Chapter 36

Into the Water

"I see them!"

North Korean soldiers were approaching in formation, watching the bank with its shattered windows. The distance was between 150 and 200 meters. There were roughly twenty of them.

"Open fire! Kill them all! Those bastards!"

Bong-tae ordered his men to fire in the loudest voice he had used all day.

Ratatatatat! Ratatatat!

Bullets fired from inside the bank swept through the North Korean formation. Without needing to be told, the members of 2nd Platoon prioritized firing at the North Korean soldiers directly in line with their positions, just as they had done at the golf course.

Just then, a North Korean soldier at the very rear of the formation, carrying something large on his shoulder, pressed himself against a utility pole beside the road.

What he was carrying was an RPG-7, an anti-tank rocket launcher.

"Min-jae!"

"Yes! I see him!"

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Song Min-jae fired at the North Korean soldier carrying the RPG-7. But the utility pole blocked his line of sight at just the right angle, making it difficult for even a marksman as skilled as Song Min-jae to hit him. Sparks flew harmlessly from the utility pole.

"F-fuck···."

"Stay calm, Min-jae! I'll shoot with you!"

Song Min-jae changed magazines with trembling hands. Normally, he was always composed, but the thought that his failure to hit the target might cost his platoon members their lives made his fingers refuse to obey him.

Beside him, Hwang Gi-tae put down his observation scope, raised his K2C1, and unleashed a burst of automatic fire toward the utility pole.

Ratatat! Ratatatatat!

"Fuck! Don't let him come out!"

"Sergeant Kim! RPG beside the utility pole!"

"I see him! We're shooting from the first floor too!"

Just then, a black shadow appeared above the North Korean soldiers. A toy-like object with four propellers spinning ceaselessly flew in and exploded near the utility pole where the North Korean soldier was taking cover.

KABOOOM!

CRASH!

The explosion was modest compared to a tank's high-explosive shell or K9 artillery fire, but it was powerful enough to shatter every window in the surrounding buildings.

The North Korean soldier carrying the RPG-7 was torn to pieces beyond recognition, his remains scattered across the ground.

"I-it's one of our drones!"

"A-are you sure it's ours? What if it's North Korean and just hit the wrong target?"

"Who cares!"

"True!"

"Keep firing! Don't let those bastards even stick their heads out!"

The North Korean soldiers attacking the bank began retreating. Their only means of destroying the building had disappeared, and South Korean suicide drones were beginning to fall on them one after another.

"They're retreating!"

"Should we pursue them?"

"No! Leave them! We might get caught in our own drone strikes!"

Bong-tae thought this was their chance to move the platoon. No North Korean soldiers were visible in the buildings or on the roads near the bank.

"Move to the building next door! Now!"

"This position seems pretty good, though."

"I told you we have to keep moving! Move!"

"Yes! Understood!"

"Second Platoon, move out!"

Bong-tae led the platoon to the building across the way. It was a commercial building with a real estate agency on the first floor and private academies occupying the floors above.

KABOOOM! KABOOM! BOOM!

Sure enough, artillery shells began striking the bank building where the platoon had been stationed just a minute earlier.

Perhaps because the North Korean self-propelled artillery wasn't particularly accurate, shells also struck neighboring buildings, blowing away their corners.

"F-fuck!"

"Watch out for fragments! Keep your heads down!"

Clatter! Rattle-rattle!

Chunks of concrete broken from the buildings rained down onto the ground. In urban warfare, fragments like these posed an even greater threat to soldiers' lives than bullets or artillery shells.

Concrete chunks, reinforcing bars, glass, even objects that had been inside the buildings. Practically anything in a city could inflict fatal injuries on a human body if it gained enough speed.

"Don't take off your ballistic helmets under any circumstances!"

"Yes, sir!"

BANG!

"33rd Battalion! Don't shoot!"

Just then, the building's back door swung open, revealing familiar faces. They were members of 1st Platoon. They pressed themselves against the building's outer wall and kept watch in every direction. Staff Sergeant Kim Hong-je's voice came from outside.

"Sergeant Kim! What's your platoon's status?"

"No casualties, sir!"

"Good! Prepare to withdraw!"

"Yes, sir!"

The faces of the members of 2nd Platoon brightened at the mention of withdrawal. Only an hour or two had passed, but this place had been like hell. Not one person there wanted to remain for even another second.

Urban warfare was dozens of times more dangerous than fighting in the mountains.

"Everyone out! We're withdrawing!"

"Follow me! Move quickly along the main road!"

"Yes, sir!"

Staff Sergeant Kim Hong-je began running first along a raised strip of ground beside the main road. Artillery shells continued falling intermittently onto the road. Each time, several platoon members were knocked to the ground.

