02. It's my territory (1)
“Huh? Aren’t you one of our school kids?”
A man, the only one of the four wearing a school uniform, pointed at me and spoke. I turned to see who it was, and there was a kid I'd passed by a few times in the school hallway. I remembered him because the girls would always gather around him. Yes, the girls around him had called him Moon Jun-hwi. Now that I think about it, I'd seen the kids around me, and the kid who introduced himself as Yoon Jeong-han, at school, too.
“Why are you the only one wearing the uniform? Isn’t it uncomfortable?”
"not really?"
Actually, I was wearing my school uniform too. I was at school when the zombie outbreak started. But as I was running around, the uniform got torn and I was moving around so much that it became so uncomfortable, so I took it off and changed into a short-sleeved shirt. I guess a school uniform goes well with the apocalypse, but it's uncomfortable. But you fought so well in that uniform earlier. It's really impressive. You seem to be the tallest among them, and I saw you move around the most earlier. Despite moving the most, you seemed the least tired. Compared to the kid who was so scared that he couldn't move, he just swung the baseball bat a few times.
“But… aren’t you our senior…? I thought you were the same age as Jeonghan hyung.”
“What? Mr. Jeonghan is 19 too?”
“Hehehe, now that I think about it, it’s really funny that you call me Jeonghan. Just call me Jeonghan. And everyone else is my juniors except for us.”
Jun-hwi, perhaps bothered by his earlier informal speech, apologized to me with a sheepish expression. In this apocalypse, he didn't have time to worry about such formalities.
“Oh, my name is Lee Seok-min… I’m the youngest among them.”
The kid who was the most terrified, constantly swinging his baseball bat in the air, as if he was going to be seeing me for a long time, introduced himself. I was just going to ask him questions and leave, but I couldn't ignore him, so I accepted. Then Seokmin showed a harmless smile. How could someone so innocent survive in this zombie-infested world? Even the baseball bat he was holding was slightly scratched, but clean of any foreign substances. Just like its owner.
"I'm Kwon Soon-young. I'm 18 years old. Please take care of me from now on, sister!"
The boy who introduced himself as Kwon Soon-young had a very innocent and hamster-like appearance, but he seemed to have the strongest mentality. He had been the most calm when fighting the zombies earlier, and he seemed the most fearless. And the shovel he used as a weapon had more foreign substances on it than anyone else, and there was even blood on it. Having met many people while experiencing the zombie outbreak, I dare say that the blood was probably the blood of people who had attacked him, claiming it was their territory, or the blood of people who had asked to be killed because they wanted to die as humans right before they were turned into zombies.
“Here, eat this.”
Jeonghan handed me a chocolate bar. He was biting into one himself.
“Are you feeling down? You must have had a hard time dealing with the zombies earlier.”
“Okay, thanks. I’ll enjoy it.”
“What? It’s not mine anyway.”
Ah, right. We came into a convenience store. Jeonghan proudly pointed to the chocolate bars lined up. Luckily, there was a convenience store nearby, so it seemed like we could grab a bunch of food there. The moment I had that thought, Soonyoung was already stocking up on food, like a hamster stockpiling sunflower seeds in its cheek. But something felt uneasy. There was no way they could leave this convenience store overflowing with food unsold. The fact that there were still food items on the shelves meant that someone had designated this place as their territory. Perhaps someone incredibly strong.
“Hey, what are you guys?”
Ah, as expected. My uneasy premonition was correct. This place was someone's territory, someone who had designated it as their own and was managing it.
“This is my territory.”
Someone who looked undeniably strong was standing there, frowning, holding a heavy-looking axe. It seemed like we had really offended him.