Johan’s voice carried a note of indignation, yet his sincerity and innocence were unmistakable.
Seojun, however, did not particularly care. Whether Johan preferred hamburgers or pizza was none of his concern. He simply nodded, accepting the emphatic denial with a mental shrug.
“Looks like we can’t get out this way,” Seojun muttered, clicking his tongue in annoyance.
He wiped his hands on his trousers, trying to rid them of the rusty smell clinging to his skin. It did little to help, but the gesture offered a small measure of comfort.
There was no point mourning his broken bicycle now.
Instead, Seojun redirected his simmering resentment towards the elusive Gas Mask.
“Jun, I swear, my arteries are perfectly clean. Not a speck of plaque,” Johan continued, sounding as though he were swearing an oath before a judge.
“Yes, yes, I understand,” Seojun cut in, faintly amused.
Had Johan always been like this?
Everyone knew he was devoted to fitness, but this degree of obsession with his health was unexpected. It did not fit Seojun’s image of a film’s leading man, who surely ought to have better things to do than fret over his diet like an old man.
Whenever Seojun saw Johan sweating through another workout, he felt relieved that he himself had never been cast as the quarterback.
He occasionally envied Johan’s apparently limitless stamina.
He did not envy the discipline, camaraderie, exertion, and endless sweat required to achieve it.
Seojun unfolded the crumpled map and smoothed it out, trying to guide Johan away from his sudden preoccupation with cholesterol.
He was mildly astonished that the map had survived the night’s earlier chaos at all.
“Any idea where the gunshot came from?” Seojun asked, steering the conversation back towards their immediate problem.
Johan placed one neatly trimmed fingernail against Zone C.
“I’m not certain, but perhaps somewhere around here?”
Seojun nodded gravely.
“That sounds about right.”
They had probably identified the general area correctly.
Seojun suspected Gas Mask had hidden himself on the far side of Zone C after the shot was fired.
As he studied the map, another mark caught his eye.
Bobby’s mark.
It sat directly over the place where Gas Mask had disappeared into the swamp.
The memory of Bobby shrieking that Hannah had spoken with aliens made Seojun snort.
What a night this had become.
A faint unease stirred in his chest as he folded the map again. There was nothing more he could do for Bobby now except hope his spirit had found peace.
“Let’s go to the old dormitory,” Seojun said, already considering their next move. “It’s the highest point in the area. We should be able to see most of the campground from there.”
Johan did not agree immediately.
Concern flickered across his face.
“The place where you were attacked? Are you sure that’s wise?”
For someone with such impressive muscles, he worried far too much.
Seojun patted Johan’s chest reassuringly.
“Think about it. If Gas Mask is the only one with a crossbow, then the old dormitory might actually be safe for the moment.”
“Hmm...”
Johan considered the suggestion, but could not offer a better alternative.
In the end, they set off towards the old dormitory.
Johan did, however, propose a different route.
“What if we go through the bushes?” he suggested. “From what you told me, the worst part of the attack was that you were completely exposed. You were so startled that you didn’t even have time to look around.”
“That’s true.”
Seojun nodded.
It made sense.
He remembered fleeing like a terrified rabbit the last time, barely registering the bleak surroundings of the old dormitory until much later.
When he had first arrived, he had found himself practically on its doorstep, dizzy and gasping for breath.
“Judging by the building’s structure, anyone firing from above would have difficulty hitting us if we stayed directly beneath it,” Johan continued. “The ideal situation, of course, would be if Gas Mask is the only person carrying a crossbow.”
“......”
Seojun did not like the implication, but Johan had a point.
They had no idea where Gas Mask had obtained the weapon.
The possibility of another crossbowman lurking somewhere in the campground was far from reassuring.
“So you’re suggesting we avoid the main path and move through the bushes instead?” Seojun asked.
“Yes. Without the lantern, we’ll be much harder to target in the dark.”
“That’s true... The bolt that nearly hit me went wildly off course, even from close range.”
Seojun remembered the terrible shot with some disbelief.
He met Johan’s gaze and ran his tongue over his lips, nervous but determined.
“All right. We move quietly.”
“Uh...”
For a moment, Johan seemed unable to tear his eyes away from Seojun’s dampened lips.
⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆
Moving through the bushes proved far more difficult than they had anticipated.
There was no proper trail, and every step had to be taken with care. Without the lantern, it was difficult to judge direction, but lighting it would make them an easy target.
Fortunately, Johan went first, and Seojun did his best to follow.
“Johan, are you certain we’re not lost?”
“‘We’?” Johan chuckled. “That sounds rather sweet.”
Seojun rolled his eyes.
“I think the lack of sugar is affecting your brain. Perhaps you should try eating something besides protein shakes and egg whites. Have you considered ordinary carbohydrates?”
“That sort of lifestyle is the enemy of muscle, Jun. And don’t worry. We’re still heading the right way.”
