It was, perhaps, the wrath of the heavens that dared not to be confronted by the frail human body. Or maybe, it was a kind of calamity that humans themselves summoned by repeatedly making the same mistakes.
April 4, 2018.
So, on a day when I felt the chill of an unexpected late spring cold while watching small flower buds gradually bloom on the cherry blossom tree, I realized that spring was quietly inching closer.
As the weather slightly warmed, the faces of people flitting about in the streets were filled with joy and inexplicable lightness, and the gestures of merchants beginning to open their shops seemed lighter than usual.
And—
“I’m going to the mart, our princess! Is there anything you want? Or maybe something you want to eat! How about that chicken tempura I said was delicious last time?”
“Hehe~ It’s okay, Mom! But you have to be careful, okay? I’ll be waiting right here for you!”
“…I’ll do my best to come back as fast as I can, for you and Dad!”
This was no exception for the family here.
No calamity could separate this sticky bond; the family embracing one another strongly. If one were to see the faces of this family smiling as beautifully as anyone, it would be hard to believe they had once encountered great hardships and had narrowly escaped the dissolution of their final relationship.
But like a masterpiece born after countless agonies of enduring hot flames and hammer blows, like a jewel that shines brilliantly after being polished and refined for days on end.
Swish—
“Have a good time!”
“Yeah, yeah! I’m off—Hia!”
With the long-desired birth of a child, they were miraculously able to solve the problems that had tormented them. For this family, forged sharply and solidly in the midst of a raging storm, there was no longer anything in the world to fear.
“Hehe.”
This is the story of my pride and devotion to my precious treasure, my family. The tale of a little smith promising to make a passionate and difficult life beautiful and happy, using my worthless life───
Bang, bang!
[“Hii, Hia? Can you hear me? Listen carefully to what I say?”]
“…..Mom?”
But there was one thing.
If there was something that little smith had forgotten…
Thump, thump, thump!
[“Even without Mom, our smart Hia can manage just fine, right…? Mom and Dad loved you, Hia────Kyaaaah!!”]
“No…. No! Mom….! Momaaaaa──!!”
A person is, after all, a being precariously living a day, caught in the wide, gaping mouth of death.
That with just a small whim from death, they must slowly meet their demise within that firmly shut mouth, is something they have forgotten.
Yeah.
Beep, beep—
“Ah……..”
My world has already…
My precious family, in other words, the flower garden I devoted my whole life to making happy, has already…
Before the winds that suddenly blew in, just like that, the years of effort became meaningless, leaving not even a tiny seed behind.
Tap,
Along with the brief sound that occurs when a phone call is disconnected.
Truly, in a most desolate manner.
Truly, in a most heartbreaking manner.
Beep, beep, beep.
“Please… Please…. Mom…!”
[‘………….’]
“No… That can’t be,───!!”
It had been completely pulled out from the root.
Engrossed in a moment of peace, a failure that did not look at reality.
“……Ah.”
The price for that failure arrived, bearing a horror unworthy of its momentary blunder.
Step, step.
“In an instant, everything has disappeared…..”
I failed.
A contradiction where the person who should have died is alive, and the one who should have lived is dead.
I stepped towards the kitchen that was wrapped in darkness, where the light had not entered.
One step, another step.
Where my footsteps were headed was the drawer that stored the utensils.
Toward a small knife used to peel fruits.
Tap, tap, the sound of my steps, devoid of strength, as I engraved my own inadequacies into each footprint on the floor, I walked toward that object of purpose.
Finally reaching the kitchen, I reached out my hand to the front, and there, the cold-feeling plastic handle of the knife wrapped around my hand.
Swish.
“……..”
The sharp shine that my parents had said was dangerous, preventing me from even getting close.
But that shine came easily into my hand, as if all the previous memories were a lie.
The fact that now there was no one to stop me from entering the kitchen—neither my mother nor my beloved father, nor anyone.
“…….Ha.”
That realization of the empty space hit me then.
Tap. I carefully reflected the sharp edge of the knife under the lit light.
The thought was, as expected, it wasn’t a good knife.
Though it was sharp at the moment, it would become dull in no time after a few uses, to a point where even severing my own neck wouldn’t be easy — just a cheap utility knife sold at the neighborhood convenience store.
Of course, it would be unreasonable to expect a knife meant for peeling fruits like apples to have the ability to cleanly slice through tough muscle or hard bone, but still, it left me feeling disappointed.
