HMT Chapter 1 (Part 3)

“S-Sunbae! Come this way, quickly!”

What the hell.

Someone slid up beside him while he was thinking. Normally he would’ve sensed anyone approaching instantly, but all his attention had been focused inside the bus.

‘It’s that annoying junior.’

He usually remembered most people’s names, but only a few stuck vividly in his memory, those tied to a terrible experience.

In that sense, Ji-woo was one of the rare few whose name he remembered from the very first moment he saw him.

“Uu-uaaah!”

At Ji-woo’s shout, Sangjin snapped back to his senses and moved. His scream triggered everything, the corpses wriggling like overturned insects began rising as monsters.

In the pitch-dark bus, red eyes lit up like ghost flames. Yujin, whose neck had been bent backward moments ago, straightened her body. Smacking her lips, she fixed her glowing eyes on fresh, living prey.

“Han Sangjin-sunbae!”

Seeing that, Ji-woo reached down with his arm.

In a situation where monsters were charging from every direction, he looked like he was begging to be eaten. Kim Yoon let out a slow sigh of irritation from deep in his chest and grabbed Ji-woo by the back of the neck.

“Ugh…”

With one firm pull, Ji-woo’s slender body lifted like a paper doll.

“You stay here.”

He barely kept himself from swearing. Instead, Kim Yoon turned his frustration onto the monsters lunging at Sangjin. His long leg swung inside the window like a club.

Thud, thwack, thud, each brutal impact echoed between the howls, and the monsters flew back, crashing into the seats.

Sangjin, using every ounce of strength left, finally approached Kim Yoon. At the right moment, Kim Yoon slipped out of the window first. Sangjin shakily lifted a trembling leg, placing it on the armrest. Thanks to his height, the top of his head rose close to the window edge.

“Aaagh…!”

Kim Yoon didn’t miss the chance. He grabbed Sangjin’s hair and yanked upward like pulling a radish from the ground. Sangjin screamed in agony as if his scalp were tearing off.

And that scream only excited the monsters even more.

“Uhh… hhk… ugh…”

“Han Sangjin, get a grip. Unless you want those things to eat you alive.”

When Sangjin collapsed on all fours like an animal, unable to regain his senses, Kim Yoon stood and tapped his calf lightly with the tip of his shoe. Even then, his eyes stayed fixed on what was happening inside the bus.

“Kyaaaak!”

“Krreuk, krk…!”

“Kyaaaak!”

The monsters each produced different kinds of shrieks. Their faces were uniformly pale, webbed with black veins like masks, and their bright red eyes dripped killing intent. Even their different screams were unsettling.

At this point, even Kim Yoon couldn’t afford to relax. The monsters were clacking their teeth as they crowded toward the broken window.

As he’d already seen with Yujin, these things had lost intelligence and moved entirely by instinct. They lunged blindly toward the window, snapping their necks or twisting their limbs in the process, yet acted like they felt no pain at all.

Their teeth, sharp enough to chew metal, didn’t differentiate between friend or foe. Anything in their way, face, shoulders, arms, was bitten. After chewing chunks of flesh two or three times, they spat it out and screeched even louder.

“Kyaaaaaa…!”

The creatures inside the bus began to crowd together so tightly that they surged upward. Their bodies, twisted at every joint, piled and pushed like mud, squeezing through the window in a horrifying mass that made one’s stomach heave.

“Everyone run!”

Kim Yoon shouted and immediately leapt off the top of the bus.

“Hhgh… f-fuck…”

Sangjin, already retching bile, watched the monsters spill out the window and went into a full panic, scrambling toward the far edge.

‘What the hell are those things…’

Ji-woo, who had been sitting a little away from the window where Kim Yoon had placed him, slowly pushed himself up on trembling legs and stepped backward.

The moment he had climbed up to the top of the bus with help from the others, all he could think about was saving Kim Yoon. But now, even though he knew he should sprint as fast as he could away from the monsters, his body refused to obey.

His legs felt waterlogged and stiff, moving painfully slowly despite his frantic thoughts. The scrape of his shoes against the bus roof cut clearly through the howls of the monsters.

“Krrraaa…!”

Ji-woo hadn’t even gone ten steps when one finally forced its way through the window.

Its legs were tangled with the others while climbing, and both of its shinbones had pierced through its own skin.

A human would’ve passed out from the pain instantly. But unable to stand, the creature planted its remaining functioning arm on the surface and dragged itself toward Ji-woo at frightening speed.

“Kak, kak, kak!”

