[Three hours ago
South Korea
The four - Eunhye, Sae Joon Hyun, Jaeyeon, and Yuri]

The silence inside the blood-draped mansion was a living thing, pressing in on them from all sides. It was Sae Joon Hyun who finally broke it, his voice a low grumble that echoed in the grand, gore-streaked foyer.

“We can’t stay here. Not with… this.” He didn’t need to gesture. The metallic, coppery smell of old blood was enough, a sickening perfume that clung to the back of their throats.

Eunhye hugged herself, her arms tight across her chest. “We need food. Real food. Something that didn’t come from…” Her sentence trailed off, her eyes darting towards the kitchen they’d already scoured and abandoned.

Jaeyeon, pale but resolute, nodded. “There has to be something out there. A convenience store, a house… anything.”

And so they ventured out, a fragile quartet stepping from one nightmare into another. The streets were a tomb, silent but for the whisper of the wind through shattered glass and the distant, unearthly moans that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere. Every shadow felt like a threat, every rustle of debris a potential ambush.

They moved like ghosts, sticking to the walls, their footsteps painfully loud on the cracked pavement. It was Yuri who pointed a trembling finger at a small, single-story house, its windows boarded but its door slightly ajar. It looked… normal. Or as normal as anything could be.

“There,” she whispered.

With weapons raised—a gun, a pipe, a knife—they entered. The interior was dark and dusty, frozen in time. A child’s toy lay abandoned in the hallway. The silence was less oppressive than the mansion’s, but no less eerie.

Eunhye pushed open the second door. It led to a kitchen.

And there it was. The freezer.

It was a modern, stainless steel unit, standing innocently against the wall. But it was wrong. So wrong. Dark, frozen rivulets of crimson and black ooze seeped from the seal around the door, dripping down the front in thick, congealed streaks and pooling on the linoleum floor below. The handle was crusted with it.

The stench hit them then. It wasn’t just the decay they’d grown accustomed to. This was a concentrated horror—a metallic, foul, frozen reek of blood and viscera that promised nothing inside was meant for human consumption.

Jaeyeon gagged, turning away and pressing his forehead against the cool wall. Yuri let out a small, choked sound of despair. They had braved the streets, their hearts pounding with a terrified hope, for this.

[And now]

The failed expedition hung over them like a shroud. And in the center of it all was their new, impossible guest.

The pregnant woman, In-ha, sat on a worn sofa, her hands resting on the immense curve of her belly. She had been explaining, her voice calm and measured, a stark contrast to the chaos outside.

“It might be that their heads are their weaknesses?” she posited, though her tone suggested it was just one theory among many. She looked at their confused faces and elaborated, her voice softening. “I have heard that such viruses fail to affect a person's subconsciousness. So subconsciously, they know they are doing something terrible. I think that is why some eventually decide to let go of their desires.”

The group exchanged bewildered glances. The concepts were too big, too abstract for their exhausted, fear-addled brains.

It was Sae Joon Hyun who cut through the philosophical fog with a practical question. “If we get you a perfect place to research, can you figure out what's going on?” he asked, his gaze intense, fixed on her.

In-ha met his eyes. She nodded, a firm, decisive movement. “Let's save them all first. Let's find the biggest warehouse or a mansion and keep all these people in there. We can't kill them.” Her voice gained strength, conviction. “They can be healed.”

Eunhye didn’t hesitate. “Yes,” she said, the word bursting from her. “Yes, we do that.” The idea of salvation, of a cure, was a lifeline she grabbed onto with both hands.

As they began to formulate a plan to lure the hordes away from the streets and into a secure location, In-ha decided to stay behind. “I’ll only slow you down,” she said, her hand splayed over her stomach. It wasn’t a complaint, just a fact.

It was then that Yuri rummaged in her bag, her face a mask of concentration. She pulled out a small, delicate glass vial of perfume, holding it up. The liquid inside caught the dim light.

“I'll use these perfumes~” she announced to Sae Joon Hyun, a strange mix of mischief and resolve in her eyes.

Sae Joon Hyun blinked, utterly thrown. In a world of guns, blood, and monsters, the appearance of a fancy perfume bottle, yet again, was surreal. “Why do you even carry those things, Seonsangnim? You managed to grab them all while you were running away?” He asked, his voice tinged with complete bewilderment.

Yuri smiled, a gentle, almost private thing. She twirled the vial between her fingers. “Hmm~ it's just something I like, why?” She patted her bag affectionately. “They are important valuables.”

It was the most normal, human thing any of them had said in days.

Eunhye lingered behind as the others prepped the jeep. She hovered near In-ha, her worry a tangible force. The woman’s condition was a terrifying variable in an already impossible equation.

“Miss. In-ha,” Eunhye began, her voice hesitant. “How long has it been?” She nodded toward the woman’s swollen abdomen.

In-ha looked down, a soft, almost unconscious smile touching her lips. She placed a hand on her belly. “Hm? Oh. The baby. It's been eight months and twenty-three days already.”

The numbers hit Eunhye like a physical blow. Her eyes widened. “Wha- wait. That's... The baby will be...” Her mind raced, doing the frantic math. A newborn. Almost. Here. Now.

