Free Web NovelIt was a clear winter morning, making the fierce wind and heavy snow from the night before seem almost unreal.
“Any room over there?”
“It’s full here! Take it over by the gym!”
Early in the morning, even in the cold weather of twenty-seven degrees below freezing, the survivors at Gahyeon Elementary School were hard at work, men and women alike, their white breath pouring from their mouths.
Hundreds of corpses—too many to count—were piled high in one part of the schoolyard, and stretchers carrying bodies were being moved nonstop.
“Ulp!”
“Bleurgh...!”
Quite a few people kept gagging and throwing up, but even with their faces pale as paper, the survivors kept working.
“Oh God, Youngjin! Oh God...!”
“Mom, Mom... waaahhh!”
Those who found family members among the countless dead broke down and wailed.
Just a day ago, they would have clamped their hands over their mouths in panic, afraid the noise would bring zombies running.
But now they no longer had to worry about that, so people comforted them instead.
Still, the ones who did not know exactly what had happened the night before—or who still had not gotten a read on the situation—looked around with fear written all over their faces.
“You don’t have to look like that.”
“E-Excuse me?”
“Over there.”
A middle-aged man who had stopped working and was wearing the kind of terrified expression that said he was ready to run at any second turned his head toward where the nearby man jerked his chin.
“...!”
The middle-aged man flinched when he saw the black figure leaning against the railing on the rooftop of the school’s main building.
At the same time, something like a tiny speck floating high in the distant sky entered his line of sight.
“That’s a drone. I heard there are another couple up there too. They’re watching this whole area, so if zombies show up, they tell us right away.”
“Y-You serious?”
“Yeah. Even at dawn today, the drone spotted a few dozen zombies heading this way, and that guy just bam bam bam with a gun. You know?”
“A real gun? But... I didn’t hear anything that sounded like gunshots...”
“I don’t really know either. Guess he had some kind of suppressor on it. And that guy’s got a bunch of guns. They say he killed a ton of zombies with them. All those things over there? Him and his friends killed them.”
“Holy...”
When the other man pointed at the rows of zombie corpses laid out in neat lines at one corner of the schoolyard, the middle-aged man’s mouth fell open.
“Anyway, that guy and his friends took care of the gangsters who attacked this place and killed off all the zombies too. Come on, let’s get moving.”
“Ah, right. Sorry.”
The middle-aged man hurriedly apologized, then lifted another body onto a stretcher and carried it off again.
But his eyes kept flicking back toward the person in all-black clothes on the rooftop, standing in a firing stance.
***
Maybe because there were so many people, the work of gathering and sorting the bodies was done in just one hour.
—Things are almost wrapped up on the country-house side too. Mr. Junhyeok’s on the way over with Song Gijun and a few representatives he picked from the people there.
“How’s Junhyeok?”
—Bro, I’m seriously fine. It hurt like hell earlier, but after painkillers and an ice pack, now it just feels sore.
When Junho first heard that Junhyeok had been shot by Han Changsik’s pistol, his heart had dropped straight into his stomach.
But thanks to the Level 3+ tactical vest loaded with composite ballistic panels that could even stop 7.62 rounds, his younger brother had made it through unharmed.
Even so, once today’s work was done, he would probably need to take it easy for at least a week.
“Good. Just don’t push yourself.”
—Dr. Choi checked me over remotely through the camera too and said I’d be fine as long as I don’t overdo it. Still, he says I should come in quick so he can look at me in person.
—Tell him we’ll head back before lunch.
—Yessir.
Junho spoke while studying the tablet screen showing live footage from the drone hovering over the elementary school.
“We’re fine here, but what about zombies over there?”
—Yeah. There aren’t any zombies at all around the country houses or the townhouse complex. We’re moving right now, and the roads are clear too.
—We killed a ton overnight while doing two more G1 charging runs and air-tank deliveries. Other than the ones trapped inside houses or buildings, you can pretty much say we cleared them all out.
