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I was worried that the woman might do something unexpected, like scream, but as someone with a strong will to survive, as evidenced by her silencing herself while being raped, she didn't do anything out of the ordinary.
Stepping outside, I could hear quite a few footsteps around me. It seemed that the zombies, of which only two came after the sound of the glass door breaking, were all blocked in the alley and against the walls.
'Damn heavy.'
I walked carefully, trying not to attract attention with my footsteps. I had packed a lot of food into the caddy bag, so even though I tried to be quiet, my footsteps seemed loud, making my heart pound.
"Shriek?"
Just then, I heard a zombie's sound from over the wall. It sounded as if it doubted what it had heard.
'Crap…'
For a moment, I debated whether to stop and wait. But I soon decided that it would be better to just run to my apartment as fast as possible rather than wasting time there. Even if a zombie caught me, I figured I could make it home while it was going around the wall.
"Shriek!"
As soon as I started running, I heard the zombie's shriek and the sound of frantic movement from over the wall. And as if in response to that zombie's sound, other zombies began shrieking from all directions.
"Ack!"
In my anxiety, I tried to run as fast as possible, but I lost control at a corner and crashed into a wall. But I couldn't afford to linger there. My shoulder throbbed, but I gritted my teeth and kept moving my legs.
Fortunately, the zombies blocked by the wall were too stupid to come out onto the street, so I was able to safely reach the alley across from the officetel.
I was starting to relax, thinking that all I had to do was cross the street and enter the officetel.
"Shh!"
Suddenly, a zombie jumped out from the side and lunged at me.
Thud!
"Ugh!"
I reflexively thrust the golf club forward and pierced its chest, which prevented me from being bitten, but I lost my balance and fell backward with the zombie. I also dropped the golf club.
"Shriek!"
"Ugh. Get off me, you bastard."
The zombie was desperately trying to bite me, shoving its snout at me relentlessly.
I knew how terrifying a zombie's bite force was, so I grabbed its neck and pushed it away, trying to get it off me. But unfortunately, with my scrawny physique, I couldn't push the zombie away. Just holding it off was a struggle.
The zombie's snout was getting closer and closer. The fishy smell from the zombie's mouth became more and more distinct.
'I'm screwed at this rate. What do I do?'
Just then, I noticed the scattered cans of food lying nearby. It seemed that the bottom of the caddy bag had torn when I fell, and they had spilled out.
Without hesitation, I freed one hand, grabbed a can, and shoved it into the zombie's snout.
Crack!
The can shattered instantly inside the zombie's mouth, but fragments of the broken can pierced its mouth, and bluish-black blood flowed out.
I grabbed another can and shoved it into the zombie's mouth. The zombie didn't seem to feel any pain, and it kept chewing, blood streaming down its face, as I shoved cans into its mouth.
After shoving the fourth can into its mouth, the zombie went limp and slumped, as if the fragments of the can, forced in by its own bite force, had destroyed its throat.
With difficulty, I pushed the zombie aside, got up, hastily put the spilled cans back into the caddy bag, and entered the officetel.
"Whew. I thought I was going to die."
Only after arriving home could I slump to the floor and let out a sigh of relief. I never knew that going to the convenience store could be so difficult. And I had never felt the convenience store was so far away.
"Ugh, the smell."
As I sat still, a stench rose sharply from my clothes. The smell of blood was especially strong and foul. It was different from just the smell of blood; it was a disgusting smell, like a mixture of fishy and rotten odors.
With trembling legs, I managed to get up and take a shower. Normally, showering would take only 10 minutes, but I scrubbed every nook and cranny, taking at least three times as long.
As soon as I got out of the shower, I put the blood-stained clothes in a bag and threw them out the window. It was something I would never normally do, but since I had killed someone, this didn't bother my conscience in the slightest.
I immediately collapsed onto the bed. I wasn't particularly sleepy, but I was so tense and had moved my body so vigorously for the first time in a while that my body felt exhausted.
I don't know how long I was in that strange state of being awake but with my eyes closed.
Knock, knock.
Someone broke the silence and knocked on the door.
