Chapter 26.
Chapter 26.
Jeong-hun's eyes widened.
"Hyung-nim, why all of a sudden? You're going to go after those bastards?"
"One of the women they dragged off is someone I know."
The four of them turned their gazes toward me in unison.
"She's a university junior. We were in the same department."
Ye-rin asked.
"Are you sure?"
"I'm sure. Her name is Choi Seo-yoon. We were pretty close."
"Hyung-nim, there are 8 of those bastards. And they have two air guns."
"I know."
Jeong-hun shut his mouth. His face showed he knew it was useless to say anything more.
I looked back at the tablet. On the drone screen, the women were still visible, being dragged away slowly.
I grabbed my bow and slung the quiver over my shoulder.
I took out the electric scooter. If I drove the car, the engine noise would give me away. With the scooter, I could approach silently. I had already removed the speed limiter, so it could reach 40 km/h.
It was a distance I could reach in 3 minutes on the electric scooter.
Ye-rin picked up her crossbow and stood up.
"I'll go with you."
"It's faster alone. It'll be slow if two people ride the scooter."
Ye-rin bit her lip hard. She swallowed whatever she was about to say. She knew I could do it.
"Please be careful."
I got on the scooter and flipped the switch. The motor hummed with a low-pitched wing.
It took less than 3 minutes.
I saw an empty house. An old, detached house. Two vehicles were parked on the road side.
They were quite a distance from the house. I could see two men in the car, and a male flight attendant with his hands tied was hanging his head in the backseat.
I parked the scooter in the bushes and lowered my body.
One man was standing in front of the house. He was talking on a radio, laughing and saying something.
I held my breath and approached behind the wall.
Syuk.
The arrow pierced the temple of the man holding the radio. The radio fell to the ground, making a jijik static sound. The man collapsed to the side without even a sound.
One down.
I approached the front door. It was open. I could hear sounds from inside. Laughter, a woman's crying. And the sound of clothes tearing.
I gritted my teeth.
I stepped inside. Past the short hallway and into the living room.
There were five of them. One bastard had an air gun leaning against the wall and was stripping off Seo-yoon's jacket.
Another bastard was holding the arm of a different woman next to him. The other three were standing around, watching and laughing.
Seo-yoon's eyes met mine. There were tear tracks on her face, and her blouse was half-torn.
As I raised my bow and aimed, my Hawk's Eye activated.
Starting with the guy next to the air gun.
Syuk.
An arrow embedded itself in the forehead of the guy standing next to the air gun leaning against the wall. He fell backward.
In the slow motion, the faces of the remaining four distorted. I could see the process of their surprise turning into terror, frame by frame.
Syuk. Syuk.
The neck of the guy holding Seo-yoon. The chest of the guy who was watching. They fell one after another.
"Kyaak!"
While I looked at Seo-yoon at her shout, the remaining two bastards dragged the other woman and ran out the back door.
I pulled the string, but the angle wasn't good because the woman's body was in the way.
The moment I stepped out the back door, chasing them.
Pak.
Something embedded itself in my side. Instinctively, my Hawk's Eye activated, and I pulled my body back inside.
The guys in the vehicle had grasped the situation and started shooting.
I looked at my side. Blood was seeping out. An air gun pellet had embedded itself.
There was a sharp pain, like being stabbed with a knife, but it didn't hurt as much as I thought it would.
Is it thanks to my Physical Enhancement Ability?
Pak. Pak.
I hid my body back inside. The bullets hit the corner of the wall in succession.
I poked my head out. One guy was aiming an air gun from next to the vehicle on the road. Another guy was starting the engine. The two guys who had escaped through the back door were running toward the car, dragging the woman.
Pak.
It grazed my head again. The air gun was providing cover fire.
The accuracy of the shots wasn't high, but they were firing every time I poked my head out, making it hard to return fire.
I poked my head out right after the guy pulled the trigger. In the slowed-down time, I pulled the string. The arrow flew a short distance and pierced the guy's glabella.
However, the engine noise grew louder. Along with the sound of doors closing, the tires screeched.
The two vehicles kicked up dust and moved further away.
I quickly returned to the living room. The smell of blood from the corpses on the floor was thick.
Seo-yoon was curled up in a corner. She was pulling her torn blouse together with both hands, her whole body trembling.
I crouched down in front of her.
"Seo-yoon... It's me. Kang Min-woo."
Seo-yoon's eyes moved slowly to look at me.
"Min-woo sunbae? How..."
Her voice was cracked.
"Yeah. It's me."
Tears poured from Seo-yoon's eyes. She threw herself forward into my arms.
"Keu-heuk..."
She clung to me so hard her fingernails dug into my back.
"It's over. You're okay."
Seo-yoon's sobbing echoed through the empty house.
I helped Seo-yoon stand up. She stumbled, as if she had no strength in her legs. She grabbed my arm and barely managed to stand.
I took out the radio.
"Ye-rin, can you hear me?"
After some jijik static, Ye-rin's voice came through.
"Yes! Are you okay, boss?"
"I'm okay. Bring the Staria. Check the location with the drone."
"Right now?"
"Ask Jeong-hun-ssi to drive. Ye-rin, you monitor the surroundings with the drone and guide the route."
"Understood. We'll be there soon."
I cut the transmission.
Seo-yoon was still holding onto my arm. With one hand, she was still pulling her torn blouse together. Her trembling hadn't stopped.
I couldn't stay next to the corpses in the living room. I took Seo-yoon outside. I sat her down in the shade in front of the entrance.
"Wait a moment."
I went back inside. I searched the corpses. It wasn't a pleasant task, but it was something that had to be done.
