Rainbow City

“Where is the doctor?” Kwak Soohwan demanded again.The old man carried a stainless steel container under one arm and held a syringe and an empty pack in the other hand.“Do you think this is the city? There are no doctors here. Besides, damn it, I’m half a doctor myself.”The old man’s accent had a mix of Russian, making his speech sound somewhat like a dialect.“Did Dr. Seok inject something strange into himself?”Kwak Soohwan knew that Seokhwa often experimented on himself, but since meeting him, Seokhwa had avoided dangerous procedures. So if that wasn’t the case…“Is it you, you crazy old man? Did you do something to him?”The old man wanted to slap the insolent Kwak Soohwan. Knowing how Kwak Soohwan constantly watched Seokhwa with ravenous eyes, he sighed. Even though they were the only ones who had come from the city, Kwak Soohwan’s obsession was extreme to anyone who saw it. He wouldn’t let Seokhwa take a step outside the lab alone and even stood guard with arms crossed whenever locals came to trade food and medicines. With Seokhwa now unconscious, it was no wonder Kwak Soohwan was acting this way. The old man, being much older, decided to tolerate it and approached Seokhwa.“It’s because he’s low on blood.”“Blood?”Looking at Seokhwa’s pale face, he seemed like a vampire, but he probably didn’t have the strength to bite anyone with those fangs.“In the city, he would’ve had a balanced diet. Despite his condition, he managed to live somewhat normally because he was a chief researcher in the city you despise so much. If he had been born like this here, he wouldn’t have survived past five years old.”The old man’s blunt words left Kwak Soohwan speechless. No matter how much he took care of Seokhwa, it couldn’t compare to living comfortably in the city. So, Seokhwa had collapsed from barely holding on.“I’m going to transfuse your blood.”“Is that okay?”“Why, is there a reason it wouldn’t be?”The old man narrowed his eyes.“You and the doctor have the same blood type, so what’s the problem? Or do you want to leave him like this? Then he’ll either recover on his own or weaken further and collapse.”Kwak Soohwan quickly extended his arm. The old man, putting on gloves, started drawing blood from the vigorous Kwak Soohwan. He seemed like someone who could still fly around even if he donated 2 liters, but the old man exuded an aura that suggested he would separate Kwak Soohwan’s head from his body if he tried anything funny.“Does a lack of food cause a shortage of blood?”Kwak Soohwan didn’t understand what caused anemia or what it felt like.“Did you think the doctor was a hamster eating peanuts or almonds from the Federation? He eats whatever he can to survive because he’s deficient in iron. You might not get it, but two hundred years ago, people often didn’t live past fifty or sixty. Especially those born weak died young. Well, humanity is regressing back to that state. It’s like divine retribution.”“Old man, should I introduce you to Eden? You seem to fit right in, talking about divine retribution.”The old man’s hand twitched as he removed the needle from Kwak Soohwan’s vein. Kwak Soohwan thought the old man should drink less; his hand tremors were noticeable. Kwak Soohwan pressed a sterilized swab to his bleeding arm and then tossed it on the floor. He dragged a folding chair close to Seokhwa’s bed and sat down, arms crossed.“Why did you betray the city?”“I was never loyal to begin with, so how could I betray it?”“In that case, why bother going back? Why develop a vaccine to return?”Watching his blood flow into Seokhwa gave Kwak Soohwan a strange sense of joy. It felt like he was personally nurturing a child with his own blood. This made Seokhwa and him truly like family.“Kwak, now that the vaccine is almost successful, why not stay here and do some good for the people?”Unlike Seokhwa, who would readily answer questions, Kwak Soohwan rarely talked about himself.“I wouldn’t mind, but Dr. Seok doesn’t want that. He wants to live more freely.”Unlike the bitter Kwak Soohwan, the old man seemed to understand Seokhwa’s feelings better.Kwak Soohwan was the type to survive even on a deserted island, but the doctor would die without someone’s care. The old man suddenly looked at Kwak Soohwan, who was sitting with his arms crossed.“How did you two even end up together?”They called each other Dr. Seok and Major, indicating that one was a doctor and the other a soldier. It was curious that two people from such different professions had left the city together.