Apocalypse: Apparently, I Can See Zombies

Swoosh!

The sound of the toilet flushing was like a firecracker going off on a silent night.

Jeon-sok stumbled out of the last stall while pulling up his pants. His pale face turned to look at the others who had turned to look at him with ugly expressions.

"I-I forgot. I didn't-"

"Shut up!"

Kai harshly cut him while glaring at him before he and everyone turned to look at the bathroom door. The sound of water filling the tank caused every nerve in their bodies to tense up.

However, Jin-woo wiped his tear-stained cheeks and said while getting up.

"Don't worry, the bathrooms on the fourth floors are fitted with soundproofing insulation. That's one of the reasons why I chose it."

Everyone immediately relaxed when they heard that, especially Jeon-sok. He thought he had doomed everyone by his careless mistake.

Kai released a heavy sigh, then turned his gaze on Jin-woo by the sink and said with a frown.

"Brat, now that you've stopped crying are you going to get us out of here? From the sounds of it you purposely chose this bathroom, but do you know it's also fitted with a barrage jamming device that blocks our radio?"

"That's right, and judging by the time that has passed, we aren't able to rely on the others outside to contact headquarters."

Han Soo added after his brother.

Jin-woo looked at his face in the mirror. After wiping his cheeks clean, he fixed his glasses and then released a sigh.

'Maybe I need to recover a bit more before Seong can return.'

Jin-woo thought to himself before he turned and walked away from the sink.

Seeing that Jin-woo was keeping silent, Kai grew impatient.

"Brat, didn't you hear what we said? We're trapped here with no way to call for back-"

"How much percentage is on my phone?"

Jin-woo interrupted as he turned to ask Jeon-sok, who was washing his hands.

Jeon-sok quickly finished what he was doing before he dried his hands on his jacket and then took out Jin-woo's phone from his pocket saying.

"It's only at four percent."

"Don't bother, the Marshal isn't answering."

Kai added, and despite Jin-woo ignoring him, he had calmed down significantly.

Jin-woo placed his phone into his pocket and looked at Kai.

"I still need my phone; do you have one?"

At this point, Kai couldn't be bothered by Jin-woo's weird way of speaking, so he just went along with it.

"Yeah, but it's an old phone that doesn't have strong encryption to lessen the effect of jamming devices."

Jin-woo glanced at the phone in Kai's hand and seeing the old touchscreen model, he nodded and said.

"It's fine."

Kai frowned.

"How is it fine? If we had another phone, we could have-"

"We do."

Jin-woo cuts off Kai before he turns and walks towards Mai-sun at the back of the bathroom.

Mai-sun's expression shifted slightly when she saw Jin-woo approaching her.

Kai and the others' expressions change after understanding Jin-woo's words.

"You bitch, there's no way! In a situation like this?"

Jeon-sok couldn't help but curse at Mai-sun, his expression turning to a mixture of disbelief and anger.

Jin-woo came to a stop in front of Mai-sun and extended his hand.

"Your phone."

Mai-sun stood there leaning against the wall, her arms wrapped around his body protectively. She looked up at Jin-woo in silence.

Jin-woo's eyes narrowed into slits and he said again.

"Hand it over Mai. I'm not going to ask a third time."

After a few seconds with everyone staring at her, Mai-sun finally reached into her jacket pocket and took out a phone.

"Unbelievable!"

Jeon-sok immediately flung his hands up in the air, becoming even angrier. Meanwhile, Ah-yong and Seo-joon gave Mai-sun unfriendly looks.

Kai looked at Mai-sun with a frown as he coldly asked.

"Why didn't you tell us you had a phone on you?"

Mai-sun smiled and responded.

"You didn't ask."

At this point, even Han Soo was frowning at Mai-sun. He had initially felt what Jin-woo did to Ye-jun was wrong, but he was now realizing that there was more to his actions.

Jin-woo ignored everyone and unlocked the phone. However, he paused when he saw a pattern lock.

