I'm still alive

Oh! He's so frustrating!’

Yong-pal starts to run around next to the depressed man. How frustrating it was that his face turned red, and his mouth was filled with wild eloquence. If Du-sik hadn't stopped him in the middle, he would have been running from place to place in the playground earlier. But I was empathizing with Yongpal's words. Because this man, called the teacher, was too nice.

'There are still students there. I'll teach you how to......... could you save me?’

Seeing how he talks, the group that abandoned him seems to include his disciples. Yes, I like being nice and caring for my students. But, what? Discipline? This man had to know that the ruined world was different from the past. I was going to tell you the terrible and cold reality, but I had to shut my mouth because of his expression, which seemed to put everything down for somehow.

'I should have had a teacher like you when I was a student, right?'

However, the old man who was walking behind me was not delicate enough to be considerate of strangers. The old man uttered vitriolic remarks and passed us with his whole body, expressing the message, 'I am dumbfounded, angry!' In front of such an old man, the man lowers his head and squeezes his voice as if he is making his last defense.

Good students......... because you hang out with bad people...….’

But I wasn't sure about that word. This man has a vain hope that he may just be. No, maybe the position of a teacher instilled obsessive compulsion in a man. As if I had a good child's disease, the pressure to be a good teacher floated over his shoulders. I sighed and the old man sniffles.

'Did they hesitate once when they abandoned you?’

The man couldn't answer, and the women and children following me heavily drop their heads. "It's useless." "It's a parasite that eats." Perhaps they've lived by hearing these words. In front of a man who couldn't answer, the old man began to walk ahead without saying anything, as if he knew he would, and I had to look at the faces of the survivors for a while before I was forced to order the move.

'Return to Eden.’

The word was a silent order not to rescue the people in the gym. Contradictive and hypocritical? No, I'm going to keep it firmly organized for my values. I've seen so dirty people, and I've seen victims who are being hurt by them. I am not almighty enough to discuss the weight of life, nor am I good enough to endlessly show mercy. Therefore, we conclude. I will not save them for me and us, and for those who will live in the future generations to come.

Guilt makes a breath of meat human. Only the guilt that strains and monsters don't have is what makes us human. But the survivors in the gym gave up their guilt. And he locked himself in a fence like a beast, and he simply became an organism that eats and wraps. I'm not ideal, I'm so realistic. That is why this hypocrisy is not cleared up.

They at least had to be able to carry on the karma they had done. If you give up on guilt, you should not expect sympathy from others. 'Bark bark,' 'kunk,' bark like an animal. But don't ever talk like a human again. I acknowledge myself as I change, and I even realize this hypocrisy. I live today, and I'm the lighthouse to discuss these futile definitions.

'What are you doing, slow-witted? Dong-yoon wants to go!’

Some of my party hesitated for a moment to see a man wearing glasses. However, when the old man got angry at the lead, he finally came to his senses and began to form ranks. Fifteen rescued children, two adult men and women. You have to take as many as 17 people to Eden safely. A situation that might be a little dangerous, I asked the Yong-pal brothers who walked behind me.

"Dooshik, did you bring it?’

We caught a total of two strains in this area. One is a white guy with a scary protective color and a school monster caught inside the school. I told the Yongpal brothers to never forget the body.

The Yongpal brothers, who faithfully followed my instructions, each of them carried the body in a sack found inside the school while the group and survivors took a break for a while. I nodded as I checked the bodies of the dead. It looked a little heavy, but with Du-sik there was nothing to worry about.

'Good job.'

'Uh!'

When I complimented with a smile, Du-sik answered energetically. Yong-pal, who was watching it from the side, kicked Do-sik's butt, asking why he spoke informally to his older brother, but Do-sik scratched his back head with his face, saying, "What's the use of informal language and "What's the honorifics?" It made me smile naturally when I saw such a figure like that. I smiled cheerfully and hastened my steps to Eden.

There are only a few scientists in Eden who study strains. They are still working hard to collect samples and make something. I didn't expect much, but I wanted to be of any help to them who continued their research. I intend to bring them the bodies of mutants we've dealt with.

And in fact... .... There's a little different reason, and that's what I'm doing right now.

I purposely turned around the school and walked to the vacant lot where they existed. Then he told his people to load their guns and began to attract the attention of the men in front of him. Their relationship with the strain is very strange. They are like monsters, but they don't help each other. And sometimes mutants attack them, and they run away from it.

Lion and hyena, just like that.

Is the strain a higher body? Are they afraid of mutants? I put the body of the strain we killed in front of me and waited for their reaction. But they didn't run like crazy as usual. What is it? You're hesitating. The hesitant ones looked at us for a moment, then stumbled and began to run away in the distance. It was like a dog with a drooping tail, and I burst out laughing. The hypothesis became true, and it worked better than I thought.

Are you smelling it or are you feeling it? They were afraid of the strain itself and even the dead body. The old man looked down at the mutant's body with an interesting face, and I cherished the mutant's body, which worked well enough. Today we've got the results of saving survivors, but we've got more than that.

How long will the effect last?’

