By Zephyria 
The car crawled as slow as a turtle. As expected, the alley was a mess, and the grotesque Aberrants lurking here and there created a dreary atmosphere.
“I’ll stop here for a moment.”
Ha-jin quietly parked the car and turned off the engine. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and turned his head back.
The inside of the van was like a steam room. The heated breaths and body temperatures made the air hot like a sauna. It was all because Jeong Byeol, soaked in the rain, was shivering so much that they couldn’t even turn on the air conditioning.
“If we go straight for one more block, there’s a motel where Mi-so and I are staying. It’s a connecting room with connecting rooms, and we have the room keys. I’m thinking of going there first to make a plan.”
Park Chun-beom, who was wiping his fogged-up glasses, raised his hand and asked.
“Um, are we allowed to come with you?”
“I was just about to ask you that.”
Ha-jin turned his gaze, which had been directed backward, to the side. Eden was untying the rope, soaked with blood and rainwater, from his arm. Their eyes met.
“What are you going to do? Are you going to follow us? If you need to go catch another Transport plane, we can split up now.”
Even though he knew Eden didn’t have much of a choice, Ha-jin deliberately asked for his opinion. Just as he was about to observe his change in expression, Eden’s lips opened first.
“I’ll be in your care for a while.”
Ha-jin’s eyebrows twitched for a moment at the unexpectedly cool and easy answer. He was already in a position where he should be acting humble, but that stiff neck of his subtly provoked his temper. For a moment, he almost childishly brought up a zero-sum game like a psycho negotiating with his life.
The truth was, he only had one room, and the maximum capacity was five people, and there were currently six people in the vehicle, so one person would inevitably have to be left behind—a childish yet familiar revenge scenario floated around in his head.
“……”
Of course, it was all just in his head. Ha-jin, having finished his pathetic delusion, straightened his body again.
“Ahyo… Yeah, well.”
He answered vaguely, frowning as he looked beyond the cracked windshield.
The narrow alley was packed with tangled vehicles. If they hid themselves well between them, they could easily reach the motel.
Ha-jin, who was examining the movement patterns of the zombies, opened his mouth.
“Then let’s go.”
The motel was like a lonely island at the end of the alley, across the road. Because it was far from the entertainment district and the facilities were outdated, there weren’t many guests. The possibility of it being occupied by zombies? Close to zero.
Ha-jin followed behind Eden with trembling legs, holding a box of snacks. Like a string of beads, everyone hunched over and crossed the narrow road.
The three-story brown brick building, ‘Easy Motel,’ was right in front of them. The old-fashioned Myeongjo font was embedded in the yellow sign, maximizing the gloomy atmosphere.
“I, is this the right place? It looks more like an inn than a motel…”
Park Chun-beom, seemingly lacking in tact, whispered as he shared the snack box. Ha-jin didn’t answer, but vaguely raised the corners of his mouth in a smile.
Eden, who was walking in the lead, stopped at the entrance. He swept his stiff, drying bangs up his forehead and opened the glass door of ‘Easy Motel’ without hesitation.
The sensor lights flickered on, as if the electricity was working. Right in front was the elevator, and to the side was the reception window. Mi-so, who came in last, gently closed the glass door.
“Haa, haa…”
“Hoo…”
The group stood in a clumsy circle, taking a collective breath that had been constricted by tension. The elevator was stopped on the third floor.
While Ha-jin was peeking at the stairs, Eden looked inside the window. An old man with snow-white hair was lying face down on the floor. Blood formed a river near his head. With that amount, he probably wouldn’t be able to revive as a zombie.
Eden quickly scanned the area around the old man for useful items. Empty water bottles were scattered inside the open mini-refrigerator, and the wall shelves holding the instant rice boxes and room keys were all empty. There were no suitable tools to use as weapons.
‘Someone killed him.’
Eden, having quickly assessed the situation, turned his body and lowered his gaze to the floor. Footprints stained with the old man’s blood were imprinted countless times on the narrow hallway and stairs. The motel was already fully occupied by living humans, not zombies.
He arrived on the second floor via the stairs. The tightly closed guest rooms were mostly quiet, but occasionally the sound of the TV, the sound of showering, and whispering conversations echoed through the hallway. It was a sign that the electricity hadn’t been cut off yet and the water tank was still intact. In many ways, it was the perfect place to reorganize the situation.
“Here.”
Ha-jin, who had been looking around the hallway, stopped in front of the door labeled 201. Mi-so stood in front of the adjacent 202 and gestured to Byeol.
