At Winter's Edge (2)
Ziiiiiing―
The sensor on his helmet vibrated.
On the tablet mounted above the motorcycle's dashboard, the camera feed from Recon Drone Unit 1—pinned to the upper right corner of the screen—was tilted upward, catching the rooftop of one of the buildings.
There, framed between sheets of rain, stood a lone figure: a scrawny, herring-like wretch teetering on the edge.
"…."
Sang-goo's brow furrowed. As the drone's high-resolution lens zoomed in, the man's face filled the screen.
Hollowed cheeks, glazed eyes. A face smeared with tears, snot, and cold rainwater.
It was, to anyone looking, the expression of a man standing at the very end of his life. His mouth opened and closed as if murmuring something, but the audio was drowned out by the rain.
Still, he didn't need to hear it to know. This was not a cry for rescue.
He's decided, then.
The eyes of someone who had let go of life. Looked like a man calling the world hell and walking off the ledge of his own accord.
"Ha."
A short sigh escaped Sang-goo's lips.
He took manual control of the tablet, raindrops sliding down its screen.
The man had endured this long as a human being, hadn't he?
It seemed a waste—too meaningless an end, to be smashed into a pulp on the pavement after surviving all those months.
Vrooom― The drone dove fast.
The man's body climbed over the railing.
WHOOOOSH―!
The background on the screen shot backward in an instant. Unit 1 screamed through the rain, closing the distance like a bullet.
Target: the man's jaw.
Hit him too hard and the concussion could kill him, you say?
We'll find out when we get there.
Just before the man's body surrendered to gravity—
THWACK―!
The screen jolted violently, the impact registering through the feed.
The camera angle lurched.
The man's head snapped back, and thankfully he toppled inward, over the railing, crumpling onto the rooftop floor.
A body sprawled flat on its back, utterly motionless.
"He— he's alive. He's alive, right? Hmm…."
Unit 1 was already wrecked; it wouldn't be flying again.
He brought in Unit 2 to survey the fallen man.
Ziiing― Zooming in, he watched the man breathe—shallow, ragged, colorless puffs of breath that made it plain as day the guy had survived.
If he'd fanned the man with the best of intentions(?) only to have him drop dead on the spot, that would've been its own headache.
"Phew."
Sang-goo let out a breath of relief.
After retrieving the drone and stowing the tablet in his pack, he said, "Let's go."
Little Dog bounded up into his arms. When the two zombies that had taken an interest in them began clicking their teeth, he promptly severed that interest with his axe.
The shambling horde paid no mind to two of their own dropping dead. They simply walked on in their dumb, plodding cluster, as if under orders.
Only after confirming that much did Sang-goo come to a stop before the barricade sealing off the building's ground-floor entrance.
A sloppy heap of desks, chairs, and miscellaneous furniture—clearly not the work of a professional.
A flimsy shield that reeked of nothing but desperation.
CRACK―!
He brushed the obstructing debris aside with ease and started up the stairs.
Second floor, third floor… every landing was thick with bloodstains and dust. No sign of human presence.
Then his footsteps reached the fitness center on the eighth floor.
Beyond the glass doors, a figure crouched in the darkness. It had sensed him.
"Wh—who's there?"
A woman jolted backward in terror, retreating from the dark.
A broken wooden stick clutched in one hand, she couldn't even get to her feet—just shook where she sat.
"I'm from the Yeongdo-gu camp. You're safe."
Sang-goo spoke as gently as he could, but who could relax at a single sentence?
As he approached slowly, her appearance came into view.
How to put it—like a stray dog paralyzed with fear.
Shivering from cold and terror alike, she stared up at him.
To her, he was nothing more than a huge man in a helmet. The dread that he might be a raider crushed her completely.
Sang-goo slowly raised both hands to show they were empty, then lifted the helmet's visor.
Wearing the most harmless expression he could manage.
Though of course, the knife scar laid bare across his face wrung a sharp gasp out of her anyway.
Which is exactly why I wear the helmet.
"It's all right. I'm not here to hurt you. I'm with a rescue team out of Yeongdo-gu."
"A… a rescue team?"
Park Su-yeon's eyes went round.
"Yes. There's a government-run survivor camp in Yeongdo-gu."
"Ah…."
