Chapter 110: Fateful Ties
Chapter 110: Fateful Ties
#
Crwarrgh! Thwack.
"Fucking hell. Is someone controlling them?"
In the late afternoon, I left the café and resumed my journey.
The farther I traveled, the more zombies appeared.
At first, I had encountered fewer than five per block. Now the number had risen to around ten.
It felt as though someone had deliberately positioned them at regular intervals.
I pulled the folded neighborhood map from my pocket and marked every place where I'd fought zombies.
A suspicion had begun to bother me, so I had started recording each encounter after the previous fight.
I noted the number of zombies, then put away the map and pen.
'A zombie map? That name feels strangely familiar.'
I couldn't be certain yet, but continued records should reveal a pattern.
Human memory was unreliable, but something was unquestionably wrong.
'No matter how I look at it, their placement is too deliberate.'
I continued scouting while reviewing every point where I'd encountered zombies.
The sun would set soon.
I needed to find somewhere to spend the night before it grew later.
Strange animal cries had filled the nights recently, and darkness seemed far more dangerous than daylight.
After seeing the pig-pigeon, I couldn't underestimate the animals roaming the streets either.
'Ugh. Remembering it still gives me chills.'
I forced the vivid memory aside and raised my baseball bat.
While walking, I spotted a promising detached house.
Its exterior resembled the one where I had stayed the previous night, as though both had been built around the same time.
Creeeak.
'That sound has become practically mandatory.'
The rusty hinges groaned exactly as expected when I entered the yard.
I almost expected the front door to open and a white cloth to emerge, but the house remained silent.
To my surprise, I felt a little disappointed.
'Are there no zombies left inside buildings in this neighborhood?'
I hadn't inspected many houses.
Even so, it was strange that streets crowded with zombies were surrounded by empty homes and shops.
Since leaving the hospital, I had not encountered a single zombie indoors.
Could that truly be coincidence?
I ignored the first floor and climbed to the second.
If an intruder appeared, the upper floor would give me slightly more time to respond.
I dropped my gear inside, returned outdoors, and lit a cigarette.
The sky had already turned orange.
Darkness would arrive soon, so lighting a cooking fire was probably impossible.
Besides, I couldn't be bothered.
'I'll eat an energy bar and sleep.'
My scalp had begun to itch.
Another consequence of being unable to wash.
Considering the circumstances, the discomfort had taken surprisingly long to appear.
Normally, two days without washing left my hair slick with grease.
Sniff sniff.
My body odor also seemed milder than expected.
'Though it may smell terrible to someone else.'
Patter-patter-patter.
As I finished the cigarette, running footsteps approached.
There were no zombie cries, so whoever it was probably wasn't being chased.
I looked toward the hurried footsteps.
'Oh? The kid is here.'
Glad to see them, I raised a hand and waved broadly.
The sprinting kid stopped and returned a small bow.
Creeeak.
After spotting me, they naturally entered the same house.
Hearing the gate open, I descended to the yard.
The moment the kid arrived, they lowered their backpack and began bustling around.
"What would you do if a zombie jumped out while you were running like that?"
"..."
Flap flap.
The kid paused, then pointed at me.
"Huh? Why me?"
Then they alternated between pointing at me and at my baseball bat.
"Do you mean...?"
After checking my reaction, they pulled something else from the backpack.
"You knew I had already cleared the zombies? Have you been following me?"
Nod nod.
"Wow. You're clever. What is that?"
So that was the explanation.
Perhaps following me was the kid's personal survival strategy.
They appeared to scavenge along the safe route I left behind.
Crunch crunch.
The kid removed broken bottles from a black bag and began placing the shards along the wall.
Dragging an old chair around the yard as a step stool, they climbed up and down industriously.
Working awkwardly inside the black raincoat made them look pitiful.
"I don't know what you're planning, but you only need them on top of the wall, right?"
Nod nod.
"Give them to me. I'll put them up."
I took the bag and placed the broken glass along the top of the wall.
At my height, I could reach without a step stool.
'Are they copying the previous house?'
The shards were merely resting there rather than fixed in place, so they wouldn't accomplish much.
'Still, if it makes the kid feel safer...'
It was hardly difficult work.
Their idea was rather cute, and the glass might provide at least a small deterrent.
We finished quickly.
"My gear is on the second floor. Do you want to use the first?"
Nod nod.
"All right. Do you have drinking water?"
Nod nod.
"Good. Sleep well."
After exchanging goodnights with the kid, I returned upstairs.
That night, I planned to wipe myself down with wet wipes before sleeping.
Meanwhile, after Tae-sik entered the second-floor unit...
The kid—no, Eun-ah—returned to the yard.
Walking along the wall, she rose onto her toes and tapped it with her cherished hammer.
