Ji Hyo elbowed Jong Kook in the ribs and looked up at him with a playful stare.

“Yah, what was that for?” he asked.

She shrugged and smiled. “It’s a beautiful day outside,” she said, “and all you’re doing is scowling.”

Jong Kook glanced around at the other Running Man members standing outside the YG Entertainment building that morning, waiting for filming to begin. Jae Suk and Suk Jin were quietly talking with the PDs, Haha and Gary were rubbing the sleep from their eyes, and Kwang Soo was staring mindlessly off in the distance. “No one else seems to be enjoying the day,” Jong Kook mumbled.

Ji Hyo briefly glanced at the others. “Aish, these men,” she said. “You only come alive when the cameras are on.” She watched as the cameramen finished setting up their gear. It seemed as if the crew was ready, but Jae Suk and Suk Jin were still talking with the PDs. Ji Hyo sighed. “I hope 2ne1 are the guests today. I need some more women around.”

“Really, Ji Hyo-yah?” Jong Kook smiled. “Remember Minzy last time? Miss Female Warrior?”

Ji Hyo winked at him. “I let her beat me,” she whispered.

“Ah, is that right?” He chuckled.

“Well, someone from the YG family is the guest,” Ji Hyo said. “Maybe PSY?”

“I hope it’s Big Bang. I miss my small-eyed brother.”

“Ai, you’re lucky the cameras aren’t on, Jong Kook-ah,” she said, teasing him. “Remember how Daesung’s fans got mad at you last time you said he has small eyes?”

“Yah, I have small eyes, too! It wasn’t an insult. Just our nickname on Family Outing. The small-eyed brothers.”

“I like your small eyes,” she said.

Jong Kook blushed. “Don’t tease me, Ji Hyo-yah.”

Ji Hyo smiled and looked away. “I’m not teasing,” she quietly said, her voice trailing off. She thought she noticed something odd in the distance, behind the busy staff huddled around the equipment… a lone man, just a silhouette in the sun, staggering down the middle of that empty street. He must’ve had too much soju, she thought. But the way he was walking, as if injured–

“Miss Mong!” Jae Suk called out.

Ji Hyo was startled from her thoughts.

Jae Suk laughed. “Want to do the honors?” He handed Ji Hyo the clapboard and gestured everyone into their places. Ji Hyo held the clapboard out to face the cameras and then snapped it closed to mark the start of the opening scene.

With the cameras now rolling, the PD in charge introduced the first mission. “As you can see,” he said, “we are here at the luxurious YG Entertainment building.”

The Running Man members all looked behind them, smiling and aaahing, as if they hadn’t noticed the building until then.

“Your first mission is to find the guests inside...” But the PD paused then, noticing that he had lost their attention. They were all staring off behind the crew toward the strange man who was slowly approaching them. The PD turned and yelled at the citizen. “Yah! This is a closed set!” He gestured for the FD, Dong Wan, to go over and see to the man, and then handed Ji Hyo the clapboard again.

“Take two!” she yelled.

The PD began again. “Today we are at the luxurious YG building…”

But Dong Wan came back running at that moment, his face full of fright. The cameramen and other staff members turned in the direction of the man and saw that two other citizens were now staggering behind the first. “What is happening?” they asked.

Jong Kook instinctively grabbed Ji Hyo’s arm, pushing her back somewhat as he tried to peer past the staff members to get a better look. The clouds blocked the sun at that moment, and without that blinding light, everyone saw the man clearly. They noticed the blood first. He seemed to be soaked in it, leaving a trail of red as he walked toward the group.

The Running Man members were confused, wondering if this was part of the mission.

“Horror special?” Jae Suk asked, letting out a hesitant laugh.

The others all let out a collective sigh. “Aish,” they said.

Dong Wan still wasn’t talking. He was on the ground, surrounded by some of the staff trying to calm him down. The other crew members were slowly starting to back up toward the building, abandoning their cameras as they joined the Running Man members.

“This isn’t planned?” Haha asked.

No one answered. They just watched as the bloody man got nearer.

