Fic: Resistance Divided
First Cycle - 1.2 The Wall
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Next day
Destination: The Wall
The Wall was built on the south of Daejeon region and it circled around the rest of South Korea. But it was a fact that the Wall wasn’t enough. It wasn’t strong enough to keep the monsters away too long; if they tried again and again to get through from the one part, it broke down eventually. And even when the Wall was defensed with hundreds of soldiers, they weren’t fast enough trying to kill a kanghui. One kanghui could take in far too more than they expected before they could destroy it completely.
One kanghui was usually somewhere around 150 meters high, had four legs and its skin was like snakes - or like some other reptilian’s and its coloring was usually very dark. But every kanghui was unique, there weren’t two same monsters. They all had something different; they might have had some same features, but they always gave us something new, so we couldn’t be fully prepared. And it was tiring. They might have had horns, too many eyes to count, acid mucus - and the list was never ending.
On that morning everyone were dead silent. They had packed their stuff to their Jeeps and were wearing heavier bulletproof uniforms. No one was laughing or joking at 6AM that morning; they were tired and scared, even when they wouldn’t confess it.
The weather was cold and the sky was lousy gray. It had been raining all night long; the water was ice cold and pungent within the stormy wind, the ground was muddy and hard to walk because of it. The temperature was close to zero degrees in Celsius.
Their serving station for last three months was now empty.
All men of the platoon were standing beside their cars when their captain finally arrived with his own, full backpack. He had apologizing look in his eyes for few seconds, until he tried to muster up his courage again. Not because of himself, but for his buddies'.
“You all have gathered everything and you’re ready to leave?” Hangeng asked with a stern voice.
“Yes, sir”, the soldiers answered at the same time, with that same monotonous tone, except Heechul and Hyukjae, who were more silent and mostly observing their leader.
“Good. Let’s go then”, he said and let the men to get up in their cars. There were three Jeeps for eleven men. Hangeng went in to the last car, on the driver’s seat. Heechul got up in the passenger’s seat and Siwon and Junsu got in the backseat. The next car had Shindong for driver, Hyukjae on the passenger’s seat together with Yunho and Kibum. The rest three were on the last car.
Shindong’s car was the first with its engine running. Their car was the one to drive in front of the line; Shindong had the best sense of direction and map reading skills, even though everyone had had the responsibility to learn to use them. If it wasn’t because of the situation kanghuis had managed to do, the journey would have been much easier. It was actually only around sixty kilometers to the Wall, but the roads weren’t the same anymore. No one had restored the roads because of the lack of money and resources. The defense and so-called safety was the first priority to the "government" of this day's South Korea.
The car was silent for good minutes before anyone said anything. The atmosphere was tense and not very pleasant start for the day, but the situation was really that bad.
Yunho was the first one to talk.
“Do you know what the situation there is right now?” his voice was a bit hesitant, his brown eyes were examining his buddies’ expressions.
“I bet no one really knows the truth”, Shindong said, one hand on the steering wheel and other one was resting on the door. They were all fond of the fact that the driver was always speaking the truth; he didn’t try to sweeten the pill when the situation wasn’t nice. He never lied - they had been proved many times.
“But I bet it’s bad. Very bad.”
After that the silence came back.
Cities and towns were abandoned because people ran away from their homes. The last safe place was Seoul right now. It was the only place that had stayed somewhat in shape, though it still wasn’t the same lively metropolis anymore. More and more people had moved into other, safer countries. But the danger was expanding all the time. The Europe was probably the safest place to be at the moment.
Hyukjae was looking through his window seeing the landscapes changing. Everything was gray and even the nature had lost its beauty when the years with kanghuis had passed by. It really looked like they’ve been in a war for years - which wasn't exactly incorrect.
Sometimes Hyukjae really thought why in hell he had been affiliated himself to the army. Actually he knew the answer pretty well; it was because of his brother, because of his sister - for his family. He didn’t actually know where his parents were at the moment, but apparently they were safe.
But his little sister…
The youngest of the family, always so happy and lovable Sora wasn’t with them anymore. Hyukjae really hoped she was in better place; somewhere where the sun was shining, where the sky was clear and the stars and the moon could be seen. Somewhere, where she didn’t need to worry or be afraid anymore. In a place she could be an innocent kid again.
He could still remember her smile and bright, shining eyes. He remembered that her favorite toy was a white rabbit called Mister Popping. But he didn’t remember her voice very clearly anymore… He didn’t remember her tight hug or her bubbly laugh. The only palpable memory of her was her drawing of their entire family he maintained in a envelope. Sadly its corners had frayed and the coloring had faded out already.
Hyukjae felt tears in his eyes when he thought about his sister, but tried not to let the tears fall. He blinked his eyes and made a silent, sniffling voice.
