episode_0288

***

When Seonghan began running towards the shelter to ask for help.

“That person’s words were true.”

“…”

Park Moojin and Choi Kang-doo were able to arrive precisely at the location of the building Jang Seohee had mentioned.

Seonghan’s guidance, which claimed he had raided this place, was without error.

Though they had no choice but to follow it, the result was a significant saving of time.

Not only that, but there were truly no zombies in sight.

The situation, where the peculiar, nerve-wracking roars heard everywhere else were absent, added credibility to Seonghan’s words.

However, the smell of burnt, spoiled meat carried on the wind from somewhere raised questions.

He was a dangerous man whose identity was unknown, but they couldn’t help but be grateful for his continuous favors.

If they could just find the child, they would kneel and bow their heads.

So, for now, they moved.

“Let’s hurry.”

Thanks could wait.

The two men got out of the car without delay.

Their backpacks were bulging, filled with various supplies.

Rifles and shotguns were hastily strapped on.

They each slung their weapons diagonally, taking every precaution.

The presence of silencers and grenades, which were difficult to even get a glimpse of, castrated the unnecessary emotion of fear within Park Moojin.

The void left by emotion was filled with strong confidence that he could overcome any obstacle.

Each tore open two hot packs and held them in their hands.

Not because they were cold.

It was merely a measure to loosen their fingertips, which had grown dull and stiff from the cold.

For Park Moojin, his own well-being was completely disregarded.

‘This is it.’

Roughly welded steel plates joined together.

Park Moojin, seeing the crudely constructed entrance made for defense, stood with his back to it.

‘Where could she have gone?’

To suppress his rapidly pounding heart, he exhaled slow, continuous breaths.

Each time the cold air filled his lungs, his head cooled.

His slightly cooled mind forced him to think.

Park Moojin tried to think from the child’s perspective.

‘Scared, cold, and hungry. Dark night. Outside is dangerous. If it were me…’

Before his thoughts could even finish, he started to move.

Park Moojin’s eyes darted ceaselessly.

The sun slowly began to set.

As such, the demon of anxiety uncontrollably poked at Park Moojin’s chest.

So he kept thinking and kept moving.

She was a small, petite child.

Therefore, she wouldn’t have been able to go far.

It was clear she would be hiding somewhere, shivering from the cold.

So he tried to consider places that were easy to access.

He thoroughly searched convenience stores, places even a child would know.

Occasionally, leftover canned goods or daily necessities were found, but that wasn’t what was important.

He entered and checked any place that looked easy to recognize and safe.

“Seonyeong!”

He desperately called out, making a loud noise that was almost taboo, but there was no sound of the child’s voice.

“Grooaaar-!!”

Splat-! Splat-!

Instead of the child, repulsive things appeared, provoking Park Moojin and Choi Kang-doo.

‘Damn it-!’

Park Moojin couldn’t control the rising anxiety.

Despite their thin clothes and the near-blizzard cold, beads of sweat soaked the two men’s bodies.

Even so, they couldn’t find any trace of the child.

The short day sank lower and lower the more they moved.

Time, flowing cruelly fast, made Park Moojin and Choi Kang-doo’s movements increasingly sluggish.

“Hyung. Like this…”

“Tsk…”

He knew.

He knew without needing to be told.

It was like trying to find a single sesame seed on a white sand beach.

He knew well that there was no answer like this.

Crunch-

Park Moojin gritted his teeth.

He didn’t know why, but as the man had said, there were almost no zombies.

If only he had enough time, he was confident he could run around and search the entire area.

But a child was different.

A street where a child was abandoned alone was a place shrouded in death.

Days had already passed since the child went out alone.

Even when he was blinded by damned vengeance and acting foolishly, the child must have been trembling alone in fear.

Perhaps… she was desperately calling out for the mister who wasn’t by her side, waiting for him.

“Gasp!”

He clenched his fists at the suffocating despair that clogged his chest.

His eyes grew hot, and he punched down the burning sensation rising from his solar plexus.

‘I’m sorry…’

The emotions that unconsciously surfaced hurt.

He had intended to apologize in person.

Even if she pinched, hit, cried, complained, and resented him, he had intended to meet her and accept it all.

Cracks appeared in that firm resolve, and the emotions he had suppressed tightly began to slowly seep out.

“Hoo- hoo-”

Suddenly, the world seemed to spin.

A mere three-story building felt like an endless mountain.

Park Moojin felt like he would burst, crushed by hopelessness.

‘I need to move, even just a little…’

It was then that he tried to force his sluggish feet to move.

“I don’t think this will work as is.”

Don’t say it.

“It’s impossible for both of us to search the entire vicinity.”

I know.

“The sun has started to set.”

So what?

Even if I have to search alone—

“What would Seonyeong have done?”

