The Only Woman in a Zombie Apocalypse Vol. 1 Chapter 31 - Humans are scarier than zombies (1)

Since there weren’t many thin clothes, Dayoung’s organizing finished faster than expected. 

 

The winter clothes weren’t taken out of the boxes. The scouting team, anticipating even hotter days ahead, decided to gather as much summer clothing as possible while on patrol—because not only Dayoung’s clothes but also the men’s were in very short supply.

 

And so, Dayoung’s dressing room was sorted, and next to it, the men’s dressing room was set up. 

 

Since there were many men, they brought out clothes in all their sizes, requiring the use of three stores. 

 

Though it took three days of work, the group felt proud as they looked at the two spaces they had prepared.

 

After turning two stores into dressing rooms, Dayoung’s daily routine remained largely the same. She helped the cooking team prepare meals and spent her free time reading. 

 

The only difference was that after her trip to the rooftop with Ian, she had one more task—taking over the care of the vegetable garden from Woomin of the cooking team. 

 

Other than that, her days were unchanged. Dayoung opened her notebook and checked the page where she had recorded important events.

 

《End of June – Three men’s accident infiltration — X
End of July – Group of foreigners
Early September – Four women
Mid-November – Attacked
Mid-January – Hardships due to extreme cold
End of March – Attacked
Early June – Move to Gangwon-do》

 

According to the original timeline, the three men who were supposed to join the group would open the small side door of the mall tonight to take it over. 

 

They would lure zombies inside by creating loud noises, leaving the defenseless group with five dead and three injured. 

 

Of course, the three men would also die in the incident. 

 

However, when the three men had arrived earlier, they had attempted to assault Dayoung and were immediately expelled from the mall. 

 

So, most likely, this event wouldn’t happen.

 

But for some reason, Dayoung felt uneasy. Her heart pounded for no reason. It was that feeling—like something terrible was about to happen. 

 

Grabbing the walkie-talkie and flashlight from the corner of the room, she headed down to the first floor. 

 

Since it was after dinner, some were probably drinking in the basement, while the scouting team would be taking turns checking the mall’s interior and rooftop. 

 

To conserve electricity, half the mall’s lights were off, leaving it dim, and in the evening, even their active zone had its lighting halved, making it even darker.

 

Clutching the walkie-talkie, Dayoung shone her flashlight and began inspecting every corner of the unlit areas. It wasn’t a place she usually visited, and the darkness made it hard to tell where the doors were, forcing her to scan every edge. 

 

This was South Korea’s largest shopping mall—plenty of food, plenty of supplies, but also plenty of doors.

 

Today, staring at the doors, she realized they were more vulnerable than she’d thought. They had only barricaded the mall and locked the doors, thinking that survivors might knock. 

 

Dayoung sighed as she looked at them.

 

“No way. If we leave them like this, anyone could break in. Why didn’t I think of this before? Kim Dayoung, you idiot!”

 

In a world where death could come at any moment, Dayoung scolded herself for growing complacent about security just because she felt safe in Ian’s group. She’d been so blinded by pleasure that she’d neglected what really mattered. 

 

Safety wasn’t something others could guarantee for her.

 

It took Dayoung 30 minutes just to circle the mall’s dark areas. The novel only mentioned it was night, making it hard to gauge the exact time. 

 

Currently, it was 8:30. She hesitated—should she return to her room or keep waiting here?

 

Dayoung still couldn’t shake her unease, so she went to her room, grabbed a thin blanket, and headed back downstairs. 

 

Sitting alone in the dark lobby made her both scared and bored. 

 

If only she had her phone, she could at least pass the time by playing games. But it was too dark to even read a book.

 

“Sigh. What is this? Should I have just killed those bastards? Then maybe I wouldn’t feel so uneasy.”

 

Even if she went back in time, she knew she wouldn’t have been able to kill them, but Dayoung bluffed to herself anyway. 

 

If only she had someone with her, it’d be less scary and less boring. She thought about calling the others, but it felt like making a fuss over nothing. 

 

Of course, if she did, they’d probably tease her for being scared while staying by her side to keep her safe.

 

But if nothing was actually wrong, she’d just be tiring out the others who needed to rest for the next day’s tasks. 

