Destruction — Chapter 7
by Brie- Disaster
Worrying over whether the man who had jumped might’ve hurt his leg turned out to be needless—Jung Woobeom was perfectly fine. After dragging the mattress to the planned landing spot, he reached his hand up toward the window where Saejin stood.
“Throw down your bag first. You might get hurt.”
Following his words, Saejin tossed down the backpack he’d been wearing. Woobeom caught it effortlessly with a fluid motion. Saejin immediately sensed it was now his turn to jump and took a deep breath to calm his fear, staring down below.
While waiting for Saejin to come down, Woobeom glanced between the flames creeping from the neighbor’s place and Saejin’s pale face. The fire had grown stronger, starting to lash out of the window and crawl across the outer wall. There were various pipes running along that wall, and if the flames caught onto them, there was a real chance of an explosion within seconds.
“Hyung, hyung… I won’t die, right?”
He’d jumped down first believing Saejin could follow on his own, but the younger man was shaking so hard his knees looked like they might buckle. Maybe he’d overestimated him. If he’d known, he might have just jumped down holding Saejin in his arms. Risk of injury or not, that was still better than leaving him standing in a building that could explode any second.
‘Guess there’s no other way.’
He must’ve expected too much from a kid. Giving up on his earlier approach, Woobeom decided to shift tactics to coaxing and encouragement.
“I jumped without a mattress and came out fine. Don’t worry, just jump.”
He avoided saying anything about the building blowing up, knowing that would only make things worse. Was he seriously spending his lifetime supply of patience on Yoon Saejin? If Saejin had been his subordinate, he’d have smacked him already.
Saejin could see the seriousness etched in Woobeom’s face. He hadn’t said it outright, but the tense expression as he eyed the flames licking up the wall said enough—the fire situation wasn’t looking good.
If he jumped, he might just sprain something. But if he didn’t, he’d burn to death. Just as Saejin steeled himself to jump, Woobeom stepped onto the mattress. With an awkward twitch of his lips, he spread his arms wide toward the spot where Saejin stood.
“You trust me, right? Jump.”
Maybe he didn’t use his facial muscles much, because even that faint attempt at a smile made his mouth twitch with effort. Realizing Woobeom had forced that expression just to reassure him, Saejin loosened his stiff posture and tossed out a joke.
“Hyung, you do remember we only met today, right? How can I trust you?”
Woobeom muttered a low curse. For some reason, that profanity gave Saejin a strange sense of comfort. He finally let go of the window frame and jumped toward the mattress—more precisely, toward the open arms of the man who had offered to catch him.
“…Heavy as hell.”
Catching Saejin sent Woobeom sprawling backward, but he looked up at the younger man laughing in his arms with a complicated expression. Sure, kids could laugh at anything, even a falling leaf—but was now really a time to be laughing, with their home going up in flames?
“Thanks for catching me.”
As Saejin beamed at him with a bright smile, Woobeom’s lips parted slightly. He couldn’t remember the last time someone had thanked him.
While the two were adjusting their positions and fixing their raincoats, a warning tone came from the bag. It was the kind that sounded when an emergency disaster alert was received, so Saejin hurriedly pulled out his phone.
‘It’s not just one?’
It seemed several alerts had come through while his attention had been focused on the neighbor’s meltdown. Not knowing when more monsters might show up, Saejin skimmed the contents quickly.
[Emergency Disaster Alert – A state of national emergency due to the virus has been declared. Residents without shelters should relocate to the designated shelters for each district.
Jungang-dong Shelter – Korea University Main Building
Saeshin-dong Shelters – Saeshin Elementary School Gymnasium and 6 other locations
Disaster supplies distribution in progress]
[Emergency Disaster Alert – [Gangnam District Office] Reports are flooding in of newly deceased victims of the virus transforming into monsters.
Estimated transformations in the Gangnam area: 19,000]
[Emergency Disaster Alert – Infected individuals who die from the virus may transform into monsters within as little as 10 minutes, or several hours at most. Avoid all contact with the deceased.]
The messages were no longer vague mentions of high fevers—they now directly addressed the monsters. Apparently, the cover-up had finally ended.
“The emergency alert is talking about monsters. There must’ve been a news report earlier this morning! That means more information about the virus is probably out now, so I’ll check—hyung!”
Saejin spotted a monster approaching behind Woobeom and yanked him toward himself. The zombie, staggering forward, tripped over a stone and fell flat. Knowing the monsters reacted to sound, the two of them remained silent, communicating only with their eyes. The signal was clear: get out of here and move to somewhere brighter.
After slipping out the back of the building and into an alley, a stench beyond imagination slammed into their faces. The nauseating smell made even their eyes sting. It was so overpowering that reflexive tears wet the skin beneath their eyes. Not knowing when a monster might leap out, the two stuck to the brightest paths and moved only through open, central streets. While walking aimlessly without a set destination, Saejin poked Woobeom in the back, signaling that he had something to say.
[We’re going to need masks just for the smell. There’s a spot nearby where convenience stores are clustered. Want to head that way? Though I don’t know if any will be open…]
Times like this made quick typing a blessing. He jotted down the message in a notes app and held it out. Woobeom gave a short nod in understanding. Having trailed behind the man until now, Saejin motioned for him to follow and took the lead for the first time. Woobeom quietly watched his confident back before lightly grasping Saejin’s raincoat.
…What are you doing?
Saejin had widened his strides to save time, but when he felt his coat tug, he turned around. Woobeom, now locking eyes with him, raised an eyebrow as if asking, “What are you staring at?”
It seemed Saejin didn’t quite understand why his coat had been grabbed.
Your reflexes are slower than mine.
Who knows what’ll jump out from where. Since you’re charging ahead so recklessly, I need to be ready to yank you back.
