[AN:
- I made a mistake, so I went back and updated the last chapter so that Rescue Team One went to the government facility instead.
- If you haven't already, check out chapter 8 for the polls. After the next Tuesday, it will be removed.
- Reminder: remember to add images
- "{}" means they're speaking in English
]
***
Before Lee Cheong-San blacked out, he had attempted to grab anything that could support his body. In doing so, the boy had knocked down a bag filled with red cans straight into the horde of zombies.
The boy's body has lost all tension, tripping over the ledge and now falling into the zombie horde as well.
And when Cheong-San's head was less than a meter from the many hands that tried to reach up and grab the boy's descending body, the hard hat already losing grip and falling off the head, his hand twitched.
As quick as a flash, Cheong-San had the knife drawn, the boy's eyes changing to a bright yellow color. Then, these words left his mouth:
"Lightning Blade!"
Performing two fluidly practiced and quick slashes, the air whistled as the dented kitchen cut through the air. With each slash, a two-meter crescent of pure, unadulterated energy formed. Soon the very air around those crescents vibrated, releasing what seemed to be the chirping of thousands of birds.
The sound quickly drew the attention of many of the nearby zombies, even causing some inside the school to tackle themselves against the windows to get closer to the cafeteria. The survivors inside the school watched confused as the zombies started to leave.
Burning the air, the blades of lightning leaped off the tip of the knife. The knife, breaking under the intense pressure of 'Ether' gathered on it, shattered into many pieces of metal that reflected the afternoon sun.
The [Lightning Blade] cut through the scores of zombies like a hot knife against butter, setting fire to the surrounding ones as well. But the lightning continued to move down, cutting into the metal shell that contained butane and igniting the gas.
Boom!
The explosion rag-dolled Cheong-San, launching him several meters into the air and into a wall. Hitting his head hard against the cement wall, he groaned, slowly blinking his eyes as a ringing clouded his head. He definitely felt something sticky trail down the back of his head. With dazed eyes, he tried to get up, only to tumble back down onto the ground.
The next several minutes passed by him in a daze, as someone helped Cheong-San walk away from the growing blaze of fire that now consumed the zombies and the detached building of the cafeteria. He slightly remembered moving upstairs and through several halls before his eyes felt too heavy to open.
***
Depressed, Park Sun-Hwa had her head down on the desk, not knowing what to do. It's been half an hour since she sent her message throughout the school intercoms. As she was moping in the recording room, Ms. Park jumped in her seat when she heard banging on the door outside.
Slowly peeking her head out of the recording room, Ms. Park gasped, seeing a face she thought she'll never see again. "Gyeong-Su!"
"Ms. Park!" whispered Gyeong-Su excitedly. "Can you open the door, please? There's more of us."
"Are you okay?" she asked pulling the boy in. Behind Gyeong-Su, more of her students streamed into the recording room, leaving the teacher happily shocked. Tears began to form in her eyes as she touched their arms as they entered the broadcasting room.
"Ms. Park," cried Dae-Su, giving her a bear hug.
Smiling, she returned her student's hug. "Dae-Su."
"Ms. Park!" said On-Jo, running up to the teacher. "Did Cheong-San stop by the broadcast at all today?"
"Cheong-San?" repeated the English teacher. "You're all the first to come here since this all started."
"No, we must go find him! We can't leave him out there alone," said On-Jo, who was about to head back out the door. She was stopped by both I-Sak and Ms. Park.
"On-Jo! That's too dangerous, it's best we stay here until help arrives." On-Jo was about to protest when I-Sak hugged her, dragging the girl back inside the broadcast room. "Cheong-San is a lucky bastard, he'll be alright out there."
"Hurry and close the door," whined Lee Na-Yeon, sitting in a chair furthest from the door. "Close it now! Close it before they come in!"
"What is wrong with you," said Gyeong-Su, closing the door to the broadcast room. "All you do is complain! I'm so tired of hearing your screeching. Can you please be quiet?"
"Is it a crime to want to close a door?" responded Lee Na-Yeon
Looking at her as if she was dumb, Gyeong-Su shook his head in annoyance. "It's closed now, princess. Happy?"
"Huh," let out Na-Yeon, giving the other boy a look of derision, "I can't stand you, stupid welfie."
Shocked, all the students either looked away or down at their feet, knowing that things were about to get ugly.
Except for Yoon I-Sak. As Gyeong-Su shock was about to turn to anger, I-Sak walked up to Na-Yeon.
"You fucking bitch!" said I-Sak, giving the haughty girl a smack to the face. "I'm sure everyone here has been sick of your holier-than-thou attitude! You keep acting as if your life matters more; it doesn't!"
"Hey come," said On-Jo, pulling her friend away, "she's not worth it."