“Dr. Seok fell for me and kept following me around asking for my sperm, so I got a bit swayed,” Kwak Soohwan said.Anyone who heard this would think Seokhwa had been passionately pursuing Kwak Soohwan. It seemed like the rough Major had simply followed the sleek, egg-like doctor without much thought.In reality, Kwak Soohwan had no conflicts with the locals here. He secretly went out to smoke or drink, and he was always looking for opportunities to stay close to Seokhwa. On such days, the ghostly Seokhwa would become even more withdrawn, descending to the lab. To the old man, Kwak Soohwan seemed like a loafer while Seokhwa was earnestly working on the vaccine. He was just a lazy bum who fancied the smart doctor and volunteered as his bodyguard. The old man often clicked his tongue in worry for Dr. Seok, wondering why he stayed with such a troublemaker.But then he thought about how the two of them had traveled from the city to Vladivostok unarmed. They must have encountered raiders and countless fierce predators along the way, yet they remained unscathed.“If you came from the city, you must have followed the railroad tracks. Bears often appear there, especially those that have developed a taste for human flesh.”“I’ve never seen one.”“Starving beasts are just as terrifying as the Adams. And you’ve never seen one?”“We must have been lucky.”“Lucky enough to avoid the raiders too?”Kwak Soohwan, who had been focused on Seokhwa, turned his head to the old man. His eyes became fierce, as if telling the old man not to pry.At that moment, a faint sound came from the quiet bed.“…Major.”Kwak Soohwan jumped up and rushed to Seokhwa. The previously motionless Seokhwa was finally letting out a groan.“I’m here. It’s okay. You can sleep a bit more.”Seokhwa’s face, which had been ghostly white, started to show some color. When Kwak Soohwan touched his hand, he could feel warmth returning. Relieved, Kwak Soohwan stroked Seokhwa’s forehead with his large hand.“It was just before you two appeared that the raiders’ numbers suddenly decreased. No matter how incompetent the raiders were, their loyalty to each other was strong. If one died, a hundred would swarm for revenge. So when their numbers dropped, people cheered, thinking they were killed by beasts. But with all the guns they had, how could they have been killed by beasts?”Kwak Soohwan checked if Seokhwa had fallen back asleep and brought his ear close to Seokhwa’s nose to ensure he was breathing well.“They were definitely killed by a person. And it was by just one.”Kwak Soohwan tucked Seokhwa in and looked down at the old man, who was two heads shorter than him.“So what?”His eyes were threatening, as if warning the old man to keep his mouth shut about Dr. Seok. The old man’s head spun with the realization that his suspicion was correct.“Kwak, you’re a mutant too.”Wasn’t this the result of those city people’s experiments? The old man bitterly laughed inside at the pairing of a lively mutant and a frail doctor. He reassured himself that it didn’t matter. He must be worrying too much. Watching Seokhwa receive the transfusion without issues, he thought it was just a needless concern. Yet, he still felt uneasy, so he collected the remaining blood along with the cotton ball Kwak Soohwan had discarded.The very day the vaccine was completed, Seokhwa and Kwak Soohwan left abruptly, having only left the method of its development behind. The discovery of anomalies in Kwak Soohwan’s blood after the transfusion explained why no other vaccine had been effective.Damn Rainbow City really had succeeded. Kwak Soohwan wasn’t just any mutant. Fortunately, Seokhwa, who had received Kwak Soohwan’s blood, seemed fine until they left. But if that was the end of it, it would be a relief. The problem lay in the vaccine Seokhwa developed and the mutants’ traits. It took three months to uncover the whole truth, but it was still just a hypothesis. Yet, it was enough to move the old man.***Seokhwa swallowed hard. The Adam in front of him had definitely said “Eve,” just like those in the zoo.Adam growled and charged at the soldiers at the opposite emergency exit, avoiding Seokhwa. But one Adam with a missing arm didn’t avoid Seokhwa and directly attacked.