Nothing much happened as Ire cut through the waist-high grass. The situation was eerily quiet, so Ire soon signaled the team to stop and rechecked the GPS on his arm.
Realizing they weren’t far from the target, he paused to catch his breath and have a drink. Just then, he sensed movement in the bushes on the other side. As he aimed his gun, members of another team jumped out.
“You surprised me. It was you guys?”
“I almost shot you.”
“What’s a paintball gun gonna do?”
“I was gonna bash you with it, you know?”
“Whatever. Don’t go this way. We’re turning back.”
It was Team 5 and Team 8 who emerged from the woods, looking dazed, their clothes and hair a mess. On closer inspection, one of them had tear-streaked face, as if he had been crying. Of course, Ire pretended not to notice, so he wouldn’t be embarrassed.
The leader of Team 5 shook his sweat-soaked hair and then took out his canteen, gulping down water. Come to think of it, there was a strange stench coming from him.
“There are Infected up ahead.”
At the mention of Infected, Ire and the others looked disbelieving. When Ire told him not to joke around, another team member chimed in. Among them was a trainee who was usually serious and teased for being a prude.
“I saw them with my own two eyes. They’re just like the Infected we saw in the autopsy room.”
“How many?”
“I don’t know. I was so surprised I dropped my GPS, and he even threw away his pack and ran.”
“No way. They released Infected here? Unless they’re trying to kill us all…”
Seo Young-jun frowned as he spoke. When he first came to the unit, he had to sign a waiver stating that the military would not be held responsible if he died during training. He had still volunteered because no one had ever died before. He thought the military was just a place to show off in front of guys from other districts.
But they actually released Infected? For mere training?
“Maybe they’re in disguise?”
“Get a grip. Do you think this is some haunted house at an amusement park?”
Ire, who was listening, couldn’t understand what they were talking about. Amusement park? Haunted house? Seo Young-jun, quick to catch on, gave him a brief explanation, but it made even less sense. Why would you pay to see ghosts?
“You guys should turn back too. Unless you want to get bitten.”
“We’ll be disqualified if we go back like this.”
“Who said we were giving up? We just meant we’re finding another way.”
Team 5 and Team 8 soon reorganized and disappeared in the opposite direction. Ire and the members of Team 3 were deep in thought. If what they said was true, it would be impossible to pass through here.
“Do you think there really are Infected?”
“I don’t really believe it. They might have seen something wrong. But if it’s Captain Kim Ha-yoon, I wouldn’t put it past him, would you?”
“Don’t speak ill of Captain Kim Ha-yoon.”
Seo Young-jun sided with Kim Ha-yoon, glancing at Ire. It was an open secret that Ire was Kim Ha-yoon’s parachute appointment. Ire also agreed that Kim Ha-yoon was capable of such a thing. He had seen with his own eyes how crazy that man was.
“Let’s go see for ourselves. We’ll know when we see them.”
Taking his reluctant team members with him, Ire took the lead. After walking for a while, Ire, who was leading the way, raised his fist, and the team members stopped at the same time.
He stared straight ahead through his night vision goggles. He couldn’t see anything, but a faint smell wafted through the air first. That foul odor that had come from Team 5 earlier. The smell of those on the border between the living and the dead.
He picked up a stone and threw it in that direction. It hit a rock with a thud, but nothing appeared. Just as he was about to pick up another stone and throw it, a human figure lumbered out from behind a tree.
Krrr-
The sound, like phlegm rattling in the throat, sent shivers down his spine. Someone gasped.
“Holy shit, it’s real…”
“Crazy bastards.”
“Let’s go back. I don’t want to die.”
“Shhh. Be quiet.” Ire increased the magnification of his night vision goggles. The lumbering figure looked this way. Soon, one by one, more began to emerge from the forest. One of the team members in the back stumbled backward and fell over a rock.
“Ugh-” Seo Young-jun quickly helped him up. Even in the midst of all this, Ire stubbornly kept his eyes glued to the night vision goggles, staring straight ahead. Seo Young-jun, who had been watching, crawled on his knees and took a place next to Ire.
“Team leader. Let’s go back. This doesn’t seem right.”
At the sound of being called “Team leader,” Ire took his eyes off the night vision goggles and finally turned around.
