Chapter 12: Apocalyptic [2] |
We returned to our original places as if we had seen nothing. We checked if we had put on our masks properly, and went into the hallway bathroom for no reason to wash our hands thoroughly with soap.
Around that time, Professor Kim came back. After washing the dishes, he sat down wiping the moisture off his clothes. A faint laughter was heard.
"You must have noticed, but my wife has become a zombie. I restrained her while she was sleeping, but I'm probably infected too."
"Ah, yes..."
I didn't know what to say, so I vaguely trailed off. It seems that this vague gap was seen by Professor Kim as an opportunity to ramble on.
Professor Kim said, "My wife and I will die at home. We'll starve to death in this concrete prison."
"But if you go outside..."
I didn't say the words "come with us." At my words, Professor Kim shook his head.
"Live today as if you'll die tomorrow. I want to live each day without shame. Isn't it shameful for someone who advocated euthanasia to spread the virus to stay alive?"
Jeon Do-hyeong briefly exclaimed in admiration. At a glance, he seemed to deeply respect the professor. That gaze briefly turned to me, and his brow furrowed strangely.
"What."
"No, nothing."
After a brief argument, I turned to Professor Kim. Even if I couldn't recruit him as a colleague, I could still learn from him.
"Professor, I also think the apocalypse is coming. So I've made a survival plan, could you evaluate it for me?"
"Ah, that's a good idea, but..."
Professor Kim glanced at the clock on the living room wall. Past noon, the time when many people would be eating lunch. He bowed his head apologetically.
"It's time for the broadcast."
It's time for him to leave. Well, we did arrive too late in the first place. The roads were blocked.
"There's nothing we can do."
"Wait a moment. I'll give you something."
We got up from our seats, and Professor Kim hurried to a certain room. Looking through the open door, I could see a room with a computer, camera, and bookshelves, where he seemed to be broadcasting from.
I muttered softly, "Can I take it? It's not contaminated with the virus, is it?"
Of course, he's the one who didn't even give us water and kept his distance, but I'm just anxious. It's like having a COVID-positive person cough in front of me.
"Take it. Professor Kim wouldn't do anything bad to us."
Jeon Do-hyeong, who had doubted the professor as a narcissist earlier, now seemed deeply moved by him. Have they really only talked for about 10 minutes?
Good. I quickly took a step back.
"Then you take it."
"Wow. How can a person really..."
Around that time, Professor Kim returned. He was carrying a thick bundle of papers that were shaking in his hands. Glancing at the protruding papers, they seemed to be broadcast scripts or research materials.
"These are the materials I've organized and the script I prepared for the broadcast. They should be helpful for a little while."
"Thank you, Professor."
Jeon Do-hyeong, who received the bundle of papers, quickly bowed. I also bowed my head.
"I will use them well. If we survive, it's all thanks to you, Professor."
"Hmm..."
There was no usual polite response. As I raised my head, I could see Professor Kim's face hesitating about something. It seemed like he wanted to ask for a favor. I tried to respond with silence, pretending not to notice, but Jeon Do-hyeong spoke.
"If you have anything you want to ask, please feel free to do so!"
"It's not a request... In my opinion, you all seem like you'll endure for a long time..."
Embarrassed, Professor Kim averted his gaze and took out his phone to show a photo of a young female college student.
"This is my daughter. If my materials are helpful, and if you have the time and opportunity, could you... help her?"
"Of course. Since we've received so much help from you."
I quickly nodded my head. It was an empty promise. I had already received the materials. Later, I might forget or intentionally break the promise, but now was the time for a white lie.
"This person doesn't seem like the type to do this..."
Jeon Do-hyeong muttered, but no one heard him. Even Professor Kim seemed to have made the request without much expectation, now that he had given the gift.
"I enjoyed today's meeting. Please return safely."
With that, the meeting ended. Professor Kim went into the room to broadcast, and we descended the stairs from the 12th floor.
Reaching the difficult 1st floor, there were police and emergency responders. The elevator door was wide open, with a pool of blood flowing out, and a baseball bat and kitchen knife lying on the floor. Two bodies were placed in body bags.
"What is the world coming to..."
The elderly security guard muttered as he looked at the bodies.
I also briefly stopped in my tracks. The bodies of the two people, one a zombie and one human, were the same - drained of color, with wooden-like joints, and no movement.
Until now, the only corpses I had seen were those of my deceased parents. But in the past few days, I had seen many more.
'So this is what they call the apocalypse...'
The disaster was more dangerous than I had thought. Wouldn't more preparation be necessary?
"Let's go quickly. We don't want to get infected."
Urged by Jeon Do-hyeong's gesture from behind, I hurried my steps again. As I left the apartment, I took one last look at the tall building.
