By Zephyria 
Inside the cramped, roughly five-pyeong warehouse, were the four members of Eden’s group, Ha-jin, Mi-so, and the young couple who had been audience members. The outside had quieted down, but no one dared to open the door rashly.
They might have blindly run away at first, not knowing what they were doing, but they couldn’t do it a second time. They had learned the hard way that there was nothing more reckless than facing the monsters empty-handed. But they couldn’t just stay locked in the dark warehouse, wasting time.
After a while, the people who had been staring blankly, holding their breath, slowly began to grasp the situation.
Ha-jin took his cell phone from Mi-so. As teaching assistant Jin-woo had said, there were several missed calls from his younger brother, Jun-seok.
He pressed the call button, but there was no dial tone. Something must have happened where Jun-seok was too.
‘Please, please, please…’
This time, he tried to access the internet app. The home screen opened, but the problem was what came next. Even when he pressed the search bar, the screen didn’t change. Blackout. The unprecedented disaster had caused a network overload.
It wasn’t just Ha-jin’s phone that wasn’t working, as murmurs erupted from all around.
“Is there anyone who can get internet?”
Park Chun-beom asked in a trembling voice, and a woman raised her hand.
“M-me.”
All eyes turned to the young couple. People dragged their tired bodies and slowly approached the woman. Eden, who had Jeong Byeol sitting on his lap while trying to use his phone, also got up. He had been trying to call Hugo, but there was no dial tone.
As if by agreement, everyone sat down in a circle around the woman.
“It wasn’t working earlier, but suddenly I’m getting a signal now.”
The woman placed her phone on the floor with trembling hands. The people who had gathered around put their heads together and looked at the phone screen.
“There aren’t as many articles as I thought. When I looked it up, it only says that a warning alert has been issued for the Seoul metropolitan area, and there’s nothing else. Besides, this is South Chungcheong Province. What are those monsters… what’s going on? It seems like it’s only a big deal on social media.”
The woman tried to calm her tearful voice and calmly conveyed the situation.
“119 or 112, the signal doesn’t even go through. It’s no use calling.”
Eden squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again, looking tired. Seeing that no disaster text messages were coming through, it seemed that the national system was not working properly.
“Those things, they’re zombies, right?”
When Mi-so asked with certainty, people murmured quietly.
“No way. Maybe just… crazy people? Maybe they took drugs as a group or something.”
“Didn’t you see it earlier? Even normal people were bitten and immediately rolled their eyes and charged.”
“Y-your side was pierced and your intestines were flowing out, but you still charged. It was clearly a corpse-like state, but it was still alive and moving.”
“What is this… ha, is it really those zombies? The ones you only see in movies? Does this make sense?”
“The Grandfather sitting next to me earlier was bitten and suddenly immediately…”
“It’s quiet now, so it seems like we’ll be okay as long as we don’t get into the monsters’ line of sight.”
“I-it seemed like they were reacting to sound too.”
While people were whispering and talking about the unidentified monsters, Eden, who had turned on a real-time aircraft tracking app, got up. It was the easiest way to grasp the scale of the disaster, even if it was just superficially, without going through the situation room.
He waved his long arms around, searching for a signal. He moved to the right corner and stopped for a moment. When the data was captured, the screen moved. The planes that should have been covering the sky in bright yellow were leaving the Korean Peninsula one by one.
[Eden, what’s going on?]
Jeffrey, who had gotten up, grabbed Eden’s shoulder.
[Just a moment, let me figure out the situation.]
He could see the flying objects that had been entering Korea turning around. He adjusted the screen again. Not only Korea, but also the surrounding countries were in chaos. It must have been an abnormal phenomenon occurring worldwide.
Eden closed the app and immediately called Hugo. Jeffrey, who was standing close to Eden, also put his ear close to the phone. Soon, Hugo’s voice was heard over the receiver. The communication was not good.
[—Eden. …you okay?]
[Hugo, the location and time to send the Transport plane. There are four people in total.]
[—Is the building you’re … in the Sangwon Artri… Theater? That’s what it says here.]
[That’s right, the small theater.]
[—Ha, if there are no problems, the US military will be dispatched. The relief code is 4321. We plan to go to the rooftop across from the small theater, and the time is 5 a.m. tomorrow. It seems like they’re short on helicopters there too, so they’re borrowing a Surion… I want to send it sooner… but I don’t think it’ll work. …You have to get out of there quickly before they even issue martial law.]
