The Day Is Done
Kim So-young was, until two years ago, a high school student in the so-called Yangjin New Town in Namyangju. She was a student "until then" because she dropped out in May of that year. The school had reached out for a couple of months, but her home never did. Not for the two years that had passed since. Because ever since middle school, no one had cared whether she came home or not.
After dropping out, Kim So-young met the "Gado Alliance" guys—introduced by some older girls she’d known since middle school—and eventually joined them. It was hard for men to get in, but for girls—especially pretty ones with good figures like So-young—membership was easy. Alliance life was fun. The guys provided a place to sleep, bought them unlimited food and alcohol, and even gave them stuff for free sometimes. When they needed cash, they’d just go to the front of her old school and pressure the underclassmen; 400,000 to 500,000 won was easy to come by. Even if only one or two of the Alliance guys followed them, the underclassmen would tremble and hand over the money without even daring to make eye contact. Or, if they had to, they’d do some escort work, though they hated it. Anyway, after dropping out, it was a continuous stream of exciting, uninhibited times. The highlight was the retreat held over this summer holiday, attended by a large number of the Alliance’s top-tier OBs (old boys).
For a mere two million won, they rented out a secluded apartment building in Gahyeon-ri for a short term and threw a wild party. She couldn't even remember how much they drank, how many times they did it, or who she’d spent quality time with. But it was so much fun. The only downside was when two bitches got high on stuff and started acting up, so they ended up dead. Actually, the Alliance OBs killed them. They hit them a few times because they were being such a pain, but they were so drunk they couldn't steady themselves and hit their heads on the dining table. The other one kept crying and screaming about how they had to report it, and the sub-leader, who was already pissed off, beat her like a dog. She ended up with blood pooling in her eyes and went limp. So, on the leader's orders, every member of the Alliance fam who participated in the retreat stabbed her with a knife at least once. Kim So-young was scared, but the Gado Alliance OBs were even scarier. And after they secretly buried the two dead girls in a vacant lot near the apartment, honestly, she felt nothing after just one day. If they got caught, they got caught; she wasn't the only one who stabbed them, right?
Another day passed like that. They played in the valley during the day, returned to the apartment before sunset, and spent the night drunk on alcohol, stuff, and the scent of flesh. Then, early the next morning, the zombie apocalypse broke out. Honestly, she couldn't believe it. It felt like a fake video made with AI. But when she left the slightly isolated apartment the Alliance fam had rented and went to where other villas and houses were, she realized it was reality, not a hoax. She was so scared. People—no, zombies—were tearing people apart while they were still alive, and the people screaming were soon turned into zombies themselves. It was a real-life situation, not a movie or a drama. The Alliance fam OBs were in a panic, too. But after the leader and the "brains" of the group spoke, the situation changed.
"Hey, isn't this actually better? That, uh... who was it? Shit, I can't even remember their names. Anyway, now nobody's gonna care that we killed those two bitches, right?"
"Plus, none of us have turned. Except for those traitorous bastards who ran away because they were scared shitless. So what does that mean? It means we're the biggest power in this neighborhood. So..."
"We can take over this town, right? So let's all stick together until the end! Let's go! Let's go! Let's go!"
As the Alliance fam members got excited, Kim So-young got excited too. She’d been living life one day at a time anyway; now that the world was in such a mess, wasn't it actually better? Now, as long as they had "power," they could do whatever they wanted, right? And the strongest, most successful people nineteen-year-old Kim So-young knew were the Gado Alliance OBs.
Anyway, from that night on, the guys took turns standing guard on the apartment rooftop, observing the surroundings in detail. At night, they would secretly visit houses with few zombies that looked easy to take, pretend to be students fleeing from zombies to get the doors opened, and then kill them and take their stuff. Kim So-young and a few other girls, who looked like high schoolers if they wiped off their makeup, were in charge of playing the role of the pitiful female student. They took turns acting once or twice a day, and whenever a door opened, the guys would stab them with knives. Well, about four people had died in the last month either from fighting back or getting bitten by zombies. But as long as it wasn't her, it was fine.
