BOW Chapter 5 (Part 1)
by Brie- Familiar Yet Unfamiliar
‘How did things end up like this.’
Lying at the edge of the wide bed, Jiyeon blinked up at the ceiling. Suhyeong was lying next to him.
“Come here. If you lie like that, you’ll fall.”
Seeing how close Jiyeon was to the edge, Suhyeong reached over and pulled him a little closer. At the touch brushing his body, Jiyeon jerked minutely as if he’d been burned. Suhyeong spoke in a voice tinged with disappointment.
“Jiyeon. I’m not that shameless.”
“……”
“I won’t touch you, so lie down properly.”
Heat rushed up Jiyeon’s face at those words. There wasn’t enough light to see Suhyeong’s expression clearly, but even in the darkness he could sense the same disappointment that colored his voice. Feeling like he was the shameless one, Jiyeon wriggled like a startled caterpillar and inched slightly closer to him.
“Why, can’t sleep again?”
“No. It just feels strange……”
Trailing off, Jiyeon pulled the blanket up to his chin and bit the inside of his cheek. He’d already slept beside him several times, but lying side by side like this, properly, on a motel bed felt completely different.
“Who would’ve thought we’d end up eating cup noodles with this group.”
He remembered what Choi Sunghwa had said earlier. Right. Who would’ve known. Who would’ve thought he’d end up lying next to Team Leader Yoon Suhyeong, someone he’d never really liked. And who would’ve thought that this man liked him?
The team leader likes me. Seriously. Enough to risk his life.
He hadn’t answered the confession yet, but swept up in Suhyeong’s bold emotions, Jiyeon had ended up kissing him. Remembering that kiss again made a strange dizzy tingle bloom near his navel. Then he suddenly realized he still hadn’t heard why Suhyeong even liked him.
“Team leader, why do you like me?”
Since it was the most important point, Jiyeon threw the question straight out. Suhyeong, who had been lying neatly on his back, turned to face him.
“Hm……”
He didn’t answer immediately. Watching him seriously think about it made Jiyeon swallow nervously.
“Mmm.”
Soft humming continued.
“I don’t know.”
After all that contemplation, the answer was disappointingly plain.
“What? How do you not know?”
Jiyeon pouted, deflated. Suhyeong was clearly an impressive person. Jiyeon assumed that if someone like him liked someone, there would be a special reason. That was why he’d waited, nervous yet a little hopeful…… What a stupid thought.
“But I think there was a trigger. You told me to get angry and swear like everyone else.”
“Oh……”
“When something makes you mad, you should swear and get angry like other people. You’re plenty cool without holding it all in.”
Of course he remembered. It was one of the most pointless pieces of meddling he’d ever done.
“A freshman giving that kind of advice to his sunbae. It shocked me.”
At Suhyeong’s teasing tone, Jiyeon slowly rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling.
‘Should I apologize…… or pretend I don’t remember?’
He never imagined Suhyeong would remember that moment, and flustered, his eyes darted around. Embarrassment and awkwardness made his heart beat faster.
“It felt like you caught me off guard. Like you saw through a weakness. And weirdly enough, hearing you say I was cool was comforting.”
“……”
Jiyeon listened quietly.
“After that, I kept thinking about you without meaning to. I’d look for you, wonder what kind of person you were. And then one day I realized I liked you. It felt like I could loosen up when I was beside you.”
“So since college, you…… liked me?”
His heart, which had been racing from embarrassment, now pounded for an entirely different reason. Putting the pieces together, it meant Suhyeong had liked him since they were university students. Ever since that silly meddling had comforted him.
Thinking that Suhyeong had treasured such a trivial, insignificant moment all this time made Jiyeon’s nose sting.
“Jiyeon.”
“I’m going to sleep. Don’t talk to me.”
At the tender way he said his name, Jiyeon pulled the blanket from his chin all the way to his head. If he saw Suhyeong’s face right now, he felt like he might get emotional.
