Red Dot - 102

Drip drip.

Drops of water slipping off the raincoats of the men who entered the building created a scattered trail. With no lights anywhere and complete darkness all around, their path made by the rain seemed barely noticeable at a glance.

The man who led the group, walking in the front, stopped. Beyond his night vision goggles, the only light in the dark building was coming from a small office.

Unlike other shops dealing in buying and selling goods, this was an office handling loans, and its single entrance door was quite sturdy, similar to those used in apartments or officetels. There was even an intercom next to it, making it almost indistinguishable from a residential officetel if not for the loan office sign attached to the wall.

The reason for the sturdy door and intercom was understandable. It seemed this place was not a simple loan office.

The man staring at the door also carefully surveyed the surroundings.

Near this office, placed discreetly at the end of the commercial building’s corridor, there were only hard stone walls forming a barrier. There was no space nearby where others could be hiding.

‘No need to force them in this environment.’

It would be a job to capture and force them if they were scattered everywhere. It was a relief that it seemed unnecessary.

Noticing a coated notice board at the entrance of the building, he read that the entire commercial building was on regular holiday for three days starting from the day before the zombie outbreak.

Perhaps because an incident occurred during the holiday period, there were no zombies inside the building, unlike outside. Although there were traces of a struggle at the entrance, the double doors and the secured locks inside made it not difficult to prevent the entry of mindless zombies.

‘Since the commercial space is in a clean state without any chaos, there should be plenty of useful things. It would be good to search around here on the way.’

Inside the building was a small mart. Thinking that it might be filled with essential items like cigarettes and alcohol, which he needed due to withdrawal symptoms, he became a bit anxious.

He initially thought that dragging just one girl would be boring, but now he realized he had been given a very good mission.

As the leader man brought his group to the door of the office, he realized that the light on the intercom had been green from the start.

‘Could it be that they were watching?’

Usually, the light is red, and it turns green when checking outside or during a call.

This meant the intercom had been on, allowing them to monitor outside from earlier.

Just as the men were starting to panic, a young man’s voice with the distinctive tone of an intercom came through.

– Who is it?

It might seem to anyone that the men had come to an apartment and were calmly pressing the bell.

The young man’s voice was surprisingly calm.

– One, two… five people? From the night vision goggles, it doesn’t seem like ordinary survivors…

It was unlikely that five desperate survivors would all be equipped with night vision goggles. Especially the type that is worn like glasses, which is quite expensive and not commonly available.

Though surprised, the leader man thought it didn’t matter if they looked suspicious. They had to break in regardless.

With a haughty tilt of his chin, the leader man said.

“Open the door. If you open it now, I won’t kill you.”

Of course, it was just talk. Once inside, he intended to slit the throats of anyone he didn’t like without hesitation.

– You’re scaring us with such abrupt threats. I won’t open the door if you keep talking like that.

Despite the leader man’s gruff and low-toned voice, the young man remained unperturbed and even indifferent.

The leader man, frowning, took out a handgun from his jacket. He had only planned to use a knife and blunt objects for this mission, but there was nothing better for intimidation than this gun. Showing a weapon that ordinary people would not have would certainly scare the other side.

“This isn’t a joke…!”

– Oh? A Beretta M9? Wow!

Unlike before, the young man’s voice became quite excited. Normally, one would be frightened if someone started brandishing a gun, but the young man seemed more interested in the gun itself.

– It looks real! It’s a bit pathetic seeing an adult carrying a toy gun, though.

Naturally, seeing a real gun in Korea is very rare unless one is a soldier. While it was understandable to think it was fake, the man was more annoyed that his words were interrupted.

The leader man twisted his face even more and raised his voice.

“This is real! Open the door before I blow your head off…!”

– Oh, right. So, why are you here?

“We…!”

– Ah! Are you the ones who have been secretly tailing us since yesterday? In that case, I really don’t want to open the door… How annoying, tailing us.

“Uh, so…!”

