Red Dot - 20

Chapter 20

“Ugh, what the hell! Aagh!”

The man, whose arms were each held by Junseong and Hanseo, screamed. He struggled, but since he was on the verge of turning into a zombie, he kept making choking sounds and thrashing his body.

The man’s struggling strength was stronger than expected.

Junseong shouted at Cheolho, who was sitting on the floor in shock.

“Mister, we’ll drag him out! Hurry and open the door…! Ugh!”

Junseong gritted his teeth at the pain in his right hand.

The man had bitten Junseong’s right hand while struggling. And he bit hard enough to draw bl00d immediately.

In his dreams, he had been bitten by zombies countless times, but this was the first time he had felt such vivid pain. The teeth sinking in felt as if they were piercing through his muscles, and the pain was unbearable.

Despite that, Junseong did not loosen his grip. He had already prepared himself for the possibility of getting bitten, so instead, he pressed down on the man even harder and, together with Hanseo, dragged him toward the door.

“Mister, hurry!”

“Ah, ah, yes!”

Cheolho hurriedly ran to the door.

“Oppa!”

Chaeyi tried to run to Junseong, but Soyeon grabbed her tightly with both hands, stopping her.

“Oppa! Oppa!”

Seeing Junseong get bitten right in front of her, Chaeyi couldn’t hold back her tears any longer. Junseong felt guilty when he saw that.

‘Of all times, why now, when I should be helping her stay strong…’

He should have been calming Chaeyi down and helping her stay mentally stable, but instead, he ended up showing her something even more terrifying.

However, there was no time to comfort her now. Even if they weren’t right in front of them, zombies were nearby, and once the door opened, they had to get out immediately.

Cheolho quickly checked outside and then threw open the shelter door. Junseong and Hanseo used all their strength to drag the man out of the shelter successfully.

“Close the door!”

“B-But the students have to come inside!”

Cheolho motioned for them to hurry inside, but from inside the shelter, someone yelled, “He got bitten! Where the hell do you think you’re coming in?!”

The people in the shelter had seen Junseong get bitten, and now they were convinced he would turn into a zombie. Junseong understood how they felt, so he could only shake his head bitterly.

He gave a small smile to the anxious Cheolho.

“Just hold out for a week, mister. Until then, don’t come outside and keep the door locked.”

After saying that, Junseong heard the eerie sounds of zombies coming from the tunnel they had come through. His expression hardened.

“Close it!”

Cheolho hesitated, but when he heard Junseong’s shout and the terrifying zombie cries from the tunnel, he quickly shut the door tightly.

“Urgh, kuh!”

The man who was still biting Junseong’s hand let out a choking breath as his neck twisted unnaturally. A harsh gurgling sound came from his mouth, followed by a large spurt of bl00d.

Hanseo grabbed the back of the man’s head and slammed it into the shelter wall. Once wasn’t enough, so he bashed it three more times in a row. His terrifying strength left Junseong frozen in shock, unable to even stop him.

The man’s face was completely covered in bl00d from the impact, and he collapsed weakly onto the ground. He didn’t seem like he would get up again.

“He was still a person just a moment ago. Wasn’t that a bit much?”

Junseong asked, but Hanseo simply smiled as if nothing had happened and said, “I actually held back. I wanted to smash him more.”

Meanwhile, the sounds of footsteps and zombie cries from the tunnel grew louder. Since tunnel noises echoed far, the zombies outside the shelter must have heard them and were now chasing after the sounds.

It didn’t matter. That was the plan anyway.

Without even stopping to stop the bleeding from his hand, Junseong pulled out an alarm from his coat pocket. It was the same kind they had used in the training room, perfect for luring zombies with sound.

Beep—Beep—Beep—Beep—

The loud alarm filled the tunnel. As soon as they heard it, the zombies began running toward them in a frenzy.

Even though the subway lights were out, the emergency exit signs on the walls were still working. It was too dark to see far ahead, so Junseong focused on the emergency signs at the end of his vision. If the green lights flickered black for a moment, it meant a zombie had passed in front of them. That would be the time to run.

The goal was to gather every zombie within range of the alarm’s sound and lure them away.

Feeling the overwhelming pressure of the approaching horde, Junseong forced himself to speak casually to Hanseo.

“You should go back inside now. They’ll let you in since you weren’t bitten.”

“No.”

Hanseo answered firmly and grinned.

“This looks way more fun.”

“You crazy bastard.”

This time, Junseong couldn’t hold back his curse.

Do Hanseo was definitely not normal.

Junseong took two flashlights out of his backpack and handed one to Hanseo.

