Chapter 24 – The Remaining Soldier (2)

“It was an ordinary day. The unit members were doing their usual tasks. I was organizing the warehouse with my senior.”

Private Kang Hyun-woo spoke about the past with a blank expression.

* * *

In a warehouse full of military supplies, two soldiers were checking the items.

One was thoroughly inspecting the supplies, while the other halfheartedly checked before slumping in a corner.

“Just do it casually. They probably assigned this because there’s nothing else to do.”

“Even so, if we’re going to do it, shouldn’t we do it properly?”

The corporal sitting on the floor grumbled at the private’s words.

“You’re so uptight. Who’s going to appreciate it anyway?”

The corporal continued complaining but didn’t press the private further.

Instead, he grumbled while looking at the ceiling.

“Why is time passing so slowly? If North Korea has fallen, they should at least reduce the service period, even if they don’t abolish conscription.”

“North Korea may have fallen, but monsters have taken their place. We need the military to stop the monsters, don’t we?”

“Do those monsters have tanks? Do they fly fighter jets? Just fire some artillery, push forward with tanks, and it’s over. We could unify the country, maybe even take Manchuria, and I could be discharged. How great would that be?”

“Haven’t you heard the rumors about how many times the northward advance was blocked? They say even guns and artillery don’t work, so they’re maintaining the ceasefire line as is.”

“It’s just a rumor. Besides, if guns and artillery don’t work, what’s the point of the military? They should recruit monster hunters instead of soldiers. Just let me be discharged.”

The private shook his head at his senior’s constant talk about discharge.

This conversation was just idle chatter during work hours.

The senior wasn’t really expecting anything, and he wasn’t making a proper counterargument either.

“By the way, the officers’ mood has been strange lately. Do you think there might be an inspection coming?”

“I don’t think it’s an inspection. But the atmosphere does seem off. I hope it passes quietly.”

The corporal, sighing, stared at his junior who was still working diligently.

“But why are you still stuck here? You could have been dragged into the reconnaissance unit, if not a special forces unit.”

“It’s because of my disposition, isn’t it? Someone like me who trembles at the sight of blood is perfect for the supply corps.”

“Is that disposition thing real? Aren’t you just making excuses to avoid being dragged away?”

The corporal snorted at his junior’s words.

“Well, does it matter? Even if someone’s good at shooting and inhuman at guerrilla tactics, if they use their disposition as an excuse not to do it, there’s nothing we can do.”

But soon, he leaned against the wall as if it didn’t matter at all.

For soldiers, the military was just a place to pass time.

Maybe it was better to be stuck in the supply corps, as the private said, rather than showing off and getting dragged to a tough place.

After that, the conversation stopped, and a peaceful silence fell over the warehouse.

The sound of the private walking around and checking things off on paper could be heard faintly, and small snoring sounds came from the corner where the corporal had sat down.

It was a peaceful scene.

The two soldiers in the warehouse thought today would pass like any other ordinary day.

But that peaceful time was shattered immediately.

Bang!

An explosion was heard from outside the warehouse.

“What’s that!”

“Lieutenant Lee! Sergeant Ahn is acting strange!”

“Grrrr!”

“Stop! Private Woo, are you crazy?”

“What’s going on! Can’t you manage your soldiers properly!”

After the explosion, shouts and screams from the unit members were heard outside the warehouse.

They were clearly the voices of the unit members who had been working together.

But their voices were completely different from what they usually sounded like.

Voices mixed with excitement and fear, tension and anger.

Maybe it was because the voices were heard through the wall, but it didn’t feel real.

That might be why Private Kang stood dazed for a moment.

After standing still for a while listening to the noise, Private Kang finally moved his head.

The noise from outside grew louder, but inside the warehouse remained unchanged.

The stacked materials, the light and dust flowing in through the windows.

Unlike outside, the quiet warehouse made what was happening seem even less real.

No, the inside of the warehouse wasn’t exactly the same as before.

Had he woken up from the noise?

The corporal who had been sleeping was now standing up.

“Uh… Corporal, did you hear that too? It seems like something’s happening.”

The corporal, who had been listening to the outside noise with his head down, tilted his head at Private Kang’s words.

Did I misunderstand? Was it an auditory hallucination?

Such thoughts suddenly crossed Private Kang’s mind, but

he had to abandon those thoughts when he saw the corporal’s face as he raised his head.

“Grrrr.”

The appearance of the corporal looking at Private Kang was different from how he had looked when he was sleeping just moments ago.

The corporal standing there was not the kind-hearted senior who had been waiting for discharge and who took his junior’s jokes well.

Although it was clearly the same face, Private Kang couldn’t consider the soldier in front of him to be the same being as the corporal he had seen just moments ago.

Had his veins burst?

The corporal’s face glaring at Private Kang had turned completely blue.

Saliva was dripping from his mouth, and beastly growls were coming from the corporal’s throat.

“Oh my God… You haven’t turned into a zombie or something, have you? Get a hold of yourself!”

Contrary to his words, Private Kang was certain that his senior had turned into a zombie.

Although he wasn’t particularly fond of web novels or comics, he had often heard stories about zombies and monsters after creatures had filled the North,

and he had seen photos of North Korean zombie soldiers during training sessions.

The appearance of his senior standing in front of him now was not much different from the photos of North Korean zombie soldiers he had seen then.

The only difference might be that his skin wasn’t damaged or dirty.

“Argh!”

Perhaps thanks to the training, Private Kang was able to grab an iron crowbar leaning against a box before his zombified senior could pounce on him.

