The First Hunter Chapter 2: The Mark of the Awakened (2)

< Chapter 2. The Mark of the Awakened (2).>

2.

At four in the afternoon, the monsters appeared and the battle for survival had begun.

At five in the afternoon, the battle had finished and the survivors took a rest because of fatigue and pain.

And at ten in the evening

“Mmm…”

The survivors started to wake up one by one.

It wasn’t that fresh type of waking up.

A battle risking their own life, most had fought in a battle for the first time in their life.

The fatigue from the battle and all the energy spent struggling to survive would not be refreshed by snoozing for three to fours hours, would it?

There was definitely a limit to how much sleep could be had in all the chaos.

‘Isn’t there a rescue team yet?’

‘Fuck smartphones are still not working? What’s going on? Do you know how much I spend on the phone every month!’

‘How long should I stay here? What’s going on outside?’

The worries and questions in their heads prevented them from getting more sleeping, and a small argument started between the ones who were not sleeping did not help.

“What are you guys doing over there?”

“What?”

“Why are you trying to pull up the fire shutter?”

The argument occurred in front of the fire shutter that blocked the escalator that lead to level B1.

There were four people in front of the fire shutter.

All of them were in their late 20s, or early 30s, similar in age, but no one would think they were friends with each other. They were trying to lift up the fire shutter while they scanned their surroundings. Seeing that, Park Jaewoon gasped with fear and shouted at them.

“What are you guys doing! What are you going to do if there’s a monster up there!”

He was fierce.

To him, the floor above was a hell.

It was only a few hours ago that he went through such a traumatic experience.

In fact, Park Jaewoon couldn’t stay asleep, whenever he opened his eyes he would stare with deep worry at the fire shutter that seperated levels B1 and B2.

What if the monsters appeared through that fire shutter? Wouldn’t it threaten his wife and daughter again? Would he have to stand in front of that monster again… Those kinds of worries.

But now, four healthy males were attempting to pull up that fire shutter.

Park Jaewoon’s scream had his desperation in it.

Naturally, the scream directed everyone’s attention at him.

“What? What’s happening?”

“Is, is it the rescue team?”

“I don’t think it’s rescuers…”

One by one, tired people moved to where they could see the fire wall.

Level B2 started to fill with noise.

“Ah, fucking seriously….”

Seeing what’s happening, one of the four guys spat out a rough curse,.

“What the fuck are you looking at? What!”

Another one of them reacted to the crowd in a very angry and violent way.

It wasn’t hard to figure out why.

“Huh?”

‘Isn’t that… A Macbook?’

‘That’s an iPad?’

Around the four guys were boxes of plastic wrapped Apple products.

In the chaos, the four of them were trying to steal some of the most expensive products in this superstore.

Of course the reactions of the thieves were hostile as they were caught in the act of theft.

“Fuck, bug off?”

“Hey!”

Finally, the biggest and most muscular among them walked towards Park Jaewoon.

Without any warning, he shoved hard on Park Jaewoon’s shoulders with both hands.

“Geeze!”

Park Jaewoon couldn’t resist the powerful shove and fell back onto the floor.

“Darling!”

Park Jaewoon’s wife screamed as she saw Park Jaewoon fall, and in the midst of the whole mess, the daughter(who had been sleeping in her arms)started to rub her eyes with her tiny little hands.

“Why are you…”

Park Jaewoon immediately stood back up. He was still trying to have a conversation.

Bam!

However, just as he got back up the big guy pushed him again.

It was harder than the last time. The right description would be ‘hit’, rather than ‘pushed’.

“Argh!”

Park Jaewoon gasped as he fell to the floor again.

‘Shit!’

‘A fight.’

In a second, the noise that surrounded the pair got quiet.

But it was different from the quietness from earlier.

‘What should I do? Should I stop them?’

‘What if I get hurt by being involved in this…’

Menace filled the quiet air.

In that deadly silence, the four guys glowered at the surroundings.

Their eyes glowed with murderous threats.

