A sharp, stinging pain erupted across Sae Joon Hyun's forehead. He winced, his fingers flying to the source-a deep, angry gash that hadn't been there seconds before. The world swam for a moment, a nauseating carousel of asphalt and grey sky, before his vision snapped back into focus. Warm, thick blood welled from the cut, tracing a slow, sticky path down his temple, threatening to drip into his eye. He swiped at it with the back of his sleeve, smearing crimson across the faded fabric.

"Ugh... Damn it. I'm sorry," he mumbled, his voice a rough scrape in the sudden, eerie quiet of the bus. His knuckles were white where they gripped the steering wheel, the only anchor in a spinning world.

His eyes, strained and clouded with a throbbing ache, refused to look away from the road ahead. With a weak flick of his hand, he gestured through the grimy windshield. "Look." The word was barely more than a breath, but it carried the weight of a shout in the tense silence.

The others, still jolted by the sudden stop, followed his gaze. And they froze.

There, in the middle of the empty, decaying road, was a figure. A boy. Just lying there. Motionless.

Yon let out a low, humorless chuckle from the back of his throat. "Seriously? Again? Why do we keep meeting people like this? Do they just fall out of the sky?"

Sae Joon Hyun didn't grace the comment with a reply. Gritting his teeth against the pounding in his skull, he pushed himself out of the driver's seat. The movement sent a fresh wave of dizziness through him. He stumbled toward the seat behind his, the blood now dripping in a steady rhythm onto the worn vinyl floor.

Eunhye was on her feet instantly, her instincts overriding her fear. She reached for him, her hands gentle but firm as she tried to tilt his head to get a better look. "Joon, let me see it. That looks bad."

He jerked his head away, a flicker of stubborn pride in his glazed eyes. "Nah. It's good. It's nothing." His tone was a clear, forceful dismissal, a wall she knew better than to try and scale right now.

Frustration tightened her features, but she let her hands drop. "Fine. Bleed on the seats, then. See if I care." She stomped back to the back seat, her own nerves frayed.

BANG!

The sound was massive, a metallic shriek that echoed from the front of the bus. Eunhye jumped, her heart hammering against her ribs. "What was that?!"

She scanned the road ahead. Nothing. Just the boy. The noise was a mystery, a ghost in the machine that only deepened the pit of dread in her stomach.

Minutes stretched into an eternity. The only sounds were the low hum of the idling engine and the ragged symphony of their breathing. Then, they began to appear. Dark, liquid shadows seeping from in front of the bus, oozing over the asphalt like spilled ink.

"Th-They're here..." Eunhye's voice was a tremulous whisper, her eyes wide with a familiar, chilling terror.

As if on cue, the boy on the road moved. With an unnerving, almost casual ease, he pushed himself to his feet. His right arm hung slightly limp at his side. In his left hand, he gripped a weapon-a rusty, blood-caked shaft of metal, its original purpose long since forgotten under layers of gore and neglect.

He stood firm, a solitary figure against the encroaching darkness. His movements were deliberate, calculated. He pointed the rusty shaft at the seething mass of figures now emerging from the shadows.

In-ha's bravado vanished, replaced by raw panic. "Shit... What do we do now? What's the plan?!" she hissed, shifting in her seat like a caged animal.

The boy exhaled a deep, weary breath. The moment his feet shifted into a fighter's stance, the creatures erupted into a frenzy. They surged toward him, a tidal wave of gnashing teeth and clawing limbs, their movements a horrifying blend of hunger and predatory grace.

What happened next stole the air from their lungs.

The boy didn't just fight; he moved. He became a whirlwind, a dancer in a ballet of death. The rusty shaft was an extension of his will, striking with brutal, precise efficiency. He weaved through the crowd, his movements fluid and practiced, a stark contrast to their own desperate, survivalist flailing. This wasn't luck; this was skill. Terrifying, lethal skill.

Eunhye and the others could only watch, their mouths agape.

"What the..." Yon breathed out, the words full of awe and disbelief. "Who is that guy? No offense, but I legit thought he was roadkill two minutes ago."

A weak laugh escaped In-Ha. "Oh, you too, Yon? Thank god. I thought I was going crazy for a second."

"Really, In-Ha ma'am? He did look pretty dead," Yon said, his eyes never leaving the spectacle.

