The Gate Emerges
“This crazy bastard! Ugh!” The guard spat curses as he struggled to his feet.
“Quit whining.” I snorted. It was only three rubber suppression rounds. Besides, they’d struck his plate carrier, so he wasn’t hurt.
Ring-ring-ring! The phone blared.
“Answer it.” I pressed the muzzle against his head. “What are you waiting for?”
“……”
“Pick it up. And just so you know, these aren’t training rounds anymore. Ignore me and you’ll get a new hole in your skull.”
The guard lifted the receiver with trembling hands. “Yes, this is the security office at Hyunsan Apartment Complex 2. Yes, yes, that’s correct. So right now……”
“Gate phenomenon detected. Radius three kilometers,” I whispered into his ear.
“Yes, gate phenomenon detected. We’re estimating a radius of roughly three kilometers……”
“Request military and police support. Deploy hunters immediately.”
“Please send military and police assistance. Yes, yes. We’d appreciate it if you could dispatch hunters as quickly as possible.”
He set the phone down.
“Good job.” Still aiming the pistol at him, I grabbed the microphone.
— Attention, residents. Evacuate as far as possible. We strongly recommend you move beyond a three-kilometer radius. I repeat: evacuate as far as possible……
After repeating the message several times, I released the mic.
“Hands.”
“……”
“Now.”
I zip-tied the guard’s wrists and sat him in the chair. “Try anything stupid and I really will shoot. So behave.”
“What the hell are you thinking? You some kind of terrorist?”
“Do I look like one?”
“……”
“Just stay quiet. Later you can thank me for keeping you alive.”
I left him there and spent the next few minutes watching the drone feed on my phone. Good—everyone was running. The screen vibrated. Caller ID: Father. As the regional defense commander, he would have heard the alert the moment it went out. He’d probably ordered an immediate return to base, but by the time he arrived from Yeongwol the situation would already be over.
“Heh.” A laugh slipped out. The old me never would have acted this boldly. I wouldn’t have stormed the management office; I would have knocked. I would have wasted precious minutes trying to convince the guard. But that was three years ago—before I swore revenge on those inhuman bastards. Since then I’d become someone who would use any means necessary.
“What’s with that look? Think I’m crazy?”
“N-no, sir.”
Liar. It was written all over his face.
“It’s a crazy world anyway. If you want to survive in it, you have to be a little crazy yourself. Don’t you think?”
“……”
“From now on, losing your mind might actually be good for your mental health. The real hell starts today.”
I turned back to the phone. People were still fleeing. Then the feed showed armed police cars and military armored vehicles pouring into the complex.
“Five minutes left.”
The guard spoke up. “You should just turn yourself in.”
“And then what? Life without parole until I rot in prison? Or a psych ward?”
“That’s not……”
“Didn’t I tell you to thank me for saving your life? You were supposed to die today.”
The guard let out a hollow laugh, clearly convinced I was a raving lunatic. But the truth was the opposite: the man laughing nervously in front of me had been fated to die today—gutted by monsters. I still remembered the sight of his corpse.
I checked the time. 09:59. One minute remaining.
I sipped the guard’s lukewarm coffee and waited for ten o’clock.
Crackle—crackle! The moment the clock struck ten, every electronic device in the office glitched.
“See for yourself.” I showed him the phone screen.
A black sphere bloomed in the children’s playground between the buildings. Space warped, the surrounding terrain twisting and reshaping.
“Well?”
“Th-that’s a gate……”
“Still think I’m crazy?”
The guard clamped his mouth shut.
* * *
I cut the zip-tie from his wrists. He winced, rubbing the red marks.
“Stop acting like a baby. Gear up.”
“Y-yes, sir.”
He opened the armory and pulled out a shotgun. An armory inside an apartment management office—fifteen years ago that would have been unthinkable. But in an age when gates could appear anywhere, armed security at even a single complex was normal. Wealthy Gangnam apartments sometimes fielded their own private militias. Because the rich still lived safer lives than everyone else. Until “that incident,” at least.
“Any real combat experience?”
“A few times.”
“When?”
“During my military service. What about you?”
“A few times too.” A few thousand, actually.
“You served?”
“Never enlisted.”
The guard glared at me with his eyes.
“Let’s go.”
“Where?”
“Outside. We’ll die if we stay here.”
“Wouldn’t it be safer to hide?”
“Bombing runs are coming. Look.” I pointed at the screen. Monsters were pouring out of the playground in every direction.
“Shit……” The guard’s whole body shook.
“So move.”
“R-right.”
I repositioned the drone and stepped outside. The guard followed, shotgun in hand.
“H-how did you know?”
“Know what?”
“That the gate was coming. You knew beforehand, didn’t you?”
“When did I say that?”
“Huh?”
“I just saw the gate and hit the alarm. Then I called the defense force. That’s all.”
“That’s not how it happened……”
“Must be the stress. Memory gets scrambled when you’re scared.”
The guard clawed at his hair, groaning.
Gunfire and explosions echoed through the overgrown foliage. The military and police were already engaged.
“This way.”
We moved in the direction with the fewest heat signatures on the drone’s thermal feed.
“Damn it. I already drew the short straw working weekend duty, and now I’m gonna die……”
“Shut up and follow. No complaining.”
“Yes, sir.”
We had gone about a hundred meters when screams rang out nearby.
“Kyaaah!”
“Aagh!”
Two civilians were surrounded by goblins. Heat signatures confirmed it.
I sighed. The evacuation order had gone out minutes ago.
“What do we do?” the guard asked.
“We help them.”
He looked reluctant, but I didn’t blame him. Even with a shotgun, fighting monsters as an unawakened civilian took guts.
“If you’re scared, stay back.”
“Is that okay?”
“Why wouldn’t it be? You’re not under my command.”
“……Fair point.”
I left him and sprinted toward the screams.
A middle-aged man was emptying a pistol at the goblins. None of his shots landed. I raised my carbine—a Czech Bren 2 chambered in 7.62mm. Five-five-six was too weak against monsters; seven-six-two had become the standard years ago.
The rifle barked. Goblins dropped. When only two remained I slung the carbine and drew my hand axe.
“Cease fire! Cease fire!”
A bullet zipped past my ear. “Son of a bitch—”
“I said cease fire! Finger off the trigger!”
The man kept shooting wildly, lost in panic. I ducked behind a parked car, waited for his magazine to run dry, then exploded forward and finished the last goblins with the axe. Pale brains and bright blood sprayed across the pavement.
“R-reload, reload……” The man’s hands shook so badly he couldn’t even seat a fresh magazine.
“Hey.”
“Reload, reload……”
“Mister.”
“Reload……”
Crack! I slapped him across the face. He blinked, finally snapping out of it.
“Th-thank you.”
“Didn’t you hear the evacuation broadcast? What were you doing until now?”
“I’m sorry. My wife…… she’s not well……”
A middle-aged woman sat trembling in a wheelchair behind him.