SOG Ch 167

-I’m about to send out a bait through the main broadcast soon. When are you coming?

“I’ll be there later,” the red-haired man replied curtly to Lee Yundo before ending the radio transmission.

It was now the last remaining autopsy room. Humming a tune, he grabbed the door handle. He had a good feeling somehow. But when he flung open the door, only an empty autopsy table and chilly air greeted him.

Damn it, where the hell did that pregnant woman go? Did she float up to the sky or sink into the ground?

The pregnant woman he had his eye on since the multi-vehicle collision scene was nowhere to be found. The red-haired man kicked at a portable heater on the floor that had gone completely cold. A loud clattering sound shook the eerie autopsy room.

The drug storage room was also devoid of any human presence. Only bottles of toxic chemicals neatly arranged on shelves gleamed with a dull luster. Should he go up to the second floor? As he kicked the storage room door so hard that the handle hit the wall, he suddenly realized there was one place he hadn’t checked.

The morgue.

He passed the autopsy table and grabbed the handle of the innermost door. Ignoring the chill creeping up his palm, he slowly pushed the door open.

Though he had only opened it a little, he felt a heavy weight pushing back. Things inside were trying to spill out, so he peered inside through the narrow gap.

The first things he encountered were gray faces. In the darkness where the lights had gone out, those damn faces grinning grotesquely enough to make anyone swear.

“Goddammit…”

The red-haired man craned his neck to peek further inside, but it was like any other morgue. The volume of bodies packed tightly was pushing against the door, and the stench of decay was terrible. Not wanting to touch anything, he closed the door.

As he was about to leave, he suddenly turned towards the supply closet. He grabbed two heavy jerry cans he had noticed earlier among the toxic chemicals, one in each hand, and left the autopsy room.

Meanwhile, deep inside the closed morgue…

In a space barely larger than a square meter excluding the autopsy tables, four people were holding their breath beyond the mass of corpses. Due to the cramped space, two people were barely squeezed into the bottom shelf of a two-tiered autopsy table like a bunk bed, while the other two were wedged into gaps between the corpses, enduring this horrific time.

Wearing a blindfold and mask, Jung Hana lay flat on the autopsy table, recalling what had happened 30 minutes ago. After Guide Seon Jae-chan and Esper Chae Seong-hwan left, a division occurred among those remaining in the autopsy room. It was because of the gun Guide Seon Jae-chan had left behind.

“Give me the gun,” Gyeong Hye-in had said to Gu Ji-young.

“How are you going to shoot with one hand? Besides, I received shooting training this summer. When’s the last time you fired a gun?”

Gyeong Hye-in argued that she should take the gun instead of Esper Gu Ji-young whose arm was injured, since she had received shooting training. But ultimately it was agreed by a 3-to-1 majority vote that Esper Gu Ji-young would keep it.

Even so, Gyeong Hye-in couldn’t accept the result. Her attitude of pointedly not taking her eyes off the gun spread a faint sense of unease among the four people.

“If you’re all okay with it, I’d like to secure a space to hide in case of emergency,” Park Yu-ram suggested. The place she pointed to was the morgue.

“You want us to do that?” Gyeong Hye-in objected again, but Park Yu-ram calmly explained:

“Of course, we might be safely rescued if we just stay here doing nothing. Or we might die pathetically among corpses despite all our efforts. But if we die without doing anything, how regretful would that be?”

Park Yu-ram’s words had quite a persuasive effect on the four people who had been driven to the brink of death repeatedly throughout the day. Even Gyeong Hye-in silently agreed, and Gu Ji-young gathered up the gun and tended to Jung Hana while dragging her injured arm.

The horror presented by the corpses was somewhat diluted by the terrible desecration of people’s lives and the situation of having to use that terribleness as a shield to hide.

They worked together to devise ways to hide among the bodies, utilizing stretchers, partitions from the autopsy room, and empty shelves in the morgue.

They set up partitions to keep the bodies from spilling out, and Jung Hana and Park Yu-ram lay down under an empty autopsy table. Gu Ji-young and Gyeong Hye-in agreed to hide among the corpses. After moving to the farthest corner, they closed the door and folded the partition inside. Though they were drenched in sweat from having to squeeze between the heavy, stiff corpses to move Jung Hana in, they were able to hide quite seamlessly.

However, they had to consider one more step because of Jung Hana.

“We can’t show such a terrible sight to the expectant mother.”

Ignoring Gyeong Hye-in’s complaints, Park Yu-ram gathered various items: masks, coffee mix to block the smell of death, earphones, blankets, etc. The meaning was for the baby to only smell good things and hear good things until it was born.

“Cover her eyes too.”

She even put the mask over Jung Hana’s eyes. Jung Hana was suddenly all wrapped up like a package.

And so, until now, Jung Hana had been smelling only sweet fragrances and listening only to girl group music full of dreams and hope in the darkness. She was barely enduring real contractions, not the false labor pains she had been suffering from earlier while sweating profusely. All without knowing that a terrorist had come looking, or that the morgue door had been opened.

