Chapter 25

There was no sign of life anywhere. With every step, the soles of their shoes sank into a slush of congealed blood and sewage, while the sickening squelch of crushed flesh and the brittle snap of bone fragments echoed beneath their feet.

To minimize contact with the zombies, the group kept their bodies hunched low. Whenever another horde stampeded past, they scrambled onto benches or statues and waited for it to move on.

They had been walking for a long time when they finally pressed themselves against a wall to catch their breath. Just as the helicopter swept past a nearby building and veered away, a sudden rush of air swelled directly overhead.

Sensitive to even the slightest change, Yu-su looked up, but it was already too late.

Thud!

“Ah!”

“AAAARGH!”

A zombie plummeted directly in front of Lee Seongwook and burst apart on impact. Fragments of fingers and flesh, along with an eyeball, rained down over the group.

“H-h-hhaaah!”

“Shut it!” Muwon snarled.

Lee Seongwook toppled backward and landed hard on his backside, his panic erupting into a scream. Do Muwon clamped a hand over his mouth just as Joo Hee-eun shrieked.

“More are falling! Watch out!”

The zombies on the rooftop appeared to have been racing after the helicopter, only to tumble over the edge one after another.

Joo Hee-eun had already begun retreating by the time she shouted the warning. Keeping one hand clamped firmly over Seongwook’s mouth, Muwon seized Yu-su’s hand, rigid with shock, and dragged him forward.

Thud! Whack! Splat!

As they scrambled clear, dozens of zombies plunged from the rooftop and exploded across the pavement.

When Muwon finally released him, Seongwook remained crouched on the ground. His gaze met the dead stare of a rotting, severed head rolling nearby, and he began retching uncontrollably.

“Ugh! Hweeegh! I… I can’t.” Seongwook doubled over, clutching his stomach. “Damn it, fuck, I can’t go on!”

“Cut the weak shit and get up.”

“Take me back to the building! H-hngh…!”

“Shut up.”

While Muwon hauled Seongwook upright by force, Joo Hee-eun drew a trembling breath.

“I… I don’t think we can keep walking like this.”

“We won’t be walking,” Yu-su told her.

Clenching his fists and drawing a deep breath, he turned toward the alley tucked between the darkened buildings.

There were no people inside it, not even zombies, and the shapes concealed within the narrow shadows were unmistakable.

“Those are Ttareureung bikes, right?” Hee-eun asked.

“Yes. They park them here.”

More than ten of Seoul’s public Ttareureung bicycles stood in a neat row inside the alley.

While Lee Seongwook, still held by the scruff of his neck by Do Muwon, clung to the wall and vomited again, Yu-su crouched in front of one of the bicycles and switched on his flashlight. He pulled a wrench from his pocket, dismantled the locking mechanism, and snipped the exposed wires.

“Hee-eun, I’m cutting this. Please smash that black box over there.”

“Oh, okay.”

Joo Hee-eun shook out her wrists, gripped the hammer, and struck the part Yu-su had indicated with all her strength. Since the wires had already been severed, no warning alarm sounded, and the alley remained silent.

Muwon watched them work. “You really planned this out.”

“I was hoping we could simply run, but this is better.”

Do Muwon was already standing halfway out of the alley, keeping watch. The three of them worked together with the speed and precision of practiced thieves, finishing the job within moments.

After checking that the pedals turned smoothly, Yu-su stood and straightened his back.

“Let’s go. Lee Seongwook, can you ride a bike?”

Seongwook looked up at him with a twisted expression, then forced himself to his feet through gritted teeth. The corners of his eyes were swollen and red.

“If I say I can’t, then what? Are you going to leave me behind?”

“No one said that.”

“He’s right,” Hee-eun added. “We came out here to survive.”

“Fuck, I never should’ve come out. What the hell is this…?”

Do Muwon, who had been listening from the mouth of the alley, strode toward him. “I warned you. Keep talking like that, and I’ll…”

“Do Muwon, stop,” Yu-su cut in. “We’re busy.”

“Yu-su’s right,” Hee-eun agreed. “Lee Seongwook, you stop too. This isn’t the time for any of that.”

Muwon tilted his head and glared at Seongwook for another moment before mounting his bicycle. Yu-su gave Muwon’s back a couple of pats, then switched on his headlamp.

“Let’s go. We’re going to make it somewhere safe, so keep up.”

With that, four bicycles shot forward and darted into the living hell teeming with zombies.

“Grrraaa! Aaaaah!”

“KIEEAAAGH!”

The helicopter’s thunderous rotors drew closer, driving the zombies into an even greater frenzy. They burst from alleys and buildings, flooding the streets in a stampede like a herd of maddened water buffalo. Cars shuddered beneath the force of their bodies as they slammed into them.

“Do you see that blue building up ahead?” Yu-su called.

“Yes,” Muwon answered.

“That’s where we’re going.”

They were almost there.

Just as the helicopter touched down on the roof of the building directly across from them, the nearby zombies, already running wild, rose like a tsunami and surged forward in one massive wave.

“Look out!”

Jeong Yu-su shouted the warning and wrenched his handlebars aside, only to feel the tires lose their grip. When he glanced down, he saw crushed corpses mangled beneath the wheels. The bicycle’s front tire bucked violently as it struck a zombie charging at them like a water buffalo.

“Jeong Yu-su!” Muwon roared.

“Argh, Assistant Manager…!”