“You okay man?” Shindong asked with a slight concern and leered him from the corner of his eyes. Hyukjae swallowed audibly and turned his head away with a sigh.
“Yeah.”
His voice didn’t really sound like he was speaking the truth, but no one wouldn’t dare to ask more. Most of them knew something about Hyukjae’s and his brother’s past, but all of them didn’t know about the loss of Sora.
It was almost eight years ago; in three weeks it would be the 'anniversary' day of her death again. Every year around that time Hyukjae seemed to be very down. His brother was presumably too, but couldn’t show his grief because he was the captain and he at least needed to stay strong. Though, Hyukjae knew that Hangeng would talk about it mostly with Heechul who he trusted the most. Hyukjae didn’t really want to talk, even though Hangeng had tried to the few first years after her death, but soon he gave up, but had said that he would always listen, if Hyukjae wanted to open up someday.
Anyway, it was so long time ago that Hyukjae didn’t want to bother anyone with the sorrow when there was much more else to think.
After some ten kilometers the road had started to be more rough and bumpy. The car was almost bouncing on the road and the driver was already cussing annoyed.
“Who the fuck is the moron who decided that it’s not reasonable to restore the roads!? Reasonable my ass!” Shindong cursed and tried to get around all the wells he could. In all truth it was just making their way last longer than it should.
“Calm down buddy, we still have more than kilometers to go. You’re getting an ischemic stroke if you let your blood pressure go too high”, Kibum mocked amused, trying to relieve the tenseness that was surrounding them.
“Shut up, Kibum”, Shindong murmured, but with a hint of a smile on his lips. He was easily humored and usually it was actually Shindong who would joke around all the time. But he really tried to focus on driving so they wouldn’t end up in a ditch.
“Or you’re soon going to walk by yourself.”
“Aye, aye, sir”, the man answered and the rest couldn’t hide a grin from their faces.
Suddenly there was some movement on the left side of the road, but the weather was too foggy so Shindong couldn’t really see anything clearly. And first he thought it was his imagination playing tricks with him. But it wasn’t.
“WATCH OUT!” someone yelled, before a Jeep-sized creature jumped right in front of the car, from the dark forest around them - and ran to the other side of the road.
Shindong tried to keep the car in control but it anyway made a serpentine-like move for some fifty meters forward. They all gasped and tried to even out their startled breathing when the car stopped crosswise on the road.
“What the fuck was that?!” Hyukjae cursed out loud and tried examine the right side with his wide eyes.
Shindong soon opened his door and stepped out of the car, checking if the cars behind were alright. The other cars had managed to stop properly on the line when they saw how the first car was braking sharply.
In silence they all stepped out of the black cars, but all they could see was just a hint of the dark forest behind the thick fog.
“Is everyone okay?” Hangeng asked when he walked towards them. Everyone nodded; there weren’t any injuries except some aching on their necks.
“Thank god.”
It was like everyone tried to see through the wood or to hear something that was abnormal from the ‘regular’ - if that was a proper way to say when nothing was actually regular anymore. The rain had stopped but the cracked asphalt was still wet, so the road had been slippery to the car. It could have gone far worse than this.
Then Kibum asked the question everyone was thinking silently in their heads.
“It was a kanghui, wasn’t it?”
“How could it be? It was too small for a kanghui”, Yunho murmured, but everyone could hear the uncertainty from his tone.
“It couldn’t be a bear or wolf either”, Shindong thought, while leaning on the backside of the car.
“Could…” Heechul murmured too silently for the others to hear, but Hangeng and Hyukjae noticed him trying to talk. The long haired tilted his head and furrowed his eyebrows, like he was thinking very hard.
“What is it, Heechul?” Hangeng asked and turned towards him, trying to examine the soldier with his eyes.
“Whether it could have been a…a cub?”
“A cub?”
Heechul wasn’t so sure either, but it was the only thought he had in his mind right now, when anything else didn’t make any sense. He didn’t see the creature very well, but its size was closer to horse’s - but it definitely wasn’t a horse.
Hyukjae clenched his fists. Like the monsters in one size weren’t enough already…
“I thought they're coming from the sea? Why would it be jumping from the woods now?” Yunho asked and furrowed his brows. No-one didn’t really know the truth.
“They’ve always been over 100 meters high! There hadn’t been even one ‘cub’ before… They had appeared as adults”, Hyukjae said and he was actually very annoyed. He was so sick of this shit already. There was no need for new discovers. He was tired.
“Guys, I know this concerns you but we really need to keep going. There’s a duty waiting for us”, Hangeng said and everyone knew it wasn’t a request, but an order.
In five minutes they were back in their cars and had started their journey once again.
