Chapter 161
To my surprise, we arrived at Daegu Airport in the blink of an eye.
Do Han-Sol unfastened his seat belt.
“Geez… It only takes this long?” he mumbled to himself.
He had a clear reason to say this, since he’d left Gimpo Airport for this place at dawn and had only returned at sunset. In contrast, the journey by plane from Gimpo Airport to Daegu only took an hour.
Do Han-Sol walked over to me, scratching his head.
“Mr. Lee Hyun-Deok.”
"Huh?"
"I.. I don’t have that many underlings left. What should I do?”
“How many do you have left?”
“Most of them died on my way back from Daegu. I think about three hundred of them died on my way there.”
There was no way his underlings would’ve been okay if his feet had suffered so badly. It seemed like he’d taken care of the ones that got injured, since they couldn’t regenerate their bodies like he could. It made sense, since he and his underlings had made the round trip of twelve hundred kilometers at full speed. In the end, bringing his underlings to Daegu with him in case anything unexpected happened had turned out to be a waste.
Of course, ruminating over what had already happened helped nobody.
I frowned, then said, “It doesn’t seem like there are any zombies in Daegu, so don’t worry.”
“I’d be overjoyed if that’s the case…”
“How many do you have left?”
“I have about two hundred left.”
Do Han-Sol had a total of one thousand and fifty underlings under his control before. He had wasted three hundred of them on the Daegu journey, and it seemed like he had lost the other five hundred and fifty of them while protecting the survivors during the relocation to Gimpo Airport.
“Where are the remaining two hundred?”
“I have them loaded in the luggage compartment.”
I was surprised that he’d mentioned the luggage compartment. I couldn’t understand why he’d loaded them in the luggage compartment when there was this much room on board. Perhaps he’d assumed that there wouldn’t be enough seats after seeing the planes on the runway. I felt a bit ashamed for not telling him beforehand, now that I realized that his underlings could’ve come on board with us.
I scratched my head and looked away. What’s done was done, and there was nothing I could do about it now.
“Well, let’s get off the plane first. Let’s get off and sort things out.”
“Got it.”
I headed to the terminal with my underlings and the others who had been on the plane with me. Lee Jeong-Uk, who had landed earlier, came up to me.
“It’s as still as a grave.”
“Is there any food in the terminals?”
“No. There must’ve been survivors here. The place has nothing.”
“Are there any other tracks?”
“Nothing. No dead zombie bodies, nor any traces of survivors.”
I noticed that Lee Jeong-Uk didn’t seem too happy while he was speaking. I couldn’t tell if he was disappointed that Daegu was different from what he’d expected, or if he wasn’t used to this Daegu, which was quiet and empty. I wouldn’t have been surprised if it was the latter, since it was suspiciously calm and untouched.
Seoul had been littered with the debris of collapsed buildings and filled with the stench of dead zombie bodies clogging up the city, reminding everyone there of the world we were living in. But Daegu, as I mentioned, was different. ‘Eerie’ wasn’t quite the word to describe Daegu; instead, it seemed like we were in a distant world, and it was difficult to believe that we were still in the same country.
I couldn't hear any zombies, and the external walls of the buildings were clean as well. The interior looked even better; there weren’t any overturned display cases or bloodstains on the floors or walls. In addition, not a single zombie appeared when we landed, despite the noise that we made while landing. It was hard to believe that a world like this existed merely an hour’s journey away by plane.
I looked out the terminal window.
“For now, let’s spend the night here,” I said. “We’ll discuss the details tomorrow. I need to have a look around and gather some information.”
“I’ll scout around the terminal with the guards and find a place for everyone to get some sleep.”
With that, I checked every entrance and exit of the terminal. Thankfully the airport wasn’t too big, so I only had to place a handful of my underlings on guard duty.
Kim Hyeong-Jun noticed me running around here and there and came up to me.
“How far are you going to go?”
“There weren’t any zombies, even when we landed. I need to have a look around this town.”
Kim Hyeong-Jun nodded and stationed his underlings around the area. My underlings stood guard indoors, while his underlings stood guard on the outskirts of the airport.
Then Do Han-Sol came over to us.
“What should I do in the meantime?”
“You stay with the survivors. There might be zombies in the terminal, so make sure you follow the guards.”
“Got it.”
“And if anything happens, push any one of my underlings. I'll come running right away."
