Chapter 32
The infected are active at night. So, from the moment darkness falls, they rule this land, and humans have to hide.
This fact has become an obvious truth that Shin Hae-jun and Min Ahyeon decided to park on the side of the road and spend the night, taking turns as sentries.
Min Ahyeon, having won at rock-paper-scissors, closed her eyes first. Seeing this, Shin Hae-jun’s eyes looked darkened. He knew it already, but she was someone who showed no respect for her superiors.
“…..”
Shin Hae-jun, sitting in the driver’s seat with the seat pulled back, glanced at Min Ahyeon, who was already asleep in the reclined passenger seat. A tired sound and even a breathing sound can be heard alternately. As he had noticed before, Min Ahyeon’s sleeping face looked remarkably peaceful. Looking at her, all these moments felt tranquil. In contrast, he was always on high alert, even in his sleep.
Right, when have you ever been like me?
Shin Hae-jun looked straight ahead again. There wasn’t a single soul on the road, let alone streetlights, and the atmosphere reeked of doom. As he stared at the deserted road, their conversation during the day came to mind.
“Well, that’s the story. My brother became the only test subject with antibodies because of that.”
Suddenly, Shin Hae-jun recalled the day he received the news of Ahyeon’s desertion.
“Everyone tried to talk her out of it, afraid she might desert because she was frantically calling out her brother’s name.”
“In fact, since the chances of that child still being alive were slim to none, I had told her the child was probably dead, but it seems she still tried to desert.”
No one had known her brother had that kind of condition. They would have stopped her by saying such desperate things. Shin Hae-jun, at the time, naturally thought either he became infected or, if lucky, escaped, but would have been killed by looters, but…
“Min Ahyeon kept repeating the same thing.”
“She kept saying, ‘My brother is still alive…’ It seems the shock was too great for her to make a proper judgment.”
At the time, he wondered why she was so sure, but who would have thought that small head of hers was hiding such a cute secret.
Shin Hae-jun blinked slowly and looked back at Min Ahyeon.
Gazing quietly at her as she slept, Shin Hae-jun suddenly recalled the times when she had firmly defied him. She had always had that kind of personality, but it was a time when the orders from above were like the law, after the outbreak of the infected.
“This order is unfair.”
Even in those moments, her voice rang out so clearly.
A military dog. The so-called officers’ puppies.
There were widespread rumors that he would do anything to appease his stepfather, and the black eyes that dared to look him straight in the face showed no fear. Perhaps it wasn’t just then, but from the beginning, Ahyeon had never feared Shin Hae-jun.
Shin Hae-jun was amazed at the sparkle in Min Ahyeon’s eyes, which were as solid as a rock, as if stars were embedded in the night sky.
In this desperate world where the apocalypse had finally come, how could there still be such a radiant light?
Curiosity turned into sheer bewilderment.
In a world where even the civilians under protection had mostly lifeless, black eyes, there should have been no one like her with such a shining gaze within the violent and cruel military, which could only respond to violence with more violence.
Soldiers raised their guns under orders from above, and military superiors didn’t hesitate to kill civilian children for their own gain.
Those who enlisted to protect people, the country, and the world either became infected or died as humans. In the end, the only ones who had survived this ruthless and chaotic battlefield were those who had given up on being human. As they clashed endlessly with infected creatures, soldiers whose bodies remained human endured each day, slowly deteriorating with eyes that had turned lifeless.
In this broken military, even Shin Hae-jun, who would accept any irrational order as long as it came from a superior, was no longer considered peculiar. Min Ahyeon stood out as an anomaly.
Min Ahyeon is…
To put it nicely, she was a thorn in his side, an enigma that Shin Hae-jun couldn’t understand. Even if it were an order from a superior as high-ranking as a mountain, she would speak out against it if it contradicted her principles.
“I can’t do it.”
“I can’t follow this.”
An incomprehensible, troublesome subordinate.
