Chapter 7
I staggered out of Yoonhui’s house. My insides flipped and I wanted to throw up. Drizzling rain swirled around me. As the wind picked up, waves crashed noisily on the rocks.
Enemy. I kept thinking about that word. Enemy and us. Someone, some group Yoonhui is part of, had divided the village into two categories. Into enemy and us. And Yoonhui said that I was an enemy. In that case, who else is an enemy?
I heard a dismal cry from the rocky islet. I tried to believe it was a flock of herring gulls all calling at once, but I couldn’t ignore the evil shadow within that sound. It was a chilling cry, that seemed as though it could freeze down to the bone.
When I looked, I saw a dark dense cloud rolling from the islet.
Stunned by a fear that struck like lightning, I stared at the dark cloud unable to move a muscle.
I was sure that something over there was watching me.
Even if I were to ask what it wanted from me, all I’d get back was the howl of the wind.
I felt as though the whole world had turned its back on me.
That cloud could envelop me in an instant and hurl me into the sea, and I’d die in a moment, unnoticed, unmourned.
A Kakao alert jolted me, a message from Sergeant Hyunjun. How long had I been standing there?
I rushed straight to Sunup Guesthouse like you told me to.
That man from the city, he’d shut himself in his room.
I heard him shrieking over and over. I asked if he was alright and kept knocking on the door, but there was no response.
He just kept making that sound. I was so worried that I got the key from the owner and opened the door.
He was packing, but his hands were shaking so much that half the things he picked up slipped out of them.
When he saw me, he screamed and started convulsing.
I guess my face must have frightened him.
He hurled his case and everything in it to one side and jumped out the window.
Ah shit, what a mess.
I’m worried for him. The weather is awful. He needs to get to the health center, so they can administer a sedative or something. I’ve told the other neighborhood watch patrols to look for him too.
Enemy. That word circled in my mind. Is Hyunjun an enemy, or one of them? If the police and the neighborhood watch are the enemies, then … what is going to happen to the enemy tonight? Should I warn Hyunjun to be careful, or should I hide what I’ve found out?
Did you go to Yoonhui’s place?
Sergeant Hyunjun’s message made me jump.
Did you meet her husband?
I wasn’t sure how to respond. Afraid that he could feel my hesitation through the screen, I hurriedly typed a response.
Not yet.
That makes sense … it’s late after all. We have to assume the report was wrong.
I paused for a moment.
Hyunjun, I heard something strange just now …
What is it?
That day, when the tidal wave swept through the village … have you ever heard people say something like … that a different species came up out of the sea?
It felt ridiculous to bring up such things.
There was no way it could be true. But I wanted it to be true.
The thing I had just seen, it couldn’t be human.
It absolutely had to be something else. If it was human, then I had just committed murder.
Without hesitation, with no remorse, as if I were doing something that naturally had to be done.
And for that reason, I needed that thing not to have been human.
All was quiet across the screen. I saw Hyunjun typing a few times but nothing came through.
It occurred to me that I should have done this via voice call.
A video call might have been even better.
I regretted bringing it up. With written messages I had no way of knowing what Sergeant Hyunjun was thinking in the moment.
Whether he was laughing at me saying something so ridiculous, or hiding his gloomy expression and trying to come up with lies.
Enemy, us.
Yes, there are people who say that.
Hyunjun’s message appeared. Raindrops tapped on my phone screen.
They say their family members were swept away in the tidal wave, and an ancient species crawled up from the deep sea to live in their homes with them.
I’ve seen a few people who genuinely believe that.
I think it’s called mass hypnosis? If one person believes something with all their heart and they keep claiming it’s true, in time other people also follow along with them and start believing too.
No matter how strange the thing is. I can understand why villagers would want to think that way.
Having to face the terrible way their loved ones transformed, wouldn’t it be easier to accept the idea that they were replaced with a different species?
It was only then that it occurred to me that, actually, I had heard such talk before. It was just that every time I heard it, I shrugged it off. I started to feel like I knew nothing.
You must be exhausted. Go home and take a rest.
I was shivering from the chill of the rain seeping into me.
I pulled my knife from the sheath on my belt.
Drops of rain slid down the blade. While I stared at the red coating the metal, the knife was rinsed clean.
The moment the blood disappeared, I doubted my memory.
I closed my eyes, opened them again, and wrote a message.
Why do you keep telling me to go home?
The response took a while.
Because you must be worn out. Did something happen?
Adjusting my wet clothes, I held my jacket over my head and hurried toward home.
I couldn’t get out of the village, so my plan was to shut myself up indoors. If I stayed put tonight, nothing would happen. All the scary stuff would run its course while I was asleep. Without any grounds for thinking that, I hastened my steps.
I turned into the narrow alleyway that went up to my house on the hillside.
It was lined with stone walls, and only one person at a time could pass through.
A dark gray gull, its feathers patchy, flew toward me and perched, then flapped off.
Up the hill in the gloomy distance, someone stood blocking my path.
Their face was wrapped in fabric. Their body was huge, their back was hunched, and their bandaged arms hung limp at their sides.
One of the infected. A serious case who must be prohibited from going outside.
I tried hard to believe that this person just happened to be going the other way, and stopped because the alley was too narrow.
But they stood stone-still. I carefully observed the huge bolt cutters they held in one hand.
Raindrops dripped from the metal to the ground.
When I turned around, two more people appeared at the other end of the stone-walled alley. One of them was Jean Jacket, who I had seen earlier at church. Three infected people breaking isolation.
The person blocking my way slowly removed the fabric covering their face.
The ones behind followed suit. Through the heavy rain, I saw faces marked by round, bulging eyes and bumpy growths.
I couldn’t tell whether the person ahead was a man or woman, their gender or their age.
But instinctively, I knew who it was. Professor Shim Yeongho.
The leader of the infected. Their spiritual pillar.
The one who had kept their spirits up, maintained order, and kept them at home for three years without a riot.
Ah, then I understood.
The doors of hell were opening tonight.
The day had come for all those who had lived in hiding to emerge, to show their hideous forms to the world. The time had come for the us to hunt their enemy.
I pulled my knife, gripped it tight. I stood side-on, so that I could fight back an attack from either direction, tracking their movements with my ears. The driving rain on the roof tiles was noisy, but it wasn’t enough to hinder my hearing.
Professor Shim made a bizarre sound. It wasn’t human language. It seemed his oral cavity had been completely transformed. If I tried to write it down, it would be something like, “Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn…”
From the other side, Jean Jacket said: “Seo Muyoung, we will give you a chance to join us. Come with us.”
He must be acting as the professor’s interpreter.
“A chance? What chance? Where are you taking me?”
“You’ll know when you get there.”
“Go bother someone else,” I replied, gripping tight to the knife in my hand.
A narrow alleyway that only a single person could squeeze through. I would be able to face them one at a time. At the very least they couldn’t take me down without a fight.
Professor Shim spoke more incomprehensible sounds and held his free hand out to me. The interpreter repeated, “Come with us, Seo Muyoung. Let’s go together. We’ll show you.”