Chapter 45: Carelessness
Chapter 45: Carelessness
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"First, we need to know whether you can lure them. Can you bring the zombies from the intersection to here without being caught?"
"Yeah. Even on the first day, I was faster than they were. This distance will not be a problem."
"Then let's build an advantageous stage right here. You know what a bottleneck is, right?"
"Yeah. You mean traffic backing up where the highway narrows, right?"
"Right. Bottlenecks cause traffic jams, and technically—no, that's not important now. The trail entrance behind us is narrow. We use cars to block it so the zombies can't enter all at once."
"Ah, I get it. So we can take them one or two at a time?"
Seon-yeong's plan was to build a kind of wall out of cars.
It was a method no one else could execute, but I could move the abandoned cars on the street however I wanted.
"We only need to angle these two cars slightly. Put the white one about here... no, look at this."
Seon-yeong sketched a diagram on the paper she was holding and explained the best way to arrange them.
"We don't have to block the path completely. Zombies aren't intelligent enough to go around, so this should be enough. I'll wait at the white star, and we'll hold them here first. If they begin to spill through, retreat to the black star. I'll create a shield along the red line. That gives us a two-stage chokepoint, so we should be able to clear them all."
"Okay. So you know how to play SimCity too? Block the path with Pylons and Gateways, and I'm the Zealot."
"Huh? What's that? Did you actually understand this? I even drew a picture for you, how am I supposed to explain it more... did I draw it too sloppy?"
"No, no. I understood."
I assured Seon-yeong—who was still trying to find a simpler explanation—that I understood, then set down my weapon and backpack and loosened my hands.
I was about to use considerable strength, so a warm-up seemed wise.
Thud.
There were plenty of abandoned cars nearby, so I dragged them into position to form a wall.
The first time I dropped a car's rear end too hard, the crash echoed. Startled, I checked the zombies at the intersection.
Fortunately, the noise hadn't attracted them, so I arranged the rest of the battlefield more carefully.
While I moved the cars, Seon-yeong paced around as though running the battle in her head, trying different stances and practising swings with the bat.
"Seon-yeong, this should be enough, right?"
"Yeah. You worked hard. Let's rest a minute."
Seeing me sweat, she must have thought I was exhausted. She took out a handkerchief and wiped my face.
The work wasn't especially difficult; the morning was simply hot enough to make me sweat.
I drank some water and sat in the strengthening sunlight, but it hardly felt like a rest.
"Seon-yeong, it's too hot. I think it'd be better to just get moving quickly."
"Seriously. It's really hot today, even for morning."
"Wait. I should gather a few good throwing stones. There are plenty near the fence."
I planned to use them while luring the zombies and later throw them from behind the cars at anything that kept charging.
They were small stones, but if I struck a zombie in the head, my throw should make them lethal.
"Didn't you pick up too many? Are we really going to use this many?"
"Who knows? Doesn't matter if we have leftovers. Anyway, I'm off."
I piled the stones behind the car like a small cairn, handed my baseball bat to Seon-yeong, and headed for the intersection.
Holding one stone in each hand, I walked to the middle of the road.
At this point, it didn't matter if the zombies saw me.
Whoosh—thwack.
From some distance away, I tested my strength by hurling one stone as hard as I could.
I expected the zombies to notice me at this range, but strangely they were all looking in different directions.
The stone flew with tremendous speed, struck a zombie squarely in the head, and dropped it instantly.
Kwaaaaak!
Whoosh—thwack.
One zombie finally noticed me, turned, and shrieked.
I threw another stone immediately.
The second stone flew with a vicious whistle and buried itself in the screaming zombie's torso.
The impact flung the zombie backward.
If I had possessed this kind of control before, I would have played professionally as a pitcher rather than a batter.
Without any special training, my accuracy had improved dramatically, and each throw struck with something like a gunshot's force.
Soon shrieks echoed from zombies throughout the intersection.
Once I confirmed that several were running toward me, I sprinted back to Seon-yeong.
"Seon-yeong, get ready!"
"Yeah, hurry, come on!"
My body obeyed me perfectly as I ran.
My upper body barely swayed, my legs moved fluidly, and I continued accelerating.
Could I always run this fast?
A sense of liberation filled me as I ran. The wall of cars approached almost immediately, and I slowed.
"Whoa, Tae-sik. What was that? I thought a gorilla was charging at me. You're so fast that this is easy."
"I didn't know I could run that fast either. Seon-yeong, after testing the stones, I think I can kill quite a few zombies with them. Could you gather some more for me?"
