39-50

EP. 50. Securing the Apartment (3) 

"Crack." 

A foreboding sound came from Park Suhyeon’s side on the right. 

As my gaze turned toward the splitting noise, I saw the back of Park Suhyeon's head, clearly flustered, and his wooden shield split in half. 

At the same time, my mind began making tactical decisions, putting aside emotion. 

‘If the front line collapses right away, we’ll be wiped out... I need to make him hold out just a bit longer, ah!’ 

Park Suhyeon looked like he could be overwhelmed by zombies at any moment. 

As I wondered how to help him hold out, I suddenly remembered the flashbangs on my belt. 

Flashbang. 

A weapon that emits a burst of light and sound, temporarily blinding and deafening enemies. 

Recalling that zombies are sensitive to “light” and “sound,” my hand moved without hesitation and grabbed a flashbang. 

Ting! 

Immediately after, 

I pulled the safety pin and tossed it just over Park Suhyeon’s head, shouting loudly as I squeezed my eyes shut. 

“Close your eyes!” 

As my voice echoed through the narrow space, a deafening explosion went off, and my eyelids flashed white. 

BOOM!! 

Beeeeep... 

A sharp pain shot deep into my ears, and the intense ringing made my eyelids twitch. 

But only for a moment. 

As the flash faded from the stairs, I opened my eyes. 

Though I couldn’t hear anything through the ringing, I saw the zombies filling the stairs clutching their faces, writhing in place. 

Like monsters stunned in a game, the zombies were frozen. 

Next moment. 

As Catherine beside me and the others began to open their eyes, everyone swung their weapons. 

First, Catherine’s axe smashed the head of the zombie stuck to Park Suhyeon’s split shield, 

then Park Sanghyuk’s crowbar, my bolt, and Kim Chansu’s hammer took out the others in turn. 

For about 30 seconds, unable to hear even our own breathing due to the ringing, we smashed zombie skulls with all our might. 

We finished off most of the first wave, knocking down zombies climbing over the corpses on the stairs. 

As our hearing began to recover, we heard another wave of shrieks and footsteps. 

“KEEEE!!” 

Thud thud thud 

Now, with zombie corpses piled waist-high as a barricade, we braced ourselves for the next wave. 

“Huff huff!” 

“Pant pant!” 

With no time to catch our breath, the second wave began. 

... 

THUD! 

“Grrk!...” 

Kicking piled-up corpses down the stairs and smashing zombie heads for about five minutes in a frenzy. 

As Catherine’s axe was pulled from the skull of a zombie trying to climb over the corpse wall, the fifth and largest wave finally ended. 

A moment later. 

After confirming that no more zombies were coming up, we finally lowered our weapons and caught our breath. 

“Cough, cough! Huff, huff...” 

Everyone coughed and gasped for air after swinging weapons nonstop, and we were all covered in dark blood, sticky slime, flesh, and bone fragments. 

Our appearance after the brutal five-minute struggle was so gruesome that a stranger might mistake us for zombies. 

Still, relief welled up inside me knowing we’d survived without injury. 

I collapsed to the floor, laughing uncontrollably. 

“Heh, heh heh heh...” 

But my laughter sounded half-crazed, and in my current state, the others looked at me with horror and edged away. 

Except for one person. 

“Minwoo... are you okay?” 

Catherine approached with a worried face, 

brushing bits of flesh from my face and shoulders to check on me. 

Her every action showed genuine care, and as I picked a piece of scalp from her hair and stood up, I replied, 

“Yeah, I’m fine. I just relaxed a bit from the relief of surviving.” 

“That’s good. I thought you were hurt or something...” 

“Thanks for worrying. You didn’t get bitten or scratched, right?” 

“No. Other than being grossed out by zombie blood, I’m fine.” 

She smiled, showing me her skin, smeared with dark blood but unscathed. 

Her innocent smile made me smile too, but only for a moment. 

My rational mind quickly reminded me what needed to be done. 

Not knowing when more zombies might come, we had to open the rooftop exit. 

... 

THUD! THUD! THUD! CRACK! 

While Park Sanghyuk and his son pried open the door with a crowbar, the rest of us kicked it dozens of times. 

The door rattled more and more with each kick, until finally, with a breaking sound, the metal door swung open. 

“Ugh...” 

As blinding sunlight poured in, we all squinted. 

Then, we saw what was left of Lee Woongseop, whom we’d desperately searched for 15 minutes earlier. 

“Shhhh... ssshhh...” 

His eyes, nose, lips, and ears had all been chewed off, and he crawled along the floor, making a deflating sound like a zombie. 

Looking closer, his neck had also been bitten, so he couldn’t even make a proper noise. 

The moment we realized Woongseop hadn’t betrayed us, but had been attacked and turned into a zombie, everyone tensed up. 

We slowly stepped outside and looked around, 

but to our surprise, the rooftop was exactly as we’d left it. 

The 5,6 line door was still firmly closed, 

and the rooftop was spotless, not a single zombie in sight. 

Meaning... 

There was no clue as to how Woongseop had become a zombie. 

“So why is he like that...” 

Just as everyone was wondering, Park Suhyeon spoke up. 

Caw! Caw caw! 

Suddenly, a crow’s cry rang out from above. 

We all instinctively looked up at the sky. 

There, against the blue sky, we saw a flock of a dozen or so crows circling in black. 

‘Why are their beaks red?... No way?’ 

Unlike the occasional crows I’d seen before, these moved strangely, lowering their altitude bit by bit. 

Their beaks, which should have been black, were oddly stained red. 

Just then, I remembered the wounds on Woongseop’s face. 

Wounds that looked like they’d been gouged and pecked by something sharp. 

“Everyone, run to our line!” 

Immediately, at my shout, everyone reflexively sprinted for the 3,4 line entrance, 

and the crows in the sky all dove down at once. 

Their blood-red beaks aimed at us. 

‘Shit! If there are zombie dogs, of course there’d be zombie birds...’ 

Bang bang bang bang! 

Caw caw! Caw! 

Flap 

We barely made it inside the 3,4 line entrance in time. 

As soon as we shut the door, zombie crows began pecking at the metal from outside, and for a while, we heard their angry cries and flapping wings as they flew away. 

“Whew...” 

Only then did we lower our weapons and sigh in relief. 

Soon, except for Catherine and me, the faces of Park Sanghyuk’s group were filled with deep doubt. 

Their betrayal rates increased by 5% each. 

[Betrayal Detection is active.] 

[Within 10m: Catherine (0%), Park Sanghyuk (20%), Park Suhyeon (44%), Kim Chansu (24%)] 

‘What the hell... It’s not like a game where your stats drop, but for real...’ 

Having narrowly escaped death from a mutant, lost the rooftop we’d reclaimed, and lost a comrade, they were understandably down-but blaming their employer while taking water and pay? 

If I find better people, I’ll cut them loose immediately. 

[A new zombie lifeform has been registered in the scanner.] 

[Womb] 

A rare mutant that evolves when a pregnant woman is infected, this stationary zombie settles in one place with its offspring. Its size depends on the indoor space, but outdoors it can reach up to 5m tall and 15m wide and deep. 

Its features include the ability to zombify living creatures or corpses and to store many zombies in a dormant state. 

(1) Most of its sensory organs have degenerated, but it is extremely sensitive to the presence of non-zombie lifeforms. 

If it senses a non-zombie approaching, 

it will release its stored zombies to defend itself, so be careful.