Red Dot - 67

– Day 5 –
About 20 minutes away on foot from the container office, in front of a large department store.

Among the pretty flower beds and fresh trees arranged at a certain distance around the building, zombies were wandering around.

Junseong watched them from a distance and then turned his gaze towards the main entrance of the department store. Beyond the wide-open glass doors, the interior was filled with zombies as much as the outside.

“There’s a department store nearby, but if I remember correctly, there weren’t many zombies inside.”

He had said that to reassure Chang-min and the others, but the reality was quite the opposite. People who were busy shopping when the zombie outbreak occurred had not been able to evacuate properly and were attacked throughout the department store.

As a result, the department store Junseong was looking at now was filled with zombies in every direction.

“In the dream, we arrived here later, but…”

At that time, it was around the fifth day when Hwang Kyung-oh joined Junseong’s group and they began modifications.

Due to repeated modifications and testing over the past few days, the drone’s battery was almost depleted, so they needed a supply of battery packs somehow. Clothing and food issues were also significant.

Therefore, on the next day, the 10th day, they stormed into this department store with ten people, and it was extremely difficult to escape due to far more zombies than expected. Junseong had bitter memories of seeing two of his companions turn into zombies during the process.

But now, things were different.

Junseong looked back at Do Hanseo, who was resting his chin on his shoulder, and spoke.

“Surely we’re not going in like this, right?”

“Why not?”

Do Hanseo chuckled and shook his head with a smiling face. His sharp chin, resting on Junseong’s shoulder, moved along with him.

“How are we supposed to move like this?”

Junseong tightly wrapped his waist around Do Hanseo’s arms from behind, making it difficult to move.

“Then should we go face to face?”

“If we do that, I can’t see.”

“That’s why I’m telling you to use my blood.”

Junseong let go of his waist, and Do Hanseo shrugged his shoulders.

“Use it whenever you need it. Besides, I’ll just get more tomorrow night.”

They were planning to return to Inhan Hospital on the night of the 6th day.

Do Hanseo had prepared five finger-length blood collection tubes in advance, telling Junseong to use the ones with anticoagulants, so they wouldn’t clot within a few days. So, even though there were other solutions, there was no urgent need to use Do Hanseo’s blood.

Above all, Junseong knew that Do Hanseo had frequently visited hospitals due to anemia since he was young. Even though he seemed fine now, he had heard such things, so he didn’t want to induce blood collection that could cause anemia again.

“Let’s save it. I won’t use it unless it’s really dangerous.”

“But it looks dangerous inside, doesn’t it?”

Anyone, not just Do Hanseo, would say the same if they saw inside the department store. The number of zombies inside was considerable.

Nevertheless, Junseong spoke as if he weren’t particularly worried.

“Because you’re here.”

Junseong stood beside Do Hanseo with a casual expression, reaching his arm around his waist. Do Hanseo slipped his arm into the empty space of Junseong’s backpack and wrapped it around his waist. Their sides were pressed firmly against each other.

“So it’s not dangerous.”

Hanseo looked at Junseong, who had his waist wrapped with arms, with a slightly surprised expression. Then he soon smiled. Hanseo’s arms also wrapped around Junseong’s waist. Unlike Junseong, who loosely wrapped his arms around Hanseo’s waist and held onto the jacket’s side with his hand, Hanseo firmly wrapped his arms around Junseong’s waist as if he was embracing it.

As they passed through the open space in front of the department store and headed inside, the zombies wandering around did not even utter a single scream. Instead, the path cleared itself as they moved forward without avoiding the zombies. It was a fascinating experience for Junseong, something he had never even seen in his dreams.

Because they were moving in close proximity, their speed wasn’t very fast, but they were able to enter the department store smoothly.

Inside the department store was as dark as it had been on the 10th day.

Although there were clouds, it was much darker than outside. Since department stores usually didn’t even have windows to make customers lose track of time and get lost in shopping, they were inevitably pitch dark without electricity.

Junseong took out a flashlight and scanned the interior with its light. It was so packed with zombies that it could be described as overflowing.

