Side Story 8: Stories of Russia (8)

After taking care of matters, we were able to check out the nearby general hospital on the way back, thanks to the bright moonlight.

Ji-Eun and I took care of the approaching zombies while Tommy went about looking for what he needed. Overall, he seemed satisfied, as he was able to retrieve a handful of supplies.

“I think we’ll be able to speed up the research,” he said.

“Was there anything in the clinical hospital that would help with the research?”

“Yes. The institute was located in Vladivostok because of its proximity to other hospitals. That made it convenient for us to restock on medical supplies and other things when we ran low.”

“I’m glad to hear that you got everything you needed,” I replied with a faint smile.

Tommy gave a sharp nod. “You can look forward to the future. I will make sure to bring you back.”

“Your words alone give me hope.”

His confident answer energized me. It felt like my future, which was all blurry, was clearing up little by little.

We hurried back to the lab.

* * *

Even before I realized it, spring, which was full of vitality, had passed. The intense summer heat went by as well, leading us into autumn. The changing foliage welcomed us into the new season. As the leaves changed color and began to fall, the cold wind started to blow again. Once again, Mother Nature was cycling through her seasons.

Just like that, four years passed, and the research slowly began to bear fruit. A drug that can suppress zombie instincts had been developed, and we were able to see the effects of the vaccine with our very own eyes.

We faced many setbacks during the process, but thanks to the data that had been accumulated through the long years of research, we were able to successfully inoculate once, without failing. When we prepared to test the vaccine on a human, Tommy tried to volunteer himself, but the Russian survivors came forward and offered to become subjects for the clinical trials.

The man with the shaggy beard had approached us with a look of determination.

- If something goes wrong with any one of you—Tommy, Alyosha, and Elena—there’ll be no future for any of us. I will be the test subject.

Tommy, though, refused his proposal. It seemed like he didn’t want to sacrifice anyone else for the sake of the vaccine development. He said that he wanted to be responsible for whatever happened, whether or not the vaccine was a success. However, the Russian couples didn’t give up that easily.

- We will do anything for the research if you promise to take care of the children until the end. If it weren’t for Mr. Lee Hyun-Deok, we would’ve died already. He’s already saved us once, so please let us do this, to repay all of you for what we’ve received.

While Tommy hesitated, unsure what to do, Elena quickly stepped in and sorted out the situation. She injected the vaccine into the arm of the man with the shaggy beard before Tommy could do anything. When Tommy cried out in surprise, Elena shrugged and said the following:

- I did you a favor. Thank me later.

She was a very unpredictable woman, unless it came to her research. We waited for about a day after vaccinating the man to see if he developed any side effects. Thankfully, he didn’t suffer any problems except for feeling bloated.

The next day, I gently bit his right arm, and everyone else watched the man to see if anything was going to happen to him. His wife prayed constantly, with tears in her eyes. She was praying desperately that the vaccine would counteract the virus so that her husband wouldn’t turn into a zombie.

At first, his right arm turned bluish. Kim Hyeong-Jun, who had been observing, took an ax and tried to cut off his arm. However, Tommy held his arm to stop him.

- Not yet; let’s wait a bit more.

- He’s going to die if we don’t cut it off right now.

- The virus isn’t spreading. His skin is still intact.

He was right. The part that I’d bitten was the only part of his body that was bluish, and the virus wasn’t being carried by his blood to the other parts of his body. So we waited to see what was going to happen next.

The next two minutes seemed like an eternity. The man broke out into a cold sweat and screamed in agony, but it didn't take him long to calm down again. Soon after, his right arm began to return to its original color, and pus oozed out from the wound that I made when I bit him. The vaccine research turned out to be successful.

His wife, who had watched him suffering, hugged him as hard as she could, covered in tears and snot. The man said that he felt like his right arm was on fire. He took some painkillers, and after an hour, he reported that some tingling pain remained, but it was definitely not as painful as it was before.

After dozens, even hundreds, of animal experiments, the perfect vaccine had finally been developed. That day, we ate and drank like it was the last day on earth, enjoying ourselves to celebrate our achievements. The vaccine that we had worked on together would be the springboard from which mankind could get back on its feet.

When we reported our achievements to the Canadian research center, they were elated, and congratulated us on our success. They also mentioned their desire to leave Canada and relocate to Russia. The reason behind it was rather simple. They expected that, someday, just like the other research institutes, they would face a zombie attack that they couldn’t handle.

They expressed their intention to join us when they weren’t at their most vulnerable. At first, I was hesitant, because I didn’t know if I could trust them. However, I ended up agreeing because their research into a cure had shown promising results, and Elena was familiar with the Canadian researchers. Moreover, since I was prepared to kill them if they tried anything funny, there was no reason to turn them down.

Of course, the biggest reason that prompted the Canadian researchers to want to join was safety. For the past four years, Kim Hyeong-Jun, Do Han-Sol and I devoted every single day we had to eradicating zombies. And in order to establish a zombie network, we recruited underlings to top up our ranks and basically took care of every single zombie in the southern Primorsky region.

We’d even begun taking care of the zombies in the Korean peninsula, along the border of North Korea. I’d never thought that I would set foot in the northern part of Korea in my life. Whenever we ran across a black creature during our cleanups, we used the samples from Daegu to take it down, and captured zombies with red eyes as prey.

After four years, the maximum number of underlings Kim Hyeong-Jun and I could command reached twenty-nine hundred, while Do Han-Sol commanded twenty-eight hundred. Kim Dae-Young could control twenty-one hundred, while Jeong Jin-Young managed eighteen hundred.

