Chapter 56
The walkie-talkie could only be ringing for one reason—
Choi Daero had to be nearby.
And…
“He’s hiding. He’s still human, not infected.”
The fact that he remained human.
The moment I realized that, the tension suddenly drained away, and the emotions clogging my throat came flooding out. I felt tears welling up now—not tears of sadness, but of relief.
As I sniffled, trying to hold back tears, Shin Hae-jun silently handed me something from the side, a puzzled look on his face. It was a wad of crumpled tissue paper.
“What’s this?”
“They were handing them out in the city. Telling people to come to church.”
It was labeled with ‘Heaven for non-believers, Hell for believers.’—clearly from some cult, not a regular church. I couldn’t help but let out a dry chuckle. That he’d been carrying around stuff like this…. looking at little quirks like that, I found Shin Hae-jun rather cute.
“Thank you.”
I roughly wiped my eyes and nose with the tissue, shaking my head a couple of times.
“I’m crying out of joy. I’m really relieved.”
“Hmm…yeah.”
Shin Hae-jun looked a bit gloomy, but I paid it no mind. Instead, I turned the walkie-talkie dial, searching for the direction with the strongest signal.
“It seems to be this way.”
At my words, Shin Hae-jun furrowed his brow briefly before nodding, seeming to realize where it was pointing.
“The control room. He must have been hiding there.”
“Haaahh. If I had known, we should’ve headed to the control room from the start. What a hassle, going to the basement first.”
As I mumbled, Shin Hae-jun spoke in a somewhat softened tone, as if trying to reassure me.
“It’s better that we knew there were infected from the start. It could have been much harder if we had encountered them while feeling at ease.”
“Oh…. General, you’re surprisingly positive.”
“It’s not surprising, I’ve always been like this.”
Chuckling at his words, I crawled forward again. I felt good. Not sad. As long as I could safely bring Daero back, I could see Eunjin’s happy face. And in the future, I would be able to tell Daero and Eunjin’s child about how much hardship I went through to rescue their father. Maybe then that child could become close with Woo-joo. Woo-joo would probably become a good older brother.
Imagining that future made me feel even better. So this is why people seek hope. This is why people cling to hope.
So that’s why…
‘I have to rescue him no matter what.’
Upon reaching the flickering signal, I quickly located the ventilation grate and aimed my gun barrel from a distance. Bang! The loud gunshot echoed as it struck the metal grate, but I didn’t care. As long as I could get Daero out, that’s all that mattered.
“Hey! Daero! Nuna’s here!”
As I shouted, Daero, who had been hiding in a corner, peeked out.
“Mi, Min Ahyeon?”
He opened his eyes wide, then broke into a bright smile when my body emerged from the ventilation shaft, seeming finally convinced it was me. Aside from looking a bit scrawny, he appeared relatively unharmed—another relief amidst the misfortune.
“Yah! Why were you hiding in a place like this? Want me to kick your ass? You should’ve stayed on the first floor at least!”
“What nonsense… No, no. Thank you. Really, thank you. I can finally get out of here!”
Daero shouted with a haggard face, looking like he might hug me, so I stepped back preemptively. I didn’t really want to embrace someone who hadn’t bathed for days.
“Yeah, yeah. Be grateful forever. And Eunjin was really worried, so apologize to her.”
“Of course…She’s the only one I thought about to get through this…”
“Yah yah. Don’t cry. If you’re going to cry, do it outside.”
“…Alright.”
Choi Daero nodded, sniffing back a scoff, and I asked him.
“What happened with the infected? Were there originally infected here?”
“Honestly, I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“Yeah. Somebody just came back from the bathroom and suddenly turned into an infected…and started attacking people. I escaped at that moment.”
So the virus had a long incubation period. This could also be a new mutation of the virus.
Well, that was something to think about later. Getting out of here was the priority now.
“You’ve suffered a lot. Let’s get out now.”
“Haa, yeah. Thank you. So which way do we go out?”
“Through the vents, obviously. Stay quiet.”
As we continued our conversation, something seemed off about Shin Hae-jun’s expression. He was looking at me with a suspicious look. No, more precisely, he was looking at Choi Daero behind me.
“Wait a moment, Lieutenant Min.”
He approached me and said.
“Something’s off…”
But he couldn’t finish his sentence. Because suddenly, an infected’s growl came from right behind me.
———!
Huh? What?
I suddenly felt my strength leaving my body as I turned around. There, I saw Choi Daero’s face, who had been biting my shoulder. He had just been human moments ago, but now he had turned into an infected. His red eyes, blood dripping from his mouth, and the sharp screams he let out while biting my shoulder.
It didn’t feel real. Like a dream. It made no sense. This couldn’t be happening…
Bang! Bang!
Shin Hae-jun’s gun blew off Choi Daero’s head. I stared blankly at Choi Daero, who fell back with blood splattering, and Shin Hae-jun grabbed me, shouting something. But I couldn’t hear anything. Why, why…
Why?
The world started to blur before my eyes.
🕂
———!
Kaaak! The infected’s howls echoed through the ventilation shafts. Hearing those sounds, the infected scattered throughout the power plant’s cold, enclosed spaces joined in howling like wolves responding to the call.
Thump! Thump!
Soon, the mindless creatures were running and slamming their limbs against tightly sealed doors and hallways, seemingly drawn to that noise, oblivious that it came from their own kind.
“Haah……”
Shin Hae-jun, who had been holding his breath to listen for any movements outside, finally let out a heavy sigh of relief.
Bang, bang!
The gunshots from when he shot the grate to descend and when he blew off Daero’s head had initially made him think ‘This is the end’ as the infected came running. Fortunately, their sounds were fading into the distance. He could finally breathe properly again.
But he couldn’t fully relax yet……
‘What the hell is this place?’
Shin Hae-jun’s sharp, keen eyes, now tense with anticipation, surveyed the space belatedly. Even though his eyes were accustomed to pitch-black darkness, it took him a moment to adjust to the even darker environment here.
The interior seemed barely ten square meters, but with so much clutter, it felt even smaller. Shin Hae-jun scowled, squinting his eyes to survey the surrounding terrain.
Under the thick glass window overlooking the collapsed Choi Daero, various control machines with extinguished lights could be seen.
‘The control room, huh.’
Under the desk where those machines were placed, there were things like recently opened chocolate bar wrappers strewn about. A plastic water bottle with some water still pooled at the bottom. Judging from these, it seemed Daero had stayed here before getting infected.
‘So he must have remained here the whole time.’
Why didn’t he go outside…
“Tsk.”
Shin Hae-jun, who had made the real call to put down Daero, clicked his tongue as he locked the door behind them.
To be fair, Daero’s choice was understandable. This control room was excessively cramped and stuffy without any ventilation. Darker than anywhere else too. Not to mention the stale, musty smell mixed with the stench of infected seeping through the tightly sealed door cracks, along with the odor of rotting corpses.
In this hopelessly bleak situation where only a future of despair felt imaginable, as impenetrable as the pitch blackness surrounding them, he must have eventually succumbed to fear and ventured out of this suffocatingly confined space alone.
The problem was that Shin Hae-jun had now willingly trapped himself in that very space Daero had fled from. Tsk, constantly clicking his tongue made his mouth dry and forced him to purse his lips bitterly.
“Nngh…”
It was then that Min Ahyeon let out a pained groan.
🕂
Thank you for reading! ♡
