(Side Story) Zombie.
(Side Story) Zombie.
Min-ji and Ji-seong were tied up inside the iron cage, and when Kwak In-gu's group approached, the corporal standing guard—apparently given word beforehand by Im Jeong-hyeok—freed them.
The two spotted Ga-in asleep.
"Wow... when she's sleeping, she really doesn't look any different from the other kids..."
To go up to the room where Im Jeong-hyeok was, they surveyed their surroundings.
Children were running around and playing, and there were elderly people and women looking after the children, people preparing food, and a few men hauling goods.
A world completely different from the outside unfolded under the Trees' protection. It felt like a living example of peace.
"God... there really are... children here."
But Kwak In-gu frowned at the number of people, which didn't match what he knew.
He thought about what Im Jeong-hyeok had mentioned... 'the incident that happened inside.'
With each floor they went up, different scenes came into view.
As Kwak In-gu headed toward where Im Jeong-hyeok was, the people on duty glanced around warily and stepped aside to let him pass.
Kwak In-gu's group entered the door presumed to be where Im Jeong-hyeok was.
In the dark space, Im Jeong-hyeok was smoking a cigarette, wordless.
"Why didn't you go home... Why did you come..."
"Because you looked like you were about to kill yourself."
"... "
"What, were you going to burn through that whole pack and then use what's in front of you to die? You watched way too many noir movies, asshole."
"... "
"You've got a lot to do. You heard about the MS Pharmaceutical Factory in Dongducheon, right?"
"Yeah..."
"Give me a ride there."
"... That's what I have to do?"
"Should I wake Ga-in up?"
"... That's still a threat, you know..."
"Really?"
"... "
Kwak In-gu snorted a laugh, handed the sleeping Ga-in over to Yoo Min-seong, then sat down at the table.
Im Jeong-hyeok offered a cigarette.
"I don't smoke, asshole. You're supposed to protect children, and you're smoking?"
"... "
Kwak In-gu looked down at a black square box and let out a dry laugh.
"You've still got that son of a bitch's head, huh?"
"... "
"You whined that the bastard died too easily, so because of you I went and got zombie blood for the first time in my life..."
Im Jeong-hyeok silently tapped his cigarette ash into the square box.
"Alright, tell me. What happened?"
Kwak In-gu picked up a cigarette, lit it, and took a drag.
His stomach churned at the first cigarette he had smoked in five years.
"Ugh, fuck... Forget it. I'm not doing this."
Watching him, Im Jeong-hyeok brought back the memories of that day and spoke.
"...You saw it yourself. There are far fewer children now than the number you remember..."
Im Jeong-hyeok drew on his cigarette and blew out white smoke.
"Hoo... There was a woman trembling in fear... a very fearful woman."
Im Jeong-hyeok struggled to continue the story.
"We worked hard to protect her. We brought her to the camp we occupy now and left her alone until she stabilized..."
When everyone focused on Im Jeong-hyeok's story, he sighed and spoke.
"That was four years ago... You know what it was like. The sustained zombie waves had started the factional fighting, and the Meadow hadn't been completed yet..."
Kwak In-gu nodded.
"Regular food procurement still wasn't possible, and as the number of people under our protection grew, the supplies visibly dwindled. But I thought we had enough to last another two or three months."
Sensing what the situation must have been, Kwak In-gu's expression began to sour.
"One day, that frightened woman said she wanted to help prepare the food. She said she knew how to cook and wanted to be useful, even a little."
"".....""
"You're thinking exactly right. Dozens of children and adults ate the poison and died... She said she had to reduce the number of mouths to feed if she wanted to survive... That was the end of her."
"".....""
Im Jeong-hyeok put another cigarette in his mouth and chuckled hoarsely.
He stood up and brought out liquor.
"Right... This time, shall I tell you why we throw survivors straight outside when they break the rules... and why strong authority became necessary?"
Im Jeong-hyeok drank straight from the bottle.
