Chapter 20
Thud-!
...Sob!
It's okay... it's okay...
As the wolf across from them slammed into the bathroom door, the old hinges shrieked and the door panel rattled.
Sua couldn't hold it in and started crying with hiccuping sobs, while Jiwoo bit his lip hard and hugged his little sister tightly.
Bang-!
Crack!
The second impact split the middle of the plywood door clean open.
Through the crack, the beast's bloodshot eyes and yellowed fangs reeking of rot pushed into view.
The monster flicked its tongue, and its shadowy form seemed to pull back to smash the door completely.
'It still isn't close to 30 minutes yet...!'
Jiwoo remembered the message that older brother had sent him in a whisper.
Jiwoo desperately wrapped his arms around Sua's waist and dragged her backward, pressing himself tightly into the corner behind the toilet.
He didn't know how much longer this could buy them, but he had to do something.
The next moment, the monster was just about to hurl itself at the door and smash it apart.
Flash-!
"Huh?"
The windowless bathroom suddenly flooded with light.
Jiwoo stretched his neck out just enough to look through the gap in the door.
Through the gap in the broken door, a vivid red beam of light seemed to stab into the wolf monster's brow.
And then—
Kwaaaang-!
A deafening explosion, enough to tear the eardrums apart, echoed through the narrow PC café hallway.
"Aaaagh!"
"Ugh..."
At the sound, as if a bomb had gone off, Jiwoo screamed and flung himself over Sua, flattening her beneath him.
Soon after, from outside the door came the heavy thud of something crashing to the floor.
...?
Jiwoo held his breath as he lay there face down.
It was silent.
The foul bathroom stench that had been stinging Jiwoo's nose just moments ago was suddenly overlaid with an unfamiliar acrid smell and the metallic tang of blood.
The force battering the door and the beast's breathing had vanished completely.
Instead, only a faint buzzing sound like bees flying outside drifted around the door and then faded away.
"Big brother... you're heavy..."
"...Stay still for a second, Sua."
Jiwoo forced strength into his trembling legs and slowly stood up.
He carefully looked outside through the broken gap in the door.
'That is...!'
On the dark hallway floor lay a huge wolf monster.
To be exact, more than half its head had been blown off, leaving a pool of blood behind.
It was a gruesome sight.
The sight was nauseating, but at the same time it put Jiwoo at ease.
'Did that older brother come...?'
Just then, as Jiwoo tried to look around a little more—
Tap, tap.
Someone's footsteps came from the PC café hallway.
Jiwoo drew in another breath and stiffened.
Was it the older brother? Or another monster?
The footsteps stopped in front of the wolf corpse with its head blown open.
And then an entirely unexpected voice rang out inside the narrow bathroom.
"How did this thing even get the door open...? ...Did I get it?"
It was a young woman's voice, a little bouncy and strangely bright.
After checking the wolf corpse, the footsteps moved toward the bathroom door.
"Are you in there? It's okay now. Big brother... no, big sister's here."
Jiwoo, who had been expecting a deep man's voice, blinked in confusion.
The person who had come to save them should have been a big brother or maybe an older man, but the one standing outside the door was a woman.
Jiwoo fidgeted with the phone he had clutched tightly and answered cautiously through the cracked gap in the broken door.
...Who are you?
***
"Did I get it?"
I shoved the half-shattered PC café door panel aside with the toe of my shoe and looked at the fallen wolf.
On the hallway floor, a giant wolf monster lay in a pool of blood, its head blown completely off by a sniper round.
I waved away the fishy smell of blood and the acrid scent of gunpowder, then walked toward the innermost stall in the bathroom.
'I almost got here too late...'
I peered through the bathroom's cracked door.
Through the gap, I could see two tiny children clutching each other in utter terror.
Their faces were smeared with dust and tear tracks, and the boy who seemed to be the older brother had a phone in his hand.
I cleared my throat once on purpose and spoke as gently as I could.
"Are you in there? It's okay now. Big brother... no, big sister's here."
"...Who are you...?"
"I'm the one who whispered with you—well, I'm not actually a guy... but right now I'm a woman..."
At my awkward greeting, the twelve-year-old boy stared up at me with wide eyes.
The boy's pupils trembled slightly.
That look clearly seemed to be saying, 'Can I trust this person?'
...
Though he clearly still looked unconvinced, the boy looked back and forth between my face and the huge wolf corpse sprawled at my feet, then swallowed dryly.
"Big brother... who is it...?"
Then the seven-year-old little sister, who had been trembling in Jiwoo's arms, sniffled and asked. Jiwoo hesitated for a moment, then fixed his gaze on my face and answered.
"...They're the one who came to save us."
He didn't seem to fully accept that I was the same older brother he'd talked to, but I could see the tension easing slightly from the boy's shoulders.
