Free Web Novel“Bro, your shift.”
“Mmm... already? What time is it?”
Shin Hocheol rubbed his eyes and sat up from the cramped sleep he’d been getting on the subway floor.
Kang Juyoung—a former Marine special reconnaissance reservist in a situation very similar to Shin Hocheol’s, having evacuated to Jeju Island before getting conscripted into this operation—checked his digital watch.
“1:30.”
“Right. Good work. Nothing happened?”
“Nothing much. It’s especially dark tonight, so I guess the zombie bastards can’t move around properly.”
“That’s good. What about the Bucheon Station side?”
“Quiet there too.”
“Got it. Go get some rest.”
“Yes. Hang in there.”
Shin Hocheol, a civil defense reservist who could barely even remember his service number anymore, took over from Kang Juyoung—the comparatively fresh reservist who had only been discharged six years ago—and switched on his night vision goggles.
The battery only had enough charge left for another five or six hours.
Still, there were spare batteries remaining, so it wasn’t yet at the point of real concern.
Honestly, if they hadn’t met Choi Hyunwoo and Kim Taeyoung, they wouldn’t have been able to recharge anything at all or obtain spare batteries in the first place.
Sliiide.
Shin Hocheol carefully raised his face to the subway window and looked outside.
Countless zombies, dozens of times filthier and more disgusting than even the homeless people he’d once seen around Seoul Station, stood scattered across the tracks with their heads hanging low or their bodies twitching faintly.
Back in Jeju, the basic training instructors had referred to that state as the Dormant Phase.
Zombies normally spent over twenty hours a day like that.
And while dormant, they supposedly consumed less than one hundred kilocalories.
Those things only awakened from dormancy for one reason.
To hunt prey that could replenish calories.
Humans.
And at that moment, they explosively burned through all the calories they had carefully conserved.
“Must be nice surviving on so little food, you fucking bastards....”
Shin Hocheol muttered bitterly through clenched teeth.
Once a zombie had properly filled its stomach, it could survive for well over a month.
It only needed to succeed in hunting once during that period.
Even a severely malnourished human yielded at least forty to fifty thousand calories, while a relatively healthy survivor could provide as much as seventy thousand.
And it didn’t matter if the victim became infected and turned into one of them midway through being eaten.
If they managed to rip off limbs, that was a jackpot.
Even if they only managed to consume the abdomen and internal organs before infection occurred, they still replenished over a thousand calories.
In other words, a single uninfected human could sustain more than thirty zombies for at least a month.
“The efficiency is fucking absurd....”
There was a reason Alphas mainly established territories in cities and hunted survivors weekly or monthly instead of wiping them all out at once.
Click.
After scanning the dormant zombies, Shin Hocheol checked his magazines.
Only three magazines loaded with subsonic ammunition remained.
Kang Juyoung, who had just come off watch duty, only had two.
The other two teammates sleeping nearby while leaning against the seats weren’t much better off.
“At least we’ve got him.”
Looking at the sleeping Choi Hyunwoo—far healthier and sturdier than ordinary survivors—Shin Hocheol chuckled quietly.
If it weren’t for Hyunwoo sleeping there hugging the air rifle loaded with tungsten rounds that he’d somehow acquired, they would’ve burned through far more ammunition by now.
The air rifle had the drawback of requiring air canister replacement every thirty or so shots.
But thanks to the rapid motorized air compressor, each canister could be recharged in roughly one minute.
Hyunwoo always carried five spare air canisters on him, and he still possessed nearly a thousand tungsten rounds.
Whenever he finished shooting and swapped canisters, Kim Taeyoung—the man who used to be an MMA coach—immediately recharged the empty ones.
Without those two, several members of their group—or maybe all of them—might have died while fleeing into this subway train.
“And those monster bastards probably wouldn’t just be sitting there waiting either....”
Like the self-preserving creature it was, the Alpha understood exactly how dangerous human firearms were.
It knew that one shot to the head would kill it.
But at the same time, it also understood that ammunition wasn’t infinite.
Normally, it would have sent slave zombies repeatedly to exhaust their ammo before launching an all-out assault.
But because of Choi Hyunwoo and the air rifle, it had continued probing cautiously instead.
“Fucking bastard....”
He wanted to kill them all.
But if they wasted all their ammunition on zombies, then the MZ-whatever gangster punks occupying Bucheon Station would become an even bigger problem.
“The hell do we do now? We can’t stay like this forever....”
Taking a sip from the little water they had left, Shin Hocheol looked around the subway car.
Thanks to meeting Choi Hyunwoo and Kim Taeyoung, they still had enough combat rations to last around four more days.
Water was the real problem.
While fleeing onto the tracks from the zombies and escaping into this train, they had lost the backpack containing most of their drinking water.
At the time, they had been too busy running for their lives, so they’d abandoned the heaviest pack first.
Nobody could really blame them for that.
“Sigh... guess there’s no helping it. We stick to the plan and move at 0500— huh!?”
After checking his digital watch and looking back outside, Shin Hocheol’s eyes widened and he recoiled from the window.
The zombies standing motionless like mannequins in the darkness had suddenly changed.
“W-what the hell?”
Every single zombie simultaneously lifted its head and stared in one direction.
The bizarre movement made the hairs on Shin Hocheol’s body stand on end.
But only for a moment.
Grrrrrrrrrr....
“Fuck....”
The low growling that penetrated even the thick subway windows sent chills racing through his entire body.
Shin Hocheol immediately woke the others.
To hell with whether it was nighttime or not.
Those things were obviously about to attack them.
***
His condition felt excellent.
Not just emotionally.
