Chapter 17
Chapter 17 – On the Road (1):
Yong Yeo-hong faced a corpse for the first time and instinctively turned his head away, a wave of nausea rising in his throat.
“It looks like a First-Gen,” Baek Sae-byeok said as she replayed the scene in her mind.
“Judging from the condition of the clothes, it hasn’t been more than a year since the outbreak.”
Jang Mok-hwa looked back at Seong Geon-woo and Yeo-hong.
“Should I explain the ‘Mindless’ again?”
Instead of answering, Geon-woo suddenly spoke.
“This isn’t the figure I just saw.
The one I saw was smaller.”
Mok-hwa gave a slight nod.
“You two, check the body for anything valuable and move it over there. Not too far from the light.”
After a moment’s thought, she went to the jeep, took out four black objects, and tossed one each to Geon-woo and Yeo-hong.
“Walkie-talkies. Range is two kilometers, but in open terrain they can reach farther.
Report to me immediately if anything happens. You know how to use them, right?”
“I know how to repair them,” Geon-woo replied off-topic, a fellow electronics major like Yeo-hong.
With the walkie slung over his shoulder, Yeo-hong hesitated and edged toward the corpse. He dared not look directly at it, and the stench of blood and decay made him retch.
Geon-woo strode forward and stood by the corpse’s head, already searching.
“Should I carry you?”
“Uh…”
Yeo-hong wanted to say that hauling the body didn’t sound wise.
“I mean, should I carry you,” Geon-woo clarified, expression unchanged.
Yeo-hong gave an awkward laugh.
“No, I’m fine.”
Bending down, he gripped the corpse’s legs while Geon-woo hooked his arms under its armpits. Together they carried the bleeding body to an open patch, dug a pit at the edge of the lamplight, and buried it.
The burial killed Yeo-hong’s appetite. He managed only a single compressed biscuit and half a can of food.
The sky grew steadily darker. Just as Mok-hwa was about to assign the night watch, a sudden, beast-like roar echoed from far away, a sound that pierced the clouds and felt like a nightmare breaking into the night.
Then similar cries erupted one after another from different parts of the surrounding marsh.
Startled, Yeo-hong blurted out, “Is it a pack of wolves?”
“What kind of wolf pack would be scattered that far apart?” Mok-hwa answered with a small laugh.
“Do roars like that often ring out all around the Great Marsh?” Yeo-hong pressed, unease creeping in.
“Not often,” Mok-hwa said, still smiling but shaking her head.
“Th-then what do we do?”
Her eyes glinted with amusement.
“Something’s clearly odd. It means something’s happening deep in the marsh.
But the direction and area of those sounds don’t overlap with our route or our destination. So there’s no need to worry.”
“No need to worry?” Yeo-hong looked to Geon-woo, who showed no sign of fear.
From her post keeping watch, Baek Sae-byeok added calmly,
“In the Black-Marsh Wilderness strange or unexpected things happen every few days. You can’t fret over every single one.
The chance that something out here will actually affect us is very, very small.”
“But what if it does?” Yeo-hong persisted.
Geon-woo, staring into the campfire, said,
“Then it just means your luck’s bad.”
Yeo-hong clenched his teeth and nodded.
“…Right. If luck’s bad, nothing can stop it. If luck’s good, nothing will cross our path.”
Mok-hwa, half-smiling, shook her head.
“We’re far from the source and can’t know the details or prepare for them.
Unless we retreat and head back to base, the only option is to keep to our planned route—which already skirts far away.”
“That explanation is a lot more convincing than the first one…”
Yeo-hong realized that the same idea, phrased differently, could feel completely different.
Mok-hwa chuckled.
“That’s why you need to learn to grasp the essence of a situation.
On that point, Geon-woo is far ahead of you. See? He’s not tense at all.”
Geon-woo nodded slightly.
“I’m just deciding whether or not to join in.”
“What?”
Mok-hwa, Yeo-hong, and Sae-byeok all stared, puzzled.
Then Geon-woo opened his mouth and mimicked a wolf’s howl.
The others were too stunned to react for a long moment.
So the ‘joining in’ he meant was… a duet with the beasts?
Yeo-hong wanted to say it, but answering would feel like admitting defeat.
Seconds later Mok-hwa laughed.
“Sae-byeok, don’t forget you’re on watch!
