* * *

The recon team arrived at Soon Chun Hyang Hospital. The foursome explored the outside before going in. They kept an eye out for other groups of survivors that might put them in danger.

There weren’t any lights on inside the hospital and the broken windows hinted at the chaos that had ensued here during the past six months. This place had probably been filled with sick patients and those who swore the Hippocratic Oath to help those patients. Now, there were only curtains fluttering eerily by the broken windows, creating a somber scene.

“Do you see anything?” Yohan asked Sweeper, who was looking around with his binoculars.

“No, I think we’re going to have to go in.”

“Any people?”

“It’s hard to tell whether they’re humans or zombies, but I think the majority of them are zombies.”

Sweeper handed the binoculars to Yohan, who peered through them into the hospital. As Sweeper said, most of the figures they could see were zombies. From the outside, it seemed like the building was filled with undead.

“Not much we can do, other than confronting them.”

“Where should we enter?”

“Let’s go in from the back door.” Yohan replied without hesitation. Going in with the sun behind them was the safest. The deeper they went into the building, the darker it would get, so they had to target the part of the building with the most visibility.

The foursome slowly entered the hospital. Broken furniture and glass were everywhere, creating a foreboding setting, not unlike those in a horror movie. This was especially true with the sunlight only reaching certain spots, leaving other areas dark. This slowed their pace, as they had to discern between living zombies and zombie corpses. However, as the hallway was narrow, it wasn’t that dangerous. And yet, Yohan felt like something was off.

There was a difference between the undead corpses and still animated zombies. The corpses had holes in their heads and were decaying, indicating that they had been around for a while. On the flip side, the living zombies had little decay.

“There were survivors.” Yohan declared, intentionally using the past tense. There were obvious signs that at least one survivor came through here. It was unknown if these survivors were still alive.

“I think we just need to check the cafeteria and the convenience store on the first floor. Sweeper, watch out. Two zombies next to the left escalator.” Yohan was the first to sense the zombies’ presence and called them out.

As they passed by the escalators, the zombies emerged from the blind spot baring their teeth. However, Sweeper was prepared for them and twisted one zombie aside while he smashed in the head of the other. A moment later, the one that he had manhandled fell as well.

“Seriously, how can you tell? I didn’t even hear anything.”

Yohan tapped his lips with his index finger twice, indicating silence, as he stepped around Sweeper. Sweeper sulked.

The convenience store was almost empty. There were no signs of humans taking refuge here. Instead, there were plenty of zombie corpses inside and around the store with holes in their heads.Yohan inspected the storage capacity of the store, trying to figure out how much supplies it would have stocked. He didn’t know how much food the cafeteria would have, but if a single group had looted everything in both of these locations, they would have had enough to last them six months.

Yohan started hand signalling at the other members of the recon team and they exited from the convenience store. Ever since they left camp, Yohan rarely talked and instead used hand signs to issue commands. If any team members talked, Yohan would reprimand them. Talking was not allowed until Yohan gave the ‘all clear’ signal.

The staff cafeteria was on the same floor as the convenience store and wasn’t too far away. Yohan tried the handle of the cafeteria door, but it was locked tight. After glancing at the other members of the recon team, he slowly knocked on the door.

“Excuse me.” His tone wasn’t formal, but wasn’t too informal either. Yohan tried to use his calmest voice and called out to the potential survivors.

However, there was no answer. Yohan raised his voice and tried again. His voice and knocking was loud enough to attract some nearby zombies, but there still wasn’t any response from behind the door. They waited calmly, long enough that Saeri could no longer endure and felt compelled to voice her frustration.

“Yohan, I don’t think there’s anyone here..”

“No. There’s a survivor inside.” Yohan replied. Saeri’s eyes widened, asking for an explanation.

“The door is locked from the inside. That means someone went inside and locked the door. If that person had become a zombie, they would have reacted when I knocked on the door.”

“It could have been locked from the beginning..or someone could have locked it with a key from the outside, right?”

“They looted the convenience store. There’s no way they would have ignored the cafeteria. If there is only one survivor, they probably wouldn’t come out until they had run out of supplies. If they have run out of supplies, then there would be no reason for them to lock the door.”

“What if there is more than one survivor?” Saeri tilted her head to side, still unconvinced.

“Then they would have had a guard instead of locking the door. Survivors have a tendency to stay near supplies. Staying inside the cafeteria is more ideal, since it’s bigger than the convenience store.” Yohan concluded. He then knocked on the door again.

“I know you’re in there. We’ll share some of our supplies, so please open the door.”

Again, there was no response.

“If you don’t open the door, I’ll assume there are no survivors in there and will break down the door.” Yohan said, looking as if he really was going to break the door handle as he grabbed Sweeper’s axe and struck the handle with the back of the axe head. Of course, he wasn’t really going to break the door handle. The door itself was made out of strong iron and it didn’t look like the door handle would break easily either. Still, his threat worked.