Well, if two G1 drones that could each fire more than two hundred rounds in one burst had needed two more full recharges and resupply runs—
then counting the ones Junhyeok and Park Deokcheol had killed too, they had to have taken down close to a thousand zombies.
Junho himself had dealt with nearly six hundred over the course of a couple hours at Gahyeon Elementary School with the drones.
Which meant that, at the very least, seventy to eighty percent of the zombies in the middle section of Gahyeon-ri had effectively been taken care of last night.
—That’s what I think too, and Akina says the same. We’re figuring the rest are trapped inside buildings, right? Best move seems to be forming kill teams and clearing them one by one.
“Yeah. Anyway, Youngsu, keep watching. If anything unusual happens, tell me right away. I know you’re tired, but hang in there a little longer.”
—Heh. Like I’ve got it worse than you or Mr. Junhyeok? Anyway, the shelter people are all on standby too, so if you say the word, they can roll out immediately.
“Got it.”
After ending the call, Junho looked around the rooftop.
Two G1 drones were positioned atop the water tanks on the main building and the gym respectively, sweeping their barrels back and forth as they guarded the two-hundred-meter radius around Gahyeon Elementary School.
When the sun had first come up, they had been killing off zombies that either lingered nearby or came belatedly running out after hearing the various noises made by the survivors working below.
But just as Yoon Youngsu had said, it seemed there were no threatening zombies left in the immediate area anymore.
The G1 attack drones, linked to the wide-angle cameras of the surveillance drones, kept swiveling their muzzles now and then, but they had not fired in nearly an hour. ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom
Maybe five minutes passed like that before his earpiece crackled again.
—Boss. Mr. Junhyeok and Song Gijun are almost there.
—Bro, head inside now.
A little later, once the men already posted at the school gate—who had been warned ahead of time by Junho—threw it wide open, the armored Bionic5 passed through and rolled slowly across the schoolyard.
The survivors who had been finishing up their work in the yard all froze in shock, then quickly scattered to both sides like an outgoing tide.
The armored vehicle crossed the yard without a sound and came to a stop.
Junhyeok and Song Gijun got out.
After confirming that the two of them were heading into the main building under the gaze of more than a hundred survivors, Junho gathered his weapons and gear and came down from the rooftop.
***
Clunk.
As the door to what had once been the principal’s office opened, the eyes of the people already inside all turned toward it at once.
Four men and one woman.
The men looked anywhere from their forties to their sixties, and the lone woman appeared to be around thirty.
Under the tense stares of those five people, Junho, Junhyeok, and Song Gijun entered the office.
Not only were the brothers dressed alike in black riding suits and tactical vests, armed with weapons like an AR-15 and a KP9—
but Song Gijun too, in the gray-brown winter Gore-Tex workwear and protective gear that had been supplied a month earlier, armed with a crossbow and a jungle machete, made it impossible for the survivor representatives to look away.
Step, step...
Instead of taking the empty seat of honor, Junho walked over to the desk the principal had once used and sat himself on the edge of it.
Then Junhyeok and Song Gijun moved into place at either side of him as if serving as his aides.
Click.
“Nice to meet you all.”
When Junho swung the AR-15 across his chest, the five of them flinched.
Every one of them had seen with their own eyes how he used that rifle to gun down the gangsters who had attacked the school, along with the zombies.
And they had also clearly watched him drive that big black blade from the sheath strapped to his thigh—and the dagger at his side—into zombie skulls, splitting them open.
He had saved them, yes, but that did not change the fact that Junho had shown them a kind of terrifying combat that was hard to believe had come from another human being.
And it could not be helped that they felt the same instinctive fear toward the two new arrivals beside him, who also looked anything but ordinary.
“Are the five of you the representatives of the people here?”
“Y-Yes, we are.”
It was answered by the oldest-looking one among them, a man in his sixties with graying hair poking out from beneath «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» a cap.
“My name is Lee Junho. These two are my associates.”