As if thrilled to have spotted prey, it crawled like an insect, emitting grotesque clicks. Its white, rolling eyes gleamed eerily bright under the clear sky.

Ji-woo’s eyes welled up. He had never imagined he would face something like this in his life. He had never even liked videos involving monsters or zombies. Those always came with violence.

Violence in any form stressed Ji-woo out, even if it was something happening on a screen. He avoided bloody videos entirely, even by accident.

“Hhh….”

But even if Ji-woo had been a zombie-movie fanatic, things wouldn’t have been any different. The monsters’ killing intent felt like a physical force tightening around his whole body.

Right after the first creature crawled out, the second and third followed, each of them stumbling out with twisted limbs.

“Kihihik…!”

The first one had already reached right in front of Ji-woo. It stretched out its arm. The fingertips, soaked in dark, blackish-red blood, brushed the tip of Ji-woo’s white sneakers. A bright red streak stained the surface like a mark.

In that instant, the strength in Ji-woo’s legs vanished, and he collapsed.

The monster grabbed his calf. Pain exploded like his leg was about to burst. Ji-woo kicked wildly, but he couldn’t shake off the classmate-turned-monster.

‘Why are you standing in the way? If you’re going to be useless here, then go rot in a corner somewhere.’

Its appearance had become grotesque, but it was someone Ji-woo knew. Other people never remembered his face or name, but Ji-woo remembered everyone’s. And this classmate had always shown obvious annoyance whenever he saw Ji-woo.

“Kyaaa…!”

The screams grew louder. The monsters that followed the first began preparing to swarm him. Despair clamped around his throat. Barely able to breathe, Ji-woo lifted the leg that wasn’t being held and kicked at the creature’s arm with his shoe in a last burst of panic.

Strength continued draining from his body. His fogged-up glasses blurred his entire vision. Maybe that was better, seeing the monstrous face of someone he used to know made his heart feel like it would stop.

“Hey! Jump down! We’ll catch you!”

Just when Ji-woo was certain he was going to die, a familiar voice came from below. When he looked down, he saw two similar faces in his view, Kim Min and Han Min. The pair everyone called Min-Min.

The two had their arms linked together like a net and were shouting for him to hurry and jump. Ji-woo froze, startled by help he’d never expected. He was certain they didn’t even know his name.

Their young faces were full of fear. But instead of running away like instinct would demand, they had chosen to help him.

“What are you doing? Move!”

When Ji-woo hesitated, Kim Min stomped anxiously. The monsters clinging to Ji-woo weren’t the only problem, others that had crawled out were beginning to tumble off the bus roof as well.

Because they hurled themselves down without thinking, sickening thuds echoed as their bodies hit the ground. But they quickly lifted their glowing eyes and lunged toward the survivors. The only saving grace was that each monster had at least one twisted limb slowing them down.

“Hurry!”

At their urgent shout, Ji-woo squeezed out the last of his strength and kicked at the face of the classmate grabbing his leg. The creature’s hand slid off his pants, leaving smeared blotches of blood behind.

Ji-woo threw himself off the bus. Whether thanks to luck or their reflexes, Kim Min and Han Min caught him easily.

“Th-thank you.”

“You can thank us later!”

“Shit… run! Those things are right behind us!”

Kim Min and Han Min grabbed one of Ji-woo’s hands each and sprinted away from the bus. Everyone else had already fled toward the rear bus to escape the monsters that were once their classmates and seniors.

“Hurry, everyone!”

The only person not yet inside the bus was Kim Yoon. He stood at the entrance, waiting until the three of them reached him.

The problem was that the monsters were trailing right behind the three of them. From the ones that had thrown themselves to the ground early, to the one that had clung to Ji-woo’s pant leg.

Once they realized there was no prey left on top of the bus, they all hurled themselves down to the ground. Pools of blood formed here and there on the concrete floor where the creatures’ blood had splattered. Some slipped in the blood and smacked their faces against the ground, then crawled forward with snapped necks, wriggling like insects.

“Kiyaaaak!”

Yoo-jin, who had landed on the others like a cushion, shook her wild hair and shrieked. Rotten blood soaked the frames of the glasses that had been driven into her skin by Kim Yoon’s kick. Out of all the monsters writhing around her, the blood caked especially thick around her mouth, making it look as if the corners of her lips had torn all the way to her ears.

The blood dripped from her mouth in thick drops, sticky like the fresh blood of a slaughtered animal. Watching from the bus’s front windshield, Kyung-tae clawed at his hair and screamed.

