The Human Butcher Shop
I ended up inside a zombie apocalypse novel. Anyway, I had more than enough supplies. The flashlight was in perfect condition and I’d brought plenty of spare batteries. Besides, a school wasn’t exactly prime real estate for spiders to operate. Unlike a supermarket with those high ceilings where they could stay hidden from survivors, here all I had to do was jump once and the tip of my Beopbong would slam hard into the ceiling. So yeah, they’d picked the wrong stage. If it had been me, I would’ve set up base in a big-box mart or somewhere like that.
“Dumb fucks.”
It was obvious at a glance that this building was already the spiders’ stronghold. Otherwise there was no way it would be draped in this much webbing. They had probably carved out a decent space for a food cache and were busy raising their young there. My plan was simple: find the food stockpile, smash every zombie that came at me, and get the hell out. All I had to do after that was reach Dong-gu and link up with the survivors.
“Hmm…”
I’d assumed it would be the same school, but as I looked around something felt off. The sheer volume of spider silk made it almost impossible to figure out the layout. I could at least tell I was in the central lobby…
“What is this, a curtain?”
Thick sheets of webbing—enough to be used as actual fabric—hung everywhere. If I didn’t rip them down I couldn’t even tell whether a path existed. Still, there was one small mercy: Braille signs meant to guide blind students around the school. I could use those.
I spent a while tearing down webs, sweeping my flashlight back and forth while I thought. Whether the boss here was a King or a Queen, the main nest was probably in one spot. The gym on the second and third floors of the annex had a high ceiling and plenty of open space—perfect for breeding. If it was a King, it would have stationed females there and turned the place into a literal baby factory. If it was a Queen, the thing itself would be lurking deep inside.
“All right. Since I’m already here, might as well pick up a trophy.”
I didn’t have sleeves, but I made a show of rolling them up anyway and loosened my shoulders. The zombies outside and the spiders inside were almost certainly in a symbiotic relationship. I’d been chased in here at a leisurely pace because I was strong, but other survivors would have been driven into this high school in a panicked rush. Then, not knowing any better, they’d step on the webs and get ripped apart by the spiders.
“Still… just pretending I never saw this feels too uneasy.”
These bastards would keep catching and eating survivors. Anyone who wandered into Nam-gu without knowing the truth would end up dead. I couldn’t clear every zombie in the entire district, but I could at least wipe out the ones inside this building. Total extermination might be pushing it, but I could definitely inflict damage that would be hard to recover from.
…
Still, food came first. Luckily the school was split into three separate buildings. I had entered the central one; if I followed the corridor all the way to the right I’d reach the annex. The first floor of the annex housed the cafeteria and the school store. There might be something worth hoping for. The spiders might not have claimed everything.
“Ugh, fuck.”
Before I took another step I started furiously ripping down the webs around me. They weren’t that sticky, but the sensation was so disgusting it pissed me off. On top of that, remembering the wedding-dress incident from before made it ten times worse. One wedding dress in my lifetime was more than enough, so I tore down every strand I could reach. Only then did a path finally open up.
…
Even when I swept the flashlight around, the area refused to brighten. My feet and the immediate surroundings lit up, sure, but beyond that was pure darkness. I’m not exactly the timid type, but a gaping black void like this was creepy enough to make anyone nervous. It would’ve been so much better if Noh Changhun or Kang Siwoo were here. Instead I was completely alone.
Still, I had no choice but to keep moving. Thankfully I didn’t hear any clicking sounds. If I had, I really might have had a heart attack. The place was already pitch-black; the last thing I needed was spiders skittering around me in the dark.
“My heart would actually stop. But…”
Horror movies always had that one cliché. You know the one—when you enter a building the door slams shut behind you with a bang, trapping you inside. It probably wouldn’t happen, but just to be safe I retraced my steps and headed back toward the exit.
“No, fuck!”
The door was locked. And not just locked—chained and wrapped in so much webbing it might as well have had a sign saying don’t even think about it. If the silk hadn’t been so sticky I might have tried to force it open, but the stuff was designed to waste your time. My regular strength was on the weaker side. Noh Changhun or Kang Siwoo could have ripped the door open without breaking a sweat, but all I could do was pathetically pound on it.
