Even Zombies Have Fandoms

Chapter 90

Thump-

Clatter, thump-

‘What is that…?’

Drawn by the sound, Muyoung peered into the dark classroom and froze.

A strange movement like a roly-poly toy swaying back and forth repeatedly. He swallowed dryly, gripping the hose like a lifeline as instinctive dread washed over him. As he focused on the strange scene, the outlines gradually became clearer.

Thump- Thump-

“Kee… kieeek…”

Beyond the window frame, a zombie with both arms torn off was repeatedly banging its head against a desk.

“Urk.”

A stifled scream escaped his throat at the sight of something straight out of a horror movie.

‘Is-is that really a zombie?’

Having encountered it so suddenly, with his sense of smell completely overwhelmed by the mixture of rot and blood in the air, he tensed up like a small animal facing a predator.

After staring into the classroom for a moment, Muyoung slowly relaxed his tensed muscles. Though it took him an extra moment, he finally recognized the barricade piled high inside.

“Keeek… kik…”

And that raspy sound like air leaking. It confirmed that the entity inside was indeed a zombie that had put them in danger. He knew they had moved quite a distance, but he hadn’t expected to come all the way back to where they had first started fleeing.

‘I thought it was a ghost.’

Muyoung exhaled softly as he wiped the rainwater trickling down his jawline with the back of his hand. Then, realizing that the empty school and gloomy rainy weather created the perfect environment for ghosts to appear, he became frightened for an entirely different reason.

‘I-I should head back quickly.’

Not realizing that a creature more terrifying than any ghost was waiting for him, thoroughly angered, Muyoung carefully started moving again. He could leave the mobile phone here, but ideally, he wanted to find a place where zombies could enter all the way inside without any obstruction.

‘If they run and fall straight out the window, it’ll be easier for us to escape.’

In other words, he was planning to use this place only if he couldn’t find an open classroom.

He was anxious that the zombie might respond to his movement sounds and rush toward him. Despite moving with heightened awareness of the creature, the zombie continued to bang its head toward the corridor relentlessly.

‘I guess my sounds are being drowned out by the rain and the noisy zombies outside…’

Just as Muyoung was thinking how fortunate this was.

Splash- rip…

A faint but distinctly irregular sound caught his ear. It was a presence he hadn’t noticed until now, being so focused on placing each step safely to avoid slipping.

‘They are still gathering, just as I thought.’

Like wolves converging in response to a howling call for prey, it seemed the cries of the zombies in front of the science lab were attracting others nearby.

‘I need to divert their attention this way quickly.’

At this rate, the door would soon collapse under the zombies’ weight.

‘Fortunately, I started moving just in time.’

Given the time constraints, Muyoung decided to choose this location without delay if the next classroom was also closed. He took side steps one by one. However…

Tug.

Just as he began to pass the wall separating the classrooms, the taut hose tightened around his waist.

‘Not enough length.’

The coiled hose seemed to have fully extended with his last step. He tried pulling forward with force just in case, but it was nowhere near enough to reach the next classroom.

‘Should I go back…’

Perhaps out of disappointment at having to choose the second-best option, he sighed as the heavy raindrops pounding his head felt unusually burdensome. And then something caught his eye as he lowered his head: the hose wrapped around his waist.

A lifeline for his safety. But to Muyoung’s eyes now, it looked like nothing more than extra hose.

‘If I untie it and hold it in my hand, even if I can’t completely cross over, maybe I can at least reach with my hand or foot?’

He hesitated to untie the knot that had been tied multiple times, clearly feeling Seokjae’s concern, but just a little more—just a few more steps and he could confirm. It felt too disappointing to turn back now.

‘Since I’ve come this far, I should do as much as I can.’

Hadn’t Seokjae risked his life to protect him? He wanted to do the same.

Muyoung took deep breaths as he untied the hose from his waist. Whether because it was tied too tightly or because his hands were trembling, after several fumbling attempts, the unraveled hose appeared to have enough slack to reach the next classroom.

During this time, he thought he heard someone calling “Kang Muyoung!” from a distance… but it must have been the wind. Definitely.

After wrapping the hose around his hand several times to avoid dropping it, Muyoung continued his steps. But after just a few steps, he felt the hose tightening again.