The old man murmured beside me. Right, the question is how long is the deadline? The mutants had already lost their breath, and now they were telling their whole body that they were dead, smelling disgusting. Just as the scent disappears after a while no matter how much air freshener is sprayed, their body odor and presence will disappear naturally over time. But it wasn't a matter for us to think about.

Just as the silencer came out when you changed Gongdol, something will come out when you replace a scientist. Me and the old man gave up our troubles neatly, and secretly laughed. And let the Yongpal brothers pick up the precious sample to take care of the scientists, and once again took a step towards Eden.

* * *

'Excuse me......'

It took longer than I thought to conduct an experiment with a mutant. But now that they didn't have to avoid them, they were able to move with only a little alertness, so they didn't run out of time. Walking with composure, a woman who was taking care of the children from afar spoke to me. The attitude was so cautious that I turned my eyes toward her in a daze.

'What?'

She asked me as she answered.

What kind of place is Eden?’

I had my hat fixed and scratched my back of the head. Because I felt unfamiliar with the question I heard after a long time. What the woman asked was a question that any survivor we rescued would ask. However, as time went by, the question was more often asked to the people around him than to me. This is because it is rare for survivors, most of whom have been fed up, to ask such questions to the leader of the rescue team. It's pretty bold to use an old man's expression. Of course I didn't mean to think so.

The company's expression is getting worse. It was like the reaction of senior citizens who saw the second-class soldier who was hit by the accident. Kim Hye-jung ran this way to answer for me, but I raised my hand to block access. Am I that difficult? I thought I was kind, but I'm sad. I never felt offended by her asking directly. No, rather, I was very proud of her approaching me with this courage.

Such a question is a matter of course. It was a very desirable attitude to worry about the future ahead for yourself, or for the children behind you. What kind of place is Eden? I had to make an objective assessment of Eden, where bad and good memories coexist. But around my lack of words, I couldn't think of a suitable word to explain to her.

'It's all right, you'll find out when you go.’

Yeah, this should be enough. Eden is a place where people live, and everywhere they live, it's the same. But in the end of the world, Eden was the only place where people lived, and it was a better place than I thought. I looked at her with my own clear eyes, hoping she would understand what I meant. But contrary to my intentions, her face grew pale.

'Hey, hey. Come with me. I'll tell you everything...….’

Kim Hye-jung quietly interrupts and grabs her shoulder. Why are you stammering? Kim Hye-jung led her to escape from the back of the formation where I was invisible. I stared blankly at the girls who were running away because I couldn't read the English. But at that moment the fire flashed before my eyes, and the sound of someone hitting the back of my head rang out.

And looking back, the old man was smiling with his hands up. Did Yongpal always get hit like this? It hurts a lot when I get hit. I looked at the old man with a face, "Why are you hitting me?" touching his pungent back head. Then the old man raises the corners of his mouth and says with a smile.

'My boss, have you been intimidating civilians today?’

'What?'

Detective Kang! Get him!’

What? What about Detective Kang?’

Detective Kang ran quickly and crossed my arms and had to walk 100 meters together like that. I'm sure I know the party, but I'm the only one who doesn't. I was so frustrated that I couldn't say anything to the old man. We walked along the road with such a hahaha laugh, and only I couldn't laugh.

* * *

'Let's take a break here.’

Most of the survivors were children, so the speed of movement was very slow. The children were walking fast, looking around, but how fast would they walk even if they were busy with those short legs? You get tired and hurt easily because of poor nutrition. So I asked them not to overdo it and set the speed of the group very slowly.

There were times when I moved like Chae-yeon before. Walk with your breath or run away from them. Chae-yeon was easily exhausted, but she didn't like to be carried on her back or hugged because she felt sorry for me. Looking back on the memories of that time, I began to calculate how long the children had to walk and rest. I distributed travel time and rest time properly, and I helped the children cheer up by releasing snacks in spare moments.

We gathered together like penguins and sat down. Divide body temperature with each other, and block the strong biting wind. It's ear-deeply cold, but it's less cold because it's so tight. I slowly loosened the muscles of my legs tired of walking, looking one by one at a time at a party that wouldn't fall close to me. The school we left was long gone.

These kids will go back to school, right? I might be Chae-yeon's friend. I was going to hand out the food stamps piled up in the corner of the office to help these people adjust well in Eden. Of course, it has never been missed, but the survivors have been particularly attentive. I spat out my breath as I looked at the depressed. But at that moment the old man pulled me.

'Someone's approaching.’

I woke up in surprise, and grabbed the gun I had parked next to me. They don't approach us because of the mutant bodies we have. And the chances of variants being present were very low because they were deliberately circling around. Then the approach is narrowed down to only one thing.

Another survivor.

When I jumped to my feet, the party also automatically took up arms, and began to look around and guard. The survivors were hidden next to the car and were unable to adjust to the sudden situation. The old man gave me the telescope he was looking at, and I quickly grabbed it and turned my eyes to the direction the old man pointed at.

There was a group of survivors walking the same way we had passed. A group of survivors, mostly adult men and women, were carrying a lot of things, and they all looked fine. However, the lack of weapons showed that they were not used to walking around the streets. And the direction they came through......, it was definitely on its way to school.

How dare you tail me? The old man spat on the floor, and I lowered the telescope slowly.