Chapter 17: We Are Not Alone

“They’ll probably get you clothes if you slip the reception some money. Can’t guarantee the quality, though.”

I deliberately brought up something else.
It seemed like he wouldn’t know if I didn’t tell him.
Not because he didn’t know how to ask people, but because he didn’t know that such things were even possible in a place like this.

“There’s a laundry room in the hallway, so either take your clothes off completely and ask them to wash them, or go out and get some.”

When I finished applying the patch and removed my hand, Zakar slowly turned around.
Thinking he was surprisingly close, I looked up and met his sharp eyes under the white towel.
He opened his mouth.

“You really act like a sharp girlfriend.”

“Is it as much as someone who keeps staring at my chest?”

“I thought you were showing it to me from the beginning since you weren’t wearing a bra.”

“It’s not that I wasn’t wearing one, it’s that I couldn’t. The underwear you bought is too big.”

The man’s mouth, which had been like a delinquent’s, closed for the first time.
He frowned as if he had just been told that one plus one equals three.
To react like that after seeing it himself.

“If my chest were that big, my back would hurt every time I trained.”

Feeling his eyes immediately drop, I turned my body.

“But there’s no need to check now.”

Whether the parallel universe was real or not, there was nothing I could do right now.
Even if I wanted to run around and check, I’d have to wait until morning.
Hannah, who had stretched her arms and made a cold judgment, took off her slippers and climbed onto the bed.
As soon as her knees touched it, the feeling of the soft blanket wrapped around her bare legs.
The room was shabby, but thankfully it hadn’t forgotten its purpose.

“We can’t move until people are out and about anyway, so let’s take turns getting some sleep. And for the record, don’t even think about putting your knees on these clean sheets until that combat uniform is taken care of.”

The reason we only rented one room was because we would be taking turns on guard duty, so we wouldn’t be on the bed together in the first place.
Feeling his gaze on the back of my head, I burrowed into the blankets, pretending to be nonchalant.
I had no expectation of sleeping.
I just wanted to find some composure in the midst of the chaos.
Even in this small room that was full with just the two of us, I needed time to be alone.
Especially in a situation where I was left alone in the world with someone I didn’t want to have any relationship with.
A massive earthquake.
A world where the Abyss never opened.
An email.
A crack.

“Do you want to grab a drink today?”

What was Major Müller trying to say?
After a while, when she heard Zakar leave, Hannah closed her eyes and tried to clear her head as much as possible.
Thinking inevitably makes people depressed.
Especially in complicated times like these, I had to focus on what was necessary right now, just like in the Abyss.
Even if my teammates were dead.
Even if the guys who would grin even when I scolded them for their silly pranks had died just a few hours ago…
Sometimes I find it strange that I’ve developed a habit of not thinking about the dead.
Not feeling, not thinking… is that even human?

When she slowly opened her eyes to the sound of birds chirping, it was morning.
She was sure of it even without seeing the blue sky with the sun up.
As she blinked and looked at the pale wall, she sat up with a start and saw the broad back of the man sitting on the edge of the bed first.
He must have washed his combat uniform, as he was wearing a black combat shirt.

“Why didn’t you wake me?”

“You’re welcome.”

As soon as she asked sharply, Zakar, who had been resting his chin on his hand, nonchalantly turned his head and answered brazenly.
Then he threw a sandwich that was on the nightstand to her as she crossed the bed with her messy hair.
It was an ingrained rule to eat when you could, so I dutifully pushed it into my mouth and only then realized that the filling was potato salad.
Coincidentally, it was my favorite sandwich.

“You kept groaning, so I thought you’d wake up soon without me waking you.”

As I chewed with wide eyes, Zakar said in an indifferent tone as he unwrapped his own plastic.
I was dumbfounded.

“Doesn’t one usually wake someone up when they’re having a nightmare?”

“It’s not easy to hear you moan.”

No, I take that back.
I wasn’t dumbfounded, I wanted to kill him.
As I stared at him silently, he met my eyes with a glance and raised an eyebrow as if to ask if I had a problem.
He doesn’t ask what I dreamed about.
The only advantage, if you could call it that, was that I didn’t have to say anything… but feeling a subtle discomfort at the first feeling of comfort I had felt while being with him, Hannah gathered the trash plastic together.

“Any updates? Did you find out anything new while I was sleeping?”

“Not really. I checked just in case, but just that I don’t exist in this world.”

