Chapter 99: 888. The Chapter of the Girl and the Zombie (11) (2) |
["─■■■,■■■!!" "■■■,■■■....." "■■,■■....." "...■?■■■,■■!!" "■■,■■,■■■!" "■■■■■■!!" "■■■,■■■■!!" "■■,■?" "■■■■■■■!!" "■■,■■■■■■!!!"］
—Another hell.
The other side of hell was not heaven.
The inside of the supermarket, which was like a dizzying maze.
After taking the stairs, we arrived at the entrance where we had first entered, that is, the wide hall where transparent glass panels made up the exterior walls of the building.
The hall, directly taking in the bright sunlight from outside, was surprisingly bright, unlike the dark basement where no light could penetrate, so we could see where we were going even without turning on our flashlights.
But even that bright sunlight, which I would have normally welcomed, felt like a poisoned chalice now.
The items that must have filled those shelves fell scattered on the ground along with the shelves themselves, while some shelves was somehow leaning against each other precariously.
And within the spaces artfully created between those shelves, we could see what had been lurking there all this time.
".......Crazy, bastards..."
"....Ah, aah..."
We were forced to face the despairing reality that the net cast to capture us was wider and vaster than we had imagined, without a single gap.
The horde of zombies surrounding the entire wide hall.
There must have been at least twice as many as we had seen downstairs.
In the face of that insurmountable number, the strength we had felt soaring within us until just now seemed to fade away like a lie.
Why.
For what reason.
Why do they try to take away even the small hope that had come to us like this.
"........."
Strangely enough, before such an absurd and unreasonable situation that we couldn’t even bring ourselves to face, I didn't feel frustrated or angry at all.
The only thing I felt was one thing.
A sense of emptiness, of everything having become meaningless.
["─■■■,■■■■....."]
The moans of the zombies echoing through the vast hall.
It sounded like their mockery, laughing at us who had dared to hope.
"....Eh? Hee-ah?"
And that was the moment.
—Tremble tremble.
"—Hw-Hwa-min sunbae... There, that's Hee-ah right? Right?"
"....Hee-ah?"
Yeon-ah's small murmur snapped me out of my thoughts.
Hee-ah.
Right. There was Hee-ah.
The moment the child's name we had been desperately searching for but couldn't find came to mind, I lifted my head, forgetting even the grim situation we were in.
Following Yeon-ah's trembling finger pointing somewhere upward, I looked up and saw a small, white figure precariously balanced and hanging from the edge of the glass railing on the second floor.
No.
—Swish.
"—Ah, there are my unnies."
"""Hee-ah!?"""
It was definitely Hee-ah.
With a bright yellow backpack, reminiscent of a chick, strapped to her back, and a white string tied around her wrist.
The flashlight was gone, but instead the string remained, connecting Hee-ah's body hanging precariously outside the railing to one of the pillars.
Was it to avoid the zombies. The child, performing a dangerous acrobatic act in the air, a sight that made me so uneasy just by looking at it, was undoubtedly the Hee-ah we had been desperately searching for.
Was it to protect herself in case of an emergency?
Hee-ah was holding something sharp in her hand, something that looked like a shard of glass.
Seeing that zombies hadn't gathered around, fortunately, it seemed she hadn't been discovered by them until now.
Thank goodness.
Really, thank goodness.
"....You almost gave me a heart attack, Hee-ah."
I let out a sigh of relief.
But—
["■■■,■■■.....!" "■■■■■!!"]
"....This is driving me crazy."
Though I was relieved knowing that Hee-ah was alive, but upon facing the approaching zombies, my face stiffened.
Now that we had found the child who had been the biggest concern, all that remained was to escape this place.
But even that simple task seemed impossible in our current situation, where we were surrounded by zombies in every direction.
Even if we tried to get Hee-ah out first, these persistent and vicious bastards wouldn't allow even that.
"They're coming up! Throw something at them!"
"All we have besides weapons is canned food!"
"Throw some cans at the stairs!! Now we really can't afford to save anything!!"
The stairs we had come up were still swarming with those things crawling up that steep slope on all fours.
And in front of us, a horde of zombies, larger than we had ever seen before, were steadily closing in, relentlessly targeting the three of us.
A true dilemma(？？？？) in which we can neither push forward nor turn back.
Even as I was thinking this, those things were steadily closing the distance.
—Tick, tick.
"....Dammit."
Curses lamenting the current situation naturally flowed from my mouth.
I had been trying so hard not to curse in front of Hee-ah, wanting to show her only the good side of myself.
It seemed that living with Jung-eun had made me become like her somehow.
Of all things to pick up from her, it had to be this.
".........."
Clench, I somehow pulled myself together and firmly gripped my weapon.
At this point, there was no other choice but to fight our way through the zombies and escape this supermarket.
I wasn't worried about the possibility of being bitten.
Because I had already resolved myself to that much from the moment I decided to bring Hee-ah here.
—Tremble, tremble.
"....Dammit, dammit....!"
But despite my resolve, my body had already reached its limit.
My legs were shaking mercilessly as if about to collapse at any moment, and the weapon in my hand felt as heavy as a thousand pounds, difficult even to hold up.
Even Jung-eun who had been burning with determination after finally finding Hee-ah, I could see at a glance that she was struggling from continued fatigue.
After all, we were just ordinary high school girls in the end.
For us who hadn't even properly consumed nutrients or exercised for two months, just lying around, this was all we could do.
Perhaps we had already reached our limit long ago, constantly swinging heavy wooden clubs while carrying dozens of kilograms of supplies on our backs.
.....
