“Haa…”
It’s helpless.
It’s already been a week since I came to this world.
Time was passing without any progress
.
I clenched my fists and stood up from my seat.
“Let’s find survivors!”
There must be living people, not zombies, somewhere.
* * *
Two men and a woman
were walking through a forest lined with black dead trees like tombstones. An
unrealistically
pretty girl with blonde hair and detailed features that look like she would jump out of a fairy tale, but not matching her appearance, the child’s neck was tied with a chain necklace that only animals
would
wear
.
The man who grabbed the chain of the necklace gasped for breath and hurried his steps, looking around anxiously as if being chased by something.
Especially when passing through a place where trees were lined up tightly, it was clear that he was even more nervous.
On the other hand, the child was just following the man with blank eyes.
As the sun slowly set red to the west, the man found a small cave in a crevice in the rocks.
The man was wary and entered the narrow entrance with his waist bent.
Traces of dried excrement and bones of small animals were visible everywhere.
I could feel the traces of being empty for a long time.
The man judged that the owner of this cave had either run away or been eaten by zombies.
kang! kang!
The man drove a stake into the floor and tied a chain attached to the girl to it.
The child just stood there blankly, unrestrained, as always.
The man walked around the cave and gathered firewood.
The probability of zombies appearing in a forest like this is low, but there is nothing wrong with being careful in everything.
To survive in this era, you must be careful and careful in everything.
He returned to the cave after about 10 minutes or so.
The man put an armful of branches on the ground.
The child stood still, not moving, just like when the man had left.
The man clicked his tongue low and lit a fire.
As the fire started, a man took a tin pot from his backpack and poured water and dried cornmeal into it, stirring it with a ladle.
After boiling to some extent, the savory smell filled the cave and stimulated the appetite.
The man took the salt shaker out of his pocket and carefully waved it at the pot. Salt was rare in this era. had to save
“Eat.”
The man called the child, but the child did not respond.
“Even if he wants to eat.”
Unable to wait, the man pulled the chain and the child was dragged right next to him.
The man placed a bowl of corn porridge in front of the child.
Slurp!
The man noisily ate the porridge from the pot. Yellowish corn porridge clung to his messy beard.
He ran his hand through it and greedily licked the porridge off his hand.
After finishing the meal, the man burped and licked his lips.
The man glanced at the child.
However, the bowl of porridge placed in front of the child did not decrease at all.
The man let out a low sigh and scooped out the cooled porridge with a spoon and pushed it into the child’s mouth.
Then, for a moment, a faint light flashes in the child’s eyes.
Gulp.
The child’s neck moved and he instinctively swallowed the porridge the man handed him.
Finally, the child’s bowl of porridge was emptied.
The man roughly wiped the pot and porridge bowl with a cloth and set them aside.
Then he took some blankets from his backpack and spread them on the floor to lay the girl down.
Like a doll, the child follows his actions without resistance.
Perhaps it was because she was sleepy from eating or because the bonfire was warm, the child’s eyelids slowly closed after a while.
The man sighed again.
Carrying a child took a lot more work than I thought.
He pulled out a cigarette, but it had long since fallen. Pushing aside the craving for a cigarette, the man wrapped the remaining blanket around his shoulder.
The man settled down near the campfire and closed his eyes.
In the man’s right hand, as if he were vigilant, an ax with dried black blood was clenched tightly.
* * *
The man had a dream.
I’ve had hundreds of dreams, but when I dream, I stupidly forget that this is a dream.
That is why the man repeats fear and uncontrollable sadness every time.
Kik-kike-kike.
As the chains were pulled tight, a shrieking sound pierced the man’s ears.
The man trembled and raised his head.
He saw a woman reaching out her hand anxiously towards him.
The woman was the man’s beloved wife.
Women, like men, cast their gaze at him.
However, her eyes were different from those of men.
The emerald-colored eyes of the woman whom the man loved had long since melted and disappeared.
The man muttered blankly as he gazed at the darkness within the woman’s empty eyes. “Why…
did you
do that?”
-Kiaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
Instead of answering, the wife howled like a beast, opening her mouth red with hot
blood
.
It was the child of a man and a woman.
When alive, the child asked the man.
“Daddy, why do you lock the basement where Mom is?”
“Mom is sick. A very, very bad disease. Dad is fine as an adult, but it is very dangerous for a child like you. That’s why I keep the door locked so I don’t get sick.”
“Huh, I want to see Mom too.”
“I’ll be able to see you soon, when Mom gets better.”
“When will Mom get well?”
The man was silent for a moment, then said with difficulty,
“Soon. Soon.”
It was also a man’s hope.
My wife just had a bad disease, and she had endured until now with the hope that soon a vaccine to cure the disease would be available and she would be able to return to her happy family.
Kreureung!
Lassie, who was next to the man, bristled his hair and bared his teeth fiercely at the woman.
