Chapter 108: Fateful Ties
Chapter 108: Fateful Ties
26. A Connection
Tap
The approaching ghost stopped a short distance from the break room.
After fluttering there for a moment, the white cloth toppled sideways.
Behind it stood a figure in a black raincoat...
"A kid?"
The figure was so small that they couldn't have been older than middle-school age.
The kid in the black raincoat picked up the white cloth again.
They hooked it over the end of the metal pipe in one hand and waved it broadly from side to side.
"Um... you surrender?"
I raised my voice slightly as I asked.
Apparently I had guessed correctly, because the kid bowed.
So the white cloth they had extended the previous night had meant surrender as well.
They hadn't been pretending to be a ghost after all.
"Then what brings you here...?"
The kid lowered their backpack and rummaged through it.
They pulled out the cigarettes from yesterday.
Then they rubbed their stomach with both hands.
"Uh... Let me guess. You're hungry?"
The kid bowed twice.
Their face remained hidden beneath the deeply pulled hood.
Was that why they communicated by bowing?
"Why will you not speak? This is frustrating."
They bowed repeatedly.
This wasn't a game of charades.
Why were we communicating like this?
"Hold on a sec."
The kid refused to come closer than a certain distance.
Considering they had survived alone this long, such caution was natural.
As it happened, I had badly misjudged the portions and possessed plenty of food.
Once I realized the stranger was a child, sympathy began to creep in.
Besides, we had already spent one night under the same roof without incident.
"My soft heart is going to get me killed. Kiddo, move farther back. I'll leave the food on that desk."
The kid bowed again, left the cigarettes, and retreated to the end of the hallway.
Still, how had they appeared the instant I lifted my spoon?
Maybe this kid was blessed when it came to food.
I searched the break room for additional dishes.
I carried out a heaping bowl of rice and two generous bowls of kimchi stew.
I placed the food on the nurses' station between us and collected the cigarettes.
'Four packs this time.'
Once I returned to the break room, the kid cautiously approached the food.
They moved like a wild animal approaching bait in a trap.
"Enjoy the meal, Kiddo. And don't smoke. It'll stunt your growth."
Swish swish
The kid picked up the white cloth and waved it side to side.
Admittedly, that had sounded like pointless nagging.
Still, smoking at that age couldn't be good.
"Why will you not talk? No, forget it. Just eat."
Then I wondered what point there was in worrying about it.
Either of us could leave after the meal and die immediately.
The present was too brutal to spend much time worrying about the distant future.
The kid needed some way to relieve stress too.
If cigarettes helped them relax, perhaps smoking was the lesser evil.
We ate separately, keeping our distance.
I couldn't see the kid, but I heard them devouring the food.
Before long, I too became absorbed in the unexpectedly good meal.
'Damn... I let my guard down far too much.'
The thought occurred to me only after I'd finished eating.
Was it really a coincidence that I had encountered the kid on the hospital's eighth floor?
Now that my stomach was full, the situation felt suspicious.
Anyone might visit a hospital for supplies, but climbing all the way to the eighth floor...
'Or maybe there is nothing strange about it. They could have come up because the lower floors were full of zombies.'
Hoping to speak with them, I stepped back into the hallway.
But the kid had already gone, leaving two pieces of candy on the desk.
#
Graaaagh
I lightly tapped the charging zombie's skull with my baseball bat.
Thwack thud
After fighting zombies continuously, I was learning exactly how much force to use.
'The sun will set soon...'
I'd left the hospital in the late afternoon and walked steadily until evening.
Though that amounted to only about two hours.
In the end, I still hadn't escaped Guri.
Partly because I had started late, and partly because zombies kept slowing me down.
Was the neighborhood where I had awakened unusually empty, or was this district unusually crowded?
Compared with this place, Hoegi-dong had been a zombie-free zone.
'Should I rest there tonight?'
I found a detached house much like the previous night's.
It was an old two-story house surrounded by a fairly high wall.
Creeeeak
Once again, the gate stood open and produced an unpleasant squeal.
The moment I entered the yard, the front door opposite me slowly opened.
Flutter flutter
'What is this, déjà vu?'
A white cloth peeked through the doorway and fluttered.
It was the kid from earlier.
"You and I've similar taste, huh?"
Unlike the previous night, the door opened fully and the kid stepped outside.
After seeing them several times, I felt strangely glad.
Had dealing with nothing but zombies made me lonely for human company?
Tap tap tap
The kid was still wearing the black raincoat.
A small pale hand emerged from it, repeatedly opening and closing a multitool for me to see.
I was wondering whether they were showing off when understanding suddenly struck.
