The distance to the thing was roughly fifty meters. Not an easy distance to hit its head with precision.
“What should we do?”
Sangman hyung looked at me and spoke quietly.
“For now, let’s keep our distance and see how it reacts.”
Sangman hyung took a few steps forward and quietly called out to the man.
“Hey, uh, excuse me. Are you okay?”
When he called a little louder, the thing’s spread arms slowly lowered. Then it turned its head toward us.
“Kraaaagh!”
An ear-splitting shriek burst out.
Our eyes met. The happy smile from before was gone, replaced by a twisted, madness-filled expression. Then it began sprinting toward us like crazy.
That was definitely not human.
I raised my bow and took aim. I drew the string and steadied my breathing. Just do it like always. Like always.
With my hands trembling, I released the string.
The arrow grazed past the side of its head and fell to the ground.
Fuck... I missed.
I quickly pulled out another arrow and nocked it. My hands were shaking, so I couldn’t do it as quickly as usual. The arrow kept slipping between my fingers.
Forty meters.
Thirty meters.
“Hey, hey... hey! Hurry!”
Hyung’s urgent voice burst out.
Twenty meters.
I barely managed to nock the arrow and draw the string. There was no time to aim. I shot by instinct.
Ten meters ahead.
Thwack!
The arrow pierced straight through the thing’s head. Blood sprayed in every direction.
It staggered forward with the same momentum it had been running with, then pitched over. It slid across the ground and sprawled out.
It stopped moving.
My heart was pounding like mad. My hands were shaking, and sweat was pouring down my whole body.
I drew another arrow and shot once more at the fallen thing. It sank into its torso, but there was no reaction. It seemed completely dead.
I lowered the bow and gasped for breath.
Hyung didn’t say anything either. The hand gripping the hammer had gone white.
After that, we stayed inside the camper for a long time without saying a word. We didn’t bother going out to check the corpse.
We just crouched there in silence. Hyung sat with his back against the corner of the bed, hugging his knees. His eyes were staring into empty air, unfocused. He seemed to have fallen into quite a panic.
Outside, screams still rang out from time to time. They came closer, then grew farther away, then sounded from somewhere else. It was like the sound of the world collapsing.
Had about an hour passed?
“Hyung.”
I spoke first.
“What should we do?”
There was no answer. Hyung remained still, curled up just as he was. As if he couldn’t hear me. Had he lost his mind?
“Hyung, should we look around nearby?”
Still no answer.
“No, how about we check the food first? See how long we can last...”
Grrr.
I heard a low sound.
Hyung slowly raised his head. The vacant look from a moment ago was gone. In its place was a ferocious madness.
No, why?
He hadn’t been bitten. I shot it with the bow before the zombie could pounce, and there had been distance between us, so no blood had splattered on him at all. There had been no contact.
Why on earth?
The moment the question arose, Hyung stood up.
My body moved on instinct before anything else. I opened the door and rushed outside.
After running a few steps, I looked back.
Hyung was leaping out of the camper. He was charging toward me like a madman. Like a beast, in the exact same posture as that zombie from earlier.
He really had become a zombie.
I didn’t run away. I turned around and took the wrench out of my pocket.
He was in his thirties and hardly exercised, almost obese. I was probably stronger than him.
“Hyung! Stop!”
I shouted. My voice cracked.
“Stop!”
My shouting was no use at all. Hyung charged straight at me, reaching out with his hands as he threw himself forward. I barely dodged to the side, and he sprawled onto the ground.
Instinctively, I brought the wrench down.
Thwack!
Once, twice... three times.
I felt the impact in my hand. Blood splattered. The dull sensation of his skull caving in traveled up through my palm.
Hyung’s body, trembling violently, soon went limp.
I stopped.
Panting, I looked down at my hands. They were covered in blood. It had splashed onto the backs of my hands, my palms, my body.
I stood there like that for a long time.
I wiped the blood roughly on my clothes. Even after wiping and wiping, the sticky feeling wouldn’t go away, so I simply gave up and returned inside the camper.
I closed the door and slumped into a chair.
Was it airborne?
Hyung hadn’t been bitten. No blood had splashed on him, and there had been no contact. Even so, he changed.
Then would I, who had been beside him, soon...
I was afraid.
My whole body trembled. I drew every curtain in the camper. So I couldn’t see outside. So I couldn’t see anything.
I sat curled up in the chair, hugging my knees like Hyung had been.
The fear that I might become a zombie crushed my entire body.
I didn’t know when I might change. It could be the next moment. It could be a minute from now, or an hour from now.
I hid like that. I couldn’t think of anything. I couldn’t do anything.
Sitting there, I closed my eyes.
* * *
When I opened my eyes, I was on a blue grassland. An endless field of grass rippled in the wind, and the sky was so blue it hurt my eyes.
I couldn’t tell whether I was lying down, sitting, or standing.
The sensation of my body was faint. Even though I knew it was a dream, it had a strange feeling that didn’t seem like a dream.
A voice came from high up in the sky.
Rather than words, it was closer to a resonance. It felt like I wasn’t hearing it with my ears, but having it engraved directly into my mind.
