White Christmas (1)
Winter had come in a hurry.
And it was brutally, mercilessly cold. Every time the sharp, dry wind carried the unmistakable stench of the undead, the survivors could only tremble and stare up at the darkening sky.
They weren’t ready… not nearly ready for the long winter ahead, yet the temperature kept plummeting day after day and the daylight grew shorter and shorter. As the biting chill unique to the season of extinction deepened, it felt as though another heavy weight was being added to every survivor’s heart.
The four soldiers racing down the Sangju-Yeongcheon Expressway in a Santa Fe on the night of December 24th were no exception.
“Fucking weather’s a goddamn nightmare…”
The lieutenant in the passenger seat spat a curse and rubbed his face with both hands.
Screeech… thunk! Screeech… thunk!
The irritating scrape of the windshield wipers never stopped, yet visibility barely improved. The culprit was the heavy, wind-driven blizzard hammering down around them.
“Crank the wiper speed up. How the hell are we supposed to see anything like this?”
The lieutenant glared out the window with open irritation.
“Increasing wiper speed!”
The driver quickly repeated the order and flipped the switch.
Scree-scrape! Scree-scrape! Scree-scrape! Scree-scrape!
The rubber blades tore across the wet glass at a frantic new tempo. Even so, they could only see about fifty meters ahead. No matter how many fog lights and high beams they left blazing, the oppressive darkness of a road with no streetlights was impossible to shake.
The headlights carved through nothing but snow-covered asphalt and a swirling storm of white flakes. The entire world was so blindingly white that it was hard to tell where the road ended and abandoned cars began.
“Check the vehicles behind us. Make sure they’re still following.”
At the lieutenant’s command, the tense soldiers in the back seat immediately craned their necks out the windows.
“…They’re still with us.”
The soldier staring into the blizzard behind them answered. He wasn’t entirely certain. He’d simply seen bright headlights maintaining distance and assumed they were still there. In weather like this, counting the exact number of vehicles following in single file with the naked eye would require something more than human.
“Really?”
The lieutenant nodded. Just knowing the support force was still behind them brought a small measure of relief. At least for now… he could keep pretending to be calm in front of his men.
Squeeze.
After a quick glance at the driver, the lieutenant secretly reached down with his left hand and pressed hard on his trembling right wrist. It’s nothing. Just drop off the supplies and head straight back. No matter how many times he told himself that, the tension kept making his hands shake.
Having spent nearly all their time since the zombie outbreak last summer around Busan and Ulsan, venturing directly into the field like this was an extremely rare experience for them. They had engaged in only a handful of battles with the undead. That made it all the more terrifying. Even if this area had supposedly fallen outside the recent zombie migration routes.
Whiiiiiish—!
Through the slightly cracked window meant to prevent fogging, a bone-chilling gust tore into the vehicle. The lieutenant’s forehead had been ice-cold for a while now, and his temples throbbed continuously. By the time they finished the mission and returned to base, he’d probably be down with a proper fever.
“Goddamn it, why the hell has it been blizzarding like this all week? Can’t even get a helicopter up, so we’re stuck doing this shit. Yeongcheon wasn’t supposed to be like this…”
Thanks to his anger, the lieutenant had barely regained some composure. He cursed the weather in a deliberately tough voice. Delivering supplies to the outpost company at the “Factory” in Yeongcheon was normally the job of the ground transport unit. It definitely wasn’t his responsibility.
Because the cleared road was too narrow for armored vehicles, helicopters had always handled the task. A simple operation: a chopper would lift off from Gyeongju, drop the supplies, and return. But five straight days of relentless gale-force winds and heavy snow had dragged far too many people into this miserable ordeal.
Clunk! Scraaaape! Creeeeak!
The convoy of vehicles exiting the interchange slipped and fishtailed dangerously as they rounded the corner. Even with chains on, controlling the car on such an icy, snow-packed road was still difficult.
“Ugh!”
The driver, who had barely avoided the guardrail, was drenched in cold sweat despite the freezing air. Once they entered Yeongcheon proper, the usable road width had shrunk to less than two meters thanks to all the vehicles pushed to the sides. It felt like even the slightest lapse in concentration would shatter the side mirrors.
“Hold on… slow down.”
Their vehicle had just passed the Yeongcheon Fire Station when the lieutenant raised his left hand and leaned forward.
“…What the hell is that?”
The lieutenant narrowed his eyes and stared out the window. A bright yellow minivan was parked sideways, completely blocking the road just past the Sinmangjeong intersection—the junction leading toward Hoguk-ro and Yeonghwa-ro. Judging by the amount of snow piled on its roof and around the tires, it hadn’t been moved in the last day or two.
“Looks like a daycare shuttle bus, sir.”
