(Side Story) Zombie.
(Side Story) Zombie.
People were driving nearby zombies into an enclosure built from shipping containers.
It was far too inefficient a method just for killing zombies, so Yoo Min-seong was curious about what the space was used for.
He had seen men on motorcycles distribute food to elderly survivors nearby.
He had also watched them clear the surrounding area for those survivors, so Yoo Min-seong had judged them to be good people.
He approached to satisfy his curiosity and speak with them.
Just then, a stone flew in from behind and struck him. Yoo Min-seong turned around.
A man and a woman were beckoning him over.
Yoo Min-seong approached cautiously, on guard, and the woman spoke in a whisper.
"Do you have any idea where you are, coming this far in...? Looks like the game's about to start... Hurry up and follow me."
"Who are you...?"
"I said shut up and follow if you want to live. If you don't trust me, go over there and try saying hello."
From the space hidden by the containers, a scream rang out at that very moment.
""...""
Hearing the scream, the woman looked at the man and said,
"We're fucked... if we get caught, seriously... before those bastards grab us, you'd better be ready to die by my hand first."
The man, only half-listening to the woman, was staring at one spot.
"Of all things... a footrace... Run..."
At the man's words, Yoo Min-seong asked,
"What is that?"
The two gave no answer; they had already started sprinting.
BOOM!
Startled by the loud noise, Yoo Min-seong looked back.
Doors opened in every direction around the shipping-container enclosure.
The survivors inside began running in all directions without looking back, and behind them, hundreds of zombies poured out.
"..."
"Run, you dumbass!!!"
Snapped back to his senses by the woman's voice, Yoo Min-seong started running in their direction.
From atop the containers, a man with a feather tattoo who was keeping watch handed his binoculars to a hairless man beside him and said,
"Huh, what's this? There was another participant?"
"Oh, really? Let me have a look."
In the distance, two—no, three—figures were running.
"I've seen those two before. Is the other one an outsider?"
The feather-tattooed man, who had not spotted the outsider, took the binoculars back from the bald man.
"Let's see."
The bald man narrowed his eyes and said,
"What that guy's wearing—that's gotta be worth some money, huh?"
"Oh... what, is he a government agent or something? That all looks like stab-resistant gear, doesn't it?"
"Really? If he's headed that way, isn't that where the Elephants are?"
"...I'd love to take him, but that would be difficult. Let's call them and at least get a cut—or ask them to hand over those two."
"Oh... that works too."
The two were conversing peacefully, but...
Behind them, a gruesome scene was unfolding.
People watched through open windows atop the four-story stack of shipping containers.
On the ground floor, zombies crowded around a screaming person, tearing into and devouring them.
"Oh? Survived again today, huh? Turn around, I'll brand you."
A man turned his back without a word.
Within the square brand on his back, the numbers 1, 2, and 3 were inscribed.
"Oh... what the hell? One more time and you'll be released? Lucky bastard."
The moment a heated iron rod marked with the number 4 was pressed to his back, the man screamed.
They dragged away the man, who had collapsed unconscious from the pain.
"Next."
Behind him, survivors lined up one by one.
Lee Min-ji grabbed Ji-seong by the collar.
"Hey, Kim Ji-seong, do you love money that much? You do? Huh?! Because of you, I got branded too, damn it!!!"
"Min-ji, hold on a sec..."
Ji-seong, still held by the collar by Min-ji, looked at Yoo Min-seong.
"Hey. Our lives are about to get fucked because we tried to save you, you know that?"
"..."
"Give us that gear as travel money so we can get out of this area."
Yoo Min-seong could not follow what was happening.
"Take off your clothes."
Yoo Min-seong was taken aback by the sudden demand to take off his clothes.
"...Excuse me?"
"So we can escape. Take that off."
"...No."
At Yoo Min-seong's words, the two stopped fighting and stared at him.
""...?""
Then Min-ji spoke.
"We came running to save an asshole like you? I fucking told you we should've ignored him!"
Yoo Min-seong flinched, but feeling unfairly blamed, he asked,
"Who were those people back there? Why are you acting like this?"
The two who had been fighting suddenly looked at Yoo Min-seong, then sat down on the ground.
"Before that, you had food. Give us some too."
"..."
"This fucker won't even hand over food, huh? And I seriously busted my ass to save this motherfucker!"
Flustered, Yoo Min-seong took out the food he had.
Min-ji stared at the unfamiliar rations as if fascinated, and Ji-seong nodded as he spoke.
"Whoa... I ate this stuff when I was in the military."
Ji-seong picked up a pound cake.
He put it in his mouth and savored the taste.
"Brings back memories~"
Min-ji sat down beside him and opened a combat ration.
"I'll only say this once, so listen carefully."
Yoo Min-seong straightened his posture and sat attentively.
"Everything visible from the rooftop of the department store attached to Uijeongbu Station is what we call the ‘Grasslands.’ Simply put, from any rooftop, if you can see the department store through binoculars, you're in the Grasslands."
The man beside her took a bite of pound cake, washed it down with water, and continued.
"Out here, there are several groups—the 'Elephants,' the 'Rhinos,' the 'Eagles,' the 'Hyenas,' the 'Wild Dogs'—each with their own territory. The ones we just saw were the Eagles."
"But the Trees keep all of them in line. They're soldiers."
"..."
"They make regular rounds, but you could say they're in cahoots with every group I just mentioned."
Yoo Min-seong rested his chin in his hand and spoke.
"There must be... a lot of survivors."
"Hmm... just the survivors I know of number over 1,200. I don't know exactly how many are in the old department store where the Trees live. People who broke the rules and left seemed to want back in."
