Mutual Debt and a Fresh Start
I woke up inside the zombie apocalypse novel. Thankfully, my condition wasn't too serious, so I came to pretty quickly. It was basically the equivalent of taking a long nap. The bite and stab wounds had healed cleanly too. The author seemed to be checking his physical state while getting dressed and doing some light exercise. Once he was satisfied with the results, he nodded and walked over to me. Then he held out his hand. I knew what it meant, so I took it right away.
We didn't say anything out loud, but our hearts seemed to be in sync. Each of us had saved the other's life once, so it felt like we were calling it even. Beyond that, it also seemed like a silent agreement to work together to finish this novel properly.
"How long are you gonna keep calling me 'author'?"
"Noh Changhun?"
"Drop the family name. Or I might just lightly smack you one."
"O-okay. Changhun. I'll call you Changhun."
"Casual speech is fine, right? Still?"
"Of course. We're gonna be stuck living together for a long time anyway."
"What?"
"Your smile looks disrespectful."
Oops. My wicked troll face must have slipped out. But since both Changhun and I already knew each other's true identities, I had no intention of hiding it. I'd have to act innocent in front of complete strangers, but that was exhausting every single time.
More importantly, I felt something hanging around my neck. When I checked, there was a headset looped there.
"What's this?"
"You were muttering in your sleep about needing a headset because it was too noisy. So I cut the cord to make it less cumbersome and put it on you."
"..........I said that? That I needed a headset?"
"Yeah. You were groaning and whining that you needed something to cover your ears."
"Did I...?"
"Well, if it doesn't bother you, just wear it. Who knows? It might block a bite to the nape of your neck someday."
"Thanks anyway."
"No big deal. Now that I think about it, it'll be useful when sleeping."
Just like Changhun said, I really did need something to block my ears. We wouldn't be staying in this shopping district for long. We'd have to move, and that would mean sleeping rough often. The zombies' groans would become constant white noise, and I had zero desire to go insane from it. I wondered if Changhun had prepared something too, but when he pulled out a pair of earplugs from his pocket, I had to admit he was pretty sharp. Well, of course the guy who wrote this novel would know all about it.
"Lee Yeji. Do you know where we are?"
"..........Where are we?"
"Are you stupid? You're from here."
"No, I holed up in that officetel for two whole weeks. It's perfectly normal that I don't know."
"Ugh. This is Gimhae. To be precise, it's a city roughly copied from the real Gimhae."
"Gimhae? If it's Gimhae, then......."
"Just so you know, if you deliberately make any jokes related to my name, I'll punch you in the gut."
He was dead serious. Yeah, fair enough. There are lines people shouldn't cross. Since I had my own boundaries, it was only right to respect his. It definitely wasn't because I was terrified of being called a bitch or a slave or anything like that.
"Come on, can't a person even make a joke?"
"Try walking around with my name and see how sick of it you get."
"My condolences. Anyway, I think I heard yesterday that you can modify shopping carts."
"Yeah. I learned it informally back in middle and high school."
"Then we'll need materials, right?"
He answered like I was stating the obvious. But I felt wronged. At the very least, we had to decide whether we'd go get the materials together or separately. We'd need to split up to search for a hardware store or go together. When I voiced my complaint, Changhun replied.
"I saw a hardware store on the way here."
"You could've said that sooner."
"More importantly, who's gonna fight?"
"Fight?"
"This shopping area is our turf, but the second we cross that crosswalk, it's not anymore."
"Ah."
"Obviously zombies and variants will come at us."
"True. So one person carries the generator while the other fights?"
"Oh."
The look on his face that said you actually thought that far? annoyed me a little. Sure, I might not know much, but I'd already survived more than three weeks in this world. My brain had naturally started working on zombie apocalypse logic by now. I explained the plan with that determination clear in my voice.
It wasn't much of a plan. There were eight shopping carts anyway, so we'd pick a suitable one, load the generator and battery onto it, and while pulling it along we'd figure out what needed fixing. The rest was just that we'd fight together. But it must have sounded decent, because I could see Changhun looking surprised.
"Keep underestimating me and I'll start shortening your name."
"Go ahead."
"Never mind. What about breakfast?"
"Hmm."
I was about to say there was a big supermarket, but then I realized that was probably ruined. The fresh food had all been scavenged by me and the kid. That meant anything that didn't need cooking was no longer edible. There were two options: bring back frozen food and heat it up, or cook something. The latter was obviously impossible. Time was the issue. We couldn't waste an entire day cooking when we needed to prepare to move. We couldn't stay here forever while zombies and variants from other areas came swarming in. In the end, frozen food was our only real choice.
