The Scavengers' Assault
A middle school somewhere on the western outskirts.
Perched atop a hill where surveillance and defense came easy, the place had been one of the shelters where countless people had flocked in the early days of the outbreak, clinging to hope.
But that hope had not lasted long.
Countless scavengers had drooled over its abundant supplies and manpower, and by the time the zombie crisis entered its fourth month, the school had been absorbed by a fairly large survivor band and turned into their sturdy stronghold.
On the top floor of that school, in what must once have been the teachers’ office—the widest classroom—a man with a deep scar carved above his eyebrow stood gazing down over the athletic field as if he owned it.
And between his legs, a woman crouched, mechanically bobbing her head up and down.
“Hah… fuck. That bitch Sim Geum-a. Need to put her down already…”
The man muttered under his breath while staring out the broken window.
The woman between his legs either did not hear him or had no room left to care; she simply kept at her work with desperate focus.
Bang!
At that exact moment the classroom door slammed open and a man burst inside, gasping for breath.
“Boss! The convenience-store bastards got hit! They’re all dead!”
“That so?”
Even though his pleasure had been interrupted, the man did not so much as flinch.
“I thought it was weird that bitch Sim Geum-a was staying so quiet. How many of hers did they find?”
He kept looking out the window as he asked.
“That’s the strange part. The fight marks are insanely intense, but not a single one of her people’s bodies was left behind. Maybe… it wasn’t her crew that did it?”
The man finally turned his head and looked at his subordinate with open contempt.
“You dumb fuck. Besides that crazy bitch, who else in this whole district could wipe out the convenience-store crew like that?”
He turned his gaze back outside.
“No bodies means they cleaned up only their own corpses so we’d start shooting each other. Use your head for once.”
With that he roughly seized the hair of the woman still kneeling between his legs and, to finish satisfying himself, drove her head even harder.
A moment later he shuddered with release, shoved the woman roughly aside, and stood while straightening his pants.
“Call everyone. Meeting today. Right now.”
He gave the order as he walked out of the classroom.
“If that bitch Sim Geum-a is coming at us like this… it won’t be long before she tries to sweep us up too. Before we just sit here and die, we at least get one last counterattack in.”
Once both men had left, only the woman remained sprawled on the floor, coughing and choking in the empty room, the sound echoing hollowly.
Once again the leaders of the survivor groups gathered in the dark, damp basement.
This time, though, several familiar faces were missing.
The seats they had once occupied were now nothing but cold empty space, pressing the atmosphere of the meeting room even heavier.
“See?! I was right!”
One man slammed the table and shouted.
“That crazy bitch Sim Geum-a finally started! While we were sitting around twiddling our thumbs, the convenience-store guys and the market guys all got wiped out! It’s way too late to keep poking at her little by little now!”
His inflammatory cry made the faces of the other leaders who had lost comrades twist with a mix of rage and terror.
“Drones? Yeah, I know those fucking things are scary! But before those drone bastards cut our throats, we cut that bitch Sim Geum-a’s throat first—that’s all there is to it!”
His words were no longer logic. They were the final, mad thrashing of beasts cornered by fear.
In the end their unstable alliance chose the most dangerous and reckless path of all: all-out war.
“Yeah! That’s right!”
“We can’t just keep taking it!”
“We pool everything and smash her base in one go!”
They egged one another on, digging their own graves with every word.
And from the darkness, watching it all, a faint, cruel smile rose on the lips of Lieutenant Colonel Seo Guk.
The plan was finally flowing in the worst possible direction—exactly the way he wanted.
Lieutenant Colonel Seo Guk decided the time had come. He rose and spoke to the men lost in their frenzy.
“Fine! If you’re really going to finish that bitch Sim Geum-a for good, I’ll give you a little present.”
But the man who had shouted first for the attack on Sim Geum-a now eyed him with sudden suspicion.
“You’re the same bastard who was spouting off about some ‘safe route’ back then, aren’t you? Come to think of it… everything going to shit like this is all because of this fucker, isn’t it?”
“Yeah! If you hadn’t started yapping about alliances and all that crap!”
The men closed in around him in an instant. As the mood turned ugly, Seo Guk shouted urgently.
