A Changed World (2)
The flashlight beam cut through the darkness, casting jagged, uneven shadows across the cramped tunnel. The interior of the narrow passage was far from smooth.
“Hoo…”
According to my calculations, the distance to the end shouldn’t have been that long. It couldn’t be long. Yet no matter how far the smartphone’s light reached, it never touched an end.
It was just an endless, pitch-black void—like staring into an uncertain future. I unconsciously tightened my grip on the rope tied to Zeta.
…The slope is going upward.
Was I supposed to call that a silver lining? The entrance ramp wasn’t heading down, but slightly upward. Crawling uphill felt far less psychologically taxing than crawling downhill.
Even if it was harder going up, it would be easier to back out if something went wrong. And most of all, I didn’t have to worry about blood rushing to my head.
Thump— Thump— Thump—
My heart hammered violently. The blood racing through my veins and the adrenaline flooding my brain dulled the pain in my right arm, if only a little.
Scrape…
I crawled forward in a prone position, pushing off the ground with my elbows and toes in a slow, deliberate rhythm. For every two movements I made, Zeta moved once.
“Huu—, huu—”
Because I was biting down on the smartphone, I couldn’t close my mouth. Fine dust poured straight into my open lips. My already dry throat and parched airway grew even drier, sending sharp, tearing pain through me.
Drip. Drip.
From the ant-nest-like tunnels branching in every direction came the occasional sound of water leaking from burst pipes. My eyes instinctively flicked toward the noise before snapping back forward.
I could drink water once I got out. Right now, escaping was the only priority. Besides, the water pooled inside was probably muddy or mixed with blood from corpses. I wouldn’t have been able to drink it anyway.
Repeating that to myself like a mantra, I kept crawling forward with my eyes fixed straight ahead. Even as the protruding rebar in my right arm kept getting jostled, sending cold sweat pouring down like a waterfall, I desperately kept my eyes open.
The crushing pressure that grew stronger the deeper I went into the narrow passage. There was technically enough space to crawl, yet I still felt like my head, my back, and my legs were being squeezed. It was as if the walls themselves were pressing in from all sides.
Clatter— Rustle—
Tiny pebble-sized fragments kept raining down from the ceiling of the narrow burrow. The way they poked at me, as if testing me, set my nerves on edge.
How far had I come?
How much farther did I have to go?
Was Zeta being pulled along properly?
Had the knot come undone somewhere in the middle?
Was this even the right decision?
Should I have just stayed inside and waited for rescue?
All kinds of anxious thoughts reared their heads and pecked at me. No matter how firmly I tried to steel my mind, it made me painfully aware of how fragile the human psyche truly was.
Impatience bred tension, and tension stiffened my body.
Just think about getting out of here…
Every time that feeling hit me, I clenched my teeth and poured more strength into my limbs. The urge to stop and rest was overwhelming, but I knew that if I paused even for a moment, I might never start moving again.
The dusty, hazy air mixed with dirt.
The dangerously protruding rebar.
The severed electrical wires I had to avoid at all costs for fear of electrocution.
The faint breeze that blew in, as if telling me I was going the right way.
The concrete shards that scraped every inch of my skin.
The unsteady, flickering light from the smartphone.
My increasingly ragged breathing.
My drying throat and tongue.
I kept pushing forward, suppressing my rising panic, when I suddenly noticed the sound of the wind growing louder.
Whiiiing—
The distinctive whistling sound of wind passing through a gap reached my ears from very close by. That could only mean one thing—the exit was near.
I frantically turned my head, sweeping the smartphone light across the walls in search of the opening. But I couldn’t see it. All that appeared was the dead end of the blocked tunnel.
It seemed the exit was blocked by debris, just like when I had first found this hole.
Still, I had come this far. There was no turning back now. I had to push through the debris blocking the way somehow.
“Nngh…!”
I pushed against the concrete rubble with all the strength left in my relatively unharmed left arm. Unlike when I had opened the entrance, the only leverage I had now was pure arm strength.
Since I was in a prone position, that strength couldn’t be applied properly. Even so, I pushed with everything I had.
