章 9: Chapter 9. The Yellow Thing
Even though it wasn't a military knife, it was still a sturdy knife. The hit was delivered accurately to the belly of the monster. And it failed? How was that possible? Did this yellow-eyed one has thicker skin than the other monsters?
The knife fell and the man slumped on the floor. Desperation showed on his face. It was his best chance and it failed.
For this to make sense, I was thinking that maybe it's because this man's strength was far to weak compared to the yellow-eyed monster. The knife attack he delivered didn't have enough force. Yeah, that should be it.
The yellow-eyed grinned at him, or at least I thought it was a grin. Then suddenly, very fast, its tongue shot out and pierced under the chest of the knife owner. When the tongue retracted, it was encircling a heart. A bloodied and still beating human heart! Then, without pause the yellow-eyed monster swallowed that bloodied heart. The owner of the heart saw his own heart was eaten while life seeped out of his body.
The other man saw this and was paralysed. In a few seconds, it was his turn. The same thing happened again. The heart was taken out, leaving the body lifeless on the ground.
The yellow-eyed signaled to the other monsters after he finished eating two human hearts. After this signal came, the other monsters were gathering and feasting on the corpses. I did not dare to look for fear of vomiting.
So, the heart was the precious one? The yellow-eyed took only the hearts but left the other parts for his brethren. And to those other monsters, the other parts of human body was still important for their improvement? Or was it only for hunger?
I didn't know the answer to all my questions and wasn't keen to find out about it either. One thing I was glad of was that I didn't have to eat the monster's body to improve. Simply imagining eating those filthy monsters was already vomit-inducing.
I got to get out of here and hurried back to the police station. The monster had been targeting the stores or offices that have lighting in. There was virtually no chance for Lt. Yoon, Little Woonseok and the others to survive attack from this group of monsters.
I crawled on the floor, heading to the back room. From the back room, I found a door and it could be unlocked from inside. From the look of it the previous people must have used this door to escape. I closed the door right at the moment I heard the front door was broken down. Did they see me?
I looked around and found my orientation. With the sun as good as out, it wasn't easy. Especially the fact that I wasn't familiar with this place. Fortunately, the road wasn't complex nor the distance great. I ran as fast as I could and at some point of time I passed the small road.
Using the main road I reached my destination. I knocked on the door of the police station. Lt. Yoon peeked and confirmed it was me before he unlocked the door and let me in.
The others were visibly relieved when they saw me. I hated to be the bearer of bad news but it was better than to be slaughtered. They had to know.
With the assistance of Little Han Wonseok I told them to turn all the lighting off and retreated to the back room. The people were wondering why but I didn't bother to give them lengthy explanation. I simply told them to listen because it was the only chance we have to survive.
Looking at my seriousness Lt. Yoon didn't waste time, he ushered everyone to the room at the back. We locked every door and turned every light off.
It was like suddenly the police station became a graveyard. Only Lt. Yoon and me standing near the locked front door.
It wasn't long after we turned off the lights that the group of monsters were within sight, the lieutenant was trembling. I put my hand on his shoulder to calm him down. It did not help much as he was too frightened. He was reminded of how close he was to dying when facing only a couple of monsters. Now, there were a bunch of them outside. When the lieutenant hung his head down, I knew he had suddenly understood that help from the military was a wishful thinking.
Just as I deduced, the horde didn't pay attention to places without lighting and sound. They seemed to assume there was no human inside dark and noiseless buildings. However, they were going with their own pace and were not in a hurry. Their slowness was a torture to us. It affected me, it affected Lt. Yoon more, and I guessed it affected the people in the back room even more.
When the horde had gone out of sight the lieutenant and I went inside and joined the people in the back room. They have been anxious to know what exactly happened. The lieutenant explained to them what we saw.
It was dark, with only scattered light from the street lighting and moon, so I couldn't clearly see the changes on their faces. After the explanation from the lieutenant came to an end, there was only silence in the room. Everybody seemed to be carried away by their own thoughts. The mothers were holding their children tighter, the young girls started sobbing and the elderlies were praying.