"Seems he's a little more alive than we gave him credit for," she replied, her analytical mind already trying to categorize him, to fit him into a known box. She couldn't. Leaning out the broken window, she cupped her hands around her mouth. "Heyyy! You!! Who are you?"

The boy heard her. In a split second between shoving his shaft through a creature's neck and kicking another back, he glanced toward the bus. He sighed, the picture of exhausted annoyance, and offered a tiny, helpless shrug.

"Hamin," he muttered, his voice barely carrying over the snarls and wet impacts.

"I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" In-Ha yelled back, frustration edging her voice.

He ducked under a swinging claw, came up, and roared back, "HAMIN!"

"Hamin! What are you doing out here?" In-Ha called, her voice steadier now, trying to make sense of this unexpected variable.

His reply was laced with a tired sarcasm that was all too familiar. "What do you think I'm doing, ma'am? I'm trying to survive here."

His words, simple and stark, hung in the air. But the reality of their situation was rapidly worsening. The bus shuddered violently. THUMP. THUMP. SCRAAAAPE. "They're on the roof!" Eunhye screamed, gripping the back of Sae Joon Hyun's seat for dear life as the entire vehicle rocked.

With a sound of tearing metal, claws and limbs punched through the ceiling panels, peeling them back like tin cans. The interior was suddenly dappled with weak light and the grotesque sight of writhing, bloodied limbs reaching down for them.

"Shit! Now what?!" Sae Joon Hyun's voice was tight, his bravado completely gone, replaced by the raw fear of a trapped animal. He frantically scanned for an exit that didn't exist.

In-Ha's mind raced. She grabbed the heavy supply bags from the seat beside her, the rustle of nylon loud in the chaos. The sound was a dinner bell. The creatures on the roof focused their attention downward, their hisses zeroing in on the new noise.

"Argh!" Eunhye screamed as a claw swiped dangerously close to her head.

Sae Joon Hyun moved before anyone could think. Ignoring the blinding pain in his head, he kicked the bus door open with a grunt of effort. "Out! NOW!" he yelled, grabbing Eunhye's arm and yanking her with him. It was pure, reckless impulse.

Yon and In-Ha spilled out after them, the cold air hitting their faces. They were immediately exposed. The creatures, distracted by Hamin, now had new, closer prey.

They ran toward the only other person alive, the boy still holding the tide at bay. Hamin saw them coming and his eyes widened fractionally, not with fear, but with sheer frustration at their terrible timing. His gaze swept the deserted streets-no shelter, no other vehicles, nothing.

"We need to get back in the bus!" Yon shouted, his voice cracking as he ducked a lunging creature.

Sae Joon Hyun, pressing his sleeve to his bleeding head, hissed back, "I know we need it to leave, but those things have made it their nest! It's not a bus, it's a beehive!"

"We could just run," Eunhye suggested, but the words sounded hollow even to her. "It was an impulse... a stupid one. But it's done."

Yon shook his head violently, his eyes locked on Hamin, whose movements were starting to lose a fraction of their perfect precision. "That Hamin kid is running on fumes, Noona. You saw how they tore through the roof. Bare hands! They're evolving. If they get a solid grip on us, we're pulp. He's buying us a chance. The only chance we have is to take his help and get back to the bus. Only a vehicle can outrun this."

In-Ha opened her mouth to argue, to find another way, but Yon cut her off. "There is no 'but'! It's the bus or we die on this road."

She stared at the desperate faces around her, at the tireless horde, and at the increasingly fatigued boy holding them back. Defeat washed over her. "Hah... Fine," she relented, her voice heavy. "Jeez, so much for a democratic decision. So how, exactly, do we get back in there? Send them a formal invitation?"

"Hamin!" Yon yelled, darting forward and tugging on the boy's grimy shirt.

Hamin spun, shoving a creature back with a grunt, his chest heaving. "What?!" he snapped, his patience visibly thin.

"The bus! We need to get back to the bus!" Yon shouted over the din.

Hamin's eyes flicked from Yon's face to the swarming vehicle and back. A look of pure exasperation crossed his features, followed by a grim, resigned nod. It was a terrible plan, but it was the only one they had.

The creatures, sensing a shift, hissed and scrambled forward with renewed frenzy. Hamin didn't hesitate. He launched his shaft like a javelin, impaling one of the leading monsters, pinning it to the asphalt where it writhed, gurgling thick, greenish-black blood.

