38. Can’t Hide Anymore. (3)

…I’ve never seen one this big.

Not even when I was in the military.

The U.S. commander said,

“CH-47 Chinook. This is the transport vehicle we use to transport weapons from our Humphreys base to the Lincoln aircraft carrier. It’s about 51 feet… oh, 15 meters long, with a rotor diameter of… about 30 meters? It can transport 10 tons of cargo or people.”

I turned to Seong Ga-yeon.

She frowned and said,

“Converting feet to meters is tricky. I just multiplied by 3. Why?”

…I didn’t even know there was a unit called feet.

I lowered the corners of my mouth and raised my thumb.

I turned my gaze from Seong Ga-yeon, who was pouting, back to the Chinook.

Two rotors.

From end to end, 30 meters.

Air transport, 10 tons.

…That’s incredible.

Inside the hangar, illuminated by the square sunlight, four Chinooks were lined up.

No wonder it looked so big and white from the sky; it was because it housed four of these monsters.

Do the white buildings next to it house fighter jets too?

The U.S. commander said,

“We were lucky. Many of the Chinook pilots survived, so we can operate two at a time.”

I looked up at the helicopter and muttered,

“…That’s… fortunate.”

It would be great if we had one of these too.

I have no idea where to use it or where to store it, but it looks so cool.

The streamlined, bulky body is intimidating.

I’ve only seen these in movies.

…Four Chinooks…

“Do you have more of these?”

The U.S. commander nodded and said,

“We have four more in the adjacent hangar. We have fighter jets too, but we don’t have pilots to operate them. They were all lost on D-Day.”

I slowly nodded and turned to Seong Gyu-hyuk.

“Don’t we have helicopter and airplane pilots in Seo-rae Village? Captain Park and Captain Kim.”

Seong Gyu-hyuk leaned in and whispered in my ear,

“A Chinook requires three crew members. Captain Park would find it difficult to operate alone. The fighter jets are likely F-35s, and I’m not sure if Captain Kim can operate them properly. He retired young.”

…Hmm.

Not a circle or an X, but a triangle.

Having the equipment but no one to use it…

I swallowed and nodded.

Four large transport helicopters, each capable of carrying 10 tons at a time. With two operational, that’s 20 tons at once.

The plan is to use these to transport small arms and explosives from the Pyeongtaek U.S. base.

The problem is the people.

Even if the two Chinooks are packed to the brim, they can only transport about 60-70 people at a time.

We have 400 people.

It’s unclear how many trips it will take.

We don’t know the situation on the Lincoln aircraft carrier or the carrier strike group, and even if we transport people, the remaining people will still be exposed to danger. It’s also difficult to disperse forces for defense.

If firepower is divided and the monsters are drawn by the helicopter noise, they’ll become easy targets for individual attacks.

I turned to the U.S. commander.

“So, how can we help you?”

We came out to talk, but seeing the transport helicopters doesn’t give me any idea of what the U.S. military plans to do.

They can’t just transport goods, and they won’t disperse forces to transport people.

I wouldn’t think that way, and neither would the U.S. commander.

The U.S. commander nodded and pushed on.

“The northern mountains and forests near Humphreys base. According to our reconnaissance drone’s infrared imaging, that’s where the waves of beasts are originating. I’m sorry, but the monsters you faced yesterday were only a small part.”

That makes sense.

I killed the cat and encountered the pack of dogs, but that can’t be all.

The mountains and forests.

Just looking at them, the scale is enormous.

They must be teeming with monsters.

I nodded and waited for him to continue.

The U.S. commander said,

“We won’t sit and wait for them to attack. We plan to organize a special forces team to eliminate the beasts in the forest…”

Seong Ga-yeon, who was translating, trailed off.

All our special forces team members looked up at the U.S. commander.

I was also looking at him.

I could feel my eyebrows furrow.

…Did he just say “eliminate”?

“…You mean you want to kill all the beasts in the mountains? Do you know how many there are?”

The U.S. commander smiled.

