The World Outside

The moment everyone managing the nuclear power plant turned into zombies, it was inevitable that the reactors would melt down without anyone to replenish the coolant. The military had poured most of its forces into building defensive lines that included those very plants.

Seoul was not among them. On the internet, rumors spread that the government had abandoned the capital — a city of ten million people.

Every trending keyword was tied to the catastrophe.

In the densely populated capital, the plague spread faster than anywhere else. People said Seoul had become a zombie hellscape in every district — so far gone that nothing short of a nuclear strike could contain it. Not just South Korea, but nations around the world were abandoning swaths of their own territory.

In mere days, lawless zones emerged where zombies and survivors mingled in chaos. Social media filled with warnings about survivors who had turned monstrous in their desperation, along with images of cities transformed into wastelands. But soon after, the internet itself went completely dark.

Every means of contacting the outside world had vanished.

‘It’s incredibly dangerous out there! Do not come outside under any circumstances! You must not come out!’

Boyeon clung desperately to her aunt’s final words. Having lost her parents early in life, her aunt had been like a mother to her. Even after Boyeon became an adult, her aunt still treated her like a child. Boyeon herself couldn’t think of herself as a responsible grown-up. If her aunt had told her to wait, then she would wait.

One month. Two months. Three months…

She waited obediently for a full three months.

But the bunker door never opened.

Her aunt, her uncle, Haein, Doyoon, Subin…

What had happened to all of them?

Were they even still alive…?

…….

Boyeon looked as pathetic as a dog that had waited too long at the door for its owner to return. Her breathing was so faint that the only sound inside the bunker was the low hum of the air purifier. Listening to the mechanical whine for too long made the silence around her feel unbearably cold.

“H-huk…! Hic, haa…!”

Her breath caught in her throat. As a child, Boyeon had suffered from asthma. It had improved as she grew older, but it would flare up again during times of extreme stress or intense emotional upheaval. Lately, it had been getting worse.

Suddenly seized by an asthma attack, she gasped for air, her vision whitening at the edges. In the end, she passed out.

“Haa…”

When she came to a short while later, she couldn’t help but worry that she might die from respiratory failure before any zombie could get to her.

Then, the image of a powdered inhaler containing bronchodilators floated into her mind. There should still be a new one left at home.

Before her symptoms could worsen any further, Boyeon made up her mind to go outside.

Fortunately, the bunker contained quite a few useful items.

“Can I… really use this?”

Among them, the thing Boyeon was most familiar with and could handle easily was a drone. Thanks to her grandfather — a former director at the Defense Technology Research Institute who had been deeply interested in drone development — she had been operating drones since childhood. She was skilled enough that people had once suggested she try becoming a professional drone pilot.

The problem was that what her grandfather had secretly stashed in the bunker were so-called PCDs — Portable Combat Drones.

“These are military drones…”

And not just one. She still remembered how shocked she had been when she first discovered them.

What set PCDs apart from ordinary drones was their cylindrical shape. Their wings were normally retracted, so an uninformed person might mistake one for a simple storage canister. The lower part of the cylinder allowed for interchangeable modules with various functions. Explosives could be attached, and it supported reconnaissance, illumination, smoke screens, and other combat support roles.

At this point, she was in no position to be picky. Boyeon picked up the drone and approached the door.

She had a simple plan. Nothing complicated. She would quietly crack the door open just a sliver and push the drone through the gap in the bookshelf that had been drilled through.

The plan went surprisingly smoothly. Even though her hands shook so badly that she accidentally bumped the door and made a noise, the house remained silent.

“O-okay… it worked…”

Boyeon controlled the drone from right behind the first door. The controller screen, linked to the drone, displayed the interior of the house.

The study — the place she had feared most — was empty. The other rooms were the same.

…….

During her long isolation, a great deal of information about zombies had circulated online. They were said to have low intelligence and react strongly to loud noises.

Her house was located in a residential area of the city. There must have been plenty of other sounds coming from all directions over the past three months. The chances that a zombie had stayed inside her home for that long were slim.

“If there aren’t even any zombies left, then why hasn’t anyone come…?”

Boyeon swallowed the tears threatening to spill and continued examining the house through the drone.

The place looked as if zombies had rampaged through it. Furniture was broken everywhere, and old bloodstains were visible. But the open drawers and cabinets showed clear signs of human activity. Someone had looted the food and supplies.

In a disaster like this, medicine was just as precious as food. The living room drawer where she kept her portable inhaler and other medications had also been left wide open.

“Ah…”

The inhaler was gone. That meant she would have to go at least as far as the nearby pharmacy to find one.

Feeling a pang of disappointment, Boyeon decided to scout further outside. The combat drone, engineered to produce almost no rotor noise, rose silently into the sky.

“People…?”

The roads and buildings were shattered and ruined. The shapes she had thought were people stood rigid like wooden posts, completely motionless.

Having been cut off from outside information for so long, Boyeon didn’t understand what the phenomenon meant. She could only guess that they were conserving energy by not moving.

But the realization that every single one of the countless figures filling the streets was a zombie hit her like a hammer. There were no living people visible in Seoul. She wanted to believe they were all just hiding somewhere.

When the combat drone drew closer, the zombies lifted their heads at the faint sound and stared up at the sky. Hundreds of pairs of bloodshot eyes, veins burst and crimson, stared directly into the camera. A wave of commotion rippled through them. The zombies shrieked and reached out with their arms. If hell existed, this was what it would look like. Watching the screen, Boyeon felt goosebumps crawl all over her body.

A short while later, Boyeon stepped outside to retrieve the drone.

Creak. Perhaps because she had already seen the horrific state of the world outside, the sound of the bookshelf sliding aside felt especially terrifying. It was like opening a door alone in the dead of night. Boyeon quickly reached out her hand.

“Huh…?”

A black combat boot beside the drone. Before she could even fully process what it meant—

Click!

The cold metal pressed against her temple sent a fresh wave of chills racing across her skin.

It was a gun.

The man who had been using a nearby house as his hideout had spotted Boyeon’s drone purely by chance. But he had clearly seen it launch from her house, and he possessed enough knowledge to recognize it as a combat model.

While she was busy scouting the outside world, he had slipped into the house, searched it, and followed the drone back to the study. Hiding behind the door for a moment had allowed him to avoid detection.

He had been curious about who was operating a military-grade drone, but he certainly hadn’t expected it to be a young woman.

The instant he saw Boyeon, he leveled his gun at her.

“I-I’ll do whatever you want… Please, just spare me…”

His weapon looked ready to spit fire at any second. Terrified, Boyeon begged for her life.

Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, he quickly realized how useful she could be.