Cleanup
"Y-you... you motherfucker! President Ma's gonna kill you too...!"
His throat was already slit, blood spraying as he thrashed in agony, and still the bastard screamed through a mouthful of foam.
I snorted.
"That piece of shit shows up, he'll die by my hand first."
"Ghk... you bastard...!"
He spat one last curse through the blood and collapsed. That was the end of him.
Done.
I caught my breath and swept the area again. The zombies' wails were drawing closer.
Gotta get back. Fast.
But not before I dealt with the bodies. If these two went missing and President Ma found the corpses, he'd know a person had killed them, not zombies.
I glanced around and spotted a large dumpster.
No choice.
I sighed and hauled the first corpse up. Heavier than I'd expected. Dragging it toward the dumpster, I kept my eyes on every side — the cries were closing in, and I was running out of time.
I shoved the body in. It dropped with a sickening sound. Swallowing the urge to gag, I went back for the second.
"Fuck. Heavy."
I cursed as I dragged it over and heaved it into the dumpster. Sweat ran down my back from the dead weight.
Now what?
I dug through my pockets and came up with a lighter. A moment's hesitation, then I decided.
Burn them.
I thumbed the wheel — chk — lit the trash, and tossed it in. Fwoosh. Flames surged up in an instant.
"Ah, fuck, that smell!"
Burning meat and garbage stabbed at my nose and sent bile climbing my throat. I clamped a hand over my mouth and backed off.
"Burns nice, though."
I turned my back on the burning corpses and started walking. Out of the alley, I checked the street. No zombies in sight yet, but the groans rolling in from the distance were getting closer.
Move.
I spun and broke into a run. A zombie howled somewhere behind me. I didn't look back.
I cleared the alleys and came out onto the street with the convenience store, its sign showing in the distance. The moment I reached the door, Kang Hanna was the first one out.
"Hey! Park Dohyun! Where the hell have you been? Do you have any idea how worried I was when you just vanished?"
I looked up at her. Anger and worry were knotted together on her face. Lee Jia watched me with anxious eyes, and Lee Jaemin clutched his spear, his expression drawn tight.
"Sorry. Had something to take care of."
I answered flatly. In that same moment, her eyes dropped to the blood on my clothes.
"Is that... blood?"
Her voice shook. I hesitated, turning over how to explain it.
She won't like it. Can't be helped.
"Those bastards from earlier. Dangerous if I left them breathing, so I took care of them."
That froze every one of them. Jia asked, barely above a whisper.
"Then... those people..."
I nodded. A heavy silence settled over the room.
Just picturing Hanna — that rigid sense of justice of hers — grilling me over it was already giving me a headache.
If she does, I'll pin her down with my cock in bed tonight.
"Haah..."
I tensed at the sound of her sigh. Her eyes were sharp, but contrary to what I'd expected, there was no anger in them.
"All right. I understand you didn't have a choice."
She stopped and closed her eyes. Complicated feelings crossed her face.
"I know you did it for us. But next time, don't go off alone. We're a team."
I huffed a quiet laugh. She was a very different Kang Hanna from the woman I'd first met.
That was when Jaemin carefully opened his mouth.
"Hyung... you did it to protect us, right?"
I nodded. Tears welled in his eyes.
"Thank you, Hyung."
"A grown man tearing up and getting all weepy on me is making me sick. Knock it off."
"Heh. Understood."
The joke eased the look on his face, and he answered through a grin.
Time to leave.
"All right. We need to get out of here. Everyone grab what we collected?"
Hanna nodded.
"Yeah. Got it all."
I drew a breath and walked to the door.
"Good. Let's move. Stay sharp — it's still dangerous out there."
The others nodded, faces tight. We opened the door slowly and stepped outside.
The moment we left the store, zombie groans drifted out of the alleys on every side.
I gripped my sword and took the lead. Hanna and Jaemin followed behind me, and Jia brought up the rear with an arrow nocked.
"Look. Three of them," Hanna said quietly.
At the corner ahead, three zombies stood swaying. I signaled the others with a gesture.
Quiet.
Everyone nodded. We held our breath and crept closer. The zombies didn't seem to have noticed us yet.
Killing those two had worn me down, and I'd already cleared the daily quest, so I meant to slip past without a fight. Stir them up and you risked pulling aggro from every other zombie in earshot.
One step. Then another.
A glass bottle rolled out from under Jaemin's foot.
"Damn it."
The zombies' heads snapped toward us. Red eyes glinted in rotting faces.
"Shoot!"
The word left my mouth and Jia's arrow flew with it, punching clean through the first zombie's skull. The other two snarled and charged.
I lunged. The sword cut the air — shhk — and the second zombie's head spun off his shoulders. Hanna drove her spear through the last one's skull.
With the last of them down, I swept the street. Fortunately, we hadn't drawn any others.
"Hah... hah..."
Jaemin was gasping, his face gone pale.
"You okay?"
He nodded.
"Yes... I'm just not used to this yet."
I patted his shoulder.
"It's all right. Give it time and it'll feel normal."
"Are there any other zombies?"
"No. We're clear for now."
"Whew... thank god."
He let out a shaky breath of relief. Too soon — from somewhere in the distance came the cries of another pack.
"Let's hurry. The house isn't far."
We moved fast, slipped out of the alleys, and made it to the front of the house in one piece. At last the place came into view. Nothing looked out of order. We approached the gate with care.
"Mister Jang? It's us!"
Jaemin knocked, cautious. A moment later, footsteps answered from inside.
"Oh, you're back. Good thing you're all in one piece."
Jang Sangcheol's voice. The door opened on his face, relief flickering across it.
"Get in. Quick."
We hurried inside. The door shut, and the tension drained out of us — only for the exhaustion to rush in and take its place.
"How'd it go? You get the food all right?"
I nodded.
"Yes. Brought back quite a lot. But..."
I stopped, weighing how to explain what had happened.
"Something go wrong out there?"
Jang Sangcheol's eyes sharpened. I drew a long breath.
"Let's sit down, Mister Jang. It's a bit complicated."
We headed for the living room. This was going to be a long story.
Once everyone had gathered, I started.
"Those bastards worked under the loan shark I used to run with. The man was rotten, so I got out."
Every face in the room hardened. Hanna's brows drew together, Jia hunched her shoulders uneasily, and Jaemin bit his lip as he watched me.
I sighed and went on.
"If they find this place, we're in serious trouble. Good chance they'd hit us."
Jang Sangcheol rubbed his chin, thinking it over.
"So that's why you... took care of them."
I nodded. Silence weighed on the room once more.
"Those men... they seemed dangerous to me too," Hanna said, gripping my hand tight. "They were trying to find out where we live. If they had, they probably would've attacked."
Warmth seeped from her palm into mine.
"I hear you, Dohyun. It ain't my place to say whether you did right or wrong. You're the one leading us, after all."
I nodded. There was a solid weight of trust in his voice.
Which meant it was time to prepare for an attack that might still come.