“You think whatever is wrong with you is contagious, then?' ... 'Yes, but you have it already. You caught it from your mother. Death.”- Gene Wolfe

It was a simple ten-minute drive to the First Infiltration Tunnel from Camp Casey; it took November Company nearly thirty minutes because a Police Unit, along with two ambulances, were dealing with something on the roads. Malcolm Nelson was sitting at the wheel of the forward Humvee with his Master Sergeant Chavez next to him, Lieutenants Clairet and Daniels in the back. In a game of “Follow the Leader”, they were followed by an M-thirty-five transport truck squeezing a platoon of twenty; the same pattern of transport trucks between Humvees carried all November Company.

An octagonal tourist structure had been built around the tunnel, cutting off the rail line and any means of practically unloading artillery pieces into the area. The November “Fuckleheads” sequentially pulled up into the dimly lit parking lot and the Humvees pulled into an appropriate parking space while the trucks stopped beneath the glowing sunset. Malcolm turned the ignition off and grabbed his precious Crystal from her resting space. He opened the door and stepped out, grabbing a magazine from his belt and slid it into its chamber. Basking under the fading sunlight, November Company unloaded their troops, and the troops began to unload the camp equipment. At the entrance to the visitor’s complex, a short man with a big baton stood with the door ajar.

Malcolm signaled his occupants. “Hold off setting up camp until I’ve talked to whoever’s in charge here. Park the trucks appropriately.” Both Lieutenants saluted. “Daniels, with me. Clairet and Chavez will tend to the herd.”

The order was received without words and Malcolm pivoted to the main door. The cop’s yelling sounded like it was directly in his face, despite the distance. Malcolm couldn’t pick up on his fast Korean, but he could see the man’s distress by the way he was waving Malcolm over.

“English?” was all Malcolm bothered attempting to translate. The man shook his head for no. “Man in charge?” Malcolm tried asking, only for the military cop to keep motioning him.

After stepping inside of the visitor’s center, Malcolm was led past the front desk where another officer saluted. It was not long before they were upon the tunnel. It was two meters in width and the rail line jutted out of the tunnel and lay beneath concrete. There were three guards standing at the mouth, Malcolm’s escort yelled something at the others, sending one into the tunnel.

“Wait.” The officer spoke.

Malcolm and Daniels could hear the voices echoing out of the tunnel. A few moments later, the guard returned with what appeared to be his sergeant.

“Name’s Kim Ri-Yun. Why did it take you so long?” he spoke in perfect English. “We called for backup more than four hours ago!”

“Okay listen.” Malcolm stated. “We weren’t told anything about a ‘backup’ request.”

“I don’t care!” Ri-Yun barked. “I’ve got civilians in the tunnel and a wounded man in the office!”

“Calm down.’ Malcolm ordered, “Start from the back, who’s wounded?”

“One of my boys. He’s in the office where you came in.” Ri-Yun spoke with a flustered tone. “We stopped the bleeding, but he must’ve lost a pint. He needs medical attention now!”

Malcolm looked at Daniels, eyeing the direction that they came from by the office, and he received his que command. As he turned around, Ri-Yun spoke louder to his subordinates. “One of you take him to the office! Commander, come with me NOW!”

Malcolm’s nose flared as he translated, “I. OUTRANK. You.”

“Please…” Ri-Yun whimpered. “My men are not trained for this...”

“Lead on.” Malcolm demanded.

Ri-Yun looked to his feet, then turned back into the tunnel. It was a perfect arch of granite and the reverberations of feet on the rails echoed deeply. Eventually, Malcolm could see it; it was covered in a stained white tarp and strewn about diagonally against the walls. There was two more military policeman circling it. The pair froze when they saw Malcolm approaching and one of them quickly stepped back over the tarp. As he stood over the figure, Malcolm already knew what it was, and it felt like Déjà vu. Ri-Yun gave a command, and the two guards peeled the stained tarp.

Malcolm squinted at the dead body and kneeled over it for closer examination. It was a Korean male, incredibly young by the looks of it; he could not have been older than twenty. The body was mangled like a cornucopia of wires and the limbs had been smashed in key joints, bending them to make the whole canvas look like a swastika; it took all Malcolm’s self-control not to laugh. The blood had long since begun to dry, it was stickily and smeared into the skin and ground which was reflecting the orange hue of the lights around them. Its face was hardly recognizable, there were over a dozen fractures over the temple, running onto the cheeks. The mouth hung wide, yet the front rows of teeth were knocked loose. There was something wrong with the eyes, they were pinched and stared at Malcolm, maniacally. He folded his hands over his rifle as he knelt, awaiting some explanation for this clear case of blunt force trauma. But it seemed as if they were awaiting his assessment. They just stood there and stared at Malcolm as he stared at the body.

