What a waste. I checked every package I came across—
wipes, phones, even car keys. I didn't let a single one escape me. While I was at it, I swapped the original women's shoulder bag for a backpack—
and bandages. I even found another ZIPPO. Of course, I took that without hesitation, too. At this point, I—
didn't believe a single police officer would come after me for it!
Ahem...
But seriously, they had everything here... I even found two packs of clean... sanitary pads?
Holding them in my hands, I felt incredibly conflicted. After hesitating again and again, I gritted my teeth, squeezed my eyes shut, and stuffed the two packs of sanitary pads into
my bag.
By now, I'd come down about ten floors. To my surprise, I didn't feel particularly tired. I was only sweating a little. Before, I—
would've been panting after running three hundred meters, let alone walking down all these stairs.
Chapter Eleven: The Battle in the Medicine Storage Room
That wasn't the strangest part, though. What made me most suspicious was—
"I haven't seen a single zombie from start to finish."
That was right... In all those ten floors, I hadn't seen a single thing that could move. Not only that, I hadn't even seen—
a single corpse. It made my heart sink. Strange, wasn't it?
If nobody had run down the stairwell when the chaos broke out, I wouldn't have found so many things along the way. But—
if people had run down the stairs, surely it wouldn't have been strange to find one or two bodies, right?
It would've been perfectly normal to find three or five zombies, too.
But from start to finish, I'd seen nothing but rubbish scattered across the floor and a few personal belongings—
things like ID cards, X-rays, medical ID cards, phones, watches, and so on.
Yet there wasn't a single corpse.
"What... happened here?"
Still, thanks to all those things, I'd found quite a few useful items. For example, this mechanical watch was actually—
a Longines. That was a big-name brand, even if it was a women's watch.
At a time like this, I obviously wasn't going to pass up something that let me check the time whenever I wanted. Besides, I—
was a woman now anyway...
For some reason, a wave of sadness washed over me... Was I imagining it?
I checked the time. While eating the ham earlier, I'd matched the time on my phone to the clock on the wall. Now I—
used my phone to set the watch.
It was an automatic mechanical watch. Since nobody had worn it for a month, its hands had stopped. But after I fiddled with it—
for a while, the hands slowly began moving again.
Once I'd set the time, it was now...
14:43
"Is it already past two in the afternoon?" I thought about it. Those two incidents earlier really had taken up a lot of time. I should—
leave as soon as possible, so I wouldn't still be out on the street after nightfall. In this dangerous world, nighttime was far too dangerous.
Thinking of that, I couldn't help speeding up. Fortunately, I was wearing sneakers, so even if I walked faster, I wouldn't make much—
noise. I also made a point of keeping my steps as quiet as possible, slowing down whenever I passed a floor so I wouldn't draw—
the attention of whatever might be inside.
Even so, I made decent progress. About ten minutes later, I'd reached the sixth floor. As for how I knew it was—
the sixth floor, it was simple: a huge "6" was painted on the wall.
"After the next floor, there'll be an external metal fire escape. If I use that, I might be able to get down a little faster...
"And I won't have to stay so tense."
Looking at the huge "6," I quietly murmured some encouragement to myself. Meanwhile, without my noticing, the clutter on the floor had grown. I still—
didn't let a single thing pass me by. When one bag wasn't enough, I picked up another, smaller one.
With a shoulder bag slung over one shoulder, a waist pack around my waist, and a backpack on my back, I—
continued on like that...
"Isn't this a bit much?"
I grimaced. All these bags might get in the way, so I reluctantly dropped the shoulder bag and continued down with only the waist pack and backpack.
But just after I passed the sixth floor and went straight down to the landing, the sight before me made me forget how to breathe.
More than a dozen zombies...
More than a dozen of them stood there without making a sound, standing quietly with their eyes closed!
"Hss!!!"
I reflexively sucked in a sharp breath. In an instant, two words flashed through my mind!
'Run!!'
At the sound of my voice, the dozen or so zombies below suddenly opened their eyes. All of them turned their heads toward me—
and fixed their blood-red gazes on me!
In that instant, every hair on my body stood on end. There was no need to think. I had to run!
I spun around and bolted! Behind me, a dozen roars erupted. At the same time, I frantically scrambled back up the stairs.
Before I could even reach the sixth floor, familiar roars came from behind the—
Iron Gate!
I sprinted for my life, but the danger behind me still seemed to draw closer and closer. However, whenever I rounded a corner, the sounds fell behind a little.
It seemed that zombies were much less agile than humans. At the very least, they had a lot of trouble turning corners.
After climbing another floor, I caught a glimpse of the zombies from the corner of my eye. Sure enough, whenever they reached a corner, they turned their bodies stiffly—
before continuing up the stairs.
I passed the sixth floor. The seventh and eighth floors were full of zombies, too, and some had already started pounding on the Iron Gates. I had no choice but to run up to the ninth floor and pound hard on its—
Iron Gate!
"Bang!!"
I waited three seconds...
"Not a sound!!"
That was right. I was relying on sound to tell where the zombies were. They weren't very intelligent, and whenever they heard anything, they charged—
toward the source of the noise. I'd pounded on the Iron Gate so hard, but hadn't heard a single growl. That at least proved the corridor on the ninth floor was fairly safe!
None of the floor's doors were locked, so I easily pulled the ninth-floor door open. Then I turned around and slid a mop through the handles of both doors—
to lock the Iron Gate in place.
Even then, I didn't relax. Instead, I gripped my gun and kept my eyes on the Iron Gate.
Right after that, I heard a jumble of hurried footsteps behind the Iron Gate. Then came a loud "Thud!" The door shuddered—
as the zombies on the other side slammed into it!
Then... the pounding began. More and more zombies gathered on the other side of the door. I could only watch helplessly as—
the Iron Gate gradually warped under the impact. Cement and dust began falling from the cracks between the iron frame and the surrounding wall!
"Looks like this Iron Gate won't hold for long!"
I frowned and muttered to myself as I looked around. Then I understood why there weren't many people on the ninth floor. The sign hanging on the wall made it—
obvious that this was the medicine storage floor. Most of the people who came here were staff members, and there usually wouldn't be too many of them here at once.
"Medicine storage room...?"
I quietly repeated the words, and an idea suddenly came to me!
"If..."
But... the idea was too dangerous. If anything went wrong, even I could die here...
"Bang! Bang-bang! Bang-bang!"
But... the sound of the zombies slamming into the Iron Gate seemed to urge me to make a decision. The blows came faster and faster.
I gritted my teeth, my brow furrowing.
"Let's do it!"
After saying that, I quickly looked to either side. Sure enough... the first room on my right was the one.
Now that I'd made up my mind, I didn't hesitate any longer. I hurried to the room. The door wasn't locked, probably because—
people came and went so often that leaving it unlocked was more convenient.
Inside, the room was lined with metal shelves. Cardboard boxes sat on them, and on the side of each box, several large characters were clearly printed.