“Alright, sleep well.”
After that, Suhyeong didn’t say anything. Instead, just like the night before, he gently patted Jiyeon’s shoulder.
‘You said you wouldn’t touch me. Liar.’
Jiyeon puffed his lips out at the contradiction. But he was already used to Suhyeong’s warmth, and soon his eyelids grew heavy. At some point, his consciousness fell into sleep. It was the moment he had to accept that this unreasonable, blind affection brought him deep stability in the middle of chaos.
Knock knock knock knock.
The next morning, Jiyeon woke with a start to the sound of someone knocking.
“Team leader! Assistant manager!”
The voice outside belonged to Choi Sunghwa. Jiyeon pressed a hand over his startled heart and turned his head. Suhyeong was lying there.
“You’re awake?”
With a bright, fresh face that made it clear he’d been up for a while.
“Team leader! Assistant manager! Is everything okay in there?!”
The knocking grew more intense. Finally clearing his mind, Jiyeon shot upright. Even with Sunghwa banging anxiously outside, Suhyeong was leisurely observing Jiyeon’s freshly woken face.
“What’s wrong? Did something happen?!”
Startled by the urgent knocking, Jiyeon didn’t even fix his messy hair before opening the door. Three people stood there, faces pale.
“What do you mean what happened? We thought something happened to you two. You just wouldn’t wake up. Nothing happened, right?”
Jang Joohee peeked inside as she spoke. By that time, Suhyeong had already gotten up and walked over, stretching out his long legs. He placed a hand on Jiyeon’s shoulder and murmured quietly.
“Nothing happened. Unfortunately.”
Hearing the faint disappointment, Jiyeon poked him sharply in the side with his elbow.
“So what time is it……”
“One-thirty in the afternoon.”
“What.”
Jiyeon’s mouth fell open at Kim Hyungseok’s answer. One-thirty. No wonder Sunghwa had been banging on the door thinking something happened. He hadn’t realized he’d slept that long.
“It’s been so long since I slept on a proper bed that I didn’t think I’d sleep this much.”
Jiyeon spoke with a dazed expression, then shot a glare at the man beside him. Seeing that look, clearly asking why he hadn’t woken him,Suhyeong dipped his head slightly and whispered at his ear.
“I didn’t want to wake you. Watching your sleeping face was too nice.”
“You…!”
Is he crazy! What is he saying in front of people!
Flustered, Jiyeon immediately checked the other employees, hoping they hadn’t heard. Fortunately, they were busy dividing the morning meal, choco soboro bread, and didn’t seem interested in the two of them.
“By the way, was everything okay next door last night?”
With any mischief wiped off his face, Suhyeong spoke calmly. Jiyeon also glanced at the three who had stayed in room 302. He’d been worried about them because of the thugs last night.
“Yes. Assistant Kim stayed with us, so nothing happened. Thank you, sir.”
Thankfully, Jang Joohee bowed to Hyungseok and thanked him.
“I… I didn’t really do anything……”
Hyungseok scratched his head, cheeks red. Feeling the odd air between them, Jiyeon quietly wondered, ‘Huh?’ Already forgetting that just moments earlier, Suhyeong had whispered something indecent to him.
The five of them gathered in the small room and ate a meager meal together. Then they each took what might be their last shower for a while and enjoyed a short but sweet rest.
Around three o’clock, Suhyeong stood with the golf club in hand.
“Alright then. We’re a bit late, but shall we head out to Ijin for our out-of-office visit?”
Yesterday’s good weather had melted much of the snow piled along the road. But because of that, the half-melted slush soaked the employees’ shoes and hems of their pants.
“How much farther do we have to go?”
“Once we pass this lighthouse and cross the overpass, that’s it.”
“Ah…… the overpass? How are we supposed to cross that.”
