Red Dot - 81

Hanseo’s lips slowly curved up into an elegant line.

“I can’t save you, sir.”

Not just him, but no one could save him once infected by the virus.

There was no way other than death once the virus invaded.

There was no cure for it anywhere.

Even the pig-like researchers filling this laboratory haven’t been able to create one yet.

“There is no cure.”

“Lies…!”

The man raised his voice in agitation, spitting out blood.

“You said…there was a cure… That you were making my share… Just hold on a little longer you said…!”

The man spoke with difficulty, reeking of blood.

In fact, it was harder for Hanseo to listen to him than for the man to speak.

Like a mayfly struggling not to let go of the hopeless thread, flowing down the waterway toward the sewer.

Hanseo knew very well why not just this man, but all those consumed by the virus were being neglected like this.

They were observing how long it took for the virus to kill its host. To make the hosts mentally endure that, they gave them false hope that the cure was already ‘complete.’

Vicious humans.

But he didn’t feel pity for the man. Rather, he only felt contempt and disgust towards his foolishness.

To the researchers, they were just one of many common test subjects.

A viscous stream of blood flowed down from the red membrane covering the man’s eyes. It was dark red like before, but slightly thinner.

“Ugh, uhh… Save me… Save me… Please save me…”

He pleaded again.

His grating, unwanted voice held lingering attachment.

Perhaps he knew as well.

That there was no cure.
That he would eventually become inhuman after being experimented on and dying here.

His blood was thickening to the point circulation was difficult, and parts of his body were twitching unnaturally. Blood accompanied by pain spurted from various parts of his head where it pooled, and he could feel the folds of his brain being filled in by clotting blood.

It was surely clear to everyone, not just the researchers who injected the virus, that there was no way to reverse a body already decaying like this.

A thin, long stream of bloody tears flowed endlessly from the man’s eyes.

“My wife… my kids… mom… dad…”

The sobbing cries of the man past 50 contained feeble calls to the family he likely hadn’t seen or cared for properly during his years of homelessness – calls filled with lingering attachment.

But I didn’t even have that.

Hanseo’s gaze gradually grew cold.

“If you die like this, you’ll become a monster.”

“Mon…ster…?”

The man swallowed the pooled blood in his mouth with difficulty and repeated in a trembling voice.

“You’ll become inhuman. What would you call something that moves despite being dead, if not a monster?”

“Is that… what… a zombie…?”

The man even managed a hollow laugh amid it all.

Zombie.
A living corpse seen only in movies and dramas.

The corners of Hanseo’s cold eyes curved down slightly in a mocking way toward the man.

“That’s right.”
It’s a very fitting word.

“If you die like this, sir, you’ll become a zombie.”

“No way…”

Bang!

Cutting off the man’s attempt to deny it, a loud noise came from the wall of the next room over. Followed by a sound so strange, it was hard to even imagine a human making it.

Kyaaaaaaah!

Like the roar of some nameless beast, or the sound of something thrashing as it’s forcibly dragged up from deep darkness.

The man’s blood-soaked face froze stiff upon hearing the unearthly scream. Unable to see properly through the red membrane except Hanseo right in front of him, he looked toward the wall the sound had come from.

The piercing scream, occasionally punctuated by gurgling like bubbling blood phlegm, and a chilling low moan.

The man knew who the homeless person taken to the next room was.

It was someone he had been inseparable with every day for the past 5 years since first becoming homeless. They were so close that even when other homeless people mocked them saying “Why do you two oldies stick together so much?”, they didn’t care at all, willing to share even the last drop of soju they managed to get.

It was the man who had recommended this research institute’s clinical trial and urged his friend to join him. The homeless man in the next room had seemed reluctant, but said he couldn’t leave his closest friend alone and packed his belongings to go together.

That former friend was now making sounds completely inhuman.

After watching the man’s face fall in despair, Hanseo silently approached the door. Through the slightly opened door, he could hear the urgent footsteps of flustered researchers’ voices.

“Of course it had to turn and cause a ruckus while soundly asleep.”

“4 hours 37 minutes… This one turned a bit faster than usual.”

“Everyone, quickly check what needs checking and smash its head to dispose of it. Put a muzzle on first so it can’t bite anyone, as it will try to infect anyone it sees due to instinct.”

“More than checking its corpse state, we need to take blood samples immediately. If it clots further in this state, testing will become difficult.”

The voices that flowed into the sealed room were all cold and harsh. The man had forgotten to even breathe roughly, intently listening to the sounds from outside.

“So now there’s only the C-9 test subject left in the next room?”

The man flinched and looked up. At the foot of the surgical sheet he was lying on was a coated nametag labeled ‘C-9’.

“Since it lasted the longest, that one is worth observing a bit more. It will die and turn soon enough, so put it in isolation room 8 when it does.”

