18
Chapter 18
The world is burning. Red, vermillion, emitting a searing heat and scattering embers in every direction.
Gasp— Heave—
Memories no longer matter. Only the desperate struggle for survival remains. The sprint of a beast fleeing the flames. Even as breath reaches the limit, there is no stopping. Even if he dies running, he must run.
"Yeon-woo! Get a hold of yourself!"
"Haa, I'm... not doing... so great!"
He should have collapsed from exhaustion long ago, but Lee Yeon-woo sprinted down the slope with a sudden, mysterious surge of strength. Unsteady strides and a pounding heartbeat.
Behind Lee Yeon-woo, Choi Jae-min and Yu Jiyu ran desperately as well. Choi Jae-min shouted through fragmented breaths.
"Mister! Is this... actually... the way down?!"
"I don't know!"
"Dammit! What if we end up on the wrong path?!"
"Stop swearing!"
Yu Jiyu raised her hand to strike, but quickly dropped it. She didn't even have the energy to hit the back of his head. She fixed her gaze on the mountain path again and focused on running.
It was then.
"Ack!"
Clatter—
Lee Yeon-woo tripped over a rock and plummeted forward. His flailing hands barely managed to push off the ground, but he collapsed as his strength vanished. Thump, his face slammed into the dirt.
"Yeon-woo!"
"Mister!"
The two following him stopped by Lee Yeon-woo's side instantly. Lee Yeon-woo urgently tried to push himself up with his hands, but he couldn't quite stand. There was no strength in his trembling hands.
Eventually, he awkwardly raised a convulsing hand.
"Help... help me up."
"Hurry, get up!"
"Mister, quickly!"
They grabbed Lee Yeon-woo's arms from both sides and pulled him up by his waist. Once on his feet, Lee Yeon-woo staggered and immediately started moving again. There was no time to brush the dirt off his face or out of his mouth.
- Screeech!
A horrific shriek echoed from behind.
"Run!"
"Gasp!"
They didn't look back. It would be useless. It was hard enough just to watch their footing.
A world of red, white, and black.
The sight, a chaotic blur of sunset, fog, and smoke, was so distorted that nothing was clearly visible.
Only the acrid smell of smoke. The sound of leaves waving in the strong wind and the sounds of mountain birds and beasts fleeing in panic swirled around them from all sides.
Thud— Patter—
Just then, something dropped in front of them through the fog. Choi Jae-min, startled, reflexively raised his fist.
"What is it!"
"It's a squirrel! Just keep running!"
Yu Jiyu urged him on, pushing Choi Jae-min's back as his pace slowed. Just as she said, a tiny squirrel scurried past them.
Lee Yeon-woo, suddenly overtaken by the squirrel, struggled to recall a memory through his dizzy head.
He had heard the monstrous screams twice now. At least in his memory, and twice was enough to make a comparison.
"That thing! I think it's closer than before!"
"What! A monster?"
"Yeah!"
For a moment, Choi Jae-min and Yu Jiyu's breathing faltered. Gasping for air, Yu Jiyu lifted her eyes from the path and glared into the fog ahead.
"Whereabouts are we? I think we've come down quite a bit, but how far is it to the mountain entrance?"
"I don't know! I'm not even sure if this is the right way down!"
"...Even if we get down, will the parking lot be safe?"
Suddenly, Lee Yeon-woo stopped running. Choi Jae-min and Yu Jiyu stopped right behind him. Lee Yeon-woo caught his breath and looked at them.
"Even with the forest fire, the monster is still chasing us."
There were three reasons he set the fire.
To disperse the fog, to drive the monster away, and to avoid the valley where people had died.
The effects seemed to hold as his memories remained intact and they had distanced themselves from the dangerous valley. However, the monster was pursuing only them. It was as if it were determined to kill them.
"Mister, so what do you want us to do? Don't tell me you want to fight? Against a monster we don't even know?"
