Side Story 6: Stories of Russia (6)

I tied up the limbless red-eyed zombies on the rooftop and left Ji-Eun to keep an eye on them.

The one whose head I’d blown apart was already dead, so there was no need to take it back to the laboratory. As for my underlings, I ordered them to feast on the two thousand zombies in the plaza. After taking care of everything, I headed to the fourth floor of the supermarket. The survivors were staring at me with puzzled, dumbfounded faces. It seemed like they had witnessed everything through the windows.

“What the hell are you? Are you a zombie?” asked the man with the shaggy beard.

“What else could I be?”

“You’re like a different being. So unique and superior. Are you sure I’m not dreaming up all of this?”

I stretched my sore shoulders.

“Yeah, yeah, just go ahead and pack your things,” I said.

Instead of moving, the bearded man merely stared blankly at me. I returned his gaze with a frown.

“Didn’t you say you wanted to go to the laboratory? Pack your things so we can get going.”

“Can… Can we go with you?”

“Yeah, as long as you get ready before I change my mind. However, you have to promise me that you’ll stay quiet and not cause any trouble. That’s a rule you have to follow.”

“Of course, of course! I’ll, in fact, we’ll never disturb you. I swear!”

I chuckled at his answer.

“Then get everyone ready and gather on the first floor,” I replied.

With that, I went up to the rooftop to see how my trio of prisoners were doing. They hadn’t—and couldn’t—cause any trouble because they were tied up. I hung them across my shoulders as I prepared to head down to the first floor. But then, they started screaming and making a big fuss, and slinging racially discriminatory comments without even thinking twice.

To keep them quiet, I had no choice but to shove rocks in their mouths and tie their heads up so that they couldn’t shake them. I tied them up so tightly that blood wasn’t flowing to their heads. At least I knew that these limbless zombies would never be able to untie themselves.

A little later, the Russian survivors gathered on the first floor. I ordered my underlings to carry them in their arms. I made each adult carry one child, then ordered a stage-one mutant to carry each couple. Lastly, I ordered one of my stage-one mutants to carry the remaining child, and we were ready to go back to the lab.

I pushed Do Han-Sol’s underling as hard as I could to inform the people back in the lab that I had found red-eyed zombies. The man with the shaggy beard looked at me nervously, as if he felt it weird for him to be held by a mutant.

“Is it really necessary for us to move like this?” he asked me.

“You’ll know why in a little bit. Why we have to move like this.”

I smiled and my blue eyes flashed.

“Nothing can happen to those people,” I ordered my underlings. “I’m going to kill anyone that drops them.”

KIAAA!!!

“I’m going to take it slow. Make sure none of you fall behind.”

I was afraid that some of the underlings might lose their balance and fall if we ran at full speed, because they couldn’t use their arms.

With that, I headed back to the lab at a speed that would not damage the soles of my feet, my heart feeling lighter than when I’d first come to Ussuriysk.

* * *

It had taken me about an hour to get to Ussuriysk, but it took us almost four hours to get back to the laboratory. It took us more time because I had to retrieve Do Han-Sol’s underlings, who had been standing about in the middle of nowhere every forty kilometers to receive and transmit signals. I also had to cut off the limbs of the red-eyed zombies every time they regenerated, as though I was pruning trees.

We arrived at the lab around dawn. Elena, who had woken up early, saw us during her morning walk. The research center was spread out across a large space, and it was more than possible to exercise within the perimeters of the protective walls that surrounded the research center and its accompanying military facilities. The research center was right next to military facilities, which also had a runway that allowed transport planes to take off and land.

Debating the size of the compound was moot.

Elena waved when she saw me. “Mr. Lee Hyun-Deok!”

I took a closer look at her, and noticed Alyosha behind her, breathing heavily. It seemed that he’d joined her for some morning exercise, but was having a hard time because of his poor stamina. Alyosha laid down spread eagle next to Elena and muttered something in Russian.

I couldn't quite understand what he was saying, but I could read him perfectly well from the exhaustion on his face. Soon, Tommy and Do Han-Sol emerged from the lab. It seemed they had heard Elena's voice. Tommy noticed the zombies I was carrying and ran toward me with his eyes wide open.

“Did you find them? The ones with red eyes?”

"Yes. And… I also found some people as well.”

I ordered my mutants trailing behind me to put down the survivors they were carrying. All of them had haunted eyes, since they hadn’t gotten a good night's sleep. Then again, it might not have been entirely because of a lack of sleep. The overnight journey must have been bumpy for them.

Tommy took a look at the survivors, then smacked his lips.