In the meantime, the wife earnestly reaches out to the man and cleats her teeth before blood.
she wanted a man
However, unlike in the past, what she wanted was not love, but hot blood and intestines flowing through his body.
The woman was not enough to eat the child, so her husband wanted to eat too.
The man ran out.
When he came back, he had a lumbering ax in his hand.
The man lifted the ax with all his might.
What the ax blade is aiming for is the woman’s head.
The man’s eyes were bloodshot red.
Hit it! have to hit it!
me i can’t lost a child I can’t even lose my wife!
must kill! This is no longer my wife. It’s the monster that ate my child!
I can’t… I can’t…
kill! Kill me now!
A few minutes holding the ax felt like an eternity.
The weight of the ax and the man’s anguish weighed heavily on his arm.
“Kill me honey.”
The man looked at his wife’s face in surprise.
But she didn’t change.
-rrrrrr!
Still reaching out for him, ravenously salivating.
“Oh my god. What should I do?”
The man wept and called out to God.
But God did not answer the man’s call.
God, benevolently, always watches over man.
* * *
“Kyaaah! Kyaaak!”
It was the shrill scream of the child that hurriedly brought the conflicted man out of the dream into reality. The
man’s eyelids swelled open.
Only faint embers remained from the burnt-out bonfire.
The surroundings were too dark.
A faint fear crept into his widened eyes.
“Where, where are you!”
The man turned his head to where the child was.
“아아 아아.”
아이는 오들오들 떨며 남자의 바로 오른편 뒤를 바라보고 있었다.
남자가 황급히 배낭에서 랜턴을 꺼내 아이가 바라보는 곳을 향해 비췄다.
그곳엔 어둠에 몸을 숨긴 채 소리 없이 동굴 안으로 기어들어 오고 있던 좀비가 있었다.
눈알이 없이 텅 빈 새까만 눈두덩과 반쯤 썩어 들어간 뺨에서 구더기들이 요란하게 꿈틀거렸다.
랜턴 빛이 거슬리는지 좀비가 입을 벌리며 꺼억 꺼억 울어 댔다.
남자가 도끼를 들었다.
꿈에서와는 달리 그 손길엔 일말의 망설임도 없었다.
퍼어억!
콰직!
동이 트자마자 남자는 서둘러 짐을 챙겨 동굴을 떠날 차비를 했다.
하나가 나타났다는 건 곧 다른 놈들도 나타날 수 있다는 말이니까.
남자가 떠날 준비를 하는 동안 아이는 동굴에 있는 머리가 박살 난 좀비의 시체를 멍하니 바라보았다.
그 시선에 지난밤과 같은 공포는 없었다.
아이도 알고 있는 것이다.
이건 더 이상 움직이지 않는 썩어 가는 고깃덩어리일 뿐이라는 걸.
무서운 건 움직이는 것들.
인간 혹은 좀비뿐이다.
철컥.
떠날 준비를 끝낸 남자가 사슬을 잡아끌었다.
하지만 아이는 움직이지 않았다.
머엉.
아무것도 없는 빈 허공을 뚫어져라 바라보고 있었다.
“혹시… 좀비가 근처에 있나?”
Then the child shakes his head.
What was there was not a zombie, but something else.
“Then let’s go.”
The man, relieved that he was not a zombie, urged him by pulling on the chain, and then the child followed him.
* * *
‘You saw me!’
나는 전율했다.
비록 정상은 아닌 것처럼 보였지만 이 세계에 와서 처음으로 나를 인식한 여자아이다.
나는 삼라만상의 펜을 꼭 움켜쥔 채 멀어져 가는 남자와 아이를 쫓았다.
그렇게 나는 그들의 이야기를 보게 된다.
좀비로 뒤덮인 아포칼립스 시대의 꿈과 희망도 없는 처절하고 슬픈 이야기를.
외전. 완결이지만 일신상의 이유로 연재합니다 (2)
그들이 도착한 도시는 쥐 죽은 듯 고요한 무덤 같았다.
묘비처럼 서 있는 건물들엔 약탈과 방화의 상흔이 고스란히 새겨져 있었다.
남자가 조심스레 주위를 살피더니 버려져 있는 자동차로 다가갔다.
앞 유리가 깨져 있는 것만 제외하고는 제법 상태가 좋았다.
남자가 깨진 앞 유리에 손을 집어넣어 차문을 열었다. 운 좋게 의자 바닥에 차 키가 떨어져 있었다.
남자가 간절한 얼굴로 차의 시동을 걸어 보았지만 먹통이었다.
“빌어먹을!”
The man nervously tossed the car keys and checked the oil.
About half of the oil remained.
The man took out an empty plastic bottle and a hose from his backpack, inserted the hose into the inlet of the car, and sucked it hard.
The man
spit out the gasoline in his mouth into a plastic bottle and inserted a
hose
into
it
.