"Aaagh!"

"Get up! Quickly!"

"Urrgh···. Fuck, I think I twisted my ankle···."

"Even if you twisted it, you have to run! Move!"

Bong-tae ran at the very rear. Whenever he saw a soldier falling even slightly behind, he hurled curses into his ear. If someone fell from the impact of an explosion, Bong-tae grabbed him by the collar of his combat uniform or his body armor and forcibly hauled him upright.

"Want to fucking die? Run!"

"Huff···. Huff···. I should've exercised more!"

"We just have to cross Wangsuk Stream!"

Staff Sergeant Kim Hong-je looked back and encouraged the battalion members. He pointed toward the large stream and bridge ahead.

"See that bridge? Our armored units will provide covering fire from the other side!"

"We have to go over that bridge?"

"Yes! Run!"

"Fuck! Run!"

The soldiers gritted their teeth and sprinted toward the bridge. Their equipment collided as they ran, producing loud rattling sounds with every step.

KABOOOOM!

Another artillery shell exploded behind them. A wave of hot air swept across their backs, but nobody looked behind.

"Vehicles approaching from the rear!"

"They're ours!"

As they neared the bridge crossing Wangsuk Stream, a retreating K200 armored personnel carrier behind them applied its brakes and slowed down. The armored vehicle stopped in front of the 33rd Battalion.

Clank!

The rear ramp of the troop compartment swung wide open. A soldier inside leaned halfway out and shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Get in! Quickly! Hey, you! There's no time!"

"Run! Everyone aboard!"

Staff Sergeant Kim Hong-je pushed the platoon members into the armored vehicle. The K200's troop compartment had a capacity of twelve men. But there was no time to worry about regulations like that now.

No fewer than twenty members of the 33rd Battalion boarded the K200. Staff Sergeant Kim Hong-je, who had been at the front, did not get in. He forcibly pushed the armored vehicle's entrance shut.

"Go! Quickly!"

"Staff Sergeant, you need to get in! What are you doing?"

"There are more behind us! Move out!"

The armored vehicle carrying some of the 33rd Battalion rapidly crossed the bridge. Several more K200 armored vehicles came rushing up behind it. They were already carrying infantrymen who had been fighting in the city.

"Hey! Get in! We've got room for five more!"

"Hey! Board from the front!"

"Make room! Everyone stand up and make as much space as you can!"

Even though the vehicles were already at full capacity, the soldiers inside forcibly shifted their bodies to make room.

Two more armored vehicles stopped, and most members of the 33rd Battalion disappeared across the bridge aboard them. Now only Staff Sergeant Kim Hong-je, Bong-tae, and two or three members of 2nd Platoon remained.

Fortunately, several South Korean military vehicles were approaching the bridge. Staff Sergeant Kim Hong-je judged that, at this rate, everyone would be able to withdraw safely by vehicle.

"Good! We'll board the next one and get out of here too!"

"Yes, sir!"

Another K200 stopped. There was barely enough space inside for three or four more people. The last remaining members of 2nd Platoon boarded the armored vehicle. Staff Sergeant Kim Hong-je shouted toward Bong-tae, who was at the very rear.

"Sergeant Kim! Get in quickly!"

"There's no room! You go ahead, sir! I'll take that two-and-a-half-ton truck behind us!"

Kim Hong-je wanted to tell him to stop being stubborn and get into the K200, but the two-and-a-half-ton truck had already stopped in front of Bong-tae.

The soldiers riding in its cargo bed were grabbing Bong-tae's arms and pulling him aboard. Kim Hong-je squeezed himself into the K200.

"Good! Once we're across the bridge—"

Wheeeeeee! Wheeeeeee!

Just then, several black dots appeared in the sky beyond Wangsuk Stream. Bong-tae's eyes widened to twice their usual size. They were FPV suicide drones, the same kind that had utterly destroyed the encampment of the 3rd Division's True White Bone Unit.

They were clearly North Korean-made, not anything belonging to the Republic of Korea Armed Forces.

"Drones! Three o'clock!"

Bong-tae shouted at the top of his lungs. The soldiers riding in the two-and-a-half-ton truck were startled and looked toward the sky he was pointing at.

"Hey! Just drive! Why are you sitting there?"

"Moving out!"

Bong-tae shouted toward the driver's cab. The two-and-a-half-ton truck began accelerating, its heavy body lurching into motion. The K200 ahead opened fire on the drones with the machine gun mounted on its roof.

RATATATATAT!

"Step on it!"

"Go! Go! Go!"

The driver of the two-and-a-half-ton truck pressed the accelerator pedal all the way down. The engine roared deeply, but the truck couldn't surge forward the way the driver wanted.

