Give a Doe, Get a Mal
We eventually found the place. Of all the buildings nearby, the supply crate just had to land on the tallest one, so we'd been circling the area forever.
It wasn't like we'd stumbled on the box by pure luck either. We'd already checked everywhere else, so by process of elimination we knew it had to be here.
"Ptooey, cut the crap. Who the hell do you think you are, trying to climb up on our rooftop?"
"....."
That was why all the pointless hassle had left me thoroughly pissed off. I couldn't help fiddling with the iron pipe still caked in rotten blood.
Whether the guy noticed my mood or not, he kept hawking and spitting while looking me, Chaeyeon, and Soeun over without a shred of restraint.
"Jesus, talk about a lucky bastard. Strutting around with two hot pieces of ass like that—what kind of balls does it take to go poking your nose everywhere?"
"You somebody special or what? Got a gun or something?"
Not a gun, but I can put a hole in your skull just fine. Might be a little on the wide side, though.
I swallowed the retort and forced the irritation down.
"I don't need anything else. Just want to check the roof. Won't even take a minute, so if you could just—"
"Mister! Mister! There's really something up on the roof!"
Right then someone came clattering down the stairs behind the man and held out a box that looked shady as hell at first glance.
The guy stared at it for a second, then leveled his bent steel pipe at me.
"Who the fuck are you? How'd you know this was on the roof? And what the hell is it supposed to be, anyway?"
I was already sick of even this much conversation. I just fixed him with a flat stare and thought it over.
Take it? Leave it? Maybe toss him a couple chocolate bars and call it even?
He didn't even give me time to decide. Still glancing at me, he ripped the box open.
"Ptooey, what the hell is this even—huh?"
Out came a single loaf of bread. Dark, grimy-looking stuff that was clearly going to taste like garbage.
"Wh-what? Bread?"
I left the guy standing there, all his expectations crashing into confusion, let out a short, incredulous laugh, and turned my back.
"Let's go. One dud already."
"W-wait! You—explain what this bread is! Is it even safe to eat?"
"Figure it out yourself."
I ignored the bastard still waving his pipe and yapping at me and walked out of the building's first floor.
Chaeyeon looked at me like she was seeing me for the first time and whispered from the side.
"Oppa, you're not gonna beat him up? I was waiting for that loud mouth of his to finally shut."
"What am I, some street thug? I don't hit first if nobody hits me."
"But that guy already threw the first punch with his attitude and his spit. Pretty sure a few drops actually hit you."
"...Ah, fuck."
The sudden wave of disgust made me shoot her a sharp look. She just giggled and skipped a few steps away.
One last parting shot:
"You held back because of Kang Soeun, right? You don't have to next time. She's the type who grew up pretty rough herself."
What the hell was a sophomore even talking about.
I shook my head, pulled out the map, and looked for the next closest X mark.
We spent the whole morning circling the area around the school.
The first one, as we already knew, was basically a dud. The second crate was sitting right in the middle of the road. The noise when it landed must have drawn them, because zombies had clustered around it. Cleaning them up got a little dicey—though not for me. For the girls.
Luckily neither of them got bitten. They just took a spill during the fight and scraped up their knees and elbows. Still, if I hadn't stepped in right then, that would've been the end of it.
I looked down at Soeun frowning at her own wounds.
"Not bad enough to mess with zombie-killing, right?"
"No... it just stings a little. But what if it gets infected?"
"We'll hit a pharmacy on the way to the apartment this afternoon. Grab some mercurochrome and bandages there."
"...Thank you."
Soeun bowed her head politely. I glared at Chaeyeon, who was beaming like Soeun getting hurt was the best thing that had happened all day.
"What's so funny?"
"Nothing~ It's just funny thinking even the great Kang Soeun can take a fall sometimes."
"Did you not see the situation? Three of them coming in from both sides—what was she supposed to do? She had to fall back even if it meant going down."
"Hmm... if it were me, I'd just have stabbed all three at once and been done with it."
"Yeah. You're amazing. Real amazing."
I left the two of them bickering and picked up the crate.
It was pretty light, and shaking it didn't give me any real sense of what was inside. No way to tell.
If it was more bread, I was ready to just start kicking every box I saw open from now on. I tore the packaging off.
"....."
Cabbage. Yeah. One whole head of the stuff you make kimchi with.
I stared for a second at the same ominous black color as the bread from earlier, then hurled it with everything I had at a zombie shambling past nearby.
