Episode 1. The Regressor, Hwang Sangcheol.
* * *
“Waaah!”
A child was crying sorrowfully.
He looked to be around six years old. Snot had smeared thickly down his face where tears had flowed.
“Ajusshi!!”
Veins bulged on the child’s slender neck, as frail as his tiny body.
It was bright midday, but the city had become a wasteland; not a single intact place could be found.
Bodies with shattered skulls and severed necks reeked of rotting flesh, and from far away, bizarre, ear-splitting sounds never ceased.
Even so, the child’s gaze was fixed on only one place.
“Please…!”
Early December. The child knelt before a middle-aged man sprawled on the cold asphalt, bleeding out—a wretched sight.
“You have to get up!!”
The child desperately shook the man’s only remaining arm and cried out.
Despite the child’s pleas, the middle-aged man couldn’t muster any strength at all.
His coat, ragged like a dishrag, looked absurdly inadequate to protect him.
His side was horrifically torn, as if a chunk had been bitten out of a dumpling.
“Keugh… *cough*—!”
He too knew it was the end, so there were things he wanted to say to the child, but his body simply wouldn’t obey.
“Waaah…! Ajusshi! No! Don’t speak! Just… just….”
He had always hoped that, as always, the man would rest a bit and then spring up to protect him.
But this time… Ajusshi looked to be struggling too.
“……Ajusshi… I’m sorry. It’s all because of me….”
The child buried his face in the middle-aged man’s trembling thigh.
Knowing that Ajusshi would soon grow cold, perhaps he wanted to feel his warmth even a moment longer.
“Keuheup….”
Moved by the child’s small trembling, the man squeezed out his last strength and barely managed to lift his one remaining hand.
“……I-It’s… o-okay.”
The moment he opened his mouth with difficulty, tears poured out in a flood.
With his large, dirty right hand—the only one he had—he stroked the child’s head a few times.
How long the child must have cried; his head was warm. To think he had to close his eyes and leave such a kid alone….
If only even a little strength had remained in him; he would have taken the child left alone in this world by his own hand, no matter what….
It was hateful.
The god he hadn’t believed in before.
The world.
Those damned zombie bastards.
And those fucking awful adult bastards who were even worse than them.
“Sorry… that I couldn’t go… with you to Seoul….”
“Hueeeeng!”
It was a will spoken with every last ounce of his strength. The man was smiling as he cried.
As if savoring the difficult journey one last time. The roughly three months spent with the child.
The twists and turns of that time flashed before his eyes like a passing lantern show.
Soon, the man dropped his head, his tears quickly turning cold.
“Ajusshi!!!”
The child screamed until his voice choked, but the man had already breathed his last.
* * *
Three months ago.
Busan 00 Police Station.
Investigation Division. Team 1 Office.
It was early September, so the weather was still hot, but because of the chaos outside and the need to conserve electricity, the air conditioner was naturally turned off.
They had barely managed to stop the zombie outbreak from outside, but with no knowing when things might blow up again, the government had begun shutting down nuclear power plants preemptively and sequentially, just in case.
Thus, the inside of the police station was no different from a steam bath.
“They’ve shut everything down outside and it’s total chaos, yet he’s making the police station his own living room?”
A middle-aged detective who had just returned from field duty grumbled with an annoyed face.
“Hey, Hyeondong. How long has that bastard been like that?”
In the direction the detective pointed, a man who looked to be in his late forties was fast asleep on a corner sofa, dead drunk.
This was no neighborhood police box, but a large precinct managing an entire district. The veteran middle-aged detective couldn’t stand the sight of the drunkard.
“The chief gave strict orders. He told us to keep that man here and not let him go anywhere. He’s being transferred here from Namcheon-dong as we speak.”
Detective Kim Hyeondong wasn’t happy about it either, but since it was an order from his superior, he couldn’t exactly throw him in a detention cell.
Strictly speaking, he was a criminal who had illegally entered an unoccupied restaurant and helped himself to alcohol and food.
“Keep him here? Good grief, that’s absurd. What’s the chief’s relationship with that bastard anyway? Anyone can see he’s a washed-up gangster. Hey, Hyeondong. So what does that man do? What’s his history?”
The middle-aged detective still didn’t like the drunkard. He was simply curious about what kind of man he was.
“One moment. I was just looking into it. Let’s see….”
At Detective Kim’s words, the senior detective quickly approached the monitor.
“Name is Hwang Sangcheol. Looking at this… wow… this guy is no joke?”
“What. He was released yesterday? Crazy, he pulled this shit right after getting out?”
The middle-aged detective’s brow furrowed even deeper as he turned toward the sleeping drunk.
Hwang Sangcheol. 48 years old.
181cm, 84kg.
Released after completing a 15-year sentence at 00 Correctional Facility.
. . .
A long record of past information.
The senior detective clicked his tongue as he alternated his gaze between Hwang Sangcheol and the monitor. Then he tilted his head as if something suddenly came to mind.
“This thug wasn’t just any ordinary thug, was he? Wait… Ah, now I remember.”
“You knew him?”
“I couldn’t quite remember the name, but seeing his cases jogged my memory. That man… back in the day, he made waves across the nation, never mind Busan. But how did a man like that end up like this?”
Perhaps because he now knew who Hwang Sangcheol was, a fleeting trace of sympathy crossed the middle-aged detective’s face.
