Chapter 99
We all turned our gaze toward where Seo Yoo-jin had screamed. And we immediately froze, because there was an innumerable horde of infected right there.
“Uh, uh… Wh, what is that?”
“What, this doesn’t make sense.”
Oh Habin and Seo Yoo-jin couldn’t regain their senses and just stared at the horde of infected. Perhaps alerted by the engine sound, the infected immediately noticed us and started running toward us.
“The infected, here, why are they here?”
But even then, Oh Habin was still dazed. He must have firmly believed there couldn’t be any infected here, so he couldn’t properly react to their sudden appearance. However, if we hesitated here, we’d all end up holding hands on our way to the afterlife.
“Step on it, Oh Habin!”
Shin Hae-jun, seated in the passenger seat, reached out and turned the steering wheel. Reflexively, instinctively, Oh Habin stepped on the accelerator. Vroom! Due to the sudden acceleration, all our bodies were thrown back, but this was no time to worry about that. Finally seeming to regain her senses a bit, Seo Yoo-jin fumbled to grab her gun from her waist.
“Don’t do it.”
I grabbed her wrist and said,
“If we fire now, it’ll just attract more of them. It’s better to just run away.”
“But if we get caught! Shit, look! They’re right behind us!”
“Things look closer than they actually are, you know?”
“They’re close, idiot!”
Seo Yoo-jin ignored me and tried to draw her gun. Well, Seo Yoo-jin. Lieutenant, lieutenant, you sang that tune, but how you handled this situation was far from appropriate.
But on the other hand, I could understand the panic Seo Yoo-jin and Oh Habin were feeling. Just look, there was an infected clinging to the window right next to us, opening and closing its rotten jaws. Bang! There was one on the trunk too.
In a situation like this, a car, instead of being a good means of transportation, was just a prison from which we couldn’t escape the infected horde. If we got caught by them here, we’d be trapped, either starving to death or getting torn apart trying to escape. With that terrible future right before our eyes, it was impossible to remain calm.
But.
“Lieutenant Seo. Put down your gun.”
Our General Shin Hae-jun didn’t seem flustered at all. As if he had anticipated this situation, he opened his mouth without changing his expression one bit.
“Lieutenant Seo, put down your gun and keep your head down. Sergeant Oh, you drive faster. Try to avoid the city and head into the forest if possible. This car has been modified, so it can handle most forest trails, so don’t worry.”
“The, the forest trail, where, how do we…”
Despite Shin Hae-jun’s clear orders, Oh Habin was still out of it. Letting out a sigh, Shin Hae-jun grabbed Oh Habin by the shoulder and pulled him into the passenger seat while holding the steering wheel.
“Ge, General! Wait a moment!”
“Take your foot off the pedal and you’re dead.”
“Yes, yes!”
After switching places with Oh Habin, Shin Hae-jun sighed again and straightened his disheveled clothes. After adjusting the rearview mirror, he looked at me through it.
“Lieutenant Min… No, Min Ahyeon, you, get rid of the one clinging to the trunk so we can speed up. Do you know how?”
Shin Hae-jun started to call me ‘Lieutenant Min’ but trailed off and used my name instead. I felt a bit strange about it, but this was no time to dwell on that, so I just nodded. I attached a suppressor to my gun, reclined the rear seat, and climbed into the cargo trunk.
The one clung to the trunk seemed to be a mutated infected, larger in size. But it was smaller than the ones we’d encountered before. The thought that the car could have flipped if it was as big as those sent a chill down my spine. Which made me even more convinced that I needed to take this one down so we could speed away.
———!
A thin pane of glass couldn’t block out the infected’s screeching completely. The eerie wailing was grating enough to make one’s head spin, which seemed to have reduced Oh Habin and Seo Yoo-jin to a state of near-death, judging by their thrashing and groaning.
“Hey! Min Ahyeon! What are you doing!”
“Yes, yes. I’ll make it more comfortable soon, just bear with it a little longer.”
I closed one eye, raised my gun, and aimed the barrel at the head of the mutated infected baring its rotten teeth and snarling. Then, bang! The infected fell back off the car.
Thanks to the suppressor, the noise was quieter than a regular gunshot. But it still had its limits in fooling the infected. At first, they might not locate the source, but after a few more shots, they’d catch on.
So I had to take care of it before that.
———!