“Damn it! Stop! I said stop!”

The senior opened his mouth and lunged at Private Kang, and Private Kang swung the iron crowbar at the charging senior.

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

* * *

“Thwack, thwack, thwack. I kept swinging the iron crowbar until the corporal stopped moving. Blood splattered, and splattered, and splattered again, and when I came to my senses, I had killed the corporal.”

The soldier, no, Private Kang, looked down at his hands.

Were his hands remembering? They were still trembling even now.

Although he hadn’t really killed him since he had already become undead, we didn’t stop him from speaking.

We didn’t want to interrupt him and risk losing the flow of information.

Zahina’s mana wasn’t eternal, so we needed to hear as much as possible now.

“After killing my senior, or rather the zombie, when I went outside the warehouse, the unit was already in chaos.”

“Soldiers biting their fellow unit members, soldiers screaming after being bitten. Even soldiers who had turned into monsters after being bitten and some time passing. If time had just passed like that, the entire unit might have been wiped out.”

It seemed that before the Demon King’s army came down, this unit was first hit by the energy of death, mana.

Although the unit was full of young people, not everyone could withstand mana.

Moreover, in a military unit where many people lived together, it would have been more difficult to prevent the spread of undead than in other places.

If it had been an ordinary unit, there was a high possibility that it would have been annihilated, as Private Kang said.

“Fortunately, some officers and soldiers came to their senses and gathered the unaffected soldiers to set up a defense line.”

The pile of corpses in the building’s corridor came to mind at Private Kang’s words.

“Luckily, I was able to get the key to the ammunition depot, so I could deliver ammunition to the surviving soldiers.”

As expected, my eyes hadn’t been wrong.

The soldier in front of me had clearly played a big role in saving the unit.

“After getting the ammunition, we swept through the zombies in the unit. When we checked after clearing out all the zombies, about 400 soldiers had survived. That’s about 20 percent survival rate.”

Was that a high survival rate? Or a low one?

In any case, it seemed they were able to prevent the complete destruction of the unit.

“Fortunately, many of the unit’s officers survived, and we were able to contact the higher command.”

As expected, this unit was one that had managed to contact higher command.

If we were lucky, we might be able to hear about other surviving units.

“Then we received news that zombies and skeletons were pushing down from North Korean territory, and after that, orders came to gather the surviving unit members and regroup in the rear.”

I had wondered why they had left the base, but there was a separate reason.

“Following orders, we left the base with the unit members, and soon after, we encountered skeletons coming down from the north.”

The battle traces we saw on the national road. That must have been where they met.

“The skeletons were different from the zombies we fought inside the base. Even zombies would fall when shot, although they’d keep moving unless you destroyed their heads, but the skeletons weren’t like that.”

Of course. It wasn’t for nothing that I had only handed guns to Zahina.

Unlike zombies created by mana, the Demon King’s army’s skeletons were difficult to deal with without mana.

“In the end, we couldn’t even get far from the base before we had to return inside.”

The battle traces extending from the national road to the base that we had seen on our way here.

Those traces were this unit’s final wounds.

“By the time we reached the main gate of the base, not even a platoon’s worth of personnel remained. The skeletons kept coming, and when the last officer died, we had no choice but to flee in all directions. I ran to the ammunition depot with my backpack full of combat rations. I thought I could hold out in the ammunition depot. I also still had the key to it.”

We were able to learn everything that had happened at the base.

What remained was the time Private Kang had survived alone until now.

“Hidden in the ammunition depot, I heard the sounds of other soldiers dying. They cried for help, begged to be saved, but I couldn’t go outside the ammunition depot. I survived like that in the ammunition depot. Eating when hungry, digging holes to defecate and bury it, and even after that, I kept hearing endless cries for help, but I was too scared to take even one step outside the ammunition depot.”

He kept hearing cries for help? Were there more surviving soldiers besides Private Kang?

“I think I gradually went mad while in the ammunition depot. There’s no way I could have kept hearing cries for help. There’s no way I could have seen the comrades I killed outside the window.”

As he spoke, Private Kang looked at the ammunition depot wall.

No matter how we looked, there was no window on the wall, but we didn’t say anything.

There was no reason to tell someone who saw dead soldiers through a non-existent window that there was no window.

“Eventually, unable to bear it anymore, I grabbed a machine gun and rushed outside, and that’s when I met you all.”

Had he gone completely mad just before meeting us?

If he had been even slightly sane, we might have been able to treat him, but perhaps we were a little late.

Private Kang continued to answer our questions to the best of his ability after that.

After we finished asking all the necessary questions, he looked a bit tired but spoke to us with a bright face.

“Since we’ve killed the zombies and the big monsters, is it okay if I relieve myself outside? I’ve been doing it in here for so long, I feel like I’m steeped in the smell.”

After asking us for permission, he asked Zahina.

“I won’t go mad right away if you let go of my hand, right?”

“You’ll be fine until you finish your business.”

After getting confirmation from Zahina, he slung his rifle and went outside.

“Then I’ll be back.”

Hoffman and I watched the soldier go outside.

“Is it okay to let him go alone?”

We didn’t answer Zahina’s question, and

Bang!

We didn’t move at the subsequent gunshot either.

What would someone do if they escaped shock and pain by going mad, only to be brought back to their senses by someone else’s hand?

We had seen the results of this many times.

Unable to take responsibility for the mad soldier, we could only silently observe his decision.

A moment of silence for the remaining soldier.