“Are they survivors from Ussuriysk?”

"Yes."

"I don't know if it’s the right decision to bring survivors here, given the current situation we’re in.”

“I’m sorry for making the decision on my own. However… I just couldn't leave them behind.”

He had a point. I wasn’t the leader anymore, since we weren’t in Korea. My role was to assist Tommy, Alyosha, and Elena so that they could focus on their research.

I looked away with a grimace, and Tommy sighed and studied the survivors behind me. The man with the shaggy beard threw his weapons on the ground and spoke.

“If you let us stay here, we will do anything you ask,” he said. “Please don't kick us out.”

He seemed to have come to the conclusion that Tommy was the leader of this place. When the man disarmed himself, the other survivors behind him did the same, and they all began to entreat Tommy in unison. Tommy looked at them and began scratching his head, not knowing what to do. Elena, who had been observing what was going on silently, walked over to Tommy.

“Tommy, let them stay,” she said.

"Huh?"

“What else can we do? Are you going to kick them out? Leave them outside to die?”

“How are we supposed to trust those…”

“They have children, Tommy. I can tell that they aren’t bad people just by the fact that they have children with them, even in this world we live in right now.”

Tommy smacked his lips and his expression grew complicated. Elena noticed that he was contemplating it, and she kept trying to persuade him.

“It's not like we’re short on food like before,” she continued. “There's no reason to kick them out. The riots led by the victims are part of the past now.”

“Victims?” I repeated instinctively.

She nodded.

“One of the buildings was previously used as a shelter. However, it was shut down because the survivors rioted.”

“A riot, you say?”

“Yes. The shelter was built to accommodate three hundred people, but when the population swelled to eleven hundred, it became difficult to manage the facility.”

It was only natural that issues would arise when eleven hundred people were squeezed into a place that was meant to hold three hundred. In fact, it would have been more strange and suspicious if nothing had happened. The inhabitants would have complained about the food, the confined space, theft, and interpersonal conflicts.

I frowned as I imagined the conditions within the shelter.

“Those people, what happened to them?” I asked.

“All of them were shot.”

Elena was surprisingly calm. I looked at her with my mouth agape, and Elena furrowed her brow and shared the past with me.

“The reason this place exists is to develop vaccines and treatments. The shelter was an add-on. However, when the survivors rioted... Did you think the soldiers would merely stay back and watch?”

“...”

“They killed every single one of them, because they simply couldn’t risk anything from leaking out. However, I think karma caught up with them. Zombies showed up two days after they massacred the survivors.”

Finally, everything seemed to fit together. I remembered the first time I’d met Tommy and the commander of the Russian army at Gimpo Airport. He’d demonstrated a fanatical obsession with vaccines, so much so that he wasn’t going to forgive anyone who tried to get their hands on his vaccine.

Back then, I’d seen his behavior as perfectly natural, because the future of mankind was in their very hands. Now, though, I finally understood why he’d acted that way. To them, the vaccine was what they used to justify the massacre they’d carried out.

I frowned and asked Tommy, “Tommy, what Elena just said… Is that all true?”

Tommy stayed silent. I stared at him, not moving a single inch, and he finally spoke, a confused look on his face.

“We didn’t have a choice back then. We knew that gunning them down was less brutal than kicking them out.”

“Did you have any influence on that decision? Or was this something that the Russian commander decided on his own?”

“I agreed to it.”

I was taken aback by his answer. I could not believe it. Immediately, I wondered whether this person in front of me was the same person that I’d known all this while. He seemed like a different person to me now. I felt betrayed.

When Elena noticed my bewildered expression, she chimed in.

“Mr. Lee Hyun-Deok, please don’t make that face. If I’d been in his shoes, I would’ve made the same decision as well.”

"I beg your pardon?"

“Tommy was the research director, and he was just doing his job. Our goal was, and still is, the extermination of the virus, and the survivors who got in the way with our goal were the same as the zombies. “

“...”

“Imagine what would’ve happened to this place if we hadn’t killed all the survivors who rioted?”

Her question was difficult to answer. I couldn’t just condemn them for killing others.

The compound would have turned into a lawless place, with no clear hierarchy. I knew that, since I’d experienced this first-hand in Seoul. In this world, where the law of the jungle was everything, humanity was almost non-existent. I knew that this place would’ve turned into one of the places that the dogs in Seoul used to inhabit. Still, I didn’t know how to push away the complicated feelings that were swirling about in my mind.

As I gently massaged my temples, Do Han-Sol, who had been quietly listening to everything, spoke up.

