Red Dot - 5

Chapter 5

If it hadn’t been for the dream he had over and over again, he would have spent a long time just searching for his younger sibling. In the dreams on the fifth and sixth days, he had desperately found out his sibling’s location, even getting bitten by these university zombies. Because of that, joining up after the seventh day was much easier.

But that was only compared to the fifth and sixth days. The situation itself was still far from easy.

Moreover, there was a crucial difference between this and the dream.

It was reality.

If a zombie bit him—no, for sure—he wouldn’t survive. The feeling of his bl00d instantly freezing in his veins, the sensation of it rushing to his head, and unlike the dream, the unbearable pain that would make him scream—he would have to go through all of it.

Just imagining it made his spine tingle with horror.

No matter how similar reality was to the dream that restarted like a game, he had to accept that this time, things were different in a crucial way.

No mistakes were allowed.

One wrong move meant death.

Even a tiny slip-up would end everything.

Repeating this like brainwashing, he hit his chest with his fist. The cold fear that had been creeping up inside him sank back down, thanks to the dull ache in his chest.

‘I can’t be late anymore.’

There was only one chance to meet up with his sibling.

He was already late. If he wanted to make it in time, he had to move right now.

Taking a deep breath, Junseong turned his crouched body around.

Right behind the car he was hiding in, there was a long flower bed bordered with bricks. It didn’t seem like it had been built intentionally behind the parking lot. Rather, people had just agreed to use the empty space in front of it for parking.

Still crouching to avoid being seen by zombies, Junseong moved toward the flower bed. Carefully, making as little noise as possible, he reached for one of the bricks that acted as a boundary. Just as he had seen in the dream, most of the plaster had already peeled off, so it was easy to pull out without much effort.

Holding the brick, Junseong checked his surroundings before quickly standing up and throwing it as far as possible.

At the same time he ducked back down to hide, a loud thud rang out from a distance.

Beep—beep—beep—beep!

A car parked quite far away started blaring its alarm. The trunk had a deep dent where Junseong’s brick had hit.

“Ugh… Ugh… Hah…”

The young man’s whole body trembled violently as he gasped for air. His breathing was rough, as if something big was stuck in his throat, and his body was shaking like a leaf.

A man sitting on the front desk of the lecture hall watched him, almost as if he was enjoying the sight.

“Lift your head.”

The young man, barely standing with his back against the wall, slowly raised his drooping head with difficulty.

His face was covered in bl00d.

His eyes, completely surrounded by dark, thick bl00d, were barely visible. Bl00d dripped down, staining his cheeks. But instead of being shocked or scared, the man looked at him with deep interest.

“P-please… s-save me…”

The young man, tears of bl00d streaming down his face, begged in a choking voice.

“I-I’m not… a zombie… yet…”

“Well, not yet, but you’ll change soon.”

“N-no, I don’t… want to… I hate zombies… P-please… save… me…”

Even speaking a single word was exhausting. His voice caught in his throat, and his desperate tears mixed with the bl00d, making them invisible.

The man stared at him for a moment, then got down from the desk.

“Save me, save me, save me.”

Mocking the young man’s pleas, the man took a step closer. A black pen spun between his fingers.

“I’m not interested in people who beg for their lives.”

“Hic… Hic… Ugh… Ah…”

The young man, struggling for breath, lifted his head as if suffocating. His voice was weak, barely above a whisper.

“Save… me…”

“That’s enough—!”

The man suddenly raised his voice and grabbed the young man’s neck with his left hand, squeezing hard.

By then, the young man’s head had already drooped, and his shoulders had slumped. If the man hadn’t been holding him up with his grip, he would have collapsed against the wall.

The man’s eyes shone with a strange madness as he stared at the young man, who had dropped his head.

“Instead of begging others to save you, you should have fought to survive.”

A smirk curved the man’s lips. As if responding to it, the young man’s body twitched violently twice.

Following that.

Haaak-!

