Episode 27
I managed to calm her down, but I no longer wanted to speak. I was completely exhausted and just wanted to close my eyes.
“…You heard everything from them.”
“Yes?”
“About my younger brother.”
“Ah, not in detail, just roughly…”
Her words grabbed my attention which was about to go away and put it back in.
“Actually, I had a little brother. We came to the supermarket together, and when zombies appeared, we got trapped here…”
With each word she spoke, she bit her lips as if trying to hold back pain and frowned.
“If it’s hard to talk about, you don’t have to force yourself. You can tell me later when you feel like it…”
“No, I… I’ll tell you now. You said you’d help me, right? With revenge… To do that, you need to know.”
At that moment, I felt a stinging gaze from the side at the mention of the word revenge. I glanced over, and he was staring at me as if trying to figure out when I had made such a promise. Looking at him made me smile awkwardly, and I mouthed the word ‘sorry.’
“My brother was a kind, incredibly confident child. He would say everything that needed to be said and could say no to things that weren’t right… He couldn’t just pass by someone in need; he had to help. It was silly.”
“…”
“I liked my little brother because of that. It’s better to live by helping others than by taking advantage of them, right? I’ve been taught that since I was young… That’s how we lived, but… my brother is now dead.”
Kind people tended to die young to begin with. Her younger brother saw the world in a positive light just like her. A world where everyone helped each other and lived together. Bad people should be punished, and one should live kindly… By virtue of having such a just nature, he’d hoped to become a police officer. If he hadn’t died and had achieved his dream, he would have definitely become a good police officer.
But how long would that last? Being the only clean one in a corrupt group did not change the world. In the end, it was the kind people who suffered the losses and harm. And that harm didn’t just stop at financial loss; it could, as proven, lead to being used and dying an early death.
“When people were divided and fighting, not everyone was like that. Although they were a minority, there were people who tried to persuade others not to fight and to join forces. My brother was one of them.”
“Did it have any effect?”
“No… Everyone was too busy fighting to care. But he thought that if he tried enough, people would eventually listen. He kept helping others. He treated those who were injured from fighting, and shared food with those who were starving…”
“Food?”
“Ah, we actually had some food with us. It was from the items we bought at the supermarket before the zombies appeared and we had to return here. We had a little bit of the food we bought at that time.”
It was a pointless act. Why bother treating and sharing food with those who were so caught up in their fighting that they had lost their minds? It was a waste of the medicine and food that went into it.
“I thought that if we did that, they might listen at least a little.”
“So, did anyone listen?”
“Yes, there were a few who changed their minds and agreed to join forces.”
Join forces, my ass. They probably just pretended to agree to get a piece of the food and help that was being handed out by these fools. If they had truly listened to your words and decided to join forces, would they have just stood by and watched your little brother die?
I had to hold back the sharp words that threatened to burst out of me as she continued to speak. I felt so frustrated that I wondered if I was being too pessimistic or if she was being too optimistic…
Curious, I glanced at his expression as he listened to the story. Fortunately, he seemed to share my sentiment, so I concluded once again that she was too optimistic. But then again, he shouldn’t be in a position to do that either, right? I looked at him with a subtle gaze.
Honestly, he was also a gentle person who liked helping people in the beginning like Seo Ga-eun. That’s why he was used like a fool and died five times.
Hah… Why were there so many naïve people in this world? Suddenly, the last ally we hadn’t met yet came to mind. Thinking about it, that person too… Thinking of their innocent and clumsy personality, I felt suffocated and my vision almost blurred from frustration for a moment.
Pull yourself together, Han Ji-ah. You have to take these overly innocent people with you and see the ending somehow. Only then can you go back home. You can’t stay in this zombie den forever!
“So, he thought that if we kept persuading others, he could somehow change their minds, and I helped out… But in the end, everything went down the drain. My brother too…”
Lost in thought for a moment, I came to my senses at the sound of her agitated voice and turned my gaze to her.