I sensed that some enormous being, something that might have been the sky or the sun, was up there. I couldn’t see its form, but something was definitely looking down at me.
—Kill ten zombies. Then... I shall grant you an ability.
Was it a god? Or something else...
I couldn’t answer. Or rather, I don’t think the thought of answering even occurred to me. I simply stood there in a daze, accepting that voice.
Then I opened my eyes.
I was inside the camper. Faint light was seeping in through the curtains, and my body, which had fallen asleep curled up in the chair, was stiff.
Had it been a dream? But the voice I had just heard still remained vividly in my head.
—Kill ten zombies.
Either way, it was just a dream. My worries must have appeared in my dream.
When I checked the time, it seemed I had slept for about three hours.
I still hadn’t turned into a zombie.
Hyung changed within that short time, so why was I fine?
Was it different for each person? Or had Hyung already been infected from the beginning? I couldn’t know. In any case, the only thing that mattered was the fact that I was alive right now.
I slightly opened the curtain and looked out the window.
Hyung’s body was still lying on the ground, and there were no other zombies or people nearby.
The screams that had been coming from far away had become rare now.
Carefully, I opened the camper door and went outside.
I stood in front of Hyung’s corpse. I could see his caved-in skull and the dried blood.
Just a few hours ago, he had been laughing while bragging about the camper. My throat tightened, but now was not the time to be lost in sentiment.
I searched Hyung’s pockets, took out the hammer, and kept it. Then I pulled out the arrow stuck in his head.
I felt a damp sensation when I pulled it out, but I forced myself to ignore it.
I went to the other zombie I had killed earlier and pulled out the arrow lodged in its head as well.
I had brought twenty-four arrows. That was how many fit in one quiver.
Since the arrows were limited, I had to conserve them. I would need to get into the habit of retrieving them every time I shot.
I looked at Hyung’s body again. It didn’t feel right to just leave him sprawled there, so I dragged him to the bushes behind the camper. It was a place where he wouldn’t be easily seen.
I didn’t have the luxury of burying him, but at the very least, I didn’t want to abandon him in the middle of the road.
“I’m sorry, Sangman hyung.”
I murmured softly. There was no answer.
I returned inside the camper and examined the interior carefully.
When I opened the refrigerator, all that was inside were a few pieces of pork belly left over from yesterday and a couple cans of beer.
Searching the cupboards, I found three or four cup noodles, a few bags of snacks, and several chocolate bars.
This was all there was to the emergency food Hyung had brought. Since we had originally planned to stay only two nights, it was only natural.
I took everything out, lined it up on the table, and calculated. Even if I rationed it as much as possible, it would last only two or three days at best.
There was water left in the camper’s water tank, and there was a water purifier too, but that would also run out after a few days.
I looked out the window.
This was a sparsely populated rural area, so it wasn’t bad for hiding. The chances of zombies swarming in like earlier would probably be lower than in the city.
But the problem was food. No matter how safe it was, it would be meaningless if I starved to death.
Even in the countryside, if I searched, there should be a convenience store or a small mart somewhere.
I remembered passing through a small village on the way here in the camper yesterday. How far was it from here? Two kilometers? Three? It wasn’t that far, but the problem was that I had no idea how many zombies were between here and there.
After thinking for a moment, I took the drone out of my backpack.
When I placed it on my palm, I felt its small, light weight. Just yesterday, it had been a drone I flew for fun, but now it had become a tool for my survival.
I took out the controller and turned it on. The battery was at eighty percent. Enough for one flight. I slightly opened the camper door and sent the drone outside.
With a small whirring noise, the drone rose into the air.
I tensed, wondering if the zombies would react to the sound, but I saw nothing moving nearby. Once the drone climbed higher, the noise became almost impossible to hear.
The surrounding scenery spread across the controller’s screen. The vacant lot where the camper was parked, the trees nearby, and the small village visible in the distance.
I slowly moved the drone toward the village while watching the screen.
I saw several zombies on the road.
Some were walking around, while others were staring at the sun.
It was the familiar posture of standing with both arms spread wide, gazing at the sun.
I sent the drone closer toward the village. It was a small town center with a few shops clustered together.
A small convenience store sign caught my eye. But even from far away, the inside of the convenience store looked completely empty.
I searched for another convenience store.
I found one where some of the shelves were empty, but quite a lot still remained.
Around the convenience store... five zombies.
Using the drone, I figured out the optimal route and confirmed that there were roughly five more zombies along the way there.
The zombies on the screen stood still without moving. When I thought of the faces that must be wearing happy smiles, chills ran down my spine.
The drone’s battery was running low. I couldn’t keep it in the air much longer. When I gave the return command, the drone began coming back automatically.
I set down the controller and sank into thought.
To reach the village, I would have to deal with at least ten zombies.
I had twenty-four arrows. In terms of numbers, it was enough, but I had to account for misses too.
It would be good if I could retrieve the arrows after shooting, but they could be lost for good or break.
The voice I had heard in my dream earlier rose in my mind.
Kill ten zombies. I shall grant you an ability.
Was it real? Or just some ridiculous dream brought on by an extreme situation? Either way, if I wanted to survive, I had no choice but to kill zombies.