Red Dot - 8

Chapter 8

Chaeyi desperately pushed the zombie’s head away with a stick and her other foot to avoid getting bitten. She saw the bl00d-covered teeth getting dangerously close to her ankle.

At that moment, she tightly shut her eyes, expecting the pain that would soon follow.

Thud—!

Suddenly, a sharp blade came out of nowhere and struck down, almost splitting the zombie’s head in half. The zombie, just about to bite Chaeyi’s ankle, let out a choking sound and stopped moving.

“I told you not to close your eyes when you’re in danger.”

Frozen in shock, Chaeyi turned her head toward the familiar voice, which was mixed with rough breathing.

“Are you okay?”

Her older brother, Kang Junseong, asked in a calm and composed voice—much more so than she was—while pulling a machete out of the zombie’s head.

Seeing Junseong, Chaeyi unknowingly relaxed, causing her legs to give way slightly. Junseong grabbed her arm to keep her from falling and checked her condition.

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

“…No.”

Chaeyi nodded. Though there was bl00d all over her clothes, Junseong confirmed that none of it was hers. He lightly patted her head. Chaeyi looked up at him with a strange expression.

She had no idea why he was here at this time, but the brother she always knew as a game-obsessed homebody suddenly felt incredibly reliable.

Junseong swung his machete, shaking off the thick, dark red bl00d on the blade, then grabbed Chaeyi’s arm and pulled her forward.

“Why are you still here? By now, you should’ve already been in the instructor’s office…”

His words trailed off.

If things had gone as planned, the girls should have made it safely to the instructor’s office by now. The fact that they were still in this hallway probably meant that something had gone wrong with the timing.

If the alarm had gone off exactly at 2:00, they would have reached the office without encountering any zombies, and he would have joined them a few minutes later.

Junseong looked down at Chaeyi’s ankle. Her jeans and the small bit of exposed white skin showed clear red marks where the zombie had grabbed her.

If he had been just a little later, the sister he had never seen die even in his dreams might have been bitten and turned into a zombie in reality. Just thinking about it made him angry—not at the situation, but at himself for allowing such an unexpected variable to happen.

‘There can’t be any more mistakes.’

Junseong bit the inside of his cheek and steadied himself. Then, without saying anything, he grabbed Soyeon, who was standing there with a dazed expression, and pulled her along toward the instructor’s office.

Jiwoo, who was so nervous that she had already entered the wrong password twice, finally got it right on the third try and managed to open the office door. She waved frantically at Junseong as he ran toward her with Chaeyi and Soyeon.

“Hurry up! Hurry!”

Hearing her urgent shouts, the three rushed inside, and Jiwoo quickly shut the door behind them.

“Haa…”

Completely relieved, Soyeon collapsed onto the floor, panting. Jiwoo also slid down against the door, breathing heavily.

Junseong took a deep breath and scanned the inside of the office.

It was exactly the same as he had seen in his dreams. The papers on the desk were in the same place, the two budget-friendly two-seater sofas and the wooden table were just as they were, and even the types and arrangement of canned coffee inside the fridge, which Jiwoo sluggishly walked over to open, were identical.

The dreams he had been having for the past two months suddenly felt eerie.

How could he have dreamed so precisely about the structure of Chaeyi’s university and even this office when he had only visited once?

‘Is this what they call a prophetic dream?’

He had never heard of a dream that restarted over and over for two months.

As he became more and more shocked by the accuracy of his dreams, Junseong felt a tug on his sleeve.

Looking down, he saw Chaeyi, who had regained some color in her face, staring up at him.

“What happened to you? Why are you here?” she asked.

“I came to save you.”

Junseong answered indifferently and reached out to wipe her cheek. Some bl00d had splattered onto her face when he had struck the zombie attacking Soyeon.

Chaeyi frowned and pushed his hand away.

“How did you know where I was at school? And how did you know about the instructor’s office?”

“You wouldn’t believe me even if I told you.”

“Tell me. I’ll believe whatever you say.”

“Can I catch my breath first?”

“……”

Chaeyi still looked dissatisfied, but she didn’t push further. Now that they were somewhere safe, she figured he would explain once he had a moment to calm down.

