Prototype (6)
Even wounded as he was, Colonel Oh was still a Marine Corps colonel.
At close range, his pistol shots had all found their mark on the intruder's body. Not the face, not the heart — but five holes had been punched through the abdomen and arms all the same.
There was still ammo left in the magazine, yet Colonel Oh could not bring himself to pull the trigger again.
The reason was simple.
"A-aaagh… th-that stings. It hurts."
"Yeah, that's gotta hurt."
"A-are you okay?"
"Annoying."
"What… what are you people? Why?"
There was something deeply uncanny about the clumsy, simple-minded tone coming out of those massive bodies.
Three of them stood before Colonel Oh.
Barefoot and naked save for white research gowns — three giants. One of them held an electronic device the size of a chainsaw in its hand.
From the look of it, that was what had fired the EMP. But right now there was something far more important than that.
All three looked exactly alike, as if stamped out of a machine.
And the most absurd part of all: the face was a familiar one.
The giant doctor of the camp. Jang Seok-woo. The son of that Jang Sun-woo, the one who looked so little like his father.
Aside from his skin being far paler and his face a touch older, three giants identical to him in every respect were looking down at Colonel Oh with dead, lifeless blue eyes.
That was why Colonel Oh's body had frozen solid — because this had to be a nightmare.
These things aren't human.
Colonel Oh saw it.
The one he'd hit with five pistol rounds. The one that had been stammering about the pain — the bleeding from its wounds simply stopped, and then, one by one, the lead slugs began pushing their way out of the holes.
What the hell was this situation?
He'd never seen a zombie do anything like this.
He hesitated at the sheer absurdity of it all — but only for a few seconds. Understanding could wait. They were clearly not friendlies.
"Then just die—"
"Hammer Punch!"
CRUNCH—!
He had aimed for the head to take down at least one of them. But before the blow could land, it was Colonel Oh's skull that burst.
Tututututututu—
The helicopter's massive rotor tore through the night air as it touched down on the road before the Grand Hotel's main entrance in Yeongdo.
On any ordinary day it would have landed on the pier side, but wasn't Sang-goo run absolutely ragged today? A small courtesy, for a man soaked head to toe in blood and seawater.
"Just asking out of curiosity — did you happen to see the President? You know… as a zombie, maybe."
"Afraid I didn't get the chance."
"What a shame. To think of him wandering around in there, turned, inside that enormous ship. Oh — your fans are already waiting for you. Truly a hard day's work. Thank you for your service."
The pilot spoke as he looked out the helicopter's window.
"Good work out there. Are you heading straight back?"
"I have to return to the carrier first. I'll wrap things up there and come back with the rest."
"Understood."
As the fierce downwash scattered the dust around them and the metallic whine of the engines gradually died away, the door slid open. When Sang-goo stepped out, a clump of blood mixed with seawater dropped with a soft slap from the toe of his boot.
It would have been hard to believe that this man had just been locked in a life-or-death struggle with a Zombie Lord in the freezing sea — Sang-goo's expression was utterly dry, carrying nothing more than the vacant weariness of an office worker who'd just survived a brutal day.
"Mr. Sang-goo! You made it back safe!"
"Good lord, look at you — soaked through. That isn't all blood, is it?"
"There really was that much supplies? Are we going to make it through the winter now?!"
"Three meals a day, right? We can have three meals a day?!"
Several soldiers and citizens who had been waiting threw out a question each, as if they'd rehearsed it.
"The situation is secured. Team Leader Baek is handling the rest of it — the transport ships will be arriving soon."
"Hyung-nim, this way."
The bodyguard team members waiting on standby — Kim Dae-gi and Park Ji-hoon — came running as if on cue and flanked Sang-goo.
Escorted by his two friends, Sang-goo headed into the hotel. Tucked in his arms was Little Dog, its battery down to its last sliver. The little thing must have been exhausted too; it sluggishly blinked the lens atop its head and leaned against Sang-goo's chest.
