Chapter 66
I ran toward the mutant with the grenade in my hand. The mutant was focused on eliminating my underlings. I had to take care of it before it noticed me, before it chose me as its opponent. I crouched as I dashed toward it and stretched out my left hand toward its neck.
Slash—
A flurry of slashes appeared in front of my vision, and blood gushed from my left arm.
The mutant didn’t have eyes, but it sensed my presence through sound and smell. Its head turned all the way around and looked at me.
“Honey…”
With a frown, I kicked it in the side with my right foot. I heard a solid thud and felt the sensation of its ribs shattering through my shins. I’d landed a solid blow.
The mutant flew to the left and rolled along the floor. It twisted its neck eerily and stared at me. It quickly got to its feet and spoke, as if its broken bones had no effect on it. It tilted its head while making an eerie, disturbing sound that I didn’t want to hear.
“Honey… Honey…?”
Its smile disappeared, and its face crumbled into a frown.
KIAAA!!!
It was enraged. It howled and raced toward me. I clenched my fists as I looked at my left arm, which was still leaking blood.
My grip wasn’t as strong as it usually was, but it would probably be enough to hold onto it for a short while.
As its disgusting face filled my vision, I threw a jab toward its face. It leaned onto its back and pierced my lower stomach using its sharp legs.
It was an attack from an unexpected angle, but I’d been hoping for such a thing. I felt my abdomen being pierced, letting the cool river breeze flow into my stomach.
I didn’t let the chance slip by and grabbed onto its collar with my half-torn left arm. I let out a murderous laugh.
‘I got you, you bastard.’
I had waited for this moment.
The mutant, which had been darting all over the place, was now in my hands, absolutely still.
I pulled the pin on the grenade in my right hand and shoved it into its mouth. As I forced my fist inside, its teeth broke and its jaw was dislocated. I could feel it trembling through my fingers.
I could tell it was crying, but there was no sound because its vocal cords were blocked.
‘This is going to hurt.’
As I tried to pull out my right hand, it tried to claw me in the face with its sharp nails. I twisted my upper body and avoided its attack, but because of that, the two legs that were in my lower stomach tore up my insides.
‘Damn it!’
I grabbed my lower belly and desperately threw myself backward. However, twisting my upper body earlier on seemed to have caused the two legs that had pierced my lower stomach to slice through my spine.
My legs weren’t moving.
I shoved a grenade down its throat, but now I couldn’t get it anyway. I collapsed to the ground as if I’d tripped on a stone. At that instant, I quickly covered my head with my hands and gave a desperate order to my underlings.
‘Everyone, get on top of me!’
GRR!!!
My underlings piled themselves on top of me. One underling, two underlings, three underlings, four underlings covered me, before the world was engulfed in a wave of sound that shattered my eardrums and almost made me lose my mind.
Amidst the sudden sensation, I noticed the night sky, the ground in flames, and my underlings’ flapping flesh. Everything seemed like it was in slow motion. Every moment was etched into my eyes and my mind like a Polaroid photo.
As my body fell to the ground, I stared through unfocused eyes at the hazy world around me. I had no clue how many times I rolled over on the cold asphalt road. My mind was foggy from the constant ringing.
I tried to move but couldn’t. I was like a death-row inmate whose hands and feet were tightly bound. As I tried to lift my head up, my vision spun madly, and I ended up jamming my forehead against the floor.
I felt as though I were drifting, as if my senses could no longer perceive anything. My mind was losing a sense of reality. I felt an unexplainable sense of comfort, as if I was on a boat drifting on a gentle lake.
“…!”
I heard a faint voice.
Someone seemed to be shouting toward another person, but I couldn’t make out the words due to the constant ringing and the fogginess that engulfed my mind.
I couldn’t tell where the noise was coming from nor who was speaking because my eyes had lost focus. After a moment, my vision began to quiver, and I saw people running toward Gangbyeonbuk-ro.
