Chapter Three
The Only Thing Stronger Than Hope
Everything was still, and all that Min could hear was breathing. Uneven heaves littered throughout the room, some rapid and mousy, others slow and deep. She scanned the room. They were rescued by a handful of Juniors, some of which she recognized. The nearest to them were a group of boys; Dae-su and Woo-jin, a heavier set boy with lonely eyes and a short kid with an air of maturity about him, set with a square jaw. Beside them, another boy-Junior. The one she noticed closest to the door when she first tried to get in, Gyeong-sue; she most remembered him smiling.
She couldn't get a more extensive read on the room before the teacher's voice interrupted the silence.
"Are you guys okay?" Kang paused as he received a consensus consisting of nods and shrugs throughout the group.
"Okay." He half turned towards the doorway. "Good. Alright, before anything else, let's get this door blocked."
New energy filled the space. The students moved with a sense of purpose, one incurred by a figure of authority. Something, someone, that aired sureness. A luxury in the middle of mass panic. It isn't deniable that there's some amount of reprieve from following rather than leading oneself, much less others. She understood why they did it, but Min's heart still sank as desks and chairs towered against the doors. She shuffled backwards, eyes cast towards the floor as she listened to the raising of the wall.
"Hey."
A voice, low and warm as always, poked through the void she'd thought she had wrapped herself in. She lifted her chin, eyes skimming along the tall boy's mussed hair before settling unsurprised in his serene gaze.
"Su-hyeok." She acknowledged, shoulders rolling back. What was she supposed to think?
"Are you okay?" He asked.
He couldn't have realized what he'd done. She didn't even really stop.
"Min-su."
Yet, she couldn't douse the flare of betrayal at his nonchalance, as if he hadn't left her to fend against a group of cannibals. Shut a door in her face!
"There's a bite mark on your arm!" A student's voice cut through the clattering of stacking furniture. Min's head snapped towards the voice, throat dry, followed by Su-hyeok. A pretty female student, I-sak, their hair in a messy bun and full, pink lips and… the shorter one, Nam On-jo. The one who'd spoken out, a leader among Juniors, she'd always thought. She didn't like how they clung to each other, hands gripping fistfuls of one another's sleeves; cowering before Kang.
"It's fine." He waved his hand. They knew.
"You're going to become one of those things!" I-saks voice cut in, and the entire classroom halted their activities, mouths agape and exchanging glances. She wondered if they were waiting for another command. A few words, an accusation, and Kang is subjected to the mercy of a young, scared jury. The brief sense of order is already unraveling.
"No, I'm not! How many times do I have to tell you!"
Min pressed her body to the counter behind her, heel hitting the wall while she wished she could just phase through.
"Tell them!"
The students' gazes slid towards her. Every one of them. She looked from one face to another, almost guilty that he'd offered the likes of her as a tone of authority. They expected her to carry it, she was supposed to, but… She'd only ever watched. The cabinets hugged her back, and she stuffed curled hands into her pockets, heat creeping into her palms. Jurisdiction had fallen to her, naturally, and yet she felt anything but in such a position. If the student's reaching shadows could come alive, she'd dive in, and gratefully allow the floor to drag her by her ankles into their abyss rather than stand the mounting weight of the waiting eyes before her.
"Are you listening? Tell them, now! We're-"
Min's heart staggered, and she blurted out, gasping. "Fine!"
Brows quirked, and a couple of the girls folded their arms over their chest. The soft thrum of heels against the ground and fingers tapping cloth turned Min's stomach. She cast her eyes to the tiled floor.
"All of us are fine. At the moment. So, let's just.. talk about it?"
Min contemplated, gaze burrowing into patterned specks in the floor before choosing her first inquiry, "How do we know that every bite guarantees that you.. become like… that?" Aggressive. Impervious to pain. Cannibalistic. Aside from all of that, they have to be out of their minds- attacking people they know.
A couple awkward seconds went by, everyone either unsure of how to respond or waiting on someone else to do it.
Dae-su finally obliged with a shrug of his shoulders. "Train to Busan."
Min blinked.
"... Like the movie." He continued, glancing towards the other students. "That's what Cheong-san said."
She scanned the pairs of feet standing in their lumpy circle, risking a raise of her eyes to meet that of the biggest in the room. His expression was confident, innocently proud, whilst hers pinched in careful skepticism, lips pursed.
