Cash on Delivery

Captain Choi moved exactly as Jeongguk had planned. His only task was to pry a search authorization out of the commander.

"A search? Out of nowhere—what for?"

"It's a simple matter, sir."

"Captain Choi, what nonsense is this? Don't you know there isn't a single zombie corpse left to collect anywhere around here?"

"We have new information. There's a postman we let in today—"

"I know. Came to deliver a letter to Jo Shin-hye, didn't he."

"That postman's cargo cart broke down about ten minutes out. It won't roll any farther."

Just as Jeongguk had told him, Captain Choi produced a cargo cart that did not exist.

"A cargo cart?"

"He says he was hauling food."

The commander's ears twitched.

"No skill to repair it, and no supplies either, so he hid the wreck as best he could and came in to make the delivery. While he was here, he asked a favor of us. Help him fix it, he said, and he'd share the food."

This time an eyebrow climbed.

"A postman, offering to split his delivery? You believe that? Has zombie meat rotted your brain?"

The commander was beginning to heat. Captain Choi answered him without a ripple.

"I was suspicious at first myself. But he was explicit. It isn't a delivery. It's his personal property."

"Property...?"

"He was reluctant to be precise, but it seems to be payment he took for an illegal delivery."

Jeongguk's plan had been cut exactly to AAA's circumstances—a settlement short of food, and a life already used to dealing with crooked postmen who ran illegal deliveries as casually as they ate.

"We have at least confirmed that his identity as a postman is genuine."

"Even so, letting your guard down is out of the question."

"Yes, sir. That's why I mean to send a small search party to verify the cart and the food first."

The commander raked at his chin and sank into thought, but Captain Choi gave him no room for it.

"We won't need many. I'll form a search party of four and send them out. With the postman, that'll be a team of five."

The plan was to disguise everyone meant for the escape as that search party and walk them out as if it were nothing unusual. Captain Choi and Jo An-na, who wanted to leave—and, added on Jeongguk's own say-so, Sergeant Jeong and Jo Shin-hye. Four in all.

"Hm. Four, I suppose..."

A convenient number. To the commander, four subordinates were a loss that might shake a curse or two loose, but wouldn't turn his stomach. Precisely that much, and no more.

Jeongguk set out again for Jo Shin-hye with Sergeant Jeong in tow. He had explained that he was going to recruit her into the escape. Before any of that explaining, of course, he had already made the offer to Sergeant Jeong himself.

Hemmed in by Captain Choi, Jo An-na, and Jeongguk, the sergeant had heard the proposal and been talked into it. The two of them had only just started down the road toward her house.

"Haa..."

"Sigh on the inside."

"..."

"Are you sighing on the inside?"

"How did you know, sir?"

Nerves fraying after an escape sprung on him out of nowhere—that was only natural. I didn't have the luxury of indulging it.

"But... why does the Captain want to leave the settlement?"

"Didn't ask."

"...Same as ever, sir."

"You don't need to know that sort of thing. You signed on the moment you heard the Captain meant to get out, didn't you? Reason or no reason."

I'd figured Sergeant Jeong would follow Captain Choi. Not simply because the two of them looked close. The Sergeant Jeong I knew was not a man who crossed his direct superior. He'd been under me once. I knew the temperament. A soldier to the bone.

"If that's Captain Choi's will... The only reason I'm still breathing is him."

"Split a little zombie meat with you, did he?"

"How do you know everything?"

The two of them were identical in the way they killed a joke.

"Not that the zombie meat is the real reason. There's something more important. So, back then..."

Sergeant Jeong told me why they had carried out the armed desertion. Thanks to that, I learned why they had thrown away a regular army life and become rebels. I hadn't heard it even at Headquarters, and there was a reason for that.

"Monsters swarmed the base?"

"Yes, sir. Then command issued operational orders, and that was the problem. Soldiers like me didn't really understand, but the officers directly above us knew the operation was wrong."

"Command was buying time to run, and you were the meat shield."

"How do you hit it that exactly?"

It was obvious.

"So the junior officers rose up together. That it?"

The armed desertion succeeded. Command realized too late, and in the end the monsters slaughtered them.