"Wait. It was you, was it not? The little thief who raided my duffel bag?"
The sight of that hand triggered the memory.
A child that small wandering alone in this world couldn't be common.
"Come here. You stole from me, did you?"
Flutter flutter flutter
The kid ducked behind the door and frantically waved the white cloth.
Only then did I fully understand that the cloth was a flag of surrender.
'Ah. So that was what they were doing yesterday too.'
They must have recognized me from the beginning.
I'd stepped outside while the kid fled from the oversized zombie.
Still, it was impressive that they had survived.
"Ha... Forget it. We keep running into each other. That must mean something."
They said three coincidences made a connection.
The hospital and this encounter might not have been chance, but the first two probably were.
And because the thief was a child, I couldn't bring myself to punish them.
Strangely, my guard also fell quickly around the kid.
"Come out, Kiddo. I'll stay right here."
Creeeeak
The kid cautiously emerged and poked their head out.
The raincoat hood still concealed their face.
"Can you even see while walking around like that?"
Swish swish
The white cloth bobbed up and down.
"Why won't you talk? You're a frustrating kid, you know that?"
This time, they clasped both hands over their stomach and bowed.
"Won't you even tell me your name? I can't keep calling you Kiddo. If you don't like it, tell me your name."
They bowed again, apparently indicating that they did not mind.
"Fine. Forget it. What do you need this time?"
Rustle rustle
The kid produced a 1.5-liter plastic bottle from behind the door.
Holding out the multitool with one hand, they mimed drinking water.
So the earlier demonstration had been a sales pitch.
"Understood. Toss me both."
Whish thunk
At least they weren't asking for water for free.
They seemed to possess all kinds of odds and ends but little food or water.
I took out one of the water containers stored beneath the duffel bags.
"Do you have anything like a funnel?"
Suddenly
To my surprise, they did.
As though expecting the question, they pulled a funnel from inside the raincoat and tossed it over.
It had been fashioned from the top of a small plastic bottle.
"You came prepared. Bring any other bottles you have."
"..."
Tap tap tap
I filled three 1.5-liter bottles and added some energy bars from my backpack.
A multitool was useful enough that one bottle of water felt like an unfair trade.
"I'll leave these here. I'm going upstairs."
The kid bowed once more.
As I carried my handcart upstairs, they remained outside and watched me.
When I glanced back, they bowed again.
Their hesitant movements suggested they had something else to say.
'If it matters, they'll come find me.'
#
I spent a second night under the same roof as the kid.
We slept separately on the first and second floors, but we did spend the night in one building.
At dawn, I left another energy bar outside the front door before departing.
Once again, candy waited in its place.
Crunch
"Sweet."
Later, I crunched on the candy while searching for somewhere to rest through midday.
The sun heated the top of my head, but the candy lifted my mood.
Avoiding the city center the dead archer had warned me about forced me into a wide detour, and escaping Guri was taking far too long.
The district remained densely packed with zombies that repeatedly delayed me.
[Where the Scent of Coffee Lingers]
I found an independent café whose name showed more effort than the last one I'd visited.
Unusually, a restaurant occupied the first floor and the café the second.
There were no zombies inside and no signs of recent human activity.
Whoooosh crash
I tore an intact sliding window from the kitchen and hurled it away.
It shattered noisily across the stairs leading to the café.
Anyone approaching would have to step on the glass and alert me.
Then I shifted tables and chairs against the door and prepared to rest.
'Let's see if there is anything worth taking.'
A diary and pen lay on the kitchen table.
I opened it and found an account beginning on the first day of the disaster.
It might contain useful information, so I set it aside to read while resting and continued searching.
"Oh? Coffee."
Three unopened bags of coffee beans remained in a cupboard.
I considered making a fire after lunch and brewing some.
With so much wooden furniture, it seemed possible.
"I wonder whether Na-yeon is doing all right."
Only a few days had passed, but the sight of coffee reminded me of her.
Then another memory surfaced: sitting across a table from someone while drinking coffee...
'Who was that?'
I was struggling to recall the person's face when I noticed movement outside.
"Wow... At this point, they're openly following me."
As I placed the coffee and diary on a table by the window, I spotted the kid below.
They must have seen me too, because they began fishing the white cloth from a pocket.
They'd obviously pull it out and wave it.
"Kiddo. Forget the flag and come upstairs."
They probably couldn't hear me, so I beckoned as well.
The kid put the cloth away and approached the building.
Their backpack was larger than their body, making them look rather pitiful.
To let them inside, I removed the furniture blocking the entrance.
Why had the kid followed me?
Approaching so openly suggested they meant no harm.
'Is it really because of the food?'