Chapter 101
The next day, late in the evening, zombies with glowing red eyes started appearing at Shelter Barrier in Gunja-dong.
One of them, sitting on a chair, opened its mouth.
“How’d it go?”
"Well… It seems like the seventh officer has failed us.”
“Is she dead?”
“We haven’t confirmed her death, but her underlings aren’t moving anymore. The enemy we’re dealing with seems to be moving these immobile zombies elsewhere.”
“That means the seventh officer is dead.”
The sixth officer, who was sitting in a chair, clicked his tongue vigorously and furrowed his brow. The dong leader of Junggok-dong, sitting next to the sixth officer, spoke up.
“Sixth officer, I feel like we should change our plans.”
“Do you happen to have any good ideas?”
“Yes, in fact, there’s no need for us to go through Achasan-ro.”
“What do you mean? Then how are we going to move this many zombies?” asked the sixth officer, pointing at the zombie underlings around them.
There were well over five thousand zombies.
There was the sixth officer, the dong leader of Junggok-dong, and three decoys, also known as the penal units, under the sixth officer. That made it five zombies with glowing red eyes, with five thousand underlings under their control.
Even with this many underlings, though, they were hesitant to move, now that news had reached them of the vanguard’s annihilation.
The defenders of Shelter Seoul Forest seemed impossibly formidable. They didn’t dare to move hastily, since they had no idea how strong their opponents were.
The vanguard had consisted of five thousand and five hundred zombies.
Of course, the dong leader of Jayang-dong and one of the decoys had been wiped out early on in an ambush, but the seventh officer still had the dong leader of Guui-dong and two decoys provided by the sixth officer.
Nevertheless, they had failed to capture Seongsu-dong.
This battle, which they had assumed would end in a day, was stretching out.
The sixth officer’s plan of taking care of Gwangjin-gu quickly and joining the Gangnam Operation had just been dealt a big setback.
The sixth officer clicked his tongue vigorously and mumbled, “I knew I shouldn’t have given the seventh officer a penal unit as a signaller. She just made things complicated for me.”
The sixth officer sighed, placing a hand on his forehead. He then stared at the dong leader of Junggok-dong next to him and asked,
“So, what’s your plan? I’m all ears for now.”
“As I mentioned earlier, we really don’t have to enter Achasan-ro through Dongil-ro.”
“Weren’t you paying attention earlier? How do you expect us to move this many troops around? That’s the only route we can take with this many troops.’”
“Gunja-gyo is west of Gunja-dong. We can cross into Songjeong-dong via that bridge.”[1]
“Songjeong-dong? The neighborhood with the sewage treatment facilities?”
The sixth officer raised his eyebrows, and the dong leader nodded.
“Jangan-gyo is southwest of Songjeong-dong. If we cross that, we can reach the border between Seongsu 1-ga, 2-dong and Seongsu 2-ga, 3-dong. That’ll make it possible for us to hit them from behind.”
“Oh geez, give me a break. That bridge is terribly narrow. Half of our forces will be killed before they even get to the southern end.”
“That’s why Jangan-gyo will be a decoy. The bait.”
The dong leader of Junggok-dong smiled mysteriously. Puzzled, the sixth officer tilted his head and stared at the dong leader. The dong leader of Junggok-dong took a deep breath and continued to outline the plan.
“I’ll draw their attention. In the meantime, you can move to Seongdong-gyo, sir.”
“Seongdong-gyo? You mean the bridge under Hanyang University?”
"Yes, sir."
“Listen up fella, there’s no way to enter Hanyang University. Cheonggye-cheon and Jungnang-cheon flow along the south and east, and you have to pass through Majang-dong to enter the north entrance. You do realize that the enemies killed the dong leader of Majang-dong, no? You seriously think they won’t have any scouts in Majang-dong?”[2]
“Sir, I’m sure you haven’t forgotten how we sent our bait into 1-dong before?”
The sixth officer looked at the dong leader in confusion.
The dong leader of Junggok-dong flashed a thin smile.
“There’s a bridge into Hanyang University to the west of Songjeong-dong.”
“There’s a bridge?”
The sixth officer repeated the statement as a question, and the dong leader nodded.
“This is something that only locals know. There’s a small little bridge that doesn’t even have a name. It’s sometimes used by residents to go on walks.”
“And you want to move this many troops through there?”
“I’m sure it’d be much better than getting caught by the enemy.”
The sixth officer gently rubbed his chin as he listened to the dong leader.
The sixth officer realized that time was on their side. He realized that he had been preoccupied by his desire to join the Gangnam Operation and had ignored other possible options he could’ve been taking to make sure everything worked out.
After all, the success of this attack was a matter of life and death. The correct approach was to think everything through and move carefully.
The sixth officer nodded slowly. He seemed fully on board with the dong leader’s proposal. He posed a follow-up question.