When Kwak In-gu gestured that he wanted some too, he brought over a glass.
Pouring a drink for Kwak In-gu, Im Jeong-hyeok started to speak.
"This time... it was an old man. He was still vigorous, which only made him more dangerous."
Im Jeong-hyeok drank and brought up the story.
"The old man was a good leader, so I thought he was trustworthy. I never imagined that trusting him with internal affairs for so long would become a problem..."
Im Jeong-hyeok frowned, seeming to relive that day.
"He built himself a faction... We have many children and women, so he must have felt like a wolf among a flock of sheep... Hahaha..."
"Hah..."
"Then fighting broke out inside... Too many people died. We lost manpower and could no longer manage the Meadow outside..."
Picturing the situation, Kwak In-gu nodded and then spoke.
"You let those beasts outside loose because evil had to be met with evil... right?"
When Im Jeong-hyeok nodded, Kwak In-gu spoke.
"Do you have an estimate of how many outsiders died because you let that evil loose?"
"Can you estimate how many soldiers died after that outsider entered while we were managing the Meadow? I thought you, of all people, would understand..."
Their drunken conversation continued late into the night.
The night was dark.
On the southern outskirts of the Meadow, men with tooth tattoos were going through the corpse of a zombie they had caught.
From a distance, they spotted a Screamer and drove an arrow between its eyebrows before it could let out a scream.
"Why are there so many Screamers lately?"
"Tell me about it. Listening to the drifters around here, they say they're spotting Screamers constantly."
"Well, the Trees'll handle it. Just check and see if there's anything worth money on it."
"Yep."
They gathered the dead zombies in one place and set them on fire.
Beyond them, the distant buildings seemed to writhe and squirm.
Kwak In-gu pulled himself upright. Finding Ga-in not beside him, he looked around and spotted a sticky note right in front of him.
- I'm taking Ga-in home first.
"You're awake?"
Yoo Min-seong opened the door and came in from outside.
"Why didn't you leave? Why are you still here?"
"I wanted to see with my own eyes whether the Trees—no, whether the people here—were truly being protected."
Kwak In-gu chuckled as he looked at the bruised and battered Yoo Min-seong.
"Why, did you think they were working the weak like slaves here?"
"... "
Kwak In-gu glanced over at Im Jeong-hyeok, who was slumped over asleep.
"That bastard was so wrapped in self-righteousness that we split up. If I'd stayed beside him any longer, I would've died of cancer."
"... "
"But... with the world in this state, that bastard's changed a hell of a lot too..."
He looked at Im Jeong-hyeok with distant eyes, then spoke to Yoo Min-seong.
"I'm not telling you not to resent him. Even if Ga-in decides to kill the bastard, I won't stop her."
"... Yes."
Kwak In-gu watched Im Jeong-hyeok, who was murmuring in his sleep, for a long moment, then woke him.
"Hey, get up."
After a single tap, Im Jeong-hyeok rubbed his eyes and checked his surroundings.
Heaving a brief sigh, he got up, took out a water bottle from the refrigerator next to him, and began drinking.
"Hoo..."
"Any other annoying shit to waste time on? Let's leave now."
The moment Im Jeong-hyeok, fresh from being woken, pressed a button, a captain from outside entered.
Saluting Im Jeong-hyeok the instant he came in, the captain eyed Kwak In-gu warily.
"Hyeok-jin, ready a search team."
"Understood."
Under the icy stares of the soldiers, Kwak In-gu was eating a meal with Im Jeong-hyeok.
The grandmother who had been making the food came out and tapped the soldiers on the shoulders.
"You'll give yourselves indigestion. Quit staring while he's eating, you punks."
""Yes, ma'am.""
Until a few hours earlier, Yoo Min-seong had regarded them as trash. Yet no matter how he looked at it, the community inside was a perfect refuge.
It could protect young children and was more secure than Yoo Min-seong's former base in Guri.
Seeing over a hundred soldiers answer to that grandmother, Yoo Min-seong felt an emotion he couldn't name.
