Chasing Liberty // Countryhumans North Korea fanfiction

Questions of Command

   North made his way back from the frontline, which was stubbornly maintaining its position a few hundred yards down the road from Obong-ri Ridge and the hill they had been pushed back to. His skin prickled, not solely from the burns, even as his provinces were in high cheer, both from the five year anniversary of their freedom from Japan, and at who awaited them in the small village at the far foot of the hill.

   As they approached the wooden huts, Hae cried, “There they are!” and tore off, sprinting past the defenses, heading for the man and woman conferring with one of their non-commissioned officers.

   “Gyeong! Sang!”

    North and South Gyeongsang barely had time to brace themselves before their cousin slammed into them, knocking them back from the NCO, who watched with a bemused look.

    “Scouts found them on the opposite side of the river,” he reported to North. “They surrendered themselves and their weapons willingly, though we haven’t received word that we’ve captured Taegu yet.”

    That matched what the runner had told him at the battlezone.

    North nodded, irritation growing at the reminder of what was happening in Taegu. “I’ll take it from here, comrade. Dismissed.”

    Meanwhile, his provinces were greeting the two new arrivals with great enthusiasm, especially South Gyeongsang.

    “South Gyeongsang-dongji!” South Pyongan exclaimed, slinging an arm around her shoulder. “It’s sooooo good to see you again. Have I ever told you you’re my favourite cousin?”

    “We have missed you quite a bit, comrade,” Hwang heartily agreed.

    The white-skinned province giggled. “Can I take it you’ve been living off of camp-cooking and kimchi?”

   “SH has been trying to poison us.”

    SH looked away primly. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

     Sang patted her on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, comrade. Once the war is over, I’ll have plenty of time to teach you how to cook.”

    North noted with irritation that SH’s eyes brightened at that. As if she didn’t have more important things to do once they had won.

     “Dismissed, all of you,” he ordered, striding forwards. “I need to debrief them.”

    “We missed you, too,” North Gyeongsang said, and he briefly tolerated a hug from both of them.

    The male Gyeongsang was the taller of the two, with red skin, a white outline, and a small chip on his front tooth that made him lisp slightly. His sister had an orange pattern on white skin, and despite her feminine appearance, was stocky from years of working on a landlord’s farm, followed by decades of guerilla warfare.

   “Alright, that’s enough.” North shook them off. “What’s the situation in Taegu?”

    There was some new news, such as a confirmation of where the villagers had been vanishing to. His source in Busan had informed him that many of those in ‘left-leaning’ villages around the Perimeter had been rounded up and shipped to islands off the coast of the city. Gyeong and Sang informed him they had run into civilians that had managed to avoid being captured who confirmed this.

   At least they weren’t all dead, though it didn’t change the number of graves they had seen on the way here.

    Aside from that, his interrogation earned him mostly old information. When the two had left Taegu, it had been the eleventh, and the 3rd Division had just been driven back across the river.