I fell asleep, not knowing when I fell asleep. Then the fever rose in the middle of the night. It was in the worst condition ever. It was as if something he had been holding back had burst out at once. It was too hot beyond the closed eyes. I thought my eyelids were on fire. Every time I inhaled and exhaled, the inside of my nose burned.
On the way, the senior woke me up. I think he said something, but I can't remember. All I could think of was waking me up so I couldn't fall asleep. I'm so sleepy, I think I'm going to die of sleepiness. It was sad that I couldn't sleep. I wanted to beg you to sleep just five more minutes and wake up, if I could sleep a little longer. But strangely, the words didn't come out right. As if the scissors were pressed.
Later, I was saddened and cried. Tears streamed down my hot temples. After crying for a long time, I was suddenly speechless. I randomly arranged the sentences that came to my mind. It hurts, I'm tired, I want to sleep, it's painful. It seems that I finally found my family.
By dawn the fever had gone. My body temperature plummeted, and this time it became unbearably cold. My whole body was drenched in cold sweat and shivering. I fell so hard that my molars crashed into each other. The warmth was desperate. I recklessly dug into the arms of the senior lying next to me. He desperately clung to it, wrapping his arms around his chest and burying his face. He cried so much that his t-shirt was soaked. It was a hellish dawn.
And finally morning dawned.
Tock tock tock. A very small knock was heard at the door. I had just barely slept. But the sound broke it. Knocking four small knocks was a promise between the survivors they met at the Central Library. If anything happened, we decided to exchange stories like this.
I opened my eyes and got up from my seat. My body felt strangely light because of the fever and sweat.
“Hey, excuse me. Good night?"
I looked back involuntarily. There was no senior sitting next to me. He was leaning against the opposite wall. when did it happen No, I have to correct it. There was no sign of sleep in him. A sharp edge stood on the side face, staring intently at the door. It was as if there was a shadow around the eyes.
"for a moment… … . I think you should see it with me.”
Nahye Kim poked her head out through the crack in the door. I was surprised to say hello like a habit with a blank mind. She was crying so hard that her face was wet. The hand holding the door trembled with sobs.
“Sister, uh, black. That baseball club sister.”
Kim Na-hye cried while repeating the words “Sister.” I gave up listening to the detailed explanation and followed her for now. There were other people in front of the stairs going up from the first floor to the second floor. He turned his head in the direction of their gaze.
“… … .”
My eyes spun around. In order not to fall down, I had to give my body strength. Bodies were strewn about on the stairwells. Her head was severed and she fell down the stairs. The cross-section of the headless neck was exposed. I couldn't watch any more.
“It’s because of me.”
The female student who had been standing in a daze muttered. Of the two baseball members, it was the one with the bandaged arm. The clean clothes she wore and the bloodied clothes worn by the corpse in front of her were of the same design. One lived and one died. The two faces were in stark contrast.
“I couldn’t sleep because my wound hurt. I keep swelling and oozing, but taking painkillers doesn't help, and I can't even get disinfectant... … . He said he would rather have a cold compress.”
She cupped her injured arm with one hand and bowed her head. Scattered hair fell down and covered her face.
“So Areum went out to get water at dawn. I want to warm you up. Then... … .”
The back story didn't go any further. She wrapped her arms around her and knelt down. He wept bitterly in front of his friend's corpse.
“Hyung, did that sister go out and get infected? Then I ran into people who were in the middle of the road, and they dealt with it, right?”
Park Jin-hyeok asked. I hesitated. I was afraid to tell others about the horrible realization I had. But I had to tell you. I took a deep breath and opened my mouth.
"no."
Everyone else looked at me in unison.
"infection… … . It's too bad.”
“What do you mean?”
“Blood.”
I raised my hand and pointed forward. I couldn't bear to face the corpse and kept my gaze down.
“Too much blood.”
All sides were red. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the entire staircase was covered in blood. The blood that should have flowed at dawn was still bright red in the morning.
“When infected, the blood rots and becomes sticky. The color also faded. Even if you cut your hair off, it won’t stick out as much as I did.”
While being by my senior's side, I unintentionally saw the sight of zombies being decapitated countless times. In those whose hearts stopped due to infection, their blood clotted rapidly. No matter how many times he hit his neck with an axe, only a small amount of black blood splattered. If it was a living person, the artery would have been severed and there would have been a fountain of blood.
“So, that person.”
I pursed my lips and chose my words for a long time. But I couldn't say anything. Finally, I closed my eyes and lowered my head. Like a silent prayer in front of a dead body.
"ah."
Kim Na-hye sighed briefly.
"iced coffee… … .”
Soon, her body slowly disintegrated. He stared blankly into space with unfocused eyes and groaned like a broken machine. My whole body trembled like an aspen tree. She too realized. That the schoolgirl's death is a warning and retaliation they send us.
Those who settled in Central Library would have noticed that a colleague had died horribly. There's no way he'd step over the gate on his own and fall prey to zombies without going crazy, so he'd have to suspect that someone had intentionally put him to death.
In the meantime, I ran into a female student on the first floor stairs not far from the place where the man died. I would have liked it this time. If she is the culprit who killed her colleague, she will be able to take revenge, or even warn the intruders who have sneaked into the central library.
We stood in front of the stairs and did nothing for a long time. How painful she must have been, what she must have thought as she collapsed alone on the cold stairs where no one came. No one dared to count.
