“If you can’t move, I can carry you around. Medicine? We can raid every hospital and pharmacy and somehow get it.”
“…….”
“So stop saying useless things. Knowing how much I…… how much we cherish you, how can you say something like that?”
Baek Hyeonwoo’s face was completely twisted, and he looked genuinely hurt. Only then did I realize that what I had said amounted to denying my brothers’ affection, and I had no choice but to lower my head deeply out of guilt, shame, and gratitude.
“……I’m sorry.”
The apology I barely managed to utter was so quiet that no one would have heard it without listening carefully. Baek Hyeonwoo moved his lips as if he still had more he wanted to say, but ended it with a deep sigh.
“No matter what happens, stay right beside me. Remember that the safest place is next to me.”
“Okay.”
“Good.”
Grinning, he ruffled my hair all over, then gestured with his head as if telling me to hurry and bring the clothes. I immediately turned around and headed toward the two of their rooms.
He said to bring thin clothes.
I did not know why, but I figured there must be a reason, so I filled the bag with clothes that looked as sturdy as possible despite being thin.
“I packed everything.”
When I came out into the living room carrying the bag, which felt a little heavy, my eldest brother also seemed to have finished getting ready and beckoned to me as he spoke.
“Let’s take your medicine before we go.”
The still numerous pills made me feel complicated. Until only a few hours ago, I had not cared how many pills I had to take, but now I even felt somewhat at a loss wondering how we were going to get all of them.
“Come here.”
“I can put it on myself.”
“I want to do it for you.”
In the meantime, Baek Hyeonwoo brought over a coat, put it on me, and even tied my shoelaces tightly.
“There.”
He stood up, looked me over once, and nodded as though satisfied.
We’re really leaving now.
It was the first time the front door I had always seen felt like something so unknown. Unable to calm my violently trembling body, I clutched the hem of my clothes, and Baek Hyeonwoo pulled my hand toward him and firmly intertwined our fingers as if reassuring me.
“Why? Are you scared?”
“……A little.”
“What is there to be scared of when I’m here?”
Did he know that even he was trembling faintly as he said that?
Because of that, instead of feeling embarrassed or complaining that I was all grown up, all I could do was grip his hand tightly in return.
“Never leave my side.”
“Okay.”
“Even if you’re scared, only look at me, all right?”
“All right.”
Click
The moment the front door opened, the wind blew. The outside air, which had always felt refreshing, carried a fishy and unpleasant smell.
No matter what happens, I have to accept it.
I made that resolution as I fixed my eyes on Baek Hyeonwoo’s broad, solid back in front of me. Hoping that I would be able to see that back for a long time.
I had clearly made that resolution, yet as if to make it meaningless, none of the situations I had worried about occurred.
To be precise, it would be more accurate to say that everything was dealt with before danger could approach and force us to act or make a decision.
For example, a signboard or bricks would fall on top of a charging zombie and crush its head, or an insane driver who had been taking advantage of the chaos to indiscriminately run people over would suddenly veer into a gas station right in front of us and kill himself…….
“Hand over everything you’ve got, ack! U, uaaaargh!”
“Kyaaaaaaagh-!”
“Save me, save me, sa- Grrrk…….”
“Shh, don’t look.”
Yes, strange things like what had just happened, where every time people appeared and targeted us with threats, a zombie would spring out from somewhere and hunt the humans instead, unintentionally saving me, leaving me unsure whether I should feel grateful or horrified.
“Let’s go this way.”
Baek Hyeonwoo also seemed shaken, as though he could not understand the situation, but he forced himself to remain calm and led me into an alley.
“Even if it’s a little inconvenient, it would be better to take a detour. Do your legs hurt?”
“I’m fine.”
In truth, they hurt a lot, and I was exhausted. My back was already soaked with sweat, and my head was not merely dizzy but on the verge of aching. I wanted to ask if we could rest for just a little while, but I could not. After all, it had only been three hours since we left the house.
Because we had been walking while avoiding both zombies and people, we had not even made it out of the city yet. If we rested every time things became difficult, it was obvious that we would spend an entire week just trying to escape this place.
I knew that I had no choice but to rely on my eldest brother, but even so, I did not want to burden him already.
“What do you mean, you’re fine? Your legs are trembling all over.”
“……It’s not that bad.”
When I unnecessarily glared at him and replied, Baek Hyeonwoo laughed under his breath, shifted the bag to the front of his body, then crouched down and offered me his back.
“Get on.”
“I said it’s not bad enough for that…….”
“Hurry.”
“You’re even carrying the bag…….”
“Don’t make me say it two or three times.”
