Red Dot - 6

Chapter 6

“Stay focused.”

Junseong felt his body freeze up from fear, but he bit down hard on his lower lip and forced his eyes open.

Facing this zombie was something he had already experienced in his dreams. There was no need to panic.

With the machete he had already pulled out, Junseong swung it mercilessly at the zombie’s head. Even though he put in enough force to add recoil, the blade barely sank halfway into the thick skull.

But it was deep enough to damage the zombie’s brain.

The arm reaching for Junseong suddenly stopped midair with a screeching sound. The zombie’s mouth only let out broken, mechanical gasps—ugh, ugh—before its arms dropped limply as if all strength had left its body. Junseong shoved the zombie away with his foot and yanked the machete free with a strong pull.

Taking a deep breath, he looked at the unmoving zombie, then slid the machete back into the sheath behind his waist and immediately took off.

The swarm of zombies wasn’t just surrounding the blaring vehicle anymore—they were practically throwing themselves on top of it.

Some of the zombies that had been running toward the vehicle noticed Junseong emerging from between the cars. Each of them let out horrifying screeches and turned toward him.

“Krrk!”

“Kyaak! Kyaahak!”

“Krrroar!”

Three zombies, two men and one woman, charged at him from different directions with grotesque movements. Just before they could surround him, Junseong dashed toward a male zombie running from the direction of the building where his younger sibling was.

The zombie’s bl00d-covered hands lunged to grab him, but Junseong had already anticipated the attack. He ducked, dodging the arms, and then rammed his shoulder hard into the zombie’s chest, knocking it over.

Without looking back, he sprinted away the moment the zombie hit the ground. The terrifying screeches of the other two zombies, along with the one he had knocked over scrambling to get back up, echoed behind him.

As he ran toward the building, Junseong reached for his backpack. His fingers found the side pocket—the one meant for holding a water bottle—where he had stored a can of insecticide.

He pulled it out and attached the straw designed for spraying into tight spaces. Then, with his other hand, he grabbed a disposable gas lighter he had kept in stock. Spinning around, he faced the zombies chasing him.

All he had to do was spray the insecticide while lighting the flame in front of the straw.

A loud “Whoosh!” sounded, like the blast of a high-performance torch. Though crude, the makeshift flamethrower produced flames strong enough to startle anyone.

“Krrraaak!”

The fire caught onto the zombies’ heads, setting their hair ablaze. The flames obscured their vision, and the burning scalps began to sizzle.

If he aimed carefully, it would have been easier to hit their torsos since they were larger targets, but Junseong wasn’t trying to kill them one by one. Instead, he aimed for their heads to blind them.

Zombies felt no pain, so they wouldn’t stop even if their bodies were on fire. However, their eyesight was already poor due to the cloudy film over their eyes. With their hair and eyebrows burning, they lost their vision completely and failed to keep track of their target.

As expected, the zombies hesitated, flailing their arms wildly. They bumped into each other and stumbled around, unable to move forward properly. Seeing this, Junseong turned and sprinted toward the building again.

He was almost at the entrance when he quickly checked his wristwatch. Since he couldn’t use his phone for calls or the internet anymore—and wouldn’t be able to charge it properly—his digital wristwatch had become a useful tool.

[01:59:31 PM]

“29 seconds…!”

Maybe because this was reality, he had hesitated more than he realized.

In his dreams, when he reached this point, he still had two minutes left before 2 PM. But now, only 29 seconds remained.

If his timing was off, he would be caught by the approaching horde and torn apart.

“Damn it…!”

Without a second thought, he dashed into the building. The zombies lingering near the entrance all turned their heads toward him at once.

“Kyaaaaah!”

As the bl00d-covered zombies let out furious screams, Junseong pulled out his machete almost simultaneously.

Their overwhelming presence was enough to make anyone freeze in fear, but this wasn’t the time for hesitation. He was already late, and if he slowed down any more, it would be game over.

The urgency and tension pushed his fear deep down inside him.

Charging forward with his machete, Junseong slammed the blade into the side of a zombie’s head. The creature stiffened, as if its batteries had been removed, and Junseong kicked it toward the others before yanking his machete free.

