The Scapegoat
Corpses and bloodstains were scattered everywhere. The faint, lingering scent of gunpowder and the spent casings that caught under my boots were testament to the previous night’s skirmish.
“Damn it….”
They said the shelter entrance was only open for fifteen minutes starting at 9:00 AM. But today was different. About twenty people were busy clearing away bodies and scrubbing the blood off the floor.
“You’re that new guy from yesterday, right?”
A man approached me. His hair was thick with gray, and his eyes were hollow, his expression one of profound exhaustion, as if he hadn't slept a wink.
“We’re in the middle of a meeting, so get inside quickly. This kind of work is for the maintenance crew, and you’re on the search team, aren’t you?”
“What happened here?”
“There’s a university nearby.”
The man said it as if it were nothing, then went back to helping move a corpse. Does this mean these things happen often?
‘A university? That’s a priority-one zone for purification.’
There are places where zombies inevitably congregate. Hospitals, schools, department stores, shopping malls. When choosing a hideout or a shelter, these threats must be eliminated. The cries of cats in heat, the territorial disputes of wild dogs, the chirping of migratory birds—the factors that draw zombies are diverse, and if you don’t perform purification work, disaster is inevitable.
‘They can’t be ignorant of something so basic.’
As I headed toward the auditorium, the sentries I’d met yesterday were there again. The only difference from yesterday was that they weren’t pointing their guns at me or trying to confiscate my weapons.
“Can I just go in?”
“Han Jiyoung said she’d take responsibility for you. I don’t know anything.”
“By the way, you two are twins, right?”
Yesterday, they had masks and hats pulled low, so I hadn’t noticed. Today, they were only wearing sunglasses, and their facial features were strikingly similar.
“Good eye. That’s right. I’m Jang Young-min, and this is Jang Young-soo.”
“I’m Lee Cheon-il.”
“Get inside. Everyone’s waiting.”
“What’s the criteria for who attends the meeting and who doesn’t?”
“It’s the difference between the maintenance crew and the search team. The maintenance crew doesn’t get involved in outside affairs. Their mission is to guard this place.”
“I see.”
In that short conversation, I caught one piece of information. The people clearing the bodies and the sentries were all older.
‘Did they divide them based on individual combat ability?’
That meant the people inside this auditorium were the ones with relatively higher combat prowess.
When I opened the auditorium door, a screeching sound echoed, and the gazes of everyone inside rushed toward me.
‘What is this?’
The atmosphere was strange. Out of the dozen or so people, only two were looking at me with anything resembling favor. One of them, Han Jiyoung, ran up to me.
“Senior! Good morning!”
“Oh, yeah.”
“Please, sit over here!”
The other one was Hwang Gyunam, who raised a hand to acknowledge me.
“Welcome. I thought you might be late on your first day, but you made it just in time.”
“Ah, right.”
Han Jiyoung guided me to the chair she had been sitting in and stood beside it. The others seemed displeased even by that, their brows furrowed deep.
‘I have no idea what’s going on here.’
It was very strange. There was no reason for them to be hostile toward me, was there? Was this some kind of hazing? A power struggle or something?
While various thoughts crossed my mind, Oh Jeong-hwan opened his mouth.
“You must have seen it on your way in. There was a zombie attack last night.”
“Yes. I heard it was the ones from the university.”
“Let me ask you one thing. Did you know there was a university nearby?”
I was about to answer immediately, but I sensed the barb hidden in his words. These people—could they possibly be suspecting me?
“Are you implying I lured the zombies here?”
“We’re just not ruling out the possibility.”
“That’s amusing.”
“The attack happened on the very day you visited. Isn’t that a reasonable suspicion?”
It was absurd. Lured the zombies? Me, who had even been considering moving away with Cheonsa?
“No, Captain. How many times do I have to say it? Why would the senior do something like that?”
“Han Jiyoung. Don’t you step in. That’s a warning.”
“This is so frustrating. With such a poor eye for people, how do you expect to run a shelter?”
“What did you say, you little shit?”
Oh Jeong-hwan grabbed Han Jiyoung by the throat and shoved her against the wall. The situation escalated in an instant, and the atmosphere plummeted to its worst.
“I said it was a warning. Cross the line again.”
“Ugh! You son of a…!”
“A good eye for people? Is that why you got betrayed like an idiot?”
“Let go! I said let go!”
“Do you know how many people have died so far? Damn it! Two people died just yesterday!”
“I get it, so stop…!”
Han Jiyoung’s face turned deathly pale. I felt like something truly terrible would happen if I didn’t stop them immediately. I looked at Hwang Gyunam, but he was looking away, as if he were helpless to intervene.
“That’s enough.”
I grabbed Oh Jeong-hwan’s arm. In an instant, his eyes, glistening with murderous intent, locked onto me.
“Are you not letting go?!”
“You said two people died. Are you planning to kill another one?”
“Who the hell do you think you are!”
Whoosh!
Oh Jeong-hwan’s fist flew toward me. I lightly ducked my waist to dodge it, then used his own momentum to slam him into the ground. A dull thud echoed as the massive baseball player hit the floor. At the same time, a distinct, metallic clicking sound grated against my ears.
It was the sound of rounds being chambered.
“Ha.”
These bastards. I had suspected it from the start—they were all carrying handguns.
“Was this the plan from the beginning?”
