Chapter 50

Yu-su gave Muwon’s backpack one final check. “Be careful. If anything goes wrong, dump the supplies and get yourself to safety first.”

“You’re stating the obvious.” Muwon brushed his hands away. “Just keep quiet and behave while I’m gone.”

“I mean it.” Yu-su turned to Hee-eun. “That goes for you too. Please be careful out there.”

“Okay.”

Muwon had also been assigned to the search team for one simple reason: their destination was a hardware store. Yu-su had determined that the exhaust pipe connected to the fourth-floor stove was in poor condition, and since the supplies they needed would be heavy, the team required someone with Muwon’s strength and build.

Because this was not a formal, full-scale search, they had organized only a small group. Muwon led three other sturdy men toward the hardware store, while Hee-eun joined a separate team tasked with raiding a nearby convenience store.

Their silhouettes receded into the darkness until the night swallowed them completely.

Sim Gorak, who had been watching from the entrance, released a heavy sigh and returned to the place he had prepared in advance. “It’s more nerve-racking when I’m not the one going out. When you’re actually out there, you’re too scared to think about anything else…”

“That’s because you’re worried.” Yu-su glanced at Gorak’s injured knee. “Get some rest. If that injury becomes chronic, you’ll have a rough time.”

“Okay…”

Whenever a search team departed, everyone seemed to gather in the third-floor lobby and wait for their return. It had become an unspoken rule, and the lobby remained crowded even after the teams had left.

Some people busied themselves with chores, while others chatted in small groups to ease their nerves. Amid them, Sim Gorak, who had stayed behind after slipping on the stairs the previous day, sat beside Yu-su, whom Muwon had flatly forbidden from joining the search.

Yu-su opened his notebook and began updating his log. Beside him, Gorak spread a towel across the lobby floor and laid his assault rifle on top of it.

Yu-su looked over. “What are you doing?”

“Cleaning the rifle and giving it a quick inspection.”

“Be careful not to lose any of the parts.”

“I will.” Gorak began disassembling the weapon. “Hyung, you still haven’t learned how to shoot, have you?”

“No.”

“Well, there hasn’t exactly been time to teach you either, has there?” Gorak’s voice dwindled, and the two of them soon fell silent.

Only the soft scratching of Yu-su’s pen and the unhurried clatter of metal parts disturbed the quiet.

A few men passing through the lobby noticed them and wandered over, lingering nearby.

One of them sighed. “It’s been years since I finished my reserve training, and now I’m looking at a rifle again.”

“Is that a K3?” another man asked. “Back in my day, we used the KA1.”

“Still going on about ‘back in my day,’ are you?” A third man pointed toward the floor. “Hey, young man. Your spring is rolling away.”

“Oh, thank you.”

Two of the men retrieved the runaway spring, then simply squatted beside Gorak instead of leaving.

One studied him for a moment. “You’re still around the rank of private, aren’t you?”

“Oh, yes. How could you tell?”

“I can tell just by looking at you.” He clicked his tongue. Tsk. “You’re not even twenty yet, are you? What a terrible thing for a kid your age to go through.”

“W-well… yes. It just happened this way…”

The reminder of the outside world darkened Gorak’s expression, and his answer came out subdued. Whether the men noticed or not, one of them sighed and turned to the other.

“I still keep hoping I’ll wake up in my own bed at home. Didn’t you say your daughter was overseas, hyung?”

“I did. What about you?”

“I already have a grandchild.” His gaze drifted into the distance. “I wonder how they’re doing.”

The older man heaved another sigh. “Why the hell did we have to go out for a meal neither of us wanted on our wedding anniversary? We should’ve stayed home.”

“If your wife hears you say that, hyung, you’ll be sleeping in a separate room again.”

“How the hell are we supposed to sleep in separate rooms here, you idiot?”

The two men burst into hearty laughter. Yu-su glanced at them, wondering what they found so amusing, when he noticed a small hand reaching toward the ammunition hanging from Gorak’s rifle.

“Yun, don’t touch that.”

“I can’t?”

Lee Yun had appeared beside them at some point and had been about to prod the dangling rounds when Yu-su stopped him. Gorak leaned closer and lowered his voice into an exaggerated warning.

“These are suuuper dangerous. If you touch them and something goes wrong, you’ll be in very big trouble. Understand?”

“I know that.” Lee Yun pointed at the weapon. “That’s a gun, right?”

“Oh, you know about guns?” Gorak grinned. “You’re smart, Yun.”

“I’m not three. I’m six.”

If the word six had not come out sounding more like six-sh, the declaration might have been considerably more convincing.

