Chapter 134: Cheongpyeong
Chapter 134: Cheongpyeong
#
The previous night.
While Hye-ji and Eun-ah were showering, they called me over and asked whether they could wash their clothes.
I gathered the water containers and left to replenish our dwindling supply.
But I didn't head directly toward the tributary of the Bukhan River.
I intended to make one more patrol around the clearing where we'd pitched our tents and check for other threats.
Until then, I had deliberately avoided leaving Eun-ah and Hye-ji alone together.
'Hye-ji was definitely the one who mentioned doing laundry.'
Hye-ji's request created the first opportunity for the two women to remain alone.
I could have prevented it again, but this time I chose to cooperate.
My decision came from something I had overheard while stealing glances at them in the shower.
Firewood crackled beneath the sound of water splashing over the women.
Through those noises, Hye-ji’s quiet voice reached me as she spoke to Eun-ah.
'Eun-ah, do you not want to wash your clothes? Women need to change their underwear often.'
She had deliberately lowered her voice.
It sounded as though she wanted to ensure I couldn't hear.
Consequently, I'd suppressed my presence beside the tent and strained my ears.
It was only a hunch, but Hye-ji seemed to have a reason for wanting me gone.
From their perspective, perhaps a minute or two had passed since I left.
Then the quiet voice came again.
Water falling from the tank interfered with my eavesdropping, but I could follow their conversation once I concentrated.
'Hmm~ How long has Eun-ah known Big Brother Tae-sik?'
'Men quickly tire of women who become too possessive. Have you never dated anyone?'
Eun-ah gave no response.
At first glance, it might have been meaningless small talk.
What bothered me was the final thing Hye-ji whispered into Eun-ah’s ear.
I had failed to hear Hye-ji's last whisper.
That night, Eun-ah had been unusually demanding of my affection.
"Big Brother. Big Brother Tae-sik."
"Hm? Oh. You finished."
Eun-ah’s voice pulled my awareness from the previous night back to the present.
Before I realized it, we had finished cleaning the snake hide.
We spread the flesh-free hide over the roof of the guesthouse parking shelter.
I had no idea how long it needed to dry in the sun.
I didn't even know whether direct sunlight was appropriate.
Furthermore, because we were traveling, we couldn't leave it spread out indefinitely.
'Our conditions are terrible...'
Neither my knowledge nor our circumstances were adequate.
Wondering whether we might ultimately have to abandon the hide, I began preparing lunch.
"Hmm. So this is what snake meat tastes like."
I sampled a small piece roasted over the fire.
I trusted Body Enhancement and Enhanced Recovery, and the cat had eaten enthusiastically without hesitation, so I doubted the meat was poisonous.
Even so, I began with only a tiny amount.
When no symptoms appeared, I took a proper bite.
"Not bad. I think it's edible. But the smell is extremely strong."
I wasn't certain “gamey” accurately described it.
An odd odor rose from the meat, combining gaminess with fishiness.
Anyone with a delicate stomach would have struggled to eat it.
"Eating it plain will be difficult. Let's season and grill it."
A delicious commercial marinade was impossible, but I attempted a simple sauce.
First, I minced the onions and peppers we'd harvested from the garden the previous day and added red-pepper powder.
I added a little water and sugar, crushing the onions as I mixed everything.
That was all.
We had no other suitable seasonings.
"Uh... Will that really count as seasoning?"
"I don't know either. Still, it should be better than grilling the meat plain."
"Yes... If only we had a few more seasonings. What a shame."
I brushed the improvised sauce over the partially cooked snake meat and returned it to the fire.
Beside me, Eun-ah built a second small fire and grilled unseasoned meat for the cat.
At last, we began lunch.
We ate plain rice and wrapped the snake meat in lettuce.
"Big Brother... Why does it have thorns?"
"Keukeuk... Those are bones."
The sauce did little to conceal the meat’s strong odor.
But I forced down one bite after another by thinking of it as concentrated protein.
All three of us finished our portions by treating the meal as mere nutrient intake.
