“First of all, this house has become far too filthy, so shall we go outside?”
As he said that, he picked me up and carried me down to the first floor, and that entire series of actions flowed as naturally as water. Even when my eldest brother packed our things and asked, “You still haven’t had lunch, right? Is there anything you want to eat?” I could only answer stupidly with a bewildered expression, “No, I don’t have an appetite…….”
Of course, my brother’s answer was, “Even so, you shouldn’t skip meals.”
I was about to nod reflexively at my eldest brother’s words when I belatedly snapped back to my senses upon seeing the pool of blood gathered in the middle of the living room.
“H, how am I supposed to eat in this situation?”
At that, Baek Hyeonwoo tilted his head and furrowed his brow. He looked as though he were asking why I couldn’t eat, which instead left me at a loss for words. Had the common sense of this world been overturned along with the appearance of zombies? As I moved my lips, unable to organize the thoughts tangling wildly inside my head, he finally nodded and answered.
“Right, you have a weak stomach.”
That wasn’t the problem, but he said it so calmly that I had nothing to say. Zombies had appeared, you know? The people who had worked in our house had all died in an instant, so was it really fine to end this with the words that I had a weak stomach? Even though I hated going hungry, it was difficult for me to calmly agree to eat under these circumstances.
While confusion piled upon confusion, my eldest brother, who had been carefully looking through the refrigerator, took out sliced bread, lettuce, tomatoes, and the like, then skillfully began making sandwiches.
“The nutrients are a little lacking, but it can’t be helped. For now, getting out of here comes first.”
As he said that, he glanced around the living room and wore a dark expression. When our eyes met, he hurriedly smiled, but it was right after I had already witnessed the shadow that had fallen over his face.
‘Ah…….’
Only now did I notice that Baek Hyeonwoo’s hands were trembling as he cut the tomatoes. Right, there was no way he wasn’t afraid. He was trying somehow to reassure his younger brother, yet I had failed to consider that and thought he was strange. I felt ashamed.
And yet I complained every time that he treated me like a child……. Had it not been for this situation, I would have wanted to shut myself in my room and not come out for two days.
“Should I put cheese in it?”
“Ah, mm-hm.”
As I listened to Baek Hyeonwoo, who had returned to his usual self, ask with a smile, my feelings became complicated. I wanted to tell him that he didn’t have to force himself to pretend he was fine, but I hesitated in case I hurt his pride. Besides, even if he readily accepted those words, I knew that the current me would be of no help whatsoever.
So in the end, the only thing I could do was pretend not to notice the fear he had revealed in passing and keep my questions to myself so that his efforts would not be in vain.
“Here, it’s done.”
Before long, the sandwiches were arranged prettily on a plate and placed on the dining table. I couldn’t bring myself to say that I didn’t think they would go down my throat, and merely sat obediently while fiddling with the cup filled with orange juice.
“But don’t force yourself to eat too much, either.”
“…….”
“Why? You don’t like it? Should I make you something else?”
“No, no.”
I didn’t want to become a child complaining about side dishes in a situation like this. When I hurriedly answered and picked up the sandwich, Baek Hyeonwoo reached out, stroked my head once, and left the kitchen, saying, “Keep eating. I’ll go pack the rest of the things.”
The sandwich I ate hesitantly was still delicious, and surprisingly, once food entered my stomach, it began clamoring about why I was only eating now.
To the point that my earlier question about how I was supposed to eat in this situation seemed ridiculous, I finished the sandwich cleanly, sniffled, and drank all the juice as well. Come to think of it, even in my previous life, when all the other children said it felt like chewing sand or that it tasted like plastic and had no flavor at all, at least my sense of taste had remained intact.
Right, it was better than starving to death.
I never wanted to experience death by starvation again. I rose from my seat to clear away the plate, then wondered whether there was any need to bother and left the kitchen as well.
“Did you finish eating?”
“Yeah.”
“Good job. Let’s take your medicine after thirty minutes have passed.”
When I came into the living room, the entire floor had been covered with blankets. Pretending not to notice the reddish-stained fabric, I walked toward the bathroom, whose door stood wide open. I had wondered what more he was packing, and it turned out he was gathering toiletries, towels, and things like that.
“……Is there nothing I can help with?”
“It’s fine. Go and rest.”
“Still…….”
“Hmm……. Then could you bring some clothes for Beomho and Itae? Several thin ones, if possible.”