After killing the two Alphas last night, Junho could clearly feel that his physical condition had improved further.
Because despite eating a heavy late-night meal with the group two hours earlier in preparation for this operation—
He still felt slightly hungry.
“Do I seriously need to increase my food intake again...?”
Improved physical capability was great and all, but he already consumed three or four times more food than ordinary people.
If he had to eat even more than that, his fuel efficiency was becoming ridiculous.
—Pardon? Did you say something?
Kim Jimin’s voice came through the earpiece after overhearing Junho’s quiet muttering.
“No. Nothing.”
Junho denied it immediately and changed the subject.
“Entering in ten seconds.”
—Understood. No Alpha confirmed at this time.
“Manager Park?”
—Standing by for fire support. No abnormalities from the Sosa Station side. A2 drone is also on standby.
“Good. Then... beginning operation.”
As Junho walked forward through the darkness where even moonlight had vanished behind clouds, a dormant zombie suddenly stood directly in front of him.
Slash.
With a soft sound, the commando dagger pierced its eye, and the zombie collapsed limply.
Clatter!
Grrrghhh....
The sound of the body falling onto the gravel-covered tracks caused nearby zombies to instantly awaken from dormancy and whip their heads toward the noise.
Thud! Slashslash!
The machete and commando dagger carved through them immediately.
Kraaaah! Kyaaaah...!
Walking directly through the zombie horde, Junho mechanically stabbed and swung the two blades.
Whoosh. Shhk.
His eyes remained ice-cold and emotionless as he unleashed relentless attacks with both weapons, each empowered by overwhelming force.
Every second, the zombies’ movements flowed through his eyes into his brain, instinct and calculation combining to produce the fastest and most efficient next action possible.
Bang! Thud!
And Junho wasn’t relying solely on blades either.
When necessary, he shattered enemy formations with kicks and shoulder charges.
Any zombie that got too close had its jaw completely crushed by an elbow strike.
—They’re coming from the opposite side! Hundreds of contacts!
—Watch your rear!
Kim Jimin’s voice, tense and excited as he monitored the battlefield through the drones, echoed continuously through the earpiece.
—They’re flooding in from the Bucheon Station side too!
Han Areum’s voice followed as she monitored the Bucheon Station direction through another drone.
Absorbing every piece of information the two relayed to him, Junho continued fighting.
Kyaaaah! Kyaak!
Occasionally the zombies’ roars pierced through the soundproof headset, drowning out the others’ voices.
An ordinary human would feel terror not just through sight but through sound as well.
And in a situation like this—surrounded by countless cannibal monsters devouring people alive right in front of you—most people would probably go insane.
But not Junho.
He knew their teeth couldn’t penetrate the motorcycle suit protecting him, reinforced with plastic armor plates strong enough to shield skin even from asphalt crashes.
Of course, dozens or hundreds swarming him simultaneously could still crush a person through sheer mass and force.
Normally, after only a few minutes of close-quarters combat using cold weapons like this, an ordinary person would already be exhausted.
But that didn’t apply to Junho either.
Especially not in a situation like this.
Both sides of the tracks were blocked by soundproof walls, reducing noise spread.
He didn’t need to worry about endless additional hordes joining from every direction.
All he had to deal with were the zombies currently on the tracks.
***
“Hoo... hoo.”
His breathing remained perfectly stable.
His stamina wasn’t even remotely strained.
That was why he could swing this machete—nearly three times heavier than normal—with enough force to sever the heads of three zombies at once.
ThudthudTHUD! Smash!
Like a certain iconic American superhero, Junho truly could keep doing this all day.
Kwoooooooaarrr...!!! Kyaaaah...!!!
Toward the endless tide of zombies surging through the darkness like waves, Junho swung his blades as though lost in a trance.
And then—
—Alpha spotted! Alpha spotted! The bastard was hiding beneath the subway!
—Third train car! Forty meters ahead! Pass two more cars!
Kim Jimin, who had gone silent for some time, suddenly burst out with a rapid report as if releasing suppressed tension.
—Deploying A2!
Yoon Seolhee, who had been waiting for exactly this moment, launched the A2 attack drone.
Modified for nighttime operation with extended fifteen-minute flight time and a thermal-imaging payload.
Kiiiiiiing!
The drone Junho had stationed beforehand atop a building across the road—not the shopping-building rooftop where Seolhee herself was positioned—shot into the air and accelerated directly toward the tracks.
The loud buzzing noise drew the attention of some of the zombies.
And Junho immediately seized that opening.
“Hup!”
BOOOOM!
Crossing both arms into an X-shape before his body, Junho lowered his head slightly and charged forward with full power.
BANGBANGBANGBANG!
The countless zombies wedged between the subway cars and the tracks were violently blown aside in a direct collision against a superhuman whose strength had already surpassed human limits.
BOOM! THUD!
Most zombies possessed frail bodies no different from severely starved survivors.
That was the only reason something like this was possible.
But Junho didn’t stop there.
'Found you!'
The moment he saw the only head glowing bright white through his wide-angle thermal night vision—
“Hup!”
Maintaining his full sprinting speed, Junho drove his foot into the ground and leapt.
WHOOOOM!
His body soared over two meters into the air, vaulting cleanly over the zombies.
Crossing more than five meters in a single bound, Junho looked almost like a bird of prey in flight.
And at that exact moment—
The people inside Car 4, who had been preparing for combat while monitoring the situation outside, witnessed him through the train window.
“Holy shit...!”
And among them, Choi Hyunwoo clearly saw that the “madman” who had just flown past the window like some enormous bird was wearing the exact same motorcycle suit as himself.
“J-Junho!?”
Almost instinctively, he realized who it was.
