There Are No Bad Military Dogs

Chapter 71

 

Normally, there should have been sentries guarding the barricade gate. But there was no answer from inside. Thinking something was off, I tightly gripped my gun and approached the barricade—buses piled up in layers. Even though I deliberately made noise while moving, there was still no reaction from inside.

‘Could it be…?’

Had they been attacked by the infected? My hair stood on end.

After a moment of hesitation, I grabbed my gun in reverse and used the butt to smash the bus window. A loud crashing sound rang out, but fortunately, it was daytime, so I didn’t have to worry too much about the infected approaching. After cutting through the shattered window with the butt of my gun, I entered the bus and surveyed the surroundings. But there was nothing. I couldn’t find any trace.

“If they had fought the infected, there should be bloodstains.”

I kneeled down and ran my fingers across the floor. Not a single bloodstain, only dust remained. Hmm. If it weren’t a fight with the infected, I wouldn’t have to worry too much… Still, somehow, a lingering tension and a chilling unease were unsettling my mind. I had a gut feeling that I couldn’t just brush this off as okay.

“For now… it’s better to go inside the school.”

If I meet people, I might be able to find out something. Thinking this, I got off the bus and tried to cross the barricade gate. That’s when it happened.

———!

Unfortunately, it seemed there was an infected nearby. And it must have come running here after hearing the sound of breaking glass. To encounter the infected in broad daylight, I guess I’m just unlucky today. Muttering this, I took out my machete instead of my gun.

Thunk! The infected started ramming its head into the bus I was on. Thump, thunk! Emitting a strange wailing sound, it seemed to be trying to attract other infected nearby. This one must also be a mutated infected. No… how come it’s so easy to find them? Amidst my confusion, Yongcheol’s words suddenly came to mind.

 

“Don’t you think there’s been a sudden increase in the number of mutants infected?”

“Mutant infected. It seems like they’re appearing all over the country simultaneously. It doesn’t make any damn sense, does it? Mutation? Are mutations happening that fast? Well, let’s say they’re fast. Then shouldn’t they appear in one area and spread from there? But suddenly, they’re spreading nationwide, worldwide, in an instant?”

 

I had thought it was just a conspiracy theory, but now that I kept encountering mutated infected… it does seem to make some sense. But what sense? What conspiracy is there? I couldn’t figure that out, so for now, I decided to deal with the infected in front of me.

Thunk! Once again, I leaped towards the infected, pounding its head.

———!

The infected was already moving its decayed mouth, clacking its exposed teeth. Though the teeth weren’t sharp, the moment they made contact and caused a wound, the virus would penetrate, turning the victim into another infected.

Of course, thanks to the antibodies in my body, I wouldn’t become infected. But if I got bitten, there would still be side effects.

 

“Ahyeon-ah. How should I do it for you? Huh?”

“Put it in?”

“Agh!”

 

A sudden memory surfaced and I ruffled my hair, gritting my teeth tightly. Even if I was half-crazed at the time, Shin Hae-jun shouldn’t have done that. I was fine after doing it once, but that crazy bastard Shin Hae-jun kept pounding away.

———!

“Ah. The infected.”

Useless thoughts had made me completely forget there was an infected right there. Grabbing its decayed skull, I lifted it by the collarbone, slashing its neck with the machete. Thud! The infected, which had crawled up from the barricade, fell to the ground, writhing towards me on all fours, and I immediately rushed towards it.

A strange, eerie sound echoed again and again, almost tearing my ears apart. If I left it like this, other infected would surely swarm in. So, after kicking the crawling infected’s face with my foot, I plunged the machete into its eye socket. Squelch! The blade reached the brain, making the creature squirm, but I was faster. I exerted more force, splitting its head open halfway.

“…Whew.”

The infected could no longer move, just flailing its limbs around. With its brain attacked, proper actions were impossible.

Gripping the machete again to finish it off completely, I suddenly stopped in place.

The infected are just like humans. They became infected while still human, becoming hosts… But even so, can you call this creature human? No, you can’t. Even though it became a host with human characteristics, all that remained were instincts to tear apart its prey, writhing like a fish on land, even with its brain damaged… How could you call that human?

However, even though I couldn’t bring myself to think of them as anything other than monsters that needed to be killed, their appearance resembled humans so closely that I couldn’t be so ruthless. So, every time I killed an infected, especially when I had to do it with a knife or my bare hands, a part of me sank deep in my heart. It didn’t feel good at all.

“Sorry.”

I deeply thrust the machete into the other eye socket of the struggling infected. After a few more spasms, all movement soon ceased, and its breath was cut off.

“Tsk.”

How unpleasant. After wiping the blood off my hands, I ran my fingers through my hair. Then, I turned my head towards the barricade again, but something caught my eye.

“Hmm?”

It was a scar right in the middle of the infected’s collarbone.

It looked like a burn mark, as if branded with a hot iron, but it wasn’t clear due to the decaying flesh. It didn’t seem like an ordinary burn scar.

Inside a thick circle, there was a triangle, and inside that triangle, there was an eye, just like the illustration on the back of a US dollar bill.

“Was this one also a conspiracy theorist?”

Did this infected used to be involved in conspiracies with Yongcheol before becoming infected? But it bothered me that it wasn’t a tattoo but a burn…

“What else is going on here?”

Again, what was most frightening after the world fell into ruin wasn’t the infected or anything like that. It was humans themselves. Those who tried to reign by baring their primal instincts, in other words, the instinct for the strong to devour the weak. They were the most frightening, the most dangerous beings.

That’s why people nowadays couldn’t trust each other, suspected each other, were wary of each other. If they didn’t do that, they would fall off the cliff edge into death.

Of course, I was no exception. I didn’t trust people. Especially adults, and especially adult males.

Having been deceived by them more than once or twice, it was only natural for me to be wary of people outside the shelter. So I always treated people outside the shelter mercilessly, without an ounce of sympathy. Because that’s how I could survive.

But…..

‘I want to believe there are some who aren’t like that.’

In the past, an anthropologist or someone said this: The first evidence of civilization was a human’s healed thigh bone. During the hunting-gathering era, if someone broke their leg, they needed someone’s help to survive. But this person survived. There must have been companions who cared for them.

Hearing this, I started to think that maybe instinct isn’t the violent and primal “law of the jungle” that marauders preach about the strong devouring the weak. Maybe helping and caring for others is the real instinct.

Well, thinking like this is useless for my current survival, but still.

Anyway, I took a polaroid photo of the infected’s scar, then looked up. Beyond the thick barricade, I could faintly see the university crest. There should still be people there. They must be there. If they are, what could have happened? Nothing should have happened.

“Let’s go see.”

And so, I crossed the barricade.

🕂

I entered the university grounds. I was on high alert, scanning my surroundings, but within less than 10 minutes of entering, I realized there was no need to be so vigilant.

“Hey, Ahyeon Nuna?”

“Guard?”

People were walking around normally. No, their faces even looked better than before, somehow. What is this…? I narrowed my eyes and asked them.

“Why aren’t you on guard?”

“Huh?”

“The barricade. Why weren’t you guarding it?”

The person I asked looked puzzled by my question.

“Well, the zombies don’t attack us anymore!”

…What nonsense is this?

🕂

Thank you for reading! ♡