Northward (3)
“So what?”
The Witch crossed her arms with equal shamelessness, refusing to back down.
“Even if it’s half past four, we still have six whole hours! And we only need to pass three more subway stations to reach our destination. Can’t you even do that kind of simple math?”
“Agh, you idiot! It’s that we only have six hours left! Do you not have a brain?”
Unable to contain his frustration, the Sheriff burst out and jumped into the argument.
“If we can’t find a place to breathe or get food by then, we’ll have to spend the whole night starving on the subway tracks! In this goddamn freezing wind! One wrong move and we’re dead, you stupid bitch! And do you even realize this is all your fault? If you hadn’t butted in and Colonel Park had come like we planned… we wouldn’t be dealing with this shit!”
The Sheriff shoved his face right up to hers, spit flying as he yelled. The Witch shrank back, intimidated, and muttered under her breath.
“But… six hours should be long enough…”
“If six hours was enough, why the hell do you guys live holed up in Busan instead of Seoul? It’s because the place is crawling with zombies and you’re too scared to come! Fuck, who knows what could happen down here on the underground tracks? And even if we go outside, you think safe buildings are just gonna magically appear? We have to search for them one by one, fighting the whole damn time!”
After relentlessly cornering the Witch like he wanted to devour her, the Sheriff suddenly shook his head in exasperation and turned away.
“Ugh… Just forget it, Yubin. She’s too fucking stupid to be reasoned with. There really are people dumber than Samsik-i.”
The Sheriff, who had already turned on his headlamp, patted Yubin on the back as a signal to move. Neither Mingu nor Jinwoo tried to stop him.
Clank—! Clank—!
The four men and one large dog strode off into the dark tunnel, their footsteps crunching loudly over the gravel.
“Fucking shit! So annoying! I hate you! Fucking hate you!”
Left alone on the tracks, the Witch hurled her plastic bag to the ground and spewed curses. She looked exactly like a sulking child… but of course, no one turned back to look at her.
Step—! Step—!
The unrelenting footsteps continued, and the distance between them and the headlamp beams grew steadily wider. When the gap between her and Yubin’s group reached about fifteen meters, the Witch could no longer endure it and broke into a run.
“Wait! Go together!”
“Pick that up first!”
The Sheriff glanced back and pointed at the plastic bag she had thrown earlier.
“Huu… Damn it!”
Though she sighed as if it wounded her pride, the Witch eventually picked the bag back up and even collected the trash that had spilled onto the ground.
“Happy now? Are you satisfied?”
The Witch, who had quickly caught up, asked with a scowl.
“I don’t know what you’re saying, but let’s not make each other frown. We’re already tired enough.”
The Sheriff gave her a short reply before turning his gaze forward again. In a situation where simply dealing with zombies had everyone’s nerves stretched razor-thin, there was no room to indulge this insane woman’s tantrums. Besides, this person was… one of the top executives of Taeyang Group, the very organization that had thrown countless people to the zombies and abused them.
Step—! Step—!
How long had they been walking down the gentle downward slope of the tracks? The surroundings had become completely pitch black. The only things illuminating their path now were two headlamps and one flashlight.
They pressed forward, cutting through the thick, heavy air. Because the tunnel hadn’t been ventilated for the past several months, every step kicked up an enormous amount of dust. And that terrible stench… Even though they were only walking slowly, it occasionally triggered waves of nausea.
“Why… isn’t that gunman turning on his light? Wouldn’t it be better to walk with the light attached to his rifle on?”
The Witch, walking between the Sheriff and Yubin, pointed at Jinwoo and asked. She seemed bothered that the light mounted on his K-2 rifle was off. Knowing she would just repeat the same question if he didn’t answer, Yubin gave a brief reply.
“It’s insurance. In case one of the two lights up front goes out…”
“Then wouldn’t it be better to turn them all on from the beginning? Wouldn’t that be brighter?”
It was such an absurd question that he wondered if he really had to explain even this.
“If we leave them on, the batteries will die. …If you hate the dark so much, stay a little further back. And stop blocking the flashlight.”
When Yubin pulled her arm back, she stubbornly resisted and walked forward again. She hated being left at the very back, swallowed up by the darkness.
