Mental Caretaker In An Apolcalypse Game

Episode 30

Even as I slowly looked around inside, I had to watch the ground rather than walk ahead because of the constant lumps under my feet. I shuddered at the thought of the nearby creatures waiting for an opportunity to approach if I let my guard down even a little.

There were too many of them…. Could it be that the main zombie’s flesh had all melted away and only bones were left? The second phase wasn’t already starting, was it?

Feeling uneasy at the unexpectedly large number of lumps filling the area, I wanted to quickly check the condition of the main zombie. It was supposed to be located right in the center….

“Noona, I don’t see a single person. There are only zombies all over the place…. Doesn’t this mean they’re all dead?”

“Yeah, or they’re all hiding somewhere we can’t see them.”

The guys on the first floor probably tried to escape the fastest but, realizing the doors were blocked, they must have holed up deep in the grocery section. And the ones on the second floor… could they still be there? In that chaotic place? If that was the case, it’d make sense for there to be no people here on the first floor. Or maybe they’d all been eaten by zombies.

“Huh? Um… There’s something weird over there.”

She, who had been following us from behind, pointed somewhere and spoke. Looking in the direction she indicated, I saw the main zombie I had been searching for. To be precise, it was the leg of the creature, which still had quite a bit of flesh on it. If it was to this extent, the second phase should still be okay… Unlike my calm assessment however, they, who’d never seen something like this before, seemed perplexed by what it was and looked up at it in bewilderment.

“A leg…?”

“Could that be a leg?”

Admittedly, the visual was a bit gruesome. A leg with exposed bones and muscles due to melting flesh—if I had seen it without knowing, I would have been even more shocked than they were.

“Is that a zombie too? It’s more like a monster….”

Then, the leg, which had been standing still, began to move slowly. It thumped as if rolling its foot, and the ground reverberated with the recoil, causing us, who were standing nearby, to lose our balance and stagger. What was even more shocking was that the flesh that had been tightly attached to the leg fell to the ground during this process. It wriggled on its own, and the woman, seeing this, squirmed in horror. As the time of confusion and fear ended as the main zombie stopped moving, I stood up unsteadily. It felt like my insides were turned upside down, as if I had just been on a ride at an amusement park.

“Ugh…. For those things to all come from there…. Ugh.”

She was still covering mouth as if unable to recover from the shock. Meanwhile, he was busy dealing with the lumps approaching us. However, unlike her, he didn’t seem greatly shocked. Instead, he occasionally furrowed his brow and sweated coldly, suggesting that using his skill was taking a toll on him. I decided to first take care of her, who was nearby, and then go to his side to properly check his condition. But then…

“Watch out!”

As if on cue, the ceiling was hit by the impact from the creature’s movements, causing debris to fall. I quickly raised my head up to check and saw that the area near the hole already made by the creature’s body was severely cracked. At this rate, we were likely to be killed by falling debris from the ceiling. I revised our plan to escape from here, regroup, and come back…

“Ugh!”

The creature started stomping again.

“Ah, this crazy… really…”

Boom! The thing I’d feared finally happened. The ceiling collapsed, and larger pieces of debris began to fall. The floor shook so much that we couldn’t even stand properly, and we moved in a desperate attempt to escape. I got up when I fell, rolled to avoid the falling pieces, and after various obstacles, I finally reached her, who was stuck sitting down, and snatched her hand.

“Snap out of it. We need to run away first.”

“Thank yo…”

But she couldn’t finish her words. As I pulled her arm to help her up, I lost my balance because of the sudden debris that fell right next to me. Because of this, she also fell back down as she tried to get up. Suddenly, a shadow loomed over our heads. Reflexively, I threw myself and rolled to the side with her, and as I saw debris fall where we had just been, I felt my blood run cold. The realization that we had almost died felt as if I’d been hit in the back of my head. But I tried to keep my composure somehow and get out of there.

***

“Haah… shit.”

I really almost died. Not only did I have to avoid the debris falling from all sides, but I also had to dodge the lumps of flesh on the floor to make matters worse. Paying attention to one meant neglecting the other… it was truly maddening. I leaned against the wall, trying to catch my breath and calm down.

That aside… damn it. We ended up being torn apart. I got separated from Do-yoon while we were busy escaping. I was able to take care of the her who was nearby, but…

He wasn’t dead, was he? We couldn’t clear this stage without him…

“I’m sorry. You got hurt because of me…”

“It’s not your fault. If anything, you helped me.”

Although I got slightly injured while taking care of the woman who had lost her composure at the beginning, she played a significant role in getting us out of there. Once she regained her senses, she led me agilely to avoid the debris and zombies, bringing us here. As expected, one of her abilities was certainly useful.

“Ms. Ga-eun, you’re also injured. We need to treat the wounds… Ah, he has all the medicine with him…”

I searched my pockets for medicine to treat the wounds, but I belatedly remembered that I had put the medicine in the shadow along with the food. I should have kept some on hand. A sigh of regret escaped me, but it was too late to regret it now.

