Chapter 143
The air was as heavy as on a rainy day. Noah looked as if he wanted to apologize to her, but Yohan raised his hand to stop him.
It was best to leave the past alone. It had been unavoidable, and now they were people who needed to stand together. Someday, when she was ready to sort through her emotions, that would be the time to talk.
‘Please, I hope she can get through this.’
She, too, was someone who had survived countless hardships through the apocalypse. He could only hope she would endure it with strength.
‘Pregnancy and childbirth…’
Ji-hye’s pregnancy was certainly something to celebrate, but at the same time, it was tragic news.
In a world where even a minor injury was a threat, childbirth was a mountain far too steep for her to climb. What if it ever came to needing a termination procedure?
Just thinking about it was horrifying.
But it was the path she had chosen.
She knew how dangerous it was. She’d risked everything to choose this way. All Yohan could do was help clear the way.
“Ji-hye will be looked after by her friends. Team leaders, the Mercenary Elder, Noah, Luca—come to the situation room. Jinsu, go bring Seo-jun, Mr. Kim, Dr. Park, and all the residents with the longest backgrounds.”
Yohan immediately called everyone together. One by one, the spacious situation room filled up with people.
He spread out the sorted documents wide on the table and addressed the camp’s elite.
“First, review these documents and start training the personnel needed to operate the ships. Especially Luca, since you have a lot of military and police experience, take charge of the overall process. Mr. Kim, handle the engine room and other facilities. Don’t worry about manpower—put everyone from production and technical groups to work. Assign people where they’re needed.”
“Yes, young boss.”
Luca gave a salute-like gesture. Yohan nodded and turned to the Mercenary Elder.
“Sir, please learn how to use the Navy equipment on the ship. Seo-jun, check the amount of supplies we can load onto the ship. Dr. Park, go through the crops and livestock seeds, and select only those that can be stored long-term.”
“Hey, these titles are confusing. Just call me ‘grandpa.’”
“I’ll call you Elder Yong.”
“Hey, you just changed my family name without permission?”
“You never told me your real name.”
Yohan tilted his head in mock confusion, and the old man waved his hand as if he’d had enough. He chuckled and turned to Dr. Park.
“Livestock will be hard to bring, right?”
“It’ll be tough. We’ll have to use them for food before departure, and just bring what we can by smoking the meat.”
“Let’s do that. Haven’t had a full meal of meat in a while.”
At the mention of meat, everyone’s eyes sparkled. Their faces already showed eager anticipation.
“Pack the food in order of longest shelf life. Food and fuel are the priority. Keep the ship as light as possible. Set a weight limit for personal belongings.”
“Got it.”
Seo-jun responded crisply, without any extra words. Yohan wasn’t worried about the people—they’d all cooperate enthusiastically.
What really worried him was food.
There were nearly a hundred people. Who knew how long the voyage would take, and even if they arrived on time, there was no guarantee there’d be enough food where they landed. Running out of food in the middle of the open sea had to be avoided at all costs.
So they had to bring every bit of food they could.
“Noah, Sweeper—tomorrow, you’ll go out for the final supply run at the Incheon Buk-gu logistics center and Incheon Port logistics center. Two objectives: First, check if there are any usable cargo ships. Second, secure more food.”
Thanks to the recent harvest, they had plenty of rice, but there was a shortage of canned and preserved foods. Even using just 20–30 cans a day would empty the stores quickly. They needed to load up as much as possible.
If they could use a cargo ship in addition to the warship, all the better.
After giving out tomorrow’s assignments, Yohan sat down for a more in-depth talk with Luca about ship operations.
“What do you think?”
“We have enough information. Operation itself isn’t hard. If we pick smart people and drill them for two or three days, we can get ready to depart. The real problem is navigation. With the GPS dead, how do we know our location and reach the destination accurately?”
The key was navigation. That was something only Jae-ho could solve if he came back. He’d been constantly thinking about navigation since departure was decided.
He’ll come back.
Yohan decided to trust him.
“How about the engine systems?”
“Hmm.”
Mr. Kim frowned, looking through the engine room training manual.
“I get the gist, but I think it’d be faster to see it in person.”
“Please go check it right away.”
“But Yohan, there’s a problem.”
“What is it?”
Mr. Kim stroked his beard, looking troubled.
“The warship’s fuel efficiency is worse than I thought, and its fuel tanks are huge. How many drums do we have?”
“Around twenty.”
“That’s about four thousand liters—not even close. This ship burns through fuel. We need to go nearly 9,000 kilometers, and with full tanks plus reserves, we’re just barely there. But the full capacity is 900,000 liters. That’s 4,500 drums. Even if we could get that much, there’s no way we can prepare it in a day or two.”
4,500 drums? Yohan could hardly believe his ears. If that was true, it was a staggering number.
“Luca, did you check how much fuel is at the refinery?”
“There are plenty of refineries, so fuel isn’t the problem. But we can’t fill everything with standard drums… we’ll need to refuel the ship directly using tankers.”
“Is that possible?”
“With the fuel we have now, we can reach Incheon Port. We’ll have to dock there and refuel.”
Yohan nodded. There were plenty of refineries nearby. It was just a matter of time—not possibility.
