Jeokro's Betrayal
The number of Runners swelled in no time. At this point, there was no chance of shaking them off by changing direction. As if on cue, zombies came pouring out from alleys and intersections. A handful I could have broken through—Jeokro had that much power. If it wasn't enough, I could swing the flail and clear a few myself. But once the count climbed past seven or eight, breaking through became impossible. If they'd been lined up in a straight row, I could've just gritted my teeth and pedaled straight through. Instead they were clumped together, and ramming into that mess would kill my speed instantly. Even if I somehow won the collision, the Runners chasing from behind would catch me. A brawl might favor me, but it would only mean facing even more zombies.
“No, shit…” The words wouldn't come out properly; the frustration was too much. Of all times, the zombies had to attack right when I came out like this. It didn't make sense. It was almost as if I was the one drawing them in. On top of that, other variants were starting to appear here and there—Hunters, Witches. Pointers and Markers showed up too. Watching them all try to surround me like some twisted game of ring-around-the-rosie made my teeth grind.
“Stop following me already!”
Of course the zombies didn't listen. The situation only grew more hopeless. I'd been ignoring it while pedaling, but it was obvious now—they were herding me somewhere. They were trying to scare me into following their lead so they could drag me back to their home ground. If I didn't have the guts to fight this many zombies, I was supposed to just keep pedaling wherever they wanted. Naturally, I had no intention of playing along.
“You know, there's that saying about Yeo-po meeting Jeok-to. Guess I can twist it into Yeji meeting Jeokro.”
With that thought, I clenched my teeth and pedaled straight toward the intersection ahead. Zombies appeared as expected, but I had nothing left to lose. At most there were fifteen or sixteen ordinary zombies. I figured if I just charged in like a madman, what could they really do? So I built up speed, raising my right hand high.
“Hraaaagh!”
The flail spun half a circle and smashed through the zombies in front, sending them flying. Two or three collapsed, losing their balance. The rest were still standing, so I couldn't afford to relax. I crouched low, retrieved the flail, then grabbed both the handle and shaft with my right hand at once.
And then—impact.
“Uwaaah!?”
The shaking was worse than I'd expected, but Jeokro punched straight through the wall of zombies. Like a crazed horse, it bounced across the pavement and veered onto the sidewalk, straight into an apartment complex. I had no idea how I'd ended up here, but zombies were inside the complex too. I slowed down just enough to regain my posture, then pedaled hard again while scanning the area. Thanks to breaking through once, the zombies that had been chasing me seemed to have fallen behind. Still, I kept checking my surroundings and steered Jeokro up a small hill near the apartments. I needed to get a sense of the geography if I was going to figure out what to do next.
“Damn it…”
No matter how hard I looked, there were no signs telling me where I was. Seorim Apartments Phase Whatever. Pureun Apartments Phase Whatever. The names meant nothing to me. I spotted a girls' middle school, but it wasn't one I recognized. If I'd had time I might've done something, but more zombies were already closing in, so I had no choice but to pedal again.
Position was power. From the high ground, I picked up decent speed as I hit the road. I had the feeling I was heading in a strange direction, but I shook it off. It wasn't like I knew the layout here anyway. Following the road straight seemed like the best option. That way, when it was time to head back, I could just follow it straight again.
“Come to think of it… there's probably a mountain around here, right?”
Yeah, there was a mountain. I'd caught a glimpse of it while heading to Bumin Campus and Gudeok Campus with Kang Siwoo. I could see one in the distance to my right, so if I circled around it once, that should work. Everything seemed to be arranged around that mountain. Since I was apparently going to be on the road all day, I might as well not get tired. I decided to treat it like a game of tag with the zombies behind me and pedaled even harder.
“Food…”
The half-decent rations in my bag would probably last me a while. Water and other supplies, though—I'd have to give up on those. Part of me wanted to grab the Beopbong and just fight the horde head-on, but I wasn't completely thoughtless. If I tried to go on a rampage in this situation and collapsed, I'd really die. At the very least, I needed to map out the area and find somewhere to hole up first. But right now, that wasn't an option.
