Red Dot - 96

In the midst of a chaotic environment, the neatly placed gift box looked quite out of place. Despite its small size, only as big as a palm, its mint color was so vivid that even if someone tried to ignore it, their eyes would eventually be drawn to the box.

Junseong’s steps toward the counter seemed unusually heavy.

Knowing who must have left such a senseless box, he didn’t even want to touch it. On the other hand, knowing how cunning the person was, he thought he had to check what was left behind. It couldn’t have been left here for no reason.

Junseong’s hand reached for the gift box in front of the counter. Hanseo abruptly grabbed his wrist from the side, stopping him.

“Don’t look.”

Did he also feel a sense of foreboding?

Junseong’s expression was emotionless as he turned to face Hanseo. Not only that, but there was an unusual lack of composure.

Hanseo’s odd demeanor made Junseong hesitate, but he soon turned his head back toward the gift box. Since the group approaching them had already seen the box, he would inevitably find out what was inside.

Junseong removed Hanseo’s hand and picked up the gift box.

The box felt heavier than expected. It looked like a lightweight accessory box, suitable for holding a necklace or a long brooch.

With a somewhat tense expression, Junseong touched the lid of the box.

If it was something left by Nam Ki-hyuk, it wouldn’t be anything normal. He was a madman among madmen, so it could be something like a “part of a human body” that would make one scream at first sight, or perhaps a dead animal or disgusting insect. Or maybe it was something so horrific that he couldn’t even imagine……

But contrary to his expectations, the gift box contained something perfectly ordinary.

A cellphone.

Seeing the cellphone, which had no traces of use or even a fingerprint, the tension that had been in him seemed to ease slightly. The approaching group also looked puzzled at the sight.

“A cellphone?”

“Whose is it?”

Hearing the murmurs of the group, Junseong took the cellphone out of the gift box. Although it wasn’t the horrifying thing he had imagined, the fact that Nam Ki-hyuk had left it behind meant it must have some significance.

‘Not for communication… I don’t think so.’

Since communication was completely cut off, it was impossible to make calls or send texts with such a cellphone. Even if it was possible, he had no intention of answering.

Turning on the cellphone, Junseong realized it was a completely new one, never activated.

Around three days after he started dreaming of the zombie apocalypse, he had been confused by the strange dream world and accidentally stepped on his cellphone, forcing him to go out and buy a new one. The default wallpaper he had seen then was the same as the one on this cell phone. Additionally, the activation warning was also identical.

‘Did he rob a cell phone store?’

If it were Nam Ki-hyuk, he would have done so with a nonchalant expression.

The problem was why he had to do that.

Perhaps it was for some ‘purpose’ that could be achieved even with a new, unactivated cell phone.

He shuddered momentarily and his shoulders trembled.

With a grim face, Junseong clicked on the “Gallery” on the cellphone’s main screen.

As expected, there were a few photos and one video inside. Junseong, with a tense look, clicked on the first photo.

“Ah!”

Jian’s brief scream was heard among the group, who had held their breath.

It wasn’t surprising.

Seeing a photo of a person with a knife stuck in his neck, it was understandable that everyone, including her, would be shocked.

The person who took the photo seemed to have calmly aimed the camera while holding the man’s hair, which was stuck with a knife. The man, with his hair being pulled back, had his mouth open as if trying to breathe, and clear tears were flowing from his eyes, mingling with his blood.

Eyes still with focus.

Unlike the zombies, transparent and clear tears.

Hands slightly floating in the air as if struggling.

The man in the photo was unmistakably a ‘living person.’

No, now he would be a living ‘dead’ person.

“W-what is this?! Who… who did this…!”

Jian cried out, her voice trembling. Changmin, who had been comforting her, looked as if he was suppressing his rage. Kyung-oh, also visibly shaken, panted heavily and quickly took out his inhaler.

Junseong’s fingers trembled. Even so, he slowly slid across the cellphone’s screen to check the next photo.

