# 10.
“Load the packed baskets onto the cart.”
“Yes!”
“Kim Yuho, bring some tape. Let’s stack the baskets and tie them to the cart.”
While Cha Heegeon loaded the food baskets onto the cart, I brought more baskets and filled them up.
Meanwhile, Kim Yuho tore open the tape packaging and wrapped it around, binding the baskets and cart handles together.
“Kyaaak!”
Clatter, clatter!
While we were busy gathering food, zombies had gathered before we knew it. One became two, and two became three. As their roars while hanging on the glass door grew louder, their numbers continued to increase.
When a pile of zombies shook the glass door, the clattering sound was loud. Their force was so fierce it seemed like they might break the door and come in at any moment. Even as we moved without rest, the sounds stimulating my hearing made my hands tremble.
“Kang Jihong, bring them quickly.”
Cha Heegeon, who had firmly wrapped tape around each basket so they wouldn’t fall, called to me.
Seeing him gathering supplies with quick and precise hand movements made me feel rushed. With fumbling hands, I put the bundle I had briefly set aside in the corner into the basket and handed it over. He then wrapped it tightly with tape like the other baskets, bit off the end, and prepared to leave.
“Get out quickly!”
As soon as Cha Heegeon shouted, I ran straight outside.
“Run without looking back!”
Running ahead, I glanced back at Cha Heegeon despite his words. But from somewhere, two zombies had appeared and were chasing after them.
Cha Heegeon pulling the cart handle and Kim Yuho pushing the baskets from behind looked like they were about to be caught, which seemed dangerous.
“Haa, ha. W-where do we go?”
I barely made it out of the building while worrying about them. But there was nowhere suitable to go while avoiding zombies that could pop out from anywhere at any time.
“Ha, Kang Jihong!”
When I turned around at Cha Heegeon’s sudden shout, I followed his gaze to the right. I saw a zombie sprinting toward me at full speed.
“Kyaaak!”
“Uh, uuh!”
With what little presence of mind I had left, I swung the bat I had brought. In my haste, I swung it quickly, so the blunt part of the bat hit slightly off-target, but it still seemed to have an impact. The zombie fell and floundered, unable to get up.
“Kyaak!”
While I was crushing the zombie’s head to prevent it from getting up at all, I heard another horrific scream from behind. As soon as I turned around in surprise, I saw Kim Yuho throwing a punch at the zombie that had been chasing us until just now.
Cha Heegeon stepped up to deal with another zombie rushing at Kim Yuho. With his tall stature and long legs, he kicked the charging zombie in the side, knocking it over, and immediately struck its head hard.
Beep, beep.
Beep, beep.
Just then, car theft alarms suddenly went off somewhere. As two cars in succession blared loudly, zombie screams could be heard from everywhere.
Zombies that had been wandering around began rushing toward the sound all at once.
“Kyaaak!”
“Keep going!”
As I looked around, unsure of what was happening, Cha Heegeon shouted. Hearing his cry, I immediately focused ahead and ran.
We couldn’t relax just because we had dealt with the attacking zombies. Already, some zombies that had come out due to the commotion had seen us and changed direction to chase us.
“Haa, ha. Sh-should we go back the way we came?”
“Yes, run. No matter what!”
The situation wasn’t good. Since we were taking the cart, the sound of the wheels rolling was loud.
We couldn’t carry all of these things at once, so we had no choice but to pull them along, but I couldn’t shake the feeling of crisis that was rising to my throat.
“Sh-shouldn’t we hide in the bathroom?”
We had barely made it into the building with the bathroom, but the path to the underground parking lot was the problem.
“No, that would make it even harder to escape!”
Cha Heegeon’s shout echoed through the corridor, followed by the fast footsteps of the zombies making vicious screams, giving me chills. I truly couldn’t shake the thought that we were in a real crisis.
I whimpered a little and gripped the bat handle even tighter. Not only because of the zombies chasing us, but also because there would be a considerable number of zombies we’d face when leaving the building, I tried to steel myself.
Finally, as we ran out of the building toward the underground parking lot, we encountered three zombies right in front. They had been running toward the car alarms but turned to attack when they saw me.
For a moment, I flinched to avoid them, but thinking that those behind me could be in danger, I hesitated to move.
“D-damn it!”
Faced with a situation where I could neither retreat nor avoid, I rushed at the zombies with their blood-covered faces approaching.
“Kyaaak!”
Their screams were fierce enough to penetrate the noisy beeping sounds that were disorienting. Though death seemed to loom before me, it was too late to turn back now.
“Kang Jihong!”
Cha Heegeon’s shout came from behind me. It was do or die. With no intention of changing my mind, I threw myself at the group of zombies rushing toward me.
“Hup!”
At the moment of impact, with my eyes tightly closed, the zombies fell helplessly. Seeing the zombies flailing as they tried to get up, I thought I had at least bought some time and quickly got up.
“Run quickly!”
I shouted at Cha Heegeon, who had just come out of the building and seemed about to stop as if to check on my safety.
“Kyaak!”
“Huuh!”
Just then, a zombie that had been flailing its limbs quickly crawled toward me. I panicked seeing it bare its teeth and kicked it in the face.
