Chapter 575
“Hyeonmok! Hyeonmok!”
“Huh?! What happened?!”
The situation steadily worsened.
Getting through the zombies outside and reaching the rooftop had already been difficult enough, but now Hyeonmok collapsed after coughing up blood.
“...”
Tak Jeongyun’s face turned deathly pale.
-This never happened before.
Everything had deviated from her expectations.
The survivors she had sent outside to save had ended up getting bitten by the infected or dying in traffic accidents, and because of that, the communication system had broken down.
The disaster alert had been issued because the infected had spread everywhere, and although they had succeeded in making contact with the soldiers, more infected had started coming down from the upper floors.
-What do I do? Do I have to start over again?
Looking down at Hyeonmok collapsed on the floor, Tak Jeongyun squeezed her eyes shut.
Kang Hyeonwoo knelt down and turned on his penlight.
-Ah. Right.
He flipped open Hyeonmok's eyelids and checked his breathing. The boy’s condition was critical.
-A patient with brain problems developing complications under extreme stress... that was completely natural...
The world Tak Jeongyun knew was changing little by little, and drained of strength, she had no choice but to accept it.
-This time too.
Maybe it would be better to quietly wait for what came next.
-This time too, I might fail.
Hyeonmok's father fell to his knees and cried.
“Hyeonmok! Hyeonmok!”
“...Forgive me for saying this, but before more infected gather, perhaps you should escape...”
“...Then what about my son?”
Hyeonmok's father, the soldiers, and Resident Kang Hyeonwoo stood opposed to one another.
“Th-those zombies... I mean, whatever they are. In movies they react to noise and light, right? If we take a kid having seizures with us, wouldn’t that be dangerous...?”
“Exactly...”
“Can’t we just leave first?”
The security team.
“So you’re saying we should leave the sick child behind and go by ourselves?”
The new nurse.
“Hmm...”
The two-star general.
“...”
The archer.
“Ah, fuck...”
The delivery driver.
Everyone’s positions were sharply opposed. No one wanted to risk their life for somebody else.
But—
Tak Jeongyun was a veteran nurse.
She was the only one who knew the undeniable reason Hyeonmok had to survive.
“I’ll go get the medicine.”
And part of her thought it would be fine to die one more time.
“What medicine are you going to get?!”
“I-if you go out and zombies come in here...”
“Thank you, nurse. Thank you so much!”
“Will you be alright?”
“...Nurse...”
As the security team, Hyeonmok's father, the resident, and the nurses all spoke at once, the two-star general remained silent.
He seemed to be calculating furiously.
The communication system had only suffered a “partial failure.” It had not been destroyed forever.
The delivery driver, who used RG U+, was still trying to contact the outside world and checking the situation.
If this entire situation were broadcast through social media—
The two-star general’s remaining life would be ruined as well.
So abandoning the sick child, and abandoning the nurse insisting they save him—
-There was no way he could simply leave.
Evidence remained forever.
The two-star general sighed.
“Where is the medicine?”
“General!”
“...We’ll divide into Plan A and Plan B. Plan A: retrieve the medicine, calm the child down, and leave together. Plan B: if anything goes wrong along the way...”
He left the rest unsaid, but everyone understood.
Hyeonmok's father burst into tears.
Do Gyeoul, Tak Jeongyun, two security guards, and one soldier from Team C left the auditorium carrying radios, batons, and stun guns.
-TT______TT
-Holy shit...
-My hands are shaking
-I wanna beat the hell out of the security team; fuck
-Unni, you have to live T_T
And naturally—
“Excuse me! Hey...!”
According to time-honored clichés—
“Please save me!”
There were survivors near the place where they had gone to retrieve the medicine.
“Wait! Wait... Shh... Quiet...!”
And the desperate instinct to survive could sometimes devour reason.
“You bastards... You were planning to leave by yourselves... by yourselves...!”
When fury had nowhere to go, someone always ended up sacrificed.
“...Nurse!”
Hospitals received a lot of fruit baskets.
Which meant fruit knives were everywhere.
Tak Jeongyun was stabbed in the abdomen.
“Ah...”
She clutched at her stomach as blood poured out.
Do Gyeoul barely managed to drag Tak Jeongyun into the room containing the medicine and tears streamed down her face.
The security guards seized the fruit knife from the survivor and shot him dead.
Meanwhile, the soldier opened one of the videos saved on his phone, which could no longer communicate.
He set the volume to maximum and shoved the phone down the opposite end of the corridor.
Laughter and music burst out from the video, and the infected rushed toward the sound.
“Everything hurts... every time...”
Tak Jeongyun had experienced countless deaths.
Her past replayed before her eyes like a lantern show.
Sometimes it was infection.
Sometimes an explosion.
Sometimes a fall.
Sometimes suffocation.
And sometimes she had thrown herself out the window with her own hands.
Her weak voice repeated the same thing every time.
That it always hurt.
-😭😭😭😭😭😭
-I’m crying so hard
-😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
-Ah, fuck
-SAVE UNNI!!!!!
The discussion boards were flooded with tears.
Even the On Jihwa moms who had been angry at her earlier were crying.
Now that they understood her decision to sacrifice On Jihwa a little more.
“It’s okay. It’s okay. Let’s stop the bleeding first... That person had some blood on him, but he definitely wasn’t infected. I-I know. I saw him.”
Do Gyeoul rambled while taking out bandages among the medicines.
Several bottles fell and rolled away because her trembling hands could barely hold them.
“He wasn’t infected. I know.”
But was that really true?
No one knew whether the man who had stabbed Tak Jeongyun had already been bitten by an infected person.