“……….”
If used properly, maybe around twenty to thirty.
It would start losing its edge as it hit bones, and the once sharp blade would gradually dull while cutting through tough meat.
After that, using a pair of office scissors lying around somewhere might look better.
At least those wouldn’t shatter and scatter into pieces all of a sudden.
Swish.
“………..”
Yeah.
If at all, if I were to inherit something from those beings and fail to finish my life as a person—
Then, I’ll use the scissors.
“…Scissors.”
It might not be such a bad end, after all.
What I’m about to do is an act that anyone who knows the ‘me’ up to now would think I’ve gone insane for.
An absurd action that cannot be understood due to still being a child.
But.
“…..It’s okay.”
Such facts didn’t become a major problem for me.
Because—
“─In any case, it’s the end.”
After all, there was no longer any meaning for me to keep on living.
Staying alone in this place where my flowers had withered, and pursuing future happiness had no value at all in my life.
A gardener who unable to protect even their given small garden deserves to lose its use.
There were more than enough reasons to die.
And the reasons to live had long ago been trampled and squashed into oblivion.
Now what remains for me is to repay the grudges of the dead with this body.
In terms of a movie, it was like a flame that engulfs everything.
Finishing with a grand explosion engulfing all—protagonist, villain, supporting roles, all characters in the film.
Much like the family remaining sobbing as they embrace their deceased members, choosing to end their own lives.
So.
“Everyone, really, it’s the end.”
With my right hand tightly gripping the knife, I prepared to step outside where pitiful corpses lay, having even abandoned death.
[“Damn—! Hwamin, Yeonah! Everyone, don’t even look back and run!!”]
“…..?”
Before I heard that voice…
Tap, tap!
[“What the hell are these!? They’re increasing!! Are they gathering all the nearby monsters!?”]
[“B-What do we do, Senior Jeong-eun?! The path we just walked is completely blocked off…!!”]
[“Damn…. Damn….!!”]
“──Ah?”
As I stood there holding the small utility knife, a lively commotion was coming from outside.
Frozen with the knife, I approached the firmly closed front door and opened it as if bewitched.
Upon widening my eyes, I saw three women, surrounded by zombies but still raising their weapons, resisting till the end.
That was, my first encounter with them.
Amid the cherished blooms that had all withered due to the unexpected catastrophe, the ones who approached me, kneeling in front of a flowerbed where rotten seeds were quietly buried, crying sorely.
In the place where the typhoon had swept through, rich nutrients buried deep underwater were drawn up.
In the place where the forest fire had passed, small lives were blooming anew with rotten trees as fertilizer.
“My long life thus far has been for just this short moment.”
Swish. I opened my eyes, which I had closed.
*
After a taxing journey through the procession of the dead, we finally managed to rise to the surface.
The zombies that were following us got tangled at the steep stairs of the escalator, so luckily we could evade the dangerous situation.
But, the world now laid out before us was not the peaceful place we had hoped for—the serene, sunlit paradise.
“─What is this?”
[“─■■■,■■■!!” “■■■,■■■…..” “■■,■■…..” “…■?■■■,■■!!” “■■,■■,■■■!” “■■■■■■!!” “■■■,■■■■!!” “■■,■?” “■■■■■■■!!” “■■,■■■■■■!!!”]
It was another hell.
On the other side of hell, was not heaven.
The interior of the mart looked more like a labyrinth, ever-turning.
Having ascended the stairs, we found ourselves back in the entrance we first arrived at, which was a spacious hall fortified with transparent glass walls.
Time passed, and maybe because the sun had descended a little.
That place, receiving the bright sunlight pouring in without filtration was brighter than expected, and unlike the dark underground where no light at all came in, we could see ahead without a flashlight.
However, the bright sunlight that we might have liked just a little while ago now felt like a poisoned chalice.
The shelves that should have been filled with products had entirely collapsed, leaning against one another in a precarious manner.
Moreover, in those cleverly made spaces between the fallen shelves, hidden goods must have lain there until now.
“…….Those crazy bastards…”
“……Ah, ah…”
We realized the net that had spread to catch us was far wider and more extensive than we had imagined, with no gaps whatsoever.
A mass of zombies surrounding the large hall.
They appeared to have even more than the zombies seen below.
In the face of indescribable violence, all the strength that had risen up till now felt like a lie and began to dwindle away.
Why.
Why is it that they want to take even our small glimmer of hope?
