Someone I Know (3)
Cho Cheol-woong let out a small, dismissive snort.
“You’re telling me you held back your fear?”
“Aigoo… Back then we were still in the very early stages, sir. We didn’t even know what the zombies were really like. Of course I was scared. We had to cross to the next building, but we had no idea where the zombies were hiding… And on top of that, Terra herself was bleeding from her foot… At the time, the standing order was to ignore or just shoot any wounded personnel on sight.”
Master Sergeant Hong spoke with exaggerated flair, spit flying from his mouth. Of course, no one believed this battle-hardened veteran had actually been afraid. Cho Cheol-woong figured he was just embellishing the story to heighten the tension.
“What about the rest of you? Were you scared too?”
Cho Cheol-woong turned to the soldiers who had moved with Hong that day.
“Honestly, we didn’t have time to be scared. We were too excited…”
The biggest soldier among them grinned dreamily, as if the mere memory filled him with ecstasy.
“I got to carry Terra—the girl I’d only ever seen on TV—in my own two arms while running to the next building. I remember thinking, ‘Man, I’m so glad I survived.’ She smelled amazing, her skin was incredibly smooth, and she weighed practically nothing. Like holding a handful of feathers!”
“Exactly! She didn’t even feel human. More like some kind of fairy. Her feet were bare, so I brought her shoes later. Those pink sneakers were seriously this tiny!”
The man beside him pinched his index and middle fingers together, then clenched his fist to show just how small they were, shouting dramatically. The way he used extreme honorifics for a teenage girl—as if she were the Army Chief of Staff—finally cracked Cho Cheol-woong’s usual rigid expression into laughter.
“You lunatics… Even a newborn’s shoes would be bigger than that.”
“No, sir! They really were that small, Lieutenant! This tiny!”
The soldier stubbornly adjusted his hand to about half his palm’s width, refusing to back down.
“Enough! No matter how grand you make it sound, Terra probably doesn’t even remember any of you.”
When Cho Cheol-woong teased them with a mocking smile, both Hong and the soldiers shook their heads vigorously.
“No way, sir. You didn’t see the look on her face when she stared at me that day, Lieutenant. Do you know what those tiny lips said? ‘I will never forget the kindness you showed me.’ She said it exactly like that—‘I will ab-so-lute-ly ne-ver for-get you.’”
It was nothing particularly special, yet Hong emphasized every syllable as if revealing some profound secret. Even more ridiculous were the soldiers nodding solemnly with moved expressions.
“Yes, sir! Of course Terra will remember us. She even held my hand tightly. There’s no way she’d forget that.”
As expected of soldiers—mention an idol and they all turned into complete idiots.
“Ah… We should’ve just taken her with us on our helicopter back then. Instead of leaving her in Jamsil…”
Hong clapped his hands together in regret. But they all knew it was just empty talk. No one knew exactly how it had been discovered that Terra was an immune, but the Special Mission Group had neither the experts nor the equipment to test for it. Any further discussion would just loop back to the same stories, so Cho Cheol-woong waved his hand dismissively.
“Anyway, enough of that. When we secure Terra later, you can tell her all about it. Mention that you were the ones who rescued her before.”
If an opportunity arose to extract Terra from General Kim’s faction, that connection could become a valuable asset. Once she learned that the soldiers who had saved her were on their side, she might open up a little and speak the truth.
“I’m confident about that! Terra will definitely remember us!”
The soldiers who had been with him that day puffed out their chests as they answered. Before boarding the boat with the returning team, Cho Cheol-woong gave his final instructions.
“Maintain strict vigilance. I will not tolerate any engagement without my explicit permission.”
Even though they were relatively safe waiting on the boat secured by ropes, zombies could attack from anywhere at any time. Just earlier, while installing explosives underwater, they had been forced to eliminate a group of early-stage Type 3 zombies that had suddenly appeared. If they had been mid-to-late Type 3s—or worse, Type 4s—they would still be drifting above the Jungnangcheon, unable to begin their work and continuing pointless slaughter.
“You can count on us, Lieutenant Cho!”
Master Sergeant Hong snapped a crisp salute and asked,
“Have I ever let you down even once?”
“Ah, damn it… What do we do?”
Jinwoo, who had been silently staring through his scope for a long time, suddenly turned around and asked. His casual attitude was so absurd that Yubin couldn’t help but let out a dry laugh.
“How am I supposed to answer when I don’t even know what the situation is? You’ve been staring by yourself the whole time and then suddenly ask what we should do?”
“Ah… Did I not say it out loud?”
Jinwoo tapped his own head a few times and began explaining.