“That arm… did it happen in there?”
The man was missing the lower half of one arm from the elbow down. It was impossible to know how it had happened, but the sight of him utterly plastered, lying in the corner of the police station sofa, was rather pitiful.
“Well, he was a thug in the thick of it… it couldn’t have been easy. Probably got cut off or something.”
He probably had a story, but it wasn’t his place to know.
“By the way, today is our last day on duty too, right? What are you going to do, Hyeondong? Did your family move already?”
Because of the damned zombie virus that started at the airport and port and caused utter chaos, the entire city was now under lockdown with soldiers mobilizing.
“My family has already gone to the safe zone. I need to finish up by escorting the conscripted officers and the detainees here.”
“Good. Well… that’s good for you. I don’t have any family, myself. We can be thankful that the shitstorm started abroad first, giving us time to prepare.”
“Tell me about it. I really thought the world would go to hell like in a zombie movie.”
His expression naturally scrunched up and a bitter taste filled his mouth, but it was still a relief.
Wasn’t the very fact that they could grumble like this proof that they were alive and breathing?
No one knew exactly which country the zombies first appeared in, but about a week ago, they had begun spreading rapidly across the world almost simultaneously.
It started in America, Russia, and Europe, but then signs appeared in Japan and China just yesterday as well.
The South Korean government, with its feet to the fire, had quickly blocked the airports and ports, but infections had occurred at both locations.
Still, from what they heard, the situations had been safely resolved.
Perfect exterminations had been carried out, inspections conducted thoroughly, and as a precaution, personnel within the sealed zones were divided and controlled separately.
“Still… who knows what’ll happen after we get to the safe zone.”
They seemed to have overcome the worst crisis for now, but there were still many problems to solve. With everyone isolated within South Korea now, how would they control and manage so many people?
Perhaps it was a blessing that the families of the military and police officers suffering on the front lines were prioritized for placement in the safe zones.
“Well… won’t it work out? It seemed like you had to get bitten like in those movies. Firearms have already been distributed, so nothing big will happen.”
Detective Kim, realizing what was weighing on his senior’s mind, also chose to think positively. There was almost nowhere to run anyway.
Perhaps South Korea was one of the safer places on Earth right now.
But as expected. There was a problem even bigger than the zombies.
“But still… it’s an era where no one can have children. Honestly, even without zombies, so what? Humanity will go extinct in less than a hundred years.”
“Well, that’s….”
A disaster that began over ten years ago. Humanity had ceased reproducing.
Without exception, East and West, all humans had become infertile. Sadly, the reason was unknown.
Just as the zombies were now swarming in abundance.
“Positive research results will come out….”
Detective Kim said with a bitter laugh, brushing it off. The senior detective also smacked his lips and changed the subject.
“Hyeondong, how long has it been since you fired a gun?”
“Me… Hm?”
As Detective Kim turned his gaze toward the sofa while speaking, Hwang Sangcheol, who had been sleeping like the dead until now, was rising.
The senior detective approached Hwang Sangcheol upon seeing this.
“Mr. Hwang Sangcheol! Are you awake?”
“Ugh… sorry… *cough* *cough*.”
Hwang Sangcheol held his forehead as if a headache was crashing in, coughing continuously.
After coughing a few more times, Hwang Sangcheol finally began vomiting.
“Uweehk!”
“Hey! Look at you!”
“Goodness!”
Both detectives looked utterly fed up. The senior detective shook his head and stepped back.
“Sigh, Hyeondong. Clean that up. I’ll go get a towel and some water.”
“Ugh… the smell. Understood.”
The senior detective left. Detective Kim furrowed his face deeply and got up from his chair to fetch a mop and deodorizer.
And Hwang Sangcheol, who had just woken up, looked around frantically despite the hangover crashing into him.
“Keullek! Ugh… where is this place….”
His head felt like it would split from the hangover, and the smell was awful thanks to his recent vomit.
It was absurd, but these were surely things one could only feel while alive.
On top of that, there was a sense of déjà vu.
“Hey! Are you coming to your senses?”
“……What. I’m alive right now?”
Everyone frowned because he had thrown up inside the police station, but Hwang Sangcheol had every reason to be out of it.
“Excuse me, Mr. Hwang Sangcheol!”
Beside him, Detective Kim Hyeondong called his name while holding his nose, but Hwang Sangcheol didn’t listen in the slightest.
He merely blinked his eyes over and over with a face that said he couldn’t understand.
“Surely… is this something you experience when you die? Is this… right?”
Detective Kim looked at Hwang Sangcheol, who kept spouting nonsense, with an incredulous expression.
“He’s still drunk. Still drunk.”
Regardless.
Hwang Sangcheol was frantic.
Hangover and vomit stench. His only remaining right hand.
Hwang Sangcheol touched his face with that hand and patted down various parts of his body.
“What? Was it all a dream? No… no. Wait.”
The more he spoke, the clearer his mind became.
“Fuck! What the hell is this!”
The more he thought, the more his doubts turned to conviction.
“Surely… did I come back to that day?”
The clothes he was wearing and the smell wafting off them.
And the young detective holding a mop, tissue, and deodorizer with a rotten expression on top of it all.
That day came to mind.
The very day when all hell broke loose three months ago.