The distraction worked. As the others swarmed their pinned comrade, Hamin delivered a series of brutal, precise kicks, creating a tiny pocket of space. "GO! NOW!" he roared, sprinting toward his weapon.

They followed, a desperate, ragged convoy. Hamin yanked the shaft free and practically launched himself through an open bus window. From inside, they heard thuds, snarls, and sickening crunches as he began the brutal work of clearing their ride home.

He was a machine, tossing screeching creatures out through the windows and the hole in the roof with terrifying efficiency. For a moment, it looked like he might just pull it off single-handedly.

Then, fate intervened. His boot slipped on a patch of something wet and dark on the floor. With a sharp gasp, he lost his balance and crashed onto his back on the pavement, the air knocked from his lungs.

"Hamin!" Yon screamed.

Acting on pure instinct, Yon scrambled into the bus through the door, grabbing a half-empty water bottle from a seat. He unscrewed the cap and sprayed a wide arc of water at the creatures nearest to Hamin. The sudden, unexpected sensation made them recoil and hiss, confusion breaking their attack and forcing them out through the hole in the roof.

It was all the time Hamin needed. Gasping, he rolled to his feet, grabbed his shaft, and was back in the fight with a vengeance. "Get in!" he bellowed, his voice raw.

In-Ha didn't need telling twice. She vaulted inside, followed by Eunhye. Sae Joon Hyun was the last, slamming the door shut with a final, echoing clang that sealed them in. He fell into the driver's seat, jammed the key, and the engine roared to life. He didn't wait; he slammed his foot on the accelerator, and the bus lurched forward, leaving the horde and the nightmare road behind.

They drove until the last of the creatures vanished from the rearview mirror, and then they drove some more, putting miles between them and certain death. Only then did the unbearable tension inside the bus finally snap. Shoulders slumped. Heads fell into hands. The only sounds were the rumble of the engine and their own ragged attempts to breathe normally.

Eunhye was the first to break the silence, her voice thin and shaky. "Why... why did we even get out? That was so stupid. We almost died for nothing."

No one had an answer.

Hamin was sprawled flat on a seat a few rows back, his chest still rising and falling rapidly. One hand was clamped over a fresh scrape on his ribs, the other maintained a white-knuckled grip on his bloody shaft, as if even in exhaustion he couldn't bear to let it go.

In-Ha watched him, a cocktail of suspicion, awe, and burning curiosity churning in her gut. Her stare was intense, unwavering.

He felt it. His eyes, closed in exhaustion, snapped open. He turned his head slightly, meeting her gaze. A flicker of annoyance crossed his battered face. "Ugh. What is it, ma'am? You're staring a hole through my skull."

"Who the hell are you?" The question came out blunt, almost accusatory. "I've seen people survive. I've seen people fight. That wasn't either of those things. That was... something else. How are you so good at that?"

Hamin pushed himself up with a wince, groaning as his muscles protested. He ran a hand through his sweat-soaked hair. "What do you mean? It's not exactly a hidden secret. You fight those things every day for over six months, you tend to get the hang of it. It's called experience." He said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world, a hint of defensive pride in his tone.

"Six months?" In-Ha repeated, the number hanging in the air like a bomb. They'd been in this hell for a fraction of that time. To them, six months was an eternity.

Hamin's eyebrows raised. "Yeah? What's with the reaction? Time flies when you're having fun, right?" The dark joke fell flat.

"Where are you from, kid?" In-Ha pressed, leaning forward.

"Gangnam."

"Gangnam?" This time it was Yon who interjected, swiveling in his seat. "Then what are you doing all the way out here? This is the middle of Seoul, you know."

Hamin sighed, the sound full of a weariness that went far beyond physical exhaustion. He looked out the window at the blur of dead trees and abandoned cars, but he was seeing something else entirely. He knew the question was coming. The story was always the same.

"Fighting," he began, his voice quieter now, losing its defensive edge. "Me and my friends... we fought our way to the train station. Don't ask me how. We just did. We climbed on top of one of the dead trains, walked the rails all the way to the outer city. Scavenged a jeep. Thought we were golden." He paused, his jaw tightening. "Then a horde... a big one, nothing like back in the city... it came out of nowhere. Swarmed us. We got separated."

He swallowed hard, his eyes distant. "And as if that wasn't enough... a month ago, me and my other friend-the last one left from my original group-we got split up during a run. One minute she was there, the next... just gone. I've been looking for her ever since. That's what I was doing out here. Looking. And then... well. You found me."