Infected - Chapter 17



Only Noblemtl

Episode 16

“… It’s so quiet it’s scary.”

Young-man muttered.

Instead of answering, Jae-Jae and Beom-Sik focused their five senses on observing the reactions of those around them.

There isn’t a single one of those guys roaming around as if they were going to devour the entire city.

Where did you go?

Not a single sound of footsteps was heard as the three passed the cars lined up on either side.

All I could do was infer that the infected were staying there, from the occasional bloodstains scattered on the floor.

Blood stains soaked into the asphalt and scattered around, leaving behind a human shape.

It seemed like someone had been brutally murdered here.

Jae-jae frowned as he looked at the flesh mixed in between the blood stains.

No matter how many times I saw it, I couldn’t get used to it.

I couldn’t look at my finances any longer as they were making me feel sick.

At that moment, Beomsik stopped in his tracks after discovering something on the car door.

Jaejae and Yeongman, who saw the sight, came over and stood shoulder to shoulder.

It was a fingernail mark.

The paint on the car is peeling off so much that I think all my fingernails are probably gone.

How much pain must he have been in?

A stench wafted from below.

It was the smell of rotting parts of an unknown corpse.

The three of them continued walking silently without saying a word.

The area was so full of traces of death wherever I looked that I was left speechless.

As we passed the long flower beds that had been created as a shelter for patients and their guardians, the main building gradually began to reveal its grandeur.

A large roundabout was visible in front of the glass doors leading to the lobby.

Just a day ago, countless cars would have dropped people off and turned around.

There may have been a few staff members standing around the entrance to the lobby, either to help with luggage or to direct traffic.

Because people parked even in no-parking zones.

But of course, there was no one there now.

People who park wherever they want, and people who stop them.

Instead, a heavy silence settled over them, making it impossible for them to even cough freely.

Every single window in the main building was broken.

Jaejae, who was looking up at the gruesome sight, suddenly remembered the memories from the emergency room.

It was my first encounter with the terrifying infected.

I couldn’t forget them falling from the sky like rain.

They stood up again despite the shock of their arms and legs turning and their muscles bursting.

It would be nice to see such monsters or zombies in a movie at least once.

The appearance of the infected, more terrifying than any fiction, was deeply engraved in Jae-jae’s mind.

Finances were a mess in my head.

From what I heard from Beomsik, the infected people were medically dead, that is, dead.

Honestly, I never thought about it even once.

Is it even possible for a dead person to move?

They said it was a virus.

It was clearly a virus.

Viruses use humans as hosts.

That is, people must be alive.

From what I’ve heard, viruses can’t survive on dead bodies.

‘But how?’

I didn’t understand.

Even if you control the brain of a dead person, the heart doesn’t beat, so how can it move?

It was a ridiculous thing that went against the body’s mechanisms.

“chains?”

It was a time when my head was spinning with all sorts of complicated thoughts.

Beomsik arrived at the annex and muttered while looking at the tightly closed iron door.

As Beomsik had said, the main door handle of the annex was secured with an iron chain.

In the middle, there was a padlock bigger than a fist to prevent the chain from being removed. Whoever was doing it looked like they were quite scared.

Or maybe you had to lock something inside.

“But why is it locked outside?”

Rattling! Rattling!

Jae-jae, who had been shaking the chain with a puzzled look on his face, stopped.

The iron door that was shaken without a second thought made a very loud noise.

The area was filled with a stillness where not a single breeze blew.

As the rattling sound echoed through the surrounding walls and buildings, the three swallowed dry saliva and looked around cautiously.

“That noise is really loud.”

The nervous finances raised their voices in protest.

Then, Young-man, who was looking down at the lock, tilted his head.

“But that’s really strange. If you locked it from the outside, it means you were trying to keep someone from coming out from the inside… Don’t you know that it’s worse outside?”

“I think I have a rough idea.”

Beomsik said, covering the rising sun with his palm.

“When the first infected person appeared in the hospital, they probably tried to seal off the building somehow. That way, they wouldn’t be able to get out. They probably didn’t know that it was a bigger mess outside.”

“There must be people mixed up inside, so you locked the door?”

Finance asked with a face that said he couldn’t understand.

“Just think about it. When your limbs are being ripped off right before your eyes, how could you possibly have time to think about that? We were all too busy running away.”

“but.”

Jae-jae nodded as he remembered running from the emergency room to the building.

Maybe it was a natural thing to do.

A powerful infectious disease that I have never experienced before.

And the fear of death that comes at every moment.

In situations that we can never feel or encounter in our daily lives, humanity is bound to be obliterated.

Isn’t the act of helping something that requires even the slightest resistance?

The desire to live, the will to do anything to survive, is the instinct of all living things.

So, the lock that was locked from the outside could be seen as a trace that was more true to instinct.

Beomsik offered another opinion.

“Otherwise, someone might have locked it to protect people. The inspiration said this was the annex, right? Judging by the low floors, it doesn’t seem like there would be a ward. If only a few people were staying there, it would be understandable to lock it from the outside. If only someone would make a sacrifice.”

“Wait a minute, so that means there might not be any of those in here.”

Finance stood right up to the iron door and spoke with a face that looked like he was going to knock at any moment.

