Reference Point
Climbing to the second floor revealed a scene even more grotesque than the one below.
“Ugh...”
The stench of blood hung so thick that even Chaeyeon—who barely flinched at most horrors—clamped a hand over her mouth and dry-heaved. She couldn’t afford to make a sound, though. From the stairwell entrance onward, bizarre corpses packed every direction, staring as if they might lunge at her any second.
...A literal terracotta army. Fucking birdbrain.
How the hell was this supposed to be fine?
Gritting my teeth, I scanned the corpses that stood dead where they were, lined up and displayed against the walls. The sheer numbers alone were dizzying, but what really got under my skin was their condition.
They were desiccated like mummies, not a drop of blood left in them, mouths gaped wide open. Only those candle-wax eyes remained embedded in their faces, fixed on us with a stare that was just...
The corridor formed by the standing corpses pointed straight at the room at the far end of the hallway. As if daring us to come in if we could.
Even Chaeyeon faltered under that grotesque pressure. In the end, I had no choice but to decide. I set a hand on her shoulder, lowered my head, and whispered so softly it barely carried.
“Go back to the hospital entrance and wait.”
“...But still.”
“There’s no ‘but still.’ The two of us walking in there is the same as holding hands and stepping into an encirclement to die. I can survive somehow. You can’t.”
At minimum, dozens—hovering around a hundred. Thinking of these mummy bastards packing an entire floor of a building that, while not huge, was still hospital-sized, covering for Chaeyeon on top of myself was simply impossible.
When I said so bluntly that I’d let myself get surrounded alone, Chaeyeon stayed silent a moment, then muttered,
“...This is, this is way too dangerous. Is this something we really have to do?”
It was a volume that could literally crush us flat. But after listening carefully to the crow’s explanation the night before, I slowly nodded.
“If we back off now, it’ll get far more dangerous later. To learn their countermeasures and characteristics, we have to draw out the Alpha of this place.”
“There’s no guarantee they’ll side with us. What if they try to kill you the second they see you, oppa?”
“Then I’ll just wrap them up in a blanket and bolt. So stop talking and go down.”
Knowing she couldn’t talk me out of it, she bit her lip and glared up at me.
“Then at least deal with these corpses first before we go in. We should do that much at minimum...”
“No. I’m here to persuade, first and foremost. Kidnapping is the last resort.”
No matter how threatening and unsettling they looked, striking first could rip the first button clean off. We didn’t even know for certain whether these corpses would attack us or not.
After hearing my final explanation, Chaeyeon gradually let the murderous look drain from her face. Head hanging low, she turned to head down the stairs—then spoke in a gloomy tone I’d never heard from her before.
“...Just when will I be able to fight alongside you even in situations like this, oppa.”
That was why she always tagged along. Saying she felt like she was only becoming dead weight instead of repaying her life debt, Chaeyeon went down the stairs without strength.
“.....”
I watched until she safely reached the entrance, then stood still for a moment and looked out through the broken second-floor window. Like our moods, the sky was truly gloomy.
Thud, thud—
I walked and walked between the corpses until I stood before the tightly shut door. Only then did I understand why the corpses had become mummies, and what had caused the blood-stench saturating this entire space.
If you stuffed a one-ton water balloon full of blood and burst it inside a room, it would probably look like this. Blood had poured out through every crack in the door without regard for up or down. The hallway floor, the ceiling, both side walls—everything was painted crimson. I checked the surrounding corpses again.
...Not just dried out. Completely extracted.
Forced blood donation on this scale was basically killing them twice.
Ignoring the two standing on either side of the door—impossible to tell if they were actually looking this way or not—I yanked the handle open.
Creeeak—
And my body locked up on pure instinct.
The moment I stepped inside, the blood coating every wall, the ceiling, and the floor began to writhe and move on its own—that alone was startling. But what truly seized my gaze was the being at the center, slowly absorbing it all.
A small body curled up on the filthy, dust-choked floor. Skin so pale it held not a shred of life, and long black hair cascading like a garment, wild and tangled, covering her form.
Sssssssss...