I recovered two air guns. One that had been leaning against the wall, and one from the guard who had fallen outside. When I searched their pockets, I found ammunition. Pellet rounds in small metal cases. Each guy had 20~30 rounds. I recovered over 80 rounds from the four corpses.
Before sitting next to Seo-yoon, I checked my side. Blood was seeping out slightly.
I took off my outer shirt. I bit the sleeve with my teeth and tore it. I wrapped the long-torn cloth around my side and tied it tightly. It was crude for first aid, but it stopped the bleeding.
Seo-yoon was watching that scene blankly. When I took off my shirt, my upper body was revealed. The muscles created by my Physical Enhancement Ability were exposed under the sunlight.
"Sunbae's body is very different from before..."
She trailed off. This wasn't the skinny sunbae from college.
"Well, after catching zombies, it ended up like this."
I brushed it off vaguely.
I draped my jumper over Seo-yoon's shoulders. Over her torn blouse. Seo-yoon hugged the jumper.
I looked at Seo-yoon's face properly up close.
She hadn't been able to wash for days, so her hair was tangled, and there were dark circles under her eyes. The tear tracks on her cheeks were dry.
Even so, she was pretty.
Back in college, she was the goddess of the department. Long straight hair, fair skin, big eyes. There was a reason men lined up for her.
But if it was a girlish prettiness back then, it was different now.
A slimmer jawline, more defined features. Her twenty-seven-year-old face had both a girl's innocence and a woman's maturity.
Whether it was created by her life as a flight attendant or by time, she had become more mature and prettier than in college. It wasn't the time to be thinking about such things, but that was my honest feeling.
"Thank you. Sunbae."
"What happened? Can you tell me from the beginning?"
Seo-yoon lowered her head and slowly opened her mouth.
"The day the zombies broke out, I had just gotten off the plane. It was Incheon Airport."
She said the airport was chaos that day. Zombies appeared on the runway, and people bitten inside the terminal started turning one by one. Passengers screamed and ran, and security guards collapsed.
"Three of us flight attendants escaped together. Me, Ji-eun, and Jae-hyuk oppa. Because Jae-hyuk oppa was a man, he opened the path for us."
Jae-hyuk. The male flight attendant I saw earlier with his hands tied, hanging his head in the car. The guy who was dragged to the factory.
"After we found a car with two other men who joined us, we moved and hid in a quiet commercial building. For over ten days... We survived on the convenience store food that was inside. Because if we went outside, zombies were wandering around."
Seo-yoon's hands were clenched on her knees.
"Then this morning, those people came. They broke the door and came in."
"Jae-hyuk oppa tried to stop them... but in the end, the other two men were immediately..."
Her words cut off. Tears flowed down her cheeks.
"They shot them right in front of our eyes. They made them kneel. In the back of the head."
I knew because I had seen it all with the drone.
"They only put Jae-hyuk oppa in the car. I think they judged he was useful for something. And Ji-eun and I..."
Seo-yoon hugged the jumper tighter.
"The way they looked at us in the car. It wasn't the way you look at people."
After that, the car stopped, and it was the scene where they were smoking and laughing while pointing at the empty house.
"That's when Sunbae appeared."
Seo-yoon looked up at me. Her face with undried tear tracks.
"But Sunbae, how did you alone deal with all those people..."
"I learned a bit of archery."
"That's not just a 'bit' level."
Seo-yoon looked at my side. The bloodstain wrapped in torn cloth.
"Are you okay, Sunbae? You got shot."
"I'm really okay. It's just an air gun, so it'll heal soon."
Seo-yoon's hand reached toward my side but hesitated. Her fingertips were trembling.
Just then, the Staria arrived, kicking up dust. Jeong-hun, Ye-rin, and Su-jin got out of the vehicle.
As soon as the Staria door opened, Ye-rin jumped out.
"Boss!"
Her face turned pale when she saw my side.
"You're bleeding! Where are you hurt?"
"I got hit by an air gun, but I'm fine. It's nothing."
"Nothing, my foot!"
Su-jin got out behind her and examined my side. She was definitely a nurse. She pressed her fingers on the area wrapped in cloth.
"Is the pellet still inside?"
"I think it's embedded shallowly. Take it out later."
Su-jin nodded.
"I'll treat it as soon as we get back."
Ye-rin's gaze turned behind me. Seo-yoon sitting in front of the entrance. Wearing my jumper, her face with dried tear tracks. Her long hair messy. Even though she was a mess, it was obvious she was pretty.
Ye-rin's expression changed subtly. It was a short moment, less than a second, but I saw it.
"Is this the junior?"
"Yeah. It's Choi Seo-yoon."
I helped Seo-yoon up. Seo-yoon grabbed my arm and walked, stumbling. Ye-rin watched that scene. The way Seo-yoon's hand was wrapped around my arm.
"Get in. Seo-yoon-ah."
I put Seo-yoon in the backseat. Su-jin sat next to her and checked Seo-yoon's condition. She checked her pulse and placed her hand on her forehead.
"She has some dehydration symptoms. Do you have water?"
Ye-rin handed over a bottle of water. Seo-yoon took it with trembling hands and drank. She spilled half of it. Su-jin quietly wiped her mouth.
Ye-rin sat next to me. Usually, she would have sat right next to me, but today there was a slight distance. She was looking ahead, but her eyes were stealing glances at Seo-yoon's side.
I loaded the two air guns and ammunition into the cargo area. I also folded the scooter and put it in.
Jeong-hun started the engine.
"Let's get out of here quickly."
The car started. No one said anything.
In the backseat, Seo-yoon was crying quietly. Without a sound. Su-jin was holding Seo-yoon's hand.
But there was now a sense of relief on her face.