The Bloated Horror
Thwack!
A sledgehammer flew out of the darkness, shattering an infected's skull.
The headless corpse crumpled to the floor without a single groan.
Jaejeong couldn't see a thing now that the light was gone, but he'd memorized its position just moments before. One swing was all it took.
The noise drew in two more shuffling behind it, but the flashlight flicked back on, and they fixated on the beam like moths to a flame.
If things kept going like this, he figured they could pick them off one by one, even if it took all night.
They'd only taken down one so far.
Everyone was on edge.
As the next two lumbered into range, the light snapped off again.
Jaejeong handled both.
Thwack! Thwack!
The bodies hit the floor with dull thuds.
Each crushed skull echoed through the corridor, drawing brief reactions from some of the infected lurking there—but that was it. Nothing more.
A foul stench began to rise from the three fresh corpses.
The group had grown used to the stale air of the restaurant, devoid of any bodies before. Now the rot hit them like a wall.
The flashlight beam trembled violently.
Jaejeong turned to see the woman barely standing, one hand clamped over her nose and mouth.
Before anyone could speak, more infected appeared in a line.
Flashlight off. On.
The clicking drew their eyes toward the restaurant.
That was when it happened.
"Ugh! Mmph!"
A groan burst from the woman's lips as she shone the light on an infected's face. It was nearly a scream.
All eyes snapped to her, then back to the corridor.
Roooar! Grraaah!
The chilling scrape of bare feet on tile mixed with their roars.
Too late—she flicked it off and on again, trying to regain their attention. No use.
They were charging.
Dozens of infected slammed into the all-glass doors of the restaurant, shoving with brute force.
The shelves rattled like there was an earthquake.
Youngman and Beom-sik gripped the handles from either side, bodies jerking with each impact, terrified the ropes might snap.
The assaults grew fiercer, and voices erupted from the group.
"We have to shut the door!"
Several rushed to push and lock it.
But the infected's numbers overwhelmed them.
It was obvious the door wouldn't hold—the whole thing would shatter soon.
"Fall back!"
At Jaejeong's shout, everyone peeled away from the door.
The instant they did, the battering stopped short, held by the ropes.
One infected squeezed through the widening gap like a madman. Behind it, two more jammed their shoulders in, creating a bottleneck of pressure like a clogged sewer.
Thwack!
Jaejeong smashed the intruder's skull and climbed onto the shelves.
The door was done for.
No way around it.
All that was left...
Was to fight for their lives.
Hideous sounds came from the two jammed in shoulder-first—the grotesque tear of human flesh ripping apart.
Screws groaned from the doorframe, and the ceiling creaked ominously.
Resolve flashed across Youngman, Beom-sik, and Anna's faces.
The rest were already consumed by fear.
No one spoke.
They waited in tense silence amid the earthquake-like tremors, bracing for what came next.
Death was breathing down their necks.
And...
With a deafening crash, the glass door exploded into powder.
In that split second, they glimpsed the infected beyond, howling amid a rain of shards.
Right then.
Fwoosh!
Brilliant light flooded the basement. They squinted against the glare.
Power was back.
"Push the shelves—block the entrance!"
Jaejeong's voice boomed.
The group shoved as one, slamming the shelves into the gaping rectangular hole where the door had been.
It formed a makeshift barricade.
The surging infected crashed against it and reeled back.
Beom-sik and Youngman, joined by the two restaurant staff, struck at the ones crowding the corridor beyond.
Beom-sik's sharpened awl pierced a temple. Youngman's machete sliced up through a jaw and out the crown.
The man wielding an improvised mop-handle spear tipped with a kitchen knife was surprisingly effective.
His partner, swinging a heavy cleaver, tired quickly—it wasn't easy work.
Thung! Thung!
Arrows whistled over their heads, embedding precisely in infected skulls.
The corridor was chaos: dead bodies toppling amid the living horde.
Everyone was holding their own better than expected.
But limits hit all at once.
The knife slipped from the mop handle. The cleaver man lost his grip mid-swing, unable to handle the weight.
Beom-sik, thrusting his awl alongside Youngman in the tight space, accidentally gashed the old man's arm.
Blood poured, but Youngman ignored it, pressing the attack.
Jaejeong seized the moment.
"Pull back!"
The four retreated, and Jaejeong, Chaemin, and Hyun-soo filled the gap.
Jaejeong gripped his sledgehammer short and swung furiously.
Chaemin and Hyun-soo blocked the flanks admirably.
Hyun-soo's frying pan lost shape against skulls. Chaemin's garlic mortar grinder forced his thumbnail upward with the strain.
Blood soon stained his fingers.
But no one could stop.
There were too many infected packing the hall—far more than anticipated.
Kill them, stack the bodies ankle-deep and slippery—they kept coming.
