(Side Story) Zombie.
(Side Story) Zombie.
I touched Alpha and Beta and said to Dad.
"Dad. I think these guys need a bath."
"After we eat?"
"Yeah."
"Oh... then we can film that today!"
"So I just hold my phone the whole time?"
Dad put on a playful expression and said.
"The camera gear's right over there~"
"Good grief... Throwing money around like it's nothing."
"....."
After giving Alpha and Beta some treats, I brought the camera gear over.
"No need for you to just hold it."
"Right?"
I set up the camera gear and filmed Dad and me from a distance.
Once we clipped on the lav mics, our voices came through the broadcast.
I brought the watercolor pencils Teacher Go Min-su gave me from my room and started sketching Beta, who had at some point climbed onto the dining table as if demanding to be drawn.
Dad was cooking while reading the chat on his phone and said to me.
"Si-yoon, they're asking what you're drawing right now?"
I sighed in annoyance, picked up the sketchbook I had been using, and stood in front of the camera.
Just Beta, still only roughed out.
-Wow... she draws so well.
-Si-yoon's always just drawing something.
My chick pajamas flapping, I trudged back to the dining table and kept working on the drawing.
Maybe because I'd drawn so many pictures a day, the watercolor pencils Go Min-su gave me were almost used up.
So I'd temporarily filled the case with other kinds of watercolor pencils.
As soon as I finished the underdrawing, Dad brought the food over.
"Kimchi fried rice?"
"You like it, Si-yoon~"
I looked at the doenjang stew he'd brought as the soup, felt something was missing, and said to Dad.
"Fried egg."
Dad got right back up and wordlessly made a fried egg.
"Over hard?"
"No, leave the yolk runny."
Dad cooked for a moment, then placed the fried egg on top of the kimchi fried rice.
Dad held his phone and filmed.
After I started elementary school, Dad seasoned my food a little more, and it had become genuinely restaurant-quality.
"Oh... delicious."
"Really?"
Dad watched me eat with a smile.
He only started eating once I'd eaten a certain amount.
As if it had become a habit from always watching me eat.
Maybe because I'd gotten used to this body, or maybe because of Dad's eating habits, I ate slowly.
'Well, if you think about the black card in my wallet and Dad's assets, anyone would get lazy.'
As I ate for a long while and looked at my phone, Dad also watched me and ate slowly.
Alpha and Beta sat still in the water, and Dad mixed shampoo into a watering can to make sudsy water.
Alpha pretended to hate water, but once you actually put him in it, he stayed completely still.
Alpha and Beta neither loved water nor hated it, which made them easy to bathe.
When I used the watering can to pour the sudsy water down from above, Dad started the cat laundry routine.
Beta rumbled, maybe in a good mood.
Dad crouched down, gave them a bubble bath, and then—maybe he felt like messing around—smudged foam onto my face.
Because it was so sudden, I couldn't dodge in time and got foam on my face.
"...Did you forget what I'm holding?"
"...Si-yoon... Aaaagh!!!"
Without a word, I opened the lid of the watering can and dumped the sudsy water on Dad, and Dad turned the showerhead on me.
"Dad!!!"
Using the now-empty watering can, I jammed it straight onto Dad's head.
"Aagh!!"
"Stop it!"
Dad took the hit and sprayed even more water with the showerhead, and I threw the plastic watering can at Dad, then grabbed the shampoo bottle I saw next to me.
Dad spotted the square glass shampoo bottle now in my hand.
Dad froze, thinking that if I threw the shampoo bottle with the same force I'd just used, a bad hit would mean at least three weeks of medical treatment.
"I said stop it."
"...Uh... okay. Sorry..."
Dad put on a pitiful expression, and the sight of us, father and daughter, went up live on Neotube via the camera.
- lolololololololololol
- lolololololololol
- lmao lololol
Alpha and Beta were lying in the warm water, staring at us like they were used to this.
After ending the broadcast, Dad loaded me, Lee Jin-seok, and Da-yeon into the car and headed for the JSM headquarters.
Jang Seong-man greeted us, and when he spotted Lee Jin-seok in particular, he fussed over him with extreme deference, dressed in a flawless suit.
The movie theater set up as part of JSM's employee amenities.
Dad's acquaintances had been excited that I was appearing in it and had deliberately held off on watching the movie so we could all see it together.
Right then, when Lee Jin-seok appeared out of the blue alongside me and Dad, the room fell silent.
But Ji-su, who always seemed to operate in a world of her own, reacted on a completely different wavelength.
"I wanted to act too!"
Ji-eun, sitting beside her, raised a finger to her lips. Ji-su nodded and went back to eating popcorn.
I sat next to Dad, and next to me sat Da-yeon, then Lee Jin-seok, in that order.
Once seated, Da-yeon took hold of my hand.
When I looked over at Da-yeon, she swung her legs and asked me.
