Sempiternal: • Contaminated • || BOOK 3#

13. Dirty Work

Due to the snow, the move to the house on the hill was delayed. Jin has used those two days to get a better look at this group. How they get along, what they do, how they behave with each other and it's... Quite depressing. It's been very comfortable thanks to Hyejun, but because of the little food they have, many don't even have anything to try.

Mostly those who are over thirty or don't have a job that involves eliminating Yagtalja. He has seen two people killed for turning forty. Hyejun believes that no one older can be useful. They will make excuses, their pulse will be slower and they have nothing to offer anymore.

Jin knows it happens because they would be too old for her and she has to take care of her position as a leader. As volatile as most of them are, she marks respect by not shaking her pulse. It doesn't take away from how nasty, unfair and cruel it is.

At the same time, these people choose to be here and would rather die inside a group from a bullet or a stab in the head, than outside, be eaten and end up just another Yagtalja.

So he felt that... he should just take everything and go. Jin should just focus on that. On nothing else. To drive away that nagging voice inside his head that tells him: Why not finish with this group and let them not hurt anyone else? Why let them free to hurt others? Why let them go and let them want to take revenge on you?

Kill them, kill them, kill them, kill them...

For your sake and for the sake of the rest, kill them...

Kill them.

His peace and reluctance to violence, to what made these people so terrible, is interrupted in the most savage way possible with a simple conversation. Hyejun keeps Jin close at all times, as if guarding her toy and that no one else uses it. That involves being in chats with her trusted people.

Among them, a couple of people he'd never seen before.

"We found a train. It's in the southern area. From the looks of it, that group knows very well how to handle it, but what caught my attention is the amount of food they have. They take whole tents. There are so many of them" Jin sweats and shivers in his seat How could they possibly notice? Is that how often the train leaves? "We should go take it before we move to the mountain."

"I'm very interested in the train..." Hyejun admits, resting his hands on the table. A red circle around where they saw the rail vehicle. "We could use it to travel more? Did you see many people?"

"Yes. I also saw many children."

Hyejun smiles excitedly and meticulously. Jin licks his lips and clears his throat.

"But you don't know how to control a train, do you? How are you going to use it? And that's a long way How many days did it take to get there?"

"It would take five days," replies one of the new arrivals. "It'll be messy, but everything they have is worth that trip." he states emphatically. Hyejun nods in agreement.

"We'll just keep the one who drives it and the others... we'll see on the way, if they don't all die when we claim the train" Jin draws blood from giving himself so much on his thumb and is forced to put it in his mouth to suck it out. "The children will be good entertainment... Good food if the winter gets worse."

Jin hurts his finger more. They accept it without further ado, none of them pout, none of them react and some even celebrate. You know they haven't done that so far, but if they really do in the future?

They would devour the children on the train.

They would kill everyone who accompanies them.

They'd get rid of their boyfriends....