L*st and Death

Isaac was waiting for them in the research lab lobby. The softly glowing emergency light cast a mystical silhouette around him. Siron ran ahead of Baekgyeong toward Isaac. It was out of concern that Baekgyeong, who had barely escaped death thanks to the precarious bomb disarmament, might suddenly lunge at Isaac in a fit of resentment.

“You’re alive.”

Sure enough, Baekgyeong snapped the moment Isaac spoke a single word. If Siron hadn’t blocked him in time, Baekgyeong would’ve been kicked away like trash and sent rolling across the floor.

“This isn’t the time for that! Weren’t you going to find your phone?”

At Siron’s words, Baekgyeong barely suppressed his anger. There had been plenty of ups and downs, but in the end, he had survived. And having survived, he had to move on to the next step.

With the island’s power supply completely cut off, it was time to carry out the second phase of the plan: find Baekgyeong’s phone and locate Manu Singh. After that, they would escape the island along with the hostages. Siron pushed Baekgyeong back slightly to keep distance between him and Isaac, then said,

“We still have stuff to do. Come on? Calm down. Let’s go find your phone first.”

He looked to Isaac and added urgently,

“We need to find Manu Singh too. This really isn’t the time, right?”

Baekgyeong’s phone was expected to be at the satellite tower. While the bomb was still active, they couldn’t go within 200 meters of it, making the tower a high-risk zone threatening both Isaac and Baekgyeong’s lives. But now that the bomb had been disarmed, there were no obstacles barring their approach.

“I’ve been thinking... I don’t think the alphas or Manu Singh are at the tower anymore.”

“And why’s that?”

“There’s a serial killer loose on the island. You think they’d stick around in that obvious target zone waiting to get attacked? I didn’t serve in the military, but even I can tell those alphas are just oversized brats. They don’t look loyal, they don’t look trained. If sex is their only driving force, they’ve got to be selfish bastards. You really think guys like that are gonna stand guard at a tower waiting for a killer to show up? No way—they’d rather die trying to escape.”

“So you’re saying they’ve already boarded the escape boat?”

“It’s just a possibility, but yeah. ...Anyway, now that I think about it, there’s another nutcase besides you running around this island.”

“Another nutcase?”

“Some freak got in my way when I tried to blow up the power plant. Called me something like a lust-crazed agent of evil trying to exterminate humanity? Treated me like I was an alien or something...”

“3547!”

Siron abruptly shouted, then let out a relieved breath.

“Haah... so he made it out.”

“...You know that lunatic?”

“He’s a homeless guy who got captured with me. If he was ranting about aliens, then yeah, that’s definitely him.”

“Why the hell did that nutjob get in the way all of a sudden?”

Isaac answered Baekgyeong’s question.

“Originally, it was 3547’s job to plant the bombs. But due to a variety of issues, you ended up taking the assignment instead.”

“I could’ve died because of that bastard.”

“A pity.”

Whether he meant it was a pity Baekgyeong had been endangered or a pity he hadn’t actually died was unclear. With that vague reply that grated Baekgyeong’s nerves, Isaac pulled two radios from his bag and handed one each to Siron and Baekgyeong. They were tuned to a different frequency than the ones the alphas had been using.

“You had radios this whole time, you bastard?”

Baekgyeong, seething with fury, lunged for Isaac again, but Siron threw himself between them just in time. Isaac didn’t show the slightest hint of embarrassment—he just shrugged and grinned. Then he quickly laid out the plan.

“From now on, we’ll communicate via radio until we regroup. We’ll use plain Korean, no code names. Starting now, we split up to search the east and west towers.”

“Siron and I will head west.”

Isaac firmly rejected Baekgyeong’s unilateral decision.

“No. Siron’s coming with me.”

“I’m going with Baekgyeong.”

At Siron’s words, Baekgyeong whistled and crossed his arms smugly. Siron added an explanation to prevent any unnecessary misunderstandings.

“I’m a better shot than he is.”

Like Baekgyeong, Siron wasn’t a soldier—but his circumstances were slightly better. At least he had gone through firearms training at an action school.

“Are you confident you can pull the trigger?”

“...If my life’s on the line, I’ll have to.”

As soon as Siron gave that slightly hesitant answer, Baekgyeong added,

“He’ll shoot without hesitation, so stop clinging to him.”

Isaac was visibly dissatisfied, but in the end, he grudgingly accepted the arrangement. They agreed to regroup at the southern detention center—where the hostages were—once each team achieved their objectives, and then they parted ways.

The security room inside the western satellite tower was completely deserted. Isaac confirmed Baekgyeong’s assumption—that most of the alphas who’d left their posts had gathered at the eastern dock, preparing to leave the island. Once the hurricane calmed and the waves settled, they planned to board the boat and escape immediately.

