The Student Council President's Stand
The hallway in front of the infirmary fell quiet once more. It hadn't been long, but all four of them knew this silence did not mean safety. The number of zombies we faced on the way from the center of the main building to here wasn't as many as expected. The corridor was wide, the classrooms numerous, and since it was lunchtime there should have been quite a few students in this area. Yet only a handful had appeared before their eyes. The reason was obvious. Most had already died, then either drifted toward more crowded places or piled up in the central zones while biting and tearing at one another. In other words, the section where Ha-neul's group now stood had run out of prey.
Chae-won spoke in a low voice. "There must still be more kids alive."
The outbreak had happened during lunch. Some students would have stayed in their classrooms, and there were surely other scattered locations—the student council room, broadcasting room, club rooms. It was difficult to believe everyone had poured out at once onto the playground or hallways only to be devoured. Doors would have been locked somewhere, entrances barricaded with desks and chairs, or perhaps some were still holding out in terror until the bitter end.
Ha-neul was thinking the same thing. Some classrooms would contain nothing but blood and corpses by now, but in others living people might still be holding their breath with only a single door between them and death.
It was while the four were moving toward the gymnasium, footsteps muffled, that a dull thud echoed from the opposite side of the hallway near the stairs. Something heavy had toppled or slammed into the floor. All four heads turned at once. After a very brief silence, the sound of shattering glass followed. It meant someone was still alive and struggling, or that a direct clash with zombies had just erupted.
Ha-neul turned first. At the far end of the stairwell corridor, three zombies had gathered, and in front of them someone was swinging a chair to keep them barely at bay. Gripping the metal classroom chair with both hands, the figure shoved it forward or sidestepped each time a zombie lunged. One staggered backward after taking a blow to the chest from a chair leg; another fell and scraped its nails across the floor. The fighter was not especially skilled, but at least they weren't screaming uselessly while flailing. There was a clear sense of measuring distance and timing.
The moment Ha-neul saw it, he felt certain. "They're still sane. And they could become a real fighting force."
Someone already bitten or who had lost their reason could not move like that. They weren't swinging the chair blindly; they were pushing back while watching the timing of each approach, minding the positions of both fallen and standing zombies to avoid being surrounded. At the very least, this person was still in their right mind.
Chae-won seemed to reach the same conclusion and answered shortly. "Let's save them."
The zombies that had been charging to bite people at the end of the hallway were instantly transformed into corpses with severed necks and shattered skulls.
The student who had been fighting the zombies alone still clutched the chair leg, trying to steady ragged breaths. She was the third-year student council president, Seo Eun-jae.
Ha-neul recognized her at once. It was a face impossible to forget. Her long straight black hair was slightly disheveled by sweat and dust but had not completely lost its usual calm impression. The thin silver-framed glasses remained in place despite a crack at the corner of one lens. In her hand she still held the chair leg she had been swinging moments earlier.
It was different from the neat, exemplary aura she normally projected as student council president, and precisely because of that the contrast stood out sharply. Even with a sweat-drenched face her expression was remarkably composed, and though her breathing was rough, her gaze never wavered.
Ha-neul and Eun-jae's eyes met for a brief instant. The beautiful student council president and the kendo club ace—an inevitable pairing inside the school. Yet Eun-jae's gaze soon slid past him. There stood Chae-won. The image of a teacher who doubled as the kendo club's advisor standing in a blood-soaked hallway beside a student wielding a real sword was far too different from any scene the school had ever shown.
Eun-jae's eyes widened for the smallest moment, but it did not last. She too understood that survival took precedence over sentiment right now.
"You were alive," Ha-neul said.
Eun-jae drew one steadying breath, lowered the chair leg, and answered. "Barely."
Her voice was calm, yet it was obvious she had been pushed to her limit. Eun-ah kicked one of the zombies once more with her toe to confirm it was truly dead, while Chae-won visually assessed Eun-jae's condition. No bite marks. No scratches.
Eun-jae turned first. "Please follow me this way."
She acted before she spoke. Everyone understood there was no leisure for idle conversation at the end of a blood-stained hallway, so the group fell in behind her at once.
When Eun-jae knocked on the door of a classroom beside the stairs—two short raps, one, then two more—the door opened cautiously from inside. A frightened student's face appeared. Only after confirming it was Ha-neul's group and Eun-jae did the student open the door wider.
Inside the classroom, students were hiding. Three third-years, two injured, and one close to full panic. A student crouched by the window with violently shaking hands. Another leaned between desks, shedding silent tears. One of the injured clutched an arm while breaking into cold sweat; the other had blood seeping from a leg wound.
