Precarious Perch
The arrow flew unerringly toward the lead infected charging at the front.
But contrary to expectations that it would hit the head, the arrow veered downward.
Anna, who had already nocked another arrow, stood frozen in place.
A miss?
The thought had barely crossed her mind when the arrow pierced the top of the lead infected's foot with pinpoint accuracy.
The infected, its foot pinned, toppled forward, and the ones behind it tangled into a writhing heap on the floor.
Han Jaejeong, who had been rushing to grab Anna, couldn't believe his eyes.
No way... she calculated that shot?
But it was too natural to dismiss. As if she had planned every step, she unleashed arrows at the heads of the infected scrambling back to their feet.
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
In an instant, three infected crumpled.
With their heads perfectly pierced, they would never rise again.
But that was as far as it went.
The horde trampled over their fallen comrades and leaped forward.
Whenever the front line fell, the ones behind would step on them and vault ahead—a pattern repeating endlessly.
Anna, firing arrows frantically, lined up a shot on the eyes of an infected closing in right before her.
Whoosh!
Her body was suddenly enveloped and yanked upward.
She'd barely blinked before she was tumbling across the floor of some room in the corridor with a crash.
The abrupt chaos left her no time to process.
When she opened her eyes, Jaejeong was slamming the door shut and toppling desks and a fridge haphazardly to barricade it.
Instinctively, Anna rubbed her arms.
It had unmistakably been Jaejeong's arms crushing her in a protective hold moments ago.
She had never once imagined someone carrying her like that.
Nor had she ever experienced—or even considered—receiving protection or help from anyone.
And that was just the start.
No one had ever had the strength to handle her like a balloon.
She'd always figured such people were just heroes from the movies.
"What the hell are you doing? Don't just sit there—help block it!"
Jaejeong shouted urgently.
Anna, sitting dazed like someone waking from a dream, shuddered.
Her expression was as if she'd seen a hallucination.
Lifting her head, she saw Jaejeong wrestling with the rattling door.
Even with the desk and fridge barricading it, and his massive frame pressing down, the door shuddered relentlessly.
Bang! Bang!
A few heavy impacts followed, and the wooden door's center splintered wide open.
The infected thrust their hands and arms through the hole like maniacs.
They didn't care as jagged wood shards tore into their flesh.
Witnessing raw flesh ripping open, Anna swallowed hard.
She glanced around.
The cramped room had no other furniture to reinforce the door.
Just a few potted plants left.
Nothing useful there.
Thud!
The number of infected outside was definitely growing.
Jaejeong's body, barely holding, was now bouncing like a fish.
He knew he couldn't last much longer like this.
His eyes bloodshot, he yelled at the approaching Anna.
"Smash the window with those pots!"
Even with her help, it wouldn't change much.
The door was about his size anyway—no room for extra bodies.
Better to secure an escape route.
Infected lacked the intelligence to control their speed, driven purely by instinct, so a window exit could work.
How many massive pots shattered?
With a pop, the cracking glass finally exploded outward.
"You first!"
"What about you, oppa?"
"Fuck, just listen for once!"
Jaejeong grimaced in frustration.
Finally moving, Anna shoved aside the remaining glass shards and swung her legs over the sill.
Luckily, there was a narrow ledge outside just wide enough for her feet.
She stepped fully out, gripping the upper frame, then spread sideways like a crab to make space for him.
She glanced back.
The annex's rear dropped off like a cliff.
Only two stories up, but the slope down to the park made the ground plummet sharply.
A fall from here would shatter bones.
"Ready!"
At Anna's signal, Jaejeong pulled away from the bucking door.
Bang!
One hit shoved the desk and fridge back dozens of centimeters.
No time to gawk anyway.
Bang! Boom! Bang!
Relentless blows half-opened the door.
Jaejeong instantly leaped onto a fallen monitor and launched toward the window.
His massive hand gripped the broken frame, and with a flex—like the Hulk—his bulk vaulted outside.
"Oppa!"
As Jaejeong turned toward the window, Anna's sharp yell pierced his ears.
Simultaneously, an infected screeched past him.
Kraaack!
It plummeted straight out of the building.
A second slower dodge, and Jaejeong wouldn't be on the ledge now.
The infected flooding the room reached for the window.
But stuck thrashing inside, unable to climb up, they posed no threat.
Gripping the sill, Jaejeong glanced sideways.
Anna, standing beside him, was growing paler.
Her gaze flickered uneasily; her arms seemed to be losing strength.
"Hey, how long you think you can hold?"
"You want the honest truth?"
"Obviously. You wanna joke around right now?"