His attitude said that he would not take another step from this spot unless I climbed onto his back, so I had no choice but to let him carry me.
“Tell me if it gets hard, all right?”
“Hard? You’re nothing but bones.”
He scoffed, stood up, and began walking as though it were nothing. I had planned to ask him to put me down if he showed even the slightest sign of struggling, but he actually seemed faster than when I had been walking myself.
“Relax your body. If you stay that stiff and tense, it’ll be harder for me.”
“Ah, mm-hm.”
He even ran, yet Baek Hyeonwoo’s breathing did not become rough, nor did he break even a single drop of sweat. Only then did I let go of some of my guilt and look around.
After leaving the alley and coming a little farther uphill, the whole city came into clear view. The place that had always been noisy and chaotic but that I had loved because it smelled of human life was now nothing short of hell.
Screams and pleas erupting everywhere, the fishy smell of blood carried on every gust of wind…….
“It would be best to avoid cities whenever possible. Even though the weather has gotten much cooler, after only three days the stench of corpses will be everywhere.”
“Are we going to keep walking?”
“Yeah. No matter what it is, there’s nothing good about drawing attention.”
“I see…….”
“Still, being like this makes it feel like we’re traveling, so it’s nice. Right?”
Kkeuaaaagh…….
Even as someone’s scream echoed from far away, Baek Hyeonwoo smiled brightly and asked. I knew he was saying it to reassure me, but wasn’t it a little difficult to think of this as traveling?
“Yeah, it does.”
But even so, my brother was more important to me. I felt sorry for the person who had screamed, but it could not be helped. I would pray for your soul in my heart, so please be born somewhere good in your next life too.
In any case, now that I had calmed down, I could not help wondering again. Zombies? Why on earth had zombies appeared in this world? And did it make any sense that they had appeared simultaneously all across the country, making even containment impossible?
Until we completely left the city, we saw neither soldiers nor even police officers or firefighters, so it seemed that the country truly had collapsed. What I was curious about now was whether zombies had appeared in other countries as well.
“Do you think things are all right overseas?”
“No. If anything, it’s worse, not better.”
“How do you know?”
“……Because I checked before the internet went down. My coworkers said the same thing.”
So this was how the history of humanity came to an end. After struggling so desperately to survive, the conclusion was a zombie apocalypse. I had felt it in my previous life as well, but life truly was futile and empty.
Well, perhaps someone would survive and continue history. There might be a person with immunity, like in ordinary movies or dramas, and they could use that to make a vaccine…… But whatever happened, just as my eldest brother said, it would no longer be the world we had known.
“What are you thinking about?”
“What will happen to the world, whether it will ever return to normal……. Even if it doesn’t, when will things stabilize? How many people will survive…….”
“…….”
“Why?”
“Our baby doesn’t need to worry about things like that. Whether the world ends or not, you won’t have to suffer any inconvenience.”
“Who are you calling a baby? Who?”
“If you’re riding on your brother’s back, then you’re a baby.”
Didn’t I graduate from being called that back in middle school? Even in a situation like this, I was so embarrassed I could die at the thought that someone might hear.
“Close your eyes!”
I was fooling around, lightly tightening my arms around Baek Hyeonwoo’s neck and then letting go for no reason, when he suddenly pulled me down without warning, dragged me into his arms, and shouted urgently.
Kwooooooong-!
Without understanding what was happening, I squeezed my eyes shut, and an enormous explosion that felt as though it would tear my eardrums apart erupted together with a hot, powerful blast of wind.
Beeeeee-
My ears went numb along with a sharp ringing. What was it? What happened? What on earth had happened?! I wanted to open my eyes immediately and check my surroundings, but the air was so hot that all I could do was curl up as much as possible and hide in Baek Hyeonwoo’s arms.
Normally, with this level of noise, something must have exploded, or exploded…… or exploded. Nothing else came to mind. If a bomb had fallen, I should have died before I even had the chance to feel this air. Then what was there that could explode like this? A factory? Was it a gas explosion?
Whether it was a gas explosion or a bomb, if I was going to die, I hoped I would die without pain, without even realizing that I had died. Or that a miracle would happen and time would turn back. Reincarnation existed, possession existed, so why couldn’t regression exist too?
I knew those thoughts did not suit the situation. But if I did not do even this, I felt as though I would lose my mind, so it could not be helped. As expected, people did not become mature simply because they had lived a long time. Then again, even the adults I had seen in my previous life had not been all that mature. If even people who had received proper education and were rumored to be intelligent acted like that, how mature could someone like me, who had only ever lived at home, possibly be? Right, this was only natural. At least I was not sobbing and screaming for someone to save me.