Episode 45
As the bleeding stopped and we returned to where we had been a moment ago, I saw Ga-eun examining her waist, which had no wounds, with wide eyes.
“Ah, you came back? Has the bleeding stopped now?”
“Fortunately, it stopped quickly. More importantly, is your waist okay? It doesn’t hurt or anything, right?”
“Yes. It’s completely fine. But how is it possible to treat it without leaving a scar? Did Ji-ah do this?”
She looked at the place where she had been injured with disbelief in her eyes.
“I have something to say about that. It might be a bit hard to believe, but please listen.”
Then, as if to show she was concentrating on what I was saying, she stared at me intently.
“As you might have noticed before, this guy here has a special ability. Shadows… or more precisely, the ability to manipulate darkness. In any case, he can create something using shadows. You saw the tiger he made back then, right? Like that. He can use it in many ways.”
“I did see it, so I know, but still, how is that even possible?”
“Well, we don’t really know either. He just happened to get this ability somehow. With the world changing like this and zombies appearing, magical things like this can happen.”
“….”
“And while you were unconscious, I also gained a special ability, which is the one that just healed you.”
“I see… Thank you for healing me. But then, did you just bleed because of me?”
“Ah… no, forget what he said. He was just talking nonsense…”
“The abilities we have — we must pay a cost accordingly every time we use them.”
“A cost?”
I hadn’t intended to go that far in the conversation. I deliberately avoided mentioning it because I thought it might burden her, but he brought it up anyway.
“Why make it sound so grand? …It’s just that there are some side effects.”
“So that’s why you bled? Because you healed me? I’m sorry…”
“No! I did it because I wanted to. And there wasn’t that much bleeding.”
I hurriedly shifted the topic after reassuring her, worried she might feel guilty.
“That aside, we can’t just keep staying here. Do you think that thing moved to another place? If it’s still outside the door, it’s going to be a bit… difficult to go out.”
“Oh, come to think of it, there was that monster…”
Hmm… I didn’t know if it was because this door was special or if the entire floor was, but the moment the door closed, we were completely cut off from the sounds outside, leaving us unaware of the situation inside. If that creature was still waiting outside, we could be attacked and killed the moment we opened the door.
“Oh, by the way, Ms. Ga-eun, how did you get here? There must have been a lot of zombies out there… Wasn’t it hard to come here without any weapons and that body?”
“That’s…”
She briefly shifted her gaze from me to him, who was standing by me. I was wondering why, so I followed her gaze to look at him before turning my attention back to her.
“Well… I just opened my eyes and found myself alone in the car.”
“We didn’t know what was happening inside the hospital, so we left you there for a while. We intended to come back for you, but as you can see, things turned out this way… Still, just in case, he made a dog out of the shadows and left it behind with you.”
“Oh, I saw that. It helped me.”
Hmm? Helped her?
I tilted my head in confusion and decided to listen to her for a bit longer.
“I was surprised to be alone in the car at first, but that wasn’t the real problem. There were zombies crowding around it.”
“What?!”
Why were they crowding? We hadn’t made any noise… It must have also been quiet because she’d been unconscious. Was it because of the smell of blood? But she was in the car, so it shouldn’t have been that strong of a smell.
“I thought they were going to break the windows and come inside, so I decided to get out first. Yes, there were zombies surrounding the car, but there weren’t that many. However, the more important part was that they kept banging on the car, so I had to escape before the noise attracted more of them.”
“Ah…”
“I didn’t know where to go, so I just kept running forward, and suddenly a black dog told me to go toward the hospital, so I came this way. It took care of the zombies that were chasing me.”
At her words, I shifted my gaze from her to him.
“There were a lot of zombies outside, so it was safer to come to the hospital since we’ve already dealt with the first floor.”
“That’s true. Good job.”
“Thank you so much for your help. I owe you my life.”
He smiled at my praise as if he was happy, but when she said thank you, he hesitated for a moment before saying it was nothing and turning away. He looked a bit shy, as if he wasn’t used to receiving compliments from people, which I found cute. When I praised him, he wagged his tail happily, but when someone else thanked him, he acted all tsundere and turned bashful.
“But even if we dealt with a lot of them, there must still have been some zombies left on the first floor. Were you okay?”