The lieutenant snorted at the driver’s answer.
“I can see it’s a fucking daycare bus, you idiot. Why is it blocking the road? Stop the car and pull out the map. Is something like this marked in the notes?”
Screeeeech—!
The lead Santa Fe hit the brakes and stopped. The four SUVs behind it came to a halt one after another.
“Nothing marked in the notes, sir.”
The driver reported after shining a flashlight across the map. Clicking his tongue in annoyance, the lieutenant opened the door and stepped out.
“Absolutely… No Entry? …What the fuck is this?! These bastards have lost their goddamn minds. Who the hell is supposed to see this?”
Staring at the offending yellow minivan, the lieutenant spat another curse. The six crudely spray-painted characters reading —written in huge, sloppy black letters—finally shattered what remained of his patience.
And it wasn’t just one car parked sideways. They had tied it to the surrounding abandoned vehicles with rope, creating a makeshift barricade.
It had to be the work of the outpost company’s perimeter detail. The lieutenant kicked the side of the minivan as hard as he could with his combat boot. Seeing this mess on a road too narrow to turn around on made his blood boil.
“Goddamn ‘No Entry’ my ass! If you’re gonna block a road that other people worked hard to clear, you should’ve at least notified headquarters first! Then we could’ve taken a different route or found some other solution! I swear, there’s nothing but brain-dead idiots everywhere…”
His loud complaints trailed off. The people who had set this up out of caution probably never imagined that supplies would actually arrive by ground. After all, who in their right mind would drive all the way out here in times like these?
“Ugh, this is so fucking annoying! Hey, everyone out! Clear this shit! And keep security tight!”
The lieutenant waved sharply at the vehicles behind him, then pulled out a cigarette with a scowl.
Whiiiiiiish—!
The wind was so strong that his Zippo refused to light, blasting snow straight into his face. The weather really was a piece of shit.
“…Dismount! Dismount!”
The howling wind forced the soldiers in each vehicle to scream at one another just to communicate. Even then, anything more than twenty meters away became unintelligible.
“Signal’s completely dead here…”
He pulled out his phone again, hoping to reach whoever was in charge of this area, but his 2G device was useless. No matter how many times he tried, the antenna icon at the top of the screen remained covered by an X indicating no service.
“God… this snow better let up soon. How long is it gonna keep falling, for fuck’s sake.”
The lieutenant muttered to himself as he exhaled smoke. Thanks to this vicious blizzard, both wireless phones and radios in the area had become almost useless, dragging countless people into unnecessary hardship.
Arf—!
In the distance, a dog barked faintly. From the volume that managed to cut through the storm, it sounded like a pretty big one.
“Yeah, yeah, you’re having a rough time too. Perfect weather for strays to freeze to death.”
The lieutenant shook his head and climbed back into the passenger seat first. It was far too cold to stand outside directing the work like some role model.
I just want to go back…
A childish whine rose in the lieutenant’s mind. He wanted to spend the night in a warm, safe barracks instead of this miserable snowfield. But once an order was given, he had no choice. No commander would forgive a subordinate officer who turned back halfway just because he had a bad feeling.
“All aboard!”
After struggling for a long time to cut the ropes and push the minivan aside toward Yeonghwa-ro, the soldiers climbed back into their vehicles. The thick layers of snow now piled on their heads and shoulders perfectly represented the brutal conditions they faced today.
Vrrrrrm—!
The five vehicles slowly began moving again down the snow-covered road. Visibility was still terrible; all they could see was white. They had pushed another five hundred meters through the thick darkness when—
“Looks like there was a fire over there? It’s completely wrecked.”
The lieutenant glanced at the SK gas station on the right with a puzzled expression. The entire station building had been torn to shreds and burned pitch black, as if a massive explosion had occurred. Even the vehicles pushed to the roadside by heavy machinery were charred. Whatever happened, it must have been after autumn at the earliest.
“These bastards… What the hell have they been doing? Why would they blow up a perfectly good gas station?”
As the lieutenant grumbled, the left front wheel of the lead Santa Fe suddenly jolted, and the whole vehicle shook lightly.
Thud!
A sickening sensation traveled up through his rear. The startled lieutenant instinctively looked back, his voice trembling.
“Wh-what was that? What the hell did we just run over?”
“I-I’m not sure, sir! I thought it was just snow…”
The clearly flustered driver shook his head. But the vibration he had felt through the chassis had already told him he had done something horrible. That soft-then-crunching feeling, the size of it…
“…It was a human corpse, sir.”
The soldier in the back seat who had leaned out to look behind them reported it. Deep wrinkles carved across the lieutenant’s forehead.
“Human? You mean… a zombie?”
“That’s…”
The soldier couldn’t answer properly. The moment he saw the body, too many thoughts had flooded his mind at once.
