Chapter 71
We headed toward Shelter Seoul Forest’s second defense line. There were a lot of people gathered in front of the defense line. The survivors were hard at work repairing the interior. Not a single one of them seemed to be taking it easy, but none of them were in a good state.
This attack had cost many lives, and it seemed like facing the mutants had drained the hope out of them.
The dead were covered with cloth, and laid out on the left side of the shelter. Mourners were wailing in front of them.
I looked at Kim Hyeong-Jun, my expression bitter. He, too, was taking in the devastation with a look of sorrow.
“Hyeong-Jun!”
A man from the second defense line came running toward us, calling Kim Hyeong-Jun’s name. It was Park Gi-Cheol.
Kim Hyeong-Jun smiled gently and went to meet him. The two of them began communicating in sign language. My mouth fell open as I watched them.
‘The two of them know how to communicate in sign language?’
If they couldn’t communicate verbally, I supposed it made sense to use gestures instead. The two used sign language to express what they wanted to each other, unlike me, who always communicated to others through my notepad.
After a moment, Kim Hyeong-Jun looked at me.
‘Ninety-two casualties. Among them, fifty-four dead.’
‘How many people were there in total?’
‘There were two hundred and eighteen, but now there are only a quarter who are fit. If we include the injured, more than half of the people here are immobile. This raid really got them good.’
I nodded, acknowledging Kim Hyeong-Jun’s report.
‘What about the group leader?’
‘The group leader seems to be in the hospital as well.’
‘Hospital? There’s a hospital here too?’
‘You know there’s an apartment in Seoul Forest, right? The one up north.’
‘Oh, the one occupied by the rich?’
‘Yeah. They apparently modified that apartment and now are using it as a hospital.’
I couldn’t believe it. A hospital. Did that mean there was a doctor here as well? I couldn’t help but think of Kang Eun-Jeong. She’d been sick for the past couple of months.
If I brought Kang Eun-Jeong here, we might be able to figure out what was wrong with her. And she would probably be able to get adequate care.
I nodded vigorously and asked Kim Hyeong-Jun a favor.
‘Can you take care of the enemy leader for a bit?’
‘Hmm? Where are you trying to go?’
‘To check out the hospital. I want to see how they’re doing.’
As I desperately tried to get going, Kim Hyeong-Jun tugged on my shirt. I turned around and saw him frowning.
‘Take care of the enemy leader first.’
‘...’
‘Priorities. Remember?’
I hesitated after hearing what Kim Hyeong-Jun was asking me to do, but I quickly let out a sigh and nodded.
Kim Hyeong-Jun was right.
I was worried about Kang Eun-Jeong’s health, but the right thing to do was to deal with the culprit behind this whole incident.
I saw a small platform next to the second defense line. It seemed like it was the place from which the guard leader gave orders. For now, though, I was going to use it as a stage to find the enemy leader’s daughter.
I placed the enemy leader on top of the platform while Kim Hyeong-Jun called Park Gi-Cheol over and briefly explained to him what had happened up to this point. After getting the whole picture, Park Gi-Cheol called out to gather the others.
“Everyone! If I could have your attention!”
Park Gi-Cheol’s voice echoed around the area, causing everyone who was working in the area to gather around the platform. Once that was done, Park Gi-Cheol asked a question.
“Is there anyone, anyone who recognizes the face of this man?”
The survivors frowned and narrowed their eyes as they caught sight of the enemy leader, with his severed arms and legs. It was rather disgusting and bizarre, seeing a zombie with no arms and legs looking out at them while shaking his head.
Park Gi-Cheol continued,
“If anyone knows this man, please raise your hand! Please do not hesitate to step up!”
“Why do we care about him? Is he someone special or something?” yelled one of the survivors in the crowd, who seemed to be flustered about the whole dismal situation.
Park Gi-Cheol glanced at the enemy leader and then announced, “He’s the zombie leader that attacked his place!”
Hushed murmuring broke out after the crowd heard Park Gi-Cheol’s answer.