"Are you really in the movie, Si-yoon?!"
"Yeah."
"Wow..."
The movie started, and Lee Jin-seok, already knowing it was brutal, had finished getting ready to cover Da-yeon's eyes.
The year 2030, Korea...
An unknown virus spread.
The only symptoms were cold-like, just a cough, and everyone recovered easily.
Even the elderly, no matter how vulnerable to viruses.
Not a single person died; it was a mild virus, but its contagiousness was extreme.
Was it because the symptoms were so mild...
Or was it because of the extreme contagiousness...
The virus had roughly a forty-percent chance of spreading between people sharing the same space,
so it swept across the world with terrifying ease.
1
Starting with one woman who was thought to be fully recovered, people began to change.
At first, it was murder.
She rammed her car into an elderly passerby...
Drove down the road with the bumper crumpled, and was restrained by the police.
While restrained, the woman thrashed wildly and spewed profanity.
100
All across the world, people began to change...
Scientists started researching and discovered the cause was the virus they'd paid no attention to.
10,000
It appeared in every single carrier of the virus, without any discrimination.
1,000,000
At the rapidly climbing numbers, the governments of every nation poured all their strength into developing a vaccine.
100,000,000
Governments worldwide collapsed, nuclear explosions erupted, and the world turned into utter chaos.
1,000,000,000
Their thoughts and hearts eventually stopped.
But their bodies did not stop and were still alive.
7,000,000,000
No one turned anymore... but if you were wounded by one, you would turn.
We decided to call these things 'zombies.'
6 years later...
In the pitch-black of night, a man started sprinting.
Eight figures ran to catch him, their gaits unnatural.
"I can do this... I can survive... I will survive..."
The eight figures crashed into obstacles and tripped, but they got up as if nothing had happened and started running again.
Between the buildings illuminated by moonlight, a shape slowly walked out.
It was a zombie with a bulging throat, and it spotted the running man.
"Kreeeeek!!!!!"
It was a zombie that let out a bizarre shriek that echoed all around at the sight of the man...
And the eight figures, now caught in the moonlight as they closed in, were also zombies.
"I'm f***ed..."
The eerie sound rang out like an echo, and the man started running even faster.
The man fixed his gaze on a distant building. He rubbed his eyes as he ran, wondering if he'd seen wrong.
He was certain he'd seen a light. Without a moment's hesitation, he started sprinting in that direction.
The zombies, which had been eight, began multiplying into dozens, then hundreds, trying to block his path.
To break through quickly, he barreled through them, shoving the zombies aside with his arm wrapped in protective gear.
Betting on a sliver of hope...
Before reaching the building, the man pulled a spray can from his body and quickly sprayed himself down.
The moment he got inside the building, the man barricaded the entrance.
"Huff... huff..."
Inside the building, the man switched on a flashlight that emitted a faint glow and steadied his breathing.
Zombies piled up outside the building.
Preparing for any possible situation, he drew the short blade at his waist and checked his surroundings.
Inside the silent building, the man tried to quiet his breathing as much as possible, but the distance he'd sprinted was too great.
"Hahh... hooooop..."
After confirming that no sound came from within the building even as time passed, the man slowly looked around the interior.
After looking around for a long time, he checked the bag he'd brought before heading to the upper floors.
"Hah... I just have to deliver this... just this..."
Ten vials filled with green liquid were nestled among black sponges inside the bag.
Then he looked down at his right arm. The protective gear had been peeled back from the violent movement, and exposed skin showed a bite from a zombie.
It was just a light bite, barely bleeding, but the man knew better than anyone what the outcome would be.
"Haah..."
He took out one of the liquid vials from the bag and injected it into himself.
Even though quite some time had passed since he'd made noise and no further sound came, the man hid the bag he'd valued like his own life and started moving.
"Did I imagine it...?"
The man murmured to himself.
"No... the light I saw on the way here, it was definitely a survivor."
When he reached the fifth floor, the man held his breath and carefully opened a closed door.
A space of total silence.
He walked down the hallway to find the light he'd seen, and the moment he checked the inside of an open room.
Six zombies stood in a corner, completely motionless.
The man hurriedly covered the flashlight with his hand and held his breath.
"".....""
Zombies that had grown more sensitive to smell over time...
Before the scent of his blood could spread, the man began moving slowly toward the door. He carefully grabbed the handle to close the open door.
The zombies started sniffing.
The zombies that caught the scent of his blood began to react.
"Kyahak... gyak... gyak."
The man saw this and, in his hurry, put force into closing the door.
Skkkreeeeeeak!!!
The old, sagging iron door produced a tremendous noise, and the man, horrified, forced it shut with even more strength.
"Please!"
"Grrraaaghh!!"
With a cracking sound, the zombies lunged, and the man gave up on the door and went back out.
At the end of the hallway, zombies were already charging toward him, and the man ran for the upper floor.
'Please...'