A Funeral March for Closing Time
I'd talked a big game, but the situation was dire.
While Deokhu held off the things coming up from the basement, the mannequin army from the luxury wing closed in from behind.
Clack, clack. Thud, thud.
The footsteps of dozens of mannequins approached, vibrating through the floor like a low tremor.
"H-Hyung... they're in front of us too!"
Deokhu pointed ahead, his face completely drained of color.
The escalator leading up to the second floor.
Descending from above, the mannequins of the second-floor women's apparel section were gliding down.
It was a grotesque spectacle—figures draped in elegant evening gowns, creaking and rattling as they stared down at us.
In front, behind, and rising from the depths below.
We were completely cornered in the middle of the first-floor lobby, right in front of the escalators.
The construction workers trembled, clutching their hammers and wooden planks, while Deokhu scrambled, utterly lost on which direction to point his speakers.
Is this where it ends?
The expandable baton in my hand felt pitifully inadequate.
The sheer, overwhelming numbers.
I didn't think it would be this bad...
Right then.
Bzz, bzz.
My phone vibrated in my pocket.
I glanced down. It was Seyeon.
"Sunbae! Sunbae!"
It was Seyeon.
"Can you hold out? Minhye and I are heading to the basement disaster prevention room right now!"
"What? Why did you two come inside? It's too dangerous!"
"Waiting outside was its own kind of hell! We figured out something we can do! Besides, the security here is surprisingly lax anyway!"
Her voice was resolute.
"We have a plan, so just hang on a little longer!"
"Seyeon, you're with Minhye, right? You guys could get—"
Click. The line went dead.
"Damn it."
I gripped my baton tighter and glared at the approaching mannequin army.
Meanwhile.
Down in the basement where Seyeon and Minhye had entered.
Minhye pinched her nose, grimacing. In her hand, she held a silver aluminum baseball bat she had grabbed from the car trunk. The physical strength she had built up from her sports club was her lifeline tonight.
Seyeon stared ahead with a grim expression, holding a tablet PC. The blueprint of the department store glowed in a cool blue on the screen.
"Minhye, keep your wits about you. According to the blueprint, the disaster prevention center and the broadcasting room are at the end of this hallway, to the right."
Seyeon's voice trembled with tension, but her eyes were sharp and focused.
"Don't worry. I'll clear the path. Just stay glued to my back."
"Let's make sure we don't get hurt."
"I thought the only rule was not dying?"
Minhye adjusted her grip on the bat and stepped forward.
The hallway was pitch-black. Most of the fluorescent lights on the ceiling were shattered or dead, and the few that remained flickered violently, casting chaotic, strobe-like shadows across the walls.
The walls were covered in deep, mysterious scratches, as if someone had dragged their fingernails along the concrete as they passed.
Skitter, skitter...
The sound of something crawling echoed from the darkness.
"They're coming," Minhye whispered under her breath.
"Over... over there!"
From behind a pile of discarded construction materials at the corner of the hallway, a pale white hand shot out. A headless mannequin crawled out on all fours like a spider, its joints bent at unnatural angles. It rattled and clattered as it charged toward them.
"Screeech!"
The sound it emitted was a horrific discordance—a mix of mechanical static and fingernails scraping against a blackboard.
Minhye aimed straight for the joints of the lunging mannequin's arm.
"Out of my way, you pieces of trash!"
CRACK!
'Plaster is hard. Don't try to shatter it—disable it!'
Minjun's advice flashed through her mind.
She swung the bat again.
CLANG!
A satisfying metallic ring echoed.
Did it work?
The mannequin's left elbow snapped backward.
Losing its balance, the creature collapsed onto the floor.
"It worked! Seyeon, run!" Minhye kicked the fallen mannequin's torso aside and shouted.
The two of them leaped over the writhing figure and bolted down the hallway.
But that was only the beginning.
Skitter. Scritch-scratch.
Crash! Bang!
Doors on both sides of the hallway burst open, and ceiling vents were ripped apart. A horde of "defective" mannequins that had been hiding in the basement began to pour out. One hopped on a single leg; another dragged itself forward with only its upper torso. Their incomplete, broken forms made them look even more grotesque and terrifying.
"Are you kidding me? There are too many of them!"
Seyeon shrieked, raising her tablet to strike one down, but Minhye blocked her.
"No! Don't use your hands! You need to operate the equipment!"
Minhye swung her bat like a windmill to keep them at bay. But these things felt no pain. Even with shattered arms and dislocated shoulders, the mannequins kept lunging forward.
"We can't keep this up. Look at that!"
Minhye's eyes locked onto a red fire extinguisher mounted on the hallway wall.
She tucked the bat under her arm and ripped the fire extinguisher off the wall.
There wasn't even time to pull the safety pin.
"Get lost, all of you!"
She used the heavy metal canister as a blunt weapon, slamming the base of the extinguisher directly into the face of an oncoming mannequin.
THWACK!
