Labyrinth Safari
“What the hell?”
“The alarm stopped?”
No sound drifted in through the cracked window. Just absolute silence, as if no one was out there, nothing was, and nothing had ever happened at all.
I pulled out my phone and did the math. “I'd say it's been about ten minutes. Since the alarm started.”
If it went off again, we'd be able to figure out the pattern.
“Gah, what if it's one of those things?” Choi Jaeha, who'd been hunched over staring out the window, suddenly straightened up. “Huh? One of what?” “You know, like—while the sirens are going, that's when they hunt people. Those kinds of stories.” “Are there stories like that?” “Uh, yeah, there are, there are all those movies...”
Why on earth did this man gravitate toward such bizarre films? He was terrified of everything else.
“Oh! But if it's really like you said, Jaeha, doesn't that mean it's safe right now? Since we can't hear anything.” “Uh—no, wait, that's just my guess... It could be wrong...”
Whether this path was right or wrong. In a labyrinth, there was only one way to find out.
“Then how about we drive around for one loop?” Drive into it. That was always the only method. “Ah... I guess so? What else can we do?” “In that case, it'd be best to drive slowly and quietly. The monster might be sensitive to noise.”
At that, the driver's face—which had already been frozen stiff—turned several shades paler. His confidence had apparently just plummeted off a cliff.
“I have faith in you.” The front passenger patted the driver's shoulder, piling on even more pressure. “Yes. Yep.”
And so began the labyrinth's version of a mock safari.
Inhaaale...
Choi Jaeha's sedan crawled along like a caterpillar. It was so slow that if we hadn't heard the engine, we wouldn't have even realized we'd started moving. I suspected we'd get more speed out of a fully packed parking lot with cars still streaming in.
“Hm...” I did my best to choke down the thought—or rather, the truth—that crawling on all fours outside would be considerably faster.
We were just barely rounding a corner when—
“Oh? Over there! There's something over there...!” Hwang Juyeon, seated by the left rear window, pointed outside. In the gap between a bulky SUV and a full-size sedan, a black monster had planted itself, plain as day. “Oh, um, that thing... why is it just standing there?”
The creature stood bolt upright, utterly motionless. Exactly like a car with its engine turned off.
“Maybe it's asleep...?” “Let's get a little closer.” “Uh...” “It beats going out there unarmed. Besides, if we have to kill it, ramming it with the car is our best bet.”
A roughly two-ton object known as an automobile makes for an excellent mode of transport—and, quite often, an excellent instrument of slaughter. A truly excellent one.
“Uh, wait...? Me...?” “Well then, what, you want to hand over the wheel?”
Personally, I'd feel safer with my own hands on the steering wheel. Rather than entrusting my life to a complete stranger.
“Hmm, well, that's... No, wait—Seon Yuhan, do you even have a license?” “...I do. Have a license, that is.” “Ah, the drawer...”
Just like getting into university, getting a license had been part of the project of living as a normal, functioning member of society. And as I left the testing center, I made a resolution: never drive again. Unless someone put a gun to my head and threatened to kill me for refusing, I would never touch a steering wheel.
It scared me. Driving did.
It had nothing whatsoever to do with the accident when I was seven.
Frankly, I didn't have many distinct memories of that accident in the first place. It was just an ordinary, tragic, unremarkable crash. A collision of coincidences, with no intent and no meaning behind it. I never developed a trauma around riding in cars.
It was only that sometimes, dozing off like this for a moment, I'd wonder—when I woke up, would this car be flipped over? Would I, once again, be the only one who survived? That was all. Just a thought I had now and then, riding in a car.
“Is there—does anyone else here drive? No, I'm not trying to hand it off, just... checking, in case...” “I have a license too, but hardly any real experience. We always had a driver.” “Mine's in a drawer too... What about you, unnie?” “I never got one. Never saw the need.”
So no—my fear of driving came from an entirely different reason.
That it would be too easy.
That at some moment, I wouldn't be able to stop myself.
That when I should brake, I wouldn't brake. That when I should run, I wouldn't run. That I'd turn down a road I should never take.
That I'd die far too comfortably. That I'd kill far too easily.
I decided I couldn't be trusted with that kind of opportunity. Not even by myself.
So throughout my working life, every time a chance came up to drive someone's car, I lied and said I didn't have a license.
“Hmm... okay, let's just go...” At the accountant's grudging words, the car started moving again. At a snail's pace, the monster's shape began to draw nearer.
At a glance, it looked like something a creature that couldn't possibly have a horse's anatomy had clumsily molded out of massive chunks of scrap tire. As if to paper over the fact that if you peeled away that black rubber hide, a real horse might be hiding underneath.
“Wait, is that... a leg?” “...Yes.”
Looking closely, one more leg had joined the ones hanging there like ornaments. “Don't tell me—that's the body from before, and Lee Jinsu's...?” “It appears so.”
I answered while angling myself to partly block the child's view. There had been only the one on the left flank before; now another had been added on the right, leaving the thing wearing a single leg on each side in its grotesque, lopsided symmetry.
“Ugh, urk...”
While Choi Jaeha dry-heaved for a moment, the rest of us kept speculating. “It's standing, so it's probably not dead... I think it really is asleep.” “So when the alarm stops, it sleeps...?” “That could well be.” “Wait, then... don't tell me—if the alarm goes off again, then it'll―”
—REEEEEEEEEEEE!