“They don’t have teeth.”
“Huh?”
“Their fingernails and teeth have all been removed.”
Seo Young-jun, looking dumbfounded, quickly grabbed the night vision goggles and observed them. But no matter how much he zoomed in, it was difficult to see the teeth clearly. Before he could ask if Ire had seen correctly, Ire stood up.
“I’ll go check. If not, I’ll send a signal, so run the other way.”
Seo Young-jun frowned as he listened. To check meant to open their mouths and the only time those things would open their mouths was… He was about to stop him, but Ire walked forward.
Even as he got closer, the creatures didn’t react much. Their senses weren’t sharp, and their movements were slow. He had heard that the Infected were being raised like livestock in the lab. That repeated experiments had impaired their motor skills and the function of all their sensory organs.
Ire turned on the light on his gun, and they all turned to look at him. Their unfocused eyes widened their mouths, revealing gaping holes where their teeth should have been. Krrr- The creature in the front lunged forward, and Ire swung his gun, hitting it squarely on the head.
With a thud, the creature in the lead fell backward. He turned around and called out to Seo Young-jun. “Seo Young-jun!” Hearing that, Seo Young-jun led the team members out of the bushes. The fallen creature got up and bit Ire’s arm, but it couldn’t penetrate the combat uniform and just opened and closed its mouth.
Ire elbowed it, shook it off, and shot it in the face. Its face was covered in paint, and the creature, its vision blocked, lost its way and floundered around. “Face-! Shoot them in the face!” The other members who had joined in also fired their guns at their faces.
Colorful paints stuck to the Infected’s faces, paralyzing their vision and sense of smell, and the creatures collided with each other, fell, and became a mess.
Ire led his team members out of there in a hurry. After running for a while, they no longer saw the Infected. When they stopped in a place that seemed safe, they leaned against a tree and caught their breath.
The stench of rot permeated the air, and sweat poured from their heads like rain. As one of them couldn’t hold it in and vomited, the exhausted team members finally collapsed on the spot.
“Haha, shit. Look at my legs shaking.”
“I need to pee.”
“Did you see that earlier? Me hitting that thing with a roundhouse kick.”
“We should have recorded it on video.”
“Who are you going to brag to?”
“Girls?”
Even though they were exhausted, everyone’s faces were flushed with excitement at the sense of accomplishment. Ire had a drink, then picked a tree and climbed up. In the distance, he could see a building. The building was quite large, and all the lights were off, making it dark. Seo Young-jun, who had followed, took a seat next to him.
“Is that it? It’s huge. Looks like a hotel.”
“Let’s split up into pairs when we go inside. If anything happens, radio immediately.”
“What if the Infected follow us?”
“They didn’t seem to be able to get out of there.”
Whether it was because they had chips implanted in their heads to control them, their range of movement seemed to be limited.
“Aren’t the enemy soldiers scarier than the Infected? I’m talking about those guys who were shooting at us earlier.”
“Yeah. Where did they all go?”
“Let’s hope they’re not all gathered inside.”
Everyone said a prayer with the same thought in mind, then reorganized. When they actually arrived at the building, they couldn’t see a single ant, so they were able to smoothly attempt to enter. They split up into pairs to look for the hostages, and Ire and Seo Young-jun went up to the third floor.
The hallway was as clean as if someone had just mopped it. Were they the first ones here? They searched the rooms one by one, but there was nothing to be seen. After searching the last room and finding nothing, they radioed the other team members on the lower floor.
“This is Alpha 1, do you hear me?”
Silence. It was the same when they sent it to the other team members. After repeating it several times with no response, they hurried down to the lower floor, but the hallway was empty. They slowly advanced and went outside, but they heard movement from the middle room on the second floor.
“I’ll go in. Cover me.”
“Okay.”
As soon as he opened the door, he aimed his gun and searched the room. Unlike the other rooms, it was quite large and had a structure that connected to the inside. He sensed movement and slowly went there. Seo Young-jun, who was covering him from behind, made a sound of surprise. Ire was just as surprised.
“You’re late?”
Captain Kim Ha-yoon sat in a chair, smiling with his hands behind his back.
“Congratulations. You came in first place.”