“When you think about it, this is actually pretty comfortable compared to before. In the past we used to keep stringing ropes behind us while we walked…”
As they continued along the tracks, memories from last summer resurfaced, and Yubin spoke to Jinwoo. Back when they relied entirely on the Sheriff’s brute strength, they had always moved with multiple layers of insurance, as if walking on thin ice. They would string ropes in one direction to possibly trip up pursuing zombies, and hang empty cans on them in case something attacked from behind…
Squeak—! Scrape—!
Rats startled by their footsteps could be seen darting deeper into the darkness along the tracks. Their shadows, cast by the headlamp beams, looked quite large.
“What the hell have they been eating to get this big? There shouldn’t be any food waste these days…”
The Sheriff, walking at the very front with Mingu, muttered in wonder. Jinwoo answered dryly.
“Corpses, probably.”
“Ugh, fuck… that’s disgusting…”
The Sheriff grimaced and spat on the ground. The moment he heard they were eating human corpses, an image of rats crawling out through rotten eye sockets flashed in his mind. He had seen more than enough horrific things to grow numb to them, but that mental image was truly grotesque and repulsive.
“Dead body?”
The word “corpse” immediately flipped a switch in the Witch, and she reacted instantly.
“Where? Where is it? I don’t like it… Haa…! Haa…!”
The memory of being trapped among zombie corpses must have resurfaced, because the Witch began trembling again.
“It’s this way… What station was that again?”
Yubin pointed ahead as he searched his memory. He recalled the subway cars that had been overturned and blocking the tracks on the way from Costco to Konkuk University Station. Those horrific cars filled with horribly mutilated corpses…
“I don’t wanna go. I don’t want to go that way… Dead body, disgusting. Hate it…”
The Witch, now in a light panic, grabbed Yubin’s arm with shaking hands. She looked like she might actually faint. Yubin raised a hand to calm her.
“We’re not going. We won’t be underground for long anyway, so calm down. We’ll get out before we run into any more bodies.”
“Liar…”
“That’s enough, seriously. Haa…”
Yubin suppressed his irritation and brushed the black dust clinging to his mask.
“The tracks have no ventilation, so breathing is difficult and it consumes a lot more stamina. You should calm down and focus only on your breathing. We’ll exit at the very next station.”
Probably… He added that part only in his mind. He hated this darkness and the air thick with rot as well, but if thousands of zombies were swarming outside the next station, they would have no choice but to push deeper underground whether they liked it or not.
“Hard to breathe… Air… not enough. Haa…! Haa…!”
A few minutes after passing the Konkuk University Station platform, the Witch began gasping for air and fumbling at her mask. Compared to her, even Newbie’s whining seemed mild. Yubin pulled her hand down so she wouldn’t remove the mask.
“It’s the same for everyone. Just endure it a little longer. We’re almost there.”
“Haa…! Haa…!”
The Witch continued breathing heavily and staggered along. At this point, it was hard to tell whether she was acting or if she had truly reached her mental and physical limits.
“They’re coming.”
About a minute later, Jinwoo, who had been staring ahead, gave a short warning.
“Really?”
Mingu turned to look at him with a curious smile. Nothing had appeared in the headlamp beams yet, but somehow the kid already knew… He had mentioned getting goosebumps when monsters approached, but Mingu had no idea how that worked.
“Don’t turn your head! When you do that the light swings everywhere!”
The Sheriff lightly smacked Mingu’s arm and grumbled. In perfect darkness like this, where countless pillar shadows already messed with their vision, the difference between one headlamp and two was enormous. Even so, the Sheriff stepped firmly into the center of the tracks to protect everyone.
Tap tap tap—! Tap tap tap tap—!
Soon after, footsteps echoed loudly from far ahead. It was hard to gauge the exact number because of the tunnel’s acoustics, but there were at least eight.
“He really can tell.”
The Sheriff, who had taken off his backpack and pushed it behind him, let out a small sound of admiration and gripped his hammer tightly. Mingu also set down his shield and bag on the left track, using a pillar as cover, then drew his machete.
“Yubin and I will light up the center.”
Jinwoo said as he turned on his headlamp. Yubin also raised his flashlight a little higher to secure the widest possible field of view.
Click—!
