- Do it, Hu Sun-Hi. Do it before it's too late!
- Mom, please…
- It was fate, honey. Don't blame yourself. Swing the sword promptly with force, make sure you cut the head clean off. Burn the head. I love you, sweetie.
With tears rolling down her cheek, Hu Sun-Hi cut her mother's head clean off her shoulders. She hurried and moved the body and the skull into the garden. She arranged flowers and dried leaves on top.
After saying a short prayer, she ignited the fire just in time. Her mother started yelling. Sun-Hi sang the song she used to sing to her when she was little.
- Hush, little baby, please be calm. Mommy's holding you right in her arms. And when will baby grow too big, mama's gonna be there through thin and thick.
As her mother yelling fainted, the girl realized she was left alone. She thought about ending it all. About running one last night into the woods and feeling free right before the infected haunted her down. She couldn't do it. She promised her mother she would wait at the cabin for her brother to come back. She doubted her brother survived after all.
She remembers the day when the infection started. It was announced by the Emperor that all food coming from Baekje would be forbidden. Her father and her brother were called to join the military force for a war with it. After a week, some people were seen in the main market attacking others, breaking their skulls and sucking their brains out. People tried fighting it, but because of the war only the elderly, those ill, children, and women were living in the towns.
If you were bitten by an infected, you became infected. It didn't matter if you burned the mark or cut the whole arm, nothing prevented it. In the end, the tribe had to cut off the heads of their children, their mothers, and their families and burn them.
Only the royal palace remained standing tall and unbothered. They stacked up food and water and were partying among themselves while people were out dying by the infected or starving to death. They said that the emperor found even a cure to the disease, but he was expecting gold, land, and power just to save the same nobility as himself. The ordinary man was left to die without remorse.
Today, the emperor was seen at the main walls of the palace. He threw from above moldy bread and laughed as the last people alive tried to get it from the muddy land. His laughter attracted the infected and because of that, her mother was bitten by one. She ran home, holding that bread to feed her. She died so her daughter wouldn't starve.
- My mother's life didn't mean more than one piece of moldy muddy bread.
Hu Sun-Hi bit into it watching the last pieces of her mother burning in the fire. She swore revenge.
-Are you out of your mind? How could you do that?
- They were moldy. We are royalty, we can't eat that.
-We barely have anything to last us for the next few months. We should kill the concubines, this way there's less food to be wasted.
- Have you finally got mad, Your Majesty?
- Have you? You are the Emperor! How can you be so powerless? Your own kids are starving.
- They are eating well. Who in the entire kingdom could afford three meals a day at this time?
- You can't keep the courtesans anymore, Your Highness. You can't let your own bloodline die of hunger just for you to engage in these sinful carnal pleasures.
- And what shall I do then, My Queen? There is nothing, no one in this world with a cure. Might as well enjoy it while we can.
Reeking of alcohol and driven out of his mind, The Emperor pressed his chapped lips onto the Queen's. She pushed him and stormed out full of anger.
How could he put his own needs on top of the well-being of their children? She would have killed him long ago if she didn't find out he did know a cure for the infection. Why would he hide that from her? For thirty years, Pan Dae closed her eyes in front of his betrayals and disrespect and he still doesn't trust her? Very well, upon the moment she finds out the cure, she will kill her husband with her own two hands and put her sons on the throne.
The Emperor sat down at the table in his room. He blamed himself for angering the gods so much they would have sent such disease to test him. The food was barely enough in the palace, the courtesans were long dead along with the ministers or anyone outside of the main royal family. He didn't want to worry the Queen, but he didn't know how long he could protect her from the truth.
His sons were locking themselves in their rooms, plotting to kill him and take the throne. What a bunch of fools. Who would they rule? The infected? The starving people? The ashes of the dead? There was nothing, nothing in the world that could save them. If their last wish was the last drops of power, he would gladly offer it to them without regrets.
Hu Sung-Hi tied a knife to her thigh. She found his father's rusty armor. It was barely protecting anything with that vest eaten by time and rust, but if anything at all, it was still protecting something and that was better than nothing. She put the ashes of her mom into her small ringstone and sneaked out towards the palace. It was such a mad idea, she was practically on a suicide mission.
In the daylight, the infected were slower to react. If she made no sound and walked outside their gaze, she was sure to reach the palace walls. From there all she had to do was climb it and kill the emperor and his family.
The ruler was an old man and his queen was only younger by a decade so getting rid of them should not be a challenge for her. She would disguise herself as a maid or a courtesan and get the deed done quietly, but what about his two sons? It was said that one was fragile and ill, leaving him tied by the bedside, but the other was feared for his cruelty and military skills.
She tiptoed her way around the main market, jumping from rooftop to rooftop to avoid any infected. They couldn't jump or climb.
