Red Dot - 29

Episode 29 –

Kindly, someone had written ‘Zombies Present’ in red letters on the doors from the first floor to the fourth floor. Even those with strong hearts would probably hesitate to open the doors after seeing that.

“Did this exist?”

Junseong found it strange as he looked at the red letters, something he had never seen in his dreams whenever he used these emergency stairs. Unlike the dreams that repeated like being engraved on a plate, whenever he saw such a tiny variable like this, his heart pounded for no apparent reason.

However, just looking at those letters made it impossible to understand the situation. So, for now, they decided to ignore it and proceed upstairs.

From the fifth floor, there was nothing written on the doors. The floors up to the fourth were filled with zombies, but from the fifth floor onwards, there were no zombies at all.

After repeating the pattern of climbing and resting, they finally reached the seventh floor. By that time, both Junseong and Taeju were feeling the fatigue in their legs.

Hanseo, who seemed perfectly fine except for slightly disrupted breathing, supported Junseong by holding his arm.

“Are you okay?”

“Haa, haa… Well, for now…”

He keenly realized the lack of exercise.

Junseong, taking a deep breath, opened the door and went inside.

Then,

“Ahhhh!”

“Zo, zombies! Zombies!”

Fortunately, in the brightly lit seventh-floor corridor thanks to the backup power, there happened to be a couple passing by. A young couple pointed at Junseong and screamed.

“What?! Zombies?!”

“Ugh! Save us!”

At the mention of zombies, screams and cries echoed from all around. Even without listening to each story, it seemed like they all narrowly escaped from zombies outside and barely made it to this place.

“We’re not zombies.”

As Junseong spoke while catching his breath, the people who had only been screaming at them properly looked at them.

“Oh, what’s this? Your clothes are stained with blood.”

“Cough, who said anything about zombies?”

They muttered awkwardly among themselves. Without realizing it, six people had gathered in the corridor.

“Are you the ones who came for refuge?”

A male nurse in his late twenties rushed over with a welcoming face. He had such a carefree and worry-free sunny face, as if he knew the situation of ferocious zombies outside the hospital very well.

The approaching nurse tilted his head with a puzzled expression.

“But how did you come in when all the emergency stairs should be locked?”

“The emergency staircase on the third floor with the number 4 written on it opens.”

The woman in her forties with permed hair shouted angrily after hearing Junseong’s answer.

“No! Who decided to lock all the stairs?! They’re not doing their job properly!”

A woman shouted, looking around at the people.

It seemed that each person who took refuge in the hospital had decided to lock and manage each of the eight emergency staircases. It seemed that thanks to one person who lazily did their job, whether it was because of zombies or to prevent more people from coming in, Junseong’s group was able to enter.

The nurse with a gentle face apologized to the gathered people.

“Since you’ve come up so hard, we’ll conduct a physical examination, and if there are no problems, we’ll assign rooms to you. Since there are unused beds anyway, it’s okay, right?”

“Well, do as you please. Just pay attention to the examination.”

Six people who were clearly not dressed as patients nodded. Without further ado, they entrusted everything to the nurse and entered their respective rooms, which were also their hospital rooms.

Junseong, Hanseo, and Taeju stood in front of a private ward, which seemed unused at the moment, where they were expected to check and confirm any bite marks and injuries.

The nurse smiled widely and comforted the three of them.

“Thank you for coming. I’m Nurse Park Hyunje. Currently, I’m responsible for the basic care of survivors and patients on the 7th floor.”

Hyunje, who briefly introduced herself, showed a surprised reaction.

“I never expected someone to come through all those zombies. You’re impressive.”

Playfully grabbing his thumb, Hyunje asked who would like to take off their clothes first.

“Get examined first and then rest.”

“Is it okay, though?”

As Taeju wanted to rest as soon as possible, he entered the room with Hyunje.

When the room’s door closed, Junseong grabbed Hanseo’s arm tightly.

“Don’t trust that person.”

Junseong whispered so quietly that only Hanseo could hear, his face stern.

“The Nurse Park Hyunje I know is a completely different person.”

Junseong’s voice trembled with unease.