“Ugh!”With a roar, the Adam covered in wounds tried to bite Seokhwa’s face. Seokhwa silently screamed, “No, no!” He pushed against the Adam’s jaw with his palm to keep its mouth from opening. Blood still flowed from his nose. Gritting his teeth, Seokhwa pushed the Adam away with all his might and crawled forward.Thud, thud. Blood soaked the floor as Adam crawled after him, dragging himself with one arm, leaving a trail of blood that mingled with Seokhwa’s. Should he run to the opposite emergency exit? If even the uninfected soldiers got infected because of him… Seokhwa barely managed to get up and leaned against a transparent window.“Hurk. Huurrk.”Adam suddenly clutched his throat like an animal with a bone stuck in it. Just as a gagging sound came, a gush of blood splattered onto the floor. Seokhwa started running in the opposite direction to avoid the spreading blood.Seokhwa!At that moment, he thought he heard Kwak Soohwan’s voice from somewhere, which seemed impossible. It must be an auditory hallucination, so he couldn’t stop his legs from running.“Ugh.”Shaking his head, Seokhwa continued running to the earlier patient room. His heart pounded as he pushed through the slightly open door. What if Yoo Jungkyung was still alive? What if he attacked him with a knife or gun? Fearfully, he closed the door tightly.Inside the transparent plastic, the corpse was still sprawled out. It was strange. If the new Adam virus was in his system, the infected should turn into Adams, but both Yoo Jungkyung and the Adam from earlier bled excessively and then didn’t move.Seokhwa tried to avoid looking at Yoo Jungkyung’s corpse as he pulled the dressing cart over. He stood by the sink, continuously letting blood flow from his nose. He pinched the bridge of his nose to stop the bleeding and stifled his sobs.It’ll be okay.As soon as the bleeding stopped, Seokhwa meticulously cleaned up any traces of blood. His hands trembled so much that he dropped the soap. It slid across the floor due to its lack of friction. He was on the floor trying to pick up the soap when—“!”It felt like a waking nightmare. The corpse that had been lying inside the plastic was gone. When Seokhwa hastily stood up, something cold touched his back. He froze instantly.A raspy sound came from right next to his ear. Seokhwa spun around, his body stiff with fear. Yoo Jungkyung, covered in blood, stood there, his mouth agape, drooling thick blood like a starved beast.“Major Yoo…?”His eyes were clouded, just like other Adams. He looked up at Seokhwa’s call but didn’t move.Bang! Bang! Gunshots rang out from outside, startling Seokhwa, and Yoo Jungkyung started running toward the door. Completely transformed into an Adam, he mindlessly slammed his body against the door.Why isn’t he attacking me…?

Starving animals often turned on their own kind, but Adams did not. The virus made infected individuals ignore each other rather than recognize each other as kin. Seokhwa pressed his hands against his eyes. He needed to stay focused. Even without Kwak Soohwan, he couldn’t afford to let danger overwhelm him. He exhaled trembling breaths to calm his racing heart.The creature that had called him Eve ignored him and ran away, while the other Adam attacked him and then exhibited secondary infection signs, vomiting blood like Yoo Jungkyung. Considering when Yoo Jungkyung got up, that Adam might also be rising about now. Yet Yoo Jungkyung wasn’t attacking him.Could it be… because I’m the host?Seokhwa muttered in despair. He cautiously approached Yoo Jungkyung, who was still slamming his head against the door. He picked up a pair of tweezers from the dressing cart and gripped them tightly. Yoo Jungkyung, who kept banging his head against the door, didn’t react at all when Seokhwa poked him. His heart felt like it would burst, and every vein in his body seemed to swell. Even when he poked again, Yoo Jungkyung didn’t react.As Seokhwa pulled the gun from Yoo Jungkyung’s holster, the latter remained focused on the door. Seokhwa removed his blood-stained hospital gown and changed into black pants and a black shirt from the wardrobe. It wouldn’t show blood stains easily.He tucked the gun into his waistband and threw the tweezers to the back. The sharp clattering noise made Yoo Jungkyung whirl around and dash toward the sound. Seokhwa used the opportunity to slip out of the room. He gripped the doorknob, ready for anything, and scanned for the Adam showing signs of secondary infection.“What the hell is that thing? Is that really an Adam?”