Chapter 3 Part 2

“…Could it be, did you bring us here to protect us from those things?”

Suddenly, a voice sounded, and when I turned my head, Do Ji-hyuk was standing there, looking down at me. He was trying to maintain his composure in this chaotic situation. But Do Ji-hyuk’s efforts were in vain in less than a minute. His expression, which instantly turned to horror at the sight of something, made me follow his gaze. To my astonishment, the severed arm of the zombie was still wriggling and moving. Its vitality was on the level of a cockroach.

“…If I hadn’t done that, would you have believed what a stalker would say and followed me here? On the first floor, the only places other than the glass wall are the public restroom and the management office… This is probably the safest place.”

The management office was used as a hideout for the survivors in the original work as well. It had CCTV, a water purifier, some food, and most importantly, a fire door that the zombies couldn’t break down.

“…I apologize for the misunderstanding earlier. And thank you for saving me. I’m alive thanks to you.”

“…..”

“…My name is Do Ji-hyuk.”

He said this and held out his hand as if to ask for a handshake. I stared blankly at his outstretched hand. I felt guilty for his unadulterated gratitude. The reason I went through the trouble of using a cutter knife to bring them here was not for the pure purpose of saving lives. The message from caller ID 1921 told me to ruin everything I intended when writing this story. Only then could I escape this hell.

There were two things I intended when writing this scenario.

One was that I hoped this world would be completely destroyed, and the other was the death of the main characters. So, no matter what, I had to prevent the zombies from spreading outside and ensure that Yoo Min-ho, Do Ji-hyuk, and I survived.

I stared silently at Do Ji-hyuk’s outstretched hand for a while, then wiped the blood on my hand on my knit sweater and shook his hand.

“…Seo Ki-hyeon.”

As soon as our hands clasped, Do Ji-hyuk smiled faintly. It was a face full of goodwill, without any malice. Come to think of it, he was the only righteous character in the story. He was the one who closed the building to prevent the zombies from spreading further, and the one who desperately tried to save even one more person until his death.

Why did I want such a great person to die as well? Just how much dissatisfaction did I have with the world to create such a hopeless zombie movie? But no matter how much I tried to recall, compared to the clearly remembered content of the movie, the memories of my life remained hazy.

A few fragmentary moments and scenes came to mind, but like a jumbled thousand-piece puzzle, I couldn’t figure out where and how to connect them. What was clear was that Yoo Min-ho and I had known each other before, and my feelings for him weren’t entirely negative. It even seemed like he had quite an influence on me writing this damn novel. In a fleeting memory, Yoo Min-ho said something like that.

He wished the world would end…

Trying to delve into the memories of Yoo Min-ho felt like peeling back skin melted from a burn, it was an unsettling feeling.

“F*ck, come here and look at this.”

At that moment, Yoo Min-ho’s voice calling us broke my thoughts. He was standing with a serious expression, looking at the CCTV monitors covering one wall.

“Why are they doing that?”

The CCTV monitors showed the elevators, hallways, and underground parking lot of each floor. The screen Yoo Min-ho was looking at was the CCTV of the hallway with the cafe. The screen showed five or six zombies ruthlessly feeding on a person. The zombies, who had been having a feast of blood, suddenly seemed to lose their appetite and scattered, creaking.

Holding our breath, we watched the screen. The person, whose body was horribly mutilated from being torn apart by the zombies, stood up and started walking around as if nothing had happened. No, it was no longer a form that could be called human.

“…What is that? It’s like…”

The real estate agent couldn’t finish her sentence and fell silent. A chilling silence fell over the management office. Even in the midst of this, the sound of zombies banging on the fire door made the atmosphere even more terrifying. I could feel the gazes of everyone except Hyeon-ho slowly turning to me.

They seemed to think that since I brought them here, I would know more. But I hesitated to use that word. It was a word that I thought was overly unrealistic. However, there was no other way to explain it, so I moistened my dry lips with my tongue and continued in a low voice.

“…Zombies.”

“Excuse me?”

“What?”

“Zombies?”