Plaster shattered with a dull thud, sending white dust flying, but the creature didn't stop.
Minhye gritted her teeth and yanked the safety pin free. She aimed the nozzle straight at their faces.
PSSSSSSHHHHHH!
A thick cloud of white chemical powder flooded the narrow hallway.
Whether because their line of sight was blocked or for some other reason, the mannequins' movements instantly slowed. They flailed blindly in the air, colliding with one another.
"Now! Let's go!"
They sprinted through the white fog.
The chemical powder burned their lungs, making them cough, but they couldn't stop.
Far ahead, at the very end of the hallway.
"Wait."
"Something's standing there."
Coughing, they squinted through the haze. Three large male mannequins stood before the door like sentries. Dressed in sharp suits, their builds looked far sturdier than the others.
"Haah... haah... It just never ends."
Minhye panted heavily, adjusting her grip on the bat.
Sensing their presence, the three figures turned their heads in unison.
Creeeeak.
Minhye gritted her teeth and whispered.
"Seyeon, you see the door? I'll draw their attention. When I do, run inside no matter what."
"But by yourself... how are you going to...?"
"Hurry! I told you we don't have time! Are you just going to let Sunbae and Oppa die?"
At Minhye's sharp rebuke, Seyeon bit her lip and nodded.
"Hey! You plaster-headed freaks!"
Minhye hurled the fire extinguisher at them with a loud shout. With a heavy crash, the canister bounced off one of the mannequins' chests. Instantly, all three pairs of eyes locked onto her.
The moment they took a step toward Minhye—
"Run!!!"
Seyeon threw herself in the opposite direction. She slid low, slipping right between the mannequins' legs. One of them reached down to grab her, but Minhye lunged forward and slammed her bat into the back of its knee.
CRACK!
Its knee buckling, the mannequin stumbled and collapsed.
Seyeon seized the opportunity and grabbed the broadcasting room door handle.
Please, please let it be unlocked.
Click.
Fortunately, the door swung open.
"Get in! Minhye!" Seyeon called out, holding the door.
"Close the door and get to work! I'll hold them off out here!"
"No! You have to come inside too!"
"I will! I just need to disable these guys first!"
Minhye shouted, backing up against the door to guard it from the outside.
"Just hurry up and do it!!"
From outside, heavy thuds and Minhye's fierce shouts echoed through the door.
Seyeon didn't lock the door. Instead, she dragged a heavy metal cabinet over, blocking the entrance halfway.
"I left a gap! Get in here as soon as you can!"
Then, she turned around.
The interior of the broadcasting room.
The room was packed with countless monitors and complex electronic equipment. But to Seyeon, it was a familiar sight. She was the head of the campus broadcasting station's announcer department—a veteran who had run countless broadcasts.
Her eyes swept rapidly across the main console.
Power switches, amplifier volume, zone selection buttons... and most importantly, the microphone.
It was a setup she knew by heart.
The layout might have been slightly different, but the principles were exactly the same.
She flipped the master power switch.
Hummmmm.
The equipment hummed to life, indicator lights glowing.
Seyeon pulled the microphone close to her lips.
"Deokhu Oppa! Can you hear me? If you can, do exactly as I say! Put your in-ear monitor in!"
Standing before the microphone, she was a true professional.
"Se... Seyeon? Where are you guys! Are you safe?"
"No time to cry. We've taken over the disaster prevention room."
"What? Re... really?"
"Oppa, send that frequency source file you made to my phone right now. Use messenger, whatever is fastest!"
"Why... why that?"
Seyeon's fingers slid the mixer's volume faders all the way to the top.
"That tiny speaker of yours isn't going to cut it."
Seyeon's eyes flashed with fierce determination.
"We're going to blast it through the thousands of speakers installed across this entire department store."
"Ah...!"
Deokhu gasped in realization.
"Sending it now! It's transferring!"
Bzzzz...
The file from Deokhu arrived on Seyeon's smartphone.
She swiftly connected her phone to the mixing console's auxiliary input.
Just then, Minhye slipped inside.
"Haah... haah..."
Completely exhausted, Minhye gasped for air.
"I bought us some time. How far along are you?"
"I got the file. I just need to play it!"
The door rattled violently, and the metal cabinet began to slide. They were out of time.
Seyeon took a deep breath.
Then, she pressed the master broadcast button.
The crimson light glowed.
Seyeon gripped the microphone.
There was no need for a formal announcement, but perhaps driven by instinct, or a desire to put an end to this madness, she smirked and opened her mouth.
"Mic check, one, two. Attention, please."
Her voice reverberated through the speakers on every single floor, from the underground parking garage all the way to the rooftop garden.
CRASH!
At that exact moment, the cabinet blocking the door toppled over, and the mannequins burst inside. Pale hands reached out toward Seyeon.
But Seyeon's finger was faster.
"From this moment on, we will be playing..."
She muttered coldly as her thumb hovered over the screen.
"...the funeral march to announce our closing time."
Click.
She pressed play.