Jin-woo was about to ask Mai-sun for the password, but something strange happened to his vision. It blurred for a second even though he was wearing his glasses. It cleared up right after, but Jin-woo felt like his vision was no longer his own. On the phone, a 'N' pattern began drawing itself.

After the pattern was drawn Jin-woo's vision blurred once again before returning to normal. The whole process took time to explain, but it happened within the span of time it would take for someone to inhale and exhale a breath of air.

Jin-woo realized his ability had completely manifested. His overexertion might have sped up the process. The only problem was that due to overexertion, they remained passive. He couldn't actively use them.

Jin-woo unhesitatingly drew the pattern in his vision, unlocking the phone and shocking Mai-sun in the process.

Jin-woo then swiped through the apps on the phone and soon pressed a yellow messaging app icon. After entering the app, he saw that a recent call had occurred last night at 7:13 pm.

That time was just before the girls were planning to take a shower.

What Jin-woo also realized about this call was that the number wasn't saved on the phone.

This wasn't Mai-sun's phone, so this detail wasn't that surprising. However, it did save Jin-woo the trouble of forcing Mai-sun to give him his mother's number.

Jin-woo pressed the option to video call the number, but when Mai-sun saw it, she suddenly tried to grab the phone from his hands.

Jin-woo forcefully pushed her against the wall and stared at her with an expressionless face.

Mai-sun grunted in pain and glared back at Jin-woo. However, when she heard Jin-woo's next words her face changed slightly.

"Didn't I tell you the only reason you're here is because of your mother?"

Jin-woo then ignored Mai-sun and turned his head slightly to address Kai.

"Hand me your gun."

Kai nodded and instinctively reached for his baby tucked in the back of his waist, but he seemed to realize what he was doing and switched to grabbing the handgun strapped to his brother's thigh.

He then walked over and handed the gun to Jin-woo.

Jin-woo grabbed the gun and then turned his attention to the phone. At that moment, the video call was answered, though it was lagging due to the jamming device.

"Mai-sun? Why did... video... me? Are you-"

Madelyn's face appeared in the video, and she began asking questions, however, her words got stuck in her throat when she saw that the face on the phone wasn't her daughter's.

Jin-woo's face was expressionless as he stared at Madelyn and said calmly.

"Aunty Madelyn, I'd like to speak with the Marshal."

"Jin-woo, you- What happened, where is Mai-sun? How did you get her phone?"

Jin-woo didn't answer, he simply switched the call to the front camera to show Mai-sun. At the same time, he pressed the gun to her forehead and repeated his earlier words.

"Aunty Madelyn, I'll give you until the count of three to get the Marshal on the phone. One…"

The others who were watching this scene all felt a cold chill go down their spines, as it sounded like Jin-woo was dead serious.

"…Two."

"Jin-woo, what... meaning of this? Don't you dare hurt my daughter!"

Madelyn's frantic voice came from the speakers of the phone, but Jin-woo didn't stop counting.

"…Three."

After reaching three, Jin-woo suddenly cocked the gun and wrapped his index finger around the trigger ready to shoot.

Tears rolled down Mai-sun's cheeks as she squeezed her eyes shut. However, before Jin-woo could pull the trigger Madelyn frantically stopped him.

"Wait, okay, okay! I'll give the phone to the Marshal, just wait!"

After that, the sound of a door opening and rapid footsteps could be heard from the phone.

Jin-woo switched the camera back to him and watched the blurry phone screen. The gun was still against Mai-sun's forehead as he waited.

Soon, muffled voices could be heard coming from the phone before an angry shout and loud slap echoed out.

The phone shifted before the gruff face of a man obviously in the military appeared on the phone.

This was the first time Jin-woo saw the face of the Marshal. Though it wasn't the first time for the Marshal. Seeing Jin-woo's face, he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

Then with his expression turning dark, the Marshal spoke.

"That woman had someone steal your mother's phone so there's no way to contact you. Where are you now? What about the rescue team? There's been no news since the report came in that they've reached the school."

Jin-woo was calm as he responded.

"Just send a helicopter to the roof of the west wing. It should be enough to hold all of us."

