Chasing Liberty // Countryhumans North Korea fanfiction

Stripped Away

    Hamhung had fallen.

     Taking Wonsan had put the enemy within only a day’s march, though they didn’t reach the city until several of them later, thanks to the brave harassing actions of the retreating KPA units. As the soldiers streamed into the city alongside refugees, SH had desperately asked them for news on Kangwon. Not his location or what he was doing, but just if he was okay.

     No one had any clue. The most heartening thing she got was that he had been helping transport wounded soldiers before the attack.

    The refugees she sent on north, away from the receding front line that could no longer quite be called that, while the soldiers she kept, turning them on the enemy at their heels.

     Nestled in a valley between two high ridges, with the river blocking access from the south, Hamhung was in a naturally defensible position. SH had done her best directing artillery to be set on the hills, blockading roads, and destroying the bridge when the enemy army had come almost within range.

    None of it was enough. And now she was hidden in the home of one of her people like a fugitive. Their civilians had been smuggling them from house to house under the noses of the puppet army, their ranks reinforced with conscripts and their strings once more firmly in the hands of the American army.

     “When do we make our move, Commander?” Bang Eul-sik whispered from where they were crouched in the kitchen of a woman whose face SH hadn’t allowed herself to see. His hands were covered with red liquid as he smeared a mix of spices between layers of cabbage for kimchi.

     “Once night comes.” Kim Kwon-chol said. He had replaced Keum Kyung-guk as platoon commander after the latter’s death in the initial attack. “Are the other units in position?”

    Their scout- a boy from the Democratic Youth League- nodded. “They’re just waiting for the word, sir. Comrade sir.”

    Kim Kwon-chol sucked on his cigarette, nodding as he exhaled. “Alright. We’ll help the militia out with this raid, capture them a few prime spots, then we’ll head for the hills.”

     SH- his acting platoon sergeant- nodded. “Sounds good.”

    The man pursed his lips at her. “Sure you won’t come with us when we go, Comrade SH?”

    She shook her head. “My leg still isn’t healed right. I’d only slow you down. You need to move fast if you want to outpace them in the mountains. I’ll do more good here, organizing the resistance.”

     The man chewed on that for a moment, along with the end of his smoke. “I still don’t like it. With what you said about the Southern half being able to control you… It’s a risk.”

     “I’ve already instructed our comrades in the Party and Committee not to tell me anything important,” SH reassured him, placing her finished kimchi in the crock.

    He clicked his tongue. “Not worried about the risk of it. Worried about you getting your mind stolen or whatever weird thing would happen. Not right, that.”

    One of the nurses from the local hospital shook her head in agreement. She had joined with them after the puppet army had stormed the temporary hospital to kill the wounded soldiers there. Now she tended the injured in their platoon.

    “Yesterday was too close,” she said, a hand over her heart. “And terrifying.”

    South Hamgyong had been embroiled in a skirmish to defend said hospital when the city’s broadcasting system had suddenly squealed to life, a hesitant voice calling, “South Hamgyong?” over it.