Escape (2)
"That's a really good idea. Let's leave tomorrow night, then."
Kang Hanna took to it at once, impressed by how sound the suggestion was.
"Even so, tomorrow's going to be a hard day. All of you, get plenty of rest."
With that, the meeting came to an end, and everyone went off to rest.
"You're not sleeping, sir?"
The others were already settling down for the night when Lee Jaemin called over to Jang Sangcheol, still making something in a corner.
"I'll turn in once I finish this. You go on and sleep."
"Yes. Please sleep early, so you won't be tired tomorrow."
At that, Lee Jaemin went to bed first.
The next day arrived: the day of the decisive battle.
"All right. Shall we head out?"
The group had finished preparing to go outside.
"Hold on. Take these first."
They were just about to head down the stairs to the first floor when Jang Sangcheol stopped them and began handing something out.
"Whoa, what is this? I was wondering what you were doing yesterday — you made these?"
What had drawn Lee Jaemin's awe was a weapon fashioned like a spear, a blade fixed to the end of a pole. The shaft had come off a cleaning tool, something like a mop, and the blade was a kitchen knife lashed to the tip.
Aside from the firearms carried by the two officers, Kang Hanna and Kim Jaeho, the group had nothing to fight with. For them, the spears were an enormous help.
"Put the old trade to work and made them as best I could. Proper tools and a little more time, and I could've done better. A shame."
Jang Sangcheol was deft-handed from years of running a hardware store, and he had stayed up through the night to craft them. Perhaps that was why they were so finely made it was hard to believe they had come from such limited equipment.
"Aim for the head, and nowhere else. From what I've seen, when the survivors who've lasted this long hit a zombie, the rest of the body stays just fine. Strike the head, and they drop."
He must have been watching them through the glass all the while. He even laid out their weak point for the group — a moment that carried the full weight of long experience.
"And where are the car keys?"
"Th-the car keys?"
Jang Sangcheol, who was to do the driving, asked Kim Jaeho for them, and the man answered in a flustered voice.
"The c-car keys... Oh, right! I left them in the car!"
He had been patting himself down. Now he spoke as if the memory had struck him all at once — he had left the keys in the ignition of the police car.
"Inside the car?"
"Yeah. You bolted out of there so suddenly I rushed after you, and I never got the chance to pull them."
Something about it felt off. Kang Hanna let it pass anyway.
"Then I'll lay out the plan. First we clear the zombies on the first floor. Fortunately it's a spiral staircase, so I don't expect they'll climb it easily."
Before they made for the police car, Kang Hanna gathered the group and explained.
"So we hold the top of the stairs. You stab the zombies below with your spears. Any that make it up the steps, I'll handle."
At her words they gripped their spears in trembling hands and steeled themselves.
"Then we move."
At Kang Hanna's signal, everyone climbed over the barricade.
Beyond it, the first floor was a wreck. Shelves that had once stood in orderly rows looked as if a storm had torn through them, and bloodstains mottled the merchandise scattered across the floor. Off to one side, zombies were tearing into a corpse with a shattered skull.
Even so, the outbreak had struck on a weekday morning, and there hadn't been many customers. The zombies inside the store numbered only nine.
Ready?
Once the group had taken their places at the top of the stairs, Kang Hanna, out in front, turned to check on them. They nodded, pulling their nerve back together. She drew a deep breath. And then—
Her shout split the air and rang out.
"Kieeeeeek!"
In that instant every zombie's head snapped toward the group on the stairs. Rotten eyes locked onto them, and a shriek tore loose that seemed fit to split the ears.
"They're coming! Get ready!"
"Kieeeek!"
They thrust their spears at the heads of the zombies reaching up from below. The staircase was a spiral, and the dull-witted dead couldn't find the entrance — they only stretched their hands toward the prey above them.
"Eat this, you bastard!"
Crunch. Without a moment's hesitation, they drove the spears into the skulls of the zombies drooling up at them.
A few got lucky. They charged for the entrance and started up the stairs.
"Get the fuck off, you piece of shit!"
Crunch. That was why Kang Hanna had taken the front — to deal with the ones that found the stairs. She drove her spear in with everything she had and put the zombie down.
