Hunting the Thief
The greater the expectation, the greater the disappointment. When I headed toward the auditorium, the place was a mess of scattered bedding, corners that had never seen a proper cleaning, and trash dumped wherever it happened to fall.
About a dozen students were visible inside. The ones with slingshots, clubs, and sticks glared at me as I approached.
There was only a single girl among them. Calling her a rare bloom among weeds would have been generous — her face was haggard, her expression dark and sullen.
In short, not my type.
Even if I wasn't expecting someone on Lee Soyeon's level, there wasn't a single decent-looking girl in sight.
I let out a sigh of disappointment inside my helmet.
"Why did you call me over?"
"Hey. There's a teacher over there named Gang Haseong, right?"
"I know. I just finished talking to him."
Their expressions shifted at that.
"What did you say to him?"
"What did you talk about?"
Looking at the long-haired guys, I felt like I'd stepped into the seventies. Then again, it wasn't as if they could get haircuts out here.
"Can't tell you that. They gave me something worth my while. You got anything to offer?"
"..."
The kids exchanged glances.
"We don't have anything."
"What do we do?"
What do you do? You just leave, that's what.
"If you've got nothing to give, fine. Judging by how you brought up Gang Haseong, though, you two sides don't get along."
"Of course we don't. That teacher is trash."
One of the long-haired guys — the one with glasses — stepped forward.
"Acts like he's king of the place, going after every girl he can get his hands on."
"We're not his slaves."
Complaints spilled out from every direction. They must have gotten fed up with the main group and broken away.
"Anyway, if you've got nothing to offer, I'm leaving. But if you don't make peace with them, all of you are going to be in danger."
"Bullshit! Why would we be?"
"I'm not forcing anything. Just offering an opinion. I don't even know what went down between that teacher and you lot. So I'm going."
"Wait!"
The bespectacled long-hair blocked my path.
"You're heading outside, right?"
"That's the plan."
"Then could you look for someone?"
An unexpected proposal.
"Someone? Who?"
These guys were looking for someone too? Right — they'd mentioned a girl named Seolhwa or something.
"Hold on. Before that — is there anyone named Seolhwa among you?"
"Huh? Seolhwa?"
Everyone in the room flinched as one. Was there something wrong with that name?
"Why? I heard there was a girl named Seolhwa here."
"She's not here. But why are you looking for her?"
"Ah..."
Mentioning the teacher's conditions here didn't seem like a smart move.
Especially if she wasn't even among them.
"No reason. Just looked like you were short one girl. That's what I heard, anyway."
"The person I want you to find is that Seolhwa."
The glasses guy cut back in.
"Ah. And the girl who turned into a zombie — who was that?"
"Miyeon. Those damn teachers set a trap! We never thought they'd hide something like that underground..."
They each vented their rage, laying bare their grudges against the school faction.
So it wasn't just a simple disagreement over control that made them leave.
"So you want me to find this Seolhwa girl? What's the payment?"
"Payment? What do you want? Food? Water? Something else?"
"Hey, Min Doyoon."
One of the girls started to snap at him, but Min Doyoon shut her down.
"Shut it. We have to give him something either way. It's not like we can just wander outside whenever we want!"
"Smart thinking. Food's fine — I've got plenty stocked already."
"What about a girl, then?"
The one called Min Doyoon grinned with a meaningful look.
"Honestly, that Seolhwa girl has the prettiest face out of anyone here."
"Oh-ho. So if I bring her back..."
"How about you get first taste, old man? Just don't touch her until then. Deal?"
Seolhwa was the prettiest one? That lit a spark under the disappointment still sitting in my gut.
"Well, I've got eyes of my own. But if she's as pretty as you say, I'll look for her."
The teacher side had already asked me to find her too. Two birds, one stone.
"In exchange — any idea which way she went?"
"She snuck out at dawn. Her house is somewhere around here, so she probably headed that way."