“What a massive operation,” Elder Yong clicked his tongue, listening to Luca and Yohan’s conversation.
“Why not just use a cargo ship instead? Why bother with a warship that guzzles fuel?”
“We’ve already scouted for usable cargo ships nearby with the helicopter. Any visible cargo ships are either missing or capsized. And even if we find one, we need to be able to operate helicopters for emergencies, and if we run into Mutants at sea, only the warship’s armaments might give us a chance to survive.”
Yohan paused for a moment and added,
“But that’s just my opinion. Elder, do you really think it’d be better to find a cargo ship now?”
“That’s for you, the leader, to decide. Don’t go trying to pass the buck. Most of the heavy weapons won’t be much use anyway… Only the 5-inch gun at the bow and maybe the Phalanx system could be worth anything.”
Yohan jotted down all the opinions.
“Hey, but let me ask one thing.”
“Yes.”
“All this prep is because of that nuclear-whatever, right?”
“Yes.”
“Honestly, heading overseas seems even riskier. Are you sure we have to go that far? Wouldn’t it be safer to just settle somewhere like Jeju Island? Or even Ulleungdo, Okinawa, or Miyako—wouldn’t those be safer bets?”
Yohan nodded in agreement. The truth was, they were acting on nothing more than Rina’s dreams and Jae-ho’s judgment. And they couldn’t be 100% sure those were correct.
It was all just theory and speculation. But there was something about it that made it hard to ignore—a gut feeling, more than a strategy.
“For now… let’s just prepare everything. Even if we make a different decision later, it’s best to be ready in advance. One thing’s certain: we can’t stay here any longer.”
“Sure. I’m not objecting—just giving my opinion.”
“Thank you.”
Yohan checked over the rest of the details and gave instructions one by one. As he glanced around the situation room, thinking it was time to wrap up, he saw Sweeper interpreting something in English for the others.
Sweeper’s tongue twisted around the words impressively—it looked like he had some real skill. Yohan asked, a bit surprised,
“Sweeper, your English is pretty good?”
“Of course. I even studied abroad.”
“A globetrotting insurance salesman, huh. That’s a pretty international career.”
Sweeper grinned and wagged his finger.
“It’s the age of infinite competition and lifelong learning.”
“Yeah. Impressive. Everyone, let’s wrap up and get a good rest. We’ll be busy tomorrow.”
It was a fitting end for a workaholic.
And, just as Yohan warned, from the next day on, Sindo’s residents became so busy they barely had a moment to breathe. The first to break the dawn were the two search teams. Led by Sweeper and Shin Noah, each team leader rounded up their members and set out at sunrise.
“If you have to pick between food and a cargo ship, prioritize the cargo ship. If we can operate both a warship and a cargo ship, it’ll help a lot if the voyage is long.”
“Roger.”
“Got it.”
“All right. Be careful out there.”
He gave the orders, but didn’t expect much—they’d already searched every nearby coastline.
Both men nodded. Then Elder Yong chimed in with a question from behind.
“Hey, with two teams, this is basically a pride match, isn’t it? Want to make a bet on which team does a better job?”
His offhand question made the two men’s eyes light up, and their ears seemed to perk up a little.
The two search teams hurried off, and the Mercenary Camp’s fighters inspected the ship’s armaments.
It was too soon for live fire, but with many former military NCOs among them, they adapted quickly to the weaponry.
Still, Elder Yong’s assessment of their usefulness against large Mutants was fairly negative.
“As I said yesterday, aside from the Phalanx or maybe the Mistral missiles, there really isn’t any weapon here we can use against Mutants.”
“Is that so?”
“That’s right. Most of it is anti-aircraft or anti-ship missiles. You don’t use a butcher knife to swat a fly—you need a flyswatter.”
“Yes, that’s true.”
“But personally, I think it’d be a waste to just ditch these weapons and go with only a cargo ship. You’re heading overseas, right? If we run into heavily armed survivors, or even pirates, on the way, just blast them. You always want to have firepower.”
“Yes.”
It’d be best if they never had to use it, but if they did, they’d use it. Both agreed modern weaponry was necessary for heading out to sea.
Elsewhere, Luca, Dr. Park Jae-beom, and Ramos took charge of analyzing data. The people who’d helped with agriculture now became crew, learning how to operate the ship.
Some technicians joked they’d soon be a variety show crew at this rate. As they clustered together, Yohan approached.
“How long do you think it’ll take?”
“Not too long. Honestly, it’s not that hard. Maintenance is easy, too—Mr. Kim is a natural. He’s not just a hardware store owner, is he?”
“I heard he’s an open hardware specialist.”
When the topic turned to him, Mr. Kim scratched his cheek bashfully.
“Open hardware? What’s that?”
“It’s, uh, technology for non-networked communications, for when the internet and phone lines don’t work… I’m honestly clueless about machines.”
“Is that so? Anyway, that’s impressive. One or two days for a test run, and another couple days to finish fueling and loading. So, four days until we’re ready to depart?”
“Sounds good. Please take care of it.”
Everything was going smoothly.
There was just one thing on Yohan’s mind.
As long as Jae-ho, who’d left, returned safely.
