External Quarantine
The next morning.
The fire we had lit in the drum the night before had burned down to white ash. Beside it, the tools, wire, and clamps we had gathered the day before were laid out neatly by purpose.
Me, Foreman Yeo Ildu, and Crane Operator Park Jaedong with his pale face.
Today was not a day for simply holding on. It was a day to expand our survival zone and raise our odds of staying alive.
I pointed out the window at the EGI Fence ringing the outer edge of the site.
"I think we should make use of the fence surrounding the whole site. If we reinforce the fence and its supports, it should make a solid wall."
Yeo Ildu scanned the fence line.
"Makes sense. Get a proper wall up and our living space opens up."
"Exactly. So we need to drive every last one of those things wandering around outside, then lock those gates."
Sitting around here would only end one way — starving to death. We had to do something.
I squatted down and sketched on the concrete with a scrap of rebar.
"Here's my idea. First we build a five-meter structure out of scaffold pipe."
I drew a square tower.
"Not a full cage. A tower-type platform we can hook to the crane and lift. I'll make just enough space and railing up top for me to stand on, and leave the lower section open so their hands can't reach."
Yeo Ildu caught on and nodded.
"So you're building a decoy structure to draw them in."
"Yes. While they're busy with that, you and Mr. Park shut the steel doors on the main and secondary gates, then finally slam a container into place with the crane and seal everything off completely."
Park Jaedong swallowed hard and spoke up.
"Isn't that way too dangerous? You're saying Kim Seongmin is going to hang in midair as live bait."
"There's no other way. Food and water are going to run out soon. You've seen the roads — the second we step outside, we become targets."
I refined the drawing on the ground. A diamond-shaped table-like frame.
"I'm eliminating the intermediate rungs they'd climb on. The legs go in on the diagonal, greased so they can't get up. That's the key."
While I lured them from above, the lower section needed enough clearance that their hands could never reach. That was the whole point.
We got straight to assembly.
First we laid two scaffold planks on the ground.
"Double up the planks. One won't hold if it sways in the air. Bottom sheet for support, top sheet as my standing deck."
At each of the four corners we stood double pillar pipes for the legs. While Yeo Ildu braced them from below with his foot so they wouldn't shift, I bent at the waist and ran the first ledger pipe around to form a square frame.
"Ledger height: a handspan and a half off the floor. Even if they stretch, they won't reach here easily, so we use it only to take the structure's own load."
Every time a clamp tightened, metal bit into metal with a solid bite. The spanner turned, then stopped with a dull tuk at just the right point. Muscle memory set the torque at that edge.
Once the lower ledger was done, the frame took on a real, stable shape.
Yeo Ildu handed me two more pipes.
"Clamp them solid. They've got to fight the twist when we lift. Wind too."
Clamping the two pipes on killed most of the sway. I eyed the leg angles one more time.
"Wind's coming in from the road toward the site. That means the force on the lift will load this way, so we should pack the clamps denser on the side that kills the wind."
Yeo Ildu gave a short laugh.
"A guy who's done the work knows. Set it however you want it."
We doubled every leg and stripped out all the horizontal members between the four of them. Higher up, the noise rising from the ground grew fainter, and I could feel the frame trembling faintly in the wind through my palms.
"You hold the verticals. I'll just watch the clamp connections."
"Got it. Mr. Park, later just check the sling points for the crane. We've got to hang them balanced on all four upper ledgers. If it lists to one side, we're finished."
Park Jaedong nodded.
Maybe an hour later the assembly was done. I grabbed the finished frame by the body and shook it hard. The only sound was steel plate scraping the ground; the upper section didn't dance on its own. No creaks. It held, heavy and solid.
Yeo Ildu went around with a spanner, giving each clamp bolt one more turn.
Deureuk— deureuk—
Until they would not turn any farther.
A five-meter tower of steel. This would ride out any ordinary shaking.
I looked at the two of them and drove the point home one last time.
"While I'm drawing them off, neither of you can hesitate. One second of second-guessing and we're all done."
Yeo Ildu clapped my shoulder.
"Doors first, then the containers. Don't worry about us — look after your own hide."
"Give me clear signals. I'll move the instant I get them."
I ran the sequence through my head one more time. I go up. They come out after me. In that window we shut the steel doors and drop the containers. If anyone freezes even once midway, that tower and the three of us all go under together.
I handed the radio to Park.
"If I call out by voice, they might react, so stop, hoist, slew, and lower — those four will be hand signals only, like we agreed."
We matched the signals one last time and headed to our positions.
Operation start.
Park Jaedong started climbing the vertical ladder fixed to the tower crane mast.
"The cab's safe enough, but the fear of looking down from up there is a lot worse than anything you feel on the ground."
I looked up at the tiny operator's cab dozens of meters overhead. Wind hit the mast and set it humming faintly.
A moment later a low, long mechanical whine rolled out.
Wiiiiing—
The hoist motor turning, taking up wire. The massive jib slewed slowly, and the shadow it threw across the site floor slid like something alive. The hook at the boom tip swayed a little in the wind, then centered itself again under control. When the steel cable trembled, the vibration traveled all the way into the soles of my feet.
The heavy hook came down dead center over the structure we had built and stopped.
Yeo Ildu and I split the sling belts across four points on the upper frame.
"Hang them balanced."
"Of course. My life's on the line here."
We wrapped each corner ledger and set the angle inward at forty-five degrees. If the angle opened up, the load would double or triple.