Jinwoo positioned the Witch right beside Yubin to secure her line of sight, then flipped off the safety on his K-2. No matter how reliable the Sheriff and Mingu were, he had no choice but to stay ready. They still had two stations to go before reaching the next proper subway stop, so firing his gun made him uneasy, but if his friends were in danger, he would pull the trigger without hesitation.
Groaaaaar—!
After waiting about twenty seconds, the zombies finally appeared, accompanied by their roars. There were ten of them charging forward. It wasn’t a major threat to a team anchored by Mingu and the Sheriff, but for ordinary people… it would have been an inescapable death sentence.
Tap tap tap tap tap—!
While the sound of their footsteps assaulted their ears, the huge shadows created by the flashlight beams flickered dramatically. The zombies swung their arms wildly as they closed the distance at full speed. At that horrifying sight, the Witch held her breath and clutched Yubin’s arm.
Thud—!
The plastic bag she dropped hit the floor and sent up a cloud of dust. At the same moment, the Sheriff struck first.
Whoosh—! Crack—!
The hammer’s iron head flew through the darkness and shattered the lead zombie’s ribs, launching its body backward.
Boom—!
The zombie with the crushed ribs bent in half at the waist and collided with the two zombies behind it, sending all three flying several meters before they crashed to the ground. Having bought enough distance and time with that single blow, the Sheriff reversed the hammer’s spin and brought it straight down onto the fourth zombie’s skull.
Crunch—!
The zombie’s head burst open and its neck snapped. Before it could even collapse forward, the Sheriff stepped in, retrieved his hammer, and kicked the fifth zombie square in the pelvis.
Thud—!
The zombie that had been sprinting at full speed staggered backward. The moment it hesitated and tried to regain its balance, the Sheriff’s full-swing hammer smashed directly into its face.
Crunch—!
Even after completely destroying the zombie’s face, the hammer still had momentum and continued its arc. The zombie’s flattened nose and forehead caused its neck to snap violently.
Crack—! Thud—!
While the zombie with the broken neck fell limply backward and slammed the back of its head on the ground, the sixth zombie charged at the Sheriff’s exposed shoulder with its mouth wide open.
Kraaaap—!
The long, drawn-out cry suddenly cut off. The Sheriff’s right hand had shot out and grabbed the creature’s jaw, shoving it upward.
Grind—!
The blocked zombie thrashed its clawed hands in frustration, trying to rake the Sheriff’s wrist.
Rip—!
The sound of the Gore-Tex jacket sleeve tearing rang out, but the Sheriff had already seized the zombie’s jaw tightly and hurled it toward the pillar on the left.
Bang—!
The zombie that had slammed the side of its head against the pillar tried to turn back toward the Sheriff, but the hammer was already flying toward it.
Crunch—! Crack—!
One impact to the forehead from the hammer, then another brutal smash to the back of the skull against the pillar from the force. In that brief moment, the sound of bones shattering twice shook everyone’s eardrums. The zombie whose head had been horrifically crushed staggered forward like a felled log, its dislodged eyeballs dangling.
Tap tap—!
Having finished off three zombies in the blink of an eye, the Sheriff charged toward the three he had thrown earlier.
Crack—!
The Sheriff’s hammer, swung at an angle, smashed the side of a staggering zombie’s head. Almost simultaneously, he took one step to the side, spun his body, and swung the hammer in the opposite direction.
Crunch—!
The left-side zombie that had been rushing him had both its neck and collarbone shattered, tilting at a grotesque angle.
“Does that… even make sense?”
Jinwoo, who had been watching the Sheriff’s movements closely, muttered in disbelief. Just swinging that heavy hammer with full power and immediately regaining balance was impressive enough, but the Sheriff was taking a single step and immediately launching a second swing in the opposite direction. That monstrous strength of his often defied common sense.
“You’re one to talk about things that don’t make sense.”
Yubin replied. Of course the Sheriff’s strength was incredible, but hearing that from the real monster who never missed a single shot made it hard to sympathize.
However, Jinwoo wasn’t the only one captivated by the Sheriff’s power.
“Amazing… He’s like Hercules… Oh my gosh!”
The Witch, who had been pinching Yubin’s arm in a death grip, couldn’t hide her sparkling-eyed admiration. She looked exactly like a woman in love.