By Zephyria 
“Over here!” I think this place is okay.”
Park Chun-beom, who had quickly run to the pharmacy, called the group together. The shutters were tightly closed. Jeffrey, using a hammer, broke the lock and pushed the iron door upwards. Kugugung—the sound echoed quite loudly, and zombies began to pour out from every corner of the alley.
While Jeffrey and Mi-so teamed up to deal with the zombies one by one, the rest of the group entered the darkened pharmacy in succession. Jeffrey, after snapping the neck of the last zombie, forcefully pulled the iron door down and locked it.
Meanwhile, Ha-jin groped along the wall, searching for the light switch. Click, the lights turned on, and the surroundings brightened. Fortunately, the electricity hadn’t been cut off.
Ha-jin first took out his phone, which had been useless due to being discharged, and plugged it in to charge. Following his lead, the others sat down one by one and connected their smartphones to chargers. They had to desperately charge their batteries, as there was no telling when the network would be reconnected.
The pharmacy was quite large. It was tidy and well-organized, as if no one had visited since the outbreak. Eden set Lee Chang-yeol down near the door, almost throwing him, and held the axe blade up to him.
“Let’s take a look at your wound.”
“It’s on my knee, so the pants leg won’t go up that far.”
“I’ll just tear it, then.”
“Well, even so, tearing the uniform is a bit…”
As excuses continued to be added hesitantly, Eden, with his brow furrowed, retorted in a voice that barely suppressed his annoyance.
“Then pull your pants down.”
At Eden’s demand, Lee Chang-yeol’s already pale face turned even paler.
“I’ll take care of Byeol.”
Mi-so, sensing the situation, led Byeol into the pharmacy’s storage room. Eden gestured towards Lee Chang-yeol again, as if to tell him to proceed. Hesitating, Lee Chang-yeol unbuckled his pants. Only then did Ha-jin, Jeffrey, and Park Chun-beom watch his leg with tense gazes.
Lee Chang-yeol couldn’t hide his humiliated expression, biting his lower lip as he pulled his pants down to his ankles in one motion.
“……”
His wound was quite deep, deeper than they had thought. The kneecap was clearly visible. However, no specific marks were visible above the blood-soaked knee.
“Was there any other contact with zombies?”
At Eden’s sharp question, asked to confirm, Lee Chang-yeol stammered with lips that had turned even more blue than before.
“…There was, there was, but I don’t think I was bitten. I was out of it, but I’m pretty sure I smashed its head right away…”
“Haa.”
Eden, casually dropping the backpack he had been carrying onto the floor, swept back his falling bangs. After briefly looking around, he unhesitatingly grabbed a bottle of sterile saline solution. Then, he sat Lee Chang-yeol, who was standing awkwardly with his pants down, on the floor.
In a normal battlefield, the first step would have been to stop the bleeding to prevent further blood loss, but in the current situation, identifying the cause of the wound was more urgent.
“It’s going to hurt a lot.”
He said as a warning, then turned his head to look at Jeffrey. Jeffrey, letting out a soft sigh, grabbed a short-sleeved t-shirt from his backpack and approached Lee Chang-yeol.
“Try to hold in the sound as much as possible.”
No sooner had Eden finished speaking than Jeffrey ruthlessly shoved the folded t-shirt into Lee Chang-yeol’s mouth. The cap was removed from the saline solution, and it poured onto Lee Chang-yeol’s knee with a trickling sound.
“Kkeueueueuk—!!!”
The wound must have been quite deep, as Lee Chang-yeol’s eyes rolled back into his head.
Park Chun-beom, as if finding it too painful to watch, pressed his forehead against Ha-jin’s back and groaned.
Eden, holding down Lee Chang-yeol’s flailing shoulders with his left hand, poured more of the remaining saline solution. As the blood washed away, the hidden wound was fully revealed.
“Kkeueuk!”
“……”
Jeffrey kept tilting his head, trying to see Lee Chang-yeol’s knee, which was obscured by Eden’s upper body.
[What is it? What happened? Was he bitten? No?]
Lee Chang-yeol, his hands trembling, spat out the t-shirt he had been holding in his mouth. Tears streamed down his cheeks, showing how painful it was.
Eden, without hesitation, pulled Lee Chang-yeol’s pants back up to his waist, almost laying him down on the floor in the process.
“Aaaargh!! Shit!!”
Lee Chang-yeol couldn’t help but scream as the fabric brushed against the wound.
“Go inside and rest, and I’ll find the necessary medicine and treat you.”
Eden grabbed Lee Chang-yeol’s arm and draped it over his shoulder. Lee Chang-yeol, looking resentful and aggrieved, reluctantly limped along with him. Meanwhile, Ha-jin stood blankly, staring intently at Lee Chang-yeol’s face.
“Do Ha-jin, please bring Byeol and Yun Mi-so out of the storage room.”
Despite Eden’s request, Ha-jin didn’t respond, only looking at Lee Chang-yeol with wavering eyes.
‘His eyes….’
Lee Chang-yeol’s pupils were gradually turning silver-gray.