"We'll have to eat ramen or canned stuff once we get there. First we need to hook up the microwave."
"There's no food left."
"You ate everything already?"
"I was a patient."
"For fuck's sake."
I'd thought we could at least throw together a rough breakfast, but just like he said, there was nothing left in the building. We couldn't just crunch on snacks either. Eating an entire meal of junk food didn't feel right. In the end, it seemed better to head out first thing in the morning. I was grabbing a lighter when a question suddenly came.
"Why are you taking that?"
"To burn zombies, obviously."
"Don't. Let the plants grow. We have to think about the future. If they don't bear fruit, we can kill them then."
"Ah. So from now on I shouldn't burn corpses?"
"No, that's not it. There aren't any variants left here anymore. Even if we let them grow, there are no variants left to use."
"I see........"
"We have to burn them differently depending on the situation. Let's go. Eat quickly so we can head out."
"Okay."
I let out a light groan, stretched, and finished preparing to leave. I put on both backpacks, grabbed Beopbong, and stuffed everything I might need into the bags. Meanwhile, Changhun only took a single bag. It looked pretty big, but seeing him pack almost nothing made me a bit annoyed.
"Give me that bag. Yeji, you take care of scouting and stuff."
"You're gonna carry all the luggage?"
"Yeah. I'm stronger."
"That's true. With a build like yours, it'd be weird if you weren't strong."
"My father was a firefighter. My mother was a doctor and a poet."
"Wow, both savior-type jobs."
"Don't laugh, you brat."
He immediately shut me down, having caught on to why I was laughing. But I couldn't help it. Both of Noh Changhun's parents had the same names as former presidents. There was no way I wasn't going to laugh. Still, if I laughed openly I'd definitely get punched, so I hurriedly fixed my expression. Even then, a chuckle slipped out, and Changhun gave up and opened the door.
"Let's go."
"Yeah."
Outside was surprisingly quiet. It was safe to say there were no zombies left wandering around. Some might still be hiding inside buildings, but their numbers would be low. After all, we'd killed so many zombies here already that it would be strange if any remained. Any that could have been drawn by sound would've died long ago. So contrary to what I'd expected, our outing started off like a pleasant stroll.
"Aah. I want to solve some physics problem sets."
"Don't say stuff like that so loudly."
"Why? It's not obscene or anything."
"It's horrifying instead."
"You just don't understand the beauty of physics."
"Your body looks like a muscle-brain but your words are pure poet, huh."
The big supermarket was quiet too. I went in first just in case a hunter was lying in ambush, but there was no one. In the end, all that was left was to raid as much food as we wanted and stuff it into Changhun's bag. Since there were no zombies around and we wouldn't need to come back here, we even pulled out plastic bags and packed everything up before grabbing a shopping cart too.
"Hey, Lee Yeji. Don't take the salty snacks. We'll get thirsty and need to drink water."
"Got it. But is it okay that this water bottle is white?"
"Even food covered in spiderwebs won't kill you. The zombie virus infects any cells present, so it doesn't rot."
".....................What?"
"Ah, I guess I never explained this in the novel. The zombie virus infects any cell it finds."
"I thought it only worked on living things?"
"Food has cells too. The viruses keep working to prevent the food from spoiling."
"..........There won't be any side effects from eating it, right?"
"Uh............."
An ominous groan escaped him. After pondering for a long while while moving the supplies, Changhun finally spoke.
"As long as you don't die, there shouldn't be any side effects."
"That's satisfying enough. No need to worry then. I'll eat a ton."
"Um.........."
"What? You said it's fine to eat. Is there another problem?"
"Because when the host dies, they turn into an even stronger variant."
"Doesn't matter. If I die, that's the end for me anyway."
The look he gave me seemed to ask what the people left behind were supposed to do. I avoided his gaze. Hey, dead people are dead. Why worry about the living? They'll figure it out. That was pretty much my thought process. Apparently unable to logically refute it, Noh Changhun nodded. Then he immediately started spouting nonsense.
"I want to eat Jinsoon."
"Are you insane?"
"Why? It's delicious with cheese."
"That reminds me of Captain Han Daewi. He grabbed a pack of Jinsoon from the convenience store and left."
"I modeled him after my older brother."
"Oh my god, the brothers both eat Jinsoon. That's honestly horrifying."
"Hey, Ms. Lee. Shut up and carry the luggage."
"Yes, yes."
But we didn't actually fight. There was no reason to, and when we looked at the food we'd brought out, smiles naturally appeared. We didn't forget to grab a few feminine products either. Then, each pulling one shopping cart, we headed back to the PC Bang.