“Zombies suddenly appeared from all sides. It was already dark because the lights were out… I could hear people screaming, but I couldn’t see anything in front of me… Then I heard my little brother’s voice. And as if someone had turned on the lights, the surroundings suddenly brightened, and that’s when I was able to find him… bleeding…”
From her perspective at the time, she wouldn’t have been able to understand what was happening or the truth behind the incident. Why the zombies entered the supermarket and why her brother was bleeding. But I knew. In the game, when she tells the protagonist her story, the screen changes to a flashback, showing the situation at the time, and the narration explains even the parts she doesn’t know, so I could understand the details of the situation.
At the time, there was an unspoken rule among the people in the supermarket to turn off the lights inside the supermarket and use flashlights at night. In a building with glass windows on all sides, if the lights were left on until the dark night, it was certain that the bright light would leak out. The rule to turn off the lights was created out of fear that the zombies outside might see it and swarm towards them. Even in the midst of fighting, people followed this rule for a good while, not wanting to die by zombies.
However, when people gathered together, there was bound to be at least one madman among them, and the people gathered in this large supermarket were no exception. Moreover, due to the food fights, everyone was on edge and found it difficult to hide their true nature. It was a situation where they were hungry but had nothing to eat, and before they could even succeed in stealing food, they were caught by the strong ones and beaten to death. A person who lost their mind in frustration just wanted everyone to die together and secretly opened the tightly sealed door at night.
As the zombies poured in through the open door, the supermarket quickly turned into chaos. In the darkness, her brother, holding a flashlight, searched for his sister. He found someone asking for help under a display shelf and tried to help, but got injured by the shards of glass that fell when the shelf collapsed in the process.
He tried to escape while supporting the injured person, but both were bleeding, and the scent of blood attracted the zombies. Then, the person he’d just helped him disregarded their last shred of conscience and pushed him towards the zombies.
Right after that, the lights came on, and she saw her brother being bitten by a zombie.
“Unfortunately, I was far away from him, and there were many zombies nearby. I felt like I was going crazy. I ran towards him as fast as I could, but… I was too late. Then, people started shouting at my brother to take the zombies outside immediately.”
“…Yes.”
“Isn’t it funny? People who didn’t even look back as they tried to escape to the second floor to avoid the zombies suddenly changed their minds and wanted to defend the first floor after my brother was bitten.”
At first, when zombies appeared, it was natural to head to the second floor to escape. But when the lights came on and they could see how the situation was unfolding, they couldn’t do that. Leaving all the food on the first floor and going upstairs would have been difficult. Then, when someone bitten by a zombie appeared, a thought must have flashed through their minds. If that person led the zombies outside, the number of zombies would decrease, and they could close the door and deal with the remaining zombies inside without having to abandon the first floor.
But what was funny here were the other people bitten by zombies. Was her little brother the only one bitten? Of course not. There were already quite a few people bitten when the lights were out. But they hid that fact and blended in with the others. And pitifully, he was the only one marked for death in front of everyone when the lights came on.
“In the end, my little brother was chased away. And I could only watch… I’m so pathetic. I should have protected my little brother somehow… I shouldn’t have let him go outside alone… In the end, I was just a hypocritical person who valued my own life more, just like them.”
“I know it’s a harsh thing to say, but those who can live must live. All humans value their own lives more. Of course, there are people who give their lives for those they love, but that’s extremely rare. So, don’t feel too guilty.”
“How can you say that when you don’t know anything! Have you ever seen a family member die in front of you? Have you ever been in a situation where someone precious to you was dying and you couldn’t do anything about it?”
“…I’m sorry.”
Of course, I had never experienced anything like that. That’s why I didn’t know how to comfort her, but… it seemed like it was too hasty a statement.
“…I’m sorry. I think I got too roused up. I’m really sorry.”
“No, I was careless. I should have thought more before speaking…”
A heavy silence fell afterwards.
