I Told You I’d Come Back
“I told you I’d come back, didn’t I?”
— Kim Sehee —
Nearly one hundred people began to move. A long, straggling procession, each person burdened with their own meager belongings. But it was impossible for everyone to walk quickly. A young mother with a child strapped to her back, an elderly person barely managing on a cane, and others running with a hobble, dragging their luggage behind them. The line was long and sluggish.
“Can’t you walk any faster?” a young man complained from the back, but no one answered. Everyone was exhausted, pushed to the very edge of their limits. At this pace, it felt like it would take thirty minutes just to move a short distance.
Park Geonho took the lead, guiding the people. His face was stiff with tension, yet he pressed forward, constantly scanning the path. Behind him, a few volunteers had taken up the rear. Most of them carried whatever makeshift weapons they had on hand: hunting air rifles, baseball bats, and kitchen knives. Some had even lashed kitchen knives to wooden beams to create crude spears. It wasn't professional military gear, but they felt they needed at least something to feel safe. The soldiers themselves were busy fighting a desperate battle above.
Jang Yeeun held her bow, and I gripped a pistol tightly in my hand. Park Geonho had handed it over to me, insisting that I needed it more than he did.
“...I’ll be back as soon as possible.”
Giving a gun to a civilian—that guy must have lost his mind. But a deep sense of unease gnawed at me. This long, exposed line of people was a glaring target for anyone. With the elderly, women, and children among us, even if their footsteps were quiet, the collective noise of a hundred people was impossible to ignore.
“Sehee, are you okay?”
“Yes, I’m fine. Don’t worry about me, just keep your eyes forward.”
And so, we moved—cautiously, yet as quickly as we could. Because we couldn't afford to lose anyone, because we absolutely had to survive.
— Lieutenant Lee Junhyeok —
Just yesterday, these were the same comrades I’d been joking with even while in combat. Now, they were stumbling toward me, twitching and snarling. Infected. I hated how accustomed I’d become to that horrific word.
Basement Level 3. We were locked in a desperate fight. But I couldn't shake the feeling that everything was coming to an end.
“Lieutenant! The barricade on Basement Level 1 has been breached!”
Damn it. If the first level was gone, the situation was effectively over.
“Don’t fall back! Hold the line! We have to buy enough time for the civilians to evacuate!”
We had barely twenty men left. Twenty.
“We’re low on ammo, Lieutenant!”
“We need a rotation from the rear!”
My subordinates’ shouts overlapped. I had no answer for them. Our ammunition was bottoming out, and there were no reinforcements to rotate in. The reason I’d sent Geonho to guide the civilians was simple. That kid—he’d enlisted right after graduating high school. He was practically a child, thrown into this hellish situation. He was too young to die. That’s why I’d sent him away.
The sound of the infected surging forward grew louder. In the dark of the third basement, where even the emergency generators had failed, we struggled to maintain the line, using the muzzle flashes of our guns as our only light. Could we hold? No, that wasn't the point. We had to hold.
“Reload! Don’t slow down! Shoot before you die!”
I thought of the civilians behind us. Their cries, their fear, their desperate struggle to live. We couldn't end it like this. Only if we held could they survive.
I saw the infected closing in. The stench, the groans, the inhuman shrieks. My hands began to tremble, but I raised my muzzle.
“Kill them! Hold until the end!”
I pulled the trigger. It was a fight with no end in sight.
— Kim Sehee —
I had fired a pistol in my past life. I was a 'survivalist,' after all. I’d visited shooting ranges often enough. But that was just practice. Holding a gun in a real-life situation was an entirely different matter.
Our group moved slowly. The elderly, the children, the wounded. Amidst it all, the gunfire echoing from afar began to turn intermittent. The fading sound of shots was a signal that the military’s resistance was weakening.
Even in this situation, a strange thought crossed my mind. I couldn't help but laugh, wondering if I should have written the infected to be a bit weaker in my novel. In reality, no setting, no amount of regret, mattered.
My changed body didn't shed a single drop of sweat. Fatigue and tension seemed to have abandoned me entirely. But they hadn't disappeared; they were just accumulating, unnoticed, deep within me.
Jang Yeeun was different. She held my hand. The warmth radiated from her fingertips. That warmth was what kept me grounded in this nightmare.
