Chapter 41. Those Who Abduct Humans.
Chapter 41. Those Who Abduct Humans.
After the flight, the helicopters touched down in Yongsan. Waiting for us there were the President, the Chief of Staff, and the advisors.
"Well done, everyone. You must all be exhausted. Eat and get some proper rest first. I'll take the full report tomorrow."
So we spent the day there, and the next morning we all gathered again. The Special Forces Commander told the President about the Uljin power plant director and handed over his journal. As they read through it, the advisors looked aghast.
"Truly... tragic... And yet, to have written a manual for the future until the very end..."
Led by the President, everyone naturally closed their eyes for a few minutes of silent tribute. When the silence ended, the President spoke.
"That leaves three power plants still standing. For this next one, the task is clearing out the zombies and rescuing survivors. One is in Jeollanam-do, one is in Busan, and the other is also relatively close."
Just like the very first operation briefing, the Chief of Staff began.
"Clearing the zombies matters, but the safety of the survivors is the top priority. Once we secure their safety first, if recovery proceeds normally, we expect restarting the power plants will be achievable without major difficulty."
"Oh... Is that so?"
"Yes. We can supply electricity again."
At the prospect of having electricity again, people started to feel heartened.
"We'll handle the Jeollanam-do power plant first, then resolve the remaining two at once. As for the status of the Jeollanam-do plant, confirmed intelligence indicates there are numerous survivors in the control room."
"Understood. We'll load the helicopters with daily necessities and food for them and depart as soon as maintenance is finished."
"Yes, as always, safety is the top priority."
Once we'd arrived in Yongsan, we radioed our group to let them know everyone was safe. And the next day, the helicopter bound for Jeollanam-do loaded up with people and took off.
* * * * * * * *
Warrant Officer Lee Geun-cheol's voice came through the helmet headset, announcing our arrival.
"We're over the power plant now. We plan to set down on the soccer field visible right next to it, so everyone prepare."
The party members each finished their checks and disembarked. Unlike Uljin, this place was surrounded by mountains, and the employee housing was far enough away that there weren't as many corpses as I'd expected.
When we reached the building, we confirmed that all the first-floor windows had been crudely boarded up, and the main building of the power plant was fenced off. Just then, one of the team members pointed a finger upward and called out to the Special Forces Commander.
"Commander! Up on the rooftop—I see a sign!"
We all looked up. Someone had torn up a curtain and painted 'SOS' on it, hanging it there.
"First, we make straight for the control room and locate the survivors."
We cleared the barricade at the door immediately, went inside, and checked the map posted on the first floor. After confirming the control room's location, we headed straight for it. We killed zombies along the way; judging by the fact that the steel door opened just in time and the CCTV camera swiveled, the survivors had apparently spotted us as well.
After we cleared out the zombies before the final floor, we waited for the door to open. For some reason, it didn't.
"They're probably watching us on CCTV too, so why aren't they opening it?"
Unwilling to wait any longer after several minutes, the Special Forces Commander seemed ready to breach the door and asked a team member for a breaching charge. He was in the middle of preparing to attach the explosives to the door.
At that moment, Chaeyeon stopped the Special Forces Commander.
"Wait a moment. They were opening it all along and suddenly stopped—that's strange, isn't it? There's probably a reason."
"...That is possible..."
Right after that, the Special Forces Commander approached the CCTV camera and spoke.
"Are you in trouble right now? If so, please move the camera left and right."
— Whirr... Whirr...
The camera head nodded left and right.
"Huh... Why is that?"
This time, I asked the camera a question.
"If it's zombies, move left and right. If it's looters, move up and down."
Again, it moved left and right.
"But they would have seen us clearing out the zombies on the way up..."
'Could it be...?'
"By any chance, was it not a regular zombie, but a strangely shaped thing with tentacles sprouting from its back?"
— Whirr... Whirr... Whirr... Whirr...
The speed of the camera's swivel was slow, but the motion looked extremely urgent.
"Thought so."
"Because of that thing, we lost many of our team members as well... It can't be helped, but the way back..."
"No, we'll break through and go from here."
I looked back at the camera and spoke.
"Don't worry, just open the door. Even if you don't open it, we'll break it down and come in anyway."
"Is that really possible...?"
"Yes. We'll clean this up quickly."
