The Wave Recedes
On the rooftop, the stone-throwing team was busy hurling paving blocks, while on the landing between the first and second floors, the defense team leaned against the barricade and thrust their weapons forward. I went down for a moment and glanced at the defense team. The shrieks of zombies mixed with human battle cries and shouts. Flashlight beams danced wildly across the narrow frontline. Red blood sprayed everywhere, corpses piled up, and weapons swung with ferocious speed.
“Kill them!”
Long spears. Primitive weapons—metal rods, awls, or nails crudely taped together—stabbed out between chair legs and desk legs with sharp thrusts. Zombies fell one after another before this tactic of using the barricade as a shield and spears as weapons, but I quickly spotted the weakness.
Too dark. The zombies are learning, too.
In the brief sweep of a flashlight beam, something wriggled in a spot beyond the defense team’s line of sight, among the fallen zombie corpses. A zombie that had crawled forward on its belly grabbed a chair leg. The barricade rattled and shook. Standing on the stairs, I pointed at the zombie and shouted.
“Below! It’s grabbed the barricade! You, yeah, the one who looks like you know what I’m talking about! Get up here and assess the situation! Shine your flashlight properly!”
“Ah, yes!”
That was when something whistled through the air. Thud. A heavy impact. A high school student who had been thrusting his spear staggered.
“Ack!”
“Bricks! They’re throwing bricks!”
Zombies that couldn’t get close had started hurling the paving blocks we’d thrown at them. The weapons we’d tossed to kill zombies had come back to us. On top of that, the noise from the first floor was ominous. Bang, bang. The sound of countless fists pounding on the locked door. Zombies that had broken through the windows and invaded the first-floor rooms seemed ready to pour in at any moment.
This is really driving me insane.
This was a true wave. A tide of zombies. The human breakwater was being swept away, eroded by the zombie waves crashing against it. Fighting head-on would inevitably bring losses, and in the worst case, we would all be submerged by the zombies.
Time to pull out.
I slowly made my way back up to the third floor. The defense team had even started using the stairs above the landing, shining flashlights from the railing and thrusting long weapons, but the outlook wasn’t good. Jeon Dohyeong quietly followed me.
“How’s the rooftop?”
“Too dark to see clearly. More importantly, let’s start preparing our way out of here.”
“Huh?”
I looked him over. The looter member who had deliberately parked beside the church entrance. The vicious electricity thief who had positioned his car where bricks would fall and used the alarm to trigger the wave. I didn’t know much else about him, but his assist was ridiculously good. This operation had only succeeded thanks to everyone’s cooperation. Me suggesting we lure the zombies, Jeon Dohyeong setting up the traps, and the Thief Elder triggering them.
The looter members are pretty decent.
With just our current members, couldn’t we take down most decent opponents?
Jeon Dohyeong spoke with a trembling, flustered voice.
“How are we supposed to survive here? There’s no way to escape. We have to block all the zombies and kill them to live.”
The church building was surrounded. The first floor was even packed with zombies. In a way, it was a desperate last stand. That was also why the people were fighting with everything they had. But the looters were different.
“There are plenty of ways to survive.”
I had prepared spaces to hide and wait until the zombies thinned out. Several empty cabinets, a bathroom with a steel door. Safe spots where I had stashed water and a few chocolate bars. And the Thief Elder…
“Is Deacon Kwon here? Who’s next to him?”
“He’s a real comrade.”
“Huh. This guy? I wouldn’t have guessed.”
“So that’s where the gun came from…”
The looter comrades exchanged warm greetings once they realized each other’s identities, and we quietly walked through the third floor. The third floor was sparsely populated. Except for the faint shouts from the landing, it was peaceful. The Thief Elder led us somewhere. It was a room at the end of the hallway.
“Since it’s a church, there are no gas pipes, so we can’t climb down the wall with our bare hands. The drainage pipe installed on the rooftop for water runoff isn’t sturdy enough. But I prepared something instead.”
The Elder, who had closed the door, shone his flashlight out the wide-open window. Something like a rope was installed near the window.
“We can escape by climbing down this. There’s a drainage pipe next to it that should help a little. The problem is, well. There are zombies outside too. It’ll be hard to head out immediately.”
I barely held back the urge to clap. Recruiting the looter members had been worth it. It felt far more satisfying than any nonsense about strange communities or wave preparations.
Jeon Dohyeong opened his mouth.
“One person. Can’t we take just one more?”
I knew who that one person was. Na Yeji. She probably felt some sense of responsibility. Because we had killed her friend. Fortunately, the Thief Elder stopped him in time.