They held guns and were pointing them at me. I wondered if they were trying to shoot me. The muzzles flashed, and bullets flew over my head. I blinked and followed the bullets with my eyes, and I saw the red zombies.
The survivors at the shelter had come to assist me while the red zombies that had been pushed back to the Han River were trying to come back to Gangbyeonbuk-ro to get me.
I saw Park Gi-Cheol’s face among the survivors.
He was crouched over and was running towards me.
“Hey you, are you alright? Wake up!”
I heard his voice.
I heard Park Gi-Cheol's voice.
My heart grew lighter after hearing his voice.
I was alive.
I didn’t die.
I could still meet my family and my daughter.
Park Gi-Cheol examined the condition I was in, his face awash with anxiety.
“Hang in there! Leave the rest to us!”
Park Gi-Cheol crouched close to the ground and grabbed onto my shoulders. While I was being dragged by Park Gi-Cheol, I looked at my body with heavy-lidded eyes.
‘Huh?’
I didn’t have any legs.
I saw flapping flesh beneath my knees, and there was nothing below my left elbow.
I couldn’t think logically anymore. My mind was swamped with thoughts. I looked at my dismembered body in a stupor, as though my soul had left my body.
I could only think of one thing as I took in this unbelievable reality in front of me.
“I’ll recover, right? My body should regenerate. Yeah, I know I’ll recover.’
I was agitated, since I had never gotten this injured before. But deep down, I hoped that I would eventually recover, since I was still alive. I trusted in my body’s capabilities and let go of Park Gi-Cheol with my remaining right hand.
I crawled over to the survivors myself. Park Gi-Cheol bit his lips after seeing that I had come back to my senses. His eyes were bloodshot and filled with tears.
His voice filled the air around me.
“Keep at it. We’re almost at the end!”
Right, we were almost done. This devastating battle was about to end. I crawled toward the survivors with the last remaining strength I had.
Thud!!!
A thick cloud of dust obscured my vision. I coughed and lifted my head up slightly.
A red humanoid figure stood in the middle of the dust cloud. It was blocking the bullets flying its way using a steel door that had been bent. It looked down at me, and its red eyes flashed.
It was the enemy leader.
Of all the moments, the enemy leader had shown up when I was in no position to fight back. He observed me closely and then smirked.
“There’s not a single easy day, is there?”
He was talking out loud. This meant that he had eaten a human’s brain, which also meant that he was letting me know that he was part of the gang.
My lips trembled, and I looked at him with eyes filled with ferocity. He tilted his head and looked at me.
“Don’t just stare at me. Say something.”
‘You sly bastard.’
“Ha! This young blood’s got a rather foul mouth.”
The enemy leader stomped on my right hand. My right hand was crushed right in front of my eyes. As my eyes went wide, the enemy leader glared at me, his eyes filled with murder. His voice took on a shade of annoyance.
“Is this all you’ve got? Is mocking me the only thing you’ve got up your sleeve?”
‘You bastard…’
“I know you don’t feel pain anyways. Keep on going.”
I gritted my teeth and sank them into the enemy leader’s shin. The enemy leader seemed surprised at my sudden attack, and kicked me in the body with his opposite leg. My ribs broke with a firm crack.
“GAR, HUP!”
I spewed out red blood. I felt nauseous and my shattered right arm was barely attached to my body. I coughed violently and my entire body trembled.
The enemy leader frowned at my sorry state.
“What could a man like you do, with that kind of will?”
I felt miserable.
My arms and legs had been blown severed, and not a single part of my body was unharmed.
There was nothing I could do.
The enemy leader gritted his teeth and kept on goading me.
“Aren’t you here to save people? Don’t you care if I kill everyone here? Are you just going to lie down there while I do that?”
I was frustrated that I couldn’t do anything. My insides were raging at the fact that I couldn’t do anything.
I glared at the enemy leader in fury. Then the enemy leader clicked his tongue and went next to Park Gi-Cheol, who was trembling for dear life. Park Gi-Cheol was shaking violently and puffing away like a goldfish.
