Ah, ah, mic test. Two, three—can you hear me? The situation is incredibly chaotic right now, so I can only speak this way, so please understand.
I'm twenty-one this year. Kang Yeo-ju. At such a young age, I haven't even been on a date. Of course, I'm pretty and popular, but that's a separate issue from my dating experience. My family is extremely strict, and we have a strict rule that says, "Don't even look at a man unless you're ready to marry him!" So, I've never dated before. Yes.
Anyway, as I'm talking, it might sound like an excuse, but I wanted to add a line explaining how wronged and pitiful I am in this situation, so I've slurred on. The main point is, of course, this isn't such a trivial matter. If I were going to recount my love story in detail, I wouldn't have started with such a poignant opening.
So, the main point is, I, who have never dated before, got kidnapped by some guy out of nowhere... right?
Oh, my. I was so inconsiderate. If I just throw this out there like this, you'll be dumbfounded, so I'll try to be a little more, a little more sloppy.
First of all, this is Earth, the Republic of Korea, the mad country you all know so well. This madness, once used only in positive terms, has now become a reality, without a shred of falsehood.
Madness, that is, crazy people. Zombies started appearing.
The problem is that these idiots, these living, breathing corpses, don't just exist on this small Korean peninsula. They're spread all over the world. What do you mean, all over the world?
So, the bright red bell that had been ringing loudly with a disaster warning for months now has started to run out of batteries, and no heroic citizens are coming forward to change the batteries in the streets where disgusting zombies are running rampant, and no one is stepping forward to look after the broadcasting stations that were once in ruins, so even TV, our only means of communication, is in danger of not being able to watch! Yes, I was in that situation. I was in that situation. Even thinking about it now, it really is a story without dreams or hope. At the time, I was a powerless and weak college student, so what could I do? I could only quietly tremble in the corner of the house.
But how can a person live well without eating and drinking? The refrigerator and cupboards were definitely filled with the light and salt of a single-person household, but after the incident, the continued confinement quickly drained them. What the heck?
For days, my stomach growled incessantly. As I ate the last crumbs of ramen noodles and licked up the water that had been drained, I thought to myself, "Food is more important than you think. And you can't live without water." So? I left.
And?
I became a zombie.
Mad Scientist
1 | I'm the only half-zombie
Whoa, whoa, calm down, everyone. I'm talking like a normal human being. What makes me do that? Highly developed survival genes? Am I the only one immune? No. Simply put, it's because I can convey my thoughts to you exactly as they are. You're inside my head. Understand?
How can you be sober when it comes to zombies... Ah, I wonder about this too. It's a mystery that still remains unsolved, a mystery that can stand shoulder to shoulder with the world's three greatest mysteries.
No, it's funny to say that on the first day I was bitten, and I never got bitten again, but I woke up at the entrance of a convenience store. A 3+1 ice cream ad was torn to shreds. A broken table was rolling around on the street. In the end, I died before I even reached my destination. Tragically.
Anyway, when I opened my eyes, suddenly, cold water was gushing out from the back of my neck. Cold water? Had I been reincarnated into some kind of faucet? I imagined this and naturally placed my hand on my neck, but oh no. It wasn't water, it was blood. That's when I fainted again.
It was brave of me to go out with that mentality. Seriously, if I could go back, I'd rather starve to death in my room. Of all the deaths I could have imagined, falling to the ground, blood gushing out like a fountain, seemed like the worst. When I woke up again, I saw other zombies roaming the streets, growling. Honestly, I wasn't that shocked after that. Because my reflection in the mirror was about 1.5 times more horrifying than theirs.
After I came to my senses, I realized that those horrible zombies who bit my neck to death while I was alive, for some reason, thought I was their comrade. Ah, the worst of the worst.
It wasn't too hard to realize I was a zombie. It was a mess. But, friends with zombies! And those who weren't even human! Watching them shyly throw the living man's arm at me... I didn't show it, but something inside me was rising. It wasn't easy to adapt.
Oh, there's one more peculiarity. That is... I can't eat human flesh. More accurately, it's not "can't," it's "won't." A month before complete apocalypse struck the Earth, I came across a news report. It was a documentary about the first zombies discovered in a remote region of Egypt.
Zombies retain some human form, but they abandon their human-like habits and live. They cannot survive without consuming human flesh, and their instincts dictate this, making cannibalism all the more inevitable.
What? Ugh. I was watching it while eating fruit that day, and the content was so disgusting that I almost threw up. I had no idea I'd end up like this. It's weird, though. Everyone says zombies are cruel beings that feed on human flesh and blood, but now that I'm a zombie, I just... I want to eat ramen and kimchi.