Well.
It's not that I'm afraid of death.
I had long since left such things behind in the distant past, where even memories could no longer reach.
We who had watched friends who were talking normally just moments ago reach out to us while coughing blood from their mouths, and familiar people walking down the street get bitten to death by zombies before our eyes.
Perhaps, while looking at them dying and calling for help, and then looking at ourselves who had turned away from them, we might have thought that we too would eventually meet the same end.
Or perhaps, we were hoping for it.
But.
Even for me, who had made such a suicidal resolution, there was still something I feared.
—Grip…!
"....Still, I have to try."
What would happen to Hee-ah who is watching us from over there, if we die now.
What would become of the child who followed us all the way here because of our wrong judgment if we were to give up hope now.
Hee-ah who had breathed new hope into us who should have died long ago.
I couldn’t let that precious child die, that was my resolve.
So.
Because I had vowed to get that child out of here alive, even if it meant sacrificing my own life.
"......Hee-ah?"
".........."
I could not accept the sight that met my eyes.
Clang, the weapon fell.
The wooden club I had been holding until just now hit the marble floor, making a loud sound.
Though it was a loud enough sound to make me instinctively frown, even as the zombies approached, I couldn't even bring myself to pick it up again.
I could feel Yeon-ah and Jung-eun beside me calling my name in confusion at my sudden action, but even that couldn't bring me back to reality.
I only did one thing.
"....It's not, right?"
Just stared blankly at where Hee-ah was.
Hee-ah, who at some point had raised one hand high in the air.
In her hand that hadn't been tanned by sunlight, there was a familiar object I had seen many times somewhere.
A small, white, rectangular box that fit perfectly in one's hand.
On the front of that faintly glowing box, a small but clear numbers were displayed.
0 : 18
Slowly.
0 : 17
Decreasing.
0 : 16
An ominous sequence of numbers.
"....Hee-ah?"
No.
I know that box.
I know that object.
Because.
There's no way I wouldn't know it.
"Why are you holding that, Hee-ah?"
"Hwa-min!? What are you talking about? What did Hee-ah do!?"
But still, the reason I couldn't accept this situation thrust before my eyes was.
It was because I couldn't understand why Hee-ah was clutching that thing so tightly.
And why the number on the screen was slowly decreasing, my stupid brain could not understand.
0 : 10
During lunch when there was nothing to do.
As always, when Hee-ah opened the door and came in, we would gather in the living room led by her hand, all sit together and play board games.
Though there were no prizes or benefits, with joy and sorrow crossing at each victory and defeat, we all spent happy times forgetting the difficult situation for those moments at least.
When our turn finally came, we would press the protruding button on that box and fall into deep thought.
Thinking about how to make our team win.
And how to safely pass our turn.
0 : 07
The two minutes given to each team.
We would contemplate.
Because it was such a long time to just roll the dice, the number on the clock rarely decreased to zero.
But if, by chance, we took too long to make a decision, and that decreasing number eventually reached zero──
—What would happen?
If we used it outside, it would probably attract every zombie in the area.
Those bastards have sharp ears, after all.
Well, no one would be leisurely playing board games outside anyway.
Ah.
—Tap.
"—No."
"....What!? Hey....! Hey! Hwa-min, what are you doing!?"
"I have to stop her!! We have to stop Hee-ah───!!!!! Dammit, Hee-ah!!! Throw that away now, throw it awaaAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!"
"........."
Tick, tock.
Though there shouldn't be any sound, I could hear the ticking of the clock's second hand echoing in my ears.
No. When all numbers disappear, will it explode with a loud noise like a bomb.
If that's the case, that sound must be the sound of the bomb's fuse burning down.
Yes.
"............"
Hee-ah was holding the stopwatch that signaled turns in that game, her hand raised high in the air, clutching that bomb.
And then, with the sharp shard of glass she had been holding in her other hand now between her teeth, she slowly started to bring the sharp end of the shard towards the forearm of the arm holding the stopwatch.
Only then did I realize what the shard of glass Hee-ah had been holding was for.
*Yeon-ah, what do the zombies seem to react to?*
*They seem to react the most to sound, sunbae. I think they detect us through smell next. Their eyesight is about the same as when they were human, or maybe a little worse.*
It wasn't for self-defense.
It was to attract those things—
No. You can't do that, Hee-ah.
You're a good child, aren't you. You have to listen to unnie's words.
Put that down,
Put down that dangerous thing.
0 : 03
"───────────"
*Bam*, I lunged forward.
I don't remember what I shouted at that time.
I only remember that I was shouting like crazy, throwing off the backpack that I had cherished and not taken off even in moments when zombies were rushing in, and trying to run to where Hee-ah was hanging.
0 : 01
But in the end despite doing my best I was too late and.
0 : 00
I was, until the very end, just a useless idiot who couldn't do anything.
Beep beep beep─────, beep beep beep───────!!
[""""""""─■■■,■■■■?""""""""］
"—NOOOOOOOOOO—!!!!!"
A high-pitched electronic sound, amplified by the walls, reflecting off the vast hall.
As if by one mind, the heads of the zombies who had been running towards us, turned simultaneously towards one spot.
Dozens, maybe even hundreds of eyes.
At the center of those gazes.
Hee-ah, having stabbed herself in one arm with a shard of glass.
With bright red blood flowing from her lips cut by the glass.
"—Heehee."
Was smiling brightly at us.
This was the 59th day after the zombie outbreak.
In other words, the 45 day since we met Hee-ah.
About the child who was our hope.
About Hee-ah who was more precious to us than our own lives───
**
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