Red Dot - 16

– Episode 16 –

Junseong grasped the sides of the card-scanning machine, leaped over the thigh-high bar effortlessly, and, without hesitation, the rest of the group followed suit. Except for Junseong, everyone else was well-versed in using their bodies, being students of physical education, making this task a breeze.

On the contrary, the zombies got entangled in the turnstile’s bar, bent forward. A few layers of zombies piled up on top of it, and occasionally, a few of them managed to cross the bar. Some had their faces partially smashed against the ground, and others lost fingers as they were stepped on by other zombies. However, for these beings that sought only the flesh and blood of the living, bodily harm was not an issue at all.

From here on, there were no zombies blocking their way. Instead, the horrifying screams of the zombies gathering from all directions would form a massive tail behind the running group.

Crack!

Ka-chung!

Huuu-!

As Junseong and his group exerted all their strength to run, the unpleasant screams grew louder and more numerous behind them. It was a terrifying number, to the point where zombies on the platform with screen doors were being trampled.

“Where do we go from here?! Do we just open any door?!” Jiwoo urgently shouted, leading the way towards the screen doors.

However, to their dismay, the door handles were not on the platform side but faced the direction of the train tracks. In other words, they were unable to manually open the screen doors from their current position.

Jiwoo realized this belatedly, and her face turned grim.

“W-What is this? It won’t open! It won’t open!”

In a panic, Jiwoo threw the wrench she was holding.

The confusion wasn’t limited to Jiwoo. Chaeyi and Soyeon also had no idea that the emergency door only opened from the side facing the tracks.

At that moment, Junseong, looking at his watch anxiously, ran along the side of the screen door.

“Follow me! Quickly!”

As Junseong shouted, Chaeyi and Soyeon quickly followed. Jiwoo, who arrived late, found the wrench she threw lying on the ground right in front of her eyes.

“Do something sensible, idiot.”

The cold voice, devoid of laughter, was chilling enough to momentarily forget even the pursuing zombies. Jiwoo stared at Hanseo with a face without a trace of a smile and held her breath.

A horde of zombies, tirelessly running, approached from behind Junseong’s group.

“What should we do now?! Huh?!” Jiwoo shouted again.

The group had reached the edge of the platform, and the screen door was acting as a barricade.

In just a few seconds, the zombies would likely devour them all.

“Ahhhh!”

In the midst of fear, Jiwoo, unable to control her emotions, wildly swung the wrench at the screen door next to the emergency door. Fortunately, it was reinforced glass, so it didn’t shatter, but a few very small shards fell off, making it difficult to notice.

During this, the zombies’ speed showed no sign of slowing down.

“Now what?! What should we do?!”

Jiwoo screamed again.

At the end of the platform and in the corner where the screen door was leaning, there was nowhere else to go.

In a few seconds, they would all be bitten by the zombies.

“Uwaaaa!”

Overwhelmed by fear, Jiwoo swung the wrench at the screen door next to the emergency door once again. The glass cracked slightly, making a few tiny fragments fall off.

During this, the zombies continued to approach at full speed.

“Oppa… W-What should we do?”

Soyeon, unable to control her tears, held onto Chaeyi, who was trembling. Chaeyi, trembling, grabbed Junseong’s sleeve. Even in this situation, Chaeyi looked down at her wristwatch anxiously.

Feeling frustrated, Chaeyi bit her lower lip and shook Junseong’s sleeve when he was checking the time.

Tak-

As Junseong, Chaeyi, and Soyeon stood still, the sound of the latch being released came from the screen door right next to them.

Following that, the door in their direction opened, and a middle-aged man appeared from the direction of the tracks.

“Hurry, come this way!”

A warm-faced man alternately shouted urgently, looking at Junseong’s group and the approaching zombie horde.

“Get in! Quickly!”

Junseong silently expressed gratitude to the man who arrived just in time and pushed the others inside first. Chaeyi, Soyeon, and Jiwoo went in, and when it was Hanseo’s turn, he tried to push him in, but with a strong force, Hanseo sent Junseong first through the screen door.

‘No, this can’t be!’

In his dreams, Junseong always put the group in first and entered last. Even though there was a thought that if he restarted, he could avoid being bitten, the greater reason was that he considered his sister and her friends as the “entities to be protected.”

Entering last and closing the door just in time, zombies had rushed toward them. The sight of zombies densely packed against the screen door, beating the glass with bloodied hands, created tremendous fear, making it difficult to find an empty space.

