Chapter 80: Crisis
Chapter 80: Crisis
19. Crisis
"We're entering the apartment entrance!"
"Battle stations!"
Su-jin shouted in a trembling voice.
Almost simultaneously, the monsters' cries reached us.
Dududududu
Kuoooook
The road through the apartment complex looked narrow.
The ground vanished beneath zombies surging in like a swarm of ants.
Their overwhelming numbers shook the earth and made the leaves tremble.
"Shield." "Shield!"
A large Shield materialized above the car I was standing on.
Several more obstacle-like Shields appeared around the barricade.
"Hyaap! Car!"
Hwoooosh—crash bang crack
I hurled one of the cars I had repositioned into the approaching zombie horde.
It didn't fly far, but its sheer mass alone delivered tremendous force.
"Pressurized!"
A bullet of water shot out and pierced the head of the lead zombie.
It was the result of So-ra developing her ability.
At first, she used the ability in the form of elongated water arrows.
Now, after practice and investment of her Available Points, she could compress the water into a small, slender bullet and fire it.
That reduced her water consumption, allowing her to use the ability more often.
After confirming all that, I dropped back and lifted another vehicle.
"Move."
The thick, wide Shield deployed in front of me shot forward.
It streaked diagonally toward the ground and became a transparent wall blocking the zombie horde.
Thump thump thump thump thump
The zombies charged the wall at full speed, oblivious even as their own skulls cracked open.
Driven from behind by the horde surging like a tidal wave, they were crushed together and burst apart into grotesque shapes.
Crrrrick crack crack
The Shield's durability drained rapidly, and it soon shattered.
Until it broke, the Shield briefly delayed the zombies' advance.
Zombies lost their balance and toppled in expanding rings around that point.
The charging zombies tripped over one of Seon-yeong's Shields and fell.
But the zombies surging from behind soon began trampling over the vanguard.
Kuwaaaah
Mutated Zombies.
Two enormous Fat Zombies approached, trampling their own kind underfoot.
I poured every Available Point I had just gained into Body Enhancement.
I aimed above the Fat Zombies' heads as best I could and hurled the car with all my strength.
One Fat Zombie caught the car as it flew in a shallow arc.
Kudududoom
Kuwheeeehk
"Whoa, I thought it was gonna catch it and hurl it right back..."
Relief colored Seon-yeong's voice beside me.
The Fat Zombie raised its hands toward the incoming car but collapsed under the weight.
"One, two, three. Throw."
Eun-mi called the cadence, and the women hurled stones smaller than a human head in unison.
We'd gathered those stones from the hill behind the complex.
There weren't many, but they could knock zombies down and hinder their movement.
Ga-yeong also tripped the zombies, creating a new Shield each time an old one shattered.
Our strategy was to restrict the zombies' movement as much as possible.
The bastards trampled everything without distinguishing friend from foe.
After confirming that the raid party was working together smoothly, I lifted another car.
"Shield!"
The Shield spread out again, and the women prepared their next volley.
"Catch, bomb!"
Whoosh—crash bang crack
The second car I hurled came down on the other Fat Zombie's head.
"One, two, three. Throw!"
The second volley of stones flew.
Among them, I spotted two rice cookers sailing through the air.
The height of the barricade added even more impact to the force of the throws.
So-ra kept firing water with Pressurized Jet, while Seon-yeong sent Shields toward whichever sections the zombie horde approached.
Despite our efforts, the zombie swarm finally reached the barricade.
Kuaaaahk
Smack smack smack smack
Carried by the momentum of their charge, the zombies slammed recklessly into the barricade.
The barricade trembled under the impact of the horde.
Rattle clatter
"Spears!"
But it held and somehow stopped the zombie horde's charge.
At Eun-mi's signal, the women snatched up their spears and stabbed down into the zombies' skulls from atop the barricade.
I quickly hurled one more car, then gripped my baseball bat.
Smack smack smack smack
The sound of zombie skulls cracking echoed from all around us.
We seemed to be holding them off, but corpses were beginning to pile up.