"Putting the load on. Don't take your hands off till the end," Park Jaedong said over the radio.
The hook rose slowly and the sling belts went taut. The structure lifted about ten centimeters off the ground. At first one side came up a little, then the tension equalized across all four strands and the body found level. It seemed to tip microscopically one way — then Park worked the lever and it settled tuk into perfect horizontal.
That was the power of heavy equipment. Fine adjustment no human strength could match. If even one sling let go in that state, the whole frame would tip and spin.
I checked under my feet again without thinking. Yeo Ildu nodded, satisfied.
"Good. This'll handle the real job."
"Keep the signals simple, though. One at a time. It gets complicated, we get an accident," Park said again.
Time for the main operation.
I cinched the chin strap of my hard hat one more time. The plastic bite around jaw and ears was familiar. I checked the safety harness at my waist and the lanyard — fingered the carabiner gate shut all the way, ran a hand along the line for any abrasion. Everything was ready.
The crane lifted the structure and carried it to the middle of the site. It hovered ten centimeters above ground for a beat, then settled with a sound onto the floor.
I stood beside it and checked the lanyard length on my safety hook. I clipped onto the cross-pipe that would serve as an upper rail and locked both hands hard on the pipe. The steel deck plate I was using as a floor took my weight and gave a small creak.
I climbed up onto the structure.
I took one breath, then slammed the rebar spear in my hand hard against a pillar pipe.
Kkang—! Kkang—! Kkang—!
The metal scream tore at the eardrums and rolled out in every direction.
The first to answer was the one inside the building.
Ttallang—!
A bell jingled somewhere on the third-floor corridor, and a moment later that scrawny infected burst from the building entrance. Starting with it, the Active Infections scattered across the site all turned their heads toward the noise.
Keureureureuk—
I leaned on the structure's rail and swept the ground below. The EGI Fence boxed the outer edge of the site in a rectangle. Main gate, secondary gate, and the workers' entrance. The spot where the structure now stood was the center, with a clear line of sight to all three.
Park Jaedong started moving the crane. The structure I rode rose slowly into the air and began a wide circling slew along the inside of the EGI Fence. As the turn started I felt the upper frame lag a fraction behind — inertia. I held the pipe with one hand, balanced my body, and kept my eyes locked downward.
Looking down, I saw the infected pour after the structure like a swarm of ants. The ones stuck to the building, the ones leaning in fence corners, the ones wandering between wrecked cars — each of them drove a straight line toward the sound from wherever they had been standing.
Hands thrust up all at once. They shoved and trampled one another, packing in under the platform. A few tried to climb the shoulders of the ones below, thrashing to get higher. The flow funneled into the bottlenecks formed by fence, steel doors, and containers.
"If they all pile that way, they'll get in the way when we seal the gates."
I gauged the crane's direction and speed by eye. At the current slew radius, the center of the pack was being pulled a little toward the main gate rather than true center of the site. A wider circle would split the herd in two. But right now I needed them bunched on purpose.
The moment the tower crane's boom swung out beyond the construction site, I gave the agreed signal.
Hook down!
Wire paid out overhead and the hook descended. I locked onto the structure's rail and dropped my center of gravity. The instant the scaffold frame settled on the ground, I unhooked it from the crane.
Ttalkak—
At the same moment Park hauled on the hoist lever. The infected around us surged after me. Countless hands clawed the empty air under my feet.
I stood on the scaffold tower and caught my breath.
The lure had worked.
They were stacking themselves like a human tower, their height climbing steadily. Measuring from the outer rail of the deck, I still had about two arm-lengths of clearance. At this rate, three more waves and they would reach.
Scrap—
Someone's nails raked a scaffold leg under the deck.
While I held their eyes, Yeo Ildu moved on the ground. He sprinted to the main gate and shoved the folding steel door.
Kiiiiiik— cheolkeok—!
The door ran shut along the floor rail, and the lock ring snapped home. Park Jaedong immediately swung the crane hook to a nearby container box. Yeo Ildu hooked the sling belts; Park lifted.
Hoist. Slew. Lower.
The massive container dropped across the face of the steel door they had just closed.
Kung!
The whole ground shook.
First gate sealed.
They did the same at the secondary gate where cars used to pass — steel door shut, second container slammed into place. There was no gap left for anything to enter the site.
More and more infected kept packing in. Any second one of them was going to make it up onto the scaffold tower.
Keureureureuk— kieeeeek—
Their cries boiled right under my feet. Yeo Ildu watched from atop a container, face tight. If Park was even a little late, or set the hook wrong when he lowered it, my life was over.
Wiiiiing—
Luck held. The tower crane's hook arrived over my head. I forced the urgency down and calmly wrapped the lanyard around the hook and clipped on. Then I signaled with my hands.
Hook up!
If I went straight back into the site, the infected would simply flood the fence line again. I needed to scatter them.
Park read my intent. Still hanging me from the hook, the crane took one more wide circuit along the inner perimeter of the EGI Fence. The herd, with nowhere left to go, milled and began to break apart. Once I saw them split, I signaled the return.
Now.
I set my feet on safe open ground inside the site and unclipped the safety hook.
"Haa… Thought I was dead."
Yeo Ildu looked like he had aged ten years as he checked me over from head to toe.
"Anywhere hurt?"
"No. I'm fine."
In that same moment, the door of the container blocking the main gate opened from the inside.
Kiiik—
Someone scrambled out in a rush.
A woman.