"You just hit me?" said Na-Yeon, squaring up the chubby-cheeked girl.
"Yeah she did," said Gyeong-Su, standing in front of I-Sak, "what are you going to do about it?"
"Hey, knock it off," said Ms. Park. "What's going on over here, guys?"
"She hit me," pointed Na-Yeon at I-Sak, who hid behind Gyeong-Su.
"Don't blame I-Sak," said Gyeong-Su, "she only did it 'cause that bitch call me a welfie."
Na-Yeon tilted her head, rolling her eyes. "Is it not true?"
I-Sak was angry at Na-Yeon. The only reason she had made it back to class from the cafeteria was that Gyeong-Su had helped her avoid the zombies. Seeing the rich girl acting up, I-Sak wanted to put her in her place. "Keep rolling your eyes, maybe you'll find a brain in there."
"What's a welfie?" asked the oh-so-innocent Ms. Park. Seeing no one respond, she asked the question again.
"A person on welfare," said Su-Hyeok, leaning against the wall as he found the make-shift spear more interesting at the moment.
"What?" said Ms. Park.
"It means a person on welfare. 'Welfie' for short."
Ms. Park blinked hard at that.
As the realization came across the teacher's face, she immediately tried to mediate the situation between the group of students. Walking between them, Ms. Park started with Na-Yeon. "Na-Yeon, that was wrong. Don't ever say that again."
"And I-Sak," she said, turning to the girl. "I would praise you for defending a classmate, but when you hit people, you're the one who ends up losing. Do you understand?"
I-Sak nodded her head.
"Listen," said Ms. Park, "we can't be fighting each other in a moment like this. We don't know what's going on out there with those-"
"Zombies," said Su-Hyeok, "those things out there are zombies. Cheong-San brought Mr. Lee's laptop to class with videos. Mr. Lee created those things. That's why he tied Hyeon-Ju up. She was infected."
Looking amongst the students, they seemed to agree Su-Hyeok's words. "I see, but what matters now is that we stay put."
"What about the other teachers?" asked Kim Ji-Min. "Has anyone called the cops?"
Flustered by the sudden question, Ms. Park responded as best as she could. "Don't worry, I'm sure someone already has. I just don't have my phone on me, right now."
"We called them," said On-Jo, "but they're not coming. There's a chance that my dad might be on his way here, but I can't be sure."
"We know that Hyeong-Ju was infected," said Oh Joon-Young, "who's to say that the whole city hasn't been infected by now? You've seen the video, Mr. Lee said it would've taken less than a minute for the girl to turn if he hadn't administrated the drug."
"That's why no one is coming," said Seo Hyo-Ryung bitterly.
Suddenly, Joon-Young eyes widened as he stood up from his chair. "Uh, the internet. The internet."
Walking up to the computer, he passed by the crowd of students, pushing aside his teacher to reach the desk. "Let's see. Sorry, Ms. Park. It should work. Is it on?"
As Joon-Young booted up the computer, everyone except Su-Hyeok and Nam-Ra crowded around the boy with glasses.
Leaning next to the spear, Su-Hyeok felt someone tap his shoulder. Turning his head, he saw that it was the class president, Choi Nam-Ra.
"Su-Hyeok, thanks for saving me back at the bridge. I don't think I would've seen the zombies with my earbuds on if you didn't grab me."
Su-Hyeok cracked a smile. "I wouldn't just abandon the class prez. We still need you to help Ms. Park take roll later."
Sharing a smile, the two were about to continue talking when the familiar sound of windows booting up attracted their attention.
"It worked," said Joon-Young. "Let's open up the browser."
"Search up 'zombie virus' and see if anything pops up."
"Or type mass attacks..."
After ten minutes of looking online, nothing came up. Frustrated at the lack of results, Joon-Young started tapping his foot to calm down.
"Try Facebook," suggested Dae-Su. Following the suggestion, Joon-Young went to the Facebook page. As Dae-Su held Joon-Young's shoulder, he had another idea. "Or Instagram."
"Do you have followers?" asked the boy at the computer.
Realizing that he had none, Dae-Su switched back to his original suggestion. "Let's do Facebook."
Logging into Facebook, the class was shocked at how many messages and missed notifications the boy had. "Look at your notification: 1700s."
"Strange," whispered Joon-Young.
They watched a video of a police crash, the police slumping out of the car before grotesquely standing back up with blood dripping from its face down onto its uniform.
"Okay, let's check messages first."
***
Inside the Hyosan City Council building, So-Ju and his team were inspecting a man who was tied up to an office chair.
"You have to understand he's the youngest aide we have. When he got back from the Council building he just collapsed and started convulsing." said a Jo Dal-Ho, the senior aide to the assemblywomen. "And then he got back up, and went like..."
