Episode 16
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16. Underground Cave (1)
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*Thud-thud-thud-thud...*
Somewhere in the East Sea, aboard a training control ship anchored not far from Bijeokdo Island. As the helicopter settled onto the deck, the waiting medical team rushed forward.
What they pulled out on the stretchers was Team 6, which had been evacuated. There were almost no wounds inflicted by Bloodgills, but the exhaustion and dehydration from the intense battle, and above all, the injuries caused by the missile explosion at close range, were severe. The deck quickly became chaotic with the shouting of the medical staff.
"Bring another Mosquito!"
"Administer Ativan!"
However, not everyone welcomed them with open arms.
"Are you f***ing kidding me right now!"
*BANG!*
An enraged Baek Jeong-ju slammed his fist against the helicopter wall. He hit it so hard that the helicopter tilted to one side.
"...Personnel Officer."
"Pl... Platoon Leader Jo Yeong-hwan!"
A terrified Jo Yeong-hwan, still on the stretcher, hunched his shoulders. Personnel Officer was Jo Yeong-hwan's original position. While he had acted with authority in front of the trainees, he wasn't actually a training instructor at all. He was personnel hastily brought in because there were unexpectedly many trainees who had survived until the fourth week.
"You're a commander, and you don't even know the status of your own team members? Are you out of your mind?"
"I... I'm sorry..."
"Is being sorry to me the problem here!"
*BANG!*
Baek Jeong-ju roared again.
No. 97 and No. 88 were dead. Jo Yeong-hwan knew that much. He had seen them dragged away by the Bloodgills and killed.
The problem was No. 2, Yoon Ye-eun, and No. 78, Lee Do-hyeon. They had clearly seemed alive until the very end, but for some reason, they hadn't made it onto the helicopter. What could have happened?
"I saw it."
Just then, someone raised a hand. It was No. 11, Kim Dong-hyeon.
"No. 2 tripped. No. 78 stopped to try and help her up... and both of them were grabbed by the Bloodgills and fell."
Baek Jeong-ju snapped his gaze toward No. 11.
"Are you sure?"
His eyes were like those of a predator about to tear someone apart alive. Kim Dong-hyeon mustered all his strength not to look away.
"Yes. I saw it clearly."
"...Pathetic bastards."
Baek Jeong-ju seemed to believe him. *Good, that's it.* Kim Dong-hyeon managed to calm his pounding heart so it wouldn't show. *This is enough. I won't get caught.*
But Kim Dong-hyeon's expectations were brutally dashed.
"...As soon as reinforcements arrive, we go back in. We are going to find these pathetic bastards."
Baek Jeong-ju bellowed with a voice like cold fire.
"Even if it's just their corpses, or even a single scrap of their uniforms!"
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* * *
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At the same moment, Jae-hak suddenly opened his eyes. *Drip, drip...* Water, about a palm's depth, lapped at his ears. It was dark. There was a disgusting smell.
*Where am I?* Along with the question, memories flooded in. Fragments of memory, abstract and disjointed.
The village community center. Bloodgills. The helicopter. The collapsing floor.
*Kim Dong-hyeon, that son of a b*tch...*
"Ah...?"
But the moment he tried to rise in a fit of rage, a stream of blood burst from Jae-hak's chest. In agonizing pain, he looked down to see a thin piece of rebar protruding from his chest. It had pierced him through, soaked in red blood.
"..."
The pain began with the realization. He tensed his shoulders and his breath grew shallow. The area around the wound was swollen and blue, showing signs of infection. A wound that would have killed him instantly if he weren't a Regeneration-type Awakened...
Jae-hak bit down hard on the sleeve of his uniform. After a few desperate, deep breaths, he grabbed the rebar with his other hand and pulled it out with all his might.
"————!!"
A scream escaped through his teeth and scattered into the darkness. With trembling hands, Jae-hak fumbled for his left thigh. Digging through his medical pack, he found the refill ampoule he had been issued. He bit the cap off with his teeth and stabbed it into his thigh.