It wasn’t a bluff.

They had seen blood. Not once but a number of times.

They had stabbed monsters with cooking knives, cut off their flesh with axes and even smashed their heads with baseball bats.

That was enough for a person to gain a murderous spirit.

“Is there something to see here? Look away!”

“This is bullshit. Fucking look away man!”

Of course no one in the crowd—who were overwhelmed by their glaring—were able to tell them that stealing was bad or any such thing.

“Dude, who the fuck are you to tell us what to do?”

In front of the silent crowd, their hostility and threats were directed only at Park Jaewoon and his family.

The few dozen people in the crowd had become mute bystanders.

“So, sorry…..”

“What are you sorry for? Huh? Huh?”

“… Sorry.”

“Huh? What? Speak up like you just did. Speak up!”

The four of them started to heat up as the bystanders became the watching crowd.

They knew it.

Right now, right here on level B2, they were the predators for this enclosed space.

What they saw was not capable of threatening them, only something they could trample..

“Hey dude. Stand up. Stand up.”

They did not hesitate.

Bam!

The moment Park Jaewoon tried to stand up, the skinny guy among them kicked Park Jaewoon’s body like it was a soccer ball.

“AHHHH!”

Park Jaewoon collapsed to the floor with a scream.

“Dad!”

Park Jaewoon’s daughter, fully awake at this point, screamed as loud as she could with her small and weak voice.

“Daddy!”

One of the guys looked at Park Jaewoon’s wife and daughter, made a grin and then started stride towards them. A butcher knife flashed in his hand.

“Oh, No! NO!”

Park Jaewoon saw what the skinny guy was doing and threw his body towards him as the guy approached his wife and daughter.

Grab!

He threw himself and grabbed the left leg of the guy.

“Uh? Huh?”

The guy was caught off guard by Park Jaewoon hanging onto his leg.

Park Jaewoon’s action was the expression of his desperation, yet it wasn’t the same for the person who he was hanging on to.

“Keep him off! Pull him off!! Kill him!”

To the guy, it was a threat to himself, nothing more.

On top of that, they had seen enough.

How easy one human could die.

The other three tried to pull Park Jaewoon away from the guy’s leg.

“Let go! Unless you wish to die you fucker!”

“Just kill him!”

Smashing, kicking!

The guys smashed and kicked Park Jaewoon.

“Ha, Haaa!”

Wherever he got hit, Park Jaewoon would gasp for breath.

‘What should I do?’

‘Someone please step up.’

The crowd just watched the whole scene with startled and frightened faces.

“Daddy! Dad!”

Park Jaewoon’s wife just tried to cover the crying daughter’s face with her whole body.

To prevent her from seeing what she shouldn’t see.

The fear that filled level B2 was not much different from the fear caused by the monsters.

“Stop you motherfuckers!”

One lady stood up finally.

She wore a thick outer coat—with a scruffy appearance and impressive freckles around her nose—and yelled with her edgy voice.

“Ah, what now?”

One of the guys scowled at the lady.

She wasn’t intimidated and yelled back with even more hostility in her eyes.

“If you are going to steal, just get the stealing done like a fucking thief! Don’t mess with other people!”

*Spit*

One of the guys spat on the ground and walked towards the lady.

The lady lifted the cooking knife she held in her tattooed right hand.

“Uh? Uh!”

The guy stopped.

The other three also stopped.

“Knife, knife!”

“That’s a crazy bitch, kill her! Kill her!”

Their words were tough, but they didn’t take any action.

They had enough experience to know how threatening the cooking knife was.

There was lots of proof around.

The blood stains and puddles of blood, those were the proof.

If there had been any dead bodies of the monsters, they would have had a more precise proof.

But unfortunately, there weren’t any bodies lying around to display that more clearly.

“Everyone stop moving.”

The man who said this,

“The four of you, you’re dead if you move.”

Had taken care of all the dead monster bodies. He wore an apron covered with blood.

Kim Taehoon, he had appeared.

The end.

Chapter end