The Nest
The group of immunes whispered among themselves, yet no zombies approached.
It feels like a demon’s lair.
A department store that zombies refused to near. The faint glow inside seemed to beckon like a flame to moths. Even knowing it was a trap, the location was irresistibly tempting for survivors. Whatever kind of monster lurked within, the fact that it was using bait proved it possessed intelligence.
Even Dokyung hadn’t expected this. His face was clouded with deep thought.
“Shouldn’t we turn back…?”
Boyeon offered her opinion cautiously. Perhaps it was her imagination, but Dokyung’s eyes seemed to curve in amusement.
“Pick who goes first.”
Dokyung said, looking at Jiwon.
Send someone? In there?
“It’s dangerous!”
Boyeon tried to dissuade him. In response, his eyes—now unmistakably cold—curved with a clear, mocking smile.
He leaned close to her ear and whispered slowly in a gentle tone.
“……”
“……”
For a moment her breath caught in her throat. Boyeon couldn’t say a word.
“J-Jiwon! It’s not me, right? Huh?”
“I was the one who said we should bring you when we ran!”
“Think about who’ll be most useful!”
When three or more humans gathered, a society formed. No matter how small, politics and power existed within it.
Jiwon’s mind spun rapidly. If he resisted now, that monster bastard would deem him useless and discard him immediately. On the other hand, using the ones who had already betrayed him as bait brought zero guilt.
Ah, whatever. The mutant can deal with that monster fucker. He fights like a beast. If I want to live, I need to throw someone else in fast.
“Kim Jeong-ung. That bastard’s the biggest piece of trash…!”
Jiwon glanced at Dokyung, who was still whispering with Boyeon, then quickly—without much hesitation—pointed at Jeong-ung. He looked smug, as if he were some righteous judge.
“W-wait a second. Let me check with the drone instead…”
Boyeon clung to Dokyung desperately.
If the person chosen as bait had been a helpless child, Boyeon would have volunteered to take their place without hesitation. But Jeong-ung was someone who inspired both distrust and disgust in her. No matter how kind she was, she had no desire to risk her life for a man like him.
Yet Boyeon wasn’t self-aware enough to realize that. She was terrified of what expression she must be wearing right now. She imagined it must be utterly pathetic.
You’re different.I won’t put you in danger.
The devil’s whisper shattered Boyeon’s mind. In that instant, a clear line was drawn in her head separating herself from the others, and she felt a faint, shameful sense of relief.
“Go inside and hold out for five minutes. If you come back safely, I’ll treat you the same as the rest. Next time you get to choose.”
When Dokyung jerked his chin at Jiwon and made the offer, everyone’s eyes changed. Jiwon looked irritated, while Seong-sik and Yeong-cheol glared at Jeong-ung as if hoping he wouldn’t return alive.
“R-really… I just have to last five minutes…?”
Jeong-ung quickly changed his mind and walked toward the eerily quiet department store entrance of his own accord. Boyeon had no way to stop someone who was willingly going in. Jeong-ung opened the transparent glass door and stepped inside carefully.
One minute. Two minutes. Time passed. Nothing happened. Jeong-ung, who had been extremely tense, finally relaxed enough to look around. He figured that if he came back without learning anything after being told to stay put, he wouldn’t be treated well. Dokyung’s icy gaze felt like it was pushing against his back.
Near the entrance, broken furniture that had clearly been used as barricades lay scattered. Jeong-ung spotted a faintly glowing object not too far away.
Since I’m already here, might as well find out what that is. If I get the chance to choose next, I’m fucking Yeong-cheol up first—no, Jiwon. That son of a bitch.
Thinking he could earn some credit, Jeong-ung gathered his courage and approached cautiously. The spherical, glowing orb lay carelessly on the department store floor. It didn’t look like an ordinary light.
Jeong-ung moved farther from the entrance. He drew closer and closer to the orb. Up close, its surface wasn’t smooth. It was covered in dense, white, tentacle-like spines. It resembled a curled-up albino hedgehog. And though it had been too dark to notice before, the floor beneath it was dark red—stained with dried human blood.
The thing disguised as a round orb twitched.
It’s not an orb.
It’s alive.
The moment the blood drained from Jeong-ung’s face and he stumbled backward, it sprang up.
“Uwaaaaaagh!”
Jeong-ung’s scream echoed long and loud. He burst out through the doors, shattering the silence of the city with his frantic escape. For all the commotion, there was little change in his appearance—except for the glowing orb now attached to his back.
“It’s stuck to my back! Get it off!”
But as soon as Jeong-ung moved away from the department store, the thing dropped to the ground. It lay motionless, as if dead. Because it emitted its own bioluminescent glow like a deep-sea creature, everyone could clearly see its shape.
“Ugh! That’s fucking disgusting! What the hell is that?!”
It had a head and torso the size of an adult fist, with a disproportionate, childlike body. Its limbs were short and atrophied, and sharp teeth glinted inside its gaping mouth. Tentacles resembling intestinal villi covered its entire body. Through its translucent skin, red fluid could be seen filling its internal organs.
It looked almost like…
“I-it resembles a fetus. Around eight weeks old… Could it be… reproducing?”
Seong-sik, staring fixedly at the glowing creature, spoke with a face as pale as lead.
Reproduction? From a zombie…?
It really did resemble the short, plump fetuses pictured in textbooks. Boyeon covered her mouth and staggered back. Cold sweat trickled down her spine. The sight was unbearably horrifying.
“F-fuck… there were tons of things like that inside… It looked like a frog had laid eggs all over the floor…”
At Jeong-ung’s explanation, everyone’s faces hardened. Dokyung alone remained eerily calm.
“Immune response?”
“Huh? Ah… now that you mention it, my back hurts like hell. Ugh… I think I have a fever too. Yeah, fuck, that thing’s definitely a zombie!”
“Hyung, aren’t you getting infected? Hyun-woo hyung turned into a zombie after getting bitten by a mutant.”
Jiwon backed away, watching Jeong-ung warily.
“The fuck you saying, you piece of shit? You jealous because I’m fine? Huh?”
Thankfully—or perhaps not—Jeong-ung showed no signs of infection.
“What should we call that? It’s definitely not a normal zombie. A mutant’s offspring?”
Seong-sik asked.
Boyeon was lost in thought.
Both Hyun-woo and Jeong-ung had been bitten by a mutant. So what was the difference?
She wondered if there might be a limit to the immunity that immunes could exert. If a mutant’s infectious power was stronger than a normal zombie’s, then everything that had happened so far made sense. It would mean immunes were further divided into those who could withstand a mutant’s infection and those who couldn’t. There might also be variation in infectious strength between different mutants.
“It looks like it sucked human blood. So why did it stop moving after obtaining nutrients? Is it trying to lower our guard?”
Boyeon felt her mind growing more tangled as she kept a wary eye on the creature.
“It stayed still the first time we saw it, then suddenly charged.”
“Maybe it thinks the situation is unfavorable because there are so many of us?”
“Mutants usually charge at people too. Does this one have insane patience? Creepy as hell…”
“It was only fist-sized at first, but after drinking my blood it doubled in size. Maybe these monster bastards grow fast?”
“Do you really think this is an offspring? If zombies had the ability to reproduce, we should have seen similar things elsewhere…”
Boyeon asked with a troubled expression.
“We haven’t seen any zombies fucking, that’s for sure.”