Side Story 15: Stories of Russia (15)

Even though Ruin had spoken with sincerity, I couldn't trust her completely.

I didn’t know what kind of curveballs she would throw at me, given how worn out her body and mind were. And just like how she had leaked information about the Canadian researchers to us, I had to consider the possibility that she could expose information about us to Jack. She was a smart woman, so she probably knew that playing both sides could increase her chances of survival.

I considered all the possibilities as I waited for the arrival of the fourth transport.

* * *

One sunny summer’s day, I headed to Vladivostok Airport to be in time for the fourth transport’s arrival. As I waited near the runway for the plane to arrive, Jack and a group of Canadian researchers ambled up next to me.

"Why don't we give the soldiers a day's rest after this transport arrives?" he said with his uniquely faint smile.

“A break?”

“These people have been crossing the Pacific for us nonstop, without taking a proper break. I want to treat the soldiers to a good dinner tonight.”

“Okay,” I answered, as though it wasn’t a big deal.

Jack smiled heartily. “And the Canadian survivors will be coming on the fifth transport.”

My eyebrows twitched involuntarily in the face of his audacious and brazen lie, but I’d known all along that this fourth transport would determine if he was telling the truth or not. I turned my head, pretending not to know anything about the situation in Canada.

“Didn’t you decide that you would bring the survivors over on the fourth transport?” I asked him instead.

“I wanted to, of course. However, there’s a being on board this transport that I didn’t get the chance to tell you about… A being that the survivors said they weren’t comfortable getting on board with.”

“A being that you didn’t tell me about? What is it? A black creature, perhaps?”

“Oh certainly not. But do you remember the time you asked me if there were any zombies with red eyes in Canada? Does that ring a bell?”

Of course I knew what he was talking about. At that time, he’d told me that all the zombies with red eyes in Canada had been wiped out. Even though I remembered everything, I acted as if I couldn’t pinpoint what he was talking about.

“Did I ever ask such a question?”

“Yes, and back then, I told you that there weren’t any zombies with red eyes in Canada.”

“So…?”

“In actual fact, though, we have one. We kept one alive for the purposes of our research.”

"Then are you saying that it’s on the transport that’s coming right now?”

"Yes. We can continue to speak about it once the plane arrives.”

I gave a small nod and waited for the transport plane to arrive.

A little later, a transport plane appeared, gliding through the distant white clouds toward us. It landed in front of us, and the tightly closed hatch opened. A bunch of desperate, hopeless-looking soldiers poured out of it. The highest-ranking soldier ran over and stood in front of Jack, then collected himself before speaking.

"Doctor, there’s been an emergency.”

"What’s the problem?”

“The Canadian Institute… The zombies have taken over.”

"What?"

His eyes had gone wide, and his mouth was open in shock. He wobbled and placed his hand on his forehead, like a patient suffering from vertigo.

“Doctor!”

The Canadian researchers nearby helped Jack back up. He assured them that he was alright, then returned his attention to the soldier.

“The survivors,” he asked. “What happened to the survivors?”

"About that…”

The soldier grimaced and looked at the ground. Jack began to tear up and heap blame on himself.

"It’s… It’s all my fault. I should’ve brought them here first. I don’t know why I was in such a rush to come over first…”

Jack continued to sob, and the other researchers around him seemed disconsolate as well. I was speechless, surprised by his acting.

There was never going to be a fifth transport. There was no other reason for them to talk about the Canadian research institute going down, or the fact that all the survivors had perished. As I watched them, I almost wanted to give a round of applause from the bottom of my heart. Their acting skills were truly impressive.

As I observed Jack and the Canadian researchers, I couldn’t help but wonder if Run might’ve lied as well. I gave her a sidelong glance, and noticed that she was the only one who looked perfectly calm.

“Where's my son?” she asked the soldier as she looked him right in the eye.

At her question, the soldier gestured to the other soldiers behind them. The soldiers wheeled over a rectangular object that was a meter and a half wide and two meters tall. Judging from the cold air surrounding the object, it seemed like they had frozen her son’s body using some modern technology. However, even if they did manage to freeze his body completely, there was no way he would wake up again.

