The End
"Snap out of it! You planning to die here?!"
I barked it at the companions who still couldn't pull themselves together. The zombies looked beyond counting, but the System hadn't demanded we slaughter every last one of them—only that we survive for a set stretch of time. One hour. Hold out that long, I told myself, and some way to live through this would open up.
"B-but…!"
Smack!
"Kh—!"
My shout hadn't been enough. Kang Hanna was still white as a sheet, so I brought my open palm down hard across her back.
"Hey. You don't trust me? Quit worrying. I'll keep you alive no matter what it takes."
"Y-you…"
That finally seemed to bring her around. Her unsteady eyes found their focus, little by little.
"Hey! You gonna keep shivering over there? Pick this up, at least! Mister Jang, pull yourself together!"
Once her head was clear, Kang Hanna took command with crisp, no-nonsense efficiency. We needed every pair of hands we could get, so she shoved the spears Kim Hyunjun and Jung Jinwoo had been gripping into the hands of the traitor couple still quaking in the corner and hurried them on.
"Ugh. These ones…"
"I've got a use for them. Don't worry about it."
I said it while she stood there fretting over what to do with Kim Hyunjun and Jung Jinwoo, both out cold, and with Choi Minhyuk, who had lost an arm and was thrashing on the floor in agony.
"You? What exactly are you going to do?"
"You'll see."
Talk was slower than action. I grabbed the two unconscious men by the ankles and dragged them to the window.
Shhk. Crash!
I drew my sword and cut the glass. It sheared clean, dropped, and shattered across the floor. Honestly, I hadn't expected it to cut that well. The blade was better than I'd given it credit for.
"Hey. Hey, wake up!"
"Hhk…! Y-you…!"
I slapped Kim Hyunjun and Jung Jinwoo across the face until they came to. The instant they saw me, terror seized their faces.
"You see those zombies down there?"
"Eeeek—wh-what the hell is that?!"
"What do you think? Guests who came running when your idiot of a leader fired a gun without using his head."
"Ah…!"
One look at that enormous mass of the dead and he sank into despair, a groan slipping out of him.
"You want to live? Want me to let you?"
"L-let us live, please!"
A single line from me, and they started begging, staring into my face as if a lifeline had just dropped out of heaven.
"Then jump."
"What?!"
"I said jump."
"You said you'd let us live, you son of a bitch!"
"Stay in here and you die by my hand, guaranteed. Jump, dodge the zombies, and run, and your odds are actually better."
"Fuck! Fuck! You're just telling us to die!"
"I'm telling you I'm letting you live."
They wouldn't listen, so I started driving Kim Hyunjun and Jung Jinwoo toward the window the way a pirate in a film walks a mutineer off the plank, pricking them along with the point of my sword.
"P-please, I'm begging you, let us live! We messed up, okay?"
"Agh! That hurts! Please, stop!"
"Hurry up and jump. We're out of time."
Even backed to the brink, they had no choice but to retreat toward the drop as my blade kept closing in.
"Y-you motherfucker!"
"Aaaaaagh!"
Thud!
"Kieeeek!"
Driven until there was nowhere left to plant a foot, the two of them leapt from the second floor down to the first. The zombies shrieked and charged the moment they saw fresh meat.
"Eeeeeek! W-we have to run!"
Countless dead eyes locked onto them. Drained of all color, the pair broke into a run, trying to get clear of the horde.
"Aaaagh! Hyunjun! Hyunjun!! Save me!"
"You crazy bastard, the hell are you saying?! Let go!"
Jung Jinwoo must have botched his landing. He fell behind, limping hard on one leg, and reached for his friend—but Kim Hyunjun shook the hand off. That told me everything I needed to know about how cheap their friendship really was.
"You bastard! Don't leave me! You bastard!"
Jung Jinwoo's scream carried down the street, but Kim Hyunjun never stopped. He turned the corner and was gone.
"Stay back! I said stay the fuck back!"
He crawled through a slick of blood and sweat, but he already knew it was too late. Rotting hands closed around his leg.
"Aaaagh! P-please, please, let me li—gaaaaah!!"
With that hideous scream, Jung Jinwoo met his end, torn apart and eaten by the swarm.