 

Dayoung didn’t want to be a burden to them, at least not like that. 

 

Sitting idle in the dark, drowsiness began to creep in. Just as Dayoung was nodding off without realizing it, a voice crackled from the walkie-talkie.

 

— “Noona Dayoung, where are you?”

 

“I’m on the first floor.”

 

— “What are you doing there? You weren’t in your room, so I waited, but you never came back. I got worried.”

 

“Just… hanging around downstairs.”

 

Dohun must have gone to her room looking for her. 

 

Since Dayoung was usually in predictable places, he probably got impatient and radioed her. 

 

Just as she responded, a loud clang echoed through the lobby. Dayoung immediately sprinted toward the noise. 

 

A small glass door had been shattered, and outside, two men were snarling.

 

“You thought you could just kick us out and live peacefully?? Because of you, Dongwoo died!! You all deserve to die too!!”

 

They were the men who had been driven out of the shopping mall earlier. It seemed their leader, Dongwoo, had been killed.

 

Men shouting at the top of their lungs. Behind them, all the barricades had been cleared. 

 

The zombies, less active at night, began gathering one by one at the sound of the men’s voices. 

 

One of the men pulled the pin from a personal alarm, similar to the one Dayoung had used before, and threw it inside the door. Then, he started running along the mall wall.

 

“Ah, no!! The door on the first floor is broken. The zombies—the zombies are coming in!”

 

Dayoung didn’t know what to do. 

 

The loud emergency alarm blaring inside the door—beep—drew the zombies closer, one by one. She thought about quickly running over and throwing the alarm outside, but there was no way she could reach it faster than the zombies already crowding the entrance.

 

She wanted to scream, but afraid the zombies would target her instead of the alarm, she stifled the urge. 

 

Dayoung scanned the nearby stores with her flashlight. 

 

A furniture store and a kitchenware store. The furniture had already been moved to their living quarters, leaving the place empty, and the kitchenware store had nothing that could block the zombies.

 

―Where on the first floor???

 

“H-Here… A-15 store. The furniture store!”

 

Dayoung began pushing the sofa she had been sitting on toward the door. 

 

Fortunately, the small sofa was light enough for her to move, and she started shoving it down the hallway leading to the entrance.

 

🫧

 

―Noona, where are you?

―I’m on the first floor.

―What are you doing there? We got worried when you didn’t come back to the room.

―Just… hold on. I’m on the first floor.

 

The group focused on Dayoung’s voice coming through the walkie-talkie. 

 

The men drinking, the men resting in their rooms—all listened, grateful to Dohun for reaching out to her. Then, the transmission cut off. 

 

Puzzled, the men checked their devices, but there was no issue. 

 

Moments later, Dayoung’s frantic voice came through again.

 

―Ah, no!! The door on the first floor is broken. Zombies, zombies are coming in!

The men stopped everything they were doing, stood up, and ran. 

 

Those who were downstairs or had come upstairs rushed to grab the weapons stockpiled at the first-floor back door.

 

―Where on the first floor???

―H-Here… A-15 store. The furniture store!

 

Each of them grabbed their weapons and began running toward where Dayoung had said. 

 

From a distance, they could see Dayoung struggling to push a sofa, accompanied by the blaring noise of an alarm and the howls of zombies.

 

“Damn it, why did the door break?”

 

The mall’s doors were made of extremely thick glass. 

 

Since they weren’t easily shattered, the men had focused more on building barricades—just in case any living people needed to get in.

 

―Two people running west. Must be those bastards!

 

Sion, who had been scouting from the rooftop, spotted two figures moving differently from the zombies. 

 

He realized he needed to change his scouting method—it took too long for one person to circle the rooftop, making it difficult to detect approaching threats in time.

 

The men approached Dayoung as quietly as possible. They moved her behind them and began lifting sofas to block the hallway. 

 

Working silently, they stacked the sofas she had already moved one by one. 

 

Once tightly piled, the largest among them—Ian, Jiseok, and Jangwoo—pressed their backs against the sofas to prevent the zombies from pushing through.

 

“Noona, are you okay?”

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

 

“Yeah, I’m fine. But the zombies are coming in…”

 

Seeing Dayoung on the verge of tears, the group reassured her, telling her not to worry and that everything would be alright.