For a few minutes, the camera didn't budge. Then the lamp above the door turned green, signaling it was open, and the door slid aside. A corridor packed full of countless tentacle zombies came into view. The team members hurriedly pulled out grenades and got ready, but I stopped them.
'There's a more effective way to catch bastards clogging up a straight corridor.'
I gripped my sword, assumed my stance, and then thrust forward at high speed.
- Chaos Swordsmanship - Destruction
— Fwhooosh!!!
All at once, the countless creatures filling the corridor burst apart, leaving behind nothing but chunks of meat as they died.
"..."
"..."
Our party members might have seen it a few times already, but the Special Forces soldiers were seeing it for the first time and looked utterly shocked.
"...I thought deflecting bullets was enough, but I didn't know you could do this much..."
At that, Mr. Chu Seong-geun clapped the Special Forces Commander on the shoulder and let out a hearty laugh.
"Hahaha!!! We were damn shocked the first time we saw it, too. You'll get used to it soon."
We entered, keeping an eye out for any zombies that might still be lurking. And sure enough, just as you'd expect from a place where those tentacle things had gathered, there was a 'hatchery' here as well.
"Good heavens... How... How can something like this even exist..."
"Actually, we've seen this sort of thing before. Those tentacle bastards guard places like this, and the zombies that hatch out of them are even stronger and faster. Destroy all of them."
The team members put one round in each head and one round in each swollen belly, eliminating them for certain. Then, at last, we arrived at the control room door.
— Thud thud thud...
We knocked on the control room door and waved our hands at the CCTV, and soon the door began to open. Inside, some were gaunt from starvation, others filthy from being unable to wash.
"We're, we're finally saved!!! Rescue is here...!"
The people who saw us began to sob as emotion washed over them. The team members gathered them to one side and handed out clean underwear, outer clothes, and food. Then they waited patiently while everyone changed and ate.
"It's okay to eat slowly. There's plenty of food."
Having eaten their fill for the first time in a long while, they paused to digest. Then a middle-aged woman who appeared to be in charge approached and spoke to us.
"Thank you so much. I am Cheon So-hyeon, the director of this power plant. Are you the people the government sent?"
"Yes, we are the government-affiliated 707th Special Mission Unit. I am Special Forces Commander, Master Sergeant Park Chung-won. The rest are our team members, and these people here are not government-affiliated but are the individuals assisting us."
"More importantly, were those things from earlier taken care of...? The ones with the weird tentacles on their backs, the incredibly fast ones."
"Yes, we eliminated all of them. As you've likely already heard, after rescuing you all, we plan to head to the power plant near Busan."
"Then have all the zombies in this area been dealt with?"
"No, we only eliminated the zombies we spotted as we came through here. We plan to finish off the rest before we leave, so don't worry. Are there any survivors anywhere else?"
"No... When the crisis erupted, we all fled to the control room in a hurry. The people here are the entire headcount."
The Special Forces Commander handed over the manual from the Uljin power plant and spoke.
"There were no survivors at the Uljin power plant. This is a memento from the last survivor there. Would it be possible to get that power plant running as well with this?"
The director skimmed through the manual quickly along with other staff members, then nodded.
"Yes, most power plants are nearly identical. And more than anything, since he wrote it out as a manual like this, it should be perfectly doable."
"Very good. We'll finish sweeping up the remaining zombies and be right back, so please stay safe here, everyone."
After the Special Forces Commander reassured them, we quickly cleared out the interior of the power plant. It took a little longer than I'd thought, and the sun was starting to set.
"Phew... We've dealt with all the zombies inside the power plant, so you don't need to worry. It's getting dark, so it looks like we'll have to stay here a day before we leave."
After taking out food and sharing it, we were about to turn on a portable lamp to secure our field of vision.
"No!!!"
The director hurriedly turned the lamp off and spoke to us.
"There are things that see the light and attack... We have to be careful."
"Huh? We know zombies react to light. But here..."
"That's not it. They see the light, fly in, and snatch people away..."
Something stirred in my memory. I looked at the director and asked.
"By any chance, are you talking about a zombie that resembles a normal one, but with thin wings instead of arms?"
"No, the arms were normal. It was a monster with wings on its back..."
'Arms are normal, wings on its back...?'
I gathered my party and the team members together.
"Seems to be a variant of the one we saw before. The specimen we encountered previously had wings in place of its arms."
Just then, a high-pitched screech, like something tearing, rang out from outside.
— Kiiiaaaak!!!