Chapter 30

It was only natural for the soldiers to be on edge. Muwon, however, continued in the same calm voice.

“Then let me ask you one thing. Where are we going after we leave here?”

“We’re heading beyond the barricade. A shelter has been prepared there.”

“Oh. If we’re going that way, are we headed toward Yangjae?”

“No, sir. We’re heading toward Namsan.”

As he stared at the back of Muwon’s head, Yu-su felt as though he could read the thought passing through the man’s mind.

This kid is hopeless.

After they exchanged a few more words, Gorak’s gaze dropped to the dog tags hanging around Muwon’s neck.

“You’re wearing dog tags. Are you a soldier?”

“I used to be. Sergeant First Class Do Muwon, UDT.”

“…Oh!”

Gorak’s eyes widened. He seemed about to say something more when a voice crackled through his radio.

—“This is Second Lieutenant Park Sangyeong. Twenty-three civilians coming down.”

“Private Sim Gorak, sir! Acknowledged!”

Only then did Sim Gorak realize how thoroughly Do Muwon had drawn him into conversation. He immediately clamped his mouth shut and resumed standing at attention, sweat continuing to trickle down his face.

Their bus gradually filled with survivors. Yu-su and Muwon took the seats directly behind the driver, while Hee-eun settled into the aisle seat across from them, beside the seat assigned to Gorak.

Once everyone was aboard, Gorak stood at the front of the bus and raised his voice.

“This is your escort, Private Sim Gorak. We are departing!”

As the bus slowly began to move, nearly half the passengers sniffled through a mixture of relief and uncertainty. Gentle murmurs drifted through the rows as people tried to comfort one another.

The fragile calm did not last.

The convoy was forced to stop repeatedly while the soldiers cleared zombies from the surrounding area. As a result, the distance they covered was absurdly short compared with the amount of time they spent on the road. By the time the last traces of sunset had faded and darkness descended, anxiety had begun spreading among the passengers.

Eventually, a frustrated voice erupted from the back.

“Can’t you go any faster?”

“That’s right,” another passenger joined in. “It’s going to get dangerous once night falls.”

“Please remain calm,” Gorak called back. “We’ll make sure everyone reaches the evacuation camp safely!”

Annoyed voices rose throughout the bus. From what Yu-su could tell, the passengers were unloading all their pent-up fear and frustration onto their guide, Private Shim Gorak, simply because he looked young and easy to intimidate. When repeated attempts to reassure them failed and their voices only grew louder, Shim Gorak rose from his seat and turned to face them. He was visibly struggling to maintain a calm expression.

“We have to maintain the designated speed. If we drive too fast, we risk causing an accident.”

“If we arrive late and people get hurt because of it, are you going to take responsibility?” a man demanded.

“No one is going to be harmed merely because we arrive a little later, so please, remain calm.”

“How am I supposed to remain calm?” someone shouted. “I need to get there and find my family!”

“Oh, for crying out loud, leave him alone!” another passenger snapped. “Why are you demanding that some young kid take responsibility for everything?”

The bus descended into chaos, with half the passengers shouting at Gorak and the other half shouting in his defense.

Amid the crushing noise, Yu-su’s heart began hammering against his ribs, and a vicious headache split through his skull. An inexplicable sense of dread crawled through him as he looked out the window.

That dread soon proved justified.

Static exploded from Shim Gorak’s radio.

—“…zombies… do it!”

The transmission was nearly unintelligible beneath the static and distant shouting. Shim Gorak pressed the radio closer to his ear.

“Come again? I couldn’t hear you.”

—“The zombies have started moving on their own, you son of a bitch!”

Whether it was the message itself or the screaming voice that delivered it, the effect was immediate. The bus, which had been filled with angry shouting only seconds earlier, fell utterly silent.

As though responding to a single command, everyone turned toward the windows.

Boom!

A firework streaked into the darkened sky and burst overhead.

This time, however, something was wrong.

Kieek!

“Ah… ahhh!”

Far fewer zombies were being drawn toward the fireworks than before. Half of them still stood transfixed by the burning lights overhead. The rest had begun swarming toward the moving bus and the soldiers still escorting survivors along the road.