"Just leave your laundry in the basket, Hyung-nim."
"You've earned your rest today, sir."
The ex-boxer and the ex-judoka radiated reverence from every pore. Only when they reached the door of Sang-goo's room on the top floor did the two friends finally withdraw.
Back in his room, Sang-goo locked the door and immediately began stripping off the tactical vest and protective gear that had been crushing him all day, one piece at a time.
"Hnnngh… nearly froze to death out there."
He tossed the garments — caked in dried blood and zombie fluids, reeking to high heaven — into the basket and headed for the bathroom.
Shaaaah—
Hot water poured from the showerhead over Sang-goo's shoulders. The tension and fear that had clung to him like a second skin all afternoon washed down the drain with the stream.
"Haaaah…"
It felt as though a body carved from ice was finally thawing. His whole frame had been plunged into freezing seawater, after all. He'd nearly keeled over from the cold — he'd just refused to let it show, with every eye on him.
Sang-goo leaned back and sank into the bathtub. As his breathing settled and the warmth seeped into his bones, all those accursed things began to resurface.
The claustrophobic corridors. The swarming dead. The two-headed thing, and then the struggle against the Zombie Lord in the freezing water. No matter how many zombies he'd fought in his time, the crushing pressure of the place was different. Fighting out in the open and fighting inside an isolated carrier seem to gnaw away at body and mind several times over.
I'm never going back there.
Sang-goo forced the thought out of his head. What he needed now wasn't anguish — it was rest for his body.
"Whew… okay. I feel human again."
After a long, thorough scalding under the hot water, he was finally starting to come back to life.
He finished his shower and came out shaking the water from his hair, and Little Dog greeted him with a cheerful to-to-tok beside its charger.
"Hm… I should probably wipe you down."
Sang-goo set down the towel and rubbed on some lotion in quick strokes. Then he fetched a precision screwdriver set to service his little companion. His hands, clearing away the fine sand and bits of zombie flesh wedged between Little Dog's joints one piece at a time, were as delicate as a father tending to his child. He wiped away the grime with alcohol swabs until the foul stench had mostly faded.
"Without you, today would've gone very badly. Good work, buddy."
Little Dog let out a happy electronic chirp and wiggled its rear.
"Right… I need to eat something."
Only after the maintenance was finished did Sang-goo register his own hunger. When he made his way down to the dining hall, the corridor was already thrumming with the warm smell of soybean paste stew.
"Hyung-nim, right this way."
Kim Dae-gi and Park Ji-hoon had finished preparing dinner. On Sang-goo's table sat a soybean paste stew, rolled egg omelet, and five side dishes — plus a freshly chilled glass of beer on top of it all.
His mouth watered on its own.
"I left out the meat on purpose, worried it might upset your stomach. Is that all right, Hyung-nim? Say the word and I'll have a steak on the table in no time."
He had come all the way here wading through blood-soaked gore, after all. Sang-goo shook his head with a smile.
"It's more than enough. You two eat too."
"We'll eat separately, sir. Please enjoy your meal."
"The beer's stocked in the fridge over there."
"Thank you."
Their hearts were set on it, so Sang-goo gladly picked up his spoon.
Hangar 2 of the carrier Gwangmyeong.
Just as Sang-goo was finishing his shower, Team Leader Baek was holding his breath in the middle of hell.
Having seen Sang-goo off first and entered the hangar to oversee the massive supply transport, Team Leader Baek looked past the wall of crates where Colonel Oh had been stationed — and froze solid as stone.
"Team Leader… this… what in God's name happened here?"
The squad leader beside him spoke in a voice that rattled like chattering teeth. Team Leader Baek could not answer. No — he couldn't find the words.
Colonel Oh Sang-shik's body was something the word death couldn't contain. His head had been crushed completely flat, as though pressed under a hydraulic press — past all recognition. And if a zombie had done it, there should have been bite marks, feed marks, some sign of tearing. There was nothing.
