Home 3
A pleasant sensation rising from below made my eyes flutter open. As my mind began to clear, I reached for Yang Jin-ju, who should have been lying beside me.
But she wasn’t there. Slowly, I turned my gaze downward.
The blanket over my lower body was bulging high and shifting with movement.
I smiled and lifted my hand to stroke what I assumed was her head beneath the covers. The blanket flinched once, and the pleasurable feeling intensified.
A moment later I let out a sigh and leaned my head back against the headboard.
Then the blanket was pulled away, revealing Yang Jin-ju with her moist lips glistening as she swallowed. She looked up at me and said,
“Gulp… Haaa… Good morning, Oppa!”
Seeing her like that, I felt the heat rising in me once more, just as it had the night before.
The blue artificial sunlight of the hydroponics room was like a light of hope illuminating our future.
Seeds had been sown, and life had begun to grow.
Freed from immediate worries about food, we spent several days savoring the peaceful daily life we had so desperately longed for.
But human greed—or perhaps the instinct for survival—knows no bounds.
That morning, after finishing a breakfast of abundant salad and freshly baked bread (the magic of the emergency food kits), everyone was basking in a satisfying fullness when Yeong-ju set down her coffee cup and spoke quietly.
“This might sound like the complaint of a full stomach… We can’t go on like this. Sooner or later we’ll run short on protein and fat. And… salt. Without seasonings, the food will start to get boring.”
Her realistic point settled the lively atmosphere at the table into a calm quiet.
“You’re right, Unni! I want to eat meat! Steak would be great, or pork belly…”
Nam Jin-ju smacked her lips, revealing her pure desire.
“Salt… we could get it by distilling seawater, but this is inland. We’d need to find rock salt or something, but where…”
Yang Jin-ju said analytically.
“And to get animal meat…”
At her words a heavy silence fell over the dining hall once more.
Hunting. That meant we would have to leave this safe Shelter again and face danger.
“Hunting… the risk is too great.”
Kang Po-gyeong, who had been listening quietly, offered her opinion as she finished cleaning up after our breakfast and took her seat.
“Wild animals are far faster and more dangerous than we think. Even with the suits, it is questionable whether there are even edible animals around… More than anything, it is not a sustainable method.”
She asked Yang Jin-ju for permission to look at the map briefly, then continued.
“But… there might be another way. Nearby, about fifteen kilometers away according to the map, there is a small livestock complex. When I was in the unit, I heard they had a contract to collect leftover food from there…”
She closed her eyes tightly as if recalling those days, then went on.
“After the zombie outbreak, most of it was probably abandoned. There… surviving livestock might still remain.”
At her suggestion everyone’s eyes began to sparkle.
“That’s a good idea,” I said. “Much safer and more efficient than hunting wild animals. We could secure a large amount at once.”
Then Yang Jin-ju carefully added, gauging Yeong-ju’s reaction.
“And… if nothing is left at that livestock complex… we could try trading the things we’ve made with other survivor groups. According to Po-gyeong Unni, survivor groups are also making efforts to solve their own food problems.”
She seemed to see great potential in this new survival method of “trading” after the deal with Sim Geum-a.
I continued, picturing the new plan in my head.
“Then let’s do this. It’s not that far, so Yeong-ju and I will put on the suits and drive the truck to that livestock complex. Yang Jin-ju will support us via communications from the support room, and Nam Jin-ju and Po-gyeong will guard the Shelter.”
Finally I looked at Yeong-ju.
“How about it? It’s been a while—shall we have a cozy little date, just the two of us?”
At my mischievous joke Yeong-ju snorted a laugh and looked back and forth between me and Nam Jin-ju sitting beside me.
Then she said something completely unexpected.
“…No. This time, go with Nam Jin-ju.”
At those words all laughter in the dining hall stopped.
Nam Jin-ju looked startled, as if doubting her own ears.
Yeong-ju looked at her and spoke in a softer voice than usual.