“So… After they cleared the blocked waterway, they split their forces in half. There were two rubber boats. One of them, carrying seven people, headed upstream… The other boat is still floating right where it was.”
“How many are left?”
“Five.”
“Including their leader?”
“No, he went on the boat heading upstream.”
Jinwoo shook his head. Yubin gripped his chin with his fixed prosthetic hand, deep in thought.
“So they left some troops behind… That’s annoying. Haah.”
If an unfriendly force was stationed less than two kilometers away, they couldn’t risk firing a single loud shot. Their plan to visit the Costco as soon as dawn broke tomorrow would face serious complications. They would have to move while keeping Jinwoo’s marksmanship sealed.
There were many other restrictions. Even lighting a cigarette would no longer be carefree. While their position was at a much higher elevation and the light probably wouldn’t be visible from that angle, it was still a needless worry. And if the other side deployed high-end optical equipment like the kind Jinwoo was using, there was a real chance they might accidentally spot them on the rooftop.
“This level of camouflage won’t cut it…”
Yubin tapped the flimsy camouflage screen he had rigged up beneath the billboard. It had been hastily draped with cloth to secretly monitor the helicopter, but anyone looking straight at it would immediately make eye contact. They desperately needed reinforcements.
“With the equipment those people have, they can’t see this far. As long as we don’t flash a cigarette lighter, we’re fine.”
Jinwoo spoke with conviction. The close-range scopes mounted on their personal firearms couldn’t possibly identify objects at this distance. For Yubin, that was good news.
“Oh, really? Then we can smoke behind the water tank without much issue. Or open a window on the opposite side of the thirteenth floor…”
Yubin muttered to himself, eyes darting around like a mouse trapped in a maze, before asking the fundamental question.
“But what the hell are those people doing over there? Why did they stay behind?”
“They’re not doing anything. Just standing near the tied-up boat on guard duty. Wearing night-vision goggles.”
Jinwoo answered, eyes glued to the scope again. Yubin rubbed his chin with his left hand once more.
“So… are they monitoring whether the water gets blocked again?”
“Yeah, that seems likely. They don’t appear to have any other tasks.”
“How long do you think they’ll stay?”
Worry clouded Yubin’s face. Helicopters from Busan were scheduled to begin sweeping the Han River area tomorrow morning. If those men were still there by then… the Special Mission Group soldiers would hear the rotors too. They would realize something unusual was happening and begin their own search or some other action. In short, another troublesome variable had appeared. They were already stretched thin just worrying about the forces coming from Busan…
“It’s not certain, but I don’t think they plan to stay very long.”
Jinwoo said, making minute left-to-right adjustments with the barrel. Yubin’s expression brightened, though he still wanted to know the reasoning.
“Why do you think that? How can you tell?”
“They don’t have supplies.”
Jinwoo kept his gaze fixed 1.7 kilometers away as he raised his right hand and traced a small circle in the air.
“They’re each carrying nothing but a tiny backpack. If they planned a long stay, they would’ve brought stacks of supply boxes. Also… they’d need sleeping bags if they were going to rotate rest. It’s inefficient for all five to stay awake at once. But I don’t see any of that. They don’t seem to be taking turns sleeping either. So even at the longest estimate, I think they’ll pull out before the night is over.”
Even as he said that, Jinwoo showed no intention of taking his eyes off the scope. He wouldn’t be able to relax completely until he confirmed the men rowing their boat upstream and leaving.
“If you’re right, then it probably won’t be a big problem…”
Yubin felt a slight sense of relief as he reviewed the situation. They had been startled and caused a bit of commotion, but if those Special Mission Group soldiers quietly disappeared before morning… the overall situation wouldn’t change much. Jinwoo could head to Costco after they left, and the rest of the schedule would proceed as planned. However… what if they hadn’t stayed behind simply to watch the Jungnangcheon’s flow? What if they had another mission and began searching the surrounding area soon after? Would they still have to stand by and let those soldiers vanish from sight? That was the painful dilemma.
“I’ll keep watch. You go down with Mingu and rest, YB.”
Jinwoo spoke quietly but firmly. Though he hadn’t said it aloud, Yubin could clearly read the unspoken reason why Jinwoo was volunteering to stay and even changing the watch order. If continued surveillance revealed any chance of trouble, he had decided he would eliminate them.
“Try not to kill them if possible.”
Before heading downstairs with Mingu, Yubin left those words of caution. Whether they hid the bodies or erased the traces afterward, the other side would inevitably react once they realized their stationed troops had vanished. Yubin had no desire to provoke a reckless fight without knowing the enemy’s full force size.