"Okay. You're not even out of breath, are you? The zombies are coming. You ran so fast I thought you'd lost them, but they're still following. How many are there?"
"More than twenty. Still, we can handle them."
I threw a stone—slightly smaller than a fist—at the zombie running at the very front.
Even without striking the head, a solid hit would knock one down, so I aimed quickly and began throwing in rapid succession.
Whoosh—thwack. Whoosh—thwack.
Starting with the leading zombie, one charging zombie after another began to topple.
Not one stone missed. Each struck a head, torso, shoulder, or limb.
"What the... how are you hitting every one? Weren't you a batter? Never mind, don't answer. Keep throwing. Here."
How many stones had I thrown?
Probably more than thirty. The interval between throws kept shrinking.
I gradually refined my throwing motion, while Seon-yeong fell into an ever-faster rhythm handing me stones.
I kept throwing stones at the zombies that fell and tried to get back up.
Not a single zombie reached us.
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Whoosh—thwack.
Seon-yeong kicked a rising zombie in the chest and brought the bat down on its head.
Her toughness suddenly looked very impressive.
Only a few zombies were still trying to rise, so I walked out to meet them.
"This feels anticlimactic. It's good, but strange. Why did we even make a plan?"
"Right? I didn't expect it to go like this... sorry?"
"No, why are you apologizing? We cleared them without anything going wrong, so it's good. It just feels anticlimactic. Maybe it's because of something you often say."
Whoosh—thwack.
Beside us, a zombie with both shoulders shattered struggled upright.
Although their only true weakness was the head, their bodies were structured like ours. Once a limb or joint was badly damaged, they seemed to lose their balance.
Its movements looked slow, and I easily smashed its head.
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"You know how you sometimes say that when the body is weak, the head suffers? Now it feels as though you were talking about me. Like the zombies are asking why I used my head and prepared all this when they could be cleared so easily."
"We handled them safely because of your plan, so don't feel disappointed. It turns out I wasn't a Zealot blocking the ramp; I was a Marine firing from a bunker."
"No, what the heck even is a Zealot?"
"Um... I'll tell you when we get home. You play one round and you'll get it right away. Anyway, is everything cleared out now?"
"Yeah. What do we do about those cars?"
"Let's just leave 'em. Doesn't matter, right?"
The battle had unfolded nothing like we expected, but we'd achieved our objective.
We finished off the remaining zombies, retrieved our backpacks, and returned to the intersection.
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Slurp. Slurp.
We entered the convenience store on the corner, enjoyed the air conditioning, and each ate an ice cream.
The cool rest brought me back to life.
"This place is incredibly clean. There is not a single zombie or bloodstain."
"It looks as though they were all outside. Maybe because the intersection was so crowded with zombies, all the supplies are still here too."
"We can't take everything in one trip. We should loot this store and head home."
"Sounds good, I guess. What should we grab first?"
After finishing her ice cream, Seon-yeong unfolded the trolley, took out her phone, and checked our supply list.
"Gloves are the most urgent. Let's also take all the eggs, jerky, and similar food we can find."
"Oh, coated work gloves here. Stuff like daily necessities isn't urgent, right?"
"Yeah, we should focus on food. The lunch boxes, bread, and similar items have spoiled, so leave them."
"Got it. Not many of them anyway."
Most of what we collected was canned or jarred food and frozen processed products.
Their long shelf lives made them natural choices for stockpiling.
"Oh, lots of dried squid and jerky here. Take all the salt and sugar too..."
"Seon-yeong, don't put the heavy stuff in the backpack. Focus on the light items. Grab the chocolate and energy bars here."
We also took any dried or frozen food that looked likely to keep for a long time.
The problem was that we were short on freezer space.
I swept up seasonings, sauces, powdered soups, and anything similar I saw on the shelves.
"No, seriously, stop grabbing condoms. We've got a ton at home too. And why on earth did you grab nail clippers? We already have enough to last us until we die of old age."
Seon-yeong was inspecting the items I'd put in the trolley.
I'd been tossing everything from the household-goods shelf into the trolley, so the condoms and nail clippers must have been swept in with the batteries and power banks.
We worked quickly until the backpacks and trolley were full, then prepared to leave.
"Seon-yeong, don't remove the cigarettes. We can use them for barter later."
Feeling like a schoolboy whose belongings were being inspected, I pulled the trolley away before Seon-yeong could remove anything else.