“You said that there were ‘civilians’ in the tunnel, how many?” Malcolm continued to fixate on the canvas.

“At least forty-five.” Ri-Yun answered.

“Where?”

“J-just another fifty feet. We are keeping them in the closest infantry hovel.”

“And what the hell happened to this guy?” Malcolm finally looked at Ri-Yun.

“Sir…” The Sergeant pleaded. “He was INSANE.”

“Just take it from the beginning.” Malcolm repeated. “What happened?”

“The first batch of refugees started calling for us around noon. There was only five of them at the time.”

“And how many men do you have?”

“Fourteen, total.”

“Was this guy with them?” Malcolm asked.

“No. He came after most were accounted for. Alone.”

Malcolm winced. “Did he turn himself in?”

“No. We only caught him because one of the other refugees heard a strange noise further down the tunnel and she started panicking…” Ri-Yun continued, “Na-Sun and Ji-Ning could hear it and they went to try and calm him down, but they caught the man trying to turn off one of the electric switches. Na-Sun over here told me that before the lunatic could see them, he was muttering to himself quite loudly and when he saw them, it turned into ranting. He tried to charge at them!”

“And where is Ji-Ning?” Malcolm asked. They all looked at each other for many seconds. Malcolm looked at Na-Sun, who stood in front of Ri-Yun. “You tried to subdue him, right?” Na-Sun obviously did not understand.

Ri-Yun did the translation for Malcolm, and he gave a mumbled answer that Malcolm could barely hear. “They were almost tackled, and they had to rough him up. They only beat his legs, but he was still kicking and screaming as they dragged him. It took all their strength to get him this far.”

“But?”

“He lost it sir….” Ri-Yun stammered. “He chomped right into Ji-Ning. HARD!”

With that Na-Sun launched himself into a tirade where Malcolm could barely catch a word. The man understood, and he resorted to acting out the scene. It became clear to Malcolm what had happened:

They dragged him with all their might back to their men at the visitor’s center so that they could properly restrain him and have him sent to a medical facility. But it was here that the man’s screaming became intelligible; he was shouting “They’re coming! They’re coming! THEY’RE ALL DEAD!”

The rambling devolved into a pitiful repetition of these mixed sentences. His weight began to anchor them as his screams wound down. According to Na-Sun, he took a break, and the other was heaving the man forward. Na-Sun did not see the madman move, he only heard Ji-Ning’s migraine-inducing scream and rushed to his aid. The madman’s teeth were dug into Ji-Ning’s upper chest, and they did their best to pull him off.

They were pleading for backup and when they arrived, the madman’s neck started to crane backwards. He dislodged himself and Ji-Ning shrieked even louder than before, collapsing backwards. Na-Sun froze in horror when he realized that the madman was chewing. When they made eye contact, the madman roared, and the flesh spitted out of his mouth like a cannon blast. He said that it blinded him and when his sight came to, everyone was senselessly pounding the madman into submission.

He did not beg or yelp but continued to bellow as he flailed his arms. Na-Sun blinked, and those same arms collapsed into awkward angles. The man flopped like a fish and snapped his jaws. Before anyone knew it, he was still, and they did not realize that he was dead until the blood was pooling around their boots. They radioed their command center about the incident, which was, by the mysterious nature of the emergency, passed onto the American Military Command. This all happened approximately four hours, thirty-eight minutes ago.

“Nobody bothered to try handcuffing him?” Malcolm finally asked.

“You did not see this!” Ri-Yun screamed and lifted his pant leg. His right ankle and sock were crusty with dried crimson around a Human’s bite intention. He dropped his pant leg. “WE KEPT TELLING HIM TO CALM DOWN!”

“Something tells me he didn’t hear you.” Malcolm pointed at the body with his hand. “How about that part where he said, ‘They are coming!’ They?! Did you not ask yourself who the fuck ‘THEY’ are!?”

Ri-Yun’s face turned red. “HE WAS BATSHIT!”

“Did you even report that to your bosses?” Malcolm’s voice became hushed, complimented by the black of his eyes.

“I told them that I have a wounded man who needs a doctor. I have a dead body that I cannot move yet. Most importantly, I have civilians who need shelter! So, NO! I did not include the ramblings of a fucking lunatic!”