"Now it's your turn."
I had watched the whole thing from the window. Turning, I started toward Choi Minhyuk, who clutched the place where his arm had been and stared at me, rigid with fear.
"P-please don't do this, okay? I-I'll help you. You can't hold this place by yourselves, right? Right?"
"Choi Minhyuk, wasn't it? Yeah. You're right."
My voice stayed soft, but he must have caught the threat under it. His face went bloodless.
"We really can't hold this on our own. That's why I need your help."
"R-right! I'll help you—gaaaaaah!"
I seized the raw stump of his arm. Choi Minhyuk's scream split my ear.
"Aaaagh! Please… please, stop!"
His cry, thick with pain, filled my chest. God, it had been a long time since I'd felt anything like this. The feeling of being alive. The feeling that the reins were in my hand.
"You'll help us? Yeah. That's right. You're going to be a tremendous help."
"Aaaagh! Please… please, stop!"
I ground my hand harder into the wound. Choi Minhyuk's face crumpled under the pain.
"If even some of those zombies chase you once you're tossed outside, it'll make defending this place a hell of a lot easier."
That was the whole reason I'd thrown Choi Minhyuk and his crew out—to peel part of the incoming horde off us and set it on them instead.
"Come on. Your friends are waiting for you."
Choi Minhyuk began to shake.
"N-no, please… don't do this. I'll… I'll do anything. Just let me live."
I let out a short, thin laugh at the begging.
"Right. You do have to do something. For all of our sakes."
I caught him by the shoulders and hauled him up onto the windowsill. He fought with everything he had, but it was already far too late.
"Kang… Kang Hanna! You're a cop! Can a cop really do this?! I-I'll apologize, okay? Please, let me live!"
I ignored the plea and shoved him harder toward the open air, and he wrenched his head toward Kang Hanna as if she were the last hope he had.
Curious what the justice-drunk Kang Hanna would make of a scene like this, I looked over at her. She was directing the others, getting the defense in order.
"……Move it, move it! And stack that barricade higher!"
She glanced our way for a second, then turned her head without a word and went back to commanding them. Respecting my call, I supposed. Her indifference drew a bitter smile out of me. The world had already fallen apart, and it seemed her sense of justice had started to shift with it.
When even that last hope shattered, Choi Minhyuk's face went white.
"You saw that? We're out of time. Off you go."
The zombies were creeping closer to the store. I couldn't drag this out any longer, so I put a foot into Choi Minhyuk and kicked him off the sill.
"Gaaaaaah!"
His scream as he dropped from the railing rang through the hollow city.
Whump.
A dull impact sounded where his body met the asphalt. In that same instant the zombies' growling swelled—excited, the sound of something that had just found fresh meat.
"Kh… fuck…"
Choi Minhyuk ground his teeth and tried to push himself up. The will to live was burning in his eyes.
"Khh…! You bastards! Just you wait! I'm gonna survive—survive, and then I'm gonna kill every last one of you!"
The resolve he shouted up at us didn't match what was closing in around him. The zombies were already coming fast, and once he understood that, he scrambled to move.
"Hanna."
I turned and called to Kang Hanna.
"How's the barricade coming?"
She nodded, her face cold and sharp.
"Almost done. But we don't have much time."
I looked down again. Choi Minhyuk was fleeing for his life, dodging the dead, but his wounds had him moving slow.
"J-Jung Jinwoo? What are you doing? Gaaaaaah!"
"Kieeeeeek!"
His scream cut the night air once more. The friend who had fallen ahead of him had apparently turned, and come back to welcome him.
"Aaaagh! Save me! Please…!"
As Choi Minhyuk's cries grew fainter, I checked the numbers bearing down on us again. There were still plenty—that much hadn't changed—but set against before, the count had dropped by a meaningful margin. My plan had landed. Thanks to Choi Minhyuk and his crew splitting the horde, the quest's difficulty had eased a step.
Thanks, friends. I won't forget your sacrifice!
Noble self-sacrifice. Give up the flesh, fulfill the virtue. Recalling Choi Minhyuk and his crew, who had leapt from the second floor and offered themselves up—voluntarily?—I moved to take my own place on the defense.