– I pretended not to know because it was chaotic, but you took pictures too, didn’t you? I heard the clicking sound. It’s pathetic to be taking pictures even in this situation… Oh, really, you’re such useless people.

With the conversation abruptly cut off and being called ‘useless,’ the leader man’s anger reached its peak.

Suddenly, there was a popping sound from above. The leader man flinched as a powder fell from the sky. Specifically, it fell on all five of them.

“What is this?”

“Ugh! Flour?”

Hearing one of his group members unknowingly tasting the falling powder, the leader man was startled and quickly brushed the flour off his night vision goggles while looking up at the corridor ceiling.

“…!”

He had carefully inspected the surroundings but had never thought to check the ceiling.

There were several balloons hanging densely, as if there had been a party. One of them had burst, leaving an empty space where pieces of the balloon were fluttering.

Inside the balloons hanging from the ceiling was probably the same flour that had just fallen on them. While it might seem like a harmless prank to the other group members, for the leader man, who had a keen interest in firearms and explosives, it was like falling into a trap.

Dust explosion.

A dust explosion refers to the phenomenon where very fine powder, like flour, becomes suspended in the air, and when exposed to flames or heat, it ignites and causes a chain reaction explosion.

If the flour was suspended in the air right now and the leader man fired the gun he had drawn for intimidation, all five of them would be caught in an explosion. There would be no chance of survival.

But thinking differently, it meant they just needed to avoid using the gun.

‘Is the flour meant as a smokescreen for when zombies come in?’

Since they wouldn’t have expected that anyone threatening them would use guns, it seemed like a substitute for a smokescreen to obscure the zombies’ vision.

With the thought that they had devised a clever plan to survive, the man put the gun back in his jacket and told the other group members.

“Just smash it.”

“Yes.”

Two of the other members, besides the leader man, were holding thick and sturdy iron pipes as weapons. They stood confidently in front of the door, believing that breaking it would be easy.

At that moment, with the beep of a walkie-talkie, the young man’s voice came from beyond the door.

– Lock them in.

“Okay!”

Startled by the sudden voice and someone’s loud reply, they turned around.

Swish-!

In the middle of the corridor, as seen through the night vision goggles, a zigzag-patterned folding security cage had been set up. Rushing over, they saw that the opening was secured with chains and a large padlock.

It seemed this was an office of a loan shark that also engaged in illegal activities. It was understandable to have a “time-buying security cage” to prevent police or hostile forces from entering and to destroy items or documents.

Beyond the cage were three small, frightened middle-aged men who seemed as if they would fall far away with just one hit.

“Not opening this?!”

“Eek!”

Terrified middle-aged men fled the corridor and ran away to another place. They must have been hiding in the darkness of another commercial building.

Another member of the leader’s group, holding an iron pipe, was about to strike the cage when another popping sound came from the air, and flour fell down again. The burst location was right above the cage, so all five of them were covered in flour.

– You don’t seriously think the flour is just a trivial smokescreen, do you?

The young man’s laughter came through the intercom.

The leader man, taken aback, brushed the flour from his hands and looked up at the ceiling again. Among the tightly packed balloons, he spotted button-type lighters placed at regular intervals.

The button parts of the hanging lighters had coins placed on them, and wires were wrapped around the body vertically. The wrapped wires extended long and connected to the gap of the door where the young man and his group were hiding.

Earlier, only the balloon directly above the leader man’s group had burst among the many balloons filled with flour. This indicated that the young man inside the office had the ability to manipulate the items on the ceiling freely. Therefore, it was likely that lighting the lighters placed at designated spots was also possible.

They had suddenly been trapped in the corridor and were now exposed to the risk of a dust explosion.

As the leader man panicked, he heard the young man’s voice.

– If you understand the situation, let me ask you properly.

The young man’s cheerful tone gradually became calm.

– Why are you looking for Chaeyi?

The young man, Jang Daewook, who was the leader of the survivor group hiding in this office, already knew that the intruders’ objective was his best friend’s younger sister.