Minus
Well, whatever. The result was good, so that was enough.
It was absurd that the one-in-a-million long shot I'd half-hoped for had turned out to be real—but what did that matter? As long as I achieved my goal.
I stayed quiet, sorting the situation through in my head, then checked once over the kids watching me carefully and made my decision.
I'll drop these deadweights off at home first, then come back.
They all looked like they hadn't eaten in three days—cheeks hollowed out, stamina clearly at rock bottom. If I told them to hang around while I searched the school, a few of them were guaranteed to end up as zombie chow.
"Alright. Everyone stick close and follow me. If any of you fall behind, I won't be covering for—"
I stopped mid-sentence at the sight that entered my field of vision.
"Ghk... ghk..."
Zombies that had heard the earlier commotion were poking their heads out from every alley, staring. Then the corpse of a large male teacher locked eyes with me, half-broken molars dangling as he opened his mouth wide as if showing them off.
"Ggaaaaaagh!"
With a convulsing scream from the vocal cords of his torn, bone-exposed throat, the thing charged at us like a madman. Everyone recoiled toward the wall in shock—except the girl next to me, who instead sprang forward.
She quickly snatched up a gold fencing foil that had been left lying in the corner and leveled it straight at the zombie.
Her body was so unsteady she looked ready to collapse at any moment, but her eyes were vividly alive. I couldn't help but let out an impressed breath.
What kind of guts does this girl have?
At the very least, this one seemed worth taking home and looking after.
But that was that, and this was this.
With a rigid face, not even looking back, she was locked solely on the charging zombie. I grabbed her shoulder. She flinched and finally turned to look at me—a high schooler.
"Don't overdo it. Just rest. I can see plain as day that you're in no shape."
I said it with a blank expression, then smoothly raised my axe.
And before she could get a word out, I brought it down vertically, splitting the zombie's gaping face and mouth clean open. Blood burst out with a splat, spattering both her face and mine.
After that, I ignored the ones charging at us next for a moment and roughly wiped the blood mixed with sweat from her pale forehead with my palm as she stared up at me.
"Go rest."
With that single line, I put force into the hand on her shoulder and forcibly turned her slender body, pushing her away.
As she staggered back without meaning to and looked at me—
CRACK!
The swinging axe blade shattered a zombie's temple and sent its contents flying.
Then several zombies charged at me all at once, no order to it.
A few days ago, this would have inevitably devolved into a messy brawl that dragged on. But not now.
It had only been two days, but the combat experience and strength I'd gained in that time—literally going berserk with growth—immediately produced the correct answer for this situation.
THUD—
I extended the same hand that had been on the high schooler's shoulder and seized the maw of one lunging at me.
Then, with a grip strong enough for three thousand pull-ups, I locked its trembling jaw in place and shoved it forward, blocking the attacks of two or three others.
And to the one lunging at my neck from the side, I fed it the axe handle instead. When I yanked it hard sideways, the axe blade ground through its cheek and the inside of its mouth.
Teeth clattered down along with a ruined jaw, a tongue flopping above it.
Whoosh—
THWACK!
I drove the axe blade through that tongue and into its face, splitting it vertically.
Whether the high schooler standing right behind me flinched in shock at that merciless violence or not, I looked down at the ones that had been shoved over and toppled by the force of one of my arms, and flicked the axe blade once.
Then I casually glanced back, met the high schooler's eyes, and without a word, expression blank, cleaned up the rest.
"...I thought we were finally safe. Somehow feels like we ran into someone even more terrifying."
"...Still, at least he seems to be human."
I let the cowed whispers from behind go in one ear and out the other.
A short while later—several tens of minutes after.
I finally stopped swinging the fire axe that I'd been wielding nonstop and could check the surroundings.
Starting with the zombies that had come running at the initial noise, the continuous racket from dealing with them had drawn in every single corpse outside the school building.
They came pouring in like some game experience-point event. The high schooler who had flinched several times as if wanting to jump in—once I refused to be overwhelmed by the dozens of zombies and instead ground them all to pieces—eventually just stood there with her small mouth hanging open, staring only at my back.
And the scene that created was this.
Dozens of bodies' worth of flesh. Fragmented arms and legs and brain pieces. Skulls. Eyeballs rolling around, and in the very center of it all, only me standing.
