The Goblin's Sacrifice
Crash!
Anna's worst fears came true.
The shutter buckled and collapsed, unleashing a massive horde of zombies packed tightly behind it.
They charged at full speed from less than fifty meters away.
"Oppa?"
Anna's legs froze in place as she called out for Jaejeong.
At that moment, Hyun-soo, who had caught up to the two of them, slipped and fell flat on his ass.
He'd been startled by the zombies racing down the hallway toward them.
"Wh-what the hell!"
The rest of the group followed behind Hyun-soo, arriving one after another.
"Damn it! These fucking things are everywhere you look!"
Youngman gripped Minyoung's hand tightly as he scanned their surroundings.
Two doors, and two branching paths.
"Stairs—run!"
As Youngman's gaze turned toward Jaejeong, Jaejeong flung open the left door and shouted while bolting up the stairs.
The others trailed after him in a line, but Second caught sight of someone missing from his view.
He hadn't counted heads exactly, but something felt off—like one was absent.
Just in case, he glanced back.
There stood Lee Yeon-hui, frozen like a statue, staring at the oncoming zombies.
Her face drained of color, shoulders rigid, legs rooted to the spot.
Her mind had gone blank from overwhelming terror.
Second hesitated.
In that split second, a whirlwind of thoughts raced through his head.
But... he couldn't just leave her.
"Fuck. Whatever."
His head screamed not to go, but his body was already moving back down.
"What are you doing? Snap out of it!"
He yelled as he descended the stairs, but Yeon-hui showed no reaction.
She was completely lost in panic.
Zombies were already upon her, jaws gaping wide.
Close enough to touch if they reached out.
Just as he thought it was over, Yeon-hui was yanked with neck-snapping force and hauled up to the stairs in an instant.
Turning back, she saw Second standing in her place, the one who'd shoved her aside.
Then the zombie wave crashed over him.
Whoosh!
Second twisted his body at the last possible second, dodging by a hair.
The zombies behind him, unable to stop their momentum, tumbled over one another and slammed into the wall.
The ones pouring in next trampled the piled-up bodies, quickly forming a small mountain.
The impact dislocated shoulders, twisted ankles, even impaled eyeballs on fingers.
But they didn't care.
They sprang back up as if nothing had happened and lunged forward.
All this unfolded in the brief moment it took Second—who had dodged—to open the door.
As he slipped inside to follow Yeon-hui up the stairs, the swelling horde charged at the door.
He looked up the stairs.
A short flight, less than twenty steps. But abandoning the door now could doom everyone.
At their speed, they'd be caught in seconds.
Thud! Thud-thud!
With no choice, Second braced the double swinging doors alone.
But... their strength was overwhelming.
"Argh! Fuck!"
He strained with a roar, but the gap widened bit by bit.
Let go and die, hold on and die!
Tat-tat-tat!
That was when it happened.
While Second wrestled with the door, footsteps echoed from the stairs above.
Anna had noticed Second was missing and rushed back down.
"Ah! What do we do?!"
She took one look and let out a wail of despair.
Her hand instinctively reached for her back, but she had no arrows left.
Just a single dagger in hand.
Second's eyes, barely holding the widening door, bulged red with burst capillaries.
No options left.
With Anna back too, the door had to hold no matter what.
If it gave way, it wouldn't end with just him dying.
Resolved, Second turned, bracing the door with his back, and faced Anna on the stairs.
"Miss!"
"No! Please, don't say a word! I'll get the others!"
"Hey!"
Anna froze at Second's desperate cry as she turned to go.
"You think I'm doing this 'cause I like you? Even if you bring everyone, there's no way out! So listen to me!"
"I'll stay with—"
"One more body won't change shit! Just go! At least you survive, then I can face hyungnim later. Go live. Survive to the end, somehow!"
Tears welled in Second's bloodshot eyes.
Images of Beom-sik and his brothers flashed in his mind.
They were all dead anyway, leaving him alone.
What meaning was there in surviving this?
If he had to die, he wanted to leave something behind.
"Go, hurry!"
Anna stamped her feet in anguish, unable to move, when rough hands seized her arm.
It was the Squad Leader.
He'd come back to check when two didn't return.
"He's saying he'll die in your place! Why hesitate? You could get us all killed!"
Crash! Shatter!
The window exploded, and countless arms grabbed at Second's body.
His clothes tore, skin ripped open red by nails.
Tears filled Anna's eyes.
She couldn't think straight, couldn't decide.
How many times was this?
Lee Beom-sik's words had come back to haunt her like this.
The Squad Leader, deciding they couldn't wait, yanked Anna hard.
"The longer you hesitate, the more of a fuckup he becomes!"
As Anna—still staring down—was shoved roughly away, her teetering tears finally fell.
From the shattered window, zombies lunged out, tearing into Second's shoulder and neck mercilessly.
Crunch! Rip!
The sounds of stretching skin, chewing flesh and muscle, hit Anna like a blow to the back of her head.
Even as his body was ripped apart alive, Second didn't utter a single groan.
That made Anna's heart ache even more.
Imagining his desperate endurance, tears poured like rain.
Then, Second—who had been slowly losing consciousness while clutching the door—snapped his eyes open.
And began thrashing his limbs wildly.
The stairs led to a long hallway above.
The group, with Jaejeong in the lead, stopped at the end before a small ladder.
Looking up, they saw an iron hatch in the ceiling.
It looked like the way to the rooftop.
Jaejeong, sledgehammer in one hand and rifle slung over his shoulder, climbed the ladder at blinding speed.
The others now followed smoothly on their own.
They knew there was no time to babysit anyone.
Jaejeong reached the top and shoved the handle with all his might.