Imitating a screech, the man continued on, "...and just attacked the Assemblywoman out of nowhere. So we tied him up to that chair. But we didn't know if we should call the police. You know?"
"Why are you telling him that?" asked Assemblywoman Park Eun-Hee.
"He'll bite his tongue," said So-Ju, looking at both Young-Hwan and Woo-Shin. "We have to gag him."
"Copy," said Young-Hwan.
As they gagged the tied-up man, Young-Hwan was nicked on the finger as he out the cloth inside the mouth.
"Did it get you?" asked So-Ju.
"It's okay. A little."
As they continued to wrap the tied-up man's head with gauze, their radio buzzed to life. "Message from the headquarters. Come in."
"Rescue Team One," answered So-Ju, leaving the rest of his team to finish the job. Suddenly, all the others phones started ringing. "Level-three disaster in Hyosan. Report to temporary headquarters."
"Did you say level-three disaster?" asked So-Ju. This meant things were very bad.
"I repeat. Level-three disaster in Hyosan. Report to temporary headquarters."
"What is it?" asked the assemblywoman. "Where are they sending you?"
"Mobilize immediately. That is all." With that, the radio went silent.
"It means the fire department headquarters was moved out of the city for an emergency," answered So-Ju. "The Disaster and Safety Control will manage the situation."
Dal-Ho walked up to the Assemblywoman. "Okay, so they think..."
***
"...it's a highly contagious infection," said Joon-Young as they watched the news on the monitor.
"The series of incidents occurring in Hyosan appear to be due to a mass outbreak of a highly infectious virus. We'll speak to the Disease Control Center for more details. Director Cha Hyeon-Seok, can you tell us what's going on?" asked the news anchor.
"Considering the level of spread, it appears to be a highly infectious disease. Those infected became unusually aggressive. Victims showed similar symptoms, so we suspect secondary infection is possible."
"As you heard," said the news anchor, "this very dangerous. As advised by the KDCA, the government has raised the infectious disease alert to 'serious.' They stated that they will do everything possible to prevent spreading outside of Hyosan..."
Suddenly, the news anchor turned serious as she read her next lines from the teleprompter. "The National Security Council has officially declared an evacuation order in place for Hyosan CIty in Gyeonggi Province. If you're watching this, please be aware. You are under evacuation. Please leave the city immediately. I repeat. The situation is extremely serious. The National Security Council has decided..."
"Shit," cursed Gyeong-Su. "What do we do now, Ms. Park."
"We obviously can't stay here," said Jang Woo-Jin. "We need to leave for Gyyeonggi before the zombies get bad enough that we can't even leave."
"He's right," said Su-Hyeok, "once this virus covers half the city, it'll become too dangerous to evacuate then."
"What can do though?" said Ji-Min, "the outside is crawling with them. We'll be dead and infected before we make it past the gates."
"Hey, guys look at this," said Joon-Young pulling up discord. Clicking through several servers, it landed on one labeled 'Hyosan Students.' "Read this."
Reading through a message from a girl that said that her dad was a Major in the military, I-Sak flipped out. "What?! They're already talking about bombing the city if the infections get too bad?"
"Ms. Park, what do we do?" asked Dae-Su.
Seeing her students look at her, Ms. Park saw their exhausted faces. "For now, nothing. You're all too tired to even try and escape Hyosan, much less this school. We'll talk about it more after we get some rest."
Nodding in agreement, the remainder of class 2-5 hunkered down in the broadcast room.
***
"What? A virus?"
Inside the Hyosan City Council building, So-Ju was on the phone with the fire department chief.
"What kind of virus," asked So-Ju.
"I don't think it's airborne, but it hasn't been confirmed. It seems like you get infected if you get bit, so don't get bit or make physical contact. We don't know how much about..."
But So-Ju no longer paid attention, slowly turning his head around to look at Young-Hwan, who Woo-Shin was helping put on a bandage as they messed around.
"I hear an assembly member is there," said the voice from the phone. At that point, So-Ju had already hanged up.
Looking at Young-Hwan, So-Ju saw blood leak from the paramedic's nose as he collapsed to the ground.
"Captain!" cried out Woo-Shin. Moving to try and help Young-Hwan, the youngest member of Rescue Team One tried to take a hold of the paramedic only for Young-Hwan to start tossing and turning on the ground.
"I told you!" said Dal-Ho. "That, that, that's exactly what happened to our aide, I'm telling you."
Stunned, So-Ju morbidly watched as the paramedic continued to spasm, mouth filling with blood.
"It's the same thing!" Dal-Ho said, backing up alongside the assemblywoman's entourage. "Oh, shit."