“That’s the goal. There are countless beasts of all sizes in those mountains and forests. We can’t kill all of them. Our target is their leaders.”

“…Leaders?”

The U.S. commander nodded.

“We’ve identified three. A giant white-furred monster dog, a wild boar, and a bat. All are enormous, but among them, there are particularly large individuals. We call them leaders.”

…Leaders?

The U.S. commander turned and walked, gesturing for me to follow.

He said,

“As you can see from the Chinook, our transport is by air. Eliminating the dog and wild boar leaders is important, but we must also stop the giant bat from blocking the sky.”

I followed him to the barracks and asked,

“So, when you said ‘eliminate,’ you meant killing those three large beasts, not all the beasts?”

People tried to get closer to listen and translate.

As the hangar door closed behind us, I listened to Seong Ga-yeon’s translation.

“That’s right. Ideally, we can reduce the number of beasts during the process, and if possible, we hope to eliminate all the beasts in the mountains.”

The U.S. commander glanced at me and smiled.

“We can’t set the entire mountain on fire. If it spreads to civilian homes, it will cause significant damage to the survivors who have endured D-Day.”

I slowly nodded and asked,

“I saw the dog leader yesterday.”

A giant white-furred creature, likely a regular Jindo dog before the apocalypse, almost the size of a small house.

“How big are the wild boar and bat leaders?”

The U.S. commander smiled.

“The dog leader appeared in a residential area yesterday because it was weak.”

“…Weak?”

A house-sized creature?

The U.S. commander nodded.

“It’s the weakest among the leaders. The Dog Pack… it maintained its power among the beasts by tearing and eating each other. But it was pushed down to the base of the mountain, feeding on human beasts by the river. That’s why we saw it yesterday. But the wild boar is different.”

As we climbed the stairs to the barracks, the U.S. commander said,

“It’s at the center of the beast wave. It acts like the master of the mountain. If it comes down, it will cause a major disaster.”

…So, it’s bigger than the dog.

From what he said, it must be larger than a regular elephant.

A crazy monster in the mountains.

“What about the bat?”

“They’re in a cave.”

The U.S. commander laughed.

Why is he laughing?

“There were no caves of that size in the mountain. The bats gathered in the middle of the mountain range, and eventually dug into the ground to create their own cave. They’re holed up there, but we’ve successfully observed them multiple times.”

Dug into the ground to create a cave?

As I followed the U.S. commander into the conference room, I asked,

“Are the bats also large?”

The commander glanced at me.

“You just saw the Chinook… right?”

Seong Ga-yeon trailed off again.

I stopped in my tracks.

…Did he just say Chinook?

…The bats?

The U.S. commander sat down.

A white U.S. soldier standing next to him muttered something in English and left.

The U.S. commander gestured for me to sit and smiled.

“It’s hot, so I asked for some canned cola. Do you have any preferences?”

No, sir.

Cola isn’t the issue right now.

I pulled a chair and sat down, resting my elbows on the table.

I found myself clasping my hands together.

I looked at the U.S. commander and asked,

“You said you could handle it. How did you plan to deal with them?”

The U.S. commander smiled.

“We have the SOC-R Riverine. And Humphreys base is by the river.”

Seong Ga-yeon’s and Seong Gyu-hyuk’s faces brightened slightly.

And I have no idea what a SOC-R Riverine is.

What the hell is it?

Seong Gyu-hyuk leaned in and whispered in my ear,

“It’s a military boat called a gunship. It’s equipped with nine heavy weapons, including a minigun. The operators also carry personal and support weapons, and it has formidable firepower for its size.”

…I don’t know about that.

The U.S. commander said,

“With the river, we can use the Riverine, so firepower isn’t an issue. The only problem was that we couldn’t go deep into the mountains.”

He smiled at me.

“Until you came.”

…Ah.

Now I understand.

…Organize a special forces team.

What he’s saying is, he wants me to go into the mountains and lure the leaders to the river.

So the Riverine boat can rain heavy weapons on them and finish them off.