Malcolm grasped his mouth. “This nutjob is probably a defector from the army who knew something we don’t!” He watched Ri-Yun drop his head in shame. “You better hope that we don’t get ambushed, or else it’ll be real fucking hard for me to spin this shit as self-defense! Your gonna go all the way down to the opposite end of this goddamn tunnel and secure every cranny of it.”

“Sir-“

“I said. Every. Cranny.” There was no tone to Malcolm’s voice. “You fucked up today. If you want me to make a convincing case to my bosses, you’ll do what I tell you. If I lose people because you didn’t do your due diligence, they’re gonna pin this shit on your head!”

“I DIDN’T-“

“DISMMISSED!” Malcolm shouted.

Ri-Yun still avoided eye contact. He ordered the men with him to follow. Malcolm turned around and marched to the tunnel’s exit. He found the other two military officers standing idle outside. One followed Ri-Yun, by Malcolm’s order and the other led him to the center’s office. He then sent the escort into the tunnel before opening the door.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The chair behind the main desk was pulled in front and there sat Ji-Ning on the right-side couch. Daniels stood beside the translator on the chair, who inspected Ji-Ning. He was topless and mummified in red-blotted bandages around his chest, all taken from the first aid box to the left side of the door by Malcolm. “I assume they’ve told you the whole story?” he asked Daniels.

“They did.” he nodded.

“What’s your name?” Malcolm asked the translator.

“Han-Rhee.” He gave a courteous salute.

“What did you have to do with the incident in the tunnel?”

“I-I helped patch the wound and speak English. That’s it.”

“Nelson, we have to get the medics in here.” Daniels interrupted.

Malcolm grabbed a walkie talkie that had been passed to him by Ri-Yun. “Report. Over.”

“We’re at one of the switches,” his voice hissed through static. “There’s another infantry hovel about a hundred meters from here.”

“Report back. Over and out.” He turned the talkie off and looked at Daniels. “We need to get a whole platoon here and down there. NOW.”

He looked confused. “What the hell is wrong?”

“Didn’t our wounded friend tell you?” Malcolm stared down at Ji-Ning, “They’re coming.”

Daniels winced. “Who the fuck is coming?”

“Could be anything!” Malcolm said. “DPRK Troops or the terrorists…Maybe the goddamn Chinese are rolling over the border!”

Daniels’ demeanor shared his concern. “Maybe it’s just that large swarm of refugees-“

Malcolm pointed to Ji-Ning’s dark bandages, “Our only suspect to anything decided he’d rather do that than risk being sent back. Unless the goddamn president tells me otherwise, I’m not letting anybody else get through.”

“Wait a minute…who got through?” Daniels asked.

Malcolm’s nose flared. “Do as I say, quickly!”

He snapped out of the conversation and hustled out the door. Malcolm then forced Ji-Ning to recount the entire story from beginning to end. There was little difference; Ji-Ning’s perspirations were heavy, his hair damp and skin pale.

Temp was wrong. This man needs a hospital, not our shitty medics.

After rapping on the door, Staff Sergeant Robert “Finger Blade” Avery stepped inside. The combat medic shared Malcolm’s bulky disposition and brown eyes. Avery shut the door and pointed at Ji-Ning. “I assume this is the guy?”

“He is the only one with a big-ass band aid.” Malcolm snarked.

“Pfft. This horse barely looks sapient.”

Malcolm stood from the couch, “Lay down.” He ordered Ji-Ning.

“Is there a good reason you’re by yourself with him? Avery asked as he stepped over.

“Comparing their stories.” Malcolm answered. “Is there a good reason you interrupted me?”

“Uh, a humanitarian reason as a matter of fact.” He looked sardonically at Malcolm and pulled a trauma kit from his back. As soon as he opened it, a pair of medical gloves appeared. While he slipped them on, Ri-Yun’s walkie talkie made a chirp of static.

Malcolm pulled it out. “This is Nelson, report. Over.”

“It’s Ri-Yun. The lights to the second hovel are out. Over.”

“How could we have figured that?” Malcolm was sly. “You do not have permission to turn around. Over.”

Ri-Yun sounded fearful. “Sir…we heard something. There are blood trails...My men are hesitant. Over.”

Malcolm grinned, “You have magical flashlights, and cunning electric switches, get in there. Keep updating, over and out.” Without listening for Ri-Yun’s confirmation, he sheathed the walkie talkie once again. Avery was staring back at him, waiting to hear what that was. “These fucking idiots have been letting however many people congest the tunnel while they waited for us to come clean the mess up.”