Barely avoiding the grasping hands of other zombies, he ran through the lobby. Even though he wanted to rip off his heavy backpack, he forced himself to keep going. He shoved away the zombies lunging at him from the side, hacking at their heads with his machete.

Even in the chaos, he kept glancing at his watch. Then, he saw not just the seconds but the minutes change.

[02:00:00 PM]

“I’m too late…”

It was already 2:00 PM, but he hadn’t even made it to the second floor yet. He remembered a time—one of many, too many to count—when he had failed to reach this point on time and had been swallowed up by the waves of zombies that followed.

As he imagined the zombies tearing at his flesh and screaming wildly, Junseong searched for a place to hide. But suddenly, he sensed something strange.

‘Wait a second. Why don’t I hear anything?’

It was already 2:00 PM, but there was no sound. In the dream, he had definitely heard it at exactly 2:00.

‘I don’t know what’s going on, but I have to go up.’

Avoiding the growing number of zombies, Junseong climbed the stairs to the second floor.

Because of the loud screams and footsteps chasing after him, several zombies on the second floor also started running down the stairs. Without panicking, Junseong used the height difference of the stairs to slash the calf of the zombie in front, causing it to stumble and fall. The staggering zombie tumbled past Junseong and crashed into the zombies below.

Then, Junseong suddenly crouched low as a zombie lunged at him, crashing onto his backpack. He grabbed its legs, stood up abruptly, and threw it backward. He had successfully done this move a few times in his dreams, and the thick curves of his backpack made it possible now.

With the path clear, Junseong ran at full speed before more zombies could come down and reached the second floor.

[02:02:34 PM]

It was different from the dream—there had been no sound at 2:00. But he didn’t have time to be confused.

Whether the sound rang out or not, Junseong knew where he needed to go. He sprinted toward the first professor’s office on the second floor—the same place where he had once hidden in his dream.

By then, some zombies in the hallway had spotted him and let out terrifying screams. More zombies, even those farther away, understood the call and started running toward him.

Junseong grabbed the office door handle and placed his fingers on the keypad lock. He remembered how, in the dream, he had run blindly to this spot and then threatened the professor inside to give him the passcode. It had been the same in every dream after that, and the passcode he learned back then was now proving incredibly useful.

Beep, beep, beep, beep. Click.

Since the usual 2:00 sound hadn’t played, he worried that maybe the passcode had also changed. But fortunately, the lock clicked open.

Without wasting a second, he rushed inside and slammed the door shut.

He knew there was a zombie near the doorway inside the office. Without hesitation, he swung his machete at the shadow beside him.

“Kyaahh!”

With both hands gripping the machete, he drove it deeper than ever before. The force sent bl00d spraying everywhere, staining his white shirt and brown coat with dark red splatters.

As soon as he kicked the unmoving zombie against the wall and pulled his machete free—

A loud alarm sound blared from far away.

It was a basic ringtone from a phone’s alarm, but there was no way a regular phone could produce such a deafening volume. For the sound to travel all the way from the end of the hallway to reach him inside the professor’s office, it would have to be coming from an insanely powerful speaker.

Even after countless repeats of this event, Junseong had never figured out what was making that sound.

To investigate, he would have to fight through the massive horde of zombies drawn to the noise. He had never even considered trying.

“Kyaak! Kreeek—! Kaaah!”

Outside the professor’s office, countless footsteps and screeches echoed through the hallway. As expected, the zombies were all rushing toward the sound.

Junseong pressed his ear against the door and focused on the noises outside. The alarm was still ringing, loud and clear, even through the howls of the zombies.

‘What’s going on?’

The phone’s default alarm sound, ringing at exactly 2:00 PM every time.

Thinking about the precise timing, there was only one logical explanation: someone had set the alarm for 2:00.

Maybe the owner of the phone had already been bitten by zombies and couldn’t turn it off. Or maybe they simply forgot to silence it before getting surrounded. Either way, Junseong had no choice but to use this sound to his advantage every time.

But this time, something was wrong.

It was 2:03 PM—a strange time to set an alarm.

Not only that, but the alarm rang 30 seconds after Junseong had entered the office.

It felt as if someone had been watching his movements and deliberately triggered the sound.

Junseong felt even more unsettled than when he had faced real zombies.