RE: Survival - Chapter 29

*Kim Sang-jun.**
One of the survivors from the camp. Yohan pierced his brain, allowing him to rest in peace. Looking toward the entrance, Yohan saw it was securely blocked. This meant that while there had been a sacrifice, the zombies hadn’t managed to breach the camp.

Yohan and his group cleared out the remaining zombies and opened the parking lot’s steel gate.

But his initial relief quickly faded. The first floor had been reclaimed by the undead. Though many zombies had been lured away by the noise on the street, those remaining and the shattered glass doors painted a clear picture of the chaos that had unfolded hours ago.

“This is…” Sweeper and Hajin glanced at Yohan nervously. His expression didn’t change much, but the heavy atmosphere was impossible to miss.

“Cover me and deal with the zombies,” Yohan quietly instructed, picking up a large steel partition and using it to block the shattered glass doors. It wouldn’t stop humans, but it might divert the attention of the regular zombies.

After quickly clearing the first floor of zombies, they headed to the emergency exit in the basement. The area was packed with undead. Yohan kicked a few zombies down as they rushed him, then methodically dispatched the rest one by one.

The gnawing thought of the worst-case scenario made him anxious.

Slowly, Yohan turned the emergency exit’s handle. The door was locked. He banged on it and called out, but no response came.

“Sweeper, the axe,” he said.

“Here,” Sweeper handed it over.

Yohan swung the axe with force, breaking the lock with a loud crack. The door opened, revealing a horde of zombies waiting inside.

They were all people Yohan had known—camp survivors from just the day before.

The first sight that struck him was Min-seo, feasting on Byung-jin. Yohan’s face turned cold as the image of the loving couple briefly flickered through his mind.

“Uh, hey, boss…” Sweeper hesitantly called out, but Hajin quickly stopped him.

Yohan stepped forward silently and stabbed Min-seo and Byung-jin in the temple. He then moved to the elderly men who had once played janggi (Korean chess) on their makeshift plastic board, piercing their heads one by one. Next, he approached the mother and her three children, now zombies, and ended their misery in turn.

The image of the boy who had once pointed a tiny knife at him and the mother who had thrown diapers came to mind before fading away.

Yohan’s gaze shifted to the bodies of Ki-moon and Seong-bae lying on the ground. He knelt by Ki-moon, intending to pierce his skull, but someone had already done it.

*“It’s Ki-moon, not some random engineer, boss!”*
Ki-moon had been a bright and reliable survivor, a car mechanic with invaluable skills.

Yohan’s eyes moved to Seong-bae beside him.
*“You’re a real man, boss. I’ve never felt this way about another guy!”*
Seong-bae, Ki-moon’s closest friend, had a talent for drifting that was almost an art form.

A sigh escaped Yohan’s lips. Whether it was the bonds he’d unknowingly formed or the loss of the camp he’d worked so hard to build, he couldn’t quite tell.

The shock wasn’t overwhelming, but it was enough to remind him of something he’d tried to forget: the feeling of losing comrades.

Yohan’s unfocused gaze roamed the room. Nineteen corpses. The numbers didn’t add up.

Jung-hwan, Seri, Old Man Park, Seo-jun, and Ji-hye were missing. Even accounting for Kim Sang-jun’s body found earlier, about ten people were unaccounted for.

His pace quickened as he headed to the first warehouse door.

“Yohan?”
“Old man.”

Behind the steel door stood Old Man Park and eight other survivors. Their faces lit up upon seeing Yohan.

They looked like fledgling birds desperately waiting for their mother to return with food, or perhaps like devotees gazing at a savior.

“You’re safe,” Yohan said, lighting a lantern and helping the survivors to their feet. They had been huddled together, trembling in the pitch-black storage room, most of them non-combatants.

“The zombies outside are cleared. You can come out now.”

Yohan refueled the extinguished lamps and lit them, bringing flickering light back to the dark store.

“What happened?” he asked.

Old Man Park explained. Zombies outside had started screaming, drawing more to the area. Many of them attacked the mart, forcing the survivors to abandon the first floor and parking lot and retreat to the basement. Min-seo and Seong-bae had already been infected, and Byung-jin sacrificed himself to subdue the infected, allowing the rest to escape to the storage room.

“What about Seri and Jung-hwan?” Yohan asked.

“Jung-hwan didn’t make it inside from the parking lot. As for Seri, she’s probably on the roof,” Old Man Park replied.

Yohan nodded. “I’ll check the roof. In the meantime, could you clear out the bodies again? Sweeper, you’re with me. Hajin, protect these people.”

“What about these two?” Old Man Park asked, gesturing at Sweeper and Hajin.

“They’re new comrades,” Yohan replied.

Sweeper and Hajin introduced themselves in their own styles.

—

The path to the roof wasn’t blocked, but the steel door leading to it was barricaded by headless zombie corpses. Dozens of zombies still lingered behind the barricade. Yohan’s crossbow sent arrow after arrow into their heads, each shot precise.

“Hey, boss, no offense, but…” Sweeper began hesitantly.
“You’re wondering if this camp is even worth saving, aren’t you?” Yohan interrupted. Sweeper nodded.

“A few of the people we lost were valuable,” Yohan admitted.
“Well, that’s unfortunate.”
“People can be replaced. But those who survived here have something crucial.”
“What’s that?” Sweeper asked.
“Luck.”

Yohan laughed lightly. For all the hardship, this camp had shown remarkable luck in surviving.