And slipping on the corpses made aiming hell.
Behind them, Youngman wrapped his wound with a rubber glove.
"Get back there!"
Beom-sik yanked Chaemin away, yelling.
Only then did Chaemin notice the blood dripping from his hand.
His thumbnail hung by a thread, agony making his fingers quake.
For some reason, he pulled a necktie from his pocket and bit down on it.
Then, gripping the mangled nail, he screamed through clenched teeth and yanked it free.
The watching staff gaped, jaws dropping.
Blood gushed like a faucet.
Chaemin bound his finger with the tie for a tourniquet.
Eyes bloodshot, he fought on alone.
Youngman watched, then readied himself to rejoin.
Up front, Jaejeong swung tirelessly.
Even as his flanks swapped out twice, he kept pulverizing heads.
Anna had one arrow left—no more shots.
But the corridor was still crawling with infected.
Everyone was fading.
Breaths ragged, arms refusing orders.
They weren't warriors.
Half were ordinary folk.
Their limits came fast.
But they couldn't stop.
No doors to seal, no one to fight for them.
They knew better than anyone: stopping here meant the end.
Foam sprayed from Hyun-soo's mouth as he swung his pan.
He was at his absolute limit.
Right then!
Whoosh! Boom!
One infected sailed over the horde clogging the entrance, arcing high.
Like it had a jetpack strapped on—it flew meters before slamming down with a crash.
Just the beginning.
Another hurtled straight like a bowling ball, scattering the front line.
Jaejeong's sledgehammer whipped into the gap.
The one that had stood there moments ago now crawled the floor.
Jaejeong peered past the doorframe down the hall. Beom-sik followed his gaze.
And...
They froze, as if doused in cement.
Unbelievable.
In a world where anything could happen, this defied belief.
"Fuck... what the hell is that?"
Beom-sik spat.
"Down!"
Jaejeong grabbed his collar and yanked low.
An infected flew right over their heads, smashing into the far wall.
Everyone saw it now.
Something enormous toyed with the infected like playthings, hurling them down the corridor.
Definitely human-shaped.
But so bloated it could pass for a balloon—hard to tell where man ended and monster began.
Nothing like the first giant Jaejeong had faced streetside.
Bigger in every direction. Far deadlier.
And that impossible strength.
The thing tossed infected like puppies.
Its arrival shook the horde at the entrance.
They'd lost interest in the group.
Rooooaaarrr!
A bizarre bellow—like elephant and bull mashed together—snapped every head its way.
Loud enough to deafen up close.
Oddly, the infected didn't attack it. They just stared blankly.
Drawn by the roar, stimulated, but otherwise passive.
Fwoosh!
Then the power cut again.
The group scattered left and right, leaving only the two shelves as a lonely barricade. They melted into the shadows under the blinds along the floor-to-ceiling windows.
Even in blackout, light filtering through the park outside let them make out shapes.
Horrific sounds echoed from the corridor.
Bodies slamming, crunching, tearing.
The thing toyed with the infected like playthings.
Good news for the group—but they couldn't celebrate yet.
Not until they knew what it was.
Would it save them from this crisis, or bring a new one? Only time would tell.
"Did a nuke go off or something?"
"Why a nuke?"
Youngman muttered to himself; Jaejeong shot back.
The chaos outside drowned normal voices anyway.
"Saw it in a movie once. Radiation turns survivors into monsters. Just occurred to me—what if an infected got dosed too? That'd be a sight."
"Could be."
Jaejeong glanced out.
"This is a hospital, though. Radiation here? Doesn't matter what caused it. Point is, that thing's real."
He nodded, scanning the restaurant.
Anna, hunkered in the kitchen, eyes gleamed. She clutched her last arrow tight.
The others crouched under the blinds opposite.
Beom-sik poised his awl, ears tuned to its footsteps. Chaemin and Hyun-soo panted in terror.
The three staff just trembled on the floor, quaking like leaves.
They flinched and ducked with every crash of infected bodies against the glass.
Its footsteps grew nearer.
The slaughter sounds hit harder, more vivid.
It was right outside.
The thing passed the shelves blocking the entrance, still rampaging.
Just keep going, they prayed.
If it did, they could slip out of this corpse-reeking hellhole, grab their cart, and vanish quietly.
A sliver of hope wrapped them all.
Please, please, please.
Jaejeong closed his eyes, heart pounding against his palate.
Was it gone?
Over?
The corridor fell silent.
He peeked cautiously through the blinds.
It was still there, at the far end of the opposite hall.
No infected around it—just the floor carpeted in mangled, burst corpses.
But...
Was its head turning? Slowly?
Thump, thump.
His heart hammered.
Illusion became reality, choking his breath.
It was staring right at the restaurant.