Chapter 91: Wounds
Chapter 91: Wounds
#
A memory from the previous week surfaced.
I had been listening to the women talk while eating lunch.
"What about you, Ye-jin?"
"I'm INFJ."
"Oh, really? I thought you'd be a P."
What had mine been again?
I had taken the test once, but I couldn't remember the result.
After we finished eating, Ye-jin and I went out to clear the apartment buildings.
Climbing together inevitably required physical contact.
Flinch.
"I'm sorry..."
Ye-jin flinched at my touch and hunched her shoulders.
She still seemed deeply afraid of men.
At first glance, she appeared timid and easily frightened.
But no one who knew what Ye-jin had endured could continue thinking of her that way.
Her body and mind were covered in wounds.
That was why Ha-na and the other raid-party members looked after her so carefully.
They probably carried similar wounds themselves, making them care all the more.
Yet Ye-jin had found the courage to move forward and strengthen her ability.
Before her wounds had even begun to close, she'd been the one to reach out and ask me for help.
"Thank you sincerely for saving all of us and for helping me like this, Raid Leader."
She forced herself to meet my eyes with determination, and I wanted to help her.
In that way, she was becoming not a burden but one of our comrades.
"Aak! Raid Leader..."
Crunch.
Ye-jin's scream dragged my consciousness back into the cold reality of the present.
#
After killing Assistant Manager Jeon, I immediately turned toward the barricade.
Seon-yeong and Ga-yeong were barely holding off the Mutated Zombie atop it.
The creature finally shattered Seon-yeong's reinforced Shield and charged at Ha-na, the closest target.
An Ordinary Zombie crawled up beside Seon-yeong, forcing her to dodge and swing her baseball bat.
By then, I had already begun sprinting toward the barricade.
Ga-yeong blocked the Mutated Zombie with a Shield as it reached for Ha-na.
But when the bastard hammered down with both fists, the Shield shattered in a single blow.
I raced forward across the roofs of the parked cars.
Only one more vehicle separated me from the top of the barricade.
The Mutated Zombie tore a leg from a nearby desk and hurled it at Ga-yeong for interfering.
Ga-yeong barely evaded it by ducking.
But that left her unable to stop the Mutated Zombie from reaching for Ha-na again.
"You son of a bitch!"
I reached the final vehicle at last and launched myself from it with a roar.
The Mutated Zombie looked toward me.
For a fleeting instant, I imagined that its eyes were smiling as they met mine.
"No!"
Keeping its gaze fixed on me, it swung one hand.
Ha-na stood frozen in terror.
Before I realized what was happening, Ye-jin stepped in front of her. The creature swatted her away, sending her flying over the barricade.
Our eyes met in midair—mine as I leapt toward the barricade and hers as she hurtled away from it.
Pain contorted her face.
The shoulder struck by the Mutated Zombie hung limp and swung unnaturally.
As though someone had placed only me in slow motion, I watched Ye-jin with agonizing clarity.
I stretched out my arm with all my strength, but no degree of physical enhancement could let me change direction in midair.
'Raid Leader...'
Ye-jin silently formed my title with her lips.
Crunch.
Unable to right herself, she struck the asphalt headfirst.
Her neck snapped completely, and her body bounced limply from the pavement.
Zombies swarmed over her like ants, and time abruptly resumed its normal pace.
Thud.
My free fall ended as I landed atop the barricade.
The Mutated Zombie was targeting Ha-na again, one hand raised overhead.
I charged straight at it.
Please...
Fwoosh—Thwack.
The creature brought down its raised fist, but a Shield formed before Ha-na and blocked the blow.
Grab.
Almost simultaneously, I hurled myself at the Mutated Zombie and seized it by the collar.
The creature craned its neck toward my arm, desperate to bite me.
Thwack.
I yanked it toward me and drove my baseball bat into its snout.
Its sharp teeth shattered with a crash.
Its violent struggles exerted tremendous force, but I didn't release my iron grip.
Crunch.
I slammed the bastard into the body of a car stacked into the barricade.
The roof caved in around the embedded Mutated Zombie.
The creature still wasn't dead.
Whoom—Crack.
I raised my baseball bat and brought it down with all my strength.
The bastard's head burst apart, spraying filthy blood in every direction.
Once it was dead, I raised my head.
Ha-na, who had witnessed my struggle with the Mutated Zombie from the closest position, now stared blankly down beyond the barricade.
An Ordinary Zombie was crawling up beside her.
"Snap out of it!"
Whoom—Crack.
I shouted at Ha-na and knocked the climbing zombie away.
In the direction she stared lay Ye-jin's corpse. The zombies had lost interest in it, leaving it hideously mangled.
Her head twisted at an unnatural angle, and one arm barely remained attached.