“Lead… leader? A zombie leader?”
“Zombies have leaders too?”
“Wait, what? Are you saying they’ve been attacking this place on purpose?”
“You didn’t know, group leader?”
“What is all of this going on in one day? And what are those creatures next to Park Gi-Cheol?!”
The survivors focused their eyes on Kim Hyeong-Jun and me. As I cleared my throat and looked at Kim Hyeong-Jun, he pretended to not notice my gaze. Instead, he smacked his lips and sighed.
Park Gi-Cheol seemed to sense where the crowd was staring and pointed to Kim Hyong-Jun and me.
“These two are the ones who came and saved us.”
“They saved us? Aren’t they zombies too?”
Just like earlier, there were disapproving voices in the crowd. The survivors began to protest louder.
“Let’s get them!”
“We have to kill them all!”
“The monsters are evolving!”
“What if they’re mutants as well?”
“I'd rather bite my tongue and die here instead of being saved by zombies!”
The survivors picked up stones that were lying on the floor and started hurling them at us.
I could tell that these people absolutely abhorred zombies.
They hadn’t said or done anything when we helped them, but now that they knew they’d survived, they let their anger and hatred overflow. My blood started to boil at this incomprehensible situation, but I calmed myself after thinking about Kim Hyeong-Jun’s family.
“Hahahaha!”
Harsh laughter echoed around the area. All the survivors stopped what they were doing, their collective attention drawn to one specific place. It was none other than the enemy leader that had burst out laughing.
The enemy leader looked at the survivors and shouted, “You filthy animals!”
His voice registered in the survivors’ brains and gave them something new to be surprised about.
“What? That, that thing… right now… Is it talking?”
“It’s a talking… a talking zombie…”
“What in the world is going on?”
“There’s no way this is happening!”
As the survivors muttered amongst themselves, the enemy leader continued to rail at them.
“You idiots! You dare throw rocks at us when you should be throwing yourselves to your knees and begging us for your lives? That’s why you filthy animals have no right to keep on living!”
“This monster must be crazy!”
“Kill this bastard!”
“Get them!”
The survivors brandished their bamboo spears and unleashed a torrent of curse words, but none of them dared to come up to the platform. They were all looking at each other hesitantly, waiting for someone to make the first move.
I shook my head as I watched them.
This was the best Shelter Seoul Forest could do. This had happened because they had allowed random survivors in. As a group, they were unable to make rational judgements.
I shivered as I recalled I’d almost trusted these people with my family’s safety. I realized that creating a shelter of our own in Haengdang-dong was God's will.
Park Gi-Cheol tried to bring down the simmering tension.
“Everyone! Everybody calm down and listen to what I have to say!”
“Wait, what’s up with you! How dare you team up with zombies, huh?”
“That bastard might be a traitor. He must be insane to even be teaming up with zombies!”
“Kill this bastard too!”
“He’s a traitor! Kill him!”
As I listened to their screaming, I frowned and couldn’t keep my fists from clenching. I was about to lose my patience.
The people here did not satisfy any of the three conditions that I required for survivors. The people here didn’t deserve to live. They were no different from the dogs. Just like the enemy leader had said, they were no different from filthy animals.
“Kill them! Kill them!”
“They have to die!”
Some of the survivors began hurling stones at us again.
A stone whizzed toward Park Gi-Cheol’s head. There was a loud crack, and Park Gi-Cheol fell to the ground.
“Hup…”
Park Gi-Cheol put his hand on his bleeding forehead and fell to the ground. My eyes widened as I watched him go down. I felt my vision go blurry.
Beep–
I had lost my grip on whatever sanity remained.
Wrath engulfed my body.
No matter how hard I tried to keep myself calm, my blood boiled, and I could feel my body quickly beginning to heat up.
My body was burning.
I felt like I was in a furnace. My flesh was screaming with anger. I felt like I was going to have a meltdown if I didn’t unleash this anger I had right now.
“GRR…”
I let out my murderous intent in a throat-rending growl. I noticed the survivors’ looks and the bamboo spears they were holding.