"... They're zombies." Su-hyeok supplied from behind, leant against a standing cabinet.
"No, I.. I know the movie, I just-"
".. Why doesn't it work when I say it…" Dae-su grumbled. A shorter boy that sat on the desk next to him looped an arm around the dejected Junior's back to rub his shoulder.
"Ugh!" a voice groaned from across the classroom.
"This is taking too long!" they whined, stomping across the circle to stand in front of Min. The senior's eyes dropped to meet the annoyed gaze of a scrawny girl, red hair spilling over her shoulders and laying atop a pink woolen sweater. Everything about her was small; lips thin and screwed into a frown, cheeks sunken, and eyes like two almonds stuck on her face.
"We won't be fine! Just do something!"
"I am." Min replied. "I'm.. trying. What do you want to do?"
"Well- he can't stay." She said.
"… Okay. What are you going to do?"
The scrawny student squeezed her fists, nails digging into the woolen sleeves that stretched halfway past her hands. "You have to make him leave!"
"How dare you!" Kang interjected.
She spun around, hair flipping about and piling over one shoulder, "I-sak!"
"He.. is bitten." The pretty student said. She glanced towards her friend, who held onto I-sak's wrist, rubbing circles into her arm.
"But you don't think he'll turn…?" On-jo cast her eyes towards Min, suspicious herself. Her features were softer than the redhead's; nose down-turned and cheeks full, eyes as gentle as her coaxing voice.
What qualified her to answer such a question? Min herself had seen countless people change almost immediately after being bitten- the cafeteria had been a massacre, and yet there wasn't a single body on the floor by the time she'd escaped. When it's that contagious, the spread is…- And with no symptomatic period, a break in between infection and the final state of whatever this is, then how could anyone even receive treatment? Police will have to risk their lives wrangling dangerous lunatics before they can even think about rehabilitation. How many will die? Nothing's keeping the students outside within school grounds, what if-
"I think all she means is that we have to be sure." Su-hyeok's shoulder brushed Min's as he stepped forward to her left.
Min hummed, staring at the ground. She looked up, peering past the junior's heads to find Coach Kang, who had begun listening closely to their council.
"There has to be a way."
"Like what?" The tiny girl cocked her head, arms folding over her chest.
"The window." A smooth voice offered, drawing the attention of the gathering. Cheong-san, standing a couple of inches shorter than Su-hyeok, but with similarly square features and even eyes, pointed towards one of many windows lining the exterior wall. He was a thinker, calm and in the moment, regardless of the situation.
"You could sit in it." The boy craned his neck to face the coach. "If you start to turn, you'll fall or we can push you." As he spoke, the redheaded student rushed to the window and pulled it open, afterwards standing aside.
"That… makes sense." A plump girl in a pink and white sweatshirt piped up from the edge of their circle.
"That's crazy. How can all of you stand there, plotting to kill me- your teacher! When I came all this way for you!"
"It's.. It's just a few minutes." Min pleaded.
"Then why don't you? Go on. Wait for them to throw you out!"
The room was simmering, Kang's eyes boring into hers. It was such an intense gaze. A spike of terror gripped at her heart, and she felt that sickening sensation as intangible space clawed at her skin. It had almost devoured her in a single breath. Her stomach plummeted and sweat chilled her palms. Meanwhile, Juniors were backing away, putting desks between themselves and the coach. Several of the girls clustered near the open window, I-sak and her friend huddling a mere few feet away.
A single pulse reverberated through her chest. She looked down at herself- shaking. Why was she so small? Min's fingers trembled and her lips curled. Kang wasn't big either; if she'd just stand up straight, then she'd almost be at eye-level with him. She wouldn't dare, but she could at least muster a response.
"... I'm not the one who's bitten."
The world gave a pause. Some students gathered, rounding him towards the window with newfound courage. He didn't falter- so much as blink, even as a thin stream of blood dribbled from his nostrils.
"Shit."
"I think he's really infected." Woo-jin breathed, Dae-su shifting beside him as a dawn of realization settled over the classroom. It was as if it wasn't true until someone acknowledged it aloud.
"Should we-"
"I…" The others quieted as I-sak's voice spoke from behind the gym teacher.
