Chapter 13

CRASH!

A vicious blow struck near Jeong Yu-su’s ear, hurling him bodily to the floor.

“Jeong Yu-su! Give me that!”

The shrill scream that followed reached him warped and distorted.

A piercing ring stabbed through his skull, as though his eardrum had been torn apart. Jeong Yu-su had no time to tend to the pain. He curled inward, shielding the white envelope clutched against his chest. Something resembling a check peeked from inside it.

“Are you still refusing to hand it over? Give it to me!”

“I can’t… I can’t give it to you. This is what I…”

“Jeong Yu-su! Are you still blaming your mother? I told you before that it was a mistake!”

The woman seemed deranged with rage. Her neck and forehead had flushed crimson, and even the whites of her eyes were threaded with blood. When beating his back no longer satisfied her, she dug her fingers into him instead.

“Stop. It hurts…”

“This hurts? Giving birth to you hurt more!”

“Argh…!”

Pain burned so fiercely through his skull that he could no longer control his body. His feeble attempts to struggle free only fed the woman’s fury. Her fingernails tore mercilessly into his tender flesh and soon glistened with fresh blood. The sound ripped from his throat was closer to an animal’s howl than a human cry.

“Why did I give birth to you? Why did I ever have you?”

“Why…”

Then why did you have me?

Jeong Yu-su raised his head with a scream, only to freeze.

The woman standing before him, the one wearing his mother’s face, was a zombie.

“N-no…”

One side of her skull had been crushed inward.

One of the eyes that had once widened in fury had become a nest for maggots. Bloated from feeding on blood, the insects writhed and tangled inside the hollow socket.

Every joint in her body had been twisted grotesquely out of alignment, with splintered fragments of bone jutting through her skin. When she opened her mouth to scream, the mangled flesh at the corners of her lips tore wider, and her lower jaw clicked before dropping loose.

“Jeong Yu-su! Say it again!”

“No… Ah, this isn’t…”

Unable to breathe, his face draining white in an instant, Jeong Yu-su was swept beneath the woman’s violence without the strength to resist or defend himself.

“Why? Can’t you say it now? Say it, Jeong Yu-su!”

“Jeong Yu-su!”

“Jeong Yu-su!”

“Jeong Yu-su!”

Her voice multiplied into dozens, then hundreds, until it swallowed Jeong Yu-su’s entire world.

“Hey… Jeong Yu-su!”

“Stop!”

Jeong Yu-su suddenly awoke, struggling fiercely to free himself from the hand Do Muwon had placed on his shoulder.

“No! Let me go!”

His voice trembled so pitifully that it barely resembled his own. As he swung his arm wildly, Do Muwon caught him, held him firmly against his chest, and shouted in a low, commanding voice.

“Jeong Yu-su, it’s me! Wake up!”

“Let go of me…”

His violent resistance stopped immediately. The cramped, pitch-black room, meant for a single person, gradually came into focus. Jeong Yu-su, who had been flailing just moments before, regained his senses within the warmth of the arms holding him.

“Do… Muwon?”

“Yeah, it’s me. Are you okay? You looked like you were having a nightmare.”

“A nightmare? I was dreaming… Was that a dream?”

Hearing the tremor in Yu-su’s voice and the shallow rasp of his breathing, and feeling the way his entire body shook, Do Muwon’s brow furrowed deeply. “Jeong Yu-su. I’m turning on the light.”

“No!”

Finally returning fully to his senses, Jeong Yu-su tore himself free of Do Muwon’s arms and scrambled backward. He curled into himself, hiding his face behind his arms. His face, his expression, everything about him must have been a wreck. He did not want Do Muwon seeing him like this.

“Just… give me a second.”

“…”

Only then did he force his trembling body to move and press the button on his wristwatch. A small light illuminated the display.

9:00 p.m.

“Do Muwon… What were we doing just now?”

Muwon asked back, “What are you talking about?”

“I’m asking what we were doing until a moment ago.”

In the pitch-black room, Do Muwon kept his gaze fixed on Jeong Yu-su as he answered, “We talked for a while after I put medicine on your back.”

“Ha…”

So it’s nine o’clock on the sixth.

I’m back.

Back from death.

Twice in a row, at that.

Right. I had just died two more times.

Jeong Yu-su slowly opened the fist he had clenched hard enough to leave it numb, then buried his head in his palms. The first time, while he was climbing toward the fortieth floor, a zombie had plunged into the elevator shaft. The second time, he had reached the fortieth floor safely. There had been too many zombies, so he had lured them away with the sound of a cell phone and made it all the way to the rooftop, but…

“Krrrk… Hkk… Graaaah!”

“Kyaaaagh!”

The rooftop door had been left open, and the entire roof was swarming with zombies.

“Do Muwon… I’m sorry.”

“You’re not the one who should be apologizing.”

“Still, isn’t this better than croaking in a bathroom like that bastard Kim Hyeoktae?”

Do Muwon’s final words continued to echo through the back of Jeong Yu-su’s mind.

Jeong Yu-su released a long, unsteady breath.

“Calmed down yet?”

“A little… No. Not yet.”

Jeong Yu-su wrapped both arms around his head and curled tightly into himself, as though he wanted to disappear from the world entirely.

In truth, he already had.