Jiyeon’s shoes and even his socks were completely soaked, and he grumbled in a tone that was almost irritable. The clammy discomfort was unbearable. And walking a route he had only ever traveled by bus or subway made it hard to grasp the distance.
“Sigh.”
As he kicked at the slushy snow with a heavy breath, Suhyeong quietly stepped closer.
“Is it because you’re tired? Want me to carry you?”
“No thanks.”
Jiyeon straightened his slumped shoulders at the words that he couldn’t tell were a joke or serious. If it were Suhyeong, he really might carry him. There was no way he could let that happen in front of the others.
“Wow. I’ve lived here for years, but this is my first time seeing the lighthouse light turned off.”
Stepping through the slush, Jang Joohee looked around the empty downtown.
The “lighthouse” referred to Yuseong Soft, the massive game company that lit up Haseong City’s office district 24 hours a day. The city itself was practically made of companies, so when office workers went home at night, the whole area fell quiet. But because game developers practically lived on overtime, the lights of the company building shone all night long. People joked about it so often that “lighthouse” became its nickname.
“Wait. Hang on, quiet!”
Sensing something up ahead, Suhyeong ducked behind a car that had been parked haphazardly on the road. The employees following behind quickly crouched down as well.
“Are those mutants?”
Choi Sunghwa tightened her grip around her weapon. At her question, Jiyeon cautiously raised his head to check the road.
“Yes. Mutants…… they’re everywhere.”
A dizzy feeling washed over him, and Jiyeon’s voice trembled as he spoke. Between the randomly parked cars and the piled snow, mutants were roaming all over the cluttered road.
Just like the moment they first escaped the company building, tens, no, hundreds of mutants blocked the entire street.
As a city where companies outnumbered residents, the majority of the mutants were office workers. Their clothes varied, but with ID cards hanging around their necks and slow, dragging footsteps, they almost looked like people heading to work. Jiyeon remembered a comedian on TV joking that office workers on their commute looked no different from mutants. But now, it wasn’t funny. Looking like a mutant and becoming a mutant were completely different things.
“W-what do we do? With this many, we can’t lure them away with a phone alarm like we did in the hallway.”
Peeking over the road, Jang Joohee asked, her face drained of color. Even Suhyeong seemed taken aback by the sheer number of mutants, studying the map they’d taken from the supermarket with a grim expression.
“Isn’t there another route? Even if it’s longer, maybe something safer.”
At Jiyeon’s words, Kim Hyungseok glanced around, checking if there was any possible escape path. But every street was the same. Office workers who had gone out for lunch a few days ago had turned into mutants and were now blocking paths all over the city.
“A safe route…… hm.”
After staring at the map for a long moment, Suhyeong pressed his fingers to his temples as if a headache was forming and finally spoke.
“There is an alley across from the Yuseong Soft building that leads to the main road.”
He pointed toward the front of the building. Everyone’s dark expressions brightened at the idea of a way out. But only for a moment. Suhyeong shook his head slowly.
“The problem is, it’s a narrow alley. And if we run into a mutant coming from the opposite end?”
“……”
“Then there’s nowhere to run.”
Everyone swallowed hard at the fear those words created. Having no escape route was a massive risk.
“What do you want to do? You all know since you come here every day, but this is the fastest way to Ijin. And chances are the other routes look the same as this.”
At Suhyeong’s continued explanation, everyone exchanged silent looks. Fear, confusion, and panic were mixed in each expression. If they could, they would flee this place right now.
“If it’s too much, you don’t have to come.”
Suhyeong spoke quietly.
“I won’t force anyone to go. Don’t get swept up by the group. Decide for yourselves and act. This is a matter of survival. I can’t take responsibility for your lives.”
His honest, almost stern tone left everyone speechless in thought. Right now, the only way to ensure survival was to break through here. But the street ahead was filled with mutants. If they gave up and returned to the supermarket from two days ago, they might survive for a while. But if they did that…… they would have to continue living in Haseong City, now a Black Zone.
