Finding a Vehicle
The next morning, we gathered once more around the large table in the support room. Yesterday's excitement had settled, and now the discussion turned to the far more daunting question of how to actually reach the Seed Vault. Spread across the center of the table was a map Yang Jin-ju had apparently spent the night preparing, marked with several routes running from Daegu all the way to Bonghwa County.
"The real question is who goes."
Yeong-ju was the first to speak. At her words, the rest of us fell silent as if on cue. Two suits. At most two people could make the trip. Out of the five of us, only two could take on this critical mission.
"I'll go."
To our surprise, Kang Po-gyeong was the first to raise her hand. Her eyes were resolute. But Yeong-ju shook her head.
"No. Not you."
"…What?"
"Isn't it obvious? You're still a prisoner. And I'm sorry, but we still can't fully trust you. These suits are our most important assets — everyone's lives depend on them. Do you really think it makes sense to hand them over to someone we haven't completely built trust with yet?"
At Yeong-ju's cold assessment, Kang Po-gyeong's face fell. She offered no argument, quietly lowering her head.
"Then I'll go!"
Nam Jin-ju raised her hand with a bright smile.
"I know how to wear a suit now too! And I can carry all the gear!"
But the moment she saw the serious looks on our faces, she slowly lowered her hand.
"…Well… I mean, I do want to go… but not enough to compete with Unni and the Oppas over it…. I'll just stay here and look after the Shelter with whoever's left behind."
She gave an awkward little laugh and stepped back on her own. That left three of us: me, Yeong-ju, and Yang Jin-ju.
"I have to go."
Yeong-ju's voice was firm.
"I handle the suits better than any of you. In terms of combat ability and dealing with unexpected situations, me going is the most rational and efficient choice."
She wasn't wrong. But I couldn't back down either.
"No. This time, I go. And Yang Jin-ju, you're coming with me."
Yeong-ju's brow furrowed at that.
"What are you talking about? Yang Jin-ju has almost no combat experience. It's too dangerous."
"We'll minimize combat. And this expedition isn't a simple combat mission. Analyzing the map, scouting the optimal route, handling unexpected variables in the field — we need Yang Jin-ju's analytical skills for all of that. The two of us going is the most balanced option."
I took a breath, then looked Yeong-ju straight in the eyes.
"And this place is our home now. If we're leaving home empty and heading far away, someone has to stay behind to take charge of everything and keep it safe. Who else is going to fill that role if not you?"
"…The one in charge of the household?"
Yeong-ju repeated my words under her breath. I didn't miss the faint flicker in her eyes. She stared at me for a long moment, a light flush coloring her cheeks, then let out a deep sigh and nodded.
"…Fine. But don't push yourselves. The second anything feels off, you turn around and come straight back. Promise me."
And so, after that long debate, the final expedition team for the Seed Vault was decided: Yang Jin-ju and me.
But the real problem was only just beginning.
"I've run the numbers, and no matter how I look at it, going in the suits alone is impossible."
Yang Jin-ju pointed at the map as she spoke.
"From the Shelter to Bonghwa, the straight-line distance alone is well over a hundred kilometers. The actual travel route will be much longer. The Walker Suit's maximum operating time is twelve hours; the Foundation Suit's is ten. Even if we ran at top speed without stopping, the energy would run out before we reached the destination. Coming back isn't even worth considering."
"…So we have to find a vehicle."
We needed a means of transportation.
That afternoon, before we began the vehicle search, we decided to test the Foundation Suit's performance. This time, Yang Jin-ju put it on.
"Whoa… it feels so much heavier and clumsier than the Walker Suit."
She said, now fully suited. Where the Walker Suit focused on mobility, the Foundation Suit was clearly built for defense and labor — every movement carried a solid, weighty feel.
"Let's test the shield first."
At Yeong-ju's instruction, Yang Jin-ju thrust forward the round metal orb mounted on the back of her left hand. The orb split into four segments, and from between them a spray of blue energy particles burst forth, weaving themselves into a vast net-like energy shield. It was wide and solid enough to cover the entire front of the suit.
"Wow…! That's an actual shield!"
Nam Jin-ju marveled.
"Now the other hand."
This time Yang Jin-ju extended the orb on the back of her right hand. It split open, and with a rising whirr, a blade of blue energy surged out and formed into a massive, broad shovel-headed edge.
