Chapter 20
Thump—!
"...Sob!"
"It's okay... It's okay..."
As the wolf on the other side slammed into the bathroom door, the old hinges screamed and the door rattled.
Sua couldn't hold back anymore and whimpered through her hiccups, while Jiwoo bit his lip and hugged his little sister tightly.
Bang—!
Crack!
With the second impact, the middle of the plywood door split wide open.
Through the crack, a beast's bloodshot eye and yellow, foul-smelling fangs pushed their way inside.
The monster's shadow showed it licking its lips as it backed away to completely break down the door.
'Thirty minutes aren't up yet...!'
Jiwoo recalled the whispered message he had received from that big brother.
Jiwoo desperately wrapped his arms around Sua's waist and dragged her backward, pressing them tightly into the corner behind the toilet.
He didn't know how much longer this would buy them, but he had to do something.
The next moment, just as the monster threw its entire body against the door to smash it down—
Flash—!
"Huh?"
The windowless bathroom suddenly lit up.
He poked only his head out and looked through the crack in the door.
Through the opening, he saw something like an intense red beam strike the wolf monster between the eyes.
And then—
Boom—!
A tremendous blast, loud enough to tear his eardrums apart, rang through the narrow PC café hallway.
"Aaaah!"
"Ugh..."
At the sound, which was like a bomb going off, Jiwoo screamed and threw himself over Sua, completely covering her with his body.
Soon, he heard the sound of something heavy slamming into the floor outside the door.
"...?"
Jiwoo held his breath while lying facedown.
It was quiet.
Over the bathroom's stench, which had been stabbing at their noses moments ago, came a sudden wave of an unknown acrid smell and the metallic scent of blood.
The impact of the monster trying to break down the door and the beast's breathing had completely disappeared.
Instead, a faint, bee-like buzzing lingered outside the door, then receded into the distance.
"Big brooo... you're heavy..."
"...Just stay still, Sua."
Jiwoo braced his trembling legs and slowly stood up.
He cautiously peered outside through the broken gap in the door.
'That's...!'
A huge wolf monster lay collapsed on the dark hallway floor.
More precisely, more than half its head had been blown off, leaving a pool of blood.
It was a horrifying sight.
His stomach felt a little queasy, but at the same time, he felt relieved.
'Had big bro come...?'
Just as Jiwoo was about to look around a little more,
Thud, thud.
He heard someone's footsteps approaching from the PC café hallway.
Jiwoo inhaled again and tensed his body.
Was it the big brother? Or another monster?
The footsteps stopped in front of the wolf's headless corpse.
Then, an utterly unexpected voice rang out inside the narrow bathroom.
"How did this guy even open the door and get in? ...Did I take it down?"
It was the slightly bouncy voice of a young woman.
After checking the wolf's corpse, the footsteps headed toward the bathroom door.
"Is anyone in there? It's okay now, big brother... no, big sister's here."
Jiwoo had been expecting a man's deep voice, so he blinked in confusion.
The person who was supposed to save them should have been a big brother or an older man, but the person outside the door was a woman.
Fiddling with the phone he had been gripping tightly, Jiwoo cautiously answered through the cracked door.
"...Who are you?"
***
"Did I take it down?"
I pushed the half-demolished PC café door aside with my boot and looked at the fallen wolf.
On the hallway floor, a huge wolf monster had taken a sniper round straight to the head; most of it had been blown away, and blood pooled beneath it.
I fanned away the metallic scent of blood and acrid gunpowder, then approached the stall farthest inside the bathroom.
'I almost got here too late...'
I peered through the bathroom door's split opening.
Through the crack, I could see two small children clinging to each other in terror.
Their faces were smeared with dust and tear tracks, and the boy who appeared to be the older brother held a phone in his hand.
I gave a deliberately casual cough and spoke as gently as I could.
"Is anyone in there? It's okay now, big brother... no, big sister's here."
"Who are you...?"
"...I'm the big brother who messaged you. Well, I'm not a big brother... I'm a big sister now..."
At my awkward greeting, the twelve-year-old boy looked up at me with wide eyes.
His pupils trembled slightly.
His gaze plainly seemed to ask, 'Can I trust this person?'
"..."
His expression clearly showed that he hadn't accepted my explanation, but as he looked back and forth between my face and the huge wolf corpse sprawled at my feet, he swallowed hard.
"Big brooo... who is she...?"
Just then, the seven-year-old little sister, who had been trembling in Jiwoo's arms, sniffled and asked, and Jiwoo seemed to hesitate for a moment before fixing his gaze on my face and answering.
"...She's the person who came to save us."
He didn't seem to fully accept that I was the big brother he'd spoken with, but I could see a slight release of tension from the boy's shoulders.
At least, he no longer seemed to think of me as a threat; his wariness had eased somewhat.