“Do Ha-jin.”
Ha-jin, who had been unable to take his eyes off him, finally snapped out of it when his name was called again.
“Ah.”
Ha-jin hurriedly ran to the storage room and called Mi-so and Byeol out.
Mi-so, who came out immediately, asked with a bewildered expression.
“What’s wrong? Is he okay?”
Eden quickly pushed Lee Chang-yeol into the emptied storage room. Lee Chang-yeol, leaning against a brown box, panted and hung his head.
“Ugh….”
“Wait here.”
Eden’s hand, about to close the door, was blocked by someone. He raised his head and saw Do Ha-jin, with a distorted face, looking inside the storage room.
“Just a moment.”
“It’s dangerous.”
Eden whispered, telling him to step back.
“Chang-yeol.”
Ha-jin stubbornly squeezed past the closing door and grabbed Lee Chang-yeol’s shoulder. He was panting heavily, his chest rising and falling rapidly.
“It’ll be okay. Don’t be too scared.”
Ha-jin comforted Lee Chang-yeol, who could turn at any moment, and pulled up his awkwardly lowered pants, even fastening the buckle. Ha-jin’s hands, trying to preserve his last dignity, trembled slightly.
“Thirsty… give me water… water….”
“Okay, I will.”
“I’m going to be okay, r-right?”
“Yes, everything will be alright.”
Drip, drip…. A stream of blood finally flowed down Lee Chang-yeol’s uniform pants.
“Shit, it hurts…. It hurts….”
Eden irritably grabbed Ha-jin’s shoulder, who showed no sign of coming out.
“Come out now. It’s too dangerous.”
His body, roughly turned around, was pushed out weakly. Thud! The door closed. Eden, without hesitation, turned the lock on the storage room door.
Lee Chang-yeol’s muttering could be heard from beyond the door.
“Kkeueueueuk… what, why… lock the door….”
Eden, after running a hand over his face, looked at the faces of the group, who were demanding an explanation, and opened his mouth.
“He’s infected.”
Shock slowly spread over the faces of those who had been thinking, ‘No way.’ Everyone was speechless, as if they had become mutes. Ha-jin, with a gloomy expression, bit his lower lip. As he said, Lee Chang-yeol was turning into a zombie.
Only Eden had a nonchalant expression, as if he had nothing to do with this situation. He checked his wristwatch as a habit. The man had been bitten by a zombie about 15 minutes ago.
“Open it…! Open it!!! Shit, you said you’d… Kkeueueuk, treat me—!!”
Even compared to others who had turned immediately after being bitten by a zombie, he had lasted quite a long time.
Could it be that the time varied depending on the severity of the wound? The zombie’s bite mark clearly embedded in Lee Chang-yeol’s knee was no more than 2cm wide, and the width itself was not long compared to how deeply it was imprinted. It seemed that his claim of hitting a rock was true, as the bleeding was occurring from a different wound, not the bite mark.
“Open it, shit, open… you said you’d… treat… me… Kkeuk….”
The man, who had been banging on the door as if to break it down, suddenly began to mix in animalistic cries.
“Kkeudeueuk… Kiieek….”
Eden checked the time again. Considering the margin of error, he came to the conclusion that if the wound in the bitten area was not severe, or depending on the individual’s biological capabilities, they could last up to about 20 minutes.
While he was grasping the approximate process and time of zombification, Ha-jin slumped to the floor with a gloomy expression. Following Ha-jin, Park Chun-beom also knelt down.
Eden, scanning the faces of the agitated group in turn, said in a dry voice.
“The storage room door is locked, so try not to touch it, and we’re just going to grab the medicine we were aiming for and leave.”
“We should have cut off his leg, at least up to the wound.”
Mi-so, who had been pacing around, offered her opinion. Even though she knew it was already too late, she suggested another possibility that they hadn’t tried, as if out of lingering regret.
“It wasn’t just the ankle, it was above the knee. It wouldn’t have been easy, and even if we did cut off his leg, it would be worse than death in this environment. There’s no one to constantly take care of the wound, either.”
As expected, a realistic answer came back. Mi-so, letting out a deep sigh, asked an additional question.
“It seems pointless to go to the police station now, so where should we reset our destination?”
“Let’s go straight north. If it’s okay, stopping by the police station wouldn’t be bad either. I don’t know if there are any surviving personnel, though.”
Eden took out the portable compass he had put in his pocket and checked the direction. Then, he turned a fierce gaze towards Ha-jin, who was sitting quietly on the floor.
“Do Ha-jin.”
“……”
“That reckless behavior from earlier is enough for this one time. It’s not like the situation will change by comforting someone who’s already gone.”
“……”
“You could have been bitten, you know.”
Eden, who had been holding back his anger, seemed to find it absurd the more he thought about it, and finally ended with informal speech.
After a moment of silence, Ha-jin slowly raised his head, which had been lowered. The area around his eyes was red.
“I think I told you that I’m not such a nice person.”
He answered with a sigh, then lightly tossed an object he had put in his pocket at Eden’s feet.
It was a navy blue leather key holder, about the size of two fingers.