“Right…Let’s see here.” Avery grabbed the end of the red bandages and carefully unwrapped the upper torso. They were interrupted again by a knocking on the door; Malcolm opened it to see X.O. Daniels and Master Sergeant Chavez.

“I understand you ordered something about putting troops in the tunnel?” Daniels deadpanned.

“Have the tents pitched outside.” Malcolm ordered. “I want men set up inside the tunnel at the first hovel. We’ve got civies in there so bring medics. As soon as you get anything set up, I want you to send a fireteam to rendezvous with the Military Officers towards the other end. Got it?”

“Yes sir.” Daniels and Chavez uttered in unison.

“Uh, Captain?” Avery said behind him. “Could you come here?”

Malcolm turned around. Avery was delicately throwing the bandages away and turned his attention back to the now smelly wound on Ji-Ning’s chest. In nearly five hours, the bandages had started to cover an obnoxious odor that Malcolm could now smell from where he was standing. He approached the couch and kneeled just behind Avery as Daniels and Chavez cornered him.

“Would one of you get out there?” Malcolm ordered. “This doesn’t take four people.”

“My bad, Capt.” Javier turned out the office without looking back.

“How bad does it hurt?” Avery tried to ask Ji-Ning, “Why the fuck are you nodding?”

“Because he doesn’t understand you.” Malcolm said point blank; He translated, “Hurts, yes? How much?”

Ji-Ning gave head shake for “no”. As he responded, beads of sweat flew off his hair.

“Well…I can tell it itches,” Avery slapped Ji-Ning’s hand away from the wound, “but he’s not even in pain?”

“That’s what he said.” Malcolm answered.

Avery’s jaw dropped. “It’s festering… Its deep enough for me to fuck it! And call me crazy, but these look like teeth marks to me! You want to tell me how the hell this happened? Sir.”

Malcolm huffed. “A suspect was caught trying to shut one of the electricity off, but these dipshits decided to wait until we showed up to investigate. Anyway, the guy went full on Berserker before anyone could question him. All the way screaming, ‘They are coming’. He snapped and did THAT to poor little Ji-Ning.”

Avery nodded. “And where is this ‘Berserker’ now?”

“Dead in the tunnel, they beat the motherfucker worse than Rodney King! Don’t suppose you’ve been trained in autopsies, right?”

Avery shook his head. “Wrong. Just dead wrong.”

“Well, that’s all we’re gonna get out of him.”

“Uh huh.” Avery was pouring a disinfectant onto a patch, and he placed it on the open wound. Ji-Ning chugged a bottled water until Avery began wrapping the new bandaging over the open wound. “I don’t suppose you know exactly who is coming? Do you sir?”

“That’s why I’m agitated. All this happened well after we received our orders, and they didn’t include anything the lunatic said. For all we know, ‘they’ are here. They could be among the civilians we already have with us. And that doesn’t count how many already slipped past us.”

Avery was finally done dressing the wound and the crimson red had been replaced with shiny white bandages. He silently motioned for Ji-Ning to lie on his bact. Avery took the gloves off and threw them away as he looked at Nelson and Lieutenant Daniels.

“Is that why you sent the South Koreans to scope out the tunnel?” Daniels asked.

“Your goddamn right.” Malcolm said confidently. “They’re not my people. This is their mess. So, they’re taking point. I’m not putting us at risk just because they’re armed with batons.”

“You really think people have already got past them?” Avery asked.

Malcolm nodded. “Oh, it’s a foregone conclusion. We have four infiltration tunnels that have just today been converted into military checkpoints. We know of only four infiltration tunnels; assuming for the sake of argument there aren’t a dozen more. The North Koreans expelled all foreign journalists last month. So, we’ve had at least four weeks without heavy patrols at the tunnels we know about. And we simply have not been looking for escaping refugees until recently. Make no mistake, whomever ‘they’ are, they’ve gotten through. It’s just a question of how many and, most importantly, if we’re surrounded. Speaking of that; Daniels, I want Fire Teams stationed at the tree lines.”

Daniels gave a hesitant salute and left the office without uttering a word.

Avery puckered his lips. “Well, I’m usually the one with the bad news, so, thank you for that.”

“How’s he doing?” Malcolm looked at Ji-Ning.

“Whelp. Most of his symptoms are likely due to blood loss but he’s got a bacterial infection. Now, I can keep slowing it down, but if we don’t get him to a hospital he’s going to die.”