“Aaah, fuck…!”

From his perspective, after barely escaping the monsters himself, Ji-woo and Min-Min trailing behind were no better than leeches dragging him back toward death.

“Kim Yoon! Close the door! What are you doing?! How long are you going to wait for those idiots? If those monsters get in, are you going to take responsibility? Huh?! You going to take responsibility?!”

At Kyung-tae’s words, Haena, who had been anxiously watching for Kim Min and Han Min near the front, snapped.

“Sunbae, can’t you see they’re running right now?”

She had also gotten off the bus earlier to help escort survivors from the front bus to this one. When the situation started feeling wrong, she’d retreated inside, only to realize Min-Min hadn’t made it back yet. She was terrified.

She’d tried to run back out, but her friend had held her back, so she could only stomp in place helplessly. Who would’ve imagined that these fools, who had cried earlier about being scared of zombies, would risk their lives to save a classmate falling behind?

If it had been a close friend, she would have understood. But this was someone Haena had literally had to ask the name of again today. And chances were high that Min-Min also had no idea what the bespectacled classmate’s name was.

Haena glared sharply at Kyung-tae and moved toward the front door. Only the driver could open or close it, but she didn’t trust Kyung-tae not to slam it shut in panic.

“…Ah.”

“Move. Go sit inside and stay out of the way. Why are you coming up front and making a scene?”

As Haena approached, Kyung-tae flinched nervously before shoving her shoulder with a rough hand. Haena staggered back, nearly falling. A-young, who had been fretting behind her, rushed to catch her.

“Haena, are you okay? What’s wrong with that Sunbae? Is he seriously losing his mind…?”

Her voice was small enough that Kyung-tae didn’t hear it.

The bus was packed with terrified students. The ones who had escaped from the front bus were almost hysterical. Half of them were crying, and the only one displaying his true colors in a fit of panic was Kyung-tae. Most of the others were so out of it they could barely form words.

“Ahjussi, what are you doing? Close the door! Do you want to get torn apart by those bastards too? Can’t you see them?!”

“Uh, uhh…”

When it seemed clear that Kim Yoon wasn’t going to listen, Kyung-tae redirected his rage. At his shouting, the driver turned pale and looked back and forth between Kim Yoon, standing in front of the door, and the chaos outside.

Behind the students sprinting with everything they had, the creatures with grotesquely twisted joints were gaining on them. Slowly at first, but now close enough for their fingertips to brush the hem of a student’s clothes.

The driver hesitated, hand hovering over the door switch, stealing glances at Kim Yoon blocking the front door. The door couldn’t close unless Kim Yoon moved.

“Kim Yoon, if you’re not coming in, get out of the way!”

Kyung-tae clattered down the steps, shoving Kim Yoon’s shoulder irritably. He pushed harder than he had pushed Haena, but the one who stumbled back was him. The recoil that shot through his palm stunned him for a moment, then he clenched his teeth and rammed his whole body forward.

“Move, damn it! If you want to die, then die alone with them!”

The more he threw his weight at him, the more his own shoulder throbbed. He knew Kim Yoon was built well. He’d seen his abs once while playing basketball together, like a professional athlete.

But behind his back, he and the others had sneered, saying all that muscle was just for show, the kind made in a gym mirror.

Yet now, with his shoulder numbing from the recoil, Kim Yoon’s body felt less like flesh and bone and more like stone.

The inferiority complex he’d always carried flared up, swelling angrily inside him. Murderous resentment flashed in Kyung-tae’s eyes as he glared at Kim Yoon.

“Y-yeah. Student. Hurry and get inside. There’s no time to stand there…!”

The driver gestured frantically at Kim Yoon. He felt bad for the students still outside, but they couldn’t all die. The swarm of monsters closing in was pure horror.

A strange atmosphere spread inside the bus as well. Haena tried again to move toward the front, but even the dazed, trembling students locked their eyes on her, as if silently telling her not to.

What a shitshow.

Kim Yoon’s gaze chilled. He brushed his bangs back and took in the situation. All he had to do was step inside and shut the door. Nothing more.

And yet, oddly, his feet didn’t move.

Idiot trio.

His darkened eyes swept over the three sprinting toward the bus. All three were deathly pale, faces twisted with desperation as they ran. Pathetic enough to be pitiful.

Kim Yoon stepped off the bus without hesitation.

Now the monsters and the students were barely ten steps from each other. The moment he dropped down, the bus door slammed shut behind him. Through the window, he burned Kyung-tae’s sneering face into his memory.

