Free Web Novel“This is what happens when you use crap like that as a weapon.”
Speaking under his breath, Junho wiped the blood off the dagger and awl on the dead thug’s clothes.
Comics and movies about zombie apocalypses had ruined people.
Of course, before the regression, Junho had thought the same thing at first—that a spear made by taping a kitchen knife to a pole with blue tape, or a hand axe, or a baseball bat, would make a good weapon.
But maybe against another person. Against zombies, they were the worst choice possible.
Zombies knew neither fear nor pain.
You could swing a spear or a baseball bat at them all day, and they still would not back off.
And on top of that, accurately striking the head of a zombie charging mindlessly at full speed with a spear or a bat was a lot harder than people thought.
And unless you happened to practice spear fighting regularly or were a baseball player, an average person?
Even dealing with one was hard enough. If two or more zombies rushed you, then even if you managed to stab one properly, the others would be on top of you immediately.
The hand axe and hammer the dead bastards had been carrying were the same story.
They had probably put some thought into efficiency and picked them with that in mind, but the problem with weapons like that was that if you struck too hard, they did not come back out easily.
Just imagine being in an urgent situation against multiple enemies and finding out the axe buried in a skull would not pull free.
Which was why—
“This kind of thing is the best.”
Junho slid the awl and the dagger—one of the kind commonly called a commando dagger, a Fairbairn & Sykes fighting knife—into their dedicated pouch.
Stab upward at an angle through the eye, ear, mouth, or the back or side of the neck, and whether it was a zombie or a person, it was a one-hit kill.
Naturally, if you were preparing for getting attacked by several at once, it was essential to wear clothing made of material that would not tear or rip easily even if you got bitten a few times, and to wear protective gear on your arms and shoulders.
Before the regression, once fall came and the clothes he wore got a little thicker, Junho had realized something.
When fighting multiple zombies at close range, you had to assume getting bitten a few times was a constant and kill them as fast as possible by stabbing for the ears or eyes.
Though in the end, he had trusted that too much, fought without realizing his leather gloves were worn through, gotten bitten, and finally pulled the trigger on his own pistol.
“I’ll wait here for now. Keep watching carefully.”
“Okay.”
“Yep.”
Junho cleaned up the thug corpses.
He added a few more wounds to them with the dagger so it would look like they had not been attacked from behind, but had died fighting one or two opponents head-on.
After placing the bodies in reasonable positions and messing up the living room a little too, Junho radioed out.
“Junhyeok, do you have a shot angle from there into the first-floor hallway of this apartment building?”
“The unit you went into? The windows are kind of high and filthy as hell, but...”
“I’ll open one.”
Junho stepped into the hallway, undid the latch, and opened the dust-clouded window as quietly as possible.
Creeeak...
“Yeah. I can see you, hyung. From the chest up.”
“Good. Stay put.”
Junho sat down on the living room sofa with the bodies sprawled around it.
As the distinctive stale zombie stink mixed with the smell of blood, Junho pulled his ballistic mask back up over his face.
A little later—
“Boss. The guy with the air rifle was getting really pissed off, and he just sent the guy who was with him over your way.”
“Okay.”
Junho got up from the sofa and stepped into the bathroom beside the front door.
Then he switched on only the camera of the mini drone he had left on top of the living-room cabinet.
The controller screen showed the entrance perfectly.
“The thug’s approaching the apartment real careful. He’s got a knife.”
“He just went inside the building. Be careful, boss.”
Pressed against the bathroom wall, Junho stared intently at the mini drone controller screen.
Soon enough, whoever it was tried to be cautious, but light footsteps still reached him.
Then a short, solidly built man who looked to be around forty stepped quietly into the entryway, his face tight with tension.
Like the others, he was wearing a hard hat and long sleeves, and in one hand he held the kind of knife used for butchering meat.
A good choice. At least better than what the others who had gone ahead of him had carried.
But he seemed just as stupid.
Because he did not even think to check the bathroom door hanging slightly open and went straight into the hallway leading to the living room.
The moment the man passed the bathroom door, Junho slipped out silently, drove the dagger deep into the back of his neck, and clamped a hand over his mouth.
“......!”
The man with the blade in his neck struggled weakly, unable even to scream.
But he would not die right away.
Junho had driven the blade in so it caught the side of the airway and the jugular area. Breathing would be difficult in extreme pain, but it would not kill him instantly.
He would probably live another three or four minutes like this.
Hooking an arm under the armpit of the man sagging with the dagger stuck in his neck, Junho dragged him out through the entrance and said quietly,
“Now.”
Two seconds later—
With a sharp thwack, the man’s body jerked violently once.
The tungsten round that hit him in the chest made him go slack.
Junho dragged him to the apartment stairs and left the body there to make it look like he had died on the stairwell, then finally pulled the knife free.
Blood welled out in thick surges.
Junho changed into a fresh pair of latex gloves and smeared and splashed that blood all over the hallway and staircase.
Now the thugs from Hanchang Development would think there was some group in or around this apartment building carrying air rifles and actually knowing how to use knives.
