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We returned to our original spots as if we hadn’t seen anything. I checked if my mask was on properly, then unnecessarily went into the hallway bathroom to wash my hands thoroughly with soap.

Around that time, Professor Kim returned. After washing the rice bowl, he wiped the water off on his clothes and sat down. A faint smile could be heard.

“You must have noticed, but my wife has turned into a zombie. I restrained her while she was sleeping, but I’ve probably been infected too.”

“Ah, yeah…”

I didn’t know what to say, so I trailed off awkwardly. That awkward pause seemed to give Professor Kim an opening to vent.

“My wife and I will die here. We’ll starve to death in this concrete prison.”

“Well, if you go outside…”

I didn’t suggest we stick together. Professor Kim shook his head at my half-hearted attempt.

“They say to live today like you’ll die tomorrow. I’m trying to live each day without shame. Isn’t it shameful for someone who advocated for culling to spread the virus just to survive?”

“Ah.”

Jeondohyeong let out a short exclamation. At a glance, he seemed deeply impressed by the professor. His gaze briefly turned to me, then his eyebrows furrowed strangely.

It was a look that made me wonder if we were even the same species.

“What?”

“Nothing, just…”

After a brief back-and-forth, I turned back to Professor Kim. Even if I couldn’t recruit him as a companion, 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…”

Professor Kim glanced at the clock on the living room wall. It was past noon, the time when most people would be eating lunch. He bowed his head apologetically.

“It’s almost time for my broadcast.”

It was his way of saying we should leave now. Well, we did arrive pretty late. The roads were blocked.

“Can’t be helped.”

“Wait a moment. Let me give you something.”

We stood up, and Professor Kim hurried off to a room. Through the open door, I could see a room filled with a computer, camera, and bookshelves—probably where he did his broadcasts.

I muttered softly.

“Should we really take it? What if it’s contaminated with the virus?”

Of course, he hadn’t even offered us water and kept his distance, but I couldn’t help feeling uneasy. It was like standing in front of someone with COVID who suddenly coughed.

“Take it. Do you really think the professor would do something bad to us?”

Jeondohyeong, who had been deeply moved by Professor Kim despite having just met him, nudged me. He seemed to have forgotten his earlier suspicions. We’d only talked for about ten minutes.

Well, good. I quickly took a step back.

“Then you take it.”

“Wow. People really…”

At that moment, Professor Kim returned. In his hand was a thick bundle of papers. A quick glance showed they were scripts or research materials for his broadcasts.

“These are the materials I’ve compiled and the scripts I prepared for my broadcasts. They might be of some help.”

“Thank you, Professor.”

Jeondohyeong quickly bowed as he accepted the bundle. I also bowed.

“We’ll make good use of them. If we survive, it’ll all be thanks to you.”

“Hmm…”

There was no need for the usual polite exchanges. When I looked up, I saw Professor Kim hesitating.

He seemed like he wanted to ask for something. I pretended not to notice and stayed silent, but Jeondohyeong spoke up.

“If you have something to say, please feel free!”

“It’s not a request, but… I have a feeling you’ll last a long time…”

Professor Kim, looking embarrassed, averted his gaze and pulled out his phone to show us a photo of a young female college student.

“This is my daughter. If my materials help you, and if you have the time and opportunity, could you…?”

“Ah, of course. After all the help you’ve given us.”

I quickly nodded. It was an empty promise. We’d already received the materials. Even if we forgot or deliberately broke it later, now was the time for a white lie.

“This guy wouldn’t normally do this…”

Jeondohyeong muttered, but no one paid attention. Even Professor Kim seemed to have made the request without much expectation, just as a parting gift.

“It was nice meeting you today. Please be careful on your way back.”

And with that, the meeting ended. Professor Kim went back to his room to prepare for his broadcast, and we started descending the stairs from the 12th floor.

After a grueling descent, we reached the first floor.

“Ugh. Ugh.”

There, we found police and paramedics. The elevator doors were wide open, with blood pooling out. A baseball bat and kitchen knife lay on the ground. Two bodies were being loaded into body bags.

“What’s happening to the world…”

An elderly security guard muttered as he watched the bodies being taken away.

I also paused for a moment. Two bodies—one a zombie, the other a person. But in death, their bodies looked the same. Pale complexions, stiff joints, lifeless forms.

The only corpses I’d seen before were my parents’. But in just a few days, I’d seen so many more.

‘This is what they call the apocalypse…’

A disaster more dangerous than I thought. Don’t we need to prepare more?

“Let’s go. What if we get infected?”

Jeondohyeong pushed me from behind, and I hurried my steps. Before leaving the apartment, I took one last look at the tall building.