“Will Mr. Do-yoon be okay? He’s alone…”

“…He’ll be fine. He has his skills.”

He’d probably be fine. He’d have to be.

I shook my head to clear it of complicated thoughts. Now, I needed to first assess the situation I was in. After shaking off my thoughts, I looked around. I had followed her as she led me here, but where exactly were we…

“There’s a person over there!”

“Huh?”

I was about to survey the area when she suddenly shouted and pulled me. Looking in the direction she indicated, I saw a person picking up food that had fallen on the floor. When our eyes met, the person muttered to themselves and started running somewhere. I was about to let them go, but out of nowhere, she began chasing after the person who was fleeing.

“What?! Ms. Ga-eun?”

My God. She was crazy. Why would she go after them?

I called out to her from behind, but there was no reply. If I lost her too, all three of us would be scattered, so I had no choice but to follow her.

***

Having managed to catch up to her with difficulty, I was a bit bewildered by the situation unfolding before my eyes.

“Let go of this!”

“You… you were definitely next to my brother at that time.”

“Crazy bitch, what are you talking about!”

“You could have helped him. Why did you leave my brother behind and run away at that time? Why!”

“Fuck, let go! Why would I help him!”

“Huh?”

“I pushed him that way to save myself in the first place!”

She was grabbing the collar of the person who had just been running away, cornering them.

“What… what are you saying?”

“Anyway, we were both injured and couldn’t do anything about it. Should both of us have died? At least one should live!”

“So you… my brother…”

“And he was bleeding, so the zombies were bound to target him.”

“You were bleeding at that time too, weren’t you?”

“That’s… he was bleeding more than me. He was hurt worse! Since he couldn’t run anyway, it was better for him to sacrifice himself for someone else.”

After spouting nonsense like that, he fell. He only aggravated her wound.

Now I could see who exactly she was grabbing by the collar, and I understood why she had dashed out.

“Even so, how could you… how could you do that!”

“Ah, stop it! How long are you going to carry on about a dead guy! First, let go of this…”

“What’s with all this noise!”

At that moment, someone emerged from behind a pile of display shelves stacked together like a barricade. Come to think of it, this was the grocery section, wasn’t it? We seemed to have gone quite deep inside… Could this be where the survivors from the first floor were gathered?

Instantly, the face of the guy being held by her lit up with relief.

“H-Help me! This crazy woman is clinging to me…”

“You… Ah, were you the one collecting food?”

“Yes, yes! That’s right! I brought it here, but…”

There was a basket of food at the guy’s feet.

“You definitely said you’d take me in if I only collected food…”

“Ah, I did say that. But…”

The guy, who had been trailing off, glanced at Ga-eun and frowned.

“Why did you bring that crazy woman here? We agreed to take only you in, didn’t we?”

“I didn’t want to bring her; she suddenly chased after me and…”

“You should have dealt with it yourself. What are we supposed to do now that you’ve dragged her here?”

“I’m s-sorry…”

“Hey, enough. Just go back. We don’t need to take in a guy who can’t even handle a simple task properly.”

“W-What? but…”

The guy tried to say more, but he had to shut his mouth because the other person pulled out a knife. Meanwhile, the sight of this made me click my tongue inwardly, and I wondered what bizarre situation we’d gotten into. I wanted to get away from this place with her. It was dangerous to fight an opponent with a knife without Do-yoon. Moreover, it was obvious that there were more people behind that barricade. If they all came out to join the fray… just imagining it was unpleasant.

“But… who are you? I don’t think I’ve seen your face before.”

“…?”

I was so preoccupied with figuring out how to persuade her to get out of here that I was caught off guard when he spoke to me and thought I’d misheard.

He was looking me up and down. His sticky gaze made me feel dirty.

“I don’t know about those guys, but we might be able to take in someone like you…”

“Wh-what are you saying! If that’s the case, then take me instead!”

“Shut up. If we’re going to have to feed someone anyway, a woman like her is better than a guy like you.”

“Ms. Ji-ah wouldn’t go to filthy guys like you, you garbage.”

“No, you should let go of that first and talk, you crazy bastard!”

“They’re all the same, whether it’s this guy or that guy. They’re trash that only cares about themselves!”

Sigh… My head hurt. What kind of situation was this?

One guy was waving a knife and blabbering, one was being held by the collar and saying everything he definitely shouldn’t be saying, and one was just going crazy with a desire for revenge…

“Ms. Ga-eun, let go of that hand first and come this way…”

“Ah, damn it. It’s so noisy. What are they doing outside to make such a racket?”

“The guy who went to check the situation, why hasn’t he come in yet. What’s going on?”

To make the already dizzying situation worse, people started coming out from behind the barricade. I finally gave up trying to find answers for this new development in the situation.

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Ga-eun and Ji-ah refer to each other with the honorific -ssi – which is used by people on an equal level of seniority as a sign of respect. It can be translated as Miss. Do tell me if you’d like me to stick with -ssi or Miss tho.