Red Dot - 139

Chapter 139

The path to the director’s apartment at the bl00d center was not very far.

However, dealing with zombies while walking for fifteen minutes was too much to handle.

“Well, I planned to finish it before getting there anyway,” Junseong thought.

Junseong secretly poured the bl00d from the third and final bl00d collection tube into his mouth and glanced back. He naturally turned his body while swinging his machete at the head of a zombie charging at him, so nothing seemed unusual.

Junseong noticed a drone quietly following them from a distance. Its design was clearly different from Gyeong-oh’s, and its color was a deep black.

The drone kept a certain distance, but whenever it seemed like Junseong or Hanseo might spot it, it quickly hid behind a building.

Normally, Junseong would have been too busy fighting zombies to look at the sky, but now things were different.

Even though zombies rushed at them threateningly, they could not actually bite Junseong, who had consumed Hanseo’s bl00d. They were somewhat safe from the zombies’ most fearsome threat. By staying calm and alert in all directions, Junseong soon spotted the drone following them.

Junseong had already suspected a drone was tracking their group while they were on the bus heading to the motel.

In a dream, Gyeong-oh had once mentioned something.

He said that if night vision goggles used by humans were properly connected, they could be used on a drone.

Back then, Ki-hyuk had not yet revealed his true nature, and he was still part of the same team. If Ki-hyuk remembered that dream, it would not be surprising if he recalled Gyeong-oh’s words and prepared a special drone. After all, Ki-hyuk had planted a listening device in Namsub’s phone, knowing the zombie world would become reality.

Junseong learned about the drone’s existence the previous night, around the time they entered the motel.

In the pitch-black night sky, there was a single strange red dot. Since it had only been a few hours since the rain stopped, the night sky was still full of dark clouds, so Junseong guessed it was not a mistaken star.

The red dot blinked periodically and moved slowly, not staying still. Junseong realized it resembled the light he had seen when Gyeong-oh sent his drone to record video.

As expected, the red dot watching them the previous night belonged to that black drone. Even now, Junseong could faintly see a red dot blinking weakly at the front of the drone.

It made sense to use such equipment.

Junseong had learned this painfully through Gyeong-oh’s drone, but such devices were extremely useful in this situation. By flying high, they could scout the surroundings, choose the path with the fewest zombies, and even find shortcuts to their destination.

“If there were no drone, tracking would have been impossible,” Junseong thought.

With Inhan Hospital collapsing in a blaze of light and everything shrouded in pitch-black darkness, there was no way a human could chase a moving bus without relying on a single light. Of course, they could have used a car to track, but the bus team, wary of zombies, would have noticed them long ago.

Junseong guessed the trackers used a drone with night vision to secretly follow the bus and matched their movements when it stopped.

The previous night, Junseong saw only one red dot in the sky.

If there were more, they would have used them for smoother tracking, so Junseong concluded the trackers had only one drone.

And that drone was clearly following them.

“If it’s Ki-hyuk, he would have prioritized tracking me,” Junseong thought.

When the group split into two teams, it was natural to track and monitor the most important one.

And another thing.

“Ki-hyuk doesn’t know how I moved on the eighth day,” Junseong realized.

In the cycles where Junseong worked with Ki-hyuk, they usually ended within seven days, except for one cycle. Junseong often died within seven days after various attempts, and even in the last cycle where he found a “solution,” as Ki-hyuk seemed to know, he died on the sixth day.

Among the cycles involving Ki-hyuk, only one went beyond the seventh day.

Even then, on the seventh night, Ki-hyuk dragged Junseong to an abandoned factory, so his movements on the eighth day consisted only of writhing in pain on a white mat.

Even if Junseong had been active on the eighth day in many cycles and Ki-hyuk remembered it all, it did not matter.

The “reality” of the eighth day was clearly moving along a different path.

“That’s why that thing is following so persistently,” Junseong thought.

Junseong swung his machete like a club, striking down a zombie charging with its bl00d-dripping mouth wide open, and checked the time.

About three minutes remained until the effect of the third bl00d wore off.

By now, the bus team would have entered the second safe route.

It was too late for the drone to turn and track the bus team now. The trackers did not seem to have that intention anyway.

Junseong decided it was time to act and glanced at Hanseo. Hanseo met his eyes, calmly drove a sashimi knife into a zombie’s head, and gave a slight smile.

About fifty meters away from where Junseong and Hanseo fought zombies, behind a building, two men hid their bodies behind the building’s bulk. They stared at Junseong and Hanseo on the drone controller’s camera screen and swallowed dryly.

“Are they monsters or what?” one man muttered.

The large-built man muttered with a horrified face. The smaller man controlling the drone wanted to say the same thing.