At Junho’s introduction, Junhyeok and Song Gijun, standing to either side of him, each gave a slight silent nod, and the survivor representatives hurriedly bowed their heads in return.
Then the man in the cap spoke carefully.
“My name is Kim Seokhwan. I used to be the village head of Gahyeon-ri.”
“Yes. Mr. Kim Seokhwan.”
Junho knew who Kim Seokhwan was.
No—this was the first time he had ever actually seen him, but he had heard what had happened to Kim Seokhwan before regression.
Under normal circumstances, the former village head of Gahyeon-ri was not someone who should have been sitting here talking to Junho now.
He should have died last night.
“I’m not the village head anymore... ah, that’s not what matters right now. Anyway, let me say this first. I want to thank you, Mr. Lee Junho. Thank you, truly, for saving the people here. I mean that from the bottom of my heart.”
“Thank you.”
“Thank you. We really do thank you, Mr. Lee Junho.”
Kim Seokhwan and the other survivor representatives bowed one after another, showing by their sincerity that they were not the kind of people who lacked either manners or shame.
Receiving their thanks without much expression, Junho looked over them and said,
“First of all, some of you have probably already guessed why I wanted representatives chosen so I could speak with you.”
At that, Kim Seokhwan carefully stepped in.
“Could it be... you want something from us? We do have some rice and flour and things like that, but... well... Mr. Lee Junho, I’m really sorry, but we’ve got so many people here. If you could please take our situation into account...”
“I don’t need food or anything like that. I know you’re short on enough to feed yourselves.”
“Ah...”
Relief spread across the faces of the survivor representatives.
“If anything, I’m willing to help you.”
“Wh... what!?”
“As you all know, from last night into early this morning, I saved you from the gangsters who came down from the country houses and townhouse complex over there, and from the nearby zombie attacks. Also...”
Junho began from the moment he broke the windows of the school cafeteria and storage room to buy them time to prepare and be warned.
Then he went on to explain—lightly polishing it over—the things he had done at Gahyeon Elementary School the night before, from helping the men fighting in the schoolyard escape safely to the villa next to the school, to dealing with the Hanchang Development gangsters and the zombies that had swarmed the gym.
“...And my associates struck the gangsters’ base.”
“The c-country houses and townhouse complex, you mean?”
“Yes. These two, along with others, went there and took care of every last gangster. They killed almost all the zombies over there too. So the people who were being held there, and the nearby residents who had been hiding out, are all safe now.”
“...!”
At the claim that he had saved not only them, but also the people living in the country houses, the townhouse complex, and the surrounding area—at least five or six hundred people total—the survivor representatives stared with their eyes wide, as if they could not believe what they were hearing.
“W-Wait a second. If what you’re saying is true, Mr. Lee Junho... does that mean this middle section here is safe now?”
“Y-You mean those monsters are gone too?”
“Yes. I don’t know the exact number, but we killed at least a thousand zombies last night.”
“Gah—!?”
“Ah...!” ƒree𝑤ebnσvel.com
Kim Seokhwan and the other representatives could not hide their shock.
Looking around at them, Junho continued coldly.
“Of course, I can’t tell you it’s one hundred percent safe. There could still be groups of zombies trapped inside houses or buildings, or hiding somewhere. And besides... only this middle section has gotten somewhat safer. Sang-dong, where the apartment complex is, and Ha-dong down below still have plenty of zombies. And there could be more bastards out there besides those gangsters—people who kill others and steal their food and supplies.”
“Ah...”
The expressions on the survivor representatives’ faces darkened at once.
That was right.
This apocalypse—where monsters that ate people alive roamed openly and human trash murdered other humans to take what they had—was still very much ongoing.
“...”
“So.”
The brief joy vanished, and as the survivor representatives sank into the bleak reality all over again, Junho’s calm voice reached their ears.
“Including you, everyone who survived here in the middle section of Gahyeon-ri needs to unite as one.”
“...!”
