Chapter 54
Lee Jeong-Uk asked Bae Jae-Hwan about the black creature before he mentioned anything about the mutant. Bae Jae-Hwan repeated the question, his eyes going wide.
“Wait, you know about the black creature?”
“Of course. When you mentioned the mutant zombie earlier on, you were talking about the black creature, right?”
“No, I wasn’t. It… I somehow can’t explain it in words. But, you can tell that it’s a mutant the moment you see it.”
“Hmm. Okay, we’ll leave that aside for now. Tell me how you survived seeing the black creature.”
“I don’t remember exactly how it happened, but we saw it on our way to get drinking water. Its entire body was pitch black, and it was eating other zombies. We were quite far away from it, so we hurried back without turning back even once.”
“Seems like you were lucky.”
“We think so too. Just looking at it creeped me out. Its entire body was pitch black, and it had glowing blue eyes.”
“What did you just say?”
Lee Jeong-Uk had a frown on his face. Bae Jae-Hwan looked puzzled, as if he thought he had said something wrong or unrespectful.
“Is… Is there something wrong?”
“The black creature had eyes?”
“Yes. Why would you think it wouldn’t have eyes?”
Lee Jeong-Uk glanced at me in surprise. I was surprised as well. I quickly took out my notepad and wrote down some words.
- Draw the black creature you saw.
I handed my pen and notepad to Bae Jae-Hwan, who started drawing away. Once he was done, he stammered hesitantly,
“I only saw it from afar so it might be different from what it actually looks like.”
As I took in his drawing, my expression grew complicated.
It was a black zombie with a big mouth. Of course, this wasn’t new to me. This was the black creature I knew. But the being Bae Jae-Hwan drew had eyes, a nose, and ears.
It had long holes for its nostrils, the same for its ears. It didn’t have a nose bridge, or any defined ears. It merely had holes on its body that existed solely for smelling and hearing.
Bae Jae-Hwan had drawn its eyes long and stretched out, and they seemed to be glowing blue. Its pupils were vertical slits, like a cat’s.
There was another big physical difference. The black creature in Haengdang 2-dong was jacked. It had muscular arms and legs. Lee Jeong-Uk examined the drawing of the black creature as well.
“So they can also grow too?”
I nodded without saying a word.
I could already tell that the black creature in Haengdang 2-dong had gotten stronger, since it had been feasting on the bait that the gang members had been sending.
I thought it would be fair to say that, if the black creature in Haengdang 1-dong was a newborn baby that was able to barely open its eyes, the black creature here was almost a fully-grown adult.
I flipped to a new page on my notepad and wrote out a question for Bae Jae-Hwan.
- When did you see it?
“I’m not exactly sure. I think it was a month or two ago?”
Two months. Then it was possible that it had grown even more compared to what Bae Jae-Hwan had drawn. Our faces darkened, and Bae Jae-Hwan’s voice grew nervous.
“What’s the matter? Or is there something wrong?”
“No, no. Can you keep on going with your story?”
Lee Jeong-Uk tried his best to smile reassuringly. Bae Jae-Hwan looked at him, clearly confused as to why his face had darkened just a minute ago.
“After that incident, we’ve tried to avoid the zombies as much as possible. We were all aware that if we made a ruckus, we could attract the black creature.”
“Okay, I think we get the gist of the black creature. Tell us about the mutant.”
“Well, the thing is, it’s all speculation at this point…”
Bae Jae-Hwan hesitated, trailing off. We waited patiently for him to speak. After a moment, he took a deep breath and continued,
“I think these zombies evolve as they eat each other.”
“The zombies are eating each other?”
“Yes. I used to meet some survivors from time to time whenever I went out for water. But from some point on, I didn’t see any other survivors. For the zombies, this meant that their prey were disappearing. I think that’s when they started to eat each other.”
I quickly opened my notepad after listening to his theory.
- Have you seen a zombie eat another zombie with your own eyes?
“I have, yes. Two zombies were looking at each other and growling. Then one of them suddenly attacked the other one and ate its brain.”
- And then?
“It fainted. Well, the one that got attacked was obviously down, but the one that ate the brain also went down.”
- So both of them died?
“I’m pretty sure the one that got its brain eaten was dead. But I’m not sure what happened to the one that ate the brain.”