Jeong Yu-su was about to go down, tangled with the zombie.

Crash!

Muwon drove hard against the pedals and plowed into the zombies toppling toward Yu-su, knocking them aside before thrusting out an arm.

“Grab on!”

Their fingertips barely brushed.

Jeong Yu-su struck the ground and skidded several yards across the pavement.

“Kieek!”

“Aah! Aaaaaah!”

Several zombies hurled aside by Muwon’s collision thrashed wildly, clawing at every creature within reach. The zombies they caught stumbled into one another, lurched upright, and began trampling over their own kind.

“Ugh…”

“Jeong Yu-su! Are you okay?”

“Assistant Manager!”

After freeing himself from the bicycle pinning him down, Jeong Yu-su looked up as Do Muwon approached, then glanced over his shoulder. Some of the zombies had begun drifting away from the helicopter’s blinding light and deafening noise, jostled off course as they shoved and collided with one another.

At that moment, a realization struck him.

Those things were lifting their heads.

“Kieee…”

“Hick… heh… kyeaaak!”

Their attention had shifted. They were no longer focused on the helicopter.

They had recognized the delicious food standing right in front of them.

“They’ve spotted us!” Yu-su shouted. “Watch out!”

“Damn it!”

Do Muwon twisted away from a rotting arm reaching for him, then swung his bicycle like a weapon. Joo Hee-eun, who had been closing in behind him, copied his movements, shoving one zombie away before kicking another.

Muwon ducked low, seized Yu-su, and hauled him to his feet.

“Are you okay?”

“My ankle hurts a little, but it’s not bad enough to stop me from walking.”

“Damn it.”

Then it happened.

“Eek…!”

Crash!

Joo Hee-eun tumbled to the ground beside Jeong Yu-su.

When Yu-su and Muwon whipped around, they caught sight of Lee Seongwook’s back rapidly disappearing into the distance. Slung over his shoulders was the makeshift bathrobe backpack Yu-su had given to Joo Hee-eun.

Gritting her teeth, Hee-eun spat, “That son of a bitch…!”

“Forget him,” Yu-su ordered. “Joo Hee-eun, we have to move.”

Although some of the zombies had already noticed them, their movements remained erratic and disjointed, as though the helicopter’s sweeping light and roaring blades were scattering what little remained of their minds.

Taking advantage of that brief lull, the three of them climbed back onto their bicycles and began pedaling again.

A barricade, clearly erected by human hands, blocked the entrance to the first building they had intended to enter.

“We don’t have time to clear it,” Muwon decided. “We’ll find somewhere else.”

“Okay.”

They passed several buildings where zombies swarmed behind sealed glass entrances, along with others whose doors had already been smashed apart. Do Muwon led the way while Jeong Yu-su continuously searched their surroundings, his gaze darting from one building to another.

“Turn left at the intersection,” Yu-su called in a low voice. “The Giga Coffee building!”

Do Muwon reached it first. He stopped his bicycle at the entrance and turned toward Yu-su.

“Jeong Yu-su, there are a lot of zombies here too…”

Boom!

A roar like the sky itself splitting apart shook the entire district.

Damn, what the hell was that?

Swallowing the curse before it could escape his lips, Do Muwon looked toward the source of the sound and froze. Even the ragged breath he had been fighting to catch vanished from his lungs. Goosebumps swept across his entire body like an electric current.

Something beyond belief was unfolding before his eyes.

A grotesque work of fiction had torn its way into reality.

It was exactly as Jeong Yu-su had said.

The helicopter, after colliding in midair, was crashing onto the roof of Hyeonmyeong Construction. Its enormous severed rotor slammed into the exterior wall and embedded itself there before tearing loose again. It rolled across the rooftop, grinding through concrete with a horrific metallic shriek.

Then came another explosion.

Boom!

The cruelest fireworks in the world began embroidering the night sky.

The horde of zombies that had been rushing to greet the new arrivals lost all interest in Do Muwon and raced instead toward the Hyeonmyeong Construction building.

Crash! Boom!

Pillars of fire erupted as the sky flashed white, and the towering building slowly began to tilt. Do Muwon stood motionless, rooted in place like a statue, unable to comprehend what he was seeing.

Joo Hee-eun’s trembling voice drifted somewhere beyond him. She was asking whether that truly was their company building, although she already knew the answer.

Her words never reached his ears.

Without warning, someone seized Do Muwon by the collar and jerked him hard. His gaze, fixed helplessly upon the collapsing building, was wrenched away.

“Do Muwon. Focus.”

Jeong Yu-su’s eyes stared into his.

Crash!

The surroundings flared brighter beneath a roar louder than any that had come before. Reflections of fire flickered through Jeong Yu-su’s brown eyes. The earth-shaking rumble that followed was deep and immense. Hyeonmyeong Construction had completely collapsed, swallowing the surrounding buildings along with it. Even then, Do Muwon could not tear his gaze from Jeong Yu-su. He could not look away from those burning eyes, framed by a face smeared with filth, blood, and ash.

Jeong Yu-su glanced over Muwon’s shoulder before releasing his collar.

“Pull yourself together. We’re moving.” He looked toward Hee-eun. “You too, Joo Hee-eun.”

“Oh… Right,” Muwon breathed.

“Yes!” Hee-eun answered.

Though Jeong Yu-su hardly seemed steady himself, he clenched his jaw, stepped back, turned, and sprinted into the building.