Red Dot - 4

Chapter 4

“Aaaaah-!”

“Sh1t, what the hell is all that!”

I flinched at the sounds coming from outside. Along with desperate screams, I heard someone collapse and crash into something. Then, as if in response, there was a terrifying roar like a wild beast.

The loud noises outside gradually started to fade. The screams that had been everywhere disappeared, as if someone had covered everyone’s mouths. The only sounds left were a few unhuman movements and eerie growls. Even those noises became almost silent after a few minutes.

“Huk, huhuk….”

A male student, who had his knees pulled up while crouching on the closed toilet lid, began to cry with a hopeless expression. Since three people had to hide in the small bathroom stall, one person had no choice but to climb onto the toilet. That was why he was sitting there, and maybe because of that, his body had relaxed a little.

“Why, why is this happening…. Huk….”

As the crying male student’s face was soon covered in tears, a white tissue was held out in front of him. It was the last tissue left inside the bathroom where they were hiding.

A short-haired female student with a blank expression handed him the tissue and spoke in a low voice.

“Yang Jiwoo, wipe your tears and blow your nose quietly. Instead of crying, think about how we’re going to get out of here.”

Jiwoo looked at her with a lump in his throat at her cold and heartless voice.

“How can you be so…! Mmph!”

The glasses-wearing female student in the same stall quickly covered Jiwoo’s mouth as he spoke in a trembling voice.

“Shh! Are you crazy? What if those zombie bastards hear us?”

The glasses-wearing girl, who had whispered in an annoyed voice, must have been silently crying too. She rubbed her damp eyes roughly with the back of her hand and looked at the indifferent, short-haired girl standing across from her.

“Chaeyi, what do we do now? We can’t stay here forever. We have to call for help.”

“I already tried three times.”

Kang Chaeyi held up her phone. On the screen, the words ‘Emergency number’ and ‘112’ were displayed.

“And now, I can’t even make calls. The internet is down too.”

Even she couldn’t help but show a dark expression this time. The other two looked much more hopeless than she did.

“Then what do we do!”

Jiwoo threw the damp, single tissue into the trash can and raised his voice.

“It’s been so long since we called for help, but the police aren’t showing up, and now we can’t even call them anymore!”

“Is that my fault?”

“Who said it was your fault?! I’m asking what we should do now!”

“Why are you asking me, Mr. Class President?”

Jiwoo found Chaeyi’s calm face unbearably annoying. Overcome with anger, he was about to yell, but his mouth was covered again.

“Hey, is this really the time to fight? Lower your voice!”

Jiwoo glared furiously as Lee Soyeon, the glasses-wearing student, covered his mouth for the second time. He pushed her hand away irritably, but she ignored his glare and spoke to Chaeyi.

“Let’s go out and hide somewhere else, like a lecture room or something. This place is too dangerous.”

“Are you out of your mind?!”

Jiwoo grabbed Soyeon’s arm and shook her, his face filled with disbelief.

“There are zombies everywhere, and you want to go outside?!”

“No, Soyeon’s right. We have to get out of here.”

“Are you crazy too?!”

Ignoring Jiwoo’s outburst, Chaeyi placed her hand on the bathroom stall door and listened for any sounds outside. There was nothing.

“The entrance door to this bathroom is just a single glass panel, and on top of that, the lock broke a few days ago, so we can’t even lock it. The space inside is way too small.”

They had successfully hidden in the girls’ bathroom to escape the suddenly appearing zombies, but there were only four stalls, and the entrance door was broken. They couldn’t just crouch here forever. More importantly, if even one zombie got in, there would be nowhere to run.

‘At the very least, we need somewhere we can sit properly and rest.’

This place wasn’t safe at all. They had no idea when zombies might come in, and there was no telling when the police would arrive. They needed to wait for rescue in a safer location.

Click.

The sound of the bathroom stall door opening was louder than expected. Jiwoo swallowed hard and tensed up, while Soyeon focused intently on any noises outside.

Luckily, it didn’t seem loud enough to be heard outside. Or maybe the zombies that had filled the hallway had already moved elsewhere.

Just as Chaeyi was about to push the door open completely, Soyeon grabbed her wrist.

