The Guests
We left Sim Geum-a’s fortress walls, split into two vehicles, and started heading toward the Shelter.
A small compact car stuck close behind the one-ton truck I was driving.
Inside it rode two men who looked like elite subordinates Sim Geum-a had handpicked.
In the passenger seat of my truck sat Dima, the white guy who spoke Korean so well, still glancing around with open curiosity. In the cargo bed behind us, Yeong-ju, Sim Geum-a, and Choi Eun-ji sat side by side.
“Hey, isn’t this seating arrangement way too weird?”
I shouted toward the cargo bed, but my words didn’t seem to reach them at all. Yeong-ju was simply pointing up at the drones floating high in the sky, explaining things to Sim Geum-a.
“Those things will take care of every zombie around here from now on, so the resources near the route we’re taking can be safely gathered. So once or twice, have your people who go out collecting resources travel with ours. Show them the safe zones, work out recovery routes, that kind of thing.”
The moment Yeong-ju finished speaking, a soft pong sounded from the sky, and the head of a zombie loitering near our path simply exploded.
“Yeah. Just like that, all the zombies will be cleaned up.”
Yeong-ju pointed at the scene as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
From the passenger seat, Dima kept spitting out Russian exclamations I couldn’t understand—“Ничего себе… Fuck…!”—and stuck his head out the window, straining to catch a glimpse of the drones that were barely visible from inside the cab.
Choi Eun-ji sat in the cargo bed staring blankly at the sky where the drones hovered, her face frozen in pure shock: Drones? Is that really possible?
Only Sim Geum-a spoke to Yeong-ju in a voice so excited I could feel it from the driver’s seat.
“That—that drone! Can you give us one too? Or if you can’t give it, can you at least lend us one?!”
Watching them, I couldn’t help snickering.
Looking at them like this, Yeong-ju and Sim Geum-a… those two seem to get along surprisingly well.
On the road to the Shelter, zombies appeared three times, then four, again and again. But not a single one managed to come within fifty meters of our truck.
Pong! Pong!
Before we even spotted them, the watchers in the sky locked on first and blew their heads off with cold, merciless precision.
Sim Geum-a, who had been watching that overwhelming display from the cargo bed the whole way, was now clinging to Yeong-ju with a voice that bordered on pleading.
“Hey—no, you said Yeong-ju, right? Seriously, isn’t there any way? I want that thing so bad, for real!”
She spoke like a child throwing a tantrum.
“If we just had one of those, our people wouldn’t need to risk their lives on patrol anymore! Huh? How about just selling it? I’ll give you every last bit of the gold you said you needed before!”
In her eyes, the old cunning and calculation had vanished. Pure greed and sparks of awe blazed instead.
Yeong-ju simply stared at her with open interest and said nothing.
“Why? What are you staring at so hard?”
Sim Geum-a asked the woman who kept watching her without answering her desperate plea.
Then Yeong-ju snickered and dropped something completely unexpected.
“No, just… if you hadn’t gotten mixed up with Seo Yeong-chan, I think you and I would’ve gotten along pretty well.”
Sim Geum-a went blank for a second, then snickered the exact same way and burst out laughing.
“You’re right. I like you quite a bit too.”
The two of them faced each other like that, trading unreadable smiles for a long while.
I watched through the rearview mirror from the driver’s seat; Choi Eun-ji watched from the corner of the cargo bed. Both of us just stared blankly at the strange scene, completely unable to understand it.
Only a few hours earlier these two women had been growling as if they wanted to tear each other apart. Why were they exchanging such warm looks now?
The world of women alone was still full of mysteries, every bit as baffling as the ruined world outside.
At last the familiar gray silhouette of our Shelter appeared in the distance. Sim Geum-a and Choi Eun-ji in the truck, and even Dima beside me, all let out the same awed exclamation as if they had rehearsed it.
“…Is that the ‘safe place’ you people talked about?”
Sim Geum-a asked in a trembling voice, as if she couldn’t believe her eyes.
When we pulled up in front of the Shelter and the massive entrance opened with a low whiiing, Kang Po-gyeong came running out to meet us.
“Welcome… huh? Wait—have you brought guests?”
She looked at Sim Geum-a’s group with a flustered expression. Then, as if she had grasped the situation, she skillfully guided the compact car that had been following us over to the spot where we usually parked the truck.
Yang Jin-ju and Nam Jin-ju peeked out from inside the doorway, watching with open curiosity.
Yeong-ju climbed down and spoke to Sim Geum-a.
“Have your people wait outside for now. Only you come in.”
But before Sim Geum-a could answer, Choi Eun-ji stepped forward from behind her.
“I will go in as well. I cannot send our leader in alone.”
Yeong-ju stared for a moment at the bold, fiercely loyal woman in front of her. Then she nodded.
“…Yeah. Fine.”
