Chapter 72: Yu-wol
Chapter 72: Yu-wol
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"Oh, right! Mister, I remember seeing the security guards carrying walkie-talkies. Why don't we look for those?"
"Oh? They had walkie-talkies?"
"Yes. I definitely saw them clipped to their belts."
I had been struggling to decide how to divide the team.
Ga-yeong must have remembered them suddenly, because she brought up the walkie-talkies.
Having walkie-talkies would certainly make things easier.
"Those must have felt like shackles to them."
"Wouldn't they be in the security office?"
I felt a pang of sympathy for the guards who had been forced to carry them throughout every shift.
Thanks to those guards, though, it appeared we'd finally gain a means of communication.
Life had been enormously inconvenient since our phones stopped working, so this was welcome news.
"For now, I'll go with just Eun-mi and Ye-jin."
"All right, Tae-sik. If you think that would be best."
"Then I'll stay here, keep my ability active, and watch the surroundings."
"Okay. But whatever happens, don't climb over the barricade or come outside. Concentrate only on defending this place."
From the speed at which those creatures had run, I judged that I could outrun them.
Even if that hadn't been their maximum speed, I still had some margin.
"I'll head down first. Get ready at your own pace and join me."
I went down to the first floor and smoked inside the barricade.
A semicircular barricade surrounded the apartment building's main entrance.
The enclosed area covered roughly thirty pyeong.
One side of the yardlike space held a pile of stones, along with iron balls and other objects that were easy to throw.
We'd also stocked chairs, rope, and a crudely built ladder.
In an earlier age, this place would have served as our castle wall.
It was neither poured concrete nor stacked stone.
Although hardly sturdy, it was a barrier we had managed to build to keep intruders out.
From outside, it resembled a patchwork quilt made from every kind of furniture and appliance imaginable.
That was inevitable after rushing to build it in a single week, but I intended to reinforce it gradually.
Eventually, I planned to tow in abandoned cars from the road and try adding welded steel plates.
"Raid Leader, we're here. We're fully prepared and can leave immediately."
"Good. Let's begin in the basement."
We reentered the building and took the stairs down to the basement.
Screeech. Clunk.
I forced open the electrical-room door with a steel pry bar.
A small cloud of dust drifted through the dark room.
Click.
"So this is what an electrical room looks like. I've never been inside one before."
"Neither have I. It looks complicated."
I had expected cobwebs and layers of grime.
Once I switched on the light, though, the room proved far cleaner than expected.
The large space was packed with unfamiliar equipment.
Steel cabinets taller than a person lined the walls, while an enormous machine occupied the center.
That was probably the emergency generator...
The many pipes extending from it made the machinery appear even more complicated.
"There's something like a poster on this wall."
I joined Ye-jin and found safety warnings, instructions, and inspection records posted there.
While the two women stood together and studied them closely, I circled the electrical room.
Hmm... A visual inspection told me absolutely nothing.
At most, I could tell that the fuel system connected to the batteries and that the breakers and switches were concentrated on one side.
"Well? Can you make sense of it?"
"I'll need to use my ability. If we include maintenance procedures, this will take considerable time."
"I'll have to use Information Display to learn more too."
Eun-mi and Ye-jin took out pens and paper, then began with what appeared to be the batteries.
Neither woman had any experience with electrical systems or machinery.
The crisis had simply forced them to learn whatever they could.
#
"Good work. Go upstairs and rest."
"Yes, sir. I'll send Ga-yeong down immediately."
"Thanks."
We'd have to return to the electrical room several more times.
Even after exhausting their abilities, the two women still had far more to learn.
Once they could no longer use their abilities, we returned earlier than expected.
Our main conclusion that day was that we should secure additional fuel and batteries.
The good news was that starting the emergency generator wouldn't be difficult.
It had also been inspected recently, so the batteries were relatively new and plenty of fuel remained.
Even if the electricity failed immediately, we could probably keep the generator running for several months.
"Mister! You came back sooner than I expected."
"Yeah, we finished quickly. We'll have to return a few more times, though. Want to leave now?"
"Yes~"
Before I could climb the barricade, Ga-yeong flung herself into my arms.
She leaped at me, and since I could hardly dodge her, I caught and held her.
Her behavior was cute, but she had been doing this more and more often lately.
"Kyaaah~"
She shrieked with delight when I jumped from the top of the barricade.
At first, I had thought she was terrified of heights.
I had even wondered whether she suffered from acrophobia, yet she no longer flinched while climbing the exterior of an apartment building.
Judging by her expression, she might even have enjoyed the thrill of clinging to me.
"Are we going to Building 401 today?"
"Yeah. It's closer."
"Aww. Then we have to start on the first floor."
She actually sounded disappointed that we weren't beginning higher up.
"I think you said there were two survivors in this building."
"That's right. I wonder which floor they're on."
We peered into a first-floor apartment through its veranda window.
I tried sliding the window open, but it was locked.
Tap, tap, tap.
I knocked in case someone remained inside.
Several knocks and a long wait produced no response.
"Step back for a moment. We'll break the window and enter."
We continued clearing the building in this cautious manner, always allowing for the possibility of survivors.
Every apartment through the fourth floor was empty.
"This window is open. I'll go in first~"
We'd followed the stack of Unit 1 apartments straight upward and reached the fifth floor.
"This stack has a lot of empty apartments. How have we not found even one zombie?"