Choi Jae-min shook his head quickly and stepped past Lee Yeon-woo.
"How are we supposed to fight a monster! What if we die!"
"No. It's doable. Because—"
At that moment.
- Screeeech!
The monstrous shriek echoed from a clearly close distance. Close enough to guess its exact location.
Lee Yeon-woo spoke.
"...We have to do it regardless. It'll catch up soon. No, get ready to fight right now. It's coming!"
It approached as a sound.
Snap— Crack— Thud!
The sound of branches breaking in succession and something sharp slamming down, not on the hiking trail but on the slope. Not on the ground, but in the trees!
Crash! Thud! Crack!
Beyond the fog, at a height that required them to look up, the sounds grew louder like a countdown.
"Oh, shit!"
Choi Jae-min wrapped his school blazer tightly around his fist. Yu Jiyu swung her bag to the front and pulled out a short knife. Lee Yeon-woo picked up a thick branch with trembling hands.
Lee Yeon-woo thought calmly.
'I can win. Judging by its pursuit speed, the difference in physical ability isn't that overwhelming. And the numbers. There are three of us and only one of it.'
He had survived until now. He would definitely survive this time as well.
'Right, I won't die here.'
He gripped the branch tightly. The rough bark and small splinters dug into his palm, spreading a stinging pain. The wooden club wobbled unsteadily due to exhaustion and pain.
Crack—!
The next moment, the sound stopped.
A silent path where even the wind ceased. The area was desolate, as if all the mountain animals and birds had vanished.
"...."
"Haa, wheeze."
"It's coming, it's coming, it's coming."
They were barely able to breathe, their tension peaking. Their wide-open eyes glared toward the point where the last sound had been heard.
To the right, somewhere above the shadow of a tree.
One raised a fist wrapped in a school uniform, another gripped a knife repeatedly, and one pulled a wooden club back behind his head like a baseball bat. They stood ready to attack at any second.
Lee Yeon-woo's eyes suddenly widened. He snapped his head up toward the sky.
"Above! It's falling!"
Through the murky fog, a pitch-black shadow in human form dropped silently into the center of the group—
***
***
"...Huh?"
Pain sliced through his head. His vision was red. Lee Yeon-woo instinctively wiped his eyes. Blood smeared across his hand. It seemed to be flowing from his head. No, not just his head.
Whatever had happened to the wooden club, his empty hands were stained crimson. A sudden wave of dizziness hit him. The world drifted away, and his legs gave out, sending him collapsing to the ground.
Lee Yeon-woo fought to hold onto his fading consciousness.
"So, I tried to fight the monster, but did my memory get erased? Then how did..."
His blurred vision and thoughts began to clear. Lee Yeon-woo slowly looked around.
Yu Jiyu.
"...Huh, what? Is it over?"
She was also sitting there with a dazed expression. She didn't seem to be seriously injured. Her front-facing bag was torn, and there were red scratches on her skin beneath her torn tracksuit, but it wasn't severe.
In front of Yu Jiyu lay something strange. A monster that looked human, but wasn't.
Sharp claws stained with flesh, a knife embedded in its neck. It didn't move. It was definitely dead.
A sense of relief washed over him. As the tension vanished, Lee Yeon-woo simply lay back on the ground. The foggy sky was turning dark, but his mind was at peace.
"Ah, I lived."
"Yes, I think we won."
Yu Jiyu stood up with a rustle and approached Lee Yeon-woo. She looked down at his arm with worried eyes.
"A chunk of flesh was torn from your forearm. We need to do some emergency first aid before going down."
"Ah."
He hadn't even realized it hurt. He just felt a bit dizzy, and a wave of sleepiness was crashing over him.
"Right. No time to rest. ...If I'd known this, I wouldn't have set the fire. I did it for nothing."
"Let's just move past it. We're alive, and that's what matters. Jae-min! Give me that blazer! I'll use it as a bandage!"
