Chapter 4. Another Group of Survivors.
Chapter 4. Another Group of Survivors.
As I walked forward, the weight of their gazes heavy on my back, our destination finally came into view.
"Sir, looks like we've more or less arrived. Soldiers are standing guard, it seems."
I listened to him while approaching them, and sure enough, two uniformed soldiers stood watch with rifles in hand.
They spotted us at about the same time, leveled their guns our way, and called out.
"Halt. Halt. Where are you coming from?"
"We're coming from the Gangnam area."
"Is your group four people in total?"
"Correct. No additional personnel—the four of us are all there is."
They told us to wait a moment, exchanged a few words over what looked like a radio, and then a man and a woman, both with the air of officers, walked over.
The soldiers on watch snapped short salutes toward them and handed us off.
"Hello. First, due to the risk of infection, you'll need to be screened. The women will follow that officer, and the men, please come with me. Given the circumstances, we appreciate your cooperation."
The man spoke while casting a wary glance at me and the sword I was wearing.
From their perspective, we were outsiders. Hiding a bite wound to slip inside could lead to the total collapse of the group, so I figured it was a perfectly reasonable precaution.
I looked around as I was led toward the quarantine station.
There were more people here than I had expected—men and women alike, plenty of older folks and little kids, too.
'There are way more people than I thought. How are they keeping this many under control? And can they even be self-sufficient with food?'
But the situation being what it was, most of them looked like they hadn't washed properly in days, and the meager rations had left them visibly gaunt and starved.
'Day after day of desperate survival—I'm sure every last one of them feels utterly helpless. Just like I did, back when I first fell into the other world...'
I did feel some sympathy for them, but nothing beyond that.
As I kept glancing around, we were led into a quarantine station hastily built out of tents.
"Please undress completely so we can check for any wounds."
I stripped off my clothes while striking up a conversation with the man in charge.
"Do all survivors who come to this shelter have to go through this procedure?"
"Haha... I know it might be a little uncomfortable, but we don't have a choice. If a carrier gets inside the group, the damage is completely uncontrollable."
"Hypothetically... what's your response if someone refuses or ignores this procedure?"
"This may be unpleasant to hear, but we employ coercive measures. Those who resist to the end are turned back outside... and if they truly can't be controlled, then..."
I didn't need to hear the rest of that sentence. I already knew what he meant.
With that, our examination ended, and we went back outside to rejoin Jia.
Shortly after, a man who appeared to be the responsible officer—a captain—approached and spoke to me.
"Hello. I'm Captain Lee Gyu-seok, managing the survivors. The sentries reported that you might be an Awakened, so I came to find you. Are you an Awakened?"
"Yes, I'm Cheon Sihu. Something along the lines of an Awakened."
"I know you've only just arrived and haven't had a chance to rest, but would you mind coming with me?"
"May I ask what this is about?"
"To be honest, the person in charge of this shelter asked me to politely inquire whether you might be willing to meet with him."
Captain Lee Gyu-seok made the request with an apologetic expression.
'Even in a situation like this, he's making a request instead of using a coercive tone... The situation must really be that dire.'
"Understood. Then what becomes of the people I'm traveling with?"
"The other survivors are also living in the auditorium. We'll provide your companions with a space to rest for a while."
"Don't worry about us—just go and come back. We'll be fine. It's just a conversation anyway, so go ahead."
With Jia's words in my ears, I followed Captain Lee Gyu-seok, my mind still turning things over.
'If he's a captain, he clearly has superiors. The reason they called for me is... they need the strength of an Awakened. There's no other reason they'd summon me.'
I mulled over idle thoughts and the reason I'd come here as we walked.
"How do you manage this many people? Is it possible to secure enough food for all of them?"
"Actually, I believe that's the very subject they want to discuss with you..."
We kept walking until the captain stopped in front of a door and knocked.
"I've brought the Awakened. May we come in?"
A voice from inside told us to enter, and he opened the door.
Inside, I found a colonel seated at the head of the table, with a lieutenant colonel and a major also visible nearby.
"Please, come in. I understand you're an Awakened. The situation being what it is, the place is a bit shabby, but do come in. I'm Colonel Park Jeong-geun, the one in charge of this shelter."
"Yes. Cheon Sihu."
"I'll cut straight to the point. Please—we need your help."
"Asking me for help so abruptly catches me off guard. Please, tell me what the situation is."
