Chapter 12. Farming

Chapter 12. Farming

My ragged breathing gradually returned to normal, and Seonyoung, who had been sobbing, slowly calmed down.

I wanted to keep resting like this, but I decided it was time to get up. Seonyoung looked uncomfortable sitting there, and the surroundings weren’t exactly ideal for a relaxing break. My stomach wasn’t strong enough yet to lie down and rest in a blood-soaked room with two rotting corpses.

‘Ugh.’

A fresh wave of pain hit me as I stood up. I swallowed a groan and stepped out the door to assess the situation.

The quiet hallway brought a sense of stability. Earlier, the building’s interior, cooler than outside, had felt eerie and ominous, but now that all the Zombies were dealt with, my perception had shifted.

“Team Leader, are you alright?”

“Yes, we need to get moving now. By the way, I just noticed a new ability was added to my Status Window.”

“Oh? Really? Let me just… Status Window.”

Seonyoung rolled her eyes as she checked her Status Window, then expressed disappointment, saying hers was still the same.

After a brief chat, we looked around the Fitness Center for anything useful. I found a few pieces of women’s clothing in some lockers and packed them, then refilled our Water Bottles from the water dispenser.

Stepping back into the hallway, we saw scattered corpses and fallen shoes. None of them were my size, so I looked at Seonyoung, who shook her head.

“Let’s find your Baseball Bat, Seonyoung, and then finish checking the Rooftop.”

They say humans are creatures of adaptation, don’t they? As I walked past the horribly mutilated corpses, I found myself feeling surprisingly alright. At first, the fear had been so gripping I could barely look, but now, I was more indifferent than I expected. I’d never even wrung a chicken’s neck before, yet here I was, getting used to human corpses first.

Descending the stairs, I spotted the Baseball Bat lying neatly. We retrieved Seonyoung’s bat and then headed up towards the Rooftop, listening carefully for any sounds.

Honestly, I didn’t have high hopes for the Rooftop. I mused that scavenging in a commercial building was proving less fruitful than even a single Convenience Store. I signaled to Seonyoung.

Clank, clank.

“It’s locked.”

We were about to turn back and go downstairs.

“Who’s there?”

A strange woman’s voice echoed. It was small and slightly hoarse.

Our eyes widened as we stared at each other.

“Is there someone there?”

The voice came again from beyond the door.

“Yes. There are two of us here. We were checking around for things we might need.”

Seonyoung looked at me, then spoke, pressing herself against the door.

After confirming there were no Zombies, we opened the door. Squinting against the bright sunlight streaming in from the Rooftop, we slowly stepped out.

“Kyaa!”

The woman shrieked briefly and stumbled backward when she saw me emerge. She looked to be in her twenties, dressed in black leggings and a white short-sleeved T-shirt. Her appearance was clean, so it didn’t seem like she had fought with any Zombies.

Seonyoung, who followed me out, slowly approached the trembling woman and spoke.

“Calm down. We just came from fighting Zombies downstairs. We’re human. It’s okay.”

Now that I thought about it, my clothes were completely stained with blood. I had wiped my face, but I’d put my blood-splattered mask back on, and my hair was matted with dried blood. On top of that, I was armed with a Baseball Bat in my hand—no, it was more like a blood-stained club, an item in itself.

‘I’d be startled too.’

“Oh my goodness… You dealt with all those Zombies?”

“Yes. Team Leader here did. We almost died too. We accidentally made a loud noise… But don’t worry, we weren’t bitten or anything.”

“H-huh… Thank goodness. My teacher just told me to run, so I just… I just came up to the Rooftop, and outside, people were attacking each other…”

The woman suddenly burst into tears, rambling incoherently. Seonyoung calmly comforted her, and through her sniffles, the woman recounted everything she had experienced.

It seemed it would take a while, so I sat down in a shaded spot and watched the two women talk.

“Here, drink some water. It’s okay now. There probably aren’t any Zombies left in the building.”

Seonyoung was already speaking informally to the woman on the Rooftop. Listening in, I learned that the Rooftop woman had come to the Fitness Center for a yoga class yesterday. Then, some of the people in her class had turned into Zombies. She had fled alone to the Rooftop and had been hiding there ever since, waiting for a rescue team.

Even aside from our gruesome appearance, the woman on the Rooftop was clearly terrified. She said she had witnessed accidents suddenly breaking out everywhere on the roads, and people attacking and tearing at each other. The screams of those caught and dying while trying to escape still echoed in her ears like phantom screams. Loud explosions, like a war had broken out, pierced through the heavy rain, almost making her lose consciousness. Moreover, the only place on the Rooftop where she could shelter from the rain was near the door. The Rooftop door was sturdy, but she had endured alone until now, under extreme stress from the constant wailing of the Zombies gathered outside.

