Chapter 10 : Encounters (2)

“Eek!”

A woman’s scream echoed from outside the storage room.
The voice sounded young.
A child, maybe.

‘She’s not alone. Multiple people are coming up.’
I heard the sound of footsteps sprinting behind her.
Four people, by my count.

Having finished my business in the storage room, I slung my bag over my shoulder and stepped out.

Outside, a girl who looked about elementary school age was slumped on the floor.
She must’ve been startled by the pile of zombie corpses on the fourth floor.
Her body trembled like a vibrating phone.

Oh, our eyes met.

Her eyes widened when she saw me, her trembling intensifying.
Was I scary?

Tap-tap-tap.

“Eek!”
The sound of footsteps grew closer.
The girl visibly flinched, shrinking even more.

She glanced toward the stairs where the noise came from, shaking harder.

‘…’
I knew that behavior.
It was a defensive reflex abused kids showed.
Unable to trust adults, they cowered in fear around anyone bigger than them.

“…You okay?”

At my question, her head snapped back to me.

Tears welled in her eyes.

“H-Help…”
After a moment, just as she started to speak—

“There she is! Grab the kid!”
Four rough-looking men, like gangsters, stormed up the stairs.

The moment they saw the girl, one grabbed her arm roughly.

“Ow!”
She yelped in pain, but they didn’t care, shouting as if it was nothing.

And they didn’t stop there.
One man—a pig with a dragon tattoo on his arm—grabbed her hair.

“You little sh*t, think you can make fools of us?!”
Fuming, he raised his arm high.
The girl squeezed her eyes shut, bracing for what was coming.

…

“Stop.”
I spoke before his hand could reach her.
No need to watch anymore—I understood the situation.
If he hadn’t stopped, I was ready to throw a rock and take his arm off.
But he froze at my voice.

He hadn’t noticed me before; his eyes widened briefly before narrowing.

“Who the hell are you? We’re busy, so f*ck o—wait.”

The tattooed pig was about to curse me out but stopped when he saw my face, his mouth falling open slightly.

“Damn… Holy sh*t.”
He leered at me with lustful eyes.
Not just him—the other three men with him gave me the same look.

“Angel cosplay? How much for a round…”

I ignored their filthy gazes and vile words.

Instead, I looked at the girl and asked,

“Need help?”

“…Huh?”

Her mouth fell open at my words.
She glanced around, seeing the hundreds of zombie corpses.
Then, with desperate eyes, she nodded vigorously and cried out,

“H-Help me, please!”

“Got it.”
I set my bag down, cracked my knuckles, and walked toward the girl and the pigs holding her.

Honestly, I don’t care about crimes in the apocalypse.

I’m no hero, and in a world where law and order have collapsed, clinging to morals is absurd.
Hell, I committed theft by looting the convenience store.

Condemning someone else’s crimes would be hypocritical.

So I had no intention of meddling in others’ wrongdoings, even murder.

But.

Even so.

There’s a line humans must never cross.

‘You don’t touch kids.’
No matter how broken the world is, no matter how lawless it becomes.
Hurting children is a disqualification from humanity.
It’s crossing the final line that keeps us human.
Anyone who does that is no longer human—just trash.

I wasn’t about to let the trash I’d seen slide.
Trash belongs in the bin.

“Hey, is this b*tch ignoring me?”
The man, angered by my dismissal, rolled up his sleeves and approached.

His arms revealed a distorted dragon tattoo amidst rolls of fat.

Is that supposed to be impressive?
Who knows.

I looked at the pig and asked,

“Like what you see?”

No longer ignored, he flashed a twisted grin.

“Hell yeah. A fine piece like you—don’t resist, or I’ll mess up that pretty face…”

Got it.

That’s your last word.

I swung my left arm, smashing his face.

Thwack.

“Gweeeek!”

He squealed like a slaughtered pig, flying into a wall.
I held back on purpose to avoid splattering him—didn’t want his filthy blood on me.

“What the—f*ck?!”

Panicked as their buddy went down, the others drew their weapons.

Two charged at me.

A pair of knives and a metal club swung my way, but they were too slow.
Like they were moving in slow motion, I dodged with ease.

“Sht! Damn btch!”
The knife-wielder’s blades glowed.
An awakener, huh?

His glowing knives slashed, sending a sharp wave of energy slicing through the air toward me.

‘Ugh, really?’
Still slow, though.
I tilted my head side to side, dodging the attack.

“W-What?! Gah!”

Shocked that I evaded his ultimate move, he gaped.

Showing an opening mid-fight?
I stepped in and flicked his forehead.

“Guh!”

While I was at it, I drove a fist into the solar plexus of the club-wielding brute beside him.

Boom!

He flew to join the pig embedded in the wall.

Nice.

One left.

I dusted off my hands and turned to the last guy, still holding the girl.

“H-Hiii!”
His body shook as our eyes met.

Then he reached into his jacket and pulled something out.

A gun.

A revolver, like something a cop would use.
His trembling hands aimed it at me.

“D-Don’t move! This is a real gun!”
Despite his shaking, he smirked.

A gun.
I knew it was a deadly weapon, but for some reason…

Staring down the barrel, I felt no tension.

“Shoot.”

“What?”

“If you’re so confident, shoot.”

“What the hell are you saying?! This is real! Not blanks—live rounds! Surrender or die!”

“Coward, huh? That won’t do. Kind me will come to you.”
I smiled and walked toward him.

He shrieked something, but I tuned it out.

Grit.

Clenching his teeth, he made up his mind and pulled the trigger.

Bang!

A spark flashed from the muzzle.

The bullet flew straight for me.
It was fast—definitely a bullet.

Too bad I could see it clearly.

Clink.

I swatted it away with my right hand.
The bullet bounced off, rolling across the floor.

Huh.

I planned to just take it with my hand, but it deflected?

Guess that’s my body for you.
Durability’s no joke.

“Wha…”

“B-But I shot… Huh? What?”

“Not gonna shoot again?”

“Hii—Stay back!”

Terrified, he started firing in earnest.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

I calmly caught each bullet with my right hand.

The ammo ran out quickly.

I dropped the caught bullets to the ground.

Clatter.

Thud.

As the bullets hit the floor, the man collapsed onto his butt.

“M-Mommy…”

Just moments ago, he was leering at me with lust.
Now he was trembling like a leaf.
What a pathetic sight.

“Hm? What’s with that look? Like… you’ve seen a witch or something?”

“Aaagh! Aaaah!”

I took the screaming man and the stunned girl to the Daiso rooftop.

The gunshots had started drawing zombies.

The zombies chased me briefly before giving up and heading toward the massive zombie horde.

What the hell is over there that’s pulling them in?

Not important right now.

I handed the girl a chocolate bar and told her to stay somewhere else.
She didn’t need to see me kill anyone.

By the way, her name was Minseo.
Choi Minseo.

Once Minseo was out of sight, I turned to the trembling man.

“I’m keeping you alive because I have questions. Answer honestly. If you don’t, I might get a little mad.”

He nodded frantically at my words.

“Good. Why did you kidnap the kid? In a zombie-infested world, why?”

In an apocalypse—especially a zombie one—kids are often seen as burdens.
No skills, weak strength, fragile minds.
They’re hard to keep alive in a collapsing world.

So why?
Why kidnap a child?
No matter what role they planned for her, an adult would do better.

“W-Well…”
Sweating profusely, the man opened his mouth.