No More Rooms in Hell (5)
The choir had all fourteen combat-capable members out in full force. Yoon Jeong-ho wasn’t an opponent they could take lightly. He was the bastard who had killed two of their own, then scraped up every last bit of food he could find and hauled it away. Considering the narrow confines of the apartment building and the monster that had claimed both the underground and surface parking lots, this was not overkill. It was simply appropriate.
That wasn’t just the opinion of the man they called “Hyung-nim,” the leader of the absurdly named choir. They needed to overwhelm him with numbers. That had been the reasoning behind the decision.
‘And yet here they are, all dead.’
Whoever had done it had sliced the throat clean open. It wasn’t the kind of sloppy work that would make someone scream about a split skull. No, the split skull belonged to his zombie wife. Yoon Jeong-ho from Room 808 had simply died with his throat cut.
‘These bastards and their damn theatrics…’
The real problem was that no one knew who had done it. There were almost no signs of struggle, as if he’d been stabbed in the back by someone he trusted. The Chinese cleaver and bag he usually carried were gone. Even the hidden food stash had vanished.
Worry gnawed at him, but he forced himself to stay calm. The situation wasn’t good. In this cramped apartment complex, the remaining food supplies were far from abundant. There had been no harvest. No traces left behind. There were signs that the inner bedroom had been used, but judging by the corpse, it looked like Yoon Jeong-ho himself had been the one sleeping there.
“Hyung-nim, looks like this bastard used the bathroom too.”
Despite that, Yoon Jeong-ho was filthy, and the time of death didn’t match the time the bed had been used. But that wasn’t the kind of knowledge the choir leader possessed.
“Must’ve been pretty recent… Anything else?”
“Hmm, not really…”
They couldn’t return empty-handed. He was biting his lip in frustration when—
“Hey!”
A sudden shout. He turned to see one of the choir members standing on the veranda, eyes wide.
“Kang Ahyeon…?!”
Kang Ahyeon. The choir leader remembered her too. The prettiest girl in the entire cult. The one who had followed her older brother around like a puppy ever since she was little, always smiling brightly and acting so pure and innocent.
‘She was still alive?’
His heart began to race. Before the world had fallen apart, she had been someone far beyond his reach—an untouchable flower. Dating was forbidden in the cult, and the choir leader had only earned his position through his singing voice, not his looks. Unlike that idiot who had been chosen by the cult leader for his handsome face yet still rebelled, the choir leader had risen through pure effort and skill.
He could never defy the cult leader’s will. And even if he somehow went against the doctrine, he had no confidence he could win over Kang Ahyeon’s heart. What did it matter that he sang well? She was so beautiful that even the cult leader had no choice but to use her for propaganda and advertising.
The moment the choir leader and his men tried to head for the veranda, they heard a sharp gasp from a woman. Then came the sound of running footsteps. And finally—
Thud!
The sound of a door slamming open and shut.
She was running away.
The choir leader roughly understood why Kang Ahyeon was fleeing.
‘That son of a bitch Yoon Jeong-ho.’
She lived in Room 807. She must have known at least some of what Yoon Jeong-ho in 808 had been doing, or perhaps she had been one of his victims. Of course she would be terrified of people. The same went for zombies.
He bit his lip in urgency and gestured sharply.
“Fuck, after her!”
“Y-yes!”
The choir leader had a powerful build and a resonant voice that matched it. At his authoritative command, the members scrambled to obey. He grabbed one of the slower ones still muttering.
“Hey. Kang Ahyeon… was she okay? No bite marks?”
“Ah, yes, Hyung-nim. No bites anywhere…”
“Her face? Was it dirty or anything?”
“No, she was… insanely pretty…”
That was enough to satisfy him. Suppressing his pounding heart and rising expectations, he nodded.
“Then what are you waiting for? Go after her!”
He followed right behind them.
“Which way did she go?!”
“She ran up to the eighth floor!”
“Chase her!”
The pile of furniture blocking the stairs between the seventh and eighth floors had already been cleared away. Amid the chaotic sound of footsteps, the choir members ran.
It wasn’t that they had no questions. How had that delicate girl moved such heavy furniture? She had no athletic ability at all; it had taken her forever just to learn the basic choir choreography. How could she—?
But such doubts never fully formed in their minds. Before they could, her image rose up instead.
The unity events they used to hold back at Sion Mountain Fortress. The way she would wear a flowing dress, chatter happily beside her brother, and laugh. A face that could captivate any man. And now that face was within their grasp.
The choir members ran while swallowing their own excited fantasies.
‘She’s fucking fast. Wasn’t she supposed to be bad at sports?’
The question still lingered. She was so quick that by the time they reached the eighth floor, there was no trace of her. Instead, they heard heavy thumping sounds. Was she stacking furniture?
They roughly figured it out. Kang Hyun must still be alive. Maybe even their parents too.
‘Should we spare the mother?’
The father and Kang Hyun could die for all he cared. But both the mother and Kang Ahyeon had faces too valuable to throw away. They might even breathe new life into their dreary communal existence.
With anticipation surging through him, the choir leader ran until he finally reached the eighth floor.