Seojun could only hope Johan possessed some hidden instinct for navigation.
After they had walked a little farther, Johan broke the silence.
“If you keep licking your lips like that, they’re going to become chapped.”
Seojun gave a distracted nod.
“Mm? Yes, probably.”
“Probably?”
Johan lifted a hand to his ear and rubbed it unconsciously as colour spread across his cheeks.
Once he seemed to regain his composure, he added in a quieter voice,
“If they start hurting later, tell me, all right?”
It was a peculiar thing to say under the circumstances.
Seojun felt an equally peculiar mixture of tension and calm.
They were not safe.
Not remotely.
Yet his heart was no longer hammering against his ribs.
Then the silhouette of the old dormitory emerged ahead of them.
Seojun immediately caught Johan by the arm.
“Stop. There’s a swamp ahead. I nearly fell into it before. We need to go around.”
At Seojun’s warning, Johan scratched his cheek.
He turned slightly and rolled his shoulders, as though trying to loosen the tension in them.
“There are swamps everywhere around here, so we should be careful...”
He abruptly lowered his voice.
“Jun, get down.”
Johan pushed Seojun towards the ground.
Seojun’s heart lurched as he remembered his previous injury, but Johan was careful, shielding the tender area as they dropped into cover.
They remained perfectly still.
Barely breathing, they stared into the darkness ahead.
Heavy boots struck the earth.
The footsteps drew closer.
Seojun clapped a hand over his mouth to suppress a gasp.
Beside him, Johan tightened his grip around the barbecue skewer until his knuckles turned white.
Soon, a pale shape emerged from the darkness between the trees.
A hand in a white glove.
Then a rough, unfamiliar voice cut through the silence.
It belonged to neither William nor Bobby.
“Who’s there?”
The man stepped back when he spotted Johan and Seojun.
Moonlight cast his long shadow across the ground.
He wore full military equipment, and his cap had been pulled low enough to conceal most of his face. The skin that remained visible was red and blistered, as though he had suffered a severe sunburn.
Yet he did not move like an injured man.
His movements were smooth and effortless.
He fixed his gaze on Johan and spoke tensely.
“What are you doing here? Don’t try anything foolish.”
“......”
Seojun leaned towards Johan and whispered,
“Do you think he’s the caretaker?”
Johan shook his head.
“No. He looks different.”
The man did not appear openly hostile, and Seojun relaxed slightly.
He decided to question him.
“Who are you? And what are you doing here?”
The soldier returned the question, eyeing the barbecue skewer in Johan’s hand.
“I should be asking you that. Why are you waving that thing around?”
“Well...”
The question was so ordinary that Seojun was momentarily at a loss.
It was, admittedly, an absurd scene.
They were threatening a soldier with a barbecue skewer.
Before Seojun could stumble through an explanation, Johan stepped forward, glancing at the soldier’s belt.
“We heard gunshots. We’re only camping here, like ordinary people.”
“Oh. Right. This is a campground.”
The soldier spoke as though the fact had slipped his mind.
Then he shrugged.
“I didn’t mean to frighten you. We’re hunting an animal we were transporting. It escaped, and it isn’t exactly tame, so we need to recover it quickly.”
“Transporting?” Seojun repeated.
“Yes. We should have contained it by now, but you know how these things go. The lowest-ranking men always get the worst of it.”
The soldier gave a dry laugh.
Seojun’s mind began to race.
He had said we.
That meant there were other soldiers nearby.
Several armed soldiers might actually stand a chance against Gas Mask.
And a firearm was unquestionably more useful than a crossbow.
To Seojun’s amazement, the soldier drew out a walkie-talkie.
“Copy. Come in. Respond.”
In a campground where every mobile phone was useless and the landline had been severed, the sight of a functioning radio seemed like a miracle.
Hope stirred in Seojun’s chest.
He moved closer.
But the nearer he came, the heavier the air became.
A foul stench clawed at his nostrils.
It was the smell of rot and death, so thick that it seemed to rise from the soil itself.
Seojun had encountered it before.
That rancid, lingering odour carried memories of dark water and unseen horrors shifting just beneath the surface.
“Headquarters, respond,” the soldier intoned.
His flat voice seemed to come from an impossible distance.
What was this feeling?
A chill crept along Seojun’s spine as he edged closer.
Moonlight broke through the canopy and bathed the scene in a pale, otherworldly glow.
The light fell across the soldier’s hand.
Only then did Seojun see the walkie-talkie clearly.
It was horribly corroded.
The casing had decayed almost beyond recognition, rendering the device completely useless.
The soldier continued speaking into it.
His lips were covered in lesions and raw crimson wounds.
What Seojun had mistaken for sunburn now looked more like severe chemical burns.
He froze.
Johan seized him and pulled him back.
1964, Red Lake Campsite.
The public never learned the truth behind Hannah O. Lantern’s alleged communication with the universe at the site of the horrific incident.
The government did.