Park Su-yeon looked utterly bewildered.
The word government—something she'd all but forgotten existed after the first chaotic days of the outbreak.
And now a huge man had appeared out of nowhere talking about the government, and she had no idea how to react.
Given her situation, this man had no reason to lie to her.
Seeing her confusion, Sang-goo continued.
"You weren't alone, were you? A tall man, painfully skinny."
At that, Su-yeon's face went white as a sheet.
"My… my brother! Min-jae—did you see Min-jae? He said he was going up to the roof to collect water…?"
Her face looked ready to burst into tears at any moment.
"He's alive. My drone found him collapsed on the rooftop."
"Ah…."
"Looks like he passed out from exhaustion. I'll bring him down, so wait here a moment."
Now that he'd confirmed they were together, Sang-goo set down his pack and pulled out a thermos.
"Drink this for now. It's warm scorched-rice tea."
When he unscrewed the lid, white steam rose with a rich, toasty smell. It was the first scent of cooked rice she'd had in months.
Su-yeon's eyes trembled.
Sang-goo, practiced, draped an aluminum blanket over her shoulders and cracked two heat packs to press into her hands.
"I'll check your injuries once I've brought your brother down. Little, come in and stand guard."
At that, Little Dog— who had been peering out through the gap in the door, watching both the outside and in—came trotting in, tail wagging.
—Woof.
The robot dog settled down obediently in front of Su-yeon.
Dazed, she looked back and forth between the cup of warm rice tea and the mechanical pup at her feet.
She wondered if she was dreaming, but the heat of the packs against her palms was painfully, wonderfully real.
A little while later, Sang-goo came down from the rooftop with the unconscious Park Min-jae slung over his shoulder like a sack of rice.
"Min-jae!"
Park Su-yeon staggered up to rise, but Sang-goo stopped her with a glance.
"Don't move."
"He's… he's my brother. My little brother."
Sang-goo laid Park Min-jae down beside her.
"He's unconscious. I think he was simply worn out."
"Ah… huh?"
Su-yeon's face clouded over when she spotted the bruise on his jaw. Sang-goo pretended not to notice and busied himself.
There was no need to bring up the matter of how the man had very nearly thrown himself off the roof.
Not that it had anything to do with the drone hook he'd fired. Nothing at all.
He stripped off the soaking clothes roughly, wrapped the man in dry blankets, and turned to a proper examination.
"Little, scan."
A green lattice of laser light streamed from Little Dog's eyes.
Holographic glow swept over the siblings from head to toe.
Moments later, a holographic chart bloomed before Sang-goo's eyes.
Whether it was thanks to the tech team lead's upgrades or Little simply growing on his own, the tablet now produced a full diagnostic report for the injured areas.
PATIENT 1 (F): Comminuted fracture, distal left ankle. Severe bone fragment displacement. Inflammation markers at critical stage. Myalgia. Malnutrition. Hypothermia.
PATIENT 2 (M): Hairline fractures, right 7th and 8th ribs. Facial bruising with temporomandibular joint impact. Malnutrition. Dehydration.
Sang-goo's brow creased.
The younger brother was in better shape than expected(?)
The jaw was from the drone hit, sure, and the cracked ribs and bruising were nothing to scoff at, but they didn't warrant the serum. Proper nutrition, rest, and some painkillers would carry him through.
All they had to do was make it to Yeongdo-gu, after all.
The problem was the older sister, Park Su-yeon.
Her ankle isn't just broken.
Not a simple fracture but a comminuted one—the bone had shattered into fragments. Worse, having been left untreated this long, the tissue was beginning to turn necrotic.
This wasn't something a splint applied on the spot could fix. Even rushing her into an operating room to piece the fragments together and pin them in place would have been cutting it close. Surgery here, in these conditions, was impossible.
I can't just tell her to grit her teeth and bear it, though.
There were too many zombies to risk calling in the Yeongdo-gu rescue team, and turning around and hauling the two of them back to camp on day one felt equally wrong.
Use it, then.
There was no real choice to make. Sang-goo pulled a small metal case from inside his jacket.
With a soft click, the lid popped open to reveal six vials of serum gleaming with a faint, jewel-like red.
Jang Seok-woo's golden-goose serum.
A precious commodity—he'd brought out exactly six vials.