Despite having half its face blown off by my shot, the mutated infected was still perfectly brain-functional, screeching continuously as it charged toward the car. Even if it wasn’t that big, if it managed to latch onto the car while running, it would cause the car to sway.
I gripped my gun with both hands while using one arm to brace myself against the rear headrest.
“Brakes!”
Screeeech!
True to being someone who understood double meanings with just one word, Shin Hae-jun was able to bring the car to a complete stop.
“Kyaaah!”
“Ugh!”
Unable to reduce its speed, the mutated infected ended up crashing right into our car. Kwaaaang! Half of its neck was left dangling, but it seemed to have the instinct that it had caught us, powerfully gripping the car body with its hands.
“Geez, persistent.”
But Shin Hae-jun and I had no intention of giving it an opening. Screeeech! Shin Hae-jun immediately threw it into reverse, while I aimed my gun barrel squarely at its head.
“Be gone, now.”
Bang!
The gunshot rang out, and soon, the only sound left was the exhaust passing through the horde of infected.
🕂
Fortunately, we found a secluded spot and barely had a moment to catch our breath. But it seemed I was the only one who had that moment.
“Lieutenant Seo. Are you in your right mind? When you spotted the infected horde, not only did you fail to report it immediately, but you started squawking the moment you saw them? And you still have the gall to wear that lieutenant’s insignia?”
“I’m sorry! I’ll correct it!”
“Correct it, my ass. Are you going to correct it after we’re all dead?”
“I’m sorry!”
“Get your head on the ground!”
“Get my head on the ground!”
Lieutenant Seo, who had just been screaming like a supporting character in a B-grade horror movie, groveled like a dog. Of course, that wasn’t the end of it.
“Sergeant Oh.”
“I’ll get my head on the ground!”
“Cut the crap and stand up.”
“Yes!”
Just as Oh Habin was about to bow his head like Seo, he quickly stood up, only for Shin Hae-jun to forcefully kick his shin. Ow. Getting hit with a combat boot really hurts.
“Ugh!”
“What did I tell you your job was?”
“U-Uh, to safely escort this investigation team!”
“So. Were we safe?”
“I’m sorry!”
“Sorry, what? Does that undo us almost dying? Consider yourself lucky you didn’t take your foot off the pedal then, or we wouldn’t be standing here—we’d be getting digested in an infected’s guts together. Got it?”
“…Yes, I understand! I’m sorry!”
“Get your head on the ground!”
“Get my head on the ground!”
After making Oh Habin bow his head to the floor, Shin Hae-jun turned his next target to me.
“Lieutenant… Min Ahyeon.”
I was puzzled, thinking he was going to scold me, but in fact I had done nothing to deserve it, so I simply shrugged my shoulders. Shin Hae-jun finally seemed to catch his breath, his expression slightly lightening as he let out a sigh.
“Was it a mutated infected?”
He seemed to be referring to the one that was clinging to the trunk. I nodded.
“Yes. It was similar to the one we saw on the way to Gangneung.”
Shin Hae-jun’s eyes narrowed.
“Then does it seem like the Taean shelter also fell because of mutated infected?”
“Hmm.”
I recalled my memories. Beyond the mutated one, the rest seemed to be regular infected. If the entire horde had been made up of mutated ones, sure. But there’s no way Taean would have fallen to just this level of threat.
I shook my head.
“It didn’t seem like the shelter collapsed because of the same kind we encountered. After all, Taean Shelter 1 was a place with decent defenses in place.”
“Then why…”
After mumbling briefly, Shin Hae-jun clicked his tongue and brushed back his sweat-drenched hair.
“I guess we’ll have to investigate that now.”
“Yes.”
Shin Hae-jun mercilessly shifted his gaze and addressed his subordinates who were obediently bowing their heads.
“Both of you, get up.”
“Yes!”
“Thank you!”
Shin Hae-jun took out a voice recorder from his pocket.
“Abnormality witnessed during Taean shelter patrol. Shelter paralysis suspected due to mutant infected. Investigation scheduled.”
After the brief recording, he put the recorder back and said to Seo Yoo-jin and Oh Habin.
“Form two-person teams. One team will enter Shelter 1 and assess the situation, while the other will check Shelters 2 and 3. Understood?”
“Understood!”
“Then let’s divide into teams…”
As he said this, Shin Hae-jun’s expression became inscrutable.
His gaze turned toward me.
🕂
Thank you for reading! ♡
