Chapter 98: Loss
Chapter 98: Loss
23. Loss
—Hey! Hey!
I shot upright.
"Ugh... my head."
I thought I had heard a woman's voice.
Had I dreamed about my ex?
As my mind cleared, pain flooded my entire body.
Without exaggeration, everything hurt from my head to the tips of my toes.
Wasn't the worst injury supposed to hurt first?
"Urk! Fuck, you scared me."
I propped myself up to assess the situation and spotted an animal carcass caked in blood.
'What was that? A bird?'
I didn't expect a bed, but waking up on an animal carcass was a bit much.
What the hell had happened?
Clutching my spinning head, I desperately searched my memory.
As I did, a low growl reached me.
Grrrr.
Gulp.
I swallowed hard and scanned my surroundings as quietly as possible.
A zombie.
Right beside me, a zombie lay pinned beneath the rubble of a collapsed building, completely unable to move.
It lay facedown with only its head and part of its upper body protruding from the debris.
In that state, there was no way it could attack me.
That was probably why I was still alive.
'Stay calm. First, I needed to find something I could use as a weapon.'
I slowly rose and looked around.
I'd awakened in a cramped one-and-a-half-room studio.
A clothes rack had been fixed between the floor and ceiling along one wall.
Beneath the clothes hanging from it, I spotted a baseball bat propped against the wall.
There were two bats made of different materials, along with a glove and a baseball.
I picked up the wooden baseball bat.
I aimed at the back of the immobilized zombie's skull.
There was no room for a proper swing, so I brought the bat straight down from above.
Whoosh—thwack.
"Phew..."
I released the breath I'd been holding without realizing it.
Had it been the room's owner?
A uniform hung at the far right end of the rack.
"Kyung Hee University, Kim Won-ho... Sorry, kid."
This must have been a college student's studio apartment.
With the zombie dealt with, I slowly examined the room.
A single-size mattress, a smashed laptop...
"Whoa, shit. What the hell...?"
Then there was the space where the wall and ceiling should have been.
I'd been so focused on the zombie that I hadn't noticed, but when I turned around, there was no wall—only open sky. The sight scared the hell out of me.
The wall with the clothes rack remained intact, but the opposite wall and ceiling had collapsed, leaving the room open to the outside.
As a result, the few furnishings in the room had been completely destroyed.
'No wonder I had felt a draft.'
What in the world had happened?
I'd definitely been at the company outing when the zombies appeared.
Jin-su, Assistant Manager Choi, and I had barely escaped...
'Ah. Jin-su had been bitten.'
I'd put Jin-su down after he turned into a zombie, cried my eyes out, and somehow survived the night with Assistant Manager Choi.
It had poured like hell that day.
"Urk."
My head throbbed.
Judging by the situation, I must have lost consciousness.
When I tried to recover my memories, a splitting headache struck.
It wasn't only my head. My back and limbs ached terribly as well.
I needed time to recover, but I couldn't rest here.
The stench of blood, mixed with an unidentifiable foul odor, suddenly assaulted my nose.
My head already hurt, and the smell only worsened my dizziness.
I forced down the nausea rising in my throat.
I opened what appeared to be the bathroom door and stepped inside.
Unable to endure the stench, I immediately stripped and climbed into the shower.
The clothes I'd been wearing were soaked in blood and reeked so badly that I left them there.
From Won-ho's wardrobe, I chose the sturdiest-looking clothes and put them on.
A baseball uniform...
It had been a long time since I'd worn one.
Won-ho must have been fairly tall, because it fit me well.
"That's weird..."
The clothes I'd discarded in the bathroom were all unfamiliar.
I remembered wearing a trash bag at one point, but not clothes like those.
Even stranger was the reflection in the mirror.
I looked as though I'd returned to my youth.
My face resembled how it had looked in my early twenties, before corporate life had worn me down.
My body was unnatural too—the kind of physique normally attainable only with steroids.
Even my junk felt noticeably heavier than before.
'No. It had definitely grown.'
Trying to think further brought on another headache.
I decided to stop thinking and move first. I needed to find somewhere to rest.
'Ah, but before that...'
Before leaving, I searched the cramped room.
I borrowed Won-ho's windbreaker and cleats.
It was fine now, but it could get cold at night.
It felt a little unpleasant, but I borrowed some underwear from the dresser as well, then took both baseball bats and a backpack.
After stuffing spare underwear and clothes into the backpack, I searched for anything else worth taking.
A baseball, four packs of instant ramen, two cans of ham, and a spork.
There wasn't much in the apartment.
I put everything in a plastic bag, shoved it into the backpack, and left the room.
