Red Dot - 29

Chapter 29

On the doors from the 1st to the 4th floor, someone had kindly written in red letters, “Zombies inside.” Seeing that, no one would have the guts to open the doors.

‘Was this here before?’

Junseong felt confused as he noticed the red writing he had never seen in his dreams before. Unlike the repetitive dreams that played out exactly the same way, small differences like this made his heart pound.

However, just reading the message wasn’t enough to figure out the whole situation. For now, he decided to ignore it and keep going up.

From the 5th floor onward, there was no writing on the doors. Zombies filled the floors up to the 4th, but from the 5th floor up, there were none at all.

After repeatedly climbing and resting, they finally reached the 7th floor. By then, both Junseong and Taeju felt their legs trembling.

Hanseo, who looked completely fine except for slightly heavy breathing, reached out and supported Junseong’s arm.

“Are you okay?”

“Haa… haa… Uh… for now…”

He was painfully reminded of how out of shape he was.

After taking a deep breath to calm himself, Junseong opened the door and stepped inside.

And then—

“Kyaaaah!”

“Z-Zombie! Zombie!”

The 7th-floor hallway was brightly lit thanks to the backup power. Just at that moment, a man and a woman happened to be passing by. They looked like a young married couple, and they screamed while pointing at Junseong.

“What?! A zombie?!”

“Aaaah! Save us!”

The word “zombie” instantly caused a chain reaction of screams and cries throughout the area. Junseong didn’t need to hear their full stories to understand—they were survivors who had barely escaped the zombies outside and taken refuge here.

“We’re not zombies.”

Catching his breath, Junseong spoke, and only then did the screaming people take a proper look at them.

“Oh… it’s just bl00d on their clothes.”

“Ahem… W-Who started shouting ‘zombie’ so recklessly?”

Looking embarrassed, they murmured among themselves. By now, six people had gathered in the hallway.

“Are you refugees?”

A male nurse in his late twenties ran up with a relieved expression. His bright and cheerful face seemed completely out of place for someone who understood the dangerous situation outside, where zombies were roaming freely.

As he approached, the nurse tilted his head in confusion.

“Wait… but all the emergency stairways leading here should be locked. How did you get in?”

“The emergency stairway marked as number 4 in the basement was unlocked.”

Hearing Junseong’s answer, a middle-aged woman with permed hair in her forties shouted sharply.

“What?! Who was in charge of locking stairway number 4?! Someone didn’t do their job properly!”

She turned to the others and yelled.

It seemed that the survivors had assigned one person to lock each of the eight emergency stairways. Whether it was to keep zombies out or to prevent more people from entering, one of the eight must have been careless, allowing Junseong’s group to get in.

The friendly-looking male nurse turned to the gathered people and spoke calmly.

“Since they went through all that effort to get here, we’ll conduct a physical inspection, and if they’re clear, we’ll assign them rooms. There are still empty beds, so it should be fine, right?”

“Well, do as you want. Just be thorough with the inspection.”

The six people, who clearly weren’t hospital patients, reluctantly nodded. Then, leaving everything to the nurse, they returned to their assigned rooms, which served as their living spaces.

Junseong, Hanseo, and Taeju followed the nurse down the hallway until they stopped in front of a patient room. It seemed to be a private room that was currently unused, where they would have to undress and check for bite marks.

The nurse smiled warmly and reassured them.

“You must have had a hard time getting here. I’m Nurse Park Hyunje. Right now, I’m in charge of basic care for the survivors and patients on the 7th floor.”

After introducing himself, Hyunje looked at them with admiration.

“I never imagined anyone could break through that many zombies to get here. That’s amazing.”

Grinning, he even gave them a thumbs-up before asking who wanted to go first.

“Get checked first and take a rest.”

“Can I?”

Taeju, who was desperate for a break, quickly entered the room with Hyunje.

As soon as the door closed and Taeju was out of sight, Junseong grabbed Hanseo’s arm tightly.

“Don’t trust that man.”

With a firm expression, Junseong whispered just loud enough for Hanseo to hear.

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

His voice trembled with unease.

After Taeju, it was Hanseo’s turn for inspection. Both of them passed without issue since they had no injuries or scratches.

Finally, it was Junseong’s turn.