Gorak and the nearby men burst out laughing. Lee Yun pursed his lips, hurried behind Yu-su, and pressed himself against Yu-su’s back.

“What were you doing, Prettiest Hyung?”

Yu-su said nothing.

He had spent three days trying to correct that ridiculous nickname, but his efforts had not made a lick of difference. To make matters worse, Gorak had almost used it himself until Do Muwon smacked him, and earlier that day, Joo Hee-eun had called him “Prettiest Assistant Manager,” which had been downright mortifying.

“Hyung is waiting for the people who went out,” Yu-su finally explained.

“I see. Why are you waiting for them?”

Yu-su considered the question. “Because I want to be the first to see them when they come back.”

“Who do you want to see the most?”

“Do you remember the big brother who is always with hyung? The one who went out earlier?”

“Yes. Um…” Lee Yun’s eyes widened. “Everyone said that big brother is a chaebol. They said he’s super, super rich!”

It would have been stranger if Do Muwon’s name had never come up in private conversations, so the comment did not surprise Yu-su. He gently patted Lee Yun’s hair.

“That’s right. I’m waiting for that big brother and the big sister with the bobbed hair who went with him.”

“I see.” Lee Yun nodded solemnly. “Then it would be better if we waited together, right?”

Without looking up from the rifle, Gorak chimed in playfully. “But Prettiest Yu-su-hyung is already waiting with handsome Gorak hyung.”

“No…!”

Yu-su had no idea which part of that statement Lee Yun was objecting to. The child planted both hands against Gorak and pushed with all his might, but Gorak did not budge an inch.

At last, Lee Yun puffed out his cheeks. “Prettiest Hyung is waiting with me and Scarlet.”

With that, Lee Yun darted toward the corner room on the third floor that had been designated as Scarlet’s Room. Yu-su watched the small figure disappear before shaking his head.

“Why do you tease the kid like that?”

“He’s cute. Did you see those puffed-up cheeks?” Gorak chuckled. “Still, even kids care about appearances these days.”

“You’re one of those kids too.”

“Prettiest Hyung is suddenly making old-man comments.”

Yu-su was beginning to understand exactly why Do Muwon kept rapping Gorak on the head when a scream shattered the peaceful atmosphere.

“Save me!”

The sharp, agonized cry rang down from the fourth floor.

Everyone lounging in the lobby sprang to their feet. The scream was shrill enough to tear through their eardrums, and it sent a chill racing down every spine in the room.

As the entire lobby turned toward the stairs, a disheveled woman came tumbling down them.

Crash!

A dull thud followed.

The woman plummeted into the third-floor lobby and struck the marble floor. She lay there twitching as blood seeped from her head and spread beneath her.

“Blood… There’s blood!”

“Someone get the nun!”

“I’ll go!” Park Jiseop took off toward the director’s office. “Everyone stay calm and wait here!”

His brother, Park Hyeonseop, cautiously approached the fallen woman. “Ma’am, are you all right? Can you hear me?”

He advanced one careful step at a time.

The sight dragged Yu-su back to the day he had approached Senior Associate Shin. A wave of dread surged through him before he could explain why.

“Look out!” Yu-su shouted.

“Huh? What… ah…?”

A sudden bolt of pain made Hyeonseop look down. The woman, who had appeared unconscious only moments earlier, had sunk her teeth into his ankle.

“What the hell? Let go! Ugh!”

Startled, Hyeonseop kicked her away, but a chunk of flesh tore free from his ankle and remained clenched between her teeth.

“It hurts! Ngh… ah… Aaargh!”

Kieeek… hkk… heeaaah…

Her sobbing warped into a guttural, animalistic snarl, and chaos engulfed the third floor in an instant. The infected woman scrambled to her feet and hurled herself into the crowd.

“Aaah!”

“Damn it! How did a zombie get down from the fourth floor?”

“Kill it! Kill it!”

Then more sounds erupted from above, sounds that should never have existed in the building, coming from places they had no business coming from.

Kiyaaaak!

“Ah! Aaaah!”

Graaaah!

“Save me! Save me! Aaargh!”

“Help me! Ugh…!”

Frantic footsteps thundered down the stairwell as zombies and survivors spilled from the fourth floor together. The living fled for their lives, while the infected poured after them with ferocious speed, clawing for anything they could seize.

“Watch out!”

“Aaargh!”

People stumbled over their own feet and crashed down the stairs in a tangled heap, helpless beneath the zombies that fell upon them.

Crunch. Chew.

“I don’t want to die! Aaargh!”

Snap.

Jang Myeongju rushed toward the commotion only to stop before the carnage, her face twisted with anguish.