I stuck my head through the gaping hole in Won-ho's wall and looked around. The building was five stories tall.
How many zombies would I encounter on the way down?
Tense, I carefully descended the stairs.
Taaaaang.
'Ah, shit.'
Near the bottom, the aluminum bat strapped to my backpack struck the stair railing.
The metallic clang echoed loudly through the hallway.
I quickly raised the wooden bat and scanned for threats.
From what I'd learned, zombies reacted to sound.
I waited, but nothing happened. Only silence followed.
Could I relax a little now?
'Phew...'
Screeeak.
Just as I was about to move again, the door to Unit 201 beside the stairwell slowly opened.
Tense, I stared at the opening door.
#
"What are you doing? Hurry inside."
The one who opened the door was human.
I sighed in relief, but she immediately urged me inside.
I didn't know why, but her matter-of-fact tone made me step in without thinking.
Screech—clack.
Once I entered, the woman—apparently the occupant—carefully closed the door.
Like Won-ho's studio, this was a one-and-a-half-room apartment.
I could take in the entire interior at a glance.
She apparently didn't clean often, because the cramped room was somewhat cluttered.
The woman brushed past me and dropped onto the bed.
She gestured to the space in front of her, so I sat facing her on a floor cushion.
"I've something to ask first."
"...?"
"I heard a loud noise, and the building shook a little. Do you know what happened?"
"No. I don't know what happened either."
She was probably asking about the collapse of Won-ho's room, but I had no idea either.
I had plenty of questions myself, but she'd taken the initiative.
As we spoke, I studied her.
Black hair tied up in a ponytail.
A petite frame and a somewhat cute face.
She appeared to be in her early twenties.
In appearance, she was an entirely ordinary woman with no distinctive features.
"Show me what you brought."
"Why do you want to—?"
"I need to see what there's to eat. Why should I trust you otherwise?"
I had no idea what she meant.
Was she really that hungry?
She didn't seem willing to listen until I cooperated, so I followed her instructions.
Rustle, rustle.
"Do you mind if I ask a few questions?"
"Wait. We can talk later."
I took the ramen and canned ham from my bag.
After confirming what I had, she sprang up and marched into the bathroom.
"What the hell...?"
Left alone, I looked around the room.
Textbooks for her major sat on a small desk.
'Kyung Hee University Department of Social Welfare, XX, Park Na-yeon...'
So she was an ordinary college student living through a zombie apocalypse.
I noticed nothing else distinctive, but a shadow hung over her face.
Without the zombies, she probably would have worn a brighter expression as she enjoyed campus life.
Clack.
Less than five minutes after she entered, I heard the bathroom door open again.
I turned toward Na-yeon.
"What the hell?"
Startled, I accidentally spoke my thoughts aloud.
Her hair remained tied back, and she still wore her short-sleeved shirt.
But her bottoms and panties were gone, leaving her black pubic hair fully exposed.
"It's only ramen and canned meat, so don't expect too much."
Speaking quietly, she wiped her crotch with a towel and walked toward the bed.
Without the slightest embarrassment, she lay facedown and thrust her rear toward me.
"There's lube and condoms in the drawer, so please finish quickly."
'What the hell? Was this some absurd hidden-camera prank?'
It was not particularly funny.
Or was someone planning to harvest my organs?
A gang of musclebound men might burst through the door at any moment...
"No, that's not what I—"
"Haah... I'm hungry. Aren't you asking for too much?"
Na-yeon stood and removed her top.
She unhooked her bra and tossed it aside, revealing small breasts and leaving herself completely naked.
"You can touch me gently, so do what you want. Just don't expect anything more. I'm only giving you this much because you're handsome."
"No, that's not what I meant..."
"Look, I'm exhausted right now. Don't push it, okay? You can come back next time... You understand, right?"
I had no idea what she was talking about.
She was not even giving me a chance to speak.
I felt like an unreasonable customer at some shop.
Completely naked, she lay facedown on the bed again.
She drew up her knees and pushed her rear backward, exposing herself completely.
Even in this surreal situation, my dick reacted furiously to the sight of a naked college girl.
It seemed to complain that my pants were too cramped and demand to be released.
'Fuck it.'
It had already been six years since I broke up with my last girlfriend.
I didn't understand the situation, but one thing was certain: desire was driving me out of my mind.
My thoughts tilted toward getting off first and asking questions later.
In the past, I would immediately have suspected a honey trap.
But at that moment, I was merely a pathetic animal whose brain had been consumed by his cock.
'So should I just... park it in Na-yeon? Park Na-yeon?'
Naturally, I didn't say that out loud.
Even her name made the joke unavoidable.