“Weapons! I’ll give you weapons! My men recently found a whole load of usable gear in an abandoned military truck nearby! I’ll hand every last piece over to you—free!”
At those words the men surrounding him hesitated.
“…There’s no such thing as free in this world. Tell us what you really want.”
“Yeah! Free doesn’t exist! Don’t stab us in the back later—just spit it out!”
Under their continued pressure, Lieutenant Colonel Seo Guk thought for a moment, then spoke.
“Then just one promise. If that bitch Sim Geum-a somehow survives our attack… she’s mine. Whether I skin her alive or do whatever the hell else I want with her, you stay out of it completely.”
At his cruel condition the men actually cheered.
“Whoa, this bastard’s actually growing on me!”
“Yeah, playing with a high-spirited woman however you want is pretty fun!”
“This guy gets it!”
They clapped him on the shoulder and laughed heartily.
“Deal! If you’re giving us the guns, that much is only fair!”
Then, when they saw the dozens of K2 rifles, grenades, and ammo crates Seo Guk had already staged outside the basement, they began to treat him like a hero.
They never realized they were nothing more than foolish moths already caught in a vast spider’s web.
For the past several days Seo Yeong-ju and Kang Po-gyeong had worked as a team, quietly cleaning out the hideouts of scattered small scavenger groups one by one.
Kang Po-gyeong, armored in the overwhelming defense of a Foundation Suit, drew aggro from the front while Seo Yeong-ju in a Walker Suit struck from the shadows like a phantom. Against their coordinated assault the ragtag scavengers fell helplessly.
They slipped into another target building to clear one more hideout. But something was wrong.
The interior clearly showed people had lived there for days, yet now it was dead silent.
“…Empty.”
Seo Yeong-ju said quietly.
“Yes. Looks like they left in a real hurry…”
Kang Po-gyeong studied the various traces left on the floor.
In that instant both of them reached the same conclusion. This was no ordinary relocation.
They were gathering somewhere.
“Fuck…!”
With no time left to waste, the two of them sprinted madly toward Sim Geum-a’s territory.
Meanwhile, at Sim Geum-a’s stronghold, the shadow of battle had already fallen thick before Seo Yeong-ju’s warning could even arrive.
“Boss! Word from the west wall watchtower! A large force that looks like survivors is heading this way!”
At Choi Eun-ji’s urgent report, Sim Geum-a spat a curse and immediately vaulted up onto the wall.
And before her eyes unfolded the sight she least wanted to see.
Far beyond the horizon, a massive human wave that easily numbered in the hundreds was kicking up dust as it rolled straight toward their walls.
Right then Seo Yeong-ju and Kang Po-gyeong, still in their suits, came leaping in over the wall.
“Sim Geum-a! Those bastards…!”
“I know. I can see them too.”
Sim Geum-a cut her off, grinding her teeth.
And the moment her words ended—
KRA-BOOM!
A grenade-launcher round fired from far away smashed into one section of Sim Geum-a’s wall, announcing the start of battle with a massive explosion.
The solidly stacked wrecked cars and concrete piles shattered into flying debris and billowing dust from that single hit.
“Fuck! Where the hell did they get something like that…”
Feeling the impact of the grenade through her whole body, Sim Geum-a muttered under her breath.
The color drained from her face. Firepower of that level far exceeded anything she had anticipated.
Just then, with a familiar whine, a drone streaked overhead and began pouring invisible energy rounds into the leading scavengers charging the wall.
Pop, pop, pop—small sounds, and the heads of the men running at the front burst like watermelons.
“Dima! Dima, where the hell are you! Dmitry, you bastard!”
Seeing it, Sim Geum-a urgently called for her daytime security chief.
“Right here, Boss!”
When she spotted Dima waving from below the wall, Sim Geum-a shouted.
“Arm every combatant and get them to their assigned positions! Non-combatants—shove them all into the cafeteria! Now!”
“Ponyatno!”
Watching Dima sprint off, Sim Geum-a slowly turned to Kang Po-gyeong.
Kang Po-gyeong read the plan in her eyes alone and spoke.
“Do not worry. From this moment I will delay their attack as much as possible and draw every shot onto myself, just as planned.”
“…Alright. We’ll come help the second we’re ready. Don’t die.”
Kang Po-gyeong gave a slight bow of thanks, then without the slightest hesitation leapt down from the wall.
