Chapter 83: Crisis
Chapter 83: Crisis
#
From atop the barricade came the women's murmuring voices.
"Tae-sik, are you sure we can just let them go like that?"
"It's fine. Even if they starve to death, they won't attack us again."
A moment ago.
A moment earlier, as I held my baseball bat over the Alpha Dog's head, another indescribable intuition had come to me.
I felt certain that the Feral Dog Pack would never try to harm us again.
I couldn't explain it, but I thought releasing them might even lead to an alliance.
But how was I supposed to explain that to everyone?
The Alpha Dog couldn't speak, yet it had clearly conveyed a message through its eyes.
A plea to let them live.
The problem was how to explain that to the raid party.
"Guys, it's fine. Don't be too worried."
"Those vicious things are going to give up just like that? They might come back with even bigger numbers next time."
"Sometimes things come to him, you know? Like a flash of insight. It's been that way for a while..."
While I wrestled with the question, Seon-yeong reassured the raid-party members for me.
Truthfully, seeing the dogs crouch in submission and await my judgment had stirred some sympathy in me.
The Feral Dog Pack hadn't always lived in the wild.
They'd formed a pack and learned to hunt in order to survive.
In their own way, they had probably adapted well to the changed world and endured.
Their circumstances resembled ours enough to make me feel a certain kinship with them.
But that was a secondary reason.
I was no shaman, and it sounded ridiculous to put it this way, but...
As Seon-yeong described it, a sudden flash of inspiration had told me that sparing them would benefit us more.
That intuition had never failed me, and I decided not to ignore it this time either.
"Did something like that happen?"
"Yeah. Back when that man begged Tae-sik to take him along, Tae-sik said he had a bad feeling about him."
"Ah... so MS was Min-su's initials. Ga-yeong must have been terrified."
From atop the barricade, we watched the Feral Dog Pack retreat.
Before crossing the road into the neighborhood park, the Alpha Dog looked back at us.
Despite the distance, our eyes met.
"Let's leave it there and go finish eating."
"Where are you going? You didn't finish."
"I ate enough. I'll head out first. Take your time eating."
Feeling anxious, I immediately went back out to collect cars from the road.
Crises such as the Monster Boar and the zombie-horde assault weren't over.
I needed to reinforce the barricade as much as possible before the next one struck.
So I put everything else on hold and moved vehicles until the evening.
The women organized materials and repaired the barricade while I stacked cars in the places they designated.
The day waned, and everyone returned home drenched in sweat.
"Schneider."
"Meow."
Schneider brushed against my legs and sauntered nearby.
I set down the food and water I'd brought, then inspected the barricade.
Tssss.
I climbed onto the barricade and lit a cigarette.
We'd stacked the cars around the barricade we'd already built.
Once complete, the new outer layer would make it much larger and sturdier.
By that evening, the cars had reached the height of the original four-tier barricade.
If I added one more tier the next day, the first stage would be complete.
Afterward, I planned to resume scavenging and other outside activities.
#
The afternoon of the following day.
Thud. Screeeech.
"Great work, everyone."
I adjusted the tilt of the final car and settled it into balance.
We had finished encircling the barricade with cars.
All that remained was to fill the gaps and reinforce the joints.
The barricade stood nearly six meters tall—roughly level with an apartment building's third floor.
Looking down, I saw the women moving around with hammers, sledgehammers, crowbars, and assorted other tools.
The scene below resembled a construction site staffed entirely by young women, and I still hadn't grown used to it.
"Boss, let's eat now and then keep going."
"Yeah. You guys head up first."
Would this be enough to defend against another zombie horde as large as the last one?
I doubted the barricade itself would collapse. The problem was the zombies piling their corpses into a mountain.
"Mister, hurry up. Cold soybean noodle soup okay?"
"Sounds great. We have been eating it pretty often lately, though."
"Yes, because we have a lot of soybeans."
The women sat around the living-room table waiting for me.
I washed only my hands and hurried to take a seat.
"I'll go out for a bit of reconnaissance this afternoon."
"Alone?"
"Yeah. I can move faster alone. I want to find out where that zombie horde went."
After finishing the meal, I left the apartment.
Schneider had been missing since morning, off who knew where.
It felt strange to head out alone without Schneider for the first time in a while.
I broke into a light jog.
Whoosh.
I shot forward so quickly that the background seemed to rush backward.
As I accelerated, I lengthened my stride and reduced my cadence.
Despite the speed, my feet did not tangle, nor did my vision fail to keep up.
Running along the road confirmed that my body remained well balanced after awakening and could handle the speed without strain.
I reached the area near the client company's building in no time.
I no longer slowed down out of fear that zombies might ambush me.
I could handle an ambush well enough; I merely had to remain alert to my surroundings.
I first surveyed the client company's building from outside, then entered and listened carefully.
I sensed no one inside, suggesting they had vacated the building.
Or perhaps they'd moved their residence entirely.
I went back outside and roamed through various parts of Zone A.
Lastly, I stopped by the J Broadcasting Company building.
'Hmm?'
Every glass wall on the broadcasting station's first floor had been shattered.
There also seemed to be more zombies gathered in the lobby than before.
Something must have happened here.
Grrrrrrr.
I heard the zombies growling softly.
