Infected - Chapter 523



Only Noblemtl

Side story episode 10

On the road where the battle is over.

Scattered around the corpses were various weapons, including rifles, and radios.

The group passed through it as if crossing a bridge and collected weapons.

Blackened zombie corpses, unidentifiable flesh, and a terrible stench.

Han Seung-woo, who was picking up an axe, covers his mouth with a pale face.

Then he ran to the side of the road and vomited out a handful of stomach acid.

How many times has this happened already?

Hwang Si-won was also there.

On the other hand, Son Ye-ju was doing better than expected.

He took a deep breath and calmly picked up the things that had fallen on the floor.

“are you okay?”

Seonwoo patted the two people on the back and asked worriedly.

Then Han Seung-woo answered with an exhausted face.

“Oh, everything else is fine, but that smell is really… … .”

“Hey, man! Don’t mention the smell. It’s coming up again. Ugh!”

“I’ll do it, you guys go up first.”

“No, it’s okay. We have to adapt too. If we want to follow you around in the future.”

Seonwoo tried to say something but then closed his mouth.

It was because of the strong will felt between the two people.

In fact, they lived different lives from Gaon and Seonwoo.

From the beginning, he lived under the strict protection of adults, and had never killed a zombie or fought a person himself.

Since I entered the safe zone as a child, I have lived isolated from the outside world.

Maybe that’s why.

For the three of them, everything was new after they followed Gaon and Seonwoo.

At the same time, I wanted to learn their special way of surviving in the wild.

I wanted to live a life where I was the subject, not one of oppression and persecution.

So, I planned to do whatever Gaon and Seonwoo did without hesitation.

Han Seung-woo wipes his mouth and leans his head on Hwang Si-won’s shoulder as he looks at the corpses.

His face was pale, but his eyes were still alive.

If it’s something you have to do anyway, it’s better to adapt quickly.

I don’t know how much longer we’ll see this situation.

If you keep surviving, that is.

“…let’s go.”

“huh.”

Han Seung-woo grabbed Hwang Si-won’s arm and walked down the road.

Seonwoo’s eyes narrowed as he saw the two people.

Because the past that I had forgotten came to mind.

Survival training and martial arts training began immediately after basic training was completed.

Not only was I out of breath like I was going to die, I would vomit so much that eating became pointless.

But looking back, it’s all just memories.

At that time, every single day was like hell.

The only reason Seonwoo was able to endure that difficult life was thanks to Gaon.

From the beginning, all that training felt meaningless to Seonwoo.

The safe zone surrounding Gangbuk, and the zombies that disappeared somewhere.

I couldn’t understand why people would risk their lives and undergo arduous training in that situation.

But Gaon did it silently.

I clenched my teeth and endured it, even though my fingernails came off and blood flowed profusely while climbing the building.

And that’s not all.

It was so bad that Gaon held on with his mouth tightly shut while Seonwoo threw up all of his lunch.

Gaon was that kind of person.

A person who is different from Seonwoo by nature and specializes in crisis and hardship.

In this way, Gaon became an absolute being that Seonwoo could not refuse.

Seonwoo felt strange after finishing his reminiscence.

I thought I’d spend my whole life looking at someone’s heels.

As I lived, there were days when someone followed me.

Seonwoo felt an inexplicable emotion as he watched the three people collecting the rifles.

***

A store on the third floor with its windows tightly shut.

Sunlight streaming through the half-open curtains tickled my eyes.

“Umm… … .”

The soldier opened his eyes with a groan and frowned at the terrible pain that suddenly surged through him.

Because my left jaw hurt as if it was broken.

The situation before I fainted came rushing back like a panorama.

Only then did I realize I was tied to the chair and looked around.

In front stood Gaon, wearing tight jeans and combat boots under a brown turtleneck sweater.

Click.

As Gaon gestured, cold water came flying from an unexpected angle.

Chomp!

The soldier came to his senses suddenly from the sudden shower of cold water.

Then he shook his face like crazy and shook the water droplets off.

The sound of breathing naturally becomes rough.

“Haa, haa… … ”

“Wake up.”

“Wow, what do you want?”

Instead of answering, Gaon closed the curtains on the window.

And I hung a battery-powered camping lantern on the back of the chair.

Yellow light scattered faintly around the chair.

“If you want to make the conversation easier, it would be faster to get straight to the point.”

“story……?”

Gaon crossed his arms and leaned his butt against the desk across from him.

Large, pitch-black pupils gleam in the soft, spreading light.

“If you want to die, tell me now. I don’t want to waste time.”

Then he pointed to Seonwoo, who was standing next to the chair.

“You said that to him? He said he wouldn’t say anything. That’s why I’m asking him again. Do you want to talk? Or not?”

The soldier swallowed dryly with anxious eyes.

First of all, I know firsthand how strong Seonwoo, who is standing next to me, is.

The fact that he is assisting rather than interrogating means that the woman in front of him is one step ahead.

Even though he was caught, he was incredibly quick-witted.

I’ve already heard it once from the pursuit team.

“Answer quickly, I’m busy.”

Gaon, who couldn’t wait any longer, looked at his wristwatch and urged him on.

Is it because that attitude is so commonplace?

The soldier felt as if he had lost all sense of reality.

“If you say you won’t talk… what are you going to do?”

“Oh, this is a liver test.”

Gaon took out the longsword he had found from the corpse and walked briskly.

“Now, wait a minute! I just said whatever came to mind!”

The moment he shut his eyes tightly and shouted.

The sharp long sword that had been rising above his head suddenly stopped.

“Open your eyes.”

Gaon turned around and brought a long table.

