Horror In The Dark

No Safe Haven

The silence inside the department store was suffocating. Outside, the dead scratched at the steel shutters, their low moans reverberating through the metal.

Soo-Young crouched against a shelf, gripping her rifle tightly.

Ji-Hyun sat beside her, hugging her knees. Her face was pale, her body trembling. The horror they had witnessed on the streets—their desperate run to safety—had left scars that went deeper than the flesh.

Sergeant Park winced as he checked his wounded leg. Blood had soaked through his pant leg, but he waved Soo-Young away when she moved toward him.

"Don't waste supplies on me yet," he muttered. "We need to figure out our next move."

Soo-Young scanned the survivors. Only seven of them had made it.

A young woman, barely in her twenties, kept sobbing into her hands. An older man clutched his stomach, his face twisted in pain. Another man—lean and sharp-eyed—watched the entrance with a knife in his hand.

They wouldn't last long.

Soo-Young tightened her grip on her rifle. "We need to find a way out of the city. The train is gone. The streets are flooded with the dead."

Park grunted. "And if we leave, where do we go?"

She hesitated. There had to be a safe zone. Somewhere.

Then, from the far side of the store—

A thud. Everyone froze.

Another thud. This time, louder.

It was coming from the back storage area.

Park cursed. "That's not from outside."

Something was inside with them.

Soo-Young raised her rifle, signaling for silence. The survivors huddled together, eyes darting toward the darkened storage area.

The thudding grew louder. More erratic. More aggressive.

Ji-Hyun whispered, "What if it's another survivor?"

Soo-Young's gut told her otherwise.

She moved forward, stepping over shattered glass, her heartbeat thudding in sync with the eerie sound.

She reached the storage room door. Something was behind it.

A long, dragging scrape echoed from the other side.

Then—

The door burst open.

A figure lunged forward, its body twisted in unnatural angles, its mouth snapping.

Soo-Young barely had time to react before she was thrown to the ground.

The thing that landed on top of her wasn't like the others.

Its skin was stretched thin, veins black and pulsing. Its eyes glowed, burning like embers in the darkness.

And its mouth—too wide, too unnatural—split open into four jagged sections, revealing layers of teeth.

This wasn't an ordinary infected.

This was something worse.

Soo-Young drove her knee into its stomach, rolling out from under it. The thing let out a distorted screech, and bolted toward her—on all fours.

A gunshot rang out.

Park fired his pistol, hitting it in the shoulder. The creature jerked, but it didn't go down. Instead, it turned its head unnaturally, fixing its glowing eyes on him.

Then it moved.

Fast.

Before Park could fire again, it was already on him.

Soo-Young grabbed a crowbar from the shelf and swung—hard.

The impact shattered its skull.

The creature twitched violently, its jaw snapping even as its body collapsed.

A long silence followed.

Soo-Young stepped back, her breath ragged.

"What the hell was that?" one of the survivors whispered.

Ji-Hyun clung to her mother's arm. "It looked… different."

Park wiped blood from his face. "They're changing."

Soo-Young stared down at the still-twitching corpse.

This wasn't just a zombie outbreak.

It was evolving.

And they were running out of time.

The twisted corpse on the ground still twitched, its mouth opening and closing like it was trying to speak. Its body convulsed, its fingers clawing at the tile floor before finally going still.

The survivors stared at the strange ugly form in stunned silence.

Soo-Young knelt beside it, her hands tightening around the crowbar. She had seen many horrors in war, but this… this was something else.

"They're not just reanimating," she muttered. "They're mutating."

Park wiped the sweat from his forehead. "Which means whatever this virus is—it's getting worse."

The young woman who had been crying earlier backed away, trembling. "If they're getting stronger, how are we supposed to survive?"

No one answered.

Ji-Hyun swallowed hard. "Mom… we need to leave."

She was right. The department store wasn't safe. If one of these things had made it inside, there were bound to be more.

Soo-Young stood. "We gather supplies and move before nightfall."

The survivors hurried through the aisles, grabbing whatever they could. Bottled water. Canned food. Flashlights. A first-aid kit.

As Soo-Young stuffed ammunition into her bag, a thought nagged at her.

Dr. Lee had said the virus was man-made.

If it was changing this fast, that meant someone had engineered it to do so.

Was this intentional?