“Are you a fast runner?”

“Probably.”

“If I fall behind, leave me and just keep running.”

As soon as he said that, he felt Hanseo glaring at him coldly in the darkness.

“Did you start this with the intention of surviving or not?”

“Of course, I did. I’m doing this to survive. Just because I fall behind doesn’t mean I’m telling you to go on without me and let me die. Don’t worry.”

Unlike the dreams where he died every night and restarted, this was reality. He absolutely couldn’t die.

Maybe sensing Junseong’s determination, Hanseo smirked.

“I like people who fight to survive.”

Hanseo seemed oddly excited. To Junseong, it only confirmed that he was completely insane.

At that moment.

At the very edge of Junseong’s vision, the emergency sign flickered.

Then.

Flicker, flicker, flicker, flicker, flicker, flicker, flicker, flicker, flicker, flicker, flicker, flicker, flicker!

An uncountable number of lights blinked in succession.

Screeeeech—!

Uwoooohhh!

Junseong pointed his flashlight toward the opposite direction of the incoming zombies.

“Run!”

Hanseo also pointed his flashlight forward and took off running alongside Junseong.

The screen door was broken, so zombies had only come into the tunnel from one direction. On the other side, all the screen doors at each station were still intact, and there were no zombies in the tunnel from that way, as far as he remembered. Feeling relieved, he ran in that direction.

Beep—beep—beep—beep!

The loud alarm kept ringing, and the sounds of screaming and footsteps echoed from far behind him without stopping.

Junseong had encountered zombies many times in his dreams, but he couldn’t bring himself to look back. He focused only on running as fast as he could, pushing down the fear and anxiety that kept creeping up.

‘Don’t get caught.’

It was obvious—if he got caught, he would die. If that many zombies swarmed him and tore him apart, he would be lucky if his head and bones were all that remained. Maybe even those would be gone.

Junseong glanced at Hanseo, who was running beside him, keeping pace. Both of them were shining their flashlights ahead as they ran, so he could see Hanseo’s face clearly.

Unlike him, who was filled with fear, Hanseo looked completely unfazed. In fact, it almost seemed like he was enjoying the situation.

His mental state was clearly different from that of a normal person(?), but strangely enough, it made Junseong feel a little less anxious. Since Hanseo was running with him on this dangerous path where they might die, Junseong couldn’t help but feel grateful.

‘If we had gone to the same college… we might’ve been friends from the start.’

Junseong had given up college to pursue a career as a pro gamer. He let himself imagine going to the same university as his younger sibling and taking classes with Hanseo.

Because of that, the overwhelming tension that had been stiffening his body loosened just enough.

“We’re not just going to keep running like this, are we?”

Unlike Junseong, who was starting to get out of breath, Hanseo’s breathing was still steady. His body, trained through sports, seemed to have excellent stamina.

As they kept shining their flashlights forward, all they saw was an endless tunnel.

A long, straight path.

Junseong knew what was at the end of this tunnel, even though it wasn’t visible yet.

“Do you know what station comes after Inhandae Station?”

“Gaean Station, right?”

There was no need to check the subway map. The emergency lights on the tunnel wall they were running past had a sign that read: “548m straight ahead to Gaean Station.” Since the shelter was between Inhandae Station and Gaean Station, they only had to go 548 meters.

“Gaean Station has a train depot. So the tracks there aren’t just a straight path—there are also rails and tunnels leading to the depot.”

Hanseo looked at Junseong curiously, surprised by his knowledge. Not many people paid attention to such details, so it made sense.

In his dream, Junseong had passed through this tunnel, gone past Gaean Station, and headed toward the hospital. He had planned to take his younger sibling and their friends to the hospital the same way this time. But because of an unexpected situation, he had no choice but to leave them behind at the shelter.

Feeling his breath grow quicker, Junseong continued speaking.

“We’re going to lure those zombies into the tunnel leading to the train depot.”

“What about us?”

Hanseo’s question was obvious. Junseong recalled a scene from his dream and answered.

“There’s an emergency passage between the tunnel to the next station and the train depot tunnel. It connects both sides.”

“Ah.”

Now fully understanding the plan, Hanseo nodded. But his gaze lingered on Junseong’s tense expression.

No matter how he thought about it, it was strange for an ordinary person to know this much about the subway system.

His eyes shifted to Junseong’s left wrist.

Junseong had been constantly checking his watch before, but now he wasn’t even aware that he didn’t have one.

‘Hmmm.’

Hanseo looked at Junseong with an intrigued expression and smirked slightly.