As I titled my head in confusion, Bae Jae-Hwan quickly elaborated.
“The one that ate the brain suddenly vomited blood and fainted. We just assumed that it was dead and went back after getting fresh water. But then, when we went to get more water two days later, there was only one dead body left at that location.”
- Are you saying that the one that ate the brain was no longer there?
“Yes, there were dried bloodstains, but the body was no longer there.”
- What happened afterward?
“Well, after that…”
In the middle of his sentence, his head suddenly sagged. I wondered if he had recalled a traumatic memory. He bit his lips, and he shed a few silent tears. Lee Jeong-Uk patted me on the shoulder and spoke.
“Well, I think this is more than enough.”
I nodded glumly.
By his reaction, whatever happened afterward seemed self-explanatory.
Bae Jae-Hwan had probably gone out to get fresh water and met a mutant along the way. He’d probably lost a friend to the mutant that had suddenly appeared. I could tell that he was feeling guilty due to the fact that he was one that made it out alive. After that incident, he’d been risking his life to find a safe shelter.
For someone who had come all the way to Shelter Hae-Young to avoid zombies, Shelter Hae-Young might not have given him the best impression.
I finally understood why Bae Jae-Hwan had been apprehensive after seeing me. Not just toward me, but also toward everyone back at Shelter Hae-Young.
Saddened, I patted Bae Jae-Hwan on the shoulder. I felt his shoulders trembling slightly. As I watched him struggling to contain his tears, I felt like I understood just a little bit of the pain he had to be carrying, because of all the ups and downs he’d been through.
I sighed and got to my feet. Lee Jeong-Uk looked at me.
“Where are you going?”
- Just going to go around the area.
He told me to stay safe while he stayed to console Bae Jae-Hwan.
I left the gym and took in the fresh breeze. The cool breeze filled my nostrils, along with the smell of grass, clearing the stuffiness that I felt.
I’d stepped outside after hearing Bae Jae-Hwan’s story because I’d come up with a theory of my own as well. I just needed some time to organize my thoughts.
While I was listening to Bae Jae-Hwan’s story earlier, I recalled the storage room in Majang-dong that had been full of dead zombie bodies. The dead zombies in there had been cold as ice and had traces of dried blood flowing from their eyes, nose, and mouths.
I couldn’t help but think that they could’ve ended up that way after eating other zombies’ brains. Either that, or they were zombies that couldn’t mutate and were just thrown away. And finally, it was also possible that the entire process had been designed from the beginning. I wondered if it had all been an experiment.
I couldn’t shake the feeling that the gang members were doing all sorts of experiments regarding mutants.
The gang members sent their baits out not just on patrol, but also to accomplish certain missions. If word regarding mutants reached them, it would be groundbreaking news to them for sure.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the gang members had forced each area leader to perform experiments if they wanted results regarding mutants. In fact, it was entirely possible that they already had mutants.
I could almost sense some unseen danger heading my way, one that I would not be able to handle. Unfortunately, there was nothing I could do about it at the moment.
‘I guess I have no choice but to see how everything unfolds, huh.’
I assumed, given the dead bodies in the Majang-dong storage room, that zombies didn’t just turn into mutants by eating zombie brains. Without enough experimental data, I couldn’t just order my underlings to eat other zombie’s brains. That would just lose me a bunch of my underlings. I could only start to experiment on my own once I obtained data from a trustworthy source.
‘Ha… But where in the world do I get all of this?’
I had to interrogate a gang member with information in order to obtain the data. The most reliable way to obtain data was to capture a leader from another area. However, I was a little hesitant to go ahead with such a plan since I wasn’t sure if it would be okay to mount an attack given the possibility that we would run into mutants. The gang had probably noticed as well that they hadn’t heard anything back from Majang-dong for a while.
I wasn’t sure if it was the right time to make a move. All these difficult decisions I had to face every day stressed me out. It felt like I never got a break from them.
The weight of responsibility was not something I could overlook.
* * *
Shin Ji-Hye and Bae Jae-Hwan were going to decide on whether they would stay put or go to Shelter Hae-Young after they talked about it with their friends.
I’ve noticed that some of the students were still apprehensive toward me. I nodded and stepped outside, since I respected where they were coming from.