Over a dozen gun barrels were aimed at me in unison. Beside them, Han Jiyoung was gasping for air, and Oh Jeong-hwan was glaring at me with a look of profound displeasure.
“You’d better stay still. If you try anything funny, you’ll be turned into a honeycomb.”
Hostile gazes, gun barrels pointed at me. And their arrogant expressions, as if they had already won, deeply provoked me.
“Fourteen people excluding me. Sixteen rounds loaded in the revolvers. What does that mean?”
“What?”
“It means I can kill you bastards whenever I want.”
“You don’t seem to grasp the situation yet.”
“Want to make a bet?”
The optimal path was already mapped out in my mind. Subdue Oh Jeong-hwan and use him as a shield. Take out the three at two o’clock and the two at four o’clock first to narrow their firing angles. Honestly, I wasn’t confident. I wasn’t confident that I could lose.
“W-wait! Senior! Just a moment!”
Han Jiyoung blocked my path with a startled face. At that moment, the sensation of the tension being pulled taut felt like it had been snapped in two.
“I’ll resolve this, so please just wait a moment! For my sake, just once. I’m begging you.”
“…….”
At the sight of Han Jiyoung’s tearful expression, I lowered my hand from the holster. Only then did Han Jiyoung wipe away her cold sweat and let out a sigh of relief. She turned her back to me and spoke to the people.
“You guys, if you don’t want to die, put those guns down.”
“Han Jiyoung! Are you going to defy the Captain’s orders? Move out of the way, quickly!”
“You idiots…. We’re all going to die.”
“Does that bastard have a steel plate in his stomach? Stop talking nonsense and move! If you don’t move, I’ll shoot you too.”
“Ha…! You idiots, seriously.”
Various famous quotes came to mind. Know your enemy and know yourself. Know thyself. Wear shoes that fit your feet. For those who don’t know their place, a beating is the best medicine, and the price of ignorance is only death.
“Everyone. Let’s do as Jiyoung says.”
It was Hwang Gyunam who stepped forward then. He must have had some influence, as the people began to waver at his words.
“Captain, let’s calm down and put the guns away first. And let’s solve this through conversation.”
“Even if Han Jiyoung is like that, why is President Hwang taking that guy’s side?”
“I’m not taking sides. Honestly, does it matter who wins? We shouldn’t have any more casualties.”
“…….”
“And I vouch for this friend. If there’s any wrongdoing, I’ll take the punishment with him. To be blunt, there’s no evidence that he did it, is there?”
It was certainly a different feeling from Han Jiyoung. He was calm and rational. Oh Jeong-hwan, having finished his deliberation, made a decision.
“Fine. Everyone, put your guns down.”
At Oh Jeong-hwan’s word, everyone holstered their pistols. He looked at me, but I simply ignored him and sat in a chair.
“It’s not worth responding to, but I’ll refute it all. Why do you suspect me?”
“Because if the shelter collapses, you’d have all the supplies inside to yourself.”
The one who answered was a bald man with a striking scar on his face. I sneered at him.
“Why would I bother?”
“What did you say, you little shit?”
“Let’s say you’re right. Then I would have watched from afar to see if the shelter was ruined. Is there any reason to come here at all?”
“T-that’s….”
I stood up and headed to the blackboard placed in the center. A large map was hanging there, as if it were being used as a situation board. I pointed in the direction of the university and continued.
“The straight-line distance between the shelter and the university is only 800 meters. Why did you leave such a threat alone? Are you people out of your minds?”
“There’s a reason for that! You don’t know anything.”
“What reason? Were there too many zombies, so you didn’t dare to do it? Then you shouldn’t blame me, you should blame your own incompetence.”
“I-incompetent?! You, have you said your piece?”
“The causes for zombie movement are diverse, and if they’re this close, it wouldn’t be strange to be attacked at any time. Are you really doing this because you didn’t know?”
I looked at Oh Jeong-hwan and pinpointed the core issue I really wanted to address.
“You all just wanted to hang someone to hide your own incompetence. Like cowardly losers.”
“…….”
Oh Jeong-hwan averted his gaze. His reaction confirmed my suspicion. Neither Hwang Gyunam, nor Han Jiyoung, nor anyone else in the auditorium could refute it.
“We’re short on ammunition.”
It was Oh Jeong-hwan who broke the silence that seemed like it would never end. He let out a long sigh and answered in a calm voice.
“The ammunition we have isn’t even enough for the Pioneer Squad to use.”
“Pioneer Squad?”
They had mentioned that yesterday, too. The Pioneer Squad. Something they were hiding.
“Captain. Are you really going to tell him?”
“…We don’t have a choice.”
Oh Jeong-hwan went to the corner of the auditorium and brought back a rolled-up scroll. Everyone gathered around, as if they knew what it was.
“I’m not showing you this because I trust you. It’s because I don’t want to make the comrades who fought and died into cowards.”
Whoosh!
As Oh Jeong-hwan unrolled the scroll, a large map spread out. At first glance, it looked like a blueprint of a building, but there were scribbles all over it.
“We are operating a Pioneer Squad. The goal of the Pioneer Squad—no, the goal of our Osori Shelter is.”
Oh Jeong-hwan paused for a moment. Then, he stared straight at me, tensed his neck, and spoke.
“A large quantity of vaccines.”