Chapter 129
Clatter, crash. The rickety drawer spilled out all of its contents. Various items like pens, sticky notes, and remote controls scattered messily across the floor.
Seokjae quickly moved his eyes.
‘Key, shi-, there’s no key?’
Just as he was getting irritated, among the numerous knick-knacks, a card in a leather case caught his eye. Seokjae hastily picked it up, tore off the case as if throwing it away, and checked the card’s designation.
[MASTER]
“Ha.”
After confirming the letters clearly engraved on the front of the card, he let out a sigh of relief.
Bang! Boom!
However, at that moment, as if saying it was too early to feel relieved, a loud noise echoed throughout the first floor. When the two turned their heads, they saw a group of zombies throwing themselves against the entrance door.
“Gruuh… GRAAH!”
“Keeek-“
Fortunately, it seemed the automatic door button hadn’t been pressed. The zombies, blocked by the glass, continued to slam their bodies against it while fixing their gaze on the prey visible before them.
“KEEEEK!”
The problem was that other zombies rapidly running from behind were also blinded by the sight of prey and charged like trucks with broken brakes. They didn’t even slow down until just before reaching the motel.
As a result.
Crack…!
“Hik.”
The zombies that had arrived first were caught between the glass door and the new ones, bursting like squashed tofu. The glass was instantly covered with dark red blood and rotting flesh chunks. At the same time, it shook violently as if it would collapse at any moment.
Muyoung inhaled sharply at the horrific sight.
Tap-tap-tap-
That wasn’t the end of it. It was as if every zombie in the area was gathering. Stupidly, they kept piling on each other, and the rate at which they increased exceeded the rate at which they were crushed to death. It looked like there would be more than enough to fill the entire first floor of the motel.
‘We’re fucked.’
Even for someone like Seokjae, there was nothing he could do if dozens of them attacked at once. Inwardly cursing, he held Muyoung firmly in his arms and ran toward the stairs.
Just as the two were about to reach the second floor.
Crash! Rumble-
A loud shattering sound echoed, as if the door had finally given way under the weight. Following that, the sound of numerous zombies pouring in could be heard.
Thud, thud, thud.
Screech- Bang! Bang! Bang!
The sight of them crawling up, chasing the two people, scratching at stairs and walls and everything in their path, could only be described as hell.
“Tsk.”
Despite sweat dripping down his forehead and getting into his eyes, Seokjae merely clicked his tongue and frowned, not taking his eyes off the escape route. He just silently muttered curses under his breath as his breathing became heavier.
‘Damn bastard, I should have beaten him up more before leaving.’
It hadn’t even been an hour since he had fought with zombies because of the deal with Lim Sangjin. In this crisis coming so soon after, he couldn’t help but tire faster than usual, both mentally and physically.
‘Shit, where do we run to?’
Though they were still about one floor apart, hiding in a room now would be tantamount to suicide. The noise made when opening the door with a key would attract them.
Moreover…
“…”
Seokjae recalled how, earlier, despite having the same conversation, the zombies’ gazes had been fixed on Muyoung rather than the children. He tightly embraced Muyoung, who was in his arms.
“Hy-hyung?”
Muyoung, who had been frozen still, even holding his breath, flinched at the strong grip and looked at Seokjae.
His vision was tinged red from the warm, sticky streams of blood flowing down almost to the floor. Looking at the pursuing zombies in such a state, Muyoung had been overwhelmed with fear, but Seokjae’s rough touch brought him back to his senses.
“Why, tell me.”
Though he wasn’t aware of Muyoung’s state, Seokjae felt Muyoung’s gaze turn to him. He relaxed his expression, took a deep breath, and answered.
“…N-no. It’s nothing.”
Although the area being squeezed by Seokjae’s hand hurt enough that Muyoung could tell it would bruise without looking, he shook his head. He wasn’t shameless enough to complain about pain to someone who was carrying him in his arms in a situation where they could die at any moment.
‘Thanks to hyung, I’ve come back to my senses.’
Thump, thump, thump.
At the same time, Muyoung felt the heat and the heartbeat that seemed about to burst from where he was pressed against Seokjae.
‘Ah…’
Even though Seokjae’s body was sending signals that it was becoming increasingly exhausted, Muyoung hadn’t noticed until now because of his fear. He bit his lip, ashamed of himself for what was essentially throwing a tantrum.
‘I should ask to be put down again.’
After being refused once, he had remained quiet for fear that arguing about being put down in an emergency would only irritate Seokjae, but he couldn’t stay silent any longer.
