While anxiously waiting for Jian to arrive, Jaeseong kept trying to close the door, not seeing Jian. Taewoong held him back while waiting for Jian who was getting closer. Yeoul, watching the situation from behind him, finally spotted Jian running late.
“Uh… uh…”
Yeoul roughly figured out what was happening! He quickly looked around for something to secure the door.
“Tae, Taewoong, here.”
There was an abandoned cooking shovel someone from the cafeteria had brought to fight zombies! Just as Yeoul picked up the shovel, Jian made it through the door. Taewoong and Jaeseong closed both sides of the door and quickly locked it. Yeoul inserted the shovel into the door handle to secure it.
“Kyaaak!!”
“Krgh, grr!!”
“Ka, kaak!”
Bang! Bang! Boom! The pursuing zombies couldn’t control their speed and crashed into the suddenly closed door. Later, they bumped against the glass door while making noisy growls toward Taewoong, Jaeseong, and Jian who were blocking the door with their bodies to prevent it from opening.
Following the banging sounds, cracks began forming in the glass door. As the cracks spread like tree roots, Taewoong looked at Yeoul who was holding the end of the shovel.
“Yeoul, is there any solution for this?”
“Well… um…”
Though it was reinforced glass thicker than regular glass doors, it could still break. Watching Taewoong struggle with zombies constantly bumping into the door, Yeoul handed the shovel to Jian and turned around.
He needed to find a solution. While looking around the messy cafeteria, he noticed the moving box Jian had put down. He quickly opened the box and rummaged through it.
New mop, toilet paper rolls, wet wipes, tape, A4 paper, paper cups, large black plastic garbage bags for recycling, rope, string, whistle, and more. After searching through various items, he pulled out a black plastic bag.
“Black… water, I need water.”
“Water?”
Seongyong, who was standing guard with a tarpaulin bag in his arms watching for zombies, heard Yeoul. He hurriedly took out a 2-liter water bottle from his bag and handed it over. Yeoul quickly took it.
“Th-thanks. Everyone, just a moment.”
Yeoul splashed water all over the door from top to bottom. The water trickled down.
“Put this here… ungh…”
After spraying enough water, he spread the plastic bag wide and struggled to attach it to the wet door.
“Let me do it.”
As he was trying to stick it as high as possible on his tiptoes to match the tall zombies, a hand suddenly joined in. Taewoong pulled the bag up high and stuck it smoothly from top to bottom. Jian, watching from the side, looked at Yeoul.
“Why are you doing this?”
He had no idea why Yeoul was doing this. Wondering, he asked, and Yeoul, with wet hands, carefully stuck the vinyl more thoroughly and explained to Jian.
“I checked earlier… um… zombies don’t seem to see well, and they freeze when it gets dark.”
Come to think of it, the banging and growling sounds were no longer heard. Jian unconsciously let out a small “oh” of admiration and slowly pulled out the shovel he was holding.
The door was no longer shaking. Confirming they were safe, Taewoong relaxed his tense shoulders. Then he patted Yeoul’s head with both hands.
“So clever. Anyway, Jian, what happened? Where’s Yechan?”
Jian had definitely gone to the storage room with Yechan but came back alone. As Taewoong’s expression hardened with concern, Jian pointed to the back door.
“On the way, we met Hyunwoo and others, but except for Hyunwoo, the rest were slow. So Hyunwoo and I decided to gather the zombies and dump them halfway, while the slow ones would come through the back door.”
So Yechan is alive. But Hyunwoo is also luring zombies. The faces of Taewoong, Seongyong, and Jaeseong hardened.
“Then… where the hell is Hyunwoo now?”
At Jaeseong’s question that sounded like he was talking to himself, Yeoul took out his phone with trembling hands. As he was fumbling over Hyunwoo’s name, Taewoong looked at the back door connected to the outside and the door with the black plastic bag.
“…The luggage? Who took the luggage of the kids who went to the science lab?”
“Yechan did…”
Hyunwoo, Yechan, Minchan, and Yubin – none of them had arrived. Anxiety spread.
As Jian belatedly cursed under his breath while taking out his phone, Taewoong took off the bag he was carrying.
“They’re coming through the back door, right?”
“Hey, Nam Taewoong, you’re not…”
“I’ll check, contact them, get rid of the zombies, and come back.”
As if he had no fear, he casually took out the sneakers he had kept in his backpack and put them on. Yeoul, watching from a step away, unconsciously reached out and grabbed Taewoong’s arm.
