Chapter 11. The Road to Airport

A purger hit the body of the bus causing the loud noise. Several people in the bus were screaming in surprise. The driver stepped on the gas, speeding up. The purger ran after the bus, trying to catch up, however, in the end, it couldn't keep up with the speed of the bus. We left it far behing until it's out of our sight after we made a turn.

Now that we're free from the purger, I got the chance to see all the passengers of this bus. There were a lot of good looking men and women here. I thought I saw some of them from somewhere before. The woman who told me to get on the bus earlier was particularly familiar.

One of the passengers, a handsome and masculine-looking man, said something to the familiar woman. His tone told me that he wasn't pleased with something. He was pretty loud so I could hear it clearly, plus he was looking at me with annoyance written all over his face. The familiar woman didn't say anything to him.

Another woman, with short hair, large eyes and bright red lips, no less pretty than the familiar woman, said something with cold voice toward that first woman but her eyes sometimes glanced at me. It didn't take a genius to guess that I was the object of her words.

The handsome man was not the only one ignored by the familiar woman, the short hair woman was ignored too. It seemed to me they had had this conversation before. She, instead, turned to me and said something to me. Too bad it was in Korean.

I told her, "I don't understand Korean well. Can you speak English or Chinese?"

"I see. So you're not Korean?" The woman said in perfect English. Her pronunciation was far better than mine.

"Phineas Shi. I'm Chinese. I came here last monday for work. Thanks for stopping to pick me up," I introduced myself. Since we're face to face, I couldn't help admiring her beauty.

"Jeong Yewon. And you're welcome," She held out her hand.

Jeong Yewon? That name sounded very familiar. Where did I hear it? We shook hands as we greeted each other. She had a really soft hand. When she smiled, it suddenly came to me. She was a famous singer and actor. She was featured in many commercials, that's how I saw her. She was even more beautiful in person and, looking at her from such distance, I was pretty sure she wasn't wearing any make up.

Then I looked around and found out why I felt I've seen several of those faces. Some of them were South Korea celebrities. Not everyone were easily recognizable without make up but Jeong Yewon and probably a couple others, which I didn't know their names of, were.

"Where are you heading?" I asked.

"We heard about our military setting up base at Incheon so we're going to evacuate there," she said.

"Military base? I'm going to the airport. I want to go back to my country," I was glad to hear that they were going the same way I planned to.

Now, if the military really held ground at Incheon, there could be a possibility for me to return home.

This reminded me of the map shown by Lt. Yoon yesterday. There was so much new land emerged during the change and that changed our world landscape tremendously. The sea between Korea Peninsula and China had most of it covered with lands now. Even without a plane, I could probably cross it on foot.

However, who would be crazy enough to cross it on foot? Well, if I had to, I would. The only thing making my decision difficult was the fact that, on the picture sent by the American satellite, those new lands had too many white dots. Those white dots signified lights which in turn signified lives. Not human obviously.

"I don't know whether the airport is still working or not, but you're welcome to join us to Incheon," Jeong Yewon said.

She was obviously one of the most senior celebrity here. I guessed it was her who decided to pick me up, not the driver. It's not that without this bus I wouldn't be able to reach Incheon by myself but it was certainly a whole lot easier. She had my gratitude for that.

"Thank you."

Jeong Yewon nodded with a light smile.

'Gosh, she's really pretty,' I thought. From all the women I saw in my life, only Susan could compete with her.

I didn't know her background. I didn't know whether she had family or loved ones that she failed to get connected to. Whatever her situation was, she was handling it pretty well. She was even kind enough to stop for a stranger like me. Later, I found out that I wasn't the only one picked up during this trip.

That was probably why that masculine-looking man and the short hair pretty girl were berrating her.

The other celebrities were grouped together and didn't mingle with us. Though except for the two aforementioned people, they weren't hostile. They're probably finding comfort among the people they were familiar with. Well, since I couldn't speak Korean it was no big deal for me that we did not converse at all.

Suddenly the bus stopped.

All of us stood up, wondering what happened. Jeong Yewon and a couple others went to the driver. From where I sat, I could see that the first bus in front of us had stopped and, because of that, us too. As for the reason? I didn't know.

Our driver was agitated and said something. I could guess that he was worried. Well, I would be too. The buses were loud vehicles and in the surrounding area there was nothing producing sound but us. We were like a beacon looking for unwanted attention.

We saw the people from the first bus started to get off while still staying close together. Someone approached our bus and said something. The faces of the people in my bus were changing. They paleness comparable to white paper.

Jeong Yewon said to me, "The road is blocked. We have to continue on foot."

While the original passengers of this bus were hesitating, me and others who hitchhiked weren't. We got up and immediately get off the bus. After seeing us getting off, the rest followed reluctantly.

We grouped up with people from the first bus. Apparently, the first bus consisted of all people I didn't recognize at all. If they're celebrities, then they aren't famous enough for me to recognize. Two of them were talking through a translator. So, they're unable to speak Korean too.

"You don't know who they are? That one is Traikun Praves and that one is Davi Brito," a man told me. He was one of the people who mingled only within the group of celebrities before. "Traikun is the most famous Muay Thai expert. Davi is an American-Brazilian Jiu-jitsu fighter. I guess you're like me. I didn't know them before either."

"I see," I said.

Seeing my expression, this good looking man introduced himself, "I think you don't know me either. I'm Seo Daho. I used to be a singer, until the day before yesterday."

