Chapter 21: Adaptation

#

I quickly looked toward the voice.

Across the street, a tarp-covered street stall stood on the sidewalk.

I could see a face through a gap in the tarp.

I didn't know who it was.

"Team Leader! It's me, Min-su."

Ah. He was a contract worker on our company's Support Team.

I'd rarely had any reason to interact with him, so I hadn't recognized him right away.

He was at least someone I knew, but I kept my guard up as I approached him slowly.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠"Min-su. Why are you in there? Come on out."

I stopped about five steps from the stall and spoke quietly.

Seon-yeong was behind me, silently scanning our surroundings.

"I wasn't bitten. Don't worry."

"Are you alone, Min-su?"

Min-su slowly emerged from between the tarps.

I tried to remember what I knew about him.

I didn't know his last name; all I remembered was that he was the youngest employee at the company.

He'd completed his military service early and joined our company at twenty-two. He'd only been there for about four months.

Honestly, I only recognized him after hearing his name.

"Yes, I'm alone. Team Leader, I'm sorry, but I haven't been able to eat anything since the day before yesterday, so... could you please share a little food with me?"

"I can give you some, but please stop right there."

I stopped Min-su as he approached, kept watching him, and quietly signaled to Seon-yeong.

He wore a three-stripe tracksuit from head to toe and didn't appear to be injured.

He was empty-handed, without a weapon or any other belongings in sight.

Aside from his hair being matted from not washing, he looked fine.

Behind me, I felt Seon-yeong open my backpack.

I wanted to ask him about his ability, but I wasn't sure if he'd be honest about it.

It was dangerous to keep standing around in the street, so I decided to give him a little emergency food and leave right away.

Seon-yeong soon handed me a bottle of water and two energy bars.

"I'll toss them to you. Catch. We'll be moving on right away."

"Oh. Thank you. Where are you headed, if you don't mind... Could I come with you?"

"I'm sorry, but we can't do that. You know what things are like right now."

"Ah... right. I'm really sorry, but before you go, is there any way you could spare just a little more water and food? Please."

After a moment's hesitation, I signaled to Seon-yeong again, but she only tapped me on the back.

She must have meant no.

When I signaled again, she pulled out two biscuits.

I tossed the biscuits to Min-su, who kept sneaking glances at Seon-yeong.

"We don't have much ourselves. Please don't think too badly of us."

"Thank you."

After a brief exchange, I waited until Min-su had gone back under the tarp before moving on.

The road remained wide open for a while, so we picked up the pace and put some distance between us.

After about fifty meters, we came to a three-way intersection with a road branching off to the left.

This was where the buildings began.

"He's still there, right?"

"I couldn't watch him the whole time, but he must have gone back under the tarp. I don't see him on the road."

"Alright... let's get back to what we were doing."

At the three-way intersection, we turned left around the park and sat side by side beside a nearby car.

The road we'd entered was a narrow two-lane street, with a four-story building across from us.

There was a convenience store on the first floor, and it looked like a single company occupied floors two through four.

"Let's go into that building."

"Yeah. I'm ready. We can go."

We caught our breath for a moment, then crossed the street.

#

I could see two zombies through the convenience store's front window.

A female zombie and a male zombie in an employee vest stood several feet apart.

I timed it, and when both zombies were facing the other way, we slipped inside.

Thwack. Thwack.

I smashed the employee zombie's skull, then looked over to see that Seon-yeong had easily dealt with the female zombie.

Perhaps because two zombies had been standing in plain sight, the convenience store was relatively untouched.

This store also had a stockroom. When I checked it, I found the cramped space packed with goods.

"Let's just grab a little medicine and emergency food, then move on."

A rack of basic medicines stood by the counter.

There were a few fever reducers, digestive aids, and cold medicines; I took them all.

Seon-yeong brought over a few energy bars and some chocolate and put them into my backpack.

I was briefly tempted to take more supplies, but forced myself to let it go and headed for the door leading farther into the building.

The hallway was quiet.

The building had a small footprint, so the convenience store occupied the entire first floor, apart from the restrooms on one side.

I knocked on both the men's and women's restroom doors, then tried the handles, but both were locked.

There were no unusual sounds coming from inside, so it seemed there weren't any more zombies left on the first floor.

'I'm going up.'

I signaled to Seon-yeong and headed for the next floor.

There was an elevator and a staircase beside the restrooms, and the elevator indicator showed that it was on the fourth floor.

I took out a hand mirror and used the stairs to go up to the second floor.

The second floor had the same layout as the first, with a company office occupying the space above the convenience store.

A sticker bearing the company name covered part of the glass door, and several boxes were stacked in the hall beside it.

I peeked into one of the boxes and found tiny shoes that looked like they were for ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠babies.

Through a gap in the sticker on the glass door, I checked the office's interior.

