RE: Survival - Chapter 7

Amid screams and sprays of blood, survivors either fled outside the mart or retreated underground.

One of the employees, Kim Jung-hwan, who had been working as a promoter at the time, used his quick wits and decisiveness to block the escalators with furniture like sofas, preventing the zombies from spreading up and down the building.

The problem arose when the second basement floor, where food was stored, became a scene of chaos due to a single infected individual. In response, Jung-hwan completely blocked both ends of the escalator with furniture.

At that time, there were nearly sixty survivors on the first basement floor.

They waited anxiously for rescue, spending an entire day in suspense. Gun and Hyuk, who had been searching for food, joined the group through the emergency exit a day later.

Gun insisted they needed to fight to secure food, but fear paralyzed the survivors, and they refused to listen.

Even after three days, there were no signs of rescue. Instead, communications were cut off, gunfire echoed in the distance, and the situation grew increasingly chaotic.

Some survivors attempted to escape through the emergency exit, only to return infected by zombies.

Perhaps they had thought they could escape because Gun and Hyuk had made it inside, but the brothers had fought their way through the horde to get in.

Gun decided they couldn’t afford to waste any more energy. He urged the group to fight while they still had strength. Without food or water, they were all doomed to die anyway.

Reluctantly, the survivors rose to the challenge.

Fortunately, there were plenty of weapons available. Armed with everything from blades to blunt instruments from the household goods section, they descended to the second basement to reclaim it.

Gun and Hyuk led the charge.

In the ensuing battle, nearly half of the group was infected or killed.

It was a heavy loss, but they managed to reclaim the food section that had been overrun by zombies.

That battle was the first—and the last—time the mart’s camp fought as a group.

After hearing Gun’s story, Yohan stroked his chin thoughtfully.

“They lack combat experience.”

The brothers, Gun and Hyuk, were indeed capable fighters. They understood the zombies’ weak points and, though they were afraid, didn’t hesitate to attack.

But Yohan was uncertain about the others.

Clearing out a space as large as this mart would require at least ten fighters—enough to form a squad—each capable of taking down zombies one-on-one.

“Hello, I’m Yohan,” he introduced himself, asking if anyone needed medical attention from the supplies he had brought with him.

The survivors’ response was generally positive.

His rescue of the group on the first floor had won him some goodwill, and the rarity of someone entering from the outside was also a point in his favor.

“Has anyone else entered the mart recently besides me?” Yohan asked.

A heavy silence fell over the group. It was as if everyone suddenly lost the ability to speak. Suspicious as it seemed, Yohan decided not to press them for now. He would find out eventually.

“Is there no rescue team?”

“What about the military? What’s the government doing?”

“Are there really that many zombies outside?”

Questions came at him all at once. But Yohan could only provide limited answers.

He explained that the government was practically in a state of anarchy. While many military bases had fallen, some units still managed to maintain defensive positions.

His information, based on his previous life, likely wouldn’t differ much this time around.

Although the densely populated areas had caused infrastructure and government functions to collapse quickly, humanity in South Korea had proved surprisingly resilient.

The architecture was part of the reason. Convenience stores and large marts were scattered across every block, and residential buildings designed with disaster preparedness in mind made survival more feasible.

In reality, two years after the outbreak, it wasn’t the war with zombies that accelerated the collapse, but conflicts over dwindling food supplies. People began to fight one another for survival.

Especially after organizations like the Seoul Survival Union began to assert control in the lawless aftermath. They enforced their own version of justice and order, which became the only law of the land.

Those who didn’t follow their rules were ruthlessly slaughtered.

Yohan had witnessed this firsthand, having fought against them in his previous life with those who had followed him.

* * *

“Let’s handle the parking lot slowly. Make sure the emergency exit doors are securely locked. The real issue is the main entrance…”

With so many people gathered at the camp for so long, zombies had continuously piled up on the first floor, entering through the front entrance.

Even though blocking the main entrance seemed like the obvious solution, there were technically two entrances. On either side of the elevator, there were exits swarming with zombies.

Even Yohan, with all his experience, couldn’t guarantee safety if they were surrounded while trying to block one entrance and zombies poured in from the other.

The best approach would be to form two teams of five, with each team simultaneously blocking an entrance while facing the zombies with their backs to a wall.

But would anyone be willing to attempt it?

Even with the eight members they had sent out earlier, three had not made it back alive.

Gun seemed doubtful.

“Can I try talking to the others?” Yohan asked.

“That’s up to you, but I doubt it’ll make much of a difference. It took a lot of effort to persuade the people who went out this time… though maybe a few of them…”

Gun trailed off, looking as if he were hiding something. Yohan sensed his hesitation but didn’t push him.

“What about the water supply?” Yohan asked.

“We’ve used up the small containers. As for the big ones, we haven’t counted exactly, but there are around fifty cases bundled together.”

“No, not drinking water. I mean the tap water. Is it still running?”

“Yeah, it’s running fine. Cold water, though. We’ve been using it sparingly.”

“Water services must have been cut off a while ago. There must be a large emergency water tank on the rooftop.”