*Creak, creak...* Flesh began to fill the hole in his chest. The pain that felt like death gradually melted away into a blur. But through that hole, he saw something white inside his pocket.
"...?"
Jae-hak reached in and pulled it out. A white cone, broken into several pieces by the impact of the fall. *Ah, the Human-Faced Spider's stinger.* He had meant to report it and turn it in, but he must have shoved it into his pocket while grabbing his gun in the pit and forgotten about it.
Jae-hak caught his breath for a moment and pulled himself up. *Splash.* The area was filled with water. It was up to his ankles. A mess of wood fragments, stones, and Bloodgill carcasses floated around him.
"..."
But in that darkness, he saw a familiar uniform. It was lying face down in the water, motionless.
Jae-hak tossed the rebar aside and carefully approached to flip the corpse over. Not just the face, but the entire body was torn and mangled, making it hard to recognize. However, the number '88' left on the chest told him who she had been in life.
A fellow trainee who had died while running toward the restroom after the defense of the community center failed.
Jae-hak looked down at the corpse of his comrade, who didn't even have eyes left to close, with a heavy heart. Then, something crossed his mind.
"Maybe..."
Jae-hak began to poke around the water near the corpse with his foot. Stone. Concrete. Stone again. And then, heavy metal caught his toe.
*It's here.*
Jae-hak retrieved her gun from the water. The trainees had used up all their bullets during the final battle in the restroom. But in the magazine of the one who died before that, perhaps...
"...Two, three, four."
There were four silver bullets left. *I'll put them to good use,* Jae-hak thought, offering a silent word of gratitude to No. 88 as he tucked the silver bullets away. Finally, he reached into her collar and tore off her dog tag.
"Excuse me...?"
It was then that a faint voice was heard from somewhere.
"Please... save me..."
Jae-hak hurriedly stood up. He fumbled toward the sound and grabbed a leg. When he pulled it, it was the carcass of a Bloodgill with its tongue lolling out. It seemed to have fallen along with them when the floor collapsed.
"I'm... underneath..."
The owner of the voice was revealed only after Jae-hak cleared away a few more Bloodgill carcasses. It was indeed Trainee No. 2, who had fallen and been buried under the pile of corpses. But one of her legs looked strange. Through the torn uniform... there was a wound so deep the white bone was visible.
"Your leg..."
Jae-hak swallowed hard, speechless at the horrific sight. Perhaps misinterpreting his gaze, Trainee No. 2 hurriedly waved her hand.
"I can walk. I can walk..."
It was a lie, plain for anyone to see. There was no way she could walk with a leg like that. Dried tears streaked her eyes.
"Please... don't leave me alone..."
Jae-hak looked up with a hardened face, saying nothing. The hole they had fallen through. That distant light. And then, the fundamental question again. *Where is this?* Judging by the shape of the floor and walls, it wasn't a man-made facility. If so, was it a cave?
An underground cave running beneath the village, or perhaps across the entire island... The puzzle pieces finally began to fit together. Where all those Bloodgills had come from. Why the Navy hadn't been able to find and kill them all.
So... this was a monster den.
He couldn't stay here. But could he escape a monster den with someone who couldn't walk?
Jae-hak bit his lip. It wasn't a question of whether he could. He had to.
"..."
Jae-hak steeled his resolve and handed his gun to Trainee No. 2. She, who had been sobbing, looked at it with a puzzled expression.
"What... why...?"
"Even if you can't walk... you can shoot, right?"
Jae-hak said that and turned around, lowering his stance.
"Get on my back."
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* * *
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*Gaa-ek, gaa-ek...*
A Bloodgill on the other side of the cave stumbled. It kept losing its balance and falling. That was to be expected. Its entire right side had been charred black and shriveled.
*Splosh...*
After struggling like that for a long time, the Bloodgill finally collapsed completely. Its chest heaved a few more times, then it stopped moving.
