Triple Border (3)
The roar of the Black Hawk's rotor blades sliced through even the noise-canceling headset.
*Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump—! Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh-whoosh-whoosh—!*
Major Oh kept his eyes tightly shut as the sound hammered into his skull.
His heart was pounding so violently he could feel every beat reverberating through his entire body. The pulse was so rapid he worried it might trigger a seizure. Was this what a panic attack felt like?
*Calm down… Just calm down…*
Major Oh clenched his teeth and tried to soothe himself. It didn’t help. The anxiety refused to fade, and his breathing grew shallower by the second. Even the bright morning sunlight streaming through the windows only added to the crushing pressure. He was terrified.
*This is insane.*
He covered his eyes with one hand and swallowed a quiet sigh. Seoul… A forsaken city now buried beneath more than ten million zombies. The mere fact that he had to go there was enough to choke the air from his lungs.
Were there still that many zombies left? The rumors said hordes of thousands roamed together without pause. If they ran into one of those swarms unexpectedly, could they even handle it?
Just imagining a frenzied mob of zombies charging at point-blank range made his palms slick with sweat. One scratch from their teeth was all it took—everything would be over. No matter how he looked at it, these were impossibly cruel survival conditions.
It was embarrassing to admit, but he had never once taken part in a proper zombie extermination operation. He had simply sat safely in the rear command post issuing orders or relaying Lieutenant Colonel Jeong’s commands to other officers. That only made the fear worse. Every tactic and strategy he had ever learned was useless against the undead. Taeyang Group had distributed a flimsy field manual on zombie countermeasures, but it was nothing more than basic common sense.
*Stop imagining it… Stop!*
No matter how sternly he ordered himself, one corner of his mind kept painting vivid pictures of himself being bitten—screaming in agony as blood-soaked monsters tore into his guts.
But what frightened him even more than the zombies was the look on Captain Lee’s face, sitting directly across from him.
*What the hell is this bastard hiding?*
Staring at Captain Lee’s ashen, rigid expression, Major Oh swallowed another sigh. From the moment they had met at dawn until now, the entire helicopter ride to Seoul, the man’s eyes had been flooded with worry and dread. Of course, being sent into a zombie-infested zone for two straight days wasn’t exactly pleasant, but this was extreme.
The man’s gloomy, sweat-drenched face made him look like a high-schooler trying to hide his girlfriend’s pregnancy. When Major Oh had tried cracking a joke to lighten the mood, Captain Lee had only forced a single awkward chuckle before immediately looking away again.
There was something off. Something that clearly didn’t match the report this man had filed. The question was—what exactly was the discrepancy?
“Captain Lee.”
As the helicopter flew over Gangnam, Major Oh asked again.
“Was there anything in yesterday’s report that didn’t match reality?”
“Sir? I didn’t catch that.”
It hadn’t been a long question, and the headset wasn’t broken, yet Captain Lee was playing dumb again. If the man weren’t a hometown junior favored by both Lieutenant General Park and Lieutenant Colonel Jeong, Major Oh would have slapped him across the face right then and there. What a tactless, brainless idiot.
*Why are they protecting a lunatic like this…*
Major Oh shook his head. This guy was especially rotten. Sexual assault of a female subordinate officer, embezzlement of military supplies… He had been court-martialed four times, yet never once received punishment. All because Lieutenant General Park had forced acquittals every single time.
“I asked if there was anything in yesterday’s report that wasn’t true! There wasn’t, right? We’re just going to take some photos and head back, correct?”
Major Oh swallowed his rising anger and shouted the same question once more.
“…Yes, sir! That’s correct!”
Captain Lee nodded. But the brief, subtle silence before his answer made Major Oh deeply uneasy.
“You confirmed the target was killed, right?”
“…Yes, sir! Confirmed!”
“And all witnesses were eliminated!”
“Correct, sir!”
Even as he answered, cold sweat poured down the man’s face. Watching it up close, Major Oh felt like his insides were about to burst. If the entire enemy force had truly been wiped out, there should be no reason to look this nervous. What kind of lie was this bastard telling that made him so terrified?
“Major Oh, sir! We’re approaching the target zone!”
The pilot turned and called back a moment later. Major Oh craned his neck and looked in the direction the man pointed. Beyond the window, the blue Han River and several bridges appeared tiny in the distance.
“That floating café was the negotiation site, sir!”
Captain Lee, seated across from him, pointed at a structure the size of a fingernail and shouted.
*Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh-whoosh—whoosh—!*
As the helicopter slowly descended, the battered floating café came into full view. The entrance pontoon was littered with several blood-soaked corpses. The second and third floors were a mess of shattered glass and scattered furniture. However…
The most important thing—the primary target, Hwang Nayeon’s body—was nowhere to be seen. Major Oh pressed his lips into a tight line, carefully scanning the corpses, then turned to Captain Lee.
“What the hell is this, Captain Lee? …Where’s the target? Huh? I don’t see her anywhere?”
Despite his efforts to hide his emotions, his voice cracked and trembled.
“Ah, well…”
Captain Lee opened his mouth with shocking brazenness, showing almost no sign of panic.
“At the time, enemy forces began fleeing with the target and took cover behind that building you can see over there! That’s where the kill took place! Therefore, the body should also be in that direction!”
The man pointed toward Ttukseom Park, but Major Oh barely registered it. The single word he had just heard was too shocking. It had seized his brain and refused to let any other thought in.
…*Should* be?
Major Oh blinked, staring at Captain Lee’s flapping mouth. *Should be.* He hadn’t misheard. The man had definitely said it. This bastard… only moments ago he had claimed he had seen the body he killed, yet now he was shamelessly changing it to a vague, uncertain phrase.
“Haa… Captain Lee!”
Major Oh asked through gritted teeth.
“What do you mean ‘should be’? Did you see the target get killed or not?”
“…I saw it! However, afterward… there was the movement of zombies, and remaining enemy forces attempted to flee, so I judged there might be variables and phrased it that way!”
He had piled on every excuse imaginable, yet still answered after a noticeable delay. It meant something was wrong. Having decided he could no longer trust the man’s report, Major Oh gave new orders to the pilot.
“Land as close as possible to that round building! I will confirm it myself!”
“Zombies are on the move, sir! Should we still land?”
The pilot replied. When Major Oh looked to the left, he saw hundreds of zombies casually strolling along the riverside walkway, exactly as the man had said. He had been so fixated on finding Hwang Nayeon’s body that he hadn’t noticed them at all.
*Gulp—!*
Major Oh swallowed dryly and clamped his mouth shut. As the commander, he needed to issue orders… but he had no idea what the correct response was. He couldn’t even tell whether a horde of that size was considered a major threat in this area or if it was small enough to ignore. Asking Captain Lee for advice would damage his pride.
“Once the zombies move out of sight… we land immediately! Starting with chopper six! Maintain full perimeter security!”
After a brief hesitation, Major Oh chose the safest option for now. He had brought over fifty troops and six helicopters, yet he wanted to avoid direct engagement with the undead if at all possible.
*Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh—!*
The five Black Hawks slowly circled above the Han River, waiting for the zombies to pass. A short while later, once the problematic horde had disappeared from view, they descended one by one onto the grassy plaza to the left of Jabeolle.
“Move it! Stay low! Run!”
Non-commissioned officers shouted, slapping the soldiers on the back. The troops who had just stepped onto the ground gripped their K-2 rifles with pale faces and began to move. They had no idea what they were actually doing, but simply setting foot in a city overrun by zombies was more than enough reason to be terrified. And then there was the gunfire making everything even worse.
*Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat—! Rat-tat-tat-tat—! Rat-tat-tat—!*
The noise of other helicopters above them pouring machine-gun fire into the small groups of zombies left behind was enough to shrink the already demoralized soldiers even further.
“Advance! Advance, you bastards! Don’t just stand there like idiots—move! Faster!”
The platoon leaders tried to motivate them with a mix of curses, but the soldiers’ slumped shoulders refused to straighten. Advancing blindly into an area with no barricades, not knowing where zombies might be hiding… Why?
The soldiers were no different from Major Oh or Captain Lee. Direct combat with zombies was still a strange and terrifying concept to them. Especially a situation with such absolute numerical inferiority—this was their first time experiencing it.
“Set up K-3s here and here! Maintain strict overwatch from the air! And make sure none of the men smoke!”
Only after more than thirty troops had formed a defensive perimeter did Major Oh finally land. He began firing off orders compulsively.
“Contact chopper three and have them thoroughly sweep from that building to the subway station! We don’t know what might be hiding!”
As his command was relayed through the radio, the light machine gun mounted on the side of chopper three opened fire.
*Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat—! Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat—!*
A crimson rain of bullets streaked out like rays of light, drawing horizontal lines across the area. The already heavily damaged surfaces of Jabeolle and the subway station turned into honeycomb patterns.
“…That should be enough.”
Major Oh watched with a tense face in case any zombie corpses fell from the shattered windows, then lightly tapped his ringing ears with his palm, looking satisfied. On the other hand, as the search operation continued, Captain Lee’s face grew increasingly rigid with tension.