The next photo was of the same man. The only difference was that his half-open eyes had lost their vitality, and he was lying in a pool of his own blood. Taking photos of the moments before and immediately after death was an extreme form of bad taste.

Hanseo, who showed no other change on his face except for a slight twitch of his eyebrows, glanced at Junseong’s pale face.

As expected, the eyes on Junseong’s white face were shaking violently.

It was understandable.

The man in the photo was one of the people Junseong had saved when the zombie apocalypse first began.

Yang Jiwoo.

A college student with a youthful face and a friend of Junseong’s younger sister, Kang Chaeyi.

“Ha….”

Junseong’s thin breath sounded precarious.

Junseong, who knew exactly where he had last seen Yang Jiwoo and the background of the photo he was in, was amazed that he hadn’t collapsed immediately.

The third photo featured another face he knew well.

Soyeon.

She was also a friend of Chaeyi and a person Junseong had left behind at the shelter.

Soyeon, wearing glasses, had broken lens fragments stuck in her tear-streaked eyes as if she had been punched. Sitting on the floor, she held up her palm as if to tell the person holding the cellphone to stay away. The fear Soyeon felt was clearly conveyed through the cellphone.

The fourth photo also showed her lifeless body.

The military knife deeply embedded in her scalp felt terrifying.

The fifth photo was of Kim Cheolho.

It showed him crawling on the floor, bleeding profusely from his ankles. His terrified eyes looking back were as vivid as something out of a nightmare.

The next photo showed the corpse of Cheolho, as expected. His blood-soaked and stabbed-to-death torso was horrifying. Even more frightening was his contorted face, seemingly in extreme pain.

There were four more photos after that, but they were merely pictures of the shelter filled with corpses.

Junseong, having checked all the photos, pressed the play button on the final video without taking a breath.

He didn’t want to see it.

But he had to.

‘Chaeyi…’

His sister wasn’t in the photos. She should have been safely staying at the shelter.

‘You’re okay, right?’

He wanted to believe that.

Having seen the state of the shelter with his own eyes and knowing that zombies were outside, he still held onto hope that his sister might be alive.

His fingers, which had turned white from pressing so hard, finally let go, and the video began.

– Junseong.

The video started with a view of the shelter’s wide-open door and a horrifying voice. Junseong suppressed the urge to cover his ears with his hands and stared at the video with eyes starting to bleed.

The screen slowly moved, following the long trail of bloodstains as if making a path.

The interior of the shelter, gradually revealing itself covered in blood.

The once-white walls and floors were covered in blood, and the tents people had carefully set up were all in ruins.

The camera, showing the chaotic interior of the shelter, eventually focused on the center where the corpses were gathered.

The shelter’s people, now corpses, were huddled together, leaning on each other. They were motionless, bleeding from fatal areas like their heads, necks, or hearts.

– It’s my gift. Do you like it?

A cheerful and excited voice came from the video. Junseong fought the urge to throw the cellphone and kept his eyes on the screen.

He scrutinized the corpses with his lips pressed so hard they bled.

Though the sight was horrifying enough to turn away, Junseong didn’t even blink. He had to check if his sister might be among them.

– Don’t worry. Your sister isn’t in there.

As if knowing Junseong’s thoughts, Nam Ki-hyuk spoke softly while turning the camera to show himself. Nam Ki-hyuk, smiling brightly with a blood-splattered face, looked anything but normal.

He tilted his head slightly, smiling as if he wanted to appear as pretty and cool as possible, with the camera pointed from above.

As a result, someone could be seen slumped outside the wide-open door. Although the view was obscured by darkness and only a lowered head was visible, it was clear that the person was a ‘woman’ with ‘short hair.’

Junseong’s breath came to a complete stop.

The blood-stained knife in Nam Ki-hyuk’s hand was aimed at the short-haired woman by the door.

– I haven’t ‘killed’ her yet. Do you want to meet her?