ep7. When Corpses Run (4)
Thud—
Something collapsed beyond the smoke. No — 'someone' would be more accurate.
The silence that followed sent a chill crawling up my spine.
"Hhk— agh...!"
A ragged gasp reached us a beat too late.
"Jae-gyeom, restrain him."
"Yes, sir!"
At Cha Si-eon's order, Gwak Jae-gyeom lowered his gun and broke into a run. I stumbled after him on instinct, but there was nothing for me to help with — Jae-gyeom had the crouched figure trussed up in a matter of seconds.
I could only stare, dumbfounded all over again. Shooting a person, then binding them. That was the kind of thing you saw in movies, or in news footage from the other side of the world. And now my own roommate was doing it.
The psychological resistance was considerable.
I was straining to make sense of the situation when I noticed something odd. The surroundings were clean. Judging by the man's reaction, he'd definitely been shot. So where was the blood?
"Was what Jae-gyeom just fired not live ammunition?"
"Rubber rounds. For suppression."
...Would it have killed you to mention that earlier? I nearly had a heart attack.
I finally let out the breath I'd been holding. Phew. Sure, shooting someone with rubber bullets wasn't exactly an everyday occurrence either, but the guy threw the smoke grenade first, so let's call it even. Phew.
The man Jae-gyeom had bound with a cable tie was a big one. His arms tied behind his back, he flailed for a moment, and when Jae-gyeom hauled him upright, he was wheezing for breath. Then he shouted desperately at Jae-gyeom.
"You're— you're soldiers, right? Spare me, please! I've been trapped in here for over a day...!"
His whining cut off mid-sentence. The man stared blankly at Jae-gyeom's bleached hair, and then, suddenly ashen, he began to beg in earnest.
"S-spare me! Please, I'm begging you! My mother lives alone — without me, my mom will die...!"
Oh, I knew this one. I'd tensed up at Cha Si-eon's topknot too. A kid whose hair marked him as neither soldier nor cop, holding a gun — of course that was terrifying.
The terrified man's begging dissolved into open sobbing. But the wailing didn't last long.
"Gag him."
What?
I was startled a second time, and Gwak Jae-gyeom, once again, silently obeyed. Screeech—! Jae-gyeom slapped layer after layer of duct tape over the man's mouth.
When the sheer ruthlessness of the sight made me tense up, Cha Si-eon offered an explanation.
"That individual is designated for emergency arrest."
"Emergency arrest?"
"He remained inside 'The Stadium That Gathers the Dead' for roughly thirteen hours and murdered two people — committing unnecessary child abuse and sexual crimes in the process."
Jae-gyeom and I looked down at the man. He shook his head furiously, whining through the tape. A face pleading innocence — but that was beside the point.
"So are you telling me to kill this guy and get Ha Yu-ju out?"
"No. Bureau personnel attacking civilians is strictly prohibited. Even for an arrest target, a civilian's rights are guaranteed until a conviction is confirmed through trial."
And shooting someone with rubber bullets isn't an attack?
I stared pointedly at Gwak Jae-gyeom's submachine gun, packing that thought into the look. Cha Si-eon added, calm and swift:
"However, responding to threats and taking provisional measures are permitted."
"...So that's why you told me to sit still?"
"There is a body the man hid. We will use it to evacuate Ha Yu-ju first."
So that's why I got parked on the couch, huh, Team Leader Cha...
And then there was Baek Sa-ra, who'd tried to use me as a bullet shield back at the hospital. Ah — so she hadn't been planning to attack me directly after all. She was going to let me die to a grenade from the Moving Gun. Hahaha...
I had plenty to say, but no room to haggle. While Jae-gyeom hauled the man to his feet, I went into the room and helped Ha Yu-ju up.
"The body is on the second floor — second room on the left from the stairs."
"Mmph!"
At Cha Si-eon's words, the man thrashed against his restraints. So he really had stashed a body there.
"Your current location is the indoor entrance area of the main stadium. No other personnel are present in this zone, so move without concern."
"How many people are in here right now?"
"Including our team and the restrained male, nine in total. One minor; all others adults. Longest stay: two days. Shortest: five hours."
Route A — Escape through Cleaning the Stadium was only possible when five or fewer survivors remained inside the zone. Even after sending Ha Yu-ju out, at least three more would have to disappear. That was why Cha Si-eon had held off on deploying the rescue team. Adding more people on our side didn't help here. It only added more people who would have to die for someone else to escape. That man, too, had already killed two.
So why hadn't he escaped yet?
I watched the man squirm as Jae-gyeom dragged him along. He was tall, with a solid build — easily ninety kilograms. No way. Was he short on weight?
Come to think of it, what Cha Si-eon had said earlier. He murdered two people. In the process, he committed unnecessary child abuse and sexual crimes. I'd let it slide in the moment, but what was that supposed to mean...?
"You said killing is exceptionally permitted in here, right?"
"Certain acts committed for survival are tolerated. Not all killing is permitted."
"Did that man's killings fall within the tolerated scope?"
"They did."
"Then the child abuse and sexual offenses are what made him an arrest target?"
"Correct."
"...?"
Of course. Obviously. You shouldn't abuse children or commit sexual crimes, ever. But what struck me as strange, in a space where murder itself was permitted, was that such an ordinary line in the sand still existed.
When my bafflement must have shown, Cha Si-eon spoke.
"Killing is permitted here as an exception meant to protect as many lives as possible."
Permitting murder in order to protect lives. What a staggering paradox.