“Understood.”

The voice of the lead researcher posing as Hanseo’s father, and a researcher obediently answering him.

Hanseo, who had been picturing his father’s cold, machine-like face, finally closed the door silently. In his turned hand was a foldable jackknife he had first thought he “wanted” when on the streets long ago.

With a soft click, Hanseo unfolded the sharp blade and approached the man.

The man’s face was already filled with only despair and emptiness.

While the next room grew louder with a ‘zombie’s’ screams and thrashing, this space they occupied was filled with only heavy, chilling silence.

“So I’ll… end up like that too…”

The man’s tone of resignation came out with a trickle of blood. Judging by the viscous quality and dark color, the man seemed about to breathe his last as well.

Not just Hanseo, but the man himself could probably guess his own fate.

With just a few minutes’ difference, for lasting the longest among this batch of test subjects, he would be dragged into a sealed isolation room. Already dead, yet turned into a mindless, scream-spewing monster zombie, condemned to be an experimental rat for who knows how long.

“Kill me…”

The man looked at Hanseo with eyes that couldn’t focus through the bloody membrane.

It wasn’t out of pessimism about his plight, but more like he couldn’t help the simmering rage within.

To get some small revenge against the researchers.
For the ignorant homeless people who agreed without knowing, and for his friend turned zombie.
And for himself.

He wished for death, not life.

“Help…me…”

Hanseo thought for the first time that the man’s red eyes were worth looking at.

He silently walked over and stood at the head of the bed, looking down at the man’s upside-down head.

Gripping the jackknife with both hands, Hanseo raised it high. The man smiled faintly after confirming the shape of the blade reflecting the ceiling light.

“This is what I came for from the start.”

Without hesitation, the sharp tip of Hanseo’s jackknife plunged into the man’s brow.

With a sickening crack, something shattered.

The bursting heat transmitted to his fingertips, the numb tingling in his hands, the warm blood that unknowingly splattered, and the fading breath.

It was strange.

The man’s fading warmth and breath traveled up the blade’s edge, caressing Hanseo’s chilled inner being. The tension and lingering heat that spread as he grasped the meaning of his own action mercilessly kneaded Hanseo’s previously cold mind.

‘What is this…?’

Engrossed in the warmth pervading his body, Hanseo looked down at his bloodstained hands and knife, exhaling deeply. The vivid red color and another’s expended heat began putting down peculiar roots within him.

His body started burning strangely.

He had killed (saved) someone for the first time.

That fact brought an odd euphoria to Hanseo.

A vibrant, warm color had been layered over the previously dark and pale space.

Especially that pretty red.

“Hah…haha…”

The trembling wouldn’t stop. His body felt like it was floating in the air and everything his eyes landed on looked good. In this rapturous state with excitement rising to his head, he felt he could cheerfully down even the bitterly vile experimental solutions in one gulp with a smile.

Then suddenly, the door burst open. It was his father, the lead researcher, who had entered.

“Hanseo, what are you doi-”

Before he could finish, his father’s face turned to shock as he realized what Hanseo had done. He then strode over and abruptly placed a hand on Hanseo’s neck to check his pulse as he asked,

“How do you feel?”

Hanseo had expected his father to be furious that he had killed a test subject on his own, but surprisingly, he didn’t seem too bothered. If anything, there was a hint of anticipation in his expression.

So without thinking, Hanseo answered honestly.

“Very…good.”

Even if he didn’t answer, the euphoric smile was already plastered on his face, revealing everything.

“It feels like my heart might burst.”

Proving Hanseo’s words, his breathing, flushed red from his face down to his neck, was rough as if extremely excited, and his pulse was racing excessively fast.

A euphoric smile resembling Hanseo’s gradually appeared on his father’s lips. He suddenly stuck his head out the door and called to the researchers outside.

“Prepare to take Hanseo’s data immediately!”

Without understanding what was happening, Hanseo had various instruments connected to his body to thoroughly check his condition, even undergoing blood sampling for testing. The warmth that had settled in his body gradually subsided during the examinations.

It didn’t take long for the test results to come out. In the meantime, Hanseo was quite surprised at how clear his mind had become, completely forgetting the frequent anemia and headaches he used to experience.

At one point, his father and all the other researchers looked at Hanseo with astonished eyes after reviewing the documents containing the test results.

Having grown up with a dopamine deficiency, Hanseo had regularly used psychostimulants just to reach the lowest average levels. Yet this time, without any drug dependence, he showed dopamine levels nearing an ‘excessive’ high.

As a result, there were also subtle changes in his blood’s immune system.

For the first time in a long while, Hanseo saw his father’s deeply satisfied and joyful expression.

“Want to kill a few more?”