As I took a closer look at the capsule, Jack began to speak again, wiping the tears away from his eyes.

“The zombie I was talking about earlier is in there.”

“Did you freeze the zombie?”

“An ordinary human being would have died of cardiac arrest, but beings like you folks won’t die. The virus comes to life as soon as the body thaws.”

This virus, with the exception of turning its host into a zombie, was immortality itself. Jack took a couple of deep breaths to collect himself, then smiled faintly.

"My apologies,” he said. “I can’t believe I shed tears in front of all of you, despite being this old.”

“It’s alright.”

“I’m not sure if you heard Ruin earlier, but the zombie inside this thing is her son.”

“Is that why you didn’t kill him, but spared him to be used as a research subject?”

“I had no other choice. The commander-in-chief of the military who was defending the research center at the time would’ve killed him otherwise. I saved that child. Literally.”

He was so good at lying that he scared me. I wondered if his calmness was a result of the wisdom he’d acquired during his lifetime. Or maybe he was just a typical sociopath, and I should’ve known it earlier.

I gave a small nod. “Let’s go to the lab for now.”

* * *

There were a total of fifty soldiers on the transport plane. Jack had mentioned that there were one hundred and fifty when he first got here, so perhaps the soldier wasn’t completely lying about the Canadian lab going down.

I let my mind wander as I led the soldiers from Canada to their dorms. Even if the fifty soldiers here had barely made it out of the lab alive, not a single one of them had zombie blood on them. And I was pretty sure that they hadn’t washed off the blood in the transport plane.

This was another thing that gave weight to Ruin’s story.

No matter how urgent and desperate they were, I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that soldiers would leave the survivors behind and escape. It was only natural for the soldiers to get on board only after all the survivors. The more I thought about it, Ruin’s assertion that there were no survivors from the beginning grew more convincing.

I wondered if Jack knew that what he said wasn’t adding up. His approach of trying to get at me emotionally was worse than doing nothing. I’d survived to this day by thoroughly considering each situation and making rational judgments, always making decisions based on the best outcomes. Useless emotional appeals only triggered me.

Once we got to the dorms, I thanked the soldiers for all their work, and told them to take a shower and have a good rest. They thanked me and went in. After making sure that all of them were inside, I ran back to the shelter where my people were.

When I entered the shelter, Tommy, who had been waiting impatiently, immediately spoke up.

“Mr. Lee Hyun-Deok, is it just the soldiers this time? No supplies?”

“I think Jack’s noticed,” I said in a rather serious tone.

Tommy tilted his head and looked at me blankly.

I took a deep breath. “It’s… It’s going to happen today.”

"Pardon? What’s going to happen?”

“The soldiers that arrived today are going to kill you.”

Tommy looked dumbfounded.

“Wait, why?” asked Elena, who was next to him. “It’s so out of the blue. What makes you think that that will happen?”

“Have you ever heard of a murderer that gives warnings before they kill somebody?”

The Russian survivors in the back, who were listening to me, frowned as well. They seemed to have a hard time understanding why I would think of such a thing.

“Well, killing us would be the same as digging their own graves. Do you really think they would kill us?”

"No, you’re wrong about that. Even if you folks die, Jack won’t. He knows he won’t die.”

“Well, we have you… Are you planning on abandoning us?”

“No, that’s not what I meant. Think about it. Who can develop the cure if you folks die?” I asked them calmly.

They all sighed and nodded as if they finally got what I was trying to say. If the Russian researchers and survivors here died… I would be left with only one option.

Tommy rubbed his chin as if he’d finally grasped Jack’s master plan. “Are you saying that the Canadian researchers have been building trust with you to get you to lower your guard, and now, since they think they have your trust, they’re going to show their true colors?”

“Yes. If it weren’t for Ruin and her faking the effectiveness of the anesthesia, we would’ve been played.”

Tommy pursed his lips tightly and furrowed his brow.

He sighed, then said, “Okay, what’s your plan? I’ll help.”

“For now, go back to your dorms. My underlings will be there. Don’t be surprised, and just hide in a closet or some other place.”