The students debated for hours. In the meantime, Lee Jeong-Uk and I went up to Dae Hyun San Park and took a look at the farm. Lee Jeong-Uk took a look at the soil.
“The soil quality is different here.”
I titled my head, and Lee Jeong-Uk gestured to me to touch the soil for myself. I squatted down to check. The soil here was fluffy, unlike what one would normally find in the streets. It also felt damp, as if someone had sprayed water on it.
I wondered if this was what good-quality soil was.
The soil had piqued my interest. I stepped on it with my right foot and smiled gently as I watched my feet sink in. It felt like the soil was holding onto water and oxygen. It was like touching whipping cream, or a sponge. I felt like I was walking on clouds. I was surprised that soil like this even existed.
As I beamed at Lee Jeong-Uk like a little child, he looked around and whispered, “Should we take some?”
I totally understood why he wanted some. But I shook my head and opened up my notepad.
- Let’s take care of the students in the gym first.
We had to take care of the survivors first. Taking the soil was another issue. Lee Jeong-Uk chuckled.
“Of course! What are you talking about? I know you were thinking about taking some too. Is this one of your tricks, trying to make me look like the only bad one here?”
I smiled and smacked Lee Jeong-Uk on the back. My sudden action surprised him, and he mumbled as he clicked his tongue.
After a moment, Bae Jae-Hwan appeared at the gym entrance. He looked around as if looking for us. Lee Jeong-Uk didn’t miss the chance to slap me as I was focused on Bae Jae-Hwan. He slapped me on the arm to get his little revenge.
“Hey, I think they’re done talking. Let’s go.”
He just had to slap me. He could’ve just told me, but he’d slapped me pretty hard, as if my smack had actually stung him a little bit. I laughed at his unexpected move.
‘This guy.’
* * *
As we got close to the gym, Bae Jae-Hwan ran toward us with a smile.
“We’re done talking!”
“So, what do you guys want to do?”
“We’re all going to go.”
Lee Jeong-Uk nodded and headed straight into the gym.
The students were still sitting in a big circle after their discussion. Some of them looked dissatisfied. It seemed like some of them were not happy with the outcome. I assumed that they’d taken a majority vote at the end.
Lee Jeong-Uk took a look at everyone’s faces.
“We won’t let any of you down. Rest assured and don’t worry.”
Some of the students looked at me cautiously when Lee Jeong-Uk had finished. I could tell that they were still afraid of me, and had their guard up.
It seemed like they were staying tactfully silent even though they were dying to ask questions. However, it seemed pointless to try to get them on our side using words alone at this point. I was certain that they would acknowledge that they had made the right decision once we got to the shelter.
I took out my notepad and wrote down a few words.
- Let’s get going before it gets too late. We have to get there before sunset.
After reading my message, all the students started moving in an orderly fashion. Shin Ji-Hye came up to me.
“Do we have to move today?”
- Do you have a lot to pack?
“We’re trying to bring everything we have with us here, since we’ve come to the decision to move. And I don’t think we can pack everything up today. Can we move tomorrow morning instead?”
- You can just pack whatever is important.
“Well, everything’s important. The reason we were able to survive this long was thanks to all the stuff we have here. We can’t just leave them here.”
I rubbed my chin as I pondered the situation. I wondered why they would think of packing their tents when they were going to live in an apartment.
However, we did have to prepare for the upcoming winter. I knew we wouldn’t be able to avoid the biting wind in the middle of the winter, no matter how tightly we closed the apartment windows. And the chill that would make it way up from the ground would make a person’s body temperature drop pretty quickly.
It was probably the right thing to take the tents with us, and everything else they had seemed pretty essential. Nothing was a waste of space.
With some thought, the reasoning seemed pretty simple.
These were survivors that had made it this far after the world had turned upside down. They had probably sorted out the items they needed from what they didn’t need. I understood why Shin Ji-Hye was trying to bring everything they had with them.
I’d told everyone back at the shelter that we would be back that day, but it seemed like I had to break that promise. I felt uncomfortable and uneasy thinking that everyone back at the shelter would begin to worry about us, but I knew that taking all the equipment as Shin Ji-Hye was suggesting was the right thing to do. And, to be honest, I never wanted to step foot in Haengdang 2-dong ever again.
After all, I was the one that the black creature wanted to feast on.
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