Chapter 105: Raid
Chapter 105: Raid
25. Raid
While I considered my options, three more men joined them.
The one they addressed as boss appeared to be the leader.
The group smoked and chatted without caution.
I did not know how long they'd remain near the supermarket, but while their guard was down, I had to choose: flee or strike first.
Then I noticed a gap behind a pillar near the entrance.
The men had gathered in the alley opposite my building.
If I moved behind the pillar, I might slip beyond their line of sight and attack from behind.
"Boss, he's coming out."
"Hey. Come over here. A big guy like you shouldn't be squeezing through a space that narrow."
I'd barely slipped outside and hidden behind the pillar when they caught me.
'How the hell did they know?'
Was it strange that I worried about looking ridiculous even in this situation?
For the moment, I remained behind the pillar and stalled.
"How did you know?"
"How do you think? We've someone with a detection ability."
"What do you want?"
"What do we want? You heard everything. We explained it loudly enough for you to listen."
"..."
They had known I was there from the moment I came downstairs.
I set down my backpack and kept only my weapons.
As a final bluff, I extended the rifle barrel past the pillar.
"What are you doing? Does this asshole think we're complete idiots?"
"Heh heh. Why is he carrying that heavy thing around?"
"Stop stalling and make this easy. If you cause trouble, you'll only suffer more."
They truly did know everything.
The gap in my memories suddenly felt enormous.
How many people had they already killed?
Their experience far exceeded mine.
"Big guy, this is your last chance. Come out now, and I'll kill you painlessly. Resist, and I'll make you suffer as much as possible. Choose."
Was this bastard insane?
Either choice ended with my death.
"This rifle works. Don't take a foolish risk. Back off, and we'll go our separate ways."
"What's this idiot talking about? Boss, should we just take him?"
"Might as well. I tried to make it painless."
Thud. Thud.
Footsteps approached.
They remained wary of my ability, moving cautiously as they closed in from several directions.
Sweat gathered on my palms.
If I was going to die either way, I had to struggle with everything I had.
"I'm telling you, this thing really fires, you assholes!"
I burst from behind the pillar.
At the same instant, I hurled the K2 at the man farthest right and lunged toward the one beside him.
Time seemed to slow, and I saw my target's pupils widen.
He opened his mouth to speak.
Whoosh—thwack!
But no sound emerged. My baseball bat split his forehead.
Time snapped back to normal, and I sensed something flying toward me from the side.
I hadn't seen it. I simply felt it and ducked instinctively.
Whish.
Something passed over my head.
"Guh-hurgh."
"Gyaaaagh!"
"Urgh... What the fuck?"
A commotion erupted among the leader and the remaining men.
I ignored them for the moment and, staying low, leaped at the man approaching from the left.
He floundered and thrust out his arms in a clumsy attempt to stop my charge.
Crunch.
"Aaaagh!"
I heard bones break as my shoulder drove into the center of his chest.
The impact sent both of us flying into the wall.
Thud.
"Cough."
The blood he coughed up soaked my back.
Without pausing, I regained my footing and watched the opposite alley.
A chill ran down my spine.
There, a patch of blackness stood on four legs.
It stood proudly over a human corpse and met my gaze.
Its golden eyes stared at me without wavering.
Six headless bodies lay around it.
'Ugh...'
The sun rose between the alleys before me.
The sudden flood of sunlight made me blink.
When I opened my eyes again, the creature had vanished.
"Huff... huff..."
At some point, I'd begun holding my breath.
Cold sweat covered my hands and feet.
The emotion I had felt when our eyes met was...
"Longing? Happiness? What the hell...?"
It hadn't been fear or tension.
Familiarity.
That word fit best.
I'd felt familiarity toward an unidentified monster that slaughtered people and vanished.
The cold sweat hadn't come from the beast. It came from fighting other humans.
Facing human killing intent and malice for the first time had put my body on edge.
Relief at surviving gradually washed over me, and strength drained from my limbs.
I gathered myself and checked the three bodies I had directly fought.
'All dead.'
None were breathing.
The man struck by the K2 had his neck twisted at a grotesque angle.
The one hit by my bat had a caved-in skull.
The last had a broken arm and a crushed sternum.
The rising sun revealed a street drenched in blood.
Nine people had died in less than a minute.
The brutal scene lay before me, yet the psychological shock was surprisingly mild.
