"monster." | yoon gwi-nam

𝟹. 𝚃𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑𝚝𝚜 𝙳𝚞𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝙰 𝚉𝚘𝚖𝚋𝚒𝚎 𝙰𝚙𝚘𝚌𝚊𝚕𝚢𝚙𝚜𝚎

"-Holy shit!"

You were pulled out of your thoughts by numerous students bumping into and tackling you. You shook your head, silently cursing yourself as you did one of the stupidest things imaginable in the face of danger. Having flashbacks.

You crawled slowly under a table to take cover from the students pushing each other around. The sprinklers being turned on made it so much worse, so you took this opportunity to get your head in the game. You needed a survival plan, but then you remembered you weren't alone.

"On-jo!" Damn, and to think I was actually lecturing Gwi-nam a few years ago about this.

"On-jo, get up!" You screamed at her, watching as the zombie growled at her. Thank God Cheong-san was there, because right before you even had the chance to kick that sucker's teeth in, you were tackled by another one. The shock was soon replaced by utter disgust as blood and, what you wish wasn't pus, came dripping down your face. You desperately patted the floor next to you to find something, anything, and then finally grabbing a tray, smacking that bitch of a zombie in their face. If I die here, I would never hear the end of it from Gwi-nam. Speaking of, where the fuck is he?

You pushed yourself up, looking around the room at the chaos that ensued. It was mayhem. Blood stained the water that flooded the room, and screams of terror were heard everywhere. Each passing second made it even more horrifying. Before you knew it, you realized Cheong-san and On-jo were nowhere to be found after your short mental breakdown. You would've been mad but you also understood that all those feelings would be rendered useless if one of them died for your sake anyways, so you just pushed that issue into the back of your head for later. Your thoughts were racing, but before you could let yourself assess the situation better, you had to check off your priorities first:

#1. A temporary hiding place.

The kitchen was semi-barricaded by bars that were only pulled down enough for someone to crawl under, and the zombies don't look like they're intelligent enough from the way they continue pushing each other instead of using that entrance, so you just ran for it. Luckily, the water aided you and let you slide underneath with no problem. Your next hurdle was finding the actual hiding place.

Short movement to the left compared to the zombies' fast ones made you turn your head and you saw a lunch lady hiding in the corner near the sink. You quickly made your way to her and thanked her for letting you sit with her as you collected your thoughts and observed the zombies from your position for a while. It seemed that simply seeing movement wasn't one of the reasons why they would attack someone, but it could also be their sense of smell and hearing. While you weren't exactly sure of which it was, you had to test it out with the lone zombie that actually wandered into the kitchen. You quietly crawled out but were quickly stopped by the lunch lady who shook her head at you.

"Where are you going? It's not safe out there." She whispered, looking at the zombie to make sure it didn't notice any of you.

"I'm testing something. That way, I'll know at least a little bit on how we can get out of here." You reassured her, and waited for her to let you go. She pursed her lips before replying.

"I... I don't think they can see us. I've been here for a few minutes and that zombie has lapped here multiple times, but never once attacked me or the other students hiding on the other side of the room. If they could, then they would've already seen us hiding under here." She had a point. There wasn't even that much of a barricade in your hiding spot anyways. You were just lucky that it was in a far enough corner of the room to not be noticed right away, but it was still an exposed area.

"Then that just leaves either their sense of smell or their hearing. Wait here, I'll be back, I promise." You smiled softly at her. She hesitated but let you go anyways when she realized you weren't going to change your mind. You quietly made your way around the room, walking until you were at least 5 feet away from the zombie.

In this distance, they still haven't noticed me... Can they not smell properly because of the water? Then... You grabbed some random pot, and threw it to the opposite side of where you were. The zombie took notice of that and ran towards that direction. Of course it was sense of hearing. I would like to thank that one '100-year evolution of zombies' video on YouTube for telling me what kinds of zombies there are instead of making me watch hundreds of shows just to identify them.

You observed the zombie for another few moments, realizing that it really doesn't still know you're here, so you took this opportunity to find a weapon. This was the school cafeteria, it's impossible for it not to have any knives lying around.

You scanned all the nearby counters until you found it near the back of the room. Before you could run towards it, someone was pushed from underneath the counters, screaming as they were quickly found by the zombie. In their panic, they pulled out the person who pushed them out in the first place, and you let out a breath you never knew you were holding in.

"Gwi-nam-ah."