Chapter 145 – Winter (2)
If winter in the south brought prosperity and pioneering, Jeju Island was experiencing winter in the dictionary definition.
In other words, an isolated area safe from the threat of infectious agents also meant no scalability.
It’s cold, there are few crops to harvest, fishing is difficult, and it’s just a miserable time.
However, the heat was hotter than summer.
An event is being held in downtown Jeju Island. The roar of the crowd, excited with anger and anticipation, overflows like waves. Their eyes gather in one place.
An adult man kneeling naked with his hands tied behind his back.
There is a piece of paper attached to his chest that says ‘accomplice’. Blood is flowing because it was inserted into raw flesh with a tape, not a tape.
Bang!
Blood spurted from his forehead. The fallen body was immediately removed by soldiers.
“Town! “Eup!”
Nearby, middle-aged and elderly people who were also restrained and made to kneel struggled.
The wide-open eyes moved from the corpse being carried away to the approaching man and to the pistol in the man’s hand.
But he can’t speak because he has duct tape over his mouth.
Each of them had a sign hanging around their neck that said ‘accomplice’ or ‘incompetent’.
“Comrades! We are commanded to stand against an enemy we cannot stand! Countless comrades were eaten alive and torn to death! “I fought at the risk of my life even in the midst of endless defeat to the south, south, and even further south!”
Bang!
Another person falls. He, like the one who died a while ago, is also written as an ‘accomplice’.
Those who were to be shot or scheduled to be shot were politicians, high-ranking officials, and generals.
“From Seoul to Busan to Jeju Island, there is no land that is not steeped in our blood! We believed it was to protect our country and people!”
Bang!
Another ‘accomplice’ is out.
“But it was all a lie!”
The surrounding crowd booed and cursed. There were also people spitting phlegm.
“Biological experiments conducted on its own citizens? A massacre to conceal information? Millions of citizens left behind and swallowed up by information control? That alone is an outrageous act, but these bastards made a backroom deal to escape to Japan and the United States!”
Nominally, the military was setting up a cordon, but they did not stand in front of each other, let alone confront each other. Soldiers and civilians held hands, linked shoulders, and stood side by side in solidarity.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The speaker’s blood pressure rose while he was talking, so he pulled the trigger one after another and sent them to the goal.
Wow!!!
Everyone was enthusiastic.
Bang! Slam!
The ball hit the empty compartment.
“We all couldn’t understand why things weren’t getting better after all this hard work. That’s natural. “We were not trying to survive, we were trying to be slaves!”
The gun muzzle, sending up gunpowder smoke, fell silent in front of the wrinkled forehead.
“Ugh! “Inhale!”
The owner of the forehead sobbed, tears and snot streaming down her face. He was Prime Minister. Now I should say that I am a former Prime Minister.
Political figures who have been seen face-to-face, bickering, or sharing drinks out of sight of cameras for anywhere from a few years to as long as 20 years. They are all dead and lying around.
“But not anymore.”
The speaker withdrew his pistol and waved it gently in front of his face.
“Not anymore.”
As the speaker took out a new magazine from his belt, the Prime Minister, who had been shedding tears, began to drip downwards as well.
“From now on, we will begin to truly survive.”
The empty magazine comes out, and a new magazine goes in.
“If you want to make new wine, you have to pour out everything that’s rotten and rotten.”
“Ugh! Ugh!!! Eupeup!!!”
The Prime Minister begged for his life as if he was convulsing as the muzzle of a gun was pointed at his forehead.
* * *
Bang!
The corpse of the Prime Minister fell sideways.
I don’t know much about politicians, but Artemis provided subtitles with information about the people who appear on the screen. Thanks to this, we were able to know the identities of those being executed in real time.
“If you knew, you’re an accomplice, but if you don’t know, you’re incompetent, something like that?”
[Referring to observational data, those who confessed during interrogation were found to be accomplices, and those who did not confess were found to be incompetent.]
I don’t know how many of them really didn’t know, but that doesn’t matter anymore.
Ta-ta-ta-ta-tang!
As the soldiers’ rifles opened fire, the ‘accomplices’ standing on the wall collapsed.
Bang! Bang!
Those who were still breathing and squirming had blood spurting out from their heads as they fired aimed shots.
The only ones left are those classified as ‘incompetent’.
[What should they do? Lock them up?]
An officer wearing a captain rank badge pointed to the ‘incompetent’.
[There’s no way you really didn’t know, right? If the guys who got kicked out first are trash, then those bastards are despicable trash.]
The speaker said.
[Kill!]
[Those bastards!]
[Kill them all!]
With the crowd’s booing, rocks, pieces of wood, and empty cans flew, staining the bound people with dirt, wounds, and blood.
The world is the world, so there wasn’t a single egg in sight that often appears in these situations.
[We are more sick of your lies than your viciousness.]
The speaker holding the microphone again pointed to the ‘incompetent’.
[You’ve been treating us like dogs and pigs all this time, right? Come on! I will give that pig and pig the death of being chewed alive. You will envy those who went first without suffering.]
The ‘incompetent’ people were picked up by the crowd and thrown like luggage into the back of a military truck.
Screams erupted as he was thrown onto the iron floor and thrown one on top of the other to become a human sandwich.
[Let’s go!]
The truck departed, and the broadcast vehicle followed behind it for filming.