We limited the number of underlings we could control to under three thousand, because we came across some information in Yanbian, a prefecture in Panzhihua, which was in the Sichuan province of China. We learned that, once our control extended to three thousand underlings, our pupils would turn black, and we would eventually lose our sanity.

This information was obtained from one of the red-eyed zombies that we took care of in Yanbian. Their organization had a leader, but the moment that leader acquired the ability to control three thousand underlings, that leader turned into a beast.

A zombie with black eyes was almost the same as a black creature. Zombies with black eyes exhibited the same reactions when they were dosed with the samples from Daegu. Based on this information, we began to expand the safe territory for humans from Primorsky all the way to the Korean Peninsula.

Four years since we left Korea, a plane from Canada landed at Vladivostok Airport for the first time.

* * *

The Canadian researchers arrived in three military transport planes, which were loaded with tons of supplies. They had everything from research equipment to guns, food, and even livestock. They seemed to have pretty much everything.

Elena welcomed the four researchers who got off the plane and introduced them to us one by one. The leader of the Canadian researchers was a researcher named Jack. He was almost sixty years old. He introduced himself as an experienced brain researcher.

Jack smiled brightly at Tommy and Alyshoa and gave them warm hugs. He then readjusted his glasses as he looked at Kim Hyeong-Jun and I, standing behind Tommy.

“I’m assuming you two folks are the zombies that they told me about. Wait no, my apologies for calling you zombies. You two are the highlight of their story.”

I held out my right hand to return his greeting.

"Nice to meet you. I’m Lee Hyun-Deok.”

"It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Jack Richards, the director of the therapeutics research team. Feel free to call me Jack. But before that, I almost forgot.”

Jack looked back and forth between me and Kim Hyeong-Jun, and a smile spread across his face.

“I’ve heard that humans are able to survive in Asia thanks to your sacrifices. I’ve heard you’ve had to give up a lot for humanity.”

“I agreed that you could join us in order to regain what I’d given up.”

Jack listened to my answer, then nodded.

“I will do my best to help you get back what you’ve given up. The supplies over there are the ones we deemed necessary for the time being. We’ll be bringing in more supplies in the future.”

“There are still more supplies?”

"Yes, of course. We also need to bring over the survivors from Canada.”

“How many are there?”

My question caused Jack to raise his eyebrows. “May I ask why you wish to know that?”

“Well, we need to know the number of survivors so we can make the necessary preparations.”

Jack smiled awkwardly and tried to avoid the question. Just as I was implicitly wary of them, they were wary of me as well. I could tell that they didn’t fully trust me. I continued to look at Jack with a neutral expression, and he finally put his hands behind his back and gave me an answer.

“There are two hundred and twenty survivors, and one hundred and fifty military personnel.”

“There are fewer troops than survivors.”

“There used to be a lot more. It’s not like we just hung around for the past four years. We’ve been through a lot as well.”

He was hinting that they’d sacrificed much to hold off the zombie attacks. My expression remained neutral, and Jack sighed.

“Thankfully, we have healthy young men among the survivors who are helping out the military right now,” he continued. “We’re grateful for them stepping up.”

“It seems like they realized that they won’t be able to make it just by being under someone else’s protection.”

"You’re absolutely right. Now do you fully understand why we wanted to come here and join up with you?”

“Yes, I understand. By the way, were there any zombies with red eyes in Canada?”

"There are. No, there were. Unfortunately, none of the red-eyed zombies in Canada chose to live for the sake of humans.”

I noticed that his eyes were trembling as he spoke. It seemed like his mind had flashed back to the events of the past. Just from his face, I could tell that he must have gone through a lot more than he was explaining to me right now. His expression seemed similar to Lee Jeong-Uk’s, when he was staring at his family photo in Seoul.

The others were unloading all the supplies from the transports as we spoke. Once they were done unloading, a man in uniform approached us.

“We’re done here. We’ll head back.”

"Oh, okay. Do you have enough fuel?”

“Yes, we should have enough.”

“Thank you for your service.”

When Jack gave him a small nod and a warm smile, the man in uniform saluted and returned to the transport.

“Should we go to the lab and continue this conversation?” he said.

"Could you please wait a moment?”

My underlings were hidden away near Vladivostok airport, just in case anything unexpected happened. When I called in my underlings, zombies popped out from all around, making their throat-rending cries. The Canadian researchers screamed in fright when they saw my underlings. Tommy calmed them down.

“These are the zombies you’ll be spending time with here,” he said. “I hope everyone gets used to them.”

My underlings soon filled the runway. I looked over at Jack.

“If you could get on,” I said.

“Uh, what exactly do you want me to get on?”

At his question, I called over one of my underlings. An underling, with all of its arms and legs, came to my side, crouched down on the floor, and gestured to Jack to get on its back. I pointed at my underling while looking at Jack.

"Are you asking me to get on a zombie's back right now?" he asked in a dumbfounded tone.

When I tilted my head and looked at him, as though wondering what the problem was, he seemed to hesitate. However, when Tommy, Alyosha, and Elena took the lead and got onto the backs of the zombies, the Canadian researchers also mounted the zombies one by one. When Jack finally got onto the back of the zombie in front of us, I looked over at Kim Hyeong-Jun.

“Hyeong-Jun, you handle the supplies. Take your time returning.”

“Is there anything fragile? Can't I just pick them up and run with you?”

“Take your time, just in case, you know?”

“If I’d known, I would’ve made Han-Sol do it. Eh, how troublesome.”

Kim Hyeong-Jun continued to grumble as he walked over to where the supplies were. Kim Hyeong-Jun’s underlings showed up on the runway as well, filling Vladivostok airport with zombies. I chuckled at the nervous Canadian researchers.

“Everyone hold on tight,” I said. “We’re going to go now.”