*Tap, tap.*
Trainee No. 2, who had been scouting the situation from atop a rock, gave the signal. Jae-hak slowly put strength into his legs and stood up. Then, he carefully circled around the carcass and continued walking deeper into the cave.
Jae-hak was carrying Trainee No. 2 on his back, and she was aiming the gun over his shoulder—an inefficient posture.
"...Everything's in bad shape."
"I know."
Trainee No. 2 whispered into Jae-hak's ear. Every Bloodgill they had encountered while following the cave for quite some time now had been in that state. Either a corpse, or five minutes away from being one. Well, considering they had been bombarded with everything from bullets to missiles, it would be stranger if there were many healthy Bloodgills left...
*Splash, splash.* Their footsteps left faint echoes in the cave. How long had they been walking? A few minutes? A few hours? Or had only a few seconds passed? His sense of time had long since been paralyzed. His body was heavy... and his mind was slowly wearing thin. The only hope that a passage leading to the surface would appear if they kept going was what drove their weary footsteps forward.
It was fortunate, at least, that they hadn't had to fight any Bloodgills yet.
"Ugh..."
The problem lay elsewhere.
"Are you okay?"
"Yes..."
"Rest your face against my neck."
"..."
She was hot. Her whole body was a ball of fire. The wound on her leg had started to get infected. He had managed to stop the bleeding by pouring on coagulant, but he couldn't do anything about the inflammation in this filthy cave.
Her fever must have risen so high that her vision was blurring...
"I'm thirsty..."
Trainee No. 2 muttered in a weak voice.
"We drank all the water earlier, so there's none left. Just hold on a little longer."
"I want a cola... something cold..."
Her voice grew faint and low. Like the last breath of air escaping a balloon.
"Don't fall asleep."
Jae-hak said urgently. He had to keep her talking.
"Your name. What's your name?"
"Yes...?"
"What's your name?"
There was a reaction.
"You don't know my name...?"
"No."
"We were sitting next to each other in the pit the whole time..."
*Ah.* Jae-hak searched his memory at those words. The trainee who had been crying while pulling the trigger on a Human-Faced Spider in the third week. That must have been her.
"Yoon..."
"I'm disappointed... It's Yoon Ye-eun."
"I'm sorry. I'm Seong Jae-hak."
*Seong...?* Yoon Ye-eun rolled the name around in her mouth a few times.
"Weren't you... Lee Do-hyeon?"
*Oh no,* Jae-hak flinched. His physical exhaustion had caused his attention to slip for a moment.
"...Ah, no. I'm Lee Do-hyeon. I got confused."
"You're confused about your own name...?"
Yoon Ye-eun tilted her head for a moment, then laughed *hehehe* as if she understood.
"It's a fake name, isn't it?"
Jae-hak thought for a moment about what to do, then simply gave up.
“……Yes. I have my reasons.”
“What kind of reasons…… Are you the son of some conglomerate family, Mr. Do-hyeon? Like, you want to be judged by your ability rather than your background…… is that it?”
“It’s not like that.”
“What a shame,” Yoon Ye-eun said. “If you were the son of a conglomerate family…… everyone would have come to rescue us by now…….”
“……They will come to rescue us.”
That was a claim even Jae-hak couldn’t be sure of. Would the Internal Front Command really come to save them? The National Intelligence Service? Even if they did come, could they hold out until then?
This dark cave. How much longer could he endure this endless darkness, where only the sound of water under his feet echoed? He couldn’t even guarantee their survival if just one pack of Bloodgills appeared right now.
“……Mr. Do-hyeon.”
Yoon Ye-eun said in a frail voice.
“Why…… why don’t you just leave me behind and go……?”
“You were the one asking me to save you just a moment ago.”
Jae-hak replied deliberately bluntly. It seemed like Yoon Ye-eun smiled a little.
“We can’t keep going like this…….”