The corpse, its waist horribly crushed, was already disappearing behind them. It wore a clean, undamaged high-bar helmet. Since its head wasn’t destroyed, it probably hadn’t been a zombie… But that wasn’t the important part. Zombie or not, why the hell was one of their own lying dead in a place like this…?
Crunch! Squish!
While he sat there with his mouth open, trying to reason it out, the vehicles behind them each rolled over the body in turn. There was no way to avoid it on such a narrow road.
“What the fuck? I asked you a question! Why the hell aren’t you answering? Was it a zombie corpse or not?!”
The lieutenant, who had twisted around in his seat to yell, was cut off by the driver’s urgent shout.
“L-Lieutenant! Up ahead… twelve o’clock…!”
“What now? These bastards are so damn jumpy—ugh!”
As the lieutenant turned forward while cursing, a deep groan escaped his lips. Thirty meters ahead, at the City Hall Five-way Intersection… a sight more horrific than anything he had ever witnessed stretched out before them.
Screeeeech—!
The driver slammed on the brakes, bringing the vehicle to a sudden halt. For a moment, silence filled the car.
“Haa…! Haa…!”
The lieutenant, breathing hard, only managed to speak after a long pause.
“What… the hell is this…”
No one answered. They were all completely overwhelmed by the nightmare unfolding in front of them.
Bodies hung in a long row from the traffic light’s horizontal bar that stretched across both lanes. All of them wore military uniforms. There were seven corpses in total.
That alone was horrific enough, but the real problem was how they were suspended. Every single one had their ankles bound and hung upside down. That meant… they had been killed very slowly, in a way far more painful than a simple hanging.
“…Those fucking animals! They tortured them? Why would they do this to people…?”
The lieutenant’s voice cracked as he looked at the central corpse, whose uniform jacket was wide open and nearly torn off. Multiple deep stab wounds covered its abdomen, and the blood that had poured from those gaping injuries had dried across its entire face. Of course, thanks to the crows, only about half the face remained.
And directly beneath them lay a pile of at least several dozen more corpses, forming a small mountain beneath a blanket of snow. Burned, hacked apart, soaked in blood… It looked exactly like one of those hellish paintings you’d see in a Buddhist temple.
Whiiiiiiish—!
A gust blew in from the northwest, setting all seven hanging corpses swinging in unison like pendulums.
“Ugh! Bleeegh—!”
The soldier in the back seat who had recognized the unit patches on the uniforms was the first to throw open the door and vomit. Following his lead, soldiers from the rear vehicles began piling out one after another to empty their stomachs.
“Urk! Uuurgh! Aaaargh!”
Soldiers who had been leaning on nearby car roofs to vomit suddenly screamed and fell backward in terror. The thick snow had hidden it at first, but now they saw corpses scattered everywhere—between the vehicles, all across the sidewalks.
“Ah, ah, ah—they’re our guys… They’re from our division… Our division’s men… Our division…”
The driver, who had recognized the patches on the bodies ahead, kept repeating the same words like a broken record, teeth chattering violently.
“Get a grip, you idiot! What the hell are you doing?!”
The lieutenant slapped the man hard across the cheek with a loud smack and roared.
“Back the car up! Reverse, you moron!”
The intersection was completely blocked by the mountain of corpses. They had to get out of here, even if it meant reversing. While it might be possible to slowly ram through the pile and push forward, the lieutenant had zero intention of doing so.
The outpost troops were already dead. Even if there were any survivors, it had nothing to do with him now. His mission was to deliver supplies, not to rescue friendly forces after a battle.
“We need to get back to base and report this immediately! Hurry! That way command can come up with some kind of countermeasure… Back up! Step on it!”
The lieutenant pounded on the dashboard, spewing long-winded excuses to justify his cowardly decision. But they were stuck in a position where they couldn’t move until the four vehicles behind them reversed out of the way first.
“All vehicles reverse! Back the cars up! Reverse! We’re retreating!”
The soldier in the back seat jumped out and began waving and shouting at the vehicles behind them to pull back. The lieutenant, his mind gone completely white with fear, screamed at the top of his lungs without realizing what a fatal mistake he was making.
“Tell them to speed it up! Goddamn it, these bastards think this is a joke?!”
Vrrrrrm—! Whiiiiine—!
The tires spun, kicking up clouds of snow that swirled wildly and obscured their vision. At that exact moment, a human-shaped figure charged toward the fifth vehicle—which had only managed to reverse about ten meters—with a tremendous roar.
Grrrrraaaaaah—!
＊＊＊
Dear readers, hello.
I’m truly sorry for making you wait so long.
I will do my best to repay your patience with a wonderful story, just like my friends have done.
Thank you always.
Box Office Compensation.