Destruction — Chapter 3
by BrieThe sheer lack of normal reasoning gave Saejin pause. After a beat, he lowered his voice and asked quietly,
“Hyung… what are you, really…?”
The image of Woobeom fighting the monster without a hint of hesitation came rushing back again. But instead of answering, Woobeom simply jerked his chin toward the desk—trying to change the subject while reminding Saejin of what he’d forgotten.
“Weren’t you about to check that community post?”
“Oh, right!”
He’d completely forgotten in all the chaos after seeing the monster. Handing Woobeom’s phone back, Saejin grabbed his laptop and sat down right next to him.
“I thought it’d be better if we looked at it together.”
As he scooted in close, a faint smell of cigarettes clung to Woobeom’s clothes. He hadn’t even smoked much earlier, but the lingering scent suggested he was a regular smoker. Not wanting it to rub off on him, Saejin subtly pulled his shoulder away.
When he searched ‘new virus zombie,’ the same community post he’d seen earlier popped up at the top of the page. Clicking the hyperlink in a hurry, a loading screen appeared for a few seconds before the post finally displayed. The server must have been swamped. Just as he expected, the view count had jumped to 3 million, and the comment count had exploded to 120,000. Every time he refreshed the page, it jumped by several thousand. The fact that this was happening nationwide finally hit him.
“Can you see okay?”
As the body of the post loaded and he scrolled down, Saejin turned slightly to check the screen angle. Woobeom simply nodded in reply, indicating he could see just fine.
[Title: The Truth About the New Virus the News Isn’t Covering]
Author: Anonymous
Post:
I’m guessing most of you saw the news around 9 p.m. tonight about the sudden spike in high-fever patients and deaths. Even if you didn’t catch the news, you probably got the emergency alert. But catching this new virus and dying from a high fever? That’s not the full story.
You might think I’m trolling, so I’m posting proof. I don’t care if this exposes my name or the hospital I work at. Why? Because I’m quitting anyway. After learning the truth about the infected, there’s no way I can stay.
Doctor_License.jpg
University_Hospital_ID.jpg
Med_School_Diploma.jpg
Honestly, I probably don’t even need to post this much proof. The streets are already crawling with these monsters, so half of you already know something’s seriously wrong. Still, I attached these hoping you’ll believe me. From now on, instead of calling them “monsters,” I’ll use the more familiar term “zombies.”
- Symptoms of Infection
We still don’t know the incubation period, but the main symptom is an extreme fever—so high it practically ‘cooks’ the body. News reports say the fever causes vision loss, but that’s inaccurate. What actually happens is the skin boils like it’s been steamed, and then the brain and eyes ‘melt’. Death usually comes by cardiac arrest. - Death → Zombie
The fatality rate is 100%. At least in our hospital, ‘no one’ showing symptoms survived. If that was the end of it, I wouldn’t be writing this. But here’s the problem: after death, the bodies… get up. To be clear, their hearts don’t restart—they begin moving in a state of clinical death. Just like zombies. The only difference from typical zombies in fiction? They don’t seem to have an ‘intent’ to attack. - Infection
I don’t know where or how the virus spreads. (Maybe the researchers do, but no info’s come down to me.) What I ‘do’ know for sure: even if these zombies don’t attack you, ‘never’ touch them. We detected an unidentified virus in their skin tissue. It’s currently assumed to be the same new virus. - Medicine
You think you can bring someone back from being boiled alive, brain and eyeballs included? No. So we need two things: - A new drug that can kill the virus ‘during’ the incubation period.
- A vaccine that can prevent infection in the first place.
But who knows when either of those will be developed? Unless someone with natural immunity shows up, we’re out of luck.
I get why the news isn’t reporting this. If you told the public zombies were real overnight, panic would break out. Still, people need to be informed so they can prepare. Please screenshot this post, upload it to social media, or at least tell someone in person. If the government really is covering this up, I don’t expect this post to stay up long.
I hope you all survive.
[Comments: 122,382]
(Sorted by newest | most recommended | most downvoted)
┗ [Anonymous32421]: I work at a virology research center. The comment system doesn’t allow image uploads, so I posted proof on my personal blog. (link) Everything in the post is true. Also, I’ll add: the virus spreads ‘even during incubation’. We injected the extracted virus into a lab mouse and placed it among uninfected mice. Within five minutes, we detected the new virus in the blood of a mouse that had only ‘touched’ the infected one. It’s still early in the study, but this suggests that ‘mere contact’ could transmit it.
We also dissected a mouse still in the incubation stage. The new blood vessels in its cornea had turned black. So in humans, instead of red veins showing in the sclera, you’d probably see black ones instead.
[↑ 1,328,940 | ↓ 302]
┗ [Anonymous109]: I poked a zombie. Am I screwed?
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┗ [Anonymous322]: Are you nuts? Who the hell pokes a zombie? And the people who upvoted this—I worry about your brain cells.
[↑ 407,230 | ↓ 13,202]
┗ [Anonymous3567]: Still feels like the world’s playing a prank on me. Zombies? It just doesn’t feel real.
