I started to look around in a frenzy. Antibiotics was the name… antibiotics. I checked the desk and the drawers first. There was nothing. The metal table only carried various steel equipment. The bookcase had more books than the previous room, but nothing else. Then I saw it. A large steel cabinet in the corner of the room.
That must be it!
I rushed over and tried the handle. It was locked… of course. I crouched down to the level of the lock. It was similar to the one I had practiced on, but that didn’t help lower my heart rate. I took out the pieces of wire from my pocket, forcing my brain to visualize how they would go into the lock.
At least I don’t have to work in complete darkness…
The first piece of wire went in smoothly, and the second one as well.
This is it!
“Looking for something special, Miss?” a sudden slurry voice from behind made me shriek, cutting my finger on the sharp edge of the top wire.
CHAPTER 45
The voice was so unexpected I fell backward on the floor, gasping from the shock. My precious steel wires slipped out of my bleeding fingers and disappeared somewhere on the dark floor. I looked up at the man in the doorway. His tired face was illuminated by the soft light seeping in from the two large windows next to me. I recognized him immediately. It was Doctor Death.
I sat frozen stiff on the ground as I watched him close the door and stumble over to an armchair beside it. He collapsed into it with a loud thump.
“I can just leave,” I panted in a full-blown panic. “Please… I was just trying to help a friend… but I can just leave… please… you don’t have to call the guards—”
“You didn’t answer my question,” Doctor Death slurred again as he fumbled trying to light a cigarette. After two failed attempts, he gave up and looked over at me with hazy eyes.
“Miss… could you help me out here? The stupid matches keep breaking…”
I stared at him, stunned.
“Y-you want me… to help you… light your cigarette?” I stuttered.
“That’s what I said, wasn’t it?” he threw the matches on the floor in front of me through his barely comprehensible mumbling.
I got up on my feet and rushed over to pick them up before he became angry. Stepping closer with the matches in my trembling hands, I tried to assess just how drunk he was.
Will he pass out and forget this ever happened? Could I be so lucky?
Regardless, that was a problem for later. Right now he was lucid enough to call the guards and officers from downstairs if he felt like it, so I had to appease him.
As I neared him, I almost gagged. His pungent breath reeked of strong liquor which blended with the stink of permeated sweat from his body and the clothes he probably hadn’t changed for months. I hurried to extract the match, which sparked to life on the first try, lighting up his unshaved rugged face. The flame extended into the end of the cigarette as he took his first drag. He held it for a while and then exhaled with a deep sigh of satisfaction. I put out the match, and the room went back to its previous dimly lit state from the streetlights outside. The fragrant smoke from the cigarette, mixed with the smoke of the still smoldering match, created a welcome barrier against the Doctor’s horrid stench.
I again stood frozen before Doctor Death. With great satisfaction, he puffed at his cigarette, which was only visible as a bright red dot in the middle of his shadowy contour. He didn’t pay any attention to me. My breathing was fast and shallow, and my heart pounded hard against my ribcage. Halfway through the cigarette, his sigh of satisfaction while exhaling was replaced by a severe cough attack, which broke the tension in the room… as well as my paralysis.
“Sir… can I go?” I asked in a barely audible whisper.
“S-sit… sit over there… go there and sit,” he coughed, pointing at the chair by the desk. I went over and sat down, stiff as a board and sweating from the fear that his coughing would attract attention from downstairs. When the cough attack was over, he relaxed back into his chair again and looked at me with foggy eyes. He took another deep drag on his cigarette.
“I never wanted it to be like this,” he exhaled a new cloud of smoke.
“Sorry?” I said while racking my brain for any scenario that wouldn’t get me sent down to the underworld of pain, ruled by the sadistic Colonel Wan.
“Why do you think they made me be a doctor for the prisoners?”
“I… I don’t—”
“I’ve told them many times… there’s no point,” he slurred. “There just… isn’t… any… point!”
“W-what do you mean?” I asked hesitantly, wondering what would happen if I strangled him during his next cough attack.
Would people think he had drunk himself to death? That he had a heart attack? But they would see the marks on his neck…
“I bet you know what they call me in here,” he chuckled. “Doctor Death!” he theatrically put his hands up in the air. “Doctor Death… Doctor… the Doctor of Death…” He chuckled again and took another deep drag on his cigarette.
I forced my head to nod.
“Of course you know,” he said. “The dreadful Doctor Death… killing his patients one after another… but only after conducting brutal sadistic experiments on them…”
He took out a new cigarette and lit it on the old one, which he then put out against the side of his armchair.
“And here you are… in my examination room,” he leaned over, for the first time with a focus in his eyes. “So I guess that means that I will torture and kill you now… right?”
My peaking level of panic almost made time stand still. I wasn’t sure if I was breathing or not.
Doctor Death leaned back into his chair.
“What are you after, anyway?” he asked.
“Anti… antibiotics,” I said, seeing no point in hiding the truth. “My friend… he’s dying… if I don’t get it back to him in time—”
“Your friend is dying,” the doctor repeated under his breath. “Well… everybody here is dying, aren’t they? It’s just a matter of time…”
“B-but… it’s not only that… if… if he dies… they will kill me too,” I stuttered.