Before Hwang Juyeon's dreadful guess could even leave her mouth, the metallic screech of a fire alarm began to wail. “Choi Jaeha! Hit the gas!” The sleeping monster had woken.
“Uh, uh...?!” My body lurched forward with the sudden reverse. What is he doing? Why is he going backward?
“I said ram it! Go forward!” “Wh-whuh?” Damn it.
One way or another, it was too late. For a car that had been crawling at tortoise speed, how much impact could it possibly generate on short notice against a monster barely a few meters ahead? Especially one taller than most SUVs, charging in at a horrific speed.
“Everyone, hold on tight!” Bracing for the impact, I pressed the child into my body and wrapped my arms firmly around him, making sure his neck couldn't snap or whip loose. I shouldn't have sat him on my lap in the first place...
CRASH!
“Ghk!” “Ugh, ghk!” The world went white. The full-speed impact was like slamming into a concrete wall at top velocity—a dizzying sensation, as if my brain had spun three full revolutions inside my skull.
REEEEEEEEEEEE!
Over the alarm shrieking through my skull, a deeply ominous sound rang out right in front of us.
CRUNCH, crack!
“Hh—urgh! Gah! Heeelp—aaah!”
The sound of the car body crumpling. The sound of Choi Jaeha being dragged away.
“Ugh...” Open your eyes. Get it together. Get out of here. “Jiho. Jeong Jiho...”
I forced my stiffened neck loose and dipped my head to check on the child. “...”
Thankfully, he seemed to have only fainted. Nothing appeared to be broken.
“Nnngh...” “Ah, ugh...” In the back seat, Hwang Juyeon and Lee Nahyeon were slowly coming to as well. “Hm...”
Yu Hyeonjae in the passenger seat had taken the worst of the impact, but he wasn't dead either. Thanks to the monster charging us dead-on, the airbags had deployed properly.
Click.
My body had gone past heavy into creaking at every joint, but I finally hauled myself outside—and there was the sedan, nearly totalled. The hood crumpled beyond recognition. The driver's seat completely destroyed.
Choi Jaeha was already gone from his seat. All that remained was a dark smear of blood.
“M-my... my neck won't move... what do I do...” Lee Nahyeon, who'd been sitting in the middle, had sunk to the ground and was on the verge of tears. “Your muscles seized up from the shock. They'll loosen again shortly, so don't worry too much.”
I laid the child down behind a pillar and turned my attention to Lee Nahyeon. “Really...?” “Yes. But don't strain to force yourself to move. You're just tensed up from the fright right now. Take it slow—think of it as only your chin twitching, little by little.”
I stayed close and repeated it several times, in case the alarm made it hard for her to hear. Honestly, I didn't have the strength to shout anyway.
“Are you two all right?” Hwang Juyeon and Yu Hyeonjae didn't seem to have the energy to answer; they sat slumped against the neighboring cars and only gave small nods. “Haah...”
I eventually made my way over and sat down by the pillar where I'd laid the child out.
REEEEEEEEE!
My head was still ringing like a struck bell, and trying to move recklessly in this state risked nothing but a worse injury.
Tap. Tap-tap.
While my muscles loosened up, I organized the situation in my head and typed it into my phone's notepad—so I could communicate with the group without squawking like a bird.
[First: confirmed that the alarm wakes the sleeping monster, and it seems to take only ONE person each time it goes off.]
[Don't know what criteria it uses to pick—or if it's just random. How long the alarm lasts, we can only check once the current one stops.]
[When the alarm stops, I'll go check and come back.]
It had every opportunity to kill many of us, yet it had carried off only one again. One at a time. That meant it was a rule.
We didn't know whether it selected victims by some standard or simply took whoever. As for the duration of the alarm, we wouldn't be able to confirm anything until this one ended. Maybe there was no fixed pattern at all. Maybe the alarm cut off when the sacrifice died, or once it had torn off every leg from its victims and grafted them onto its own body. Or maybe it turned off and on at random, entirely unrelated to any of that.
Frankly, we'd wasted time earlier—the car had crawled because we were being too cautious. If the monster slept while the alarm was off, then approaching on foot should be perfectly safe until it woke. Not that it mattered, since the car was wrecked and undrivable anyway.
[Yes. I'm the least injured anyway, and it's just a quick look—no need for multiple people to move. 10 minutes. 15 at the absolute latest, I'll be back.]
After reading my notepad, Hwang Juyeon was the first to ask. Reading her lips and expression, that's what she'd said.
I didn't bother adding that if I didn't return by then, they should assume I was dead.
REEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
REEEEEEE.
Before long, the alarm cut off with a dead stop. About sixteen minutes. Nine minutes longer than the last one, which had run around seven. Ambiguous. Whether there was a rule to it, or not.
“I'll be right back.” “Be careful...!” “If anything feels off, come straight back.”
First, I went to where the monster had been sleeping—but the spot was empty. For a split second my spine went cold. Could it not have fallen asleep yet?
“Le...”
Legs... wait. What is that?
As I passed the spot and kept walking, something deeply strange came into view. Beyond a mid-size sedan, as tall as the car itself, a human neck showed pale in the distance.
A neck. That is to say—a neck with no head on it.