Five Shots of Opportunity 5
When we returned to the hideout, the four of us were nearly exhausted. Our bodies, drained of adrenaline, felt as heavy as lead, and our minds were completely blank.
Nam Jin-ju collapsed to the floor, nearly bursting into tears, and I too leaned against the wall, unable to do anything for a while.
The terrible roar of that mutant zombie from behind us still seemed to echo vividly in our ears. We had made it back alive, but the unprecedented terror we faced along the way was eating away at our spirits.
“Two spaces up… and to the side…”
But Yang Jin-ju was different. Without even a moment’s rest, she spread out the map she had drawn herself on the floor of the narrow machine room and began plugging in the coordinates of hope we had brought back.
In her hands were a notebook, a ruler, and a protractor. Her face was pale with fatigue, but her eyes shone brighter than ever. It was as if the sense of responsibility to make this reckless plan succeed no matter what was driving her.
Scratch-scratch
“…Now if I calculate this.”
We held our breath and watched her fingertips. Only the sound of the ruler scraping across the paper and her quiet muttering of calculations filled the narrow machine room. All our hopes now rested on the tip of the pencil in her hand.
How much time passed? Yang Jin-ju finally looked up after finishing her calculations. A faint but clear smile hung on her face.
“Done…! The calculations are all finished.”
At her words, all our gazes turned to her.
“I’ve calculated the margin of error and even the wind resistance values. And… I have good news.”
“Good news?”
Nam Jin-ju asked in a voice full of expectation.
“Yeah. The error wasn’t as big as I thought. At this level… if we fire just one more test shot for final confirmation, we should be able to hit the hook accurately enough. That means we don’t necessarily have to use up all our remaining chances. We can save bullets too!”
Her words were like rain after a drought for us, worn out by fear. Our given chances had effectively increased from one to two or three. Just the fact that the burden of failure was reduced made us feel like we could breathe again.
“Really? Wow, what a relief…!”
Nam Jin-ju shouted joyfully. I also let out a sigh of relief. But at that moment, I felt a sense of dissonance. In this moment when everyone was happy, only one person, Seo Yeong-ju, showed no change in expression, lost in deep thought. She was staring out the window at Apartment Building 108, where darkness was beginning to fall, frowning as if simulating something.
“What’s wrong? Seo Yeong-ju. Is there a problem?”
“….”
Yeong-ju didn’t answer, still just looking out the window. I approached her and lightly shook her shoulder.
“Yeong-ju, what’s wrong? What are you thinking about?”
Only then did she seem to wake from her deep thoughts, slowly turning her head to look at us. Her eyes were the same as the ones we had seen at the playground today—the eyes she had when she sensed danger.
“Yeah… no, we might need to rethink this plan.”
“Rethink? The calculations are done. Now if we just fire one more shot… it’ll be over—”
As Yang Jin-ju was about to retort, Yeong-ju cut her off.
“No. We can’t just fire one more shot. Have you forgotten how dangerous it was when we went to check the warhead today?”
She looked around at all of us and posed the question.
“The fact that we made it back alive today was pure luck. We diverted their attention with two soda cans, and even had the fortune of that mutant getting tangled up with the other zombies.
If tomorrow we fire a second test shot and have to go check it again, will the same luck follow us then? Will that mutant fall for the same trick again?”
At her words, a cold silence fell over the machine room again, and the terrible memories of today resurfaced.
As Yeong-ju said, the intelligent movements of the mutant zombie were the biggest variable that could nullify all our plans.
“I think we shouldn’t save the gunpowder. Instead, we need to use our remaining chances more aggressively. To secure safety for the process of going to check the second test shot.”
She began drawing on the floor again, explaining the new plan.
“Tomorrow, firing one more test shot is correct. But before that, we need to use the remaining two decoy shots first—that is, the gunpowder equivalent of forty rounds of bullets.
We’ll fire them to two different places as far as possible from Building 108, making as much noise as possible.”
At Yeong-ju’s explanation, we gathered around the drawing being made on the floor.