As I walked toward them, gritting my teeth, Kim Hyeong-Jun desperately moved to block my way.
‘Ahjussi! Calm down!’
‘Are you… telling me to forgive… those fucking animals right now?’
‘Oh, ahjussi? What’s wrong, ahjussi? Are you not feeling well?’
Kim Hyeong-Jun was pale. He looked at me once over with trembling eyes. He didn’t know how to react to my sudden change. I opened my eyes as wide as I could.
‘If they’re human, they should be acting like humans. Don’t you see what these bastards are doing?’
‘Calm down, ahjussi. They just lost their families today. Look around you. There are dead bodies and broken walls. Do you think the people here can hold on to their sanity as well?’
‘Well they're not willing to talk to us. What do you want me to do?!!”
As I frowned and glared at him with my glowing red eyes, Kim Hyeong-Jun swallowed and blocked my path with his arms spread open. It didn’t seem like he was going to back off anytime soon.
I caught my reflection in Kim Hyeong-Jun’s red eyes. My pupils were dilated and my face was wrinkled. Despite my angry expression, though, I had a rather uncanny grin, which took me aback.
‘Huh?’
I started to calm myself down after seeing myself.
The heat and wrath that had engulfed my body started to cool down, like boiling water ceasing to bubble after being taken off the heat.
My grin disappeared, and a forgotten memory drifted into my mind. The face I had just then was the same face I’d had when I’d confronted the zombie with glowing red eyes at the high school.
I wondered if I would have enjoyed killing right then.
I massaged my temples, perplexed by the way I was feeling.
‘What’s going on with me?’
My head sagged, and I peered at my surroundings through the corners of my eyes. I noticed the faces of the survivors.
I saw faces of disbelief, anger, and fear toward zombies, all mixed together.
“Do you get it now?”
Just then, I heard the enemy leader’s voice, off to the side.
I blinked hard and stared at the enemy leader. He sneered at me.
“Nothing comes without a cost. If you gained the powers of the black creature, it's only natural that you would have to suffer something in return.”
‘...What?’
I frowned as I glared at the enemy leader, and he sighed.
“Once you eat a black creature's brain, the desire that it carried will dwell inside you as well. And you have to be true to its desire. That's the price you pay for getting its power.”
‘What do you mean?’
“It’s easy to lose your sanity once your desire gets triggered. I’m not sure what desire the black creature that you ate harbored, but it seems like it didn’t like people too much.”
I was struck dumb by what the enemy leader said.
Kim Hyeong-Seok, the younger brother of Kim Hyeong-Jun, was a person that loved people fiercely, so much so that he had even founded the Survivor Rally Organization.
Although he ended his life because of betrayal and hatred toward the living, he was someone who’d told me to survive, even after becoming a black creature.
‘Wait, survive?’
At that moment, a rather unbelievable and dangerous thought crossed my mind. There was obviously a condition behind his desire. He’d said: for my brother and my family.
He probably hadn’t told me to survive for no reason. By interpreting his words differently, I realized that he wanted me to fight for Kim Hyeong-Jun and his family. And that meant that I was to get rid of anyone who would harm Kim Hyeong-Jun and his family.
The survivors here had not only thrown stones at zombies with glowing red eyes, but had struck Park Gi-Cheol as well. They had harmed both Kim Hyeong-Jun and Park Gi-Cheol, which triggered a different desire within me.
Cold sweat trickled down my forehead as I came to this conclusion. I wobbled at the sudden dizziness. My theory was being proven correct.
The black creature’s desire was dwelling within me.
And when its desire was triggered, I would lose my sanity, and I would go berserk until I fulfilled its desire.
A zombie with glowing red eyes trying to sustain itself with its desire, and a black creature that couldn’t fulfill its desire on its own.
The two desires coexisted within me.
Now everything seemed to come together.
I swallowed and posed a question to the enemy leader.
‘What if one of the desires gets destroyed?’
The enemy leader smirked.
“That’s when metamorphosis starts.”
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