Naturally I felt no particular emotion about it. I looked over my thoroughly wrecked appearance once more, then turned to the kids—
Everyone said nothing and quietly avoided my eyes.
Sujin, was it? One of Yejin's younger sisters who looked a bit fragile was trembling violently and trying to back away as I approached, until a kid named Yujin took her hand and whispered something, and she finally calmed down.
With the atmosphere like this, there was no way persuading them all to come to my place would go well.
I addressed a high schooler with a thuggish look who was at least trying to hide his fear and look at me.
"You lot—got somewhere to go? Some destination you've decided on?"
"...Y-yes? Uh, th-that's..."
Failing to live up to his face, he stammered like he was rapping, then snuck a glance at the girl standing quietly beside me.
At that point I immediately knew who the real leader of these schoolkids was.
I had a feeling, but is it really this girl?
Common sense said that in a situation like this, a guy would take the leader role rather than a girl.
I turned my head and looked at her.
"What's your name?"
"...Im Chaeyeon."
The only one among the group who met my eyes head-on and answered clearly, she walked a few steps sideways toward the kids.
Then she suddenly bowed her head deeply and spoke in a tone that was exhausted but still clearly audible.
"Thank you for helping us. If it weren't for you, mister, we all would have died."
As she stayed bowed like that, the other kids hurriedly bowed their heads one by one.
"Th-thank you, mister."
"Thank you for saving us."
"....."
I stared at them for a moment, then roughly nodded and said,
"That's enough thanks. So—do you have a destination in mind?"
Asking Im Chaeyeon directly, she thought for a few seconds without speaking, then shook her head.
"No. We don't. Nowhere decided. We were just going to leave this school and head into the city..."
"The city? Going into the city would be even more of a dead end."
"W-well, so we were going to secure food and water first, then head into the mountains..."
Even as she said it, Chaeyeon trailed off, as if she herself wasn't convinced.
A brief silence. I rolled up my sleeve, roughly wiped the blood-caked arm with my palm, and said one thing.
"Honestly, you're probably not going to believe this, but."
"...?"
I turned my head to look at the two middle school sisters in the corner. Sujin flinched when our eyes met.
"I'm somewhat acquainted with those two middle schoolers' older sister."
"What? What do you mean..."
"I was asked a favor. To go get those two kids. That 'business' I mentioned earlier—that was it."
Strictly speaking I hadn't been asked—I'd come of my own accord. But whatever.
...Ha. Come to think of it, I really do go looking for trouble.
While everyone looked bewildered at my words, I let out a small sigh and continued.
"So if you all come to my place together... ah, forget it."
Naturally, the suspicion blooming on everyone's faces made me drop the persuasion attempt before I even started.
No—more than that, honestly it was just annoying.
I saved them and was offering to take them somewhere safe—why bother with tedious persuasion?
Whatever the process, as long as the result was good.
I irritably swept back my blood-waxed hair until it was like an all-back style, and looked at Chaeyeon with eyes narrowed in irritation.
"Hey. Just shut up and follow me. I'll feed you and put you up. No objections accepted."
"...What?"
That pretty face went completely blank with shock, standing still blinking—but unfortunately, I didn't feel like dragging this out any longer.
Grabbing her arm and spinning her around toward the school entrance, I threw one last line at the kids.
"All of you, follow. We're going to my place."
"W-wait a second..."
Everyone stared blankly at Chaeyeon being dragged along and my back, then exchanged looks and shared a thought.
...Is this really okay?
...I don't know, but at least following him probably won't be a loss.
Honestly it was just as ambiguous for them, but rebellion wasn't even a dream.
Even the tough-looking Chaeyeon was being led along so meekly with her arm grabbed—what method did they have?
"Hey! You not coming?!"
When I turned back and shouted at the kids still whispering behind us, everyone jumped and hurried to catch up.
And among them, a short-haired girl with a cat-like face kept glancing at Chaeyeon held in my hand the whole way, as if she couldn't believe it. I had no idea why, and didn't care.
I just wanted to dump them all at home fast and go check the rooftop.
Ah. Seriously. I'm dying for a shower.
Grinding my teeth, I walked on, while Chaeyeon kept staring at my side profile as I flapped my clammy clothes.