While Sweeper grimaced at the explanation, Yohan fired the final arrow, killing the last zombie. Dragging the corpses blocking the door aside, Yohan knocked on the steel door leading to the roof.

No response.

“Something feels off again.”

Sweeper’s remark, which seemed to hint at Seri’s death, was met with a casual shrug from Yohan. He then pounded loudly on the steel door. Moments later, it creaked open to reveal Seri and Jung-hwan. The moment Seri saw Yohan, she ran to him and threw her arms around him.

Sweeper whistled, holding up his pinky finger suggestively toward Yohan, who shook his head in exasperation. Seri quickly turned and shouted at Jung-hwan.

“See? I told you! Since when do zombies knock?”

“I didn’t say it was a zombie! I said it could be an enemy!” Jung-hwan protested.

“You’re late,” he added, addressing Yohan.

“Things got a little messy. You both owe me your lives now,” Yohan replied matter-of-factly.

“What?” Seri blinked, confused.

“If it weren’t for me, you two would’ve starved to death.”

“How can you say that right now?”

“Fair is fair. Just repay the debt with something I’ll actually like. Not the old terms.”

Seri muttered, “So full of yourself,” as she brushed past Yohan.

“What’s all this talk about debts and terms?” Jung-hwan asked.

“It’s not something kids need to know!” Seri snapped, scolding 27-year-old Jung-hwan as if he were a child. He looked wounded but didn’t argue.

As Seri stomped past the exit, a zombie with an arrow lodged in its nose stirred, baring its teeth at her. She cursed and stomped its head repeatedly until it finally went still, blood and brain matter splattered across the ground.

Watching her, Sweeper let out a low whistle. “I take back what I said, boss. We’ve got ourselves a proper warrior woman here. Tough and sexy.”

Yohan stifled a laugh. Sexy might be a stretch, but tough? Definitely.

“Jung-hwan, give me a full report before you go.”

Jung-hwan’s explanation was straightforward. Separated in the parking lot, he abandoned the idea of entering the building and headed to the roof, knowing it had a water supply. There, he met Seri, who had been coming down after hearing the commotion. He convinced her to stay on the roof rather than risk returning to the camp.

Yohan gave him credit for his practical thinking. The water tanks on the roof would have kept them alive for at least three days.

“That’s some zombie apocalypse fanboy logic. Still, I guess it worked out well for you,” Yohan joked.

“Don’t make fun of me, boss. I really thought I was going to die!” Jung-hwan replied, his face pale.

“You did well. Go down and get some food,” Yohan said, patting him on the shoulder.

—

It took nearly half a day to restore the camp to normal and clean up the aftermath.

Introducing Sweeper and Hajin as part of the new combat team brightened the survivors’ spirits. The heavy losses of young men in the recent incident had weighed heavily on them.

Yohan viewed it as an inevitable outcome.

Before the chaos, the camp population had been too large. Splitting the camp had been unavoidable, but most people had resisted leaving a place they had grown accustomed to. In a grim sense, the reduction in numbers was a relief for those who remained—it made survival more manageable.

Sweeper and Hajin soon understood the significance of Yohan’s camp when they saw the supplies stockpiled in the mart’s warehouse and loading dock. For this long into the apocalypse, retaining such a large cache of resources was no small feat.

The camp’s isolation, surrounded by zombie-filled streets, had limited outside interaction, which helped preserve supplies. Additionally, the former camp leader’s meticulous resource management had been invaluable.

With fewer mouths to feed, maintaining the camp was now far simpler.

Yohan reorganized the remaining 13 survivors into two groups: eight for the combat team and five for the technical team. Specialized skills like medicine, cooking, mechanics, and electrical work were assigned to the technical team, while everyone else joined the combat team. No exceptions. Everyone would undergo combat training.

“A weak comrade who can’t kill a single zombie is essentially a future threat. If they turn, they’ll become a zombie who could kill you instead,” Yohan explained.

His logic was unarguable. The world no longer had room for compassion toward the unfit. The camp had no luxury to spare for those who couldn’t contribute to its survival.

Having been saved twice already by Yohan, the survivors had no room to object. The deaths of his detractors had silenced any dissent. Ever since he had opened the supply room and brought them out of the darkness, his words carried the weight of a divine message.

Yohan appointed Jung-hwan, Old Man Park, and Seo-jun as managers for the combat and technical teams. No additional leaders were named, as the camp’s numbers were too small to warrant more.

He also created a search team consisting of himself, Sweeper, and Hajin.

“The search team will continue venturing out to find survivors and supplies,” Yohan announced. “First, we’ll check the H Department Store for any remaining survivors and secure the weapons, radios, and supplies left by the gang. If there are any stragglers, we’ll deal with them too.”

“I want to join the search team,” Seri interjected. “I need to find out what happened to my sister. And I’m tired of being cooped up in here.”

Yohan rejected her without hesitation. “Unprepared people are liabilities in the field.”

“Why not? It’d be less dreary than three guys wandering around together,” Seri countered. “I can fight, can’t I?”

Sweeper chimed in to support her. “She’s got a point. A woman in the group might also help put other survivors at ease when we find them.”

Hajin backed her up as well, arguing that having a female presence could indeed ease tensions when encountering new survivors.

With both men in agreement, Yohan reluctantly relented, adding Seri to the search team. His head throbbed at the prospect.

Old Man Park chuckled. “No offense, but Seri does lighten the mood around here.”

“Yeah,” Seri quipped, “you three look like bandits straight out of a raider gang.”

All three men bristled at the comment, simultaneously indignant.