Chapter 107: Raid
Chapter 107: Raid
#
I set my gear down in one corner of the small yard.
I decided to inspect the house first.
Taking only my weapon, I cautiously approached the house.
If it was a zombie, I could kill it and rest here. But if it was a person...
'What would I do then?'
Flicker.
As I considered the problem, a faint glint briefly flashed between the curtains covering the window.
It vanished so quickly that I might have imagined it.
'What was that? A mirror or something?'
It was definitely not a flashlight.
It looked like sunlight reflecting off an object.
That made it far more likely that the presence inside was human.
What should I do if it was a person?
Screeeech.
As I hesitated, wondering whether to withdraw, the front door opened.
'Are all the doors in this house rusted solid?'
The gap widened little by little with a skin-crawling squeal.
Flutter.
"What the fuck..."
Something like a strip of white cloth poked through the opening.
It hung long and fluttered in the air, with no legs visible beneath it.
The ghostly shape made me suck in a startled breath.
Sway, sway.
"What... what the hell are you? A ghost?"
I extended my baseball bat and spoke under my breath.
In a world where zombies existed, ghosts did not seem impossible.
The real question was whether I could cave in a ghost's skull.
Sliiiide.
"Huh?"
Something slid out from beneath the white cloth floating in the air.
It was a small plastic-wrapped box.
"What's this... cigarettes?"
Flap, flap.
"Hey. Say something. Ah, can you not speak?"
Sliiiide. Plunk.
'Ghosts hand out cigarettes these days?'
I had heard of the bathroom ghost that offered toilet paper, but this was new.
A pack of cigarettes slowly slid forward and dropped onto the front step.
The white figure remained half-hidden behind the door, gently swaying.
"What? Are these for me?"
Flutter, flutter.
As though answering, the figure bobbed up and down.
A ghost that handed out cigarettes.
This wasn't high-calorie—it was downright absurd.
"Stop acting so suspicious. If you've something to say, come out. What do you want?"
Swish, swish.
This time, the figure swayed side to side in refusal.
I grew frustrated, but unease kept me from approaching.
It was absolutely not because I was afraid of ghosts.
'Damn... I have started thinking of it as a ghost without even realizing it.'
Screeeee. Clunk.
The unidentified figure retreated inside, leaving a single pack of cigarettes behind.
Was this an offer of peace?
I considered entering the house, then decided against it.
From the other person's perspective, I was the intruder.
The gesture seemed intended to show that they meant no harm, so I chose to withdraw.
I picked up the cigarettes the ghost had given me and climbed to the rooftop room.
I lifted my handcart up the old steel stairs, which announced every step with loud creaks and groans.
On the other hand, anyone approaching would make the same noise, so the stairs weren't entirely a disadvantage.
Creak. Creeeeak. Clunk.
I made dinner from a tasteless can of beans and an energy bar.
The box of energy bars had the shortest expiration date among my supplies, so I ate those first.
'It feels wrong to take something without giving anything back...'
After eating, I returned to the first floor and left two energy bars before the front door.
With my improved night vision, I saw the curtains twitch.
My sharpened senses also told me that someone inside was watching.
'Right. You must be nervous too.'
I quietly returned upstairs and lit one of the cigarettes the ghost had given me.
Click. Click. Fsssssshhh.
'Holy shit... cough, cough. Soboro Red?'
The strong foreign cigarette made my head spin.
Until then, all I'd had were 0.1 mg domestic cigarettes, so I decided to ration these carefully.
The ghost on the first floor had probably entered the house for the same reason I had: to find somewhere to rest for the day.
When I had briefly inspected the place earlier, it hadn't looked permanently occupied.
Though I couldn't be certain.
A place that looked suitable to me would look suitable to others as well. That was probably why we had crossed paths.
From the other person's perspective, I was equally dangerous.
Even though we had both withdrawn peacefully, neither of us could truly relax.
Still, the sun had already set, and traveling farther that night would be dangerous.
'What an awkward arrangement...'
The only consolation was that the old house creaked whenever anyone moved.
Worrying about my dwindling drinking water, I lay on the rooftop-room floor and closed my eyes.
#
Awooooo. Awooooo.
'How long did I sleep?'
Distant howling pulled me from a shallow sleep.
As far as I knew, Korea had no wild wolves.
I pressed the button on my digital watch. It was three in the morning.
'Maybe I woke because this is my usual time.'
I rose, loosened my body, and prepared to leave.
The hours before sunrise were the coolest part of the day.
It was pitch-dark outside, but the sun would rise before I'd traveled far.
Creak. Creeeeak.
As I descended to the yard, the stairs produced another chorus of skin-crawling squeals.
That defeated the purpose of moving quietly.
'I really don't want this to cause a misunderstanding.'
I worried that the ghost downstairs might mistake my departure for an attack.
Fortunately, there was no reaction even when I passed the front door.
The energy bars I'd left there were gone.
'Wow. All that noise must have woken them.'
Before leaving through the gate, I saw the window curtain part slightly.
I pretended not to notice and went outside.
All things considered, we had been excellent roommates.
The urban sprawl continued almost uninterrupted from Guri into Namyangju.