I could see the military’s information computer center and the academy’s comprehensive information system on the screen.
Hannah, who had naturally taken the remote control, also entered her fingerprint information, but as expected, it said she was not registered.
Zakar’s family hadn’t recognized him either, so maybe they were able to cross over because neither of them existed here.
It wasn’t a real sci-fi movie, and the concept of an ‘other me’ didn’t really resonate with her in the first place.
Though it could be because she had just woken up.

“Ah, then who was the top graduate of our class? Did you check?”

Hannah, who had been staring at the screen, suddenly became curious and asked.
Zakar answered with his chin resting comfortably on his hand.

“McCoy.”

“Trent McCoy?”

Hannah, recalling the classmate who used to show off on the basketball court, enjoying the girls’ attention, muttered with a blank expression.

“It’s certain that neither of us are here.”

Zakar smiled at the corner of his mouth as if he had heard something very funny.
Seeing him up close, she noticed that the curve of his mouth was deep and his jawline was very straight.
It wasn’t the first time they had been this close, but as she thought about it, she slowly turned her attention back to the screen as he turned to look at her.
In any case, if she had existed, it was impossible that she wouldn’t have become a soldier.
Because she had made a promise, linking her pinky, when she was very young.
And if she didn’t exist, then the boy who had survived by holding her hand wouldn’t exist either.

“I think renting only one room was a good choice. Like you said yesterday, we’re really lost.”

I blurted out something random to ignore the draft that had flowed into my chest.
Fortunately, Zakar didn’t seem to notice this time.
He said.

“For being lost, the situation isn’t so bad. Just being surrounded by people in the middle of a city.”

“Even though you have no idea what kind of people they are?”

“It doesn’t matter. The truly scary thing is being completely alone.”

“Is that from experience?”

Instead of affirming, Zakar opened his mouth with a blank expression.

“I was once stranded in the Ardea Mountains when I was young. It was cold, I couldn’t find any food, and I learned that a human can’t do anything alone in the middle of nowhere. Powerless and weak.”

The Ardea Mountains were a harsh environment with temperatures ranging from -20 to -30 degrees Celsius.
A place where if you looked up, only eagles would spread their wings and glide against a sky as blue as the sea.

“Even if you’re scared, you end up just seeking human warmth.”

“Is that not because you’re in a position where you’re guaranteed to receive people’s goodwill?”

The man who had money, background, and a good body stared at her as if to ask what she meant.
Hannah recalled the conflict zone that was like a human hell.
A place where children hid drugs, transported guns, and sold themselves to get a sip of water.
Zakar, who had lived his whole life as a member of the privileged class, would not know what it was like for a girl to survive in such a place.
It’s a funny thing.
Only those who have experienced it can understand.
But the person at the top of this world will never experience it.

“There are places in the world that are more hellish than you can ever imagine. When you see what happens in those places, you start wishing for an earthquake to just kill everyone.”

“……”

“If you’re alone, at least you don’t have to be afraid of the person right next to you. Nature won’t try to exploit the weak.”

“……”

“And come to think of it, you seem to have a knack for getting stranded. Maybe if I get away from you, I can go back soon?”

She added it lightly, like a joke, and met his direct gaze for a moment.
It seemed like this was the first time they had had such a conversation.
‘Am I really not fully awake yet?’
‘What am I saying to the young master from the Free Zone?’
She was about to turn off the screen when he reached out and grabbed her hand, covering it completely.
To be precise, he grabbed the remote control.
Her brow furrowed automatically as the wound was pressed.

“Why…”

“Look at the screen.”

Her head naturally lifted at the changed, low voice.
At the bottom of the screen, where the internet was on, a one-line news bulletin was scrolling by.

[Unidentified tentacled creature appeared in a downtown tunnel in Sector 17… numerous casualties, fear spreading.]

“Tentacled creature…?”

She felt like she was suddenly waking up.
Thump, thump.
A familiar throbbing echoed in her ears.
Tentacled creature.
Appearance.
Casualties.
She knew all those words well.
Because they were the words the military used most often when they went down into the Abyss.

“Tunnel… If you want to see the breaking news, social media is faster than the news.”

Hannah muttered as if to herself and immediately changed the address of the website.
When she typed ‘monster’ in the search bar, she saw a continuous stream of recent posts among the advertisements.
Among the countless pieces of information that flashed by, one video caught her eye.
In a 10-second video that seemed to have been taken from a bus, a black tentacle that had burst from a human’s mouth was randomly embedding itself in the car window.

[Accident in the tunnel. rrrrr Zombie monster is killing people. rrrrhelprrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr – 1 minute ago]

They weren’t the only ones who had crossed over.