“What the hell?” someone cried. “What is this?”

“Fire! Open fire!”

“They’re coming this way! Agh!”

Suppressed gunfire coughed through the streets. The charging zombies collapsed in waves, but more poured in from every direction, rapidly overwhelming the soldiers and the civilians beside them.

“No!”

“Save me! Ahhh!”

“Squad members, hold your positions! Regroup!”

“Retreat!”

Every person who fell only swelled the horde. Within moments, the number of zombies clawing at the bus had multiplied.

“Aah!”

Crack!

A stray bullet punched through the front windshield and buried itself in the headrest of the seat where Shim Gorak had been sitting only moments earlier. Gorak clutched his radio and muttered something beneath his breath, but his pupils had already dilated, and his hands were shaking beyond his control.

At last, he managed to force out a frantic transmission.

“Major! Do we continue with the operation as planned? W-we’re on our way. What are we supposed to do?”

—“Proceed to the rendezvous point first, and then… you piece of shit, get off me! Agh!”

Grind. Crunch. Gnash.

Thud.

Sweat dripped from Shim Gorak’s face and splattered across the radio, which now transmitted nothing but the wet, ravenous sounds of zombies feeding.

Inside the bus, the passengers who had risen because they could no longer bear to remain seated began losing control entirely.

“See?” someone screamed. “We should’ve gone faster!”

“Driver! Floor it! We have to get out of here!”

“Everyone, calm down!” Gorak pleaded.

“I don’t want to die!”

The driver was on the verge of a panic attack himself. Sweat streamed down his face until, driven beyond the limits of reason, he slammed his foot onto the accelerator.

The bus lurched forward.

Gorak, who was still standing, crashed to the floor. He made no attempt to rise, seemingly incapable of even forming the thought, and instead gripped the radio in both hands as he stared helplessly at it.

Muwon muttered a curse, seized Gorak by the back of his collar, and hauled him upright before forcing him into a seat.

“Private Shim Gorak.”

“P-private, S-Shim Gorak!”

“Get a grip. Give me your sidearm.”

“Yes, sir…” Gorak blinked at him. “What? What’s a sidearm?”

“Your secondary weapon. Hand it over. You were issued a pistol, weren’t you?”

“I… I can’t give a weapon to a civilian!”

Fuck.

Muwon gave up trying to reason with him and pulled the service pistol and a spare magazine from Gorak’s holster himself.

Screech!

The bus swerved violently. Screams erupted as several passengers were thrown to the floor.

A desperate voice rang out from somewhere behind them.

“No! W-we’re all going to die!”

Yu-su, who had been watching the situation with unbroken concentration, grabbed Muwon and yanked him down into the seat beside him.

“Everyone, fasten your seat belts!” he shouted. “You too, Private Shim Gorak!”

“Y-yes! Right!”

“And stop screaming! You’re distracting the driver!”

Perhaps the instinct to survive finally overwhelmed their panic. The passengers fell silent.

Only then, in that suffocating quiet, did everyone feel what had been happening beneath them. Something was being crushed repeatedly beneath the tires, making the entire chassis shudder.

Bump. Clunk, clunk. Bump.

The zombies hurling themselves at the bus were now unmistakably dressed in military uniforms.

Despair twisted Shim Gorak’s face. He buried his head in his hands and began to sob. The radio, abandoned on the floor, continued broadcasting nothing but the noises of the dead.

Then figures appeared in the road ahead.

“Stop!”

“Save me! Take me with you!”

“Stop the bus! Stop!”

A dozen people rushed into the path of the speeding vehicle. Covered in blood and tears, the survivors who were still human waved both arms and screamed beneath the glare of the headlights.

At that moment, Yu-su remembered the warning he had once been given.

A driver’s first instinct is to swerve when a collision seems inevitable. Never do that. Slam on the brakes.

Otherwise, the vehicle could roll, causing a far greater disaster.

Screech!

The bus had already been hurtling down the street, crushing zombies and mangled corpses beneath its wheels. The brakes shrieked with deafening force as the tires skidded across asphalt slick with blood and gore.

The bus tilted.

“Aaaah!”

“Shit!”