Chapter 106: Raid
Chapter 106: Raid
#
After finishing the fight with the gang, I considered my options.
Should I return to National Route 6 or keep to the back roads?
If I stayed on the main road, I would probably face more attacks from other people.
Or someone might approach me to beg for supplies.
'Zombies might actually be better.'
So I pulled out the map and decided to try the back roads.
Moving between buildings might make me less conspicuous.
As expected, the back roads were crawling with zombies.
The narrow alleys, in particular, almost always contained zombies.
The noise one zombie made drew others from nearby.
Still, unless a special variant appeared, they posed no real problem.
I'd walk for five minutes before another appeared. Sometimes I couldn't take ten steps before meeting the next one.
That was how I advanced, repeatedly slowed by zombies.
[Han & Lee Math Academy]
By then, the sun was high in the sky.
To escape the midday heat, I entered an academy building.
I took the edge off my hunger with an energy bar and some water, then sat on a sofa and closed my eyes for a while.
I didn't fall asleep. I simply rested, feeling as though the sunlight had cooked my skull.
Rustle.
After I'd rested for about thirty minutes, two raiders—a man and a woman—approached.
A glass door must have shattered earlier, because the fragments scattered across the floor served as an alarm.
Even without them, I'd already sensed the pair approaching.
'So... how am I supposed to interrogate them?'
I threw the woman, whom I'd dragged in like a sack of luggage, down beside the man.
A shard of glass had lodged in her face and drawn blood, but I decided not to care.
Man or woman, they were both raiders who had tried to kill me.
'First, I should tie them securely.'
I took out a length of rope and crouched beside the man.
I should cover his eyes too.
"Huh? What's wrong with him? Hey."
Slap, slap.
The man's eyes had rolled back.
Foam covered his mouth.
Most importantly, he wasn't breathing.
"Haah..."
I had no idea when he'd died.
The stench of the feces he'd released in death stabbed at my nose.
'I didn't mean to kill him...'
Feeling uneasy, I searched the bastard's belongings.
"He's broke as hell..."
The small bag he'd carried contained only a lighter and a tumbler.
There was no food or anything else useful.
The smell grew steadily worse in the heat, so I decided to move elsewhere.
I descended one floor from the fifth floor, where the fight had taken place.
After several trips to move my supplies and the woman, I lit a cigarette.
I'd tied the woman's hands behind her back and bound them to her feet.
With her eyes and mouth covered as well, she looked like something from a twisted porn video.
'Strange... Is this because of Mental Resistance?'
I'd already killed four people since dawn.
And this was the second time that day someone had ambushed me with the intent to kill.
Despite everything, my mind remained unnaturally calm.
It was not that I felt nothing. I simply didn't descend into panic or terror and could continue thinking clearly.
Not that this was a bad thing.
In a world overrun by monsters and people becoming monsters, the value of a strong mind could hardly be overstated.
'No point complaining about something useful.'
With that in mind, I invested a few more Available Points into Mental Resistance.
I couldn't raise any of my other traits anyway.
"Nngh... urgh..."
By the time I'd smoked the cigarette down to the filter, the woman regained consciousness.
The woman appeared to be in her twenties and looked perfectly ordinary.
After she'd fired arrows at me with the intent to kill, I'd expected her to look far more vicious.
"Mmph. Nnn-mmph."
"Quiet. You've no right to make a fuss."
"Nnn, nnn-mmph!"
I still hadn't decided what to do with her.
I did not even know how to conduct an interrogation.
What should I ask first?
The reason she'd attacked me was obvious enough.
"Mmph. Mmph. Mm-mmph-mmph."
God, she was noisy.
Could she not read the room?
"Shut up."
Thump.
"Mmph!"
I lightly punched her in the solar plexus.
The woman groaned in pain and writhed.
After a moment, she seemed to calm down.
I peeled the tape from her mouth and began questioning her.
"Ability."
"..."
"I asked what your ability was."
"Navigation..."
"In detail."
From her explanation, it was another Tracking-type ability.
Most people who ambushed others seemed to possess abilities like that.
"Um... where's Jun-hyeok? The man who came with me."
"Answer my questions properly, and I'll answer yours."
"Okay..."
What kind of relationship did she have with Jun-hyeok?
How I dealt with her might depend on her relationship with the dead man.
"Do you live around here?"
"Yes. I live in an apartment across the main road."
"Then how did you find me?"
"I saw you walking along the road yesterday."
So the pair really had tracked me down deliberately.
Had they planned to kill me and steal my supplies?
"Tell me everything unusual you know about this area."
"Well... first, there are almost no survivors in these alleys. There are dangerous Elite Zombies around. Ah, by Elite Zombies, I mean..."
She used the term Elite Zombies for the oversized zombies, the fast ones, and other variants I'd seen.
She said this district had become a sea of zombies and that two survivor groups occupied the city center.
According to her, both groups were full of lunatics.
She mainly explained the balance of power between those factions and the situation in the surrounding neighborhood.
From the sound of it, people were a greater problem than zombies.
"We avoid them too, so I don't know much more than that."
"Are all the people roaming around men?"
