As the evening glow slowly descended, Team B, who had gone to the workshop, returned.

We heated up the pork cutlets we had carefully prepared in the microwave and served them to the hardworking members of Team B.

“Whoa! Are these really pork cutlets?”
“Where did you even find these?”
“Is this for real?”

Without anyone prompting, Team B’s faces lit up with excitement as they hurried to sit at the table.

Though the pork cutlets were slightly soggy from being reheated in the microwave, they were far more appetizing than canned food.

Seol Yeo-won stared intently at the cutlets, swallowing the saliva pooling in her mouth.

Jeon Wan-soo laughed heartily and shoved a pork cutlet into his mouth, while Jung Jin-young, overwhelmed with emotion, had tears brimming in his eyes.

Lee Jung-woo, watching their reactions, smiled warmly and said, “There’s plenty for everyone, so take your time eating. Let me know if you need more.”

We enjoyed a lively dinner for the first time in a long while.

I couldn’t remember the last time the club room had been filled with so much laughter.

Lee Jung-woo walked over to the club room entrance and picked up an acoustic guitar propped against the corner.

It was the same guitar Jung Jin-young had yelled about saving during a previous crisis, insisting it couldn’t be damaged.

Jung-woo carefully tuned the guitar and began playing a song he often performed in the past, Mountain of Miracles.

The group, busily eating moments ago, one by one set down their spoons and turned toward Jung-woo, captivated by the beautiful melody soothing their ears.

The enchanting and dreamlike melody felt like a stark contrast to the silence we had endured in recent days.

Jung Jin-young watched Jung-woo’s performance quietly. When the song ended, he picked up another acoustic guitar from the corner of the room.

“Should we play together for old times’ sake?”
“What song?”
“There’s a piece that’s perfect for a day like today. How about It Was a Good Day by Depapepe?”

Jung-woo nodded with a content smile and adjusted his guitar again.

I leaned back against my chair and listened to their duet.

Who would have thought I’d get to hear Jung-woo and Jin-young play together again?

The tender melody, like a salve for my frayed and tattered heart, brought tears to my eyes.

When I sniffled, Seol Yeo-won glanced at me and offered a faint smile.

Embarrassed, I coughed awkwardly and looked away, but Jeon Wan-soo noticed and said, “Huh? Are you crying?”

“No one’s crying.”

“Puhaha! Park Jae-hyung’s crying!”

As Wan-soo roared with laughter, Choi Hyun pinched his thigh and scolded him, “Sit down and stop being noisy.”

“Ow, that hurts!”
“It’s supposed to hurt.”

Even their bickering felt cheerful.

Yoon Hye-ri clicked her tongue at their antics but refocused on the duet by Jung-woo and Jin-young.

Kim Hee-yeon, seeing their performance for the first time, watched with admiration in her eyes.

Seol Yeo-won closed her eyes gently, a serene smile gracing her lips—a look I had never seen before.

Everyone was smiling.

Like a faded Polaroid capturing a moment that seemed impossible to relive, joy had returned to us tonight.

The warmth that touched my heart spread a smile across my lips as well.

With the zombies from the old student union, the library, the sports field, and even the mutant taken care of, there were no immediate threats.

That night, we laughed and chatted late into the evening, cherishing the romance we had forgotten in our struggles.

---

By dawn, a steady rain began to fall, and it turned into an unseasonably late monsoon that lasted for days.

The world, already shrouded in dense fog, became even damper and more humid.

The mist, which used to rise to the second floor only at night, now lingered between the second and third floors throughout the day.

To ensure safety, we moved all the exercise equipment to the fifth floor and temporarily halted our trips to the workshop.

Whenever the rain let up, we climbed to the roof to maintain communication with the two men in the comprehensive lecture hall.

The two, who were studying advanced materials engineering, claimed they could maintain the solar panels.

While we had only been checking the batteries, they boasted that they could even repair broken solar panels.

