Chapter 43
A half-waning crescent moon seeped through the clouds, and an impenetrable darkness descended.
In the pitch black, Yohan’s gaze was fixed on the mart through the shattered window. Yohan, Jung-hwan, and Hajin watched the mart’s perimeter from an empty building across the street.
Both camps were on high alert. The hospital camp had locked every door and aimed their guns at the single remaining entry point, while the mart camp had cut all lights, its survivors waiting in the darkness with guns aimed at the two entrances.
“Seri, it’s Yohan.”
— ‘Yeah, Oppa.’
“Any movement?”
— ‘Nothing yet.’
The remaining two scouts, Seri and Dong-seok, were watching the area from the mart’s rooftop.
They had prepared in advance by laying down short, nail-studded mats in front of the parking lot barricade and pulling everyone out of the parking area.
The defensive line was pulled back to narrow the shooting range. Instead of engaging from a wide-open parking lot, they would shoot at the narrow entrances.
Anyone breaking into the dark mart wouldn’t escape the hail of bullets the moment they opened the doors.
If the intruders continued to press forward, they would all be wiped out. If the unexpected firepower forced them to retreat, Yohan’s group, waiting across the street, would cut off their escape route.
The best-case scenario was that not a single one would make it out alive—a plan designed around the assumption they would attack the mart directly.
The variable was if they targeted the hospital camp first.
That, too, had been anticipated.
Everyone in the hospital camp was armed with shotguns or slingshots, and they were instructed to immediately radio in at the first sign of trouble.
The wide hospital lobby had been abandoned. No matter how securely the doors were locked, the lobby had too many entrances to defend against a surprise attack.
But there was only one stairwell leading to the second floor.
To further delay them, traps had been set.
“Someone will wait at the second-floor exit. If they start breaking through the first-floor stairwell door, open the second-floor entrance and run.”
The second floor still housed a large number of zombies. There were too many to handle, so they had been left alone until the camp stabilized, waiting to be cleared all at once. Those zombies would now act as a natural barrier, buying time when the invaders attacked the camp.
During that time, Yohan’s group would hit them from behind. The zombies would hold them for exactly ten minutes. Ten minutes was enough.
The plan was named “Wrap and Devour.”
They had even considered the worst-case scenario, where the attackers might use a feint or a diversionary tactic. The group had circled the area enough that they might have discovered the connection between the hospital and mart camps and split their forces.
In that case, they would divide their forces as well, focusing purely on defense on one side while Yohan would support the group under heavier attack.
The ultimate goal was the complete annihilation of the enemy. Any survivors would later be tracked down and eliminated by the scouting teams.
Yohan took a slow, deep breath. The tension was heavy, sinking onto the shoulders of the scouting team.
The oppressive heat of the early summer night caused beads of sweat to form on his forehead and drip down.
Yohan never took his eyes off the mart’s entrance, staring so intently it seemed he wouldn’t miss even the faintest movement or smallest insect sound.
Perhaps the prolonged wait was taking its toll; Jung-hwan fidgeted, stretching his legs. From the dark alley, the faint, broken groans of zombies echoed, their silhouettes swaying eerily in the shadows.
Once his vision adapted to the darkness, the chilling scenery unfolded before him.
‘Bzzt.’ The radio crackled softly, and Gap-soo’s voice followed.
— ‘Yohan, it’s the hospital camp. They’ve appeared.’
Finally.
The enemy was on the move.
Gap-soo’s voice was tense but not panicked. They weren’t under immediate threat. The attackers likely assumed the survivors were hiding in the dining area.
Yohan spoke in a low voice.
“How many?”
— ‘Feels like a lot, but I can’t say for sure.’
So they were targeting the hospital camp first. Yohan quickly organized his thoughts.
“Understood. Proceed as planned. We’re moving.”
— ‘Got it.’
Yohan pressed the radio button again and broadcasted a warning to all survivors.
“This is Yohan. They’ve appeared—strengthen defenses. Over.”
After the short, clear message, Yohan signaled his scouting team. Jung-hwan and Hajin nodded and rose to their feet.
The three moved stealthily. Zombies were more dangerous at night—they were harder to see, and they moved far more actively.
Fortunately, because of their consistent zombie-clearing operations, the streets were relatively quiet, even during their peak activity in the late evening. Yohan dealt with the occasional zombies himself—silently and efficiently.
The group moved quickly but carefully, neither walking nor running. The crescent moon, now free from the clouds, brightened the streets slightly.
Everything was going smoothly.
The moonlight made it easier to deal with threats. Yohan’s nerves stood on edge, heightened and alert.
‘Thud! Thud!’ The moment they reached the hospital, chaotic noises erupted—shouts, screams, and the howling of zombies.
The hospital lobby was complete bedlam. Zombies poured from the second-floor storage, attacking the intruders. While the attackers didn’t fall easily, they were clearly struggling to deal with the undead.
They were slowly being pushed back, retreating toward the open doors.
‘Bang!’
Yohan’s Glock fired. Even with a suppressor, the muffled shot echoed faintly in the hospital courtyard. The bullet pierced an invader’s heart as he stumbled out the door, killing him instantly.
