World Purgatory - Volume 1

In this area some tents were built to serve food and water. It wasn’t clear how long the provision could last if there were this many people. The military couldn’t have had the chance to gather enough supply. I thought I might as well eat while I still can. So together with my group I stood in the queue for food.

Since we came together, we also sat together in one area. Jeong Yewon, Min Songhee, Choi Doowon, Seo Daho and other celebrities were well known to Korean. People were looking at them but they didn’t approached them as they usually would during normal time. They got the people attention for a while, distracting people from gloomy thoughts, and that’s it. A nice but short distraction.

After I ate, I planned to look for information on to how to get back to my country. Then I saw Choi Doowon was arguing with Jeong Yewon and others. I approached Seo Daho and asked him about that.

“It’s the same thing. Choi is blaming Jeong for picking up people. He thinks that if you and the others are not around and slowing us down, we won’t be in such danger like the last time,” explained Seo. Davi, Traikun and others heard this explanation as well.

“Is he always a jerk like this?” this time one of the fighter asked.

“Yes,” Seo laughed.

“You knew?”

Seo Daho then he continued, “Yes. Everyone in our industry know it. Though his backers and company make sure that no one outside our trade know about it. And he’s a pretty good actor if you understand what I mean.”

I understood of course. There were always people like Choi everywhere. Either on the entertainment industry or the ordinary white-collar office life. Anywhere. They used their position and/or backers to bully people around them and put on a faade of faked faces and actions for others.

I usually shrugged off people like this. But today I was irritated because he was targeting the lovely and kind miss Jeong. She was not scared of him and did pretty well holding her own, so I didn’t do anything for the moment. I had decided that if things heated up and he tried more than mouth-fight then I wouldn’t stay idle.

In the end, things didn’t go that far. Choi went away with eyes filled with contempt towards me and the others hitchhikers. Several other celebrities went together with him, including Min Songhee.

The rest of us stayed together. This was the time when I got Jeong Yewon to help me talk with an officer at the gate. In fact, I was not alone. Davi, Traikun and other fighters were with me too. All of us wanted to go home, to our own country.

All our hopes were crushed when the officer told us that the planes weren’t operational. It wasn’t that they did not want to use the planes but they could not.

Any plane that tried to take off was destroyed. Witnesses said that it was like the planes were in collision with an invisible ceiling. It happened during the ascending. The c.o.c.kpit was the first to crash and only after that the rest of the plane were destroyed too. The last plane that took off was to carry the head of the government out of here. It was destroyed. No more attempt was made after that.

I knew it would be like this. Our technological advantage and advance weaponry were only functioning in severe limitation.

Since we knew that the plane didn’t work, we went back to our place. We called it our place but really it was just a shaded parking area.

During this conversation I learned that Traikun was hoping to get back to his wife and son in Thailand. Davi was engaged and about to get marry as soon as the competition over. One of the other fighter was hoping his sole disabled brother survived back in his home country. One of the trainer, who was a widow, wished that his six year old daughter could find safety together with his parents.

Each one of us have people waiting for us back at our home country. We had reasons that made us wanted to get back home the soonest. Everyone had their own stories. By talking like this we got to know and were consoling each other.

When these fighters were in the arena, they always looked like a menace, a force to be reckoned with. The previous me wouldn’t survive in a one on one fight with any one of them. In reality, though, they were also normal human beings. They had feelings. They had family, friends and loved ones that they would like to get back to. Just like many other people here.

While conversing, I suddenly heard sound from far away. It was very faint but I thought they were gunshots. And it was repeating. Because of the improvement on my body, my hearing got a bit better too. None of us really relaxed so my sudden change of attention, subtle as it was, caught the others’ curiosity since they did not hear anything.

“What’s wrong?” someone asked me.

“I heard gunshots,” I told them.

People were looking at each other. However, because they didn’t hear the sounds themselves, their reactions were lukewarm. I was sure of what I heard but made no effort to convince them.

The reactions changed when the soldiers suddenly made a move and started to man the front line of our refugee camp. There were murmurs and mumbled discussions. People were wondering what happened. Everybody started to think of the worst but the existence of the military really helped them calm a bit.

And then, gunshots were heard, and this time everyone could hear them. Their faces changed and bodies tensed.

Why was the shooting sounded so near? I thought. There was only one explanation and it was because the shooting happened not far from us. The soldiers were pushed back! We had all those machine guns and still pushed back?

Some people were starting to shout words that I didn’t understand. A lot of the refugee were running further deep into airport. In my opinion that would be a bad decision. We should fight where we had superior numbers instead of giving the monsters that superiority. But I also understood that many, if not almost all, of the people here were civilians and didn’t even know how to fight.

It wasn’t easy for experienced fighters like Davi and trained soldiers to fight such ferocious monsters, it was even harder for civilians like the previous me and the rest of the people.

Some of the people near the camp frontline shouted something. By the faces of the Koreans, I guessed that was bad news.

“The defense has been breached!” Jeong Yewon told us non-Korean. She picked up a fork and held it vehemently. She must have picked it up during our eating time.

I looked at her with blank expression. ‘Really? A fork?’ However, Jeong Yewon seemed really determined so I didn’t say anything.

She wasn’t the only one, the fighters were picking up their weapons as well. Together, we went closer to our camp frontline. These guys were having the same idea as me. I took out my police knife and baton.

