An Uncomfortable Cohabitation (2)
The road to Gucheon Village stretched long and far under the headlights. Even though the distance from Gucheon Village to Sion Mountain Fortress wasn't actually that great, it didn't feel particularly close either. The fortress was a holy site. A breakwater and stronghold meant to survive the Rapture. It had to be set apart from a mere village like Gucheon. The path leading there had to feel like a pilgrimage. Another reason was that if Gucheon Village ever fell during the Rapture, it would be easier to defend from the fortress. That's why the road felt so long. It was a quick drive, but walking took time. And since we were heading downhill, it felt even longer.
I walked along with the rifle I rarely used slung over my shoulder, glancing at Ye-eun. Six years. It had been a really long time, yet she didn't look all that different. Her hair was long. Long enough that she tied it back. That part hadn't changed from six years ago either. It was a bit dirty, but everyone gets filthy in the apocalypse. For all that, she still looked relatively clean. Maybe she was taking care of herself. Or did that mean the place she was staying had a way to wash? I didn't know. But I could tell she wasn't that different from the girl I remembered.
It was surprising. She had a decent build and had always been athletic, but surviving against zombies couldn't have been easy. Lee Ye-eun didn't have anything like a status window, and while I wasn't sure if she had a gun... her talent was in shooting. How had she survived? What had happened to the village? Were the places we'd visited together still standing? I was lost in those thoughts, keeping my mouth shut, when—
“...Hey.”
Ye-eun suddenly spoke up.
“Hyun-ah.”
She even called my name, as if worried I hadn't heard. The mechanic uncle walking beside her, his son-in-law, and his son all flinched in surprise.
“Y-Ye-eun...”
They stopped talking and glanced at me nervously. They were afraid. I was carrying a rifle, and at a glance, I was clearly armed with abnormal gear. A sword, arm guards, and probably... I reeked of blood. Half of it was mine, half was from that snake bastard, but still. Of course they'd be scared.
But Ye-eun wasn't. Without any trace of the fear she'd shown earlier, she spoke to me lightly.
“It's been six years, right?”
Since we graduated high school and lost touch, yeah, that was right.
“Have you been well?”
I hesitated for a moment before answering.
“Not really. You know how it is.”
“Yeah, I guess so.”
Conversations usually ended there. But Ye-eun hesitated briefly, then asked again.
“How have you been getting by?”
“Just... you know. Worked part-time in the village.”
“Part-time? Why? Was there not enough food...?”
“It wasn't that there wasn't enough to eat. I just... needed money.”
“To raise your rank?”
“No.”
I was a Level 5 believer. Higher than a regular follower, but that was it. Lower than the Level 1 to 3 believers who could live in Building 1. Building 2 was for Level 4 and 5 believers. Everyone else, the regular followers, lived only in the village.
“I was trying to find a place near the university my sister got into. We needed to live together.”
Leaving this shitty place was a bonus, but it was important too. I'd wanted to escape this damn cult since I was a kid. Back then, I'd given in to my sister's tears and begging, but it had also been a rational decision. We'd live together in that one-room apartment. While she went to university, I'd work part-time. She was an idiot in a lot of ways, but she was smart enough to get a scholarship, so tuition wouldn't be an issue. Then, with the money I earned working hard, we could prepare for something. I wasn't sure what exactly, but still.
I thought it was a pretty ordinary answer, but Ye-eun's reaction was different.
“...Ah, I see.”
Her voice had gone cold, like the temperature had dropped several degrees. The mechanic uncle glanced over, as if he felt it too. He was a quick-witted man.
“Well, Hyun always did want to leave.”
“It's a fucking shithole.”
“There must have been other ways.”
“Maybe.”
I didn't really know either. Why it was only after my sister said those words that I truly wanted to leave. Maybe it was because I was her brother. It didn't seem like Kang Ahyeon could live properly without me, and I had to take care of her. Otherwise, she'd probably just lie in bed crying her eyes out.
“Doesn't matter now anyway.”
The university had closed its doors. The government had failed. The world was fucked. I wondered if Ye-eun knew the world had ended because of this cult. Probably not. In this world now, the only ones who knew were... me and my sister.
A hollow laugh slipped out.
“You've changed a lot, Hyun.”
That's what Ye-eun said.
“Have I?”
“Yeah. Carrying some weird sword, and that strange thing on your arm. What is that?”
“Armor.”
“It looks cool.”
Ye-eun smiled. She wasn't excitedly chatting back and forth or joking around like before. She was holding back the corners of her mouth that wanted to lift, forcing a smile.
“If you say it looks cool, I guess that's good.”
I didn't answer. Ye-eun asked again.
“How have you been getting by?”
“I just told you—”
“Not that. After the world became like this, how did you survive? With those... monsters around.”
At those words, the mechanic uncle, his son-in-law, and son all perked up their ears. Monsters. It was obvious what she meant. Yeah, that snake bastard had been pretty damn impressive.
“I killed anything that could be killed.”
I'd killed people. The first thing I killed was a person. My sister had stabbed both our parents to death with a kitchen knife, and I'd helped her kill the resident of room 808. After that, I'd killed zombies, and after killing zombies, I'd killed more people. Then variants, then people again, zombies, and people. Some I'd killed with a blade, some with the snake bastard, and some with my bare fists. The last thing I'd killed was that snake bastard.
“What about the snake?”
Ye-eun stopped walking for a moment and turned to look at me. There wasn't much fear in those sharp eyes.
“I killed it.”
“...Really?”
Ye-eun started walking again, but this time her steps were lighter.
“That's cool.”