Do Han-Sol nodded vigorously and returned to the terminal. Before we did anything else, Kim Hyeong-Jun and I jumped up onto the roof of the passenger terminal to have a look at the surrounding terrain. There was a stream flowing to the north, and a large river wrapped around the airport to the west and south.
It was a perfectly defensible place.
As I marveled at how advantageous this place would be as a fortress, I noticed a couple of low-rise buildings between the river and the airport. There was a building that looked like a school, but all of its windows were pitch-black.
As I kept on looking for any signs of life, the only thing I could think of was the phrase, ghost town. I sighed and turned to Kim Hyeong-Jun.
“Do you see anything?” I asked.
“No, I don’t see anything. No people, no zombies, no living things.”
“How is this possible?”
"You wouldn’t think… That someone set this up on purpose? Like a trap?”
“Trap?” I repeated, raising my eyebrows.
Kim Hyeong-Jun wet his parched lips.
“It feels like the people out here, whoever they are, are just waiting to catch us off-guard. I mean, there are no zombies around, so any outsider would easily let their guard down. And since it's late at night, it’s perfect for an ambush.”
“You mean you think there’s people here somewhere?”
“Yeah. In fact, they might be watching us at this very moment.”
I nodded slowly and clenched my fists. I heightened all of my senses with a flash of my blue eyes. I heightened my senses until my hairs stood on end, pushing my instinctive ability to detect motion further than ever before.
Despite it being pitch-black, I could detect movement hundreds of meters out due to my senses.
“Ugh!”
Just then, I heard someone grunt, along with the sound of someone tripping over something. I raised my head and looked over to where the sound had come from. My gaze fell on the gap between the low-rise buildings.
Just like Kim Hyeong-Jun had said, someone was observing us from the darkness.
Kim Hyeong-Jun frowned.
“Ahjussi, did you hear that too?” he asked me. “It seemed like someone tripped over some rocks or something.”
“It seems like they were so focused on us that they didn’t even notice what was on the ground.”
“Are they watching us from a distance, like perverts? I wonder if they have a telescope or something.”
“It’s impossible to see us through a telescope right now. It's late at night, so it’ll be hard to tell without some form of night vision.”
"So you're saying there's a chance that the person watching us is a soldier?"
I looked over at Kim Hyeong-Jun without saying a word. I wasn’t sure if it was because we’d been working together as a team for a while, but we were now able to assess the situation and come up with a plan with very few words exchanged.
Kim Hyeong-Jun smirked at our chemistry.
“I’ll break through the front,” he said. “Do you want to go around and come from the other side?”
“Wait, you want to make the first move?”
“Even if we don’t attack, don’t you think we should at least see the other party’s face? I hate the feeling of being watched.”
When I nodded, Kim Hyeong-Jun grabbed onto the railing around the roof and dropped into a crouch. That’s when I realized what he meant by breaking through the front.
Bang!
Kim Hyeong-Jun flew through the darkness, using the railing as a launch pad. To me, he wasn’t breaking through the front… He was creating a new front. I clicked my tongue at his audacity and hurried down to the runway. I made a big loop to the left as I made my way toward the city.
Bang-!
A single gunshot rang out. The sound made me regret not going first; I had no clue how I was going to catch up to someone who was flying while running on my own two legs. Regardless, I furrowed my brow and focused on the situation.
When I finally got to the place where I’d heard the gunshot, I saw Kim Hyeong-Jun with an unknown man. The man was on the floor, while Kim Hyeong-Jun was in front of him, scratching his side.
"What happened? I heard someone shoot a gun.”
“Oh, you’re here?”
Kim Hyeong-Jun smacked his lips and pointed to the right. I turned and saw a man holding an iron pipe and a woman holding a pistol about forty meters away. As I looked at the two of them, the woman with the pistol began pointing at me and Kim Hyeong-Jun alternately. I could tell she was bewildered by our appearance. After a moment, the man holding the iron pipe spoke up.
“Who… Who are you?”
This question was so worn-out that it meant nothing to me. It was like just another routine. Instead of answering right away, I remained silent and briefly examined their outward appearance.
Their clothes weren’t torn. They were a bit yellow from wear, but still relatively clean. Once I’d gotten a general idea of what they were, I spoke in the softest voice possible.
“Calm down and lower your gun.”
“What are you?!”
“The Survivor Rally Organization… We’re the rescue team.”