“That’s just my guess, I never said it was true.”

“We can at least check. If your daughter is in here and alive, and if someone locked the door to save the few people left in the annex.”

Finance’s gaze turned to Youngman.

The idea was to ask for consent.

Anyway, I came here to rescue Youngman’s daughter.

Young-man, who had been looking at the two people alternately, eventually nodded.

There was no other way.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

It was exactly three times.

The large, rough palm of Jae-ui’s hand slammed the thick iron door without mercy.

At that moment, the three people looked back at the same time.

The distinct sound of an infected person coming from somewhere.

It was a roar mixed with echoes, as if it was coming from a very far away place.

But I couldn’t tell the direction.

‘Where?’

Everyone looked around with the same thought.

“I’m not the only one who heard this, am I?”

When Beomsik asked in a mumbling tone, everyone answered without hesitation.

“I definitely heard that.”

“Me too. But I don’t think they can hear it from inside the hospital. If they were inside, they would have already gathered when I first shook the chain.”

That made sense.

Considering that he has extremely sensitive hearing, this was considered a very loud noise.

I cautiously guessed that the sound might have come from outside the hospital grounds.

What is certain is that there is considerable distance.

“Then let’s begin.”

Jae-jae, holding the hammer up, made several practice movements as if he was going to strike at any moment.

The two quickly looked around.

It’s true that I felt uneasy after hearing the voice of an infected person.

In addition, the silence was so deep that we could hear each other’s breathing.

I can hear breathing.

Has the noise of civilization ever been that loud?

Jae-jae, who had been hitting the lock with a hammer several times, suddenly stopped and wiped away the sweat.

Then, Beomsik, unable to overcome his impatience, asked in a complaining tone.

“why?”

“This feels strong.”

“If you’re going to do it, do it quickly.”

“No, why is it so quiet? Don’t you think it’s strange? Look around. If you hit this thing, it looks like it’ll break the glass and everything and jump down. You saw it too, in the emergency room.”

“If you were that close, you would have come out already. You said that just now. You were doing well, so why are you suddenly like this?”

Beomsik spoke as if he was being scolded.

But Finance was reluctant to step forward, perhaps because he felt uneasy about something.

What should I say, it’s the intuition of someone who has experienced misfortune.

Or should I say it’s a detective’s intuition?

But there was no way.

It was already a situation of no return.

The surrounding area was surrounded by a large hospital building, and the group standing in the middle of it might be about to encounter survivors.

Yeah, let’s just leave it at that.

Just thinking stupidly won’t solve anything or give you a solution.

Jae-ui’s two arms, clutching the hammer, rose high in a vertical line.

Then, without hesitation, he slammed down at full speed.

Kang!

It was a huge noise.

It was the loudest sound I’d heard since leaving the building.

Even though the group’s hearing was heightened because of those guys, it was really loud.

But it was already spilled milk.

If there were going to be infected people, they would have already appeared.

Kang! Kang!

The finances that had been hit three times in a row came to a halt.

The eyes of the two people standing behind moved uneasily.

Roar.

There were more than one or two.

A sound close to a cheer, probably from at least a few hundred people.

“You keep hitting! I can’t hear it from inside. You have to break it quickly!”

Beomsik’s voice struck Jaejae, who had been standing still, like a whip.

In the meantime, Young-man ran towards the main building as if trying to check something.

After a while, Youngman stops and looks at something.

It was an angle that was not visible to finance and common sense.

Young-man seemed to have discovered something as he took hesitant steps back.

Meanwhile, their shouts began to get closer and closer.

Then, Youngman’s thunderous scream could be heard through the howls of the monsters that were getting closer.

“Open up quickly! They’re coming!”

The hand of finance is getting more and more desperate as it closes the lock.

Kang! Kang!

But despite such desperate financial maneuvering, the lock did not break.

The lock didn’t budge, as if it were made of titanium.

‘Let’s change the method.’

Finance chose to break the chain.

As he hammered the hammer again, Beomsik’s eyes, who were looking back, grew wide as if they were going to pop out.

Shadows running behind Young-man, who was running from a distance, filling up the black space.

They were infected.

“Can’t it be faster?”

“Don’t complain! I’m doing my best!”

Kwajik!

Unlike the lock, which didn’t respond no matter how many times it was knocked, the chain broke after just two knocks.

“Okay! Go in!”

As soon as the door opened, Beomsik ran into the annex.

But here was the problem.

The infected were following close behind Young-man as he ran at full speed.

I could clearly see Young-man running towards me while looking back, and Jae-jae watching from the door.

If you let only Young-man in, you won’t be able to close this door.

Even now, we should have abandoned Youngman and closed the door.

Otherwise, those things will rush in like a storm and just cover the group.

but…….

Finances couldn’t do that.

The hand holding the door was so tense that the veins stood out.

Then, holding something, he stood blankly in the middle of the open door out of nowhere.

Then he shouted at the top of his lungs at Young-man, who was jumping in with all his might.

Beomsik, who went inside first, couldn’t understand what was being said.

Because the sounds were scattered and muffled, as if they were mumbling, due to the shouts of the infected.

“Get down!”

At the shout of finance, Youngman slid through the door.

Infected people