Good. The information was coming together piece by piece. The kids didn't know her exact address, though.
As friends, all they could offer was a vague "somewhere around there" — a messy situation.
Not that it mattered. I could just hop back to the present world and figure it out with no trouble at all.
Either way, I'd gotten what I needed. Time to head back.
I was about to climb back over the wall and find my electric bike when I realized something was wrong.
"...It's gone?"
Strangely enough, the electric bike I'd left by the wall was nowhere to be found.
A zombie hadn't ridden off on it. Which meant a survivor?
Was there another survivor nearby? Not from inside the school — those two factions were too busy fighting each other.
Or... there was a chance that Seolhwa girl had taken it.
"I'd really like to go home now."
Unfortunately, circumstances didn't seem inclined to grant that wish.
My feet turned in the direction the kids had pointed me.
Traveling on foot without the electric bike made the distance feel enormous.
At least her house wasn't far from the school — small mercies.
Northwest of the school grounds.
So I trudged along the streets.
Then again, had she really taken it? Some other bastard could have grabbed it just as easily.
Meaning I might be on a wild goose chase. But what choice did I have?
Walking all the way back meant dealing with the zombies I'd ignored on the way here, and that was a pain.
Fine. I'd come this far already...
I might as well find her.
"And is it even going to be easy to get there?"
More than anything, as the one who'd ridden it here, I could vouch that the bike was quietly annoying against zombies. And if that Seolhwa girl had stolen it, she almost certainly wouldn't know how to shift gears or work the brakes properly.
That was my guess, at least.
Though the problem was she might suddenly drive like a genius for all I knew.
Worst case for me — but could a high school girl with nothing to her name really navigate a zombie world cleanly?
Leaving no trail at all was impossible.
I was banking on that as I moved northwest. Near the school sat a small hill with playground equipment, and beyond it residential blocks spread out again.
No way she'd taken the electric bike up the stairs.
I'd have to go around. Sure enough, among the parked cars I could see vehicles that had plowed into houses and one that had been left diagonally, blocking the passage.
"Hm?"
That was when I found something odd.
On the side door of the car blocking the passage was a scratch in plain view — and a recent one at that.
"This... got hit, huh?"
My eyes dropped to the ground beneath the impact.
A skid mark would be ideal.
And sure enough, there was one.
Studying the body of the car more carefully, I also found a long scrape running along the side.
"Figures. You'd do that if you suddenly found the path blocked."
I was certain now. Someone had come through here.
Given when my bike was stolen, they'd passed this spot within the last hour at most.
"Interesting."
As I kept moving, another peculiar pattern emerged.
The zombies were wandering at spaced intervals, like stragglers left behind by a retreating unit.
It reminded me of Hansel and Gretel.
Right — if the theft had happened recently, the zombies would still show traces of having reacted.
If I followed the trail my bike had left, I might run into the culprit.
"Haa. How many am I killing today?"
I raised my crossbow and eyed a zombie that had just spotted me and started reacting.
"Kyaaargh!"
I put a bolt clean through its skull.
If you had to pick the most common scene in a zombie outbreak, it would be a confined space with zombies howling just outside.
Yun Seolhwa was living that exact experience in real time.
"Shit! I'm screwed."
Her short bob — cut sharp rather than neat — radiated a nervous, irritable energy all on its own.
Her eyes looked permanently angry, sharp as blades, the three-white gaze fixed fiercely on the window.
But separate from that temperament, her looks were genuinely striking.
Independent of the sharp eyes, her features were clear and defined, carrying both a delicate line and a fierce intensity.
She'd clearly been through the wringer, though — scratches marked her pale skin here and there.
And like a certain type of high school girl, she wasn't the kind to wear her uniform demurely. She'd cinched the waist tight, and beneath a short A-line skirt she wore spats.
Even that A-line had slits cut into either side, like a cheongsam — a distinctive touch, if nothing else.
