Episode 0: Headache
01.
“Shit…”
A splitting headache slammed into my skull. It was still dark outside in the early dawn, but in my vision, it was as if fireworks were exploding — flashes of light burst everywhere.
Just like a severe case of motion sickness, nausea rose up in my stomach. I wasn’t someone who enjoyed drinking; I usually never touched even a drop of soju. But now, my stomach was pounding wildly, as if I had downed an excessive amount of alcohol.
“Shit…”
I got out of bed and muttered a low curse as I staggered toward the bathroom. I clutched the toilet lid and immediately vomited up everything in my stomach.
“…What the hell is going on.”
After throwing up, I leaned against the bathroom wall, gasping for breath. I had thought the nausea and headache would subside once my stomach was empty, but instead, they only got worse.
Just three days ago, I had received a clean bill of health from a comprehensive medical check-up. There was no way I could’ve developed cancer or contracted some horrific disease in just 72 hours. I couldn’t make sense of what was happening to my body.
“Is it gastroenteritis…?”
As a child, I once suffered from a terrible case of gastroenteritis that came with a fever and headaches. I didn’t remember the headaches being this bad, but if I had to compare, that was the closest match I could think of.
“Fucking great…”
To get gastroenteritis even though I hadn’t eaten much — just my luck. I stood up, thinking there should be some basic medicine in the kitchen cabinet.
“….”
Hoping there’d be some digestive pills and painkillers left, I stumbled toward the kitchen of my small apartment. In just that short time, my headache had worsened to the point where I couldn’t walk without leaning against the wall.
“Urgh!!”
Thud.
Maybe it was the worsening headache. My legs gave out, and I collapsed onto the wooden floor. A dull pain spread from my knees throughout my entire body.
“Emergency services…”
I changed my plan. This wasn’t something that over-the-counter meds could fix — I could feel that instinctively. My left and right brain were united in screaming that I needed an ambulance and a specialist in the ER now.
“My phone…”
Cold sweat poured down my forehead, and the flashing lights in my eyes grew more intense, blurring my vision. I crawled on all fours toward the smartphone plugged in beside my bed.
“119, 119…”
I grabbed my now-outdated phone with trembling hands and quickly typed in the numbers “119.” That’s when it happened — I don’t know the exact timing, but suddenly a bizarre mechanical noise came from the speaker.
— Beeeep, beeeep, beeeep.
“Ugh…!”
A grating synthetic noise that instinctively made me recoil. Even as the number “119” sat confidently on the screen, a new pop-up appeared over it.
“Emergency alert message…?”
One of those annoying government messages that you can’t dismiss until you read them. In a moment where every second counted, getting an emergency alert was the absolute worst timing. My face twisted in frustration.
“Goddamn it…”
I tapped on the alert and rapidly hit the back button, but this cursed phone, over seven years old, lagged with every single action.
Because of that delay, the contents of the alert, floating on the screen like it was stuck, were burned into my vision whether I liked it or not:
Unidentified symptoms such as dizziness, blurred vision, and nausea are currently being reported nationwide. In some regions, unexplained luminous fissures have appeared in the sky — phenomena that have never been observed before. Please avoid going outside, close your windows, stay indoors, and wait for further instructions. Relevant authorities are conducting an emergency analysis and response. — Ministry of the Interior and Safety
“….”
The string of curses died on my lips. I had a gut feeling — this wasn’t something I could just brush off. I shook my head to clear my blurring vision and began carefully rereading the alert from the top.
“Dizziness, blurred vision, nausea…”
The strange symptoms being reported nationwide — they matched my condition exactly. There’s no way the government would lie about something like this in an emergency alert, which meant… I wasn’t the only one going through this. Others were experiencing these gastroenteritis-like symptoms too?
A pandemic like COVID?
Or could it be… a zombie virus?
I wanted to ask someone, anyone, for more details — but unfortunately, I didn’t even have a single friend or acquaintance to turn to. After a failed business venture, I’d long cut ties with my family as well.
It was just frustrating.
“…”
I wiped the cold sweat off my phone screen with trembling fingers and kept reading. The way my fingers were shaking… it felt like my condition was getting worse by the second.
“Unidentified fissures of light…”
Fissures of light? That part made me frown in confusion. It didn’t quite match the tone of a typical government emergency alert.
So… everyone across the country was experiencing the same strange symptoms, and now there were these unexplained light fissures appearing in the sky?
“…Ha.”
What the hell is going on?
Is this even real?
Could it be… some massive prank show on a national scale, orchestrated even by the government?
“…”
My vision grew darker and darker. My body felt limp, like all my strength was draining away at once. I lost all feeling in my fingers, and my worn-out smartphone slipped from my grasp, thudding onto the wooden floor.
“Ah…”
Was this how it ends? Dying so helplessly, without ever knowing the cause or reason?
An indescribable fear wrapped around me. But there was nothing I could do. Even if I had called 119 sooner, I doubted it would’ve changed anything — the symptoms were progressing far too fast.
“…”
With difficulty, I turned my head to look out the small window of my one-room apartment.
Just as the emergency alert had said, the night sky was covered in fissures of blue light — as if the very fabric of space had been torn apart.
“Ah…”
The last sight I saw before my vision faded.
It was something no rational mind could accept or explain, but one thing — just one — I was certain of.
That it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.
“…”
And then, everything went black.