Side Story 2: Stories of Russia (2)

Side Story 2: Stories of Russia (2)

In the corner of the greenhouse, behind a mysterious tree, I saw a woman holding an iron pipe.

As soon as she saw me, her eyes widened and she swung her iron pipe.

Grasp!

I grabbed the iron pipe flying toward my temples with my right hand, then grabbed the woman by the collar and pushed her down.

“Stop!” yelled​​ Tommy urgently as he ran toward us. I looked back at him as I calmed myself down, and my eyes went back to normal.

“El... Elena?” Tommy stuttered, looking utterly surprised.

Elena shared his surprise. “Tommy?”

I took a closer look at her, and noticed that this woman named Elena had a coat on. Even though her gown was stained with coppery bloodstains from the zombies, I could tell that she was a researcher. I knew because Tommy and Alyosha had worn the same sort of coats when I first met them.

Tommy approached me cautiously.

“Calm down,” he said. “She’s not an enemy.”

"That's for me to judge."

“No, let me make the judgment. Please let go of her.”nove(lb/In

“...?”

I frowned at Tommy, and he gulped.

“We have to at least give her a chance to explain,” he said. “Please, let go of her for now. Please.”

Instead of answering, I looked at the woman’s face. She was nervous and breathing heavily. For some reason, though, her human flesh smelled sweet to me. Perhaps it was because her heart was beating violently.

I frowned and let go of Elena. She crawled across the floor like a cockroach to the corner of the greenhouse and then looked warily back and forth between Tommy and me.

Tommy slowly moved toward her with both of his arms raised as he gestured to her to calm down as well. It seemed like Elena had an English background, since the two of them started talking in English. Unlike my complete ignorance of Russian, I could at least say a couple of things in English.

However, she babbled on and on because she was terrified, which made it hard for me to understand what she was saying. The only words I could hear clearly were all swear words. Tommy approached Elena in a non-threatening manner and spoke in a soft, calm voice, as if he was pacifying a crying child.

Suddenly, Elena’s eyes flew wide open, and she started swinging the iron pipe all over the place. She screamed vulgarities so fiercely that the veins in her neck seemed about to burst. She looked like a cornered animal letting out a final death cry, trying to fight back.

When I tried to intervene, Tommy shouted and stopped me from getting any closer.

Tommy spoke to Elena in a calm, subdued voice. “Calm down Elena. I'm here. You can calm down now.”

“What’s that zombie behind you? How are you with a zombie? Was your research successful? What about the vaccine? What about the cure? What’s going on outside?”

“Calm down. I’ll explain everything. So put down the pipe and listen to me.”

"No. Get rid of the zombie behind you.”

Tommy bit his lower lip and turned to me with a troubled look.

“Mr. Lee Hyun-Deok, could you step outside for a moment?”

“No. I don’t know what she’s going to do, so I don’t think that’s going to be possible.”

“She’s just in shock. She’s been stuck here for two full months. By herself.”

“...”

I didn’t feel comfortable leaving Tommy alone. I had absolutely no clue what that mad woman would do to Tommy. However, as I looked at Tommy... I just couldn’t attack the woman. He was looking at Elena with eyes full of pity. I wondered if it was because of the camaraderie they’d developed by devoting their lives to vaccine research together. Or perhaps there was some kind of kinship that I didn’t understand.

I clicked my tongue.

“I’ll wait for you at the entrance,” I said. “If she happens to cause any trouble... Let her know that I’ll kill her without remorse. Make sure she knows.”

“Thank you...”

Tommy gave a small nod and started talking to Elena. I walked toward the entrance, eavesdropping on their conversation. The two of them began to discuss me. After he explained everything to her, I heard her crying. She seemed to have developed a habit of crying quietly, and hearing her crying made me feel sad and bitter.

I couldn’t tell if she was crying because she was relieved at the fact that she was alive, or because she missed human interaction.

She continued to cry for a long while, even after they were done talking.

* * *

A couple of hours later, Elena approached me as she wiped away her tears.

“My apologies for what happened earlier.”

“It’s alright.”

"So... You’re a person, right?”

“Regarding meals, only Tommy, Alyosha, you, and Mr. Choi Kang-Hyun will have to eat.”