“No can do. If that were possible, Deacon Kwon would have brought her already. One becomes two, two becomes four. The moment that happens, the frontline down there collapses. Everyone dies.”
“That’s right. At least we have to survive and carry on the hope of the Hope Community.”
We were busy injecting ourselves with self-justification when suddenly the lights came on with a click. Thirty minutes had passed while we fought in a frenzy. The blackout was over. At the same time, someone on the third floor burst out of a door and shouted. It was the joyful voice of Evangelist Jeon, who had been in charge of communications.
We looked at each other for a moment. This changed the situation again, didn’t it?
I looked at the now-bright streets. The zombies trapped inside the first-floor rooms were slowly escaping through the windows. There were still quite a few zombies surrounding the church. If we escaped now and went outside, we would be surrounded by zombies. On the other hand, the building was safe. It was the moment the wave had paused. No more zombies were pouring in.
I raised my hammer high.
“You wicked zombies! How dare you touch the hope left behind by the Pastor!”
“That’s right! You can’t touch the church! Let’s join them quickly!”
The Thief Elder pulled out his pistol and ran with me toward the battlefield shining brightly with hope. From behind, I faintly heard Jeon Dohyeong following and muttering.
“What the hell kind of people are these…”
The situation was actually quite good. A last stand with no path for retreat, a barricade set up on the narrow stairs, spears thrusting between them, and natural obstacles formed by the piled-up zombie corpses. Above all, the brightened visibility now that the electricity was back. This was the power of humans, the power of hope.
Of course, the zombies were no pushovers. Monsters without fear. Monsters that ignored pain. No matter how many zombies died, the momentum of those still charging forward. I encouraged them from the top of the stairs. I deliberately shouted at the top of my lungs until my voice grew hoarse.
“It will be over soon! Just hold on a little longer!”
Man. I’m so tired I could die. Is this the weight of leadership? I’m just tired.
I poked the zombies below the railing with a long pole. It didn’t have a sharp spearhead, but if I stabbed well or hooked their joints, they fell over. The decreasing number of zombies gradually began to retreat. It felt as if they were vaguely comparing the barricade, the number of humans, and our armament. They growled, baring their teeth with wide-open mouths, yet seemed to be struggling to suppress their attack instinct.
Victory was right in front of us. The defense team, overcome with joy, wildly waved their weapons.
“Get lost, you zombie bastards!”
“We won!”
Even the people whose heads were bleeding from being hit by bricks shouted in a rush of adrenaline. I quietly observed the zombies. They weren’t running away, nor were they attacking. It felt like they were preparing one last assault. My intuition was correct.
Suddenly, boom, boom, a tremendous noise came from the first floor. And then a massive zombie approached, leading a group of zombies while holding a hand axe. Tall stature, muscles that could easily bench three hundred pounds. Above all, the hand axe that had clearly torn through a wooden door.
“Uh…”
The laughter of the defense team died down. The lights were bright, and the clear visibility helped them feel the enemy’s overwhelming presence in detail. The Administrative Elder, who had swallowed hard, shouted.
“They’re all the same as humans! Just stab them with knives, or guns—ah. I gave my daughter a gun.”
The words meant to raise morale only made everyone shrink back. That was when the gym zombie opened its mouth wide and let out a roar.
“Kuaaaaaagh!”
At the same time, it hurled the axe with tremendous force. Whoosh. It tore through the air. The defense team instinctively crouched and stepped back. The instant the axe embedded itself deeply into a desk and vibrated, the gym zombie thundered up the stairs. It dragged fallen zombie corpses along with it. A meat shield.
Whoosh. The meat shield was thrust forward.
“Block it!”
The defense team instinctively thrust their spears, but they only sank into the meat shield with wet thuds. Screeech—crash— The gym zombie hiding behind it yanked the entire barricade down. Desks and chairs collapsed in a heap. Of course the gym zombie was swept up in the wave of junk as well, but the landing was now completely open. The gym zombie was getting up, shoving aside the debris. And above all, the zombies had learned.
They grunted as they lifted corpses. Behind them were zombies holding paving blocks. It was time to use firearms. I quietly drew the pistol that had belonged to the Security Elder.
“Evangelist Jeon. Quartermaster Elder. I think we really need to use the guns now.”
“Ah. I was hoping we could drive them back without them.”
Evangelist Jeon leaned against the railing and handed over a gun. The Quartermaster Elder also slyly poked his gun through a gap in the railing.
“That one. The one who worked out. Don’t you think killing just that one will do it?”