"I think you need to leave." She said, Kang still hadn't moved. He, and the room, seemed to have fallen into a comatose.
The schoolgirl stepped closer, separating from a pleading On-jo. "You need to leave right now." She stated, more resolutely.
Everyone watched with bated breath. Min hovered on the balls of her feet, the memory of Kang's sweaty palm clamping over her mouth, passing through the forefront of her mind. How quickly he acted. Black eyes slid towards the open window and a whistle of air taunted her. He had had no trouble then, and she stood a head above most of the girl's here- including I-sak. She should…
"Sir.." Min exhaled, venturing forward one tentative step. Su-hyeok followed suit, saddling up next to her in a single stride. He tapped her wrist with two fingers, drawing her eyes up to find the corner of his gaze as it trained forward on Kang.
"Get out!" I-sak pressed, a shrill edge ebbing her voice.
Their hands clenched at their sides, although Min imagined it was a more nervous habit than out of frustration. Regardless, Min admired them. She stood tall, and exuded confidence, shamelessness, despite the bizarreness of the situation. No one could prepare for something like this. They just acted, and at the moment, it seemed as if no one else had the bravado to do it.
The persistent silence was maddening. The boys across the way rocked back and forth on their feet, patting their pants or clutching their palms, contemplating the scene before them. Nam-ra was remarkably still, eyes shifting evenly between the teacher and her classmate. Na-yeon bristled amidst the rest of the girls, orbs glossed over with brimming tears as she looked from their class president to Min. The scrawny girl knew something was wrong. They all had to by now, but it felt as if a single word would set fire to the very air they breathed.
Min couldn't stand it. "I-sak."
Kang drawled, eyes half-lidded, ready to explode. ".. Cock.. sucker…"
His head turned just enough to find I-sak standing in his peripheral vision, and that's when On-jo ran to her friend's aid. Min's mouth dried as the shorter girl hurriedly grabbed the nearest backpack and rushed forward, slamming it against his down-turned head.
One second, he didn't so much as flinch, and Su-hyeok leapt forward a few steps in anticipation. A moment more, and his body caved in on itself, shoulders and spine slouching before his knees gave altogether and he folded to the floor. Blood ran over his lips as he rolled onto his back, shoving the heel of his hand against his nostrils to staunch the welling nosebleed.
His gaze emptied into Min's- a deep red flooding the whites of his eyes, drowning the humanity inside.
A distant voice. "Min-su."
He flipped onto his stomach and everyone shrieked, horror blowing their eyes wide as a nauseating crack rattled Min's bones. The ends of his bangs brushed along his upper back, bone jutting out of the front of his throat, blood spurting forward, and all just so that she could still stare into his morphing eyes.
A shape bulged beneath his flesh, squirming against the confines of his skin. It nestled in the crook of his neck before crawling towards his cheek. His other limbs continued to abuse themselves, writhing and slamming against the floor, but the parasite captivated Min. It continued on to the nearest orifice, disappearing behind his left eye. A second went by and Kang seemed to relax.
Then his eye twitched, and stretched, swelling until it protruded from his socket. Min could've reached out and taken it between her fingers. Guttural groans erupted from his throat, choked by unimaginable agony as the center of his pupil bent inwards and his spine jutted in too sharp of an arch. Liquid dribbled from his socket as his eye sank further, deflating almost cartoonishly into his skull, leaving mangled tendrils of an eye dangling from the left side of his face.
A foot promptly found the ground. Students clumped together in different corners of the room and Min was suddenly trying to remember how to move. His sweaty palms pushed against the tile floor and the infected heaved himself upright, head lolling forward again, misshapen bone peeking from the edge of his throat. He whirled around on one foot, as if they had dragged him with a hook, and immediately, she marveled at the relief that seemed to have seeped into its features. Then it lurched in her direction, arms outstretched and jaws wide. His feral howl ripped through the air, a single cacophonous note of screams that bounced between the walls of her skull. His breath hit her cheek, a spray of saliva wetting her olive skin.
A single, bony hand grappled with a fistful of the borrowed jacket before another figure barreled into the coach from the side, the force spinning Min into the cabinet behind her.