At the words ‘rescue team,’ the man holding the iron pipe began to hesitate. On the other hand, the woman holding the pistol frowned, and her arm began to tremble.
“Stop with the bullshit!” she yelled.
She squeezed her eyes shut and pulled the trigger.
Bang-!
Fortunately, her pistol wasn’t very threatening, since all my five senses were heightened. I could see the bullet flying toward me with my naked eye. However, I could only follow the bullets’ trajectory; it was still impossible for me to avoid them like in the movies. I had to make sure that I didn’t get hit in the head.
Still, even if I did get hit in the head, it would be impossible for something like a pistol round to pierce my skull. Thankfully, the bullet merely brushed past me. However, I wasn’t sure if ‘passed’ was the right word to describe its trajectory, or if it was more accurate to say that it couldn’t make it through my flesh.
I looked over at Kim Hyeong-Jun with a puzzled expression, and Kim Hyeong-Jun pointed at his side with his finger. I then realized that he was scratching his side earlier because he’d been shot as well.
The distance between us and the woman was a good forty meters. When stage-one mutants were hit by the rounds fired by K2 rifles at a hundred meters, the bullets would tear through their flesh, but that would be all. The K2 rifles couldn't penetrate their bones.
And since we were blue-eyed zombies… Our bones had no problem dealing with pistol rounds, even from a closer distance. Of course, it depended on the type of pistol as well. As long as it wasn’t the 12.7mm round fired by a Desert Eagle, which was known to be able to down elephants, there was no way anyone could take us down, not with the sort of pistols you could get in Korea.
The woman looked me up and down, all flustered. I stayed exactly where I was, and she widened her eyes and pulled the trigger again.
Bang-!
Despite her efforts, she wasn’t able to do much damage to me again. As if Kim Hyeong-Jun had grown tired of her pointless endeavor, he sighed and spoke up.
"Hey… Hey there lady, we’re telling you we’re the rescue team. You can't just shoot us.”
“Shut up!”
“You should listen to what people have to say first.”
“What do you mean by ‘people’? Are you saying you're a human?”
Kim Hyeong-Jun looked silently at me. I scratched my forehead and addressed the woman.
“We have no intention of hurting you. We’re here to help you.”
“Why would someone who’s willing to help us knock Hyun out like that?”
“Pardon?”
As I tilted my head, the woman looked at the man lying in front of Kim Hyeong-Jun. Kim Hyeong-Jun’s eyes widened.
“Wait, I’ve never hit him!” he said. “He just fainted in front of me. Why are you blaming me for that?”
“Anyway, you’re not human. Am I wrong? Can a human jump that high? I mean, who wouldn’t be surprised if something suddenly falls down right in front of your eyes?”
“So back to my point, how’s it my fault that he fainted after being surprised?”
"Shut up!"
She wasn’t willing to have a rational conversation. It seemed like she had already lost her composure. She was terrified, and the only thing she could think of was to kill us. The man next to her swallowed and spoke up.
“Min-Jeong, calm down.”
“Ahjussi, you head back first. I'll take care of them."
“These people don’t seem to have any ill intentions. Let’s just go back and discuss this.”
“These ‘people’? Ahjussi, do you think they’re human?”
“Then how about Jin-Young? Is Jin-Young a monster too?”
The woman named Min-Jeong frowned and didn’t say a word. From their conversation, I assumed that they had someone like us amongst their group as well. I quickly tried to steer the conversation toward something we had in common. I took a deep breath.
"If I may… Does this person named Jin-Young have red eyes?” I asked.
“...”
The man and woman remained silent, but a moment later, the man holding the iron pipe spoke up.
“Which group do you belong to?”
“I told you that I come from the Survivor Rally Organization.”
"And what’s that?"
“We’re a group of people who banded together to get away from the zombies.”
“And you… Came via the planes?”
"Yes."
When I nodded, the man wet his parched lips.
“Guide me to where your group is. I’m not willing to discuss anything until I see your people.”
"Ahjussi!"
“Min-Jeong, take Hyun and head back. That’s an order.”
“...”
Min-Jeong gritted her teeth and glared at me and Kim Hyeong-Jun. She then looked straight into my eyes.
“If you do anything to Jeong-Ho ahjussi… I won’t let you leave in peace,” she threatened in a low voice.
Kim Hyeong-Jun looked at me with his eyes half-open, as if annoyed by her attitude. I looked back at him, and realized that he was already angry.
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