“Alright then. And the final destination must be Seoul Forest, right?”
"Yes sir. Judging by the fact that they’re protecting the shelter at all costs, the shelter seems to be linked with their desires somehow.”
“Desires? Are you saying that the zombies at Shelter Seoul Forest have desires?”
“Yes, I know it’s somewhat absurd, but I believe their desires have to do something with protecting humans. Destroying the shelter will probably destroy their desires as well. And I’m sure you can imagine what happens afterward.”
“They’ll turn into black creatures.”
The sixth officer smiled, enjoying what he was hearing.
The dong leader of Junggok-dong smiled back and continued to outline the plan.
“Judging by the fact that they defeated the seventh officer, there must be more than one or two enemy leaders with zombies.”
“Perfect. Once we’re victorious, I shall reward you like never before.”
“Thank you.”
The dong leader of Junggok-dong bowed deeply toward the sixth officer. He smiled a villainous smile and muttered to himself,
“All of them are dead meat.”
* * *
It was past two in the morning in Seongsu 2-ga, 3-dong. Kim Hyeong-Jun focused his attention on keeping a lookout as he waited for Lee Hyun-Deok and Do Han-Sol to wake up.
He’d ordered his troops on guard to prepare for a second clash, and had moved all the immobile zombies to the zombie prison.
"Losing… Gains…”
“You’re doing well. Just a little more.”
Mood-Swinger came up to Kim Hyeong-Jun, looking tired. The zombie did not feel fatigue, and so whenever it acted as though it were tired, it meant that it was hungry.
Kim Hyeong-Jun patted Mood-Swinger on the back and ordered it to eat one of the zombies around it. Mood Swinger beamed and shoved a zombie that was not under anyone’s command into its mouth.
“What breed of dog is it?”
Hwang Ji-Hye asked in a sarcastic tone as she observed what was going on.
Kim Hyung-Jun scratched his head in embarrassment.
“If you keep observing it, it’s actually got a cute side to it.”
"I don’t know… No matter how you look at it, its size doesn’t exactly make it seem cute... ”
“Despite its size, it acts like a three-year-old.”
Kim Hyeong-Jun smiled heartily and patted Mood-Swinger on its side as it tore through the unfortunate zombie. Mood-Swinger was so abnormally large that even when Kim Hyeong-Jun stretched his arms up, he could barely touch its waist. Mood Swinger gave a little jerk and smiled when Kim Hyeong-Jun touched it, as if his touch was ticklish.
Hwang Ji-Hye brushed away some dirt from the floor with her hands and sat down. Kim Hyeong-Jun ordered Mood-Swinger to keep moving the zombies into the prison, and sat down next to Hwang Ji-Hye, turning to look at her as he did so.
“You should go inside and get some sleep.”
“It’s alright.”
“I know it’s not. Your dark circles are as dark as the night sky right now.”
As Kim Hyung-jun chuckled, Hwang Ji-Hye smiled faintly and gently touched the hunting knife at her side. Kim Hyeong-Jun looked at the knife and asked where she had gotten it from.
“It’s a memento my boyfriend left me.”
“Oh… You didn’t mean to say husband, right?”
Hwang Ji-Hye chuckled, noticing that Kim Hyeong-Jun had tried to make a subtle joke.
“You weren’t trying to be funny, were you?”
“Sorry if it wasn’t funny.”
“Well, it was kind of funny.”
Hwang Ji-Hye smiled sadly as she looked down at the long-bladed hunting knife. After a moment, she turned her attention back to Kim Hyeong-Jun.
“I feel like… You would’ve been really popular back in the day.”
“No way. Don’t you think Hyun-Deok ahjussi would’ve been more popular than me? He’s got a bad-boy vibe to him. But at the same time, he’s good at taking care of his people. He’s like someone who only looks out for the people that he cares about.”
“Well, that’s true to a certain extent.”
Hwang Ji-Hye's smile finally blossomed wide. It seemed like this was the first ordinary conversation she’d had in a long time, and it had helped to clear away some of her worries.
Kim Hyeong-Jun’s own face brightened as he saw her expression.
"Huh? You just smiled, didn’t you?”
“Huh?”
"It's the first time I've seen you smile."
"Is that so?"
Hwang Ji-Hye smacked her lips, her smile growing sad. Her gaze seemed to be far away, as though she were missing someone or something dearly.
Kim Hyeong-Jun remained silent, letting her reminisce alone.
A little later, Hwang Ji-Hye spoke.
"In the past… People used to be surprised when I didn’t smile, but nowadays, it’s the complete opposite.”
“So you were popular as well.”
“Of course! I could make men line up for me if I wanted to. In fact, they would form a line all the way down to Busan!”
“Puhaha!”
Kim Hyeong-Jun slapped his knee and burst into laughter. Hwang Ji-Hye smirked.
"What is it? You don’t believe what I’m saying?"