‘This really isn’t right.’
By now, surely Seokjae would understand that putting him down was the right thing to do. Thinking this, Muyoung opened his mouth.
“Um, hyung, I think I should-“
“Muyoung.”
But before he could finish, Seokjae cut him off. And with a very firm and hard voice at that.
‘Does he know what I’m going to say, and is telling me to be quiet?’
He didn’t want to go against Seokjae’s wishes. Intimidated by his cold tone, Muyoung quietly responded.
“Yes?”
But what came back was something he never expected.
“Take off your clothes.”
“…What?”
Although his injury was clearly on his forehead, the statement was so out of the blue and beyond imagination that Muyoung felt like the back of his head was going numb.
“Y-you want me to take off my clothes?”
He didn’t want to misunderstand in this urgent situation, but he couldn’t help asking again.
“Yeah.”
Despite assuming Seokjae would be annoyed at him for not understanding, Seokjae simply nodded while continuing up the stairs. Then, after checking behind them and slightly slowing his pace, he shouted.
“Take off your shirt and give it to me. Hurry!”
Grip!
“Y-yes…!”
With the commanding tone and the hand tightly squeezing his thigh, Muyoung didn’t ask any more questions and hurriedly took off his top.
The cloth with its front soaked red with blood went into Seokjae’s hand, and he immediately crumpled it and threw it toward the zombies climbing up the stairs.
‘What, what is he doing?’
Muyoung was bewildered by Seokjae’s bizarre action of throwing the shirt he had worked hard to take off, but soon covered his mouth with his hand. He felt like he was about to scream.
Splat!
When the T-shirt, heavy with blood, flew forcefully and covered the face of one of the zombies climbing the stairs aggressively…
“GRRRK!!!”
“GR-AACK!”
The zombies from all around rushed toward that one. No, they didn’t just rush.
Crunch. Squelch- Gnash!
They tore apart the zombie. The horrific sound of rotting flesh and bones being bitten and crushed echoed in the corridor.
“…”
Before Muyoung could properly comprehend what was happening, while the zombies were sacrificing an innocent zombie, drawn by Muyoung’s blood, Seokjae quickly climbed to the next floor.
* * *
Beep- Click!
As soon as they were properly out of the zombies’ sight, they saw a room. Seokjae immediately used the key card to enter, put Muyoung down, and closed the door.
KYAAAAAAAK!
At that moment, as if angry about being tricked, a ear-splitting howl was heard from far away.
‘Did they come because of the smell of my blood?’
Muyoung was shocked that the zombies had reacted to his blood and stood dumbfounded in front of the door, not even entering the room. He knew that zombies followed the scent of fresh blood, but he didn’t know this would apply to his blood as well.
‘If I had known this, I would have stopped the bleeding better… No, no. I would have stayed away from hyung completely.’
Despite becoming more human, he had been too complacent, thinking there were still differences between him and humans. Whether it was because his forehead was cut or because he was shocked that he had put Seokjae in danger, his head was throbbing painfully as if it would explode.
While not certain, the fact that zombies followed his blood meant they saw him as human, not as one of their own. In other words, what he had been trying to avoid had finally happened.
‘Useless. I’m completely being a hindrance…’
Currently, not only was his heart beating, but he was also feeling temperature, pain, and taste. He couldn’t immediately check his strength and muscle power, so he wasn’t sure about those, but at least they wouldn’t be the same as before. And at the current rate, they would probably decrease rapidly.
‘No, that’s not what’s important right now.’
Muyoung cut off his thoughts, recalling what he needed to do. And he resolutely called out to Seokjae, who was looking outside through the room’s window.
“Hyung.”
Perhaps because of his serious tone, Seokjae immediately turned his eyes to look at him. Finding it difficult to speak while maintaining eye contact, Muyoung bowed his head deeply and continued.
“I think it would be better if I go to another room. No, I want to go.”
“…”
Even though he barely managed to speak with a trembling voice, knowing that he had to part with Seokjae right now, even if he didn’t die and became neither zombie nor human again, there was no response.
‘He worked so hard to save me, but I basically said I’ll die alone. Is he angry? He must be, right?’
Thud, drip-drip-
It was the moment when he nervously swallowed dry saliva due to the continuing silence. There was a rustling sound of something falling to the floor.
At the unexpected sound, Muyoung raised his head without realizing it and widened his eyes.
Swoosh- At some point, Seokjae had thrown down his luggage, and now he was taking off his own shirt and tossing it aside.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