Geon-woo, even if a band of wilderness raiders attacked, they couldn’t beat us—but you’re single-handedly undermining our internal defenses!”
Geon-woo nodded solemnly.
“That’s why I hesitated. I’m also preparing for contingencies.”
“I was a bit surprised, but I didn’t drop my guard,” Sae-byeok muttered, embarrassed that she’d briefly lost focus.
She’d wandered the wilderness long enough to meet plenty of people who’d cracked under the strain, and their behavior had been far stranger than Geon-woo’s. The odd thing was how normal he usually seemed—his quirks felt more like jokes than madness. She’d never imagined he’d do something this bizarre.
“Well done. Never let your guard down,” Mok-hwa said with a tilted smile instead of probing further.
“When this field training is over, I really might order psychological evaluations for the whole team.”
Geon-woo clapped lightly.
“I hope you score a perfect hundred!”
The casual way Mok-hwa mentioned mental checks startled Sae-byeok, since it so clearly targeted Geon-woo. She herself had once suggested such evaluations, but back then his oddities had seemed minor—just dry humor within normal bounds. His indifference to Mok-hwa’s jab surprised her even more. Does he know exactly who he is and simply accept it, without the slightest insecurity?
Sae-byeok shook her head, deciding to focus on her own duties.
Mok-hwa glanced at her electronic wristwatch.
“Alright, break time.
Normally Sae-byeok and I would pair up and Geon-woo with Yeo-hong for alternating rest, but you two lack experience and might miss signs of danger. Out here we can’t just split by gender. Trusting each other matters most. So I’ll pair with Geon-woo, and Sae-byeok with Yeo-hong.”
She smiled.
“Honestly, we’re lucky with these conditions. We’ve got a jeep. One can sleep in the front seat, the other in the back without bothering each other.”
Sae-byeok nodded.
“I once shared a single tent with two men, two women, a pig, and two chickens.”
Mok-hwa sprang to her feet.
“Good. You two get some rest. I’ll stand watch with Geon-woo.”
She checked her watch again.
“I’ll wake you in six hours.”
“Team leader, isn’t that a bit long?” Sae-byeok asked, worried.
The first six hours of sleep are when the body is heaviest and easiest to miss outside movement.
Mok-hwa only laughed.
“All three of us have genetic enhancements. We’ve got stamina to spare.
And I’m stronger than they are in this department. I can stay sharp for a day or two without sleep.”
“Me too…” Yeo-hong murmured.
“What was that? Talking behind my back?” Mok-hwa turned to him.
“No!”
“In front of you!” Geon-woo cut in.
Yeo-hong nearly choked, coughing hard. Mok-hwa waved a hand at Geon-woo.
“See, at times like this he looks perfectly normal. Alright, you two, off to bed.”
She aimed the last words at Sae-byeok and Yeo-hong.
Nothing happened that night.
When dawn broke and the sun edged over the horizon, painting the clouds in reddish gold, the four members of the rescue team sat around the ashes of the fire, sipping hot water and nibbling energy bars.
“It’s beautiful… magnificent,” Yeo-hong said, awed by the sight.
Before him stretched a landscape both grand and brimming with life.
For Yeo-hong and Geon-woo, it was their first sunrise on the surface, a moment that felt like a baptism of light, stirring indescribable beauty and hope.
“The first time I saw this, I was even more spellbound than you,” Mok-hwa agreed.
Sae-byeok watched the sunrise silently. Born and raised in the wilderness, she found it familiar—though it still brought a quiet thrill every time.
“Alright, let’s pack up and get ready to leave. Yeo-hong, ride in the back with Sae-byeok and grab more sleep. I’ll trade off driving with Geon-woo.”
“Yes, team leader!” Yeo-hong answered loudly, tearing his eyes from the sky.
He doused the campfire and noticed the empty can from last night’s meal lying about.
“Team leader, aren’t we collecting these?”
The underground base of Ban-go Bio was desperately short on mineral and metal resources. They often had to trade their own products—engineered food, genetic serum, biomedicine, salt from the brine wells and rock surfaces—for metal and minerals from larger powers.
Mok-hwa glanced at the can and fell silent a moment before replying,
“No need. Just takes up space.”
With that she climbed into the driver’s seat.
Suppressing the urge to retrieve the can, Yeo-hong slung his rifle and hurried back to the jeep.
The green-gray vehicle, plastered with solar chargers, rumbled to life and rolled away from the small ruin.
