Red Dot - 82

One, two, three, four…

He had long forgotten to keep counting the scattered red drops of blood around, as their heat exceeded that of ten people.

“An immune reaction has been confirmed!”

Even before the excitement of having just taken someone’s last breath could subside, Do Hanseo, in the middle of a blood draw, turned his head towards those distinctly piercing words.

“Even a small amount of blood injected in a temporary dopamine overload state is destroying the viral proteins. The blood that was merely defensive is finally…!”

The researcher could not contain their excited feelings.

Do Hanseo’s normal blood could only slow the virus’s proliferation. To use a human analogy, it was merely grabbing the hem to prevent further progress, stretching out arms to briefly obstruct the path before being flung aside, only slowing the pace.

However, the power of the blood in a temporary dopamine overload state was extraordinary.

It tore apart the proteins forming the outer shell one by one, sinking its teeth greedily into the exposed viscera, like the living corpse the virus desired.

It was the vaccine Do Hanseo’s father, mother, and all the researchers had hoped for.

His mind grew increasingly disturbed over time.

“Save me…!”

The usually cold thoughts were definitely pleasantly heated, but also became overly sensitive.

“I want out! Cancel the contract!”

Drawing his knife to kill (save) the infected test subjects awaiting death filled him with strange euphoria and anger, as cold as their inability to struggle.

“Save me! Please!”

All begging the same for life.

So alike.

None thinking to flee on their own or do anything.

‘I’ll help.’

They always told him to help others.

‘From now on, be free like me….’

-Don’t kid yourself.

Another voice in his head.
He burst into laughter at the sound.

The dopamine overload from extreme excitement risked inducing psychosis. Not quite delusions or hallucinations yet, but the voice he heard was an auditory hallucination he could not simply dismiss.

-Free? You?

He did not panic at this first-time auditory hallucination. Rather, he calmly listened with a serene expression, as if it was inevitable, casually wiping the blood off his knife with a handkerchief.

-Where are you right now?

‘Cell H-4 of Research Lab 2’s quarantine area for test subjects.’

Having just killed this area’s infected test subject owner, his nametag would change in a few hours and a new subject would take the space.

His calm inner response was met with a cold, mocking voice.

-See? You’re still at the ‘research institute.’

His hand wiping the blood stopped at the cutting remark.

-Your situation hasn’t changed at all.

He wanted to deny that.

He could freely go anywhere. He could attend school daily, his health being the sole interest that had his parents’ ready approval for kendo training. Recently, he could even voice opinions on the research to a certain degree of free expression.

Most of all, the researchers no longer called him a ‘test subject.’

Wasn’t this freedom enough? Completely different from the feeble other subjects injected with the virus while tied down, doomed to become zombies or die by his hand…!

-That’s all there is to it.

He was rendered speechless.

-You haven’t become free at all.

In the knife blade that did not lose its red hue despite being fully wiped, Do Hanseo’s pale eyes were reflected. Slowly, endlessly, they sank deeper inwards.

For the first time, he felt resentment.

Towards his real parents who had abandoned him.

Towards the fake parents who had only taken him in for his ‘blood.’

Towards the researchers participating for inconceivable dreams and achievements.

Towards the foolish vagrants who willingly entered this hellhole only to beg for their lives, doing nothing else.

But the one he should have resented the most was himself.

If he didn’t exist, this kind of inhumane research would never have happened.

‘…I could have thought that way.’

He let out a mocking laugh.

‘Why should I not have existed?’

The problem lies with those committing these rotten acts, doesn’t it?

“Agghh! Save me!”

The scream that used to come from the test subjects now burst from a researcher who just had his throat torn out.

Hanseo, sitting with his legs crossed while checking the research documents, looked down at him. Despite having a zombie torso clinging to his back being eaten alive, the man disgustingly crawled over.

“Han…seo, ughk! Save me…!”

He recognized those same words from others before.

Not a single one of them remained intact. Either killed by Do Hanseo’s hands while sane, or endlessly experimented on as living corpses.

Yet the researcher, bloody tears welling in his eyes, grabbed at Hanseo’s hem.

“Your…blood! It’s not…too late!”

“No, it’s too late.”

Hanseo smiled prettily as he crushed the man’s hand under his shoe. The man let out a short scream, looking up at Hanseo.

“You all worked too hard mutating it. In this state of continually being injected with the virus by a 7th generation test subject like me, you’ll be dead in under 5 minutes.”

“Hiiick…!”

The researcher shook his head. In that moment, the blood dripping from his eyes began forming a red film over them.

“See? The virus has already reached your brain. At this point, even giving you my blood won’t stop you from dying.”

Rising with the document bundle, Hanseo walked past the man. The glance he gave held the same contempt and loathing he had for the test subjects.

“Begging for your life, you researchers are no different from the test subjects.”

Leaving the man getting mauled again by the zombie, his screams and blood erupting, Hanseo entered the hallway. The once-white walls were stained red, shambling zombies in white coats or restraints in sight.

He walked down the hallway, repulsive and horrific zombies parting like the biblical Moses’ miracle, carrying all the research documents retrieved from this catastrophe.

Walking through Research Lab 2, now splattered with screams and red blood, Do Hanseo smiled pleasantly at the stench of blood overpowering even chemicals.

He recalled words his father had once spoken, on the day he killed his first test subject, eyes trembling with excitement.

“It’s alright. That’s just your nature.”

His father’s satisfied smile filled Hanseo’s vision. To Hanseo’s eyes, his father’s face seemed more tender yet vile than ever before.

“You’re not a child who devoured your own mother.”

He learned not long after being brought to the institute. The cruel truth his father spoke as if a child’s feelings meant nothing had not been so shocking.

His young mother who died giving birth alone in a bathroom, her frail body unable to handle it, the father unknown.

His father claimed to have killed her, saying Hanseo should be grateful to have been taken in by him. Perhaps due to the ongoing mental conditioning from him and the researchers, he accepted it easily.

Seeing the dopamine levels surge from killing, his father had revisited the topic.

“Getting excited from killing people isn’t normal, you know. From the moment you were born, you were never normal, just like your blood.”

“This dad will save countless people to make up for your abnormality. So dedicate even your very nature to this dad.”

From the start, he had never been normal.

Everything was abnormal.

Body, blood, mental state – everything was abnormal.

But being abnormal was no reason to not yearn for freedom.

That’s why Do Hanseo resolved to escape this institute where he would be bled and experimented on as material to create a vaccine, possibly until he died for it, once the vaccine was complete.