In more modern buildings, rooftop water tanks were often omitted, but fortunately, this mart—having opened years ago—still seemed to rely on an old system that included a rooftop tank.

“We need to check the water tank soon. It’s probably running low by now.”

“Oh, I hadn’t thought of that,” Gun admitted, shaking his head. It seemed that possibility hadn’t crossed his mind.

If they had been using the water tank for six months, it was likely running low. Once the water supply stopped, hygiene would become a secondary concern compared to waste disposal. They couldn’t afford to waste precious drinking water just to flush toilets.

It was becoming clear: the only way forward was a cleanup operation.

Yohan steeled himself. He needed to convince the group to secure the entire mart.

The first person he sought out was Kim Jung-hwan—the man who had saved the B1 floor by blocking off the escalators right after the outbreak.

In Yohan’s previous life, Jung-hwan had survived for a considerable time, though he wasn’t as skilled as Gun, the A-rank survivor.

“I’ve heard about your efforts. Could you tell me more about what happened back then?” Yohan asked.

Jung-hwan hesitated, discomfort clear on his face. It was likely that the heroic version Gun had shared differed from what actually took place.

“Don’t worry,” Yohan reassured him. “I’m not here to judge you, no matter what you did.”

After some coaxing, Jung-hwan began to speak.

“I was working on the first floor when it happened. I saw the horde push in through the entrance and immediately knew we were in trouble.”

Yohan raised an eyebrow, slightly impressed.

“I was a zombie genre geek,” Jung-hwan added with a bitter smile.

“Congratulations. You’ve lived your dream,” Yohan quipped.

Jung-hwan chuckled at the playful remark, his tension easing a little.

“So I ran. At first, I tried to escape outside, but there were just too many of them at the doors. Too many… I had no choice but to take the escalator and run down.”

“Was your descent motivated by the need for food?” Yohan asked.

Jung-hwan nodded—a sound decision.

“Others followed me down the escalator. But then I saw someone behind me get bitten by a zombie… So I hit the emergency stop and urged my coworkers to stack desks and sofas to block the way.”

“You did well.”

“There were still a lot of people alive back then,” Jung-hwan said quietly.

“They might’ve been massacred otherwise. In fact, they almost certainly would have.”

“I kept piling up furniture, even while people screamed and zombies tore them apart. I stacked everything until the noise stopped. When it finally quieted down, we took a breath—only to hear screams coming from the food section. Someone we let in was infected.”

“That’s why you blocked both ends,” Yohan concluded.

Jung-hwan nodded. His actions had been a blend of desperation and luck.

“How many zombies have you killed?”

Jung-hwan shook his head—he hadn’t killed any, despite surviving for six months. That was a serious issue.

“With the food we have, it’ll be hard to last two more months. We need to go out and gather more supplies. I need your help.”

“I can’t do it,” Jung-hwan said, dropping his head.

“You can,” Yohan insisted. “It’s only hard at first. In the end, they’re just mindless corpses—rotting meat.”

“I… I just can’t,” Jung-hwan whispered, his voice faltering.

After speaking with Jung-hwan, Yohan approached a few others, but their responses were similarly reluctant. In his previous life, these people hadn’t been this passive. Perhaps more time and motivation were needed to spark change.

Even the man and woman he had saved from the first floor seemed reluctant to participate in the cleanup. The trauma from their last outing had clearly taken hold.

This wasn’t going to be easy.

Just as he was considering his next step, one of the women from the group approached him—Yun Seri. The young woman, with her tight leather clothes and short hair, had a sharp, meaningful gaze. She looked like she was in her early twenties, no older than her mid-twenties.

“Did you hear the story?” she asked.

“I came because I have something to say, tough guy.”

“What is it?” Yohan asked.

“There’s something Gun didn’t tell you.”

When Yohan asked what she meant, Seri responded with a grim expression.

“A week ago, some bastards stormed this place—gangsters from the H Department Store across the street.”

“Wait. There were intruders? How? Why? Were they after food?” Yohan asked, changing his line of questioning.

There was a path leading from the parking lot to the first floor and down the emergency exit—the same route Yohan had taken. If they were skilled enough to fight off zombies, they could’ve come that way.

“At first, we thought they were here for food. But that wasn’t it. They took alcohol, cigarettes… and women. Six of them. My sister was one of them.”

Suddenly, it became clear why the group had reacted so awkwardly when Yohan asked if anyone else had recently entered the mart.

Why had no one mentioned this crucial detail?

This didn’t align with the past Yohan remembered.

Then again, if the starting point had changed, the events that followed were bound to shift as well. But gangsters?

“Gun said that the gang has enough food for now, but once they run out, they’ll come back to raid us. That’s why we need to secure the loading dock—it’ll be our hidden supply cache.”

While securing the loading dock was essential, Yohan had more pressing concerns—how to handle the gang. This wasn’t something he could take lightly. Facing a malicious group with people who barely knew how to fight was a dangerous gamble.

The group wasn’t even prepared to fight zombies yet.

Even so, Yohan knew he had to deal with the gang. He had clear principles to follow.

Save those who are capable and deserving of survival.

Eliminate those who pose a threat and fall far beyond moral redemption.

Leave no future threat behind.