Doctor Death let out a chuckle.
“I see… so this is not a selfless quest. You have to save your own skin.”
“Well… yes,” I said. “But if I die… my sister will die as well… she’s weak, and… she can’t make it on her own, and… I can’t let that happen.”
“Hmm,” he pondered, holding up the burning ember of the half-smoked cigarette before his eyes and inspecting it like it was a rare gem he had just stumbled upon somewhere in the wilderness. “That’s quite the pickle… yes, quite the pickle.”
I cleared my throat and wiped the sweat off my forehead.
“I… I know,” I stuttered. “I know you don’t kill your patients.” He stopped examining the burning ember and gave me a surprised look. “I… I know that… that General Roh is just punishing you for not being able to save his… his wife.”
By the end of the sentence, my voice trembled uncontrollably. The drunk doctor stared at me with his mouth open for what felt like an eternity. Then his face changed.
“HA!” he slapped his knee hard. “Now that’s something I haven’t heard in a long, long time. You are quite well informed, Miss… Miss…?”
“I… I’ve heard the real story,” I avoided telling him my name.
He was now tapping the butt of the cigarette against his knee, and I saw something like a smile appearing on his face.
“Yes… that was indeed an eventful time… catastrophic, really… so much suffering… and like most suffering, it originated from love…”
Doctor Death lit a third cigarette, and I started to suspect he would not pass out on his own.
HOW WILL I GET OUT OF THIS?
“But you’re wrong, Miss… whatever your name is,” he exhaled another cloud of smoke.
“W-wrong?”
“Wrong,”
he repeated. “Because you see… I do kill my patients.” I suddenly felt like I had been dropped into ice-cold water. Every hair on my body stood on end. “Well… what else am I supposed to do?” he shrugged his shoulders and leaned further back into his chair, making it creak so loud it sent another chill through my body.
That must have been heard all the way downstairs!
If I was going to do something, it would have to be soon.
“So what they’re saying is—?”
“I’M NOT A MONSTER!” he suddenly screamed. “I’m not! But what else can I do for them? You tell me! Somebody comes… with an infection, like your… your dying friend… I have no medicine to give him… he will die an agonizing death in a couple of days… or even in a couple of hours, sometimes. So I tell them… I tell them I can give them peace quicker, and without pain… and… and… most of them beg me to do it… most of the time they’re just happy to leave this place… forever.” He took a last drag on his cigarette, threw it on the floor, and put it out with his foot. “I’m helping them…” he muttered. “I’m helping them… I’m not a monster… I’m not…”
At that moment, I felt sorry for this sad little man who was almost crying before me.
“No… you’re not a monster,” I said.
I meant it.
Doctor Death looked at me as if he had noticed me for the first time. Then he jumped to his feet with surprising balance and vigor and stumbled toward me. In my overwhelming panic, I stood up as well and started backing toward the wall.
Where can I go…? The only exit is blocked… or can I open the window behind me? Can I fight him without attracting attention from downstairs?
“Get out of the way,” he growled, pushing me to the side. I tripped over a small stool and fell on my back, landing on my bony hip. A sharp pain shot through my body. Doctor Death walked past me and over to the cabinet. After a few failed attempts, he got the keys out of his pocket and opened it.
“Screw it,” he mumbled as he bent over, took out a yellowish pill container, and tossed it to me. I hadn’t held anything plastic since I came here. It felt strangely cold and smooth in my hand. “Three pills a day until he feels good… and then a few days more after that… let’s hope it’s not too late.”
I couldn’t believe my eyes and ears.
“A-are you—?”
“Just take it and go,” he muttered.
“T-thank you,” was all I could muster to say as I got on my feet again. I knew I shouldn’t test fate and just take the pills and run… but for some reason, my body wouldn’t obey my commands.
Doctor Death locked the cabinet again and started walking back to the door.
“Screw it… I’m tired of only helping people that one way,” was the only part of his mumbling I could comprehend. In the doorway, he stopped and looked back at me. “Please don’t tell your friends about this, okay? Tell them you broke in… nobody was here, so you picked the lock and took the medicine… and then you left without being seen. If rumors start to spread… well, you can probably guess yourself what would happen to me.”
“Of course,” I promised. Also this time truthfully.
He gave me a single nod and disappeared out the door.
As I heard his unsteady footsteps descend the stairs, I hurried to stash the small container under my clothes and ran out to the dark corridor and back into the room with the open window. There were fewer people in the streets now so I didn’t need to stop and wait anywhere. Before I knew it, I was again climbing over the outer wall of the Chrysanthemum Garden.
I found Hana and Jun Ha where I had left them and handed them the pills.
“I never doubted you for a second,” Jun Ha patted my back. I blushed slightly, which luckily couldn’t be seen in the pale dark of the night.
We set off right away, and since the black clouds in the sky had broken up enough to let the moon illuminate our path, we could sprint back up to the cave at a faster pace than when we came down… which felt like an eternity ago. Even though I was in a nearly euphoric state of victory, I was at the same time fearing the worst.