Instead of being shocked or demanding proof, that's what she said.
As we walked, we reached the end of the road—the broken steel gate that separated the village from Sion Mountain Fortress. Beyond it, the naked face of the Rapture was revealed, no longer hidden by the fortress. The horizon lighting up the dim dawn. Bloodstains scattered everywhere. Houses with flags made from long strips of torn clothing. The traces of shattered windows, broken walls, and collapsed structures in between. Cars that had rammed into walls and stopped, windshields covered in blood. Cars piled up from chain collisions, doors flung wide open, floors soaked in blood.
“You've changed a lot, Hyun, but it seems like you haven't changed that much either.”
In the faint darkness of the early dawn, Ye-eun smiled as she faced the long beams of the headlights.
“I'm glad.”
As I listened to Ye-eun, I looked at Gucheon Village. Sure enough, it wasn't much different from what I'd expected.
The auto repair shop wasn't too far away. Since Gucheon Village was basically in the countryside, a car was essential to go anywhere. There were repair shops scattered throughout the village, but this one was near Sion Mountain Fortress. I figured it was probably for the cult leader. The facility was large, and the garage even bigger, but there weren't many cars inside. We parked ours in there. There were no zombies in sight.
In the midst of awkward silence, the repair shop owner, his son-in-law, and son didn't even come near our vehicle. They knew exactly what would happen if they touched the things in the trunk. Instead, we saw other people.
“Honey! The apartment...”
People who approached, then froze when they saw us. There were quite a few. Unfamiliar faces, including the aunt who called the repair shop owner “honey.” Kang Ahyeon had gotten out of the car still wearing her rifle, and while I'd slung mine behind me, my hand rested on the hilt of my sword. An awkward standoff. Eyes scanning us.
I glanced at my sister. Her face was expressionless. The usual cutesy act she put on for me, the coquettish behavior, the silly way she acted—none of it was there. Well, she had stabbed our parents to death, after all.
I sat on the trunk and watched them. They hesitated for a moment, then backed away. I raised an eyebrow. Instead, I noticed my sister staring at me.
“Oppa.”
“Yeah.”
“What are we going to do after this? After they give us what they promised?”
“We'll leave the village.”
What we'd decided from the beginning hadn't changed much.
“I was thinking of heading to the sea first. Or maybe gathering some fuel.”
My sister sat down on the trunk beside me, hugging her rifle. Her rather short skirt swayed with the movement.
“What if they don't give it to us?”
“We'll make them.”
Killing didn't mean much anymore. Of course, I wasn't talking about indiscriminate murder. So far, I'd only killed those who deserved to die or those who attacked first. I still had some line I wouldn't cross. I had no intention of killing just anyone.
“What if beating them up a bit doesn't make them listen?”
“If they come at us?”
“Then... well.”
My bare fists would be enough.
“We'll have to kill them.”
If they come at us, we'll kill them. Only then did Kang Ahyeon lean against me. The corners of her mouth were lifted.
“What about Ye-eun unnie?”
“...I don't know.”
If Ye-eun pointed a gun at me, could I kill her? I wasn't sure.
“Then I'll—”
“It's fine. Nothing's happened yet.”
When I cut her off, my sister stared at me quietly but didn't push further. She simply rested her head on my shoulder and muttered something incomprehensible like “Hehe.” I didn't bother warning her again.
“I know. That we shouldn't just hand it over.”
If something like that happens, we have to be able to kill. In this fucking world, this ruined world, the only ones we can trust are each other. We hadn't chosen it, but we knew that in the end, the only ones we could rely on were each other. Siblings.
It left a bitter taste in my mouth, but it was the truth. My sister had a status window like me. She could only use it through prayer, but she was getting stronger just like I was. Her advantage was that if she had enough points, she could obtain any skill she wanted. In that sense, she was different from me.
The protagonists of this shitty world were us. Well, at least by my standards.
I let out a small chuckle as I watched the fearful glances cast our way. To normal people, we probably looked more like villains than protagonists.
“Still...”
“Still?”
The one who suddenly interrupted wasn't Kang Ahyeon. When I turned my head, Ye-eun was standing there, having approached cautiously. The repair shop owner, his wife, and the other unfamiliar followers in the distance were all watching us warily. But Ye-eun came without hesitation.
“What were you two talking about so seriously?”
Ye-eun spoke as if nothing had happened. She stared at my face for a moment, then smiled.
“Why are you being so stiff? We haven't seen each other in so long.”
She'd confessed to me, I'd turned her down, we'd had no contact for six years, and then we'd reunited in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. And not just any reunion—she'd been thrown to the ground with her neck nearly snapped, threatened to hand over everything she had, and dragged all the way back to our base. Wasn't being awkward and stiff completely natural?
“Ah, is it because I hit you? I'm fine with it. I probably would've done the same. In a world like this.”
Ye-eun seemed different. Just like the Lee Ye-eun I knew, she responded maturely. She even came closer and hooked her arm through mine. Wearing that relaxed, mature smile I remembered.
“If you feel that bad about it, do you want to put a pain relief patch on my back? Then—”
My sister, on the other hand, was bristling with wariness toward Ye-eun.
“Should I put it on for you, unnie?”
“...No, it's okay. Unless it's Hyun doing it.”
“Really? I learned first aid, you know.”
“I just don't trust you very much. If it's not Hyun putting it on—”
Seeing them interact like this, it didn't seem like anything that would make me anxious would happen. They'd always been like this since before. It was somehow a nostalgic sight. Along with the realization that not everyone saw us as villains, I let out a small laugh.