“Huh? There was nothing at all. I checked the first floor thoroughly before coming up the stairs, and not a single zombie appeared.”
“Huh? That can’t be right?”
I had only looked around roughly on the first floor because I knew there was no main zombie there. Thus, there should have been some zombies left there because we hadn’t gone to many places on that floor.
What was going on? Why were there none at all? Oh, could it be…
“Did that survivor clear them all out…?”
“Excuse me?”
“There was a survivor who arrived before you did, Ms. Ga-eun. In the end, he fell victim to the zombies… but he did lead a bunch of zombies around and caused some trouble. He might’ve drawn all the zombies from the first floor, which would explain why there were none left.”
“But there was nothing on the second floor either…”
I had been wondering where all those zombies had come from, and it seemed like they had been cleared out from the first and second floors. Thinking about it that way, I realized he was surprisingly impressive. Did he have some sort of ability specialized in drawing aggro?
“That’s good news. If there are no zombies on the first and second floors, then as long as we’re careful of that monster from before, we should be safe.”
“But that monster is stronger than all the other zombies combined.”
“True, point.”
“What do you think, noona? Do you think we could get out of here if we killed it?”
“Huh?”
“It seems like killing that monster might be the clear condition, right?”
“Um… I’m not sure, but seeing how strong it is, there has to be something more to it.”
Not wanting to sound too knowledgeable about the topic, I spoke vaguely and moved on.
“Then let’s catch it. We can’t leave this building until we clear it anyway. If we have to stay here, we’ll inevitably run into that thing repeatedly.”
“That’s true. But are you sure you’ll be okay? It’s way too strong. Besides, you’re really the only one who can fight it since I don’t have any weapons. If you overdo it…”
“We have to try. And it won’t be like last time. For some reason, I feel like my mind clears up when I’m next to you.”
“What do you mean by that?”
He said this while standing close to me.
“Ever since you gained that ability, noona, it’s strange, but when I’m close to you, all the bad thoughts disappear and I feel better.”
What does that mean? Did he mean that the skill’s side effects disappeared? But how was that even possible?
“Isn’t it just in your head? You might just be feeling better because you’ve rested for a while.”
“No, it’s different from that. It feels like my mind clears up, and the air itself becomes refreshing…”
At his words, I took another look at the description of the skill.
“You can heal other people’s wounds.”
Indeed, it was a careless and insincere description no matter how many times I read it. I didn’t think it would be particularly helpful, but just in case, I slowly pondered over the explanation. ‘Wounds’… Could this include mental wounds as well? Was that why his negative thoughts disappeared and his condition improved? But it said the effect works just by being nearby. Does that mean it’s passively active all the time, albeit weakly?
“Let’s leave it for now. It’s hard to tell with just this.”
Since I learned something new, I decided to remember it well. I’d have to experiment properly later. If what he said was true, it would remove the burden of using his abilities in the future. I wouldn’t have to worry about his reaction, either.
That aside, what should I do now? I probably should open that door and go out, but it wasn’t easy to do so. I was a little scared that the monster might be waiting right in front of the door. Moreover, I felt even more uneasy because I didn’t have a weapon in my hand.
“Are we going to go out now?”
“Hmm… I don’t know what the situation is like outside, so I’m hesitant to open the door… If this place wasn’t so soundproof, I could have decided based on the situation we would have heard.”
While it was nice and stable earlier because the sound was blocked, now that fact itself made me uneasy for the opposite reason. Going out empty-handed still felt a bit risky. I’d better take something with me.
“Ms. Ga-eun, I’m thinking of moving now. Are you okay?”
“Yes, I’m fine.”
“Then let’s look for a weapon together. I’ve checked most of the rooms, but there are still some I haven’t explored. Maybe there’s something there.”
Honestly, after what happened earlier, I didn’t want to carelessly enter another room. I was afraid something similar might happen again. But since we already found the hidden piece, I wondered if there would be something like that again.
However, except for the room where we found the hidden piece, all the rooms we’d checked so far had been completely empty. So, it was likely that the remaining rooms were the same. Still, I decided to check them out, thinking it was worth a shot. If nothing else, I could search the bathroom for a cleaning tool. I thought even if there wasn’t anything good, there would at least be a mop, so I moved.