"No. No. I just like the choice of words you used.”
“Those were the good old days. My glory days, my heyday.”
Hwang Ji-Hye actually had a funny side to her. It seemed like she had shown only the stiff, rigid side of her because of the pressure she faced as the group leader of the shelter.
Hwang Ji-Hye smacked her lips.
“I can’t believe I’m telling you all this nonsense. It might be because I’m with you. You got some tricks for making people open up or something?”
“Haha, I don’t really have any other tricks up my sleeve. But this one trick I have was all it took for me to meet my wife.”
"Oh, I'm so jealous, you know."
“Are you mocking me!?”
“No, it was a compliment.”
Hwang Ji-Hye shrugged with a goofy expression.
Kim Hyeong-Jun let out a breath and nudged Hwang Ji-Hye on the shoulder. She snorted.
“Oh wow, now you’re hitting people now?”
“What do you mean by ‘hit’? I just shoved you lightly.”
Hwang Ji-Hye smirked and put down the hunting knife she was holding. She then looked up at the night sky and sighed.
Kim Hyeong-Jun gave Hwang Ji-Hye a sidelong look, then asked his next question carefully.
“Do you miss him? Your boyfriend?”
“Of course. I miss him.”
“What kind of person was he?”
“Hmm…”
She brought her knees together and placed her hands on her knees, taking a moment to think. She then buried her face in between her knees and spoke up.
“He was the type of man who always put others’ lives first before his.”
“Was that why you liked him?”
"Hmm… You could say it was one of the attractive sides to him. He was a mildeok, which made it frustrating back then, but thanks to him, I was able to make Shelter Silence into what it is.”[3]
Kim Hyeong-Jun looked down at the hunting knife on the floor. If she’d been in a relationship with a mildeok, that would explain where she had gotten such a weapon from.
Hwang Ji-Hye sighed.
“The original group leader of Shelter Silence was my boyfriend. He went through all the hard and dirty work… But he died with the original founding members.”
If he had died with the original founding members, it must’ve meant that he’d been killed during one of the zombie raids before the shelter was fully established.
Kim Hyeong-Jun frowned, then asked a question.
“Correct me if I’m wrong… But most of the time, if something like that happens, don't the original founding members usually make it out alive? Not the other way around?”
“Yes, it’s just like you said. But he was a selfless person. He put the survivors and shelter first until the very end. He deserved the respect he had gotten.”
Hwang Ji-Hye tried her best to maintain her smile as she looked at Kim Hyeong-Jun. Kim Hyeong-Jun nodded slowly with his lips pressed together.
After a moment, he smacked his lips.
“You’re amazing. The other survivors are amazing as well.”
“Is that so?”
"Of course. The reason I joined the Survivor Rally Organization was because of my younger brother. I didn’t really think about saving anyone else, except for my family.”
Hwang Ji-Hye was all ears, now that Kim Hyeong-Jun had begun to share his own story. Kim Hyeong-Jun scratched his sideburns, as though embarrassed to be put in the limelight.
“When I first met Hyun-Deok ahjussi… I honestly had no intention of forming an alliance with him. I was just curious. I wondered what was on his mind. I wondered why he’d saved my family even though he didn’t know me or my family. I didn’t approach him with any intentions. I just wanted to see him.”
“And how was it when you met him?”
"He felt like someone… He was someone who was living in a different world from the one I was in. I knew back then that he was weaker than me and knew less than me… But I couldn’t stop thinking about him when I saw him trying his best to save others with whatever he had been given.”
“And you probably thought that that was worth learning from him, right?”
“Yes…”
Kim Hyeong-Jun smiled while avoiding Hwang Ji-Hye’s gaze. She smiled heartily at his reaction.
“There are people like that. People who don't care if they’re going to gain or lose something in a given situation. They sometimes look foolish to us; in fact, those people sometimes act foolishly because of their beliefs and try their very best.”
“...”
“And we often call those kinds of people heroes. So, you and Lee Hyun-Deok, you’re both heroes to us.”
"No, absolutely not.”
“There is no need to be humble when stating the obvious.”
Kim Hyeong-Jun waved his hands vigorously.
“I’m serious. If you say anything like that to Hyun-Deok ahjussi, you’ll get in trouble.”
Hwang Ji-Hye tilted her head as she looked at Kim Hyeong-Jun, not understanding why he was being so humble.
1. The suffix -gyo refers to bridges in Korean addresses. In this case, the dong leader is referring to Gunja Bridge, located in Gunja-dong. Not all bridges have names that match the dong they are located in. ☜
2. In Korea, -cheon is a suffix that refers to a stream or smaller tributary that flows into a larger body of water. The cheons in Seoul, Korea usually flow to the Han River. ☜
3. Mildeok is the equivalent of a military otaku. Someone who is obsessed with anything related to the military. ☜
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