Then he grabbed the protruding side mirror, kicked off the bus’s wall, and in one smooth movement vaulted onto the roof.

“Hey, did the bus door just close?!”

“Huff, huff, fuck, what the hell…!”

“Heuk, huk…”

The sight of the bus door closing was clear even to the three running for their lives. They were fleeing at full speed with a pack of monsters on their heels.

“Kyaaaak…!”

“Uwaaaah!”

It was such an unbelievable sight that Kim Min’s legs almost gave out, just long enough for the leading monster’s fingertips to brush the back of his neck. Feeling warm blood bead up, Kim Min paled and wiped the spot with his palm.

“You’re… huff… are you okay…?”

“How can you… ugh, how can you even ask that right now?”

His glasses were sliding down to the tip of his nose, yet the clear eyes behind the thick lenses, eyes Ji-woo had never clearly seen before, were filled with worry for him. Even while scolding Ji-woo in disbelief, Kim Min tightened his grip on the hand he was holding. Only three steps remained to reach the bus’s front door.

Bang, bang, bang…

“Open the door! Open it!”

Han Min pounded his fist against the bus door. But Kyung-tae, still standing at the front, only scowled and waved him off as if swatting away a fly.

“What are you doing?!”

He couldn’t even curse properly, it was still a sunbae. Han Min raised his voice in frustration, but the closed door didn’t budge. All that happened was that the monsters’ cries grew even louder at the noise he made.

“Hey! Han Min! Just run!”

Kim Min looked back desperately and pushed him forward. There was no time to argue at the door… the monsters had already reached the front of the bus.

“Kihik!”

“Kyak! Kak!”

Faces that had smiled and greeted them that very morning were now twisted horrifically as they shrieked with murderous intent. Their red, gleaming eyes jittered erratically in the air, so grotesque it seemed like something that would haunt their dreams forever.

But even as they ran, the three of them were completely lost. They had run with everything they had toward this bus, only to find themselves unable to get inside. They drifted backward, step by step. They looked around, searching for somewhere, anywhere, they could hide, but nothing looked safe. No place to take cover from the monsters.

“Over here! Come this way!”

A voice called from above, like a savior. It was Kim Yoon, who had reached the top of the bus first. He was standing at the very back of the bus, waving his arm.

The three didn’t even stop to think… they sprinted toward the back.

“Reach up!”

Like obedient children, all three raised their arms upward at once. Without hesitation, Kim Yoon pulled Ji-woo up first.

“Hic… huff…!”

Ji-woo collapsed onto the roof of the bus, gasping for breath. The surface was coated in a thick layer of black dust, as if it hadn’t been cleaned in years. His palms and clothes quickly turned gray, but he couldn’t care about that now. His friends were still down there. His trembling gaze darted downward.

“Ugh! Shit, how are they already here?!”

Kim Yoon reached to pull up Kim Min and Han Min next, but three monsters had already caught up with them.

“Kuhiiik!”

With a grotesque cry, one of the monsters lunged at Kim Min. He barely twisted his body aside to avoid the creature charging straight at him.

Thud…

The monster slammed its head into the side of the bus. A sick crack sounded as its forehead burst open, blood streaming down, but it immediately turned and chased after Kim Min again.

“Sunbae! Argh… please save me!”

Kim Min jumped and flailed, reaching upward with both hands before stumbling sideways to avoid the monsters. There had been only three at first, but now countless monsters were converging on him and Han Min from all sides.

“Han Min! Grab my hand!”

Ji-woo couldn’t stay still any longer. He reached toward Han Min. He wasn’t sure if he could actually pull up someone taller and sturdier than himself, but he couldn’t just watch the person who helped him die to the monsters.

“I… I really don’t want to die…!”

The terror of death approaching right in front of his face had the boyish features streaked with tears. Han Min also tried to reach for the hand Ji-woo stretched toward him, dodging the monsters lunging at him, but their timing kept failing. Their fingertips barely brushed again and again, until suddenly…

“Ahhh…!”

Kim Min let out a scream that sounded like his vocal cords had been torn. It wasn’t like any sound he had made before, and both Han Min and Ji-woo’s eyes flew wide open. Their pupils trembled with growing panic.

At that moment, Ji-woo spotted a monster closing in right behind Han Min.

“Han Min! Behind you!”

“Kyaaaak!”

Before Ji-woo even finished, the monster stretched its hand toward the back of Han Min’s neck. His hair, usually tied up high, had come undone and now hung like a tattered curtain over his blood-covered face.

