The gates of Yongsan Garrison opened slowly. They really did open slowly. The Yongsan Garrison gates took their time to open. It was, like the Yongsan Garrison gates were being careful when they opened.
Not in welcome—but in calculation.
The steel barriers opened up enough to let the survivors in. Floodlights shone down on them with a strong light. It was the middle of the day in Seoul. The sun was up high. It did not look very strong. It showed everything that was hidden at night. There were a lot of tents all close together. They were covered in soot. Sandbag walls were built with cars and trucks to make them stronger. There were also coils of sharp wire that looked like teeth. The survivors saw all of this as they walked in. The steel barriers and the floodlights and the razor wire were around the survivors, in Seoul.
This wasn't a sanctuary.
It was a pressure cooker.
Ethan Cross felt it immediately. He knew something was not right. Ethan Cross could sense that something bad was going to happen to Ethan Cross.
People looked at him as he walked by. The soldiers, the civilians, the Awakeners. Some of them seemed relieved. Others were scared. Then there were a few who looked like they knew the Awakeners. They seemed to recognize the Awakeners.
Marcus felt really uneasy when people were staring at him. He said "This feels like we just walked into a courtroom where Marcus and the others have to answer a lot of questions, about what Marcus did."
Lena had her pistol tucked away. It was still really close, to her. She looked around carefully. ". A zoo."
Captain Park Joon-Seok was rushed to the tents as soon as Captain Park Joon-Seok and the others crossed the perimeter. People were giving orders. The radios were making a lot of noise. Stretchers were being moved around.
Ethan said no to the treatment again.
The medics saw something that caught their attention. They actually noticed it. The medics noticed.
People always did that.
Inside the triage tent people were whispering to each other quickly. The stretchers were being moved around. The whispers were spreading even faster than the triage tent staff could move the stretchers. The triage tent was a place where people were trying to figure out who needed help the most and the whispers were, about the people who were hurt.
People say that some of these things can take in power. They are talking about the fact that some of them absorb power.
"Black-ranked already?"
I was looking at Mark and I saw something on his hand. Did you see that mark on his hand?
Ethan stood apart leaning against a support beam as Marcus and Lena got fixed up. His wounds had already started to close the pain was not as bad now it was, like a quiet reminder. The wounds were not healed. They were just not hurting much.
Something caught his attention a faint feeling was there, at the edge of his vision. The sensation was very weak. It was still pulsing.
Not a notification.
Awareness.
Something inside him was active.
"Registration is over at that tent " Marcus said in a voice nodding towards a long line of Awakeners who were waiting under the watch of armed people. Awakeners were being. Ranked by the people, in charge. The Awakeners were all lined up. Waiting for their turn.
Lena said that making lists is also something she does.
Captain Park showed up again an hour later. He was stitched up. Looked really pale but he was still standing. Captain Park did not waste any time.
The man told Ethan that Command wants to see him. They want him to go now. Command is waiting for Ethan.
The Tactical Operations Center was hidden under a lot of sandbags and concrete. There were screens that showed pictures from satellites and areas that were marked in red. The officers were talking to each other in serious voices. They were discussing the Tactical Operations Center situation and the screens, with satellite feeds were helping them. The Tactical Operations Center was an important place.
Colonel Park Ji-Hoon was right, in the middle of everything that was happening. He stood at the center of it all where all the action was taking place. Colonel Park Ji-Hoon could see everything that was going on around him.
He looked at Ethan carefully the way you would look at a bomb that had not gone off yet. He was trying to figure out what made Ethan tick like you try to figure out how to defuse a bomb without it blowing up in your face. He studied Ethan.
The colonel told me that I do not fit the profiles they have. I have no service in the military. I am not registered.. I have managed to survive many tough battles with high tier enemies. The colonel seems to be surprised by this fact, about me. I have survived high-tier engagements.
Ethan looked back at him without looking. "I do not rely on profiles."
A small smile came onto Parks face. "That is good. Because the enemy does not know what to do the enemy does not have a plan."
He pointed to a map of Seoul. It had a lot of yellow marks all over it. The city was covered in these yellow indicators they were everywhere, on the map of Seoul.
Park said they have a problem with the dungeon. It is, under the subway line that goes beneath the garrison. They closed all the ways out. Inside the dungeon things are still happening. The dungeon breach is already causing trouble and people are getting hurt. Park said this about the dungeon breach. The new dungeon breach is a deal.
Ethan said to the person "And you want me."