What if Ho Jin is already dead? What will happen to me then? Will they blame me for taking too long?
Everybody jumped to their feet as the three of us barged into the large cave room. Ho Jin was on the floor in the same state as we had left him in. He was even paler now. Only his chest moved slightly up and down. Bit Na - the only other girl in the Dragons apart from me and Hana, now that Hyuk’s girlfriend had left - sat beside him.
“Is he…?”
“No… just passed out,” Bit Na said. “Did you get it?”
I threw her the bottle of pills. She gave me a quick but warm smile, then hurried to open the bottle.
“Three pills a day until he’s well… and then a few days more after that,” I repeated Doctor Death’s instructions.
Hana looked at me surprised.
“Yeah… I had just forgotten the name, but my sister took this medicine all the time before… and that’s how they told her to take it,” I hurried to explain. I didn’t know if it mattered, but I didn’t want to break my promise to Doctor Death.
Jun Ha and two others lifted Ho Jin so that Hana could put a pill in his mouth and pour some water down his throat.
“Come on, swallow!” Hana whispered.
“Massage his throat,” Jun Ha said.
As she did it, I noticed Ho Jin’s face twitching. Maybe it was from the horrendous flavor medicine always seemed to have by default.
“It’s down!” Hana sighed with relief, and the whole cave erupted in a loud cheer.
They held Ho Jin up for a while to make sure the pill reached his stomach before putting him back down to a lying position. We all stood in a circle and looked at him like we expected an instant miracle to happen. It didn’t. He lay there looking precisely as he had looked a minute ago.
“So what do we do now?” Hana asked.
“I guess… we just wait,” Jun Ha said. “I’ll stay with him tonight, and I’ll need another volunteer… we have to give him the next pill in the morning before work.” One of the men who had fought for Hyuk but stayed - a short muscular man in his twenties with short hair - raised his hand. “Great… the rest of you should head home. You need your rest… and we shouldn’t arouse too much suspicion.”
“Thank you,” Hana said and put her hand on his back. “I hope we weren’t too late.”
“He will be okay,” Jun Ha said. “I’m sure of it.”
Hana walked me out of the cave.
“You did really good today, Areum… again,” she smiled. “I knew I made the right call to take you in as my right-hand girl.”
“Thank you,” I said, uncomfortable with the persistent unclarity of what my role as her right-hand girl entailed. I cleared my throat. “And… er… when do we take care of… my thing?”
“I’ll come to you tomorrow… then we’ll start planning, okay?”
“Good,” I sighed. “Thank you.”
Hana said she wanted to stay with Ho Jin a bit longer to make sure the pills took effect, so I went home alone.
The entire way, I had an unaccustomed, but wonderful, sense of accomplishment.
The next day in the cornfield, Jun Ha looked very tired, but when I asked him about Ho Jin, he smiled.
“His fever is going down… looks like he’ll pull through.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” I said.
“Well… it’s all thanks to you, Areum… you did great, and you should feel proud of what you did for him. I can honestly say that I don’t think I have ever met anyone like you before… I mean… the things you can do… it’s just… wow!”
By the end of his sentence, I blushed so hard I had to storm off with the excuse that I immediately needed to check the quota fulfillment status. But after that, I had butterflies flying around in my stomach the whole morning. I wasn’t used to that feeling… and I wasn’t sure I liked it.
During the lunch break, Hana c
ame over to me. My heart rate accelerated at the mere sight of her.
“Okay,” she said. “The wheels are in motion.”
“Really? Already? T-that’s… great,” I felt a lump in my throat.
“Yep… starting tomorrow, you’ll be in charge of the watermill as well as this cornfield, which means Do Hun will report to you. Now, nothing can stop you from putting Nari to work there.”
“Great,” I said, taken aback by how fast things were happening.
But this is what I wanted… right?
“Chul is the guard in charge, as you know. I think the best way to do this is to get Do Hun out of the watermill for an hour or so. At the same time, the machinery gets jammed by a log or something… I’ll arrange that, no problem… you go and ask Chul to help you… if he tries to get one of the other prisoners to help, change his mind… that’s your job… once he’s inside and trying to unclog the waterwheel, you give a push at the right moment, and… Oh no! What a tragedy!” she smiled.
“Okay…” I nodded, noticing that my hands were shaking. “So… when do we do this?”
“Monday, one week from now.” Hana looked at me worriedly. “You will be able to do this, right? There’s no going back once we start this.”
“I will… I will… don’t worry,” I said but had to struggle to keep my voice stable.
“Good… because if you chicken out at the last minute, and he notices… we will have a very difficult situation on our hands… I hope you realize that.”
“I said don’t worry,” I repeated, this time firmly.
“Good.” Hana looked at me inquiringly. “Chul feels bad about what he did to your sister, right?”
“So?” I furrowed my brow.
What is she getting at?
“If you get Nari to work in the watermill… try to get him over, at least once a day, to check in on her, or whatever… that will make it more natural to get him there on Monday.”
The Weeping Masses: A Young Adult Dystopian Survival Saga (Juche - Part 3) Page 40