“Take point!”
When Major Oh shoved him forward, Captain Lee blinked and looked back.
“Sir?”
“We’re going to the kill point, so take the lead!”
“Ah, yes! Yes, sir!”
With his mouth half open, Captain Lee advanced with the soldiers toward Ttukseom Amusement Park Station.
“Ugh!”
The moment they passed the stairs and reached the flat park, the soldiers at the front let out small groans and flinched.
“…These are our boys.”
Major Oh clicked his tongue at the sight of two corpses in military uniforms, their faces and chests brutally perforated. Both these bodies and the others… It seemed the report that the enemy had put up fierce resistance was, at least, true.
“They used these pillars as cover while resisting.”
Captain Lee pointed at the thick concrete pillars riddled with countless bullet holes. Even without the explanation, Major Oh could have guessed as much. Just looking at the shattered decorative pieces scattered everywhere made it clear how much machine-gun fire had been poured into this area. But that wasn’t what mattered right now.
“So… where exactly did you kill the enemy?!”
Major Oh asked again, biting down hard to maintain his composure. How many times did he have to ask the same damn question to this thick-skulled bastard before he got a straight answer?
“It was… behind this pillar… No, I think it was over here.”
Captain Lee dripped with sweat as he searched behind one pillar after another. But there was not a single corpse anywhere.
“Haa…! Haa…! Hoo…”
After checking the final pillar, Captain Lee blinked rapidly, gasping for breath. His face had turned the color of dirt, like a man who had just discovered the lottery ticket he had pinned all his hopes on was a loser. The idiot had apparently been vaguely hoping there really was a body around here somewhere. But the one who truly felt like crying wasn’t him—it was Major Oh.
“Ughhh…”
Major Oh dragged a hand down his face and let out a deep sigh. The operation was such a complete mess that he couldn’t even tell where it had gone wrong first. Good lord… Five helicopters had flown in… and they couldn’t even wipe out a single infantry platoon?
No, not only had they failed to annihilate the enemy—this son of a bitch hadn’t even produced a single enemy corpse. Every body Major Oh had seen since arriving belonged either to Taeyang Group’s private security or their own forces. At this point, even the claim that the enemy force had been platoon-sized was hard to believe. Just what the hell had happened here?
“Ah, um… They were definitely killed here. Our ground troops fired tear gas in this direction… and while they were running away to avoid it…”
Completely unaware of Major Oh’s state of mind, Captain Lee began making more excuses while pointing at yet another random spot.
“Hey, you crazy bastard!”
Having reached the limit of his patience, Major Oh grabbed Captain Lee by the collar and slammed him against the pillar.
“If you’re going to lie, at least make it consistent! You said you killed them, yet you’re pointing at this spotless floor? Where are the bloodstains?”
“Th-the ground is wet, as you can see… It looks like it rained here yesterday… so everything must have been washed away…”
Instead of apologizing or admitting fault, Captain Lee kept offering excuses. The fact that he had clearly been thinking up this nonsense while staring at the wet ground earlier only made Major Oh hate him more. Ignoring the fact that the enlisted men were watching, he kicked the pillar with his combat boot.
“You son of a bitch! When a person gets shot, how much blood sprays everywhere?! Are these pillars really this clean? Huh? You’re saying the rain washed this off too?”
“That’s…”
“And where’s the body? Huh? Where is it?! Where’s that bitch’s corpse?!”
Major Oh tightened his grip on Captain Lee’s throat and roared.
“Ghk…!”
Even while struggling to breathe, Captain Lee kept lying.
“It wasn’t… an instant kill… so she was probably bitten by zombies that were wandering nearby… Ghk… She must have been infected…”
“Haa…!”
The moment he heard the man’s brazen claim, all strength drained from Major Oh’s limbs. First the report had said killed, then it became “probably killed,” and now she hadn’t died instantly but had been bitten by zombies and turned. Where the hell was this bastard’s bottom line…? It was as if the sentence “I was wrong” had never once entered this man’s vocabulary.
“Why… Why didn’t you report the truth, Captain Lee?! Why?!”
Major Oh asked, his face twisted. Since he couldn’t shoot the man here anyway, they now had to figure out how to deal with the situation together. In truth, even shooting him wouldn’t improve anything.
“Well… Since we confirmed she had turned into a zombie, I judged that reporting it as a kill wasn’t exactly a stretch.”
The instant Major Oh’s tone softened even slightly, Captain Lee started spewing more nonsense.
“Then find her!”
Staring into the man’s eyes, Major Oh growled like a madman.
“Find that woman who turned into a zombie, you son of a bitch!”