By Zephyria 
Thud, patter…! Only when the rotten foot came right up to his nose did the foul stench and damp footsteps pierce his eardrums.
“Crazy!”
The woman who had been stepping on Ha-jin’s back jumped down in fright. Ha-jin seized the opportunity to quickly get up and grab the pliers he had placed on the floor.
“Keeeeeek─!”
The Zombie lunged at him like a falling object, with only a few steps left. As its jaws opened wide, threatening to tear its lips to its ears, an abyss unfolded eerily before his eyes.
Ha-jin gripped the weapon tightly, recalling Eden’s dry lips as he lectured about the technique of killing Zombies.
‘If a Zombie is too close, hold the weapon you have vertically and stick it into its mouth. Aim for the roof of the mouth as if you’re hammering a nail into its brain, and just shove it in.’
Following the low voice echoing in his head, he boldly plunged the pliers into the Aberrant’s oral cavity. His wrist twisted excessively, causing a tingling sensation in his joints, but he firmly grabbed the Zombie’s rotten cheeks with one hand, trying to close its mouth, and pushed with all his might. Thwack…!
“Keck, ke-eck!”
The Aberrant thrashed, leaving sharp scratches on Ha-jin’s forearm, before losing strength and drooping. At the same time, the corpse tilted precariously and fell on top of him.
“Ugh!”
The woman shouted fiercely the moment he fell on his butt, crushed by the Zombie.
“Hey! Wake up and get up!”
Ha-jin pushed away the limp Zombie at the urgent gesture of her waving arm and hurriedly got up.
Patter…. Squeak, thud…!
The sound of the wooden stairs creaking and rubbing above his head rang out like a machine gun. The woman anxiously wiped her face, stained with dust and sweat, and gnawed on a curse.
“Shit, it doesn’t sound like just one or two…!”
“Let’s go down first.”
Ha-jin roughly wiped his blood-stained hands on his pants and sent the woman down the stairs first. Passing the mechanical equipment room on the 6th floor, she picked up a powder fire extinguisher placed in the corner.
“Are you going to go out to the first floor?”
“We have to go down.”
Ha-jin looked at the equipment room, tightly locked with a padlock, with regret and hurried on again. The two jumped down the stairs on the 5th floor. It was when the sound of the Zombies getting closer and closer made their breath catch in their throats.
The woman, who had been walking ahead, suddenly turned around with a terrified expression and ran back up the stairs.
“What’s wrong?”
“Shit! It’s breached below too!”
“Huh?!”
He quickly looked down and heard the loud howling of the Zombies along with a faint light. It seemed they had finally pushed away the iron door blocked with the sofa.
Thud─ Thud─
The Aberrants were closing in from all directions. The woman hugged the fire extinguisher in her arms tightly and let out a resentful scream.
“Damn it─! I don’t want to die like this!”
“Who’s dying…!”
Ha-jin took a deep breath, recalling the face of Eden, who had stayed in Korea with him. He still had things to do and people to meet. If he became Zombie food here, all his hard work would be in vain.
He wiped the sweat from his chin and raised his head. There was only one way to survive: the mechanical equipment room on the 6th floor that they had passed earlier. He strongly pulled the woman, who was leaning against the wall in a daze.
As he went up the stairs, a shocked sound stung the back of his head.
“What?! Are you crazy and want to die early?”
“We’re going to the mechanical equipment room on the 6th floor.”
“It was locked with a padlock!”
“We have to try something!”
The woman hiccuped loudly, seemingly surprised by his outburst. Ha-jin continued to lead her up the stairs, not caring. The high steps made the muscles in his thighs tense. His vision was blurry because he was sweating so much that he felt dizzy.
“Break the padlock with the fire extinguisher you’re holding now.”
“Th, then what about the Zombies?!”
“I’ll take care of that.”
He alone, not anyone else, could fight against the cruel and incomprehensible nightmare.
‘I’m sick of running away now.’
For some reason, at this moment, Ha-jin was reminded of the past eight years he had spent hiding behind the stage. Was this what they meant by a panoramic view of one’s life? As the regretful past replayed like an old film, his eyes stung and his throat tightened.
He pushed the woman towards the door of the equipment room as if throwing her. Just in time, a Zombie wearing a school uniform ran at them, revealing its torn chest. The arm, mashed like jelly, narrowly brushed Ha-jin’s neck.
“Kuh…!”