And it wasn’t just the door. I could feel something watching me from above, like it was deliberately observing what I would do. Clicking noises echoed from the surroundings, accompanied by faint moans. I didn’t need to see it to know how many survivors had already died here.
“You goddamn bastards…!”
At this point anger overpowered fear. I pointed my flashlight at the ceiling and scanned the area sharply. Several spiders were scuttling up to the second floor, their legs making that awful clicking sound.
I took a moment to steady my breathing. Killing the spiders could wait until after I found food. Charging in blindly was a bad idea. I didn’t have a single ally watching my back right now—no Noh Changhun, no Kang Siwoo, no Kim Yeonhua, no Lee Ayoung. So I had to swallow my rage first.
I clenched my teeth, jumped lightly in place a few times, and took deep breaths. It helped a little.
“Just wait until I find the bread in that store.”
My mind was made up. I was going to kill every zombie in this building. It was something I’d done often since I was a kid; there was no burden at all. Stepping on a spider that had flipped onto its back and crushing it—there was no hesitation in that. Dark or not, I wasn’t scared anymore. Whatever jumped out at me, one solid swing of the Beopbong would end it.
Without any more hesitation I checked my surroundings and moved toward the annex. I realized now that the annex had classrooms too. I’d thought the leftmost building held the classrooms, the middle one the teachers’ offices, and the annex was for special classes. I glanced down the corridor lined with classrooms, then turned away. The ceiling was covered in faint, lumpy shapes; no survivor could possibly be alive up there. I ran farther down to the store.
There was one piece of good news and one piece of bad news. The good news was that the store still had all its food and the door was unlocked. The bad news was that the door wasn’t the kind I could fit through. A window near the ceiling was open, but I was certain either my chest or my ass would get stuck. I had no desire to look ridiculous, so I carefully examined the interior and braced myself.
…!
With a loud clang the doorknob rattled. I didn’t hesitate—I kept smashing the Beopbong against it until the door finally gave way. Fortunately the inside was remarkably well preserved. I hadn’t expected the ice cream, but the rest of the snacks and bread looked perfectly edible. Whatever spider had claimed this place had been surprisingly thorough with its webbing.
“They’re all dead.”
With this much food I wouldn’t have any trouble fighting. No matter how many spiders there were, I could kill them all. Relieved, I stepped back out of the store and closed the door. There was more than enough inside to build a barricade, so once this was over I could rest here.
“…Huh?”
An ominous sound came from the cafeteria. The door burst open and a familiar face appeared.
“Grrraaa…!”
“Hun…ter!?”
I’d been on guard, so I managed to block the attack. But something was wrong. Humanoid zombies normally didn’t appear inside spider territory. That would be invading their domain. Without intelligent variants to coordinate them, the two groups didn’t cooperate. Intelligent variants wouldn’t waste their forces by sending hunters here.
“Graaa! Graaaaa…!”
The hunter charged like a lunatic, as if it couldn’t enter the store. That alone would have been manageable, but then a variant with arms thicker than my waist appeared. I knew this one. It was a Guard—a variant that used those massive arms to block attacks.
In an instant the situation turned ridiculous. Three hunters that had burst out of the cafeteria were harassing me while the Guard blocked the entrance so I couldn’t get inside. Something was definitely off. I had no idea what was in that cafeteria that made them act this way.
Still, I had to survive first. I moved quickly. The immediate priority was dealing with the hunter that had grabbed my arm from behind. I jumped backward repeatedly, slamming my back against the wall with all my strength. After a few solid hits the hunter finally tumbled to the floor.
While checking the spots where I’d been struck, I gripped the Beopbong properly. The hunters were agile, but they were no match for me. All they could do was scratch me hard enough to sting. I smashed every one of their heads, then kicked the Guard hard enough to knock it over inside.
And then I saw it.
“Ugh… uweeeek…!”
The cafeteria. All the tables and chairs had been cleared away. It had been turned into a human slaughterhouse.