Chapter 35: Routine
Chapter 35: Routine
8. Routine
A large waste-sorting station stood in one corner of the apartment complex.
I came out after the sun had set and it had grown dark, but the light leaking from scattered sources and the glow of streetlamps kept me from wandering, and I found my way easily.
There were no zombies, and I could see a modest pile of trash.
I pushed the sorted recyclables and the official garbage bags to one side, then returned to the apartment building.
I loaded the zombie bodies from that day into a large tent-pole bag and began carrying them to the waste-sorting station.
I didn't know exactly how long human decomposition usually took, but the zombie corpses I'd seen so far were decaying at a rate that anyone would find bizarre.
I'd grown used to gruesome sights—bodies dismembered or crushed—but the stench and the insects that came with rot were still something I couldn't get used to.
The bloated, blackened bodies seeping strange fluid were still hard to look at.
But on top of that, the sight of flies swarming thickly and maggots teeming everywhere triggered a visceral revulsion so intense I simply couldn't endure it.
The bodies we'd left in the apartments were already crawling with bugs after just half a day.
The first time I stepped into one of those units, the smell was so overpowering that I'd wrapped another layer of cloth over my mask, and the stench still punched through.
The indescribable, nauseating stench felt like a warning to run immediately.
"Is that the last one?"
"Yeah, this is the last. Don't come closer—I still can't get used to the smell..."
"Then what should we do with these? I found soju and dried pollock."
"Just take it back inside. I changed my mind."
"Okay. Be careful."
Seon-yeong took the soju and pollack in her hands and went back inside the apartment.
Alone, I hefted the body bag and headed for the recycling station.
At first, I'd planned to gather the bodies and at least bow to them in respect.
I'd even considered cleaning the waste-sorting area as best I could.
I didn't follow any religion, and I'd never really agonized over the afterlife or the human soul.
I simply felt sorry for the people who had died and turned into zombies, and wanted to offer them some small comfort.
So I'd told Seon-yeong and Ga-yeong about it and asked them to look for things like refined rice wine or fruit.
When we split up to handle our separate tasks, Seon-yeong followed me and left me with one remark.
That I hadn't killed people—I'd dealt with monsters.
That I shouldn't forget that.
I knew. I'd had similar thoughts before and sorted them out on my own.
Even so, because the zombies retained their human appearance, some part of me still regarded their remains as human corpses.
Now, was an unmoving zombie body the corpse of a once-living person, or was it the carcass of a totally different monster—a zombie?
It was hard to come to a clear answer.
As I carried the bodies, I changed my mind and decided it was better not to follow through with my original plan.
After piling all the zombie corpses to one side, I headed back to the apartment and lit a cigarette.
With no one around, I could smoke while walking without worrying about dirty looks.
I wanted to hurry back and scrub myself raw.
I felt like bugs were crawling all over my whole body.
As I walked, I made up my mind.
What I moved were zombie remains, not human bodies.
The people they'd been were already gone, and putting down the zombies was itself a kindness to the dead.
I resolved not to dwell on anything beyond that.
Both practically and for everyone's mental health, that seemed like the right way to think.
Not that anyone was around to say otherwise.
#
"Whoa! Where did the chicken come from? Awesome! Chicken for dinner!"
"We cleared the building with the chicken shop and found these in the freezer. The building next door has a cafe, so I'll bring back coffee beans this afternoon. Look forward to it."
"Ooh. What makes you so confident? What if the cafe has already been picked clean?"
"Already checked on my way by. There are at least four zombies inside."
We three had been living together in the apartment for over ten days.
In that time, we'd gradually expanded our scavenging range, so now the walking distance alone was close to a kilometer round trip.
Since the people from Hana Trading we met last week—the client employees, that is—we hadn't encountered any new survivors yet.
Our business contacts and the woman who had survived in the officetel had formed a group of four and begun scavenging together.
Yesterday, they'd contacted us to say they'd successfully cleared out their first convenience store.
It suddenly reminded me of the RPGs I used to play back in the day.
I could picture it: newbies who'd just pulled off their first successful party hunt, all excited and shooting off messages.
A four-person group from our business contacts...
"What are we doing after lunch? About five floors left?"
"Yeah, we're going up. Tell me if you're tired, I mean it."
"No, I'm fine. I just come down after putting up a shield once. No big deal."
We'd been clearing the apartment building during the midday hours after lunch, and now only the top five floors remained.
There was a quiet satisfaction in watching my Available Points creep upward.
Once, while checking a lower floor, I'd come across a unit with the veranda window locked.
I didn't want to just leave it, so while I was puzzling over how to get it open, a lady inside walked into the living room, met my eyes, and fainted on the spot.
After that, we started skipping any unit with a locked window, assuming there might be a survivor inside, and somehow we'd nearly cleared the whole building without realizing it.
The higher the floor we cleared, the more time we lost putting on the safety rope and moving with it. Then Seon-yeong came up with a good idea and began helping, cutting our rest short.
Her method was to use her shield.
First, we'd go up the stairs to the floor we needed to clear, open the window, and Seon-yeong would create a small shield just outside the window.