"Committing antisocial crimes under the cover of these circumstances runs counter to the measure's purpose of reducing loss of life. It is treated as an abuse of the system and punished severely."
I nodded along to Cha Si-eon's explanation. So this was something like how war crimes are punished even in the middle of a war. Even in wartime, where opposing forces kill each other by design, the massacre of civilians, torture, and rape are forbidden under international law. Because the purpose of war is the acquisition of some interest — not the crime against humanity itself. Acts of depredation that fall outside armed conflict between states and armies are strictly banned as war crimes.
Of course, banning it doesn't make it stop happening. If anything, such rules exist precisely because these crimes occur so easily in such situations — a codified minimum. A reminder that no matter the circumstances, there are things you do not do.
"Mmph! Mmph!"
By the time we reached our destination, the man's resistance had turned vicious — a complete about-face from the sobbing wreck of earlier. Now that he knew we couldn't lay a hand on him, his true nature had crawled out.
Gwak Jae-gyeom held the man fast and opened the door. The room was darker than the corridor, and for a moment I could see nothing. Jae-gyeom pulled out a searchlight, and its concentrated beam swept methodically across a plush sofa, a desk bearing a nameplate, a display case crammed with trophies. Some kind of executive's office. A chairman's room, maybe.
"The body is under the desk, sealed in black plastic."
"UUUGH!"
"Whoa — hold still!"
The instant Cha Si-eon pinpointed the exact spot, the man went berserk. Jae-gyeom flung aside the searchlight and pinned him down with his whole body.
Which left me with no choice but to accept my fate. Yep. Digging out the corpse was my job after all...
I seated Ha Yu-ju on the sofa and approached the desk. I pulled out the chair and — ugh — there it was, an object wrapped in black plastic, just like he'd said. May you go somewhere good. Rest in peace, be gathered into the heavens, and find your peace in paradise. I offered a short prayer, then bent down under the desk.
And then — what was this?
"There's another, smaller bag in here?"
About the size of a school backpack. It sat in front of the large plastic sheet that was presumably the body, so I reached to move it out of the way — and jerked my hand back, startled out of my skin.
"...!"
What was inside the bag was moderately cool, moderately soft — and at the same time, it formed a moderately firm mass. Which made it feel like something I absolutely should not be touching.
"There's... something inside this bag."
"It will be the first victim — the one that man killed before the others."
"What?"
"The first victim was a woman of similar build to the man. He carried her straight to the stadium after killing her, but before she could reach the goalpost, the Running Corpses destroyed most of the body. This is presumed to be a portion of the remains he managed to salvage."
"Good grief..."
So that's why he'd killed two and still couldn't leave. He'd already failed once.
With a feeling I can only call horror, I gripped the knotted mouth of the pouch, drew it out, and set it down carefully beside the desk. All that remained was the big bag. Crumpled under the desk, it was — exactly as advertised — the size of a full-grown person. Tug at it carelessly and the plastic would tear. Left with no alternative, I seized it firmly with both hands.
Squirm—
...Did it just move? Rigor mortis, maybe?
Suppressing the gooseflesh prickling up my arms, I pulled. I was about halfway through dragging it out when—
Rustle— rustle—
Thump thump thump—!
The bag started thrashing!
"Gah—!"
"Hyung, what is it?!"
I let go in shock, then — startled in an entirely different way — grabbed the plastic and ripped it open. Beneath several layers of black sheeting, something surged upward through the gap.
"Hah—...!"
Then, at last, ragged breaths burst free.
"Hhk— hah...!"
"A-are you okay?"
The question came out of me closer to a groan. The second victim was still alive. And the person trapped inside wasn't a corpse at all — it was a skinny male student in a school uniform. His face was mottled with bruises. His movements looked pained. And now that I looked properly — his arms were bound tight with the plastic.
"Untie him."
Before I could even ask, Cha Si-eon said it. I tore the plastic off the student straight away, handed him a water bottle, and asked again.
"You okay, kid?"
He gulped the water down first, then lifted his gloomy eyes to glance at me. For a face sizing me up, it wore a shadow far too heavy for a boy his age.
"Mmph! Mmmph!"
Just then, a strange noise came from beside us. I turned to look — the man in Jae-gyeom's grip was snickering to himself through the tape. ...He was laughing. As if we'd gotten what we deserved. As if our predicament was the funniest thing he'd ever seen.
The man knew we couldn't harm an ordinary civilian. He knew Ha Yu-ju was an emergency patient who needed out as fast as possible. And now the sole means of escape — the body — had come back to life. We were stuck, unable to move forward or back. He'd grasped all of it at a glance, and he was laughing at us for it.
I could only look at him with a hollow feeling. Gwak Jae-gyeom was gritting his teeth hard enough to crack his jaw.
"Mmph, mmph-mmph! Uuuugh!"
The man crowed through the tape, straining to make himself understood — clearly dying to say his piece. I didn't need to hear it to know what it would be. I'll come out and kill for you — let's make a deal. Damn it. What were we supposed to do now—
"Remain still."
Then Cha Si-eon spoke.
"Do nothing. Wait."
What kind of—
Rustle—
The boy pushed the plastic off himself and rose to his feet. Still unsteady, he braced against the display case for a moment, then stood upright. And then he began shambling toward Gwak Jae-gyeom and the man.
The next instant—
CRACK—!
The boy brought it down on the man's head. A trophy he'd just taken from the display case — heavy, and sharp at the edge.
The man's neck snapped, and droplets of blood scattered through the air.
Every one of us froze in shock.
But no one moved to stop him.