Back then, it was a close call, but this time, there was one more person.

In a situation like now, the person entering last was almost 100% likely to get bitten.

Out of habit, he pushed Hanseo in first. If he had chosen to be the last one, there would be no restart; it would have been a complete game over.

Now, the subject of that game was Hanseo.

No, he thought it was.

The zombies crowded behind Hanseo seemed to pause for a moment. It was so brief that it felt like a momentary illusion, making him wonder if he had seen it wrong.

Following that, Hanseo swiftly entered the screen door, making a loud sound as he closed the door. One of the zombie’s fingers, which had reached through a crack, got caught and fell off as the screen door closed with a loud snap.

Kraaaaah!

Thunk, ka-thak, crack!

Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, thud!

The zombies tightly pressed against the screen door vigorously struck the glass, howling loudly. Although it was understandable that the instinct to attack took precedence due to the presence of living humans, at a glance, it seemed as if they were screaming wildly, as if frustrated by missing their captured prey right in front of them.

“Huff, huff…”

Jiwoo, who was standing on the platform, suddenly sat down on the floor. Following that, Chaeyi and Soyeon’s legs gave out, as if a signal had been given.

Junseong watched the zombies beating on the screen door and suddenly felt someone supporting him like an arm.

“Don’t sit on the floor; endure a bit. Let’s find a clean place to sit.”

It seemed like everyone was looking for something clean in the flipped-over mess of zombie blood and dust, thanks to that somewhat eccentric suggestion.

Junseong silently watched Hanseo, who took his backpack and offered it to him. Because it contained very important items for him, the fact that Hanseo was holding it for him was something he couldn’t care less about now.

‘Still strange.’

Hanseo’s relaxed face, consistent with the reaction of the zombies just before the screen door closed, bothered Junseong. It was only a moment, and perhaps others didn’t notice anything strange, but for Junseong, who thoroughly calculated time and the results of each pattern, the discomfort he felt in succession couldn’t be ignored.

“Oh, we almost had a big problem.”

Junseong, who had been observing Hanseo, turned to look at the middle-aged man with a sigh of relief.

“Thank you. We survived because of you.”

When looking at Hanseo, he was so cold and composed, but when facing the man, he even showed a soft smile. Hanseo erased the curve of his mouth when he looked at Junseong.

“It was fortunate that I came to check the situation. Is everyone okay?”

The man scanned the group with somewhat tense eyes. Having just escaped death in front of their eyes, he was probably concerned that there might be an infected person among them. Junseong knew better than anyone that no one in the group had been bitten, both in his dreams and now.

“Everyone is just tired. No one has been bitten.”

“Well, that’s fortunate.”

Even at a glance, it seemed that the blood splattered from the zombies had only touched them, and there were no direct injuries or wounds.

The relieved man supported the group who had been sitting on the floor, helping them stand. Junseong also stepped forward to take care of Chaeyi, and she quietly asked.

“Oppa, did you know that this man would come?”

“No.”

In reality, Junseong knew, but he couldn’t say that he had experienced it firsthand in his dreams.

Even if he believed it right away, it would only cause more trouble. When he honestly confessed everything to Chaeyi in his dreams, she not only criticized him for why he had to come up with a solution, but later, because she knew his secret, she became a target for those who wanted to use it.

‘I have to prevent that.’

He wanted to keep his sister away from the ‘danger of humans,’ not just zombies.

Chaeyi looked at Junseong suspiciously and let out a short sigh.

She clearly thought that it was an exaggeration to say that someone who had thoroughly prepared for this zombie situation didn’t know the direction to open the door of the screen door. Moreover, she had a feeling that she knew where and how the zombies would appear when fighting them. It seemed like she was visualizing it like a picture, showing abnormal reactions as if her eyes were stuck on the back of her head. Soyeon, who stood almost at the back, also seemed to grasp how the danger would unfold.

Speculation, but perhaps she had even anticipated the appearance of this man who would open the screen door. If Chaeyi had expected this situation without any prior agreement or knowledge, then…

With such thoughts, Chaeyi lowered her head. She didn’t believe that her brother, who had thoroughly prepared for this zombie situation, wouldn’t know the direction to open the door of the screen door. Besides, if he had anticipated this situation without any prior agreement, today was their first meeting…

Such thoughts crossed Chaeyi’s mind as she sighed briefly. There had never been any talk of her brother having premonitions or seeing the future. It wasn’t like Nostradamus or anything.

It was reasonable to think that everything up to now was just a coincidence falling into place.