Then he muttered while lining up a longsword, axe, and dagger on the table.

“Don’t think that anyone will come to save you. They probably don’t even know that you’re all dead. Even if they do, the situation is different now. Since even the soldiers in the pursuit team died, you’ll have to think more. In a world where people are already short, you can’t just waste troops.”

The soldier nodded, looking at the blood-stained weapons.

“I promise you one thing. If you agree to the conversation, I will let you go alive.”

“How do you… … .”

“Then the rumor will spread faster.”

“…You want the rumor to spread?”

“What do you think my purpose is?”

The soldier blinked.

Come to think of it, I had no idea about their purpose.

I heard that you were angry because I touched Yeongjong Island, but that alone was not enough to make you go this far.

“Defending Seoul?”

“You’re wrong.”

Gaon shook his head and glared at him with eerie eyes.

“To destroy your seed. That is my purpose.”

“No, why?”

“You messed with us first. Tell me why you broke the generator on Yeongjong Island. If you hesitate to answer even once from now on, I will cut off your head. Think carefully.”

“Really… you’re going to save me?”

Gaon exhaled deeply.

“If you go back, rumors will spread. What will happen if you touch us?”

“Okay. I’ll tell you. The reason I touched Yeongjong Island is because of the vaccine.”

“How did you find out about the vaccine?”

“At first, some crazy guys came to us, saying they wanted to spread religion, and we told them about it, and then we checked it out ourselves.”

“how.”

The soldier hesitated for a moment, then closed his eyes tightly and confessed.

“In Seoul… there are people we planted. It’s been about 3 years, and there are about 80 people.”

“80 people?”

Gaon locked eyes with Seonwoo.

Three years ago, in a cold winter.

There were people who crossed the frozen Han River.

People who asked to join us, saying they had been traveling around Chungcheongbuk-do and had come all the way here.

“I don’t know if you remember, but most of them were young people.”

It matched the memories of both people.

They were all young people in their 20s to mid-30s.

Gaon asked with a serious face.

“Why did you have to do it that way? If you listened to the radio broadcasts we’ve been broadcasting for years, there must have been a way to do it otherwise.”

“Radio? What radio?”

“Anyone who comes to us can get vaccinated, even if they don’t join us. We’ve been doing that for a long time and we will continue to do that.”

“What? You’re just going to give me the vaccine? Why bother? Why?”

“That’s why it was developed.”

“… Even if that were true, we would have thought of a different way like we did now. The governor doesn’t compromise.”

“Governor?”

“He’s the one who brought us here. He was governor before the virus started spreading.”

“What is that?”

“You don’t know the governor?”

The soldier looked at Gaon and Seonwoo’s faces alternately, then opened his mouth as if he finally understood.

“How old are you guys?”

“Nineteen.”

“… What? You’re only nineteen?”

I couldn’t believe it.

At nineteen, he was physically mature enough, but still lacking in everything.

I couldn’t believe that they had brought things to this point.

“Why do you ask my age? At most, we’re only a few years apart.”

“At that age, you might not know what a governor is. It doesn’t matter. It’s just that they’re called that.”

“Tell me what you know about that man.”

“If it weren’t for the governor, we would never have gotten here.”

“I heard from other kids that it’s a dog class?”

“That’s what children think. Think carefully. You’ve been vaccinated so it won’t matter, but if someone dies while we’re sleeping, the infection can occur at any time. That’s why we have strict discipline, monitor each other, and divide people up. Soldiers patrol the safe zone 24 hours a day, and each household takes turns in groups of three to protect each other. Snipers are always on standby on the roof of the building. If we don’t do this, we can’t control it.”

“Then what do you mean by using women as tools for childbirth?”

“that…….”

The soldier hesitated to speak.

“If you hesitate, I will kill you.”

“Ma, I’ll tell you. I just needed to think about it for a moment. Oh, yeah. I know it’s wrong. I have a wife and kids too. But if it’s for the sake of the group, we all have to make sacrifices. If everyone does what they want without anyone sacrificing anything, nothing can be accomplished. Right? You guys have some strict rules, right?”

“Yes. But I’m not as ignorant as you. I don’t catch and kill people who run away.”

“… … .”

The soldier could not answer any further.

If he had entered the safe zone after he had grown up to some extent, he might have had a sense of problem.

But it took a very long time to get to this point, and during that time people have slowly adapted.

Humans are able to adapt to any environment in order to survive.

The longer that period of time passes, the more everything becomes natural.

Perhaps you might feel that you are not being deprived of your rights, but rather are being protected.

Gaon asked.

“Are you the only survivors gathered around here?”

“No. We haven’t been that far so we don’t know everything, but we know there’s one more place.”

“That’s strange.”

“what?”

“From what I heard, there’s nothing left where you pass. You either absorb everything or kill everything.”

“Yes, but it’s a little different over there. It’s only been a few months since we first met, and we’re currently in a truce.”

“truce?”

“Yes. They also have considerable power. Of course, if it escalates into an all-out war, we will win, but there is no need to suffer such great losses when Seoul is our destination. If we are going to continue the war, it would be advantageous in many ways to take control of Seoul.”

Gaon, who had been lost in thought for a moment, pushed his face in.

“But… how come you know so much?”

“What does that mean?”

“What are you doing in your safe zone that you know so much about? Even the guys who joined us didn’t know that much.”

The soldier was so overwhelmed by Gaon’s large eyes that he couldn’t even blink.

At the same time, a strange feeling of unease came over me.

Should I somehow increase my own worth?

Or should I just pretend that I’m just an ordinary soldier?

I couldn’t tell which one was better.

Infected people