I decided not to tell them about the yellow-eyed monster. Even the ordinary monster was too much for them to handle, why should they worry about the more stronger one?
I handed the food I bought from the store. They were hungry but some of them seemed to have lost their appetite. The children were the only ones eating without much thinking, Little Han included. I wasn't good at consoling or a pep talk, I didn't know what I could say to them so I just stayed silent.
The night went by slowly without much conversation in this police station. I closed my eyes while sitting on one of the chairs in the waiting room. That's how I rested for the night.
When morning came, I had already prepared my backpack. The others saw me but said nothing much. They knew that even with me around, facing such calamity was hopeless.
"Lt. Yoon, Wonseok, everybody. I have to go now," I said to them.
One of the elderly held my hand and nodded her head. She said something that Wonseok later translated, "Be safe. Your family is waiting for you. Good luck."
The others also one by one shook my hand and wishing me luck. Some, like the girls I helped save and the children, even hugged me. And in the end Lt. Yoon handed me a police knife and a baton. He said they were for my protection. Glad he didn't charge me money for them.
I looked at their faces, said my goodbye and then left.
I ran toward the direction of 7-Eleven store where I got the provisions yesterday. The convenience store itself wasn't my target. It was another building some distance away across the street that I spotted. It was a bigger and taller building with large words that I couldn't spell. We passed this building many times on the trip from the office to our hotel and I caught a glimpse of what this building was about. It was a department store.
Needless to say, I was being very careful on my journey. After seeing the horde of monsters last night, I was sure that they weren't the only group out here. The white dots on the map gave me some understanding that we, human, weren't only out powered but also outnumbered.
Because I was being careful, I was slow. I didn't cover much in ten minutes. But my carefulness was with merit. I met with several monsters roaming the street in a group of two or three and was able to avoid them every time. The last time I was lucky to be able to kill three of them without me suffering any damage. But that wasn't something I should boast about.
I had to go back to my grandparents. To achieve that goal, I had to make it out of here alive and if that meant I have to creep around those groups of monsters cowardly, I'd do that.
Finally, I reached my destination. Feeling safe I entered the big department store through its broken entrance gate. This place should have everything I need.
Once inside I searched around and, just my luck would have it, found what I was looking for. A certain well-known brand of shoe store. It was really uncomfortable for me to run and fight using my working shoes.
I crept my way through the area. There was some blood stain on the floor of the main path. It's not a lot because when the change happened the store was not open yet. The blood most probably belonged to nightwatchmen or cleaning service staff.
This store had many juicy looking shoes that I immediately attracted to. I calmed myself so I wouldn't go on a shoe rampage. I tried on several shoes my size and finally decided on a pair of cross training shoes. Against my office shoes it was incomparably comfortable to walk and fit for running. This was enough for me.
Though the department store seemed to be empty, I still tried to be as quiet as possible. The monsters were never lurking. They were always roaming. Since they were strong and numerous, they probably thought they were entitled to be arrogant and confident. Or perhaps, they were not built to think. Anyway, it made it easier for me to hide if I remained quiet.
I found my next target on the next floor. It was a clothing area. I changed my current garments to something more comfortable for me to easily move around. I took additional two sets of clothes with me too. Except for shoes, I didn't care about any other fashion. My only concern was to find something comfortable and convenient. And less conspicuous color too, though to be honest I didn't even know whether they could differentiate color or not.
It was close to summer, so jacket wasn't really needed but I took one nevertheless. Just in case of rain or if I needed to spend the night in an open space.
From the clothing area I went to other places. I took, or borrowed, things such as flashlight, batteries, rope, hat, sport water bottle, binoculars and others. Anything that I figured would help on my journey.
