The Tremor
Cold concrete stairs led down from the camouflaged surface building into the 50th Division's secret bunker.
A soldier whose hair was streaked with gray, yet whose tall frame and well-trained body kept him from looking his age, descended in silence. On his combat uniform sat the three mugunghwa blossoms of a colonel's rank insignia.
Passing through the outer bunker entrance, he swept his gaze once over the desks arrayed before the thick concrete door and the documents and communications gear scattered across them, then approached the soldier seated at the desk nearest the bunker door itself.
"Any word yet on Lieutenant Colonel Seo… the logistics staff officer?"
The man at the desk answered in a thoroughly bureaucratic tone.
"Since the last communication with the Deputy Division Commander after he reported the Hyungung launch, there has been no contact whatsoever."
"That was over a month ago! If all you can do is keep repeating the same thing, what exactly are you proposing we do!
"You're the intelligence staff officer, aren't you? You still haven't even managed to pinpoint Lieutenant Colonel Seo's location?"
At the colonel's words, the man addressed as the intelligence staff officer narrowed his eyes and regarded him for a moment, then spoke to the analyst seated beside him.
"Analyst. Did we deliberately choose not to gather information on the logistics staff officer?"
The civilian analyst glanced briefly at the colonel before answering.
"Of course not.
"We're simply following the Deputy Division Commander's instructions faithfully — that we 'can't waste precious human resources hunting down some useless bastard who either failed his operation and went into hiding out of shame, or bit his tongue and died.'"
Hearing that sarcastic implication — that they hadn't failed to search, but had been ordered not to — the colonel's face flushed red. He forced the anger down and spoke again.
"…Then I'll have to see the Deputy Division Commander who gave that order myself."
He moved toward the bunker door. The soldiers beside him stepped into his path.
"What do you think you're doing! Get out of my way this instant!"
"The Deputy Division Commander has ordered that no one is to be admitted at this time."
"What nonsense is that! I'm the operations staff officer, and I have something to report to the Deputy Division Commander in person! How dare you stand in my way!"
Major Kang replied in that same bureaucratic tone.
"Colonel Shin. My apologies, but the Deputy Division Commander outranks you, so we have no choice but to follow his orders."
At those words, Colonel Shin could no longer contain his fury. He shoved aside the soldiers blocking him and was about to force his way into the bunker when—
From deep inside, a faint but unmistakable sound reached them.
Haaang… haa…
Hic…! I… I don't want to…
You ate, so you have to pay for it.
That's right.
"…What is that sound."
Startled by the woman's voice — faint, yet clearly distinct from the men's — Colonel Shin asked.
"Major Kang… isn't the Deputy Division Commander inside?"
"Is that so? I didn't hear a thing."
Major Kang, the intelligence staff officer, feigned ignorance in that same bureaucratic tone.
"Don't tell me… the civilians under protection? Civilian women, brought in here…"
"I didn't hear a thing."
At Major Kang's firm denial, Colonel Shin seemed to lose all strength in his body. Supporting himself against the wall, he said:
"You… just what are you doing. If the Division Commander, who's lying collapsed right now, should ever wake up…"
At Colonel Shin's quiet rebuke, Major Kang's rigid expression cracked for the first time. A cold, cynical smile rose to his lips.
"The Division Commander… waking up?"
He laughed with a short snort, as if he'd just heard a hilarious joke.
"Even if he miraculously woke up, at this point, among the soldiers down here — who exactly would sincerely follow him?"
"…Major Kang, what are you saying…!"
"Sending so many soldiers into a death trap with no plan whatsoever under the name of a 'rescue operation'! Then collapsing from the shock without taking any responsibility and never getting back up — who the hell would follow a man like that as their Division Commander from the heart!"
"That's what an army that protects the people is supposed to—!"
"And so! Did you save even one person back then? When ten soldiers were dying… did you save even a single one?"
"That…"
Watching Colonel Shin unable to continue, Major Kang took a moment to steady his breath, then returned to his original expression and spoke quietly to the colonel who was staring at him in silence.
"And… can he even wake up at all."
"…What? What do you mean, can he wake up! Don't tell me the Division Commander…"
"I was merely expressing concern that, without access to a proper hospital, it might be difficult for him to wake up for the time being."
"……."
For a moment, still braced against the wall, Colonel Shin glared at Major Kang, then let out a deep sigh.
"…Tell the Deputy Division Commander that I insist on seeing him."