Cold wind swept across the chaotic street. Jiyeon dragged a hand down his hollow-looking face. Crouching behind the car had made his legs fall asleep. They couldn’t stay here debating forever. They needed a decision.
“I’ll keep going.”
Jiyeon spoke with determination. He didn’t want temporary safety. He wanted real stability. His words seemed to spark decisions in the others.
“I’ll go too.”
“Me too. Either way, the worst is dying, so I’d rather at least try.”
Now only Kim Hyungseok was left.
“Uh… I, I…”
With everyone’s eyes fixed on him, Kim Hyungseok’s face flushed bright red.
“If… if I won’t be a burden, I want to go with you.”
At his words, Suhyeong finally relaxed his stiff expression and gave a faint smile. With everyone agreeing without objection, Jiyeon felt something beyond camaraderie, something closer to soldierly unity. He genuinely wished all of them would survive.
“Alright. Then remember what I’m about to say.”
Before stepping out onto the road, Suhyeong went over what they needed to watch out for.
“We’ll move so we draw as little attention as possible, but if you have to attack, go for the temples or the forehead. Those things only die when their heads are almost crushed, and the flesh there is softer.”
“Ugh……”
Having already seen several mutants whose heads had burst open and spilled blood and brain matter, and having stabbed a mutant herself in the elevator, Jang Joohee wrinkled her face in disgust.
Nothing Suhyeong said was pleasant to hear. So far, the only training people in the White Zone had received regarding mutants was about the physical changes after infection. Since it was illegal to kill them, no one ever taught where their weak spots were. Even the knowledge they did have was useless in this situation. That meant they couldn’t afford to take any of Suhyeong’s words lightly. Unlike the company incident where escaping the cafeteria had been the priority, now they might have to kill mutants at any moment.
“At least it’s good there are a lot of cars on the road.”
Standing behind a white compact car, Choi Sunghwa spoke. The alley Suhyeong mentioned was about 500 meters from where the five of them were. With so many mutants, it was impossible to stay completely hidden while moving. But using the abandoned cars as cover, they could avoid being seen.
“Alright, let’s move.”
At Suhyeong’s signal, everyone began moving carefully. Keeping their bodies as low as possible, almost in a crouching duck-walk, they slipped behind the next vehicle. Most of the mutants were gathered in the wide, open parts of the road and on the sidewalks. Wondering why so many cars had stopped right in the middle of the road, Jiyeon lifted his head slightly and looked ahead.
The cars in front had collided with each other. Jiyeon imagined what must have happened here.
Lunchtime. Yuseong-ro in Haseong City.
A driver at the front probably slammed the brakes after seeing a mutant suddenly appear on the road. The car behind would have crashed into it. Then the cars behind that, in a chain reaction, collided like falling dominoes.
When an accident happens, drivers have no choice but to get out of their vehicles. The mutants must have attacked those who stepped out to handle the situation. Panic would have spread, and everyone on the road likely abandoned their cars and ran for their lives.
Because of that, this part of Yuseong-ro ended up blocked by cars acting like a barricade, and the hundreds of mutants that couldn’t scatter were pushed toward the front of Yuseong Soft.
“Grrrk, grrrk.”
A mutant’s eerie groan sounded close to where Jiyeon was hiding. It seemed one had slipped in between the parked cars nearby.
Crack. Crackle. Crack-crack.
The grotesque sound of joints bending unnaturally followed. No matter how many times he heard it, it sent shivers up his spine and churned his stomach.
“Grrrk… kk.”
“……hup.”
Jiyeon held his breath and waited for the mutant to pass. But for some reason, it didn’t move on. Maybe it had gotten stuck. Their movement stalled, prompting Suhyeong to rise from his crouched position.
“We’ll have to kill it.”
The moment he spoke, he snatched the kitchen knife from the outer pocket of his backpack and dashed toward the front of the car. Then he stabbed the mutant hard in the neck as it clacked its teeth and looked around.
