Chapter 54: Preparation
Chapter 54: Preparation
(Warning! Contains graphic depictions of violence.)
#
"Excuse me, can you hear us?"
"Seon-yeong, first remove whatever is in her mouth."
After making sure the room was clear, Seon-yeong sat beside the woman bound to the bed and tried gently to wake her.
The naked woman had all four limbs restrained. Her circulation had been cut off for so long that her hands and feet were purple and badly swollen.
"Excuse me. Please wake up."
"Ugh... eek! S-save me. Please, no more..."
When Seon-yeong peeled the tape from the woman's mouth, she found a rolled-up scrap of cloth stuffed inside.
She pried it out with her fingers. It was a pair of white women's underwear.
Without touching anywhere else, Seon-yeong gently shook her shoulder until the woman regained consciousness.
She begged in a tiny voice. Although awake, she didn't yet understand the situation and seemed to be speaking by reflex.
Her lips were cracked and parched, and her voice came out painfully hoarse.
"Seon-yeong, here's some water."
Gulp, gulp.
Seon-yeong held the water to her lips and helped her drink carefully.
Even drinking was difficult. She managed only two swallows before turning away.
"I know you're in terrible pain, but now that you're awake, please answer a few questions first. We need the information to help you safely."
When I spoke from where I stood behind them, the woman looked toward me and nodded.
Thank goodness.
Focus had returned to her eyes. She finally seemed fully conscious.
"Four men from a group called the Prugia Alliance attacked us. We subdued them, questioned them, and followed their information here. Are there any other dangerous people or threats we should know about?"
"None... those bastards are all... sniffle..."
"Could you tell us your name and ability?"
"I'm Kim Ye-jin. My Ability is Transformation: Information Display."
I glanced at Ga-yeong. She nodded, confirming that the answer matched our information.
That second confirmation told us whether her ability posed a threat if she suddenly attacked.
Judging by her condition, the concern was pointless.
One thing I had been concerned about before coming here was the possibility that the women would see us as enemies.
A woman with a lethal ability might remain quiet until she could catch us off guard.
Her condition made that unlikely, but if the abuse had driven her mad, we couldn't rule it out.
Still, if we worried about every remote possibility, it would have been easier never to come here at all.
We had agreed to follow through with our decision while refusing to let sympathy lower our guard.
"Thank you. We'll untie you now, so please endure it a little longer."
Once I finished the brief questioning, Seon-yeong and Ga-yeong moved to the bed and began freeing her arms and legs.
Both of them took out their multi-tools and carefully cut through the tightly knotted cords.
Her freed wrists and ankles were deeply bruised, the skin rubbed raw enough to seep blood.
Bruises covered her face and body, making it obvious that the abuse had been repeated.
"Um... What should we do about this? None of us is a doctor, so we don't know the safest way."
"P-please... pull it out."
Even after being untied, the woman lacked the strength to rise.
Actually, the bigger problem was the umbrella lodged in her genitals.
The reason I had cursed the moment I entered the room was also because of that umbrella.
All three of us had been stunned by the unimaginable sight of an umbrella lodged inside her.
After hearing who we were, though, the woman responded with surprising calm.
She was physically exhausted, but perhaps repeated exposure to horror had hardened her. Her judgment remained clear.
I tried to imagine what she must have been feeling.
Was it utter misery?
I couldn't know exactly, but I understood that she wanted the grotesque umbrella removed immediately.
I examined the Information Display user's injuries. The umbrella handle protruded between her legs.
Judging by the handle, it appeared to be a folding umbrella.
The folded canopy and ribs were lodged inside her, and I couldn't tell how far they extended.
I couldn't understand why anyone would do such a thing. I didn't need to understand. It was enough to know that these bastards were violently perverse.
"Try to relax as much as you can. I'll pull very slowly."
Seon-yeong grimaced at the horrific sight, gripped the handle, and began pulling gently.
"Aaaaargh!"
A piercing, almost inhuman scream filled the room.
A moment earlier, the woman had barely been able to move. Now she found enough strength to unleash a bloodcurdling wail.
The pain must have been unbearable.
"Honey... What do we do? I don't think I can remove it. It won't move at all."
"Then we can't force it. One of the women in the other unit is a Healer, right? Let's find her first."
Once the woman finally calmed down, we explained that we were going to find the others, covered her with a blanket, and left the room.
Seon-yeong's and Ga-yeong's faces hardened with fury as they began searching the rest of the apartment.
#
Searching Units 201 and 202 and freeing the imprisoned women became an exercise in suppressing sorrow and rage.
One of the key reasons I had decided to come to this apartment in the first place was to see what kind of preparations the Prugia Alliance had made.
Yet the hideout we found was nothing more than an ordinary apartment from before the apocalypse, without a single meaningful preparation.
No one appeared to clean. The apartment was filthy enough to raise serious health concerns, and only the leader's room looked remotely lived-in.
Food and supplies scavenged from around the complex lay in haphazard heaps. The unit where the women were kept resembled a livestock pen.
Living there could make a healthy person sick. I almost wanted to ask what they had been thinking.
"These fucking lunatics. They were so meticulous about tying people up, though. Fuck..."