Between the black strands of hair, the monster’s rolling eyes glowed unnaturally bright. Realizing the creature attacking him was the sunbae he had secretly liked, Han Min’s eyes welled with tears.

How did things turn into this? During this MT, once everyone relaxed after drinking, he planned to gather the courage to confess. But now, the upperclassman he liked was staring at him with hunger glinting in her eyes.

“Ugh…!”

Han Min jerked sideways in terror. Crunch…. Instead of his neck, the monster’s fingers bent backward against the bus frame with a sickening crack. Anyone capable of feeling pain would have rolled around the ground clutching their hand, but the monster kept chasing him without pause.

‘What do I do…! Nam Ji-woo, get it together!’

There was no time to check what had happened to Kim Min. Han Min’s situation was far too dangerous, he was running desperately, barely dodging the monster lunging after him.

The only luck was that, because of the earlier impact, all ten of the monster’s fingers were bent backward, so even if it swung its arm, it couldn’t properly grab him. Han Min tried reaching down, but because Ji-woo was short, he still couldn’t reach Ji-woo’s hand.

At that moment, Ji-woo noticed the department jacket he was wearing. His mind moved fast, and his body even faster.

He yanked it off and grabbed one sleeve. Then he ran across the top of the bus and lowered the jacket toward where Han Min was.

“Han Min! Grab this!”

“W-wait… just a second…!”

Han Min wanted to grab the makeshift rope, but now three monsters were swarming around him. The sunbae he liked, the classmate he shared two general-education classes with this semester, and even an older male sunbae he only knew by name.

Every one of them was rushing at him with twisted limbs, and his vision kept blurring. When Han Min still couldn’t reach the jacket, Ji-woo ran toward the front of the bus. His legs shook from jumping across the high surface, but if he hesitated even a moment longer, Han Min could die.

Bang, bang, bang…

“Over here! Come this way!”

Ji-woo stomped on the bus roof with his full weight, making loud noise. As he expected, the monsters reacted instantly. They snapped their heads toward the sound, their rolling red eyes locking onto Ji-woo standing atop the bus.

“Kyaaaak!”

“Kihik!”

“Kyak! Kyaaak!”

The wordless creatures rushed toward Ji-woo. But the three already near Han Min ignored the distant prey and instead went wild for the flesh right in front of them. Ji-woo anxiously glanced behind him. He couldn’t save Han Min alone.

Just then, Kim Yoon managed to pull Kim Min up onto the bus roof. Even after getting up, Kim Min thrashed in panic.

“Ugh, g-get away…! Ah…!”

There were no monsters grabbing him anymore, yet he kept frantically wiping at his clothes and skin as if their hands were still on him.

Ji-woo watched him with pained eyes, then ran to Kim Yoon and grabbed his arm. On any normal day, he would never dare touch him, but Ji-woo wasn’t in his right mind either. His heartbeat pounded so violently it echoed in his temples. And beneath them, Han Min’s screams still rang out.

“Sunbae, here! If you lower the department jacket, Han Min might be able to grab it!”

Yelling loud enough to draw the monsters’ attention left a stinging pain deep in Ji-woo’s throat. Maybe it was because he almost never talked to others. Just shouting a few times made his vocal cords ache.

Ji-woo held the jacket out to Kim Yoon, who stared down at him. Kim Yoon took it and walked toward the area where Han Min was. Even walking across the bus roof, his steps were as steady as if he were on flat ground.

“G-get away…! Ugh, damn it…!”

Now even Han Min was fighting back, screaming as he shoved the monsters off him. Just moments ago, he had kicked the stomach of the upperclassman he had once liked. Then he elbowed the face of a male sunbae whose arm was dangling uselessly as he staggered close.

“Han Min! This way!”

Kim Yoon called out to him. Han Min looked up at his voice, then struggled to push away the monsters closing in from the front. Their relentless attacks left no room to breathe, and despair spread across his face.

“Hoo…”

Kim Yoon exhaled and lifted an eyebrow. At this rate, Han Min’s flesh would be between their teeth any second. With no choice left, he twisted Ji-woo’s jacket into a loop and lowered it.

“Keugh…!”

Feeling the pressure tightening around his neck, Han Min instinctively grabbed onto the jacket. The moment strength filled Kim Yoon’s arm, Han Min’s body was yanked upward.

“Kiyaaaak!”

“Kyak! Kak!”

“Kyahaak!”

The monsters, having lost their prey right before their eyes, stretched out their arms but all they managed to snatch was a single sneaker as a trophy.