Red Dot - 120

Chapter 120

Junseong approached Changmin and stopped as he looked at where Changmin was shining the flashlight.

The flashlight pointed to the area where large air conditioner outdoor units were lined up. Since it was winter, the hospital, which obviously had no use for air conditioners, had covered the units with waterproof covers.

Among them, the closest outdoor unit, where Changmin seemed to have partially removed the cover, showed something strange.

Two square objects, about the size of an A4 sheet of paper, were placed at regular intervals on the floor beneath the outdoor unit. The light from the flashlight revealed a strange machine with colorful wires connected to its front, and underneath the panel that contained the circuit, there appeared to be suspicious objects wrapped in black tape or plastic.

Junseong immediately recognized what they were, and Changmin shined the light on the other nine large outdoor units.

Under the covers of all the outdoor units, which should have been empty, were these strange objects. From a distance, they might appear to be another wide support leg for the units. The size and placement of the objects, even the spacing between them, were exactly the same as under the uncovered outdoor unit, so it didn’t take long for Junseong to figure out what they were.

The reason they hadn’t discovered these objects when checking the roof earlier was partly because of the rain that had fallen since the previous day, making external searches difficult. Also, there hadn’t been any objects or spaces that seemed worth checking thoroughly.

The roof of Inhan Hospital’s main building, used for helicopter landings, couldn’t have any items or structures, and the air conditioner units were arranged in such a narrow space that it was hard for a person to even get between them. The covers on the outdoor units hid almost everything underneath, so without extreme vigilance, it would have been impossible to notice the objects beneath them.

Just as Junseong grabbed Hanseo’s arm and took a step back, a loud sound echoed.

Beep—

A chilling mechanical sound pierced the ears of the three people. All the outdoor units emitted the same sound at once, making it seem like one machine was giving a loud alert.

Changmin’s flashlight shook wildly.

[09:55]

The panel of the device that the flashlight was shining on had a small LCD screen. The faint green light showed numbers.

[09:54]

The numbers blinked like a digital clock, changing every time.

[09:53]

The numbers decreased, and the second-to-last number turned into a ‘4’. Finally realizing what it was, Changmin yelled at Junseong and Hanseo.

“It’s a time bomb!”

The improvised explosive device (IED) that had been still suddenly began to move.

There was less than 10 minutes left on the timer.

Junseong, who had never seen such a realistic bomb even in his dreams, felt a cold rush of fear creeping up his spine.

Just before the first bomb exploded on the roof of Inhan Hospital.

Kang Chaeyi was still hanging her upper body out from the bus roof, shaking her flashlight, unaware of the pain in her arm. She was still desperately looking at the brightly lit 7th floor of the hospital.

Soon, Chaeyi could see a group of people gathering by one of the windows on the 7th floor.

‘Among those people, my brother…’

Her chest swelled with emotion. The thought that she could finally meet her brother, whom she had lost track of, filled her with excitement.

But at the same time, unease grew in her heart.

While chasing after Junseong and running through the subway, the person she actually met wasn’t her brother but his friend, Jang Daewook. Daewook, whom she had known since childhood, had provided her with a lot of information.

One of the things he told her was, ‘Infected people who aren’t zombies yet won’t transmit the virus if bitten.’

Chaeyi had seen with her own eyes Junseong being bitten by a man infected with the zombie virus, so she couldn’t stop crying as she chased after him. The thought that he might one day become one of the zombies she would encounter haunted her.

Fortunately, according to Daewook, Junseong hadn’t been infected at that time. Moreover, even though the infected people and zombies were isolated from the shelter, there was no way Junseong would have acted as a decoy without any plan.

Junseong was quite vulnerable to those close to him, but he was usually very calm and level-headed. He wasn’t the type of person to start something recklessly and was smart enough to improvise and survive in a world like this.

Because of this, Chaeyi hadn’t given up hope and had believed in the clues he had left about the “seventh day” and “Inhan Hospital,” leading her to this place.

‘And my brother has already been through this nightmare countless times…’

As she thought, her emotions overwhelmed her.