The sight of them crowded into the narrow room in a haphazard mix of gym tops, school skirts, shirts, and cardigans cruelly testified that this school had been enjoying an ordinary lunch period only a short while earlier.
Eun-jae explained the situation concisely. "I hid these students first, then went out to look for other survivors and ran into those things."
Her tone carried almost no unnecessary emotion. Rather than collapsing in fear, she had gathered the remaining people and sent out those capable of moving to search for more survivors. The mere fact that she had reached such a judgment and acted on it already set her apart from an ordinary student.
Eun-jae asked Ha-neul's group, "What's the situation outside?"
Ha-neul answered, "It's essentially over."
Chae-won added in a cool, analytical tone, "We should assume the entire school has fallen to them. The center of the main building is finished, and so is the playground."
The moment those words landed, the atmosphere inside the classroom sank like lead. The student who had been crying silently finally broke into open sobs. Another muttered in a trembling voice, "Then… what about our homes?"
They had been clinging to even the smallest thread of hope, but it had finally snapped.
Yet Eun-jae remained unshaken. She scanned the students' reactions once, then moved straight to the next question. "Is there a viable base we can move to right now?"
Ha-neul answered without hesitation. "The gymnasium."
Eun-ah continued, "If we barricade the doors, we can hold out there."
Joo-ha lifted the medical supply bag. "We've secured materials from the infirmary. We can manage emergency treatment."
Eun-jae's eyes changed in an instant. Hiding in a single classroom would not last long. If zombies flowed this way, desks and chairs alone would be insufficient to hold them back, and with injured students they needed a space where proper care was possible. The gymnasium was spacious, its entrances controllable, and Ha-neul's group had already verified it as a base. With medical personnel and supplies secured on top of that, it was far superior to staying here.
"If we remain here, we will all die," Eun-jae told the students.
One student protested through tears. "There are zombies outside! How are we supposed to leave?"
Eun-jae hurled the chair leg she carried onto the floor. The short, sharp impact made everyone flinch.
"That's exactly why we must leave immediately. Before those things run out of food and come looking for us."
She did not appeal to emotion; she simply reminded them once more that the survivors left in this classroom had now become the creatures' targets. The students fell silent. Even the one sobbing stopped abruptly. The classroom grew quiet again.
In that silence Eun-jae turned to Ha-neul. "Can you clear a path?"
Ha-neul's lips curved upward. "I was already in the middle of clearing one."
The confidence woven into his words was not bravado. Being surrounded on the wide-open playground would be another story, but he had no fear of losing to ordinary zombies inside a hallway. Fast or slow, every last one would drop with a single sword stroke.
Ha-neul looked at Eun-jae. Outstanding survival instincts. A sharp mind. He had already taken note of her appearance before, but seeing her confront this urgent crisis with such dignity stirred something deep inside him.
Still, now was not the time to dwell on such thoughts.
Of the two injured students, one appeared to have a fractured arm while the other suffered a deep laceration on the leg that continued to bleed. Joo-ha began emergency treatment at once. She used a ruler and thick textbook as a makeshift splint for the arm, then disinfected the leg wound and wrapped it tightly with a pressure bandage. To the student whose face twisted in pain she quickly confirmed whether painkillers could be taken, allowed a single sip of water, and administered the minimum dose.
Her movements were astonishingly fast and precise. Even though fear and commotion still lingered in the classroom, she worked with the calm routine of her usual duties in the infirmary. That composure alone acted as a sedative for the frightened students.
Meanwhile Eun-jae directed the others. "Pair up. Do not make a sound. Do not run. Just follow."
Her instructions were short and crystal clear. She paired relatively calm students with the injured to support them. To the one struggling to hold back hiccupping sobs she said sharply, "Cover your mouth and breathe—nothing else."
Her economical command brought stability to the group.
Watching her, Ha-neul thought again that the title of student council president had not been granted by mere popularity.
Once preparations were complete the atmosphere inside the classroom tightened like a drawn bowstring. Everyone instinctively understood that the moment the door opened, this brief evacuation would become a trial separating life from death.
Ha-neul took the lead. Behind him followed Chae-won, Eun-ah, Joo-ha, Eun-jae, and then the students, forming a small column. The two injured were supported on either side. Some hands trembled; others clenched jaws and kept heads lowered. Yet every one of them was ready to move.
The door opened.
Several zombies loitering at the far end of the hallway lifted their heads at once. They had caught the scent of blood. The instant their cloudy eyes began turning this way, Ha-neul said, "We head straight for the gymnasium."
From behind, Seo Eun-jae added, "If you fall behind, consider yourself dead."
Ha-neul advanced, sword raised, and fresh blood began to spray once more.