Not only had they saved us from the zombies, but they also appeared skilled with machinery.

They might even fill the gap left by Rose.

Confident in their abilities, they also said they could fix broken communication devices, including radios.

Given that we needed technical experts, we expressed our intention to bring them into the group once the rain stopped.

Jeon Wan-soo, meanwhile, spent his days staring out the window and sighing deeply.

He was visibly frustrated that he couldn’t visit the workshop when his dream of completing the zombie car was so close.

I walked over to him and put a hand on his shoulder.

“There’s no need to rush.”
“I’m not rushing. I’m worried the workshop will flood.”
“Flood? It’s not like there’s a river nearby.”
“It’s been raining non-stop for four days. If a drought is followed by heavy rains, flooding becomes a real concern.”
“The ground absorbs the water.”
“Parched ground cracks and loses its ability to absorb water properly.”

Having lived my whole life in Seoul, I wasn’t aware of such issues.

Feigning a calm demeanor, I replied, “This isn’t a low-lying area. It won’t flood.”
“If it keeps raining like this, who knows? A landslide could hit the engineering building.”

The engineering building stood near a steep cliff.

Although there had never been a landslide in the area before, the torrential rain made anything possible.

The situation wasn’t ideal, to say the least.

Beyond the risk of landslides, heavy rain also accelerated zombie mutations.

Wan-soo and I silently stared out at the downpour for a long time.

The world was drenched, with visibility reduced to almost nothing.

Would the drainage systems hold up?

If the sewers overflowed, as Wan-soo feared, the workshop flooding might just be a matter of time.

As we stood in contemplation, a sharp sound of the door opening broke the silence.

“Everyone, pay attention!”

Choi Hyun’s urgent voice snapped us out of our thoughts, and tension filled the air once more.

Was it a zombie attack?

I grabbed a hunting knife from the cabinet, still not used to the new replacement for my broken one, and asked Choi Hyun, “Is it zombies?”

“No, Hee-yeon knows where we can find a radio!”

Confused by the sudden remark, I raised an eyebrow, and Kim Hee-yeon raised her hand hesitantly.

“I, uh, I know where there’s a radio.”

“A radio? Why now?”

Even Lee Jung-woo asked with a puzzled expression. Choi Hyun nodded and explained.

“We’ve talked about it a lot, right? How it’d be good to have a way for Team A and Team B to communicate if we move separately.”

All eyes turned to Kim Hee-yeon, who fidgeted and replied, “Well… you know our school’s mountaineering club? I heard they have a radio. A friend of mine in the same department who’s in that club mentioned it.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure. I asked what they’d do if they got lost while hiking, and they said the club room has a radio for emergencies.”

A radio for hiking emergencies…

I turned to Lee Jung-woo and asked, “Hyung, where’s the mountaineering club room?”

“The mountaineering club? It’s over there.”

Jung-woo stood up, walked to the window, and pointed to the old student union building.

Due to the mist and heavy rain, I could only make out the outline of the building.

As I squinted at the old student union building, Jeon Wan-soo, standing beside me, spoke up.

“The window says ‘Mountaineering Club.’”

Jeon Wan-soo, who could see better through the fog, read the letters written on the window aloud.

So close yet unnoticed—like missing the obvious right under one’s nose.

The earlier battles had significantly reduced the number of zombies in the library and the old student union building.

And since the location was visible from our club room, it would only take about 10 meters to reach it once we exited through the front entrance.

Close enough to stumble there.

I nodded and asked the group, “What do you think about heading there now to secure the radio?”

“Now? With all this rain?”

Jeon Wan-soo clicked his tongue, clearly displeased.

Lee Jung-woo, deep in thought, scratched his sideburns before asking, “Have you ever used a radio before?”

“Nope.”

“It won’t be that simple.”

“Even radios have special instructions?”

“There are a lot of types. Some require a license to operate, or so I’ve heard.”

It seemed more complicated than I thought. In movies or dramas, they made it look so easy.