Jin Jooyoo, who lived on the second floor of the officetel, had been trapped in the officetel since the day of the zombie outbreak, which she called D-Day.
'I'm hungry.'
Unfortunately, she had nothing to eat in her apartment. Because she was so unskilled at housework, she had always eaten all her meals outside.
Moreover, D-Day happened to be the day she had booked with a friend to take body profile pictures. As a result, she had only eaten two eggs and two bananas all day before D-Day and had even done intense weight training.
Thanks to that, she was able to take a day off and stay in the officetel, so she survived, but she had been starving for three days, and her stomach felt like it was stuck to her back.
Thud!
While clutching her hungry stomach and filling it with tap water, Jin Jooyoo turned her head at the sudden commotion outside the window.
'What crazy person is trying to commit suicide here?'
Jin Jooyoo slightly opened the window and looked outside. And she spotted a man shoving cans of food into a zombie's mouth.
'It's the man from the fifth floor?'
He looked to be about her age but was always holed up at home. He was skinny and didn't seem particularly dangerous, but he also looked a bit gloomy, and she had sometimes seen him hanging out with men who looked intimidating, so she had regarded him warily.
But seeing him bravely go outside in this situation, bring back a lot of food, kill the attacking zombie, and safely come back inside, her opinion changed. Unlike what she had thought, he was a dangerous man who hung out with gangster-like men for a reason.
Jin Jooyoo closed the window, having no energy to stand, and lay back down on the bed.
But the cans of food that had fallen out of the caddy bag the man was carrying kept replaying in Jin Jooyoo's mind. Even though quite some time had passed since the man had entered the officetel, the cans of food kept coming to mind.
Gulp.
'It doesn't seem like there will be any rescue plans for a while. Maybe the world has ended. Will he sell me some food? If that doesn't work…'
Jin Jooyoo stared silently at the front door, then turned her head and looked at the mirror on her dressing table. The mirror reflected her haggard appearance, having starved for three days.
After staring at the mirror for a while, Jin Jooyoo hardened her expression and sat down in front of the dressing table, picking up the foundation.
'It's the woman from the second floor?'
Even if I don't know everyone who lives in the officetel, I definitely remember the woman who lives on the second floor.
I haven't seen her lately, but until last year, I often saw her entering the officetel with her boyfriend. She wasn't strikingly beautiful, but she wasn't ugly either, and above all, she had a very good figure, so I envied her boyfriend who got to enjoy her. I could never forget her.
But that's just my one-sided memory, and in reality, there's no connection between the woman from the second floor and me. We don't even make eye contact when we pass each other; we're just strangers.
'There's no way she just came here in this situation without wanting something. Ah, she must have seen me bringing in the food.'
It was easier to guess the purpose of the woman from the second floor because we were strangers. There was no other reason for her to come.
I didn't see anything that could be considered a weapon, so I opened the front door.
"Oh, hello. I'm the one who lives on the second floor."
"Yes. What's the matter?"
I pretended not to know to test her. I had seen a strange woman at the convenience store, so I was curious to see if this woman had come to beg or to make a deal.
"...Um, well, I saw you bringing in food earlier. Could you sell me just a little bit?"
"With money?"
"I'll give you 10 times, no, 20 times the price."
"Is money meaningful anymore?"
Money is only useful when society is maintained. In a situation where society is already falling apart, money is just a number.
Of course, the military and police might move to drive out the zombies, but even so, the value of money wouldn't be the same as before, so money is even more meaningless.
"Then I'll do anything. Please, just share a little bit."
"Anything?"
"Yes, anything."
The woman from the second floor said calmly, with an expression as if she was expecting this.
Come to think of it, I noticed that she had subtle makeup on her face. Her clothes were also a tight t-shirt and hot pants that subtly emphasized her figure.
It seemed she had come prepared for this from the beginning.
It had only been a day since D-Day, but she was a very quick-thinking woman. Or maybe she was an open-minded woman who didn't think much of a night.
"Come in."
"...Thank you."
I changed my mind about just dealing with her and kicking her out, and let the woman from the second floor inside.
Click.
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