Scene 1. Momentum
Lee Kang ran down the road.
Downtown Gyeongseong. The road at dawn. Asphalt. Not the dirt path of the slum. A hard road. Lee Kang's bare feet met the asphalt. The blood caked on his soles printed marks on the road. One step at a time. Fast.
Behind Lee Kang, Doctor Jang and the partisans followed.
Doctor Jang holding Yeonhwa. The partisans holding rifles. Running to keep pace with Lee Kang's speed. Lee Kang did not look back. He looked only ahead. The direction the main house lay. The fastest road there.
There was a barricade in the way.
The Imperial Army had built it. The remnant force that had been routed. Blocking the road with timber and sandbags. Behind it, military police with rifles leveled. Seeing Lee Kang approach, they opened fire.
Lee Kang did not stop.
The bullets came. Toward Lee Kang's body. Lee Kang did not slow his pace. Straight toward the barricade. One bullet lodged in Lee Kang's shoulder. Another grazed his chest. Lee Kang did not process it. Even as the pain came, he did not process it. Because the nerve to process it had gone elsewhere.
Lee Kang's shoulder took the barricade.
The timber shattered. The sandbags burst. The barricade collapsed. The military police behind it were exposed. Lee Kang's hand caught the nearest one's throat. Twisted. Crack. The next. Caught his throat. Twisted. Crack.
The military police screamed.
To be spared. In Japanese. In Korean. One called for his mother. Lee Kang's ear caught those sounds. Caught them—and did not process them. They were white noise. Meaningless sound. The sound made by things that blocked the way.
Lee Kang's hands cleared them.
Snapping necks. Crushing heads. Breaking spines. The military police fell onto the asphalt. Cooling blood spread across the dawn road. That blood smeared onto Lee Kang's bare hands. Blood warm, then cooling.
The barricade was broken through entirely.
Lee Kang climbed over it. Over the shattered timber and the corpses. To the next road. Toward the main house. Behind Lee Kang, Doctor Jang and the partisans followed that road. The road Lee Kang had cut open.
Lee Kang's pace quickened again.
Scene 2. The Defect
The main house began to come into view.
At the end of the road. Far off. On a hill. An enormous estate. A building mixing Western and Japanese styles. A high wall. Lights were lit within it. Even at dawn. It was awake. It was waiting for Lee Kang.
Lee Kang's eyes saw that roof.
Father was there. Count Lee. The one who had made Yeonhwa like this. The one who had made Lee Kang a monster. Lee Kang's amber eyes fixed on that roof.
In that moment, Lee Kang's stride twisted faintly.
One step. As his left foot met the asphalt. The foot landed a half-span off from where it should. Lee Kang's body tilted to one side. For an instant. Lee Kang caught his balance. Stood straight again. But at the next step too. The foot dragged. Closer to dragging across the asphalt than treading it.
The moment he saw the main house, the tension had loosened ever so slightly.
Because the target had entered his sight. Because there was no longer any need to search. Because it was there. That faint slackening—a single strand of the tension that had held Lee Kang up for days coming loose—tore the numbness.
The pain came in.
It did not come all at once. Scattered. The bullet lodged in his side scraped a nerve. Once. The bullet lodged in his back, each time it shifted. Twice. The wound in his thigh, each time he walked. Three times. The pains stabbed Lee Kang's nerves in turn.
Lee Kang's vision swam.
The roof of the main house appeared doubled. It overlapped, then became one, then overlapped again. Lee Kang blinked. His vision cleared once, then blurred again. Inside his head, something receded and drew near.
Inside Lee Kang's body, blood was draining out.
For days. From the laceration on his side, laid over five times. From the through-and-through in his shoulder. From the holes the newly lodged bullets had made. Blood kept leaking out. Faster than what cannibalism had filled. Lee Kang's body was emptying.
Lee Kang did not perceive it.
Because the nerve to perceive it had gone to the main house. But his body was speaking. That his legs were heavy. That his vision swam. That he must go no further. Lee Kang's will dismissed that signal. One step. And another. Dragging the heavy legs.
Lee Kang's breath turned ragged.
Each time he inhaled, the inside of his chest was scraped. By the ribs. By the wound in his side. Lee Kang kept drawing that breath. So as not to stop. Because the main house was there. Because he had to get there.
His foot dragged once more.
Harder.
Scene 3. The Mechanic
A hand caught Lee Kang's shoulder.
From behind. Hard. Lee Kang's body stopped. The dragging stride was brought to a halt. Lee Kang looked back. It was Doctor Jang. Yeonhwa held in one arm. The other hand gripping Lee Kang's shoulder.
"Stop."
Doctor Jang said.
Strength was in the hand gripping Lee Kang's shoulder. Lee Kang tried to shake off that hand. Wrenched his shoulder. Doctor Jang's hand did not let go. Lee Kang tried to step forward. Doctor Jang blocked Lee Kang's path. Still holding Yeonhwa. With his small body. Before Lee Kang's enormous body.
"I'm not stopping."
Lee Kang said.
His voice was cracked. More than usual. The voice of one short on blood. Doctor Jang heard it.