I wasn’t sure if his behavior was because it was his first time seeing a zombie talk, or because he had lost his mind, knowing that there was no more hope.
The enemy leader sighed.
“It seems like you can't do anything. Then, is it okay for me to kill this man?”
“GRRR!”
I howled at the top of my lungs for him to stop, but the enemy leader merely looked sad.
“This young blood is pretty stupid too.”
He raised his foot.
At any moment, he was going to stomp on Park Gi-Cheol.
He was abhorrent. I hated him down to his guts. I wanted to rip his legs off and twist his little piehole.
But right then, I was nothing more than an insect with its legs pulled off.
I yelled, trying to avoid disaster.
‘What!? What do I have to do so that these people can make it out of here safely?’
“Well said. It’s actually not that difficult. You just have to join the gang.”
‘...What did you say?’
“I’m telling you to stop acting like a superhero. I’m asking you to become one of us.”
My eyebrows twitched at his offer.
I was sure he’d just asked me to become a gang member. What kind of nonsense was he saying?
On the other hand, though, it could be wise to temporarily accept his offer. I could act like I was on board with his proposal while I waited for my body to recover.
Seeing my silence, the enemy leader snorted.
“Don’t try to come up with some shitty plan of yours.”
“...”
Then the enemy leader looked over at Park Gi-Cheol and kicked him toward me.
“Eat this person’s brain in thirty seconds, if you would. That way, I’ll know you’ve accepted my offer.”
‘You son of a bitch…’
“If you do that, we’ll keep our hands off of Shelter Seoul Forest. Don’t you think it’s a pretty good deal?”
As I gritted my teeth, my lips trembling, Park Gi-Cheol got up and spoke.
“...It’s not your fault.”
Park Gi-Cheol’s expression was that of a man who had given up on everything. The enemy leader was surprised by his statement.
“Seems like he’s a brighter fellow than you.”
Park Gi-Cheol glared at the enemy leader.
“It seems like you’re old enough to know how the world goes around. Don’t go back on your word.”
The enemy leader let out a boisterous laugh and looked back and forth between me and Park Gi-Cheol. Seeing my hesitation, the enemy leader let out a sigh and started to count down.
His countdown made my head begin to spin in circles. It felt like it was about to explode.
My mind was anxiously trying to come up with a plan.
As my mind grew more and more confused, the thirty seconds felt like a century.
I couldn’t think of an appropriate plan in such a desperate moment, and I felt my moral compass shift.
Everything, including the sounds of gunfire and the enemy leader’s voice, started to fade away. The only thing that was clear to me was Park Gi-Cheol’s scent, which tickled my nose. I wondered if it was really my only option.
“Eight, seven, six…”
He was almost done counting.
My expression fell, and I gritted my teeth.
No matter how hard I thought, there was no way out.
I only had one option from the beginning.
I stared at Park Gi-Cheol next to me, my eyes filling with tears.
Park Gi-Cheol was seated in a lotus position, his eyes closed. He was ready to accept death.
“Four, three, two…”
GRRR!!!
That moment, I heard a throat-rending cry pierce its way through the pitch-black darkness. The sudden cry caused the enemy leader to halt his countdown as he looked around.
Thud, thud, thud.
The ground began to tremble. It sounded like an army of horses were galloping this way. I prayed that this new arrival was the person I was hoping would show up.
I couldn’t calm myself.
I swallowed, tasting blood mixed in with my saliva, and looked toward where the sound was coming from.
From afar, I heard twigs being snapped within the thick, lush forest. The hundreds of trees were shaking, which bolstered my hope.
Finally, the beings that appeared through the forest pulled my soul back out from the deep abyss of despair.
Like a ship making its way through the storm, like a monstrous tidal wave rushing this way, a purple tsunami was rolling in our direction, preparing to flood this place.
My glowing red eyes flared as I fixed my gaze on a man charging toward me like a bullet.
GRRR!!!
Kim Hyeong-Jun howled at the top of his lungs, charging in like a wild horse on the run.
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