“Byeol, let’s wash up with Unni and then go over to the room with your uncles. Once we go inside, the rooms are connected, so it’s safe.”
“Okay. Sounds good.”
As Byeol nodded, Eden handed the child over to Mi-so’s hands as if entrusting him. Ha-jin, after confirming that Mi-so and the child had safely entered, then took out the key. The dark brown key with a square plastic card labeled 201 dangled in the air.
“What era is this… a key? I thought it would be a card key.”
Park Chun-beom asked, seemingly puzzled. He had imagined a hotel with all the trimmings, since it was a connecting room, but it was a motel no different from an inn, and it was a door that had to be opened with an old key.
Ha-jin smiled awkwardly, raising only the corners of his mouth again. He was newly embarrassed that he had booked a cheap accommodation because he had to pay for the venue rental fee, labor costs, and stage production costs for the magic show.
“It’s old, but it’s still relatively clean.”
He knew no one would be there, but he felt a sense of tension for no reason. While imagining the face of a zombie popping out like a spring, the door quietly opened. As he stepped into the dark room first, the sensor lights flickered on. His mouth tasted bitter with tension.
Fortunately, the room was quiet. Only the voice of Mi-so soothing the child could be heard beyond the door on the thin wall. The motel’s unique musty nicotine smell stimulated his nasal mucosa.
Ha-jin, who took off his stiff leather shoes, inserted the plastic card attached to the key into the wall. The lights inside turned on.
Inside the room, there was a double bed and a single bed, and across from them, there was a large mirror, a small TV, and a thin door connected to room 202. It was called a connecting room, but it was essentially a flimsy structure, no different from installing a partition in a large room.
Perhaps because it hadn’t been cleaned, the inside was no different from when Ha-jin had left the room. Eden, Jeffrey, and Park Chun-beom followed in after him.
[Oh, the inside is pretty decent?]
“It wouldn’t be bad if it weren’t for the red rose wallpaper.”
While the others were making their assessments, Ha-jin approached the brown suitcase that was spread wide open next to the double bed, under the small side table. A brief sense of relief crossed Ha-jin’s face as he faced the casual clothes and underwear to change into.
‘I’m alive.’
He wanted to quickly wash the body soaked with sweat and the smell of blood in cool water. It was the moment when Ha-jin hastily unbuttoned the front of his dress shirt and turned around with the clothes to change into.
“Ah.”
Surprised by the obstacle in front of him, he took a step back. Jeffrey and Park Chun-beom were desperately looking at the new clothes in Ha-jin’s hand with tearful eyes.
“Ha-jin, I’m sorry, but can we have just one set of clothes too…”
Awkward Korean also came out of Jeffrey’s mouth.
“My body, saving clothes, one.”
Ha-jin, who had sullenly accepted the anxious gazes of the men, turned his head. A mini-suitcase and a backpack placed on the single bed came into view. They were the luggage that Teaching Assistant Jin-woo and the youngest teaching assistant had brought.
“……”
The possibility of them coming back… He knew the probability was low, but Ha-jin somehow couldn’t carelessly touch the children’s luggage. After hesitating for a moment, he turned his gaze to the two white bathrobes hanging on the wall.
“First, you two should wash up and put those on. Let’s wait just one more day… If the friends who were sharing the room with us don’t come, then I’ll give you some clothes to change into.”
Park Chun-beom, who immediately understood Ha-jin’s words, nodded with a somewhat bitter face.
“I’m sorry for causing so much trouble.”
“No. It’s an unavoidable situation.”
He tried to speak as if it were nothing, but Ha-jin also couldn’t hide his complicated feelings. The face of his younger brother, Jun-seok, naturally came to mind behind the faces of the teaching assistants whose fates were unknown.
Is he hiding well? Is there a possibility that he fled to another place? Because of his words that he would come to save him, did he stay there and get into trouble for no reason? As various hypotheses sprang up like mushrooms after rain, his head throbbed.
Hoo. Ha-jin, who let out a short sigh, slowly moved his steps to the shower room. Jun-seok would be fine. He’s the type who can’t stand being sick, so he would have survived tenaciously somehow.
Even if it was a little late, he had to monitor the outside situation for the time being and find a way to safely cross over to Dragon Cloud City. He also had to find a new car, and if the roads were blocked, he had to find a way to move on foot with equipment…
Click. Ha-jin opened the bathroom door and placed the clothes on the toilet. It was as he was unfastening the remaining buttons and about to take off his dress shirt.
“You’re hot.”
Surprised by the sudden low-pitched voice, Ha-jin abruptly raised his head, which had been lowered.