The junior officers who had led the desertion built Settlement AAA and became its command. The NCOs who had handled field command beneath them became officers, the way Sergeant Major Choi became Captain Choi. Some of the brave soldiers who had obeyed without question and fought with their lives were promoted as well. Private Jeong—a soldier to the bone, a man who had thrown his life into the fight—jumped more ranks at a stroke than anyone and came out Sergeant Jeong.

Anyway. It was a story I'd never asked for.

"I never said I was curious."

"I just wanted to tell it."

"Fine. It was moving."

"The truly moving part starts now! Anyway, I fought like it didn't matter if I died, and then my memory cut out... When I came to, Captain Choi had me slung over his shoulder and was running...!"

That must have been part of why he'd taken the Captain's escape offer so readily. The Captain had saved his life.

"A real tearjerker."

"You aren't crying, though, sir."

"Then I'll tell it again when they show up."

Anyway, the same wrong was repeating itself. Command here was lying to its own men, quietly dealing with the outside world through Mask. Preparing, most likely, for the fate of a settlement that would soon be finished. And that was not the only thing they were preparing for. A guilty eye sees only its own guilt—they'd be worried the men might rebel. So the brainwashing went on, and they had their subordinates raise those damned anti-aircraft statues. The moment a crisis reached the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠settlement, they would throw their men away, just as the old command had.

"But I don't think command's judgment back then was wrong."

"Suddenly?"

"How could grunts like us be worth the same as the people up top? Sacrificing soldiers so more capable people lived—that would have been the path that helped the nation."

A thought very much like him.

"Then why didn't you refuse the order back then? Why obey a command to desert?"

"That's..."

"You don't owe absolute obedience just because an order comes from your direct superior. You know the charge for desertion. Don't tell me you don't."

"Well... of course, sir. Refusing an unlawful order isn't a crime."

"And yet?"

Sergeant Jeong, whose answers had always come at once, said nothing for a long while. That alone was answer enough.

"Don't overthink it. You each made the choice that let you live."

"..."

"Everyone did their best. The side that did it better is the one that survived."

Walking beside me, Sergeant Jeong slowed, a limp creeping into his step. I kept my pace and let him settle a little way behind me. From then until we reached Jo Shin-hye's house, he didn't say a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠word.

Night had fallen, and inside the darkened settlement not a single soldier was on the move. Aside from the sentries on the wall, no one was in sight.

Work them hard all day, then rest every one of them at night. That the idea?

Better to try the escape at night. Tomorrow night, then.

Knock, knock.

I'd come late, with no arrangement, and still—

The door banged open. Jo Shin-hye opened it fast. She must have been waiting on her sister.

"Where have you been all this—huh?"

"I found where your sister is."

"...And?"

The look said it plainly enough: her sister was somewhere, and all I had for her was that I'd found the place.

"Mind if I come in first? It's a bit cold out."

"It's not exactly warm in here either, but... fine."

She made room with a reluctant face. Sergeant Jeong followed me in without a word. I offered her the escape the same way I'd offered it to him. The difference was that with her, I set the weight on her younger sister—on the fact that Jo An-na wanted out.

"I kept telling myself no way, no way..."

She didn't look as badly shaken as I'd expected.

"In a way, it's a relief."

"What is?"

"That she hasn't escaped yet. I was thinking she might already have done something stupid."

An-na must have been giving off the scent of it even on ordinary days. Shin-hye had seen it coming, at least partway.

"The escape is tomorrow night. Weapons are ready, so you don't need to pack any. Just sort out whatever's small, light, and worth money, and be ready to go."

"No—hold on. I never said I was escaping."

"I know. I never asked whether you'd come in the first place."

"What?"

"Your sister's going. I assumed you'd go with her."

"Ha."

When Jo Shin-hye looked at me as if I'd lost my mind, Sergeant Jeong started forward, meaning to help. I cut him off. Don't butt in.

"Where is Anna right now? She is absolutely not going."

"She's preparing for the escape."

"You shouldn't be taking me—you should be stopping her. An escape...?"

"Hear it first. Then decide."

I laid out the escape plan at once. It was the first Sergeant ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Jeong was hearing of it, too. With him there had been no need to explain a plan. It had ended at the line of Captain Choi's will.

