Chapter 28
Baek Rak, who had found Rang, pushed aside the iron door and examined the inside. At that moment, something flew from inside.
“Get away!”
Baek Rak grabbed the object flying toward his face and said, “Yu Sol, it’s me.”
“Baek… Baek Rak?”
“Yeah. Are you okay?”
Yu Sol, who had been extremely tense thinking it was a creature, felt great relief upon meeting Baek Rak. Then she was immediately startled and said urgently, “Baek Rak! Something terrible happened! Yoon, Yoon Seo Won… Poong-i…!”
Her voice, full of moisture, was trembling finely.
Even in the midst of being distracted by pain, Yu Sol knew that Seo Won and Poong-i had tried to protect her by using themselves as bait. So she gritted her teeth and tried to regain her senses.
When she barely managed to sit up, other creatures unfortunately came rushing to break down the warehouse door. She hurriedly covered the pups with a blanket to hide their sounds, but once caught by creatures, escape was impossible. She even thought it might be the last time.
When she was staring at the shaking entrance with a pallid face, she heard Yoon Seo Won’s voice. His urgent voice calling the creatures to come to him.
At that moment, how much she wanted to cry.
He was just an outsider, yet he said he would go find Rang and the pups, and after risking his life once, he tried to save her again. Her insides churned like crazy.
After the creatures chased Yoon Seo Won, it had been continuously noisy outside, but when it became quiet, her heart sank with a thud. She was going crazy with worry about Yoon Seo Won and Poong-i who had followed him.
Rang also tried to go outside, so she tried to hold her back, but miraculously Baek Rak appeared. The tension was instantly released and she almost burst into tears. She suppressed the sobbing that rose to her chin and begged him to save Yoon Seo Won and Poong-i.
But suddenly someone came bursting into the warehouse. She was startled thinking it was a creature, then held her breath seeing a familiar silhouette.
“Sol, I’m here.”
It was Yoon Seo Won. He had returned with Baek Rak. Poong-i whimpering and Seo Won bleeding from scratches all over were right before her eyes.
“Poong-i is okay too. He’s hurt a little… but he’ll shake it off and get up soon.”
Doesn’t he realize he’s injured too? Seeing him only worry about Poong-i, Yu Sol swallowed something welling up and shouted, “Aren’t you an idiot? Why are you so reckless!”
Seo Won, who had come in to comfort Yu Sol, flinched. It was fortunate she was more spirited than he had worried about… but to get scolded the moment they met.
“Uh… sorry, I’m sorry.”
“Does saying sorry fix everything?!”
Seo Won, who didn’t know how to comfort an angry girl, quietly averted his gaze. Then his eyes met Baek Rak’s. When he desperately sent looks asking him to do something about Yu Sol, Baek Rak’s eyes narrowed.
He stayed silent for a while, then turned his head to the fuming Yu Sol.
“It looks like you hurt your back, so stop exerting yourself. You’ll tear the wound open.”
“Ugh! So frustrating, really!”
Seo Won secretly petted Poong-i while rolling his eyes. If he said something like ‘Didn’t it work out anyway?’, it probably wouldn’t end with just getting scolded by Yu Sol. Even he thought it was reckless.
“Do that again! Next time I’ll really…!”
Watching Yu Sol scold him to the end while waving both arms, Seo Won urgently nodded.
“I understand, so please calm down. You’re bleeding too much…”
“Ow… it hurts.”
Perhaps her strength was exhausted, Yu Sol collapsed sideways. Fortunately, Baek Rak carefully caught her and lifted Yu Sol up. Seeing how much blood had pooled on her side, he thought she had held out remarkably well.
Seo Won wrapped the whimpering, crying pups well in a blanket and carried them on his back. Poong-i was already being held in his arms.
“Follow me.”
When Seo Won finished preparing, Baek Rak immediately moved.
When they came out of the warehouse, creature cries and bombing sounds could be heard in the distance. Since making eye contact with red eyes would call the creatures over, he deliberately didn’t look even once. One mistake was enough.
Moving his feet quickly while following Baek Rak, Seo Won lifted his head at a sudden thought.
He had definitely left all the lights on, but when had they all gone out—the surroundings were completely black. It wasn’t that he couldn’t see, but it was unavoidably disappointing. Occasionally hearing sounds of things collapsing and breaking, it seemed everything on the barrier had been destroyed.
The continued sound of exploding bombs was somewhat comforting. That sound meant people were well evacuated.
Seo Won looked at Rang walking beside him while suppressing the belated stinging pain.
