RE: Survival - Chapter 19

“I know. I’m letting you off because it was self-defense.”

Seri looked around, as if searching for those people.

“Where’s Ji-hye? And what about those others?”

“Ji-hye is recuperating, and the others… they’re dead.”

“D-Dead?”

“One of them was infected by a zombie. Remember the second rule I told you?”

“If a wound isn’t disinfected and sealed, it leads to infection.”

“That’s right. One got infected, turned into a zombie, and infected the other two in quarantine. So I killed all three.”

Seri’s face turned pale.

“How does it feel to kill someone for the first time?”

“I didn’t kill them.”

“Not directly, no. But thanks to you, that person ended up as zombie feed.”

“…”

“So, do you feel like you did what had to be done?”

With some difficulty, Seri nodded.

“Yes. You’re right.”

Yohan patted her head a couple of times and then went over his schedule. Everyone else had heard it, but Seri, being in isolation, hadn’t been informed.

Sure enough, Seri threw a fit, insisting that she go to the department store too.

“I want to go too!”

“No.”

“I have to save my sister!”

“Then even more reason for you not to go. You’d be a burden.”

Seri looked like she was ready to explode and lunge at him.

Even more absurd was Jung-hwan’s response.

“Hyung, I’ll go too.”

“What did you even hear? I told you, I’m going alone.”

“But Hyung!”

“Enough, Kim Jung-hwan! You stay out of it. Just do your job. I’ll handle this.”

“Both of you, quiet down. You’re being loud.”

At Yohan’s firm words, the two fell silent.

“I’m going alone.”

* * *

Yohan swiftly left the camp. Drawing attention in the parking lot, he exited through a second side door and sprinted out. The warm breeze brushed his cheeks as he ran.

Arriving at the outskirts of the Gachiwool housing complex, he climbed to the rooftop of an entry building and took a rope strung between rooftops.

Zombies around his home were still there, along with bodies caught in his traps, most likely fresh kills.

Unfortunate cases—those who sought refuge in the wrong place. Yohan offered a sincere moment of pity for the victims who had fallen into his traps.

The “Danger Zone” sign he’d left at the village entrance clearly hadn’t been enough.

After visiting the camp, he soaked in warm water, ate a nutritious meal, and unwound by playing on his PlayStation. It felt as if the exhaustion from all his efforts was washing away.

He spent an entire day resting without a single thought. His tightly wound tension loosened, and his muscles slowly relaxed. The next morning, he awoke feeling incredibly refreshed.

Yohan prepared for his outing. He returned the revolver he’d worn on his hip to the gun locker, instead taking his Glock and silencer. He tucked them into his cargo pockets and covered them with his coat.

He had preferred the revolver during his first outing because it was convenient to carry, and local stations or precincts were the easiest places to source ammunition.

But now, in a situation likely to involve combat, he needed a silencer and a magazine-fed handgun. This Glock, acquired three months ago in a fight with assailants, was his only precious firearm. Yohan added two extra magazines to the pocket with the silencer. Instead of a backpack, he opted for a waist pouch, packing only jerky and binoculars to keep light. Finally, he strapped a crossbow onto his back.

Yohan headed back toward Bucheon City Hall. After about thirty or forty minutes, he reached the entrance of H Department Store, which was swarming with zombies. Unlike the market, this building had multiple entrances. There was a passage connecting the department store to a nearby mall, and exits on all sides. The doors were closed, though he couldn’t confirm if they were locked.

Without hesitation, Yohan headed to the parking lot. Zombies were everywhere. Upon spotting him, they growled and moved toward him. Yohan raised his crossbow, took down three of the closest zombies, and sprinted toward the emergency exit. The zombies couldn’t keep up with his speed.

Yohan slowly opened the emergency exit.

“Who… who are you…?”

There was a guard. Seeing Yohan, the guard couldn’t grasp the situation fast enough. Yohan quickly moved behind him. As the guard realized what was happening and tried to reach for his weapon, Yohan wrapped an arm around his neck.

A loud crack echoed through the hallway as Yohan twisted his neck. As he released his grip, the foam-mouthed man slumped to the floor.

Yohan quickly ascended the stairs to the top floor.

Unlike the market, the department store had an open center, allowing him to roughly survey the basement where people were gathered. Using binoculars, he observed them.

The first floor was crawling with zombies that hadn’t been dealt with, and, similar to the market, it looked like people had gathered in the basement, where the food was stored.

As Yohan carefully observed them, he felt a strange and familiar sensation. The people’s appearance and movements were odd, as if…

“Are they… drugged?”

They were mostly lethargic, with glazed-over eyes, resembling those he’d once seen in a U.S. slum riddled with drugs. Yohan frowned. He’d encountered a drug-addicted group once before, and this was exactly the same.

It seemed unbelievable that, despite the government’s collapse, drugs were already in circulation. This could only happen if someone was deliberately distributing them.

At that moment, Yohan spotted a group ascending from the basement and crossing the second-floor bridge to the adjacent shopping mall. Yohan maintained a cautious distance and followed them.

He moved silently and carefully. Though he was confident he could escape even if discovered, there was no harm in being cautious.