Her torn clothing exposed skin covered in zombie bites.
One breast had been crushed into tatters and soaked so thoroughly in blood that no flesh-colored skin remained.
"Hic... hic... Because of me... It was because of me..."
I had long since grown accustomed to the horrific sight of human-shaped zombies and corpses abandoned in the streets.
But even I struggled to tear my eyes from the body of one of our own raid-party members.
Terror, despair, sorrow, rage.
Countless emotions hacked my heart apart.
But I forced myself back to reality and slapped Ha-na across the face.
Smack.
"I said snap out of it! Pick up your weapon and stand."
I barked orders at the panicking Ha-na.
I couldn't lose anyone else—not like this.
"I can heal Ye-jin. I can heal her. Heal Ye-jin... Ye-jin... Hic..."
I kicked a zombie climbing beside me in the head and sent it flying.
Perhaps because of my rage, I used far more force than necessary.
"Fuuu... Kim Ha-na! Get a grip and go heal the other raid-party members. Are you going to let them die?"
"What? The others... I'll go. I'll heal them."
Ha-na finally rose to her feet.
Falls, scrapes, and impacts had taken their toll.
Most of the raid-party members bled from torn hands, knees, or arms.
Ironically, although I'd moved most violently, I remained uninjured apart from the graze on my shoulder.
Had even my skin become tougher?
But beyond those minor physical injuries, everyone carried another wound.
A wound left in the heart.
That day, every one of us suffered a deep emotional wound.
#
Once the Mutated Zombie died, the Ordinary Zombies returned to their usual behavior.
For a zombie, returning to normal meant spotting living people and rushing at them mindlessly.
Their organized attempt to build a mountain of corpses as high as the barricade disappeared.
The horde gradually dispersed as individual zombies pursued the spread-out raid-party members.
"I'll draw these things away."
"Don't push yourself too hard. We can handle this many."
Their numbers were certainly smaller than during the first attack.
On top of that, raising the barricade had dramatically increased the difficulty from the zombies' perspective.
"Raid Leader, I finished searching the surrounding area."
"Where?"
Su-jin approached, fighting naturally with her spear as she reported the locations she'd discovered.
"The people in Building 202 appear to be the survivors who were already there. There are two other locations..."
Kraaaak.
I strained my ears while hurling the fist-sized stones we'd stockpiled.
Goddamn zombies. They were making a hell of a racket while someone was trying to talk.
The stress made every little thing grate on my nerves.
"There are two people in the shopping arcade and one in Building 302."
"Even right next door? You can't tell which floor, can you?"
"No, I can't determine that much..."
"Got it. Be careful."
"You too, Raid Leader."
The previous attack and this one had shown me that the enemy's control over zombies was imperfect.
That made sense. Even people who could communicate became difficult to control in large numbers, so zombies must have been far worse.
They probably used Mutated Zombies as intermediaries to command their undead forces.
"If you can't hold them, retreat. I'm going to find those client-company motherfuckers."
"Be careful!"
"Don't worry about us here."
The other raid-party members had also witnessed Assistant Manager Jeon's attack and Ye-jin's death.
They knew the history between our group and the client-company survivors as well.
Even so, they gritted their teeth and held the barricade like a wall.
I could feel their rage in every thrust spear and hurled stone.
"Tae-sik! Schneider is over there!"
"What the hell? Why is she out there...?"
Beyond the barricade, Schneider was tearing through a zombie's throat.
She appeared to have climbed onto its back. The bitten zombie staggered, then collapsed.
More than half its neck had been torn away, leaving its head dangling.
That tiny body had caused so much damage...
There was no longer any doubt that Schneider was no ordinary cat.
Stranger still, the surrounding zombies didn't attack her.
The zombies near the fallen one milled around in confusion, then resumed approaching the barricade.
What the hell...?
Did Schneider possess some form of stealth?
"It looks like we don't need to worry about her. I'll be back."
Cheeky little thing. At least she had some loyalty.
Perhaps she intended to earn her meals. She circled the horde's perimeter and conducted a guerrilla campaign.
She brought down one zombie after another with practiced skill, as though she had fought them before.
Setting aside my concern for her, I launched myself toward the shopping arcade first, where Su-jin had detected two people.
Thump. Thump.
I dropped from the barricade and raced across the roofs of the cars.
Because I didn't intend to lure the zombies, I moved at full speed.
The few that pursued me soon turned back toward the barricade.
The shopping arcade was silent inside.
Although the chaotic barricade stood nearby, the building felt as quiet as another world.
I searched areas overlooking our apartment complex as I worked my way to the rooftop.
Two survivors and one zombie hid on the roof.
The zombie standing docilely beside the two people told me immediately that they'd led the attack.
Even so, I'd hoped I was wrong...
Bitterness rose alongside my rage.