That was when it happened. From the fourth basement to the fifth, and then onto the tracks, a figure fell. Jang Yeeun immediately let go of my hand, drew her bow, and sliced through the air.
Thwack!
The arrow pierced the figure’s head perfectly. The body crumpled and stopped moving.
“Everyone, move quickly!”
But the moment her voice rang out, things began to pour in from all sides. From beyond the subway ceiling, from the darkness, figures began to drop one by one. The sound of gunfire had ceased entirely.
Thump!
More infected began to fall onto the fifth level, some head-first, some legs-first. The sight was as if the gates of hell had opened, spilling monsters out into the world.
“Faster!”
The people who had finally found some order fell back into chaos, running forward. Behind us, we heard the sound of the infected swarming in. The subway tracks were narrow and dark, the eerie air seeping deep into my lungs, making my fingertips tremble. But there was no time to hesitate. Ahead, there was only the darkness leading to Gongdeok Station.
“Watch your left!”
With Jang Yeeun’s warning, the bowstring hummed. An arrow flew, piercing an infected’s skull. Without catching my breath, I aimed the pistol. Click, click! Two shots rang out, and two infected following us collapsed. But the infected were endless. The foul stench and blood they left behind slowly wore down the volunteers, and finally, one person slipped and fell.
“Aaaargh!”
I looked back to see a man grabbed by an infected. A blood-soaked hand was clutching his leg.
“Help me...!”
It was already too late. The infected’s teeth tore into his neck, and a spray of blood splattered into the darkness.
“Leave him!”
But another woman, trying to save him, was grabbed by the man, who was thrashing in his final moments before turning into one of them.
“No!”
Gritting my teeth, I aimed the pistol and pulled the trigger. Click, click! The man and woman collapsed to the ground simultaneously. I knew it was too late, yet my fingertips trembled. ...What was this feeling? Could I have saved them? No, it was already too late anyway. I tried to convince myself, but the nauseating feeling in my gut wouldn't subside. I hadn't felt a thing when I threw that knife at the child earlier. Why now?
“Sehee, focus!” Jang Yeeun grabbed my shoulder and shook me. “We have to survive.”
That single sentence forced my body to move again. We kept running. But the infected appeared without end. Behind us, beside us, crawling out from everywhere. A man stumbled, clutching his twisted ankle.
“Hurry!”
I reached out, but an infected wrapped its arms around his waist.
“Aaaaaargh!”
I pulled the trigger again. Click! ...I was out of ammo. Damn it.
“Sehee! More are swarming in!”
Infected had already bypassed us. Jang Yeeun and I began to break through the horde. Feeling my body drenched in fatigue, we struggled to survive in the darkness. The lights of Gongdeok Station appeared ahead.
“Just a little further!”
But why did the distance feel so vast? Jang Yeeun raised her bow. She focused every ounce of her energy, hand on the string, aiming at an infected. But then—hiss. Blood sprayed from her bandage.
“Ugh...”
She gasped, lowering her bow. Blood gushed from the wound, and her eyes blurred.
“Infected...”
She tried to act like it was nothing, but her legs gave out, and she collapsed. “Yeeun!”
But the situation wouldn't wait for me. With a sound like a sudden gust of wind, an infected flew at us like a cannonball. Its beastly body sliced through the air, charging straight at us. I reached out instinctively. My mind went blank. And then...
Crunch.
A sickening sound echoed as the infected’s head and my hand shattered simultaneously. Blood splattered, and my fingers bent at an impossible angle. A dull pain surged, but it quickly faded into numbness. Jang Yeeun collapsed, and I pulled her close, gasping for air. The infected swarmed toward us without pause.
...Surviving is so damn hard. Really.
At that moment, a continuous burst of gunfire erupted like madness. Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat! With the sound of hurried footsteps, the gunfire grew closer.
“Sehee! Yeeun!”
A rough hand pulled me back. I looked behind me to see Park Geonho. He was dragging us backward like a madman.
“Move! If you just stand there, we’re all dead!”
Park Geonho’s face was deathly pale, and he was supporting Jang Yeeun with one arm.
“...Are you okay?”
Park Geonho tossed an empty magazine aside and flashed a grin, his white teeth stark against his grim face.
“I told you I’d come back, didn’t I?”