Zombie Apocalypse Whiteout - 19
EP19 120 Kilometers (4)
- Be careful… and the cigarettes! … Kzzzt! Use the cigarettes! There’s a pack in the backpack! Kzzzt!
Yu-bin’s voice crackled through the radio, filled with worry, before the transmission cut off.
“Got it!”
Jin-woo shouted a quick reply, pulling the trigger again. He didn’t have time to press the transmit button, but Yu-bin would understand, he was smart enough to read the silence.
Rattatata! Ratatatatat! Rattatatat!
Gunfire rang out, and the supersonic rounds echoed like thunder inside the building. Once again, his K2 didn’t let him down. Each 5.56mm round hit exactly where he aimed.
Splat! Crack! Thud!
Bullets punched clean through skulls, scrambled undead brains, and burst out the back of their heads. Green brain splattered across the long bench lining one side of the cylindrical interior, while the growing heap of corpses piled up near the side entrance.
Even in this hellish scene, Sam-suk remained loyally by Jin-woo’s side. When Jin-woo ran, he ran too. When Jin-woo stopped to fire, the dog paused in just the right spot so as not to get in the way. The poor guy probably had no idea what was going on, unable to perceive the zombies, but not once had he run ahead or caused any trouble.
Rattatatatat! Ratatatatat! Rattatatat!
Jin-woo moved quickly as he fired, emptying yet another magazine. He slammed in the fourth mag, including the one originally loaded in the rifle. His tactical vest carried six total. He was officially halfway through his ready ammo.
Sure, he had more mags packed in his backpack, but there was no guarantee he’d have the time or safety to unzip it and dig them out. He had to reach the subway within the next 90 rounds.
Bang bang! Ratatatatat!
After dropping a new wave of zombies charging up the stairs, a brief opening finally presented itself. Jin-woo wasn’t about to waste it. He stopped shooting and shouted back over his shoulder.
“We’re clear! Sheriff, come on! I opened a path!”
But the sheriff and Min-gu didn’t respond right away, they were too busy caving in zombie skulls and smashing through the swarm at the rear. Between the tight interior space, the endless gunfire, and the echoing roars of the undead, his voice hadn’t reached them.
“Sheriff!”
Jin-woo shouted again, louder this time. Finally, they heard him and began backing away.
“Let’s go!”
He pointed forward, signaling them to move, then turned to cover their retreat, raising his rifle again. Zombies would come flooding through the rear door in seconds, but the sheriff and Min-gu could handle that much as they ran.
“Stick to the side!”
Jin-woo shifted right and motioned for them to hug the left wall. That way, he’d have a clean line of fire as they sprinted past.
“Raaagh!”
A zombie lunged in that small window of time, and the sheriff crushed its skull mid-leap, then broke into a full sprint.
Graaaaah!
A middle-aged zombie reached out to claw at his back..
Click! Crack!
But Min-gu severed the creature’s elbow and knee with a clean one-two swipe of his machete, then dashed after the sheriff.
Groooargh…
Even with one knee gone, the zombie hobbled after them, its ragged arm stump flailing. Thick black blood sprayed from the severed end with each movement.
Bang!
Jin-woo took the monster’s head off with a single shot, marking the start of his covering fire. As the zombie’s forehead exploded and its skull whipped backward, Jin-woo adjusted his aim and fired again.
Bang bang! Bang! Rattatatatat!
Each burst from his muzzle dropped another zombie like rotting meat tossed to the ground. In mere seconds, six, eight, ten of them were lying motionless with holes through their heads. But with every kill, his ammo dwindled further.
“Bro! Cigarettes! Cigarettes!”
Jin-woo yelled at the top of his lungs as Min-gu passed by.
“…Cigarettes?”
Min-gu skidded to a stop, narrowing his eyes to make sense of it. Jin-woo pointed with his chin toward the door they had just been holding.
“Light a cigarette and toss it over there! You’ve got some in your pocket!”
“Mm!”
Min-gu let out a short grunt of approval, stabbing his machete into the cushioned bench beside him. He reached inside his suit jacket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes and a Zippo lighter. He’d been so focused on fighting that he’d completely forgotten, this was another way to slow them down.
Clack! Scratch!
Clenching the cigarette pack between his teeth, Min-gu flicked open the lid of the Zippo lighter and quickly struck the flint. As the flame sprang to life, he brought it to the cigarette pack.
Fwoosh!
Despite the fierce wind sweeping through the building, the Zippo held its flame. The paper wrapper of the cigarette pack caught fire in an instant. Who would've thought the lighter he'd taken from that scumbag from the Taeyang Group would come in this handy?
Whizz!
Min-gu hurled the blazing cigarette pack with all his might.
Whoooosh!
Trailing thick smoke behind it, the pack sailed through the air and landed near the doorway.
GRAAAAH! AARGH! GWUUUUH!
The sudden sharp stimulus sent the zombies into a frenzy. They howled like mad, throwing themselves at the fire.
GWAAAAH!
Clawing and shoving each other in a savage scrum, the zombies reached desperately for the flames and smoke, trying to breathe in as much of it as they could.
Fwoosh!
The burning pack was soon torn apart into several flaming pieces. Embers flew onto the zombies’ tattered clothing, and in the dry weather, the fire spread rapidly across the brittle rags. The growing flames and smoke were enough to momentarily hold back the horde pressing in from behind.
Bang! Bang bang! Bang bang bang!
Any zombie that seemed more interested in fresh human blood than cigarettes met a quick end at the hands of Jin-woo’s 5.56mm rounds.