“You need to experience it yourself now too. You can’t always just stay behind us. And… this time it’ll be more about exploration and transport than combat, so it might actually be more efficient for you to wear the Foundation Suit and help Seo Yeong-chan. Right?”
Her words sounded like a rational operational order at first glance, but hidden within was the deep consideration of a leader among the women—and as an older sister—wanting to give an opportunity to Nam Jin-ju, who had been relatively less active.
But then, as if embarrassed, she turned her head away.
“It’s because just thinking about going to clean up cow dung makes me want to throw up.”
Nam Jin-ju and I climbed into the truck right after lunch.
Seeing off the three left behind, we left the Shelter.
Nam Jin-ju wore the Foundation Suit, and I wore the Walker Suit.
We took turns driving and keeping watch, carefully advancing along the route Yang Jin-ju had meticulously marked on the map, clearing obstacles and zombies blocking the way.
Then, when I returned to the truck after clearing a wrecked car blocking the road, Nam Jin-ju, sitting in the driver’s seat, asked me,
“…Oppa. Lately… have I seemed a bit down?”
Her sudden question left me momentarily flustered.
“Hmm? I didn’t particularly notice anything like that. Why?”
Then Nam Jin-ju fidgeted with the steering wheel and said in a small voice,
“No… just, everyone else has their own roles, but lately it feels like I haven’t done much…. I was thinking I wanted to be helpful to the team somehow… but was it so obvious that Yeong-ju Unni noticed…?”
At that I answered without much thought,
“Ah, don’t worry about it too much. Yeong-ju’s got really good instincts. She’s like a ghost.”
Then Nam Jin-ju looked at me for a moment with a very peculiar expression. And as she started the truck again, she muttered as if to herself,
“Sigh… Oppa, you’re just so dense.”
She said that and drove on without another word, staring straight ahead, leaving me behind.
I stood there blankly for a moment at that meaningful remark, then followed after her.
Women’s hearts were still as full of unknowns as this ruined world.
At last we arrived at the livestock complex marked on the map.
It was a fairly large place with several huge barns lined up.
Carried on the wind came a faint smell of livestock manure.
This is definitely the place.
I felt relieved and was about to stop the truck and prepare to enter when, right then, something moved for just a brief moment in the long shadows cast under the barn roofs.
Reflexively I grabbed the arm of Nam Jin-ju, who had gotten out of the truck, and pulled her into my arms.
Then the two of us hid behind the nearest cover—a rusted tractor.
“Oppa, what’s wrong?”
To the flustered Nam Jin-ju I whispered,
“Over there, in the shadows under the roof… there’s something.”
And we held our breath, using the suits’ zoom function to carefully examine the spot together.
Five minutes felt as long as five hours.
“…Oppa.”
Nam Jin-ju whispered in a voice filled with horror,
“There aren’t any livestock… not even a single one. And… come to think of it, I don’t hear any animal sounds at all either.”
She was right. This vast livestock complex was locked in a deathly silence.
“Over there… did the survivors ambushed under the roofs… eat them all?”
I couldn’t answer her question.
I just kept staring at the area under the barn buildings.
Because the thing I had glimpsed earlier moved in a way that was far too bizarre and abnormal to be human.
And after waiting a little longer, we finally confirmed its identity.
What emerged from the shadows under the roof was a horrific hybrid with the torso of an ordinary zombie, but four limbs that were twice as long and slender as a normal human’s.
Two arms, two legs. The number was the same, but that abnormal length made it look like a giant spider.
It looked around, then used those long limbs to crawl with a soft scraping sound across the barn roof and disappeared behind the building.
Nam Jin-ju and I stared at each other for a long time, unable to say a word at that shocking sight.
Then, very slowly and quietly, we drove the truck and left that cursed place.
We had discovered yet another new kind of “variant.”
And we instinctively realized: that place had already become the hunting ground of that horrific spider.