The three people reacted at the same time. I could only let out a hollow laugh. Zombies, really. There must be many ways for the world to end, so why did it have to be zombies? Was I a zombie movie fanatic? Crazy, of all things to enjoy. I felt resentful towards my past self. I even started to feel guilty, as if all this misfortune was my fault.

But to make an excuse, I had never imagined that the story I wrote would become such a spectacular world. If I had known this would happen, I would have written a story like an Andersen fairy tale. A story that ends with ‘and they all lived happily ever after’. A story where good always triumphs over evil and where you can be happy forever with the one you love…

…Crazy. My head felt like it was going to explode.

“In the cafe… suddenly, a woman started vomiting blood. That was the beginning. They eat, get eaten, and the person who was thought to be dead suddenly gets up and bites another person… It spreads in an instant, and once infected, it always manifests. There are no exceptions. And once they change, they become abnormally obsessed with human flesh… No, it’s not just an obsession, it’s their only purpose. To me, it seems more like a reproductive urge than an appetite.”

At that moment, a man’s piercing scream was heard from outside the door. Should I call it a stroke of luck in the midst of misfortune? The zombies banging on the management office door seemed to have turned their attention to that desperate cry. The banging gradually subsided, and an eerie silence followed. The faces of the three people looking at me were filled with horror. The first person to break the silence was Yoo Min-ho. He asked me accusingly.

“Crazy, are you saying it’s really zombies? Like, they eat people and are fine even if their limbs are cut off, like in the movies?”

“…You just saw me cut off an arm with an ax, and it was still moving.”

“Do you know why the phones suddenly stopped working? Could it be… that this phenomenon has already spread outside the building…?”

“No, it probably hasn’t. For now, it’s only happening inside this building. Absolutely… absolutely do not let even one of them get outside. In less than a day, the entire city of Seoul will become a living hell.”

As I answered Do Ji-hyuk’s question, I saw Hyeon-ho, who was sitting at the table inside, snickering. His seemingly mocking face made me uncomfortable. I had a lot to talk about with him. Who the hell was he, and why was this ridiculous thing happening to me? I had a strange expectation that he could explain it to me. I wanted to quickly wrap up the situation to talk to Hyeon-ho.

“…I don’t know the details either. But one thing is for sure, you must not get infected. Don’t get bitten, don’t let the blood get into your eyes or mouth, and don’t get scratched by their fingernails. If you get scratched, you won’t change immediately, but the virus will gradually spread, and you will eventually turn into a zombie. For now… the zombies can’t get in here, so don’t worry too much and rest.”

After saying that, I strode over to the table where Hyeon-ho was sitting and sat down in the chair opposite him. He was smiling, looking at me with his chin propped up on his hand. His smiling face, as if he could see through my thoughts, made me feel unnecessarily rebellious.

“What is it? Why do you keep staring at me and grinning?”

“Why are you suddenly speaking formally? Just use informal language like before. It was powerful and cool…”

“Stop joking. The text message… You sent it, right?”

“…..”

But this time, too, he just smiled without answering. Hyeon-ho’s face, which I thought was plain and ordinary without any special features, looked very youthful when he smiled with his eyebrows lowered. I thought he was around college age, but looking closely, it was difficult to guess his age. My patience, which had run out to the point where I couldn’t even stand a short silence, made me press him again.

“You sent me a message telling me to remember my intention for writing, why I wrote such a f*cked up story, right? I don’t know how you sent a message in this situation where communication is impossible… But who the hell are you? No matter how much I think about it, I don’t remember writing a character like you.”

“…Haha.”

Why the hell was he laughing? He was looking behind me with an excited expression, like a child about to receive a present on Children’s Day. Following Hyeon-ho’s gaze, I saw Yoo Min-ho with a landline phone to his ear, frowning. Since the cell phones were out of order, he seemed to be trying to call for help using the landline. Of course, it was all a waste of energy.

Ah. There was blood on his neck, too. It must have splattered when I was using the ax. I was having the absurd worry that he might get infected if there was a wound, when Hyeon-ho’s heavy lips finally opened. But the words he uttered were not an answer, but a question. Moreover, it was a question that was utterly nonsensical and impossible to understand, driving me crazy.

“Do you believe in God?”