‘…Just a little further and I’ll be there.’

Awkwardly positioned between the wall and window, Muyoung alternated glances between the hose wrapped around his hand and the remaining distance before embracing the wall corner and pipes while stretching his leg toward the window glass. He didn’t want to untie even what was wrapped around his hand, as that would worry the three others.

‘Why did I come all this way without knocking on windows to attract zombies?’

That reason couldn’t disappear. Well, it seemed half-erased already.

‘Still, I haven’t abandoned my last defense, so maybe they’ll give me some leniency…’

Tap-

Fortunately, his shoe touched the window.

‘Please, please…’

Praying inwardly, Muyoung urgently pushed the window sideways. Perhaps his desperation reached through—the window slid open smoothly as if oiled.

‘It’s opening!’

Muyoung smiled brightly as he flapped his legs more vigorously to push the window all the way open. Though he couldn’t see inside the classroom from his position, according to his memory, the only closed door on the lower floor was where that zombie was. So this place was surely open too.

With his wet fingers, Muyoung somehow managed to set the alarm to go off in one minute, then programmed it to repeat every five minutes. Now this phone would continuously attract zombies unless it was destroyed.

‘I better place it gently, or it might stop working if I just throw it…’

He leaned his body as far as possible, extending his arm until his fingertips trembled. And when the corner of the phone barely touched the windowsill, he gently tossed it inside.

Clack.

The faint sound of the phone hitting the floor reached his ears.

‘Done it!’

Muyoung immediately straightened his tilted body. Then he stepped backward to where he could stand stably, and as soon as he reached the next classroom, he hastily retied the hose around his waist. Though it was tied more loosely than when Seokjae had done it due to his urgency, he felt relieved to have his lifeline back.

‘Now let’s head back.’

After sighing with relief, Muyoung belatedly felt a gaze upon him and raised his head. At that moment, everything in front of his eyes turned white.

Flash-

Rumble…

It was because lightning struck almost simultaneously with the low rumble of thunder.

His head rang, but Muyoung didn’t even frown. All his attention was focused on the zombie with its head twisted grotesquely. The zombie’s face, crushed from banging against the desk, was pointed directly at him.

Muyoung exhaled with a trembling breath as the image of the zombie he had seen in that brief moment of lightning continued to flash in his mind like an afterimage.

“Hoo…”

He hadn’t noticed when looking at it from behind, but the zombie’s condition was severe. Its upper body had been torn apart, completely exposing its organs like an anatomy model in the science lab. Despite having seen countless zombies, this one’s state was horrifying.

Muyoung tightly closed and reopened his eyes, trying to erase the memory of unexpectedly confronting the organs hanging from the abdomen to the floor.

‘It just looked this way because it heard a sound.’

Zombies might recognize sounds made by their kind or specific cries through other objects, but they don’t recognize beings. Even if they did, they would quickly lose interest. They don’t respond to zombies wandering around.

So this zombie too was merely reacting to the sound of the phone dropping or the noise made while tying the hose.

‘It hasn’t discovered me. Don’t be scared.’

He thought he’d gotten used to it, but whether because he was alone for the first time in a while or because he was already frightened for various reasons, he seemed newly shocked.

Shudder-

Like a soaked dog, Muyoung shook his head to shake off the water and firmly gripped the windowsill while watching the zombie. He figured that since it had already sensed something and then heard thunder, it would run toward the window.

It would be safer to take care of it before leaving, rather than accidentally bumping into it while trying to flee hastily.

‘Right, get a grip and just turn your body well.’

It’s just chasing non-existent prey following sounds. It would simply charge straight toward the window, so this was an easy task of timing his dodge correctly.

No, it might not even come in his direction at all. Seeing how it was just twisting its neck, which dangled like fruit gnawed by mice, it seemed to have already concluded he was one of its kind. If it had mistaken him for a human, it wouldn’t be standing still like that.

‘As I thought, it was just looking because of the sound.’

Zombies are highly likely to run in the direction they’re facing. Muyoung slowly moved sideways to better avoid the zombie.

But perhaps due to fear, he felt as if the swaying head of the zombie was slowly turning toward him.

‘Must be my imagination… right?’

Somehow, a chill ran down his spine.