In the mall, he found more zombie corpses scattered around, as if they’d been cleared out. The corpses, decomposing, were beginning to emit a foul odor.

“When summer comes, disease will spread.”

Leaving bodies out like this would lead to an outbreak. Basic hygiene. These people might have the strength to hunt but clearly lacked a sense of cleanliness.

As Yohan followed the group, he noticed a wall blocking his path. The corridor was narrowing. It would be dangerous to proceed further without charging in recklessly.

After a moment of thought, Yohan pried open a vent on the ceiling.

It wasn’t difficult to find where the gang had gathered. The mall was quiet, and there were no fans running in the ventilation ducts. Yohan crept through the maze-like ducts, following the sound of voices, until he arrived at what seemed to be the main office of the mall.

About a dozen people were gathered in the office.

In the seat of honor sat a surprisingly young, lean-looking man with a smug expression. Yohan instinctively knew he was the leader of the gang.

In front of the man was a woman, her face streaked with tears, kneeling. In one corner of the office, a large man was bound and bloodied.

Moments later, there was a knock on the door.

“Come in.”

The man replied in a deep, gravelly voice, pulling up his pants.

“What is it?”

The men who entered looked as if they could handle themselves, but Yohan’s eyes were drawn to the bound man.

“He’s been beaten to a pulp.”

The men lined up by the door. Their leader approached the bound man and lifted his chin with a finger.

“Stop being so stubborn. If you just listen to me, things would be easier, wouldn’t they?”

The bound man spat in his face. Wiping it off with his gloved hand, the leader stepped back.

“Martial artists are such a nuisance. So stubborn. Hey, give me a report.”

“Yes, Director. Here’s today’s hunting report. We dealt with about a hundred zombies. Two men died in the process.”

“Who died?”

“Hard to identify. They were new recruits.”

“Pathetic. Keep working them. The weak don’t deserve to survive. It’d be nice if someone useful like this guy would change his mind, though. Wouldn’t it?”

“Yes, of course.”

The director shrugged at the martial artist.

“I’m even willing to let you have any woman you want. And drugs too. Though, I suppose drugs might be a touchy subject, seeing as all your friends died from addiction?”

The bound man snarled and struggled. Despite efforts to restrain him, he was so strong that he flung people off.

The director clicked his tongue and kicked him hard in the stomach. The man gasped, slamming his head against the floor.

“Take this woman out and bring Se-young in.”

“Yes, sir.”

“No one is as satisfying as Se-young, right?”

“Uh, Director…”

“What is it?”

“Se-young… she’s not feeling well.”

“Haha, is that so? Well, nothing can be done about that.”

Without hesitation, the director struck the man across the jaw. The bound man staggered, and the director grabbed an ashtray and smashed it against his head. He stomped on the man’s head and stomach repeatedly.

“Agh! Agh!”

“Did you think that was the end?”

“Urgh… Director…”

“Hmm? You worthless piece of trash.”

The director grabbed a golf club. Though the men around him were horrified, no one dared intervene.

After swinging it a couple of times, he smashed the bound man’s head. The man’s trembling body soon fell limp.

“Dispose of it.”

The director pointed to the air, prompting the men nearby to move quickly.

“He’s dead.”

“Dump him somewhere. And bring Yun Se-young over on your way.”

“Yes, sir!”

“Wait.”

As the director was heading back to his seat, he turned around. The men flinched.

“When will the meat shields be ready?”

“We… we need a bit more time. There aren’t enough recruits among the trash who are useful yet…”

“Keep working them until they’re ready. Once we have the shields, we’ll head to the market for another tribute. It’s been a while since we visited the S Zone and the market, hasn’t it?”

“Yes, sir.”

“This time, bring everyone. We’re due for a refresh.”

Yohan clicked his tongue in disgust. These were scum beyond any hope of redemption.

A gang using the chaos to distribute drugs and perpetuate violence and kidnappings. He didn’t need to see more to know how horribly they treated their captives.

He had no interest in uniting with such trash, and even if he did, a group that firmly entrenched wouldn’t collapse easily or change its leader.

Allowing them to roam free would inevitably lead to clashes with his camp. They needed to be dealt with. Yohan began crafting a plan in his mind. Taking them all on alone would be less risky than involving others. He was confident.

Clumsy allies would only be a burden.

As he carefully retreated, Yohan committed every detail of the gang to memory.

He spotted one gun: the pistol holstered by the man they called the director. It seemed likely that some mid-level members also had weapons, so he needed to factor that into his plans.

Leaving the office, Yohan cautiously surveyed the department store. He focused on evaluating their combat strength, the number of people, and the amount of supplies.

It was a fairly large camp, with plenty of people and abundant resources. However, it seemed not everyone had access to these resources—there were visibly malnourished and sick individuals scattered about.

The camp’s management was brutal and oppressive, revealing the depths of human degradation.

Yohan made his way to the third floor of the mart to exit. Just then, he heard a commotion from the basement. It was a woman’s thin scream.

And in that moment, he heard a voice close to his ear.

“Looks like you’ve got business with this camp too, huh?”