Chapter 5 Anger – Mark of Awakening (2)
2.
At 4 pm, monsters appeared and a fierce battle for survival began.
The battle ended at 5 pm, and the fatigued bodies of the survivors were in sight.
Now it’s 10 pm.
“Umm…..”
Survivors began to wake up one after another.
Of course, they were not waking up after what you could consider a good rest.
For many of them, this was the first time they had to fight for their lives.
However, could the survivors wash away the fatigue they had acc.u.mulated with a mere three of four hours of restless sleep, especially after such a harrowing life and death struggle?
However, there was a limit to how much they could sleep, and could only wake up.
‘Has a rescue team not come yet?’
‘d.a.m.n, my smart phone still doesn’t work? I pay so much every month for the phone service, but it still doesn’t work!’
‘How long do we have to stay here? What’s happened outside?’
The survivors couldn’t sleep anymore, their minds were filled with thoughts of what to do from here on and what would happen from now on.
“Excuse me, but what are you doing over there?”
“What?”
“Why are you trying to raise the fire shutter?”
The point of contention was in front of the fire shutter which had blocked the escalator up to the first floor.
There were four men in front of the fire shutter.
They were all of a similar age group and seemed to be friends, ranging from their late 20s to their early 30s. They stood vigilant while voicing their desire to open the fire shutter.
“What you’re doing is dangerous! What will you do if there are monsters?”
Park Jae Un reacted furiously.
To Park Jae Un, the first floor was a living h.e.l.l.
It was only just a few hours ago that he had suffered the most traumatizing life and death struggle he had so far in his life.
In fact, Park Jae Un had woken from his sleep because he was concerned about the fire shutters. He was worried about what might happen should the barrier between the first and second floors.
Would the monsters appear again? Would the monsters somehow penetrate through the fire shutters and once again to put the lives of his wife and daughter in peril once more….. more worries and concerns.
But now, there were four idiots trying to raise the fire shutter.
Park Jae Un’s shouting, telling them to stop, was filled with genuine sincerity and fear.
Naturally, his loud cries attracted the attention of a crowd of survivors in the vicinity.
“What’s this? What’s going on here?”
“R, rescue team, is the rescue team here?”
“I don’t think it’s the rescue team……. “
One after another, more people who had woken up or couldn’t sleep moved towards the fire shutter.
A chaotic mess began to permeate throughout the second floor.
“This , f.u.c.k…. really….”
One of the four young men who had figured out what was going on shamelessly let out a swear.
“What are you looking at? What are you all looking at!”
Another one of the four was eyeing the crowd with a nervous look in his eyes.
It wasn’t very difficult to see why.
“What?”
‘That’s …… that’s a MacBook right?’
‘No, it’s an iPad?’
There were a bunch of Apple™ products still in their packaging in plastic bags sitting around the four young men.
In such a time as this, these four thieves were going to run off with the most expensive things they could find.
They were caught stealing, yet their response was to try and shamelessly turn the people away.
”d.a.m.n, do your eyes not turn?”
“Euh-ee!”
Eventually, of the four, the biggest and fattest one walked towards Park Jae Un.
Pik!
Then, without any warning, he pushed Park Jae Un’s shoulders.
”Ouch!”
Park Jae Un couldn’t withstand the force behind the push, and fell backwards.
”Dear!”
Park Jae Un’s wife yelled loudly when she saw her husband falling backwards. Her daughter, who was asleep at her bosom, woke up, rubbing her eyes with her hands.
“Why are you…….”
Park Jae Un promptly stood back up. He tried to negotiate with them again.
Puuk!
But as soon as he got back up, the big guy once again pushed him back down.
But this time, a bit harder than before. Because of the force behind the push, it might be more appropriate to say he was. .h.i.t rather than pushed.
“Uheuk!”
Winded, Park Jae Un fell back down onto the floor.
‘Huk!’
‘It’s a fight.’
The place that had previously been loud and chaotic quickly quieted down.
However, the atmosphere became one of desolation.
‘What do I do? Should I fight back?’
‘What if I just get beat up even more what would be the point….. ‘
A feeling of loneliness welled up inside him.
In that dangerous atmosphere, the four young men menacingly eyed the crowd. In their eyes, their way of life was the only way to survive.
They were not bluffing.
It was because they had drawn blood before. It wasn’t just once or twice either.
They had stabbed monsters with knives, cut down monster flesh with axes, and had crushed monster heads with baseball bats.
Through their experiences they had learned how to survive.
“Is this some sort of show to you? This is not just a spectacle!”