"They might not die in one hit! If it's still standing, keep stabbing!"
"Yes!"
Under Kang Hanna's orders, the others kept driving their spears in.
"Left! It's climbing the railing on the left!"
Coincidence, or had the thing already learned? Lee Jia spotted a zombie hauling itself up by the railing and shouted.
"Where the hell do you think you're climbing, you bastard!"
At the sound of Lee Jia's voice, Kang Hanna shifted left and took the climbing zombie down.
"Keep stabbing!"
And so they fought a desperate battle against the dead.
Crunch.
"Greeeeaak!"
At last the final zombie was run through on Kang Hanna's spear.
"Some of them might not be dead yet. Give each one a stab."
Once the confirmation kills were done, the group gathered at the store entrance.
"Where did you park the police car?"
"Past the alley on the left. It's out on the road."
Kim Jaeho answered with a finger pointed down the left-hand alley.
"Then I'll run off to the right and play bait. You escort them to the police car, then come back here."
"Yes, sir. Understood, Sergeant Kim."
"Everyone ready?"
At Sergeant Kim's orders she nodded, then turned to the others and took stock of them.
"I'll head out first."
"Yes, sir. Be careful, Sergeant Kim."
"You too."
They wished each other luck, and then Kim Jaeho and Kang Hanna's group split apart.
"Then we move too."
Only after Kim Jaeho was gone did Kang Hanna and the others leave the store, heading for the road where the police car waited.
"Move quietly."
Kang Hanna whispered it to the group. Just as Jang Sangcheol had predicted, the zombies had grown sluggish, and the dark kept them from spotting anyone. They slipped past the ones that hadn't noticed them — but that luck gave out once they reached the middle of the alley.
"Kieeeek!"
"Goddamn it! Run!"
At Hanna's shout, they all broke into a run.
"Kieeeek!"
Thud.
"Don't chicken out! Keep running!"
She drove her spear into the head of a zombie charging from ahead as she shouted, and the others answered in kind, stabbing at the dead closing in and pushing forward.
"Aigoo!"
Thump.
"Sir!"
Someone fell out of the group. Jang Sangcheol, whose bad leg had always troubled him, went down, and Lee Jaemin, seeing it, cried out.
"Somebody help over here!"
"H-honey...!"
"Mina, what are you doing? Run!"
Lee Jaemin bent to get an arm under Jang Sangcheol, shouting as he did — but the couple, Kim Minho and Jeong Mina, pretended not to hear and ran on ahead. Lee Jia had no attention to spare. She was too busy ramming her spear into the skull of a zombie coming at her.
"Jaemin, leave me and go!"
"Fucking hell, don't give me that bullshit! Jaemin, hold on tight!"
"Yes!"
In the end Kang Hanna came back herself, cursing as she hauled Jang Sangcheol up.
"Mr. Jaeho is drawing them off, right? I can't hear a thing!"
"How the fuck should I know! His luck probably ran out and he died on the way."
No sound at all came from Kim Jaeho's direction — the bait, according to the plan. Supporting Jang Sangcheol between them, Lee Jaemin had found it strange enough to ask, but this was no time to dwell on it.
"I'll cover you. Go, quickly!"
Lee Jia had already put down the zombie charging her. She came up behind Jang Sangcheol, drove her spear into the ones trailing them, and shouted.
"Hell, you're worth more than ten men!"
"Now, there's a young fellow right here, and that's not a pleasant thing to hear."
"Then perhaps you'd prefer to go on alone, so it won't trouble you?"
"One daughter raised right puts ten sons to shame. That's the way of it."
They talked as they supported Jang Sangcheol, and somewhere in the middle of it they made it out of the alley.
"We're here!"
"What are you doing? Get in the car!"
She shouted it at Jeong Mina and Kim Minho, who had gone on ahead — but they only wore panicked faces and couldn't get a word out.
"What? Where's the police car? The police car!"
Only then did Kang Hanna catch the wrongness of it. She looked around, but no matter where she turned there was no vehicle bearing a police mark. Only ordinary cars waited to greet them.
And an ordinary car, of course, had no keys. It couldn't be driven.