And Han Changoh would rage and scream for revenge, but Han Changsik—cowardly, quick to size up a situation—would give up on the rear gate.
He had already lost four men. He could not afford to lose any more strength than that.
“I’m heading back.”
Junho slipped out of the apartment through the open window.
There would be blood on the frame and wall, but that was fine.
He had done it on purpose, so they would not know exactly where the people who killed his men were based.
Just wait a little longer. Next time, I’ll send both of you off too.
Moving back up the mountain quickly but quietly, Junho forced down the faint excitement and killing urge created by his first murder after the regression.
Killing still felt filthy.
***
After returning to the armored car, Junho changed into the clothes he had prepared in advance and checked the drone footage.
As expected, Han Changoh did not enter the apartment building. Instead, he drove back to the country house.
He might have been hot-tempered, but not reckless enough to charge in alone when four men had not come back.
And once sunset began, Han Changsik’s country house showed no movement at all.
Junho checked the drone feed over the nursing home too.
The number of zombies in the yard and parking lot was unchanged, but there were more zombies moving up and down the paved road outside the front gate.
Adding them to the ones already at the nursing home, there were more than fifty now. That number would probably keep growing with time.
He briefly thought about going to the nursing home today.
Then dismissed it immediately.
People never feel the same going in and coming out of a bathroom.
If he went now, when they did not seem to be making any special moves and did not appear to be in immediate trouble or crisis, they probably would not be especially grateful. They might even react with hostility.
For now, with no threat from Han Changsik’s group for the time being, the right move was to keep watching.
***
“What? The guys didn’t come back? They dead? Or did somebody get them?”
“Fuck, I don’t know either. Didn’t hear any noise, so I’m guessing they’re dead. Sent three over first and they didn’t come back, so I sent Daebal over too, and he didn’t come back either.”
Han Changoh scowled irritably, squinting his narrow, slit-like eyes.
“Hey. You sure you killed everything at the rear gate? You didn’t half-ass it again, did you?”
Unlike his younger brother, Han Changsik had a broad, genial face, and at those words Han Changoh snapped back.
“I said no! I’m telling you, I killed them all for sure. You can go check yourself, can’t you? I killed over fifty of them.”
There was a little exaggeration mixed in, but it was not a complete lie, so Han Changoh sounded genuinely aggrieved.
“All right, all right, so lower your damn voice. You’re blowing my ears out.”
“Christ. You’re such a coward.”
“What did you say, you little shit? Who paid to send your ass to college, huh? Who got that officetel for some punk student brat? And who kept handing you a million won a month in spending money, every single month?”
“Tch.”
Han Changoh looked away.
From childhood until now, he had always relied on his older brother.
It was his brother who had cleaned up all the trouble he caused back in school.
And it was his brother, Han Changsik, who had turned him from a common street thug who could fight a little into “Han Changoh, Department Head at Hanchang Development.”
What was more, when the zombie outbreak happened, his brother had been the only person who stayed calm.
For the holiday weekend, around twenty people had gathered—employees of Hanchang Development and a few people from affiliated companies. fɾēewebnσveℓ.com
They had gone to Yangpyeong for water sports and sightseeing, then come back to his brother’s country house, which had six bedrooms, and held a barbecue party.
The next day, this shit happened.
Everyone else had panicked and flailed around, but only his brother acted as if it were nothing.
The truth was, unlike his appearance suggested, he was a coward, which was exactly why he had been thinking furiously about how to handle the situation.
And once he finished calculating everything, he seized control of the atmosphere in an instant by putting an air-rifle round right between the brows of the loudest, most obnoxious man there—a manager from an affiliated company who had always quietly pushed back against him and was squealing like a stuck pig.
Outside, man-eating monsters were running around,
and Han Changsik had killed a man without blinking, forcing everyone else into line.
Which meant that the reason Han Changoh and the other employees were able to stay this tightly united now was all because of his brother.
“Anyway, what do we do now, hyung? We should take people tomorrow morning and search the place, right?”
Click.
Lighting a cigarette, Han Changsik let out a long stream of smoke and said,
“We give up on the rear gate for now.”
“What? Hyung, we lost three of our guys and Daebal too. Zombie or whatever it was, whoever those bastards are, we ought to get revenge, shouldn’t we? I don’t care who it is—if I catch them, I’ll rip their mouths open—”
“And what if you get hit again?”
“......!”
“We lost four men. We’ve only got eleven left now. Even if we threaten the people we’ve captured and drag them onto our side, what do we get? Maybe twenty, tops? And what then if we lose a few more?”
“So what, we just sit here like this?”
“We break through the front gate.”
“The front gate?”
After barely taking a few drags, Han Changsik crushed the cigarette out in the ashtray and, with the same smile he often wore on the real-estate channel he personally appeared on, said,
“In two weeks, we clean out every last one of these country houses. Get things in order a little. Then we head toward the townhouse side. By then the electricity and water will probably be cut off, and once that happens, the people in those townhouses will start poking around outside.”