Their combined numbers made the growl resonate without end.
There were many, but far fewer than the horde that had attacked our base.
I felt I could handle that number alone.
Shiiiiick.
While I observed them and considered my options, a sharp cutting sound came from some distance away.
It was an alien sound, unlike anything from ordinary life.
To investigate, I immediately climbed to the rooftop of the neighboring building.
I leapt from rooftop to rooftop until I reached the Hana Trading Building intersection.
Kwaaaaagh!
Shiiiiick. Thud.
'Could it be that guy?'
I couldn't yet tell whether the figure was a woman or a man.
The figure wore a motorcycle helmet and, despite the heat, a leather jacket.
Was the leather meant to protect against zombie bites?
It didn't look particularly effective.
What was strange was the number of zombies.
I had definitely cleared every zombie from this area except those around the broadcasting station.
Yet a considerable number had appeared from somewhere and were chasing the helmeted figure.
As the figure ran, they swung a hand. A translucent crescent of energy flew out and cleanly severed a zombie's neck.
It looked extraordinarily sharp, with impressive range, speed, and accuracy.
The ability reminded me of a certain scene.
The helmeted figure changed direction at the intersection and passed beneath my building.
They swung a hand again and dispatched another zombie.
Unlike the Shield abilities or So-ra's Pressurized Jet, this ability apparently couldn't be used in rapid succession.
'Let's see. How many zombies remain?'
Several zombie corpses lay on the road toward Zone B, the direction the helmeted figure had come from.
Twelve zombies were currently chasing the figure.
All were Ordinary Zombies.
Thump. Whooosh.
I jumped from the rooftop and landed behind the pack of zombies.
I ran after the helmeted figure alongside them, smashing zombie skulls as I went.
The fleeing figure glanced back and spotted me.
Shiiiiick.
The ability came flying at me instead of the zombies.
It traveled at tremendous speed, but not so fast that I couldn't dodge it.
'Why me?'
I ducked beneath it easily, then accelerated forward.
As I ran, I finished off every zombie that had been chasing the figure.
Thwack. Tumbledumbledum.
When I caught up, the helmeted figure tried to dive aside, but I caught them by the collar and sent us both rolling across the asphalt.
I quickly climbed on top of the figure and pinned both wrists together.
Keeping them pressed down so they could not use their ability, I freed the rope from my waist with one hand and tied them up.
"Name, age, ability."
"..."
After binding the figure's arms behind their back, I grabbed the collar and hauled them upright.
When I received no answer, I removed the helmet.
A man.
His ambiguous height had confused me, but he was definitely male.
I curled my middle finger beneath my thumb, preparing a forehead flick.
People usually became talkative as soon as they saw this.
"Huff... It's Kim Deok-hun. Please don't hit me, man."
"Your age and ability."
"I'm 22. Don't you know you're not supposed to talk about your ability?"
"Don't you know that if you don't talk, you catch a flick?"
"..."
Flick.
Since he stubbornly kept his mouth shut, I had no choice but to administer my forehead-flick confession serum.
Deok-hun's head snapped backward.
"Agh! I'll, I'll talk."
His forehead reddened, and tears welled in his eyes.
I had no desire to watch a grown man cry, but he answered through his tears.
In any case, one hit was enough to make him surrender.
Kids these days seemed to lack grit.
"It's called Half-Moon Slash—or Spatial Slash. Heh-heh, by gathering the energy of the u-niverse..."
"Tell me exactly what's written on your Status Window. And stop speaking casually to me."
"Creation: Blade. Blade as in the cutting edge of a knife..."
"Why did you throw it at me?"
"Well, you were the one chasing me with a bat and looking terrifying first, how should I put it? No, no. I thought you were a bad—a bad person..."
"Why is this motherfucker going back and forth like this? You got heatstroke or something?"
After talking with him, I realized there had been a minor misunderstanding between us.
Deok-hun stammered slightly, but my instincts told me he wasn't a bad person.
His face did look a little gloomy, though...
"Someone ca—no. Someone threw a zombie at me and ran away..."
"What? Explain that in detail."
"So, uh... once upon a time, in this world... and so on and so forth."
"Are you out of your damn mind?"
Deok-hun looked ready to recount everything he'd experienced from the beginning.
But why the hell did he keep stammering?
Was he some kind of junkie at that age?
"Hah... This isn't working. Shut up and follow me."
"Couldn't you at least untie this...? No, no. Could you please untie it for me?"
"Huff... If you use casual speech one more time."
I silently raised my hand with my middle finger curled back.
The bastard shook his head in vehement refusal.
"Absolutely, absolutely not. Hup... I will not. I never, nev-never used casual speech."
What the hell was wrong with him?
Was he messing with me?
The flustered look on his face suggested otherwise.
Yet his tone still made it sound as though he were mocking me in the middle of all this.
Annoyed, I gave him another forehead flick.
Flick.
The blow snapped his head sharply backward.
Then he toppled straight onto his back.
Plop.
"What the. Hey. What's wrong? You okay? Wake up, man."
I slapped his cheek and called to him, but he did not respond.
He seemed to have fainted.
His durability was absolute garbage.
At least the Prugia Trio had never passed out.
Oh, right. They were Awakened.