Eun-hyuk clears his throat then. Almost as if he was preparing to say something. But right as he's about to speak, a loud, blaring noise rings through the building.
Hye-in reappears at the end of the hall, clutching her dog in her arms as she speaks. "The tv. There's a broadcast." She says before disappearing into the daycare center. Eun-hyuk and I exchange looks before rushing into the daycare as well.
"This is not a drill. I repeat this is not a drill." A voice says. The screen pans out to show a woman in a military uniform.
"As of midnight, August 17, 2020, martial law has been declared throughout the Republic of Korea, in accordance with Article 77, of the Constitution and Article 2, of the Martial Law Act. The military will be in charge of all security and all civil affairs. The military has confirmed that an unspecified number of people have been turning into strange creatures. The exact cause is still unknown but is believed to be related to human desire. It is not a respiratory or blood-borne infection. Quarantine those who show symptoms, nosebleeds, fainting, and auditory or visual hallucinations." There it is again. The word 'nosebleeds'. Something I've lived with for half of my life will be the reason my life might end.
"These creatures have excellent resilience and regenerative abilities. Before a person turns, there is a period of time when they can't recover from lacerations or damage. It is the only time these creatures can be killed. Thus we have named this the "golden hour.". Currently, this is the only action civilians can take. The military can and will solve the current situation. Survive out there. And good luck to us all."
The screen goes dark before a beep signals that the broadcast has ended. There are a few seconds of silence as everyone looks around at one another. I took this moment to quickly exit the daycare as quietly as I could. I wanted to take some time to process everything that had just been said over the broadcast.
Making my way down the hall, I think about what was said. "All captured creatures need to be incinerated." I wondered how fast the people here would turn on me if they thought that I was infected. After all, I was just some nobody to them. I wasn't a friend, neighbor, or loved one.
A loud noise stops me suddenly. The noise seemed to be coming from the barricaded stairway entrance. Something was on the other side, trying to get through. The banging continues, making the door shake and a chair falls off of the barricade pile. Eun-hyuk is quick to run over and pull me to stand behind him as the door continues to rattle.
A loud slamming noise could be heard from within the stairwell and the door stopped shaking. There are a few seconds of silence before an ear-piercing scream rings out through the air.
As the screaming stops, I can hear running on the stairs as voices start to speak rapidly on the other side of the door.
"Everyone, stand back," Eun-hyuk says. He gently pushed me back further as he walked towards the barricade. He pushes aside a few items so that he has access to one door. He pauses for a moment before gripping the door handle and swinging open the stairwell door.
Standing on the other side of the door is Eun-yoo. Only she wasn't wearing her usual carefree and unbothered look. She looked shocked. I look past her to see a man and woman standing over something on the ground. I hear Eun-hyuk saying something to his sister, but I barely hear it as I walk forward. I barely process anything anyone is saying now as Eun-yoo brushes past her brother. I don't even hear Eun-hyuk say my name as he tries to pull me away from the stairwell. I just walk past him until I stop at the stairwell entrance.
There on the ground, surrounded by a giant puddle of blood, is a boy. He looked to be no older than Eun-hyuk and me. I start to process what had happened. That loud slamming noise before the scream. The scream was definitely Eun-yoo, as I could tell it had been a girl's scream. So I know that the loud noise was this boy. He seemed to have fallen down the stairwell.
The boy is dead. Or at least he should be. Eun-hyuk is now speaking to the man and woman who were on the staircase, the man held a sword while the woman was holding a bat. But what caught my eye more, was the slow rise and fall of the chest of the dead boy.
"He's still breathing," I say, not thinking that anyone had heard me. But when everyone turns to look at me, it all goes silent.
"What? It can't be. We were up on the 6th floor when he fell. Who could survive that?" The girl says.
I kneel, slowly reaching my hand out and pressing it to the boy's neck. Sure enough, there was a pulse. A strong one even. I glance up at Eun-hyuk, who looks at me in confusion.
"I'm no doctor, but he's still alive," I say. Eun-hyuk is quick to kneel beside me before he then continues to check the boy over.
He reaches for the boy's head, which was surrounded by blood the most. His skull had to have cracked open in the fall. If he weren't dead yet, he would be soon with his head split open.
Eun-hyuk turns the boy's head over multiple times, using his hands to brush aside the boy's messy hair before he looked at us all in confusion.
"There are no wounds. Not even a scratch." He says, before looking down at the unconscious boy who should be dead.
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FanfictionAfter her grandfather's passing, Hwang Ji-eun's family sends her to clear out his apartment at the Green Home apartment complex. However, she gets trapped there when an outbreak occurs, causing people to turn into terrifying monsters. She tries not...
