Seoul Zombie
Thud. Thud, thud.
“Excuse me? Mr. Internet?”
Following the old proverb that machines can be fixed by hitting them, I gave the worn-out router a few solid whacks.
Uuuuung.
It was 4:12 in the afternoon.
The view outside the window I hadn’t seen in a while felt eerily quiet. The usual racket from the neighborhood kids that always dragged me out of my naps was completely gone. The recycling bags residents had set out were still scattered where they’d been left. Cars that clearly weren’t parked properly clogged the alley in chaotic disorder. Shattered windows with vivid bloodstains stood out everywhere.
Uuuuung.
Thankfully, the phone’s data connection was still working. The moment I opened the video platform, one clip dominated the front page. The title was Seoul Zombie. It already had 270 million views. I tapped it, and a low-resolution video began to play.
Pedestrians filled a street blazing with neon signs. A man walked among them with his head hanging low, staggering. Everyone gave him quick side glances but soon lost interest and continued on their way—the typical rhythm of modern city life.
And then—
“Gaaaah!”
The man, who had suddenly stopped, sank his teeth into the nape of a passerby right beside him.
“Kyaaaah!”
Blood sprayed out like a sprinkler. The man had no weapon, so the crowd quickly subdued him. The injured pedestrian sat down, trying to stop the bleeding.
Waiting for the paramedics, perhaps.
The victim, who had been hanging his head and sweating coldly, suddenly looked up and lunged at the woman who was helping him.
“W-what are you doing?! Kyaaah!”
The video ended with the screen shaking wildly.
This… the situation’s gone completely to hell, hasn’t it?
So that’s why Yena disappeared on me.
Still… it stings a little, doesn’t it?
I’m a frail vampire too, you know!
How was I supposed to know the world would end while I was stuck in a full dive in Eclipse because someone asked me to?
Thud!
Startled, I looked outside again and finally spotted the zombies appearing one by one.
A knocked-over No Parking sign.
The noise must have drawn them. Zombies were gathering in small groups.
Whoa. So those are zombies.
They look a lot cleaner than the army of the dead from Eclipse, honestly.
I had no idea where they’d all been hiding, but an endless stream of them came groaning forward. If that little noise pulled in this many… maybe I shouldn’t make any sounds either.
But… were they really only reacting to sound?
With my superhuman vision, I saw another pack of zombies sprinting in pursuit of something. They weren’t particularly fast, but their overwhelming numbers created a crushing pressure. Each zombie called more to join, swelling their ranks.
And at the very front of that wave—
“Huh?”
A little girl was clutching her mother’s hand, panting hard as she was half-dragged along. The woman who seemed to be her mother was deathly pale, running frantically. In this situation, any delicate consideration for her daughter had clearly been abandoned.
Oh no… at this rate…
Thud.
The woman hurriedly scooped up the child who had fallen. Even with tears hanging from her eyes from the pain in her knees, the girl seemed to understand the danger. She wrapped her arms tightly around her mother’s neck and closed her eyes.
But that brief moment had been fatal.
There was no escape.
More zombies had already swarmed in. One grabbed the woman’s shoulder as she refused to let go of her daughter and tried to force her way through with her body.
“Whoa, that’s dangerous.”
“!!!”
“From what I know about zombies, doesn’t even a bite infect you?”
“Wh-where did you—”
I’d tried to hold back.
But I couldn’t just pretend I hadn’t seen it, could I?
I wasn’t sure if stepping in was the right thing, but my body moved before my brain could decide.
Even moving this short distance made my stomach flip. It looked like the days I could casually teleport were numbered.
Looked like I wouldn’t be able to take them with me this time either.
Still, I thought that power had disappeared for good. The fact that any of it remained was something.
“Is that important right now? Hold your daughter tight and follow me.”
“Y-yes.”
I swung the chair I’d brought like a weapon, smashing aside the zombies that were closing in on us as if we were prey.
I’d said my last remaining power was teleportation, hadn’t I?
If so, I apologize, but let me correct that.
Grip strength that could crush stone and dynamic vision that could snatch a mosquito’s wing—if those aren’t powers, what the hell are they?
※ ※ ※
“Haa, haa…”
The woman who had run desperately collapsed as soon as she closed the glass door at the villa entrance, gasping for air.
“Um, that might break, you know?”
“These things aren’t that strong. About as powerful as an average adult male.”
Tunk. Tunk. Tunk.
I glanced at the zombie rubbing itself against the glass, apparently unable to recognize it as a barrier.
About as strong as an adult male, huh.
From my perspective, that was still hard to gauge—fifty steps or a hundred, it all felt the same.
“They get more violent at night, though, so let’s get out of sight before then.”
“Yes, please.”
The woman stared at me intently. Not wanting to lose, I stared right back.
“Aren’t you leaving?”
“I was about to say the same thing…”
“Didn’t you bring us here because you had a place for us to stay?”
“This is my house.”
“Exactly.”
“Exactly…?”
The woman looked at me with utter disbelief.
Hmph. I saved you, isn’t that enough? Do I have to find you luggage space too?
No one is allowed in my private sanctuary…!
More importantly…!
“Waaaaah. Do we have to go out again?”
“Hyeon-a, it’s okay. Shh. Mommy will take care of everything. I’m sorry.”
The child who had been quietly in her arms began to sob.
At the same time, the woman shot me a quick glare.
…
Why do I suddenly feel like the bad guy here?
I didn’t want to, but…
“…Follow me.”
The crying child looked exactly like Rebecca had when she was little, wailing her eyes out. I couldn’t turn away.
Consider yourself lucky.
I opened the door and they followed me in single file.
“…It’s really small.”
“Hyeon-a, shh. That’s rude.”
“Mommy, why are there curtains in the room here?”
“Um… well, you see…”
She looked at me, demanding an explanation.
“It’s the neighbor’s place.”
“Right, the neighbor’s… wait, what?”
“The wall collapsed, so for now we’re using this as a temporary…”
“…?”
It wasn’t exactly a thin wall, but Yena had smashed it for dramatic effect. I’d planned to rebuild it, but Yena hated cramped spaces and strongly objected, so we’d simply put up a large curtain to divide the area.
“Wow! That’s so cool! I wanna go over there!”
“Listen, kid. A person much scarier than me lives over there, so it’s not a place you can just wander into.”
“Hiiiing…”
Still caught in my grip, the child sent pleading eyes toward her mother, but that wasn’t going to work. She really had been spoiled. Throwing tantrums over basic things like this.
“Haha, Hyeon-a. Aren’t you tired? Come over here with Mommy and sit down for a bit.”
I have no idea what principle makes kids around five or six produce that constant pit-pat-pit-pat sound whenever they move. After twenty minutes of prying the child away from exploring every corner of the house and trying to climb into the capsule, she finally dozed off in her mother’s arms.
“Haha, I’m so sorry. She has way too much energy…”
“Good that you know.”
“…”
She seemed to have wanted a polite, intellectual conversation, but that was never going to happen. The woman quickly wiped the awkward look off her face and introduced herself.
“My name is Jo Minhee.”
“Okay.”
“…And you are?”
“Do you need to know?”
“Pardon?”
“You’re leaving tomorrow. Is there any point in knowing my name?”
“…”
“You’ll only be staying here for today.”
She could gape all she wanted. What couldn’t be done, couldn’t be done.
To escape the awkward atmosphere, I picked up my smartphone.
“By the way.”
“Yes…?”
I stared for a moment at the space behind Minhee’s back, then lowered my gaze to the phone.
“Never mind.”
Even if I asked why her shadow smelled of rot, she wouldn’t have an answer.