"Is he dead?" asked Woo-Shin. At that, Young-Hwan started to move again, making disturbingly loud cracking noises as he did so. Getting on all fours, the paramedic growled at Woo-Shin before lunging at him. Scared, Woo-Shin backed away before being tackled by the infected paramedic, now using his arm to fend away its attack. Unfortunately, he was bitten.
So-Ju, finally broken from his shock, immediately joined the dog-pile, trying to remove Young-Hwan from Woo-Shin. Grappling the zombie off of Woo-Shin, So-Ju locked it down to the floor using his own body weight. "Woo-Shin, rope! Tie him up now!"
***
Crouched on the branch of one tree's of the Ethereal Forest, his eyes peered into the darkness as they watched the woods passively.
Crunch.
Without delay, the scout let out a low-whistle that stopped three times before ending with a clap of his hands. Still unsure of who it was, the man kept a hand to the pommel of his sword.
A whistle followed by the sound of a monkey laugh soon replied. Relaxing at the familiar call-sigh, Thistle moved his hand away from the weapon at his side.
Quickly climbing up the tree, a soldier dressed in familiar bronze armor and adorning a gold band on his slicked hair stood next to him. The Legionnaire saluted him.
"At ease, Legionnaire Khan."
Relaxing, the soldier kneeled before him. "Centurion Marico, Praefector Fulmion wishes to speak to you at his tent."
Nodding, he dismissed the soldier. "By your leave, Centurion Marico." With that, the Legionnaire was gone, leaving Marico alone once again on the tree branch. After watching the forest, he left for the Praefector's tent."
Walking through the camp, he made his way to the Praefector's war tent, which was flanked by two Legionnaires. Seeing the vibrant plume of his helmet and gold-inlaid design on his armor, the two lowered their heads, stepping aside to let him in.
The inside of the tent was well-lit, a candlelit on each corner of the octagonal tent. At the center was a long table with maps and manuscripts laid out on top. To the side were a bed and waste urn. His nose not detecting any foul smells inside the tent, Thistle let out a breath of air he'd been holding.
Sitting at the head of the table was a familiar man, Valoece Fulmion, the previous Primus Pilus, now the Praefector Castrorum of the 11th Scouting Legion, effectively the third-highest ranked officer within the legion.
Kneeling before the officer, Thistle removed his plumed helmet, revealing the fur-white ears that hid beneath it. "Praefector Castrorum, Centurion Marico of the 10th Cohort at your command."
"We are alone. There need not be any formalities. Come, sit at the table." said Praefector Fulmion, gesturing at the war table.
Getting up, the Felinor hesitatingly sat at the table. The Centurion could count the number of times he's been summoned to the tent, on one hand, each time involving serious matters.
"I've been requested by his Majesty to look personally into an ongoing investigation in the Void Sea." said the Praefector. "The Dread Serpents that border east of our waters have suddenly migrated, fleeing the area."
"The Dread Serpents?" said Thistle, "their herd's number in the thousands, each adult as strong as a Centurion. What could possibly cause them to flee in such a hurry."
"We do not know. That's why I must leave with haste by morning's light."
"So soon?"
"Aye," nodded Praefector Fulmion's head. He then placed a large, rectangular box on top of the table. "But before I part on my journey, I have a gift for you. Come, open the box."
Hesitantly, the Centurion unlatched both locks, pulling up the lid of the box. Inside laid a thin, metal blade that measured half man's height and two-finger widths wide. Different from the simple hilt's of longsword and gladius, the blade possessed a finely intricate hilt with the metal forming a lattice pattern. The weapon seemed to gleam brighter under his intense scrutiny.
"I've commissioned the blade from the Land of Erisia. It was crafted in the Forge of Sin by the finest blacksmiths known to man. This blade - rapier, relies on speed and a quick mind, perfectly suited for someone like you. "
Grasping the blade by its handle, Thistle could feel how incredibly light it was. Taking a swing of the blade, no, rapier, he could hear the air whistle almost immediately. Turning to his Praefector Castrorum, so many emotions flashed through his head. Calming down, he decided that he would proceed with decorum, just as the man wanted.
"I will not fail you, Praefector Castrorum."
Giving the Centurion a hard look, it softened as the commander leaned back in his chair. "You never had, my son."
"What name has been bestowed upon this blade?" Thistle asked.
Drinking from his mug, the Praefector let the sweet ale rest in his mouth before drinking it down. "Its name: Mistral."
***
Sitting up, Cheong-San gasped as his senses came back to him. As he was bout to sit up, a voice stopped him.
"Don't move or we'll shoot you."
Standing across the tiled floor of the restroom, two students had their bows drawn, aimed at Cheong-San.