Episode 8
After roughly washing off the dirty parts with water and returning to the consultation room, I went to the window and hung the washed coat on the window frame to dry. No matter how much I washed it with water, the coat didn’t return to its original color. However, perhaps because I had washed it with clean water, I felt a bit refreshed.
‘…Let’s get a grip. It was something I had to do to survive here anyway. Don’t overthink it.’
Shaking my head to rid myself of my thoughts, I went to the table and gathered the medicine. Then I went to Do-yoon, who was lying down, and carefully removed his clothes to treat his wounds, examining his condition once more.
It seemed that the bleeding had stopped because the wounds had hardened over time. I needed to clean the wound area thoroughly and apply some medicine over it, but I didn’t have any suitable cloth to use.
“What should I do…?”
There were many stages to clear in the future and many more injuries to come, so it was a waste to use bandages already. Besides, the amount I had wouldn’t be enough to cover the wounds. As I pondered with my eyes looking down, something came into my view.
“Shirt…?”
It was a white shirt that peeked out from under my top. Since I had been wrapped up in a coat all this time, the clothes underneath were relatively clean. It seemed to be a layered shirt worn under a sweater, long in length and wide in area, so it looked like it would be okay to cut the bottom part and use it.
But why was I wearing these clothes? Thinking about it, I was definitely wearing a sweatshirt and sweatpants comfortably at home before I fell asleep…. And yet I’d been wearing this outfit ever since I opened my eyes at the café.
“Oh well, let’s not think about it. There’s no point in analyzing this since I won’t find an answer, and being inside a game doesn’t make sense in the first place.”
Sighing, I found a pair of scissors and cut off the part of the shirt visible under the sweater. I should say I’m lucky there were scissors, because I doubted whether I could tear it with my hands.
Now I needed to dampen this with water, but I couldn’t be bothered to go back and forth to the bathroom just for this, so I decided to use some bottled water instead.
I carefully cleaned the wound area with the appropriately dampened pieces of the shirt. After that, I applied medicine onto the wounds and finished by attaching bandages and band-aids. It was my first time treating someone else’s wounds, so I stumbled a lot and wasn’t confident that I had done it properly, but at least it looked decent on the surface.
Roughly satisfied for the moment, I organized the remaining medicine and set it aside, taking only the painkillers and sitting down next to the sofa. I intended to give him these since moving would definitely be painful after he woke up. As I fidgeted with the painkillers, waiting for him to wake up, a thought suddenly occurred to me.
Was it okay to feed him this on an empty stomach?
These kinds of medicines could be quite harsh on the stomach, and taking them on an empty stomach could cause stomach problems. Moreover, he hadn’t eaten anything since yesterday, so he was already in a weak state.
“I guess it’s not okay after all….”
Damn it, did I have to go out again to find something to eat?
Thinking about food made me feel hungry too. Come to think of it, I hadn’t eaten anything since yesterday either….
“Haah… I’m tired and hungry, and I don’t want to move.”
The thought of dragging my exhausted body out again to suffer was hateful, but food was necessary. Today might be manageable somehow, but tomorrow was the problem. On the third day, it was absolutely impossible to survive by hiding. A situation where we would have to fight the zombies would inevitably arise, and it was questionable whether we could properly handle weapons in a starved state. We needed to secure food today while we could still move a little more. And there was nothing better for recovering from wounds than eating well and sleeping well….
“Ugh, I have to go out again.”
I pouted as I glanced at him lying there. I had to go out and suffer again, while someone else got to lie there and sleep. I didn’t want to feel this way towards a patient, but I found myself being a little mean to him. Wait a minute. Come to think of it, wasn’t I a patient too?
Although the upper part of my body was protected by the coat and didn’t have any wounds with blood seeping out, when I rolled up my sleeves, my arms were bruised a pale blue. My hands, needless to say, were covered in cuts and wounds, my jeans were torn, and my ankles were sore. Hell, how did I end up in this state?
“Wake up soon, you fool. I’m the only one suffering here. Once you wake up, I’m going to boss you around like hell. Especially after we get the hidden piece, I’ll be sipping honey from behind you.”
Although I knew he couldn’t hear me, I kept whining about how I struggled so much for him. To be honest, it was because I was scared of being alone. The thought that he might die like this and I would be left alone was terrifying, so I wanted him to wake up as soon as possible.
They say humans are social animals, and it was really true. To live among those zombies without anyone to rely on, without anyone to talk to, all alone—it was definitely enough to drive one insane.
“…You’re weak-minded, and after we get the hidden piece, there’ll be a penalty where your mental strength gets drained every time you use your ability. Can you handle that? Without someone reliable by your side, you’ll never make it alone, right?”
Who was I? I was a counseling psychology major. I studied human psychology and was learning how to counsel. Well, I was only a freshman, so I wasn’t very good yet, but….
“You’re so lucky to have met someone like me, who listens well to others’ worries and makes them feel comfortable. Where will you find someone as capable and reliable as me? Anyway, I’ll manage that penalty for you from the side, so just wake up already, you fool.”
I sighed because the sight of me talking to someone who was unconscious must’ve looked both funny and pathetic. Nevertheless, I continued to talk to him. It was just that doing this made me feel a little more at ease.