“Yeah. What about me? I don’t have a gun.”
“Administrative Elder, please bring people down from the rooftop. Tell them to stop throwing bricks outside and throw them from here instead.”
I glanced at the defense team. They stood there awkwardly. With the safe barricade gone, they were that much more frightened. Their exhausted stamina and fear seemed to hit them anew. The corpses they couldn’t see in the dark were also weighing on them. We needed courage, and that courage was in our hands. Bullets. Consumable courage.
I looked at the gym zombie rising from the barricade debris. This time it had picked up a chair like a weapon. We had to seize the momentum now.
“Let’s shoot. Be careful not to have any accidental discharges.”
I pulled the trigger. One shot at a time, carefully. Bang! The first shot was a blank. The zombie whipped its head toward me. I fired again at the gym zombie glaring at me. The second was a non-lethal round. The bullet aimed at the gym zombie missed badly and pierced the head of a zombie that had stupidly poked its head out beside it. Then, bang bang bang, the Elders’ gunfire followed, and the bricks thrown by the zombies split the air.
It’s not aiming at me.
The third was also a non-lethal round. Of course, non-lethal rounds could still kill people. But this time it lodged in another zombie’s meat shield. It was a waste of lethal ammunition. Amid the deafening gunfire that made my ears ring, I stopped shooting and calmly observed the zombies.
“Krrraaagh!”
They used corpse shields and threw bricks. But the gym zombie holding the chair suddenly let out a loud cry, turned its body, and ran away. The other zombies also stopped in confusion and quickly followed it in retreat. In an instant, the church building fell silent.
“We won?”
The Administrative Elder, who had returned late carrying an armful of bricks, said in bewilderment. The people looked at the corpse-filled stairs in confusion before jumping with joy. The happiness of returning to life in the face of death. People laughed, chattered, and sat down. I made a cold judgment.
We’re screwed. This won’t last long. It’s really time to get out.
The gym zombie’s strength wasn’t the problem. The zombies that had learned siege warfare had simply retreated. Of course the people would learn from this experience too, but we had expended ammunition and taken injuries. Quite a few people had their heads split open by bricks, and some had even died. While the people looked at the zombie corpses, I looked down at the dead humans. Pale faces stained red with blood flowing from torn heads. In the not-too-distant future.
Time to reap the harvest.
I needed to slowly siphon off some of the resources the church had worked so hard to stockpile. It was time to pull out with just the looter comrades.
I went up to the rooftop and looked at the street lit by streetlights. The retreating wave of zombies. And the support from the Delivery Vigilantes who had just arrived. Vroooom—! Several motorcycles raced down the road and entered the church grounds. I examined their equipment. Rider suits covering their entire bodies. Helmets made for traffic accidents. Protective gear that could easily block decent impacts or zombie bites. On top of that, they carried steel baseball bats, and their momentum was fierce.
“This is lance charging!”
Someone shouted loudly and swung a baseball bat. The speed of the motorcycle was behind it. Crack. A zombie was sent flying. The motorcycle wobbled but maintained its balance, and sometimes they deliberately crashed into groups of zombies. Of course the motorcycles fell too, but the riders who slid across the ground laughed cheerfully.
“Lighter than getting hit by a car! Huh, why? You wanna bite? Go ahead and try, idiot!”
He openly offered his hand, and with the other hand pulled out a knife and stabbed the zombie in the neck. They looked almost invincible, but the problem was that these zombies had learned siege warfare. A zombie raised its hand. The paving block in its grip smashed straight into a helmet. Cracks formed across the helmet’s faceplate.
“Ack! That’s not fair! Zombies throwing bricks is cheating!”
Meanwhile, helmeted zombies openly used chairs to strike riders on motorcycles and cause accidents. The more I watched the scene, the more firmly the thought of deserting took root in my mind.
A fixed base is no good.
Fighting to protect something inevitably causes losses. No, from the beginning, doing anything directly is far too dangerous. When a wave comes, isn’t the best option to move to a place the wave can’t reach? Why fight the wave?
I established a principle. A principle for surviving the apocalypse. I do not fight directly. If I fight, I target the weak. If I fight, I use vile and cowardly means without exposing myself. I reduce my actions. I hole up quietly in a place with no presence, like someone who doesn’t exist, and when resources run out, I target empty houses and the weak. Zombies are like natural disasters, so I avoid them as much as possible. If I can’t avoid them, I pass them on to others.
As expected, a small elite group of looters is the way to go.
I quietly pulled Jeon Dohyeong and the Thief Elder along with me.