Apocalypse: Apparently, I Can See Zombies

Jin-woo looked around to ensure no one was nearby before he wore the glasses he had also grabbed from his drawstring bag. He had waited too long to answer and had received a text instead.

However, as Jin-woo looked at his phone with his glasses on, he realized how much he had gotten used to not wearing them all this while. But he also noticed that his vision had subtly gotten better, his vision now looked a bit off while wearing the glasses.

Putting this observation aside, Jin-woo focused on the text. Seong next to him wrapped his arm around his next and peered over his shoulders at the phone screen as well. Both of them saw the short text that read…

'Brat don't tell me you're dead. If you aren't dead, then answer the phone!'

Upon reading this text message Jin-woo and Seong's expressions became strange.

"That doesn't sound like Madelyn."

Seong said, and just as Jin-woo was about to answer, a commotion was heard behind him. He glanced down the hall behind him wondering what had happened in the cafeteria. However, the phone started to ring again drawing his attention away.

Before the second ring could start, Jin-woo swiped the call and answered.

"Who am I speaking to?"

Jin-woo heard the gruff voice of a man from the other side of the phone. With this tone of voice alone he recognized the man to be from the army.

"Jin-woo. Sir, are you the Marshal?"

The voice on the other end paused momentarily not expecting Jin-woo would figure out his identity by just his voice.

Snorting the Marshal spoke up after his pause.

"That's right, where are you right now? How many survivors are there in the school?"

Jin-woo wanted to ask questions of his own, but for now, he obediently answered.

"I'm in the cafeteria on the ground floor with at least fifty students and five teachers."

"On the ground floor? Is that place safe? How great is the number of the zombies outside?"

To this question, Jin-woo calmly explained.

"It's safe, I already trapped most of the zombies in the gymnasium and auditorium. However, I'm still worried that more zombies would wander from the middle school and elementary school campuses, as well as from outside. How long will it be until help arrives?"

"Huh?"

A sound came from the Marshal that stemmed from his surprise.

"You... Did I hear right that you trapped the zombies?"

Jin-woo didn't answer the Marshal's question but instead reiterated his own.

"What about help, when will it arrive? Even though we've secured a safe zone if this goes on we'll be surrounded by zombies again. I want to know if we should wait for help or try to escape Yongsan District on our own."

The Marshal seemed to snap out of his surprise before he recovered his composure and said sternly.

"Tell everyone to stay there, the white tiger forces have already been deployed and should arrive in no more than four days."

"Four days?"

Jin-woo was taken and he hurriedly asked.

"Why four days? With a helicopter, it should take a few hours!"

"A helicopter is no good, the sound from the blades will lead zombies to the school."

Upon hearing this, Jin-woo froze. That's right he had completely neglected this fact. Suddenly, a cold shiver ran down his spine as he imagined how many zombies would be drawn to them from the outside.

However, his brain started to think of a way to get around this. For example, if they were to head to the rooftop right now, they could avoid the zombies on the ground when the helicopter came.

But suddenly another problem squashed this idea.

How many helicopters would it take for them to rescue over fifty people? Five? Ten? Fifteen?n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

With so many helicopters in the airspace above the high school, perhaps it would draw every zombie in Itaewon to them. At that point, their numbers would be too overwhelming, they would surround the entire school and reach the roof before all of them could be rescued, or at least it would be very close, too close to risk it.

Jin-woo also noticed the faint annoyance in the Marshal's voice when he told him this. From this, he guessed that evacuation measures weren't going according to plan, and the virus was becoming more out of control.

Indeed, the Marshal was under pressure after his Air Force was rendered useless in this situation. When he got the report that zombies had attacked the safe zone where the President was by following his helicopter, he had almost lost it. But thankfully, the president had managed to make it out alive before the safe zone was overrun.

"Listen brat, you should be wondering why I'm talking to you."

Hearing this, Jin-woo snapped out of his thoughts but remained silent. He was indeed wondering why the Marshal was personally handling their rescue, he thought maybe it was either for Mai-sun or the pill he supposedly had.

However, the Marshal's next words refuted those suspicions and left him stunned.

