Chapter 103: Moving
Chapter 103: Moving
#
I left the university district and reached the main road.
The streets remained completely still.
Uneasy at the unnatural silence, I quickened my pace.
The Seoul I knew had never been this quiet, even before dawn.
'I had never realized silence itself could be frightening...'
[Hoegi Station]
The blood coating the station windows seemed to warn people away.
Going inside would probably yield little and expose me to something unpleasant.
So I made a wide detour around Hoegi Station and entered the bus lane along National Route 6.
I moved briskly down the broad six-lane road.
'Wow. There truly were no zombies.'
Not only were there no zombies in the road, there were surprisingly few cars.
Most vehicles had mounted the sidewalks or overturned.
No zombies remained standing, but skeletal corpses still sat behind the wheels of several cars.
'How had they already been reduced to bones?'
Carrying that small question with me, I continued while carefully watching my surroundings.
Anyone secretly watching me would eventually approach.
The sight of me pushing a cart piled with duffel bags would inevitably provoke curiosity or greed.
'Was this what people called a golden goblin? Heh heh.'
I chuckled at a story I vaguely remembered hearing.
Of course, perhaps no one was targeting me and I was frightening myself.
People with possessions naturally grew suspicious of their surroundings.
'But why did it feel as though I had thought this before...?'
With an inexplicable sense of déjà vu, I continued walking.
[Jungnang Bridge]
Jungnang Stream flowed ahead.
A blue Route 201 bus stood across Jungnang Bridge, blocking part of the way.
I could pass beside it and was about to do so when I spotted a zombie through the window.
'One, two, three... Damn. More than ten.'
The bus was packed with zombies.
I briefly considered slipping past unnoticed, but that seemed unlikely.
Both doors were closed, but if I passed nearby, the zombies would probably smash through the windows.
I took out the map and searched for another route.
'The nearest crossing was... about nine hundred meters away?'
I could cover the distance, but what if another obstacle blocked that route too?
Would I have to make yet another detour?
I studied the bus again.
The zombies remained quiet because they had not yet noticed me.
I pictured how they would react if I approached.
They'd probably shatter the windows and try to pour out.
I imagined holding a baseball bat in each hand and striking them as they stuck their heads through.
'That might actually work.'
I immediately removed my backpack.
I set down the cart and the rest of my luggage, then picked up both bats.
I didn't want to stand in the middle of the road deliberating forever.
Once I decided, I had to act.
'As long as I wasn't bitten, I would be fine. Stay calm.'
As I approached the bus, one zombie noticed me.
The moment it pressed against the window, I began running.
Crash! Graaah!
The zombie that broke the window became caught in the frame and flailed its arms.
Others pushed from behind, leaving the trapped zombie's head hanging like laundry on a line.
Their bodies jammed together, preventing them from escaping easily.
I rushed forward and swung both bats at once.
Whoosh—crack! Crack!
'Dual wielding...'
True dual wielding, though in a different sense from baseball.
They weren't swords, but watching two zombie skulls burst at once demonstrated the power of twin bats.
The commotion caused the other zombies inside to struggle toward me.
Feeling like a celebrity surrounded by eager fans, I swung again.
Whoosh—crash!
'Ah, that stung...'
When I struck a zombie at a side window, shards of glass grazed my face.
I flinched, but another zombie thrust its head over the falling one, so I immediately swung with my other arm.
Clunk, clatter
As the zombies crowded to one side, the bus rocked.
Eight remained.
I continued battering them as I moved from the rear of the bus toward the front.
They obligingly stuck their heads through the windows, and I swung mechanically.
Graaahhh
At last, a zombie escaped through the front and charged.
Feeling little danger, I brought a bat down on its head.
'Hoo...'
There had been no special variants inside the bus.
My experience in the military building had made me cautious, but the fight ended easily.
'Even more than ten were manageable when an obstacle trapped them.'
I returned to my luggage, took out a tissue, and wiped my face.
The glass fragments had left thin cuts across my skin.
I roughly wiped away the blood and looked around.
'A trash can...'
I began searching for one, then wondered what purpose it served and tossed the tissue beside the road.
After catching my breath, I set out again.
I crossed the bridge beyond the bus. Once the street quieted after the fight, another noisy sound arose.
Flutter, flutter.
"Whoa, shit..."
Pigeons gathered around the fallen zombie corpses.
They had grown beyond plump city pigeons into monstrous pig-pigeons, pecking at the bodies.
Each one was larger than a basketball.
Their huge, repulsive eyes triggered visceral disgust, and I hurried away.
