Humanity Protection Company

TL/Editor: raei

Schedule:

Illustrations: None.

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The world was ablaze. Red, orange, radiating heat, scattering embers everywhere.

Huff— Huff—

Now, memories didn’t matter. Only the struggle for survival remained. Like an animal fleeing the flames, they ran. Even if their breath was stuck in their throats, they couldn’t stop. Even if they died running, they had to keep going.

“Yeonwoo, f*ck! Snap out of it!"

“Huff, I’m not... okay!”

Yeonwoo should have collapsed from exhaustion long ago, but he found strength from somewhere to keep running downhill. His unsteady steps and pounding heartbeat were signs of his desperation.

Behind Yeonwoo, Jae-min and Ji-yoo also ran desperately. Jae-min shouted with broken breaths.

“Mister! Is this the right way down?”

“I don’t... know!”

“F*ck! What if we’re going the wrong way?”

“Stop cursing!”

Ji-yoo raised her hand but immediately dropped it. She didn’t have the energy to hit him. She focused on the path ahead and kept running.

Then it happened.

“Ah!”

Thud—

Yeonwoo tripped over a rock and fell forward hard. His flailing hands barely caught the ground, but his strength gave out, and he collapsed. His face hit the dirt with a thud.

“Yeonwoo!”

“Mister!”

The two who had been following stopped instantly beside Yeonwoo. He tried to push himself up off the ground but couldn’t get to his feet.

His trembling hands had no strength.

In the end, he feebly raised his convulsing hand.

“Help, help me up.”

“Get up, quickly!”

“Hurry, mister!”

They grabbed Yeonwoo's arms and helped him to his feet. As soon as he stood, he stumbled forward. There was no time to brush off the dirt from his face or spit it out of his mouth.

-Keeeeeeek!

A horrible scream echoed from behind them.

“Run!”

Huff—

They didn’t look back. There was no point. They could barely keep their eyes on the ground in front of them.

A world of red, white, and black.

The sunset, the mist, and the smoke mixed chaotically, blurring everything. Nothing was clear.

Only the acrid smell of smoke, the sound of leaves rustling wildly in the strong wind, and the constant fleeing of forest birds and animals surrounded them.

Thud— Snap—

Then something fell through the mist and landed in front of them. Jae-min, startled, instinctively raised his fist.

“What is it!”

“It’s a squirrel! Just keep running!”

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Ji-yoo pushed Jae-min, who had slowed down, urging him on. Indeed, a small squirrel was darting away frantically.

Yeonwoo, who was overtaken by the squirrel, struggled to recall his thoughts in his dizzy head.

There had been two screams so far. At least in his memory, that was the case, and two instances were enough to compare.

“It seems to be getting closer than before!”

“What? The monster?”

“Yes!”

Jae-min and Ji-yoo’s breaths faltered. Ji-yoo, panting, lifted her eyes from the ground and glared at the mist ahead.

“Where are we? We’ve come down a lot, but how far to the entrance?”

“I don’t know! We’re not even sure this is the way down!”

“…Even if we get down, will the parking lot be safe?”

Suddenly, Yeonwoo stopped running. Jae-min and Ji-yoo also stopped. Catching his breath, Yeonwoo looked at them.

“Despite the fire, the monster is still chasing us.”

They had set the fire for three reasons:

To disperse the mist, to drive away the monster, and to avoid the valley where people had died.

It seemed the fire had worked to some extent; their memories were relatively intact, and they had distanced themselves from the dangerous valley. Yet, the monster was still pursuing them, seemingly intent on killing them.

“Mister, so what are you suggesting? Are you seriously saying we should fight? Against a monster we know nothing about?”

Jae-min quickly shook his head and pushed past Yeonwoo.

“How do we fight a monster? What if we die trying?”

“No, we can do it. Because—”

At that moment.

-Keeeeeeek!

The monstrous scream came from nearby, close enough to guess its location.

Yeonwoo spoke.

“…Even if we can't, we have to try. It’s going to catch up soon. No, prepare to fight right now. It’s coming!”

It approached with a sound.

Crack— Snap— Crunch—!

Breaking branches, something sharp stabbing, not on the hiking trail, but on the slope! Not on the ground, but in the trees!

Crack! Snap! Thud!

The sound grew louder, like a countdown, from above, beyond the mist.

“Damn it!”

Jae-min wrapped his school uniform jacket around his fist. Ji-yoo swung her bag to the front and pulled out a short knife. Yeonwoo picked up a thick branch with trembling hands.

Yeonwoo thought calmly.

‘We can win. Judging by its speed, its physical abilities aren’t overwhelmingly superior. And we have numbers. There are three of us, and only one of it.’

He had survived until now. He would survive this too.

‘Yes, I won't die here.’

He gripped the branch tightly. The rough bark and splinters dug into his palm, causing a stinging pain. The pain and exhaustion made the branch waver in his grip.

Snap—!

The next moment, the sound stopped.

A deadly silence, even the wind had stopped. The once bustling mountain with its animals and birds was now utterly still.

“...”

“Huff, huff.”

“Get ready, get ready, get ready.”

They couldn’t even breathe properly, their tension peaked. Their wide eyes focused on the last spot where the sound was heard.

To the right, somewhere above the shadows of the trees.

With fists wrapped in school uniforms raised, knives gripped tightly, and the branch drawn back like a baseball bat, they were ready to attack at any moment.

Yeonwoo’s eyes suddenly widened. He looked up at the sky.