The Marshal frowned at Jin-woo's curt response but still said.

"I feared the worst, so I had several helicopters on standby near the school. One should be there in no more than twenty minutes. Where-"

Before the Marshal could speak any further, Jin-woo directly hung up the phone. Then without giving Mai-sun any time to react, he used the butt of the gun to knock her unconscious.

Kai ignored Jin-woo's actions and said with a frown.

"We only have twenty minutes to make it to the roof, but the horde is still outside. Do you have a plan?"

Everyone stared at Jin-woo as he tried fitting the gun into the waist of his pants. However, feeling that he couldn't run without it falling out, he thought about putting it inside his pants pockets. But his phone and Seong's half-torn journal were inside both.

He only had the extra magazine in his jacket, so he had a pocket free, but again the gun might fall out due to its size.

After thinking for a moment, Jin-woo looked at the empty gun strap on Han Soo's thigh and said while walking over.

"Can I have that?"

Han Soo didn't see the need to keep an empty gun strap, so he nodded and handed it over to Jin-woo after taking it off.

While placing the gun strap around his thigh, Jin-woo finally answered the question of the impatient Kai.

"We'll use the phones, you have music on yours, right?"

Jin-woo finished strapping the gun to his thigh and looked up at Kai.

Kai's eyes lit up and he finally understood Jin-woo's earlier cryptic words.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"Of course, I listen to music. But it's not like those new K-pop songs you young brats listen to nowadays, but the real OG classics."

"Why do you speak like an old man? You're practically still in the same generation as us."

Kai glared at Jeon-sok before he started sifting through his phone to find a suitable song. At the same time, Jin-woo handed Mai-sun's phone to Han Soo.

"Keep this safe."

Han Soo nodded before taking the phone and placing it inside one of his vest pockets.

"Got the song, you guys get ready?"

Kai asked, looking at everyone.

Jeon-sok gulped nervously and shook his head. Ah-yong seemed equally nervous but nodded her head firmly, while Seo-joon remained silent, but his action of pulling the gun from his waist and gripping it showed his attitude.

Kai glared at Jeon-sok who shook his head, but Jeon-sok glanced over at Mai-sun on the ground and asked.

"Are we leaving her here?"

For that answer, everyone turned to look at Jin-woo, who shook his head.

"I just knocked her out so she wouldn't cause any more trouble. I'll carry her."

Jeon-sok wanted to say something as Jin-woo went to pick up Mai-sun, but after hesitating he decided not to.

After Jin-woo returned while holding Mai-sun bridal-style, Kai glanced around at everyone and explained.

"I'll play the song on my phone and then throw it out the window to lure the zombies away. With their crowd mentality, it should draw them away."

When Jin-woo heard that, he couldn't help but think to himself that Seong's theory was right all along.

"But not all of the zombies will be lured away, perhaps only those in this hallway. Which means we'll have to act fast and reach the roof before those further down could wonder in our direction."

Kai's face hardened before he added.

"If you don't want to die then run like you've never run before…"— But Kai suddenly hesitated, before he continued—" …and don't think this is some movie where you can trip at the last moment. If even one of you gets tripped up it'll put everyone in danger, so, you'll get left behind."

Ah-yong and Jeon-sok felt nervous, but Seo-joon and Jin-woo were relatively calm.

After Kai gave his warnings, he glanced around at everyone one final time before he moved to the door. After turning the lock and slowly opening the door, he glanced at the horde of zombies stumbling along the hallway before looking down at his phone and pressing play on the song.

A popular 'Big Bang' song burst from the speakers of the phone and stirred the calm horde. Just as all of them turned to the female bathroom door, Kai tossed his phone toward the broken floor-to-ceiling windows. His phone bounced off the head of one zombie and then fell through the window.

The sound coming from the phone caused the zombie who was hit to turn and dive through the window after it. Like dominoes falling, the other zombies' screeches filled the entire hallway as they followed, diving through the window like awakened demons who found fresh flesh. Even the zombies further down the hall heard the screeches and rushed to follow suit.