Meanwhile, the cat devoured the separately grilled, unseasoned meat with obvious pleasure.
"It might have tasted better with garlic."
"Garlic? When is garlic harvested?"
"Garlic... I think the season has already passed. Or is some harvested in June too? I'm not certain."
"You're supposed to be a middle-aged man. How can you not know...?"
"Hey, damn it. How could I know everything? I was an office worker, not a farmer."
We rested while exchanging this pointless banter.
After cleaning the eating area, we sat quietly in the shade and allowed our sweat to cool.
Before long, we rose, relieved ourselves, and brushed our teeth.
That concluded our break.
The weather was brutally hot.
The sun remained high overhead, and sweat dripped from us even when we stood still.
Despite that, we departed immediately without extending our rest.
It was too hot even to enjoy a cup of coffee after lunch.
#
"Is this not honestly too much?"
"Hm? What is?"
"Was June in Korea always this hot? I can barely breathe."
Hye-ji had a point.
Spring and autumn might have been disappearing from Korea, but even the previous year hadn't been this severe.
It was already past five in the afternoon.
Ordinarily, the sun should have begun losing its force by that hour.
This year, though, it continued scorching the earth as though it had received an early summer buff.
It already felt like August.
"Could I at least remove my top layer? It's suffocating."
"Endure a little longer. We've almost arrived."
"All right... Sorry. Mister is working harder than I am, yet I keep complaining."
Heat alone raised people’s discomfort and made them irritable.
In addition, we'd forced down an unpleasant lunch and remained under constant stress while traveling.
That made it even more important for me to control my temper.
Pointless conflict—or a lapse in vigilance caused by heat exhaustion—could prove fatal.
Fortunately, my claim that we were almost there hadn't been empty encouragement.
Our destination for the day finally came into view.
[Cheongpyeong Station]
Because we had eaten and departed early, we reached it in the early evening as planned.
"Let's go inside."
Cheongpyeong Station was small.
The building itself was compact, with only two entrances: one at the front and one at the rear.
"Why are there no zombies?"
"Exactly. What is going on?"
"Because we’re in the countryside."
Inside, it felt as though the world had stopped in a single instant.
We searched the silent station, but even when we strained our ears, we heard no insects.
Every railway-office door stood open, yet not even a common bloodstain marred the area.
"Wow... Is this some kind of bug?"
"It's so clean that it feels even more frightening."
We climbed the stairs to the platform and continued our inspection.
Cheongpyeong Station consisted of a single platform with one track on either side.
Both the subway and Gyeongchun Line used the platform.
Like the station interior, it lacked even the smallest trace of blood.
After surveying the platform from end to end, I looked beyond it.
A narrow stream flowed beyond the closed platform screen doors.
"Do you see where that water flows? Let's head there."
"All right. I expected a subway station to be far more dramatic. What a disappointment."
We'd stopped primarily because I remembered a small convenience store inside the station.
After Jin-su’s parents moved to the countryside to farm, they'd invited me here several times.
I'd used Cheongpyeong Station on those visits, and the convenience store remained exactly where I remembered it.
Its interior, though, was as bare and spotless as though it had been cleared for permanent closure.
Not one product remained on the shelves, and there were no signs of a struggle.
Only the merchandise had vanished, as though someone had scavenged the shop at leisure.
"This is truly strange... Normally, at least one shelf would have been knocked over."
"Keukeuk. Right. Now it's stranger to see shelves standing upright."
Suppressing our disappointment, we left Cheongpyeong Station.
I planned to head toward Jojang Stream, a tributary of the Bukhan River, and find somewhere to spend the night.
No matter how clean the station was, resting beside running water would be more convenient.
"Wow... A place like this was hidden here?"
While walking beside a small, densely wooded grove, we stumbled upon it.
A compact campground had suddenly appeared before us.
[Two Silver Star Camp]
Wire fencing enclosed the campground, and a chain and padlock secured the gate.
I shook the fence to create noise, but nothing inside reacted.
"There are no zombies visible at the moment."