“Kehk, kek, grrk, kk.”
A stream of blood burst from its pierced neck and splattered onto Suhyeong’s face. Grimacing at the sensation, he tightened his grip on the knife.
“Grkk… urgh… grr.”
The mutant shuddered violently and then collapsed onto the hood of the car.
Thud!
At the unexpected loud noise, everyone flinched and squeezed their eyes shut. Their hearts clenched painfully, like someone had grabbed them. Thankfully, it seemed the sound hadn’t reached the mutants farther away.
“Hoo.”
Letting out a short breath, Suhyeong wiped the blood from his face with the back of his hand, then pulled the knife from the mutant’s neck. Gripping the handle with both hands, he lifted it and drove it ruthlessly into the mutant’s temple.
Crunch.
As the blade sank into the decayed flesh, they heard the skull split apart. The mutant twitched like a fish hauled out of water, then went limp over the hood. Suhyeong had used so much force that the blue-tinted blade had snapped in two.
“This knife’s useless now.”
Clicking his tongue, he tossed the handle to the ground. With his handsome face and precise movements, he looked almost like an actor in a well-made action film, but in reality, it was more like a scene from a brutally graphic snuff film.
“Let’s move forward again.”
Suhyeong spoke calmly to the employees staring at him in shock. Hearing him, Jang Joohee, who had been following right behind Jiyeon, muttered in awe and disbelief.
“Team Leader Yoon… just how did you live in the Black Zone……”
Seriously.
Jiyeon answered bitterly in his mind. He knew that being born in the Black Zone naturally made Suhyeong adept at handling mutants, but the person before him felt like a completely different man. It was as if the everyday life of eating meals together and hanging out on weekends had become nothing but a distant memory. He never imagined he’d miss those moments.
After killing a few more lost mutants between the parked cars, they finally reached the car in the very front. It wasn’t even a long distance, yet enough time had passed that the sky was already dimming.
“Grrrk… kk.”
“Grrr. Urrgh, grrr.”
“Kyahh! Kek!”
The mutants’ groans merged into one massive, echoing resonance. A chill ran down their spines, and primal fear washed over them.
“We’re… just going to run through this?”
Pale-faced, Jiyeon looked at Suhyeong. All they had to do now was sprint across the road toward the Yuseong Soft building. But with so many mutants filling the street, breaking through seemed nearly impossible.
“I’ll go out first and…”
In the situation where no one could move forward or back, Suhyeong took a step ahead. Jiyeon grabbed him urgently. Maybe because he had recently dreamed of Suhyeong turning into a mutant, Jiyeon’s heart dropped.
“Don’t you dare say you’re going to lure them away.”
“……”
“We agreed to survive together.”
Suhyeong looked down at the top of Jiyeon’s round head, where Jiyeon’s hand was gripping his clothes. It seemed Jiyeon was terrified that Suhyeong would run out alone, because he clutched his jacket tightly and wouldn’t let go.
“And also.”
In a voice just barely loud enough for him to hear, Jiyeon muttered,
“We said…… we’d go on a date.”
“……”
At that, the tension drained from Suhyeong’s body. Only then did Jiyeon loosen his grip and let him go.
“Hm. What can we do to get out of here……”
Unable to find a good solution, Suhyeong rested a hand on his chin and thought. As the faint hope they’d been clinging to dimmed further, all of their expressions darkened. They had made it this far with determination, only to have no real options left. Helplessness and frustration sank over them, and sighs escaped one after another. Meanwhile, full darkness settled over the city.
With the electricity completely out since the day before, even the streetlights were dead. Haseong City truly looked like a complete Black Zone.
How long had they stayed like that? As everyone’s physical and mental exhaustion deepened, Jiyeon’s gaze drifted across the countless abandoned cars in front of them. At that moment, a small light bulb flicked on inside his mind.
