Red Dot - 84

At first, I didn’t think much of it when I was sarcastically recounting the past that I didn’t really want to recall.

I was just curious.

About how Kang Junseong’s gaze towards me would change.

He might sympathize with me for having lived as a lab experiment for a long time.

Or he could be afraid of my abnormal self, who couldn’t be separated from ‘murder’ from the moment I was born until now.

Or he might condemn me and pour out hatred for causing the deaths of the two humans who raised me and the researchers.

Or maybe…he could come to hate me, the source of the long nightmare and creator of the zombie virus.

It didn’t matter which way it went.

I thought it would be interesting if his eyes looking at me held a different light.

But when I turned around, expecting what kind of eyes Kang Junseong would have, there were just his usual clear pupils, bright enough to see even without a flashlight or computer light.

In Kang Junseong’s arms, who had silently listened to my past that could never be considered normal, was a bright red blood pack. The blood pack had a clear nametag that read ‘Base_Do Hanseo (RH NULL)’.

The blood pack Junseong was holding was originally supposed to be taken by my foster father. If he had handed it over without swapping it with another test subject’s blood, he might still be alive now.

But even if he had done that, it would have only bought him time until he reached the Cheongmusi Research Center, as he would have become a zombie before a vaccine could be made without the extra blood. If that had happened, the origin of the zombie virus would have shifted from Inhansi to Cheongmusi.

There was also the option of giving proper consideration by handing over the blood pack properly, but I thought it was good that I didn’t do that. Because Kang Junseong looked quite good holding my blood pack preciously.

Hanseo transferred all the research data and confidential documents that included his past onto a USB drive. During that time, Kang Junseong’s tightly sealed lips moved.

“So they’re all dead then?”

Hanseo’s fingers froze on the keyboard for a moment.

“The ones who knew about your past, the ones who experimented on you, they’re all dead, right?”

There was no particularly prominent emotion in Junseong’s voice. Hanseo glanced at him, then moved his hand to the mouse to drag all the selected files into the USB folder.

Junseong’s unusually hot hand was placed on Hanseo’s cool back of the hand, as if to stop his movement.

“Answer me. They’re all dead, aren’t they?”

For a very brief moment, there was something sharp in Junseong’s voice. Hanseo still couldn’t tell if the edge was directed at him or at something else.

“Yes. As you saw in your dream, the only survivor among those who knew about the research was the blood bank director who happened to be outside the lab that day. From the state of things outside, you can probably guess what happened to the only person who escaped the lab after being infected.”

The only researcher who escaped the lab while infected.

He was Hanseo’s foster father, whom he had deliberately infected and released.

The infected foster father drank the ineffective blood of others until he soon died, and when he came back to life, he caused this horrific zombie outbreak. It was the opposite of the honor he had dreamed of. Thanks to him, Hanseo, who had been endlessly exploited for a fanciful ideal, could freely deny and mock him.

As Hanseo chuckled, recalling his foster father’s despairing face, Junseong grabbed his hand and moved the mouse. He removed the cursor from the USB folder, canceling the copy.

“Don’t extract this, let’s discard it.”

It was an unexpected thing to say.

Junseong, who should know how important the research data was with the vaccine’s completion in sight.

Creating the vaccine was not something that could be done in an instant. Hanseo’s foster father and the researchers alone had poured years into developing a perfect vaccine for this zombie virus. The result was the numerous files displayed on the monitor in front of them.

With just these files containing years of research, they could not only create a temporary first vaccine to halt infections, but also a second vaccine that could completely destroy the virus within the body in no time.

It was such a valuable piece of data.

Yet, Kang Junseong casually suggested ‘discarding’ such an item.

Hanseo’s hand, which had been obediently following Junseong’s movements, stopped.

“Why?”

“Why, you ask.”

Junseong gave Hanseo, who had raised the question, a firm look.

“If this is gone, no one will know that you are the material for the vaccine. But if this remains and is somehow passed on to someone else, then you will be…”

Junseong couldn’t finish his sentence.

He could now understand why Hanseo didn’t volunteer himself despite being the vaccine itself, and why he reacted so sensitively to experiments.

Do Hanseo’s blood is the source of both the virus and the vaccine.

How much more blood would Do Hanseo have to give and how many more experiments would he have to endure for a vaccine for countless people? To create the vaccine, the government would probably even treat Hanseo inhumanely.

For the sake of saving many people, for the sake of the nation.

Perhaps the virus itself would even be exploited for military purposes.

‘It can’t be made that way.’

While Hanseo’s story was shocking from beginning to end, Junseong remained levelheaded in times like this. But paradoxically, he was also emotional.

“Let’s delete it all without leaving a trace. Delete everything about you.”

Do Hanseo’s traces must not be left in a place like this. They must all be erased so that he can remain as a ‘human’ person, not an experiment subject.

He should not be condemned for the actions he chose in order to survive, because of the things he could not choose. And this applies to the future as well.

For that reason, Kang Junseong wanted to erase the research data for creating the vaccine – Do Hanseo’s past.

Looking at his past arranged in files on the monitor, Do Hanseo opened his mouth.

“If we delete this, who knows how long it will take to make the vaccine? Korea could be destroyed soon, and other countries could become a zombie world too.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

Junseong’s voice was still firm. Hanseo’s gaze landed on the back of Junseong’s hand covering his own.

“The perfect solution you so desired will disappear. Are you okay with people dying in droves?”

“…I said it doesn’t matter.”

As he answered, Junseong recalled his last dream.

The virus stabilizer and research data that Nam Kihyuk took away.

Those were the ‘solutions’ that he had thought of until his last dream and just a while ago. Especially since the dream ended abruptly after he was bitten by a zombie and died while escaping the lab with that solution, as if to say that it was the right answer.

But that was his own mistake.

When they were attacked by zombies in the second research lab in the dream, Junseong was barely able to escape the place with the solution and virus stabilizer thanks to his colleagues. But just before that, he had been grazed by a zombie, and while stumbling down the white hallway in the darkness, he eventually collapsed.

The flashlight he had dropped was still shining, but his vision was already completely covered by a red film over both eyes. A horrible sensation of blood gushing from his mouth and rushing to his head overcame him.

Thinking ‘what a pity, another failure’ and that he should be more careful after obtaining the solution in the next dream…

It seemed like part of the hallway wall was moving. Since the flashlight was shining in a completely different direction and there was a red film over his eyes, he couldn’t see clearly, but he remembered footsteps right after that. Even though there should have been no one else there besides himself.

Thinking that the owner of those footsteps was looking down at him, he closed his eyes.

A memory he had let pass without any particular meaning.

Now it seemed like he knew whose gaze that was in that memory.

He realized what the true ‘solution’ was that had ended his nightmare.

For the ‘solution’ that the dream had so desperately sought, Junseong chose an option that he himself in the dream would never have chosen. It was probably an option the dream self would have chosen even if it meant returning to this research lab again for the ‘solution’.

Because as long as it remained, he would have realized that no matter what, he could never truly be free from the ‘solution’.

Junseong’s hand dragged all the files and then pressed the complete delete button.

“Rather than you sacrificing yourself… let this whole world be turned upside down.”

All the files that had filled the folder disappeared in an instant. As if it had been completely empty from the start, wiped completely clean.

[This folder is empty.]

Contrary to the message displayed in the folder, Do Hanseo felt something well up and fill the empty space in his chest.