Chapter 8: Farming
Chapter 8: Farming
Chapter 3: Scavenging
The wet athletic field came into view.
The sun blazed in a clear blue sky.
It was a clear day, already noticeably hot in the morning.
We left the building, hid beside the path bordering the grass field, and watched the athletic field.
The night before, I had confirmed there were six zombies left in total before falling asleep.
Now the one that had been alone under the canopy was nowhere to be seen.
The five zombies on the athletic field stood lined up as if enjoying a sunbath.
"I think they'd spot us even if we slipped around the edge."
"But as long as we don't catch their eye, it might work... Team Leader, what should we do?"
There was only one route leading outside.
We circled the building looking for another way out, but found no viable option.
'As long as we didn't get bitten, their skulls cracked easily enough. I needed to find a way to deal with them.'
After deciding to deal with the zombies, we talked it over.
The problem was that there were five of them.
They were too close together to take on one at a time—that was the biggest complication.
"Team Leader, how about luring them into a narrow space? After sleeping, I feel like I can use my shield about five times. It doesn't show up on the Status Window, but ever since we did that test yesterday, I've had a gut sense for it."
"Oh? You do? Then how about we lure them to the emergency exit door in the basement and take them out? You block their approach with your shield, Seon-yeong, and we aim for the head."
We went back into the building and ran a simulation.
The main entrance was too wide, so that was out.
We took position behind the door leading from the underground parking garage to the stairwell.
It was a single door, making the passage narrow.
Seon-yeong's shield could block it completely.
Seon-yeong positioned herself directly in front of the open doorway.
I decided to stand beside the door.
The plan was for me to lure the zombies in and for Seon-yeong to create a shield at waist height at the right moment.
"As long as we don't get bitten, we're fine. Don't be nervous—let's do this right."
"Yes, Team Leader. Don't worry. I can do this!"
I returned to the athletic field alone and slowly approached the zombies.
If I got too close, I risked being caught mid-sprint, so I decided to keep my distance and lure them.
I was walking straight toward two of the clustered zombies, but—maybe because I was still far off—there was no reaction.
"Hey, Mr. Kim! Can't you see me?"
I stood behind a soccer goal near the building and yelled.
The distance was about fifty meters.
Only when I raised my voice did the zombies begin to move.
As I retreated slowly, the two zombies soon broke into a run, and then the remaining three started charging a beat later.
"Huff... huff... huff."
The zombies ran pretty fast, so I fled at full speed.
People varied in running speed, but the zombies all seemed equally fast.
Watching them all run at about the same speed, I figured I shouldn't think of them in human terms.
"Seon-yeong, get ready! Almost there."
I made it through the door safely and caught my breath while waiting for the zombies.
"Uh... Team Leader?"
"Mm? What is it?"
The zombies didn't come, even after a long wait.
Seon-yeong was looking at me with a puzzled expression.
"Could it be that you're too fast? You must be a pretty quick runner."
"Hoo... Weird. Let me check and come back."
We had waited a long time, and there wasn't even a sound.
After Seon-yeong warned me to be careful, I headed back toward the athletic field.
'Man, they really are dumb as bricks.'
Back on the athletic field, I found the zombies tangled together in the soccer goal.
They were caught in the goal net, facing my way and shrieking.
Did they just blindly charge the moment they spotted a person?
It didn't seem to occur to them to turn back even though their bodies were tangled in the net.
Grrrrr... Graaagh!
I got close and observed them as they flailed and screeched incessantly.
They could see, but seemed unable to understand that the goal net was hindering their movement.
I backed away, making sure the soccer goal always stayed between the creatures and me.
#
After checking on the zombies, Seon-yeong laughed quietly, as if she couldn't believe it.
Anyway, it was a relief that this was going to be an easy fix.
"You don't need to use much force. Let the bat's weight do the work and focus on hitting the head cleanly."
Whoom—thwack!
I showed Seon-yeong a comfortable grip, then demonstrated first.
Aiming for a zombie's head, I raised the baseball bat and brought it down lightly.
I easily put down one zombie.
Seon-yeong took care of the remaining four.
* Transformation: Optimization
* Enhanced Recovery (5)
* Available Points: 0
It checked out: killing zombies really did increase Available Points.
That brought Enhanced Recovery to an even 5.
Seon-yeong's Available Points increased to 4.
As we kept taking down zombies, our abilities would gradually grow stronger.
So instead of always avoiding them, we decided to hunt zombies actively whenever we had the chance.
"If you cross the road right up ahead, there's a convenience store."