Reaching the last top of the house, she watched the palace walls in the distance. Two kilometers with no people affected by the disease in sight. She thought she could sprint it and reach the gate in 10 minutes. It wasn't fast enough even with the daylight effect on her side. She grabbed a rock and said a little prayer. With her full force, Hu Sun-Hi threw it as far as she could. The rock managed to hit a metal chair from the front of what once was a clockmaking store. The loud noise made the market fill with hidden infected.
Hu Sun- Hi ran. She ran like she could leave it all behind. The wind was messing up her neat bun and making her dress rise. The scarlet of her cheeks intensified and her tears dried as the breeze was hitting her face. Her legs were getting numb, mud entering her once dandy sandals and as she reached her hand at the wall, she let out a loud cry of sorrow and broken heart. She made it.
Dae Jiwoo petted his little bird as he watched the wind blow by the window. He looked at her wrenched wing and signed. It was already a month since the madness outside of the palace walls began. His mother said that their father had a cure, but he was waiting for the right moment to use it since it was so precious. How much of a treasure would the cure cost that all their people were left to die hopelessly on the streets? He hasn't seen a servant in weeks around the royal court. He imagined his father killed them all to rationalize the food to last longer. They would probably eat even his little bird if they knew about it. Meat was finished about a week ago and his brother is on the verge of madness because of it. Fair to say his brother was on the verge of madness no matter the situation.
Seong Young, the madman in question, was preparing his bow and arrows to go hunting. He didn't know what was in his father's head, but he would not let this family die of starvation. He was frustrated enough his father killed the courtesans as it was. His solution to solving the situation was nothing but the delusions of an elder. They had enough land between the palace walls to grow vegetables and he could hunt down animals. He might even catch some to bring back to the palace. They would multiply at some point so they wouldn't miss meat again. As much as he didn't like it, he and his sick useless brother could work the land and his mother could learn to prepare more than undercooked rice.
Seong Young's problem was one nobody would think about. He didn't want to end up a practical eunuch, but the only woman alive was his own mother. He could search the town for another living girl, but he doubts he would find one. He let out a deep sigh at the thought of his dark lonely future ahead.
As he looked up, upon exiting the gates, he saw what looked like the behind of a girl. Her skirt was caught into a brick of the wall, trapping and hiding her from the waist above. Seong thought that this was rather plump for a zombie. He reached his hand and touched her bum, moving the underwear wrapping a bit aside.
- Where do you think you're touching, you jackass?! You better pray I don't get down from here in time or I'll tell the prince all about this! Do you even know who I am?
- Who are you? said amused the prince.
- I am the prince's new courtesan so you better get me down from here before he'll throw you out at the infected.
- Which prince are you here for?
Seong moved his hand from the brim of her underwear down the line of her bum, between her thighs. He palmed her briefly as he started tugging on the rope of the waist of her dress.
- The tyrant, yelled at her! Get your hand off!
- How could I, when you tighten it between your legs? I'm just trying to help you, but if you don't need my help…
He removed his hand , but the rope of her waist moved just under her breasts. She lost her balance, her weight being hung by the stuck dress. She moved her legs frantically trying to get support on whatever surface she could. Sadly for her, she found balance again with her knees on the shoulders of the prince.
The embarrassing position could be described as rather intimate. Sun-Hi was now bent over with her knees on the prince's shoulders, her hands gripping the dress stuck on the wall. She lost her father's armor climbing the barrier so she was sitting in something resembling a poor nightgown. The bottom of the gown was trapped between two bricks, leaving her exposed from under the breasts down. She could feel the man's breathing on her bum. She would have rather been caught by the infected at this point.
In contrast to her, Seong was barely containing his laughter. This strange girl was sticking her bum in his face, so close that if he stuck out his tongue, he could taste her. He moved his hand under her, caressing briefly his way up from her low abdomen and tugged the rope all the way, causing the girl to fall. He catches her, but he thought he would have rather let her fall. His arm was wrapped under her voluptuous breasts and his face between her buttocks. He did not expect to feel that today.
- LET ME DOWN NOW!
He let the girl down carefully and analyzed her. Nothing more than a town girl. Not infected. There was a subtle scent of plants coming from her.
- I will have your head to feed to the infected! Just you wait until the prince hears about this!
- Oh, really? What is his name?
Sun-Hi barely hid her terror. She had no idea what the princes were called. He gazed upon the man in front of her. His armor seemed too expensive for him to be just a guard. He must have been the chief.
- Do you not know the name of your own employer?
Seong chuckled and made an excessive bow in front of her. He could at least enjoy toying with this girl. After all, wasn't she solving his eunuch problem?
- I did not expect any courtesan for His Highness today! Shall I escort you to him?
Sun-Hi fixed her hair, straightened her mostly ripped gown, and said in an assertive superior tone:
- You may!