“Everyone, evacuate to the remaining room on the third floor!” she shouted. “Move the injured and anyone who can’t walk first! Everyone else, grab a weapon!”

A zombie lunged at Yu-su. He swung a chair into it, knocking it aside, then drove one of the metal legs through its chest again and again until its heart ruptured beneath the blows.

He stared toward the stairs.

How did this happen?

The first possibility that occurred to him was that someone on the fourth floor had concealed an infected person, just as they had at the Korean medicine clinic. There was no way to confirm it now.

Some people screamed. Others stood paralyzed by panic, while those who could still move fought desperately against the zombies.

Most of the survivors had already scattered, turning the lobby into a deadly game of tag. Yu-su gritted his teeth and tightened his grip on the chair, though its frame had begun to wobble in his hands.

He looked back at Gorak. “The gun?”

“It’s… still in pieces!”

At that moment, Park Jiseop returned, carrying an armful of kitchen knives. He dumped them onto the floor with a metallic clatter. His eyes were completely bloodshot, stained dark red with grief and fury. Although he had been gone for barely a minute, in that short time, he had lost his brother. Park Hyeonseop had already turned into a zombie. Jiseop cried so hard that he could scarcely see, yet he still managed to distribute the knives before rushing toward the survivors, calling for help.

Myeongju’s voice cracked with desperation. “Mr. Park Jiseop, don’t go! Evacuate!”

“I can’t!”

Bang!

Gorak finished reassembling the rifle and shot down a walking corpse as it lunged at Yu-su. He swung the barrel toward the horde, but his eyes brimmed with helpless tears.

“There are too many people mixed in with them!” he shouted. “I can’t get a clear shot!”

“Everyone, get away from the zombies!” Yu-su’s voice rang throughout the lobby. “We’re going to fire!”

The struggle had already become too tangled, however, and there was no easy way to separate the living from the dead.

“Gorak, stay here and wait for a clear shot. If you can’t get one, run.”

“H-Hyung…!”

Ignoring the plea in Gorak’s voice, Yu-su charged forward and slashed at the zombie about to sink its teeth into Park Jiseop.

“Look out!”

“Ah, thank you!” Jiseop gasped.

Yu-su drove his blade through the heart of the next zombie that lunged at him, shoved the thrashing corpse aside with his shoulder, and swept his gaze across the area. The once-peaceful lobby had become a slaughterhouse. People hacked desperately at the undead, only to be ripped apart in turn, while others stumbled through the carnage in tears, dragging family members who had already been bitten.

The longer the fighting continued, and the more people became entangled in it, the higher the casualties would climb.

And that’s not the only problem…

The zombies outside must have been reacting to the noise by now. The barricades across the stairways were sturdy, but there was no guarantee they would hold if the commotion dragged on long enough to draw a massive swarm.

I need a way out of this. First, I have to separate the survivors from the zombies…

Yu-su turned, and his gaze locked with someone else’s.

It was Myeongju. Perhaps because she had been resting before the attack, she was still dressed in her nun’s habit, though the fabric was now soaked with blood from head to toe.

“Mr. Yu-su, please run.”

“No. Gorak is waiting for a clear shot. I’ll draw the zombies’ attention, so lead the survivors out.”

“Draw their attention?”

“We have to try something before it’s too late.”

Had Yu-su known what she would choose, he would have kept the plan to himself. Myeongju looked between Gorak and his rifle, then at the writhing mass of zombies and survivors before biting down on her lip.

“I understand.” Her expression hardened. “Mr. Yu-su, get out of the way!”

“What?”

Myeongju slammed into him, sending Yu-su staggering toward the wall.

“Wait, ngh!”

At the same moment, she shoved several other survivors away from the zombies. They tumbled toward Yu-su, forcing him to brace himself and catch them before they struck the floor.

“No!”

“Sister!”

“You can’t do this, Sister!”

Their anguished screams made Yu-su look up.

Myeongju stood in the entrance to the hallway with her arms spread wide, using her own body to block the zombies from following the survivors.

“Ngh… ah…!”

Blood sprayed from the wounds already torn into her flesh. The pain burst the capillaries in her eyes, staining them crimson, yet she clenched her teeth and forced herself to look at Gorak.

“Shoot now!”

Gorak shook his head, stumbling backward.

“No. No, I can’t.”

“Hurry! I… argh!”

“Ah… I… I’m sorry!”

“Everyone, duck!”

At Yu-su’s roar, Sim Gorak finally squeezed the trigger. His assault rifle thundered to life, and the violent RAT-TAT-TAT! of gunfire ripped through the zombies clinging to Jang Myeongju. The acrid stench of gunpowder mingled with the suffocating reek of blood.