Doctor Jang passed Yeonhwa to a partisan beside him. For a moment. With a gesture to take her. The partisan received Yeonhwa. Doctor Jang's two hands became free. Doctor Jang surveyed Lee Kang's body. Fast. With a scalpel's eye. The wounds one by one. The side. The shoulder. The back. The thigh.
"Two in the side."
Doctor Jang said. Dryly. As if counting numbers.
"One in the back. One in the shoulder. Lodged. They didn't come out. No exit wound either."
Lee Kang tried to shove Doctor Jang aside. Doctor Jang's hand pressed Lee Kang's side. Near the lodged bullet. Pushed. Lee Kang's body went rigid once. Pain surged at that touch. Lee Kang's teeth ground together.
"You feel it." Doctor Jang said. "Don't pretend you don't. Your body's got half its blood left right now."
Doctor Jang drew something from inside his overcoat. A small bottle. Powder. Gauze. Bandages. A mechanic's tools. Doctor Jang's hand poured powder into the wound on Lee Kang's side. It was a coagulant. The coarse powder met the split flesh. It stung. As if burning the flesh. Lee Kang's body flinched.
"Go on like this."
Doctor Jang pressed the wound with gauze. Fast. Precisely. Wound the bandage.
"And you collapse at the front gate. Without ever seeing Father's face."
Those words reached Lee Kang's ear.
Without ever seeing Father's face. Lee Kang's eyes wavered once. Collapse at the front gate. Without even reaching the main house. Without even reaching Father. Those words broke through Lee Kang's dismissal.
Lee Kang stopped.
So that Doctor Jang's hands could move. Could pour powder near the bullet in his shoulder. Could lay gauze. Could wind bandage. Doctor Jang's hands patched Lee Kang's body. The way one makes a temporary fix to a machine's broken part. There was no tenderness. There was only precision. A cold precision.
"Pulling them out comes later." Doctor Jang said. Tightening the bandage. "I can't pull them now. You'd lose more blood. For now I'm plugging it. Just as far as the front gate."
Lee Kang looked at Doctor Jang.
With a blood-soaked face. With wavering eyes. Doctor Jang met those eyes. There was no tenderness in Doctor Jang's eyes. No worry either. What was there was calculation. How to roll this weapon as far as the front gate. How to bring it before Father.
But beneath that calculation, something else lay.
Lee Kang did not see it.
Scene 4. The Front Gate
Doctor Jang finished winding the bandage.
White bandage was wrapped around Lee Kang's body. The side. The shoulder. The back. The white cloth quickly began to stain red. Blood seeped through the bandage. But slower than before. It was plugged. Temporarily.
Doctor Jang took Yeonhwa back into his arms.
From the partisan. In one arm. Doctor Jang looked at Lee Kang. A glance that said it was done. A glance that said he could go. With one caveat—a glance that said don't overdo it. That last glance, Lee Kang did not accept.
Lee Kang looked ahead.
The front gate of the main house was visible.
It was close now. The estate on the hill. Its front gate. An enormous iron gate. Before it, enemies stood arrayed. The Imperial Army. Dozens. Elite. Not the remnant force of the slum. The elite garrison that guarded the main house. And among them. Things not human beneath their uniforms. Ookami. Two. Three.
Lee Kang's eyes swept them.
The front gate's lights were bright. That light reflected in Lee Kang's amber eyes. In Lee Kang's pupils, the main house's lights were held. The enemies' forms were held. The iron gate was held. The estate beyond it was held.
Beyond it, Father was there.
Inside Lee Kang's body, blood was short. His legs were heavy. His vision still swam. Beneath the bandages, the wounds throbbed. His body was speaking. That if he went further he would collapse. That he should stop here.
Lee Kang's will burned that body.
The flesh that was about to collapse for lack of blood. With hatred toward Father. With hatred for the thing that had made Yeonhwa like this. That hatred stood in for the missing blood. It turned pain into fuel. It pushed the limit back with compulsion.
Lee Kang's fist clenched.
The bandaged fist. Bandage stiffened with soaked blood. Beneath it, the fingers clenched into a fist. The blade-cut in his palm split open. Pain. Lee Kang swallowed that pain.
Lee Kang's mouth pulled open.
Teeth were bared. Blood-smeared fangs. A sound rose from Lee Kang's throat. Low. A beast's sound. It was not rage. Something deeper than that. A sound in which everything of those days was condensed.
Grrr.
The main house's garrison saw Lee Kang.
Blood-soaked. Bandaged. Come alone through an army. Saw it bare its teeth toward the front gate. The garrison raised their rifles. The Ookami lowered their stances.
Lee Kang's foot met the asphalt.
Beneath the bandages, the wounds screamed. His legs were heavy. But the foot came down. Toward the front gate. One step. Two. Quickening, little by little.
Behind Lee Kang, Doctor Jang followed.
Holding Yeonhwa. With the drug case in hand. The partisans behind him. Rifles raised.
Lee Kang began to run toward the main house's front gate.
Wrapped in blood-soaked bandages. On missing blood. On bone. On hatred. With the dawn light brightening behind his back. Lee Kang charged toward Father's gate, baying like a beast.
The front gate drew near.