What do you think I’ve been doing until now—

“Hyung. Try to imagine you are Seonyeong. What would Seonyeong have done?”

“…What?”

“Not thinking from Seonyeong’s perspective, but if you *were* Seonyeong herself.”

“What kind of… No, wait…”

Park Moojin felt as if he had been struck in the back of the head.

“An adult thinking from a child’s perspective is essentially asking, ‘What would *I* have done if I were a child?’”

Park Moojin’s eyes widened.

“Before, when I responded to a fire alarm, I rescued three children. Where do you think I found them?”

“Hmm…”

“One was in a closet, one in a kitchen sink cabinet, and another child I found behind a washing machine.”

At Choi Kang-doo’s words, Park Moojin’s eyes wavered.

“This foolish…!”

He had thought from the child’s perspective, but it was still an adult’s way of thinking.

Park Moojin bit his lip.

He had almost repeated another foolish mistake.

“Hyung, there’s still enough time. So think about it. You know Seonyeong better than I do.”

“No, that’s…”

All he had done was give the child snacks and get a little close to her.

He had only kept her by his side because it was troublesome how she would cling to him, smiling brightly no matter how much he pushed her away.

She was smart for her age, and it was pathetic how she was so mindful of adults, so he just…

“Then Mister Moojin will come pick me up?”

“…Yes.”

“Uncle Kang-doo too?”

“…Probably.”

“Promise?”

“Yes. I promise.”

“…She wouldn’t have gone into a building.”

“Huh?”

“Because I taught her that inside a building is more dangerous than the street.”

He had once instructed her on a few things she absolutely had to observe in her life, like a parent teaching a child.

Always be wary of strangers.

Don’t go into buildings alone, as you don’t know what might be inside.

If it gets dangerous, don’t move around much; hide somewhere inconspicuous and wait.

Never make loud noises.

If you hear strange sounds, don’t go near them.

Don’t cry.

It was rote learning, almost like brainwashing, but…

“She’s a smart child, so she’ll remember what I told her.”

“Then…”

“You think about it more too. What do you think Seonyeong would have done?”

“Hmm…”

From Choi Kang-doo’s mouth came a string of short but unexpected ideas, stemming from his experience as a firefighter.

Each one was an absurd notion, far from an adult’s way of thinking, and not immediately helpful.

But Park Moojin didn’t listen carelessly.

‘Playground equipment? Park facilities? No, there don’t seem to be any such facilities nearby. Then…’

She was a petite and delicate girl.

It was certain that she couldn’t have gone far, both physically and given the situation.

What would cold, hungry, and scared Seonyeong have thought?

Would she have searched for the mister on the dark night streets?

‘No, she’s a smart child, so she wouldn’t have made a sound. If she remembered even a little of what I told her…’

Park Moojin’s gaze turned to the narrow alleys.

“So~ I just need to be quiet and wait, right?”

“…Yes.”

“Okay~”

– Wait for the mister. –

His gaze naturally turned to the narrow alleys.

Park Moojin started to run.

Exclude buildings.

If it’s a child, there’s a high probability she crawled into a cramped place where she could hide her body, curling up.

Since he told her not to move much, it wouldn’t be far from D-Mart.

Since he told her to avoid zombies, she wouldn’t have headed for the main road.

He began to comb through the visible alleys between buildings, searching them meticulously [like hunting for lice].

“Gasp- gasp!”

Unable to eat properly and with accumulated fatigue, his breath quickly hitched in his throat.

His lungs felt like they would tear, and his hands and feet were cold.

He could feel the strength draining from his body.

But Park Moojin didn’t stop.

She was definitely there.

The child was definitely not far away.

He quickly searched any place with even a tiny possibility.

Eventually, dusk began to settle, but it didn’t matter.

He would never go back before finding the child—

Screech-!!

Growl-! Roar! Bark-! Bark-!

“!!!”

“Hyung!”

Park Moojin and Choi Kang-doo instinctively sprang back.

The two men were powerfully drawn to the monstrous roars and hostile animal cries heard nearby.

There was no guarantee the child was there.

But…

‘It’s right nearby!’

The sudden turn of events that appeared while they were tracing the child’s whereabouts was enough to make Park Moojin’s heart pound.

Perhaps… maybe…

Thump-thump-thump-

Yelp- Whine- Grooooowl-!!!

A dog was fighting.

Trained dogs are generally not aggressive.

If such a dog was fighting, there were two possibilities to infer.

Either it was attacked, or it had something to protect.

If that were the case?

‘Please! Please!’

The two men, running so fast their hair whipped, arrived at the construction site of a small villa.

Beyond the fence that also served as a screen, loud noises could be heard.

“Screech-! Cough!”

“Grrr!!”

Park Moojin, squeezing his body through a slightly opened gap, ran frantically.

Inside the building.

Where various materials were piled up.

“!!”

“Grrrrrrrr!”

