OMH Chapter 1
by Volare1. The First Person I Ever Saved
The cold dawn air touches my skin.
The sun is just now rising in the jet-black sky, illuminating the streets.
It’s the time when streetlights turn off one by one, but in the first place, the streetlights are broken or shattered and don’t light up.
Collapsed walls and cracked cement roads are revealed in the sunlight, emerging from the darkness.
There isn’t a single soul on the chaotic streets.
I let out a sigh of relief as I looked at the scene. I’m relieved that everyone seems to have evacuated safely.
This place is a Civilian House/Area that was swept away by a monster, so it’s where people were evacuated to a few days ago.
However, there might still be someone who hasn’t evacuated, so I often patrol while going for a dawn jog.
‘Hmm, the sun has risen, should I shower and go back to eat breakfast?’
The dark sky, which was only lit by the stars, was now dyed purple and gradually revealed a bright orange light. I guess I’ve been running for quite a while.
‘I’ll just turn that corner right in front of me and go back.’
And the moment I turned the corner and tried to pass by, I was confronted with a giant wall of meat.
‘…!’
So, this is… like that living muscle tissue.
I was taken aback by the unexpected and disgusting scene.
This area had been the site of a major extermination operation, but I thought there might still be monsters left.
“Haa…”
So, it’s not that I was surprised to encounter a monster. It’s just… the visual of the monster I encountered was a bit shocking. It was like a skinned hunk of meat.
And the giant hunk of meat, blocking the Alleyway, continued to twitch as if to prove it was alive.
“Ugh, disgusting.”
The reddish muscle bundles wriggled like insects crawling, and suddenly a round piece of flesh the size of my fist rose from between them.
Then, the meat’s surface gradually split in half, and an eyeball appeared.
“Ugh, ahhhhh?! Disgusting! Disgusting!”
I couldn’t stand it any longer and punched the eyeball.
Pow!
The eyeball that was hit by my fist burst along with the surrounding meat, and the meat wall collapsed.
“Ugh, I should have left a photo for data.”
I was just observing, but I was so surprised by the damned eyeball that I just burst it.
“Ha… I’m going to get an earful from the team leader again.”
Still, there are many pieces left, so I’ll have to leave these as data.
I turned on the camera on the Smartwatch I was wearing on my wrist and diligently took pictures of the meat pieces.
When I burst one side of the meat wall, the inside, which was presumed to be the guts of this hunk of meat, was revealed. I turned on the watch’s flashlight and went inside to photograph the inside.
“Ugh…”
The further I went inside, the more a musty and sour smell wafted out.
‘It’s probably about 5 pyeong [~180 sq ft].’
The inside was larger than I thought. However, there weren’t many empty spaces because of the pillars, like giant sausages, packed tightly together.
The sausages were still not dead, they pulsed like a heart or something. I was looking at each of the crimson sausages, and then I saw something strange.
‘What is that? It’s definitely not the texture of a monster’s muscle bundle. Isn’t that a person? It’s different, but it’s not the disgusting eyeball I saw earlier, but… the eye on a person’s face, I think?’
When I went closer to look, the eyelashes were thick too. When I looked even closer, it really looked like a person?
“Ugh, ahhh, a person is buried in a sausage!”
I panicked and frantically tore off the pieces of meat that were stuck around the eyes with my hands.
As I tore off the pieces of flesh, a person’s face gradually appeared. I cut off the sausage and started to excavate the person in earnest. I roughly tore off all the hunks of meat attached to the upper body, but something is wrong with this person’s condition.
“Hey, are you breathing? Your body temperature seems warm, though?”
Uh… I learned to do Artificial Respiration in this situation. I snapped out of my panic and recalled the life-saving training I had received. I have to secure the airway first before doing Artificial Respiration.
I opened this person’s mouth to secure the airway, and I almost screamed.
“Ugh. What is this?!”
No, well, this person’s mouth was full of thin sausages and strange fluids.
“Ugh…”
In short, it was completely grotesque! I was horrified and started pulling out the sausages.
The sausages were also incredibly long, the shortest one seemed to be 50 centimeters [~20 inches]. I pulled out almost all of the sausages soaked in the fluid, presumed to be monster bodily fluids, but it still seems like they can’t breathe properly.
‘Then I have to do Chest Compressions now.’
I tore off the pieces of meat that I had been tearing off for Chest Compressions. And then I saw a strange sight.
This person’s stomach, which was revealed by tearing off the meat, was as big as a gym ball.
“Ugh, ahh, what is this?! Could it be that the pieces of sausage that I couldn’t pull out earlier are all in there?”
I panicked again and grabbed the stomach and pressed down hard. Fortunately, when I pressed the stomach, it spat out fluids and pieces of sausage.
I was seized with the conviction to make this person normal, so I squeezed the stomach like squeezing out toothpaste. I pressed down hard, and the stomach, which was like a gym ball, became as flat as a deflated balloon, and although the face was a mess from vomiting out what was inside, it seems like they can breathe well now.