Back to the main topic, I was agonizing again. About my existence, which had become so obsessed with Andromeda. Ha, if this was going to happen, I should have transferred to the philosophy department. Oh. Rubbing my forehead with my bloody hands, I eventually decided to boil some ramen and eat it.
Why? Why? Because I'm hungry. I need to eat first and then think about it.
I went into the convenience store, grabbed some yukgaejang, and poured some water. The electricity, which hadn't worked at home, strangely worked here. I gathered my excitement and sat down at a table near the glass window. The reason was simple. While I waited three minutes for the noodles to cook, I wanted to witness with my own eyes how the outside world had been ruined.
What's the point of talking? There wasn't a single square foot of clean land, and I didn't know because I was curled up in my room the whole time, but there were places that had already collapsed from bombardment. Oh my, it's scary. But the zombies that I should have hunted down were so tenacious that even if a leg was blown off or half their skull was shattered, they still walked around, making a "Ugh" sound. I thought the world really did turn around as it pleased.
Dude, not butt, but in English. In the midst of this chaos, through the swirling sandstorm, a group of people appeared like the main characters? The zombies slowly bared their gums and started their engines, and I thought, 'Those are people?' But they walked through the gap with so much confidence. My eyesight isn't just bad, it's really, really bad. I squinted and stretched my head to get a better look, and oh my god! Those guys... They have guns!
When I looked, the zombies weren't retreating, but were being hit 100 out of 100 times in the center of the head, collapsing miserably like a sailboat in the wind. I was scared for no reason, so I hid. Even if it was person to person, it's scary to deal with a human with a gun, but of course, I'm a biological 'zombie' now, right? A target that should be eliminated, right? I could vividly imagine a future where I would be shot and die a second time, but I didn't have time to sit around eating ramen and be happy.
Yes... Anyway, I hid it. I couldn't go more than a few steps, and I was in the convenience store warehouse.
The men mercilessly kicked away the zombies' punctured bodies and finally entered the convenience store. I held my breath at the sound of people getting closer through the gap. I wasn't rooting for the former in a zombie-versus-human situation, but I thought they'd give them a beating so they couldn't even come near here. They said it was the strongest virus, the worst creature. I guess nothing is helpless in the face of a gun.
Just like when I looked through the window, two people. The two voices came and went behind my ears, making my now-disturbed heart pump.
"Did you see anyone here?"
"Look, that's ramen over there. It's steaming, so I guess it was just there a moment ago?"
"I boiled it but didn't eat it..."
"I don't think I could have gone far."
Maybe, it's still here?
That annoyingly sharp comment left me breathless. Ahhh... I was already theoretically dead, but it felt like I could die a glorious death again.
I clamped both hands over my mouth. Sadly, my mouth doesn't work as well as I'd like, and I might even have less verbal skills than some of the other idiots out there. In fact, when I tried cautiously earlier, all I could manage was "ah" and "uh-uh." Sounds perfect for getting shot.
The moment the two men finished their conversation, they seemed to start searching under the table. The constant scraping of chair legs echoed through me. Come to think of it, no matter how hard I searched, the only empty spaces were the cash register, the table, and the bathroom. Apparently, the storage room I was hiding in was deep within the convenience store's structure. A faint hope arose that if I hadn't experienced being a swindler before Korea fell into this mess, I wouldn't have dared to consider this place. With my fears subdued, those men seemed amusing.
"Okay, go. Go ahead. If you guys just grab a few snack bags, I'll enjoy the ramen I just made with some kimchi and leave this dirty town!" I declared inwardly, chuckling. I hadn't realized my laughter was so loud until then. So loud, it would pierce through the palms covering my mouths, and reach their chilling hearing.
Did you really hear it? Yes, absolutely. I must have. The door was slammed shut, leaving me no room to even open my mouth, and a cold gun was thrust into the side of my head, leaving me speechless.
"person?"
"Ugh, the smell of dirty blood."
"Be quiet."
"He's not talking. Isn't he a mutant?"
"··· Mutant?"
"A ramen-eating mutant, huh? That's not even funny."
The man standing next to me somehow forgot his duty and started giggling, then fell backwards. The other man, who had been seriously repeating that joke for some reason, instead of pulling his gun away, held it even tighter.
How was it? What are you asking? It couldn't get any better than this.
I clenched my teeth and swallowed hard. I must have felt like I could just stay conscious even if I was dragged into a tiger's den. Fortunately, the zombie hadn't bitten me in the jaw, so the saliva I swallowed didn't leak out. But even without that, the situation was tense enough.
The man asked me very seriously and very quietly, as if he was giving me one last chance.
"Answer me."
"······."
"Are you human?"