Chapter 33
The dietitian quickly opened the door once she heard the voice outside. People were running towards them from the end of the hallway, with a group of zombies hot on their heels. In the lead was a man. He stood out with his pointy chin and full beard. Even though he wasn’t tall, his muscular frame exuded the aura of a leader.

This six survivors barely made it in. As soon as they closed the door, the sound of zombies running into the door echoed throughout the room. The survivors collapsed to the ground, catching their breaths. They were holding a pair of canned peaches, the modest loot that they acquired from a nearby room. However, once they noticed Yohan’s group, they quickly grabbed their weapons and scrambled to get back up. Yohan cocked his gun as loudly as he could, making the survivors freeze in place.

“W—who are you guys…”

Yohan gave a brief introduction and then urged the leader to check the survivors for bites. With Yohan’s reminder, the leader realized that he did indeed forget to check the group for injuries.

“I don’t have any malicious intent, so please stop glaring at me. We’re from another camp.”

“…I’m Gap Soo Shin. Are there…a lot of survivors?”

“There’s a decent number of survivors. Are these all the survivors here?”

Gap Soo was still guarded, but he nodded his head. His eyes were looking over Yohan’s group uneasily. He then spoke first, before Yohan could continue.

“If you’re from another camp, then the rescue effort…”

“There aren’t any rescuers. You’ve been stuck here on your own for six month, so you should know that.”

At the start, the army had led a pretty active rescue effort as they were actively fighting the zombies. However, it had been six months now and there was no way that a rescue squad still existed. Mutant zombies and their zombie waves had targeted large camps first. The more successful the rescue effort was, the more quickly they were targeted and destroyed. People didn’t have Yohan’s experience and didn’t know that grouping up during the apocalypse would lead to death while keeping groups dispersed would lead to survival.

After hearing Yohan’s response, Gap Soo’s expectations regarding Yohan’s group were dashed and he suddenly became cold towards them.

“I don’t know why you guys are here, but there’s nothing left here that you can take. Go back.”

“If there’s nothing to eat here, then it’ll be difficult for you guys to survive.”

“That’s none of your concern!” Gap Soo yelled angrily, as if he was being chased by something. Yohan tapped his chin nonchalantly. Even though he had a gun, Gap Soo didn’t seem afraid and was treating them with overt hostility. It was pretty strange. Yohan frowned.

“Something happened to you guys.” Yohan said, with a deep voice.

“Hmph, wouldn’t it be weird if something didn’t happen during all this anarchy?”

“Were there intruders?” Yohan asked. The survivors flinched, giving him the answer. As they said, it would be weird if nothing happened in this time of chaos. If they were trapped here, they would have asked for help instead of trying to kick him out.

“If you tell me the details, I could help you…”

“Going away would be helping us!”

“Hey old man, you’re being really rude! We even gave that dietitian lady some food to eat!” Saeri yelled angrily. The atmosphere became tense. Yohan raised his hand to stop Saeri from saying any more.

“We don’t have any malicious intent. If we did, we wouldn’t try to talk to you despite being armed. If you just think about that for a second, you’d understand.” Yohan said stiffly. The air in the room was now ice cold. Gap Soo shuddered.

“What happened?” asked Yohan. Gap Soo hesitated, still contemplating the situation. One the survivors watching the scene, a man wearing a white t-shirt and wide-brimmed cotton trousers, couldn’t take the silence anymore and spoke up.

“Hyun Soo’s father, please tell him.” The man stood out among the survivors as the one with the tidiest hairstyle and beard.

“Doctor…”

Yohan’s eyes sparkled. This man was a doctor.

“I don’t think they’re with those guys. Honestly, we need the help.”

“You’re right, but…”

“I’ll tell you.” The doctor stepped forward. “It happened…four days ago.”

The doctor closed his eyes and his body trembled as he recalled the events that transpired. The doctor walked over to the windows and pulled aside the curtains. He pointed to a spot on the window where the word “here” was written in blood, creating an eerie scene. The letter ‘H’ had the most blood and, just like on horror movie posters, the dark red blood trickled down before it hardened. Curious, Yohan walked over and examined the writing. It was written from outside.

* * *

June 2017

Three Days Before Contact with the Recon Team

Soon Chun Hyang Hospital

The hospital survivors were on their last bit of food. The tin can screeched as it was opened. Inside was some tuna, about the size of a fist. It was difficult to feel satisfied from this, as it was shared among seven people. Even though his share was miniscule, Gap Soo still gave it up to the others and drank the leftover tuna oil in the can instead so that everyone else could have a little bit more.

The slimy, fishy broth filled his mouth. Tiny bits of tuna flowed in along with the oil. He tried to savor it as much as he could by chewing the fish before swallowing it. He licked clean every inch of the can before tossing it. Then, Gap Soo stood up. They had endured long enough, he thought. It had been months since they grouped up. They would often venture out and kill zombies one by one, but progress was slow and now they had nothing left. No water, no food. Not even the hope of rescue.

“We should go out,” Gap Soo said, pleadingly. They had been able to survive this long because they had access to two supply storages and there were only seven of them.