[↑ 405,310 | ↓ 1,302]
┗ [Anonymous111293]: Research center comment’s up, everyone go upvote it so it doesn’t get buried.
[↑ 105,310 | ↓ 332]
A heavy silence followed. Both men had read through the post without saying a word. Saejin let out a soft sigh, his expression darkening. Cold sweat had pooled in his palms. Just the idea that the virus could spread from mere contact was terrifying. His breathing began to quicken.
“Hyung… do my eyes look black?”
He asked the question, voice trembling. Woobeom reached out toward his face to take a closer look, intending to gently pull his eyelid down—but Saejin flinched hard and jerked his head away.
“Didn’t you read what it said?! It can be transmitted through contact! What if I’m already infected? Why would you try to touch me like that?!”
Woobeom gave a quiet chuckle at Saejin’s innocent panic. Sure, he’d used tools, but he was still the one who directly fought the infected. If their blood had splashed onto him, that would make him a potential carrier.
Given how many times they’d made contact, Saejin had every right to be upset. But here he was, panicking about himself instead. To Woobeom, it was… oddly endearing.
Then, leaning in slightly, Jung Woobeom whispered low—like he was about to let Saejin in on something he hadn’t yet realized.
“Looks like you forgot—we’ve already had skin contact.”
“…When—oh!”
The first time was when he grabbed Saejin’s shoulder. The second was when they ran together to escape the zombie horde. If either of them had already been in the incubation period, it meant their fate was sealed—they’d just have to wait quietly until they turned into monsters.
Taking advantage of Saejin’s moment of distraction, Woobeom quickly checked the inside of his eyelids. According to the research center staff, blood vessels would appear black if someone was infected and in the incubation period.
“You’re fine.”
Maybe because he was a bit frail, his blood vessels were thin and hard to see, but there were no black lines visible. That likely meant Woobeom wasn’t infected either, but to reassure Saejin, he showed him his own eyes as well.
“…That’s a relief.”
The tension drained from Saejin’s muscles. He placed a hand over his pounding chest and took a deep breath to calm his racing heart.
New comments were appearing on the community post every few seconds. Worried they might miss something, Saejin refreshed the page—and both of them let out a soft, bitter laugh at the same time.
[ This post has been deleted. ]
It was real. Just as the author predicted, the post had been taken down, and there still wasn’t a single news article covering it. Just to be sure, Saejin turned on the TV, but only the usual news about high fever cases was airing—no mention of zombies.
“There might be other posts. I’ll check the list.”
He clicked the list button, and the loading icon started spinning on the screen.
“…At this point, doesn’t that pretty much confirm it’s real?”
“Yeah.”
Their certainty that the deleted post wasn’t a hoax solidified when the entire community site was suddenly classified as harmful. Even repeated refresh attempts only brought up a message saying the site had been blocked due to harmful content. If it had only been the post that disappeared, it would’ve been hard to tell whether the information was true or false. In a way, this made things clearer.
“This whole situation… it’s really hopeless.”
If the virus could spread just through contact, the best option was to stay inside. For that, they’d need emergency food, some kind of weapon for protection, and flashlights in case of a power outage.
‘Like I have any of that…’
On weekdays, Saejin usually ate at school—or skipped meals altogether out of laziness. On weekends, he relied on plans with friends or day jobs to get by. The only thing in his fridge was a small container of kimchi. To make things worse, he had just four 2-liter bottles of water. The worry was already setting in. There was no way this would last even a month. Pressing his throbbing forehead, Saejin tried to think of a solution.
There were a few convenience stores nearby, but going outside without knowing how many zombies were out there would be foolish. Even if they weren’t aggressive, it was impossible to predict where they’d appear. That alone made any chance of contact dangerous. And since the virus’s transmission method wasn’t fully understood, he felt uneasy about touching anything that might be contaminated. Besides, even if he risked going to a store, what if the shelves were already empty? It would’ve been for nothing.
If this really was a disaster scenario, stocking up on survival supplies was a must—but Saejin wasn’t a movie protagonist. He had no idea how to survive a zombie apocalypse. His stamina wasn’t impressive, and he didn’t have the skills to deal with unpredictable threats. If he’d known, he would’ve at least worked out once in a while.
Regret washed over him as he let out a deep sigh.
“Haah…”
As Saejin sighed and wiggled his toes, his gaze landed on the dark stain clinging to the hem of Woobeom’s pants.
“That… That’s not zombie blood, is it?”
Since the man’s corneas looked perfectly normal, it probably wasn’t monster blood. But just in case, he asked. Following Saejin’s gaze to his pant leg, Woobeom gave a silent shake of the head. The immediate denial suggested he knew exactly what had stained it.
“Just to be safe, maybe you should take a shower before you go?”
“A shower?”
“Hyung, you fought that zombie earlier. What if some blood splashed on your clothes? I’ll lend you something to wear.”
Saejin wasn’t sure if anything he owned would fit Woobeom, who was noticeably larger than him, but even if it was too small, changing clothes seemed like the wiser option. He recalled a tracksuit he’d ordered in the wrong size—too big and too expensive to return. It had become useless clutter, but maybe now it could finally serve a purpose.