“Well, that’s not an option right now.” Malcolm answered. “Our orders are that nobody is allowed past the checkpoint until further notice.”

“Well, they better notice us. This man needs skin grafts, stitches, and a round of antibiotics or else he’s going to die a slow death over days.”

“I can let them know, but people are getting sick. If his immune system is compromised, we wouldn’t be doing him any favors by putting him in a hospital anyway.”

“Well assuming that the bleeding doesn’t start again, those bandages need to be changed after an hour.”

Malcolm nodded. “In the meantime, why don’t you and your boys go in the tunnel and start screening those refugees?”

Reaching for his trauma kit, Avery pulled out a surgical mask and slipped it over his ears followed by another set of gloves. “So, what are you gonna do with this guy?”

“I’ll keep him in here. He’s not in any condition to be working anyway.”

Avery saluted and strode over to the door. “As I said, he’s got a bacterial infection, if he gets ANY worse, find me.” He exited the office.

Malcolm tapped his headset and attempted contact with Mendez. He repeated, “Come in, Major.”

“Captain Nelson, it’s good to hear from you.” Mendez spoke. “Is this a SITREP, over?”

Malcolm smacked his lips in annoyance. “Yes sir, my company is setting up shop at the First Tunnel and still awaiting Bravo Company. We have at least forty-five civilian refugees and a severely wounded officer who is awaiting evac. The local military police reported additional movement further down the tunnel, awaiting their report now, over.”

Mendez hesitated. “That is a resounding ‘no’ on the evac, hospitalizations are up by fifty percent in the last hour. Over.”

“Sir, I’m standing over a man with an infection and a hole in his chest.” Malcolm insisted. “There’s a dead body of a defector in the tunnel that I highly recommend we send back if nothing else. Over.” A clicking sound was heard in the silence. “Sir?”

“Who the hell was this defector?” There was something cold in Mendez’s voice.

Malcolm felt offput. “We don’t have a name…He decided to attack the cops instead of turning himself in. They caught him trying to shut the lights off and he decided to go batshit. He repeatedly screamed, ‘They’re coming! They're all dead!’ He outmatched the two cops beating him and wounded one before the rest bludgeoned him to death. Over.”

“No one patted him down!? He had a weapon?!”

Malcolm corrected him. “No sir, he literally sank his teeth into the poor bastard’s chest and tore it. Over.”

It was deadpan for a full minute before Malcolm could even hear static. “I want both, the defector and the officer. Over.”

“Is he safe from the flu patients? Over.”

“Nelson, just have your medical team load both in the back of a truck and send them to Casey.”

Malcolm was emphatic. “Sir, that’s a whole truck for two people. We haven’t got camp set up; I can’t give you an ETA for that-”

Mendez grew impatient. “I don’t care, just make it happen now, or else I’ll have a truck dispatched from to you from Casey. Where are the other civilians?”

“They’re still inside of the tunnel. We got-“

“KEEP them in there.” Mendez barked. “Try not to let anybody else show up.”

Malcolm gaffed. “Sir, how the hell am I supposed to ethically do that? Over.”

“Just make it happen. No one gets through, period.”

Malcolm felt palpable suspicion. “What the hell is going on?”

“…Yongsan Base is sounding alarms…” The Major responded with a forced stoicism. “Keep your people safe. Over and out.”

“Yes sir…Over and out.” Malcolm looked over at Ji-Ning, who seemed to be fast asleep.

That was a cryptic message…And I have a knack for those…

Malcolm immediately hit his earpiece. “Avery, get back here now.” He had opened the office door and saw his Company setting up. As Malcolm had ordered, he could see a patrol on the road.

Malcolm finally turned around and remembered the sight of Ji-Ning unconscious. “WAKE. WAKE NOW!”

Ji-Ning was groggy, and he began to smack his lips. His eyes finally opened…and they disturbed Malcolm. They were dilating but it didn’t seem to stop the sickly man from staring right at him. Ji-Ning began to mutter faintly, like Malcolm was waking a drunk. He grabbed Ji-Ning by the shoulder and hoisted him to a sitting position. His mutter grew louder but still garbled. “Hospital…” Malcolm spoke. “We bring you to hospital…”

The man continued to hyperventilate and looked completely dazed, his blue eyes stared at Malcolm without blinking. Malcolm realized what he muttered was repetitive as he identified specific words.

…He thinks I’m his brother…and he’s sorry.