'Apartment with a spreading infection, confirmed.'
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It seems that not only the professor couple, but the entire building has many infected people. If a little time passes, and if we recruit some thieves, this place could be a treasure trove. Or I could learn to be a thief myself.
***
In the quiet roadside, we parked at a campsite and turned on Professor Kim's live broadcast.
- Everyone, I will guide you on how to endure this disaster a little longer.
The muffled voice of Professor Kim came from the phone. Even though his wife was infected, he was infected himself, and he didn't know when he would turn into a zombie, he still talked about ways to survive.
Glancing at the phone, I could see Professor Kim's eyes. The determination of someone who acts even in despair.
"..."
Sometimes in life, you meet people you just can't understand. In my case, it was people like Professor Kim, good people. I couldn't empathize with them at all. What benefit could they have.
But I couldn't disparage Professor Kim.
He was a teacher in my heart.
'Professor who advocated the massacre of 1 million people... You will live on in our hearts.'
Rustle-
I turn the pages. Neatly written characters on the manuscript paper, text written over the printed materials, ideas scribbled and crossed out in a notebook.
Each piece that the professor, who recognized the apocalypse, wrote while staying up all night is helpful.
The fragmented and pluralized modern society. In the early stages of the apocalypse, survivors are expected to be divided into various groups.
Simulations of what would happen when a nuclear power plant explodes. The paths and ranges of radiation spreading according to the wind direction by season.
Protective clothing and action guidelines for infectious diseases.
How to grow crops by recycling plastic bottles inside the building, and so on.
But all those memos and materials were marked with red lines. As it went further back, more gloomy apocalyptic prophecies were written than information.
- Everyone dies...
Insufficient water, virus mutations, polluted water and land, migratory bird zombies crossing borders and seas, viruses evolving to break through vaccines...
The logic that humanity will ultimately be defeated by the virus resembles the professor, who will eventually turn into a zombie after being infected.
But just as I'm fine even if the professor becomes a zombie, there is hope. Even if the world is destroyed, someone will survive.
Suddenly, a rumbling sound was heard.
"What's that!"
"Ah!"
We startled and grabbed our weapons, looking around, but there were no zombies around the car.
It was the phone.
Professor Kim, who was in the middle of lecturing and spreading out the materials, had turned into a zombie. Professor Kim drooled and blinked his eyes, then slowly got up and shuffled around the closed room.
"..."
"..."
Silence fell. Jeon Do-hyeong seemed to be terrified by the sight. He alternated between looking at the professor and the apocalyptic prophecy, then hung his head low.
"Really, really, if the world ends, is there a reason to live like this?"
"No. That's just speculation. It's just an apocalyptic theory. People will survive."
I also shook my head emotionally. It's too stressful to believe that outright. I found hope in the midst of destruction. Hope that no matter how bad the situation, we can still survive.
'I believe in the chairman. He can't be that evil of a person. He mustn't be.'
A person who truly wishes for the extinction of humanity is unacceptable. This virus shouldn't be such a terrible disaster. It will just end as a post-apocalyptic scenario.
If we struggle hard enough, we can survive.
"Even if the professor's prediction is right, it's okay. We can boil water and cook meat. There are canned and sealed foods. As long as prepare masks, gas masks, gloves, and clothes, we won't get infected."
As I spoke more, I felt like I was convincing myself. Even if the worst-case scenario comes, won't it be not that big of a deal after all?
"But-"
Jeon Do-hyeong was about to say something. I immediately picked up the hammer.
"Then shall I kill you now?"
Those who lack the will to live, the looters, are disqualified. Trying to survive together will only harm your mental health.
"...No. I have to live. You're right. I can't die."
Looks like physical therapy is not needed. Seeing the hammer, Jeon Do-hyeong blinked his eyes, as if his mind had returned.
I put down the hammer. Then I fell into thought. What I need to prepare now. What I need to be ready for. Reviewing and revising Professor Kim's materials.
'Supplies are secondary.'
To possess things that are not originally mine, I have to exchange them with money. But if looting is involved, that boundary collapses. What's mine is mine, and what's yours is also mine.
It means that everything in the world is potentially mine.
As I tapped my knee with my fingers, I muttered softly.
"Stronghold. People. Yes, people."
Experts like Professor Kim are the top priority. In a destroyed world, the scarcest thing is knowledge, and they are experts. In medicine, electricity, machinery, in any field.
But will that even matter? What if the expert I found is already infected?
I looked at the phone that was making a loud noise. Professor Kim, who was shuffling around the room, was banging on the wooden door. Swinging his fists, throwing his body, kicking with his feet.
He, who had spoken of a faint hope even in the midst of the apocalypse, has now become a part of the apocalypse.
It was a world where it was difficult to find hope.