(Side Story) Zombie.
(Side Story) Zombie.
"Whoa... Si-yoon is so awesome..."
Da-yeon was watching the movie with her eyes sparkling.
Mouth hanging open as if about to drool, she was eating popcorn.
Everyone around us was already absorbed in the film, eyes shining as they stared at the screen.
Then Da-yeon spoke to Lee Jin-seok.
"Daddy, I gotta pee."
"Yeah? Want to go to the bathroom with Daddy?"
"Yeah!"
I wanted to focus on the movie again.
But my eyes met Da-yeon's as she kept holding my hand.
"....."
In the end, when I got up to follow Da-yeon, my dad spotted me moving and came out with us too.
The movie had a scary atmosphere, so Da-yeon was holding my hand tight.
"Is the movie fun?"
"Yeah, it's scary but fun! But Daddy keeps covering my eyes when Si-yoon shows up."
The film was even more brutal than expected, so Kim Ji-ho kept trying to cover my eyes too, but I smacked his hand away each time.
Kim Ji-ho and Lee Jin-seok were chatting behind Da-yeon and me.
After finishing her business, Da-yeon was pestering me, clearly wanting to hurry back to the movie.
"Si-yoon~ Hurry up~~"
"You're the one who said we should come."
"Hurryyyy~"
"Wait."
Still, set on sticking with me, Da-yeon waited for me the whole time and then moved. She grabbed my hand after I'd washed it and headed back to the theater.
An old man was sitting on a sofa, smoking a cigarette.
The old man was wearing a military uniform. A beret with a major's insignia pinned to it...
"Master Sergeant Kim."
At Major Im's authoritative low voice, the man called Master Sergeant Kim snapped to attention.
"Yes!"
Major Im inhaled deeply from his cigarette and stared wordlessly at Master Sergeant Kim. He exhaled the smoke and spoke.
"You said there were more vaccines?"
"Yes! They were definitely wearing the same uniform. It must be hidden somewhere."
Major Im tapped his ash into a black box with a hole punched through it directly in front of him.
"...Hm. What are the chances the Field Mice have it?"
"High."
A brief silence hung, then Major Im spoke.
"Mobilize the search teams and prioritize finding the case. And... the person who can answer all our questions is probably the outsider we let get away. Bring him in too."
"Yes!"
After returning to base, Yoo Min-seong placed the case on the desk, looking at Kwak In-gu.
"So this... is the vaccine..."
Yoo Min-seong opened the case, looked at Kwak In-gu, and started to speak.
"I want to get straight to the point... Was Jang Jae-hyeok really a zombie?"
Kwak In-gu's expression didn't change as he answered.
"Yeah. When I found him, he was a zombie wearing the gear you see over there."
"....."
The case had room for ten vaccine vials, and two slots were empty.
"He must have... injected himself while he was still lucid, then hidden the vaccines..."
"....."
"But I won't accuse you. It hasn't even been confirmed that this vaccine stops the virus one hundred percent."
He spoke while staring at the vaccine, sounding conflicted.
"But... if he wasn't a zombie—if he was still human—and you killed him..."
"".....""
"For Jae-hyeok and his wife... I will never—never—forgive you..."
Kwak In-gu, who had been listening, met Yoo Min-seong's eyes and spoke.
"He was a zombie."
"Okay..."
Yoo Min-seong let out a brief sigh, then borrowed a map from Kwak In-gu and began explaining the situation.
"We need to take this to the Dongducheon MS Pharmaceutical Factory."
"Dongducheon? Hm..."
"Why? Is something wrong?"
"No. I think we can get there."
When Yoo Min-seong tilted his head at Kwak In-gu's reaction, Kwak In-gu pointed to the map with his finger and explained the reason.
"A while back, they tried to stop the zombies coming up from Seoul. They chose this area, separated from Seoul by the mountains."
The spot Kwak In-gu indicated was a railway line between the mountains.
"Because if Seoul's population—nearly ten million zombies—surged north, there was no way to stop them."
Yoo Min-seong knew how the Seoul outbreak had unfolded. Nearly ten million zombies had destroyed the Seoul survivor coalition in an instant.
"But they never came north, so the abandoned defensive line became a checkpoint. You have to pay a toll to pass through it."
Yoo Min-seong listened intently.
"And right below that is a lawless zone called the Grasslands. Right here..."
Kwak In-gu was looking at the case containing the vaccines.
"Ga-in just injected one."
"Ga-in did? Why?"
"I'm not sure either..."
When Kwak In-gu looked at Ga-in, Ga-in, who was sucking on a lollipop, made a face as if to say, "What are you looking at?"
"Hm... I see. We believe in repaying whatever we receive twofold..."
Kwak In-gu gave Ga-in a wicked smile.
"So we pay it back double, right?"
Ga-in pulled the candy out of her mouth with a pop.
"I already saved him once, though?"
"It has to be twice for us to come out even~"
"...What are you talking about? One shot for one life already makes us even."
Kwak In-gu laughed as he spoke.
"You can get bitten by zombies more than once, can't you?"
"....."
