The Fugitive
School taught me many things.
I admit that the reason I am still alive today is thanks to the training I received there.
The reason I can maintain a safe hideout and clear a 500-meter radius without even a single scratch is because I followed those teachings to the letter.
However, there was one rule I consistently broke.
Like an office worker who sleeps at home no matter how late they work overtime, I always return to my hideout, no matter how late it gets.
It was my own ironclad rule, one I had to keep under any circumstances.
'I need to get out before it gets any later.'
The zombies that had been wandering for a long time were scattered with quite a bit of density.
But as long as there were Running Zombies, heading out blindly was dangerous.
According to my training, I should spend the night here and wait for a safer moment.
But I had an absolute reason why I couldn't do that.
"Cheonsa, can you hear me?"
I turned on my wireless earphone and asked in a very low voice.
The familiar, welcome voice that followed soon made me forget the current situation and painted a happy smile on my lips.
-Daddy!
"My daughter, everything okay?"
-Yeah, but the sound is low, so I can't hear you very well.
"Sorry. Can you check Daddy's location now?"
-I did.
The reason I must live, and the pillar that keeps me going.
Eight years old is an age full of curiosity, but Cheonsa never asks about the world outside.
Because the only answer I could give her would be a description of hell.
Just as I followed the school's training, Cheonsa was a child who fully accepted and kept the things I asked of her.
"I'm going to turn off the mic now. Can you tell me the way back to the hideout?"
-Yeah, okay.
The reason I cleared a 500-meter radius around the hideout was also because of Cheonsa.
I didn't want to show my child walking corpses.
Even if the world had collapsed, I wanted to feed her good things and teach her well.
For the same reason, I couldn't let her hear their gloomy screams.
I turned off the mic and observed the outside world through a palm-sized gap.
Having poor spatial awareness is a fatal flaw when living in a ruined world.
To be precise, I am so pathologically bad with directions that I can't even remember a path I've traveled dozens of times.
The only fortunate thing is that Cheonsa didn't inherit this trait.
-First, you have to go out to the big road you see on the right.
My sense of direction is not just poor; it's pitch black, but Cheonsa was different.
Perhaps because of her sweet heart wanting to help me, she had been good at reading maps since she was young.
Cheonsa was my daughter, and at the same time, a reliable comrade who had been with me on my commute via GPS and wireless earphones.
'The big road on the right, huh.'
I checked my path through the window.
Fortunately, the zombie in the yellow t-shirt was on the opposite side of the direction I needed to go.
Things would only get worse as it got darker, so perhaps now was the perfect time to escape.
I looked around and checked for any variables.
'Those guys are the problem.'
Two of them standing side-by-side near the trunk.
If those things could run too, it would mean I'd have a tail the moment I stepped out.
When shaking off a zombie's pursuit, it's best to jump over walls or use buildings and windows to disappear from their line of sight completely.
Especially if it's a Running Zombie, that's the only option.
If I don't deceive their eyes, they will follow me all the way to my hideout.
I kept my seated position, lifting the seat. Then, I slowly opened the slightly ajar car door.
I constantly checked the trunk area and the front, fearing that their unfocused eyes might catch me.
The creatures, whose hearing was more developed than their sight, didn't show any particular reaction while the door swung wide open.
Using the car door as a shield, I carefully moved my body outside.
Fortunately, the ones by the trunk had their backs turned.
'Take them out with as little noise as possible.'
I crouched down and approached them, pulling out my spare combat knife.
Like a predator before a hunt, I approached closely, trying not to make a single sound.
Guek!
Once I reached point-blank range, I didn't hesitate and lunged.
I drove the reverse-gripped knife into the temple of the first one, then slid toward the next target.
Geoeoeok!
The moment it made eye contact with me, I drove the knife, now held in a forward grip, through its chin. As I twisted the blade, cold blood gushed out like a turned-on faucet. My brow furrowed automatically at the alien, foul stench.
'Tsk.'
I wiped the blood off on the creature's clothes and scanned the front. Confirming that no one had noticed, I moved my feet again.
A zombie's perception range varies depending on head direction and individual.
And on a rainy day like today, their perception range narrows even further.
'...'
Exhausted by hunger, they were entering a state of light sleep one by one.
I began a dangerous tightrope walk, checking the direction of their heads.
My steps, repeating approaches, waiting, and detours, were very slow, but my senses were razor-sharp.
A little further and I could get out of the alley, and the wide road that followed would work much more in my favor.
Like clothes getting soaked in a drizzle, I moved very slowly.
'?!'
It was when I had almost reached my target point.
I felt a chilling sensation and turned back to see the yellow t-shirt staring straight at me. My heart felt like it had dropped into my stomach.
How long had it been watching? I definitely checked its head direction!
There is always a cause for a zombie's movement. If they don't make a sound, they don't turn their heads for no reason.
But why?
'A wide perception range...?'
Running was already bizarre enough, but its other abilities had improved too?