"Why? Aren’t you guys eating?”

“We can’t.”

“Then what do you eat?”

“We eat brains...”

I was nervous that she would freak out again, just moments after regaining her stability. To my surprise, however, her eyes glowed with curiosity, and her voice took on a spark of enthusiasm.

“How is that possible?” she asked.

“I’m not sure myself.”

“If you don’t mind, could I cut open your abdomen?”

"Pardon?"

“I thought you said you’ll regenerate anyway? At least that’s what Tommy told me. Am I wrong?”

“He’s not wrong, but if you ask something like that out of the blue...”

“It was a joke, a joke. Haha!"

Elena wasn’t the one that was taken aback. It was me. I had a hard time understanding how asking to cut someone’s abdomen open in front of others could be a joke. I didn’t know what to say, because her behavior now was so different from the way she’d been acting at the greenhouse.

I stared stupidly at her, and Tommy smirked.

“I told you, didn’t I?” He said. “She’s just like Alyosha.”

“Oh...”

No wonder Tommy said that the two of them got along so well. I guess she wasn’t crazy, just totally into her research.

Still in shock, I shook my head, came back to my senses, and looked at Tommy.

“We’re going to head outside and check on the solar panels first. Let me know if you need anything after you’re done eating.”

"All right."

I asked Kim Dae-Young to stay and protect the others while I led the others out and headed to where the solar panels were installed. As soon as Jeong Jin-Yong left the lab, he said that he’d go check on the zombie camp, and headed to the dormitory. That left me, Kim Hyeong-Jun, and Do Han-Sol to examine the solar panels.

Countless solar panels had been erected across a small field. Kim Hyeong-Jun clicked his tongue as he looked at the solar panels.

“It’s going to take forever to check all of them.”

“We don’t sleep at night anyway. Let’s not rush it.”

Before leaving Jeju Island, we’d taken a month-long crash course on solar panels and batteries with Kwak Dong-Won, the leader of the facilities management team. Even though we weren’t professionals and probably couldn’t get the job as neatly done as one, we were at least able to identify any issues.

Do Han-Sol shrugged his sore shoulders.

“It’s rather nice to have something to do,” he said. “Shall we stop chatting and get to work?”

"Ugh... I’d rather beat up zombies,” grumbled Kim Hyeong-Jun as he followed Do Han-Sol. He always complained copiously about everything, but he also handled everything meticulously. I couldn’t help but smile as I looked at the two of them bickering as they examined the solar panels.

I took a deep breath and got myself together as well. I wanted to push away the regrets I had about what had happened in Korea and do something to prepare for the future. I knew there had to be something I could do here to help that wasn’t related to beating up zombies. I had to find something to help with, and not be a burden to the others.

After reminding myself of what I wanted to achieve while I was here, I walked over to Kim Hyeong-Jun and Do Han-Sol.

* * *

It took us a good two weeks to examine all the solar panels. It would’ve taken just a couple of hours to take care of thousands of zombies, but when it came to machines, it wasn’t as easy. Whenever we encountered a problem, we had to figure out why there was a problem, consider the problem carefully, and work through it until we figured it out.

We welded and repaired broken panels in the building that the Russian soldiers used to use as a garage. It was also difficult to make sure that we’d fixed them correctly. At one point, I really wished that we’d brought Kwak Dong-Won along.

Still, thanks to everyone's hard work, we repaired all the defective solar panels in a span of two weeks. The remaining solar panels that still had issues were not functioning properly due to the heavy snowfall. We were fortunate enough that we could easily take care of the issues, since they did not relate to either the energy conduction or the state of the batteries.

When we got back to the lab after finishing our work, I saw Kim Dae-Young looking somewhat uncomfortable. It seemed like he couldn't stand still. I titled my head and looked at him.

“What’s wrong? Are you sick?" I asked.

“Please... please tie me up.”

“...?”

That was an unexpected request, and I looked him up and down. But then, one specific thought crossed my mind. I realized that Kim Dae-Young hadn’t consumed an enemy brain in a long time.

"Don't tell me that you’re...”

He was breathing heavily, and his pupils were constricted like a cat’s.

The zombie instinct inside him was taking over his mind.