When I lingered around the bathroom entrance, my eldest brother gave me a task as though he had no other choice, but I could not readily move and asked with drooping eyebrows.
“……Do you think those two are all right?”
“They’ll be fine. You know what the two of them are like.”
“Or can’t we wait until they come back? I think leaving this place would be more dangerous…….”
At those words, Baek Hyeonwoo stopped what he was doing for a moment and looked back at me. When I flinched and reflexively avoided his gaze, he approached, carefully pulled me into his arms, and slowly patted my back.
“Are you very scared?”
“……A little.”
“Sihyeon, will you look at your brother?”
“……Yeah.”
When I reluctantly raised my head, Baek Hyeonwoo’s pitch-black eyes curved gently.
“Your brother is fine, right?”
“…….”
“There’s no blood on me, and I haven’t been bitten anywhere.”
That was…….
“That’s true, but…….”
Since he had come from outside, he should have had at least a speck of dust on him, yet my eldest brother looked neat and clean, like someone who had only just finished getting ready for work. Even though I didn’t know how he had done it…… he had killed a zombie in my room without getting even a single drop of blood on himself.
“This place isn’t safe just because it’s here.”
His cold hand, as always, gently brushed my hair aside. As though proving his words, unidentified screams and crashing sounds rang out one after another outside. When I startled and hunched my shoulders, Baek Hyeonwoo covered my ears as though telling me not to listen, but that could only make me more anxious.
“But outside is more dangerous.”
“Sihyeon.”
He bent his body slightly to meet my eye level and spoke while brushing the corner of my eye with his thumb.
“We’re not going out blindly without a destination.”
“…….”
“The place we’re going is safe. The security is thorough, there’s food, and there are no other people.”
“……A place like that exists?”
“Have I ever lied to you?”
No.
Baek Hyeonwoo might choose to say less, but he had always spoken only the truth. When I slowly shook my head, he straightened his body again as though to say, See, and placed another bag in my hand.
“Beomho and Itae would have known that I’d take care of you as soon as this happened, so they probably went straight there.”
“Do my other brothers know where it is too?”
“Of course. Naturally.”
“Is it far from here?”
“A little, but it’ll be fine if you think of it as going on a trip.”
Judging by the fact that he deliberately did not tell me the region, it seemed to be quite far away. I stared blankly down at the bag and spoke.
“Or…… why don’t you just go alone?”
“What?”
For the first time, the smile disappeared from Baek Hyeonwoo’s face. His expression stiffened and even twisted slightly, so I had no choice but to explain hurriedly as though making an excuse.
“You know I can’t run, and I can’t walk for long either. Even if we’re really lucky and reach that safe place without anything happening…… I only have one week’s worth of medicine.”
“So you’re telling me to abandon you right now?”
“I’m not telling you to abandon me…… I’m saying we should judge the situation calmly and decide…….”
The longer I continued speaking, the narrower his eyes became. Right, I knew that even I could hardly believe what I was saying. But I merely hated being in pain; I was not afraid of death. Those who could live should live.
“If we’re lucky, everything might be sorted out within a week…….”
“How?”
“No, well…… maybe the country could wipe out the zombies or something…….”
“If this could have ended with controlling a single region, perhaps that might have happened. But what is happening now is not such a simple and straightforward problem.”
“But.”
“Sihyeon.”
Baek Hyeonwoo cut off my faltering words and gripped my shoulders. Rather than trying to persuade me, he met my gaze as though soothing a child throwing a tantrum and spoke in a firm voice.
“It isn’t starting in one particular region and spreading outward. It’s breaking out simultaneously all across the country.”
“……What?”
The words that finally flowed into my ears contained information so shocking that it was impossible to believe.
Did that make any sense? Wasn’t the standard pattern in zombie stories for them to spread because of some experiment or viral infection? Could Baek Hyeonwoo perhaps be mistaken?
“The world you knew no longer exists.”
“…….”
“It’s completely over. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
Perhaps those thoughts had shown on my face, because he added in a slightly cold voice, as though telling me to come to my senses.
Baek Hyeonwoo probably meant, as my brother, that we could no longer return to our daily lives, but strangely, to me, it sounded as though he were telling me to break away from the novel I had known and clearly recognize where I was.
“…….”
Right, this is reality to me…….
I had thought I was facing it properly, but it seemed that without realizing it, I had taken a step back and merely watched from a distance. As I stood there blankly, shocked by that realization, Baek Hyeonwoo quickly continued speaking.