Kwak In-gu ate his meal nonchalantly and expressed his admiration.
"Wow... Granny Kang, your cooking hasn't lost its touch."
"Look at the way this punk talks, and I'm seeing him for the first time in six years."
Kwak In-gu let out a short laugh and then looked at Im Jeong-hyeok's face.
A long scar, courtesy of Ga-in, stretched across it—thirteen stitches' worth, an openly exposed wound.
"You look half-dead. Getting beaten up by a kid now?"
"... Just eat your food, In-gu."
"Wow. Our Ga-in will try to kill you the instant she sees you, and I'm not stopping her, just so you know."
"... If that happens... I intend to die."
At Im Jeong-hyeok's words, the room turned abruptly freezing cold.
"".....""
Before anyone knew it, the grandmother behind Im Jeong-hyeok smacked him over the head.
Thwack!
"You little shit, if you die, are the rest of us supposed to drop dead on our own?!"
"... "
"A grown man with no sense of responsibility... This is exactly when you need to stay alive!"
Beside them, Kwak In-gu cackled with laughter.
"Then don't run into Ga-in when I'm not around. I'll at least try to stop her. Kahaha."
"You... haven't changed one bit..."
"Doesn't that pretty much decide whose personality was right for this situation?"
Kwak In-gu pulled off his necklace and handed it to Im Jeong-hyeok.
Inside the locket were the faces of three soldiers.
One was unfamiliar; the slight-built one was Im Jeong-hyeok, and the one with the overwhelming physique was Kwak In-gu.
The three were smiling, all wearing the same Second Lieutenant insignia.
"Jeong-jae died protecting your sorry ass, and a lot of time has passed since then..."
Kwak In-gu spoke to Im Jeong-hyeok, who was staring at the photograph.
"Following you around with that fucking self-righteousness, I thought I'd die of cancer. But you've changed a lot now."
Right then, the grandmother brought her hand down on Kwak In-gu's head with a force incomparable to when she'd hit Im Jeong-hyeok.
Whack!
"Agh!"
"You little punk! Do you know how many people are still alive because of Jeong-hyeok?! You petty bastard! If you left saying you'd live just fine alone, you should never have come back!"
"Look, Granny, you're going to wrong me to death. Visit our place sometime, take one look at Mister Ji's face, and then talk!"
Whack!
"Why am I Granny and Mister Ji gets to be Mister?! You rotten punk!"
"Agh!!! Because you act exactly like a granny!"
Beside them, Im Jeong-hyeok let out a quiet laugh.
Watching that scene, Yoo Min-seong's feelings grew even more complicated.
On the rooftop of the Uijeongbu Department Store, people were keeping watch over the perimeter.
A man wearing a sergeant's insignia was staring into the distance.
"Hey, what's that...?"
A seated corporal looked up at the sergeant.
"What is it, sir?"
Through binoculars, at the far edge of the Meadow—close to Seoul—all of the Hyenas who'd had a base there were charging toward this location.
"... What is that, sir?"
Dispersing, the Hyenas entered each district and were rushing this way, bringing people with them.
The Sergeant urgently switched on the radio linked to the Captain.
"Communications security. Sergeant Han Seong-hoon reporting. The Hyenas' movements are unusual."
- "What's going on?"
"They've split into each sector and are approaching this location, bringing people with them."
- "... Understood."
Captain Kim Hyeok-jin received the report and descended to the first floor.
The people with tooth tattoos were gasping for breath.
"What's going on?"
"A wave... It's a zombie wave... Huff..."
Seeing the crowd gathering around, Kim Hyeok-jin began to grasp the severity.
"What's the scale?"
"Screamers alone—fifty of them, confirmed by sight..."
"What?!"
"...It's a tsunami-class wave unlike anything we've ever seen."
Captain Kim Hyeok-jin surveyed the situation, grabbed his radio, and shouted.
"... Get everyone inside first!!! It's tsunami-class!"