Even though they chose paths with fewer zombies like a pinpoint, the number of zombies Junseong and Hanseo had taken down with their machete and sashimi knife exceeded twenty. Handling that many without anyone getting bitten was beyond surprising—it was shocking.

The two men only followed the path Junseong and Hanseo had cleared, so they had not encountered a single living zombie. Junseong and Hanseo skillfully targeted the heads of every zombie they met, felling them with precise movements. Few in their organization could handle zombies so calmly and advance so steadily.

While continuing their cautious pursuit in astonishment, a sudden moment came.

“Gasp!”

The man operating the drone controller gasped.

On the screen, something unusual happened to the primary target.

A zombie had its face buried in the target’s shoulder. The primary target grabbed the zombie’s head tightly, as if trying to pull it off, with wide eyes. The tall man, his teammate, reached out with a stiff expression. The zombie was soon pulled away by the tall man’s hand and had its eye deeply pierced by the sashimi knife.

“Was he bitten?”

The man holding the drone controller trembled at the fingertips, his face pale.

The primary target, with a bl00d-stained shoulder, leaned against a wall and slumped down. His face was not clearly visible as he bowed his head, but the bl00d on his shoulder was clearly captured by the drone’s lens.

The tall man, who had been saying something in front of the primary target, grimaced around his eyes and soon turned away. He started walking without looking back. Leaving the primary target, who was panting and twitching as if showing infection symptoms, the tall man quickly turned a corner and disappeared.

“Quick, try the radio.”

At the drone operator’s words, the large-built man nodded vigorously and pulled out the radio. The distance to the boss at the abandoned factory was too far for direct communication, so he radioed a superior waiting at a hideout midway.

“Hyungnim, something happened,” the large-built man said.

-What?

A rough, indifferent voice asked.

“It looks like the target… got bitten by a zombie,” the large-built man replied.

-What?!

The other side let out a startled sound, followed by cursing.

-Fvck, that’s not good… Hey, are you sure? Are you sure he was bitten?

“It seems like it, but…”

-Seems like it, what’s that? Hurry up and check properly! Fvck, if he’s really bitten, we might all be screwed!

It was unfair for them, but the man they called hyungnim was completely obsessed with the target. The thought that he might kill them all out of rage sent chills down their spines.

-Confirm if he’s bitten, and if he’s infected, gag his mouth and secure him before he turns.

Considering hyungnim’s obsession with the target, this was the least they could do.

They clearly saw a living zombie bury its face in the target’s defenseless shoulder. There was no way he wasn’t bitten, so this was their only chance to stay alive. Hyungnim would likely want to keep the target even if he turned into a zombie.

“Understood,” the large-built man said.

Wiping cold sweat from their foreheads and exchanging glances, the two men moved quietly.

Following the drone watching the target’s movements, they reached his location with tense faces. Even now, the target was twitching his fingertips and breathing roughly. Since he wasn’t letting out roars or strange moans, it seemed there was still some time before he fully turned.

Relieved, the large-built man approached close enough to touch. He pulled out a handkerchief to use as a gag, rolling it up while focusing on the target’s shoulder.

The target’s shoulder was indeed soaked with bl00d. The thick, dark red bl00d seeping through the coat…

“Huh?”

Upon closer inspection, there was no trace of the coat being torn or pierced by teeth. Moreover, the bl00d soaking the shoulder wasn’t fresh but had a sticky, dark red hue.

It was like a zombie’s bl00d.

As the large-built man sensed something was off, his collar was suddenly grabbed.

By the white hand of the target, who they thought was surely bitten by a zombie.

“Hello,” the target said.

The target, who had been bowing his head until now, lifted his face calmly, as if nothing had happened.

Before they could understand the situation, a short scream came from the side.

“Argh!”

Turning his head sharply, the large-built man saw the smaller man, who had been holding the drone controller, collapsed face-down on the ground. Someone’s long leg mercilessly stomped on his head, causing another scream.

Hanseo, who was crushing the smaller man’s head as if to smash it, raised his sashimi knife and aimed it at his neck. Throughout, Hanseo’s face showed no emotion other than his characteristic coldness.

As expected, the drone was focused on the primary target, Junseong, so the trackers didn’t notice Hanseo circling the building to return to this spot. They only just realized they had been caught.

The large-built man, grabbed by the collar by Junseong, suddenly felt a sharp sting at his neck and turned his head. A bright red streak of bl00d trickled down from where the sharp machete touched his neck.

“I have a message for your boss. Will you deliver it for me?” Junseong asked.

Junseong’s eyes curved like crescent moons as he met the man’s stiff gaze.