Chapter 155. The Chase.
The moment they stole the vehicle, Hanna and Jimin smashed through the barricade and fled. Gravel sprayed from under the wheels as the car lurched forward, the roar of the engine tearing through the silence.
Cheon Sihu's village was barely over an hour away—not far at all. But as they drove, Hanna couldn't hear a word of what Jimin was saying beside her. Every ounce of her focus was locked on the road.
She checked the rearview mirror. No one was behind them yet. But the second they slowed down, the pursuit would come crashing after them. Hanna didn't realize it herself, but her face was streaked with tears.
The distant moans of zombies drifted in faintly. Before all this, just hearing that sound would've had her trembling. Now, the zombies were nothing compared to the ones she knew would soon be chasing them in a frenzy.
A crackle of static burst from the glove compartment—the vehicle had a two-way radio. Jimin, frozen, looked at Hanna, her eyes desperate and uncertain.
"Don't answer it!"
But a radio didn't give you the option of silence just because you didn't want to hear it. The static cleared, and a voice came through.
"Hanna-ssi, Jimin-ssi..."
Lee Jong-hyun. His voice was cold, yet still carried that practiced warmth he'd always worn like a mask. But Hanna could feel something beneath it now. It was no longer warm. The "ideals" he'd always held had twisted into something else entirely.
She glanced at the radio, then over at Jimin. Jimin had her eyes squeezed shut, trembling. Like she wanted to escape the sound itself.
The radio crackled again, and Lee Jong-hyun's voice cut through clearer than before.
"Why are you running like this?"
His tone was still gentle, but Hanna and Jimin both felt the threat coiled inside it. He knew they'd uncovered what he was trying to hide.
"After I've worked so hard for everyone... to be betrayed like this..."
With a shaking hand, Hanna reached out and grabbed the radio. She opened her mouth to answer, but the words wouldn't come. Her head was a storm of things she wanted to say.
Why did you kill the survivors you rescued with your own hands?
What is this "equality" you keep talking about?
After a moment's hesitation, Hanna asked the most primal question she had.
"I... I just can't understand what you even mean by 'justice' anymore."
Lee Jong-hyun fell silent for a moment.
"You don't need to understand. It's the duty of the strong, after all..."
"What I saw—!"
He cut her off before she could finish.
"Whatever you saw, whatever you heard—it doesn't matter."
His voice dropped lower.
"It's all a misunderstanding. You know me. I've always led you toward justice. You and Jimin-ssi both. I saved you. So why are you trying to leave me like this?"
Jimin pressed her hands over her ears as if she couldn't stand to hear any more. Hanna felt the same pressure bearing down on her from the voice crackling through the radio.
"Hanna-ssi."
Lee Jong-hyun spoke again—the same calm, gentle voice he'd used when they first met, as if he still genuinely cared about them.
"Come back. If you do, we can act like none of this ever happened... just a little incident. Nothing more."
His words stank of rot. Hanna gritted her teeth and refused to answer.
"You're misunderstanding something. Come back."
What he really wanted wasn't just for them to return. Lee Jong-hyun would never let anyone who defied him, who rejected him, walk away. His voice was the voice of a man desperate to keep his secrets from being exposed.
If they went back, the people would already be riled up by his words. She and Jimin would've been painted as shameless, ungrateful trash who'd thrown his kindness back in his face.
"I can't believe a word you say anymore... you hypocrite..."
As if refusing to listen another second, she hurled the radio out the window.
"The one we need standing in front of us isn't Lee Jong-hyun. It's Cheon Sihu. He'll help us."
The road was rough, littered with the husks of buildings and the wreckage of cars. Inside the vehicle, Jimin glanced at Hanna and asked quietly,
"What if we don't make it to the village? Lee Jong-hyun will definitely find us..."
Hanna hesitated, then answered as calmly as she could.
"We'll make it. Once we get there, we'll be safe. Even Lee Jong-hyun won't be able to touch us inside that village."
She tried to put on a strong front for Jimin, but inside, anxiety was eating her alive. Still, she couldn't afford to freeze up now. Not when fear was the one thing that would get them killed.
—Bang!
A gunshot rang out behind them, and the left side mirror shattered.
"Aagh!!"
"Jimin, get your head down!"
Hanna checked the rearview mirror. A vehicle was tearing after them, lurching wildly as it closed the distance. The sight sent a suffocating wave of tension through Jimin, and Hanna's hands on the wheel grew slick with sweat.