After checking the first-floor units alone, I returned to Unit 202 and heard Seon-yeong cursing inside.
When I entered the room, Seon-yeong was muttering words I'd never heard her use while working the rope away from a woman's gag.
The final woman hung suspended in midair from a rope anchored to the ceiling.
Rope bound her entire body, forcing her arms and legs backward while her breasts protruded through the pattern around her torso.
The rope was tight enough to bite into her flesh, painful even to look at.
As I approached, the woman bound in a tortoise-shell tie suddenly regained consciousness.
Hanging at about the height of my waist, she stared up at me in terror.
"Mmph... mmmmph!"
"Please calm down. We'll free you right away. We're not here to hurt you. We came to help. Please... calm down... sniff..."
The suspended woman thrashed and sobbed.
Ga-yeong, positioned near the woman's lower body, recoiled in surprise while Seon-yeong tried to calm her.
The woman's terror and frantic struggling broke through Seon-yeong's composure. Tears spilled as she cupped the captive's face.
I stepped back and looked at Ga-yeong. She held several needles in one hand.
Blood coated their tips. Ga-yeong placed them in a small container while biting her lip.
"Honey, I'm done. You'll need to hold her. Let's lower her first, then untie the rest."
I hesitated, unsure where I could safely support the naked woman.
Then I decided it no longer mattered, slipped my arms beneath her thighs and chest, and lifted her.
At close range, I saw several needles still embedded around her vulva and clitoris.
#
After freeing the final woman and bringing the immediate situation under control, I stepped into the hallway and lit a cigarette.
Inside, Seon-yeong and Ga-yeong rushed between the victims, explaining the situation, finding clothes, and coordinating their care.
The prisoners were all young women, each with a distinct appearance and personality.
The only things they had in common were that they were young and that they had all been tied up.
The marks of beatings and sexual torture across their bodies shocked us. The psychological scars would probably remain for the rest of their lives.
The women's abilities would clearly have been valuable to those bastards...
Why had the men refused to cooperate with them and instead treated them worse than slaves?
"Babe~"
When Seon-yeong called, I entered the living room and found all five women dressed and standing in a line.
"Thank you for rescuing us, Raid Leader."
"Please, there's no need for this. Why are all of you standing? Don't you still need to rest?"
"That's true, but we should at least give a proper greeting. Thank you, once again."
The tallest woman stepped forward to speak for the group. The others bowed as well and thanked us.
Anyway, Raid Leader, huh...
I had never expected Choi Seon-yeong to embarrass me this publicly.
"One of them can heal, so she treated the worst injuries. They should recover if they eat well and rest now."
"Ah, Ha-na?"
"Yes, that's me, Raid Leader. Please call me whatever feels natural, and you can speak casually to me."
"I'll ease into that. What exactly can your Recovery ability do?"
"I can treat external wounds. Major wounds take a long time, but small scratches and things like that can be healed instantly. I also tried using it on a zombie once in the past, but it doesn't turn a zombie back into a human."
Ha-na was in relatively good condition compared with the others.
Even the way she was tied up was normal compared to the rest...
I wasn't sure whether "bound normally" made sense, but her restraints had at least been plain.
Healers were high-value personnel even in this new reality, so the men had probably treated her somewhat better.
With no hospital available, having someone with a Recovery ability among them was one small mercy.
"Eun-mi here has an ability called Disassembly. She opened digital locks while the Alliance cleared apartments. Thanks to her, we were also able to disassemble the umbrella and remove it..."
"Hello, Raid Leader. My name is Baek Eun-mi. My Ability is Annihilation: Disassembly."
The small woman named Eun-mi introduced herself with confidence.
When we found Eun-mi, she was unconscious as though drugged to the gills with sleeping pills.
The room had been full of pill bottles.
At first I thought the men had drugged her because they wanted to rape her while she slept. After learning about her ability, I realized they had probably feared that she would escape.
When we first found her, she didn't move no matter how hard we tried to wake her. I worried that she might never regain consciousness.
"Ah... there's no need for you to call me Raid Leader. You can just call me Mister."
"Absolutely not. I was told you are an outstanding leader who guides Kim Tae-sik's Raid Party with distinction. I cannot address the man who saved us as merely 'Mister.'"
Why was she saying "Kim Tae-sik's Raid Party"?
Just how much had they told them?
I glared at Seon-yeong and saw her slowly retreating behind the other women.
Heat rose to my face. I tried to appear calm as I continued speaking with Eun-mi.
"Annihilation: Disassembly... Could you explain a little more about what kind of Ability it is?"
"Please speak casually, Raid Leader. At present, my ability can deconstruct simple structures or small objects. I'll need to kill more zombies to understand its limits, but at first I could only separate a cap from a water bottle."
"Oh! Did you serve in the military? Your speech is very formal."
"Yes. I was recently discharged as a Staff Sergeant. I served in an intelligence position."
"I see. That's impressive. But from your explanation, Disassembly alone doesn't sound as though it should open a digital door lock. How did you do it?"
We had found someone with an incredibly fascinating ability.
Annihilation, she had said.
The Healer was impressive too, but this was the first ability I had seen whose major category was Annihilation.
The word itself sounded immensely powerful, yet the Alliance had used her as a locksmith...