“It looks like an Adam, but we’re not sure! They started fighting each other earlier.”The soldiers closing in on the Adam were visibly confused. Seokhwa shared their bewilderment. An Adam that had entered through the open emergency exit was now fighting with the secondary infected Adam like they were mortal enemies. As the commotion increased, Yoo Jungkyung tried to get outside, so Seokhwa slammed the door shut and stepped out completely. A soldier turned and pointed his gun at Seokhwa. Startled, Seokhwa instinctively raised both hands.“Dr. Seokhwa?”The soldier seemed to know him. He removed his gas mask to reveal his face.“It’s dangerous, go back into the room!”“…Lieutenant General Lee Yeontae?”Seokhwa wanted to ask what was happening but kept his lips tightly shut.“I said get back inside!”The Adam with the secondary infection was holding its own against five other Adams.“Should we shoot?! It’s attacking the Adams, but it seems to be an Adam itself!”Seokhwa couldn’t go back inside. The moment he opened the door, Yoo Jungkyung would burst out…“Dr. Seokhwa! Get inside quickly!”“Shoot! It’s a new mutant Adam!”Seokhwa raised his voice. Lee Yeontae was momentarily taken aback by Seokhwa’s uncharacteristically loud shout, then turned his gun towards the Adams.“Permission granted, shoot them all!”Bang, tatatatat! Bullets from the machine gun tore into the new mutant Adam and the Adam that had come through the emergency exit. Their heads exploded, spraying brains all over the floor and walls. The soldiers, as was their routine, advanced and confirmed the kills, shooting any remaining movement. Finally, they dragged the corpses from the emergency exit and securely closed the door. As the hallway fell silent, the pounding from behind Seokhwa grew louder.“Is there an Adam in the room?”“Yes.”So that’s why you couldn’t go back in. Lee Yeontae nodded and tried to move Seokhwa aside. Seokhwa, startled, moved away before Lee Yeontae could touch him. Knowing Seokhwa’s peculiar behavior, Lee Yeontae didn’t mind and gestured for his subordinate to open the door.The soldiers took aim and counted down, 3, 2, 1. As they opened the door, Lee Yeontae shot Yoo Jungkyung in the forehead as he lunged out. A sickening pop echoed as his head burst like a rotten watermelon. Lee Yeontae kicked the body to confirm the kill and clicked his tongue.“Wow, it’s Yoo Jungkyung, isn’t it?”Expecting more Adams inside, they didn’t relax, but there was only one.“Dr. Seokhwa, was Yoo Jungkyung alone in there?”Seokhwa nodded.“You locked him up after he got infected by an Adam?”Lee Yeontae scrutinized Seokhwa’s condition, looking for bite marks despite knowing Seokhwa had developed a vaccine.“Don’t worry, I wasn’t bitten. But please don’t come closer. I might have Adam blood on me.”Seokhwa was on the verge of collapsing but held himself up. Only then did Lee Yeontae relax and remove his gas mask.“But, Dr. Seokhwa…”Relief was short-lived as Lee Yeontae called him seriously.“Did you steal my cherished Mk3 from my room?”“That was… Major Kwak Soohwan.”Seokhwa’s voice turned meek, as if he hadn’t just been shouting.“Then you’re an accomplice.”Lee Yeontae laughed heartily.Lieutenant General Lee Yeontae and Seokhwa sat facing each other on the sofa in the patient room. Seokhwa hoped desperately that he wouldn’t start bleeding again.“What exactly happened?”Seokhwa straightened his back deliberately.“That’s what I should be asking you.”“What?”“Dr. Seokhwa, do you know exactly what the Master wants?”What Choi Hoeon wants? The birth of a new humanity? If he is the new human Choi Hoeon speaks of, then all the existing people would end up dead. Why did the Adam virus mutate inside him? To find the cause, he needed to trace back the evolution, or rather the changes, of the virus.When he first received a blood transfusion from Kwak Soohwan in Russia, he had lost consciousness due to hypothermia. Afterward, he suffered from a high fever, which was probably the process of the Adam virus being destroyed inside him. Kwak Soohwan likely thought his lowered body temperature had merely returned to normal.Even Seokhwa never imagined that Kwak Soohwan could have the Adam virus. It was because the virus had never been detected in his blood.Could it be that the dormant virus inside Kwak Soohwan became active when it infiltrated another bloodstream? Suddenly, he got chills.What if Kwak Soohwan wasn’t an S-Class soldier? If he were someone who easily got injured, many people would have been infected by