They weren't firing warning shots. Whoever was behind them meant to kill.
Their little compact car just didn't have the speed to shake a regular sedan.
Please... I can't die here...! Should I have grabbed a gun somehow?
Then, the zombie moans that had been distant before started growing closer—fast. The gunfire must've drawn them in. Just as the road was about to clog with bodies, she floored the accelerator and barely shot through the gap. The car took a hell of a beating for it, though.
—Screech! Crash!
The zombies acted like a roadblock. She heard a chain of collisions behind her. But she couldn't relax. The kind of men chasing them would cut through a few zombies fast and be back on their tail in no time.
She spotted a road sign and confirmed it—they'd finally entered Gimpo. But she couldn't let her guard down. Not until she saw Cheon Sihu's face.
Her toes cramped from the tension, but she never eased off the accelerator. It wasn't long before she saw multiple vehicles in the rearview mirror again. They'd closed the gap terrifyingly fast. She spotted a pile of loose items in the backseat.
"Jimin! Grab whatever you can back there and throw it out!"
Jimin nodded and scrambled into the back, twisting her body awkwardly. She yanked the door open on the moving car and started flinging out anything she could get her hands on. The objects were big enough to actually slow them down.
Through the rearview mirror, Hanna saw one of the cars swerve hard to dodge the debris bouncing across the road. It veered off into the brush, but another vehicle immediately slid into its place and kept coming.
"Hanna, just a little further and we'll see the village!"
"I know."
They'd just passed Gimpo Airport. They were almost there. Constant gunfire from behind had shattered every last window in the car. The only stroke of luck was that the engine and tires were still holding up.
At last, the boundary of Cheon Sihu's village came into view. A blurry figure pointed at them, then rushed inside. Moments later, a siren began wailing from the settlement.
"Please... just a little more..."
—Thunk. Rattle-rattle-rattle...
A heavy, dull noise rang out, and the resistance under her foot on the gas pedal vanished. She pumped the accelerator again and again, but the engine wouldn't respond.
"What—why are we slowing down?!"
The car was decelerating fast, dropping to a jogging pace. Hanna's mind raced, making split-second calculations. One thought rose above the rest: they couldn't afford to stop here.
"Jimin. We have to jump and run the rest of the way!"
"What?"
Hanna had never thought she'd actually have to jump out of a moving car. That was the kind of thing that only happened in movies. Even at low speed, jumping was supposed to be insanely dangerous.
But if they wanted to live, they had to jump.
They threw open the doors, covered their heads with their arms, and leaped. They hit the ground and tumbled through the dirt, but the adrenaline and dopamine flooding their systems numbed them to the pain completely.
Hanna scrambled to her feet to run—and immediately clutched at her chest as a sharp spike of pain stabbed through her.
"Nngh..."
She must've cracked a rib in the roll. With a weak groan, she clutched her upper body and broke into a sprint anyway. Behind them, the sounds of screeching tires, roaring engines, and shouted curses blended into a chaotic roar.
"Hurry!"
Hanna screamed it like a sob, but she was reaching her own limit. The muscles in her legs were screaming in agony, and her lungs felt like they were on fire.
—Bang!
A gunshot cracked behind them. She forced herself to ignore it and kept running. No—she couldn't ignore it. Because Jimin, running right beside her, crumpled to the ground.
"Aagh—!"
There was no time to check the wound. Hanna hauled her up and dragged her forward, half-carrying, half-pulling her toward the entrance. It was so close now. Inside the village, plenty of people already had guns trained on them, but Hanna had no attention to spare for that.
"Please, help us!"
No one was about to show sympathy to possible infiltrators disguised as the weak. These people were well-trained and rational.
"Please... help..."
Her face smeared with tears and snot, Hanna wailed—nearly a shriek—begging for help. The gunfire behind them had stopped. All she could hear now was the roar of an engine bearing down on them, a vehicle aiming to run them over.
Hanna felt the last of her strength drain away. The truth sank into her bones: this was the end—for her and Jimin both.
Ah... just a little further... if the engine had held out one more second...
Everything she'd risked her life for, every desperate second of that drive—it all felt like a futile effort now.
Resigned, her eyes slowly slid shut. She collapsed on the spot and blacked out. In the instant before unconsciousness took her, she heard the sound of something—or someone—colliding with the vehicle.
—Crash!!!