“………”
In the face of such injustice that I could not bear even to think about confronting, interestingly enough, I felt neither wronged nor angry.
There was only one feeling.
A sense of emptiness that everything had come to nothing.
[“─■■■,■■■■…..”]
The howls of zombies echoed throughout the vast hall.
It felt like their mocking laughter at our dreams of hope.
“…..Huh? Hia?”
And then, in that moment.
Shudder, shudder.
“─Senior Hwa, that’s Hia, right? It’s her, isn’t it?”
“…..Hia, you say?”
Yeon’s small mumble pulled me out of my thoughts.
Hia.
That’s right. There was Hia.
Upon hearing the name of the child we had been desperately searching for but could not find, I lifted my head, forgetting the grim situation.
Following her trembling finger pointing somewhere, I looked up to see a pure white doll precariously hanging onto a narrow ledge outside the glass railing on the second floor.
No.
Whoosh!
“──Oh, it’s the sisters.”
“Hia!?”
Without a doubt, it was Hia.
The little girl with a bag reminiscent of a chick on her back, tied with a white string around her wrist.
Even if the flashlight had disappeared, the string remained, linking Hia’s body to the pillar of the railing outside.
Was she performing a dangerous act of acrobatics in midair to avoid the zombies? The child was surely Hia, who we had just desperately searched for.
In a risky situation, perhaps to protect herself?
Hia was holding something sharp that looked like a small shard of glass in one hand.
Not seeing any zombies around reassured me that she hadn’t been discovered by them yet.
Thank goodness.
Really, thank goodness.
“….I thought my heart was going to drop, Hia.”
I let out a sigh of relief.
But—
[“■■■,■■■…..!” “■■■■■!!”]
“……This is driving me insane.”
Despite feeling a moment of relief that Hia was alive, my face hardened as I faced the zombies gradually approaching us.
Having found the child that was the biggest problem, it was no exaggeration to say the remaining task was nothing but escaping from here.
However, in a situation where only zombies surrounded us, that simple task was now utterly impossible.
Even if I tried to escape just Hia, these relentless and wicked bastards wouldn’t allow that either.
“They’re coming! Throw something, anything!!”
“Other than the weapon, we’ve only got canned goods!”
“Throw some of those down the stairs!! At this point, it’s not the time to save anything!!”
The ones that we had climbed the stairs to escape were still climbing up now on all fours, and in front of us, a number of zombies unlike anything we had seen before were slowly closing the distance on the three of us.
Neither one way nor the other, a predicament.
While thinking this, they were steadily closing the distance.
Tick, tick.
“….Damn.”
Naturally, curses slipped out as I lamented this situation.
I wanted to show Hia only my good side, so I was consciously trying to avoid any sort of cursing.
I didn’t even realize that I had started to resemble Jeong-eun due to living with her for so long.
Of all things to resemble, why did it have to be this?
“……….”
With a harshness, I tried to steady my shaking heart and firmly gripped my weapon.
At this point, all that was left was to cut through the zombies and escape this mart.
I had already resolved to not care if I were to be bitten in the process; after all, I was prepared for that since the moment I decided to bring Hia along.
Clatter, clatter.
“Damn it, damn it….!”
But my body had already reached its limits, regardless of my mind.
My legs were shaking as if they were about to crumble, and the weapon I was holding felt as heavy as a ton, making it hard even to hold.
Jeong-eun, who was inflamed with fighting spirit now that we had finally found Hia, was clearly struggling from fatigue if I looked closely at her.
In the end, we were just a few high school girls.
After two months without having properly consumed nutrients or done any exercise, what we could do was barely this far.
With dozens of kilos of weight on our backs, having swung heavy sticks restlessly, we might have already met our limits long ago.
…..
Well.
It’s not that I was particularly afraid of death.
Such thoughts had long been left behind in the distant past.
Watching as friends, whom I had talked to just moments ago, vomited blood and reached out to me, and witnessing familiar people die, torn to pieces by zombies in front of my eyes.
Seeing those who called for help die, reflecting on myself who turned away from them, perhaps I thought that I would eventually face the same end as them.
Or maybe I hoped so.
But there was one fear that even my suicidal mindset couldn’t shake.
Crack….!
“…..Still, I have to try.”
Now, what would happen to Hia, who is looking at us from over there, if we die?
Right now, what would happen to the child who followed us here due to our misjudgment if we let go of hope?