Then, on unsteady legs, he started toward the stairs leading up. He paused briefly and said:
"…Of the three recon teams that went out three days ago, one still hasn't returned…
"There have been fewer zombies wandering outside lately, so they probably weren't taken by them…. Any other unusual developments?"
Major Kang looked at Colonel Shin for a moment as he spoke.
Perhaps sensing the genuine concern for his subordinates in the colonel's voice, for the first time his bureaucratic tone softened slightly.
"…We haven't identified anything particular on our end either.
"However, the moment any unusual external developments or information on the missing recon team comes in, I'll inform you immediately."
Colonel Shin nodded at that, said "Right… thank you," and climbed the stairs with heavy steps.
"There may not be many zombies around these days, but don't let your guard down!"
"Yes, sir!" answered the five members of the recon team, following Sergeant Kim as they slowly made their way into the dark underground shopping arcade.
"Keep your lanterns on minimum brightness! They come running at the light!"
But contrary to Sergeant Kim's words, even after descending for quite some time under high tension, not a single zombie appeared. The soldiers' tension began to ease little by little.
"Hey, there's a chocolate bar!"
"There's beef jerky too! Meat, meat!"
They moved along, gathering small food items from the surrounding shops — candy and snacks that hadn't yet passed their expiration dates, scattered about.
"Whoa, this place is a goldmine. No zombies, and there's food."
One soldier mumbled around a mouthful, and the soldier beside him chimed in.
"No kidding. After all that endless grinding, finally a day like this."
After some time of collecting food without any tension, they discovered that the emergency exit leading down to the lowest level — the machine room — was slightly ajar. They tensed up again and slowly entered.
Even as they advanced, checking all directions with their lanterns, nothing was visible except the massive machines that had long since stopped.
"Looks like there really are no zombies here?"
"Yeah. This place is completely clean."
As they talked and pressed deeper inside, in the distance, dozens of zombies began to appear in the lantern light.
The startled soldiers hurriedly raised their guns to fire, but Sergeant Kim stopped them with a sharp "Wait!"
"Sergeant! Why are you stopping us! If we don't shoot now…!"
But the soldiers protesting to their sergeant soon lost their words at the bizarre sight unfolding before their eyes.
The zombies packed densely in one place showed no reaction whatsoever — not to the sergeant's lantern raised to maximum brightness, not to their own lanterns as they turned them up one by one, not even to their voices.
"You lot stay here! Be ready to run if anything happens!"
Sergeant Kim began slowly approaching the zombies.
He shone his lantern directly into their faces and waved it around, but still got no reaction. He then gestured for the soldiers to come over.
Faced with this unprecedented sight, the five-man recon team gradually approached the clustered zombies and began to observe.
In the center of the vast machine room, the zombies stood in a circle, utterly motionless. They looked almost like bears in hibernation — yet the feeling they gave off was far more ominous.
"Sergeant… this is something we should report as an unusual development, isn't it?"
One soldier whispered, and the sergeant nodded.
Following Sergeant Kim's orders, the soldiers quietly began withdrawing and climbing back up. That was when it happened.
The youngest-looking soldier, last up the stairs, found the zombies so fascinating that curiosity got the better of him.
He pulled out a piece of candy he'd picked up before coming down and tossed it — thunk — at the back of the nearest zombie. Seeing no reaction, he snickered and slipped out of the machine room.
A short while after all the soldiers had left, the body of the zombie that had been hit by the candy swayed, just slightly.
And that sway was transmitted to the zombie beside it. That zombie's body swayed and touched the next one… and like a chain of dominoes, the minute tremor spread in a cascade — and at that very moment.
One zombie, reflexively, bit down with a kraa on the shoulder of the neighboring zombie that had brushed against it.
And from that impact, the bitten zombie staggered and fell, jostling the others around it.
That was the beginning.
Soon, from all directions, a chain reaction of reflexive biting erupted. And in the midst of it, something — forms utterly different from ordinary zombies — began to rise, one by one, as if stretching after a long sleep.
With the sound of joints cracking and twisting, one mutant began to transform. It twisted its head around and spotted the stairs leading upward, where a blue emergency exit light was lit.
As if it no longer had the slightest interest in the other zombies it had been tangled with moments before, it began slowly crawling toward them on four twisted limbs.
And another mutant that saw this.
One whose arm was swelling to an abnormal, massive size casually flung aside the zombie corpse it had been devouring and began following after the four-legged mutant.