“We’ll perfectly lure the attention of that mutant and all the other zombies over there, creating a temporary safety zone around Building 108 where we’ll be operating. After completely diverting their attention, we’ll fire the second test shot and safely go check that point.
Not gambling with our lives like today.”
Yeong-ju’s plan was to preemptively consume the precious resource of forty rounds of bullets just to secure safety—inefficient in a way, but at the same time the most certain method.
No one dared to casually refute Yeong-ju. Her words were backed by the terror we had experienced firsthand today.
“…I agree.”
Nam Jin-ju said in a small but firm voice.
“Honestly, if Unni hadn’t said we should turn back today, we might all have died.
When I saw that weird thing, I really thought my heart stopped. Unni’s instincts seem trustworthy. I’ll trust Unni.”
She said looking at Yeong-ju. Her eyes no longer held fear, but trust, and Yang Jin-ju also let out a deep sigh and nodded.
“…I trust her too. Assuming the worst and choosing the safest path. That’s the basics of survival.
Forty rounds of bullets are a waste, but… cheaper than our lives, right?”
After finishing their words, the two’s gazes turned to me. I smirked and shrugged my shoulders.
“Me… I’ve always trusted her. Without her, I’d have died long ago.”
As everyone’s support and trust poured out, Yeong-ju’s face flushed bright red. She didn’t know what to do, bowing her head deeply and muttering.
“Th…thanks for trusting me, everyone.”
That night, we devoted ourselves to our respective preparations for the final battle tomorrow. Yang Jin-ju was precisely calculating the amount of gunpowder to go into the three cylinders according to Yeong-ju’s new plan, and Nam Jin-ju helped her carefully transferring the gunpowder.
Two for decoys at maximum, one for testing precisely.
Yeong-ju and I completely disassembled the K-2 rifle, oiled it, and put it in top condition. And we checked once more the few emergency equipments like grenades and flares that Uncle Park had left behind.
Before we knew it, the outside of the window was once again submerged in pitch-black darkness.
“Shall we start?”
Around the time the sun began to set, we finished preparing to fire the first decoy shot.
Yang Jin-ju looked at the map left by Uncle Park and selected the optimal location farthest from Building 108, yet where the sound could echo throughout the entire complex.
The target was the middle school building located at the northwest end of the complex. The playground was wide open, perfect for the sound to spread far.
What was loaded into the harpoon gun first was not a hook, but a heavy iron rod. And at its end, two grenades left by Uncle Park, with safety pins pulled, were wrapped excessively with tape. It was a crude improvised bomb designed so that when the warhead collides with the target point, the impact separates the safety lever and the grenades explode.
“Is everyone really ready?”
At Yang Jin-ju’s final confirmation, we all held our breath and nodded.
“Firing.”
Thud-!
With a dull explosion, the decoy shot flew through the dusky evening sky. We immediately checked inside the complex with binoculars.
A moment later, from the direction of the middle school playground far away, with a faint flash, KWAANG! a massive explosion that tore at the eardrums, incomparable to the previous test shots, shook the earth, and that sound was like a huge ripple awakening a quiet lake.
Kueeeeee
The zombies scattered throughout the complex all raised their heads and began howling toward the direction of the sound, and soon, like a massive river flowing, thousands upon thousands of zombies started moving toward the middle school.
Among them, the silhouette of that mutant zombie we saw at the playground was mixed in. The thing was roughly pushing aside other zombies, racing fiercely at the very front.
“It worked…!”
Nam Jin-ju shouted in a voice mixed with joy and fear.
That night, we couldn’t sleep. Taking turns every hour, we went up to the rooftop and watched their movement paths all night with binoculars.
Most zombies gathered around the middle school, but some got lost and scattered elsewhere. We carefully recorded all those movements on the map. To make the path we would take tomorrow morning.
“Finally, this day has come.”
At last, the morning of the decisive day dawned. When the faint dawn colored the outside of the window, we gathered in one place for the last supper, and Yang Jin-ju carefully took something out from deep in her backpack.