Hia, who had given us hope when even we should have long been dead.
I could not allow that precious child to die; that was my own vow.
So.
I promised that I would save this child, even if it cost me my life.
“……Hia?”
“……….”
I couldn’t accept the scene before my eyes.
The weapon dropped.
The staff I’d just been holding hit the marble floor and made a loud noise.
Despite the nearly unbearable high sound ringing in my ears, I didn’t even dare to pick the stick back up while zombies were pouring in.
I sensed the confusion of Yeon and Jeong-eun next to me at my sudden action, but that alone couldn’t bring me back to reality.
The only action I took was one.
“…..No way?”
I just stared blankly toward Hia.
Before I realized it, Hia, who had been holding up one hand high.
Her palm, not tanned by the sun, held something familiar that I had seen many times before.
A small, cube-sized light gray box the size of my palm.
On the front of that box, a small light glowed, and a clear number was displayed.
– 0 : 18
As it gradually ticked down.
– 0 : 17
– 0 : 16
A sinister arrangement of numbers.
“…..Hia?”
No.
I knew that box.
I knew that object.
Why?
Because I couldn’t possibly be unaware of it.
“Why are you holding that, Hia?”
“Hwamin!? What are you talking about? What’s Hia done!?”
But despite that, I still couldn’t fathom the situation unfolding before my eyes.
Why Hia was clutching that.
And why the numbers on that screen were appearing and slowly decreasing, my foolish mind couldn’t comprehend.
– 0 : 10
Time was running out.
Just like any other time, we would gather in the living room on the days when Hia entered through the door, and we’d sit down to play board games together.
Even though there were no products or benefits, we’d experienced joy and disappointment while winning and losing, and forgot our struggles for that moment.
Whenever it was our turn, we would press the bulging button on the box, deep in thought about how our team could win.
Also, how to safely pass our turn.
– 0 : 07
With two minutes given to each team, we pondered.
Since it was too long a time to roll the dice, the numbers on the clock usually didn’t decline.
But if a decision took too long, making the numbers dwindle down until they all disappeared—
*
“W-What happens again?”
If used outside, they might attract all the zombies nearby.
Those guys, they’re sensitive to sound.
Of course, no one would leisurely play board games outside.
“Oh.”
Thud.
“──No way.”
“….What!? Hey….! Hey, Hwamin, what are you doing!?”
“I have to stop her!! We have to stop Hia───!!!!! Damn it, Hia!!! Throw it away, throw it away now!!!!!!”
“………”
Tick, tock.
I could not have heard the sound, yet it resonated in my ears, the ticking of the clock.
No. If the numbers all disappeared, it would burst with a loud bang.
Then the sound must be that of the fuse gradually burning down on the bomb.
Yeah.
“…………”
Hia was holding the timer for the game, and that bomb in the air.
Then, with the shard she was holding in her other hand, she slowly began to move it toward her wrist.
At that moment, I understood the purpose of the sharp piece of glass that Hia had been holding all along.
Yeon, do zombies react to anything?
It seems they react mainly to sound, Senior. Then they use their noses to detect us, while their eyesight is about the same as before, perhaps slightly worse than human eyes.
The shard was not for self-defense.
It was to call those things—
No, Hia.
You can’t do that.
You’re a good girl.
You have to listen to what your sisters say.
So put that down, that dangerous thing.
– 0 : 03
“───────────”
Boom, I lunged forward.
What I shouted back then, I can hardly remember now.
All I knew was that I was screaming out of my mind and throwing off my precious bag as I dashed toward where Hia was hanging.
– 0 : 01
But in the end, even with all my efforts, I was too late.
– 0 : 00
In the end, I was nothing but a fool who could do nothing.
Beep beep beep─────! Beep beep beep───────!!
[“”””””””─■■■,■■■■?””””””””]
“──Noooooo!!!!!!!!”
An ear-piercing electronic sound echoed throughout the hall, bouncing off the walls.
Like one, the heads of the zombies that had rushed toward us turned simultaneously in one direction.
Dozens, perhaps even hundreds of eyes.
At the center of that gaze,
With her own arm impaled by a shard of glass,
Hia was there, smiling brightly as fresh blood flowed from her lips, torn by the glass.
“─Hehe.”
She looked at us, radiating joy.
This is the 59th day since the zombie outbreak.
So it was, the forty-first day since I had met Hia.
The story of the child who had been our hope.
The tale of Hia—far more precious than our own lives───