"True. At least that let us get up here quickly."
"But isn't this apartment far too clean?"
Ga-yeong was right. It was remarkably clean for an abandoned home.
We searched every corner, but the apartment remained silent and contained neither people nor zombies.
"Mister... come look at this."
After checking the entire apartment, I visited the bathroom. When I emerged, Ga-yeong called to me from the dining table in a tear-choked voice.
Puzzled, I approached and found a letter written on a sheet of A4 paper.
—To our beloved Su-ji.
Our beloved daughter. If you somehow return home safely and read this letter...
(...)
A parent can't abandon even the faintest thread of hope.
Our daughter, please wait just a little longer.
Mom and Dad love you very much.
"Ah..."
The married couple appeared to have lived here until recently.
That explained why the apartment was so clean.
They must have waited endlessly for their unreachable daughter before finally venturing outside.
They had probably known the truth.
Their daughter had most likely already become a zombie.
They simply couldn't accept it.
That was why they had left this letter and departed for their daughter's university.
Objectively, their journey amounted to suicide.
I had no idea how useful the couple's abilities were.
Perhaps they could cross Seoul safely and reach their daughter's university.
With extraordinary luck, they might even learn whether she was alive or dead.
She was probably a zombie, though. If not, she was likely already dead.
Based on everything I'd seen, the possibility that she remained alive and unharmed was vanishingly small.
Suppose they reached their daughter without falling victim to the zombies.
Could the couple continue living after seeing what had become of her?
Could they truly overcome every one of those terrible odds and reunite safely?
They had left home clinging to the remote possibility that unavoidable circumstances alone had prevented their daughter from contacting them and that she was still alive somewhere.
This was no simple walk. They had embarked on a punishing journey with their lives at stake.
Even so, I hoped the family would reunite safely.
"Please let a miracle happen for them."
"Hic... hic... Waaaah."
The price of learning why the apartment was so clean was a profound sadness.
Before I knew it, Ga-yeong was sobbing uncontrollably in what appeared to be the daughter's bedroom.
"Ga-yeong... please stop crying."
"Hic... hic... My dad too... Mister... hic... Please save my dad."
She wailed like a small child.
She was seeing herself and her father in this family's daughter and parents.
"My dad... hic... Waaaah!"
Ga-yeong's father had promised to return home.
They'd exchanged messages regularly, and Ga-yeong became anxious whenever his replies were delayed.
Now more than two weeks had passed since all contact ceased.
"All right. I'll save him. Please calm down."
Contact with him had stopped long before everyone's phones became useless.
Ga-yeong had assumed he was merely unable to recharge his phone and continued waiting for him to return.
The grief consuming Ga-yeong was grief shared by everyone in our group.
Even without contact, each of us could only believe that our families remained alive somewhere.
Yet realistic fears sometimes surfaced despite that faith.
The couple's letter seemed to have brought those fears crashing down on her.
"Don't cry. He's alive. I'll save—"
"Hrrk... hrrk... huuurgh."
"No. Stay with me. Breathe. Breathe!"
Fuck, what was I supposed to do?
She gasped as though she couldn't breathe, then suddenly went limp.
Her head lolled backward and her arms dropped to the floor.
Slap, slap.
I slapped her cheeks hard, but she didn't respond.
She still appeared to be breathing, so I laid her flat on the floor.
I vaguely remembered reading that a plastic bag was used when someone hyperventilated...
Unsure of the proper treatment, I unzipped the top of her jacket and positioned her comfortably.
She was breathing on her own, so she'd wake up... right?
Or not?
Should I find a bag now and hold it over her mouth?
"Mister..."
While I agonized over what to do, I heard Ga-yeong's voice.
Thankfully, she regained consciousness quickly.
"Are you all right? You fainted for a moment. Whew, you scared ten years off my life."
"Ah... Eep!"
Ga-yeong tried to rise after regaining consciousness, then froze in horror.
She had evidently noticed the wet patch between her legs.
When she fainted, her body must have relaxed enough for her to wet herself slightly.
"Hiiing... I'm leaving now. Please don't look for me."
"Hahaha, it's fine. Don't worry about that. Have you calmed down a little?"
"No... I think I'd rather die."
"Don't talk about dying. Come here. Let's get you to the bathroom."
Fainting appeared to have dulled her grief, only for humiliation to rush in and replace it.
I finally coaxed the mortified girl—who couldn't even lift her head—into the bathroom.
I'd worried she'd remain despondent, but wetting herself had unexpectedly helped.
Shhhhhhh.
"Eek!"
"What happened? Are you all right?"
"Yes, I'm fine. The showerhead just... It's nothing. Some water splashed and startled me. Sorry, Mister. Please wait a moment."
Good grief, she required a lot of looking after.
Did I really have to remain stranded here until she finished?
There was nothing else I could do.
I'd have to treat this as an inoculation against what was bound to come and wait it out.
Sooner or later, Ga-yeong was destined to confront this fear.
She was the only one among us who had maintained contact with a family member.
I smoked on the veranda and passed the time staring vacantly outside.
Before the outbreak, I would have occupied myself with my smartphone at a time like this.
Even though it no longer worked, perhaps I should start carrying it again.
The bathroom door flew open.
"Finished?"
"Mister..."
"Huh? Why did you come out dressed like that?"
Hearing the door open, I returned to the living room and found Ga-yeong approaching me.
This was developing in a dangerously suggestive direction.