Episode 35
“Honestly, I never imagined it would be like this….”
It must have been about an hour or so since I went separate ways from her and returned here. Yet, she was still alive. Of course, it was a good thing that she was alive, but I couldn’t help but be surprised. She was still shouting loudly at them as if full of energy. In contrast, when I looked at the opponents who were already down, lying on the ground or faltering and unable to come at her first, they seemed as if they’d lost their spirit.
Huh? Wait a minute, this could be more dangerous than I thought? Upon closer inspection, I noticed her clothes were torn and stained red in places, and her shoulders heaved violently as she breathed heavily. She was pretending to be full of energy, but she was already exhausted. At this rate, it was clear that she would collapse first.
I reflexively opened my mouth to ask him for help but then closed it. Instead, I gripped the bat in my hand tighter. There weren’t many of them, so maybe it would be better if I went to help her myself, even though it was my first time fighting against people…. I came to that conclusion and was about to move.
“Argh! What the hell is this?!”
“Isn’t this the same thing as that monster?!”
Just as I was about to step forward, a black tiger appeared from under their feet and began attacking them.
At that sight, I turned my head towards him and our eyes met. He seemed to have been looking at me.
“I’ll handle this.”
“…Okay. Thanks.”
Meanwhile, she, who seemed startled by the black tiger, looked around and, upon finding us, relaxed her guard.
“I see you’ve safely met Mr. Do-yoon. I was a little worried since I sent you alone, Ms. Ji-ah. I’m glad you’re safe….”
Safe? Yes, physically, I was safe.
“It’s fortunate that you’re safe, Ms. Ga-eun. I was more worried about you storming off to come here alone. That said, you’re very impressive.”
“It’s nothing.”
“Nothing? Recklessly running in to face people brandishing knives with just a pipe and achieving this much without losing your life is extraordinary. It’s ridiculous. Your appearance’s a mess, though.”
“…I’m sorry about earlier. It looks like I made you really angry….”
“Angry? Me? Why would I be angry?”
“Even though you tried to stop me like that, I ignored you and left. Even though what Ms. Ji-ah said was right, I was too swept away by my emotions to listen and acted as I pleased.”
So she knew well how foolishly she’d acted.
“The situation was such that there was no other way.”
She seemed to have realized it when twisted words popped out of my mouth instead of the usual kind ones and apologized.
Well, it was fine. After all, she was alive, and we’d cleared stage 2. The process was a mess, but the result was somehow okay.
“So, did you get your revenge to your heart’s content?”
“….”
Instead of answering, she looked around at the people lying around. When I touched them to see if they were all dead, I found out they weren’t: they occasionally wriggled and moaned.
“Just because you’ve had your revenge doesn’t mean you’ll necessarily feel better.”
With her naturally kind nature, she must be feeling guilty about what she did. Even if those people were accomplices in killing her brother.
“You’re here to find food, right? It should be over there. I saw it earlier.”
“Oh, thank you for letting me know.”
“….”
Instead of answering, she looked around at the people who had collapsed. When I touched them to see if they were all dead, they wiggled and moaned.
“It may not necessarily make you feel refreshed just because you’ve finished your revenge.”
If she was a good-natured woman, she must have felt guilty for what she had done. No matter how much the perpetrators sympathized with killing their younger brother.
“You’re here to find food. If it’s food, I’m sure it’s over there. I saw it earlier.”
“Oh, thank you for letting me know.”
I headed in the direction she pointed to. There, I found a pile of all sorts of fresh-looking food items such as fruits, meat, and vegetables. Just looking at the unexpectedly abundant food made me feel full. Conveniently, there were portable burners, frying pans, and other cooking utensils nearby, which seemed like good items to take along as well. Then, the shadow beneath my feet moved, heading towards the food and devouring it all in an instant before returning to its original spot.
“…”
“Then the food problem is solved, I think?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“What’s our plan from here?”
Our plan from here? According to the game, we would be moving on to the third stage. He, who had accumulated only bad memories from the supermarket, drove away from there in a car parked in the parking lot as soon as he cleared the second stage. Then, while passing by a hospital, he decided to stock up on medicine, and thus the third stage began.
“Do you want to stay here?”
“What? I’m not sure…”
He glanced around at the chaotic surroundings. Just then, people started coming down from the second floor and it became noisy. He frowned at the sight and shook his head.
“It doesn’t seem like a good place to stay.”
“Then let’s go somewhere else.”