“Hm. In a week or so,” In-ha confirmed, her voice still maddeningly calm.

“Oh my god.” The words were a breathless exhale. Eunhye began to pace, running a hand through her hair. “What do we do now? How will we help you out? I know about these a little, but I'm not a doctor!” She brought her fingers to her mouth, chewing nervously on a nail.

In-ha actually chuckled, a warm, rich sound that seemed to push back the darkness in the room for a moment. “Haha. Don't worry. We will figure something out later on,” she said, reaching out to give Eunhye’s arm a reassuring pat. Her composure was either miraculous or insane. Eunhye couldn’t decide which.

The jeep tore through the deserted streets, its engine roaring a challenge to the oppressive silence. Sae Joon Hyun was driving, his knuckles white on the wheel. Yuri was in the passenger seat, and Jaeyeon was perched in the back, his head on a swivel, watching their six.

The plan was simple: cause a distraction, lead the horde away from the sector they wanted to clear. But the air felt different. The creatures seemed… sharper.

Yuri glanced over at Sae Joon Hyun, a weird thought occurring to her. “Hey,” she said, her voice raised over the wind and the engine. “You do get why In-ha ma'am looks the way she did, right?”

Sae Joon Hyun kept his eyes on the road, frowning. “Uh...? She is recently pregnant?” he said, then immediately flushed, embarrassment clear on his face. “Of course, in this situation I couldn't think that far ahead! So she is due soon?!”

Yuri opened her mouth to reply, but Jaeyeon’s voice, sharp and urgent, cut her off from the back seat.

“Three of them! Chasing behind us! They’re fast!” He was half-turned, his body tense. “We must get them all to follow!”

“Right!” Yuri fumbled with the vial of perfume. With a quick motion, she unstoppered it and hurled it out the window. The delicate glass shattered against the asphalt, and a shockingly potent cloud of lilies and jasmine bloomed in their wake, its sweetness cloying and unnatural in the rancid air.

For a heartbeat, nothing. Then, the reaction was instantaneous and terrifying. Not just from the three behind them, but from the shadows of alleys, from behind cars, from broken windows—figures snapped their heads up, drawn by the scent. And they moved. Not with their usual shambling gait, but with a frightening, coordinated speed, their movements more fluid, more purposeful.

“Something is not right,” Sae Joon Hyun muttered, his eyes flicking to the rearview mirror. The horde was growing, converging on them like a single organism. “Do perfumes carry such an intense smell?”

“I think...” Yuri’s voice was tight with a new, chilling fear. Beads of sweat traced a path down her temple. “They are even more sensitive to smell than before! Joon-ssi! Hurry, hurry. They are catching up!”

Sae Joon Hyun’s foot slammed the accelerator to the floor. The engine screamed in protest. “What? How on earth.. I am at top speed right now!” he yelled, his voice pitched high as he watched the distance in the mirror shrink. The things were keeping up.

[The Safe House]

Eunhye paced. The silence was broken only by the sound of her own frantic footsteps.

In-ha watched her from the sofa, her expression unreadable.

“EVOLVING?” Eunhye finally burst out, spinning to face the lady. The word felt too big, too science-fiction for the visceral, bloody reality outside.

“Yes, Eunhye.” In-ha’s voice was calm, a rock in the storm of Eunhye’s anxiety. “Living beings have an evolution process no matter the state. It is a fundamental law of nature. Pressure creates adaptation.”

“Aren't the grave-ups dead people?” Eunhye shot back, her voice cracking. It was the foundation of everything they thought they knew.

In-ha actually smiled, a small, sad thing. “Haha. The grave-ups, as you call them, aren't dead people. They are people who were on the verge of death and want to desperately live. All their senses, hormones, even their ability to think is concentrated into a single, driving purpose. They are still alive.” She paused, letting that sink in. “Did you really think I was talking about resurrecting them? They are living beings. I was talking about treating them.”

The paradigm shift was so massive it made Eunhye dizzy. They weren’t killing monsters. They were… what? Maiming sick people?

“But if that is the case..” Eunhye’s mind raced, connecting the dots to the jeep, to the perfume, to the terrifying new evolution. “Then Joon Hyun and the others are in trouble. Why did they suddenly start evolving?”

“That's not the right question, Eunhye.” In-ha shifted, a hand going to her back as if it ached. “Evolution doesn't ask for a time, place, or condition. The question is how far will they evolve.” Her gaze grew distant, worried. “If they are capable of making senses more sensitive, there might be chances that they will start to see things differently… or start to defend themselves in ways we can’t predict.”

Eunhye slumped into a chair across from her, the fight going out of her. “So humans..with huge hormone concentration?” It sounded like a bad superhero movie.

“Yes,” In-ha said, her voice grave. “They could regain speech. They could become complete humans again, but humans who are ruled by a single, strong desire. So much that their entire biology is enhanced to serve it. It would be like… humans with supernatural powers, but their power is their hunger.” She let out a slow breath. “The only difference in our case is these evolved humans start by degrading from homo sapiens into aimless creatures. Then these creatures slowly turn back into a new form of human. A combined creature, part homo sapiens, part grave-up. Not good. Not good at all.”