Jaejeong scowled at the stubbornly enduring Anna.
"No idea. My arms... I can't feel my arms."
"Come here. You can still move, right?"
"Wait—Kyaa!"
Shifting sideways, Anna slipped and screamed.
She teetered, off-balance, but her athlete's reflexes held.
"Stay still. I'll come to you."
"How?"
Anxious, Anna eyed Jaejeong inching closer and the drop below alternately.
Instead of answering, Jaejeong extended the arm gripping the sill.
His rigidly hunched body peeled away from the window starting from the hips, creating a round space in the middle.
"Get in."
"What?"
Anna stared in disbelief.
"I'll spread my legs. You keep yours together and stand inside me. Even if you let go, I can brace with my body."
"N-no. Even so, that's... too much."
"We judging good or bad right now? You wanna fall to your death? Wasting breath explaining. Just listen!"
Jaejeong exploded in pent-up frustration.
Anna, brow furrowed in agony, peeked down once more.
It was death to fall.
No doubt.
No survival possible.
But squeezing into Jaejeong? No confidence there.
One more step, and her arms would give out completely.
"I can't. You hold on, oppa. I don't think I can."
Jaejeong squeezed his eyes shut.
"Fuck, you never listen. Stay put, tight to the window. Don't move."
After deep breaths, Jaejeong crab-walked toward Anna on the right.
As the gap closed, he flung his right hand into open air.
Now only his left hand and leg held him.
Anna's eyes widened at the impossible sight.
Soon, that massive hand and arm reached the sill her right hand gripped.
Like wrapping in a blanket, Jaejeong's bulk completely enveloped her.
"Hold as long as you can. I got limits too. When you can't anymore, tell me and let go. I'll hold somehow."
"Holding won't solve it. We'll both die like this."
"Shut up, you're draining me. They heard the window smash anyway."
Anna tensed every muscle.
First time pressed so close to a man, plus the terror of death—her limbs cramped.
No more.
She clenched her teeth until nails tore skin and blood flowed.
But she couldn't endure.
"I-I can't. Can't hold anymore."
"Then let go."
"Ugh!"
Anna clung until her blood-slick fingers slipped, finally releasing the sill and entrusting herself to him.
With a sharp inhale, Jaejeong's body, shoved backward, surged forward to the edge again.
"Relax. You're tensing so hard it's killing me."
But Anna couldn't.
She felt his heartbeat against her back.
Tension prickled goosebumps everywhere; her breath caught.
"Hey, answer me? Relax."
No response despite repeats.
"Sigh, fine. Stay like that."
Jaejeong gave up, falling silent.
But his arms were reaching their limit too.
Fuck! Someone, anyone—come on!
That was all in his head.
The outside was eerily quiet—impossible no one heard the window shatter.
It echoed for hundreds of meters.
Right below the rooftop—why the fuck hasn't anyone come?
Shlick—
Jaejeong's palm on the sill slid back bit by bit.
Unable to watch, Anna raised her hand.
"I'll grab the sill again."
"With that hand?"
Anna looked at hers.
Blood-soaked.
Dizzying pain throbbed on.
Nails torn, blood endlessly oozing.
"Then we die like this? What do we do?"
"Hold on."
Gazing down, Jaejeong tapped the small lower window with his toe.
No sliding pane since it wasn't a room inside, but a vent big enough for one person.
If he could kick it out...
His foot might break.
No—it would break.
"Better than dying."
"What?"
"Nothing. I'm gonna kick this lower window—hold the sill till then."
Anna didn't reply.
He'd saved her with an absurd method before; now a masochistic escape.
Jaejeong eyed his shoes.
Plain sneakers.
Toes would snap for sure.
Worse, the glass might not break—nine out of ten chance.
He closed his eyes.
This was the end.
Eyes shut, maybe the fall hurts less without seeing.
Complicated thoughts raced as—
"Hey! Jaejeong! That you?"
A glad voice called from the rooftop.
Anna nearly teared up.
Jaejeong too.
Tears of gratitude.
From then, they screamed for rescue at the top of their lungs.
Unless pulled up now, they'd fall.
The rooftop group sprang into action.
Soon, a thick rope descended from above.
Jaejeong snatched it with his left hand.
Wrapped it around his wrist to secure.
Anna's turn.
She was near collapse.
Sweat-drenched, her ten fingers bleeding profusely for ages.
Jaejeong hooked her with his right arm.
One hand bearing both their weights.
Anna dangled like meat on a pole over a bar.
"Pull!"
On the roof, Youngman, Beom-sik, and Minyoung yanked with all their might.
Infected People