THREE.

—

Won Woo was battling his fear as well as trust issues.

Instead of winning, he changed.

—

“Stay quiet. I’ll be there!”

Those were the last words Jin Joo said.

In the corner of the room, Won Woo hid under a desk and waited for her. However, it felt like an eternity, and much to his horror, she didn’t immediately show up as she said she would. He looked up at the open window and suddenly didn’t feel well. It was as if there were mad butterflies going on a rampage inside his stomach, making him feel dizzy and nauseous.

Won Woo was inwardly counting the seconds that passed until a very unpleasant and creepy feeling—a sense of foreboding that filled his head with the sole thought that something had gone really wrong—swept over him.

The uncertainty was too much for Won Woo to bear on his own. He couldn’t wait any longer. He couldn’t even hear and feel the signs of her presence. Then, when he was about to rise to his feet to peer through the window, a loud noise of an advancing horde of zombies suddenly came from outside the window and made his blood run cold. He staggered back and collapsed shakily onto the floor, pressing a hand to his mouth to stifle his own rising scream.

At any ing moment, those creatures could barge into the room crashing through the windows, and that thought alone was enough to make him lose his composure. Jin Joo had suddenly disappeared, so did the glimmer of hope.

“Where the hell has she gone to?”

“Is she okay?”

“Is it… probably... because of me?”

Won Woo inwardly questioned himself. Even in his aching head, the never-ending voices and echoes were venomous, filled with bitterness and self-condemnation. His worn-out body began to tremble as he recalled the heroic deeds of a girl who was technically a stranger to him.

Other than her name, department, and why she received much mockery and ridicule from the majority of students at the college, Won Woo knew nothing of her. On the other hand, she might know his name and greeted him a few times before, but casual conversations never existed between them. Even as a senior to a junior and vice versa.

Given that fact, she completely had no reason to save him. And sure enough, being saved by some random person right after he was betrayed big time in such an inescapably dire situation never crossed his mind too. But unexpectedly, they crossed paths when everything was screwed up in the blink of an eye and left him with nothing but despair and emptiness.

Jin Joo—who was a complete stranger to him—came to save his life undauntedly and unhesitatingly when his friend, and even his lover, tragically turned into heartless strangers right before his eyes. And now, Won Woo—who always had some trust issues with strangers since the day his naivety was torn down by the ugliest sides of humans—felt so confused, scared, and guilty as his world was turned upside down. Once again.

“Why did she help me?”

“Why did I let her help me at the cost of her own life?”

Won Woo closed his eyes and forced back the tears encroaching on them. A low, yet painful thud was heard as he carelessly leaned back against the wall and the back of his head hit it.

In the unbroken darkness, he began to lose all sense of himself, then the sense of time. Then, he thought he was hallucinating. Muffled sobbing could be heard across the unknown room, very near, and it took a while for him to finally realize that he wasn’t the one who made the woeful sound. And that his mind wasn’t playing tricks on him.

His eyes snapped back open when he suddenly felt another presence inside the room that was thought to be unoccupied. He swallowed nervous gulps, looking for the primary source of the faint sobs.

At the other corner of the room across from him, Won Woo found it.

A female student had been sitting there on her own all this time, her arms wrapped around her folded legs, hugging her shaking body into a tight ball. In the dense shade of a tall cupboard next to her, she almost went unnoticed. If it wasn’t because of the sound of her cry, he probably would never know she was there. And now she was staring at him, her terrified eyes haunting him all of a sudden.

Won Woo didn’t know what to say to calm her down. He was powerless, silently hating himself. And in fact, he couldn’t, and shouldn’t, make any sound either. He apologetically returned her look with nothing that could reassure her, but also signaled her not to make any sudden move or noise that could attract the dead.

Prolonged eye contact between them then made them realize that they were both trapped with no way out. That they were doomed to die a lingering death likely from helplessness and starvation. So what was actually the point of staying quiet and hiding?

Much to their shock, the door then suddenly rattled in its frame as it was repeatedly slammed hard by something. But it was too easy to guess what was happening out there.

A while ago, the corridor was dead quiet. Dead calm. Until the ear-splitting sounds of the living ones screaming for help broke the stillness of the area. Won Woo and the unnamed girl looked at each other again in silent panic, and both knew that they could do nothing to prevent and stop whatever was taking place out there.

Horrifying growls and roars of berserk zombies were mixed with human shouts, followed by bone-cracking thuds, silenced cries, and other frightening sounds. Glass shattered. Hard objects collided with one another. Limbs were broken. Bodies were ripped apart. Squelchy sounds of rotten teeth sinking into warm and bloody flesh echoed through the corridor and crept into the room where Won Woo and the girl were.

It was completely unimaginable chaos out there. And now, someone was fighting for their life right on the other side of the door. But to no avail. They were crying and shrieking hysterically over their indescribable pain and their life being devoured. Hitting and clawing at the door causing it to rattle hard. Leaving bloody prints on the glass panel at the upper part of the door.

Won Woo shifted his gaze and his chest tightened with apprehension as he saw how ing scared the girl looked. She was clamping a hand over , shaking hard, her face wet with tears streaming out of her eyes. And somehow he got a feeling that she was about to let out a loud scream. No, she mustn’t scream. Not here. Not now. Just one sound and the door would burst open.

“Sssh.” He looked at her and put his finger over his lips, gesturing to her to keep quiet.

The girl turned her face and looked back at him. As their eyes were locked again, she then saw him shaking his head slowly with his hand outstretched in mid-air. She realized she almost made a grave mistake, so she nodded and put both hands now over to remind herself not to make a single sound.

Next, the door stopped rattling.

A series of very loud clanks was coming from somewhere all of a sudden, like metal repeatedly hitting against metal, attracting the zombies. With the fact that there were no more living beings in their field of vision to be attacked and bitten, those ferocious and extremely agile corpses immediately reacted and ran after the unlucky souls that might have unintentionally caused the noise, now followed by the newly transformed ones that rose again from the dead to spread the terror.

Lots of footsteps at a quickened pace then reverberated through the corridor, moving toward the source of the noise that was likely coming from the other end of the corridor.

The one who was killed at the door had also risen. The irreversible transformation made the door rattle hard once again, scaring those two who were hiding inside the room witless. Now a monster, it let out a creepy inhuman groan following its awakening, and it instantly joined the old horde of zombies to find and brutally end the next lives. These creatures left quickly like a strong breeze, and soon, the menace and horror from their presence faded away.

And then there was silence.

A dead silence.

Won Woo and the girl looked at each other again, communicating the relief through their expressions. A small, nervous smile managed to grow on her face. But it only lasted for a fleeting moment. The eerie sound of the doorknob suddenly rotating tore down whatever positive feeling that was forming in their hearts in an instant.