I went to the food area and got myself something to eat. Some people, given so much free choices, would be confused of what to eat. Not me, I was never a picky eater so it was easy for me. Yesterday, even a bread looked tasty to me. I also got some dry rations such as energy bars and crackers for the road. I was about to grab a few medications and vitamins from the pharmacy but, no, it didn't make sense. Being an Acolyte, I couldn't be healthier now.
My backpack was already bursting full now, some things could not fit in. This prompted me to change the backpack to a larger size. I found a medium size, sturdy backpack, then moved everything from my small backpack to this new medium size one.
Believing that I got everything set, I left the department store. Since I set out very early from the police station, it could still be considered morning now.
Based on the information I got from Lt. Yoon Heeseung I moved east toward the airport. I walked about a couple of kilometers when I finally decided that the road was too far to be covered by foot.
Yes, I knew it was dangerous but I still made the bold decision. The noise car made would attract the monsters, however, at the same time the longer I was on the road the more unknown variables could sprang up. It's really to choose between the lesser of two evils. When I found an abandoned car with key inside, I took it right away.
It was a foreign brand car, with automatic transmission, and the best thing was that it has GPS navigation system. Too bad that the GPS navigation system was configured using Korean. However, it didn't take long for me to set it up. It's because there was a symbol of airplane on the display. The system gave me a selection. I chose the first and it showed the way to the eastern part of Seoul. There were English words written below the Korean. Incheon International.
Yay! That's it! That's my destination. I drove away at high speed.
The area was practically a dead zone of silence and, because of that, the sound of this car, even though it was only a small-engine car with minimal power, attracted some attention. Monsters were emerging from buildings alongside the road I was taking. I paid no attention to them. Most, if not all, could not do anything to me anyway since they were slower than a car.
There were a few monsters attempted to block my path but I simply ran over it. The monster's claws were really strong. They might not be able to stop the car but they were able to wreck the side of the car when I passed by. Ignoring it was my choice of action. And as for the monster that came out after my car pass by, they wouldn't be able catch up with their speed.
It seemed like I was not the only one thinking about speeding through the monsters. There were several others too, driving either cars or motorcycles. But the motorcycles were often got whacked by the swinging arm of the monsters.
I had killed more than ten monsters by running over them. I didn't bother to stop to take the translucent marbles. I didn't have the balls. I could only feel hurt for such being a waste, but I valued my life more.
I entered the highway and was now side-by-side with Han river. What was originally a peaceful and pretty river was now giving me a different feeling. It was like it was out of this world. It was surreal to see the lively and bustling Seoul became like this. There was no more of that peaceful world. Desolate feeling loomed over me.
There were no monsters on the highway so my journey was smoother than I expected. After a short time driving on this highway, the GPS showed that I had to get off soon. Before that, I decided to stop and take a look around for a while. I parked on the side and took out my drink.
One full day had passed since the start of the doom. I thought about my grandparents. How were they doing? I had no way to contact them now and it was driving me crazy.
Yesterday, for the first time in my whole life, I put my life in danger for strangers. Why did I do that? I never had heroic tendency. I was definitely not a saint. I'd rather gobbled up all those tiny marbles to make myself stronger than to share it. Only by getting stronger would my chance to survive and find my grandparents increased.
'Ah, my grandparents'. Well, I guessed I know the reason now. I saw them through the elders. It made me feel anxious and impatient at the same time. I hated to think about how minuscule the chance for my grandparents to survive. I suppressed my feeling and firmed my resolution. I just had to reach home soon and then I could be with them. I couldn't let this negative thought distract me.
While looking at the distance, something caught my attention. I could not see it clearly since it was too far away so I took out the binoculars.
Through the lens I saw the bridge that I was supposed to cross according to the navigation system. There were many vehicles stranded and smokes rising from them. On the intersection from where the highway came to meet the bridge were many burnt vehicles. It was like a junkyard of cars. In the middle of the bridge there were a couple of tanks and a few armored cars.
Nothing was moving except for the many birds circling the bridge.
"So the military did involve," I thought to myself. But what was the outcome? Why was nothing moving on the bridge?
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