TAVBZ 1

Chapter 1

“Kyaak!”

The moment I came to, a scream like someone ripping my ears apart cut through the air and I crumpled to the ground as my legs gave out.

“What are you doing, Penelope!”

The man who had been dragging me by the wrist swore as he hauled me back upright.

Penelope?

The instant I heard that name, a flood of information poured into my head along with someone else’s memories.

‘Penelope Lloyd.’

The troublemaking villainess from the novel In Search of Paradise, a troll in a zombie story.

Putting my bewilderment aside and thinking fast, I reached the bleak conclusion that I’d been transported into the novel — and that I’d become Penelope Lloyd.

On top of that, because Penelope had thrown a tantrum a moment ago and caused a commotion, we were now running through the woods, being chased by zombies.

As soon as I accepted that fact—

“Can’t you even run properly?”

The Crown Prince, who’d roughly hauled me up by force, snarled angrily.

But who cared about his scolding? The important thing was that he had my hand.

When I turned my head at the sharp, metallic smell of blood, a horde of zombies came into view, their clothes torn and flapping as they shambled forward with grotesque movements — unfocused eyes and veins bulging all over their swollen bodies.

Frightened that the Crown Prince might get annoyed and leave me behind, I pushed the stinging pain at my ankle aside and hurried after him.

We were running for a fortress on the mountain.

The outer bailey had a solid gate, sturdy walls, and high watchtowers — an excellent place to survey the surroundings — and the inner keep contained an armory. The distant fortress looked like a perfect shelter from this zombie incident. Since it had been used as a military facility, it would probably have some food, too.

“Lilia, take my hand.”

The Crown Prince leapt up onto a large rock and reached out a hand to the novel’s heroine, Lilia.

But she couldn’t find anywhere to step up and slipped, so I shoved her up quickly, stamping my feet as the pursuing zombies closed in.

“Ah!”

At that moment, the heroine flailing to grab his hand shoved the person who had been standing beneath her. As I — who had been holding her up — began to fall and the heroine was about to tumble, the Crown Prince snatched Lilia’s slender wrist.

Kyaek!

“…….”

After safely lifting the heroine, he glanced at me, who was sprawled on the ground, then turned his back as if he’d decided there was no hope.

“No, wait!”

Even if Penelope had been insufferable up until now — stirring trouble at every turn and endangering everyone — this was too much!

I scrambled to my feet and desperately tried to climb the big rock, but a zombie’s cold hand clamped hard on my ankle. At that instant, a line from the novel brushed through my mind.

Penelope’s kick sent Lilia tumbling, and the zombies had followed up close behind.

They were a horde. It was far too late to save her.

Yet his body was already moving toward Lilia.

…You bastard!

When the zombie grabbed me, I don’t know where the strength came from, but driven by a single thought — I had to run — I rolled down the steep mountain path.

I tumbled and tumbled down the slope.

Crunch!

My thigh, exposed when I fell, was bitten.

But I avoided the catastrophe of having my whole body torn apart. You might think that with a bite this is meaningless, but anyone who’s been bitten would know how lucky I was.

Smack!

With trembling hands from the pain I picked up a rock and smashed the zombie’s head that had latched onto my leg.

Thud, smack, thud!

Maybe the pain of sharp teeth sinking deep into my flesh, or the terror of everything ending, I don’t know which, but I bawled my eyes out like a lunatic.

“Sniff, sob…”

After breaking the zombie’s skull and crying for a long time, useless regret washed over me: I should have grabbed the Crown Prince’s hand and climbed up before the heroine.

…If you become a zombie you’ll lose your self entirely and wander — could you really call that living?

Then would I be dead?

The vague word “death” closed in on me, and an indescribable fear pressed down on my whole body.

‘I don’t want to die….’

Thump.

With that thought, I collapsed. No — I died.

How much time passed—

Gasp!

With a few convulsions, I became a zombie.

“Ahh… this is…”

My speech was slurred and it was hard to move my body precisely, but somehow I was still thinking. Maybe the fact that I’d been possessed gave me some bonus — whatever it was, I didn’t care.

My consciousness remained. I wasn’t dead.

“…Thank goodness, thank goodness.”

Relieved by the fact that I was still alive, I heard a rustling very close to the tree I was leaning against.

How had I survived? I couldn’t just sit here or I’d be bitten again. I tried to push off the tree and run, but whatever it was burst through the thick brush and appeared faster than I could move.

Its skin was thin and stretched, its veins grotesquely bulging — just as I feared — a zombie.

Gruu.

It seemed to have heard something and sniffed toward where I was standing.

Thud, thud, thud.

I quickly grabbed a nearby stone, intending that if it charged me I’d smash its head like before.

But the zombie turned its head and, as if uninterested, shuffled away dragging its feet.

‘Ah, right — I’m a zombie.’

Zombies only reacted to the scent of people or the smell of blood. And I no longer smelled like a person.

My nervous, rapid heartbeat gradually slowed. Huh?

‘Zombies don’t have a heartbeat….’

I put my hand to my chest and felt a beating heart.

More precisely, zombies’ hearts beat, but very slowly.

Their bodily functions were diminished — yet when they behaved like humans again or exceeded human physical ability, it was only when they smelled human scent, especially the scent of blood, and awakened. But that could be a problem for later.

Right now, the important thing was to find someplace safe to hide.

Not being a zombie didn’t matter; if the head was destroyed, a zombie couldn’t move.

And this place was a forest full of wild animals.

If I just stood here fooling around, I’d be likely to be attacked by a predator. Predators don’t distinguish between zombies and humans. With the sun still up, I had to hurry to find a safe place to hide.

‘I must live.’

That thought kept pushing itself into my head.

I still remembered the pain my body had felt when bitten and the sensation of death closing in — just imagining it made my hands shake.

‘I don’t want to die again. I have to live.’

Why I’d suddenly become Penelope didn’t matter. I simply didn’t want to feel that pain again. I wanted to live.

To survive the predators for now I needed… a building. A place to hide.

But sadly, the only place nearby that would suffice was the fortress the protagonists were heading to.

‘It’s just a little further to the fortress.’

Thinking ahead, joining the main cast wouldn’t be a bad choice in many ways. It would take time, but if the Emperor found some countermeasure to the zombie outbreak and things calmed down a bit, descending the mountain with powerful nobles like the Duke and the Crown Prince would mean protection from wild animals…

‘But would they protect me?’

Recalling the Crown Prince’s cold, abandoning look, it seemed like a vain hope.

In any case, there was nowhere safer than that place for now.

‘As long as they don’t notice I’m a zombie.’

But my arm, visible through the torn sleeve, was no longer human.

Veins bulged across my arm as if they might burst at any moment.

‘What should I do? Hiding it with clothes has its limits.’

Then, suddenly, an astonishingly perfect method to join the protagonist group flashed through my mind.

This would be enough to fool them.