Chapter 70: Schneider
Chapter 70: Schneider
#
"Wow, there's so much flour. Can we take all of it?"
"We have the cart. Take every bag of powdered or ground food."
"I like powder..."
Early that morning, all of us left together to clear Zone C.
Zone C was a dense commercial area filled with restaurants.
With luck, we could find whole sacks of staples such as flour and rice.
"Let's stop here and return. The cart is already full."
I didn't know the bungeoppang cart's exact load limit.
A rough calculation, though, placed the supplies already aboard at more than three hundred kilograms.
When I left the Japanese restaurant we'd been scavenging, Su-jin and Ga-yeong were standing side by side at the entrance.
Su-jin monitored the surroundings with her ability while Ga-yeong guarded her.
"Heave-ho."
"Good work."
I lifted Su-jin—still using her ability—onto the cart. Ga-yeong spoke in a drowsy voice.
"What's wrong? You seem half-asleep today."
"I tossed and turned last night. I'll eat lunch and rest afterward."
As far as I knew, she pushed herself to the limit every day and fell asleep the moment she lay down.
Perhaps life was finally becoming easier.
It was the first time since the outbreak that I had heard anyone complain of sleeping poorly rather than collapsing from exhaustion.
We quickened our pace before the heat grew worse.
We returned without incident, ate lunch, and began clearing apartments.
"It's my turn to start today."
"Right. Are you fully prepared?"
"Yes. Huff... I'm nervous."
So-ra approached wearing complete scavenging gear.
"Would you like a cigarette before we leave?"
"Sounds good!"
We shared a cigarette on the first floor, then headed to the neighboring building.
I hoped to finish clearing it that day.
"Huff... haaah. Ugh, these stairs are brutal."
"You're managing well enough. We should be able to continue without changing the plan."
Her stamina was far superior to Ye-jin's.
As on the previous day, we connected our safety harnesses and opened the balcony window.
"Ah! Raid Leader, something caught me."
"Something caught you? Hold still. You aren't hurt, are you?"
"No, it's my backpack."
The window Ye-jin had passed through the day before was too narrow for So-ra and her pack.
So-ra's larger build was probably the reason.
"What should I do... carry the backpack against my chest?"
"Go outside first and let me hold onto you. I should be able to squeeze through by myself."
So-ra wanted me to wear her backpack and climb through the window first.
She'd then squeeze between me and the railing and cling to my front.
Hanging from my back while outside the building felt too unstable to her, so we settled on the front-facing hold.
At least So-ra was courageous.
"Be careful. The safety rope connects us, so try not to tense up."
"Okay. Hoo..."
Perhaps because we were on the eleventh floor, even the light breeze felt ominous.
I had grown accustomed to climbing this way, but the other women had not.
Perhaps I should simply bring Eun-mi every day.
Squish.
So-ra positioned herself outside the window, facing me, and wrapped her body tightly around mine.
Her enormous breasts compressed against my chest, and my cock immediately hardened.
Our groins were pressed together as well, making the reaction impossible to hide.
"Uh... I'm going to climb now."
"Okay~"
In my embarrassment, nothing more useful came to mind.
I blurted out the obvious, but So-ra didn't seem offended.
With another person clinging to my front, I couldn't leap upward in one motion and instead climbed the exterior wall carefully.
I braced my feet away from the wall to keep So-ra from being crushed against it, but she continued shifting her hips.
Was she deliberately rubbing against me?
Now that I noticed, her lips rested directly against the back of my neck as well.
If she was doing it intentionally, she possessed nerves of steel.
We were hanging at a very real height.
"You should enter first. I don't see a zombie, but stay alert."
"You really are amazing. I'm not exactly light, yet you carried me without trouble. Our Raid Leader is incredibly strong."
We reached the twelfth floor safely, and So-ra delivered the compliment with a suggestive look.
She stroked my forearm once, then slipped through the window.
The same deliberate rubbing continued every time we climbed another floor.
I wasn't even fighting zombies, yet repeatedly becoming aroused and calming down again left me strangely exhausted.
"Good work. I'll go upstairs first and tell the next person to prepare."
So-ra's shift ended, and we returned home.
She spoke as calmly as though nothing had occurred and went upstairs.
Watching her hips sway away, I gave a dry laugh and placed a cigarette between my lips.
#
"Haak... Why are you so rough every night? I'm genuinely struggling today."
"Sorry. Was it too much?"
"No, it felt good. It always feels good—that's the problem. My stamina can't keep up with doing this every night."
Seon-yeong couldn't even sit up and mumbled weakly from the bed.
She said she lacked the energy to wash, so I cleaned her with a towel and wet wipes.
All the suggestive physical contact with the other women over the previous two days had caused me to vent my accumulated lust on Seon-yeong.
She was telling me that enduring all of it had become difficult.
It was the final week of May, and we'd slept together almost every night for nearly three weeks.
A person with ordinary stamina would naturally find that exhausting.
Had I pushed her too hard?
It suddenly struck me that less than a month had passed since the outbreak.
It felt as though several months had gone by.
Seon-yeong wanted to rest, so I left her in bed and went out to smoke.
So-ra's behavior that day brought a thought back to me: the women had become unusually comfortable around me.
They touched me casually and exposed far more of themselves than social convention would normally allow.
Beginning with Ga-yeong, So-ra, Eun-mi, and even Su-jin, several of them seemed to be deliberately flirting with me.
I wasn't oblivious, but the idea had seemed so absurd that I dismissed it as imagination.
On reconsideration, it no longer felt imaginary.
Why were they doing it?
"Meow~"
A tiny black ball of fur mewed from beneath the furniture.