She gaped as Su-hyeok wrestled with the coach for a few dire seconds. Although it looked as if he were scrambling, Min knew he moved with intent. It couldn't possibly think as a person. He couldn't predict what it'd do. The schoolboy pushed himself and the coach apart, scrambling to his feet. Su-hyeok's skin shined with perspiration and his fingers were clammy as they frantically pressed against her wrist. She wordlessly obeyed, shuffling along the counter until she stood directly behind him. The other students may have been saying something, shouting at them even, but she just couldn't focus on it.
Coach Kang hoisted himself to his feet again, exploding forward into Su-hyeoks front. The boy hurled him towards the floor and, before realizing what he was doing, Cheong-san sprinted over, brandishing a desk like a spear.
"What do we do!?" Woo-jin shouted.
Cheong-san thrusted the four legs of the desk against Kang's front, pinning him to the floor. He writhed, snarling, limbs flailing with disproportionately gigantic eyes fixated on the tall girl across the room. Gyeong-su sprinted to Cheong-san's side, bracing himself against the chair, the two of them standing shoulder to shoulder.
There was something that felt personal about the way he stayed transfixed on Min. Unblinking, ravenous, and just… anything but dead.
"Go, go!" Su-hyeok barely peeked through the window before throwing the door open. Everyone filed out into the hallway with Min bringing up the rear.
"Guys, come on!" Dae-su groaned, his head whipping from one side to the other, eyeing either end of the hallway. Every second was another foot covered by the approaching infected, who had to have heard the commotion. The corridor was empty for now, but it wouldn't stay that way. They'd passed classrooms brimming with the infected on the way here, but then again, they seemed unresponsive now. Something else must have drawn their attention.
Finally, Cheong-san and the other boy ran out of the classroom, the redhead taking off, the ends of her hair flying as she booked it towards the stairwell. No one moved for a moment, some reaching outwards and others clamping their lips shut to not call to her. Everyone held onto someone before racing to catch up with her. Meanwhile, Su-hyeok stumbled out of the classroom and slammed the door shut.
"Su-hyeok." Min started.
A sharp shriek erupted up ahead, and the group had come to an abrupt stop, students tumbling backwards into one another. Su-hyeok had already sprinted past her. Tailing him, the senior squeezed through the path he'd made as he shouldered between the rapidly back-pedaling students. Several infected eyed them, a count of 6, but Su-hyeok threw himself in their path. One by one, he handled the barrage of infected, using the surrounding walls and his momentum to ricochet towards their nearest assailant like a bullet off metal. He didn't waste a second, knocking them to the ground with swings of his fists and a coordinated sweep of his leg. The group gradually backed up as the numbers overwhelmed and Su-hyeok tired.
The boy was an athlete and disconcertingly gifted in fighting, undoubtedly their most capable. She knew he wasn't invincible, but what was more imminently important was that he'd fight anyways. That he'd stand in the line of fire. Min's hands closed around Na-yeon's woolen clad arm, yanking her to her feet as one of the rabid kids broke through the group's only defense.
Only for a moment, until Su-hyeok tackled it to the ground in front of them, and the infected mere feet away leered at his vulnerability. Their attackers regrouped, and a couple latched onto Su-hyeok, hands clamping on his legs and hips. Min shoved Na-yeon into whoever stood behind them, but she couldn't find a way closer as the tireless undead confronted the suddenly defenseless cluster.
As they charged, stumbling over Su-hyeoks thrashing feet, something rattled in Min's right ear. The girls parted as Cheong-san and Dae-su met their adversaries. With wooden framed panes of glass in hand, they fended against the advancing zombies. Meanwhile, the athlete writhing on the floor had twisted and turned until he could shove them off to the side. He regained his footing as the other schoolboys ripped small windows lining the wall to their right, joining the front lines.
A tattered wall of toothpicks at best, and although it allowed for a reprieve from their onslaught, the infected didn't waste a moment in piling against the barrier. They pushed and pounded against the blockade, reaching in between the gaps as they opened and closed during the struggle. It kept the undead at bay long enough for Dae-su to rip an entire door off of its hinges.
"Move!" He shouted. It barely fit the width of the hallway as he sprinted valiantly forward. She panted as they stared at one another, silently communicating the exact moment they needed to move so that no one fell through the cracks. When they stepped back, throwing their backs to the wall, he threw the door in front of him, single-handedly shielding the entire group. The boys quickly braced against the door, shoving back against the zombies as Min stared in a mix of horror and awe.