The cheerful voices of the girl group Jung Hana had been listening to stopped a little while after the terrorist left.

“Don’t be alarmed,” Gu Ji-young whispered softly in the darkness as she removed Jung Hana’s earphones.

“We’re going to move.”

“Why?” Jung Hana asked, clutching her stomach, from behind her blindfold. That was all she could say. Thanks to the considerate treatment, everything in front of her was still peaceful darkness, and only the scent of coffee filled the surroundings.

“…There’s a fire,” Gu Ji-young whispered. Jung Hana’s breathing quickened. “It’s okay,” Gu Ji-young reassured her calmly several times, but her accelerated heartbeat wouldn’t settle.

Meanwhile, Gyeong Hye-in, who was carefully checking outside through the gaps between the corpses, swallowed a curse. Whatever the bastard terrorist had done, uncontrollable flames were spreading throughout the autopsy room, which was soaked in oil.

*

“Why isn’t that Hyun-soo bastard back yet?”

The red-haired man hadn’t returned. Lee Yundo anxiously checked his radio. At that moment, a transmission arrived from elsewhere first. It was from colleagues who had gone ahead to the nuclear power plant.

-Additional activation complete.

This meant that the windless zone had now expanded all the way to the nuclear power plant. The smoke that had been billowing over the plant would have disappeared as if it were a lie. Both the fog that had persisted all morning and the nuclear plant fire were the results of this ability.

With the formation of the windless zone, all illusions would have ceased now. It was a precaution taken in case the Espers managed to infiltrate as far as the escape route.

‘They shouldn’t be chasing us in the first place.’

Lee Yundo shuddered, bringing his shoulder close to his ear. He felt goosebumps rising as he recalled Go Woo-jin, who had displayed inhuman power as if nullifying abilities were useless.

It was then, as he was looking back at Woo-jin’s pair Guide, who was said to be particularly close to him. Lee Yundo’s drooping eyes shot up. Seon Eun-soo, who had once again stuck to the hostage like glue, was repeatedly hitting him on the head.

“Stop that already.”

While restraining the crazy bastard, Lee Yundo anxiously examined the Guide whose cheeks were severely swollen and bruised. The Guide, who had just been kicked, coughed painfully, his clothes a mess of dust with footprints now added.

Coincidentally, Go Woo-jin’s pair Guide was the crazy bastard’s younger brother and someone Lee Yundo himself had kidnapped before.

Guide Seon Jae-chan, who had been hiding somewhere, appeared in front of the waste disposal room as Seon Eun-soo had demanded. As soon as his younger brother appeared, Seon Eun-soo immediately pounced on him. He started slapping both cheeks with loud smacks, looking truly insane. What reason could there be to treat one’s own brother like an enemy?

In fact, Lee Yundo had also harbored resentment towards Go Woo-jin’s pair Guide regarding the Universal incident. The thought of losing hundreds of millions of won for failing to find the Snow Leopard’s hideout would make him jump out of bed at night in frustration.

However, seeing him suffer at the hands of Seon Eun-soo made that resentment subside momentarily. Of course, this was only possible because the fact that Seon Jae-chan had been wearing a tracking device on his body was completely unknown, thanks to the thorough confidentiality of those involved.

“Why is your body so hot?”

Meanwhile, Seon Eun-soo’s eccentric behavior continued. This time, under the pretext of a body search, he was unnecessarily checking every inch of the hostage’s body. Throughout the unnecessary touching, the hostage only kept his head bowed without reacting, but Lee Yundo felt more uncomfortable watching.

He probably burning up because of you, damn kid!

He swallowed the shout that was about to burst out. Whether aware of this or not, Seon Eun-soo chuckled to himself, his cheek dimpling, and muttered, “Fvck, you dirty bastard. Fucking filthy bastard.”

“…Tie him up tight. This bastard escaped before.”

As the crazy guy finished the body search and straightened up, Lee Yundo instructed his subordinates who had been giggling while watching the spectacle. Guide Seon Jae-chan was the guy who had managed to escape during the Universal Park incident. Having heard precautions from Seon Eun-soo beforehand, it seemed to be due to his ability, but it wouldn’t hurt to be thorough now. He ordered them to secure not just the wrists but the arms as well.

“Hey, bastard, you’re wearing a nice watch.”

Seon Jae-chan glanced at the terrorist who was fiddling with his watch while securing his wrist. It was a device that would allow Woo-jin to track him again if he left the GPS jammer zone, even if kidnapped. Even if the watch was taken, as long as it remained in their hands, it would be enough of a clue for tracking.

“Damn it, how do you take this off?”

“Do it later, you idiot. Ah, we’ll split the watch.”

“We’re not hole partners, what’s there to split? Hey, hostage. Get up. Unless you want to be sealed in a coffin with incense filling the air, you’d better move fast.”

At the terrorist’s words, Seon Eun-soo stood close again. His eyes flickered as if he was ready to pounce if Seon Jae-chan stumbled. However, Seon Jae-chan, keeping his head lowered, showed a resigned attitude as he straightened up and walked properly.