No answer came. Yu Jiyu blinked.
"Jae-min? What are you doing?"
Lee Yeon-woo struggled to lift his upper body and turned his head to look at Choi Jae-min.
Choi Jae-min's cheeks were trembling violently, and his teeth were chattering. Despite looking the most intact of the three with no visible injuries, he was shivering in terror as he gazed at the corpse.
"Jae-min? What's wrong?"
"Noo-noona. Mister. This, this..."
"What about it? It's dead."
"That's not it."
Choi Jae-min turned his head, his eyes taking in both Yu Jiyu and Lee Yeon-woo. However, his eyes, consumed by absolute terror, were actually looking into the void.
"There's a mom and a dad here, and they're... they're both really, really angry—"
Simultaneously, a desperate scream that shook the mountain erupted.
- Screeeach!
- Screeeeeeech!
Two screams, echoing endlessly.
'If I fight this, I die. If I'm caught, I die. Ah.'
Lee Yeon-woo bolted upright, only to collapse again from dizziness. The world surged like a wave. Even so, he gripped the dirt and clung to a tree trunk, forcing himself up. But.
"Ah. This really... this shouldn't be happening."
Was it because of the blood loss? Or because the bleeding wouldn't stop? Or perhaps his stamina had finally hit its limit. He felt as though he could no longer walk.
As he shook his head, Yu Jiyu approached and tightly bound his injured arm using Choi Jae-min's school blazer.
"Hurry! We have to go, now!"
"No, ah. I don't think I can walk."
He tried to take a few steps, but even standing straight was difficult. He felt this way even while clinging to a tree. He had the sensation that if he forced himself to move, he would simply collapse and tumble down the slope.
'If this happens, there's no way to survive...'
No matter how he thought about it, only scenes of death came to mind. Death by falling, bleeding out, or being murdered by an Anomaly...
'I can't. I don't want to die.'
Lee Yeon-woo gritted his teeth and took one step, but his foot slipped and he fell flat.
"Yeon-woo!"
"Ah...."
Once he lay there, he couldn't get back up. His eyelids grew heavy, and a crushing sleepiness washed over him....
'I don't want to die. Really, like this.'
Faint sounds reached his muffled ears.
"Going down to ask for help now will be too late. Carrying him on a back—"
"Noona, move aside. Let me try. ...No! I can't lift him!"
The voices and hands of those trying to save him.
Lee Yeon-woo struggled to open his eyes. He saw Choi Jae-min and Yu Jiyu, unable to run or save him, not knowing what to do.
And then.
Crash! Snap! Boom!
Sounds that grew louder and clearer approached along the path they had traveled. The roar of trees being struck, branches snapping, and boulders being crushed.
It seemed the monster's parents were sprinting madly, smashing every obstacle in their path.
An inescapable death was drawing near.
Lee Yeon-woo spoke in a faint voice.
"Go."
"We have to go back together—"
"It's impossible. Just go."
If there had been a chance to live, he would have clung to them regardless of shame or the burden he caused. If he could have traded lives, he might have even killed the two of them to survive.
But if death were inevitable, there was no reason for several people to die together.
"You said safety first. Go. Those things will be here any second."
"...I'm sorry."
"Mister."
Choi Jae-min and Yu Jiyu bit their lips and stood up. They left without even being able to meet his gaze. Their silhouettes vanished into the fog.
Left alone, Lee Yeon-woo looked at the sky for a moment and waited for the approaching Anomaly.
"Those son of bitches...."
The approach was so noisy that it was impossible to miss. Sure enough, they arrived shortly after. Two pitch-black shadows, larger than a human but smaller than a tree.
"Screeeach!"
The forms of the monsters leaping out with scream-like roars seemed slow. Facing death, time flowed sluggishly.
Surprisingly, there was no flashing of past lives. No particular thoughts came to mind. Lee Yeon-woo simply watched blankly.
Then, a net was launched from the sky.