What he meant was, if a zombie or an infected person suddenly appeared, Saejin probably wouldn’t react fast enough—so Woobeom would physically pull him to safety. It was a thoughtful gesture, but the comment was vague enough to make it hard to say thanks.
‘Well… he is faster than me.’
Saejin remembered the first time he saw Woobeom, when he’d mistaken him for a killer and bolted at full speed—only to be caught instantly. He couldn’t deny it: Woobeom was fast.
The sensation of someone holding onto his back was slightly uncomfortable, but it wasn’t enough to argue about. As Saejin moved forward again, Woobeom followed silently.
The convenience stores Saejin had mentioned were near a bustling area. Moving toward the commercial zone meant more options, but also greater danger. Given the choice, it was better to stick to quieter places with fewer people than risk encountering monsters or the infected.
The outbreak had begun in the evening, and Gangnam was packed with offices, clubs, and bars. Physical contact among crowds was common, meaning a large number of people were likely in the incubation stage. What’s more, it was probable that roads had been paralyzed during emergency transport of high-fever patients. If Saejin’s hunch was right, major intersections were probably clogged with corpses-turned-monsters by now.
Lost in thought, they eventually arrived at the convenience store cluster. Most of the shutters were down and the lights were off. Strangely, there wasn’t a single person in sight.
“Isn’t this weird?”
Even though it was a back alley, it was still close to the commercial center. You’d expect at least a zombie or two, but it was eerily quiet.
“Yeah, but the stench is still everywhere.”
Woobeom, covering his nose with his sleeve, agreed and scanned their surroundings. It was strange to have such a strong stench in the air and yet see no signs of monsters.
“Hyung, look over there!”
Saejin, moving forward in search of an open store, suddenly pointed at the alley’s entrance with wide eyes. There, in the shadows, were several lumpy silhouettes. Narrowing his eyes, Saejin tried to make out the shapes, then turned on his phone’s flashlight. The beam revealed the truth—bodies with heads completely separated from their torsos. And they weren’t all monsters. There were also corpses of uninfected humans.
‘His eyes are normal…?’
One man lay dead with his eyes wide open, as if crying out his injustice. His sclera were clear, too clean to be mistaken for an infected. With sharp eyes, Woobeom surveyed the slain man and ground his molars together. There was hardly any plausible reason why a convenience store clerk would be killed in a disaster like this.
“Where’s this store located?”
“…Right there. Ah, the one with the shutter slightly raised.”
Saejin pointed to the only store with its lights still on. To be precise, light was leaking through the half-closed shutter. Every other store was shut tight. The fact that this one place was still lit up gave off a rotten stench in more ways than one.
Only one thing came to mind: looting.
Even though less than a full day had passed since the disaster began, Saejin couldn’t believe that looting, coupled with murder, had already occurred. He hurried after Woobeom, who was heading toward the convenience store, nervously watching him. Woobeom was barely suppressing his seething rage. His bloodshot eyes were wide and unstable, as if something inside him had snapped.
“…Hyung. Why are you acting like this all of a sudden?”
“Let go.”
It didn’t even seem like he knew the dead man personally, so Saejin couldn’t understand why he was so worked up.
‘Is he about to do something reckless?’
It felt like something serious might happen if he didn’t stop Woobeom now. Despite Saejin’s attempts to hold him back, Woobeom moved forward and stopped in front of the convenience store, silently observing the scene before him. The shutter clearly showed signs of being forcibly opened.
The padlock that had secured the shutter to the ground was broken, and the shutter itself bore clear marks of having been struck by a blunt weapon.
“Stay here.”
“…What?”
“Don’t come in until I call you.”
His voice was firm, more a command than a request. Saejin flinched and took a step back as he looked at the unfamiliar air surrounding Woobeom. Lifting the shutter to about shoulder height, Woobeom stepped inside the convenience store and pulled it back down behind him, cutting off Saejin’s view of whatever was about to happen.
Inside, Woobeom immediately grabbed a pair of coated gloves hanging from a shelf and put them on. Whether the looters had already left after doing their work or were still hiding like rats, the place was silent. Picking up a mop handle broken into a sharp edge, he moved slowly, checking the ceiling mirror in the corner for movement.
— Hyung.
Suddenly, a hallucination, like a worm crawling through his brain, scraped at his nerves. He clenched his jaw, trying not to react, but he had no choice but to admit that the past still had a hold on him.
This was a different situation than that day. He repeated it to himself over and over to calm his rising fury, but it wasn’t working.
As a teenager forced to be the head of the household, Jung Woobeom had a much younger little brother. He would’ve done anything for him. In fact, he had gotten involved in illegal work to escape poverty. There were no legal jobs that paid big money for a minor. That was just how it was.
Most high-paying under-the-table jobs were bottom-rung debt collection for loan sharks. Sometimes, debtors would go off the rails and wave knives around in a suicide performance. In those moments, Woobeom had to throw himself at them to stop it—if a debtor died, the responsibility would fall squarely on the collector, who would then have to repay the debt in full.
It was absurd, but the more money Woobeom brought back, the more he got to keep. So he grit his teeth and took down desperate debtors brandishing weapons. Sometimes his skin tore or his muscles tore, but quitting wasn’t an option. That money was the only thing keeping both him and his brother alive.
Woobeom would return home only when his brother was asleep and leave again before he woke up. No matter how much his own body was shredded or broken, he was satisfied as long as his little brother could eat well. That child, at least, deserved to live a normal life without going through the same hell. Woobeom, who was utterly sick of being poor, had poured everything into making his beloved brother a happy person.
— What are you talking about? You didn’t do anything. Nothing.
But maybe it was because he’d done so many bad things. The consequences of his sins had fallen on his innocent younger brother, and their brief happiness had crumbled in an instant.