Thwack! Thud!
One zombie’s head exploded, scattering ash and embers into the air, and yet the others still howled in delight, thrashing their limbs as though celebrating the chaos.
“Now’s our chance! Let’s go!”
Jin-woo shouted as he slammed a fresh magazine into his rifle, continuing the cover fire while Min-gu lit and tossed the pack.
It was just one box of cigarettes, it wouldn’t burn or smoke for long. But for those few seconds, it could buy them a window. If they could escape even just a hundred meters while the horde was mesmerized by the scent of smoke and the fleeting joy of burning each other’s clothes, it’d be enough to breathe again.
And if luck was really on their side… once they vanished from sight, the zombies might even forget about them. It was a long shot, but possible.
“Sheriff! I’ll take over here, fall back!”
Jin-woo called out to the sheriff, who was holding the line at the stair landing, smashing zombie skulls without discrimination, head, chest, whatever was in reach.
“We’re fine over here! Punch through the center, Jin-woo! The center! Hyaaaah!”
With a mighty swing of his hammer, the sheriff sent four zombies flying down the stairs and added with a shout:
“Watch my back from there, brother!”
“You using your brain like this is actually starting to worry me…”
Min-gu teased him but still followed his direction without protest. The situation was so straightforward that even the dumbest guy in the world would find it hard to screw up.
Only 30 meters remained to the connecting passage that led to the subway station. A simple mission: kill the dozens of monsters flooding the corridor in under ten seconds, reach the door. If they failed…
Things would get messy, especially for these guys, who didn’t have antibodies against the infection.
“Switch with me!”
Min-gu split open the head of a zombie charging through the smoke with his machete and offered to switch places with the sheriff. It was clear the sheriff’s position was the most dangerous.
But the sheriff, standing firm at the top of the stairs, barked his reply while swinging his hammer again:
“I’m good!”
Stubborn bastard…
Min-gu shook his head with a smirk. While dodging a set of snapping jaws aimed at his shoulder, he slashed upward with his kukri and severed the zombie’s lower jaw. Then, he kicked its step forward out from under it, throwing it off balance, and drove his machete into the back of its neck.
Crunch!
The snapping of the vertebrae was followed by the telltale sag of a corpse as all strength left its body. At the same moment he confirmed the kill, Min-gu reversed his kukri grip, spun his body, and sliced into the ribs of another charging monster.
Squelch!
The blade cut through skin and muscle, wedging itself between ribs. Instantly, Min-gu twisted the handle forward.
Crack!
The kukri lodged deep between the bones, locking in place. Using the grip, he pulled the zombie slightly toward him, letting its claws swing harmlessly wide, then slashed diagonally across its side with his machete.
Ssshhhck!
The monster’s exposed neck slid cleanly along the machete’s edge. The closer the blade got to the handle, the deeper and wider the wound split open, until it finally struck bone.
Slash! Crack!
Min-gu forcefully spread his crossed arms and gave a sharp twist. The kukri embedded in the ribs came free, and the monster’s nearly severed neck, still caught on the machete, snapped off completely, the head rolling away in the opposite direction of the body. It was a move only possible with the sheer weight of a kukri.
Tat-tat-tat-tat-tat! Tat-tat-tat! Tat-tat!
Roughly twenty meters ahead of Min-gu and the sheriff, Jin-woo was pressing forward with a steady stream of gunfire. He had about 40 rounds left. Including the Glock holstered on his thigh, he could squeeze out ten more shots if absolutely necessary, but that was a last-resort option, not to be used lightly.
Maybe I should drop my pack and reload now...
As he blasted the last visible zombie’s head into pulp, Jin-woo hesitated for just a moment. Slowing down briefly to reload now might be safer in the long run. But those few seconds, unstrapping the pack, grabbing a mag, loading it into his tactical vest, felt like a luxury he couldn’t afford.
Graaagh!
Right then, another wave of zombies poured out from the passage connected to the subway station, like they’d sensed his moment of indecision and come rushing out to punish it.
“So that’s how you wanna play this?”
Grinding his teeth, Jin-woo jammed the K2’s stock tighter against his shoulder and pulled the trigger without hesitation.
Bang bang bang bang bang! Bang bang bang! Bang bang!
The charging zombies dropped one by one, collapsing in streaks of green blood across the corridor floor.
Click!
The mag was empty. Jin-woo ejected it, slammed in his final spare, and shouted back toward the others holding the stairs:
“Path’s clear up here!”
“Got it!”
The sheriff smashed another pair of zombies tumbling up the stairs and turned on his heel, quickly re-entering the building. He called out to Min-gu, who stood over a mountain of bodies.
“Let’s go, brother!”
Graaagh!
The moment he left his post, two zombies leapt through the doorway, having sprinted up the stairs in a flash.
Crack! Crunch!
The sheriff’s hammer and Min-gu’s machete swung down almost simultaneously, one crushing a skull, the other cleaving through a neck. The left one lost its head in a single stroke, the right one had its cranium flattened. No signals were exchanged, no orders given, yet both knew exactly what to do and what the other would handle.
Thud! Slam!
Before the corpses even hit the ground, Min-gu and the sheriff were already sprinting toward Jin-woo.
Tat-tat-tat-tat! Tat-tat-tat! Tat-tat-tchk!
Just around the corner, Jin-woo’s K2 spat fire without pause toward the subway station. Eight rounds left. The number of zombies still charging in... thirty. No, thirty-two.