Chapter 18: The Reality of the Purge

In the afternoon, Researcher 38 went to the exchange and froze at the unexpected situation. The guard was blocking the path between the shelters and the incinerator, controlling the residents’ movement.

The exchange manager handled the protests of those who were about to go dig for stones. He put the stones he had prepared into the residents’ baskets and told them to be patient for a while.

No one knew how long that ‘while’ would be. If someone asked why, the exchange manager said it was because harmful gases had been found in the incinerator. It was a lie that fooled no one.

It was a place where contact with pollutants was a daily occurrence. There was no way Juseong would mobilize even civilian guards to protect this place. Wasn’t it a shelter where the unregistered, whom they considered the most insignificant, lived?

“The way to the screening center is this way. All candidates gather here.”

A guard said. Some parents and children followed him to where military transport vehicles were waiting. Passage was allowed only for the children who were screening candidates. It was announced that parents and other residents had to remain within the barbed wire fence.

‘Her words… were they true?’

Researcher 38’s face instantly turned dark blue. He pretended to receive stones from the exchange manager, subtly counting the number of guards. Excluding the one in the transport vehicle, there were 21. It was an excessively large number for just incinerator management.

[I saw corpses in the garbage truck.]

Suddenly, the written reply the woman had handed him came to mind. If that was true, the human soldiers probably used this method to prohibit external movement and quickly eliminate those who were isolated.

Nausea welled up. Researcher 38 clenched his jaw and glared at the children being loaded onto the transport vehicle.

Under Juseong’s long-standing system of discarding everything except the bare minimum of resources, this passive daily life was about to be shattered.

“It’s the truck!”

Then, everyone’s gaze turned to the black truck approaching the barbed wire fence. Researcher 38, who was about to return to the shelter, paused and looked at the truck.

Surprisingly, the guard, far from brandishing weapons at the Wanderer, simply lowered the barbed wire fence that was blocking the road.

Some observers, thinking it strange, widened their eyes or tilted their heads like Researcher 38. But that was only for a moment. They had seen something even more shocking.

“Behold! Don’t be surprised, today I’ve brought something special!”

Researcher 38 pushed aside the people in front of him with his cane and moved forward. When he finally saw the object the Wanderer was pointing at, his cane trembled for a moment.

“It’s a viewing box!”

The Wanderer shrugged and presented an electronic screen that almost completely filled the entire cargo compartment.

Researcher 38’s mouth slowly hardened. As the Wanderer said, that was a viewing box, a typical form of entertainment for middle-class residents and above.

“I picked up a broken one from Sector Jung-4 and fixed it.”

The Wanderer, speaking proudly, took out a small circular device from his pocket, commonly known as a ‘selector.’

He added that if one pressed various buttons on this selector, the viewing box would turn on, and if they were lucky enough to hit the right time slot, they could watch an interesting broadcast.

“It seems the Human Run competition has just begun! Today, I’ll show it to you for free, without any viewing fee!”

Tap, the viewing box turned on. Instantly, shelter refugees flocked around the truck. Among them were mothers with their children.

Soon, the screen showed the racehorses in the starting gate. People couldn’t take their eyes off the players’ faces, which were incomparably fair and clean compared to themselves.

Finally, the screen was filled with a flash. Whoooosh! With the loud roar announcing the start of the race, the horses finally took off.

“Horse number 1 is fast!”

The Wanderer raised his voice excitedly, mentioning the player running with number 1. The refugees all gaped, focused on the screen.

They had thought human running would be all the same, but seeing them jump over walls and dodge all the broken glass, they wondered if they were humans or monsters.

Children among the adults also watched the running players with wide eyes. Perhaps it was because they saw clean uniforms without a single stain, unlike their own daily shabby clothes. For the first time, awe filled their eyes.

“Mom! Look there!”

On the screen, pointed at by an excited child, player number 3 was climbing to the rooftop, gripping a pipe on the exterior wall of a gray building.

Did it anticipate the cheers of the viewers? The camera zoomed in on player number 3. Then, what he had mistaken for a mere wound when seen from afar, the ‘jockey,’ became visible.

In the middle of his back, a black tattoo resembling some kind of pattern. It was the jockey, the best guide Juseong had bestowed upon racehorses.

“Cool!”

Everyone cheered for the black tattoo. And watching the children with sparkling eyes, Researcher 38 felt an uncomfortable sensation, as if a thorn was stuck in his throat.

“Wo-wooow!”

“Wow!”

“Unbelievable!”

It was the moment Number 3 let go of the pipe. The black tattoo, as if waiting, moved to his forearm and strengthened Number 3’s arm muscles.

Then, Number 3, as if he had never lost strength, gripped the pipe with one hand and supported his entire body. Everyone clenched their fists and cheered at the unbelievable sight.

“Mom! I want to go to the screening center too…!”

Children began to be swayed by this extraordinary feat. Most of them were children who had never gone to the screening center due to congenital diseases, such as being blind in one eye or limping.

But now, such things didn’t matter. It was because they had gained an unfounded conviction that they too could become strong through the jockey.

“Horse number 6! He’s overtaking number 2! Ohhh!”

The Wanderer, with both arms raised to the sky, raised his voice. Player number 6 knocked number 2 into industrial wastewater and then headed towards the warehouse containing various supplies.

Number 6, perhaps recognizing the camera, showed off his muscular arms, covered in flesh. People burst into laughter, realizing how good an environment he lived in, being able to show such wit.

However, sweat began to form on Researcher 38’s hands.

“Look at that! It’s horse number 1, after all!”

The camera showed another scene.

“Such speed even after being buried in the mud!”

It was a scene of Number 1, covered in black mud, running through the forest past the warehouse containing supply boxes.

Just then, a massive explosion sound was heard from the warehouse. It was when Number 6 was busily rummaging through the supplies.

“Number 1! He skillfully avoids it! Indeed, luck is also a skill, isn’t it!”

Researcher 38 gripped his cane tightly. Number 6 had lost his life in the explosion a moment ago. However, the camera highlighted Number 1’s achievements, thereby completely concealing Number 6’s brutal death.

The sudden arrival of the guards at the shelter. The Wanderer bringing the viewing box as if on cue. And the Human Run broadcast, which only happened to show scenes where the jockey played a crucial role.

[They are planning to clear out the incinerator.]

His jaw tightened.

‘Mom. Brother. I miss you.’

At the same time, another voice overlapping might have been due to his heart still aching whenever he saw a child the size of Kwabia.

Researcher 38 felt his throat tighten.

“Y-you… you looked like you were in a lot of p-pain then.”

An inferior being, unable to control emotions. Humans, as livestock, could never become people, no matter what they did.

Was it because he too was a human, not a person, that he was so swayed by the existence of others? Researcher 38 glared at the military transport vehicle that had started to move.

An idea came to him.

Yeosu anxiously watched Cheche meticulously buttoning her coat. For a while now, her mother had been silently preparing to leave the shelter.

If they were just leaving to find another shelter, she wouldn’t have been so scared. However, this morning, movement around this area was prohibited by the guards. It was a fact they both learned when they went to the exchange for water.

In that case, their destination was fixed. Yeosu’s shoulders hunched up.

“Am I, am I, g-going to the s-screening center?”

Cheche didn’t answer. Yeosu’s speaking speed quickened.

“I-I don’t want to go. I… I want to stay with Mom.”

Yeosu tugged at Cheche’s sleeve. The children disappearing from the shelters, one by one. Parents who held their children’s hands and headed somewhere always returned to the shelter alone.

Yeosu didn’t want that to happen. She would rather be a homeless vagrant who couldn’t eat. She didn’t want to be separated from her mother.