“Um…”

Jiwoo hesitantly approached and held out a canned coffee to Junseong.

“You’re Chaeyi’s older brother, right?”

“Yeah. You two are Chaeyi’s friends, right?”

Jiwoo, who had answered with a “yes,” was about to introduce himself and Soyeon when he suddenly choked up and started crying. Junseong felt a headache coming on as he realized that Jiwoo, just like in his dreams, was just as scared and tearful in real life. Despite being clearly a sturdy young man, he was a student who cried way too easily, regardless of the situation.

“Hic, hyung, we… hic… what’s going to happen to us? What is all this… hic…?”

Since Junseong had seen Jiwoo’s tears countless times before, he wasn’t flustered. Instead, he silently comforted him by patting his shoulder. Jiwoo was the type who cried even harder if someone tried to soothe him with words, so just patting him like this was the quickest way to make him stop crying.

Jiwoo sniffled a few times while looking at Junseong, then eventually rubbed his eyes roughly with the back of his hand and swallowed his tears.

“If you’ve calmed down, do you want to sit down for a bit?”

At Junseong’s words, Jiwoo obediently nodded and sat down on the sofa across from him. Soyeon, who had also gotten up from the floor, sat down next to Jiwoo to listen to Junseong. Junseong, who had been standing until now, put down his backpack and sat next to Chaeyi.

After taking a big gulp of the cool canned coffee, downing half of it in one go, Junseong looked at Jiwoo and Soyeon sitting across from him and asked,

“How much do you all know about the situation right now?”

Thinking that he was finally going to explain properly, Chaeyi’s eyes lit up as she responded.

“I only saw an article saying that a riot had broken out. Everyone thought that was all it was, but then zombies suddenly appeared out of nowhere… No, before that…”

Chaeyi took a deep breath to steady herself before asking in a slightly trembling voice,

“What we saw… They were really zombies, right?”

“Yeah.”

Compared to Chaeyi’s shaky question, his answer was short and firm. But that answer alone was enough to send another wave of chilling tension through the group.

“We don’t have much time, so I’ll explain briefly.”

Before anyone could even question why they were short on time, Junseong continued speaking.

“As you all saw, zombies are everywhere. Inhan City has already been sealed off by the military, and as you know, all communication and internet access have been completely cut off. People in other regions only think there was a large-scale riot here; they have no idea about the zombie outbreak.”

Junseong summarized the crucial information he had learned in his dreams. His explanation included details that couldn’t be found anywhere on the internet since the government had taken over control of the situation.

Jiwoo turned pale as he listened, his lips trembling uncontrollably.

“H-how can they not know when there are zombies roaming around everywhere?! We even called the police to report them!”

“An official order has already been sent to the police. Not only is communication down, making it impossible to report anything now, but even if you had reported it earlier, all zombie-related reports would have been ignored.”

“That’s impossible! That can’t be!”

Jiwoo shouted in despair. Soyeon, who was holding his shoulder and trying to comfort him, looked just as pale.

The response and containment were shockingly swift.

The government was treating this crisis with extreme seriousness.

They had immediately acknowledged the existence of zombies and locked down Inhan City, isolating it in an attempt to contain the outbreak at all costs.

If the people outside Inhan City found out about the existence of zombies, not just South Korea but the entire world would descend into chaos. South Korea would be ostracized politically, economically, and diplomatically. It would be forever branded as the ‘origin of the zombie virus’ and condemned by the international community.

More than anything, if they wanted to prevent interference from other countries, they had to resolve this before things spiraled further out of control. Knowing how those in power thought, Junseong could only feel bitter as one of the people trapped in Inhan City.

As she quietly listened to the conversation, Chaeyi looked at Junseong with a doubtful expression.

“Oppa, how do you know all this?”

Sensing something strange, Chaeyi pressed him for answers.

“What you just said—what proof do you have to be so sure? You’ve been holed up at home all this time, so how…?!”

Knock, knock—

Chaeyi’s words were cut off abruptly.

At the unexpected sound, everyone, including her, tensed up and turned their gazes toward the door.