his blood. Maybe the Adam virus was discovered in unexpected places because people infected by Kwak Soohwan’s blood were spreading it. Not only Lee Chaeyoon and Yang Sanghoon, but everyone in the shelter had been living with a ticking time bomb named Kwak Soohwan. Another hypothesis popped into his head.What if the dormant Adam virus remained dormant even when transferred to another person? What if a specific trigger was needed to awaken the virus…?If that hypothesis were correct, the vaccine he received that day could have acted as a catalyst. However, he couldn’t easily arrive at a definitive answer either way. Despite studying the virus for so long, it was still an unknown territory for him. If it were an easily conquerable domain, no disease would exist in the world.Lee Yeontae waited calmly as Seokhwa remained silent for a long time.“Choi Hoeon.”Seokhwa finally raised his head.“He is not qualified to be the Master. He will let everyone in Rainbow City, no, everyone without immunity to the virus, die. Lieutenant General, you know this well from past events, don’t you?”Choi Hoeon, the Serpent of Eden and the main culprit of the massive Adam infection incident.Lee Yeontae, too, found Choi Hoeon suspicious, especially after believing Seokhwa’s words that day. If all of this was Choi Hoeon’s doing to become the Master, then he certainly had to be dethroned. Lee Yeontae tightly closed his eyes. He had known for a long time that Rainbow City needed change. The upper echelons had rotted beyond stagnation.The fact that the city had become quite livable since Choi Hoeon became the Master was evident from the well-maintained outskirts. So, he pretended not to know, convincing himself that sacrificing a few for the greater good was necessary to remove the rot.At least Choi Hoeon didn’t seem to act out of personal greed, and citizens were living better than before, so he reassured himself that following Choi Hoeon wasn’t wrong. It was Lee Yeontae himself who, believing Seokhwa’s words, had broadcasted against Eden. Yet, the Master had forgiven him and kept him close. Unlike before, the current Master didn’t rule people with personal grudges.“Dr. Seokhwa, back when I was still active in the field, I wasn’t as outstanding as Major Kwak Soohwan, but I did pretty well. With no connections, I had to climb up on my own, so I was half-crazed about getting promoted. Dr. Seokhwa, you know that I never aligned with anyone, right? That was my strategy, and thanks to that, I’m still alive today.”Lee Yeontae paused, as if considering whether to continue. Seokhwa looked at him, puzzled, not understanding his intentions.“One day, long ago… We received a tip about an Adam sighting in the Green Zone. It was a household where a couple lived with their child. We surrounded the house and entered, finding all the lights off and no one inside. So, we began searching the house from the basement. The last place left was the attic, where we heard a child’s cry. I was certain that was it. I broke down the door in a hurry and shot the man running towards the child in the back. The man fell immediately. I’ll never forget the wife’s scream. She called me a murderer for killing her husband. I had only killed an Adam, so I flipped the man over for a confirmation kill… But he was really human. They got scared when soldiers surrounded their house. Afraid they’d be taken away if they questioned what was going on, they hid in the attic with their child. The funny thing was, the Adam report was a false alarm. A neighbor they had argued with the day before had made the call out of spite. I executed the man myself, and I faced no punishment. Dr. Seokhwa, is this normal? Was it right that I wasn’t punished?”Seokhwa couldn’t say anything. He didn’t understand why Lee Yeontae was confessing his past mistakes. When he first met Lieutenant General Lee Yeontae, he had hoped to get out safely, but now a sense of unease was beginning to stir.“I am certain that the current Master is a better person than the previous one. If he were in charge that day, he would have held me accountable for my sins. He wouldn’t have kept someone like me, who killed an entire family to cover up the truth, alive. Rainbow City would have been better for it, right?”Lieutenant General Lee Yeontae pointed his gun at Seokhwa.“I’m sorry, Dr. Seokhwa. I feel like I’ve crossed too many rivers to turn back now.”Seokhwa reached for the gun at his waist.Bang!