Meat Shield
“Ahjussi.”
Crack―!!
With a sickening pop of splitting bone, Choi Min-seok's head snapped sideways at a grotesque angle.
He didn't even manage a death rattle. It was a perfect, instantaneous kill.
In the split second his pupils dilated and the light drained out of them—
“You… you son of a—!”
Horror flooded the guard captain's eyes.
“FIRE―! Empty everything!!”
“Die!”
Ratatatatatang―!!
The laboratory filled with gunfire loud enough to tear the room apart.
Thud! Thud-thud-thud!
Choi Min-seok's corpse, held in Sang-goo's grip, danced.
5.56mm rounds hammered mercilessly into the body armor beneath his black dress shirt, into his limbs. Flesh sprayed and blood fountained into the air.
A dead hunk of meat was taking the bullets in Sang-goo's place.
Having already surrendered his weapons, all Sang-goo had left was this 'meat shield'—and Little.
Still clutching the corpse, Sang-goo flung himself behind the laboratory refrigerator.
“Flashbang!”
Flashbang!
A cylindrical canister popped up from Little Dog's back mount.
BANG―!
A blinding white flash erupted alongside a detonation that shredded eardrums.
“Aagh! My eyes!”
“Gaaah! I can't see!”
In an enclosed space, the flashbang's effect was multiplied twofold.
The researchers screamed and flattened themselves against the floor, while the guards—vision wiped to pure white—began firing blindly into the air, howling.
Now.
Sang-goo hurled the shredded remains of Choi Min-seok at them and kicked off the floor.
Swish―!
His fist drove upward into the jaw of the nearest guard, who was still clutching his eyes.
With the crunch of shattering bone, the man's body launched off the ground. Before he even finished falling, Sang-goo had already snatched the rifle from his hands.
A familiar grip. Selector to single fire.
It was Sang-goo's turn now.
Crack!
The first round punched through the temple of the man still waving his gun at empty air.
One of the two guards was out cold with a crushed jaw; the second was dead on the spot.
Bang!
Sang-goo put an end to the jaw-broken man's suffering.
Blood and gray matter splattered across the white coats of the cowering researchers.
“Please! Please spare us!!”
Only the researchers and the children remained in the room now.
But there was no time to relax.
The alarms were already blaring, weren't they.
And sure enough—
The entrance burst apart as guards came pouring in from the floors above and below.
Little let loose another flashbang.
“Gwaaagh!”
“Back! Back, back!!”
Bang! Crack!
The second shot. The third.
There was no hesitation in Sang-goo's marksmanship. The heads of guards frozen mid-falter burst one after another like overripe fruit.
―Kzzt… kssh….
The crackle of shattered radios and the groans of wounded researchers moaning across the floor. The alarm that had been hammering his ears had gone abruptly quiet—Little must have shut it down—and the laboratory now thrummed only with the acrid bite of gunpowder and the coppery reek of blood.
Roughly two minutes. Eight dead.
Choi Min-seok, commander of the Geumji New City camp, included in the count.
“Whew….”
Sang-goo rose slowly to his feet. He swapped out the captured rifle's magazine for fresh ones stripped from the dead men.
Then he walked over to Dr. Kim, who was huddled in the corner, trembling like a leaf.
“You… you monster….”
Dr. Kim backed away, his face ashen.
The other researchers kept their heads buried, terrified of so much as meeting his eyes. This one, though, wore the expression of a man who'd been wronged.
Had he always been like this? Or had the end of the world simply rotted his mind?
Sang-goo almost felt a flicker of pity. Almost. But then all he had to do was turn his head slightly—just slightly—to see the children, and any thought of forgiveness died on the spot.
Sang-goo's eyes went glacial.
“Raising kids like livestock and draining their blood, you piece of filth.”
CRACK!
The butt of the rifle smashed into the man's skull.
He went down foaming at the mouth, without so much as a whimper.
If he died, so be it. If he lived, he'd rot in a Yeongdo-gu cell.
“Get up, free the kids, then go curl up in a corner.”
Sang-goo's words came out like gunfire.
The white-coated men sprawled across the floor lifted their heads in bewilderment.
“Did I stutter?”
