A Meaningful Sacrifice || All of Us Are Dead

19. The Other Hyosan Girl

"If you don't know yet, you and your classmates are scheduled to leave the camp next Friday."

This stops Joonyeong in his tracks.

"W-we are?"

Dr. Moon turns to him.

"Yes. I received word this morning. I'm not sure when they were planning to tell you, but in case they take too long, I wanted to let you know. You can tell your friends if you want."

Joonyeong nods, suddenly feeling dazed.

"If you want to know why you're leaving, I'd be the wrong person to ask," she continues, somehow gleaning the contents of Joonyeong's thoughts. "I'm not sure why they want you to leave so soon. There's no logical reason I can think of."

"So...it's just us? No one else?"

"To my knowledge, your school was the only one the military rescued survivors from before they bombed the city." Dr. Moon's face turns slightly gray. "They left everyone else to die."

She continues forward, and Joonyeong follows her lead. He never had particularly kind thoughts when it came to Dr. Moon, dismissing her as yet another one of them who truly didn't care nor understand their plight. But it seems, telling from what she revealed just now, that she does care–-at least a little. She's not completely heartless. While this wouldn't have changed Joonyeong's opinion of her had they met before the outbreak, said opinion has changed now. Perhaps because he now has so few adults to rely on, he clings onto whoever he can. After all, people like Lieutenant Song only come around once in a blue moon. They're painfully rare, even without a zombie apocalypse driving them forward.

After rounding another corner, Joonyeong starts getting impatient. Just how big is this prison?

"Not much longer now," murmurs Dr. Moon. "And...here we are."

The pair stops at a lone cell. The rest of the cells are either abandoned or too uninhabitable for a person to occupy. Joonyeong's eyebrows crease together as Dr. Moon fishes out some keys and unlocks the door.

In that second, Joonyeong's stomach lurches a bit, vividly feeling both the fear and disgust at the sight before him.

"What...what is that?"

In the corner of the tiny room, a heap of limbs and hair lay tangled together, the entire form resembling a sort of blob. He can make out a pair of lips, and perhaps there's a bit of skin, too. But the state of this person is...horrendous. Grisly. Not to mention that they look no older than eighteen, which is how old Joonyeong will be in a little over two weeks. What's the strangest is that they're wearing the classic Hyosan High skirt.

He backs away instinctively when the heap stirs, the limbs untangling and hair lifting from the ground. And now, he knows for sure it's a girl, but she's so malnourished that she barely looks human, let alone feminine. Her hair straggles down her shoulders, reaching just past her elbows, and it's matted to the point that shaving it off would be the only answer. Her eyes, which he can barely see through her hair, have a wild, hazy look. Her body trembles, but at the same time, she's clearly trying to stay strong.

"Allow me to introduce you to a classmate of yours," whispers Dr. Moon.

Joonyeong snaps his head to the doctor, his jaw going slack. He then turns his head back to the girl in front of him. She cowers in the corner, looking painfully small as she stares at the pair of them like a frightened animal.

"What's her name?"

Dr. Moon's expression grows solemn.

"Min Eunji."