I said that as I looked at her standing alone in the distance. With her level of strength, she would definitely be a great help to us in the future. So I should take her with me, but…
She was watching the people who had come down to the first floor, most likely wanting to escape now that the main zombie was gone. In a way, those people were also targets for revenge. However, she just watched them without any intention of moving. I approached her to ask if she wanted to come with us.
“Be careful!”
“Huh?”
I almost fell over when he suddenly grabbed me from behind, but I looked down and realized I should thank him.
One of the people who had been lying on the floor just moments ago had grabbed a knife and tried to stab my leg. I had been so distracted by her that I wasn’t watching the ground, and I almost got into serious trouble. We weren’t in a position to undergo surgery right now, and a puncture wound would be difficult to treat without a professional. Injuring my leg in this situation meant death.
As I tried to calm my racing heart, he moved his shadow to fling the knife away from the man and stepped on his hand with a cold glare. That gaze reminded me of the moment he had strangled me earlier, and I instinctively stepped back.
“Aaargh! My hand!”
Despite the man’s screams and thrashing, he didn’t lift his foot off the man’s head until there was a sound of something crunching.
…That was definitely a broken hand bone.
“Are you okay?”
“…Yeah”
I avoided his gaze for some reason and pretended to check my hands.
“Ah!”
“Ha! Serves you right!”
Suddenly, I heard her scream and turned towards the sound. I saw her sitting on the floor, clutching her side. Blood was seeping through her hands as she pressed them tightly against her waist, unable to straighten her back.
“Damn it!”
“Noona! It’s dangerous to go alone. Let’s go together!”
Having run towards her while leaving him behind, I hoped against hope that my fears were unfounded. However, the scene that greeted me was exactly as I had feared.
“Shit, you did this to me. Do you think you can just leave me behind like this?”
A man tried to swing his knife at her, who was groaning and hunched over in pain, again.
I couldn’t just stand by and watch. I swung the bat in my hand with all my might at the man’s shoulder, where he held the knife. There was a loud crunch, and he dropped the knife, rolling on the floor and clutching his limp shoulder.
“Ha… ha…”
“Aaargh! Ah!”
The horrifying sound and the sensation transmitted through the bat momentarily froze me, but I quickly approached her.
“Ms. Ga-eun, what happened? Can you move? Where exactly were you stabbed?”
“Ugh… my right side…”
The wound seemed quite deep, with blood gushing out relentlessly, causing her face to grow paler by the second. This wouldn’t do. We couldn’t afford to lose an ally like this…
“What’s going on?”
He arrived late and came to my side. Seeing her sitting there like that, he fell silent.
“I’m sorry you had to see me like this.”
“Don’t talk. It must hurt, but apply as much pressure as possible to the wound to minimize the bleeding.”
“It’s no use. I won’t make it anyway.”
“Why are you giving up already? If we go to the hospital…”
“There’s no way the hospital is functioning in this situation. Even if we call 119, an ambulance won’t come.”
She was right. The hospitals were already ruined. It had become a zombie den, so surgery was impossible. But to just leave her like this? When she would die at this rate if we did nothing?
“…”
“…Thank you, Ms. Ji-ah. Thanks to you, I was able to take revenge before meeting my little brother.”
“Don’t talk nonsense.”
“…Huh?”
What? Going to meet her little brother? She must be joking. There was no way I’d let her die now.
I thought I had finally secured a powerful tanker after all that, and you’re telling me I had to let her go like this? If I just let her leave like this, I would surely regret it for a long time.
Come to think of it, I remembered that for such wounds, you should use a clean cloth or bandage to stop the bleeding… I looked at the stab wound for a moment. The location was particularly bad—in the abdomen. This increased the likelihood of internal organ damage.
Damn it, what should I do… Should I really put something on the wound and take her to the hospital? But it wasn’t like she’d be able to get operated on at the hospital. Moreover, just the thought of putting something into that wound was excruciating. It would probably hurt terribly.
“Do-yoon, open the shadow.”
I reached into the shadow he opened and pulled out a bandage. Since I wasn’t confident about inserting anything, I wrapped the bandage around her waist to at least apply some pressure.
“Let’s go to the parking lot.”
“The parking lot?”
“Yes. It’s best to go to the hospital.”
I couldn’t just stand by and watch her die without doing anything. Although I knew what state the hospital was in, I decided to take her there anyway. If there were any survivors at the hospital, or if we were incredibly lucky and there was a doctor among them, we could be able to save her.