Wedging both feet against the wall for leverage, I shoved my body forward.
Maybe my desperate effort paid off.
Grrrrk—!
With a sound like a millstone grinding, the massive pile of debris that had felt like a mountain began to slowly shift backward. At the same time, fresh air—not the stale, dusty kind—poured in.
I took a deep gulp of that refreshing air that cooled my lungs and pushed forward one last time. The debris finally gave way completely, tumbling backward and revealing the exit that had been plugged like a cork.
…Kwoooong!
“Cough! Cough…!”
The impact of the falling rubble sent a cloud of settled dust exploding upward, completely obscuring my vision.
But the overwhelming sense of liberation that followed drowned everything else out. There were no more obstacles blocking my path, and the crushing pressure on my body had vanished.
I scrambled out in a frenzy. Before even checking my surroundings, I grabbed the rope connected to Zeta and began pulling her toward me. Worried that yanking too hard might hurt her, I pulled slowly and steadily.
Scrape— Scraaaape—
The sound of clothes dragging across the ground grew closer. Before long, Zeta had safely emerged from the hole. Fortunately, she looked far better than I had feared. She still hadn’t regained consciousness, but at least now there was a chance someone could help her. Compared to being trapped under the rubble, this was a hundred times better.
…Or so I had thought just moments ago.
“………”
The moment I took in our surroundings, a hollow laugh escaped me. The laugh felt wildly out of place, and it drained what little strength I had left.
It was no wonder. Not only the building I had been in, but the entire area around it had been completely destroyed. I had expected something like this, but seeing the reality with my own eyes still stole the breath from my lungs.
The metallic stench of blood mixed with the fresh air.
The ground split open as if an earthquake had struck.
Collapsed buildings and fallen street trees.
The tiger emblem torn clean in half.
The ruined city visible beyond the shattered sky.
Two cities standing face-to-face like mirror images. Even now, ominous debris from the sky—no, from the ruined dimension—was still raining down onto the ground.
The pieces weren’t numerous, and they were falling far away from where I stood, but the fact that they kept falling was what mattered.
Thud…
Every time I faintly heard the sound of debris crashing into the earth like a meteor in the distance, the atmosphere surrounding this area grew stranger and more twisted.
…I may have hated that one-piece desk, but I never actually wanted the world to end.
Even when I tried to force a bitter joke inside my head, reality refused to change. The joy of escape vanished in an instant.
And then—
Step. Step.
The sound of footsteps echoed. They weren’t far away. Strangely, the moment I heard them, a chill ran down my spine.
Part of me wanted to run straight to whoever it was and beg for help. But my instincts screamed nonstop that I must not do that. The faint, grotesque moans drifting to my ears only reinforced that warning.
I immediately ruled out the possibility that it might be another survivor like me—or someone who needed help. Like a mother protecting her young, I pulled Zeta into my arms and hurriedly hid us both.
With no other choice, Zeta and I crawled back into the very hole I had just escaped from. I quietly pulled a torn banner from the rubble and used it to cover the now-exposed exit. I was determined to protect Zeta no matter what.
“Huk… huk…”
My stamina was nearly gone. I could barely control my breathing. Knowing I had to stay as quiet as possible, I clamped a hand over my mouth to muffle the sound. The trapped breath I couldn’t release filled my nose with a stale stench.
It didn’t take long.
[Krrrk…]
The owner of the footsteps finally appeared. And I was sincerely relieved that I hadn’t stepped forward. Because the thing that showed up—it could not possibly be called human.
A body staggering as if drunk. A head jerking around erratically like a broken gear. Beast-like growls leaking from a torn mouth. Clothes ripped open at the seams as if someone had violently clawed them apart.
…A zombie?
It bore an eerie resemblance to the zombies commonly seen in movies and games. I prayed desperately that this wasn’t reality, but some kind of nightmare.
Step. Step.
After the man in the tattered clothes came more footsteps, filling the area. It seemed the noise I had made while pushing the debris aside had drawn them here.
The sounds of a group moving together grew louder and more numerous. Even without looking, I could sense how many there were. The realization made my mind go blank.