Chapter 11
“I see.... The people who were discussing who would come up earlier were all from the same company, right?”
“That’s right.”
I answered half-heartedly, subtly increasing my pace to follow closely behind the man in front.
The imposing, tall man didn’t look like a particularly nice person either, but he felt more trustworthy than the man behind me who was smirking in this situation.
However, the tall man’s walking speed was shockingly fast.
From the 5th floor onward, despite my efforts to keep up, I began to gradually fall behind again.
The slender man, who hopped up the stairs with light steps and quickly caught up to me, threw out another question.
“What’s her name? The fierce-looking one.”
Only then did I guess why he was suddenly asking about my coworkers.
I frowned slightly, remembering the man staring intently at Kang Ye-ra for a while back in the hair salon.
Can he really feel that way in this situation?
“Ask her yourself.”
When I answered in a stiff tone, the man smirked and nodded his head.
“I guess I should, right?”
Judging by his infinitely light behavior, he was exactly the type of person Kang Ye-ra would despise.
It wasn't a pleasant conversation, but perhaps due to the absurd question, my tension eased without me realizing it.
I let out a sigh and was just about to climb the 15th-floor stairs, when my weak legs suddenly missed a step.
Fortunately, I didn't fall since I was climbing, but my misstep caused my foot to strike the lower step, making a loud noise.
A thud—the sound of the foot strike—echoed through the passage.
The reaction of the two men was fast.
The moment the sound was heard, they reached out and pushed me toward the wall, and they themselves stood close to the wall so as not to be seen from other floors.
A look of tension appeared on the faces of the two men, who held their guns and their breath.
The sound echoing in the passage vanished instantly, but another sound filled its place.
From above, a kyaaaaak shriek along with the sound of hitting the railing was heard.
Instantly pulling the slides to chamber their handguns, the two men aimed up the stairs.
They seemed to be planning to shoot the "thing" making the noise if it came down, but there was no way the creature would come down.
I spoke carefully so as not to provoke the people holding loaded guns.
“That person is tied up. He’s tied to the railing, so he won’t be able to come down.”
At those words, the two men looked back at me with bewildered expressions.
It was clear they couldn't believe what I was saying.
“What? Tied up?”
“…How do you know that?”
“He was a coworker. I saw him die and tied him up before he could come back to life.”
“…….”
At those words, the two exchanged silent glances with slightly surprised expressions.
Their faces looked as if they had heard something completely unexpected.
Soon, the tall man started climbing the stairs slowly again.
Unlike before, when he strode up without hesitation, his pace was markedly slower.
He didn't seem to fully believe my words.
The slender man shook his head slightly, let out a low exclamation, and followed him.
“…You guys were more impressive than I thought.”
Arriving in front of the 17th-floor fire door, the sight of Gu Hyeon-woo tied to the stairs appeared.
He had struggled so much while tied to the railing that the white electrical cords were stained with blood in places.
The blood that had flowed down dripped onto the lower railing, making small echoing sounds.
As if he had heard the footsteps, Gu Hyeon-woo turned his head and glared at us with upturned eyes.
He had even managed to pull one hand through the bound cords and was swinging his hand, which was snapped in the opposite direction, haphazardly.
I couldn't easily move my feet at the sight of the changed appearance of someone I had faced normally until yesterday.
I thought it would be okay if I tied him up, but since he couldn't feel pain, it seemed he had struggled until his flesh was torn away.
I stood still, staring at the tattered Gu Hyeon-woo.
Meanwhile, the tall man jumped up the stairs two at a time and reached the landing in an instant.
The man standing in front of Gu Hyeon-woo engaged the safety on his handgun and holstered it at his waist.
For a moment, I thought he might shoot Gu Hyeon-woo, and I let out a sigh of relief.
Just then, the now empty-handed man bent down and reached toward his leg, drawing a short combat knife from a sheath on his ankle.
And before I could properly register the situation, he plunged the blade into Gu Hyeon-woo’s eye.
Gu Hyeon-woo’s arms, which had been flailing to grab the man in front of him, lost their strength and fell to the floor.
Meanwhile, the slender man, who had hopped up the stairs to the landing, gave Gu Hyeon-woo’s arm a light kick to confirm he was motionless.
“I wondered why you even bothered bringing a combat knife, but I guess it does have its uses.”
At those words, the tall man gave a slight nod and pulled the blade out.
I stared blankly as he wiped the blood off the blade against Gu Hyeon-woo’s clothes, then stammered.
“…Why, why did you kill him? He was tied up. You could have just walked past him….”
“We can’t risk getting bitten. We have the luxury of space to go around him now, but if something happens upstairs and we have to come down in a hurry, we might not be able to pay enough attention.”