“I’ll hold your coat for you.”

Hyunje took Junseong’s warm coat, closely examining the bloodstains on it.

“I can’t tell for sure, but it looks like you’ve been through a serious fight. You have the most bl00d on you out of the three.”

“It just ended up that way.”

Junseong casually responded while unbuttoning his shirt. Hyunje slung the coat over his arm and silently watched as Junseong undressed.

“How did you get that bruise on your arm?”

On Junseong’s left arm, there were still four bruises that looked like they had been wrapped around it. It was rare to have exactly four bruises in such an even pattern, so it was natural for someone to be curious.

He didn’t feel the need to explain it in detail, and it was difficult to do so anyway, so he kept quiet. Having someone react to every part of his body and show interest in it wasn’t exactly pleasant. Right now, the nurse was more focused on the machete he had unhooked from his belt, making a fuss.

“Oh, so you used this to get through the zombies!”

Junseong completely took off his shirt and looked at Hyunje. The nurse naturally said, “Please take off the lower part as well.” Junseong obediently reached for his belt buckle.

As he did, Hyunje moved in closer and whispered in a secretive tone.

“The other guy earlier had a really nice body, but yours is good in a different way.”

“Is that so?”

Junseong didn’t understand why Hyunje was standing so close to him, but all he wanted was to finish the inspection quickly and get out of this uncomfortable hospital room. He never thought it would feel so unsettling to be in the same space as someone pretending to be a completely different person.

Just as Junseong was lowering his pants, Hyunje’s fingers suddenly ran from the small of his back, tracing along his spine. The sensation was so unnerving that Junseong whipped around. Unlike his cheerful expression from earlier, Hyunje was now giving him an eerie and unreadable look.

“I couldn’t help myself. Your lower back and spine line are so beautiful that I ended up touching it without thinking. Sorry about that.”

“Uh… yeah.”

It wasn’t just the unexpected touch that startled him. More than that, the word “beautiful” didn’t feel like a compliment at all.

Now down to only his underwear, Junseong stood still as Hyunje circled him, scanning his body from head to toe. He had undergone body inspections before, but he couldn’t understand why this one felt so unpleasant. It was as if he was being evaluated like an object.

‘Well, maybe it’s just because this guy himself is suspicious.’

As Junseong tried to convince himself, he suddenly felt Hyunje gently lifting his right hand.

“You’re injured?”

Since the sleeves of his shirt were long, the bandages weren’t easily noticeable. But now that he had taken off everything, it was impossible to hide.

‘This is bad.’

The wound on his right hand was from when a man at the shelter, who was in the process of turning into a zombie, had bitten him hard. It was clearly a bite mark from human teeth, and if he unwrapped the bandage, it would definitely cause a scene.

Caught off guard, Junseong hesitated, his face stiffening.

Hyunje, watching him closely, asked, “It’s okay. Can you unwrap it for me?”

There was no way to avoid showing it, and trying to hide it would only cause more problems. So, Junseong decided to just reveal it openly.

He unwrapped the bandage and peeled away the gauze, revealing a deep, bl00d-crusted bite mark.

He expected Hyunje to recoil in fear, but surprisingly, he remained calm.

“This was a human bite, right? Based on how it looks, it’s been several hours since you were bitten. Am I right?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

As Hyunje guessed, the wound was from last night.

Right now, it was around 11 AM.

Estimating roughly, it had been about 17 hours since he was bitten.

There weren’t many people who knew exactly how long it took for someone to turn into a zombie after being bitten. It probably depended on the severity of the bite, but judging from what happened to the man yesterday, if someone was bitten in only one place, they usually died and turned into a zombie within 15 minutes.

In other words, just looking at the way Junseong’s wound had healed was enough to tell whether he had been bitten by a human or a zombie.

Hyunje smiled reassuringly.

“If this much time has passed, then you’re definitely not infected. But whoever bit you must have been trying to act like a zombie or something. That must’ve hurt.”

Hyunje personally rewrapped the bandage for him. As Junseong watched, he realized that Hyunje’s movements were skilled, like someone with real medical training.

‘Is he actually a real nurse or doctor? Then why is he pretending to be someone else?’

More and more questions piled up in his mind.