"I was almost there... What the hell is this! That piece-of-junk bike! Who the hell rigged it like that!"
She thought back to what had happened earlier.
Seolhwa had parted ways with the auditorium group and slipped out before dawn, but she hadn't gone far.
It was the middle of the night, the visibility was terrible, and the zombies terrified her — so she'd rested in a nearby house.
But a cop? Who was that guy?
Then a new person had shown up. And of all things, he'd brought an electric bike.
Seolhwa knew what those were, but she'd never ridden one.
While the fully armed figure climbed over the school wall and went inside, the girl hadn't wasted the perfect chance to head home.
She'd simply snatched the abandoned electric bike and ridden it here.
The problem was the bike's speed — it had caused her trouble more than once.
Why the hell was that damn bike so fast? Thanks to it, the zombies did this to me.
She'd crashed into things left and right and drawn a massive amount of aggro from the undead, and she was paying the price in full.
In the end, she'd ditched the bike and broken into a nearby house.
Risking the chance that zombies might already be inside.
How many of them? Seriously.
At least ten had latched onto her trail.
Over the past six months, she'd learned well enough how vicious zombies could be.
All she could do now was wait for them to settle down.
It's okay. I can do this. Mom, I'll come find you. I promise.
She prayed desperately and waited for the quiet. The girl looked around the room she'd broken into.
The place showed clear signs of a hasty escape, so she judged there were no zombies inside.
"Whew."
Letting out a breath of relief, she gave up on the window for now and decided to rest.
I'm hungry.
Having had nothing but water on the way here, she decided to check whether there was any food in the house.
When she stepped out into the living room, the first things that caught her eye were footprints everywhere and a shattered glass window.
Is our house okay?
Thinking of her mother, she rummaged through the kitchen.
Anything would do. Dried instant noodles, a can of something — even that would be perfect.
But no matter how thoroughly she searched the cupboards, nothing she wanted turned up.
Just dishes and cups.
No food anywhere.
She turned her gaze toward the refrigerator, already expecting nothing.
She opened it with the same mindset as scratching a lottery ticket — what were the odds of anything good being in there?
She opened it without hope. And the moment the door swung wide, what she saw was a solid mass of meat packed tight inside.
Arms and legs gone soft and limp, like a snail's body.
Someone had cleared out every shelf and stuffed a corpse in there, and the stench of rot hit her full in the face.
"Ah...?"
Stunned, Seolhwa stumbled backward and screamed.
"Kyaaaaah!"
The sharp cry rang out. And from every direction, the zombies answered it with eager howls.
"Ah... ah..."
Thankfully, the mass inside the refrigerator didn't start moving.
But a strange sound came from the room next to her.
An ominous noise was rising from somewhere near the second floor.
"No. No, no, fuck!"
Cursing, she bolted back into the room and locked the door.
Then came the sound of something shattering near the entrance, followed by the foul voices of zombies.
"No... I don't want this."
Going for the window would only earn her a warm welcome from the undead outside.
Glass shattered somewhere, and zombies began pounding on her door.
A situation drowning in terror.
Then a rough, heavy impact slammed against the door panel.
"Gyaa..."
"Go! Get out of here!"
Driven to the edge of her sanity, she listened as the mad pounding went on — until the door finally cracked.
A small gap opened, and a zombie threw itself against the breach like a thing possessed.
The gap widened. A zombie's hand reached through.
"I don't want to die like this! I have to get to my mom!"
Seolhwa sobbed the words out — and just as the zombie pulled its head back to ram the door again, its movement suddenly stopped.
A soft sound like a puff of wind, and then the zombie collapsed.
"....?"
Clutching her racing heart, Seolhwa watched as a heavily armored arm thrust straight through the hole in the door.
Before she could react, it unlocked the latch from the inside.
"Hey. Bike thief. That you?"
The door swung open, and standing there in full anti-stab gear was Jin Dohyuk, looking thoroughly unimpressed.