The eighth floor was eerily clean. The thumping sound came from slightly to the side. It seemed like something was being wedged against the door to keep it from opening. As if that would matter when all you had to do was pull.
The choir leader sneered and approached the door.
Room 807.
He slowed down and quietly drew his weapon. Hammers, saw-toothed sickles, scythes, hatchets, military picks. Right now, while they were busy stacking furniture inside, this was the perfect opportunity. At least the monster in the parking lot couldn’t reach this far inside. It was better than fighting in the hallway.
He met eyes with the other choir members and lowered his voice.
“Ahyeon-ah, do you remember your oppa?”
No answer came. Only the sound of frightened, shaky breathing. He could clearly picture her holding her breath, trembling as if she weren’t even there. It only fueled his desire to conquer her.
Feeling his boiling lust, he reached for the doorknob.
Click!
‘Fuck, it’s locked.’
Annoying, but not impossible. They had grown used to climbing between verandas. And even without that, there were other ways to break in.
‘Is this one locked too? Damn it, I should’ve opened it in advance.’
Room 808 was also locked. Frustrating, but unavoidable. He gestured to two of his men. Go down to Room 708, climb up to 808, and open the door from inside. Then everyone would threaten them from 808, burst in, and cross over the veranda together.
There might be people inside, but fourteen men were violence incarnate. If only one or two crossed over, maybe they’d have a problem. But if they all swarmed across, what did it matter how many were waiting? They would simply crush them with numbers. That was why they had brought fourteen in the first place.
“Ahyeon-ah, oppa didn’t come here to hurt you. Actually… um, aren’t you hungry? There can’t be much food left… Oppa will share some with you.”
He pretended to speak gently and persuasively while signaling the others. They took up their positions. Just as the two who had gone down to the seventh floor entered Room 708 and began climbing the rope toward 808, he nodded toward Room 806.
Just in case, they might as well prepare another entry point. One of the choir members nodded eagerly and grabbed the doorknob, twisting it.
The door opened.
“Huh?”
By the time the dazed voice came out, it was already too late. The choir leader’s eyes widened as zombies poured out from the open door like a flood.
“Aaa—!”
The scream was immediately drowned out. One choir member was pinned down, his face torn off. His guts were ripped open, the thin skin and muscle of his abdomen shredded as his insides were devoured.
A sharp gasp. Before he could even realize they had been lured here, more screams tore through the air.
“Hey! Room 808! Open the door!”
The choir leader’s shout overlapped with the chaos. He hurriedly backed away, swinging the saw-toothed blade in his hand to hack at the zombies while retreating from the ones being bitten.
“Kang Ahyeooon! We’re all going to die! Open the door!”
No answer came to his desperate cries. Whether it was Room 808 or 807, one of them had to open. In this situation, there was no way to repel the zombies without casualties.
‘We’re fucked.’
The moment the choir leader felt the crisis and sucked in a breath, the member who had climbed from Room 708 into 808 heard the urgent shouts and understood the situation. In this broken world, screams and desperation only ever meant one thing.
Zombies. Death.
“F-fuck… Y-yes! I’ll open the door right now…!”
He was about to sprint toward the door when, just as the choir members outside gathered in front of Room 808 after hearing his shout, the man running for the entrance suddenly noticed a shadow rushing up behind him too late.
Thwack!
The Chinese cleaver slammed down into his skull. The blade split bone and cleaved brain. He collapsed right where he had been running.
The choir member in front of him turned at the short, choked death rattle.
‘Ah.’
There stood Kang Hyun. Unlike his sister, he had sharp eyes that were now wide open. The man swung a club down at him. The one who had crossed over the veranda from Room 807 to 808.
Crunch!
The club smashed straight into his head. His eyes rolled back. He fell backward.
At the loud crash, the choir members gathered in front of Room 808 screamed for them.
“Hey! Hey! Open the door! Fuck, open the— AAAAAAAGH—!”
If they had run all the way to Room 810 where the emergency stairs were instead of relying on Room 808, they might have survived. But they had stopped, trusting that the door would open.
Kang Hyun had waited for them to scream before attacking. He had known it would turn out this way.
And so the hallway filled with screams, crashes, and deafening noise. Naturally, the variant that had been quietly sleeping in the parking lot woke up and began crawling up the building.
“Ah…”
Who had let that sigh slip? A chilling groan echoed as an enormous maw loomed over the hallway.
“Ack, graaagh, aaaaaaaaagh!”
The sounds of living flesh being crushed and torn apart. A tongue made of outstretched human arms grabbed people and dragged them into its mouth. They were devoured.
The sounds of it eating both zombies and humans continued for a long time. Only after the screams that had gone on and on finally stopped did the door open.
On the hallway floor covered in blood, debris, and abandoned weapons, only one pair of humans remained.
New Heaven Rapture Mission Church Youth Choir — All Members Neutralized 14/14
🎁 Reward: Stats +2
In the competition to decide who is the hunter and who is the prey, you have not only won—you have carved a clear and overwhelming dominance into your enemies. In this ruined world, who could possibly stop you now that you have resolved to do anything to survive? Certainly not them.
To you, who slaughtered members of your own kind without suffering so much as a scratch, a hunter’s fitting dignity is bestowed!
🎁 Additional Reward: Stats +2