"Shall we impose on this place for the night?"
"Sounds good~"
"Miss Eun-ah, the key, please."
"...Here."
Eun-ah used her Skeleton Key to open the padlock, and we entered the campground.
Gravel covered the campground.
Three small wooden houses stood directly ahead.
Jojang Stream flowed along the right side of the yard, with four wooden camping decks arranged before it.
To the left, the grove we'd passed blocked the view from Cheongpyeong Station, and a pickup truck stood parked before the trees.
The entire campground was small enough to survey at a glance.
After inspecting the houses, we decided to unload.
Knock knock knock knock knock
"Is anyone here?"
"Hellooo~ we've a reservation for tonight!"
"We came to camp..."
Every house was clean inside.
The leftmost house was the largest, and framed photographs of what appeared to be the owners hung on its walls.
The other two contained only simple furniture.
There were no traces of zombies whatsoever.
"There are already far fewer zombies now that we've left the Seoul metropolitan area."
"Cities must have the highest difficulty. More people simply means more danger."
"In countries with vast land, people sometimes travel kilometers before seeing a single house. But many people must still live in those regions, right?"
"Korea has people who live like hermits in the mountains too. Some of them might not even know that the world collapsed."
"Wild animals..."
"Oh, right. Uh... Perhaps they're more likely to have died?"
After checking every corner of the campground, we began unpacking.
I tossed the tent onto a level deck and spread the snake hide over another empty site.
"The houses looked quite clean. Would sleeping inside be a bad idea?"
"Oh, you're right. There was hardly any dust, was there?"
"No. One of them even has a bed, blankets, and pillows."
"Hmm... Shall we sleep in a bed tonight, then? Which house should we use?"
The people who managed the campground must have been exceptionally tidy.
Even so, more than a month of abandonment should have left considerable dust.
"Let's inspect the houses more carefully and air them out."
"All right~ From what I saw, we could sleep there immediately!"
"Keukeuk. Have you missed sleeping in a bed?"
"Yes... A sleeping bag on the floor of a tent isn't exactly comfortable."
We crunched across the gravel toward the houses again.
The gravel itself was another advantage of the campground.
"Big Brother Tae-sik."
"Mm?"
"The car is clean."
"Oh. You're right. Maybe they polished it obsessively because it was imported."
"I've not seen such a clean vehicle in a long time."
"Yeah. Why is it so clean?... Damn it."
It felt as though someone had poured cold water over our cheerful conversation.
When I was in high school, a noisy classroom would sometimes fall abruptly silent.
We'd joke that a ghost had passed through and then resume talking.
This moment felt exactly the same.
"Hurry and pack. We're leaving."
"Right."
The three of us rushed back to the deck and frantically gathered our belongings.
At that moment, a faint sound reached my ears.
Eun-ah and Hye-ji hadn't noticed it, but my enhanced hearing detected an unfamiliar noise approaching from far away.
Rrrr-tk rrrr-tk
"Too late. Prepare to fight—no. Both of you hide first."
"What?"
"Hurry! Take your weapons and hide behind a tree or something. Don't reveal yourselves unless necessary. If it looks as though I'll lose, cross the stream and run."
"All right." "Okay."
The two women hurried into hiding.
Eun-ah moved behind a boulder near the camping deck, while Hye-ji went farther away and concealed herself behind a house.
Soon, a shadow appeared on the path by which we'd arrived.
Because the sun was setting, I first saw only the tip of its elongated shadow.
I hurriedly gathered several pieces of gravel and strapped the shield to my arm.
I released the catch holding my Favorite Baseball Bat at my waist so I could draw it instantly.
'Most likely human. I don't know their ability, so I should probe from long range first...'
Rrrr-tk rrr
The mysterious sound grew steadily closer until I could hear it distinctly.
Then it stopped abruptly.
'Fuck... Did they notice us?'
A shaggy, heavily built giant of a man finally emerged at the campground entrance where the grove ended.
He wore denim bib overalls and carried an enormous axe in one hand.