"Ah, I've heard of you. You are very famous. I'm Phineas Shi," I introduced myself in return.

Seo Daho laughed, "I'm only a bit well known in South Korea."

I told him, "Believe me, if someone like me heard of you, it means you have some fame in China too."

Seo Daho smiled modestly.

"They're all participants of that fighting competition. We're all staying at the same hotel when this happen," Jeong Yewon let me know about Traikun, Davi and the rest.

"They're really strong. We're safe because of them," Seo Daho added.

I agreed. Having more than thirty able-bodied fighting force at the same place really made a difference. I didn't think all of them were top fighters. From the look of it, probably only about ten of them were the fighters who joined the martial competition, while the rest were bodyguards or trainers or some other capacity. Nevertheless, even the weakest of them should have more fighting experience than me. In other words, every single one of them was like John Wick to the old me. There's no need to mention pencil, they could kill me with a band-aid. Fortunately, they didn't bring their car nor dog here.

Seeing that Traikun and Davi were the two who were always consulted it seemed to me those two must have somehow shown their capabilities in combat and thus their words were deemed important by everyone.

At this time I was thinking whether I should leave the group and travel alone. I was silently considering.

Travel on foot? A few of them might have the stamina to reach Incheon but how about others? How could a large group like this avoid encountering the purgers? They didn't see what happened at the bridge. A force of purgers capable of driving back the military, which had heavy armor and artilery, was a tremendous force far beyond a mere few fighters could face.

Jeong Yewon patted my arm, "Let's go. Stay close in our group. Don't stray away."

I looked at the woman, amazed. She must've known the difficulty to survive in such a large group. She, herself, must have difficulty on her own. However, despite all this she still tried to look after others. Even her expression was still steady and calm. That made me ashamed for thinking about leaving her and this group. I banished my thought of leaving and walked together with the celebrity group.

The fighters dispersed themselves around our group. Some were on the front, some on the rear, while the rest divided on both of our planks. I saw that every one of them carry weapon. Of course they had weapon, it make more sense than fighting monsters with tough claws empty handed.

We moved through the road with haste. No one dared to tarry. Everyone was conscious enough of the situation and that the empty roads were frightening.

I didn't think every building, every place we passed were all devoid of human however the people were probably in hiding and didn't dare to come out. Who in the world would be crazy enough to roam around when there were savage monsters prowling?

At one point of time a couple came out of their hiding places and joined us. No one rejected them. Their appearances were wretched enough to generate pity even from the heartless.

Not long after that, loud roar was heard. Apparently the couple was a purger's target. It came out of the same building as the couple and directly sped up to our direction.

Three people from our side nearest to the building came out to meet the purger. All three of them had each brought out their weapon. The purger was surrounded. It showed no fear at all.

This was the thing I liked and, at the same time, hated the most about them. The purger was all brawn and no brain. We greatly outnumbered this lone purger but it just charged at us without the slightest doubt. Alone, their fearlessness will gave us an advantage. In large group, however, the same fearlessness would make them extremely dangerous. They would be strong enough to actually defeat a trained military force.

Dang!

The claws of the purger met with the weapons of two people. I could see the two fighters were having trouble. They were slightly thrown back, their hands were visibly trembling from the impact. With its claw blocked by two people the purger had no time to adjust nor escape from the attack of the third fighter.

The third fighter's knife almost reached the chest of the purger when the monster's feet flew and kicked that third fighter. Fortunately the fighter was nimble enough to dodge the kick. Unfortunately, that meant he failed to stab the purger.

Two more fighters came out. Both were armed with swords. The purger knew they were coming, at the same time the first and second fighters had come back too. Now it was surrounded. The fighters were attacking with all their might. Despite the attacks being uncoordinated, they were delivered ferociously. This lone purger had no way to avoid the incoming attacks. Immediately, wounds began appearing on its body. It roared in anger and swinging its arms wildly. Four fighters were working together blocking its attacks while the fifth, the knife holder, managed to position himself behind the monster. With a focused thrust, the knife went through the throat, killing the purger.

Everyone was relieved. But not for long because another purger had appeared.

"Kreeeee!"

The purger came out from the building in front of us. It was facing directly to Traikun and Davi, who were the vanguards with another fighter.

Traikun, Davi and the third person said something to each other. In the mean time, the purger was advancing at them swiftly. Traikun and Davi were both holding some kind of metal stick. The third fighter was holding a medium size knife. I guessed they were using the same tactics as the previous group.

This second purger was also blocked, just like the first one, however the outcome was different this round. Both Traikun and Davi weren't thrown back. The two of them held their own pretty well. I saw, for the first time, the difference of strength shown by these two top fighters. Granted they both used weapon and two hands to handle each arm swing of the purger but still, to me, it looked amazing. They were indeed strong.

The third fighter didn't waste any time. He lunged forward the same time Traikun and Davi blocked. The purger didn't even get the chance to kick him away and was stabbed in the belly right away.

The purger made screeching sound. It was stumbling. Traikun kicked it and made it fall. Davi moved fast, grabbed the purger head from behind and twisted it. Cracking sound was heard. The monster was finished.

I had to hand it to them. Their personal's strength was amazing and their coordination was good. The second purger, which should have comparable strength to the first one, didn't have a chance to show its might at all.

"They're good, aren't they?" Seo Daho laughed at my amazement. I nodded in agreement.

We started moving again after this. For more than one hour we moved along the road. Moving as silent as possible while we passed many buildings and empty streets.