The man, having wiped the blood clean from the combat knife, sheathed it again and stood up.
“You did well to tie him up. However, next time, it would be better if you finished it for good.”
Next time?
A sudden doubt arose at those words.
“Didn’t you say you’d take us to a safe place once this is over? What do you mean by ‘next time’?”
I threw out the question urgently, but the tall man didn’t answer and headed up to the 18th floor.
To me, standing there with a bewildered expression, the slender man spoke as if offering an excuse.
“He didn’t kill him. Didn’t you say you saw it too, Do Jihyeok-ssi? That this person was already dead.”
“But he was moving….”
“That’s….”
The slender man started to say something, but glanced upward and shut his mouth tight.
And he gestured for me to come up and then quickly headed up the stairs.
Left behind alone, I had no choice but to move my feet.
Reaching the landing and looking up at the fire door, I saw the tall man staring at the slender man with cold eyes.
Under that stinging gaze, the slender man feigned ignorance with a slightly intimidated face.
I climbed the remaining stairs while observing the expressions of the two men.
Squelch—at that moment, a sound like stepping into a puddle was heard from beneath my feet.
But what touched my foot was definitely a liquid slipperier and stickier than water.
I could easily guess what I had stepped in.
I didn’t bother looking down to confirm the identity of the liquid.
I wanted to pull my foot away immediately, but my legs wouldn’t move, as if they were glued.
If I went down, I’d encounter dozens of maniacs trying to kill people, and before my eyes were two killers.
And the ground beneath my feet was covered in the blood that had flowed out of my coworker's punctured head.
This whole situation felt like a nightmare.
When I remained frozen and didn't move for quite some time, the tall man asked with an expressionless face.
“Are you not coming up?”
A handgun was held in his hand once again.
I stared blankly at the combat knife tucked neatly in the sheath on the man's ankle and asked.
“…If I don't go up, are you planning to cut off my finger and just take the fingerprint?”
A momentary flicker of bewilderment crossed the tall man's expressionless face.
After staring at me for a while, he finally replied.
“…I don’t do such things.”
“Hey, what do you take us for?”
The slender man grumbled with a face that was a mix of bewilderment and a sense of being wronged.
“…You look like people who won’t give their names, won’t explain the situation, and shoot anyone who attacks them dead without warning.”
At my calm answer, looking wronged, the slender man opened his mouth as if to protest.
But he seemed to be at a loss for words, his mouth merely opening and closing, until he fell into thought as if retracing everything that had happened so far.
After a moment, the man nodded and accepted my words.
“That’s not wrong.”
While his colleague made a fuss like that beside him, the tall man said nothing.
Just as I began to think he might finally pull out his gun and shoot me due to the ever-lengthening silence, he opened his mouth.
“You must be flustered in many ways, but it’s a situation that cannot be explained at length. If you cannot trust us, it’s fine for you to remain in the hair salon after we finish our business on the 18th floor. I will help you block the building entrance so those things can’t get in.”
It was the longest sentence I’d heard from him since meeting him.
The slender man whipped his head around to look at the tall man with a flustered expression.
His eyes were wide as if surprised by something, but I couldn't tell the reason.
The tall man didn’t react at all to his colleague’s gaze and continued speaking while looking straight at me.
“…And though I cannot tell you our full names, I can give you our surnames. You may call me Kim, and him Park.”
They were the most common surnames in South Korea.
I couldn't tell if those words were the truth, and even if I knew, they were just syllables of no use.
However, just the fact that he had offered those names made me feel slightly more at ease.
A sense of relief that I had, at any rate, found out something about them.
“Please just help us with investigating this place.”
Kim requested, gesturing toward the fire door with his chin.
In the end, I let out a sigh and climbed the stairs while firmly clutching the straps of my bag.
I still kept my head held high and did not look down at the floor.
After climbing a few more steps, the blood on the soles of my shoes had turned sticky, making an unpleasant squelch sound every time I lifted my feet.
Park watched me coming up and suddenly asked as if curious.
“But does fingerprint recognition really work even if you just cut off the finger? Isn’t that just in movies?”
The moment I heard those words, having just reached the final step, I hid both my hands behind my back.
When Kim looked at Park with a chilling gaze, the latter feigned ignorance again with a look that said he’d messed up.
I stood a few steps away from Park, behind Kim.
Kim placed his hand on the fire door and asked while preparing to open it.
“Do you know how many of those things (mari) are in the hallway?”
Mari[1]?
The choice of word was strange.
Footnotes
"Mari" (마리) is the Korean counter specifically used for animals. Humans are normally counted using "myeong" (명). By using ‘mari’, Kim is subtly indicating that he no longer considers the creatures in the hallway to be human.
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