Chapter 234: The Walk To The North — VIII
Jisoo: "Am I your favorite?"
Mio cried harder. She didn’t answer with words. She just tightened her arms, face pressed down into Jisoo’s hair, and the sobbing came out muffled and small and completely unrestrained.
Jisoo’s eyes went a little wet at the corners. She blinked. Looked up at the dust-covered sky.
"Carry that Ahjussi," she said finally, voice almost steady. "The one on the ground. Get him to the alley and stay there. Okay?"
"I’m not—"
"Mio."
Mio leaned toward Jisoo’s ears and whispered something.
Jisoo smiled and nodded.
A long pause. Sniffling. Then Mio climbed back down, slowly, and came to me.
I tried to help. I genuinely tried. I got one arm working and between my approximately 30% functional brain and Mio’s 9yrs old body weight, we managed a system where she pulled and I pushed and we both fell once and then we tried again and somehow— somehow— we got upright and moving.
Step by step.
Mio’s shoulder under my arm, her face set in the specific expression of someone who had decided they were going to do this whatever happens.
We made it to the alley.
I sat down against the wall and my back appreciated it more than I could express.
Mio sat next to me immediately, tucked herself against my side, and pulled the bunny against her chest with one arm while her other arm went around my waist.
The sounds of the camp filtered through the dust and the walls between us. Distant now. Getting quieter.
I breathed.
Mio breathed.
The dust settled slowly around the alley entrance, brown and quiet, and I looked at the strip of sky visible above the buildings and found both moons still there, doing absolutely nothing useful, same as always.
"...You didn’t came back," Mio said. Very small. "You said you would."
"Yeah... but I was about to."
"You look really bad."
"I know."
"Your nose is bleeding."
"I know."
She tightened her arm around my side. I let her. My head dropped back against the wall.
Somewhere in the brown dust and the smoke and the wreckage of the camp, Jisoo was waiting for us to finish so she could end it and start the count over.
I closed my eyes.
Next try, I thought. Next try, we do better.
Then... a voice. "Ahjussi... you know... when my dad and mom left me earlier, they said something to me before you found me behind a box."
I listened.
"My real name... it’s, Shiori."
I smiled. "That’s cute, super duper cute... well, let’s rest for now?"
She nodded and hugged my side and I let her be as I drifted off to sleep and wished that... while we’re knocked out... no zombie finds us.
...
...
...
.
.
.
I woke up slowly.
The alley was still the alley... of course— same walls, same narrow strip of sky above, same cold ground under me.
But the dust was gone, or mostly gone, settled sometime in the hours I’d been unconscious into a fine brown layer over everything.
Morning light, pale and new, coming in at the angle that meant early. The smell of it was grass and concrete and something faintly burnt that I decided not to investigate.
I looked to my left.
Mio— or now... Shiori was against my side, both arms around me, the bunny tucked between us where it had apparently been this whole time.
Her face was still tear-streaked. When I shifted she stirred, eyes opening slow, and for a second she just looked at me with the expression of someone confirming something.
"Ahjussi," she said. "Haha. It’s not a dream."
Then she hugged tighter, which I had not thought was possible given how tight she had already been holding on.
"Let’s go," I said.
She nodded, stood first, and held out her hand when I got to my feet. I took it.
We walked out of the alley.
The camp was broken.
That’s the only word for it.
Every wall that could be down was down.
The buildings that had taken the worst of the giant’s path through the courtyard were missing sections of themselves— floors, corners, entire facades— and the ones still standing had taken on the particular lean of structures... they’re tilted... if you’re slow.
The supply garage where I’d put Shiori was collapsed.... Luckily she got out of there.
Well, the north watchtower was gone.
The cooking fires were ash.
Everything was the same brown-grey color of the dust that had settled over all of it, the way snow covered a landscape except instead of clean and white it was the color of aftermath.
And I noticed... there’s no zombies. I didn’t know if that was luck or if they’d followed the horde out and not come back. I didn’t look too hard for an answer.
I looked at Shiori beside me instead. She hadn’t said anything since we left the alley, just walked next to me with her hand in mine, looking at the wreckage without expression.
Not the numb kind of no expression— it’s... like she doesn’t even have emotion. I put my hand on top of her head and she flinched.
Then she looked up at me with something that took a moment to locate itself.
"Oh," she said. Then she pressed her face against my side and hugged me from there, and we kept walking.
We found Jisoo at the north wall. Still where she’d been, pinned under the debris, the shoulder fully turned now, the eyes going flat in the way I’d seen before... I don’t like this.
She didn’t look at us when we approached. Just moved her head slowly, directionless attention of something that had stopped operating on the basis of recognition.
I stood there for a minute, which felt like the right amount of time to stand there.
The regression needs both of us dead. Which means wherever Jisoo’s actual self is right now, she’s somewhere in there watching. Waiting. Probably furious about several things.... I don’t know. Maybe she’s in a white room waiting, that’s usually what happens based on the books I’ve read in the real world.
I looked at Shiori.
She was looking at Jisoo with the same still expression. I crouched down next to her. "You okay?"
She flinched again— that same small startled motion, like she kept forgetting someone was there when they were— and looked at me. "Ah, yes! Yes, I’m okay, I just... yes."
Then she put her arms around my neck and pressed close. "Ahjussi?"
"Yeah?"
"Can you carry me?"