“You guys feel fine just watching what’s going on?”
Of course, although they felt disgusted by what they were doing, they were not willing to stand up for him.
“Hey mister, what the f.u.c.k do you think you’re doing?”
The four thugs stared menacingly at Park Jae Un and his family.
Some of the bystanders became excited at the way the situation had developed.
‘‘S, sorry, I’m sorry….. ’’
“What are you apologizing for? Hmm? Hmm?”
“… . . . I’m sorry.”
“What? What did you say? Try to yell again like you did before.
C’mon, try it one more time!”
The four thugs felt that the bystanders were becoming less willing to interfere, and their momentum increased.
It was their intuition.
In this blocked off second bas.e.m.e.nt level of the shopping mall, they were the rulers, they were the predators.
Around them, they saw nothing that could threaten them, but only things that they could step on.
“Hey , mister. I said get up. I said get up. ’’
He had no choice but to do so.
Puuk!
As Park Jae Un was getting up, a slim thug walked up behind him and kicked Park Jae Un like he would a soccer ball.
“Keuahk!”
Park Jae Un let out a yelp while trying to get up, and fell onto the floor.
“Daddy!”
Having finally overcome her drowsiness and opened her eyes, Park Jae Un’s daughter saw him falling onto floor, and screamed as loudly as her little throat would let her.
“Daddy daddy!”
One of the thugs made a smile after seeing Park Jae Un’s wife and daughter. In his hand was a kitchen knife that was giving off a threatening gleam.
“N, no! No no no.”
Seeing the knife, Park Jae Un ran towards the man that was approaching his wife and daughter.
Dupseuk!.
Running towards the thug, he grabbed onto the thug’s left leg.
“Huh? Huh?”
Seeing Park Jae Un clinging onto his leg, for some reason the thug felt scared.
Although Park Jae Un behavior showed that he was acting out of desperation, there was still something off about him.
”Get off of me! Get off! Die!”
In that situation, he felt a sense of danger welling up inside him.
They had already seen it before, how easily a human could die.
Of course, the other three thugs quickly set off after Park Jae Un in order to take care of him.
”Let go of him! If you don’t want to die, let go of him!”
“Just kill him!”
Puhubk, puk!
They kicked Park Jae Un off of the thug, and started to stomp on him.
“Huk, huk!”
The sound of Park Jae Un’s rough breathing was audible during his beating.
‘What do I do?’
‘I need to look for someone who can help.’
The onlookers only frowned in response while the thugs ruthlessly stomped on Park Jae Un with a grimace on their faces.
“Daaaad! Daddy!”
Meanwhile, Park Jae Un’s wife covered her crying daughter’s face.
She could only patiently wear down her daughter while she experienced a bout of hysteria.
The people on the second floor began to feel a horror distinct from the kind they felt when faced with the monsters. This was a kind of horror that only humans could bring about while raising their hands against others.
“Hey stop that right now you sons of b.i.t.c.hes!”
Finally, a woman stepped forth.
Wearing a thick jumper, an untidy looking woman stepped out. She had freckles around the bridge of her nose, and with a loud and impressive voice, she shouted.
“Now that the h.e.l.l is this?”
One of the thugs looked in the direction of the woman with a threatening gleam in his eyes.
Although she wasn’t scared of his shout, she couldn’t help but yelp when staring into his evil eyes.
“If you’re going to steal, just take the merchandise and quietly go away! Don’t hurt an innocent person!”
”Tssk!”
One of the thugs spat on the floor, and they began to walk towards the woman who had spoken out.
Before the thug could reach her, the woman pulled something out with her right hand. Her hand had a tattooed pattern on it, and in her hand was a kitchen knife.
“Huh? s.h.i.+t!”
The thug faltered in his steps.
The other three stopped as well.
“K, knife. It’s a knife!”
“Crazy woman, kill that b.i.t.c.h! Kill her!”
The thugs already knew how dangerous a knife was, so they began to cooperate more.
There was a lot of evidence that pointed to the dangers of a knife.
There were blood stains and puddles of blood all throughout the store after the initial monster outbreak. This was evidence that cutlery should be feared.
If there was a monster’s body nearby, it would have been even clearer.
Unfortunately, there weren’t any bodies around that could prove the deadliness of a knife.
“Everyone stop. “
A young man had spat out those words.
“You four, you move, you die. “
The young man was wearing a plastic ap.r.o.n covered in blood and had taken care of disposing some bodies.
Kim Tae Hoon had finally arrived.