The glass shards adhered to the wall as though glued in place.
"Hoo..."
A faint, delicate sigh dissolved into the air.
Afraid that Tae-sik might hear, Eun-ah allowed herself only one small sigh before going indoors.
She'd settled down later than usual because she'd spent time creating items to trade with him.
He must have nearly finished the cigarettes she first gave him, so she needed to make another tracking device.
She needed to collapse and sleep if she hoped to follow him again at dawn, yet she forced herself to continue working.
She fought to keep her heavy eyelids open.
Thinking the heat might be worsening her drowsiness, she removed the raincoat.
'He must be asleep by now, right?'
Tae-sik was actually busy scrubbing himself with wet wipes, but he didn't come downstairs.
Removing the raincoat revealed Eun-ah's pretty face.
It still retained a trace of baby fat.
Contrary to Tae-sik's assumption, though, she was not a schoolgirl.
The person beneath the raincoat was a young adult woman in her prime.
She was simply... exceptionally short.
#
"Huh? What's this?"
As always, I left at the break of dawn.
When I reached the first floor, something lay before the door.
"Where does that kid keep finding these things?"
I picked up the steel cup.
I couldn't tell whether it was stainless steel, titanium alloy, or something else.
Measurement markings along the side made it useful for portioning.
An unusual ornament decorated the handle, and the cup looked extremely practical.
"Thanks. What can I leave in return...?"
I lowered my backpack and searched through it.
Food still seemed best, so I left another energy bar.
By now, our encounters felt less like barter and more like an exchange of gifts.
Afterward, I focused on forcing a path through the zombie-infested streets.
I occasionally found places worth scavenging, but every one had already been stripped bare.
I checked anywhere likely to contain food and found only dust.
'No one lives around here, so who emptied all these places?'
The mystery only deepened.
The kid didn't appear during my midday rest that day.
Feeling strangely lonely, I rested alone and departed again in the late afternoon.
[Insang Guri LH Apartment Complex 4]
After a long stretch of detached houses and old villas, I reached an apartment complex.
The buildings looked old and were unusually low for apartment blocks.
'One, two, three... only eight floors.'
It was still slightly early to stop for the day.
I planned to cross the complex and find somewhere beyond it to spend the night.
Crwarrgh!
"A Mutated Zombie?"
Until then, I'd called such creatures special or unusual variants.
But when one charged from the apartment playground at high speed, the term Mutated Zombie came naturally.
It looked identical to an Ordinary Zombie, but ran far faster.
More than ten other zombies charged behind it.
Shhhk—whish.
With plenty of distance remaining, I tried firing the bow for the first time.
The arrow left with a promising whistle, then struck the ground far short of the zombie.
"Damn... Am I using it wrong?"
Disappointed, I drew the stones stored in my pocket.
Fwoom—crack!
The thrown stone made an impossible tearing sound and burst an Ordinary Zombie's skull.
'That much damage?'
Surprised, I hurled several more stones in succession and reversed my grip on the K2.
I'd recently discovered that the rifle stock was nearly perfect for crushing zombie skulls.
It was probably more durable than a baseball bat as well.
Crack, crack, crack.
The boldly charging horde was eliminated in moments.
By circling the abandoned cars near the entrance, I avoided being surrounded.
Even so, encounters like this inevitably delayed me.
"Mutated Zombies... It has been a while."
For some time, I had encountered only Ordinary Zombies.
And this group had suddenly broken the regular placement pattern I had been observing.
If someone truly controlled them, had I just left that person's territory?
Or had the controller rearranged the formation?
'The kid will be all right... right?'
I wondered whether I should have woken them before leaving at dawn.
Perhaps it was pointless meddling, but I still worried.
I retrieved the handcart and duffel bags I had abandoned, then collected the arrow.
Keeping the apartment complex to my left, I followed the road.
No more zombies were visible as far as I could see.
"Excuse me! Excuse me!"
I'd taken only a few steps when a human voice called from above.
"Mister! Up here, on the fourth floor!"
I looked up and saw a woman waving from an apartment balcony.
She wore short shorts and a loose tank top.
Perhaps because I viewed her from below, bare skin repeatedly showed through the loose clothing.
'No bra?'
Two small points pressed against the thin fabric.
The heat explained the outfit, but it was bold clothing to wear before a strange man.
Especially in Korea.
"Could you help me? I'll compensate you."
What should I do?
She might have rushed out in whatever she had been wearing indoors to stop me from passing.
Less charitably, it could be a seductive trap.
"I'm alone. Please help me..."
When I hesitated, she pleaded again with greater desperation.
I decided to at least hear her out.
It wasn't because of the sudden ache below my belt.
Though I could not deny a little anticipation.
'Humans should help one another.'