"Yes. Those lunatics forced us to keep running too. What they do to women they catch is... horrible. Then we ran so low on food that..."
"So when you happened to spot me traveling alone, you attacked?"
"No! We only meant to steal a little food... sniff..."
"How's that any different from killing me? And stop sniveling."
"I really do feel wronged... sniff..."
"Are you insane? Why are you the one crying? Be quiet for a moment."
Whatever she said, I could not simply believe her.
Even if she hadn't truly intended to kill me, our relationship had been poisoned from the start.
For my own survival, I resolved to harden my heart.
"What was your relationship with Jun-hyeok?"
"Sniff... He's my boyfriend. Please, can I see Jun-hyeok's face? We were wrong."
The woman pleaded pitifully.
But her boyfriend was already dead.
Rationally, killing her was the safest option.
I had ample justification as well.
Even so, I couldn't stop myself from wavering.
I wasn't a villain, only an ordinary man who had lived an ordinary life.
"Please. Just spare us. I'll do anything. Please?"
"..."
"I'm sorry. Sniff... I was wrong. I'm so sorry..."
"I told you to stop crying. What about the subway station? Have you ever gone inside?"
"You can't go that way. Zombies gather there in huge numbers, and I heard there's nowhere to escape."
I forced myself to ignore her sobbing and continued questioning her.
I wanted detailed information about the area, but she didn't know much either.
For one thing, moving into another district was extremely difficult.
The two factions based near City Hall had established surveillance networks.
According to her, I was lucky to have entered from outside and remained alive.
"Hoo..."
"Please... I've told you almost everything. What else is there...?"
Thwack—thud.
As the conversation drew to a close, I struck the back of her neck.
This time, I managed to knock her unconscious with a single blow.
I'd obtained nearly all the important information she possessed.
'Now the problem is what to do with her...'
At first, anger over being targeted had made me consider revenge.
But the man was already dead, and the woman had lost all will to resist.
The clumsy couple's ambush hadn't posed much of a threat.
More importantly, I couldn't afford to linger.
If her information was true, I needed to leave this district as quickly as possible.
'Even so, I don't think I can let her live.'
Her ability specialized in tracking people.
Once she registered someone within her sight, it showed her the best accessible route to that target.
If I spared her out of misplaced sympathy, she might later use that ability to find me and take revenge.
'It would have been useful if she could have joined me.'
I could immediately think of more than three ways to make use of an archer with her ability.
Killing her felt wasteful in several respects.
Whoosh—thwack.
I swung my remaining baseball bat and crushed the back of her skull.
I placed her body beside her boyfriend.
Killing her quickly, without tormenting her, was the most mercy I could offer.
'I suppose the bitter aftertaste is unavoidable.'
On the way down, I collected the bow and arrows she'd used.
The bow was larger than I'd expected.
Judging by feel, it weighed less than two kilograms.
'It's metal, but incredibly flexible.'
Fascinated by the first bow I had ever held, I examined it from every angle.
The dead archer had said it hadn't originally belonged to her, so she lacked professional knowledge.
Still, she'd explained enough for me to use it.
According to her, this type was called a recurve bow.
It had a relatively heavy draw weight, and its steel construction made it durable.
She'd warned that shooting without gloves or an arm guard could cause injury.
I collected the ten arrows the couple had modified, placed them in a quiver, and fastened it at my waist.
Slung over my shoulder, it wouldn't have bounced around so much, but my backpack made that impossible.
I lifted the handcart with the duffel bags still loaded on it and carried it outside.
I'd avoided the worst of the midday heat, but it was still hot.
I seemed to sweat far less than I had the previous summer, though the weather was hardly comfortable.
'Is that another effect of my ability? Damn... If so, how miserable must everyone else be?'
Consulting the map, I resumed my journey along the back roads.
After hearing the dead woman's account, I wanted even less to return to the national highway.
'If those lunatics catch me, I'll be completely screwed.'
Even if zombies slowed me down, this was still preferable to being ambushed by people.
Humans were more dangerous than zombies, and this route would probably save time in the long run.
'Wow. The sun is already setting.'
I felt as though I'd barely traveled a few blocks, yet the surroundings were already turning orange.
With every artificial light extinguished, the city would plunge into darkness soon after sunset.
Once I found a suitable place, I'd have to stop for the night even if it was early.
Yesterday had taught me that finding a safe place to rest was harder than expected.
'Limited entrances and a clear view of the surroundings... Hmm. That place looks promising.'
This district contained more old buildings than the one I'd crossed the previous day.
There were almost no officetels. Instead, I saw many detached houses and aging villas.
Among them, I chose a house with a rooftop room.
Screeeak.
The iron front gate produced a sharp squeal when I pushed it open.
That made me like the place even more.
I also appreciated the broken glass bottles embedded along the top of the wall.
Rustle, rustle.
'Huh? Did that come from inside?'
I couldn't be certain, but I heard a faint noise that seemed to come from within the house.
It sounded like a small piece of paper rustling.
My hearing must have improved enormously.
I moved quietly and kept listening.
Someone—or something—appeared to be moving in response to the gate.
I couldn't yet tell whether it was a zombie or a person.
'Should I go in or not...?'