Mental Caretaker In An Apolcalypse Game

Episode 13

“Wow… That was really tough.”

“I couldn’t relax for even a single moment. One slip and it would have been over.”

“Yes, I was so scared of making a mistake that I…”

He and I lay sprawled on the messy warehouse floor.

“To be honest, I was a little scared you might hit me.”

“No way. There’s no way I’d hit you, noona.”

“You never know. You said it was your first time using a bow and arrow.”

“That’s true, but still… I would never hit you.”

“But I could, sorry.”

I’d felt it before too, but I was not good at aiming. I managed to hit the target once in a while, but other times, my shots landed in weird places, and even hit Do-yoon…

“I think I got a bruise here from the ball you threw earlier.”

“Sorry… I didn’t want to hit you either.”

“If you’re sorry, then blow on this bruise to heal it for me.”

“…Are you a kid?”

“As I’ve said before, my birthday is still…”

“Okay, I know, stop. I’ll do it. Is that enough?”

I knew what was going to come out of his mouth, so I looked at him with tired eyes and raised the white flag first.

 

Dingdong~

[The fifth period has started. Teachers in charge, please find the students hiding within the school.]

[We are announcing once again. The fifth period has started. Teachers in charge, please find the students who are not attending class.]

At that moment, the broadcasting announcement for the fifth period rang out. I saw my chance and quickly stood up from my seat.

“Welp, see? I was going to do it for you, but there’s no time.”

“What? A short while should be fine!”

“No, no. The fifth period variant zombie is intelligent. It controls the regular zombies, so they’ll find us quickly.”

As I packed my weapon and prepared to go out, he quietly followed me with a sullen expression. I checked to make sure he was following properly and looked around the gym.

To be honest, I wanted to stay here and hide until the end. The gym was relatively safe since it was located rather far away from the school. Only mid-bosses with good mobility or intelligence-specialized variant zombies could get this far.

If we just held out here, we could probably get through until night without much danger, but that would be suicidal. In the worst case, we’d be trapped in the gym warehouse with no place to hide outside, surrounded by a horde of zombies in the open field.

Moreover, night would soon fall, and our vision would inevitably narrow. In contrast, the zombies moved well in the dark, regardless of distance. Ultimately, we would be at a disadvantage.

“They’re really sending a lot this way, just as expected.”

“Yeah, we’d better get out of here quickly.”

When I slightly opened the door and peeked outside, I saw a horde of zombies pouring out from the main building in the distance. They were heading straight for us. As expected, the mutant zombie was definitely an intelligent one. It was probably using the regular zombies to weaken whatever prey might be here.

“Let’s go straight to the new building.”

The closest thing to the gym was the new building. Now that there were no more gatekeepers, moving around and running away would be much easier. Thinking this, I safely entered the building. Naturally, there were many regular zombies here too, but this much was now light-work for me. I lightly swung my bat for a second, then grabbed it with both hands to swing it with force.

The place we arrived at after clearing the path was the library. After locking the door to catch our breaths, I stretched out on the long table. Ha… Come to think of it, this place was the second hardest area after the gym. I got stuck here in the early stages and faced ‘game over’ again and again.

The intelligence-specialized variant of mutant zombies were cunning and a pain to deal with. With other variants, you just had to avoid them, but this one controlled regular zombies, so it had eyes everywhere. If you didn’t keep moving, it would quickly notice and likely rush in with numbers.

“Should we move now? I feel like the presence outside the door has increased more and more.”

“They must’ve noticed us already.”

“Well, it’s only natural. We didn’t exactly come here quietly from the gym, did we?”

Ugh…I was already scared just thinking about how many of them must have gathered beyond that door.

I was prepared, but the thought of going through this school for the next hour made a sigh escape me. We would take brief rests in nearby classrooms, but only for a few moments, and we’d have to keep running.

“Then, I’ll open this door… Are you ready?”

“Yes.”

I firmly gripped my bat with one hand and placed my hand on the tightly closed library doorknob. Then, I steeled my resolve and opened the door.

 

***

 

“Damn it! Why is time moving so slowly!”

“There’s… 5 minutes left.”

“Ah, shit…”

I bit my lip as I frantically swung my bat at the zombies pouring in. I had really reached my limit now. My legs were already stiff as stone, and my palms had been aching as if they would tear apart for a while now. If I relaxed even a little, I felt like I would drop the bat.

What should I do… This was harder than I thought. Honestly, the fact that I’d held on until now was a miracle in itself considering my stamina. Hah… was this the end for me?

When my mind tried to accept death, my body momentarily relaxed. And without missing this chance, a zombie lunged at me.

“Ugh…”

“Noona! Snap out of it. Just hang in there a little longer. Just a little…”

A little longer? But…

I couldn’t say anything as I looked at him, who was fighting off the zombies for me. There was no hope to be found in this situation. The zombies were breaking down the classroom doors and windows to get in, and we were pushed back to the window, barely clinging to life like a candle in the wind.

