Chapter 2 Part 7

Sensing that something was wrong, the part-timer started to emerge from behind the counter. I had to hurry.

I rushed towards the woman and hit her on the back of the head with the chair I was holding. Surprisingly, there wasn’t any hesitation or fear. Did repeating death make me lose my sense of fear? Maybe I had gone half-mad. Now I didn’t want to die anymore, nor did I want to see Yoo Min-ho dying while trying to protect me. For some reason, he always tried to shield me at the moment of his death. I no longer wanted to repeat all these deaths again.

KYAAAHHH–

In an instant, chaos erupted inside the cafe. The woman’s head slumped forward, her skull caved in as she twitched uncontrollably. Dirty blood streamed down the wooden edge of the table. Shouts to call the police, pleas to stop, and screams filled my ears, but I ignored them, relentlessly striking the woman’s head over and over.

Blood splattered everywhere, filling my surroundings with the stench of rot. People, once they turned into zombies, emitted this awful stench.  Like some kind of signal. 

The woman’s neck broke, teeth shattered and flew out, brain matter oozed, yet I didn’t stop. I couldn’t stop. I remembered zombies continuing to move even after sustaining more severe damage. In my frenzied state, swinging wildly, it seemed like I had dislocated my shoulder at some point, causing sharp pain every time I moved it.

“…Die. Die! Please just die already.”

However, even if its face was crushed and unrecognizable, the zombie still attacked me. The weight of the zombie pushed my body backwards, causing me to collapse onto the table. At that moment, I felt a hot sensation at the back of my neck. When I came to, there were already bite marks on my neck. Once again, as I approached the brink of death, I burst out with a dry laugh.

Could I really kill it? It was a monster that didn’t feel pain even if its internal organs fell out or its limbs were torn off. A sudden, terrifying thought crossed my mind.

After struggling for more than 10 minutes, I ended up being eaten by the woman. It was the longest and most hellish 10 minutes of my life.

***

“Haaa, haa… Haa… Ugh, shit.” 

I drew in ragged breaths as soon as I regained consciousness. I felt nauseous, the feeling of being torn limb from limb by the face-mangled woman still lingering. I could feel all eyes in the cafe turning towards me but it didn’t matter. Soon, they would witness a zombie vomiting rotten blood, and they would quickly forget about me.

After calming my breath, I sprang up from my seat and searched for a fire extinguisher somewhere within the cafe. Yes, a fire extinguisher. It was much better than a chair. Recalling Yoo Min-ho wielding a fire extinguisher with great confidence, I felt a surge of unwarranted assurance.

It struck me how incredibly strong he had been during that incident. For a moment, I imagined him sprinting towards the cafe with a fire extinguisher, having miraculously remembered every detail from the previous round, only to let out a low sigh. I shouldn’t rely on anyone else’s help. I needed to steel myself.

I gripped the fire extinguisher until my hands turned white and looked towards the woman when I received a message. It was a one-sided message from someone who I couldn’t even reply of:

[Do you think there is a god?] 19:21

Crazy. What did this mean? God? Yes, some god must’ve dropped me into this hell. A person who committed suicide, thrown into a den of zombies. There was no other explanation for this situation. Rather, it seemed most plausible that the current situation was a repeating hell forever. Perhaps a cruel god was giving hope with these silly messages, trying to make me struggle until the end. Could the sender of this message be God? No matter how I assumed it, it sounded crazy.

Without thinking too much, I rushed towards the woman. Indeed, the fire extinguisher felt different from the chair and had more impact. This time, there was hope that I could finish off the woman. On one hand, as I anticipated killing her, it felt strange to see myself like this. How did I end up in this situation? The thought of being far removed from normalcy frightened me.

However, such expectations didn’t last long before turning into despair. Despite being covered in blood, the woman moved with eerie vitality. Miraculously, even the cafe worker splattered with her blood transformed into a zombie instead of dying. Perhaps infection occurred through penetration of blood into the eyes or mouth. Amidst the zombies biting at my body, I foolishly pondered these thoughts. At some point, I lost count of how many times I’ve died now.

When I opened my eyes again, I immediately ran towards the back door. The moment the woman detected prey entering her territory and lunged forward, I slid across the floor like a baseball player and escaped from the cafe. My destination was the convenience store. Entering through the back door, I glanced at the real estate agent’s son who was still staring at his useless cell phone before stealing a lighter and travel tissues. Then I returned to the cafe.

In the two minutes it took me to visit the convenience store, chaos had erupted inside the cafe. Watching the woman become absorbed as she bit into the cafe part-timer, I stripped off my own clothes and set them on fire with the lighter. If I couldn’t beat her, then I intended to burn her alive. The thick ivory knit instantly caught fire and began blazing fiercely.

I thought it would be easier to persuade Do Ji-hyuk and Yoo Min-ho if the building caught on fire. Why didn’t I think of this earlier? The fiercely burning clothes fell onto the woman’s hair, and I threw travel tissues over them. At the same time, the woman reacted violently and screamed. It proved that burning was much more effective than any physical attack.

However, once again, hope didn’t last long. The fire successfully started. Even worse, due to the woman flailing around the cafe, flames quickly engulfed the interior within moments.

…The sprinklers burst exactly two minutes after the woman’s body caught fire. I stupidly watched as water sprayed from the ceiling when a red mass suddenly emerged and knocked me down. It was the woman. Even with her entire body scorched and peeling, she relentlessly pounced on me.

Was there really any chance of winning this grueling battle? I just wanted to give up everything…

…Was there really no way out? Once again, it was 19:21. I leaned back blankly in my chair, lost in thought. Should I go to the real estate office for a knife? However, the real estate office was farther than the convenience store. By the time I returned, the cafe would likely be game over. Moreover, what could I accomplish with just a small knife? Even if their skin melted or skulls shattered, zombies continued moving unhindered.

Having thought this far, I took off the knit sweater again. Then without stopping, I felt startled eyes on me as I unbuckled my belt. Holding the clothes with one hand and the other with the belt, I slowly approached the woman. Would this really work? With a nervous breath, I covered the face of the woman vomiting over the table with the knit sweater. At the same time, she started to have a fit. As raw animalistic sounds continuously erupted from her throat, fear seeped onto the faces of those watching.

Did zombies rely on their ‘eyes’ to perceive and judge their surroundings? With her vision blocked, the woman stumbled around and fell over various objects in the cafe. As soon as she collapsed forward, I climbed onto her back and tried to bind her wrists with my belt. However, it was difficult just holding on against her immense strength. By the time I barely managed to firmly secure both of her wrists, numerous dirty cuts had appeared on my arms. But there was no time to tend to my wounds. Struggling, I hoisted the thrashing woman over my shoulder and carried her into the women’s bathroom.

“Haa, haa. Haa…”

After finishing everything, I collapsed near the bathroom door and all eyes in the cafe turned towards me. They glanced at me with frightened expressions, as if thinking that I was some sort of crazy serial killer. However, none of them dared to approach me. Well, they would’ve intervened earlier if they wanted to get involved. The woman had killed the part-time worker countless times over numerous scenarios, yet not once did someone step forward to help him. Even if I were a real murderer, they would still have remained passive observers, just like their predetermined settings.

Due to the stinging pain, I finally looked closely at my thigh where it had been scratched by the woman, and saw that the area was turning black from where her nails had dug in. Surprised, I brought my nose close to the wound and detected the faint smell of decay unique to zombies. The moment I discovered this unusual injury, unfortunately, I realized that once again, I had failed.

“Shit, haa… Fuck. This is really crazy. Haha…”