Dystopia Of Night - Chapter 1 Part 4

“How are you two related?”

“We’re married.”

Yuju opened her eyes wide and looked at Sehan. She lowered her gaze at his soft smile.

“You got… married early?”

“Yes.”

The middle-aged police officer asked with a suspicious look, but Sehan smoothly answered. It didn’t seem to be an important issue for the police officer, so he didn’t inquire further.

Yuju glanced around slightly. The people were divided into two groups. Two office workers, one teacher, and four college students were together, while on the other side, people wearing blue criminal uniforms were tied up. The criminals had bruises and wounds of varying sizes, presumably due to the overturned and attacked bus. Compared to the others who looked relatively unharmed, the criminals stood out.

Yuju vaguely understood why Sehan had disguised their relationship as a married couple, even though they had only been dating for less than a month. Among the sixteen people here, including Yuju, there were only three women, and all the criminals were men. He must have thought that a more solid relationship was necessary.

“Now what should we do? Should we turn on the siren or something?”

“What if those monsters hear the noise and come out?”

“What about gathering rocks and making an SOS signal?”

“Are you suggesting we go into that forest? We don’t know what dangers might be lurking!”

Everyone’s cell phones were out of service. The walkie-talkies and radios couldn’t connect to the outside either. People trapped in sadness and fear remained still, gathering together.

“I’m hungry. It’s already past lunchtime…”

One college student, who was traveling with close friends, whispered. Since everyone was quiet, everyone heard his voice.

Sehan looked at his watch and saw that it was already past 3 o’clock.

“Should we eat first?”

“Yes. It’s better to eat something than just starving and doing nothing.”

The college students got up from their seats and moved towards the camper van. It was natural that there would be more food in the camper van than in the police bus or the office workers’ cars.

Even after experiencing such danger, hunger had found its way to them. All eyes turned in that direction.

The four college students entered the camper van, closed the door, and came out after a while.

“Who wants to eat some ramen… with us?”

They seemed to have reached a consensus while exchanging opinions among themselves.

The office workers and the police officers hesitantly went towards the camper van. The tied-up criminals couldn’t move and shouted for food as well.

Sehan, who seemed to be quietly observing the people, slightly frowned. It was a habit of his to show his displeasure when something didn’t go his way.

“I also brought sandwiches as snacks; would you like some?”

It was fortunate that she had packed something to eat on the go.

“Yuju, do you also like ramen?”

“Ramen? I do like it, but what about ramen?”

“Shall we share it?”

“With ramen and sandwiches?”

“Yes.”

It was a harmless suggestion, so Yuju agreed. The two of them returned to the car. Yuju tried not to look at the monster’s corpse and took out the icebox.

“Let’s just take this.”

He examined the icebox and only took out the sandwiches. Then he grabbed a straw. Inside the still cold cooler box, there were still water, drinks, chocolate bars, and fruits left.

The students took out a burner and a pot from the camper van, and the delicious aroma of boiling ramen filled the air. Since they were students who knew how to enjoy a good meal, it seemed like they had brought plenty of groceries, as there seemed to be enough ramen to go around for everyone.

“These are sandwiches I brought from home. There isn’t much, but I thought it would be nice to share.”

Yuju went to where people had gathered and set down the sandwiches. The cut-up sandwiches and ramen were distributed among the people.

“Is there any kimchi?”

“I want some water too. Hey, students! Is there no water?”

The criminals who were tied up far away shouted loudly.

“Can you all keep it down? If you keep making noise, you’ll see that we won’t just stand by!”

The police officers who were monitoring the criminals shouted, but the faces of the people turned pale, perhaps due to the unease of knowing that there were criminals nearby.

“Do we have to share our food with those bastards next time too?”

One of the students looked at them with a huff.

“If we don’t give them something to eat, won’t they go on a rampage?”

“Yeah, just a little while ago they were begging to be let go because they didn’t know when the monsters would come again.”

“Ha, fuck…”

They were sitting in a circle, so everyone could hear every word they said. A sense of unease spread among them.

“Thank you for the meal.”

Sehan finished his meal at the same pace as Yuju and cleaned up his plate before standing up.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to try to find some drinking water.”

“Drinking water?”

“Can I take this with me?”

Sehan held up an empty plastic bottle. One of the students nodded, and without further explanation, he walked towards the forest. Yuju also stood up from her seat and followed Sehan.

The ecology of this place was unique. People gathered on a wide, desolate field covered with light-colored sand, but just a short distance away from the field, moist brown soil appeared. Trees grew densely around the ground, making it difficult to move around by car, but it was possible for people to walk.

Sehan stopped in front of a tree that was adjacent to the open space. Taking out a Swiss army knife, he created a round hole in the tree and inserted a straw. Then, as the tree sap dripped down the straw, he collected it in the plastic bottle.

“Wow! How did you know to do that?”

“This is an Aceraceae, belonging to the maple family. Its leaves are divided into 5 to 7 lobes and have a smooth texture without serrations. There are quite a few of these trees around here, so we can substitute them for drinking water instead.”

After finishing their meal, the students who had been following behind Sehan brought other empty bottles and collected the sap.

“Huh? It’s sweet!”

“Maybe because it’s a sap?”

“Yeah, but I don’t think I can taste the difference between it and water, except maybe a little sweeter.”

Without hesitation, they shared and drank the sap. Yuju was also curious to try it, but Sehan handed the bottles filled with the sap to the students.

“I’ll let you drink it next time.”

“Next time?”

“Yes. When you’re thirsty, just drink the bottled water in the icebox.”

He naturally led Yuju and returned to his car.

It was a place where everything seemed unusual, no matter what happened. Even the familiar sun looked different from what he was used to, and there was no certainty that the trees weren’t poisonous.

The next day, after confirming that the maple sap had no adverse effects on those who drank it, Sehan handed some to Yuju as well.

No one besides Sehan knew the fact that he had experimented on others.

Those who didn’t know anything were grateful to Sehan for showing them how to obtain drinking water.