Chapter 14
Despite wearing clunky combat boots, Kim and Park made almost no sound while walking.
It wasn't a long distance to the automatic door.
Kim, who was walking at the very front, stopped at a spot where the outside of the automatic door was visible and raised his hand.
Following his lead, we stopped walking and poked our heads out to look outside the door.
Unlike last night when it was submerged in darkness, the area in front of the door, illuminated by sunlight, was empty except for the bloodstains spread everywhere.
Even the corpse of the woman I had seen die with my own two eyes was no longer visible.
She must be staggering around somewhere, just like Assistant Manager Seong or Gu Hyeon-woo.
I tried my best to shake off the unpleasant thought that surfaced in my mind.
After looking outside for a while, Kim finally gestured for us to head out.
The automatic door opened quietly.
The hot air of early summer noon came rushing in.
Kim and Park led the group to the ramp on the opposite side of the escalator.
“I saw those things swarming in the 1st-floor lobby on the way here. If we get close, they'll swarm out, so we'll move by circling around to the back of the building.”
Standing halfway up the ramp, Kim whispered in a low voice.
I nodded at his words and moved quietly behind him.
The empty street felt eerie, unbefitting the bright sunlight.
It wasn't a pleasant sight, but in a way, it was a relieving one.
Kim, walking quietly, stepped onto the ground at the end of the ramp.
At that moment, a blood-stained hand suddenly shot out from a blind spot hidden by the ramp's railing.
The pale hand gripped Kim’s ankle tightly.
“Ack...!”
Ha Yun-seo let out a shrill scream, seemingly startled by the sudden situation.
And she immediately covered her mouth, surprised at herself.
Kim, the one actually caught by that hand, remained calm.
He quickly swung his other foot to kick the wrist, then backed away while aiming his gun in the direction the hand had come from.
Strangely, there was no sign of anyone rushing out from where the hand had emerged.
Kim, still aiming his gun over the railing, gestured for us to walk while staying close to the wall.
We pressed our bodies against the decorative marble wall, heated by the sun, and descended the ramp.
And the next moment, the owner of the hand finally revealed herself.
The first thing to appear was dyed hair, matted with blood and disheveled.
And soon, the hem of a familiar beige blouse was visible.
The woman I had seen beyond the automatic door last night was crawling toward Kim with her belly pressed to the ground.
Soon, her full figure was revealed.
I clenched my jaw and barely swallowed the scream rising in my throat.
From the woman's appearance, the reason she couldn't jump out and bite Kim as soon as she saw him was clear.
She had no lower body.
Behind the woman’s body, which had been torn away from the middle of her waist, a thick trail of blood followed.
Her movement was certainly slow, but it was fast for someone crawling on their stomach.
Kim silently watched the woman crawling toward him, then pointed somewhere for Park to see.
When Park nodded, Kim finally pulled the trigger.
The moment the gunshot rang out, Park, who was walking behind me, sprang forward and shouted.
“Follow me!”
Park rounded the corner of the building across the street and ran until the woman’s corpse was no longer in sight.
And shortly after, Park stopped, turned back to us, and placed a finger to his lips.
Kim, who joined us afterward, peeked around the wall to look toward the ramp.
A moment later, the sound of over a dozen people shrieking was heard.
A gurgle-gurgle sound of boiling phlegm followed, along with the sound of dragging feet scratching the asphalt.
We all froze like ice, not even daring to breathe.
There was no need for Park to give another warning.
The sounds that had persisted for a while began to decrease one by one after a few minutes.
And it only became quiet again after a considerable amount of time had passed.
Only the occasional bizarre groans let us know that there were still some left.
Kim and Park didn't check behind them anymore and led us out onto the main road.
The two walked in the middle of the road, just as they did when they first appeared.
Manager Kim, looking anxious, kept glancing around and whispered to Park.
“Is it okay to walk in such an open place? They seem to lunge as soon as they see you....”
Park gave a thin smile as if to reassure him and replied in a low voice as well.
“It’s actually better to be in the open. It’s more of a headache if you walk close to the buildings and they jump out from inside. Out here, you can see them from far away, so you can just shoot them, move, and hide.”
“Still.... Wouldn't it be better to move by car or something? My car is in the underground parking lot.”
At Manager Kim’s words, Park retorted with an expression that said he was hearing something nonsensical.
“Go back there? There’s probably quite a few of them still gathered around that area.”
“No, well, since you have guns.... And wouldn't it be better than walking bare-bodied like this?”
Manager Kim, glancing at the gun in Park’s hand, rambled hurriedly.
