his gaze intently as I spoke.
“They may be the ones who caused this whole crisis.”
“Lieutenant Min. Wait.”
Shin Hae-jun furrowed his brow, covering his face with one hand while raising the other as if to block me. I wanted to say more, but couldn’t—the sharpness in his eyes was almost overwhelming. He cut me off firmly.
“I don’t really care.”
“General.”
“I don’t know why you’re telling me this.”
He was clearly drawing a line. I bit down hard on my lower lip.
“I don’t care. It doesn’t matter to me. I don’t need to be involved.”
Shin Hae-jun turned his head away again after delivering that blunt response. There was no longer any willingness to continue the conversation. I felt a surge of frustration. It was so pathetic to see him draw a line and refuse to get involved despite knowing something. It made me feel almost disgusted with his cowardice.
Did he read my thoughts? Gazing out towards the collapsed road and rubble in the distance, he muttered, almost to himself.
“You knew. That I’m the kind of bastard who’d go this far.”
A dog of the military.
A mindless mutt that simply follows the orders of its commander.
Yeah, that’s what Shin Hae-jun was. A person without any thoughts or dilemmas, just carrying out commands…
“A dog doesn’t bite its master.”
Soon, Shin Hae-jun flicked his cigarette away, exhaling a hazy plume of smoke.
“It can’t.”
The stench of the rotting infected was foul, but the smell of his cigarette felt even more repulsive.
🕂
Thank you for reading! ♡
