The zombies filed out of the broadcasting room one by one as it fell quiet in an instant. The zombies that scattered this way resumed wandering through every corner of the school as if nothing had happened. Their backs hunched in a curve, drooling as they shuffled around — a damp, putrid stench had soaked into every corner.
I held my breath as best I could and wandered the third-floor corridor like any other zombie. Instead of breathing through my nose, I breathed only through my mouth with shallow rasps, and small, throat-scraping sounds leaked out with each breath.
The unmistakable sound of a zombie. I found myself freshly amazed that I could produce a sound like this. Even when I wanted to speak, my vocal cords — eroded by the virus — were severely swollen, making even breathing difficult.
I’d always wondered why the zombies in zombie movies all made such similar sounds without exception, but now that I’d become one myself, I felt like I understood why.
It was as I wandered the corridor like any other zombie, hunching my back forward, that I suddenly stopped in my tracks at an unexpected zombie sound. It wasn’t the simple sound of breathing in and out — it was something distinctly different.
But when I turned to look, there was nothing but the scattered debris of broken glass windows. The source of the sound was nowhere to be seen.
If it’s not the corridor, then where is it coming from? I shifted my limping steps in the direction of the faint sound.
The closer I got to the far end of the corridor, the louder the sound grew. Unlike the other classrooms whose doors had been broken down, classroom 3-1 at the very corner of the corridor had both its front and back sliding doors completely shut.
I placed my palm on the door and rose slightly on my tiptoes.
The scene inside the classroom visible through the window was more intact than I’d expected. Any other classroom would have desks and chairs toppled everywhere — but this one was uniquely undisturbed, everything in its place.
Just like any ordinary classroom before the zombie outbreak.
But what was certain was that the throat-scraping sound I’d heard from the corridor was coming from inside here.
I pushed up a little higher on my toes to peer into the corners I couldn’t see — and at that very moment, a head that hadn’t been visible until just now suddenly popped up from between the desks.
Gasp.
I inhaled sharply thinking it was a ghost and stumbled back. But the dark head moving with its crown exposed between the desks looked unmistakably like a person.
Gathering my courage again, I pressed in close to the door — and the head that had only been partially visible revealed itself in full.
“Krrrlk….”
The eyes that met mine exactly were like those of a nocturnal creature. Pupils that looked as though a translucent film had been draped over them, and whites that were bloodshot a vivid red. And the face with a chunk of flesh completely torn away from one cheek was enough to make anyone recoil just from looking at it.
Not a ghost — a zombie. Having confirmed the identity, I finally let out a deep exhale.
If I were a normal person I would’ve been trembling in fear even at that — but fortunately, I was the same kind as that zombie. Which meant there was absolutely nothing to be scared of!
But why is it in there alone like that?
I glanced around the surrounding corridor once, then cautiously slid the door open. With a rumble — the sound of old wood sliding against its frame — I stepped into the classroom, and the figure of the zombie sitting on the floor came into clearer view.
The zombie kneeling on the floor between the desks had dark, reddish blood smeared heavily around its mouth. As I drew even closer, remains that hadn’t been visible from a distance came into sight, clinging around its mouth.
Something like small clots of blood….
“……!”
And when the zombie that had been hiding between the desks finally came fully into view, I couldn’t help but gasp and go wide-eyed.
A corpse pinned beneath the zombie. Legs bent at grotesque angles with the kneecap jutting out. A school uniform torn and stained such a deep, dark red it was barely recognizable. And a torso with its innards completely ripped open — the body already looked as though someone had eaten through the flesh inside.
And that was probably what the creature right in front of me had devoured.
It was a conclusion that couldn’t be anything but logical. Because even at this very moment, the zombie’s two hands were buried deep inside the red organs.
I looked at the corpse lying motionless on its back, staring up at the ceiling, then slowly raised my gaze.
“Krrk, krrk….”
There was no aggression in the eyes looking back at me, but the zombie seemed deeply on guard — tensing up as if afraid I might steal its prey.
But the moment of wariness toward me was brief. Despite having already devoured the corpse, the zombie still seemed hungry, and frantically continued to gouge out and eat the organs and flesh. The wet, squelching sound of viscous blood and chunks of flesh between its teeth echoed through the empty classroom.
Wait… does it taste good? Can it even taste anything? I stared down at the scene that had me on the verge of retching, then cautiously crouched down in front of the corpse.
Hmm.