“Shit… damn it…”
So I shut my mouth and kept pedaling. I must have been at it for dozens of minutes. Even though it was technically a bicycle, it was closer to a pedal-powered motorcycle. The frame was huge, the wheels were massive, and it moved incredibly fast. Even compared to other zombie apocalypses, the roads here were relatively clean, but there were still plenty of obstacles. Weaving between them came naturally, and the zombies couldn't keep up. Zombies didn't get tired, but they weren't particularly sharp-eyed either. Once the Pointers and Markers dropped out, the Runners and other variants would lose the trail.
“But…”
No matter how long I pedaled, the number of zombies wasn't decreasing. If anything, it seemed to be growing. There had to be at least several dozen—maybe close to a hundred by now. Seeing that long procession of zombies chasing after just one person was terrifying enough to make my chest tighten. It was a good thing I was on the bike; if I hadn't been, I probably would've started crying by now.
Even after what felt like at least another hour, the numbers still hadn't dropped. If anything, they'd grown even more. There were definitely over a hundred now. I wanted to ditch the road and take a rougher path, but Jeokro had a lot of sharp edges. If I went bouncing over uneven ground, I'd probably get cut and stabbed more than the zombies would. So I kept pedaling, teeth clenched, until suddenly my body started heating up.
Now what? I ground my teeth, and Hunters came crawling out of the abandoned cars around me. They were trying to box me in from slightly ahead, so there was no room to swerve. It was a hair's breadth from disaster. The moment I realized it, I knew I'd slam right into them.
“When have I ever thought twice about this anyway?”
Running from zombies was starting to piss me off. If I just killed them all, wouldn't that solve everything? A hundred of them. It reminded me of that time I'd volunteered as bait for Captain Han Daewi. There had been about a hundred zombies back then too. …This group looked like it had a few dozen more, but it didn't matter.
“Let's go, Jeokro!”
I shouted to shake off the fear, lowered my posture, and poured strength into my right hand. No need to change direction. I was planning to cause a traffic accident head-on, so all I had to do was brace for the impact. I didn't know why those bastards could chase me this far, but it didn't matter.
“Grrraaah…!”
“Grrraaah…!”
“Eat this!”
The first Hunter to take a hit from the flail had its head snap sideways. It wasn't dead, but it would take time to recover. Now I just had to ram straight into the rest. As I braced for the collision and pulled the flail back, my body suddenly lurched hard. No—it didn't just lurch. My vision flipped five or six times as wind slammed into me from every direction. When I came to, I was flying through the air at least several meters up.
“…Huh?”
I hadn't even recovered from the shock of my body shaking yet. The thought of falling and rolling across the ground made my head spin. I knew I should try to break my fall, but did I even know how to do that? And more importantly, the second I named this thing Jeokro, everything started going wrong in a row?
“Ah.”
One fact came back to me. Jeokro. The horse that Liu Bei rode.
“The horse that… kills its master…! You stupid piece of—!”
My unprepared body slammed stomach-first into the ground, knocking the air out of my lungs. It would've been better if I'd just slid, but instead I bounced back up like a rubber ball. After being slammed into the asphalt three or four more times, I finally came to a stop. Calling it “stopping” felt generous—it was more like I'd been dragged across the pavement with my arms and legs. The pain was like someone had taken a sander to my entire body, and my mind snapped back into focus. Not that I could move yet. Still, it was better than the zombies. The Hunters looked dazed from the impact with Jeokro. The other zombies were slowing down, probably getting ready to surround me. I needed to get my head straight and move before they closed the circle.
I yanked the broken flail shaft out of my stomach and threw it as far as I could, then gritted my teeth and slung the Beopbong over my shoulder. At least it hadn't stabbed deep—mostly just bruising. It would heal fast.
“Shit…”
Fighting zombies in this condition felt risky, but luckily Jeokro had slid to a stop nearby. My back and head felt strangely light, but I scrambled to my feet, righted the bike, and climbed on. Just like the engineering students had bragged, it was still moving after all that abuse. I didn't want to ride it, but pedaling used less stamina than running on foot. I decided to escape to a decent spot first, then wipe them all out at once, and started pedaling again.
They'd screwed me over twice already. There was no way they'd get a third.