It was truly something I didn't even want to imagine, but as if to prove my prediction right, it turned its body precisely toward me, signaling the start of the hunt.
'...Shit.'
Guaaaaaaak!
Starting with the roar of the yellow t-shirt, the ones that had entered a state of light sleep woke up all at once. In the darkened space, the eyes of the corpses glaring at me shone with a sharp, piercing light.
"Tch!"
I ran with all my might toward the main road. The creatures followed immediately, and the sound of roaring continued to echo behind my back. At the same time, corpses hiding here and there reacted to the sound and joined the hunt.
"Damn it!"
Even after reaching the main road, the situation didn't improve at all. Creatures popping out from all over the shops blocked my path like they were herding a rabbit. Every time I tried to detour and run in another direction, they appeared without fail.
-Daddy! Go the other way!
The voice that came through while I was being desperately chased was enough to snap me back to my senses.
Cheonsa often predicts my situation through the movement of the GPS. Even without saying it, we had a connection.
-Right there! If you keep going, there's a building you searched!
Just as Cheonsa said, a corridor-style apartment with all its windows open soon came into view.
I have a habit of leaving all the windows open in buildings I've finished searching.
It was to compensate for my lack of direction and to check if any survivors were hiding inside.
I passed the apartment entrance and started running blindly up the stairs from the first floor.
By the time I passed the 3rd and 4th floors and reached around the 9th, I was out of breath and my legs began to overload.
Until now, the creatures had only walked, and I had never had the chance to run like this either.
My somewhat atrophied cardiopulmonary endurance and unused muscles screamed, making my heart pound.
'This is insane...!'
I glanced back.
Dozens of Running Zombies, including the yellow t-shirt, were chasing me like a wave, repeatedly tripping over each other and getting back up.
Even if their bodies were trampled and some part of them burst open, their thirst for hunger didn't diminish in the slightest. They ran while dripping rotten entrails, and if they lacked legs, they crawled with their arms. With prey in front of them, they were superhuman itself.
'Just a little more!'
Extreme fear forced my body, which was at its limit, to keep moving. It was a feeling I had never felt toward the walking ones.
Thanks to the disorderliness of the corpses, the distance had widened quite a bit by the time I passed the 13th floor.
Only then did I smile in relief and turn toward the corridor.
Guaaaaaaaak!
The corpses that arrived late were drooling at me, cornered.
With the front and back completely blocked, there was only one way for me to escape.
From the dizzying height of the 13th floor, I threw my body without hesitation.
"Ugh!"
What I grabbed was the corridor railing.
As I let go, I pressed my hands and the tips of my feet against the wall to slow my fall.
That's how I hung onto the 12th floor, the floor right below.
At that moment, the winter wind brushed coldly against the back of my neck.
Thud! Plop!
The linear and simple creatures threw their bodies after me. It was as planned.
Several dull thuds echoed from far below my feet.
The ones that couldn't run below gathered where the noise came from.
Seeing their comrades turned into mush, they realized they couldn't eat them and began to let out unpleasant screams.
'It worked!'
I descended to the 3rd floor using the same method and hid my body inside the building.
I immediately slipped out through the window on the opposite side, completely shaking off their line of sight.
By the time the roars of anger could be heard from far away, I was finally able to relax and catch my breath.
-Daddy...?
As I let my guard down, Cheonsa's voice came through the earphone. I felt relieved by her slightly trembling voice, but at the same time, my heart broke.
The child must have been watching my GPS location. For Cheonsa, who must have been very worried, I cleared my throat, pretending to be calm, and turned on the mic function.
"Yeah, my daughter."
-Are you okay?
Whether Cheonsa knows it or not, I didn't experience anything today.
The changed world is my new workplace, and no father tells his child about the hardships he faces at work.
No matter how hard things are, even if I almost died, a father must say this:
"I'm fine. Nothing happened."
-Are you coming home now?
"Of course. I have to go see my Cheonsa."
-It's not that way, it's to the left.
"Is that so?"
The child didn't ask what happened.
I also didn't say things like "I survived thanks to you" or "Thank you."
This, too, was our implicit rule.
"Anyway, my daughter, what did you do today?"
-Writing! I can write Daddy's name now, you know?
"Really? Will you write Daddy's name for me when I get home?"
-I've already written it a lot.
If someone asked me what the most enjoyable time of my day was, I would say this moment.
Right now, coming home while chatting about trivial things as if talking to my child.
Even though it's a miserable world where I can't even buy a single chicken, Cheonsa makes me smile even in this world.
-Oh! I see Daddy!
The child waving her hands big from far away.
As I waved back, my face, which had been stiff all day, brightened as if it had never been so.
-Look at this. I wrote it well, right?
The child held up a sketchbook as big as herself like a trophy.
Lee Cheon-il, Lee Cheonsa.
Looking at the crooked letters written in blue, I felt an indescribable sense of happiness.