Even more incomprehensible to Shin Hae-jun than Ahyeon’s eyes that hadn’t lost their light was Shin Hae-jun himself. Ahyeon, who stubbornly challenged the words of high-ranking officers, was a complete contradiction to Shin Hae-jun’s way of life.
Yet, it was not unpleasant to watch her. In that aspect, Shin Hae-jun felt intrigued. He didn’t dislike Ahyeon for walking a path completely opposite to his convictions. It was so bafflingly incomprehensible to himself.
“If you were just going to do as you please without compromise, why did you even enlist in the military?”
While Shin Hae-jun didn’t dislike Ahyeon, there were others who saw her as a thorn in their side. When someone asked Ahyeon with irritation, she replied.
“I enlisted to protect the citizens.”
“I did not enlist to simply carry out orders.”
What happened to Ahyeon afterward?
Shin Hae-jun chuckled dryly as he habitually tapped the steering wheel with his long fingers.
“Ah.”
Yes, Min Ahyeon had been sent to the military prison then.
He remembered the effort he put into taking Ahyeon under his wing back then. Many superiors were displeased with Ahyeon, and Shin Hae-jun was the one who initially trained her after she enlisted, so it wasn’t a particularly difficult task. And so, Ahyeon became his subordinate and junior.
“I can’t comply with your order this time, General.”
A subordinate who just wouldn’t listen to orders.
“Does Lieutenant Min not understand the concept of obeying orders?”
Unable to tolerate Ahyeon’s stubbornness, who insisted on not obeying orders and would rather face disciplinary action, Shin Hae-jun was dumbfounded. In response to his question, Ahyeon met his gaze with sparkling eyes full of respect and gave this answer.
“Then please issue an order I can comply with, General.”
Seeing Ahyeon directly rather than just hearing about her, she was even more of a rebellious spirit than he had imagined.
Shin Hae-jun thought that if it were before the apocalypse, she might have thrown herself into the activist movement, passionately advocating for justice. It took him less than a week to reach this conclusion, showing just how unsuited she was for the military.
However, despite Shin Hae-jun’s curiosity, the leadership couldn’t dismiss Ahyeon. It wasn’t just because of her title as the national shooting representative, but also because of her exceptional skills that matched that title.
Ahyeon’s shooting skills were truly unparalleled. Not only was she renowned in Korea, but she had also gained international fame, with people from countries like the United States and Japan coming to learn shooting directly from her.
Yes, Ahyeon had to remain in the military solely because of her skills. The military never let go of valuable long-term assets.
Unlike Shin Hae-jun, Ahyeon was not someone whose emotions, thoughts, and reasoning had come to a halt.
So when Shin Hae-jun realized that Ahyeon was the same kind of experimental subject as himself… he felt utterly pathetic. The bewildering sense of defeat pushed him into a deep depression.
Shin Hae-jun had tried hard to erase memories of his life as an experimental subject, or rather the continuous abuse he endured in the laboratory.
No, to be precise, he believed that his current position was the price he had paid for his past. As such, he believed he had to do whatever it took to maintain his position.
Surviving at the expense of a friend’s life meant he had to endure and persevere no matter what, because there was no reason for him to survive… So ironically, he had to survive. He had trampled on his friend’s life without excuse or justification, just to stand up for himself.
That’s why Shin Hae-jun had devoted himself to being the military’s dog, looking after his stepfather’s back. This was the best way for him to survive.
Shin Hae-jun simply wanted to focus on surviving. He didn’t want the luxury of thinking, reasoning, or reflecting on his own emotions. Because he was an experimental subject who had failed to die as a human.
But what about Ahyeon?
She was the same kind of experimental subject who had experienced an agonizing and horrific past, just like him.
How was she still able to remain human?
Why does she still shine so annoyingly bright, making it impossible for him to look away?
🕂
Thank you for reading! ♡
Thank you for your hardwork translator-nim❤️