“Ah… yes! Yes, sir!”
“Understood! Right away!”
They wanted to live, so they scrambled. In moments they were busily unclasping the various apparatuses strapped to the children.
That was when it happened.
―WEEEEEOOOOOOO―!!
The alarm that had been confined to the building now wailed across the entire fortress.
Little Dog growled toward the entrance.
They'd be swarming up the stairwells and pouring out of the elevators any second now. At least a hundred of them, no question—and this time, every last one fully armed.
A fight on an entirely different scale from those gangster punks of the New Century Faction was waiting for him.
Sang-goo stripped every magazine and rifle from the fallen guards' bodies.
Then he toppled the research equipment one piece after another and threw up a barricade.
Little planted himself at Sang-goo's side as if to say he'd see this through to the end, eyes locked on the doorway.
“Whew….”
How many more would he have to kill before this camp was liberated? The thought crossed Sang-goo's mind.
At that same moment, the Yeongdo-gu camp.
“Coordinates confirmed! Geumji New City, Gangseo-gu—Landmark Tower!”
Team Leader Baek Sang-jin stared hard at the red dot marked on the map.
Two avenues of approach. From the sky, helicopters would insert directly to extract Boo Sang-goo; from the sea, a strike team would suppress the armed forces inside.
“Special Operations Unit, prepare to deploy. Get the helicopters up. Marines board the fast boats and hit the ground assault.”
“Yes, sir!”
Baek gathered his combat gear at a rapid pace.
This time, it's our turn to be the ones who help.
From the moment he'd entered Yeongdo-gu, Boo Sang-goo had given everything for the camp. Risking his life to secure supplies, holding back the zombie hordes, even rooting out the Prime Minister—a possible traitor within their own walls.
Without him, Yeongdo-gu would have fallen long ago.
A short while later.
The rotors of two civilian helicopters and three military choppers—prizes from the captured mothership—thundered to life.
In the distance, two transport helicopters capable of carrying two hundred passengers apiece idled on standby, held in reserve for what came after.
Fully armed special operations operatives boarded the helicopters, steeling their resolve.
“We're going to get Boo Sang-goo, right?”
“Yes, sir! That's the mission!”
“Then let's move! Time we pulled our own weight for once!”
There was no fear in the operatives' eyes. To them, Sang-goo wasn't some outsider—he was a comrade who had crossed the line of fire beside them.
The military helicopters bristled with Vulcans, rockets, and miniguns. Team Leader Baek boarded last and shouted:
“Move out!”
WHUDUDUDUDU―!
Five helicopters thundered into the sky.
And out at sea, an armed platoon boarded their high-speed boats.
“You are surrounded! Drop your weapons and come out!”
The loudspeaker's voice boomed through the tower.
Behind his barricade at the entrance, Sang-goo smirked crookedly.
“Who's surrounding who, exactly.”
He turned his gaze toward the children's corner of the room.
They were huddled together behind a desk, shaking.
His eyes met the girl's again—the same girl from before. Tears welled in them, but this time there was unmistakably life there. In those pupils that had once stared into empty space, having given up on everything, there was now fear.
It hurt to see. But wasn't that fear the will to survive?
“How old are you?”
“F-fourteen….”
Looking at the scar-sliced face above her, the girl felt something strange: afraid, yes, but somehow—strangely—safe.
“Don't worry. All of you—I'm taking you somewhere safe.”
“Is it… different from here?”
“It'll be better than this. At the very least. A lot better.”
“Mister… can we really get out of here?”
This time it was a sharp-eyed boy who asked.
Sang-goo smiled gently.
“Some friends of mine are on their way. Very scary friends of mine.”
That was when it happened.
KWAANG―! KWAAANG―!
Massive detonations tore through the floors above the penthouse. The whole building shuddered and dust cascaded from the ceiling.
―Wh-what the hell?! What's happening?!
―We're breached! Hostile helicopters overhead!!
―Kzzt… fuck! Requesting rooftop support!!
Panicked voices of the Black Guard men waiting outside filtered through the walls.
DUDUDUDUDU―!
The heavy thrum of helicopter rotors rode the building's vibrations until the entire penthouse resonated with it.
