Chapter 123: Escape
Chapter 123: Escape
#
The largest feral dog was black.
The apparent pack leader was covered in wounds of every size.
Even so, it stood tall and rigid as though the injuries meant nothing.
"You're tough. So... Do you want a round with me too?"
Holding the bat in one hand, I twirled it idly and approached the animal.
It retreated a single step.
Its rigidly raised tail drooped limply.
"Good. Then I'll deal with these people first."
Once our silent standoff ended, Eun-ah walked into the clearing.
She carried an aluminum bat in one hand.
"Ughhh..."
Fwoosh—Thwack.
A man lying in Eun-ah's path groaned as she approached me.
Without hesitation, she swung the bat.
The bastard convulsed once, then fell still.
"Are these all the members of the pursuit team? We should probably interrogate them, don't you think?"
"Yeah..."
I searched the clearing for the human in the best condition.
Torture would probably be most effective on someone who was still relatively healthy.
I simply crushed the heads of those already drifting in and out of consciousness from the dogs' attacks.
"Big Brother Tae-sik..."
"Huh? Oh, right."
Being called 'Big Brother' by a woman more than twelve years younger made me feel as though I were committing some kind of sin.
Still, I couldn't say I disliked hearing her attach that title to my name.
"This woman is in decent condition."
"All right. We'll take her with us."
Every one of the humans was in poor condition.
Among the wreckage, though, one woman was conspicuously less injured than the others.
After confirming that she was completely unconscious and motionless, I walked around crushing the other humans' skulls with my bat.
"Hmm... What should we do about the dogs?"
"I don't know..."
I'd killed every human except the woman we intended to interrogate.
I hadn't touched the feral dogs yet, and I was conflicted.
I examined the dogs that remained sprawled on the ground but were still breathing.
They were animals that had most likely tasted human flesh.
'The possibility that they might attack Eun-ah and me...'
The safest choice was to kill them all.
On the other hand, they had stopped the people pursuing Eun-ah and me.
Though that had only happened because circumstances happened to align perfectly.
Scramble—Whine, whimper.
"Hold on... what are you doing?"
Had it sensed what I was considering?
The pack leader approached, flattened its belly against the ground, and whined.
It appeared to be signaling that it had no intention of attacking, so I extended a hand toward its head.
Despite watching me walk around crushing human skulls, it meekly offered its head.
The situation gave me a strange sense of déjà vu.
'Right... a favor is still a favor.'
I looked down at the pack leader, which remained prone with its belly against the ground.
The creature met my eyes.
"I'll spare you this time. Handle the rest yourselves."
I had no idea whether it understood me.
I chose to believe an animal wouldn't manipulate me like a human by faking submission merely to survive an immediate crisis.
Deciding that one good turn deserved another, I removed my hand from its head and stood.
"Eun-ah, let's leave the dogs alone."
"Okay..."
After finishing our cleanup by looting the corpses, I approached the unconscious woman.
She was a young woman who appeared to be in her twenties.
I hoisted her up and slung her over my shoulder.
Eun-ah immediately tugged at my arm.
"Hm? What is it?"
"Me too..."
"Alright."
I bent my knees and slid one arm beneath Eun-ah's backside to support her.
She wrapped her arms around my neck and nestled against me.
'The way she behaves is unmistakably childlike...'
Ever since showing me her face, she'd lost every trace of distance around me.
It was difficult to believe this was the same woman who had guarded herself so thoroughly.
I kept the thought that she was acting like a child to myself and started back toward the building.
Smack.
"Huh? What was that for?"
"Because I'm annoyed..."
On the way back, Eun-ah slapped the unconscious woman's backside with her palm.
Eun-ah didn't notice, but I felt the woman over my shoulder flinch.
Humans truly were cunning.
#
I was speaking with Eun-ah in the third-floor hallway.
We'd locked the surviving woman inside the storage room and bound her with rope.
She had pretended to be unconscious until the very end.
"Are you coming with me this time too?"
"Yeah..."
"Wouldn't it be better for you to get some more sleep?"
"I'll come with you..."
"Alright."
I opened the door and entered the storage room.
The bound woman stared at us with both eyes wide open.
Had she finally abandoned the pretense of unconsciousness?
Slap.
"Affiliation."
"Mmph mmph mmph mmph."
Slap.
"Ability."
"Mmph mmph mmph."
That was the sound of Eun-ah slapping the bound woman across the face.
Eun-ah was asking the questions as well.
There was no opportunity for me to intervene.
'Look at her speaking so clearly now.'
Unlike when she spoke to me, Eun-ah questioned the woman in a detached, precise voice.
The interrogation continued while the woman's mouth remained sealed with tape.
Eun-ah kept slapping her for quite some time.
The woman on the receiving end streamed tears.
Eun-ah's palm apparently packed more sting than it appeared to.
"Eun-ah, you need to remove the tape before she can answer."
"Oh... okay."