She shook the thought away. Right now, survival came first.

But she wasn't going to forget it.

---

The City Of Traps

With their backpacks stuffed with supplies, they pried open a back door, and stepped into the alley. The air was thick with the stench of rot and decay.

Bodies littered the streets—some half-eaten, some still moving.

In the distance, faint growls and horrid wet noises echoed through the abandoned city.

Soo-Young raised a fist. Stop.

The survivors froze.

Something was moving up ahead.

A lone figure stumbled into the street. Its head jerked violently, like a puppet with broken strings.

Then, from the rooftops above—

A second one dropped from the sky.

It landed with an inhuman snap, bones cracking back into place as it lifted its head toward them.

Park muttered a curse. "They're… hunting."

Soo-Young's blood ran cold. The infected weren't just roaming anymore.

They were waiting. Watching. Tracking.

The one on the ground crawled forward, its jaw opening too wide.

Ji-Hyun gripped Soo-Young's arm. "Mom—"

Then the creatures charged.

"MOVE!" Soo-Young yelled.

The survivors scattered.

The infected were too fast. One lunged at the old man, dragging him down before he could even scream.

Soo-Young spun, raising her rifle. Bang!

The shot hit the creature's skull, but it didn't go down—it twitched, convulsed… then kept moving.

"Headshots aren't enough anymore!" Park shouted.

Soo-Young gritted her teeth. If bullets weren't enough, then—

She grabbed a nearby metal pipe and swung with all her strength.

The impact caved in the creature's skull, sending it sprawling.

That worked.

"Go for blunt force!" she ordered.

The remaining survivors fought like cornered animals, smashing, stabbing, kickig in a desperate, furious, and terrified manner.

Ji-Hyun swung a crowbar at one's legs, making it stumble. Park used a broken chair leg to impale another.

Within minutes, the infected lay still.

But the victory felt hollow.

Because the city was watching.

From windows. Alleys. Doorways.

More eyes glowed in the dark.

The zombies had seen them. And now it was coming.

---

The End Of The Road

The streets exploded with movement.

Dozens—no, hundreds—of infected poured from the buildings, their screeches filling the air.

Soo-Young grabbed Ji-Hyun's wrist. "RUN!"

They sprinted through the streets, dodging overturned cars and debris. The horde was right behind them.

Then—

A gunshot rang out from a rooftop.

Then another.

A flare shot into the sky, casting a red glow over the city.

Someone was signaling them.

Up ahead, a large armored bus sat in the middle of the street, its engine running. A man leaned out of the door, waving frantically.

"GET IN!"

The survivors didn't hesitate.

One by one, they leaped onto the bus.

The doors slammed shut.

The zombies crashed into the vehicle, clawing at the windows, screaming.

The driver—dressed in military gear—spun the wheel. The bus roared to life.

And they sped into the night, leaving the city of the dead behind.

But the real horror?

The destination was still unknown.

And Soo-Young wasn't sure they were heading anywhere safe.

---

A Ride Through Hell

The bus lurched forward, tires screeching as the driver swerved to avoid an overturned truck. Outside, the city was a blur of fire and death—buildings crumbling, streets choked with abandoned cars and the infected that roamed between them.

Soo-Young gripped her rifle as she pressed Ji-Hyun close, scanning the other passengers.

Who were they?

The driver, a man in his late 40s with a scarred face and military gear, clenched the wheel with white-knuckled hands. He didn't look back as he spoke.

"You're damn lucky we saw you," he grunted.

Soo-Young didn't relax. "Who are you?"

The man didn't answer right away.

Then—

"Major Choi Min-Sik. ROK Army."

Her stomach tightened. Another soldier. That could mean safety—or danger.

A younger man, probably mid-20s, sat in the front row, reloading a shotgun with smooth, practiced movements. He had a bandaged arm and a grim expression.

"Sergeant Han," he said without looking up.

Soo-Young frowned. "Why are you here? Shouldn't you be with the military?"

The Major let out a dry chuckle. "You think there's still a military?"

Silence filled the bus.

Ji-Hyun's fingers dug into Soo-Young's sleeve. "Mom… what does he mean?"

The Major sighed. "The chain of command is gone. Seoul is lost. The bases fell. This virus is spreading faster than anyone predicted."

Soo-Young's chest tightened. If that was true… then there really was nowhere safe left.