‘Apartment with a spreading infection—check.’

It seemed like not just the professor and his wife, but the entire building had many infected. If we waited a bit longer and recruited some thieves, this place could be a treasure trove. Or maybe I should learn to steal.

***

We parked our camper in a quiet roadside spot and tuned into Professor Kim’s live broadcast while rustling through the materials.

“Everyone. I’ll guide you on how to survive a little longer in this disaster.”

Professor Kim’s strained voice came through the phone. Despite his wife being infected, himself likely infected, and not knowing when he’d turn into a zombie, he was still sharing ways to survive.

I glanced at the phone and saw Professor Kim’s eyes. The determination of someone acting in the face of despair.

“…”

In life, you sometimes meet people you can’t understand. For me, it was people like the professor—good people. I couldn’t empathize with why they did what they did. What was in it for them?

But I couldn’t belittle Professor Kim.

He was a mentor in my heart.

‘Professor, who advocated for the slaughter of a million people… You’ll live on in our hearts.’

Rustle—

I flipped through the papers. Neatly handwritten notes on manuscript paper, printed materials with scribbled annotations, and chaotic idea notebooks filled with crossed-out lines.

Every word the professor wrote while staying up late, recognizing the apocalypse, was helpful.

Fragmented and diversified modern society. In the early stages of the apocalypse, survivors would likely split into various groups.

Simulations of a nuclear reactor explosion. The path and range of radiation spread based on seasonal wind directions.

Guidelines for epidemic prevention clothing and actions.

How to grow crops using recycled PET bottles inside buildings, and so on.

But all these notes and materials were crossed out with red lines. As I went further, the information gave way to the gloomy prophecies of a doomsayer.

– Everyone will die…

Lack of drinking water, virus mutations, contaminated water and soil, migratory zombie birds crossing borders and seas, the virus evolving to bypass vaccines…

The logic that humanity would ultimately lose to the virus resembled Professor Kim, who was infected and would eventually turn into a zombie.

But just as I was fine even if the professor turned into a zombie, there was still hope. Even if the world ended, someone would survive.

Then, suddenly, a gurgling sound was heard.

“What’s that!”

“Ah!”

We jumped in alarm, gripping our weapons and looking around, but there were no zombies near the car.

It was the phone.

Professor Kim, who had been lecturing and sharing materials, had turned into a zombie. He drooled, blinking his eyes, then slowly got up and wandered around the closed room.

“…”

“…”

Silence fell. Jeondohyeong seemed terrified by the sight. He alternated between watching the professor and the doomsday notes, then hung his head low.

“Really, really, if the world ends. Is there any reason to live like this?”

“No. It’s just speculation. Simple doomsday talk. People will survive.”

I shook my head emotionally. Taking it too seriously would be too stressful. I found hope in the apocalypse. The hope that no matter how bad things got, we could survive.

‘I believe in the chairman. He’s not that evil. He can’t be.’

If there’s someone who truly wants humanity’s extinction, that’s no good. This virus can’t be that terrible a disaster. It’ll just end up being a post-apocalyptic scenario.

If we struggle hard enough, we’ll survive.

“Even if the professor’s predictions are right, it’s fine. We can boil water, cook meat. There’s canned food and sealed goods. Masks, gas masks, gloves, clothes—if we prepare well, we won’t get infected.”

The more I spoke, the more I convinced myself. Even if the worst happens, maybe it won’t be as bad as I thought?

“But—”

Jeondohyeong tried to say something. I immediately picked up a hammer.

“Should I kill you now?”

Someone without the will to live is a liability. Being with them would only harm our mental health.

“…No. We have to live. You’re right. We can’t die.”

No need for physical therapy. Seeing the hammer, Jeondohyeong seemed to snap out of it, blinking his eyes.

I put the hammer down and fell into thought. What I needed to prepare for now. What I needed to plan for. I needed to go through the professor’s materials and revise them.

‘Supplies are secondary.’

Originally, to take something that wasn’t yours, you had to exchange it with money. But if looting gets involved, that boundary collapses. What’s mine is mine, and what’s yours is also mine.

Everything in the world is potentially mine.

Tapping my knee with my finger, I muttered softly.

“A base. People. Yes, people.”

Experts like Professor Kim are the top priority. In a ruined world, the most scarce resource is knowledge, and experts have it. Medicine, electricity, machinery—any field.

But would it matter? What if the expert I found was infected?

I looked at the phone, where loud noises were coming from. Professor Kim, now a zombie, was banging on the wooden door. Punching, throwing his body, kicking.

The man who spoke of faint hope in the apocalypse had now become part of the apocalypse.

It was a world where hope was hard to find.

 

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