"What's your name?"
"I'm Jiwoo, and this is Sua..."
I smiled and held out my hand.
"Right. Jiwoo, let's get out of here for now. It reeks."
I led the two of them outside.
Once we stepped out of the commercial building, the drones that had been keeping watch overhead joined us, and all three circled above our heads like a reassuring escort.
"Whoa... It's a robot..."
"It's fast..."
Sua stared open-mouthed at the drones silently slicing through the night sky, tear tracks still clear on her face.
Jiwoo was also staring blankly at the drones, his tense expression having eased a little.
'Thank goodness.'
The siblings seemed unable to hide their curiosity at the machines flying before their eyes.
Thanks to the drones, the children's tension seemed to ease a little.
The children's exclamations over the drones grew even louder when they saw the enormous train waiting in the middle of the tracks.
"Big brother, look at that!"
My train, now long enough to look like a proper train thanks to the addition of Car 3, was waiting on the tracks.
Jiwoo and Sua stopped dead, as if they had lost the power of speech.
"A-a train...? Is that a train?"
"Yeah, that's right. It's sturdy, so you'll be safe even if a wolf shows up. Stay on board for a while."
I opened the door to the newly added Car 3, the Standard Passenger Car.
With a pleasant hiss, the open doorway revealed warm lighting, comfortable carpeting, and plush seats—completely unlike the ruined world outside.
"Here, sit down for now."
"...Mom said we shouldn't follow strangers..."
"Shh, Sua... She's the person who saved us..."
"...Okay."
Even while saying that, Jiwoo kept carefully watching my expression.
In the end, it seemed that the two children decided to trust me not only because I had saved them, but also because of my appearance.
I know it sounds strange, but I looked fairly harmless right now.
Whenever the children glanced at me nervously, a gentle smile was enough to ease much of their tension.
I never expected becoming a woman to come in handy here.
I guided the still-dazed siblings into the train and seated them on the plush chairs.
Only when they sank into the wide seats did a deep sigh of relief escape the children's lips.
Now that I looked more closely, both children's lips were parched.
I took two bottles of chilled water from the back of the train, opened them, and placed them in the siblings' small hands.
"This... can we drink it?"
"Yeah, drink slowly."
Jiwoo and Sua nodded eagerly, then gulped down the water.
So much for drinking slowly.
I gave a bitter smile.
They must have been desperately thirsty, because they didn't even seem to notice the water running down their chins and soaking their collars.
'Had they been hiding longer than I thought?'
The children's condition was awful even when I looked at them again.
Their thin outerwear was stretched out in places, while dirt and unknown black marks clung like soot to their pale cheeks and bony hands.
"I'll get you something to wipe your faces with and something to eat. Stay put."
"Okaaay..."
I told the two of them to stay put, then headed toward the storage area of Car 2.
I planned to bring them a pack of wet wipes to clean those blackened faces and, while I was at it, plenty of Choco Pies or other sweet snacks that children would enjoy.
It was a good thing I hadn't sold all the snacks.
I rummaged through a corner of Car 1, gathered a pack of wet wipes, some snacks, and a few sweet drinks in pouches, then returned to the passenger compartment of Car 3.
"Here, wipe your faces, and eat..."
I opened the door with a flourish and began to speak, but then clamped my mouth shut.
"..."
The twelve-year-old boy, who had been trembling like a leaf and bristling with tension just ten minutes earlier, and his seven-year-old little sister, who had been crying in his arms—
Those two little ones had emptied the bottles of water I'd given them and now lay side by side on the seats, pressed tightly against each other and breathing softly in their sleep.
They could each have taken a seat and lain down separately, but instead they had fallen asleep huddled together, filling a single seat.
After drinking enough water and settling somewhere warm, their tension seemed to unwind.
"They're out cold."
I quietly set the box of snacks and the wet wipes I had brought down in front of the siblings.
I carefully brushed back the hair that had fallen across sleeping Sua's forehead, then covered the two curled-up children with the warm blankets provided on the seats.
'I had a lot to ask them...'
What they had been through, what had happened to their parents, where they had originally been, and whether they had anywhere they wanted to go next.
There were quite a few things I needed to ask and confirm.
But for now, I quietly lowered the cabin lights by two levels, making the passenger compartment feel cozy.
"Let's let them sleep for a while... They must've had a hard time."
In a world overrun by monsters, peacefully watching the sleeping faces of two little children like this wasn't a bad reward.
After seeing nothing but monsters, drones, or marimo day after day, seeing the sleeping children made me feel at peace.
I watched the siblings sleeping soundly for a while, then quietly closed the door to Car 3 and carefully returned to the cockpit of Car 1.
"Scout the surroundings for me."
Just in case, I asked the drones to scout the area, then pulled out a cookbook for the first time in a while.