When I ran out of things to say, silence flowed. My agitated heart settled, and reason returned.
“Haaah… I’ll be back, so wait for me. It would be even better if you’re awake by then….”
After glancing at him for a moment, I soon turned my head without any lingering attachment and opened the door to leave.
The moment I came out, the sight of the zombies made my whole body feel heavy and groaning sounds involuntarily escaped, but I endured it and silently swung the tripod. Now, I moved forward by killing zombies with ease. I reached the stairs leading to the second floor without any trouble and hesitated for a moment, stepping back.
In this stage, there were a total of three ways to secure food. The first was to raid the convenience store, and the second was to scavenge the cafeteria. However, the building where the convenience store and cafeteria were located was separate from the main building where I was. The routes to the new building were either outside the building or via the connecting bridge on the second floor.
There were too many regular zombies outside, and the bridge was guarded by a variant zombie which was like a gatekeeper. In short, it came down to whether I should face many but weak opponents or one strong opponent. Either way was impossible for me right now.
The only remaining option was the last method, farming. Many games had a farming function where you search the surroundings for useful items, find keys to unlock locked doors or boxes containing weapons, and so on. This also existed here as well, and in this stage, food could be found by searching the desks in each classroom or the lockers. The main building was full of classrooms from the second to the seventh floors, excluding the first floor, so there was an abundance of farming material, but I didn’t have the strength to search them all, so I planned to quickly search just one floor.
The number of zombies in the hallway on the second floor where I had come up was considerable, and there were quite a few inside the classrooms as well. I involuntarily sighed, feeling weak.
Did I have the strength to catch these guys and even go farming?
“…If I had known it would be like this, I would have drunk the orange juice in the fridge.”
I regretted coming on an empty stomach like a fool, wishing I had at least filled my stomach with water as I blew away the head of a zombie nearby.
***
“Hmm… is this enough?”
I tilted my head as I looked down at the contents of the bag in my hand. I just had to manage until today and tomorrow, so it should be fine, right? Ah, come to think of it, if I considered the hidden piece, I’d have to endure one more day, won’t I?
Couldn’t we just hold on by eating a little bit at a time…? I’d already rummaged through all the classrooms on this floor….
I grumbled as I discovered some apple jam cookies in the last locker I was searching and put them in my bag.
After coming up to the second floor, I walked from the nearest classroom to the end and found bread and snacks. Eventually, they became too much to carry in my hands, so I picked up a somewhat fine-looking bag and put them inside.
I went about farming through five classrooms, and my bag quickly became full.
As I rummaged through other people’s desks and lockers, I felt a sense of reality hitting me, but I justified it as something inevitable for survival. At the same time, I thought it was fortunate that Do-yoon was asleep; I wouldn’t have been able to tell him to go farming. It was so embarrassing… It didn’t bother me in the game, but real-life farming was too shameful and thief-like.
Anyway, quite some time had passed. I had closed the counseling room door properly, but you never know what might happen…. I was about to wrap things up and head out into the hallway when I heard a scream from somewhere.
“Aaahhh!!”
It was definitely a human scream. If there was anyone in this school right now, it could only be the group of survivors.
Damn it, of all times, those guys….
The classroom I was in was at the very end of the second floor, close to the bridge that connected to the new building. From what I heard from that side, they must have encountered the gatekeeper.. Afraid of getting involved with the group of survivors at this rate, I quickly left the classroom and tried to head down to the first floor. But they were faster. Before I knew it, the survivors who had led the gatekeeper here spotted me and frantically waved their arms, shouting.
“Help us!! Z-zombies!!”
“Aaah! Save us!”
But the moment I saw them, I turned and ran. Help those guys? Are you crazy? Why should I risk dying too?
I heard voices cursing at me from behind, but I ignored them and kept running. I wanted to sprint with all my might, but my stamina was far from enough. Moreover, my ankle, which had been caught by a mutant zombie in the infirmary before, hurt as if it would snap. I was running as hard as I could, gritting my teeth against the pain that shot up my leg with every step.
“Damn it! You’re just going to run to save yourself!”
“We’re students! It’s only natural for adults to protect us! Don’t run away alone!”
The voices cursing me were getting closer before I knew it.
No way, what did I do wrong to deserve such cursing? My life was important in this situation, who would sacrifice their life to save others? And how much older was I than these guys to be called an adult? I was still a student too, a university student. You cheap bastards!
I focused on running while cursing them in my mind when suddenly, my head was yanked backward.
“Argh!”
“Fuck, you die too!”
It felt like all my hair was going to be pulled out. One of the survivors, who had chased me down from behind, grabbed my hair and threw me backward. As I rolled on the floor, holding my head, I saw the survivors passing by me.
“Serves you right. Who was the one leaving us behind and running away?”
They passed by in a flash, but I knew who those guys were.
They were the scum who had been filtered out in the first round from the group of survivors.
In the game, the guys expelled from the group obviously used each other as meat shields to escape, only to be annihilated by the gatekeeper in the end. But of all times, it had to be now…. I was just trying to survive, it was so unfair.
“Why… why the hell is this being done to me?”
I cried out in anger as I watched the backs of those guys getting further away.
“Fuck! You dog-like bastards. May you all fall down!”
Damn bastards