Clang!
The iron hatch lifted, and rainwater poured down like a torrent.
Jaejeong grimaced but powered through the pelting rain with his superhuman strength, hauling himself onto the rooftop.
As Minyoung climbed up after him, a pot-lid-sized hand shot down with a sharp thwack!
Above, Jaejeong blocked the rain with his massive frame, reaching down.
One by one—Minyoung, Youngman, Hyun-soo, Lee Yeon-hui, Anna, Squad Leader—they all reached the rooftop safely.
Counting heads, Jaejeong's eyes widened.
"What? Where's Second?"
The Squad Leader, about to answer, glanced at Anna instead.
Anna stood sobbing under the downpour.
Her crumpled, paper-thin face streamed with what could have been rain or tears.
Jaejeong's jaw clenched.
Too many had died getting here.
As Minyoung embraced and comforted the wailing Anna, Jaejeong stared down the ladder for a moment before slamming the iron hatch shut.
Thud!
It closed with brutal finality, burying everything below.
Jaejeong turned with a hardened expression, wiping rain from his face.
Mourning could wait.
Right now, only what came next mattered.
But there was one big problem.
The group had planned to reach the train depot, but they were stuck on a rooftop instead.
If it were a lower floor, isolation might not be so bad.
All that greeted them was a small brick penthouse and a gray door plastered with a "No Entry" sticker.
Jaejeong scanned the area.
The depot was nearby, but as always, zombies swarmed everywhere around it.
He turned to the cityscape near the station.
Under the pitch-black sky like early dawn, the urban sprawl looked utterly bleak.
Ruins amid the storm, fires flickering here and there, rusted cars with shattered windows crawling with zombies.
Every direction—east, west, south, north—was a sea of zombies.
This tiny rooftop was all the mercy the horde had granted them.
The Squad Leader, looking around, suddenly gritted his teeth and flew into a rage.
"Fuck, we fucked up the moment we decided to climb to the station. Now what? Zombies everywhere—how the hell do we get out?!"
"Shut up. Let me think."
Jaejeong warned him, but the Squad Leader didn't stop.
"Should we collect rainwater in our canteens? Chug this shit to hold out? Ha, fuck. I'm the idiot who followed you here."
"Enough."
"Once the rain stops, we're all fucked! No, we're already fucked! Here we'll all—"
Thwack!
The raving Squad Leader went flying, crashing into the firmly shut gray door.
Jaejeong had finally snapped and decked him.
The group's eyes turned to the fallen Squad Leader in shock at the unbelievable strength—even seeing it was hard to believe.
They worried he might be dead.
But the one hurting was Jaejeong.
"Ow, that bastard's head is made of..."
The Squad Leader had flinched at the incoming punch, so Jaejeong had clipped his forehead.
On the ground, the Squad Leader stared dazedly at the falling raindrops like he had a concussion.
At least he was alive and fine.
Jaejeong shook out his stinging fist and calmly surveyed again.
There was a path, actually—not none at all.
"Hyung, stairs here!"
Hyun-soo had spotted iron stairs running down the building's outer wall to the ground.
The group rushed over, eyes on the stairs.
Rusted in spots, but solid enough.
The problem was after descending.
Zombies circling the area like a siege—going down meant no clear plan.
"Anything to draw their attention?"
Youngman asked Jaejeong as he looked around.
But Jaejeong had no special ideas either.
Same for the others.
Anna was still in Minyoung's arms; Yeon-hui stood blankly like a broken clock hand.
Despair hung heavy.
So thick even Jaejeong wanted to give up brainstorming.
The same thought circled everyone's minds.
Even if they escaped here, what would change?
Endlessly chased, constant worry, scraping by day by day until a pathetic death.
A shadow more deadly than death—despair—engulfed the group.
"...Let's all just die. Clean death here. Jump off, one quick painless hit."
The Squad Leader muttered while sprawled out, staring at the sky.
Minyoung closed her eyes, imagining sewing his mouth shut with needle and thread.
Already exhausted consoling Anna's nonstop tears, this guy offered zero help.
But suddenly, Minyoung—who had been shaking her head—froze.
She'd been glaring at the Squad Leader in the rooftop's center, but her head tilted slightly.
Squinting through the rain, wiping it away, she focused on something.
"That..."
Jaejeong followed her gaze with a puzzled look.
Youngman, missing it over the rain noise, cupped his ear.
"What is it?"
"That... can't we blow it up?"
The group's eyes followed Minyoung's pointing finger to a distant intersection.
Hyun-soo, staring intently, clapped in excitement.
"Gas! It's gas!"
Sure enough, an LPG tanker truck loaded with gas sat at the crossroads.
A spark of hope lit the group's faces.
Jaejeong felt it too.
Distance was the only issue; otherwise, worth a shot.
And they had crack shots like Jaejeong and Youngman.
"Check your remaining mags."
At Jaejeong's order, the rifle-bearers recombined clips and counted bullets.
Plenty.
Enough for Jaejeong and Youngman to alternate shots.
Good thing they'd picked up dropped mags passing the second floor.
Youngman raised his rifle first, taking aim to test range.
"Hold on."
Jaejeong stopped him.
"Why?"
Instead of answering, Jaejeong glanced at the Squad Leader lying on the ground.
The moment Youngman opened his mouth to ask—
Click! Click!
The gray door of the penthouse building rattled.
The back-and-forth swinging door nudged the Squad Leader's head a few times as he blocked it lying down.
Startled by the sudden jolt, the Squad Leader irritably turned his gaze.
Through the narrow gap in the gray door, he spotted unfamiliar eyes staring back at him.
Infected People