It was a bit difficult, but he had saved Rang and the pups. Yu Sol and Poong-i had also survived without dying. For now, that alone was somewhat reassuring. He had protected everything without giving up anything.
Seo Won carefully extended his hand in front of Rang’s face. It was still awkward for both of them to touch without hesitation. Rang had to open her heart first before he could approach.
While waiting like that, he felt soft fur on his palm. Looking at Rang, she was rubbing her face against his hand first.
Seo Won gently petted Rang’s head.
His steps became a little lighter.
“Huff, huff.”
“Yoon Seo Won, run!”
Baek Rak and Seo Won, who had been heading to another bunker, were eventually discovered by creatures and being chased. Yu Sol’s condition was serious, so they had to head to a bunker where she could be treated, but unfortunately it was close to the barrier.
Seo Won ran like crazy and looked back. If it had been a manageable number like before, Baek Rak would have stepped forward, but now just running away was the answer.
From what he could see alone, there were easily a hundred. No, since he didn’t know how many more were chasing behind the ones visible in front, it could be hundreds or thousands. It seemed like all the creatures that had been attached to the barrier had come rushing over.
At the distance with the creatures closing in moment by moment, Seo Won regained his focus and ran hard.
Turning right around the department store building, a narrow alley came into view. Seo Won quickly entered it following Baek Rak. However, what was waiting ahead wasn’t a bunker entrance or a shortcut to another path.
Seo Won’s face turned pale.
“What, what is this?”
The end of the alley was completely blocked by a wall as high as the department store.
“Hey, Baek Rak? This is a dead end.”
While calling him in panic, he felt the presence of creatures from behind. Seo Won looked back and forth between the creatures entering the alley and Baek Rak’s back and shouted, “Hey, hey! Baek Rak! They’re already here!”
“I know.”
“Why did you come this way?”
Baek Rak looked at the creatures’ position, then picked up Rang who was running beside him and threw her to Seo Won. Seeing Rang flying toward him, Seo Won was horrified.
“Waah! Hey! Are you crazy?”
“Catch her well.”
He barely managed to catch Rang on top of Poong-i, whom he was already holding. His heart was pounding in a different sense. Why throw a perfectly running dog? What if I hadn’t caught her! I’m already holding Poong-i, so why on earth…!
Then suddenly Baek Rak approached. He was startled and hesitated, but before he could recognize anything, his body shot up into the sky.
Baek Rak, holding Yu Sol in his right arm and Seo Won in his left arm, was climbing up stepping on the department store’s exterior wall. Seo Won stared blankly at Baek Rak who was firmly embracing his waist, then sighed in relief.
‘Wow, really. He could have given me a heads up—I thought my heart was going to fall out.’
Looking at Rang, surprisingly she was staying quietly in his arms. Even though she was panting from being out of breath, she didn’t seem surprised. It seemed like either she had received training beforehand or had played like this before.
After all, just looking at Poong-i, he seemed accustomed to dealing with creatures.
Not only people but animals were also doing their part in this place. Somehow it felt like he was finally getting a glimpse of their daily life. He remembered hearing that even ordinary people who weren’t hunters went outside the shelter.
‘They’re really living intensely.’
Seo Won tightly embraced Poong-i and Rang.
When he lifted his head to survey the situation again, they had already exited the alley and were entering a building next to the department store. When Yu Sol had explained to him at the time, she said this place was off-limits except for authorized personnel. It was a place that even Yu Sol, who was a hunter, had introduced as somewhere she had never entered.
The lobby was completely disheveled as if creatures had swept through once. However, Baek Rak familiarly headed somewhere and stopped in front of a bent corridor.
Sounds of things breaking and falling could be heard from beyond the corridor. Seo Won swallowed his saliva and asked Baek Rak, “…Creatures?”
“No, turncoats.”
“Turncoats? Those guys are here too? If it’s creatures, there are plenty outside, so why are they inside the building?”
When he whispered as quietly as possible, Baek Rak stared at him as if looking at a strange person. Why? When he was puzzled by that reaction, the guy seemed to realize something and let out a hollow laugh.
“Turncoats don’t eat living creatures.”
“Huh?”
“It means to them, ‘prey to be hunted’ is only humans. Even if creature corpses are right in front of them, if there are humans around, they unconditionally look for humans first.”
“…Why?”
“Why? You should know too.”
Seo Won recalled the image of turncoats clearly etched in his eyes. Black skin, torn mouth, red eyes.
They were human in the past and still maintained human form, but they were creatures. Creatures that recognized humans as prey.
“Creatures and turncoats recognize each other as similar beings. So they don’t attack or fight each other.”
“…Similar beings.”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