“There might be…… something.”
Before morale dropped any further, Jiyeon spoke quickly.
“What if one of these cars can still start? If even one turns on, then……”
Everyone instantly understood what he meant, their eyes widening as they examined the nearest vehicles. He was suggesting they do what they’d done when escaping Haseong Media, use a car to push through.
The cars at the very front were badly damaged, bumpers crushed, airbags deployed. But if even one car could move, it would help.
“But can we really get through all these mutants with a car? It looks like there are more here than there were near our company……”
With deep worry lining her face, Choi Sunghwa spoke. They had only managed to escape before because Suhyeong’s car was a sturdy foreign model. She seemed unsure about relying on damaged vehicles.
“We’re not trying to plow through them. We planned to escape through the alley anyway. I’m saying we use the car only to reach the alley entrance. We can’t just run through this on foot.”
“Then…… I’ll check for any cars that look usable.”
Understanding Jiyeon’s suggestion, Sunghwa nodded and began examining the vehicles. The other employees also moved cautiously, checking the cars blocking the wide road one by one.
Many cars were locked and wouldn’t open, but most had been left with doors wide open, drivers fleeing in panic hadn’t bothered closing them. Unfortunately, even the ones with keys still in the ignition had dead batteries and wouldn’t start.
“This one looks like it’s in pretty good condition!”
From the front of the third lane, Kim Hyungseok called out softly. He opened the driver’s door of a medium-sized sedan with heavily tinted windows.
“Gah! Kraaahhh!”
“Ah!”
The moment he opened the door, the mutant seated in the driver’s seat lunged forward with its jaws stretched wide. It must have transformed while driving, luckily, the seatbelt kept it from getting out. Nearly falling backward, Hyungseok let out a strangled scream and rushed to slam the door shut again.
Right then, the mutant flailing violently in the driver’s seat slammed its hand onto the center of the steering wheel, and then..
Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang…!
A deafening horn blast ripped through the dark road.
“Kraaagh!”
“Kyahahhh!”
“Grrraaaack!”
The mutants, who had been wandering aimlessly for days with no prey, reacted violently to the sound.
“Ah! What do we do! They’re running this way!”
“Here! Over here! This one started! Hurry and get in!”
By some miracle, Jiyeon had found a car in the first lane that managed to start. Suhyeong got into the passenger seat, followed quickly by Sunghwa and Joohee in the back. The problem was Hyungseok.
“Assistant Kim!”
Standing alone in the third lane, Hyungseok was limping badly, having hurt his leg somewhere.
“Kyahahhhh!”
“Hurry! Hurry!”
“J-just go without me!”
Seeing the mutant sprinting toward him at terrifying speed, Hyungseok shouted with a resigned expression.
“Are you insane?! We’re not leaving you!”
Jiyeon’s voice cracked as he shouted. There was no way they could just drive off. He was only about fifty meters away. Abandoning someone they could save would be no different from murder.
“I’ll bring him!”
From the back seat, where she’d been calling Hyungseok with a pale face, Jang Joohee opened the door. But Suhyeong was faster. Dropping his backpack under the passenger seat, he was already outside.
“Stay here, all of you.”
“Team leader!”
“If it looks bad, I’ll leave him behind, so don’t worry!”
No one could tell if he meant that to be comforting or not. Leaping across the hoods of the wrecked cars, Suhyeong sprinted toward Hyungseok.
“What do we do about them!”
“Fuck……”
Helpless to do anything, Jiyeon spat curses under his breath. In seconds, Suhyeong reached Hyungseok and bent forward.
“Get on!”
“T-Team Leader Yoon.”
“Hurry!”
“Grrrk! Gkk! Krrrragh!”
Even in the brief moment Suhyeong lifted Hyungseok onto his back, the mutants had already closed in behind them.
“Kyahhhh!”
“Grrr! Grrrrrrk!”