"Fuck! This thing won't move!"

The truck was already carrying more than its designated capacity, and its cargo bed was packed with ammunition boxes and soldiers' equipment.

There was no way a two-and-a-half-ton truck loaded like that could accelerate like a sports car. The heavy vehicle gradually picked up speed as though struggling against its own weight.

KABOOOM!

KABOOM! KABOOM!

Whether or not they understood the driver's desperation, the suicide drones began striking the bridge one after another.

It was impossible to tell whether they were targeting the vehicles or the bridge itself. But wherever those suicide drones struck, the vehicles and soldiers on the bridge were exposed to extreme danger.

From the moving truck, Bong-tae raised his K2C1 and opened fire.

RATATATAT! RATATAT!

Clink-clink-clink!

Spent cartridge cases fell ceaselessly onto the floor of the truck's cargo bed. But hitting small drones that were rapidly changing direction as they charged forward was practically impossible, especially while firing from a moving vehicle.

"Hey, you fucking bastards! Don't you have hands? Why the hell aren't you shooting?"

"Sir?"

"What do you mean, sir? Raise your fucking rifles!"

Bong-tae shouted at the soldiers riding in the back of the truck. His forceful stream of curses snapped them back to their senses.

They too stood up or used the seats and railings as rests to aim their personal weapons into the sky.

"Over there! Two o'clock! Fire into that cluster!"

"Yes! Yes! Understood!"

RATATATAT! RATATATAT!

Clink! Clink-clink!

A single shooter could never hope to hit a drone, but with nearly twenty soldiers firing simultaneously, they managed to create a rough curtain of bullets. The flying drones began falling one by one into Wangsuk Stream below.

"I-it's working!"

"Keep shooting!"

"Yes!"

The driver of the two-and-a-half-ton truck clenched his teeth as he listened to the continuous automatic gunfire pouring from behind him.

'Good.'

But his expression didn't relax in the slightest. The curtain of fire created by the soldiers could only cover the sky behind the cargo bed.

There was no one to provide covering fire in front of the driver's and passenger's seats, the very direction in which they needed to travel.

Wheeeeeee!

As though it knew that fact, a drone lowered its altitude and began diving directly toward the front of the two-and-a-half-ton truck.

"Hold on tight!"

The driver instinctively jerked the steering wheel violently.

SCREEEEEECH!

The heavy vehicle tilted sharply. All the soldiers riding in the cargo bed were thrown toward the left. An ammunition box flew out of the truck, while the soldiers collided and became tangled together.

"Aaagh! Fuck!"

"Hold on tight! Don't fall!"

"Grab the railings! Hold on to each other!"

Bong-tae, who had been standing and firing, also lost his balance. He instinctively grabbed the railing and braced himself.

KABOOOM!

A drone exploded immediately behind the truck. A weak shock wave struck his back. Plastic fragments from the drone flew into the cargo bed and grazed the tip of Bong-tae's nose.

If the driver had turned the steering wheel even a little later, the drone would have collided with the front of the truck.

"Urrrgh···!"

Clenching his teeth, the driver quickly turned the steering wheel in the opposite direction. The sharply tilted vehicle swayed from side to side before barely regaining its balance.

But there was no time for relief. Another drone was relentlessly pursuing the front of the truck. It seemed to be targeting only the driver's cab.

The driver's eyes trembled violently. At the truck's speed, there was no way he could outrun the drone. But he couldn't slow down either. There was nowhere left to evade.

At that moment.

Wheeeeeeeee!

CRASH!

A drone shattered the passenger-side window and plunged into the cab of the two-and-a-half-ton truck. The driver shouted at the top of his lungs.

"GET DOOOOOOWN!"

He released both hands from the steering wheel he had been gripping tightly and threw himself toward the drone. He wrapped his arms around it, clutching the flashing sensors tightly against his chest.

Beep!

KABOOOOM!

With a brief flash, the entire driver's cab exploded. The force of the explosion lifted the whole truck into the air.

"Aaaaaagh!"

"AAAAAAAARGH!"

Bong-tae held on to the railing with his right hand until the very end, but he was hurled into the air as he felt it tear free.

In an instant, Bong-tae's body rotated through the air, defying gravity. During that brief moment of weightlessness, he suddenly realized what was happening to him.

"···FUUUUUUUCK!"

The world appeared upside down to Bong-tae. Before his eyes, the overturning truck, equipment scattering through the air, and soldiers being thrown outward all passed in slow motion.

Just as Bong-tae began thinking that he'd been falling for considerably longer than expected.

SPLASH!

Bong-tae's body plunged into the cold water.

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