It hadn't been there a moment earlier. When had it approached?
Even distracted by my thoughts, I should have noticed it before it came so close.
"Myaow~"
Our eyes met, and the little creature mewed again.
"What? What do you expect me to do?"
"Mya~ow."
"Ha, this is ridiculous."
As though answering, it gave another soft meow.
It didn't flee either. What did the little creature want?
The interruption was annoying, but it also distracted me from my troubled thoughts, so I went upstairs for cat food.
It should consider itself fortunate.
I only needed an excuse to move because too many thoughts were circling in my head.
#
Rumble.
I opened the inner entrance door and stepped into the living room, where Su-jin was exercising.
She was on all fours with her backside facing me. After glancing over, she lowered her upper body farther and raised her hips even higher.
The provocative posture made me hesitate, but she stood immediately and addressed me.
"Raid Leader, are you still awake?"
"I went out for a cigarette. I'm heading to bed now. Are you exercising this late?"
"Yes, I missed the group yoga earlier."
"I see. Don't overdo it."
"Okay~ I'm finishing up now. Good night!"
I filled a tumbler with water, drank a glass myself to pass the time, and then refilled it.
Taking two plastic bowls, I entered the small room where the supplies were kept.
By then, I was increasingly certain that I hadn't imagined the flirting.
Su-jin's dolphin shorts had been so short that the lower curves of her backside were fully visible in the cat pose.
She couldn't have been unaware of it. After noticing me, she had deliberately deepened the pose as though inviting me to look.
Because we lived in the same building, she could easily have avoided such a situation had she wanted privacy.
She could have exercised in her bedroom rather than the shared living room.
Never in my life had this many women shown interest in me.
In the past, my first suspicion would have been that they wanted my money.
I stopped that line of thought, poured food into one bowl, and returned to the first floor.
"Meow. Meow."
The kitten had been sitting quietly in a loaf position. When it saw me, it mewed again.
Its cries were short and high-pitched.
Keeping some distance, I set down bowls of food and water for it that night.
The previous day, I'd scattered the kibble directly on the dirty floor and afterward felt slightly guilty.
"I'll leave it here. Eat. Nom, nom. Ah, damn it... What am I doing?"
I mimed taking food from the bowl and putting it in my mouth, then abandoned the effort.
Even with food before it, the kitten merely watched me. I left it there and returned upstairs.
Gulp.
"Eek! You startled me. You're late. How long were you smoking?"
"I was thinking. Why are you still awake, and why were you in our bedroom?"
"I was talking with Seon-yeong, and now I'm going to sleep. Good night!"
Ga-yeong burst energetically from the master bedroom and nearly collided with me.
She'd complained of exhaustion all day, yet now she was overflowing with energy.
Reversing day and night like that would eventually cause problems.
Afraid that the warning would sound like an old man's lecture, I merely wished her good night.
"Seon-yeong, you said you were tired. Was Ga-yeong bothering you?"
"No, nothing like that, hehe. We were only having girl talk."
"You're sleeping now, right? Do you need anything?"
"Mm! Hold me."
"Okay, let me just get ready for bed."
I washed my hands, gargled, changed into pajamas, and lay beside Seon-yeong.
I gathered the clingy Seon-yeong into my arms and gently kneaded her backside.
"Stroke my hair."
I stroked her hair until she fell asleep, and soon my own eyes closed.
#
Blaze.
The sun on the first day of June felt entirely different from the day before.
The temperature had already exceeded thirty degrees Celsius that morning, and by midday, standing still beneath the heat was suffocating.
Over the previous several days, living with the new members had begun to feel natural.
We coordinated well during scavenging runs and had already completed more than two full apartment-clearing cycles.
By then, I'd also grown accustomed to the women walking around half-dressed in front of me.
Some even passed by without bras beneath their shirts.
My conclusion about the sexual interest I occasionally sensed was simple: I was the group's only man.
Because I had rescued them, they probably trusted and opened up to me more readily as well.
I didn't know how strongly they desired me as a man, but perhaps they considered a physical relationship with the group's protector sensible in such a dangerous world.
Judging by Seon-yeong's reactions, her position seemed to be, "I won't encourage them, but I won't object if you choose to respond."
That was only my theory, of course. It could have been complete delusion.
"Myaow. Purrr."
The kitten's fur seemed to absorb every trace of light as it released a tiny cry.
I didn't understand the high-pitched sound, but I placed the food and water to one side.
The kitten now devoured the food even while I watched.
We'd apparently grown accustomed to each other.
"Raid Leader, did you sleep well?"
"Hey, So-ra. Good morning."
"Schneider, did you sleep well too?"
The black kitten had officially been named Schneider.
So-ra smiled because she knew I'd started feeding the kitten every morning despite pretending not to care about it.
Things had simply developed that way...
I felt unfairly judged.
The creature disappeared to roam during the day, but returned at dawn and night to meow for food. By then, I had little choice.
"Stop staring at Schneider. Let's go eat breakfast too."
"Alright. Let's go."
"Has it ever been this hot so early? This is ridiculous."
I'd finished smoking and stood staring absently at Schneider, so So-ra linked her arm through mine and pulled me toward the stairs.
The pressure of her large breasts against my arm had already become familiar.
She no longer maintained any personal distance from me.
I turned away from the blazing sunlight.
It felt as though I'd been transported to another country overnight.
Aside from the sudden heat, it was an ordinary morning.
Strangely, I found it difficult to look away from Schneider. The glossy black fur and amber eyes shining in the sunlight engraved themselves vividly in my memory.
There was one other difference.
May had ended. It was now June.
When I looked back later, June was when everything truly began.