Each time I swung my baseball bat and smashed a skull, the corpse remained below the barricade.
The mountain of corpses gradually rose, giving the zombies behind them a foothold.
I lifted my head for a moment and checked how many zombies remained.
It was hopeless.
More zombies were flooding in from behind than we had killed so far.
"Fall back!"
The women withdrew toward the apartment entrance in perfect order.
They divided the burlap sacks of stones among themselves and ran down the barricade stairs.
As I watched them, I quickly invested my newly accumulated Available Points into Body Enhancement.
Seon-yeong remained beside me, maintaining her Shield.
"Hyah!"
I hurled the remaining cars in rapid succession.
I threw two more cars at the bastards trying to climb over the Shield, then scooped Seon-yeong into my arms.
Tap
With a single leap, I landed near the apartment entrance.
"Schneider!"
Crazy.
Why was she still here?
Schneider was still in the corner, hissing.
"Schneider!"
When I called again, my voice seemed to snap her out of it, and she dashed toward the apartment entrance.
At that moment, the zombies that had finally crossed the barricade began charging in.
"Raid Leader! We're above you!"
The women had taken up positions at the stairwell windows on the second and third floors.
"Throw!"
At the same time, I began hurling stones at the zombies leaping down from the barricade.
Shwoooosh—pang phuh-buh-bak
The throws were far more effective than I'd expected.
A stone that burst one zombie's skull didn't even lose momentum before smashing the skull of the zombie behind it.
I did not even need to aim.
I simply hurled stones at random.
Even carelessly thrown stones were bound to hit a zombie.
Shwoooosh—smack
A zombie struck in the torso by a stone flew backward and became tangled with the one behind it as both fell.
I felt Schneider climb up my body after reaching me, but I ignored her and kept throwing stones.
Large Shields flew out and toppled zombies in droves, while compressed water bullets and thrown stones rained down from above.
The Shields Ga-yeong created tripped the lead zombies and impeded their movement.
When the bastards piled their corpses into a mountain and crossed the barricade, I had honestly felt despair.
The one saving grace was that their initial momentum had weakened.
Even with their numbers, they couldn't all rush us at once, so we were somehow holding the line.
#
How much time had passed?
I glanced at my watch. Only thirty minutes had passed since we first blocked the zombies.
The stones we'd stockpiled were almost all used up.
What now?
Should we retreat upstairs and hole up?
Kuoooook kuwaaaaahk
Just as I was agonizing over what to do, a massive, echoing cry sounded in the distance.
Every zombie that had been charging us turned around at once and tried to cross back over the barricade.
Unlike when they had charged us, though, they couldn't negotiate the stepped barricade and merely floundered against it.
I was truly grateful that these things were so unintelligent.
"What? Why are they suddenly doing that?"
"Dunno. More importantly, we should hit them from behind."
I tightened my grip on the baseball bat and went out to smash the zombies' skulls from behind.
The women also grabbed their weapons and rushed outside.
Whoosh—smack
Using short, sharp swings, I cracked skulls as easily as harvesting fruit.
Since we had survived the wave, was this the bonus stage?
If so, it was one hell of a nightmare defense game.
After all, we only had one coin.
Kuwaaaaahk
Zombie cries echoed repeatedly in the distance.
"Doesn't this sound like a Commander Zombie calling them?"
"Zombies can make sounds that loud?"
"That is a little strange, but it sounds similar to the Commander Zombie cry we heard the other day."
Seon-yeong and Ga-yeong's conversation reached me from behind.
The situation had suddenly become relaxed enough for us to chat while cracking zombie skulls.
Anyway, a Commander Zombie.
If Ga-yeong was right, that meant there hadn't been a Commander Zombie here.
Then how had these bastards swarmed all the way here?
Setting the question aside, I climbed onto the barricade.
All the able-bodied zombies outside the barricade had already fled.
Only the two Fat Zombies crushed beneath cars and the zombies with ruined bodies remained, still writhing.
Tough bastards.
"There aren't any able-bodied ones left, so finish them off carefully."