“Let’s head inside for now. I think all of us should take a moment to organize our thoughts, then gather to discuss it again tonight. I’ve asked Mr. Kim Hyeong-Jun to return. Let's resume this discussion again when everyone is back.”

I handed over the bound red-eyed zombies to Do Han-Sol and headed back to the dorms first, before anyone else. Just then, I remembered the phrase: the opposite of justice was not evil, but another form of justice. It seemed to me that the line between right and wrong was more blurred than it had ever been.

The person I trusted, the person who was trying to turn me back into a human, seemed like ice to me.

‘What exactly is the best thing one could do?’

‘And what exactly is the worst?’

That was something I could answer.

* * *

Kim Hyeong-Jun returned to the laboratory when the sun was at its peak.

I observed his arrival through my window, then laid down on my bed again and stared blankly at the ceiling. I knew I wasn’t angry; however, an iffy feeling was still lingering within me from earlier.

Click.

The click of the doorknob announced Kim Hyeong-Jun’s entry. I looked at him, and he flashed a hearty smile.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"What do you mean? I’m resting.”

“Wow, okay. You’re just going to chill because you brought back three zombies with red eyes? Is that what this is?”

“Did you find any?”

“Of course. In fact, I found four of them.”

When I heard that he’d brought back four of them, I jumped up, my eyes wide open. Kim Heyong-Jun sat down on the chair across from me.

“The soldiers can kiss my ass for saying that they cleaned up Vladivostok,” he said. “They couldn’t have cleaned up more than a couple of street corners. The city was full of zombies. I had to spend some extra time out there just to catch the red ones.”

“Did you get hurt anywhere?”

“Why? Are you worried? I had Mood-Swinger with me. And it’s not like there were any blue-eyed ones out there either.”

“...”

“By the way, ahjussi, Han-Sol told me there was a little fuss this morning while I was away.”

I sighed and looked away, not wanting to talk about it. Kim Hyeong-Jun examined my face before speaking again.

“Come on, I heard everything,” he said.

“Am I being weird?”

"No, not at all. You’re normal, and Tommy’s normal as well.”

“...”

I raised my eyebrows at him, and he shrugged.

“It’s a riot,” he continued. “Someone has to take care of it.”’

“They shot people. And not just any people; they shot survivors. How do you justify that?”

“Why can’t you? We live in a world where you die if you don’t kill others. And I know you know that better than anyone else, ahjussi.”

“...”

“So, are you saying that it would have been fair for the soldiers and researchers to lose their lives?” he asked.

I couldn’t answer his question. Instead, I bit my lip and let my head sag. Kim Hyeong-Jun sighed.

“See? It’s not that simple,” he said.

"I just don’t know the answer to that. There’s something iffy about all this… But I can’t pinpoint what it is exactly.”

“What do you mean? You’re just not trusting him as much as you should be.”

“Huh?”

“You’re not trusting Tommy as much as you should be, ahjussi.”

I stayed silent. Me, suspicious of Tommy? I knew that wasn’t the case. I felt a little nervous and anxious when it came to him… But did that translate to not trusting him?

I covered my face with my hands and stayed silent for a while. A little later, Kim Hyeong-Jun broke the silence.

“Okay, I’ll ask you a question that could make it easier to understand. Were the victims here survivors or dogs?”

“Well, I can’t answer that. I never even met the survivors who were here.”

“That’s why I said you don’t trust him.”

“Huh?”

“The thing is, ahjussi, you didn’t see what happened here, so you don’t have any right to criticize Tommy’s judgment.”

“...”

“I bet you thought of the Survivor Rally Organization first when you heard the word ‘victim’. But think about it this way. What if they were dogs? Would you still think Tommy was in the wrong?”

I didn’t know what to say. I finally realized that the iffy feeling within me stemmed from the fact that I tried to judge something that I hadn’t witnessed with my own eyes. I wasn’t sure why I hadn’t been able to come to such a simple conclusion more quickly. It seemed like a bad habit that I picked up after having to lead others for such a long time.

I developed this habit while under the pressure to need to know everything and to be the first to pronounce judgment in any given situation. I thought I’d left my past self on Jeju Island when I left, but the habits I’d picked up along the way had become a part of me.

I chuckled when I realized that this was a no-brainer. I got up with a hearty laugh, and looked at Kim Hyeong-Jun.

“You know, Ms. Hwang Ji-Hye told me to speak with you if I ever had any problems. I now understand why she said that. Thanks, man.”

"You’re welcome."

I smiled and headed for the lab.

I had to apologize to Tommy first before I did anything else.