So today, she thought they could easily handle the people who had stupidly driven an expensive-looking large electric vehicle into the Alliance's territory. On the leader's word that such a large electric vehicle would be packed with food, solar panels, and whatever else, Kim So-young hopped onto the back of the electric bike belonging to Lee Woo-jin, the guy she’d been sleeping with most often lately. He was the best driver among the Alliance OBs, and unlike the other guys who just did whatever, Woo-jin actually paid some attention to her when they were together, so she felt like he would protect her and take care of her no matter what happened. But that was all a delusion.
* * *
CRACK! With a loud collision, the top of Lee Woo-jin's white helmet, as he was about to raise his hand axe, shattered into pieces. A long, pitch-black blade had buried itself more than halfway into the helmet before being yanked out in one swift motion.
"AAAAAAH!" Kim So-young, who had squeezed her eyes shut without realizing it, let out a scream. For a moment, Lee Woo-jin must have let go of the handlebars, because the bike tipped over, and Kim So-young was inevitably pinned under the heavy, fallen machine.
"Argh! It hurts! Get it off me! Ugh! Ah, Woo-jin oppa, I'm a bit... huh?"
Kim So-young, who was shaking Lee Woo-jin without properly grasping the situation, felt her eyes slowly widen. From the gap in the half-split helmet, a stream of blood and grayish-white matter was pouring out, and Lee Woo-jin’s body, which had been convulsing with his arms stretched out and his fingertips twitching, finally went still.
"Ah, ah... AAAAAAAH!" She had seen the guys kill zombies and people, but this was the first time she’d seen someone’s head literally smashed to pieces right in front of her, so Kim So-young let out a shrill scream. However, as if possessed by something, her gaze couldn't leave the man who had just smashed Lee Woo-jin’s head with his blade.
"You shit! You, you son of a bitch! Gack! Krrk, krrr..."
The nameless fam member, who had been waving a spear made of a kitchen knife crudely taped to a pole, was also struck in the neck with a single blow, nearly a palm's width deep, and collapsed. Ignoring him as he crumbled while spraying blood like a fountain, the man in black work clothes and a black helmet rushed toward his next target and swung his blade again. Honestly, he was so fast she couldn't even see how he was moving. Only...
"Gack!"
"Get away! You son of a bitch, get away! Ugh, aaaaah! Kaa..."
The guys who had been so gutsy, so good at fighting, and who had even killed people so well, were being slashed and cut down.
"Hiiit, hii!" Kim Seong-cheol, a guy her age who had been the first to get off because his electric scooter battery caught fire, was sitting on the ground, pushing himself back with his feet. His white pants were already stained yellow.
"Se, Seong-cheol... help me, help me a bit."
"Huu? Huuuu!" Kim Seong-cheol glanced at Kim So-young, seemingly coming to his senses, and jumped up, letting out a shriek as he tried to lift the ownerless electric scooter.
"Shit, shit, shit, shit..."
Just as Seong-cheol was about to start the engine, muttering curses without pause, thud! pop! A hole was punched under the seat where he was sitting, and the battery began to spew sparks.
"Ah!? Ah, shit! Ugh!"
Whether it was the sparks, Seong-cheol's shirt caught fire. "Argh!? Ugh..." Seong-cheol desperately tried to put out the fire, but unfortunately, his shirt was a polyester blend, and it quickly melted into the flames and stuck to his skin.
"AAAAAAH! Ah... gack!"
At that moment, a dark, murky blade buried itself two-thirds of the way into Kim Seong-cheol's neck and pulled out. He touched his neck with the hand he’d been using to put out the fire, but Seong-cheol collapsed with a thud, spraying blood through his fingers like a shower head.
"Ugh, eeeeek!?"
