A Year After the Apocalypse, I Killed a Man and Now I'm Trapped in a Nightmare
I had killed a man. Just now.
Crack—
I pulled the baseball bat from the man's head and wiped it clean. Blood that had soaked into the nail dripped to the floor.
How long had it been since I last took a life? Honestly, I couldn't remember. But it felt good to do it again after so long.
One year had passed since the world ended. Sometimes I caught myself wondering how terrifying it was that I, who had adapted to this mad world, had become so terrifying.
But I wasn't feeling sorry for the woman staring at me right now.
It was karma. Pure and simple.
On the rooftop corner, a drying rack sagged under the weight of chunks of meat that had once been people. Those bastards had been hunters who lured survivors in to finish them off.
The classic trap: woman as bait to lower her guard, man to deliver the final blow.
But sometimes the oldest tricks are the hardest to resist.
If it were before the end, maybe I would have fallen for the woman's tears and ended up dangling from that rack myself.
It felt strangely bitter.
Even those trash creatures had partners waiting for them. But where the hell was my woman? I had no idea anymore. If she was out there, this world would have killed her long ago.
I regretted having listened to my elementary, middle, and high school teachers and staying a perfect student.
Mom in heaven, you said there'd be a girlfriend when I went to college. Why did you lie to me?
Sniff—.
I wiped my nose and kept walking.
If you're going to hunt people, you should at least have the guts to become prey yourself.
But that woman didn't even look like she had that much common sense.
“N-no, don’t come…! Don’t come at me!”
The woman was trembling in the corner, gripping a revolver with both hands.
Without hesitation, I ducked behind the corpse of the next victim and yanked the man’s nape, blocking his view.
Thankfully he was wearing a police bulletproof vest. It made a perfect meat shield.
“Gonna shoot?”
“I-I’ll kill you!”
“Go ahead. If you can pierce the vest, go right ahead.”
I stopped and spoke.
“And shut the hell up. Don’t want to turn into zombie food. What do you think happens if you fire that gun?”
“…What?”
I pointed under the rooftop railing.
“The second you pull the trigger, they’ll pour down here like a swarm. Smart ones will crawl up anyway. Maybe dozens if you’re lucky, hundreds if you’re not?”
I exaggerated a little. At that height during daylight, there probably wouldn’t be more than a few dozen, but dealing with even that many was no picnic.
The woman’s eyes turned completely white. It was the death dilemma. Don’t shoot and you die. But shoot and you die too.
“They’ll pound on that door for days. Eventually they’ll grab your limbs and tear you apart alive. Your screams will drown out the sound of their chewing. Just thinking about it gives me chills. Right?”
The woman started sobbing. Even though she was a cannibal woman, seeing her cry made me feel a little bad. Maybe her heart wasn’t so rotten after all.
I showed her I had no intention of fighting.
“Look, how about we talk this out? You don’t want to die either, do you? I don’t either.”
“I don’t want to….”
“No, listen to me all the way. I’m not saying anything bad about you….”
“I don’t want to! I don’t want to anymore!!!”
She was sharp. How did she know? I got a little uneasy. There was no way I was keeping her alive. The moment I killed the man, her fate was sealed.
It had nothing to do with good or evil. It was just for my own safety.
“Ugh, aaaaaah! My… my boyfriend, why did you kill him! Save my boyfriend!!!”
The woman started thrashing. How the hell was I supposed to handle this woman so that rumors would spread about how I took care of her?
“Aaaaaah. Uhn!”
But she moved first. Without a moment’s hesitation, she jammed the gun barrel into her own mouth.
“Wait—!”
Bang—!
Clear sky, no clouds. A heavy sound cut through the silence. The woman’s head exploded. The hand that had lost its owner slumped to the rooftop floor.
“Ah, you fucking bitch.”
There were plenty more curses I wanted to say, but I stopped there. Whining about the past wouldn’t change anything.
Whoosh—.
I pulled a cigarette from my pocket, lit it, and took a deep drag. The smoke tasted sharp and clean.
It was the perfect mood refresher.
I could faintly hear them from the side.
Groaaar—! Gruuuul—!
“Yeah, haven’t seen you guys in a few days. Missed you, assholes.”
I slid a metal pipe through the gap in the metal door and wedged it in place. Just enough room for one person to squeeze through.
Then I tossed the corpses of the man and woman right in front of the door.
The goal was to create a bottleneck. I’d tighten the screws on each one as they squeezed and jostled each other.