Twisting his body to barely avoid the attack, he plunged the pliers into the Zombie’s dangling eyeball. He squeezed out every last bit of strength he had, forcing it in until the veins on his forehead bulged. The Zombie, struggling with its mouth open at the desperate resistance, stopped moving like a doll with a dead battery when the pliers finally pierced its brain.
Ha-jin, who had barely managed to deal with one, used the corpse as a shield to block the Zombies that were rushing in after it. If the width of the stairs had been just a little wider, he would have been bitten long ago.
“Is the door almost open?!”
“Almost there!”
He couldn’t even open his eyes properly because sweat was pouring down his forehead. To make matters worse, the Zombies on the first floor were chasing them to their feet. It was truly a touch-and-go situation.
Eden’s broad back, which had always blocked his path, flickered before his eyes.
Bang! Bang─! With a few loud noises, the door finally opened. Just as he was about to fall backward, his shoulder was pulled sharply to the side. Ha-jin was sucked into the machine room as if falling, thanks to the woman’s hand.
Thud! At the same time as he was thrown to the floor, his upper body was forcibly raised once again.
“Block the door!”
The woman shouted and desperately blocked the iron door, just like she had on the first floor. Her slender body fluttered as if it would be thrown out at any moment due to the Zombies’ struggles. Ha-jin quickly went to stand beside her.
Unfortunately, there was no heavy leather sofa to block the door in the machine room, which had stopped working. It was impossible to overcome the rampage of more than ten Zombies with just the strength of two people. The two, who were straining their faces red, looked forward at the same time.
The frame of a mini Gyro Drop was visible in front of the machine control panel, which was covered with small buttons. The ride was installed inside the building, but the lower part and the top floor were designed to have a clear view of the outside, so if they went down the steel frame, they could go straight outside.
There was hope, but the problem was that they had to risk their lives. The moment they let go, they were likely to fall from a height of six floors and become disabled, or become food for the rushing Zombie horde.
The woman looked back at Ha-jin with a dazed expression, as if she had the same thought.
“It seems like the only way is to grab onto that and go down, gi! Ugh…!”
“H, can you do it? You said you have acrophobia, yo…!”
“Damn it, I don’t know! Being bitten by Zombies is scarier…!”
As they pondered, their strength gradually drained. A blue hand suddenly popped out through the hole in the doorknob, and the woman screamed and struck the Zombie’s hideous wrist. The flesh rotted so much that it festered and fell down.
“I, I can’t hold on any longer!”
“We’ll jump on the count of three!”
“Mommy!”
“One, two…!”
Even before he could shout three, the woman darted forward. It was the moment Ha-jin took a step after her. A voice calling his name loudly was heard from somewhere.
“…Ha-jin ssi─!… Do-ha….”
Ha-jin’s eyes widened as he immediately recognized Eden’s voice. He hurriedly clung to the steel frame, which was only a skeleton like the Eiffel Tower, and gathered his strength to shout as loudly as he could.
“Jeong Tae-geon ssi─! I’m here!!”
As he flailed his legs and wriggled down, the structure shook violently…! This was because the Zombies had thrown their bodies violently and clung to the ride. Some of those who lost their grip fell into the abyss below.
“Kaaack!”
“Keck! Kee-ik!”
Ha-jin squeezed his eyes shut as he watched the Zombies falling like rain.
At that moment, one Aberrant, bending its entire body, quickly came down and grabbed Ha-jin’s neck. He didn’t give in and grabbed the Zombie’s hair that was hanging in front of him and pulled it down with all his might. The Zombie, with its neck bent, screamed and fell.
The woman screamed, seemingly almost hit by the falling Zombie.
“I almost died!”
“I’m sorry!”
The woman, who said that being eaten by Zombies was scarier than acrophobia, was indeed crawling down without hesitation, stretching her arms and legs like a spider.
Ha-jin was truly dying as he tried to escape the building with his bare body without any protective gear. Every time his sweaty palms slipped, every time Zombies jumped in without fear and fell down, his heart raced as if it were sprinting.
“Keeeeeek─!”
At that moment, one Aberrant threatened Ha-jin, showing its maggot-infested eyeballs. He almost lost his footing at the nauseating visual, but he calmly swung the pliers and smashed its skull. The arm desperately holding onto the steel frame trembled.
“I’m here! I’m here!”
The woman shouted excitedly from below. Ha-jin’s eyelids widened as he lowered his gaze following the sound.
Two men on two red motorcycles were seen grinding the heads of the Zombies that had fallen to the ground with their wheels.