"…That's supposed to be an energy saw?"
I was disappointed by the absurd shape of it — but Yeong-ju was not.
"Try cutting that concrete chunk over there."
Yang Jin-ju swung the shovel-blade toward a nearby piece of reinforced concrete debris.
Shhk!
As cleanly and smoothly as slicing through tofu, it sheared straight through the rebar in a single stroke.
All of us were left speechless by that overwhelming cutting power.
"…That's not a shovel. That's a giant guillotine."
Yeong-ju said, her voice thick with awe.
Starting the next day, the search for a working vehicle began in earnest. Seven months had already passed since the zombie outbreak. Most car batteries would be dead, and whatever fuel remained was likely degraded. Finding a running car in these ruins was like searching for a needle in a desert.
And so our grueling search began. Every morning we gathered in the support room and marked out the day's search zones on the map. Working in pairs of two, we took turns wearing the Walker Suit and the Foundation Suit, combing every parking lot and road around the Shelter.
"Today let's start with the big supermarket parking lot in North Sector Three."
"The underground garage at the apartment complex we checked yesterday was completely flooded — no hope there."
"What about fuel? Should we prioritize diesel vehicles? Or would gasoline be fine too?"
Our conversations were filled with nothing but cars.
When we returned from each day's search, we painted the checked zones red on the map. Day by day the red areas grew wider, but our hopes never appeared. We opened the doors of dozens — no, hundreds — of cars and tried to start them. All that came back was a weak, crackling sound and dashboard lights that flickered out almost immediately.
Two weeks. A stretch of time that felt both endless and far too short. In that time we scoured nearly every road and parking lot within a three-kilometer radius of the Shelter. The map filled up with red X marks covering every zone we had finished searching.
But the working vehicle we had hunted so desperately for never turned up — not a single one. If anything, the only result of our travels was that the zombies we gradually cleared along the way left the surrounding area a little cleaner. The hope that might have become our legs never showed itself.
In the end, we sat around the support room table and let out a collective, heavy sigh. Yang Jin-ju drew a limp red X over the last remaining zone on the map, set down her pen, and slumped into her chair.
"…There's really nothing left. Not a single running car anywhere around here."
Her voice carried the deep hollowness of two weeks of effort turned to nothing.
"Coffee."
Just then, Kang Po-gyeong quietly set a steaming cup of coffee in front of each of us.
"Thanks, Unni!"
Nam Jin-ju said with a weak smile.
At some point, Kang Po-gyeong — twenty-two, a year older than the Jin-jus — had naturally become their Unni. She had started out using extreme formalities, but after asking us, "I'm a woman and I was ROTC, so I've experienced military hierarchy — I'd rather you treat me casually, the way Seo Yeong-ju-nim does," we had begun to deal with her a little more comfortably.
For the past two weeks, while we threw ourselves into the external searches, she had taken full charge of every household chore in the Shelter. She swept and scrubbed every corner clean, prepared warm meals from emergency rations before we returned, and every morning made the rounds of each room collecting laundry to wash and dry.
At first her devoted diligence had made us deeply uncomfortable, but when she said with genuine sincerity, "If I don't at least do this, there's no reason for me to be here. I'm doing it because I want to," we grew used to it — and began accepting her care with real gratitude.
As she set down the coffee and her eyes naturally fell on the map covering the table, Kang Po-gyeong took in the apartment complexes and roads blanketed in red X marks and spoke quietly.
"…It seems you didn't find anything."
She looked at our slumped forms with pity in her eyes.
Then, as if something had suddenly occurred to her, her eyes lit up.
"Um…."
She spoke carefully, but with clear conviction.
"…It would be dangerous, but the other survivor groups in the city might have working vehicles."
She paused to steady her breath, then continued.
"I saw them myself about a month ago, when I was still with Park Seok-su's group. On the way back from a raid, a survivor group we'd been cooperating with had a one-ton truck and a small compact car that were both running."
The moment those words left her mouth, the four of us — who had been sprawled across the table like corpses — rose as one, lurching upright like zombies.
At our sudden movement, Kang Po-gyeong let out a startled yelp and stumbled backward.
And as if we had rehearsed it, we all shouted at her in a single voice.
"Where?!"