After a brief word to the women, I climbed the apartment building's outer wall.
With my enhanced jumping power and reflexes, I bounded fearlessly toward the rooftop.
"Tae-sik! I told you it's dangerous!"
Seon-yeong's shout rang out from below.
I would probably get an earful for this later.
But I wasn't exactly worried.
In my current state, there was no way I could fall while climbing the outer wall.
I reached the rooftop and searched for the direction the zombies had taken.
They were already crossing the four-lane road in front of the apartment complex and charging deeper into Zone A.
The sight of such an immense zombie horde moving in orderly fashion sent a faint chill down my spine.
'What the hell? Why are those two so slow?'
Far behind the enormous zombie horde, two female figures walked along.
One was somewhat chubby, and the other had bobbed hair.
'No, what the fuck? They move like people.'
Looking more closely, I realized they weren't zombies.
Their natural gait and movements were unmistakably human.
Please, just turn around once.
But frustratingly, I never managed to see their faces.
I committed the sight of the two suspicious bitches disappearing around the corner to memory.
No.
I quickly pulled out my notepad and wrote down their distinguishing features while they were fresh in my mind.
Chubby bitch. Bob-haired bitch.
Both carrying axes and wearing sun visors.
Short sleeves and white arm sleeves.
Were these bitches out for a stroll or something?
What was with those outfits?
#
When I came back down to the courtyard, there were no more zombies moving.
Even the two Fat Zombies' heads had been crushed into paste like minced garlic.
"Tae-sik! It's dangerous. What if you'd fallen, even just once?"
"Ah, I'm sorry. It was so urgent I just went for it. I'm fine."
"Raid Leader. No bite casualties, four with minor injuries."
"Four minor injuries? Where are they hurt? Let's go see."
The women were gathered in one corner of the front yard, receiving treatment from Ha-na.
Ye-jin had twisted her ankle while running; the others only had minor scrapes from brushing against something.
Only the women who had joined us from Prugia had been injured.
"Whew, that's a relief. No one seriously hurt. Eun-mi, how about you?"
"Yes, everything's fine. I've got nothing wrong with me either."
The minor injuries healed quickly.
Only Ye-jin seemed likely to need a little more time.
Once Eun-mi finished her report, everyone's eyes turned to me.
"Everyone worked hard. Let's wash up quickly and eat first. We can clean this up later."
"Shouldn't one person head to the rooftop?"
"I'll keep watch. Send a replacement once you're done eating."
"Got it. I'll hurry."
The women went inside without complaint.
"Tae-sik, wait just a little. I'll relieve you soon."
"Yeah, it's fine. Don't rush too much."
I surveyed the wrecked front yard.
Zombie corpses densely carpeted the ground.
Hah. When the hell were we going to clean all this up?
Just where did all these zombies gather from?
The unanswered questions kept piling up.
"Myaong. Myaaong. Wowng."
Avoiding the filthy ground, Schneider sat at my feet and muttered something.
I stroked her once and confirmed that Seon-yeong had gone inside.
Right after, I quickly scaled the outer wall and went up to the rooftop.
No matter how I looked at it, climbing the wall was much faster than taking the stairs.
From the rooftop, I again looked toward the direction in which the zombies had vanished.
Come to think of it, the two suspicious bitches had gone the same way.
And farther inside that area stood the client's officetel.
Woof woof
Before long, a Feral Dog Pack appeared outside the barricade.
Startled, I grabbed the walkie-talkie, but the dogs were behaving strangely.
Instead of trying to cross the barricade, they bit into the zombie corpses strewn across the ground and dragged them away.
Gruesome.
In the past, I'd have thought they were dogs carrying away human corpses.
Walkie-talkie in hand, I watched their movements closely.
After such an enormous zombie horde had passed through, I wondered whether the client was safe.
Or was there some connection between the massive zombie assault and the client?
No. That was way too much of a leap.
There didn't seem to be any way to drive that many zombies toward us, nor any reason to do so.
'Hm... it's a leap for sure, right?'