Park shook his head and replied in a casual tone.
“You'd probably need a machine gun to go there. And it’s better to just walk than take a car.”
“...Why is that?”
I had been listening to their conversation in silence and suddenly threw out the question.
The others also stared intently at Manager Kim and Park.
Even if they didn't show it, everyone seemed to be feeling anxious.
I, too, felt as if I were walking on a knife's edge now that we were out in the open after hiding only in enclosed spaces.
Instead of explaining, Park raised his hand and pointed ahead.
“That’s the reason.”
We turned our heads and looked in the direction Park’s finger was pointing.
A single car was visible, stopped at the edge of the empty road.
A white IoniX 5 with a taxi sign.
And beyond that car, countless other automobiles were parked.
The line of vehicles filling the road was endless.
“What is that....”
Kang Ye-ra muttered, her eyes wide with surprise.
Park shrugged as if to ask if he had explained enough.
“Right now, no one can get out of here. Even if you have a car, how are you going to pass through this?”
It seemed Park’s words didn't just refer to the road visible in front of us.
I continued with another question.
“What do you mean by not being able to get out of here? Are you saying someone is blocking it?”
“…….”
Park just gave a thin smile without answering.
Was this also one of those ‘things that can’t be discussed’?
We moved to the sidewalk and walked slowly along the road.
I looked inside the cars stopped on the roadside.
All were empty, as if the people had suddenly evaporated.
After walking a few more meters, the sight of corpses lying here and there caught my eye.
Judging by their cloudy eyes, the wounds all over their bodies, and the bloodstains remaining near their mouths, they seemed to be one of those Kim and Park called ‘it.’
Most had a dark hole in them, as if they had been shot in the head.
The ground around the bodies was all covered in drying blood.
We quickened our pace, keeping our heads down to avoid the corpses scattered everywhere.
The number of corpses was too high for them to have been killed by just Kim and Park.
It seemed that not only the man from our office and Kim and Park, but quite a large number of them were here.
If there was even personnel managing shelters, it must be a larger organization than I thought.
I didn't know whether to feel relieved or anxious.
I moved my feet in silence, lost in thought.
Just then, Kang Ye-ra, who had been walking ahead, approached me and asked in a whisper.
“Those people, what did they do when they went upstairs?”
“…It seemed like they were looking for something from the corpse.”
“Looking for something? What?”
Before answering, I stole a glance at Kim and Park.
Kim, walking ahead, was preoccupied with keeping a lookout on the surroundings.
Park was standing next to Lee Jeong-suk, who had fallen behind, chattering about something.
Neither of them seemed to be paying attention to us.
I lowered my voice and answered Kang Ye-ra’s question.
“A cell phone.”
“A cell phone? Why would they look for that?”
To the following question, I shook my head, saying I didn't know either.
Actually, I had something more urgent to tell Kang Ye-ra than the story about the phone.
“By the way….”
Kang Ye-ra, who had been frowning slightly as if contemplating the significance of the phone they found, looked at me with a puzzled expression.
I continued in an even lower voice.
“The two of them… seemed to be acquainted with that man in the office.”
Kang Ye-ra's face turned pale with shock.
Her gaze as she looked at me trembled.
“…The person I killed?”
“We killed him together.”
I hurriedly added that to calm Kang Ye-ra, who was visibly shaken, even if just a little.
But judging by her still-frozen expression, it didn't seem to have much effect.
Thinking about it, Kim and Park had both aimed for their heads and fired.
Unlike the backscratcher stuck in the head, there was a high possibility that my cutter knife didn't mean much.
Since Kang Ye-ra had also seen well over a dozen corpses that had collapsed after being shot in the head on the way here, it was a conclusion she could easily have reached.
Seeing her checking Kim and Park’s reactions with an anxious expression, I continued speaking.
“But they didn't seem to be angry at us.”
“Pardon?”
As if asking what that meant, Kang Ye-ra looked at me with a puzzled expression again.
But I was also in a situation where I didn't understand the behavior the two had shown.
I had no choice but to simply repeat the words I had heard.
“He said thank you.”
Kang Ye-ra also wore an expression that showed she couldn't understand.
Just then, Kim, who was walking ahead, came to a dead stop.
“We have arrived.”
We raised our heads and looked up at the old building Kim pointed to.
A look of disbelief appeared on everyone's faces.
The building, with small windows clustered together to a stifling degree, looked decades old even at a glance.
It wasn't an appearance that looked like a very reliable shelter.
“This is it?”
Ha Yun-seo looked up at the building with a look of dismay.