“…….”
“You know it,” Yoon Ye-eun said. Jae-hak couldn’t answer readily. Although he was trying his best to act like nothing was wrong, carrying a person through a treacherous cave—especially one with water pooling on the ground—was grueling labor. Even more so right after a fierce battle.
Sweat was already pouring down Jae-hak’s forehead like rain.
“You fight well, Mr. Do-hyeon. I know…… I kept watching from the sidelines. If it weren’t for me…….”
“Don’t say things like that.”
“If it weren’t for me, you could live……” Yoon Ye-eun finally sobbed. Overcome by high fever and guilt, she wept. Tears that had flowed down her cheeks pooled at the tip of her chin before falling, one by one, onto Jae-hak’s neck.
“……Ms. Ye-eun.”
“…….”
“Ms. Ye-eun.”
“……Yes…….”
What should he say? Jae-hak thought for a moment. Should he comfort her? With a lie? Should he tell her it would be okay, that it wasn’t her fault?
“I don’t sleep well at night.”
Jae-hak opened his mouth quietly.
“When I lie down to sleep, I hear voices. I hear someone crying sadly…… It sounds like they’re resenting me, blaming me, weeping with such sorrow.”
This was the first time he had told this to anyone. It was a secret of Jae-hak’s own, one he hadn’t even hidden from the people at the National Intelligence Service.
“Who…… who is resenting you, Mr. Do-hyeon?”
“People who died without cause.”
He swallowed the words, *because of me.*
“Ms. Ye-eun. If you don’t mind me asking, what is your family situation?”
“……Mom, Dad…… and a younger sibling…….”
“If I leave you here, they will be very sad.”
At the mention of her family, Yoon Ye-eun trembled slightly. Was she holding back her tears?
“Ms. Ye-eun, if you were left alone in this dark place, you would be very scared, heartbroken…… and sad, wouldn’t you?”
“…….”
“I don’t want to see it. Never again. The sight of innocent people crying.”
Jae-hak said calmly.
“……So, please don’t tell me to leave you behind. I’m asking you.”
With that, Jae-hak fell silent. Yoon Ye-eun, too, remained quiet, just clinging to his back. The one carrying and the one being carried walked through the darkness like that for a long time.
How long had they walked?
*Splash.*
The winding cave widened, and a large space opened up. It was wide enough to be called an open field. Or rather, since water was pooled there, it felt more like a very shallow underground lake.
But it wasn’t the lake itself that caught Jae-hak’s eye. It was a strange object that had been lowered into the middle of the lake.
‘A ladder……?’
Jae-hak crossed the lake and approached the ladder. The shape, the material. The height that didn’t quite reach the ground. There was no doubt. It was a ladder made by humans.
‘Why is something like this in a monster den……?’
“Ms. Ye-eun. Could you look up? See where this leads.”
“Yes. Ah…… it looks like light is coming in, but…… it’s faint, like it’s blocked by something…….”
A ladder. Light. The surface. An exit.
Escape……?
*Creak.*
At that moment, something was crushed under Jae-hak’s foot, which he had positioned to give Yoon Ye-eun a better angle to look up.
*Crunch.*
There was more of the same where he stepped to avoid it. It was hard. It had a…… disturbing texture.
Jae-hak looked down in annoyance. And then, he froze.
“Mr. Do-hyeon…….”
Above him, Yoon Ye-eun gasped. As the ripples caused by his footsteps settled, the things submerged at the bottom of the lake became clearly visible.
What was spread out under the water around the ladder…… were human skulls.
“Ah…….”
Was it a food storage? No…… if that were the case, there would be no reason for a ladder to be there. Unless the Bloodgills had suddenly mastered metallurgy, the iron ladder belonged to humans.
Then why were human bones beneath a human ladder?
“That……”
Yoon Ye-eun pointed at something. As Jae-hak slowly bent his knees, she reached into the water and pulled something out. Though it had rotted to a yellowish hue, it was clearly……
“It looks like…… a rope.”