“Seriously? The power and water will get cut off by then?”
“Yeah, dumbass. You know how many web novels your brother’s read? In those, when this kind of thing happens, utilities usually go out in two or three weeks. A month at the absolute latest.”
“Christ, those damn web novels again...”
At his brother’s muttering, Han Changsik clicked his tongue.
“Oh, shut up, asshole. Do you have any idea how hard webnovel writers go when they collect reference material?”
“Tch...”
“Bad enough I’m already depressed because I can’t read the ones I bookmarked anymore... Anyway, keep the employees in line. Don’t let them pull any stupid shit. Don’t skimp on food—give it out generously. Got it?”
“Shouldn’t we be rationing that? Even if we’ve scraped it all together from other houses, it’ll run out in a month.”
“Changoh, Changoh. Times like this are exactly when you need to be generous to the people under you. You know one of the most common reasons organizations collapse in an apocalypse?”
“How the hell would I know...”
“Listen carefully. It’s because the boss only forces the people below him to do things and never treats them properly. End of the world or not, people are still people. So do what I say. Think about why it is you listen to me so well.”
“...Got it.”
Only after Han Changsik used him as an example did Han Changoh finally understand and nod.
“But what about the women? Can we touch them?”
At his younger brother’s suggestive tone, Han Changsik gave a small snort.
“You little punk... use your head and don’t go overboard. Just make sure nobody gets pregnant. In a world like this, how the hell are you supposed to endure without at least that much fun? Just don’t beat them too badly. You want them to last a long time so you can keep enjoying them.”
***
After taking care of the Hanchang Development thugs in the apartment building, Junho did not take any special action for several days and simply kept up surveillance.
Just as he had expected, the gangsters focused only on occupying the country houses one by one.
They left just a single small passage in the tightly barricaded rear gate, stacked furniture, vehicles, and all kinds of other things into a barricade around it, and never went near it again.
Every now and then Han Changoh and a few of the thugs would show up, stare in that direction, and talk for a while, but that was all.
And they spread their control quickly toward the front gate of the country-house neighborhood.
They brought in people regardless of age or sex, and since the houses were luxury country homes, all kinds of food ingredients and supplies from those homes were loaded onto trucks and brought to Han Changsik’s house.
Not only that, they stripped solar panels and equipment off the other houses and brought those in too.
Compared to what they had gotten from looting the relay station, it was nothing all that impressive, but if they installed everything and got it working properly, it looked like they would be able to generate around 200 kilowatts of electricity per day.
That was a substantial amount of power—enough for fifteen to twenty ordinary households to use all day.
In any case, watching all that, Junho became certain that the Hanchang Development thugs had lost interest in the rear gate direction—in other words, the nursing home side.
And at Hanaareum Nursing Home, the survivors finally began to move.
It was time to start getting ready.
***
“How’s life here been treating you?”
“I-it’s really good. I’m not just saying that. I mean it. Thank you, sir.”
“Me too. Thank you, mister.”
When Junho came to «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» the container housing for the first time in a while carrying food and daily necessities, Choi Jeongwoo and Kim Hayoon, visibly nervous, still expressed sincere gratitude.
Kim Hayoon in particular looked like she had a lot she wanted to say about her grandmother and the nursing home, but it was obvious she was somehow holding herself back.
Part of that was probably because she had heard from Choi Jeongwoo what kind of person Junho was.
Even for a young middle-school girl, she knew by now that it would be shameless to keep clinging to the man who had already saved her and her brother.
“Well, I didn’t come here to hear thank-yous. Hayoon.”
“Yes, mister.”
Kim Hayoon was trying as hard as she could not to show her tension and hope.
“I confirmed yesterday that there are people at Hanaareum Nursing Home.”
“......!!!”
“I don’t know if that’s all the survivors, but I confirmed four elderly people, one middle-aged couple, and one young man and one young woman in uniforms. Any idea who they are?”
“Yes! Th-the people in uniform are probably Mr. Jaeseok and Sua! They work there with my grandma, you know? Sua’s a nurse, and Mr. Jaeseok just works there.”
“I see. But.”
To the young middle-school girl whose face had instantly gone red and whose eyes had filled with tears, Junho continued,
“Starting tomorrow, the country’s going to be under the influence of a typhoon. So I’m thinking of going to the nursing home tomorrow night or the night after. Zombies don’t see or hear very well in that kind of weather.”
“Y-yes, Mr. Junho! Really, really... thank you so much. Hhhk...”
Even though she had to know saving her grandmother was not his real objective, Kim Hayoon still broke into tears of gratitude and emotion.
***
It had looked like storm clouds were gathering since yesterday evening, and by the middle of the night, rain had started falling little by little.
By around noon today, rain driven by strong winds had been slanting down in sheets, and by sunset, the wind had died off, leaving only a steady drizzle.
Perfect conditions for a nighttime operation where they needed to stay concealed.
Junho, Junhyeok, and Purdy, fully armed, climbed into the armored car and headed up to the Cheonghak Mountain communications relay station.