At the very least, he didn't seem to think of me as a threatening person, and his wariness had loosened.
"What's your name?"
"I'm Jiwoo, and this is Sua..."
I smiled and held out my hand.
"Good. Jiwoo, let's get out of here first. It stinks terribly."
I led the two of them outside.
Once we came out of the shopping center, the drones that had been keeping watch in the air joined us, and the three drones circled above our heads like an escort.
"Wow... it's a robot..."
"It's fast..."
Sua, her face still streaked with tear marks, stared open-mouthed at the drones slicing silently through the night sky.
Jiwoo too was staring blankly at the drones, his tense expression having relaxed a little.
'Thank goodness.'
The two siblings seemed unable to hide their curiosity in front of the flying machines before their eyes.
The drones seemed to ease the children's tension a little.
Their amazement over the drones only grew when they saw the huge train parked in the middle of the tracks.
"Big brother, look at that!"
My train, now with a third car added and looking much more like a proper train in length, was standing by on the tracks.
Jiwoo and Sua stood frozen in place as if speechless.
"A, a train...? It's a train?"
"Yeah, that's right. It's sturdy, so it'll be safe even if a wolf comes. Hop on for now."
I opened the door to the newly expanded third car, the passenger car.
With a pleasant whoosh, the door opened to reveal warm lighting, comfortable carpet, and soft seats, unlike the ruined world outside.
"Here, sit down first."
"...Mom said not to follow strangers..."
"Shh, Sua... he's the one who saved us..."
"...Mm."
Even so, Jiwoo was studying my face carefully.
In the end, it seemed the two children decided to trust me, partly because I had rescued them and partly because of how I looked.
To put it bluntly, I looked harmless right now.
Just smiling gently every time the children hesitated helped ease their tension a lot.
Who would've thought being a woman would be an advantage here.
I guided the still-dazed siblings into the train and sat them down on the plush seats.
As soon as they settled into the wide seats, a deep sigh of relief, "Haa...", slipped out of them.
Only then did I notice their lips were parched and cracked.
I went to the back of the train, took out two bottles of chilled water, popped the caps, and put them in the siblings' small hands.
"This... can we drink it?"
"Yeah, drink slowly."
Jiwoo and Sua nodded in a hurry and gulped the water down.
I told them to drink slowly.
I gave a wry smile.
Maybe they were desperate for water, because they didn't care even as it ran down their chins and soaked their collars.
'Maybe they really had been hiding for longer than I thought.'
Even looking again, the kids were in awful shape.
Their thin outer clothes were stretched out of shape here and there, and dust and strange black marks had caked onto their pale cheeks and gaunt hands like soot.
"I'll go grab something to wipe your faces and some food. Stay here quietly."
"Y-yes..."
I gave them brief instructions and headed toward the storage area in car 2.
I figured I'd bring back some wet wipes to clean those pitch-black faces, and while I was at it, I might as well gather a bunch of snacks like Choco Pies or sweet crackers that suited the kids' taste.
I'm glad I hadn't sold all the snacks.
Rummaging through the corner of car 1, I gathered a pack of wet wipes, some snacks, and a few sweet bottled drinks into my arms and returned to the passenger car in car 3.
"Okay, wipe your faces, and eat thi..."
I spoke boldly as I opened the door, but then quickly shut my mouth.
...
The 12-year-old older brother, who had been trembling like a leaf just ten minutes earlier, and the 7-year-old little sister crying in his arms.
Those two little kids had emptied the bottle of water I'd given them and were now lying side by side on the seat, tightly hugging each other and breathing softly in sleep.
They could have each taken a seat and slept separately, but instead they had fallen asleep pressed together, filling up one seat.
After enough water and some warmth, it seemed their tension had finally melted away.
"They're sleeping like they don't have a care in the world."
I quietly set the snack box and wet wipes I'd brought down in front of the siblings without making a sound.
I carefully brushed the hair that had slipped down over sleeping Sua's forehead aside, and draped the soft blanket from the seat over the two curled-up children.
'I do have a lot I want to ask them...'
What these kids had been through, what had happened to their parents, where they'd been before, and whether they had somewhere to go next.
There was quite a lot I needed to ask and confirm.
But for now, I quietly dimmed the cabin lights by two notches to make it cozy.
"Let's let them sleep a little... they must have had a hard time."
In a world teeming with monsters, watching little kids sleep peacefully like this was a nice reward in itself.
After seeing nothing but monsters, drones, or marimo all the time, seeing sleeping children made me feel strangely at ease.
I watched the siblings sleep soundly for a moment, then tiptoed to close the door to car 3 and carefully returned to the driver's cab in car 1.
"Search the area."
I asked the drone to scout the surroundings just in case, and for the first time in a while, I took out the cookbook.