Whether it was because the body had already lost any recognizable human form, or because I had become a zombie myself, I wasn’t sure — but the corpse itself didn’t frighten me much even up close. It was just that the sight of a person eating another person was something I hadn’t quite gotten used to yet.
Of course, given enough time I might end up just like this zombie — but I didn’t seem to be at that stage yet. My mind was still intact, and I could still move around freely like this!
…Not that that’s anything to brag about.
I rested both hands on my knees and watched the zombie’s mealtime for a few more minutes. Once the kidneys and entrails had all been devoured, leaving only the area around the heart, the zombie snapped its head away as though satisfied.
It sniffed around a few times as if smelling the surroundings, then pulled its hands free from where they’d been buried deep in the body cavity and began to shuffle away.
It walked past me as I sat there, and then vanished through the door I had come in through.
Left alone in the classroom, I stared at the back door where the zombie had disappeared, then turned my gaze back to the corpse.
With the zombie that had claimed this space now gone, the darkened classroom was filled with silence. I stared blankly at the corpse, and then, following a sudden impulse, stretched my fingers down toward the floor.
“…….”
It was because I felt an unexpected hunger. I was certain I hadn’t felt the least bit hungry until just moments ago — but perhaps from watching the zombie eat, a corresponding hunger came washing over me.
No — to be more precise, it wasn’t quite a hunger to eat food. It felt more like a strange, undefined craving.
I gently dipped my index finger into the blood that had seeped out of the torso and pooled thickly on the floor. As the smell of blood drew closer, my mouth started to water as if I’d never been disgusted at all.
I looked at the drop-shaped smear of blood on my fingertip, then slowly extended my tongue. And then, a question suddenly crossed my mind.
Is what I’m doing right now truly my own will? Or am I starting to become like that zombie just now?
It doesn’t matter either way. Whatever the reason — right now, I wanted this blood.
I brought the thick, viscous drop to the tip of my tongue. And in that moment, invisible thunder struck from a yellow sky.
That was also when the fierce dust-laden rain began to fall — hard enough to shatter windows.
* * *
“Ah, fuck. We’re so screwed.”
Kim Jae-yun said to the air, gripping the window frame and looking down at the schoolyard.
The schoolyard looked impossibly far down from five floors up, but the zombies dotting it like specks were clearly visible. Kim Jae-yun, who had been holding the window frame and lifting himself off the floor, clicked his tongue.
“That’s why I told you to hit it hard enough to keep ringing.”
Tap. Kim Jae-yun dropped from the window frame and said. Lee Min-jae, sitting in the very back row with his hand clenched into a fist, replied.
“I did hit it hard. Can’t you see my hand is wrecked? And it was definitely still held down when I left.”
“You should’ve fixed something heavy on top of it to keep it down. What were you thinking, just leaving it like that, you idiot.”
“I was in a rush too. The zombie bastards were swarming after me — was I just supposed to stay there and get bitten and die?”
It was a fair point, and Kim Jae-yun looked at Lee Min-jae’s clenched fist. With nothing proper to use for a tourniquet, he’d torn off the hem of his school uniform shirt and tied it around his knuckles — and blood was still seeping through. Kim Jae-yun let out a deep sigh and stared up at the ceiling.
The fluorescent lights, powerless with the electricity out, were painfully still. The classroom ceiling, darkened further by the weather turning suddenly overcast, was draped in thick shadow.
Kim Jae-yun stared at the ceiling patterns that offered no answers, then abruptly dropped his gaze.
“But no, that bastard, seriously.”
Lee Min-jae flinched reflexively at the sudden curse. But when he looked over, Kim Jae-yun’s gaze wasn’t on him — it was fixed beyond him, on the lockers at the back of the music room.
Kim Jae-yun strode past Lee Min-jae and stopped in front of the lockers.
“Hey. Cha Do-hyun.”
Beneath where Kim Jae-yun had stopped, Cha Do-hyun sat with his head hanging low, completely motionless. With one knee raised and his arm draped long across it, he looked almost like a plaster statue.
Kim Jae-yun kicked Cha Do-hyun’s calf.
“The fuck, how long are you going to stay like that. Are you the only one shooting a disaster movie? Are you the only one who lost Han Jae-i?”
“…….”
“You know better than anyone it was an unavoidable choice. You were right there up close when it happened.”
“An unavoidable choice?”
That was when Cha Do-hyun’s mouth — which had seemed like it would never open again — finally did. I thought he’d gone stiff and died like that, yet somehow he managed to open his mouth.
Kim Jae-yun let out a sharp, humorless laugh at Cha Do-hyun’s response.