"Listen here brat, as of right now you are the most important high schooler in the world. Inside your blood, there is a mutation resulting from you coming into contact with the bacteria on the meteor that this virus came from. You are to-"

"Wait, wait a minute!"

Jin-woo had to interrupt the Marshal because he was too shocked.

"What do you mean by a mutation? What kind of mutation? Are you sure? I don't remember coming into contact with any meteor."

"Brat, the mutation was passed down from your mother. As for your other questions, you'll naturally find the answers to them when you're brought here."

"What do you mean?"

Jin-woo noticed the Marshal's words sounded off.

With an indifferent tone of voice, the Marshal responded.

"I'm planning on sending a helicopter to get you. Find a way to get to the roof and keep your phone on you in case of anything unexpected popping up."

Jin-woo went silent upon hearing this, but after a moment he said.

"No, I'm not going."

The Marshal thought his ears had suddenly malfunctioned. His expression darkened as he said.

"Brat, what do you mean you're not going? Do you even understand the severity of the situation right now? You need to be brought back to the lab so we can make a cure with your blood! If this is about the safety of the other students, then all they need to do is stay within the safe zone until help arrives."

Jin-woo's eyes suddenly narrowed, and Seong's eyes also grew cold as they both realized the same thing.

"Marshal, you're not planning on sending the White Tiger forces, are you? You're only objective is me, right?"

The line suddenly went silent. Getting silence from the other end of the phone, both Jin-woo and Seong confirmed their intuitions were correct.

Before waiting for the Marshal to say anything, Jin-woo said coldly.

"I'm not leaving with that helicopter so forget about sending it. Just send the ground forces of the White Tiger to rescue all of us together like you should. If you don't then you can forget about getting my blood."

The Marshal immediately dropped all pretense and with his voice lowering by an octave he coldly asked.

"Boy, are you trying to threaten me? Do you understand what you're doing? Without your blood tens of thousands of people will die, can you bear the consequence of that?"

Jin-woo's expression was unchanged by this as he calmly retorted.

"You only need my blood to make a cure as quickly as possible and cover up your involvement in creating this virus. You have my mother, right? It's because you experimented on her that you knew my blood had the cure, right? Even without my blood, with hers and a bit of research on Madelyn's side, a cure can still be made.

Plus, who is to say that you won't kill me right after making the cure to silence me? I would have already exposed everything on the internet and left this place if I wasn't worried about everyone's safety. That's the only reason why I stayed and why you're talking to me right now, so don't test my resolve. Send the White Tiger forces, and you'll get your cure."

After saying this, Jin-woo moved the phone from his ear and directly hung up. But he then clutched the phone tightly and sadly cursed under his breath.

"Damn it, mom's gone."

Seong hearing this, patted Jin-woo's shoulder and comforted.

"It's okay Jin, that bastard isn't going to get away with this. The outbreak of the virus has already become a global disaster so there's no way his involvement won't be discovered."

Jin-woo soon released a breath and nodded.

"Let's go, I just want to sleep for a bit."

Jin-woo turned and headed back to the cafeteria along with Seong. However, upon reaching the metal doors he saw that the boys had all disappeared, but more importantly, there was an eerie silence lingering behind the doors.

After taking a shower, the students had all relaxed and were no longer as intent on not making any noise as before. So, this deathly silence coming from the cafeteria caused Jin-woo's heart to sink. He recalled the commotion he heard before and thinking that something bad had happened, he hurriedly rushed through the metal doors.

Heart racing, Jin-woo entered the cafeteria thinking he would see a tragic scene, but instead, what he got was everyone turning their gazes towards him as he came rushing in.

Some of those gazes directed at Jin-woo were filled with confusion, while others were filled with slight anger and a sense of betrayal. This was especially true when they saw the phone in his hand.

Jin-woo stiffened under the silent gazes of more than fifty pairs of eyes, then nervousness arose in his heart when he saw the various emotions in those gazes.

Suddenly, Jin-woo happened to catch sight of a familiar face standing on a table in the middle of the cafeteria. Almost immediately, he understood what had happened.

Everything was out in the open.

His mother stealing the pill...

His likely involvement in the virus spreading in the school…

His knowledge of help arriving for him and Mai-sun…

His secrets were no longer a secret anymore.