"Let's go! Girls!"
Their hero of the moment shouted, and everyone marched forward. With each flight of stairs, more of the dead fought against their door. They prayed for a traversable hall, but from what Min could tell by the welling sounds alone, their numbers were only increasing the further into the school they ventured. Each step was a risk of being surrounded, if not then gorged on by the sick.
Dae-su led the charge up yet another flight of stairs, the schoolgirls prepared to brace against the door with him whilst the rest of the boys shielded them from behind. Everyone hugged the wall as they sprinted upwards, panting and sweating profusely, the railings lining the stairway entangling numerous undead; their necks bent at odd angles, legs and arms dangling in between each barring. She couldn't imagine being caught, trapped, as you were being eaten alive. The hopelessness. The tips of her fingers caressed the front of her jacket, as if comforting the very pain that bit into her shoulder.
Someone gripped her other hand, and it wasn't Su-hyeok. It didn't matter, though, and their fingers intertwined, digits pressing into the back of her hand. In her peripheral vision, through the hair glued to her face, she could tell it was another one of the girls. Someone much shorter, a gentle face sporting a bob haircut. That was as far as she got before she heard Su-hyeok's voice tapering off with each step, echoing from below the stairwell, "Just go!"
Min's head whipped to the side in time to catch Cheong-san turning away from the stairs. She skidded to a halt, almost ripping the smaller girl backwards.
"H-hey. We have to go." She pleaded, eyes glistening as she tugged on Min's hand like a toddler would their mother. Their grasp was weak and slick, but holding on nonetheless. Underneath the girl's increasingly frantic murmurings, the dead snarled, and Min waited for them to begin stumbling up the steps.
"Please, come on!"
"Catch up." Min squeezed whoever's hand she held, still staring down the steps, "Quickly."
She wrenched herself free without another word and bound down the steps. She prayed and prayed, eyes burning, her throat closing in on itself. The nearer she drew to the bottom of the steps, the louder they sounded, frenzied and excited. And him, grunting in between dull thuds that were followed half a second later by more struggle. Her feet found flat ground as an infected student shoved Su-hyeok flush against a wall, a couple of other dead spasming on the floor. It may as well be a minefield, but there wasn't any choice. She dashed in between corpses as they regained their footing, swerving this way and that, leaning as far to the side as she could manage to avoid outstretched hands.
She grappled the crazed student's sweater vest, yanking them backwards. They twisted around in her grasp, pupils blown wide and gaping jaws snapping so vehemently that splits cracked through the crown of their teeth. Bloodied hands found her shoulders and ankle, an awful growl rumbling in her ear. It was almost akin to that of a purr grating against her skin. She thrashed and jostled her body, a migraine pulsating in the pit of her skull. Would she survive another bite? Another three? They'd rip her throat out and she'd die all the same, choking on her own blood. The life would drain from her eyes before it was replaced by the feverish hunger in that of the zombies. Spit speckled her helix, cool and slick and disgusting.
Then her vision was red, and wet, abstract reflections mirroring themselves amongst her tears, tessellations that expanded until she was staring through a vibrantly crimson-colored kaleidoscope. The undead was torn from her front and her hands were free. She threw her head into the side of the looney that grappled her from behind, her right elbow jutting upwards like a crack of lightning that struck the underside of their chin. The spare moment was enough for Su-hyeok to rip them away from her, tossing it behind him and against the railway. Teeth gnawed stubbornly through the leather of her shoe, jaws planted firmly around the heel of her foot. She wrenched her foot futilely against their mouth, eyes snapping upwards as rapid, discordant steps thundered down the hallway in front of them. Su-hyeok spun around, scrambling away from the first pair of infected to grab Min by the shoulders. With gritting teeth, he swung his leg and turned his torso, aiming a swift, powerful kick to the clenching jaws sawing against her heel. Teeth protruded from the leather, but she was free, and their fingers laced together to turn and sprint up the stairs after Su-hyeok's classmates. Drunken-like gaits echoed after them, pushing the two faster up the steps. They rounded the corner of the hallway that housed the science lab, only to skirt to a halt, horrified to find the corridor jam-packed from wall to wall with bloodthirsty highschool students.
"LIFE'S A BIT "- NOAHFINNCE