But the shape was strange. For one, the color was somewhat reddish, and brass-like objects were threaded through it at intervals. No matter how he looked at it, it wasn’t for any conventional use.
“…….”
Human bones. A rope. Tied. Had they tied people up and brought them here? To a monster den? Why?
Something flashed through Jae-hak’s mind. The rambling words of Second Lieutenant Jo Yeong-hwan while they were fighting at the community center.
Normally, marine types don’t attack humans. They eat fish…… so why was this island attacked? What was different? Was there an easier prey than fish?
One by one, the pieces began to connect. The strange-looking totem pole standing at the entrance of the village. The underground cave connected to the basement of the community center. The Bloodgills in the egg sac that didn’t immediately shriek upon seeing humans.
And here, the human thrown away, tied with a bizarre rope.
“……A sacrifice.”
Jae-hak finally muttered.
“This island was worshipping the monsters.”
A moment of silence. Yoon Ye-eun asked back a beat late, as if she doubted her own ears.
“What……?”
“That’s why they threw people to them. Right through this hole.”
Yoon Ye-eun let out a hollow laugh. It was the kind of laughter that denies reality when faced with a situation beyond common sense.
“No…… why…… that can’t be. Why would they do such a thing…….”
“They said fishing boats often went missing in these waters. I thought it was strange. Even if the Bloodgills killed people…… could they sink a ship?”
“Th-then……?”
“The islanders threw outsiders to the monsters. The ladder is the same. Why would they need to build a ladder all the way here? Because they couldn’t just toss them down from above. Because Bloodgills don’t eat dead prey…….”
Jae-hak continued quickly. His hypothesis was growing in size, devouring evidence like a ravenous anglerfish.
“That Bloodgill we met at the beginning, the one guarding the egg sac. It didn’t attack us immediately even though we entered the egg sac hall. Instead, it watched us. Why? Because it was used to humans. It didn’t know if we would feed it like the islanders, or attack it like the navy.”
*Kee-kik.*
“No…… even so, how could an island of only 200 people supply enough people to feed a pack of Bloodgills…….”
“They probably didn’t live on humans alone. But they wouldn’t have had a reason to refuse free food. They kept getting a taste for human flesh like that, and then one day…….”
*Kee-kree-kik.*
Jae-hak stopped talking and closed his eyes due to a sudden headache. His forehead throbbed. *What am I doing right now?* It was a leap in logic bordering on a stretch. Honestly, Jae-hak, who was nearly exhausted, couldn’t be considered in his right mind either. He might just be spouting nonsense.
Regardless, escaping was the priority right now.
“What is it? Why are you doing that…… it’s scary…….”
“It’s nothing. Let’s go. Do you think you can climb the ladder?”
Jae-hak carefully lifted Yoon Ye-eun onto the ladder. She gripped the rungs with both hands. She couldn’t use one of her legs, but since she was an Awakened…… she would be able to climb somehow.
That was when it happened.
*Kee-kree-kree-kik…….!*
A strange sound rang out from behind. A chilling sound that made every single vertebra in his spine stand on end.
Only then did Jae-hak realize the true nature of the sense of unease that had been dominating him. He should have realized it was strange.
A sacrifice. There were no sacrifices or ladders in the basement of the community center, which had a similar structure. Then why here? Why were the sacrifices thrown only here?
What on earth was here?
“Mr. Do-hyeon…… behind you…….”
Jae-hak slowly turned around.
The thing was standing there. The same red gills. The blue body. The yellow eyes. But it was huge. Two meters…… no, even bigger. Its lower abdomen was disgustingly swollen like an insect’s. What was inside that? Jae-hak knew the answer instinctively.
Eggs.
And this was the existence that always existed in any group of egg-laying monster species.
*Kee-kree-kree-kree-kik…….!*
The Bloodgill Queen bared her teeth.
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