Now that she could shape her shields more precisely, Seon-yeong made a groove where I could attach the rope.
I looped the safety rope through it and clipped it to my body with a carabiner.
That let me step outside the window, plant my feet on the shield, and spring lightly right over to the veranda of the unit I needed to clear.
Of course, someone with a fear of heights couldn't do it.
Once I went in through the veranda, Seon-yeong would release the shield and head back down.
She said she could now use her shield quite a few times, so making one small one was no strain.
After that, I simply hooked the rope to the building's fire-safety anchor and extended it as I moved upward.
Honestly, unless a veranda railing suddenly fell off, there was no real chance of falling, but Seon-yeong worried about the one-in-a-million possibility and made me promise to always wear the safety rope.
"Seon-yeong, when you get back, could you take a look at something I organized?"
"Sure, what is it?"
"I tried to calculate how many days' worth of food we have. But I'm not sure I did it right. I think I mostly know how much we eat per day now."
"Ga-yeong handles all the meal prep these days, so she's probably way more precise than me. Still, let's check it together when I'm back."
It felt like everyone's roles were being defined and a daily routine was starting to form.
We'd wake at dawn, eat the breakfast Ga-yeong prepared, and Seon-yeong and I would head out pulling the trolley for the morning scavenging run.
We'd return before noon, all eat lunch together, and while I cleared the apartment building, Seon-yeong would either rest or give Ga-yeong a bit of help.
After 3 p.m., we'd head out for the afternoon scavenging run as soon as we were ready, and we'd usually get back home between seven and eight.
As our scavenging range expanded, we spent more time walking. The trolley was a lifesaver.
While we were out and about, Ga-yeong had started living something like a mess cook's life at home, preparing meals and catching up on lost sleep.
In the evenings, we'd all go out together for a sort of stroll, stopping by the units where we'd dealt with zombies during the day and grabbing what few supplies remained.
The food inside each apartment's fridge was still edible for now, but before much longer, we'd be down to eating only the stuff with a long shelf life.
That was why we were freezing as much as we possibly could, but even so, there was clearly a limit, and it made me worry about the future.
At night, we rested fully—though that was mainly when I spent my time pestering Seon-yeong.
My sex drive had become absurdly strong lately, making me feel as if I were back in my mid-teens.
It felt like puberty again, when an erection could appear while I was doing nothing. The difference was that I no longer had to take care of it alone.
With my urges growing stronger, I clung to Seon-yeong every night.
I was starting to live like an animal. Once, I even slipped inside Seon-yeong while she was taking a nap.
She didn't get angry, but being worn out every night was becoming harder and harder for her.
She said the skin between her legs was chafed and oversensitive, and that she was physically exhausted...
The problem was that I didn't want to suppress the urges that were growing right along with my stamina.
Was this one of those cases where a crisis heightened the urge to reproduce?
It wasn't that I couldn't control myself; my desire for sex had simply increased.
I even considered scavenging alone and telling Seon-yeong to stay home.
Of course, that wouldn't solve the problem, and I felt like it would be treating her like a sex toy, so I never said it out loud.
"Tae-sik, Ga-yeong said we've still got enough coffee to last, so we can go ahead and clear Zone A first."
"Oh yeah? Then I guess we're finally finishing Zone A today. Wait, no—thinking about it, J Broadcasting Station is still there."
"That place should count as a special zone. I can't even imagine tackling it."
I'd eaten lunch and gone out first, and just as I was finishing my cigarette, Seon-yeong came out and spoke.
As we climbed the stairs together, I sketched out a map in my head.
A few days ago, we'd looked at a map and divided up areas among ourselves, deciding to call the area from the apartment complex to the pharmacy block where we first scavenged Zone A.
Aside from two buildings and J Broadcasting Station, Zone A no longer had any zombies left.
Crossing the road from Zone A, we grouped four blocks beginning with the one containing the chicken shop and cafe and named them Zone B.
Zone B also happened to be the area where the person who dismembered the zombies' limbs was active.
"Then this afternoon, let's finish clearing the pharmacy building and the one next to it and come back early. At least we won't have to struggle with hiding the trolley."
"Yeah, yeah. Be careful out there. Mwah, mwah."
Seon-yeong gave me a light kiss as I was about to climb up onto the window frame.
She complained about being exhausted, yet still indulged me and kept stoking my libido.
If Seon-yeong could just pick up a single physical enhancement ability, things would be so much better.
For me too, obviously.
Come to think of it, a new ability had appeared this morning.
My guess that an ability would be added every time my Available Points increased by 10 had been wrong, but one way or another, something new had shown up.
It was already nearly two weeks since the world changed, and I still hadn't figured out the Status Window.
Would a day ever come when I truly understood it?
* Transformation: Optimization
* Enhanced Recovery (25), Body Enhancement (50), Body Enhancement II
* Available Points: 14
The new ability struck me as painfully unimaginative.
Body Enhancement 2...
Had the first installment been so popular that they released a second season?
Sequels were often worse than the originals. I hoped this one would be different.