Thud—
"Grrraaagh..."
Even if it was only a cabbage, my strength was behind it. The thing smacked the zombie square in the head; the creature let out a low groan and crumpled pitifully to the ground.
"Really pathetic how it went down. Just like you a minute ago, right, Kang Soeun?"
"Shut your mouth before I make you look just like that."
While the two of them traded jokes like nothing was wrong, I was starting to wonder if this was some new kind of crow-shit prank. I irritably shook the cabbage juice off my hands and spoke.
"Both of you, follow me. Next location."
"Where are we going this time?"
"The department store."
Same place I'd hit last time for meat.
Come to think of it, that muscle-bound bastard—was he still around? If he picked a fight again this time, I was going to half-kill him just to blow off steam.
I crumpled the map back into my pocket and muttered to myself.
I'd come here on day two of the apocalypse, so... exactly five days ago?
There seemed to be more people now. All the nearby survivors must have funneled in here. Not that I particularly cared.
I'd be dropping by this department store a lot from now on. The more people managing the place, the better. We could always pull our own people out of the apartment if we needed to.
Unlike last time, I walked straight up to the main entrance on the first floor. Naturally, four guys playing sentry stopped us.
Why four, though? Two would've been plenty.
"Halt! Stay right there! What's your business?"
"I'd like to take a look at the department store rooftop."
"If you're hoping to move in, you'll have to go through a separate screening process... wait, what? The rooftop?"
The lead guy, wearing a motorcycle helmet and wrapped in layers of clothes for protection, looked completely baffled by my answer.
Then something seemed to click. His mouth dropped open and he pointed a trembling finger at me.
"Y-you! From a few days ago!"
"Huh? What about it?"
I tried to play dumb out of pure laziness, but of course it didn't work.
He yanked the helmet clean off and spoke with absolute certainty.
"It's definitely you! No way I'd mix that up! That calm attitude! That shamelessness! And those weapons that look deadly no matter when you see them!"
"Hmm... I don't know who this is, but he's got Oppa's characteristics down perfectly."
I ignored Chaeyeon's muttering, finally let out a sigh, and gave a rough nod.
"I was hoping to just walk past, but I guess not. Uh... local guy?"
"It's Ju Minho. Ju Minho! You remember after all. I knew you'd still be alive!"
Whatever had him so happy, he closed the distance in one stride, grabbed both my hands, and started pumping them vigorously.
I accepted the handshake with a slightly awkward expression. It had been a while since anyone looked at me with that kind of goodwill—not since the kids at school.
The moment he heard the news he came charging over like a gorilla that had just spotted a banana. The second he laid eyes on me, he froze solid.
"Whoa... that guy. He's huge. Looks like a comic-book character."
"He could probably just pick up most corpses and throw them."
Chaeyeon and Soeun were whispering right next to me without even trying to hide it. Do Wangu, who had been staring only at me the whole time, finally opened his mouth.
"Not alone this time—three of you. Those girls the same kind of freak as you?"
"I have no idea what you mean. I just came because I wanted to take a look at this department store's rooftop."
"...What's with that tone? You were so obsessed with meat last time—did you start eating zombie meat and lose your damn mind?"
Treating basic manners like some kind of madness. Do Wangu's complete lack of etiquette finally made me drop the act. My face went blank.
"I don't have a single second to play with you this time. Move."
"...This crazy son of a bitch."
The hanger-on next to him started having a fit on Do Wangu's behalf. Do Wangu held the guy back with one hand and let out a short laugh.
"Play with me? Yeah. That's exactly what it was. I've got no interest in picking a fight like last time. You're the one who let me live when you could've killed me."
"...What? Boss, what are you talking about?"
The hanger-on's eyes went wide as dinner plates. Do Wangu ignored him the same way I did and pointed deeper into the first floor.
"Best thing you can do with someone like you is stay on good terms. Accept our hospitality."
Chaeyeon and Soeun both looked startled by how completely different his tone was from that rough face of his. I glanced up at the sky, gauged the sun's position, and nodded.
"Alright. I'll take it—for a very short while."
"...You were still using formal speech last time, though."
"I've decided to drop it whenever I can. Doesn't matter either way—I get the same shit back."
"...Got it."
The hanger-on stared at Do Wangu like he couldn't possibly understand how the man was just accepting that, but Do Wangu didn't seem to care in the slightest.