Ji Hyo’s mong expression suddenly vanished. “Well, someone call someone!” she yelled, fumbling in her pocket for her phone. “He’s hurt!” She tried to dial the emergency line for the ambulance, 119, but the call didn’t seem to connect. She then tried 112, the number for the police, but still there was nothing. Each call just terminated. She looked down at the screen. No signal.  

Gary and Haha tried their phones, too, to no avail.

The one bloody man, first alone, then followed by two, was now joined by a few others that had made their way out of nearby alleys, all of them now surrounding the Running Man cast and crew.

The PD ushered everyone inside the building but the scene was chaotic. There were seven cast members and over twenty various crew members, from cameramen to cordis. Half of the group made their way inside, startling the two security guards in the lobby, but the tail end of the group was still outside the glass entrance doors, unable to push the crowd further inside and access the doors.  

Jong Kook, Ji Hyo, and the others tried to move farther inside to let the people caught in the doorway and those still outside come in, but the security guards were stopping them, bewildered by the scene.

And then they heard someone scream from outside. It sounded like Suk Jin. And then another scream was heard from outside, and soon the security guards dropped their vigilant stance and moved out of the way so that everyone could make it inside the building.

Kwang Soo, taller than everyone else, peered over the heads of the crowd toward the doors, which were finally closed. He saw a few of the crew members huddled around someone on the floor just inside the entranceway and nudged Jae Suk, who was standing beside him. “Hyung, I think something’s wrong,” Kwang Soo said.

Jae Suk was busy looking around, trying to take a headcount and make sure that everyone was there. “Where’s Suk Jin-ah?” Jae Suk asked.

He and Kwang Soo made their way through the crowd and saw Suk Jin sitting on the floor, holding his arm. Suk Jin’s VJ and Haha’s cordi were tending to the wound.

“He bit me!” Suk Jin yelled. “That crazy ahjussi bit me!” He revealed his arm to Kwang Soo, Jae Suk, and the others standing around him. It was a large, gaping wound, with clear bite marks from the ahjussi’s teeth. His VJ had taken off the bandana that he often wore on his head and was using that as a bandage, trying to tie it around Suk Jin’s arm. 

Jong Kook, Ji Hyo, Gary, and Haha soon joined the others standing around Suk Jin.

Haha’s cordi told them that she had seen it happen. “The man just growled,” she said. “And then he grabbed Suk Jin-ssi and…” She began to cry. “I heard him scream. And then I screamed.”

Haha put his arm around her and looked at the others, all of whom were searching each other’s faces in silence.

Gary tried his phone again.

“You getting a signal?” Jong Kook asked.

Gary shook his head.

The PD turned to Dong Wan, who was sitting quietly on the floor just outside of the crowd. “What did you see?” he asked.

Dong Wan looked up at him and slowly whispered, “Zooooooombie.”

Some of the crew laughed. And then one of them quietly said, “Daebak.”

“Daebak!?” Suk Jin said, still holding his arm. “Who said daebak!? If that was a zombie, I’m… I’m dead.” His face went white then. Sweat began to form at his hairline. “Oh my god,” he said. “I’m dead.”

Ji Hyo knelt beside him. “Yah! Don’t say such stupid things.”

But Suk Jin couldn’t hear her. All the faces around him became a blur. He felt himself losing consciousness. In a near whisper, he uttered, “Race… start?” And then his head fell against Ji Hyo’s arms.

She sat there, cradling him. “He’s okay,” she said to the others. “Just fainted.”

While the PD went over to talk with the two security guards, Jong Kook and Jae Suk lifted Suk Jin and brought him over to a chair, which he soon slumped in, still unconscious.

“What should we do?” Kwang Soo asked.

A loud pounding sound was then heard. The crowd inside parted, allowing everyone to see the glass doors and those that waited outside it. The bloody ahjussi who had bit Suk Jin, joined now by nearly ten others, were standing outside, and growling, their eyes glazed over, their skin yellowish and dotted with blood, their fists against the glass.

“,” Gary said.

And then a single scream was heard from inside the building, somewhere far from the Running Man cast and crew. Everyone’s face fell upon hearing the scream, realizing then that danger lurked not only outside the building, but inside as well.