The blood-splattered tent felt unsettling, so we looped around and walked toward the athletic field entrance.
Before we stepped onto the road, Seon-yeong quietly pointed out the convenience store.
When we finally reached the access road, we carefully checked outside.
Conditions outside were gruesome.
Wrecked cars sat abandoned haphazardly along the two-lane road.
A corpse with its head smashed lay about five paces away.
Black smoke rose in the distance.
"Can you see the driver's seat of that white car over there?"
"Yes, I see it."
I checked where Seon-yeong was pointing.
A white car had crashed into a roadside tree in front of the convenience store, and a zombie was trapped inside.
The two of us scanned all around and carefully approached the car.
Up close, I saw that the driver's-side window was smashed.
A female zombie, still strapped into her seatbelt, was straining to push herself out the window.
There was only one zombie, and it had conveniently stuck its head out of the window.
I gave Seon-yeong a nod to take it out.
Now we both had an even five Available Points.
"Haa..."
"Good job. Let's go."
Through the front windows, the convenience store looked remarkably tidy.
It was a stark contrast to the warzone-like street outside.
That only made it feel stranger.
Jingle.
'Shit.'
A bell was mounted above the convenience store door.
Both of us jumped, hastily tore the bell off, and checked outside.
Fortunately, nothing moved on the devastated road outside.
Breathing a sigh of relief, we entered the convenience store.
At the storeroom door, Seon-yeong signaled me.
Knock, knock.
Grrrrr...
"Sounds like there's only one in there. I'll open it."
At the right moment, she opened the door.
A male zombie burst out and lunged at Seon-yeong, the first person it saw.
"Shield."
The shield stopped it cold.
I aimed for the back of its head and swung the bat.
The male zombie crumpled to the ground, and my Available Points went up by one.
Judging by the outfit, it was a convenience store employee.
While dealing with this zombie, I noticed that zombies didn't spray blood the way people did.
When their skulls broke, something did ooze out, but it was a dead-looking black rather than red, and it was thick and sticky.
I dragged the dead zombie outside by the ankle, leaving a sticky black trail across the convenience store floor.
"Team Leader! The microwave works, and there's hot water too. Can we eat here first?"
"Let's eat inside the storeroom. If a zombie happens to pass by, as long as we stay out of sight, I think we'll be fine."
We were starving—we scooped up every lunchbox left on the shelves, heated them up, and went into the same storeroom where the zombie had been trapped.
The convenience store storeroom was far more spacious than the supply closet we'd spent our first day in.
There was a round picnic table and three plastic chairs, so we could sit comfortably and eat.
After going a full day without food, the convenience store lunchbox tasted incredible.
For a while, the two of us focused on eating in total silence.
"The storeroom here is huge. When I was younger and worked part-time at a convenience store, its storeroom wasn't even four square meters. It was hard to move around inside."
"Oh, really? I never worked part-time at a convenience store, so I wouldn't know, but anyway, lucky us."
Seon-yeong polished off two lunchboxes, then polished off a can of peaches for dessert.
Then she started telling me stories from her convenience store part-time job in college.
'Food really did brighten people up.'
I hadn't thought she was the talkative type.
"Seon-yeong, I'd like to use this place as a base and make some preparations before we move on... What do you think?"
"Just with what's left in this convenience store, we probably wouldn't have to worry about food for a while. Wouldn't it be better to wait safely here until the situation settles down?"
"I don't know if this situation will ever settle down. Or if anyone's even going to come rescue us."
Seon-yeong looked at me with an uneasy expression.
Of course she'd be scared—I was already talking about moving again.
That was only natural when even the short trip to the convenience store had been so exhausting and time-consuming.
Despite the short distance, we had walked while constantly scanning our surroundings.
And since we tensed up and stopped at every little sound, even walking slowly was a major drain on stamina.
But I was skeptical about the idea of hunkering down here and waiting for rescue.
The food would eventually run out. More importantly, I didn't believe anyone was coming to save us.
Everyone still alive was probably struggling just to fend for themselves.
"I'm not suggesting we wander off blindly."
"Then what?"
There was a part of me that wanted to honor Jin-su's request.
But that didn't mean I would risk our lives solely because of his dying wish.
"I think we need to build up the strength to survive on our own."
We had to assume the current zombie situation would last for the long haul.
If we settled in just because our immediate food problem was solved, we could end up with no way out in the worst case.
We needed to prepare to survive.
That meant stocking up on supplies and raising our Available Points.
I was afraid, but I believed we had to be proactive.