At the sight of Kim Seong-cheol writhing in the flames while pouring out blood, Kim So-young felt her crotch grow warm. No, in truth, she had peed herself a long time ago, but she was only just realizing it now. With corpses and human body parts scattered everywhere, the fishy smell of blood, and the sticky, foul stench of clothes and flesh melting in the fire, Kim So-young’s sight and smell were beyond dizzy—they were on the verge of paralysis.
Then. Thud, thud, thud... The footsteps of the man who had killed seven people in an instant aggressively invaded even Kim So-young’s hearing.
"Pl-pl-please, spare me. Pl-please, spare me!"
Pinned under the bike, Kim So-young begged desperately. Then the footsteps stopped, and the man, whose shoulders were more than twice as wide as her own, suddenly bent his knees.
"Hick!?"
Staring at Kim So-young, who was covered in tears and snot, Jun-ho said, "You killed people, didn't you?"
"Ex...?"
"You did. Originally, whether it was the Alliance or whatever. Anyway, you killed the guys and girls of Eok-Tenz, you killed your friends, and you killed the people living near the apartment you were staying in. Didn't you?"
"Ah? I-I, I didn't..."
"Yes, you did. You and the other bastards took turns stabbing girls to death and burying them in the vacant lot. And you were going to kill or abuse the people in that car, too, just like you always did."
"......!!!"
Even in the midst of extreme terror, Kim So-young’s eyes widened. How did this person, whom she was seeing for the first time today, know that? "Your motto was living for today, right? Well, today is all over."
Shink. Not a machete, but a Commando Dagger pierced Kim So-young’s heart quickly and deeply before being pulled out.
"Gack! Kuh...gack!"
With a phlegmy sound, Kim So-young spewed blood mixed with foam from her mouth, her eyes rolled back, and she gasped a few times before dying right there.
"......"
Jun-ho, who had surveyed the corpses of the thugs who had long ago given up on being human with emotionless eyes, walked toward the electric SUV that had stopped moving some time ago.
* * *
"O-oppa. Ugh, what do we do?" The woman in the passenger seat, who looked to be around twenty and quite similar to the young man, urged him on.
"Hiccup, hiccup."
"Ducky! Do, do something!"
But the man in the driver's seat could only repeat his hiccups and couldn't take any action. The slaughter that had taken place in less than thirty seconds was playing over and over in his head.
"Yu, Yuna! You..."
"Yamete... onegai, kocchi ni konai de." (Stop... please, don't come over here.)
Her friend in the back seat was also in a panic, just trembling while covering her head. Soon, the man in black clothes and a black helmet stopped in front of the car.
Tap, tap. He knocked on the car door with the knife that had killed seven people, regardless of gender.
"Hiiik! Korosanaide! Watashitachi wa kankei nai no!" (Don't kill me! We have nothing to do with this!)
The woman in the back seat shrieked and curled herself into the opposite seat. The woman in the passenger seat just stared at the helmeted man knocking on the door with her eyes wide and her body frozen like ice.
"Open it. I won't kill you."
"Ah...!?"
"Eh?"
"Huh?"
As if by magic, the three of them stopped what they were doing and looked at the helmeted man outside the car door.
"If you don't open it, I'll break..."
"I'm opening it! I'll open it!"
The electric SUV door opened quickly, and the women in the back and passenger seats scrambled out. And the man in the driver's seat...
"Gack!"
He tried to get out without unbuckling his seatbelt, but the belt caught his chest hard, and he slumped back into his seat in an unsightly manner.
"Not exactly a sturdy-looking guy... anyway, everyone come over here."
Glancing at the helmeted man muttering strange things, the two women moved their trembling feet with difficulty and stood before him. Soon, he took off his helmet.
"Ah..."
A plain face, drenched in sweat, was revealed—a face that was hard to believe belonged to a killer who had just stabbed, cut, and sliced people to death.