“Jiwoo! Behind you!”

I turned quickly, the two-by-four in my hands immediately making contact with a sickening, but slightly squelchy, crack. The figure slumped to the ground after only a moment, but it was far from motionless as the arms were still flailing and reaching for my legs. Without hesitation, I brought the piece of wood down even harder, the sharp corner completely penetrating the exposed skull, causing the arms to finally fall limp.

I didn’t have a chance to relax or even catch my breath though because I could hear Haeun screaming, and I knew that if she didn’t get help and she didn’t shut up, we would all be stumbling around making those horrible noises by the time the sun set.

I watched my best friend from childhood, Seohyeon, take out another one with the large knife she had found in her family’s flat. I was always impressed with how close she allowed herself to get just so that she could knife those things in the face or the back of the skull.

When she looked up, she noticed my expression and nodded, not even needing me to say anything out loud. We both moved around the corner of the building to find Haeun pinned against the wall, just managing to hold one back, though it was gnashing its teeth only inches from her face.

With zero hesitation, Seohyeon moved quickly behind it and plunged her knife deep into its head while I watched her back, making sure no more crept up on us. Luckily, we were on a series of fairly small back streets, so even though we were still in the middle of Gangnam-gu, it didn’t seem to be too overrun.