“Jiyeon! Start the car!”
“What?!”
“I’ll catch up and get in! Just start it!”
Running with Kim Hyungseok on his back, Suhyeong shouted. At those words, Jiyeon felt his mind go briefly blank. First, he released the parking brake and shifted the gear into Drive. And then… then… uh, after that…
‘What am I supposed to do now?’
His hands trembled violently as he fumbled. His heart was beating so wildly he couldn’t think straight.
“What are you doing?! I said start!”
“Start it?! H-how?! I haven’t driven once since I got my license!”
“Just press the right pedal!”
At Suhyeong’s yell, Jiyeon bit his lip hard and stepped on the accelerator. The engine roared loudly and the car shot forward. From the force, the passenger-side door that hadn’t fully closed slammed shut with a bang. Sunghwa kept the rear door from swinging open by holding it tightly.
“Kyaaaah!”
Mutants began chasing behind Suhyeong as he ran toward the car. Even with almost all their skin melted away, looking hideous and deformed, they moved at frightening speed. Watching him run with them right behind him felt like watching a high-risk game of tag. And Jiyeon had to play his own dangerous version of that game too.
“Assistant manager! In front! Look in front!”
“In front?! Ah…!”
At Sunghwa’s scream, Jiyeon jerked his gaze forward. Several mutants were charging at them, clacking their teeth. Instinctively, he yanked the steering wheel hard to the opposite side and slammed on the brakes.
“Uwaaaah!”
Screeeech.
Thud…!
The tires left long skid marks as the car came to a violent stop. A mutant running from the opposite direction hit the bumper, flew up, and rolled across the roof. The impact shook the entire vehicle, and Jiyeon slammed his face into the steering wheel.
“Ugh…”
A throbbing pain spread across the bridge of his nose. Something warm trickled down, and wiping it with the back of his hand, he saw blood. But he had no time to feel pain. Checking Suhyeong’s position through the side mirror, Jiyeon stepped on the pedal again and swung the wheel toward him.
“Kyaaahhhhh!”
From the back seat, Jang Joohee and Choi Sunghwa screamed as they grabbed the handles above the windows during the roller-coaster-like turn.
Screeeech…!
The tires burned against the asphalt as the car skidded to a stop right in front of Suhyeong. Any farther, and Jiyeon would have run him over. His heart felt like it would burst out of his chest, and he gasped for breath.
“Get Assistant Kim first!”
Suhyeong practically threw Hyungseok into the backseat through the open door and slammed it shut. Just as he reached for the passenger-side door…
“Khahhh!”
“Team Leader Yoon! Behind you!”
“Ugh!”
A mutant lying on the ground suddenly lunged at him. Its melted face didn’t stop it from trying desperately to bite into his shoulder.
Thud!
“Gah! Grrk! Kek!”
Raising his elbow, Suhyeong slammed it into the mutant’s abdomen. But the creature clung stubbornly to him. Worse, the swarm of mutants chasing him had caught up and were surrounding the vehicle. At this rate, they would be completely overrun.
“Team leader! Duck your head!”
Unable to watch any longer, Sunghwa threw open the window. She hurled the mop handle with a kitchen knife tied at the end as hard as she could.
Thunk…!
The blade pierced straight into the mutant’s skull. Screeching in agony, it stumbled backward, and Suhyeong seized the opening to jump into the passenger seat.
“Kyaaaah!”
There was no time to feel relieved. More mutants were converging.
“Jiyeon, go!”
At Suhyeong’s shout, Jiyeon stomped on the accelerator. The harder he pressed, the more the car surged forward.
It was the worst possible driving practice for someone who hadn’t touched a steering wheel once since earning his license five years ago.
“Is your nose okay?”
Suhyeong looked at Jiyeon’s nose, which had burst into a nosebleed. Despite being the one who nearly died, he wore an overly serious expression over nothing more than that nosebleed.