The young man suddenly lifted his head and let out a screech mixed with a metallic sound. From his mouth, he spewed out bl00d that was even darker than the bl00d dripping from his eyes.

Anyone else would have screamed at the horrific sight, but the man remained completely calm.

The man’s black pen aimed for the young man’s eye, now covered with a red film of bl00d. The thin tip of the pen easily pierced through the film and into the eyeball.

Kyak!

The man stabbed the pen diagonally from beneath the young man’s left eye, aiming toward the brain. To push it in even deeper, he pressed down on the pen’s back end with his palm. By the time most of the pen had disappeared into the young man’s eye, the man’s right hand was completely soaked in bl00d.

The young man, who had once been aggressive, no longer moved. When the man let go of the neck he had been holding, the young man’s body collapsed sideways onto the floor with a dull thud.

Looking down at the corpse of what was once the young man—but was now just a zombie—the man pulled out a gray handkerchief. He meticulously wiped the bl00d off his right hand before carelessly dropping the now bl00d-stained handkerchief onto the young man’s body. The bl00d-soaked fabric fell over his face as if covering it.

Silence filled the lecture hall.

The man leisurely glanced around.

Inside the lecture hall, corpses of those who, like the young man, had bled from their eyes were scattered everywhere.

A bored expression settled on the man’s face as his smile faded.

“Maybe I should take a nap…”

In the middle of a room filled with dead bodies, the man casually entertained a ridiculous thought. He picked up his phone, which had been resting on a desk.

He had originally planned to take a nap and wake up at 2 PM, even setting an alarm. But now, only five minutes remained. There was no point in sleeping anymore.

The man turned toward the window facing the hallway. Outside, a few zombies were sprinting by at full speed.

“Should I test it out?”

Muttering meaningfully, the man climbed onto the platform and grabbed the microphone meant for professors. He lightly tested it to ensure it was working. The microphone had excellent performance and clear sound quality. Satisfied, he prepared to amplify his phone alarm, which would ring at exactly 2 PM.

Just imagining the zombies rushing in upon hearing the sound—and himself surrounded by them—sent a thrilling shiver through his stomach.

Not much time remained before the alarm would go off.

Beep—beep—beep—beep—!

Suddenly, a car horn blared from outside. The man lowered the microphone and walked to the window, looking outside. He wondered if a zombie had accidentally hit an expensive car.

Kyaaaaah—!

Grrrrah!

The once-silent surroundings erupted with zombie screeches. Every single zombie, regardless of where they had been wandering, turned toward the sound and ran at full speed.

Tatata—!

An overwhelming number of footsteps pounded relentlessly. Hiding in the middle of the undead horde, Junseong prayed they would pass quickly.

Judging by the movement of the footsteps, Junseong could tell that most of the zombies had reached the blaring car alarm. Still crouched, he moved between the cars, heading toward the building. His right hand instinctively reached for the machete secured in the sheath behind his belt.

The moment he emerged from between the cars, Junseong pulled out his machete as if it were a natural step in his plan.

Kaak!

It was as if the zombie had been waiting for him to appear. The creature suddenly lunged, stretching out both hands toward him.

Judging by the thick red film covering its eyeballs and the fresh bl00d still trickling from between its eyelids, it had turned into a zombie less than an hour ago.

The zombie’s left cheek had been torn open from the corner of its mouth to its cheekbone, exposing what should never be visible—its molars and part of its facial bones. Its neck was deeply bitten, the flesh caved in, and thick, dark bl00d oozed out in a steady stream.

Even outside of that, its long intestines were spilling out from beneath its tattered shirt, and one of its legs was grotesquely bent and shattered. Just looking at it was enough to know how gruesomely it had been devoured.

When Junseong locked eyes with the bl00d-covered zombie, an overwhelming fear surged through him—something he had never fully experienced in his dreams.

Meat. Meat. Meat.

Bl00d. Give me bl00d.

The crimson eyes seemed to whisper directly into his mind, making it hard to breathe. The eerie sound of its chattering teeth, longing for flesh and bl00d, sent shivers down his spine.