Seo Daho was here with us. He wasn’t a talkative guy and took little part during those silly and unwarranted arguments. He didn’t sarcastically judge nor diss people who had different opinions. But above all those things was that a coward he was not. I liked this kind of guy. Admittedly, he was more decent than me. Unfortunately though, just like Jeong Yewon, he was armed with only a fork. Their mentality of ‘contributing-where-it-mattered’ was really commendable, a total opposite from the more popular Choi.

The gunshot sounds were getting closer and closer. The people who gathered here were probably only amounted to a few hundreds and most of them were soldiers.

Soon, what previously could only be heard from afar were now displaying in front of our own eyes.

Slightly more than a hundred soldiers were running toward our direction. I thought there were about a couple hundred soldiers stationed at the bridge front, but now they’re reduced to only this amount? They were frightened, even their movements were sluggish.

Rumbling sounds were heard and now we could see what made the soldiers run away ever so frightened.

“Kreeee!”

I saw hundreds, no, much more than that, perhaps a thousand of purgers coming at us. They were tall and sturdy. They looked savage, with bodies full of bulging muscles. Their acts wild and beastly. Most of them have bloods all over their mouths and hands, evidence of their recent slaughter.

“How.. are we.. going to fight them?” someone said. Fear was plastered all over his face. The same fear pervaded into everyone’s heart like a spider’s web, entangling and suffocating. Now we understood why the soldiers were retreating. It was literally too much to handle.

I was somewhat scared too. This was the first time I saw this many purgers at once, it would be a lie to say I wasn’t affected. Being an Acolyte didn’t change that fact.

The troop commander shouted something.

“The soldiers from the other bridge are coming to help us,” said Jeong Yewon, translating for us.

“They better be here fast,” Seo Daho grimly said.

“We’ll hold them off until they do,” Jeong Yewon replied.

Optimist, I guessed it would be good for us to have that. I saw Traikun, Davi and all the other fighters were, with very serious expressions, readying themselves to face this challenge. Even with the additional soldiers coming to us, we were only amounted to about a thousand. And there was the fact that the running soldiers were already tired and scared, thoroughly demoralized.

Other than by using the guns none of the people here, except me, was able to fight on equal terms against the purgers. The monsters slightly outnumbering us was a problem beyond our attention now.

The commander gave a pretty graphic order. We were to hold the line in front of the camp. This area was the narrowest of all the paths leading to the camp. Still, it was more than thirty meters wide. The soldiers here were standing by, their guns on ready to fire at any time. They were waiting until their comrades safely passed by.

Those soldiers currently running already ran out of ammunition. They must’ve shot everything they had. Anyone could see how desperate and exhausted they were. They had been running all the way from the bridge, which was not a distance too far for a soldier. The problem was that they were frantic and frightened. A distance that’s usually not a problem now exhausted them. It’s like, to cover this short distance, they were running with all their might. I was sure some of the soldiers fell during this retreat.

Just as the running soldier went pass, the standing by soldiers started shooting.

Rattattatta! Rattattatta!

In front of our eyes the purgers were getting shot. Bullets were flying like there was no end. The air was full with the smell of gunpowder. The purgers, though stronger than any normal human, were riddled with wounds. After taking rain of bullets, they were falling. But they kept coming.

The purgers weren’t really fast, so it wasn’t difficult for trained soldiers to shoot them. It’s just that it took several shoots to down one purger, their vitality was really frightening. And their numbers made it seem like there was no end to them.

Just as I thought nothing could make things worse, something came up. Their appearances were like those other purgers only that they were a bit taller and leaner. But what was more important is that I recognized them.

They had yellow eyes! Those were the yellow-eyed purgers. Not just one but many of them. Among the sea of the grunts, it wasn’t easy to pick on how many they were. Quickly counting, I found there were more than ten of them.

“No…,” I sighed.

Nobody heard me saying that except Jeong Yewon who stood nearest me. “Do you know what they are?”

Apparently, this woman was quite attentive and could see the difference, “The stronger version of the purger.”

She was silent for a second and then looked at me, “What did you call them? The purger?”

I only nodded while looking away.

“The purger… because they purge us? I see,” Jeong Yewon’s voice trailed off.

When the purgers at the front line were getting shot at and falling, those yellow-eyed purgers charged ahead of their brethren. Compared to the ordinary ones, they were faster and stronger. In a short while they were already close by. The soldiers were panicking and started targeting the yellow-eyed purgers in front of them.

Yesterday, when I saw the yellow-eyed purger for the first time I thought that they were far tougher than the ordinary ones. So tough that they couldn’t be pierced by small caliber guns. I was wrong. It’s true that they were visibly much more durable, but not to the point of being impervious to bullet. Being under heavy fire, the yellow-eyed didn’t only slowed but also bleed.

Some yellow-eyed purgers were gunned down, being the recipient of countless bullets, but there were also a few that managed to reach our frontline. The poor soldiers didn’t have a chance at all. One by one the shooting line were broken and the soldiers butchered. The yellow-eyed, now numbered only three, were wreaking havoc everywhere they went.

At this time, because the focus of fire were the yellow-eyed purgers, hundreds of the still healthy ordinary purgers were arriving and starting their onslaught.

The soldiers were out of ammo due to endless shooting. Everytime they were busy reloading they would be either clawed, slapped or bitten to death by the nearby purgers.

It was now melee engagement, nowhere to run anymore. Immediately massacre ensued as soldiers and refugee alike starting to fall like autumn leaves. Yells and shouts were in the air. The symphony of butcher had started.

“Attack!”