Zombies scattered along the narrow roads slowed me far more than when I had followed National Route 6.
[Guri Paik Hospital]
Normally, the streets would have been bustling with morning commuters.
While consulting the map, I spotted a hospital along my route.
I entered on a whim, thinking emergency medicine might be useful.
Four hours later, I was still trapped inside.
'How was I supposed to know there would be this many zombies?'
The hospital occupied an entire eight-story building.
The first two floors had been wrecked, but contained no zombies.
After breaking through a deliberately barricaded staircase and reaching the third floor, I began encountering them.
Wham. Crunch.
"Fuck. I desperately need a shower."
Fighting zombies at close range all the way to the top floor had left me drenched in sweat.
Clearing every floor of zombies and searching for useful supplies took longer and longer.
If I left midway, I'd barely travel before needing another place to rest, so I pushed through to the eighth floor.
In return, I secured several kinds of medicine, including steroid injections.
"I should take some syringes too... This one is glucose. What does this label say?"
The problem was that I could not identify most of the vials.
Some were clearly labeled, but several bore English names I couldn't understand.
Naturally, I knew nothing about the proper dosages either.
I filled the space left by consumed food with the medicines I could roughly identify.
I also collected bandages, sutures, needles, masks, and latex gloves.
The haul justified the time spent, though I didn't know whether I could use everything correctly.
They were emergency supplies, so ideally I would never need them.
"Damn. At least all that work paid off."
My habit of talking to myself was worsening, but this discovery deserved it.
In a corner of the eighth floor, I'd found an old water dispenser that used twenty-liter bottles.
Excited, I searched the wards for water-dispenser jugs.
I found three with their caps still sealed.
Human greed truly knew no bounds; even that did not feel like enough.
"This should still be safe to drink, right?"
Leaving the sealed bottles untouched, I poured a little from the bottle already mounted on the dispenser and tasted it.
It seemed fine.
After wetting my throat, I resumed working.
Eventually, I found an employee break room tucked into a corner.
Since it contained a pot, I decided to cook rice.
I gathered medical textbooks, sheets of A4 paper, and anything else that would burn.
Crack! Snap!
I broke apart the wooden legs of desks and chairs and stacked them with the paper.
I poured rice into the pot and fetched water from the dispenser.
Then I tore loose a metal rack with legs and suspended the pot from it.
Click. Click. Whooosh.
"Oh! It burns pretty well."
The improvised fuel produced thick black smoke and had to be replenished constantly.
It was horribly inefficient, but I was satisfied simply to be cooking.
"Wow... I really screwed this up."
After tending the fire for about twenty minutes, I lifted the lid and found the rice undercooked.
Trying not to waste water, I'd used too little.
I added more and simmered the rice until it resembled porridge.
"This is the best I can do. It's good enough..."
Trying to reassure myself, I served what looked like at least six portions.
The result was wet and porridge-like, but it still resembled rice.
'I didn't mean to make this much...'
The large pot had thrown off my sense of proportion.
Next, I planned to use the same pot for saury kimchi stew.
[XX Wild-Caught Saury]
It was a can of saury marked as military issue.
I could not bring myself to eat it straight from the can.
This was the perfect opportunity to use it up.
I set water to boil and prepared the ingredients.
Two cans of saury and a can of kimchi of uncertain age.
For seasoning, I had gochujang, chili powder, salt, sugar, and a few other things.
Sizzle.
I coated the bottom of the pot with sesame oil and fried the kimchi first.
A savory, spicy aroma filled the break room.
My mouth watering, I poured in bottled water and brought it to a boil.
"Please... It only needs to be edible."
I had no idea how to make it better.
My ingredients were limited, and I was no cook.
I could only do my best.
Once the water boiled, I dissolved the gochujang into it.
I emptied one can of saury into the pot with its broth, then added only the fish from the second.
I added a little chili powder, salt, and sugar, then covered the pot.
Under the circumstances, this was an absurdly luxurious meal.
I'd used a great deal of water and burned a pile of books.
I had no fresh onions or garlic, but proper seasoning alone could still make a good meal.
I fed the fire and let the stew boil vigorously for about five minutes.
Sweat streamed down my forehead, but I remained beside the fire.
When I removed the large lid, a surprisingly convincing stew appeared.
"Huh? Why is this actually good?"
I tasted the broth. It would be perfect with rice.
I packed rice high into three bowls, set out a spoon, and sat down.
Seeing it all laid out made me realize how much food I had prepared.
Still, the spicy aroma had revived my appetite. I thought I could finish it.
"Gulp... Thanks for the mea—"
Tap. Tap. Tap.
The moment I sat and lifted my spoon, footsteps sounded beyond the open break-room door.
Even a dog knew better than to disturb someone while he was eating.
Cursing the uninvited guest's timing, I grabbed my baseball bat.
The approaching figure was not even trying to conceal its footsteps. I resolved to punish its insolence.
I reached the doorway and cautiously peered into the hall...
Flutter, flutter, flutter.
A strip of white cloth whipped toward me like the hair of a furious madwoman.
'Why the hell is the ghost here?'