𝙒𝙖𝙧𝙢 𝘽𝙤𝙙𝙞𝙚𝙨

Chapter Six

Jennie

"Kai!"

The cry has barely left my mouth before the storage room door is shoved open so hard it hits the wall and cracks the glass panel.

The first Corpse charges toward Kai, and he takes it down by slamming the butt of his rifle into its face. Instinctively, I draw my gun and start firing into the pack.

Everything around me dissolves into madness, and it's all I can do to focus on keeping myself alive. I lost track of Kai and Jisoo in the mess as I duck behind a shelf for safety and check the clip in my gun.

Assured that I still have a few bullets, I roll sideways out into the aisle and take a carefully measured shot into the head of a red-haired Corpse woman. She makes a sickening noise as she crumples to the tile. Not wanting to stay in the eye-line of the Corpses for too long, I pitch myself back into my safe spot.

A hulking Corpse barrels around the corner of my shelf from the other side, and I hastily pivot.

It has just lunged when I take the shot, and I get it point-blank in the jaw. As it falls, I quickly put another bullet in its brain, just in case I missed the first time. I hear a startled shout and round the corner to the next row to see Jisoo flying through the air. She hits the shelf and slumps to the ground in a heap, and the Corpse that threw her is bearing down hungrily.

It takes me three shots before the Corpse's skull fractures and sprays congealed blood across Jisoo's unconscious figure. I hurry to check her pulse and make sure she's alive - the steady throbbing beneath my fingertips is the most welcome relief - before I straighten up and start searching through the fighting for Kai.

"Kai?" I yell, but I can't see him anywhere. The last I saw he'd jumped onto a countertop for better vantage, but he's not there anymore.

In fact, it seems like all of our party is gone now, their still bodies littering the floor and twisted at grotesque angles as the Corpses tear into them greedily.

"Kai!" I'm the only one still up and moving, and as far as I can tell I'm the only one still alive apart from Jisoo, who hasn't woken up from hitting her head yet.

A Corpse stands up from behind a counter, and I feel its clouded eyes fix firmly on me. My heart leaps frantically, and I lift my gun as it steps forward. Aim, breathe, squeeze, I remind myself of my gun training. I sight the gun on the Corpse's forehead and, letting out a shaky breath, pull the trigger.

The hollow click of the barrel sends a whole new wave of panic through me. Empty. The chamber's empty.

Dropping the useless weapon, I grab the knife on my belt and throw it, hoping to slow the Corpse down enough for me to find a way out. The blade sinks into its chest with a squishy thunk and the Corpse pauses, and for a moment I think I see a look of surprise on its face, but then it's gone.

Couldn't have been there in the first place. Corpses don't have feelings. It's just the terror and adrenaline playing tricks on me. I back up carefully, my eyes panning around for some escape route, but there are clusters of Corpses eating in front of either entrance to the room. There's nothing. My back hits the shelf. I'm trapped. I'm about to die.

My knees go weak, and I fall to sit on my heels, curling in on myself defensively. There's blood and gore on the Corpse's chin, in its teeth, as it kneels in front of me, and I hold back a sob.