“And then? What comes next?”

“Don’t ever come out until I arrive.”

“You want us to stay inside? It’ll just make us look more suspicious.”

“That’s the point. We have to make you folks seem suspicious, so that they’ll speed up their plan.”

“Can’t we just go and kill them all right now?” asked Tommy as he scratched his head.

“No. Think about it. If they know they’re going to die, what do you think they’ll do?”

“Well, that’s something…”

“What if they blow up a grenade in the lab? They also have mortars. Do you think research will matter to them if they’re about to die?”

“...”

“We have to get all of them at once. We have to eliminate them in a way that they can’t do anything to us,” I said seriously.

Tommy nodded. “So you’re saying we have to make them attack first, right?”

"Yes. So go back to your dorms right now.”

“Then… I’ll leave the rest to you, Mr. Lee Hyun-Deok.”

As everyone left the shelter’s auditorium, I took a deep breath and got myself ready for the last supper.

* * *

I even took the effort to butcher some pigs to serve the soldiers. I was furious that I was serving meat to these people who were going to be dead soon, but I thought that it would at least prevent the quick-witted Jack from noticing what was going on. Jack seemed to be very excited by the fact that we were having an outdoor barbeque, since he hadn’t been able to enjoy one for a very long time.

"By the way, where are Tommy and the others?”

“He said he wasn’t feeling too good. I just spoke to him in the dorm before coming here.”

“Hehe, I wonder if he’s struggling with side effects from that vaccine?”

Jack chuckled as he watched the pork crackle and sizzle, the smoky aroma filling his nostrils. He was smiling, but the way his fingers were fidgeting betrayed his nervousness. It seemed like he couldn’t give the soldiers the order to commence his operation because I was next to him. I figured that I needed to give them time so that they could go ahead with their plan.

I walked over to the grill and spoke to the soldier holding the tongs.

“Give me the tongs. I’ll cook.”

When I held out my right hand, the soldier stared blankly at my face and refused to give me the tongs. It seemed like the soldiers didn’t speak English. Well, everyone supposedly claimed they were soldiers. They were actually just a bunch of terrorists.

When I pointed my finger at the tongs, the soldier gave an exclamation and handed me the tongs to let me do the cooking.

“I’ll make sure this gets cooked deliciously,” I said to Jack, my voice full of delight.

Jack quickly turned his head when he heard my voice and exchanged glances with another Canadian researcher. Then he nodded with a smile on his face. I knew that his plan was being put into motion since he’d exchanged signals with his people.

With that, I gave orders to my underlings through my mind.

‘All of you in the dorms, listen up. Kill any human that approaches with a weapon. Only protect the people I told you to protect.’

When I heard their replies, I gave orders to the stage-one mutants and Ji-Eun.

‘Wait in front of the outer wall. When I give you the signal, jump over.’

This was the reason why I was holding the barbecue party in front of the outer wall of the research institute, rather than having it somewhere more spacious. I had told the Canadian researchers and soldiers that this was the best place to see the stars, but in reality, it was a good spot for an ambush. It was pretty far from the laboratory, and thanks to the wide-open view, it was easy to spot any humans moving.

Now, all I had to do was wait for them to make a move. The moment they moved, I was going to kill every single human being here. Since I had already marked out where everyone was, I would get them all in one go when my underlings gave me the signal.

However, if the Canadian forces didn’t execute their surprise attack that night… I’d have no choice to suspect Ruin. I hoped that Jack’s impatience would lead things to play out as I envisioned them.

I looked at the male researcher with dark brown hair, seated next to Jack. I intended to keep him alive, even if I went ahead and killed everyone else. He was the one who was hiding the data related to the cure, so I was going to torture him little by little until he turned over the data.

Bang—!

At that moment, the sound of distant gunfire reached the barbeque.

“WAAA!!!”

“GRRR!!”

A cacophony of zombie cries and human wails echoed throughout the premises of the laboratory. Just like I had anticipated, it was coming from the Russian survivors’ dorms. My blue eyes flashed as I gave orders to my underlings.

It was time to roll out our operation.