In this situation, there are likely to be soldiers firing guns into the air, but everyone seems to have received training and keeps their finger off the trigger.
“Where are we going?”
[Tracing route.]
Artemis said.
The city screen, which showed trucks and crowds up close, has increased significantly.
The screen changed from a close-up drone to a gliding drone.
Buildings like toy blocks and smaller military vehicles speed through the deserted roads.
Whoop.
I took a sip of the steaming coffee. The bitter taste soaked his tongue and made his heart even colder.
A solid bluish line stretched out next to the moving vehicle, and at the end of it, latitude, longitude, and speed were displayed in real time.
The blue numbers on the dark central control room screen are cast over my face.
Several possible destinations appeared on the right side of the screen in a pop-up format.
As the vehicle moved, unlikely destinations were deleted one by one, and soon only one remained.
This is because there were not many facilities in normal operation among the expected locations.
[Confirmed.]
“Was feeding dogs and pigs real and not a metaphor?”
Jeju pig farming.
This was where the truck was heading. There were more pigs in that pig farm than expected. Because of the poor conditions, the weight is less on the right side.
Men holding butcher knives in their hands were waiting in line at the entrance, as if they had been notified in advance.
“Stop.”
The screen became smaller and became one of several segmented squares.
“Please report separately what happened later.”
[Okay.]
As the lights came on, the dark central control room became brighter.
A video showing the entire Jeju Island was displayed on the screen, and the approximate population, belligerence, leadership, and main characteristics of each force were briefly listed.
The place where the execution ceremony took place was the most powerful and the place where many administrative ministers, politicians, and military leaders belonged. In fact, it can be considered a government.
There is no president. Korea no longer implements a presidential system.
During the infection war, the president mutated into a walker, the helicopter carrying the acting president crashed, and the next president elected through an emergency election was sunk by a marine monster while heading to Jeju Island on a submarine.
Afterward, the political world declared a state of emergency and forcibly reorganized the country into a cabinet system.
“Now who is number one in the order of protocol?”
[It’s not accurate, so just keep this in mind. What has been confirmed so far is that he is 55th in the order of protocol, and the Chairman of the Financial Services Commission is 1st.]
A picture of a skinny old man appeared on the screen, but he escaped disaster because he was in another area.
Not all government members were gathered in one place due to their own circumstances and conflicts.
“55th place? A lot of people have died. Moreover, he is the Chairman of the Financial Services Commission?”
I couldn’t help but laugh. In today’s world, the most useless expert has become number one in the official government hierarchy.
[There are politicians, bureaucrats, and generals in other areas of influence in Jeju Island, but…]
“Now there will be no meaning or authority.”
Tok tok tok.
I organized my thoughts by tapping my index finger on the desk.
“What is the reaction in the South?”
[It’s lukewarm. There are places that haven’t received it yet, and most of them don’t care if you die or not. This is especially true because their influence is cut off from each other, and they also feel a lot of betrayal.]
They used the marine monster as an excuse to cut off support for supplies and troops, and stopped accepting additional refugees. In fact, this country has been cut into a tribal society.
There are places like the Yeosu garrison that maintain loyalty to the government and reporting lines, but that is only a weak link.
“Goheung will really like it.”
[I don’t like it that much. I already sent a statement of support saying I am passionately cheering for you.]
The screen has been expanded to the level of a satellite map to capture the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and Jeju Island on one screen.
This was taken by a low-orbit satellite that we are operating.
A solid line extends from the Goheung area, creating a square that represents an audio file.
[I respect you, comrades! We enthusiastically support your righteousness in punishing these corrupt politicians!]
Lee Man-cheol’s excited voice was played.
[We are with one heart and one mind…]
“Stop. Turn it off.”
Playback has stopped.
“I don’t want to hear that guy’s nonsense.”
[I didn’t want to play it either.]
I raised my coffee cup like a toast to the screen.
As I took a sip, the bitter taste washed away my unpleasant thoughts. Like green tea eaten with sushi.
[Jinsu, I have one more thing to report.]
“What is it?”
[The people who were sent to the pig farm earlier. You only asked me to tell you the results of their disposition, right?]
“Are the results already out?”
[Yes.]
There were quite a few people, but I thought they had just killed them all.
[Several parts were cut off and thrown alive into a pig pen.]
“Did you cut it into pieces?”
[No, that would have taken more time. Only the tendons and certain parts were slightly cut.]
I was speechless.
“It must be terrible.”
Pigs are livestock that remain wild. He is omnivorous and has a large appetite, and is even starving right now.
How long will it take before he sinks his fangs into a bunch of human bellies that are just bleeding and writhing beneath him?
[I didn’t even use my hands to get the people out of the vehicle. I pulled it out with a pitchfork.
Winter has arrived. The world is becoming barbaric in earnest.
“Anyway, I never thought I’d see something in Korea that third-world rebels would do.”
How cruel can one go in the era of apocalypse? It seems that I underestimated Korean people in this regard.
[Strictly speaking, it is closer to being overwhelmed by the charisma and brutality of the rebel leaders.]
As the situation outside is changing rapidly, we cannot just sit back and watch. It’s time to move again.
We have technology to acquire, and the time to obtain it is limited.
“I have to prepare for the final expedition.”
I put down my finished coffee cup and clenched my fist. A force that could tear steel to pieces flows through the muscles.
“Assemble the troops.”