I closed my eyes as I looked at the heads of the zombies filling the hallway. I didn’t want to die in pain while being torn apart by those creatures. In death, I at least wanted to die a human being, a death with dignity. I couldn’t just disappear without even leaving a corpse.

At that moment, I made a decision and opened my eyes, turning around to open the window.

As if there was a law in this game against dying, I saw a large truck not far away.

“Noona!”

“Choose. Will you get killed here like this by them, or will you make one last attempt, even if it’s desperate?”

The truck was taller than I thought. If I jumped down there, I might be able to survive.

Yes, this was the second floor. Even if I fell to the ground, I might just break a leg, and if I landed on the truck, there’d be some shock, but I’d mostly be fine.

I stepped on the window frame with my teeth clenched and jumped down. I could hear his voice calling me from behind, but the sound of my heart pounding like crazy drowned it out.

Fuck. This was going to be okay, right? I could survive this, couldn’t I?

As my body floated in the air, dozens of unpleasant possible scenarios swirled in my head. I regretted my reckless act, but it didn’t change anything. I had already done it, and now all that was left was to land on the damned truck.

 

***

 

Ding-dong~

[The sixth period has started. Teachers in charge, please find the students hiding within the school.]

[We’re announcing once again. The sixth period has started. Teachers in charge, please find the students who are not attending class.]

“Ha… Haha… I’m alive. I survived after all.”

I lay on the truck, looking up at the vast sky, and let out a hollow laugh.

I managed to survive. I lived.

“Noona, that was too reckless. You almost really died!”

“…There was no other way.”

“If you had just held on a little longer…”

“Held on? I’m sorry, but I was already at my limit! I don’t have as much stamina as you. My legs were already stiff like stones, and my arms were trembling so much I could barely hold the bat!”

“Still…”

“We survived, didn’t we? That’s what matters. The process doesn’t matter. As long as the result is good, it’s fine!”

To be honest, I was annoyed. My body was creaking and reaching its limits, so hearing him nag from the side made my anger boil up from deep within. In the end, I snapped at him and forced myself to sit up, turning my back to him. I was too tired and exhausted to maintain my composure. I just wanted to lash out, but the distant vibrations shaking the ground forced me to hold back. The game wasn’t over yet.

“I can’t move. Judging by the sound coming from far away, they shouldn’t be close. Let’s rest for a bit before moving.”

I said this in a more subdued voice than before, but he didn’t respond. Wondering if he was angry or upset because I had just yelled at him, I cautiously turned to look behind me. No matter what, he wasn’t the one at fault. I needed him to survive in this world, so even if it meant backing down a bit, I had to stick by his side.

“Huh? No, wait… Ah…!”

As soon as I turned to check on him, I felt someone touching my leg. Startled, I looked down to see that he had come over and was pressing down on my leg.

“Does it hurt a lot? I’m sorry. I didn’t think about your condition…”

“No, wait. First, your hand…”

“It’s really swollen. Let me loosen it for you. Your arms hurt too, right? Just stay put. Like you said, the sixth period variant seems to be a bit far away. Let’s rest a bit before moving.”

He silently massaged my leg, and I felt both embarrassed and strange at the sensation creeping up my leg.

“Just… I just need to rest a bit. So, stop…”

“We’ll have to keep moving from this point on, so it’s better to rest well while we can.”

“Ah, ugh… It’s really okay, so stop… It tickles… No, it hurts…!”

But he showed no sign of stopping, instead applying more force to loosen the swollen area.

This crazy…

I clenched my teeth and forced myself to suppress the embarrassing sounds that kept trying to leak out.

“Your face is red. Are you uncomfortable somewhere?”

“…No. Anyways, the zombie in the sixth period is specialized in strength, right?”

I tried to act nonchalant and changed the subject to divert attention.

“Yes, that’s right. It’s a dangerous one.”

As far as I remembered, the strength-specialized variant zombies were small in size. When I first played the game, I underestimated them based on their appearance and got thoroughly beaten. They were small, so how could they be so strong? I was shocked to see them pull out trees rooted in the ground and tear off people’s arms with ease. After that, I remembered the saying that small chili peppers are the spiciest and stopped judging them solely by their appearance.

“I wish we could just avoid it and move on.”

“That would be great for us. But… don’t worry too much. I’ll definitely protect you, at least, noona.”

“Ah… yes, thank you.”

I stared blankly at him for a moment as he smiled at me and said that, then turned my head away. Why protect me? If he encountered those creatures, he should run first. How could he afford to protect someone else… Furthermore, it wasn’t like we’d known each other for long enough to be talking about protecting each other.

 

Even though I knew they were just empty words, for some reason, I felt my tension relax a bit and my heart warmed. It wasn’t a bad feeling.