“Here, this is our last meal here. The last supper.”
What she set down in front of us with a flourish were four military instant combat rations in olive drab packaging.
“Uncle Park had saved these for emergencies… luckily, exactly four were left. Matching our number of people.”
Nam Jin-ju said with a smile.
As soon as I saw the combat rations, I couldn’t help but let out a cheer.
“Wow! How long has it been since I saw these! Awesome!”
They were things I had eaten to death in the military, but facing them again in this hellish world, they felt more welcome than any feast in the world.
“These are really delicious. Especially this sausage and fried rice….”
I excitedly started explaining to Yeong-ju.
“Look at this, if you pull this string here, the heating pack inside bursts and mixes with water, and the food warms up by itself. Isn’t it completely amazing?”
But Yeong-ju showed no particular reaction to my fuss. She coolly tore open the combat ration packaging and said.
“Ah, that. It’s the same as those instant ramen that boil by themselves when you pour water that were popular a while ago. Military-style heating lunch box?”
At her indifferent reaction, I instantly became dejected, and Yang Jin-ju and Nam Jin-ju giggled looking at my appearance.
“Come on, come on, let’s eat before it cools. Since this might be the last meal of our lives, savor the taste.”
At Yang Jin-ju’s words, we each pulled the string of the combat rations. With a hissing sound, hot steam rose from inside the packaging. The smell of warm food. We were having a warm meal, even if instant, for the first time in almost five months.
Even Yeong-ju, who had been indifferent at first, her eyes widened the moment she took a bite of the warmly heated pound cake.
“Huh? Oh, this… is better than I thought?”
She soon let out small exclamations of admiration every time she ate the contents one by one, including the fried rice and sausage. Watching her enjoy the food, we all forgot the tension and enjoyed the meal with genuine smiles for the first time in a long while. This brief peace was becoming a more precious strength than anything for us.
After finishing the meal, we fell asleep as if collapsing from the surging tension and fatigue. And a few hours later, dawn broke again, and we silently packed the minimal luggage to move to the rooftop of Building 108. Ropes and equipment, remaining food, and our weapons that were as precious as our lives.
Going up to the rooftop, we fired the second decoy shot as planned. This time the target was the abandoned large mart parking lot in the southeast of the complex.
As a massive explosion shook the earth once more, more than half of the zombies that had gathered around the middle school started moving toward the new sound again. The things were perfectly dispersed to both sides.
“Please let my calculations be correct….”
And finally, Yang Jin-ju loaded the last remaining test shot into the harpoon gun, and based on the final coordinates calculated last night, carefully finished aiming.
Pung-
The last test shot flew toward Apartment Building 108.
“Let’s go! This is the last time.”
In tension, we headed once more into the heart of hell to confirm the result.
The path to Building 108 was, as we expected, much quieter than yesterday. The two decoy operations had succeeded perfectly. But still, here and there on the roads, zombies that had left the group were loitering.
We held our breath and quietly moved between buildings and cover. Having come deeper than yesterday, the tension reached its peak.
Now only a few dozen meters to the point where the last test shot had fallen. At that moment, the last group of zombies blocking our way appeared. Five or six. Too many to break through head-on.
Right then, Yeong-ju took action. Without hesitation, she took out an empty can and threw it with all her might toward the wall of the opposite building.
Clang clang clang
At the sharp sound, the zombies’ gazes all turned that way. We didn’t miss that fleeting gap and sprinted the last remaining distance with full power.
Finally, we arrived at the point where the second test shot was embedded. It was stuck exactly in the concrete wall right next to the window of the 15th floor of the apartment.
“…Success.”
Yang Jin-ju said in a trembling voice as she lowered the binoculars. Yang Jin-ju rejoicing that it was exactly the position she had calculated.
Now, only one thing remained for us. To shoot the last remaining hook toward that place!
We hurriedly escaped from there. From behind, the cries of zombies still came, but unlike before, there was no fear.