It was my first time killing people, and my own calmness felt unnatural.
"I really could die..."
More than horror or disgust, I felt as though I had finally confronted reality.
After easily killing zombies for several days, I'd begun thinking the world was manageable.
That had been arrogant delusion.
I'd been walking a path where death could find me at any moment.
#
I searched the belongings of the dead men.
There was little worth taking.
I found one backpack in the supermarket containing some water, food, and cigarettes.
Tssss. Tssss.
"Hoo..."
I placed a domestic-brand cigarette between my lips and lit it.
It had been so long since I smoked that my head spun.
The tension gripping my body eased slightly.
'What had that black monster been?'
It had slaughtered six people in an instant and vanished in the blink of an eye.
All I knew for certain was that it was a four-legged beast roughly the size of a small person.
With the rising sun behind it, I couldn't clearly remember its appearance.
'It was completely black. Had it helped me?'
Since it hadn't attacked me, that seemed possible.
I set the questions aside and pushed my handcart onward.
The group that attacked me had apparently followed me from Hoegi-dong.
Their wallets contained business cards from shops in that area.
Pushing a cart piled with duffel bags down the road must have made me an obvious target.
'Fair enough... I'd stand out from a great distance.'
They'd mentioned a detection ability, but even without it, I was impossible to miss.
Take National Route 6, where I was still walking.
I was the only moving figure on a broad six-lane road.
Someone in the distant apartment towers could probably see me.
With all this luggage, I truly was the golden goblin of this era.
[Welcome. You are now in Guri, Gyeonggi-do.]
At last, I'd left Seoul.
My past self had apparently been attacked by people as well as zombies.
That must have been why traveling this far took more than a month.
Unless I found somewhere genuinely safe, I'd have to minimize sleep.
Because good people didn't come looking for strangers.
Scrape.
Yes. Just like now.
Without changing my seated resting position, I focused on the sound.
Keeping my eyes closed, I gauged the intruder's position by hearing.
Rustle.
Quietly, I drew a baseball from my pocket and gripped it.
I prepared to throw the instant the intruder took one more step.
The uninvited guest advanced carefully.
Rustle.
He should be exposed about now.
I opened my eyes and swung my arm.
The baseball left my fingertips.
Whoosh—thwack!
"Gyaaagh."
It struck the intruder squarely in the head.
The instant he screamed, I ducked behind the sofa.
Whish—thunk.
'An arrow?'
An arrow flew through the open doorway.
The unexpected weapon startled me, but if arrows were their only means of attack, I could handle this.
I tipped a nearby desk onto its side and used it as cover.
Pushing the desk ahead like a shield, I advanced toward the doorway.
"Guuuhhh."
I paused beside the man who had collapsed after being struck by the baseball.
Shiiing—thunk.
Another arrow flew, but it couldn't penetrate the desk.
They weren't using an ability. The arrows appeared completely ordinary.
The fallen man twitched and tried to rise.
"You stay down."
I wasn't certain this would work.
Fwooosh—thwack.
"Aaargh! Fuck..."
Thwack. Thwack. Thwack. Crunch.
"Grrrk..."
I'd intended to strike the back of his head and knock him unconscious with one blow.
I'd copied something from a movie, and it didn't work.
With no alternative, I kept striking until he lost consciousness.
Shiiing—thunk.
The archer outside continued shooting.
Did they truly expect ordinary arrows to pierce this thick desk?
They didn't seem to possess any other ranged ability.
Perhaps the man who entered first had held the stronger ability.
I lifted the desk again and approached the door.
My plan was to close the distance, wait for one more arrow, then charge during the opening.
Shooo—thock.
'Now.'
Thud-thud-thud-thud—wham.
On second thought, there was no need to expose myself at all.
The desk was narrow enough to pass through the doorway, so I charged straight ahead with it.
The archer stood directly in line with the entrance and was bowled over by the desk.
She struck the wall without even screaming and crumpled to the floor.
I quickly scanned the surroundings and listened.
There might be more accomplices nearby.
Silence continued, and I sensed no other presence.
The battle with the intruders ended quietly.
'Well then... Let's see their faces.'
I first approached the nearer one—the archer.
'Huh? A woman.'
Long hair covered her face, and the curve of her chest was visible beneath it.
Was she the partner of the man who entered first?
Planning to interrogate her, I hoisted the woman over my shoulder and carried her back inside.