“What the hell?!”
“Who’s out there?!”
“It’s an ambush!”
The invaders began flooding out. Yohan calmly picked them off as they appeared. Hajin and Jung-hwan quickly joined in, firing with precision.
“Save your ammo. One shot at a time—make it count.”
Yohan spoke as he reloaded, watching more invaders escape from the building.
While Yohan focused on the front, an invader who had already escaped raised a crossbow, aiming it at Yohan.
Yohan’s body vanished behind a nearby tree in an instant. ‘Thwack!’ The arrow embedded itself in the spot where Yohan had stood.
Yohan reappeared, his Glock raised and ready. The suppressed gunfire flashed, and the invader dropped dead.
He began targeting the invaders with crossbows, picking them off one by one. The men flailed as they fell.
“Jung-hwan, duck!”
At Yohan’s shout, Jung-hwan instinctively dropped down. A knife thrown by an invader skimmed past his head.
‘Bang!’ Yohan’s bullet flew, striking the masked attacker square in the face.
After a short burst of gunfire, the only things moving in the courtyard were Yohan’s group and the zombies.
When the last invader fell, Yohan signaled the others to move. The two followed him across the courtyard.
They led the zombies out, quickly looped around the perimeter, and entered the hospital.
Yohan kicked a zombie that hadn’t yet made it out the hospital’s main entrance. The grotesque figure stumbled and sprawled to the ground.
“Jung-hwan, close the door.”
Yohan ordered Jung-hwan to shut the wide-open hospital entrance. As expected, the “door-closing specialist” secured it tightly.
Yohan shone his flashlight and scanned the hospital lobby. Most of the bodies lying around were corpses. His eyes quickly identified which were originally zombies and which were invaders who had been torn apart by the undead.
Yohan mentally calculated the number of enemies killed in the courtyard and those in the lobby. He picked up his radio.
“This is Yohan. Fourteen intruders at the hospital camp. Clear.”
Fourteen—perhaps fifteen if you included those who hadn’t made it out of the emergency exit. It was far too few.
‘“It’s a feint.”’
This wasn’t a two-sided simultaneous assault. It was a feint. Fourteen here, twenty-five elsewhere. This place was the bait, and the real attack was on the mart.
This was one of the trickiest situations Yohan had anticipated.
But they were prepared.
The camp was fortified enough to repel dozens of attackers. This battle would allow them to eliminate as many as possible, and afterward, Yohan could hunt down the survivors.
“Any casualties at the hospital camp?”
— ‘None. They didn’t even open the doors.’
Yohan’s expression lightened slightly. He pressed the radio again.
“Mart camp, status?”
— ‘Nothing yet.’
Seo-jun’s voice came through the radio.
“Their target seems to be the mart. Strengthen defenses and focus.”
— ‘Understood… Wait, I hear gunfire from above.’
Above?
The rooftop.
Seri and Dong-seok were stationed there on watch. Something must have happened to them.
“Seri, what’s going on?”
Yohan called Seri, but there was no response.
“Rooftop watch, do you copy? Seri?”
Still, silence. Yohan’s brow furrowed. Jung-hwan, who had been listening, suddenly became frantic.
“What? What’s happening to Seri?!”
“Quiet. They’re not responding on the radio. Something’s wrong.”
“We… We need to go back quickly…”
Yohan glanced at Jung-hwan, puzzled by his uncharacteristic panic.
At that moment, the radio crackled again. Seo-jun’s voice, mixed with the sound of gunfire and shouting, filled the air.
— ‘This is the mart first floor. They’re here.’
“How many?”
— ‘I don’t know.’
“I’m on my way. Stick to the plan. Also, check the rooftop watch as soon as you clear things up—they’re unresponsive.”
— ‘Understood.’
Beyond the radio came sounds of gunfire and fierce shouting: “Shoot!” and “Kill them!”
Yohan grimaced and turned down the radio’s volume.
The rooftop door was locked from the inside. Unless they had been caught off guard, there was no reason they wouldn’t respond.
But being ambushed was even stranger. The mart was a five-story building. Unless someone had dropped in from the sky…
Could they have climbed the walls?
Yohan shook his head. Climbing an external building wall didn’t make sense. It wasn’t like sliding down a pipe—it required gear and was nearly impossible without it.
No, Yohan reconsidered. Even if it didn’t make sense, there were always people willing to act beyond the limits of common sense.
If he had to, he would’ve found a way to climb that wall too.
What mattered now was that something had gone wrong.
Something had happened to Seri and Dong-seok on the rooftop.
At this point, returning quickly was the best and only option.
“Let’s move.”
Yohan hurried.
It was inevitable that his pace quickened on the way back. The first unexpected variable had arisen. Even as they crossed the intersections and passed through streets cluttered with abandoned cars, there was still no contact from Seri or Dong-seok.
— ‘Yohan, are you on your way?’
“Ten minutes out. What’s the situation?”
— ‘We’ve killed four. After that, they stopped coming in. I think they might’ve run off. Should we go out and check?’
Four?
Only four? That was far too few.
It was likely a ploy to wait for the survivors to come out, then overwhelm them all at once.
“Hold position. I’ll be there soon.”