"Oh, Postman! That's a pretty clean method!"

Color came back into his face at once.

"Mm..."

Jo Shin-hye, by contrast, gave no reaction worth the name. But the simple fact that she wasn't fighting it tooth and nail meant half the work was done. So I pushed a little further.

"As it happens, Captain Choi is an officer involved in running the anti-aircraft guns up on the wall. He'll tamper with the guns, to a point, before we leave."

"Mm..."

"And Sergeant Jeong here as well."

"M-me?"

"Sergeant Jeong is an NCO who can give orders to the sentries. He'll get to them before the escape, same as the guns. Right?"

That was why I meant to take him along.

"O-of course!"

She worried at her lip, and at last gave a small nod.

As expected.

I'd been right to think Jo Shin-hye would come around in the end. There was reason enough. But the wariness in her eyes hadn't left. Questions still remained.

"But why are you trying to take me, too? I don't think Anna would have asked."

I'd wondered the same thing. Why was the younger sister trying to escape behind her older sister's back? Most likely Jo An-na had asked, long ago, that they go together. And Jo Shin-hye had refused, because escape was dangerous. The trouble was that escape was not the only dangerous thing. Getting out was no promise of a rosy future. This settlement might be hopeless, but the world outside was still hell. So what was Jo An-na trusting, that she meant to run anyway? If I had it right, the answer wasn't far.

"The reason I want to take you as well is simple."

"Hm?"

I drew the envelope from my pocket. An old one, crumpled, torn open rough.

She had given it to me as proof that she'd received the mail. Jo Yong-han's name was written on it.

"Why were you keeping this envelope? You said you wouldn't take any more mail. That you were cutting off contact."

"That's... in case mail came again, like this time. So I could use it as proof..."

"I think you know that doesn't hold up as an excuse."

She looked away from me.

"It doesn't look like the behavior of someone who wants to end a tie. If anything, it's the opposite."

"..."

She hadn't truly wanted to sever things with Jo Yong-han.

"And if you're keeping even an envelope like this, then the letter that was inside is still around. Obviously."

Why had Jo Yong-han spent a fortune, over and over, on reckless requests to have letters delivered? Because what was in them mattered that much.

"Hidden between ordinary lines asking how they were, there would have been a cipher only the three siblings could read. Am I right?"

The envelope torn open so roughly was the mark of censorship. Mail inspection was hardly unique to this place. In a settlement under tight watch, it was common. So people who were close often wrote in code.

"Jo Yong-han has made a place for himself at Headquarters. When he reached a position where he could settle his older sister and his younger sister there, he would have sent the first letter."

A letter carrying a cipher that said: escape, and come to Headquarters. He had needed a postman who would get that letter through by any means necessary, so he had brought in Mask. That had been a mistake.

Jo Shin-hye had caught the scent. And Captain Choi had already known exactly what kind of man Mask was.

If Captain Choi knew, then Jo An-na knew, and that meant Jo Shin-hye knew too—that Mask was a man who could not be trusted. So she had said there would be no reply, and no contact of any kind. Keep the contact going, and she and her sister would be in danger. And maybe...

She thought Jo Yong-han could be put in danger, too.

Fortunately, this once, their luck had held. Instead of a man like that, the best postman had arrived.

"This time, Ms. Shin-hye, you can do as your heart tells you. What will you do?"

"...Why are you helping with something like this?"

When she finally spoke, hesitating, the wariness was gone from her eyes.

"Because this is what I do."

"What...?"

"A postman's work."

Jo Shin-hye and Sergeant Jeong tipped their heads.

"Then that's Captain Choi, Jo An-na, Sergeant Jeong, and Jo Shin-hye. Four of you."

I rapped the postman's armband and went on.

"I'll deliver you safely to Headquarters."

Only then did a faint smile touch her face.

"Then I'll be counting on you, Postman."

Sergeant Jeong clenched a fist and pumped it. "Let's go!"

"Ah, of course I'll do my utmost with the delivery. Even so, cargo does get damaged in transit now and then."

Jo Shin-hye laughed, a short puff of air. At least this one understood a joke.

Still...

Every one of them was dead broke. Could I bill the delivery fee to Jo Yong-han—cash on delivery?