'Fuck... that scared me.'

I saw the back of a zombie standing right in front of the door.

The thing was pressed right up against the door, so I couldn't see the rest of the room.

I had Seon-yeong look inside too, then gave her the signal that we were going in.

Once she nodded, I silently opened the door and dealt with the zombie right there.

Thwack. Thud.

After dealing with the zombie at the entrance, I quickly swept my gaze across the office.

There were four more zombies.

Apparently reacting to the noise we'd made, all four zombies turned toward the door and charged with shrieks.

I ran to meet them and smashed my bat into the head of the nearest zombie.

All four were focused on me.

"Shield."

A shield materialized on my right, and one of the zombies immediately crashed into it and fell.

I ignored the fallen zombie and drove my foot into the chest of the one charging straight at me.

Krwaaaak!

Crash!

A zombie that had been running alongside it tripped over a toppled steel cabinet and fell.

I slammed my bat down on its skull.

Seon-yeong finished off the zombie to my right with a swing to the back of its head.

Seon-yeong met my eyes.

I nodded, and Seon-yeong walked toward the remaining zombie.

It was the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠one I'd kicked to the ground.

Seon-yeong moved to finish it off as it thrashed, trying to get up.

Thwack. Krwaaaak!

No, she didn't.

Her bat missed the zombie's head and struck its shoulder instead.

The thing writhed wildly, trying to bite at Seon-yeong's leg.

Flustered, Seon-yeong leapt back, then swung again and finished the zombie off.

"Nice. You stayed calm."

"Whew... I panicked for a second. The zombie moved and my swing went wide."

When her swing missed, I was startled and nearly stepped in.

My tightly clenched hand relaxed.

The sight of her missing had genuinely made my heart lurch.

Even if she hadn't backed away right then, I didn't think it would have bitten her, but the wild, jerky way zombies moved had a grotesque quality that could intimidate anyone.

I'd just confirmed something else while fighting: zombies didn't seem very good at getting back up once they fell.

They seemed to imitate, awkwardly, the natural way a person recovered their balance and stood up.

Maybe it was because they had prey right in front of them and were moving in a frantic rush.

Their instinct to bite seemed so strong that they'd even give up on standing and try to crawl at you instead.

So far, all the zombies I'd come across had been standing.

I didn't know how they got up when there were no people around.

Yet when they ran, they reproduced ordinary human movement naturally enough.

Maybe the zombies we'd knocked down could see us and were so desperate to reach a person that they couldn't get back up properly and only floundered around.

I had no way to confirm it yet.

I calmed my racing heart and looked around the office.

There were no desks, only steel cabinets and shelves toppled in a chaotic mess.

Boxes were strewn everywhere too.

This place seemed to serve as some kind of storage room.

"Tae-sik... all they have in here are flyers, dolls, shoes, and things like that. It looks like a baby-products company, doesn't ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it?"

"Looks like it. There's nothing useful here."

After leaving the storeroom, which still bore signs of a violent struggle, we checked the restrooms as well.

At first, seeing the signs of people's last struggles had stirred a lot of pity in me.

It was impossible not to imagine what kinds of situations they'd faced.

Now, that kind of sympathy felt pointless.

"Let's push through, clear the place up to the fourth floor, and then rest for a bit."

"Okay. I'm still fine. Hang in there too, Tae-sik!"

Seon-yeong definitely had an affectionate, playful side.

It felt like now that she'd gotten more comfortable around me, her real personality was starting to come out.

The expressionless way she'd acted when we met Min-su earlier was the same Seon-yeong I'd always seen at the office.

It had been more pronounced because we'd both been wary, but only by degree.

Even so, back when we were at work, she'd joke and laugh with me a lot when it was just the two of us.

But if even one unfamiliar person was around, she'd become quiet and curt.

Maybe Seon-yeong had always been a little more relaxed around me after all.

'Focus.'

I shook off the wandering thoughts and we got moving, staying alert to our surroundings.

The company door on the third floor had the exact same sticker on it as the one on the second.

I moved closer and peered inside through the gaps between the letters of the company-name sticker.

This seemed to be the office people actually worked in; it held several desks and partitions.

I didn't see any zombies in my immediate line of sight, so I opened the door right away.

The office area was trashed, like a war zone.

"Maybe everyone went toward the storage room earlier..."

Krwaaaak!

Just as Seon-yeong started to speak, a zombie's shriek rang out from a corner.

We both immediately raised our baseball bats and turned toward the sound.

'What the...? Why is it only making noise...?'

The shrieking continued, but the zombie made no move to charge at us.

There were no separate rooms, so, puzzled, we stood facing the howling zombie for a moment.

Clatter. Clatter.

Only the sound of something rattling and the zombie's cries continued.

We'd have to go see for ourselves.

After exchanging a silent signal with Seon-yeong, we cautiously started moving.