“Where are we going?”

That question made her pause and think for a moment.

The classrooms they passed while running away all had their doors wide open. Inside each classroom, zombies were brutally eating students, and the hallway wasn’t much different. It was pure luck that nothing happened to them, except for some zombie bl00d getting on their clothes when they bumped into them while escaping.

‘I don’t know how long it takes to turn into a zombie, but getting bitten definitely spreads it.’

Among the zombies they encountered in the hallway, some were students who had left the classroom first as soon as the lecture ended. The three of them, who had stayed behind to prepare for their new team project, had to see their horrifyingly disfigured classmates up close. Just like in typical zombie movies, all of them had been bitten somewhere on their bodies.

It took about 20 to 30 minutes from the time the students left the classroom to when they turned into zombies. They had been hiding in this bathroom for almost 30 minutes now, so they had to assume that all the attacked students had already turned into zombies.

‘There are still zombies outside. So where should we go? The second floor, the first floor… or should we go outside?’

Stairs were dangerous places where it was hard to escape if zombies attacked, and injuries were more likely. If there was no place to hide on this floor, they would have to quickly pass through the stairs to move. However, since they had no idea what was happening downstairs, moving recklessly wasn’t an option.

At that moment, Chaeyi, who still hadn’t decided where to go, suddenly had an idea. Her eyes lit up as she turned to look at Jiwoo. Startled by her sudden sharp gaze, Jiwoo flinched.

“You know the assistant’s office password, right?”

“Huh?”

Jiwoo, who was blinking in confusion, suddenly gasped as he remembered.

As the class representative, Jiwoo was supposed to collect student reports and take them to the assistant’s office after the professor’s lecture today. Earlier, the assistant had told him they would be out for a personal matter in the afternoon and had given him the password to leave the reports inside.

Jiwoo quickly nodded.

“Yes, I know it.”

That was a relief.

The assistant’s office had been locked even before the zombies appeared, so it was likely still empty. Besides the assistant, hardly anyone knew the newly installed digital lock’s password, so it should still be a safe place.

On top of that, the assistant’s office was near the stairs leading to the second floor. Once things calmed down, they would have to go downstairs, and if they listened carefully by the door, they might hear the rescue team coming up. The office also had snacks and drinks for guests, making it a great place to wait for help.

The bathroom they were hiding in was right in the middle of the hallway.

The assistant’s office wasn’t too far away.

Soyeon and Jiwoo must have realized this too, as their faces brightened a little.

“Then let’s go to the assistant’s office first…”

Chaeyi trailed off and looked down at her phone.

Two hours ago, just before the lecture started, she had received a message from her older brother.

[After class, hide in the assistant’s office.]

Normally, he would be too busy playing games with his online friends, fighting some world boss or whatever, to even think about messaging her. But now, not only had he sent a message, but he also specifically told her to “hide” in the assistant’s office.

It was almost as if he had predicted the zombie outbreak and was telling her in advance that the office was a safe place.

She hadn’t been able to ask about it because the lecture had started, and she had left her phone unattended. If the internet were working, she could at least ask what he meant, but all communications were down now.

Thinking of her brother’s face made her chest, which had stayed calm until now, tremble with unease. Even though his place was a bit far, it was still in the same city. His apartment might also be in danger.

‘It’s okay. He’ll be fine.’

Her brother spent the entire day stuck to his PC at home, so he probably hadn’t even gone outside. Maybe he was still glued to his game, completely unaware of what was happening outside.

She reassured herself and tried to calm her heart.

‘He’ll be fine, so I need to worry about myself first.’

To be honest, she and her two friends, hiding in a bathroom stall, were in much more danger than her brother at home. Anyone could see that she had bigger problems right now.

Chaeyi desperately pushed down her anxiety and looked at her two friends.

Focusing all her senses on the sounds outside, she signaled them with her eyes. Slowly, she opened the bathroom stall door.

At the same time.

“It’s a total mess, just as expected.”

Junseong, who had been crouched between the parked cars in the parking lot, sighed as he looked at the university building where his sister Chaeyi was. The area in front of the building was filled with zombies.