“Hoo, that’s a relief.”
I finally came to my senses and reported to the emergency medical team and reported to my superiors. Until the ambulance arrived, I tore off all the pieces of meat and took off the T-shirt I was wearing and roughly wiped the person’s face and body.
The ambulance arrived quickly because I was jogging near the Central Center.
‘Wow… I saved a person directly for the first time.’
I was proud of myself for rescuing a person. It was the first time I had rescued a person face-to-face while doing mission activities for quite a long time.
Besides, I’m not in a situation where I’ve received a separate mission right now. I just went out for exercise, but I even saved a person, I’m so proud of myself.
My heart, which was so full of pride, was shattered after I put the person in the ambulance and gave an explanation of their condition.
“So you squeezed out what was inside with your hands? Gang Hana, are you out of your mind?”
“Uh… but thanks to that, they can breathe….”
“You have to think about your strength! What are you doing! What if their internal organs ruptured. CPR can also break ribs. You squeezed out their internal organs… Anyway, I understand. I’ll be on my way.”
“…”
My Medical Bureau friend, Lee Hwayoung, scolded me while putting the patient in the ambulance, closed the ambulance door, and left.
“So… the person I saved might have been hurt because of me?”
The words were so shocking that I couldn’t move even after the ambulance left. I remained at the scene in a state of self-reproach and handed over the scene to the monster clean-up team.
Even while showering, eating, and training after returning, the thought that the person could die because of me didn’t leave my head.
‘I tried to save them… I really did… But they could die because of my mistake… Ruptured internal organs…’
I fell off a cliff twice during Guerilla Training because I was thinking about this, but the thought didn’t leave my mind.
It didn’t hurt much to fall because I have Adamantine Body/Invulnerable Physique anyway. Rather, what I did in the early morning was more shocking, so even though the instructor’s scolding, disguised as abuse, poured down, I kept thinking about that one thing.
‘Heo… I saved a person, but that person dies because of me….’
I was so busy thinking about that all day that I didn’t know if my lunch was going in through my nose or my mouth.
‘By now, some measures would have been taken, right? Should I ask Hwayoung?’
I was finally having a somewhat productive thought and shoveling rice into my mouth when Kim Sanghyuk sat next to me with his tray.
“Hey~ Gang Hana, I heard you did something big this morning? I hear you’re getting a bonus?”
Kim Sanghyuk, a B-grade Esper in Enhancement-Type like me, acted like he knew everything. Kim Sanghyuk, who is also my peer, would understand my disturbed mind, right? What are friends for?
I told Kim Sanghyuk about the monster I killed and the civilian I rescued this morning. And when I worried that the person I had barely saved might die because of my incorrect First Aid, Kim Sanghyuk patted me on the shoulder and comforted me.
“They were about to disappear after being killed by a monster without anyone knowing, but thanks to you, they can at least have a funeral here. Cheer up!”
“…”
This sociopath bastard. Scratch that about friends, you jerk. There won’t be a share for you in this bonus.
‘I’m worried about a person dying, and you’re saying that?!’
I should meet Hwayoung to wash away the unlucky words I heard from Kim Sanghyuk. Even the Medical Bureau is busy, they must have lunch time.
I tempted Teleportation Ability User Haemi with a bonus and teleported to the Medical Bureau to meet Hwayoung as soon as possible.
I ran into Hwayoung, who had just finished eating, in the Medical Bureau cafeteria.
“Fortunately, that person’s internal organs didn’t rupture. It won’t affect their life, so don’t worry too much.”
Hwayoung told me a beautiful story that could wash away the unlucky words I heard from Kim Sanghyuk. There was severe bruising, but they won’t die anyway.
“Wow, that’s a relief.”
It felt like the indigestion that had been weighing on me since dawn had gone away. Hwayoung added some bleak additional information to me, who was smiling and rejoicing.
“But they are still unconscious, so I don’t know what will happen. They may not wake up continuously. We are taking fingerprints to identify them. It seems they were stuck with the monster for quite a long time.”
“What, you said they won’t die?”
“Well, not right now.”
“It’s really unsettling… Can I go see that person?”
“Hmm… They are still unidentified, and you brought them… Okay, I’ll let you visit as their guardian.”
I followed Hwayoung, went through the sterile air shower, and put on protective clothing before going to meet the person lying in the protective tent.
‘I thought they were quite big when I saved them earlier, but now that I see them lying in bed, they’re really tall. The large hospital bed doesn’t look that big.’
The man lying down with an oxygen respirator on had sharp jawlines and a high nose bridge revealed, as the swelling from being soaked in the monster’s bodily fluids had all gone down. Their thick eyelashes and neat eyes and eyebrows were comparable to a celebrity. That kind of job is almost nonexistent now, but anyway, they are very handsome.
I admired him madly until the visiting time was over and I was dragged out by Hwayoung.
‘I saved a very handsome person. I hope they live.’