If everything went according to plan, I’d survive. If not…
I’d just die.
I gripped the bat with the nail still embedded in it and pressed close to the door.
How long would I have to wait?
Kong—! Gwakdang—!
“Guaaaaak—!”
Exactly as I expected. The first zombie came flying up the stairs, body jammed into the door gap, and slipped on the corpses, crashing to the ground.
Crack—!
Perfect. The party started with the sound of a smashed pumpkin.
“One.”
The second zombie shoved its head over the first corpse, trying to climb in. This time I changed the angle and swung the bat up.
“Guaaah—!”
It was weak. Just as I had expected. I swung again.
Thwack—!
“Two.”
Three, four.
They kept coming one by one, sticking their heads through.
I was possessed by a meat-crushing machine, swinging the bat wildly.
Crack—! Clang—! Crack—!
The rooftop reeked of rotting blood. Whenever they staggered trying to stand, I stomped them flat with my boots.
The bat shattered in two. I grabbed the prepared club. I had wrapped the bottom tightly with rope.
I wasn’t swinging it like an idiot using arm strength. I was pressing down with gravity. I gripped the handle firmly to minimize shock. All from experience, of course.
They weren’t swinging at all because they were behind me. Yeah, I had to swing like I used to.
Clang—! Clang—! Clang—!
How many had I taken out? No matter how hard I tried, swinging a metal pipe wasn’t easy. When fatigue started creeping into my arms, the stairs finally fell silent.
“Hah… survived.”
It was a sigh of relief mixed with a curse.
The sun would set in a few hours. Today I was staying the night right here.
I climbed up to the rooftop. There was a ladder near the water tank.
These two must have set up a motel here. Camp supplies littered the tent area.
I opened a can of coffee and gulped it down. It was lukewarm, but nothing had ever tasted better.
I leaned against the railing and looked out over Seoul.
Across the river, the apartment complexes looked like grave markers. Along the road, abandoned cars were decaying.
The streets were filled with the groans of zombies.
In my heart, I could go into any one of those hundreds of thousands of apartments or thousands of buildings and sleep like I owned the place.
“…Everything belongs to me, but I have no home anywhere.”
I let out a hollow laugh.
What was the point of pretending? I immediately crawled into the tent. A stained diary rolled next to the air mattress. It was the woman’s journal.
Bored, I turned the first page. It was a small pleasure in this world.
It seemed she had kept a diary. Before the end, it was filled with meaningless, sugary entries.
Quickly turning the pages, I came to entries that grew shorter and shorter.
[Month Day]
The world ended. Really. It’s nice that I don’t have to study for exams anymore, but where are my parents? I miss them. The only good thing is that my boyfriend is by my side.
[Month Day]
Emergency shelter supplies ran out. The uncles picked up iron pipes. People’s eyes went crazy. We were driven out.
[Month Day]
I almost died. I was attacked by people. Too much blood coming from my boyfriend’s arm. It’s my fault. I twisted my ankle and kept complaining. (Tears smudged the writing) If oppa dies, I might as well die too.
[Month Day]
I stole a stranger’s bag. Three cans. I pushed aside a crying auntie and ran. My hands keep shaking. I know I’ll pay for it… but I had no choice to save my boyfriend. God, please forgive me.
[Month Day]
The auntie’s eyes keep haunting my dreams. I want to die. I feel like I’m turning into a monster. My boyfriend hugged me and said it’s okay, he was just trying to save me. Please, let this whole thing be a dream.
[Month Day]
Drinking water only for a week now. There’s none left. My stomach is so empty my vision is yellow. My boyfriend’s fingers look like sausages. I’m going crazy. No, maybe I already am.
[Month Day]
My boyfriend came back with a blood-soaked backpack. There was nothing to eat. Just empty snack bags. I cried with him. That night, my boyfriend brought back meat. I didn’t ask what kind of meat.
[Month Day]
Even if I steal a bag, it’s just cans, but when you catch a person, you get a ton of meat. Why didn’t I think of that earlier? We were all such idiots back then.
[Month Day]
Even the idiot who came in today was easy. I faked crying in the corner begging for help. He walked straight into our private sweet home. You and I will live happily ever after, okay?
Tap—.
I closed the diary. A faded sticker photo from the day they took it together was taped to the tent wall.
“Sigh… I bet you got your ass handed to you here today.”
Even though I had clearly won, I felt strangely defeated.
At that moment, a ding rang out and something appeared before my eyes.
Upgrading a 7-Star Hotel with an Apocalypse Status Window