He couldn't burn two of them on their very first patient of the very first day.
One vial, then. That much he could spare for her.
Sang-goo drew the serum into a syringe.
And then—
"Let me take a look at that."
"Wh—wait, that's…."
With a strange man's hands reaching toward her filthy, aching foot, she hesitated.
Sang-goo spoke in a calm, steady voice.
"It's in bad shape. I'm going to use a medicine now… and I need to check that the bone settles back into place."
"Okay?"
Before Park Su-yeon could ask anything else, Sang-goo took hold of her injured leg with both hands.
"Ah…."
Under his blunt yet careful touch, Park Su-yeon flinched, unable to do anything but squirm.
Grateful yet embarrassed, doubting yet unable to refuse—a strange tangle of feelings.
While her body and mind hemmed and hawed, Sang-goo removed the makeshift splint.
Then, as a cold antiseptic swab traced across the top of her foot and up over her ankle, Park Su-yeon finally squeezed her eyes shut.
Whether she did or not.
Sang-goo ran his eyes over the freshly cleaned foot anyway.
It wasn't that he didn't trust Little's scanner—it was just that there was no harm in checking twice, or three times.
"Ah…."
A shallow moan escaped her as he probed the injured area.
"Sorry. It'll be over soon."
Shhhh.
The cold serum slipped into her vein.
And the miracle took less than a minute.
"Ugh… uuuuh…."
A sound of pain leaked from her lips.
The sensation of bone searching for its home. Color began flooding back into her deathly gray face as if by magic.
The swelling that had ballooned her ankle to bursting visibly receded.
Bone fragments knitted together in place, torn ligaments rewove themselves—a grotesque and yet wondrous process of healing that traveled up her nerves one fiber at a time.
"This… what is…?"
Park Su-yeon stared down at her own ankle. The hellish pain had vanished as though washed away. The chills and fever that had been crushing her body were gone too.
What was this? Was she dreaming right now?
"How… how is that possible? That injection just now…."
"You got lucky."
No need to mention the rather limited clinical trial data(?) on the stuff, of course.
Sang-goo tucked away the empty syringe as if it were nothing.
Unable to believe it, Su-yeon ran her hands over her arm, then her ankle.
The truth was her wrist had been aching this whole time too—she'd simply been too consumed by her ankle to notice.
And yet that one injection had not only fixed her ankle but wiped the ache from her wrist clean away.
This wasn't medicine. It was closer to magic.
"Um… sir?"
Su-yeon's lips moved.
Could you use that medicine on my brother too?
The words climbed all the way up her throat, but she couldn't bring herself to say them.
She already owed her life to a total stranger. He'd used that miracle drug on her, and now she was going to ask him for more? She had no such shame in her.
But watching her little brother suffer was burning her up inside all the same.
Sang-goo read the wavering light in her eyes and spoke flatly.
"Don't worry about your brother."
"Huh?"
"The scan shows a few hairline fractures in his ribs and some bruising. Nothing life-threatening."
Sang-goo pulled an IV set from his pack.
"That medicine I just used isn't easy to come by. I only use it when someone's truly critical or badly hurt. Using it on your brother would be a waste—no, an overdose."
"Ah…."
"Instead, I'll set him up with nutrients and painkillers. He'll feel a whole lot better after a good night's sleep."
Sang-goo hung two IV packs—one for nutrition, one for pain—on a piece of gym equipment and slid the needle into Min-jae's arm.
Two streams of fluid began winding their way down the tubes and into his body.
Only then did the furrow between Min-jae's brows slowly begin to smooth.
"Thank you… thank you so much."
At last, tears broke loose from Park Su-yeon's eyes. Relief at having survived, and the confirmation that her brother was safe too.
"My name is Park Su-yeon. My brother is Park Min-jae. For helping us… truly, thank you."
Color restored to her face, she had somehow sunk to her knees, weeping. She clasped her hands together as if in prayer and looked up at Sang-goo like a saint.
"I'm Boo Sang-goo. And… I just did what anyone could do. More importantly, there's something I'd like to ask you."
Park Su-yeon nodded rapidly.
"Yes. Yes."
Her face said she'd tell him anything, if it might help.
"The zombies in this neighborhood seem different somehow. Is there a particular reason for that?"