“Yeaaah……”
Barely answering, Jiyeon slumped limply against the car seat.
“……”
“……”
With the engine dead, the inside of the car felt like a coffin. Dark, cold, and with everyone wearing expressions as lifeless as corpses.
Thud.
“Hic…”
Every time a mutant wandering nearby bumped into the car, they sucked in terrified breaths.
It hadn’t been long after they picked up Suhyeong and Hyungseok that the engine died. Panicking, Jiyeon tried restarting it, but all he got was a loud coughing roar from the engine before it completely gave out. Now they were stuck in the middle of the road, surrounded by mutants.
It was truly horrifying. The only small mercy was that the windows were heavily tinted. If they hadn’t been, the mutants would have pounded the glass until it shattered.
“What do we do now……”
Someone, whether Sunghwa or Joohee, murmured. They were only a few meters from the alley entrance. But mutants surrounded the car tightly, unmoving. At this rate, they would starve to death inside.
“We should’ve gone back. We shouldn’t have stayed here…… We had a safe place before, and now look at us……”
Sniffling, Jiyeon pressed his face into the steering wheel. Once the initial terror eased, despair and helplessness wrapped around him.
“If we had stayed there…… it wouldn’t be this hard.”
Tears he had been holding back finally slid down, hot and heavy. It all felt like his fault. Suggesting they use a car had put them in this situation.
“I’m sorry……”
Feeling like he was only dragging everyone down, Jiyeon apologized.
“What are you talking about? Why are you sorry?”
At the meaningless apology, Suhyeong frowned. He reached out to wipe Jiyeon’s tears, but…
“Grrraaa! Grrrk!”
Suddenly, the mutants surrounding the car snapped their heads around as if searching for something, screeching loudly.
“What’s wrong with them?”
Everyone inside the car froze at the mutants’ strange behavior. Then, after a brief pause, Choi Sunghwa said, “Wait.”
“Didn’t you hear something just now?!”
“Hear what? All I hear are the mutants……”
“Shh, wait. Just wait.”
Startled by Sunghwa’s sharpened tone, Jang Joohee held her breath. And before long, the “sound” Sunghwa mentioned truly reached them.
“That’s… that’s a person’s voice!”
“Kyaaaah!”
“Joohee! Quiet!”
The mutants reacted to Joohee’s outburst, screeching violently, and Sunghwa clamped a hand over her mouth. While that happened, Jiyeon wiped his tears and blinked his reddened eyes, scanning the surroundings.
“……Is someone there?!”
“Ah…”
There really was a human voice somewhere.
“Is anyone alive out there?!”
They couldn’t tell where it came from, but the shout echoed across the entire road. It was clearly directed toward them in the car.
“S-should we answer?”
“They’re trying to help us, aren’t they?! Of course we should answer!”
Sunghwa and Joohee spoke in heightened voices. Kim Hyungseok, injured and in pain, couldn’t say anything, only groaning softly.
“Team leader, what do we do?!”
With anxious eyes, Jiyeon looked at Suhyeong. Even the normally calm and composed Suhyeong seemed rattled, unable to respond right away.
“If we make a loud noise, the mutants will attack the car.”
“Then headlights! What about flashing the headlights?! Just turn them on and off quickly!”
“That’s dangerous too, but……”
With a sigh, Suhyeong bit his lip, then nodded.
“Alright. Better than doing nothing. Ah, Jiyeon. That’s the wiper. Headlights are on the left.”
“Ah… sorry.”
“Take it slow.”
Nearly turning on the wipers, Jiyeon swallowed hard and instead rotated the lever on the left side of the wheel.
“Kyaaaah!”
“Grrrraaaa!”
Bright light flooded the front of the car, hitting the mutants standing there. Jiyeon flashed the headlights twice, then turned them off immediately. But it was too late, riled up by the light, the mutants began shaking and pounding the car wildly.
Thump thump thump thump thump!