Chapter 95
Translator: uly
Chapter: 95
Chapter Title: The Immortal Vampire Girl Rosen (3)
His pursuers twisted their bodies and doggedly followed as he bolted away.
Dong-jin dashed into the apartment complex, where the playground next to the entrance caught his eye.
It was late at night, so the playground was deserted.
The slide standing tall in the center looked as sturdy as a fortress.
Perfect! That’s the spot.
To keep the men from rampaging through the apartment grounds, Dong-jin yelled as he charged into the playground.
“Argh! I’m right here. Come and get me, you bastards!”
The men poured into the playground after his shout.
The slide’s stairs were on the opposite side from the direction he’d come running.
Dong-jin used his momentum to scramble up the slanted slide.
The men followed, stumbling up after him, but they lost their balance and slid back down.
Zombies gonna zombie. What else is new?
Every one of them just tried climbing straight up the slide the way he had—no one thought to turn around and use the stairs.
Straight-line thinkers, these zombies.
Regaining some composure at their ridiculous antics, Dong-jin turned his head and looked beyond the apartment complex fence.
“Huh?”
The sight on the other side drew an involuntary curse laced with dismay.
“Damn! Shit.”
The road beyond the fence still had the young men’s sedan parked in front of the convenience store.
Behind it were two more sedans with doors flung open—arrived who-knows-when—and a police car, also wide open.
Eight men and women, presumably from those stopped vehicles, were plastered against the convenience store’s glass front.
Two of them were uniformed officers.
“Damn it, Rosen couldn’t get out. What do I do? Go back for her?”
No matter how he racked his brain, heading back to rescue Rosen was the only option that came to mind.
* * *
Steeling himself to return to the convenience store for Rosen, Dong-jin called out to the men flailing and waving their arms at the base of the slide.
“You guys—real zombies, right? This isn’t some hidden camera prank mimicking the Daesung Hospital disaster, is it?”
The men growled in lieu of answering.
They resembled the zombies he’d seen at Daesung Hospital, but his personality wouldn’t let him jump to conclusions.
“Looks like the real deal, though…”
Dong-jin examined them closely.
Their clothes were torn in places, and bite marks stood out on their faces and the backs of their hands.
He tried calling Byung-su, but got no answer.
Da-hee’s house was nearby, but these weren’t spirits, so summoning her might just put the kid in danger.
“What now.”
Something occurred to him, and he suddenly bent down, lifting his right leg to gnaw tentatively at his calf.
“Ow! That hurts—oof. Guess the calf’s an erogenous zone; it stings extra.”
Dong-jin touched the spot he’d just bitten.
It hurt like hell, but his jeans were intact, and there didn’t seem to be any damage to the skin beneath.
Painful, but human teeth don’t pierce denim easily. Sure, if they really chomped down persistently, they might, but… if I dodge while they bite, my legs should take minimal damage.
Finishing his calculations, Dong-jin raised his jacket-clad right arm, worked his jaw a bit, then bit down.
“Ow! Hurts less than the calf, though. Yeah, calves are just extra sensitive.”
Even with his full bite, the jacket held.
“The majesty of wool… They’ve got the same human chompers as me, so no big difference, right? Better test it to be sure. Hmm, that old security guard looks easiest.”
Grinning at the elderly guard growling with mouth agape at the slide’s base, Dong-jin slipped off his sneaker.
It was a Nike Air Jordan series basketball shoe.
“Ah, my prized Jordans. Hate to ruin them, but oh well.”
He unwound the laces, wrapped them around his hand, and dangled the shoe toward the guard’s face from atop the slide.
“Hey, mister! Chomp down on this!”
Before he finished speaking, the old guard lunged, snatching the shoe and biting hard.
Stimulated by the guard, the other men swarmed to grab it too. Dong-jin yanked the shoe back up quick.
The guard resisted fiercely; the shoe didn’t come free from his mouth.
In a panic, Dong-jin reached with his left hand and wrenched it away.
Crunch.
Seams popping, the shoe came loose.
“Whoa—his teeth are embedded.”
Pulling it free seemed to have yanked out the old guard’s teeth too.
Not wanting to touch them, Dong-jin banged the shoe against the slide’s top metal plate to dislodge the teeth.
The sneaker was a shredded rag now.
Stronger bite than he’d figured.
“Tears way easier than I thought. But teeth came out, so theirs are human-level. Protect the face, neck, and hands… might be doable. Gotta… save Rosen.”