Thud!
The heavy Foundation Suit landed with a solid impact, and right beside her came another, lighter thud. Looking over, Kang Po-gyeong spoke in surprise.
“Seo Yeong-ju-nim! Why are you…?”
Seo Yeong-ju answered bluntly.
“You just do the job you said you’d do.”
Using the Walker Suit’s mobility she sprinted off toward the flank, still talking.
“We’ve been syncing pretty well these past few days. This is the same thing—just bigger scale. I’ll cover your back.”
Left alone, Kang Po-gyeong stared a moment in the direction she had vanished, then steeled herself, activated the massive energy shield of the Foundation Suit, and began pounding toward the enemy with heavy strides.
Kang Po-gyeong was a wall of pure steel.
Tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!
Bullets from dozens of scavengers slammed into her huge energy shield, sparking uselessly; not a single round reached her.
“That—that monster bitch! Kill her! Kill her already!”
The scavengers screamed in terror, but their attacks meant nothing.
Kang Po-gyeong simply advanced through the rain of bullets. And when she finally reached the enemy vanguard, a hideous whine rose from her right arm and a blue energy saw blade spun into existence.
Shhhk!
The man at the very front was cleanly bisected at the waist without even a chance to scream. The scavengers around him went white with horror.
While they hesitated, another shadow of death appeared on the battlefield’s flank, outside their line of sight.
Seo Yeong-ju. She moved without a sound like a cat and carved into the scavengers’ side.
Every time the massive machete in her hand flashed, a scream rang out and a head went flying.
“Gyaaah!”
“Behind! There’s something behind us too!”
The scavengers fell into total chaos. From the front an unbreakable steel giant, from the flank an assassin who appeared in an instant, and from the sky merciless drones—all of them were taking lives.
At that moment Lieutenant Colonel Seo Guk, the true architect of the chaos, watched the battle from afar and gave a quiet order.
“Grenade launcher team. Target the one with the shield. Direct hits not required. Put as many as you can around her.”
At his command, men disguised as scavengers in the rear pulled out grenade launchers.
Whoosh—! Boom! KRA-BOOM!
Grenades rained down around Kang Po-gyeong.
She desperately raised the energy shield to block the blasts, but she could not stop the shockwaves erupting from every side.
Her heavy suit began to stagger under the force of the explosions. On her HUD a warning message flashed crimson.
WARNING: Power consumption critical. Energy reserves depleting rapidly.
“Fuck! Now! Her legs are gone! Everyone pile on that bitch!”
Seizing the opening, the man with the scarred eyebrow roared. The scavengers once again swarmed toward Kang Po-gyeong like ants.
But their final thrashing ended in futility.
From behind them Seo Yeong-ju had reappeared and begun to rampage like a madwoman.
Her machete never stopped moving, carving flesh and bone and spraying a rain of blood.
The voices of falling scavengers drew steadily closer even to Lieutenant Colonel Seo Guk.
“Colonel! We can’t hold like this! We’re getting hit too!”
As the tide turned, one of Seo Guk’s men still disguised as a survivor shouted in panic.
“Shut up!”
Watching his plan collapse right before his eyes, Lieutenant Colonel Seo Guk lost all reason and screamed.
“Hyungung—prepare to fire. Target: that black suit running wild.”
“But Colonel! That was our last emergency asset—we were saving it to bring down Sim Geum-a’s wall! If we waste it on that—”
“We’re all about to die and you’re still talking about the wall?! Fire it right fucking now, you bastard! Fire!”
Under his furious pressure the subordinate finally, with trembling hands, aimed the hidden anti-tank missile—the Hyungung—hesitated only a second, then pressed the launch button.
SHHHHHHRAAAAK—!
With a tremendous roar the missile streaked at blistering speed straight toward Seo Yeong-ju.
She sensed the danger on pure instinct and tried to dodge, but it was already too late.
The missile veered at the last instant, slammed into her side, and detonated in a massive explosion.
KRAAAAAAAAA-BOOM!
Seo Yeong-ju’s Walker Suit was spun through the air like a top by the overwhelming blast force and smashed into a distant building wall.
Seeing that, Lieutenant Colonel Seo Guk and the remaining scavengers finally let out a roar of victory.