And so, for the first time, our Shelter welcomed new visitors beyond Seo Yeong-ju, Yang Jin-ju, Nam Jin-ju, Kang Po-gyeong, and me.
Inside, Yeong-ju and I sat across the cafeteria table from Sim Geum-a and Choi Eun-ji.
The whole way in, Sim Geum-a and Choi Eun-ji kept looking around with soft sounds of wonder. Automatic doors, a bright clean interior, even the fresh air—everything belonged to a completely different dimension from the outside world they had known.
When Kang Po-gyeong brought warm coffee, they still kept glancing around curiously even while they drank.
“Alright. Let’s talk honestly now.”
I opened the conversation.
“How did it feel on the way here? Did you get a sense of the ‘safe path’ we mentioned?”
I asked Sim Geum-a and Choi Eun-ji. The two exchanged a quick look, then Sim Geum-a answered.
“I felt it. Very clearly! Whether the area was already cleaned up some, we only saw maybe five zombies the whole way—and those from a distance.”
Choi Eun-ji picked up where she left off.
“Even those never got close to our vehicle. Something came down from the sky and took care of every one of them. It was truly… astonishing.”
“Glad you felt it was safe. Now, like I said, have your side start sending resources our way.”
Yeong-ju cut straight to the point.
“Besides the truck you already gave us, you’ve got other vehicles that can haul cargo, right?”
“That’s true, but…”
This time Choi Eun-ji spoke carefully, yet firmly.
“The fuel we have left is not infinite. If we are going to run multiple vehicles all the way out here to deliver resources, there needs to be enough ‘merit’ in it for us, doesn’t there?”
“Merit? Are the water and the other goods we give not enough?”
“Not right this moment, but… to be honest, yes. Water can be managed to some degree when it rains. Of course it won’t be as clean as what you provide here. And the other items are excellent, but… you made them so well that once we secure a certain stock, losses stay low and additional demand drops. So…”
She paused to steady her breath, then carefully finished.
“So… asking us to operate several vehicles on a regular schedule to bring resources… is a bit of an unreasonable demand on our side.”
Yeong-ju watched Choi Eun-ji finish speaking and glance at us for our reaction. Her eyes widened slightly in surprise; she looked at the woman with open interest and turned to Sim Geum-a.
“How did you end up with a subordinate like that? We’re clearly the ones in charge, yet it doesn’t even feel annoying… Listening to her, she doesn’t seem like someone who should be under anyone.”
“Our Eun-ji’s amazing, right? Still not giving her away, though.”
Yeong-ju looked at Sim Geum-a and asked with a mischievous smile.
“…What if I give you a drone?”
At the unexpected offer, Sim Geum-a went “Huh?” for a second, hesitated, then laughed.
“Nah, still can’t give her!”
But her eyes glittered with greed stronger than anything I had seen from her before.
“Yeong-ju was just throwing that out there. Giving a drone is impossible.”
I said it after catching the look in Sim Geum-a’s eyes. Yeong-ju shrugged.
“Right. Giving one is impossible… but ‘lending’ might be doable?”
The disappointed look on Sim Geum-a’s face lit up again with a bright “Oh?” She stared at Yeong-ju with pure expectation.
“It’s not possible right now, but once we build more drones… having ours guard the specific areas you want instead could work.”
Wait, the conversation’s going that far? What is she doing?
I jabbed Yeong-ju’s side with a finger and whispered urgently.
“Hey! What the hell are you trying to pull? You know the moment we go even one kilometer outside the Shelter, direct control becomes impossible! If you lie for no reason, what kind of mess are you planning to land us in later?!”
Yeong-ju completely ignored the whisper. She kept her eyes only on Choi Eun-ji and asked,
“So—with this much ‘merit,’ how is it? Doable?”
“…The guarding—would it be possible around the clock? Are there enough shift personnel… no, enough shift drones?”
Choi Eun-ji asked carefully.
“Yeah. Day and night, rotating shifts, we’ll lock down whatever places you designate. So from now on you can sleep with both feet stretched out—no more dangerous guard duty.”
Choi Eun-ji no longer hesitated.
“Then… of course it’s possible. Only until our fuel completely runs out, though…”
I could only stare at Yeong-ju with anxious eyes, wondering what she thought she was doing.
Once she finished with Choi Eun-ji, Yeong-ju suddenly reached under the table—out of their sight—and tightly gripped my hand. Then she spoke.
“Good! That talk seems settled, so we should move on to something more important, right?”
She looked straight at Sim Geum-a, who was giving Choi Eun-ji a thumbs-up while sipping coffee, and asked with an extremely gentle smile,
“You… by any chance thinking of becoming my man’s fourth wife? No, wait. Looking at the order, third concubine would be more accurate, wouldn’t it?”
Oh, Yeong-ju…