His confidence plummeted with his ruined sneaker, but Dong-jin resolved to go rescue her anyway.
* * *
Spotting another slide a short distance from the zombie cluster.
Dong-jin glanced at it sidelong, then slid down to it.
His sudden move didn’t faze or confuse them; they staggered after him without surprise.
“Hya! Follow me! Come on!”
Dong-jin bolted toward the playground entrance, yelling back at them.
As if responding to his call, they waved their arms and pursued.
Reaching the complex entrance, he paused to ensure they kept up.
“One, two, three—all eight accounted for. Good! No stragglers. Let’s go!”
Revving himself up, he ran; the men staggered after him, leaving the complex for the road.
Dong-jin glanced back now and then while running, yelling to prevent any from breaking off elsewhere.
“Argh! Hyah! Hurry up!”
As he neared the convenience store, the people stuck to its glass staggered out toward the road he was on.
Dong-jin dodged those ahead by leaping onto the nearest parked sedan’s roof.
A youth inside lunged through the open window to grab him, but he sped past.
He jumped to the next car’s roof, then the next.
Now the store-glass group merged with his lured pack, all chasing him.
Weird—no more cars coming in. Lucky break, anyway.
Relieved no vehicles approached from the main road, he leaped from the last car to the asphalt.
The instant his foot hit pavement, his right ankle twisted, and a scream escaped him.
“Ow! Sprained it.”
Pain notwithstanding, he pushed up and ran forward.
Every ground strike on his right foot brought agony, cold sweat soaking his back, but he didn’t slow.
Reaching the main road’s edge, Dong-jin turned back.
Any farther, and these freaks would spill out, harming innocents.
He yelled again, charging toward the men.
“That guy—is he nuts?”
On the two-lane road leading to the apartments, a bespectacled man in a black van pointed at Dong-jin.
In his view, Dong-jin was rushing toward the staggering crowd walking backward.
This was Kim, the NIS domestic division section chief who’d picked up Lieutenant Yoon Il-han from Seoul Metropolitan Police HQ days earlier and roughed him up in the van.
He’d introduced himself to Il-han as “Section Chief Kim,” adding he wasn’t actually a Kim.
“Doesn’t seem totally insane.”
The driver pointed his right index finger at Dong-jin.
Dong-jin was sprinting at full tilt, aiming for a gap on the road’s left amid the centered crowd.
“Not an idiot, then. Park! Contact the police SWAT and local station—have them here in ten.”
The bespectacled man addressed the backseat; the youngest-looking of the three replied.
“Yes, Director.”
The glasses-wearer was no section chief—he was a director.
“Alright, shall we hunt too? Kim, drive! Time to hunt. Suppressors on, everyone.”
The man called “Director” by Park ordered the driver toward the apartment road.
Unlike his self-intro to Il-han as NIS Section Chief Kim, the driver was the real Kim, and the bespectacled man was clearly a director—surname unknown.
In the NIS, directors ranked just below the director-general; only three existed.
As Kim drove the van in, the others checked their personal firearms.
“We’ve guarded our nation and people, beating down threats. Can’t let zombies shake that. Let’s go!”
Behind the director’s van was another blocking the road—explaining the lack of traffic.
* * *
Dong-jin’s plan was simple as he plunged into the oncoming staggerers: block them from the main road and slip through the wider left side to the store.
Awaiting backup police.
As he wheeled and ran, the staggering line bunched tighter toward the center.
The road’s flanks were high apartment fences; ahead, between them, stood a squat two-story building with a first-floor convenience store like a lone fortress.
The more he ran through the pack’s midst, the more they crowded the center.
With the freaks clustered centrally, Dong-jin veered left into the newfound space.
The horde flailed, turning to grab him, but his speed hugging the left wall outpaced them—they grasped air.
“Ugh! Outta breath. Shoulda worked out more.”
Evading clutching hands, Dong-jin panted.
Then waited for them to turn.
Once all had pivoted, the leaders closed to three or four steps.
“Okay, everyone turned—charge!”
Leading the snarling horde like a general from an ancient battlefield, he ran.
They staggered after.
Reaching the store front, Dong-jin spotted a bisected youth reaching and growling at him.
The sedan driver—now just upper body, legs gone—crawled before the door.
“Gah! What the—where’d his legs go in the meantime?”
Dong-jin recoiled from the hand, scanning around fast.