Yoo Min-seong cautiously asked the woman named Min-ji.
"Ah... by any chance, have you ever heard rumors about a man wearing the same clothes as me?"
"Nope. Never."
After hearing the pair out, Yoo Min-seong seemed to make up his mind and showed them the map.
"By any chance... whose territory is Geumoh-dong..."
Both their expressions soured when they saw it.
"Why do you ask...?"
"That's Field Mice territory."
At their reaction, Yoo Min-seong asked carefully,
"What are they like...?"
"They're just cowards who hide."
Yoo Min-seong looked at them as if to ask what the problem was if they never came outside.
Min-ji sipped her after-meal coffee, then answered uneasily under Yoo Min-seong's gaze.
"Umm... there's the Rat Leader and the Kangaroo Rat... No, you're better off not knowing about monsters like them."
"...? I have to go there."
Kim Ji-seong responded immediately to Min-seong's words.
"Ohh... I absolutely do not recommend it. You'd be better off getting caught by the Eagles and running five games. At least they let you go, you know?"
If this “game” was the horrific scene he had just witnessed, Yoo Min-seong wondered what kind of group the Field Mice were.
Min-ji paused mid-sip and said,
"Once you join the Field Mice... you won't need to run anymore..."
Uijeongbu, Geumoh-dong.
Inside a building in a residential area, a middle-aged man knocked on a door.
"Ga-in!"
A young voice came from inside.
"Yeah?"
"Time to eat."
"Okay~"
A girl named Ga-in came out the door.
Her bob looked hacked short, and her clothes, while practical, looked crudely patched together.
Her face was deliberately smeared with grime, as if to hide her looks, but that was nowhere near enough to conceal them.
Ga-in, rubbing her eyes tiredly as if she'd just woken up, walked down the stairs.
Over a dozen people greeted Ga-in warmly.
"Hi, Ga-in~"
"Yeah. Hi, Mister Ji."
Some old folks who were eating teased Ga-in the moment they saw her.
One of them produced a rabbit doll.
"Ta-da~ It's Antonio."
"...What, you want me to rip it up?"
"...Huh? Please don't...."
Ga-in's entrance and reaction made for a lively morning. Then one more person came in.
The newcomer immediately approached the middle-aged man who had woken Ga-in.
"Boss Kwak, there's someone caught in a trap."
"Oh? Their brand?"
"They had a betrayal brand."
At the word 'traitor' from the man making the report, the mood turned sour.
A middle-aged man with no legs spoke.
"Myeong-cheol, do you really have to report every little thing like that? Boss Kwak, don't dirty your hands. Let's just toss them in as feed."
"Sure. Let's go together."
The middle-aged man called Boss Kwak looked at Ga-in and said,
"You need to eat a hearty meal."
Ga-in watched the scene blankly as she put a spoonful of soup into her mouth.
Two men were trapped inside a rope net.
One was groaning, his trapped arm apparently broken under his own weight.
"Boss Kwak, what should we do?"
Kwak In-gu silently pulled at their clothing and checked their backs.
The branded back bore two hand-shaped scars spaced apart from each other.
Between them were twelve tally marks.
"Please spare us... I beg you..."
"What group were you with?"
Determined to tell them anything he knew, the man in the net spoke rapidly.
"I was with the Hyenas at first!"
The man twisted to show them his arm.
When they pulled back his sleeve, they found a fang tattoo.
"If you were with the Hyenas, you probably don't have any useful information..."
"No! No! Recently, a strange rumor was going around near your den here."
Having been about to kill them, Kwak In-gu looked at the man as if telling him to go on.
"A stranger about 178 centimeters tall, clutching something in his arms, supposedly ran through Singok at the edge of the Grasslands and all the way here."
Hearing the man's words, Myeong-cheol nodded.
"Ah. Is that the guy?"
"You know of him!?"
Myeong-cheol whispered into Kwak In-gu's ear.
"A little while ago... Ga-in..."
Listening to him, Kwak In-gu nodded.
"Ah, so it's because of that incident... Thanks to that, clearing out all the zombies around here was a pain for a while..."
Thinking this was their chance to live, the man in the net spoke quickly.
"Not only was that bastard's gear unusual, but a rumor has spread that the bag he clung to no matter what might contain a vaccine!!!"
""...?""
It was a preposterous claim, but at the sweet word 'vaccine,' Kwak In-gu and Myeong-cheol flinched.
Kwak In-gu scoffed and said,
"Ridiculous... A vaccine? If something like that was going to come out, it would have been back when the country was still intact... not now."
The man hanging in the net asked with a serious expression,
"Haven't you checked...?"
"So, what you're saying is, that rumor has spread everywhere...? Even to the Trees..."
"...Yes, we came here after hearing the rumor ourselves, so by now, it's probably spread by word of mouth."
Kwak In-gu nodded and slowly lowered the net.
Thinking they were being released, their faces lit up—until the floor panel opened with the descending net.
Gyaaagh...!
Beneath the floor panel, the light roused a mass of zombies that began to stir.
"This isn't what you promised!!!!"
Myeong-cheol, picking his ear, answered them.
"What promise?"
Seeing the cold expressions of the two, the trapped men, grasping the situation, cried out.
""Save us!!! We'll do anything!! Please!!!""
Myeong-cheol laughed and said,
"I used to wonder why they went to the trouble of drawing zombies in... now I see why the Eagles do it this way."
"Don't go around saying things like that."
"Yep."
The man inside the gradually lowering net spoke urgently.
"Spare us!! Please..."
"Ask the twelve people you betrayed and killed—politely."
Dozens of zombies waited below for their meal.
As the net descended, the floor panel closed on its own.
From below, endless screams rang out.