―Rooftop secure! Rappelling down!
―Alpha Team, breach! Bravo Team, suppress the perimeter snipers!
―Magpie! Peregrine! Fire only on armed personnel in black uniforms! Weapons free, no warning shots! I say again—anyone in black who is armed and does not drop their weapon gets fired on without warning!
Familiar voices crackled over the radio.
Above, the helicopters kicked up cyclones of rotor wash as operatives rappelled down on ropes; below, the strike team off the fast boats was smashing through the rear entrance.
―En-enemies! It's Yeongdo-gu!
―Where's the Commander?! Where is Commander Choi?!
―No contact! Damn it all, he's dead!”
Shorn of its commander, the Black Guard dissolved into a leaderless rabble.
With indiscriminate fire sweeping the building from both inside and out, they scattered in utter panic. As if they'd waited and waited for precisely this day, the soldiers who'd come with Team Leader Baek began sweeping the enemy away like a typhoon made flesh.
Which meant there was little left for Sang-goo to do.
A short while later.
―Sang-goo! We're coming in!
“Interior is secure.”
KRAK―!
The door shattered inward and Team Leader Baek Sang-jin strode through.
Ballistic helmet, tactical vest—he was kitted out from head to toe.
“Sang-goo!”
The moment Baek spotted him, he hurried over. Operatives poured in behind him, fanning out to cover every corner of the interior.
“Whew… I'm not too late, am I? You hurt anywhere?”
Baek gripped Sang-goo's shoulders as he asked, genuine concern bleeding through his voice.
“I'm fine. The kids got a bad scare, though.”
“God… what were they even doing with children in a place like this.”
Sang-goo jerked his chin toward the crumpled corpse in the corner.
“That one was the boss. A man of very grand principles—right up until he turned into a beehive.”
Baek looked down at Choi Min-seok's body with eyes gone cold.
“Team Leader. Over here, sir. You need to see this.”
One of the operatives spoke, his face tight and pale.
Weapons slung, Baek approached the children.
He looked over the needle marks pocking their arms, the machines that had drained their blood. His face twisted into something terrible.
“What is all this. Don't tell me… they were bleeding these kids?”
“Calling it a vaccine. They were chasing some lunatic project—'the future of humanity' and all that.”
“Insane bastards.”
Then reports began crackling in over the radio from every direction. Sure enough, with the head of the snake cut off, the interior fell far more easily than anyone had expected.
A soldier came up from the lower floors carrying the weapons Sang-goo had surrendered earlier.
And with that, the warlord regime of Geumji New City came to an end.
“Site secured! Account for all survivors, arrest every last one of those researchers! The children are top priority—protect them first!”
The operatives hauled Dr. Kim and the researchers out in a strung-together line like so many tied fish.
Medics gently wrapped the children in blankets, loaded them onto stretchers, and carried them out.
Once everything had been sorted, Sang-goo walked over to the bulletproof glass wall.
Inside, the prototype clone known as 'Alpha' was still bound.
Oblivious to the chaos that had erupted around him, the thing flexed its grotesquely overdeveloped muscles and stared out at Sang-goo.
Only—just as he'd thought—still looking a good twenty years older than Jang Seok-woo. Maybe the thing's lifespan really was running out.
“Goddammit… another clone? Shouldn't we just put that thing down?”
Team Leader Baek clicked his tongue in disgust.
Sang-goo stared at Alpha for a long moment.
Compared to Jang Seok-woo—a failure. A defective model.
Jang Seok-woo surfaced in his mind, locked away in a cell in the Yeongdo-gu camp.
Once every ten days.
Unless Seok-woo received his Red Stabilization Serum on schedule, his muscles would liquefy and he would die.
That serum was made by Holton. And now there was nowhere left to get it.
Four vials remaining. That was all.
Used sparingly, it bought him a little over a month.
And if Jang Seok-woo died?
He would lose the only production line for the universal panacea.
Best to keep the golden goose breathing as long as he could, wasn't it?
A cruel thing to do to the creature in that cell. But now was the time for cold decisions.
The calculation finished itself in seconds.
Whether it would work or not—he'd find out by testing it.
“Take him with us.”