It had not felt as though his life had simply ended. It had felt as though he had been shredded into pieces and utterly annihilated. Blindly grasping hands had gouged out his eyes and torn away his fingers. He had been ripped apart alive, writhing through unbearable agony while death refused to grant him a swift end.

It would have been better, far better, if he had simply died.

“Jeong Yu-su! You’re going to live a life that makes you wish you were dead! You’ll regret it!”

The woman’s shrieking voice still rang in his ears. That suffocating stench clung to him, mingling with snarls and guttural growls. The pain had seemed endless, while terror pounded through him with every frantic beat of his heart, until even that heart had gradually begun to weaken. His thoughts spiraled into a vast whirlpool that dragged him deeper and deeper, until a sudden burst of light scattered them.

Do Muwon had finally exhausted his patience and switched on the flashlight. “What kind of nightmare were you having to make that much of a scene?”

“Yeah, no kidding.” Jeong Yu-su covered his face with both hands, trying to hide from the shadow creeping up behind the light. His voice emerged hoarse and ragged through his fingers. “I’m okay now.”

“I don’t believe you. Look at me.” Do Muwon leaned closer. “Jeong Yu-su, look at me.”

“Give me a second. Just one second, seriously.”

If he resisted any longer, Do Muwon would grab his head and turn it by force. Jeong Yu-su slowly uncurled his body and made himself draw a deep breath. Then, with visible reluctance, he raised his gaze to meet Do Muwon’s.

“…”

“Better?”

He had tried to compose his expression, but he had no confidence that he had succeeded. Do Muwon had always been frighteningly perceptive about such things. Even when Jeong Yu-su was sick or merely a little irritable, Do Muwon noticed changes that escaped both his parents and his sister.

Then again, that had been ten years ago. Perhaps the man before him was different now.

“…”

Time seemed to stop within the silence, disturbed only by their slow, stifled breathing. As Do Muwon searched Jeong Yu-su’s face, Jeong Yu-su finally began to calm down in earnest.

Those eyes haven’t lost their light.

Do Muwon is alive.

So am I.

He ought to consider himself lucky, shouldn’t he? This bizarre phenomenon had allowed him to die without remaining dead.

Luck.

What a fucking nightmare that word was, and how desperately grateful he still felt.

Jeong Yu-su lowered his gaze, a self-deprecating smile tugging at his lips. “Stop staring already.”

Do Muwon held out a bottle. “Here. Drink some water.”

“Yeah.” Jeong Yu-su accepted it, then slapped both cheeks with his palms in an attempt to pull himself together.

At least those deaths had taught him something. He was now certain that dying initiated the loop.

Do I reset to some random point one day before whatever kills me?

It did not seem entirely random. Although he had died twice in succession at different times, he had awakened on both occasions at precisely the same date and hour, nine o’clock on the sixth. Still, thinking about it any further would not produce an answer, and he had no intention of killing himself merely to uncover the loop’s pattern.

Do Muwon had remained quiet until then. At last, he broke the silence.

“Jeong Yu-su.”

“Ah, yeah?”

“What kind of dream did you actually have?”

Jeong Yu-su shrugged as he swallowed the nausea rising into his throat. “Just a bad dream.”

“What, did you die in it or something?”

“I don’t remember. Dreams fade quickly, don’t they?”

They did not fade.

The moment of death remained as vivid as every event that had led him there.

The rooftop door had been left wide open and was already half destroyed. Zombies had swarmed across the roof, making it obvious that he would not survive even a minute if he went up there. Yet if he failed to reach the rooftop, he would lose any chance of being rescued by helicopter. He would be forced to remain inside the building indefinitely, struggling to avoid death while trapped in the terror of never knowing what might happen next.

He did not want that.

Absolutely not.

Jeong Yu-su bit his lip as an idea suddenly flared to life.

There’s a structure on the roof, isn’t there? What if we climb on top of it?

Neither the roof nor the structure above it could be reached through any conventional route. In that case, they would have to find an unconventional one.

He had already made up his mind, but he could not suddenly announce that the roof was crawling with zombies and they needed another route when they had not even reached the fortieth floor. He would sound completely insane. He had no explanation for how he possessed such knowledge, and he did not want anyone, including Do Muwon, discovering that death sent him back.

Keep quiet until we reach the roof.

Once they were rescued, he would never have to worry about any of this again.

Jeong Yu-su drew a shallow breath and looked at Do Muwon, deciding to postpone the problem of persuading him until they reached the top floor.

“I’ve been thinking.” He paused, arranging the words carefully. “Continuing any farther up this way will only drain our energy.”

“You think so?”

“Yeah. The executive elevator should be up there.”

It was not a lie.

The executive elevator had definitely been blocking the thirty-sixth floor. In the previous loops, he had climbed that far, found nothing useful, and been forced to return. Since he already knew what awaited them, there was no reason to waste their strength again.

Do Muwon nodded. “Then we head over to the regular elevators from here?”

“Right. I’ll go out, check the thirtieth floor, and then we’ll take the regular elevator up to the fortieth.”

“Well… do whatever you want.”

Jeong Yu-su’s brows twitched at the unexpectedly flat response. “You’re not going to ask why?”

“Now that you mention it, your plan makes sense.” Do Muwon settled more comfortably against the wall. “It’ll be easier to search for supplies here before going up than to wander around a floor with zombies scattered everywhere.”