“It’s d-dangerous…”
“I can’t abandon friends I promised to protect. Don’t worry. I’ll come back alive.”
After tying his shoelaces tightly, Taewoong smiled at Yeoul and loosened up his body.
“Just in case, wait for me at the back door.”
“…Okay.”
He seemed unwilling to back down at all. Finally, Yeoul let go of Taewoong.
As he anxiously watched Taewoong listening to Jian about the route they had taken to get here, Yeoul remembered the box he had rummaged through earlier. He opened the box and took out the whistle he had seen before, offering it to Taewoong.
“This… just in case…”
The whistle would surely attract zombies rushing in if blown, as it was noisy.
I hope it helps him return safely. As Yeoul handed it over earnestly, Taewoong’s eyes widened in surprise. Then he smiled and accepted it.
“I’ll definitely come back…”
Bang, clunk.
Just as the tense atmosphere was slightly loosening, a small sound was heard from far away.
They heard it clearly since they had been talking quietly. Everyone’s gaze turned toward the small sound.
“Kraaak!!”
“Kugh, kakak!!”
Zombies near the back door twisted their bodies while making horrible noises. Seeing this, they realized.
Their friends had arrived!
Everyone picked up the weapons and luggage they had put down as if on cue. Taewoong, who was the first to roughly put on his backpack and grab the vacuum cleaner stick, ran. He headed toward the back door, striking the heads of zombies blocking the way. Behind him, Jaeseong with a tennis racket and Jian with a shovel escorted him, hitting zombies that staggered from being hit but lunged again.
There was no hesitation as they struck fiercely approaching zombies and advanced. They quickly neared the back door.
When they reached the thick iron back door, they could hear someone saying something and banging sounds from beyond the door.
“This… shit, someone open the door!”
They wanted to open the door but zombies kept attacking! Taewoong, while kicking and hitting with his stick the zombies that kept clinging to him despite bleeding from their heads and faces, shouted urgently. Yeoul raised one hand high.
“I’ll, I’ll open it!”
He was a beat late because he was gathering the moving box that Seongyong had completely unpacked and the tarpaulin bag. Instead of his busy friends dealing with zombies, he unlocked the door one by one.
“I opened it… gasp!”
“Damn it! Why now, just move aside!”
Beyond the slightly opened door, Yechan who had been pushing the door with his shoulder was standing sideways and staggered. Then he flung the door open and shoved Minchan and Yubin inside, who were hugging boxes and crying quietly. Jian, who was hitting zombies with his shovel, glanced repeatedly toward Yechan.
“Hey! Where’s Jeonghyun?”
Somehow Hyunwoo, who had left first, was nowhere to be seen.
With a feeling of dread, Jian shouted loudly, and Yechan cursed with a crumpled face loud enough for everyone to hear.
“The zombies chasing us are preventing him from coming!”
From Yechan’s loud voice, everyone understood why Hyunwoo couldn’t reach the cafeteria. Taewoong gritted his teeth.
“Shit…”
He gripped the stick until his hands turned white. Annoyed to his limit, he mercilessly hit the approaching zombies without mercy. Jian, who had been standing beside him, who had proposed the luring strategy to Hyunwoo and returned alive alone, grabbed the shovel handle with both hands.
“…You, tiresome bastards, just die already!!”
Like a baseball bat, he swung the shovel hard and struck the neck of a zombie that was lunging at him with its mouth wide open. Whack! With a rough impact sound, dark red liquid splashed high. And with the zombie pushed aside, its pale eyes widened like saucers.
The zombie froze. When Jian withdrew the shovel stuck in its skin, the zombie’s head slightly dragged along and then tilted. Soon, with a sound like stitches bursting, the head fell to the floor with a thud.
“…Huh?”
Until now, they had only knocked out zombies or hit them and run away. But the zombie was dead. Everyone fighting the zombies froze.
“Ah…”
Thunk. The tip of Jian’s shovel touched the floor weakly.
“Kaaak!!”
“Gruk… kak, kak!!”
While they were frozen looking at the zombie’s head on the floor, the zombies thrashed violently as if awakened by their comrade’s death. Not only that, but zombies that had followed Yechan, Minchan, and Yubin were also trying to enter the cafeteria.
“Kak, krakak!!”
A zombie that had fallen after being hit hard in the head by something someone swung, raised its upper body.
“W-wait!”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