Junseong, looking at the zombies, spoke.

“I came to this department store on the 10th day.”

“Then it’s unpredictable what will happen here today.”

Junseong nodded.

According to Hanseo’s words, it was impossible to predict what would happen inside the department store today.

There was a considerable time difference between the 10th day and the 5th day, making even small predictions difficult. The route that had seemed relatively safe on the 10th day was useless on the 5th day. Since the zombies weren’t just standing in their places like statues, it was impossible to calculate the movement route for the past 5 days without knowing. That’s why they needed Hanseo. If Hanseo hadn’t been there from the start, Junseong would have had to wait quietly until the 10th day without even thinking of coming to this department store on the 5th day.

As always, although he felt it every time, Hanseo’s presence was making things happen that Junseong hadn’t even dared to think about in his dreams.

While Hanseo was looking around inside, he smiled and said, “It’s okay.”

Hanseo’s arms tightened around Junseong’s waist even more.

“Don’t fall from me.”

“Of course not.”

Junseong replied while groping for the locations of the major stores in his memory.

“If I fall, will I die without you?”

Hanseo’s arms twitched.

Junseong was busy recalling his memories, unable to notice how Hanseo was looking at him. Then, after deciding on the first place they should visit, he looked at Hanseo.

“Let’s start from the 8th floor and come down. We’ll start with the battery packs for the drone from the 8th floor… Why?”

Hanseo covered his mouth with his hand and looked at Junseong without saying anything. He asked with a muffled voice.

“Why do you keep provoking me today?”

“What do you mean?”

“Hmm…”

Hanseo looked at Junseong intently with eyes that seemed to be flickering somewhere, then lowered the hand covering his mouth. His mouth was smiling as usual, but his eyes seemed strange, giving an odd impression. His face, which had been pale, seemed to have a little more color than usual.

“It’s nothing. You said we’ll go from the 8th floor, right?”

“Yeah.”

Hanseo also took out a flashlight and aimed it at the ceiling. He confirmed the locations of the escalator and emergency stairs indicated in the signs.

“Which way should we go, towards the escalator or the emergency stairs?”

Since the power was out, the elevator was completely ruled out. The escalator would have stopped, so they had to choose one of the two types of stairs.

When they visited on the 10th day, there were long-dead bodies and numerous zombies near the emergency stairs. If one were to roughly estimate the number of zombies inside the space with doors and the timing of the considerably decayed corpses, it should have been a similar situation even now.

At that time, there were significantly more zombies swarming in the lobby, so they had no choice but to use the emergency stairs. As Junseong recalled the struggle he had while fighting his way up to the 8th floor in that narrow space, the situation with the emergency stairs became clearer.

Now, since there was no need to worry about the horde of zombies in the lobby, Junseong pointed the flashlight towards the escalator instead of the emergency stairs.

“Let’s take the escalator. If there are zombies blocking the way, we can just push them aside next to the escalator.”

Hanseo stretched his foot towards the escalator in accordance with Junseong’s opinion. The zombies that had been wandering around the lobby gradually moved aside from them as if avoiding them.

Before long, Junseong, who had reached the escalator, looked up at the clearly open stairs. Fortunately, it seemed like they wouldn’t have to bother clearing out the zombies one by one as they went up.

Although the space for them to stand side by side wasn’t very wide, they could still stand close together and ascend. However, as the stairs were quite long, by the time they reached the 5th floor, Junseong’s pace had slowed considerably.

Hanseo looked at Junseong, who was out of breath, with a stern expression.

“You really need to improve your stamina.”

“…Be quiet. If I thought something like this would actually happen, I would have trained earlier.”

“If you can’t keep up, then I…”

“Don’t say anything more ominous.”

Junseong covered Hanseo’s mouth with the flashlight, feeling like he shouldn’t hear any more of that.

Then, as they reached the 6th floor while climbing the escalator stairs…

“….?”

Junseong quickly shone the flashlight in the direction where he felt someone’s gaze from the 6th floor.