At this, Jung Jin-young shrugged and said nonchalantly, “Then can’t we just bring those guys from the comprehensive lecture hall with us? Didn’t they say they’re good with machines?”

When Lee Jung-woo nodded in agreement, I turned to the group and said, “Okay then. Once the rain lets up, let’s rescue the men at the lecture hall first, and then we’ll head to the Mountaineering Club.”

Everyone nodded in agreement.

Jung Jin-young snorted and mumbled to himself, “This school’s got so many clubs. Every time we dig a little, something new pops up.”

The others seemed to agree with him.

After finalizing the plan, I checked the wall clock. The hour hand pointed to 6 PM.

Rubbing my hands together, I said to the group, “Shall we start preparing dinner?”

“Tonight, we could fry up some pork cutlets and Spam—”

Bang!

Jung Jin-young was mid-sentence, talking about the menu, when a loud burst sounded from outside.

The noise wasn’t clear due to the rain, but the lightly trembling window confirmed it.

Someone had hit the wall.

I looked at Lee Jung-woo, and judging by his startled expression, he had noticed it too.

I quickly leaned out the window to inspect the first floor.

The fog was so thick I couldn’t see a thing.

“Wan-soo, Yeo-won.”

When I called for them, both rushed to the window and peered outside.

“What is that?”

“Is that… hair?”

Both of them looked uncertain, their expressions filled with doubt.

“What? What do you see?” I asked, unable to suppress my curiosity.

“Someone’s pulling their hair out.”

Wan-soo’s answer made me furrow my brows in confusion.

What does that even mean?

If it’s a zombie, they wouldn’t feel pain, and if it’s a human, why would they be banging their head on the wall?

A zombie that feels pain…

Leader zombie?

I grabbed my hunting knife and turned to Wan-soo and Choi Hyun.

“You two, follow me. Yeo-won, stay here and keep an eye on the situation.”

Wan-soo and Hyun grabbed their katanas and quickly fell in line behind me.

The moment we left the club room, we rushed down the stairs.

The dense fog had risen to the third floor, making it impossible to gauge what was below.

Was the fog thicker since the monsoon began?

Visibility was worse than ever.

“Man… this is bad,” Choi Hyun muttered behind me, clearly unsettled by the dense fog.

Even Wan-soo, known for his sharp eyesight, swallowed hard and looked tense.

“Wan-soo, can you see anything?”

“It’s blurry. Not like before where I could see everything clearly.”

Even Wan-soo’s ability to see through the fog had diminished.

Swallowing nervously, I said, “Let’s just check the building’s exterior and head back.”

Before stepping into the fog, I tapped the stair railing with the hilt of my knife to test for any movement.

Thud—

The dull echo reverberated through the hallway.

I strained my ears, trying to catch any signs of movement, but there were no sounds of footsteps or groans.

Wan-soo exhaled sharply and warned, “It’s hard to see, so let’s be careful not to get separated.”

I nodded, and he adjusted his grip on the katana before stepping into the fog.

When we reached the first floor, shattered glass was scattered everywhere.

Carefully watching my step, I made my way outside. The unrelenting downpour left me speechless.

Walking through the fog felt like being dropped into an endless void. With the rain, the fog felt more like being trapped in an enclosed, suffocating space.

How could we scout properly with our senses so impaired?

Wan-soo clicked his tongue and said, “Hey, I can barely see. Can either of you see anything?”

“I can’t see a thing.”

“This is bad.”

Should we just turn back?

After a brief moment of hesitation, I shook my head.

The loss of our senses applied to zombies as well.

The rain dulled their hearing and erased our scent, making it just as hard for them to detect us.

If the figure outside really was a leader zombie… leaving it unchecked would be dangerous.

Swallowing hard, I said, “We’ll stick close to the wall as we move. Don’t lose sight of each other.”

After assigning directions for everyone to guard, I took a deep breath and stepped outside.

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