"I want your team " Park said. "I need your team to work with a group of people. Make sure that is okay. Do not do anything. I just want your team to work with the group that's all."
Ethan thought about it for a moment. He was thinking about what to do. Ethan was not sure if he should do it or not. Ethan thought about it some more.
Then he nodded. He said "We will go together. There will be no separations."
Park stopped what he was doing. Then he nodded his head one time. He said "Agreed".
The subway entrance smelled like damp concrete and rot.
The walls were covered in webbing that was really thick and sticky. This made it hard to hear anything. The people, with flashlights were shining them down into the space. They were making beams of light that cut through the darkness. The soldiers were moving down slowly. They were very tense. Had their fingers tightly wrapped around their guns. The mixed unit of soldiers was being very careful as they went down.
The first skitter echoed.
Then another.
Spiders came out of the places. They were big and had a hard outer layer and they could move really fast. Then people started shooting guns. One of the soldiers fell down. Started screaming because the spider venom made his muscles stop working while he was still trying to take a step. The spiders just kept coming. The soldiers were trying to fight them off. The spiders were a problem because they were so big and fast and had that bad venom.
Someone yelled "Fall back".
Ethan said no. He told them to hold.
He moved forward in a controlled way being precise, with every step. He was not rushing forward instead he was being careful and anchoring himself.
Marcus was really good, with his blade. It flashed in the light. He cut a spider in half. Another spider jumped back because Marcus had messed with its movements. This gave Marcus the chance to smash it with an explosion. His blade was still handy. The spiders did not like Marcus and his blade.
Lena took her time. Shot her gun in short bursts. Every time she pulled the trigger it was a shot. She made sure each shot from her gun counted. Lena was careful, with her gun. Made every shot deliberate.
The people pushed deeper into it. The people kept going. They pushed deeper.
The station has a center. At this center the web gets really thick and it looks like it is beating. The web at the heart of the station is, like a lump that pulses.
The queen waited there for a long time. She was. The queen was very patient. The queen did not say anything.
Huge. Bloated. Surrounded by corpses and silk.
And she wasn't alone.
There were two people standing guard. They had symbols on them and their eyes were full of crazy loyalty. The symbols looked really strange. The people seemed completely dedicated to what they were doing. These two humans stood guard with the symbols, on them and their eyes were burning with fanatic devotion.
The marked person walks with chains one of them said softly. The marked person needs to break free, from the chains.
Ethan said something strongly. He really meant what he said with steel. Ethan was very firm with his answer it was, like steel.
The fight was brutal.
Messy.
One soldier gave his life to save another soldier. Marcus got shot in the arm with a bullet. He just kept on fighting. Lena used up all her bullets. Then she put in a new magazine all while people were shooting at her.
Ethan drove himself to the edge. He did not go past it. He stopped at the edge and that is where he stayed. The edge is where Ethan finally stopped and it was a thing he did not go past the edge.
The queen fell down. Then the power suddenly went up very high. This was a change when the queen fell it really affected the power.
The darkness felt like it was reaching out for him. He could sense the darkness reaching for him. It was the darkness that was reaching for him.
The man did not want the problem to take over his life. He refused to let it consume him whole. The problem was big. He was not going to let it beat him. He was strong. The problem was not going to take control of him. The man was determined to stay in charge of his life and not let the problem consume him whole.
The dungeon fell in on itself. The webbing caught. Burned away. The air was quiet. Still now that everything had settled down. The dungeon was still. Quiet, after the collapse.
The people came out all bloody.
Alive.
Different.
When the people crossed back into the garrison people started talking about the people. The garrison was filled with murmurs, about the people who had just walked in.
The mark. Then the mark said something back to me. I was waiting to see what the mark would do. The mark is very important, to this thing. So I paid attention to what the mark did next.
He did not want to give in to the rush of feelings that were coming over him the surge was really strong and he resisted the surge, with all his might. The surge was getting harder to resist.
That is not normal it just does not seem right to me the situation, with the thing that is happening is not normal.
Ethan flexed his hand. He made a fist. Then he stretched out his fingers. Ethan did this a times with his hand.
The symbol, underneath his skin beat one time. Then it stopped moving.
The safety inside the walls felt really weak. It did not feel safe all inside the walls. The walls were supposed to make people feel safe. That was not the case here. Safety, inside the walls was what people wanted. It was not what they got.
Because now they weren't just survivors.
People saw the Facebook users. The Facebook users were noticed by people.
And in this world, being noticed was the first step toward becoming prey—or something worse.