After Taeju, Hanseo underwent the examination. Since both showed no abnormalities and even lacked signs of life, they quickly received an OK sign.

Finally, Junseong entered the room.

“I’ll take the coat.”

Hyunje, taking the warm coat from Junseong, carefully examined the bloodstains on its surface.

“I don’t know the details, but it feels like you’ve been through a struggle. You have the most blood among the three.”

“It happened unexpectedly.”

Nonchalantly responding, Junseong started unbuttoning his shirt. With the coat on one arm, Hyunje watched Junseong undress in silence.

“What happened to the bruises on your arm?”

On Junseong’s left arm, even after removing the shirt, four distinct bruises remained. It was noteworthy to have such evenly spaced bruises.

Unable to explain in detail and feeling no need to do so, Junseong remained silent. It wasn’t pleasant to have someone scrutinize and show interest in every part of his body. Now, looking at the machete he had taken from the belt, Hyunje exclaimed, “You came through the zombies with this!” with excitement.

Fully undressing his upper body and facing Hyunje, Junseong, as if it were natural, said, “Please take off the lower part too.” Junseong obediently reached for the belt.

Suddenly approaching, Hyunje whispered discreetly, “The person earlier seemed quite healthy too, but in a different sense, you seem healthy in another way.”

“Is that so?”

Junseong couldn’t understand why Hyunje was whispering so closely, but he wanted to finish the examination quickly and leave this uncomfortable hospital room. Being in the same space with someone pretending to be someone else was more repulsive than he had expected.

As Junseong was lowering his pants, Hyunje’s fingers started from just above the buttocks, tracing along the spine, and passing through the lower back. The sensation was so chilling that Junseong turned around abruptly. Unlike the sunny appearance earlier, Hyunje now sent an inexplicable and eerie gaze.

“Your lower back and spine line are so beautiful that I unconsciously touched it. I apologize.”

“Yes…”

Not only was it surprising to be touched on the lower back, but the comment about it being beautiful was even less pleasant.

With only underwear remaining, Junseong, turning around in a circle, felt uncomfortable with Hyunje’s gaze scanning his body up and down. Even though it wasn’t his first physical examination, he couldn’t understand why it felt this way. It was as if he was being judged by eyes.

“Well, that man himself is suspicious, so it might feel this way.”

Trying to convince himself, Junseong realized with a start as Hyunje held his right hand.

“Are you hurt?”

As the shirt sleeves were long, the bandage wasn’t visible, but now, with the clothes completely off, it couldn’t go unnoticed.

“This is trouble.”

The wound on his right hand was from a severe bite by a man who was in the process of turning into a zombie at the shelter. Since it was clearly a human bite wound, removing the bandage would undoubtedly cause a commotion.

Junseong, who hadn’t anticipated the wound on his right hand, looked perplexed.

Hyunje, who was silently observing him, asked, “Since it’s okay, can I take it off for a moment?”

Junseong decided to show it neatly since it would be an issue anyway.

As he unwrapped the bandage and removed the gauze, a vivid bite mark with coagulated blood became visible.

Although Junseong thought it would be a source of contemplation, Hyunje surprisingly remained calm.

“Bitten by a person? It seems like it happened a few hours ago. Is that correct?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

As Hyunje had mentioned, the wound was indeed inflicted the previous evening.

Now it was around 11 a.m.

Roughly estimating the time, it had been approximately 17 hours since the bite.

Not many people precisely knew how much time it took for someone bitten by a zombie to turn into one. Depending on the bitten area, it varied, but based on just one bite like the man from yesterday, it took about 15 minutes or so for the heart to stop, causing death simultaneously with turning into a zombie.

In other words, by looking at the severity of Junseong’s wound, it was apparent whether he was bitten by a human or a zombie.

Hyunje smiled as if to reassure him.

“If it’s been a few hours, you’re definitely not infected. By the way, did someone want to mimic a zombie here? Must have been painful…”

Hyunje skillfully reapplied the bandage. Watching his movements, Junseong realized that Hyunje’s actions were as proficient as those of a medical professional.

“Is he really a nurse, or maybe a doctor? Then why impersonate someone else?”

Questions piled upon questions.