“..I don’t need your supplies, so go away.” The voice of a woman spoke quietly from behind the door. Yohan glanced back at his comrades and handed the axe back to Sweeper.

“Then we’ll leave some food by the door for you.” Yohan took out some dry food from his bag and placed it on the ground. He then gave the signal to hide. They all stepped away from the door and hid.

A long while later, the door opened slightly and a woman peeked out. She checked to make sure that nothing was around before bending down to pick up the food. Yohan popped out from behind the door and blocked it from closing. There was a sharp yell and the woman tried to swing at Yohan with the steel pipe that she was holding. Yohan blocked the pipe with his padded arm and smoothly wrapped his hand around it to disarm the woman.

The woman struggled initially, but stopped as soon as she saw that Yohan was holding a gun and trembled instead. For a moment, Yohan felt bad as the cause of her reaction, but he still restrained her immediately and walked her into the hospital cafeteria. The cafeteria was fairly large. There were no other survivors or zombies inside.

“Are you alone?”

The woman kept her mouth shut, pretending to be mute. As the other fully armed members of the recon team entered and closed the door, she began to look worried. Yohan casually looked around and came up with his own answer.

“So there’s around five of you here.” He said decisively. The woman’s eyes widened.

“And I believe the others went out to find supplies.”

“Who..”

“I’m not planning on killing you, so don’t be afraid. Shall we talk?”

“Y—you say that you’re not planning on killing me, but you’re waving your gun around.”

Yohan shrugged. He wasn’t pointing it at her, he was just holding it.

“If I was planning on killing you, I would’ve shot you as soon as I saw you.”

“There’s no guarantee that you won’t harass me after you get my guard down!”

“Harass you?”

“You know..like..my body..”

Yohan felt like there was some sort of misunderstanding and that she was being unfair. However, given the situation, he decided to be understanding and let it go. He recalled that Saeri had called him a predator before, even if it was only for a moment.

‘As if I would do anything like that.’

“I know I don’t have any way of guaranteeing it, but know that I’m not that kind of person, nor do I have that kind of malice. While we wait for your comrades, tell us your story.”

“What story?” The woman was still very curt with him. She seemed to be purposely speaking with a harsh tone in order to hide her trembling voice.

“How you survived, what kind of people your comrades are, etc. Are you a doctor?”

“..No.”

“Is there a doctor in your group?”

The woman didn’t reply. Yohan stared at her while subconsciously fingering the gun in his hand. He wasn’t trying to threaten her, but seemed to have accomplished it anyways, as the woman’s face turned pale and she answered immediately.

“..There’s one doctor. And a nurse.”

Yohan wanted to shout with joy.

Medical personnel were the rarest talent. His face visibly brightened at the news. It was an amazing find for their first excursion.

“How long has it been since you guys ran out of supplies?”

“It’s been over a week. We’ve been searching here and there, but..”

“You must be starving. Saeri, give her some food and water.”

Saeri took the food and water that they had left in front of the door previously and handed them to the woman. She patted the woman on the back and tried to reassure her. As a fellow female, Saeri’s efforts seemed to have a more positive effect on the woman and she began to calm down. Internally, Yohan adjusted Saeri’s contribution score from 0.3 to 0.4.

The woman must have been starving, as she ate quickly. It seemed like she had been near her limit. Her group was probably at the point where they had to move to a different location. Yohan’s team arrived just in time.

The curtains around the cafeteria were half closed, letting in some light. They were probably closed all the way at the start of the apocalypse, so that people could hide better. There were piles of everyday supplies on top of the tables in the cafeteria. Rather than risk going outside, this group seemed to have decided to stay in a familiar space and wait for rescue. Once they ran out of supplies, they were forced to venture out. The rotting corpses outside of the door were probably remnants of their battles from when they first entered this safe house.

“How many people were with you when you first escaped to this place?” Yohan continued to ask the woman questions, maintaining the tense atmosphere.

“Over 20 people. Most of them died while coming here.” The woman lowered her guard a bit, probably feeling like she owed them a favor for the food. Yohan took the opportunity to ask all his questions.

He was interested in the chaos that took place in this hospital at the start of the apocalypse. As with any hospital, there were a lot of patients. This meant that the infection would spread quickly, making it the most dangerous place to be in at the start of the outbreak. With smaller hospitals, he might have expected some survivors, but not at a big hospital like this. When they came here, Yohan was more focused on acquiring medicine. He knew they would have to be extremely lucky to find a doctor.

There were a total of seven survivors remaining. One doctor, one nurse, one dietitian, and a family of four. During the outbreak, they were all in the same room and, thanks largely to the quick thinking of one of the patient’s family members, they managed to get to the cafeteria. The patient unfortunately died on the way, along with the majority of the people that were with them at the start. The woman, who was a dietitian working in the cafeteria, joined the group when they arrived.

“Is there anyone that can fight zombies?”

“The people who left.”

Yohan was about to ask another question when, suddenly, they heard loud footsteps and an urgent voice at the door.

“Open the door!”

“People are here!”