Chasing Liberty // Countryhumans North Korea fanfiction

Even One

    The woman’s lips were purple, her skin pale and clammy as North dragged her from the river. The water soaked into his padded jacket, chilling him to the bone.

    Ssi-bal, she was going to die of hypothermia. They needed to start moving the injured to the hospital, or at least somewhere warm.

    Now that the sky had cleared of death, refugees had cautiously started to creep back onto the wrecked bridge, climbing along the steel girders. Were they idiots? If they fell in the water, they would end up like the others.

    They must have decided it was worth the danger.

    He raised his voice so that those on the broken bridge could hear him. “Don’t risk the crossing! Whatever the reactionaries told you was lies. The Korean People’s Army would never hurt you!”

     Some of the refugees turned back with uncertain eyes. A few retreated from the ruined bridge. More looked up to the sky, then turned their heads and kept moving. Some glanced almost shamefully over their shoulders at him.

     North gritted his teeth. Had the last few years not been enough to convince his civilians that they were working for them? When had their law punished someone who hadn’t deserved it? When had their army hurt their own people?

    Less than two months, and America, Rhee, and their puppets had filled his people’s heads with filth and lies.

     “Only those who actively collaborated with the enemy to harm others will be punished!” he tried again.

      The crawl continued, silent under the wintry sky. The woman in his arms shivered. He took his jacket off to wrap her in it, hoping that it would warm her, even wet as it was.

     He didn't have time to sway them back with a speech. Rescue efforts were more crucial. He could work on clearing propaganda away when they had won.

    He changed priorities. "Can anyone tell me where a Worker’s Party member is?”

    Those on the shore, some waiting to cross and others milling about, searching for loved ones lost in the blast, looked over at him.

     “Sorry, Korea,” a short man croaked, a gash running across his forehead. “Not many of those around anymore.”

    They had evacuated most of the government, but had left less prominent comrades behind to care for their people, and organize behind enemy lines. North knew they would not have fled.

     “I need one,” he called, fighting to keep the anger from his voice. “Can someone find me even one?”

   The refugees looked around at each other uncertainly, then at the city, where planes were once more striking it.

    The breathing of the woman in his arms had started to slow, the air barely fogging before her blue lips.

     He clutched her closer, rubbing her shoulders as he looked desperately to his people. “Please.”

    There was a commotion from the bridge, the sound of a brief argument, then a man started back toward the shore, shouts of anger and alarm following him.

    “We can!” he called, the woman behind him trying to take his sleeve.

    “Watch where you’re going,” someone complained as he passed them, finally shoving through and onto solid land.

    “Our neighbour is in the municipal Party cell,” the roughshaven man said. “He should still be alive.”

     “That was before the culling,” the woman, likely his wife, said.