While I was still trying to figure out what to do, the blood’s flow suddenly accelerated. Through every pore of her body she drank it all in like a sponge until the room was clean as if the mess had never existed.
Keeping my attention locked on the girl, I rolled my eyes around, spotted a chair, and dropped into it. Under my watch, the face that had been completely hidden behind hair twitched and showed the first sign of awareness.
“.....”
Eyes slowly opening. She blinked a couple of times while still lying on the floor, then gradually pushed her upper body up. Our gazes met.
Pupils completely different from the ones outside—yet in another way, even more alien. Whites flushed red as if heavily bloodshot, black irises standing out sharply against them.
She tilted her head slowly while looking at me. After a few seconds of silence, I spoke.
“I can tell you just woke up and your head’s still fuzzy. But how about we talk?”
The girl blinked, her closed mouth parting and working soundlessly for a moment. Then she shut it again, checked her own state, staggered to her feet, grabbed the sheet from the bed beside her, wrapped it around herself, and looked at me.
“...Can’t speak?”
A nod.
“You understand speech, but you can’t talk.”
At least conversation was possible. I eased my grip on the iron pipe a fraction. When those oppressive eyes kept staring at me, I pulled a notebook from my pocket and held it out to her.
“You’re not going to tell me that just because you can’t speak, you can’t write either.”
A small shake of the head. She took the notebook from me.
- Can't. Only words.
...Her handwriting was ridiculously neat and precise.
For someone who’d come from another dimension alongside a Beta, seeing her write such clean Hangul was almost absurd. The jumbled sentence order barely even registered.
- Who. So?
“...Let me ask just one thing first. You’re an Alpha, right?”
At the sudden question she paused with the pen against the notebook, then tilted her head.
- There was. Know?
“That’s why I asked. What, is there a problem?”
- Curious. Just.
The way she wrote each line with a blank expression and showed it to me looked almost harmless. I didn’t let my guard down, though. Even if my heart wasn’t pounding like it had with the Beta, someone waiting for me outside the hospital could still be plenty dangerous.
I was about to ask what was so curious when she answered on her own.
- Calm. Should run. Normally.
“...And the reason for that would be?”
- Know. Instinctively.
I narrowed my eyes and checked behind me, but the hallway outside the room remained completely silent.
- Good. So. Fun.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t having any fun at all.
“I actually heard a piece of information. You Alphas are extremely vulnerable right after you first appear.”
- From who?
I ignored the fresh head-tilt and kept going.
“But that doesn’t mean I’m here to hurt you. I’m requesting cooperation.”
-...??
She hadn’t actually written the question marks, but the look on her face made her feelings obvious.
I was about to continue the explanation and bring up the crow when, out of nowhere, a sound came from the ceiling above—the floor overhead.
—Woof! Woof woof!
“...?”
This time I was the one frowning in confusion. I glanced up briefly, then looked back at the girl. She kept tilting her head, mulling something over, then gave a short shake.
- Enough. Now. Talk.
- Said. My help. Want?
Before I could finish reading the notebook, the dog’s barking—loud enough to shake the building—grew steadily louder, making me scowl. No, correction: it wasn’t getting louder. It was getting closer.
In an instant something raced from the third floor down to the rear of the second, tore across the hallway, and charged straight at us. The identity was obvious.
I raised the iron pipe and glared at the girl. She shoved the notebook at me with writing that was perfectly clear.
- Try. Then, prove.
- Following you. Fun, will be.
WOOF—! WOOF WOOF WOOF—!
CRAAAAASH!
The door exploded into splinters and a gaping maw shot out, trying to swallow my face whole. I dodged, seized the thing by the throat, and slammed it into the floor.
The bastard rose as if the impact meant nothing, planted itself with its back to the girl, and glared at me. One last line appeared, written for me to see.
- Instead. Absolutely. Hurt, if.
- Friend. Cute. First met.
“....Ha.”
I let out a single incredulous laugh, then took another look at the snarling mutt’s vicious face and size. That bizarre bulk that looked like it could reach my chest, the black drool dripping steadily—I had only one thing to say.
“Cute my ass. A regular zombie would be cuter.”