Perhaps the knife itself had stabbed several infected before, their blood still smeared all over it.
“You know...”
“Yes. Yes. Please speak.”
“I actually lied about everything.”
Tak Jeongyun’s eyes had grown dim.
She looked like an exhausted old woman lying in bed waiting for death.
Like a withered tree, dry and devoid of life.
Her body gradually stiffened.
Do Gyeoul lifted her upper body from the floor and pulled her into her embrace.
The movement was instinctive, like that of a nurse.
But there was no familiarity whatsoever in her eyes.
The gaze she turned toward Tak Jeongyun belonged only to a terrified rookie.
“What the Planning Office Director... hngh... told me... none of it... I heard nothing...”
“...”
“I-I actually... have been living... this one day... for a year. Haha... You don’t believe me, right...? It keeps... keeps starting over...? But this one thing... j-just this... hngh... isn’t a lie... This... this part is real...”
Like an old woman with all her teeth gone, she mumbled the words.
It seemed too much for her.
“I’m... really sorry... to you...”
“What are you sorry for? No. No. Don’t say things like that.”
Countless memories crossed her mind.
People who died because she closed the door.
People who were bitten because she turned her back and ran.
Time had forced Tak Jeongyun, who used to save lives, into making choices that led people to death.
And among those choices—
There was someone who existed in some timelines and not in others.
But in every timeline, she eventually died beside her.
That distant junior.
“I abandoned you... too many times...”
Clinging to her and crying uncontrollably, Do Gyeoul listened as Tak Jeongyun handed things over.
“If you just get Hyeonmok out... everything ends... so hold on a little longer...”
“What are you talking about? I-I don’t understand any of this...”
“It’s just... Hyun...mok. If Hyeonmok dies... it starts again... Understand...? No matter what... get him out...”
She forced the corners of her stiff mouth upward.
It was a terrible smile.
“So... please... kill me this time...”
-TT____TT
-Please...
-Don’t do this
-You bastards making people go insane right after New Year’s TT_TT
-Save her save her save her TT__TT
-LMAO I’m seriously losing my mind
At some point, Tak Jeongyun had stopped wishing to survive.
Her goal had become death.
Only the desperate wish not to live again kept her moving.
If Do Gyeoul succeeded in escaping with Hyeonmok this time, perhaps she would never wake up again.
Because the only reason everything restarted—
Was Hyeonmok's death.
Worn down by endless failures, she blinked her clouded eyes twice.
Everything had collapsed.
Trust had hit rock bottom.
The world was filled with selfish people determined to survive.
“And... the others...”
But she still said it.
“Save them too...”
Her eyes grew murkier.
Her voice weaker.
Death kept approaching.
Though hundreds of repetitions of hell had shattered and broken her noble beliefs—
At this moment, she was the perfect nurse.
She was this hospital’s Lee Jeongmin.
“Later... if you get out safely... the people here... no... even the people... who’ll be nearby...”
The Nightingale Pledge hanging on one wall of the medicine room came into view.
-I solemnly pledge before God and all of you that I shall live a righteous life and devote myself to the nursing profession.
“Hngh...! N-no. No... Nurse, wait. Don’t say anything... Ah, the bleeding won’t stop...”
“Instead of me... you...”
“Okay, okay. I understand, so please. Please stop talking!”
“I... killed too many...”
“I understand. Okay? I understand.”
“Save them... alright...”
With those words, Lee Jeongmin never spoke again.
-I will cooperate sincerely with healthcare professionals and devote myself to the well-being of those under my care.
The new nurse holding her in her arms came into focus.
It was truly a pitiful handover.
She barely understood what had been entrusted to her.
She had no idea what to do now that she was alone.
“...Ah...”
She was simply heartbroken.
Just heartbroken.
She stared blankly at Lee Jeongmin with unbelieving eyes as tears streamed down her cheeks.
Because crying was the only thing Yoo Yeonji could do.
Bang!
“Not yet?!”
But even grief was a luxury.
Yoo Yeonji hurriedly gathered the medicine with trembling hands.
Leaving Lee Jeongmin behind, she ran.
And her eyes had changed.
The dying wish to save people became a gravestone carved into her heart.
She could no longer remain a rookie waiting for her senior’s help.
Inside her pocket was Lee Jeongmin’s phone.
[DramaMovieActor TALK/ FUCK JEONGMIN TT___TT]
[DramaMovieActor TALK/ I never thought she’d say she wanted to die]
[DramaMovieActor TALK/ Making people lose their minds right after New Year’s, Seoul Metropolitan City has gone insane]
[DramaMovieActor TALK/ Every actor in Seoul Metropolitan City is possessed for real]
The completely different crying performances by Do Gyeoul and Tak Jeongyun drove viewers insane.
One was someone who had wanted to be good.
The other was someone who now had to become good.
Tak Jeongyun, the only person with memories of the loop and the protagonist of , left the stage.
And by inheriting her spirit, Do Gyeoul inherited the role of protagonist.
“Ah, damn it.”
“All this because of one damn kid...”
“She acted all high and mighty and got herself killed.”
Neither the security team nor the soldier mourned Lee Jeongmin’s death.
They merely grumbled.
Yoo Yeonji’s lips tightened into a straight line.
Then she forced a smile.
“...But we still have to save them.”
Because Lee Jeongmin’s last words had become the spark in her heart.
Yoo Yeonji blasted music through her phone and threw it far down the corridor just as the soldier had done earlier.
The infected swarmed toward the sound.
Fortunately, they managed to shake off the infected on the same floor.
But there was nothing they could do about the infected climbing up from the lower floors.