How many times had he had to face this nightmare with his own eyes?

“Fool… idiot…”

The curse directed at her brother was filled with pity and regret, not anger or malice.

‘If it weren’t for that incident, we wouldn’t have gone over two months without contacting each other, and the first person Junseong would have told about his dream would have naturally been me, not Daewook.’

While regretting, she gripped the flashlight tightly.

Just then—

Boom—!

The sudden explosion and flash of light from a distance startled her, and she shrank back. The people inside the bus also screamed in surprise, then quickly covered their mouths to silence themselves.

Kyaaak—!

Hearing the explosion, the nearby zombies rushed toward the hospital. The zombies surrounded the building, and the explosion seemed to agitate their hearing, causing even more to gather.

Chaeyi quickly turned off the flashlight and silently observed the hospital. Fortunately, the explosion had occurred on the hospital roof, and the 7th floor seemed to be unaffected.

“Chaeyi, are you okay?”

A quiet voice from below her asked.

Chaeyi, who had come down from the wooden box she was standing on, answered Jang Daewook, who was watching her from the darkness.

“Yeah, I’m fine. But it seems like something exploded on the hospital roof.”

“From the way it exploded, it’s not a natural explosion. I heard the roof is a helipad, so there shouldn’t be anything there that could explode.”

Chaeyi, who had thought it was probably just an appliance that had exploded due to rain, stiffened in the darkness. According to Daewook, there was a possibility that “someone deliberately” caused the explosion.

However, there was no time to investigate or look into it further at that moment.

Daewook, who was wearing one of the night vision goggles that had been taken from the people who had attacked them, gently patted Chaeyi’s head and turned his gaze. The driver, who was wearing one of the remaining night vision goggles, was looking at him, seemingly ready to follow any command.

“We’ll change the plan. The bus will stay here, and only a few of us will…”

“Daewook, over there!”

A woman wearing another pair of night vision goggles, who was on guard at the back of the bus, pointed toward the hospital with her finger.

“Something weird is flying!”

At her words, the dozen or so people inside the bus immediately crowded around the windows facing the hospital. Chaeyi did the same, but since it was so dark, she couldn’t see what was flying. However, Daewook, who was wearing night vision goggles, could see it clearly.

“It’s a drone. It’s carrying something.”

Daewook, who identified the flying object, took the flashlight from Chaeyi, climbed onto the box, and leaned out, swinging the flashlight in a circle like a lighthouse while being careful not to attract the zombies’ attention.

Thanks to the role of the makeshift lighthouse, the drone, which had been flying slowly, increased its speed toward the bus.

When the drone reached the roof of the bus, it attached something to the underside. Upon inspection, Daewook found a small walkie-talkie with an earpiece, something typically used by security guards, and a small note. The note contained simple instructions for using the walkie-talkie, allowing anyone to communicate with it easily.

‘A note in a situation like this… Should I say it’s careless or should I say it’s calm?’

If the person receiving the walkie-talkie didn’t know how to use it, then it would be useless. It was likely that the note was written so the recipient wouldn’t accidentally make a loud noise and attract zombies. Even after the explosion, someone had managed to pay attention to such details. There was no doubt that this was a calm and composed person.

And that ‘calm person’ was, as Daewook had predicted, someone he knew.

-Can you hear me?

As Daewook waved the flashlight to signal, the voice on the other end of the walkie-talkie came through. Despite the situation, Daewook couldn’t help but smile.

“You’re still alive, Kang Junseong.”

-You’re alive too.

Junseong responded playfully, but Daewook could feel a brief hesitation in his voice. As if he knew exactly what Junseong was thinking, Daewook answered first.

“Chaeyi’s with me, she’s fine.”

-Yeah… thanks.

It was a short message filled with unspoken emotions, one that seemed to hold back a lot of words. Daewook smiled again, almost as if he could see Junseong’s face in front of him.

However, Junseong’s tone suddenly changed.

-If possible, we need your help.

“Of course. That’s why we came here in the first place.”

With a confident expression, Daewook looked toward the 7th floor of Inhan Hospital.

“What do we need to do?”