“Above! It’s falling!”

Through the thick mist, a dark human-like figure silently descended right in the middle of the three of them—

---

---

“…Huh?”

Pain shot through his head. His vision was red. Yeonwoo instinctively wiped his eyes. Blood stained his hand. It seemed to be flowing from his head. No, not just his head.

His hands, empty of the branch, were now covered in blood. Dizziness hit him. The world blurred, and he collapsed.

Yeonwoo struggled to hold onto consciousness.

“So, we tried to fight the monster, but then, did I lose my memory? Then what happened….”

His blurred vision and thoughts began to clear. Yeonwoo slowly looked around.

Ji-yoo.

“…What happened? Is it over?”

She was sitting dazedly, with no severe injuries. Her bag was torn, and her training clothes had some rips with red lines of blood underneath, but nothing serious.

In front of Ji-yoo lay something strange. It had a human shape but was clearly a monster.

Sharp claws covered in flesh, a knife embedded in its neck. It wasn’t moving. It was undoubtedly dead.

Relief washed over him. The tension released, and Yeonwoo lay down completely. The misty sky darkened, but his heart felt at ease.

“Ah, we survived.”

“Yes, it looks like we won.”

Ji-yoo, rustling as she stood, walked over to Yeonwoo. She looked down at his arm with concern.

"There's a chunk of flesh missing from your arm. We need to do some first aid and get down the mountain."

"Oh."

He hadn't even realized the pain. He just felt a bit dizzy and overwhelmingly sleepy.

"Right. No time to rest... If I had known it would be like this, I wouldn't have started the fire. It was pointless."

"Let's move on. We survived, that's what matters. Jae-min! Give me your uniform jacket! We need it as a bandage!"

There was no response. Ji-yoo blinked in confusion.

"Jae-min? What are you doing?"

Struggling to sit up, Yeonwoo turned his head to look at Jae-min.

Jae-min's cheeks were trembling, his teeth chattering. Despite being the least injured among the three, he was shaking with fear as he stared at the monster's corpse.

"Jae-min? What's wrong?"

"Sis, Mister, this... this..."

"What about it? It's dead, isn't it?"

"That's not it."

Jae-min's eyes, filled with terror, darted between Ji-yoo and Yeonwoo. But his gaze seemed to be looking past them into the void.

"This thing... Mom and Dad are here, and they're really, really angry—"

At that moment, screams that shook the mountain erupted.

-Aaaaaaagh!

-Keeeeeeeeek!

Two endless, echoing screams.

‘If we fight, we die. If we get caught, we die. Oh.’

Yeonwoo staggered to his feet, only to collapse again from dizziness. The world swayed around him. Nevertheless, he grabbed at the dirt and clung to a tree trunk to stand up again. But—

“Oh. This really... isn't good.”

Maybe it was the blood loss. Maybe it was because the bleeding hadn’t stopped. Or perhaps his strength had completely run out. He felt like he couldn’t walk anymore.

As he shook his head, Ji-yoo approached and tightly wrapped Jae-min’s uniform jacket around his injured arm.

“Hurry! We need to move!”

“No, I... I don’t think I can walk.”

He tried taking a few steps, but he could barely stand straight, even while holding onto a tree. Trying to move forcibly, he felt he would tumble down the slope.

‘This way, there’s no way to survive…’

No matter how he thought about it, only death scenarios came to mind. Falling to his death, bleeding to death, being killed by the abnormality…

‘I can’t die. I don’t want to die.’

Yeonwoo gritted his teeth and took a step, but his foot slipped, and he fell.

“Yeonwoo!”

“Oh…”

Lying there, he realized he couldn’t get up again. His eyelids grew heavy, and sleepiness overwhelmed him….

‘I don’t want to die. Not like this.’

Faint sounds reached his muffled ears.

“It’s too late to get help if we go down. We have to carry him.”

“Move aside, sis. Let me try... I can’t lift him!”

Voices and hands trying to save Yeonwoo.

Yeonwoo struggled to open his eyes. He saw Jae-min and Ji-yoo, unable to flee or save him, at a loss for what to do.

And then.

Crash! Crack! Boom!

The sounds grew louder and clearer, approaching along the path they had taken. Trees were being smashed, branches were breaking, and rocks were shattering.

The parents of the monster were rampaging, destroying everything in their path as they raced towards them.

An unavoidable death was approaching.

In a faint voice, Yeonwoo spoke.

“Go.”

“We need to get out together—”

“It’s impossible. Just go.”

If there was any chance of survival, he would have clung to them shamelessly, even at the risk of being a burden. If he could trade lives, he might have even considered killing them to survive.

But facing unavoidable death, there was no reason for everyone to die together.

“Safety first, right? Go. They’ll be here any moment.”

“…I’m sorry.”

“Mister.”

Jae-min and Ji-yoo bit their lips and stood up. They couldn’t meet his eyes properly and left. Their figures disappeared into the mist.

Left alone, Yeonwoo glanced up at the sky and waited for the approaching abnormality.

“Damn bastards….”

Their noisy approach made it impossible to miss them. Indeed, they came closer soon enough. Two dark shadows, larger than humans but smaller than trees.

“Gaaaaaaah!”

The monster's figures burst forth, screaming like banshees. Time seemed to slow as they approached, the moment of death dragging out.

Surprisingly, his life didn’t flash before his eyes. He felt nothing, thought nothing. Yeonwoo simply watched in a daze.

A net shot down from the sky.