“I will.”
Jinwoo answered. He had been thinking the same thing—if possible.
“Hey, what the hell happened? You said you’d be right back. Why’d it take so long?”
As soon as they reached the fourteenth floor, Sheriff approached with an irritated voice. The Witch lay on a comfortable armchair in the corner, eyes tightly shut beneath a blanket. Yubin pointed at her with his chin and whispered.
“Is she asleep?”
“Asleep my ass. She’s just pretending to be passed out from drinking. I kept pestering her with questions, so she got annoyed and started acting like this.”
Sheriff shook his head as if he didn’t even want to talk about it, clearly fed up. For someone with a shorter fuse than gasoline, having to deal with the Witch alone for so long without blowing up was understandably frustrating.
Whoosh—!
To give the two of them time to talk comfortably, Mingu strode over and plopped down right beside the Witch. She must have been peeking through slitted eyes, because the moment he approached she flinched and shrank back. After leaving the Witch’s surveillance to Mingu, Yubin dragged Sheriff down to the thirteenth floor.
“What is it this time? Another secret?”
Sheriff grumbled. Yubin motioned for him to lower his voice.
“It’s something that woman shouldn’t hear. Over there… Lieutenant General Shin’s subordinates are about two kilometers to the west. Above the Jungnangcheon.”
“Lieutenant General Shin? You mean the guys we just negotiated with?”
“Yeah. That’s them.”
“But how do you know they’re his men? It’s not like they’ve got it written on their foreheads.”
“One of the subordinates who came with them that day has a face I recognize. There’s a scar like this running down his face…”
When Yubin drew a vertical line down his own face, Sheriff immediately understood and nodded.
“Aha! That guy! Yeah, I remember him.”
This friend had clearly sensed something dangerous from that Special Mission Group lieutenant and stayed on guard. Like one beast recognizing another… Sheriff, still frowning, thought for a moment before making a confused face.
“But why are they here? If they’re on the Jungnangcheon, they’re not here to catch us. That spot is really far from the welfare center too.”
“They probably came down to clear a blocked drain. Anyway, there are still five of them over there, so if that woman says she wants to smoke, don’t take her up to the roof. Bring her here, open that window on the other side, and let her smoke there.”
Yubin pointed at the exterior window facing east. Sheriff looked like he thought the whole thing was trivial and asked again.
“Hey, if five guys are left behind, shouldn’t we do something about it? You’re just gonna leave them alone?”
“According to Jinwoo, they’ll probably withdraw before tomorrow morning. And if they approach us, Jinwoo will handle it himself. More importantly… did you manage to get anything else out of her?”
When Yubin changed the subject, Sheriff let out a heavy sigh.
“I don’t know, fuck. She just keeps babbling nonsense about how many cars are in her dad’s garage… She did give me one number she claims is Chairman Hwang’s, but I have no idea if it’s real. Hey, YB! That bitch is a total fox. She won’t talk. And I’m not exactly good at charming people… Anyway, she gets on my nerves. …Ugh!”
Just thinking about it made his blood boil again; Sheriff shuddered in disgust. It seemed his patience had completely run out after only a few hours with the Witch. Yubin patted his shoulder with an understanding look.
“Well, we didn’t expect much from the start, so it’s fine. Getting Chairman Hwang’s number is already a huge win. While you and Jinwoo go to Costco tomorrow, Mingu can work his charm a bit and things should improve a lot. Oh right, did you tell her to sprinkle coffee grounds after she’s done?”
“Yeah, I told her all that. Hey, no matter how stupid she is, she wouldn’t just leave her shit there, right? I left a whole big tub of coffee grounds next to it. She should at least cover it. Though with that bitch, she might just go ‘Whoops!’ and throw a tantrum instead…”
Sheriff kept grumbling with a deeply furrowed face. Yubin could easily imagine how much this honest friend of his had been dying to complain, so he simply smiled and listened quietly.
The turning point came about two hours later. Jinwoo had been staring relentlessly at the green image in his scope when he briefly lifted his tired eyes to the pitch-black night sky.
“…Hm?”
He narrowed his eyes at something writhing in the darkness near Gunja Bridge. It was nothing new—zombies. But among that ordinary procession of the undead, something made Jinwoo’s heart sink. Something glinting unnaturally under the moonlight…
“…Balloons.”
Jinwoo muttered softly as he raised the K-2’s scope. Hanging limply among the hundreds of shuffling zombies were sun-shaped balloons, half-deflated and swaying helplessly. A chill ran down his spine as he whispered,
“Those bastards… was that their migration route? They can’t go that way…”