"I don't know if you saw on your way in, but we currently have around three hundred people in this shelter. Thanks to a mart, we've been spared some of the worry over food, but we're in an extremely difficult state right now..."
'Those hollow, starved faces on the survivors I saw coming in... They've hit their limit. And just then, along comes me—someone who looks like an Awakened.'
But even with me here, I was ultimately just one Awakened. And they had no way of knowing my true capabilities.
I had other questions, so I pressed further.
"Are there no other Awakened? And even if I help you secure food, that's still a shortsighted solution. I can't keep doing this indefinitely, after all."
"Sigh... No, you misunderstand. There are other Awakened, but we are desperately understaffed. And, truthfully, while we would certainly welcome help securing food, that's not what we're asking. This may take a while to explain..."
Colonel Park Jeong-geun proceeded to recount everything that had happened, from before the shelter was established up to the present moment.
In short, he had been stationed at the military base located right next door.
When the virus erupted there, they mounted a defense as best they could, gathered surviving soldiers, their families, and civilians, and then built this shelter—that was the gist of it.
'Just as I thought. Initial suppression was probably next to impossible on a military base. I don't know if other bases had it the same, but it tracks.'
With their food supplies nearly exhausted, he was preparing an operation to resupply weapons from the base, even if it might end up being their final effort.
'Sitting around and waiting won't fill anyone's stomach, and even looting the nearby convenience stores won't feed three hundred people. He really was planning for the absolute worst-case scenario.'
"I'll help. But I have no intention of joining this shelter. My reason for coming here in the first place was to find someone."
"Even once is more than we could be grateful for... If you don't mind my asking, what is your Class?"
'My Class, huh... Whether it's an error or something else, my Class doesn't display.'
"I just know my way around a sword."
"So you're a Swordsman. And that sword... did you by any chance attend a kendo academy or run one yourself? No matter how I look at it, that appears to be a real blade."
"Not at all. Would it be possible for me to meet the other Awakened who are participating in the operation?"
"I'd like nothing better than for you to see their faces, but they're each currently carrying out separate duties. I'll show you a short roster with their information instead."
'That's a relief, at least. Since he asked about my Class, other Classes clearly exist here, too. I should familiarize myself with the Classes and then size up their skill levels when I meet them.'
The lieutenant colonel seated beside him handed over a sheaf of documents.
'Mage, Warrior, Assassin, Healer, Blacksmith... there's quite a variety. Wait—Mage and Healer are separate Classes? Does that mean there's a cleric wielding divine power here, too?'
As I kept scanning the documents, I had a hard time hiding my surprise.
'Lee Chaeyeon... Mage Class... the same age as me... But there's no photograph.'
Lee Chaeyeon. The only friend who ever looked after me during middle and high school. The only friend I'd kept in steady contact with.
Regrettably, the documents were a sloppy, handwritten mess, and the absence of a photo was genuinely disappointing.
"Lee Chaeyeon... Would it be possible for you to pass along the name Cheon Sihu to this person?"
"Is this the person you said you were searching for, Cheon Sihu?"
"It could simply be someone who lived in Seoul and happens to share the same name and age. Just to be sure, please relay only the name for now."
"Understood. Well then, follow the captain here to get some rest. Once all the other Awakened have gathered, I'll call you in for the operation briefing. It'll be getting dark soon, so I'll see you again then."
With that, I left the room and, under Captain Lee Gyu-seok's guidance, returned to the companions I'd arrived with.
"Sir, you're back! Did something happen?"
"Hey... your expression looks terrible... What happened?"
"You remember the person I told you I was looking for?"
"That... unnie you said you were close to in middle and high school?"
"Yeah. They told me she's here right now. She's an Awakened, same as me, but apparently she's been sent out somewhere for a while, so I couldn't see her face. It could still just be the same name and age, though."
Then I filled them in on everything I'd learned in the command room—the shelter's current state and the operation that lay ahead.
Once they heard that the food situation was on the brink of collapse, their faces grew just as grave.
Truth be told, I had the option of simply taking care of my own people and settling us down somewhere else.
If this really was the person I was looking for, I figured I could lend a hand for their sake a few times—maybe once or twice.
But if it wasn't who I was looking for, my plan was to help them retake the military base and then leave without dragging things out.
'Please... just be safe...'
That was my final thought as I lay down and quietly tried to sleep.