"If it's the Major Im we know... I think he'd consider it worth more than just one person's life..."
Ga-in popped the candy back in her mouth, crossed her arms, and said,
"Fine! So I just have to save him one more time, right?"
Ga-in looked out the window, and Kwak In-gu looked at Ga-in.
"Shall we go?"
"At this hour?"
Kwak In-gu glanced at his watch and said,
"It's still morning. Let's go find the other cases."
"....."
Ga-in sighed and entered Mister Ji's workshop. She had used many throwing knives in the previous battle, so she gathered replacements. Once equipped, she came back out and looked at Yoo Min-seong as if asking why he was still standing there.
"Major Im, I brought it."
"....."
A man with eagle tattoos covering his face wore a wicked smile. He looked at Major Im and shook the bag in his hand.
"Ah-ha, I heard you were looking for this~"
Major Im turned his chair around.
"Really? The government has been desperate to find it. Let's see what's inside before we hand it over."
The eagle-tattooed man cackled and spun the bag in his hand without coming closer.
"Jong-su died bringing this back."
"That's unfortunate... I promise you fair compensation."
"Damn right, right? Rightful! Ah-ha-ha, it had better be rightful..."
At the tattooed man's words, Major Im smiled and replied,
"Of course."
The tattooed man approached and opened the bag, revealing five vials of green liquid. Each cap concealed a needle. Major Im tapped ash into the round opening of the black box serving as an ashtray, then signaled to the sergeant first class who had brought the man. The sergeant first class grabbed him by the scruff and shoved his hand into the box.
"What the... Aaaaagh!!!!"
Something inside bit him. The tattooed man yanked his hand back, but teeth marks had already sunk into his fingers. Inside the black box, a gagged zombie head clicked its teeth: clack... clack... clack...
"Aaaaaagh!!!!!"
As he stared at his bitten fingers in despair, Major Im drove a vial of the liquid into the tattooed man's neck.
"What the hell are you doing!!!"
Both men smoothly drew their pistols and aimed at the tattooed man. He collapsed unconscious, and they tied him up. Everyone knew zombie bites did not heal, yet after some time the bleeding stopped.
"....."
"Heh-heh... It really works...?"
Led by Yoo Min-seong, Min-ji, Ji-seong, and Ga-in set out to recover the case Min-seong had hidden. Ga-in suddenly sensed something wrong, pulled out her earbuds, and looked around. The street was unnaturally quiet.
"This isn't our territory... Be careful."
Yoo Min-seong tried to pat Ga-in's head as she walked beside him with a serious expression.
"Touch me and I'll cut you right now."
Yoo Min-seong's hand stopped just before reaching Ga-in's head. He felt a chill when he saw Ga-in's hand was already moving to the short sword at her waist.
".....Sorry."
As they walked on for a while, Kim Ji-seong realized this was the place where he'd been tied to a motorcycle and dragged.
"Whoa... I seriously almost died right there."
Yoo Min-seong found the thicket where he had hidden the case and approached it with Ji-seong and Min-ji. When they searched the undergrowth, they found a zombie head clicking its teeth.
"Aah!"
Still scanning the area, Ga-in sensed people nearby and shouted.
"Get clear!!!"
Nets flew in from every direction. Seeing no way to evade them, Ga-in bolted. Men whose faces bore tattoos of horns, tusks, feathers, and fangs leaped out and roared.
""It's the Kangaroo Rat!!! Grab her!!!""
Ga-in knew she could not beat them in a straight race, so she darted into an alley. A man with feathers tattooed across his face approached Yoo Min-seong with a knife.
"Hello~? We meet again...?"
"Hey! Stop that bastard!!!"
At one man's shout, several others lunged at the man with the wing tattoos.
"Let go!!! Jong-su died because of this motherfucker, damn it!!! Our boss hasn't come back either!!!"
"If you don't want to join Jong-su, stay still!"
At the words of the man with the fang tattoos, the man with the wing tattoos stopped.
"...What?"
"They said you can rough him up, just don't kill him. You can do whatever you want with the other two."
"...Got it? Ah-ha?"
The room was pitch-black. Yoo Min-seong was tied up in only his underwear, with a cloth covering his face. After waking, he pretended to remain asleep while shifting his body little by little.
"What are you doing?"
"....."
He had barely flinched, but the man noticed. Realizing he wore nothing but his underwear, Yoo Min-seong spoke.
"...Is stripping people your hobby or something...?"
"Shut up before I call a friend who really does have that hobby."
"....."
The man checked on Yoo Min-seong, then laughed as he said,
"You're going to the Trees tomorrow. You probably won't come out alive..."
"....."
"The vaccine... Are you going there to produce it, by any chance?"
"....."
"For real? Whoa... The Trees must be thrilled, huh? Guess unifying the other regions isn't a pipe dream, after all?"
When Yoo Min-seong said nothing, the man pushed his head down and spoke.
"The Trees take most of the women, but when things go well, the perks they throw our way are incredible."
The man smirked, covered Yoo Min-seong's head with the cloth again, patted it twice, and left.