If they took an interest in me, I would be in serious trouble.
#
Until I nearly left Seoul, I occasionally encountered zombies on the road.
Yet considering the distance and area covered, they were surprisingly sparse.
Not one was unusual. They were all Ordinary Zombies.
Their low numbers felt strange, but fewer obstacles benefited me, so I chose not to worry.
[Mangu-ro 36-gil]
'Just a little farther and I would reach Guri—whether it stank or not. Heh heh heh.'
I left National Route 6 and entered an alley.
Commercial buildings and officetels were chaotically mixed throughout the area.
The buildings varied greatly in height, with few true high-rises.
'Let's see. Somewhere suitable to rest...'
It had been a long day.
The sun had set, and I walked by the city's remaining lights.
I wasn't physically exhausted, but constantly imagining zombies emerging from every corner had worn me down mentally.
I wanted to rest...
Graaahhh
"Ah, shit! You scared me."
A zombie lunged as I rounded a corner.
I shoved the cart toward it, and the stupid creature caught itself against the load and could only flail.
I crushed its head with a baseball bat.
'Ah, shit... It splattered all over the duffel bags.'
Promising myself I'd wipe them down once I found shelter, I continued deeper into the alley.
Graahhh
The main road had been clear, but zombies kept appearing here.
Before I had taken ten steps, another charged me.
Worried that the noise would attract more, I crushed its head quickly.
Were zombies more concentrated in narrow streets than on main roads?
'I would duck into the first suitable place.'
Continuing to wander would only waste time fighting zombies.
I was hungry, and finding shelter was only the first step. I still had to organize my supplies.
But by the time I thought that, it was already too late.
Grrrr... Graaah!
Zombies charged from an officetel farther down my path.
More growls came from an alley to my left.
I hesitated, unsure whether to flee or kill them quickly.
'I didn't know how many there were, but I would handle the two in front first.'
Escaping while pushing the cart would be difficult.
The noise might draw even more zombies.
I decided to clear them out and drew both bats.
Tap, tap, tap
I ran directly toward the two approaching zombies.
I raised one bat in each hand above my head.
The posture looked ridiculous, but once they entered range, I brought both bats down.
Whoosh—crack! Crack!
Both zombies collapsed in the direction they had been running.
"That's the advantage of superior reach."
After killing them, I immediately turned toward the alley where the other sounds had originated.
A giant nearly three meters tall was slowly approaching.
"Fuck... I can't overcome that weight-class difference."
Faced with a monster I'd never seen, I had no desire to fight.
But my precious cart stood between us.
While I hesitated, the glass door of a shop beside me caught my eye.
[Home Coffee House]
I first hid inside the lazily named café.
Its entire front wall was glass, allowing me to see outside.
The door had been open, and I found no traces of people or zombies inside.
A second door stood behind the counter, so I opened it.
After confirming it led to an empty storeroom, I crouched beneath the counter.
Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.
The ground seemed to tremble, and the enormous monster finally appeared before the café.
Apparently uninterested in my cart, it simply walked past.
I couldn't tell whether it had seen me.
It moved so sluggishly that it probably hadn't...
Guooooooh
Up close, it appeared even larger. The creature roared and stared at the zombie corpses I had left behind.
Then it stopped motionless, like a robot whose power had been cut.
'What the hell? Just leave already.'
I had hidden because I couldn't abandon my supplies, and now I was trapped.
Looking more closely, I realized it was another zombie rather than a different kind of monster.
Its eyes were cloudy, and one flank had been torn open, exposing its organs.
Its arms, legs, chest, and other body parts were grotesquely swollen, so I hadn't initially recognized its human shape.
'...A Snorlax?'
It wasn't remotely cute, but its body resembled a cartoon character from my childhood.
No plan came to mind, so I held my breath and tried to identify a weakness.
Thus began a tense standoff that only I seemed aware of.
'What was it even doing...?'
The Giant Zombie showed no intention of moving.
I couldn't even rest properly. I simply waited in an uncomfortable position.
How much time passed?
A tiny figure appeared, sharply contrasting with the Giant Zombie.
Wrapped in something resembling a cloak, the dwarf-like figure crept toward the Giant Zombie from behind.
'Oh... What was this? Was something dramatic about to happen?'
After my boring solitary standoff, I welcomed the new variable.
The small figure moved so slowly that it appeared motionless at a glance.
'Was that another monster?'
As it approached the Giant Zombie from behind, I prepared to profit from their conflict.
At last, it reached its destination.
'Ah, fuck. I didn't care anymore.'
My temper flared, and my patience finally snapped.