Eden looked down at his blood-stained clothes and bit his lip.
[What about Texas and Arcane-so?]
[—Our side is …still safe. It seems to be spreading in New York, but they’ve issued a lockdown, so whatever happens… we’ll get results soon. Right now, all the fighter planes are….]
It seemed that the factory site and laboratory where ‘Blue Works’ was located were still safe. Since it was a situation no different from war, they would secure as much military supplies as possible and then focus all their efforts on initial suppression.
[Looking at the way things are going now, it seems like the symptoms are similar to the Sudan virus, right?]
[—I think so. I heard it was completely suppressed and over… I guess it wasn’t.]
Due to the nature of war zones where internal conflicts frequently occur, the life or death of the people could not be a scoop.
In the same vein, disasters such as epidemics, natural disasters, and terrorism that occur in Africa rarely attract the attention of people around the world. The cannibal virus, which was first reported in Sudan, also broke out only six months ago and was an issue that had already been buried without much attention.
Eden recognized the seriousness of the Sudan virus when the amount of 155m shells supplied to the US military increased by nearly 1 million. However, the Sudan epidemic, which was clearly called the cannibal virus, was successfully suppressed in the early stages. It was an epidemic that quietly disappeared without receiving any attention.
Shit, damn it. Eden swallowed another curse and opened his mouth.
[Hugo, the communication will probably be cut off soon. Even if I can’t get on the Transport plane, keep an eye on the channels coming in from Korea. I’ll contact you even if I have to use the radio.]
[—How? Is that possible?]
[Did you forget? The ‘Evolution Tech’ radio new technology we were supposed to receive.]
[—…….]
[It’s in the Yongwoon Research Institute. In the worst-case scenario, I’m thinking of going there, so wait, no matter how many days or months it takes.]
[—Eden.]
Hugo’s voice calling Eden somehow sank deeply.
[—Survive first.]
[…….]
[—Hide in a safe place no matter what. Don’t get hurt by overdoing it. We’ll come up with a Plan B somehow on our side too.]
Beep—. The call was cut off unexpectedly. Eden and Jeffrey, who were looking at the screen of the phone that had been disconnected, met eyes. Eden roughly swept back the bangs that had fallen over his forehead.
“Uncle….”
At that moment, soft skin touched his little finger. His nephew Byeol took his finger and shook it gently, as if to comfort Eden. Eden, who had composed his expression, turned around. Everyone who was sitting in a circle was paying attention to Eden.
He and Jeffrey naturally squeezed into a seat.
“I think you’re American… is it this chaos over there too?”
When someone asked, Eden shook his head.
“I don’t know the details.”
“I think I heard the word virus earlier….”
“No. I don’t know.”
Eden answered firmly. There was nothing more dangerous than pouring out information in a situation where nothing was certain. Furthermore, it was better to be more careful when people exposed to dangerous situations were gathered together.
Confusion only caused more confusion, and anyway, these people were not the ones who would go through thick and thin with him until the end.
With his cold answer, an awkward silence fell. Jeffrey poked Eden in the side and whispered.
[You could just explain the situation roughly. Do you have to be so stiff?]
[Shut up.]
Jeffrey, as if fed up with the chillingly cold answer, gritted his teeth and shook his head. Then he whispered to Eden.
[First of all, Blue Works is sending the Transport plane, right?]
[Yeah.]
[If you really can’t get on it, are you planning to go to the research institute?]
[I have to leave it as a last resort. If there’s no other way.]
Eden frowned as if Jeffrey, who kept whispering, was annoying, and answered nonchalantly. Unlike the cautious Jeffrey, Eden did not lower the decibel of his voice. Whether someone heard it or not, it didn’t matter to him.
[By the way, what the hell are those things? Shit, the only thing that comes to my mind right now is the Sudan virus.]
[Stop blowing air on my ear, it’s disgusting.]
[Okay, okay. You cold bastard.]
Jeffrey gave a light snort to Eden, who was silently staring at him.
Everyone, including Ha-jin, was watching Eden and Jeffrey, who were bickering even in the midst of an unidentified disaster, with a somewhat curious look.