I gazed at the woman on the Rooftop. Her eyes were hollow, and her body seemed devoid of strength. She probably hadn’t slept properly, and her stamina must have been at rock bottom. She had been caught in the rain in those thin clothes, so her body temperature wouldn’t have been maintained well either. It was a miracle she hadn’t collapsed already.

“It’s okay now.”

After comforting the Rooftop woman for a long time, Seonyoung handed her some water and emergency rations, then approached me. Before coming up to the Rooftop, I’d been worried about her mental state, as she had seemed tired and intimidated. But now, she looked perfectly fine again. Was she quick to recover, strong on the inside despite her gentle exterior? Perhaps because I compared her to the Rooftop woman, Seonyoung suddenly seemed remarkable.

“What do you want to do now? Gayoung says she lives in the apartment building right in front of us and asked if we could take her home… I’ll follow your decision, Team Leader.”

So, the Rooftop woman’s name was Gayoung. This was a difficult problem. We weren’t the rescue team Gayoung was waiting for. But if we just left, thinking there was nothing useful on the Rooftop, that woman would likely die. Seonyoung’s gaze indicated that she would follow whatever decision I made, rather than shifting responsibility.

Gayoung, who had quickly devoured two Energy Bars, watched us cautiously. Then, she suddenly stood up and approached me.

“Could you please save me? I know it’s a big ask, but my home is right next door. If you just take me home, I’ll definitely repay you, Oppa.”

If she had simply asked us to take her, I would have refused. There was a Convenience Store in this building, so she could probably hold out for a while.

‘I hadn’t considered going to her home with her.’

I ran various calculations in my head. The distance was short, so it might be alright. We didn’t have a proper place to sleep either, so we might be able to impose on her. Gayoung clung to me, not caring that my hands and clothes were covered in blood. Just by looking, there seemed to be at least a ten-year age gap between us. Seeing her cling to a stranger, calling me ‘Oppa, Oppa,’ showed just how desperate she was.

“First, step back a little. And call me ‘Mister.’ Where exactly is your home?”

“It’s over there. Building 301, Apartment 502.”

As if sensing my acceptance, Gayoung’s expression brightened slightly, and she immediately pointed to the adjacent apartment building. It really was close. Of course, just because it was close didn’t mean it would be easy to get there.

“If we take you home, could we impose on you for a night? Oh, and if you’re uncomfortable with me speaking informally, just say so.”

Normally, I would use polite language with someone I just met, even if they were younger. But perhaps because I had watched Seonyoung and Gayoung talking, I unconsciously started speaking informally. Gayoung didn’t seem to mind, but I felt Seonyoung glaring at me from the side.

“Of course! As long as you need. You’re my saviors! Anything is fine.”

And so, we decided to go to Gayoung’s home together.

After deciding on our destination, we briefly introduced ourselves. Gayoung said she was a 24-year-old job seeker. Both her parents had gone to work, and she hadn’t been able to contact them yet because she didn’t have her Cell Phone. Seonyoung was also unable to contact her parents, and with the world having turned out like this, it seemed best to prepare ourselves mentally for anything. Though I couldn’t bring myself to say such a thing.

After our brief introductions, we sat side-by-side on the stairs and planned our movement. We decided on a formation where I would lead, with the two women following side-by-side, and then I gave them several warnings.

“From what I’ve gathered so far, Zombies react to sight and sound. So, we need to be careful not to make noise while moving. Keep talking to a minimum. And always keep a good lookout. You, Gayoung, focus primarily on the left side relative to our direction of travel.”

Gayoung had been on the Rooftop the entire time, so there was a lot I needed to tell her. Though it had only been a day, the difference in experience between her and Seonyoung, who had risked her life with me, was vast, which worried me. With three people moving together, we would naturally make more noise than two.

“A Zombie’s weakness is its head. It’s softer than you’d think, so if you can hit it properly, you can deal with them easily. And they blindly rush at people, but their intelligence is quite low. It’s good to use obstacles to your advantage. We’ll try to avoid them as much as possible. But in unavoidable situations, just focus on not getting bitten and hold out. Just hold out and buy us time.”

I felt the limitations of conveying everything through words. I wondered if Gayoung was absorbing all the numerous warnings and coping strategies I was throwing at her. Still, there was nothing else I could do. Though I felt a pang of apprehension, Seonyoung’s subtle glance told me to stop there. Now, it was up to her to experience it firsthand and overcome it.