This was not predation. It was an unmistakably, brutally deliberate execution. And a killing carried out by overwhelming brute force at that.
In that window of time? What the hell is this thing?
Team Leader Baek's gaze swept the floor. Five spent pistol casings lay scattered where Colonel Oh had resisted to his last breath. And beside them, bloodstained, crushed slugs rolled about grotesquely, as though someone had spat them up from inside their own body.
Worse still, the Big Cow and the radio were both completely fried.
Which meant they'd been hit by an electromagnetic pulse.
—KWAAAAAGH—!
The roar of zombies, from a fair distance off. They were moving along the shortest route they could find — meaning that inside this massive carrier, there were still enormous numbers of them.
Doubts about Colonel Oh's final moments flooded in, and fury with them — but he could not afford to be ruled by emotion now.
"All personnel, focus on securing the supplies only. We need to get out of here a minute faster than anything else."
"And Colonel Oh…"
Team Leader Baek ground his teeth nearly to cracking as he answered.
"Handle it. And on no account radio anything to Sang-goo or anyone outside. If this gets out, the men's morale will shatter. Getting out of here comes first. Am I understood!"
"Yes, Team Leader."
While the squad members packed Colonel Oh's body into a bag, Team Leader Baek turned his eyes toward the darkness around him. From outside came the voices of his men, cheering as they beheld the mountain ranges of ration crates and medical supply boxes.
That jubilant cheering, set against the horrific stillness inside this hangar, wove together into a discord that raised the hair on his neck.
Team Leader Baek couldn't bring himself to look at Colonel Oh's crushed face a moment longer, and turned away. His chest felt like it was burning.
To lose a comrade to an unknown enemy and then scavenge supplies like a fugitive fleeing the scene — the humiliation of it cut him to the bone.
The transport helicopters and convoy ships docked at Yeongdo's pier. And the pier was sheer pandemonium.
Watching the cascading boxes of canned goods, cases of medicine, and high-output generator parts pour out, the people of the camp threw their arms around one another and wept. Some dropped to their knees in prayers of thanks to God; others stared at tins of meat, utterly speechless.
"Jackpot! Does this mean three squares a day from now on?!"
"Long live Team Leader Baek! Long live Mr. Boo Sang-goo!"
"We're saved~! Diamond hands win again! Bwahahaha!"
The citizens were in full festival mode.
Team Leader Baek was not.
Sang-goo, having finished his meal and come down to the pier with a light heart, spotted Team Leader Baek standing on the deck, utterly stricken. Puzzled, Sang-goo picked up his radio.
"Team Leader, truly outstanding work. Tired as you must be, the mood certainly looks good."
Sang-goo's cheerful voice over the radio reached Team Leader Baek's ears. But Team Leader Baek couldn't answer. Sang-goo pressed on in the same light tone.
"By the way, where is Colonel Oh? Did you get him evacuated to the hospital right away?"
Team Leader Baek's hand tightened around the radio. The veins on the back of it stood out ready to burst, but in the end his mouth would not open.
"Team Leader?"
—Mr. Sang-goo. It's… that is…
Even with Sang-goo's repeated questions, Team Leader Baek could not lift his head. In the middle of Yeongdo's pier, glittering with festival light, he could only stare down at the dark water, clutching his soaked gloves.
Boo Sang-goo had done his best. With the situation going sideways, he'd left Colonel Oh there and driven the horde toward the terminal instead.
And yet… at exactly that moment, Colonel Oh had lost his life.
What if this puts that weight on Mr. Sang-goo's shoulders?
"Team Leader."
Sensing there was something that couldn't be said over the radio, Sang-goo came closer. Citizens who recognized him began running up one after another, but the soldiers and bodyguards, reading the mood, held them back.
"What's going on?"
"I'm sorry. Colonel Oh Sang-shik… is gone."
"……To the zombies, sir?"
"Damn it. I don't think so. From what I can tell…"
"Then I'll go see for myself."