Many survivors were lost when they escaped to the cafeteria. As a consequence, there weren’t many zombies on the short route from the convenience store located on the first floor of wing A to their cafeteria, which was in the same wing. The fire shutter had come down, blocking their path to wing B, while the route to exit the hospital was littered with zombies. Gap Soo’s group didn’t open their doors to any outsiders, leading to the death of many. This was because he didn’t trust anyone.

Four months ago, an intruder suddenly barged in. He was able to take advantage of his short stature to slip past the zombies late at night. He made aggressive moves towards the women and Gap Soo had to restrain him. Not long after, he became a zombie. This shocking turn of events made the group even more wary and distrusting of outsiders. Whenever they hear people yelling for help outside and start feeling guilty about ignoring them, they would look at the corpse that had been tossed to one side of the hallway and remember. However, after hiding like a turtle in its shell for so long, they were starting to reach their limits.

“What are you going to do now, Hyun Soo’s father?”

“If we go out, I’m sure there will be a military base or a refuge. Don’t worry so much.”

“But…what are we going to do about all those monsters in the lobby?” For them, leaving the hospital was the biggest issue. Although the fire shutter was shut tight, they could hear zombies howling and feel the ground tremble from their movements behind the wall. Opening the shutters was not an option.

“We’ll go out by breaking the window.” The cafeteria windows only opened upwards slightly, barely enough space to squeeze one leg through. No matter how hard they tried, it was impossible for an adult to get through. If they wanted to go out the windows, they would either have to take it apart or break it. They wouldn’t be able to escape without the monsters noticing. If this plan failed, they could all die. It wasn’t the best plan, but they were running out of options.

“I’ll go out first and lure the zombies away.”

“…You can’t.”

Gap Soo had a determined look on his face. However, this plan would surely lead him to death, so the others stopped him, fearing for his life. Suddenly, they heard a faint, but shrill scream from outside the building. Surprised, all seven survivors turned their heads towards the sound. Gap Soo slowly approached the window and lifted the curtain slightly to peek outside. The other survivors mumbled as they gathered behind him.

There were two adults, a male and female, far away from the hospital. They were running away from something with all their might. There weren’t monsters chasing them. Rather, it was humans. Or demons who had the face of a human. The demons were riding two-wheeled vehicles and they were trying to entrap the two adults. Whenever they got close, they would stop their motorcycles to smoke a cigarette and then start chasing them again.

This horrifying scene was moving closer and closer to the hospital as they watched. There were around 10 demons riding on motorcycles. They were wearing blood-stained shirts and, similar to football players, they had dark red markings on their faces, making them look more forbidding. They wielded axes, hammers, and saws that were covered in dry blood. The sight of them chasing the two adults while laughing was really disturbing. Behind them, zombies slowly followed.

It made for a strange scene, as two adults led the chase, followed by 10 motorcyclists, and then hundreds of zombies. The two adults ran with a desperate look on their face, not unlike a prey trying to flee from a predator. They were running towards the hospital.

“No, don’t come here!” Gap Soo yelled out, without realizing it. “Don’t come here, please!”

Despite his desperate shouts, the two adults got close to the hospital. They were around 100 meters away from the cafeteria window. When they saw zombies ahead of them at the hospital, they tried to change directions, but the woman slipped. She gave out a shrill scream. The man stopped and tried to help her up, but the demon bikers sped up and were on them in an instant.

They swung baseball bats at the man’s head. The sound of his skull cracking could be heard clearly through the windows of the hospital. The man collapsed to the ground. Gap Soo’s wife, who was watching things unfold, covered her mouth to stop herself from making a sound. However, the gruesome spectacle still wasn’t over.

“Those bastards…”

The demon bikers grabbed onto the leg of the unconscious man and started making doughnuts with their bikes. The man’s face dragged on the asphalt, leaving a trail of blood. Suddenly a zombie appeared in front of the cafeteria window.

Gap Soo and the other survivors reeled back in shock. Gap Soo felt like his heart stopped for a moment. He quickly covered the window with the curtain again, but the zombie started banging loudly on the window.

“Please, save me! Ahhhh!” The woman screamed outside, mixed in with the dull sound of laughter that followed. Gap Soo’s entire body was shaking. Even though he was known to have a lot of guts, he couldn’t stop himself from trembling. He could only pray that the moment would pass harmlessly. He desperately prayed that the zombie would stop banging on their window and just go away.

His prayers seemed to have worked, as the banging stopped. However, they could still hear the zombie growling outside. It was the only sound they could hear.

The next moment felt like it lasted for ages as all the survivors held their breaths and didn’t even move a finger. It felt like hours or even years had passed before Gap Soo slowly stood up and approached the window. He seemed to move in slow motion.

Slowly and carefully, he walked to the window and gently grabbed the edge of the curtain and lifted it up.

“I told you. There’s people here.” There was a smiling face on the other side of the window. Their eyes lit up in anticipation. The demon biker’s smile stretched so far across his face that it seemed like the corners of his mouth would touch his ears.