In an hour they had reached the almost 200 meters tall metal and concrete Wall. It was massive they could say, but it already had cracks and holes on it. The sight wasn’t really as soothing as they had wished…
When their cars had been parked, there was a man and two soldiers behind him waiting for them. They had green uniforms like them - helmets and stuff - but it was obvious that the man in the middle was the general. He had at least ten different medals on his chest.
“Good morning captain”, the general said and the newcomers bowed ninety degrees. He had a bit narrow, very dark eyes and even when he had kind of an strict look, would be said that he wasn’t a rough or unpleasant man. There was some ambitious, but calm aura coming from him.
“Good morning, Dongwan. I’m sorry we are a bit late”, Hangeng said but the general gave them a light smile.
“You’re actually in time, I know the roads are horrible”, the man said and turned his body to the opposite direction.
“But let’s go inside first, we need to discuss that how we are going to place you. There are different guard stations in 50 kilometer radius from here. I don’t know you guys so I didn’t do any conclusions before seeing you.” It was palpable that the general really wanted to do things precisely. But he knew that it was actually important to entrust the tasks to the right persons. They had too much to lose so it was his priority.
The general lead them to the concrete building. The landscape was mirthless; gray and everything just remembered more clearly that they were indeed in some kind of war. Soon they were inside of a small conference room. The room was plain, only color in the room was the map on the wall which had dozens of colored pins on it as signifying the places that were destroyed, attacked or in danger and so on.
The men sat down around the big, square table and Dongwan rested his elbows on it. There was another map on the table.
“You’re here because we need more soldiers here to defense the wall. Luckily the past week had been a bit easier to us without any bigger incidents, but we’re on alarm all the time. We need more men on the guard stations. There’s usually four men placed on the one spot and the task is guarding and to inform the headquarters about the danger”, Dongwan started. The P8’s men were silently listening and thinking about the situation.
“Go on”, Hangeng suggested.
“So, I want you to decide three groups that work well together. We have three empty stations and we need to fill them. The stations have some different features that I want you to think through properly”, he exhaled a bit tiredly, not because of the amount of work but the fear the situation was giving them.
D42 was the station guard nearby, only five kilometers away. Station point D45 was somewhere in the middle. But the station D49 was at the most east side. It was fifty kilometers away from here and it was the most dangerous place of them, because kanghuis usually came that way. They needed to be on alert all the time and inform the headquarters about every single detail.
Hangeng soon nodded and observed his teammates quite fast.
“I think I know what the teams are”, he said then.
“For the D42 I’ll put Junsu, Shindong, Minwoo and Heechul. Seunghyun, Yonghwa, Kibum and Hyukjae for the station D45. And Siwon, Yunho and me for the D49.”
He noticed dissatisfied look from a certain person. But before anyone was able complain, he closed the subject.
“It’s decided.”
Dongwan didn’t notice the change of looks and nodded satisfied.
“Good. Three men of our platoon is coming with each group, they’ll show you the way, the station area and the instructions. I’ll give you one hour to get ready. I know it’s not long but we really can’t waste time when no one knows what will happen next.”
They were able to excuse themselves and go get ready for their duty. Everyone else got out but Heechul stood there for a minute waiting for his leader. He was almost furious, his eyes were on fire. When Hangeng came into his sight he almost slammed him against the wall.
“What the fuck are you doing?! Why I’m on the first station? I’m your best sniper-“, Hangeng pushed him a bit farther from him.
“Calm down, can you!” the leader was a bit annoyed because of his best friend’s behavior, “I thought you trusted me.”
The look in Heechul’s eyes softened, but he wasn’t very satisfied even then.
“Of course I trust you…” he mumbled, “But why! I want to be there to keep my eye on you. What if something happens? And I’m not there when you need me”, he said. The real reason for his anger was revealed. Worry.
“I want you to be safe as well.”
“But I am one of your best soldiers for god’s sake!”
“Yunho is almost as good sniper as you.”
“Almost is far away from as good as me!”
The silence between wasn’t icy, but more like frustrated. Hangeng exhaled audibly.
“It’s the same with Hyukjae; he’s one of the bests but I just can’t take him there. I’m a captain for a good reason; I’m not that stupid to go there just to get myself killed. But I’m not so sure about you two”, he smiled weakly and finally Heechul let his grip on him fall off.
“But what if something happens?”
“No one knows about that. Something can happen to you too…”
This time Heechul didn’t win the argument he started, though he still wasn’t satisfied. But he had to go on with that and in few hours they were guided to their stations. They didn’t know when the groups were going to see each other again, but they tried to keep their goodbyes as calm as possible. As the two weeks passed by quite calm, no-one wasn’t really expecting the worst to happen in anytime soon…
AN: I hope you enjoyed even a bit.
I would really appreciate some comments! 八(＾w＾*)"