Still, it was too early to let their guard down. The two kept watch as they stepped into the security room. The walls were lined with dozens of monitors, now dead and dark, making it hard to distinguish anything in the gloom.

“So they were watching everyone from here. That’s creepy as hell.”

Siron swept his arm slowly across the air, staring at the blacked-out monitors that looked like the lifeless eyes of the dead.

“Still, their surveillance must’ve been pretty sloppy. There must’ve been suspicious footage on the CCTV, but they never caught on.”

Baekgyeong raised an eyebrow and rolled his eyes, as if he had a lot to say. Siron stared at him in response to the exasperated sigh, but Baekgyeong quickly turned away. The fact that the infamous motor mouth had gone unusually quiet was oddly unsettling.

Siron was about to say something—What’s with you? Stop acting weird and just spout whatever nonsense pops into your empty head like you always do—but he held his tongue. It wasn’t more important than escaping the island. He switched on his flashlight and began searching around the desks in front of the monitors for Baekgyeong’s phone.

“This the one?”

A phone was sitting in a charging dock. Its surface shimmered in shifting hues of purple and blue, depending on the angle. Baekgyeong picked it up with a dazed expression and tapped the screen. A lock screen appeared, prompting an 11-digit passcode.

“Yeah, that’s it.”

He’d prepared himself for a deadly struggle just to retrieve this phone. He hadn’t expected to find it so easily. The phone case wasn’t far either—Baekgyeong rummaged through the desk and found a wallet-style case. Inside were eleven cards, neatly tucked into the slots—clues to the password. Some of them had notes written in block letters on the back, hints jotted down by someone who’d cracked the code.

“You told him the password?”

Baekgyeong nodded in response to Siron’s question.

“I gave it to Ian Fitzner. It was the price to see you.”

Siron clicked his tongue and let out a tense breath, as if weighed down by something. Baekgyeong felt the same. Alphas were the kind of creatures who could recover from a face pulped by a frying pan or a paralyzed lower body from a bullet wound within a month.

By now, Ian Fitzner was probably back on his feet, sharpening his blade for revenge. And yet... why was there this vague, uncomfortable sensation gnawing at his chest? Was this what they called a guilty conscience?

“He really got played the whole time, huh.”

“Well... he’s probably still alive.”

Baekgyeong tried to sound casual, but considering his own temperament, it was unlikely he’d let Fitzner off with just a few slaps.

“...He didn’t get blown away by the wind or anything, right?”

Siron, who had been seriously pondering it, reached a conclusion.

“We should go rescue Ian Fitzner.”

“What?”

“He was a kind of ally, in his own way. It’s pitiful how you screwed him over. If we leave him like this, he might get blown away or go into shock or something.”

Even though Baekgyeong didn’t particularly care if Ian Fitzner died, Siron’s words hit an itch he hadn’t been willing to scratch. He nodded in agreement without protest. The two of them headed straight for the stairs. Just before they exited the building, Siron stopped and shoved Baekgyeong out the door.

“Wait out there. I need to check something real quick.”

“What is it? I’ll go with you.”

“...No, just wait here.”

“I don’t like it. I’m coming.”

“Ah! I said don’t follow me! I’m going to the bathroom!”

Baekgyeong was dumbfounded. Since when was going to the bathroom something awkward between them? They’d seen each other at their most disgraceful—nothing should’ve been off-limits. The way Siron was suddenly acting modest felt oddly cute, and Baekgyeong let out a helpless laugh.

While Siron was away, Baekgyeong looked up at the sky, struck by the sudden silence that seemed to mute the whole world. The crescent moon glowed coldly overhead. Between the rare breaks in the clouds, stars twinkled across a crystal-clear night sky. It dawned on Baekgyeong that they were now inside the eye of the hurricane.

Before he realized it, Siron had returned, standing beside him with a look of relief.

“Did you poop well?”

“...Shut up.”

“What’d you do in there to be so embarrassed, huh?”

Siron clicked his tongue and gave Baekgyeong a firm shove. He, too, seemed to notice the shift in weather and stopped to gaze up at the sky.

“Amazing... I’ve never seen anything like this in my life.”

In the absolute calm of the windless zone, the “eye” of the hurricane, the towering cloud wall in the distance signaled the storm’s return. The massive clouds encircled the island like a ring. That ring—the “eyewall”—was where the hurricane’s strongest winds raged and where the heaviest rainfall would pour from towering cloud formations reaching the highest altitudes.

“It’s beautiful... but terrifying.”

“It could get dangerous. You don’t have to come.”

With both fists clenched tight, Siron steeled his resolve.

“A real man doesn’t abandon his allies. We’ve gotta rescue him. Let’s go.”

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