“Grrrr…!”
Despite kicking it hard, the zombie quickly crawled back. While backing away from it, Cha Heegeon and Kim Yuho quickly entered the underground parking lot.
“Kyaak!”
“Kuaak!”
“Huuuh!”
I tried to follow Cha Heegeon, but the group of zombies that had been chasing them from inside the building saw me and changed direction to run toward me. I stepped back to avoid the zombies coming from all directions. There was no way to reach the underground parking lot anymore.
Zombies showing their teeth, as if ready to bite my neck at the slightest opportunity, all made “gyarlruk” sounds.
While frantically looking for a place to escape that creepy sound, I suddenly noticed an open building entrance and turned in that direction. When I ran with all my might, the zombies’ screams followed me.
I shouldn’t let them into the building.
Even while running for my life, I worried as the entrance was right in front of me. But suddenly, the sound of a car engine starting rang out loudly. As I turned my head toward the sound, I saw Kim Dongyoung’s abandoned car moving on one side of the road.
The car that suddenly started moving charged straight toward me and hit the zombies that were following me.
“Kyaaak!”
Among the zombies that had been thrown far, there was one whose lower body was caught under the car wheels and couldn’t move. It continued to scream without dying.
Dazed by the sudden situation, I stood there blankly, and the fallen zombies began to get up one by one. One particularly fast one revealed its ferocious energy and rushed toward me.
“Huh!”
Only after seeing it getting closer and closer did I come to my senses and swung my bat at the zombie baring its teeth.
“Run over here!”
Just as I barely managed to smash the zombie’s face, the car door opened and a familiar face caught my eye. It was Gong Junhee. He got out of the car with a bat and struck down the head of a zombie crawling toward me.
“Hurry!”
Seeing Gong Junhee running toward me, I ran full speed.
“Kyaaak!”
Thud!
As soon as I entered, Gong Junhee, who followed right after, closed the lobby door simultaneously. A zombie that had been closely following us crashed into the glass door. Fortunately, Gong Junhee was leaning against the glass door, so despite the impact from the zombie, it only shook without opening.
Seeing this, I quickly ran to close the adjacent glass door and blocked it with my body. My heart was still pounding so hard that I couldn’t breathe properly.
“Haa, haa.”
I had survived by the skin of my teeth. Finally able to catch my breath, I relaxed my body, and my limbs trembled.
“Hyung!”
While we were standing there blocking the glass doors that were now swarmed with zombies, they came up the stairs from the underground parking lot.
Cha Heegeon’s subordinates, whom we had parted with earlier, were also there. They all seemed to have fought with zombies too, as they were all drenched in sweat.
“Ha, lock the door downstairs.”
Gong Junhee, who had caught his breath, told those running toward us. Fortunately, the large glass door had a lock at the bottom, so they could lock it while I was blocking it with my body.
“Haaa…”
I released the fear that filled my chest with a heavy sigh. The moment of despair, thinking I might die helplessly like this, flashed through my mind.
“Are you okay?”
As I stood leaning against the glass door without the strength to move, Gong Junhee approached.
“Haa, yes. Are you okay, hyung?”
Gong Junhee’s strongly emanating pheromones stimulated my sense of smell. It felt strange to have the Alpha pheromones, which he usually controlled well, now scattered. Was he worried about me?
“I’m fine. But what were you thinking acting so recklessly?”
I just smiled silently at him as he scolded me for having acted recklessly. I wanted to live desperately, but at that moment, I didn’t even have time to hesitate because I thought they might get hurt if I avoided the zombies. Though I might have regretted it after getting bitten.
“Is everyone inside?”
“Yes, everyone is in.”
Just then, Cha Heegeon’s voice was heard. Startled by his unusually forceful voice, I looked at him and our eyes met. Cha Heegeon was looking at me. I thought we had met eyes by chance, but he didn’t avoid my gaze and asked while looking at me.
“No bite marks anywhere?”
“No.”
“…No.”
It seemed like he was asking out of concern for the other hyungs, so I kept quiet. But seeing him still not moving even after hearing their strong responses, I belatedly answered too.
“Good, then. Let’s go upstairs now.”
Cha Heegeon turned around as soon as he finished speaking. Seeing the hyungs rushing after him, I walked wearily. I was so drained that even walking was exhausting.
* * *
After barely returning, we organized the items we had brought from outside. While doing so, we heard the story of the hyungs who had moved with Gong Junhee.
Gong Junhee’s group couldn’t follow us and headed in another direction, they said.
Unable to follow us while avoiding the unpredictable zombies, they went to a pharmacy far from the office but came up empty-handed like us.
In the end, they only got food from a small supermarket run together with a shoe shop on the main street and came back.
The car theft alarms we heard intermittently were also set off by them.
They said they deliberately made noise from the opposite direction of the office in case we were surrounded by zombies or in a dangerous situation and couldn’t return.
But even after doing that, when we didn’t come, they were about to go looking for us when they heard the sound of us running urgently and came out to help.
Anyway, it was fortunate that the timing was good and we were able to escape from the crisis.
“But in the end, we couldn’t get the suppressants.”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