Believing the intimidation had been more than sufficient, I stopped Eun-ah.
Rrrip.
"Hic... This is so unfair... Huaaaah... Hic."
"Stop crying."
The instant her mouth was freed, the woman burst into sobs.
Eun-ah quietly raised one hand as she spoke.
The woman's tears stopped immediately.
"Now Big Brother is going to..."
"Right. You belong to the New Humanity Ark, correct?"
"Yes."
A few routine questions and answers followed.
The woman introduced herself as an Ordinary Believer of the Ark.
"Please, could you hear my story just once?"
When I nodded, the woman sniffled and began again.
"I'm twenty-nine, and my name is Im Hye-ji. It's true that I belong to the Ark, but I didn't join willingly. What they do to people who refuse to become believers is too horrific..."
The woman calling herself Hye-ji insisted that she'd had no choice but to cooperate with them.
She repeatedly emphasized that she wasn't a fanatic and had only used her ability to avoid starvation and sexual exploitation.
Whether she could be trusted was another matter, but I understood her argument.
"That doesn't seem particularly important. I'd rather you gave us information that might actually help us."
"Th-that... What sort of information do you mean? I'm afraid I don't know very much."
"Start with your ability. What kind of ability made them willing to accept you?"
"My ability is Absorption of Change. I've exceptional energy extraction and digestive capabilities, allowing me to eat things ordinary people can't. For example, I can survive on spoiled food, poisonous mushrooms, and even roadside weeds."
"Oh... If your only goal were surviving alone without any other threats, that would be a decent ability. But it doesn't seem especially valuable to a group, and it isn't a combat ability."
As I listened to Hye-ji, I wondered whether she'd ever tried eating feces or drinking urine.
After all, even material another creature had already digested still contained nutrients.
"Yes. I was accepted as an Ordinary Believer not because of my main ability, but because of my sub-abilities."
Apparently, the Ark called what I knew as Abilities and Sub-traits 'main abilities' and 'sub-abilities.'
"My sub-abilities are Ingestion Efficiency, Digestion, and Material Tracking. Material Tracking was also why I was assigned to this pursuit team."
Material Tracking allowed her to locate things she had previously consumed.
For example, after eating an apple, she could sense the direction of the tree on which that particular apple had grown.
With foods containing many ingredients, she could locate only a limited number at a time. Investing Available Points increased both the tracking distance and the number of ingredients she could follow simultaneously.
"Whenever believers assigned to outside work rotate shifts, I drink their blood. The blood supplies the energy I need, so I receive fewer rations. Digestion also lets me increase my Available Points without hunting zombies. In short, I suppose I'm cost-effective..."
"So after drinking someone's blood, you can sense the direction of its owner?"
"Yes. Wasn't there a man among the fighters who suddenly launched a paper airplane?"
"Yeah. He was their communications specialist."
"Yes. His blood is currently... Well... Splattered on you. We almost lost the trail, but then you suddenly stopped, which allowed us to reach this place."
"Ah... That's absurd."
This was what made organized groups so dangerous.
You could never know what sort of ability another person might possess.
I'd never imagined they could track us using a little blood splashed during the interrogation.
"But that man is dead. Shouldn't the direction still point toward his body?"
"Normally, yes, but we found his corpse. Once he died, his body stopped producing blood, so my sense shifted toward the location of the most recently produced material. If his blood hadn't splashed onto you, or if he were still alive, tracking you'd have been difficult."
"Ah... Maybe I should have kept that bastard alive."
It was a pointless hypothetical.
If I'd kept him alive, they might simply have possessed another method.
"What about now? Do they have another ability that can track us like that?"
"Not as far as I know. You probably don't need to worry about further pursuit."
"What makes you say that?"
"Do you know that another human faction exists in Guri?"
"Yeah."
"They and the Ark are hostile to each other. In my opinion, assigning twenty people to a pursuit team already strained their resources, so they probably can't send more. And their normal operating range... I've never seen them mount an expedition beyond Namyangju. They don't even enter Seoul."
Guri had a small land area relative to its population.
Consequently, it contained many high-rise apartment buildings and numerous facilities packed into a compact space.
That density allowed survivors to secure supplies without traveling far.
Compared with other regions, the same area of land yielded far more food.
That environment apparently caused the two Guri factions to clash frequently.
"Right, I understand. They're too busy fighting each other in their own backyard... Now tell me about something else. Explain what you know about the Ark and the other faction, and volunteer any other useful information you've learned about the current situation."
"Starting with the New Humanity Ark..."
What should I do with this woman?
Killing her and moving on seemed like the cleanest option.
I was about to leave the storage room so I could organize the information she'd spilled and discuss it with Eun-ah.
"Please spare me. I'm begging you."
Bound to the chair, Hye-ji read the mood and began squirming as she pleaded.
"Why should I?"
I had no reason to let her live.
Until now, I'd practiced an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
At that, she began advertising her usefulness.