There, a zombie and a large dog were engaged in a power struggle.

The large dog was incredibly ferocious.

It bit the zombie’s calf and wouldn’t let go.

As if that wasn’t enough, it was violently shaking and dragging it backward.

The zombie paid no attention to the large dog.

It was screaming monstrously, desperately trying to crawl forward, scraping the ground.

Park Moojin quickly followed the zombie’s gaze with his eyes and was startled.

Snap-!

Crunch!

Park Moojin, his face contorted with fury, firmly stepped on and crushed the struggling zombie’s neck.

“You damned bastard!”

Clank- Splat-splat-!

Thud-

As soon as its head burst and it stopped moving, he lunged forward.

A child’s blue jacket, heavily stained with dirt.

Grubby pants.

The child, asleep in damp clothes, didn’t even stir.

Park Moojin knelt and carefully, very carefully, lifted the child into his arms.

“…Seonyeong.”

There was no response.

“Seonyeong?”

He called out softly with a trembling voice, but there was no response.

Park Moojin quickly scanned the child’s entire body.

There were no injuries, no signs of her being hurt anywhere.

Her thin hair, almost reaching her shoulders, was cold, wet, and matted.

He removed his gloves and touched the child’s cheek; there was no warmth.

Startled by the child’s skin, which was cold enough to make him flinch, Park Moojin placed his index and middle fingers on her neck.

“Thump…”

“!!”

A faint pulse, almost imperceptible, was clearly felt.

“Her pulse is weak!”

“She seems to have hypothermia! Take off her clothes first!”

Choi Kang-doo, who had almost slid to the ground beside them, quickly checked on the child first.

Park Moojin hastily stripped off the child’s wet clothes.

While Choi Kang-doo gathered hot packs and placed them on the child’s chest and stomach, Park Moojin took off his own outer coat and carefully wrapped the child in it.

“We need to move quickly…”

“Whimper…”

At the piteous whimper, the two men’s gazes turned.

The large dog, which had trudged over, looked alternately at Park Moojin and the child with droopy eyes.

“A Labrador Retriever?”

“This dog protected Seonyeong.”

It wasn’t just that it bit and blocked the zombie.

Judging by the black fur clinging to the child’s clothes, this dog clearly wrapped its body around the child, protecting her from the cold.

The retriever didn’t violently charge at them, as if it recognized Park Moojin and Choi Kang-doo as the child’s guardians.

All it did was whimper, looking down at the child with concern.

Sitting meekly, with dark blue blood drooling from its mouth, it was quite an awkward sight.

“Let’s hurry.”

He was grateful to the dog, but the child came first.

As he stood up abruptly, holding the child in his arms, the retriever also lifted its hindquarters and followed behind the two men.

As they ran towards the car, it followed without falling behind.

“Grrr-!”

Hiss-!

“Th-this is…”

“They went around the back… Damn it.”

They hadn’t run far when zombies shambled into view.

Zombies that appeared from both the front and back of the alley recognized the two men and the dog.

‘Every moment is urgent!’

Park Moojin, gritting his teeth, handed the child over to Choi Kang-doo.

“Hyung?”

“We’re breaking through.”

With the child in critical condition now.

There was no time for hesitation.

Choi Kang-doo steeled his resolve as he held the child.

“Don’t fall behind.”

“Yes…!”

“Hoo… Let’s go.”

Swish-

Splat! Splat-splat-! Splat-splat-splat-!

Maintaining a mobile firing stance, Park Moojin’s muzzle showed no tremor as he rapidly advanced.

Splat-splat-splat! Splat! Splat-splat!

Park Moojin’s steps, choosing the direction where the car was, were without hesitation.

He accurately burst the zombies’ heads, knocking them down and closing the distance.

“Screech-!!”

Splat! Splat-splat!

Zombies, having clearly recognized the living, charged at him, but Park Moojin was a beat faster.

Splat-splat-splat! Splat-splat-splat-!

Click! Click-clack! Clank!

It was merely changing the magazine and reloading, but his hands were so fast and precise they seemed to blur.

It was a part where Park Moojin’s acquired and learned experience was clearly evident.

Thanks to the gun, which burst heads with every shot, a path began to open.

It was unclear where they came from, but there weren’t many of them yet.

‘I can do it.’

Normally it would have been difficult, but thanks to the weapons lent out of goodwill, there was a possibility to take a gamble.

And the effect was excellent.

The choice was not wrong.

Just as a path was about to open.

“?!”

Park Moojin’s body flinched as he encountered a dense killing intent that sent shivers down his spine.

The same was true for Choi Kang-doo, who was right behind him.

“H-Hyung?”

“What kind of…”

It was right ahead.

If it was right ahead, they could escape, but there was something there.

Grind- grind-

Something making strange sounds and exuding an absurdly potent killing intent blocked the two men’s path.