Waves Leave Traces
Where a wave passes, traces remain. The floor soaked in zombie blood, the corpses that never made it back and lay scattered across the ground, the virus the zombie tide had dragged in with it, and the people swept away by that tide. This was no time to hold a looting meeting. The elders, myself included, immediately set about cleaning up the mess.
“The hospital’s probably overflowing with patients right now. Anyone here know first aid? For the people hit by bricks and such?”
“I’m not exactly sure, but… disinfect and slap on a bandage?”
“Perfect. You’re our medic now.”
“Wait, I really don’t know how—”
Just like how the military dragged anyone who could draw into painting murals, we casually appointed a medic.
“Let’s pile the corpses outside for now! We can’t live with the virus.”
“We should wash all this blood away with water and disinfect everything thoroughly.”
We quickly cleared away the zombie bodies and the blood.
“Thank you so much for coming to help.”
The Evangelist Elder and I bowed to the neighbors who had come to our aid in this difficult time. Expressions of gratitude were mandatory. Of course, my true feelings were quite different.
I looked at the knight-style suit worn by the person who had stepped forward as their representative. The large letters spelling ZERO. Suspicion bloomed in my mind. Could this person be Rider Zero? The one who rejected my request and blocked me?
As I stared at that helmet with a touch of resentment, the rider removed it. To my surprise, a woman’s face appeared. Short hair. A face covered by a mask. Skin damp with sweat. She smiled brightly.
“All of you are potential customers. We have to help each other survive, right? We’re people who work on commission. If our customers disappear, we starve.”
“Even so, not many would actually help. It’s only because all of you are so kind.”
The exchange of pleasantries continued. I continued observing the rider, still steeped in suspicion and resentment, and our eyes met. She tilted her head slightly, looking puzzled.
“And this gentleman is…?”
“This is Deacon Kwon. He’s in charge of security for the Hope Church—no, the Hope Community. Thanks to Deacon Kwon’s excellent countermeasures, we were able to overcome this wave as well.”
“Wow. So you’re the one who planned all this?”
The rider looked around. The wreckage of the barricades, the paving stones scattered across the floor, the traps visible from the entrance—including the strings. She smiled and extended her hand.
“Nice to meet you. This is something we could learn from.”
“Not at all. I’ve learned a lot myself. Things like nomadic styles and protective gear.”
Gloved hands clasped and shook. There was no need to reveal my suspicions openly. After releasing my hand, the rider’s eyes briefly showed a hint of worry. She glanced at the people around us and the zombie corpses, then lowered her voice.
“This seems like a really good place…. Was this wave artificial, by any chance?”
“It was closer to an accident than something artificial. Why do you ask?”
The Evangelist Elder blinked. I felt a sense of foreboding. No way. It couldn’t be. Is she really Rider Zero? Was she about to expose my request?
And indeed, she was.
Rider Zero said, “Well, some time ago, we received an anonymous request. It asked us to lure zombies to the Hope Church.”
“…The security elder is already dead, yet there are still people targeting us.”
The Evangelist Elder’s eyes widened. I calmly swallowed my anxiety. After all, they didn’t know who had made the request. Naturally, they had no idea it was me. I opened my mouth slowly, putting on a thoroughly exhausted expression and speaking in a hoarse voice.
“People are always the problem.”
Yes, people were the problem. A human who couldn’t even keep a secret after accepting a commission. How could they think of exposing a request? Wasn’t confidentiality the basics? I was already planning to steal church resources bit by bit and look for the right time to desert, but now they’d only grow more vigilant. A small seed of resentment began to grow vigorously.
You. Noted.
I burned Rider Zero’s face and suit into my memory. Scenarios for revenge without revealing my face flashed through my mind one after another. A request. Setting an alarm clock to ring at the exact time she would arrive to lure a zombie attack. Removing the brakes from her motorcycle. Or smearing zombie saliva on a thank-you gift for her assistance. Plans to reduce the number of riders to zero, just as her name suggested.
Around that point, the casual conversation between the Evangelist Elder and Rider Zero ended.
“Well then, we’ll be on our way!”
“Please take some gifts with you. Let’s see, Supply Elder! Give these people some food or masks!”
“You really don’t have to.”
“You risked your lives to help us. Please accept them.”
Rider Zero, who had been stretching, laughed with a “hehe” and showed her anticipation. The Supply Elder, who clearly didn’t want to deal with the corpses, quickly ran to the storage room. I watched his retreating back and tried to soothe my regret.
The situation really isn’t right for mixing zombie saliva into a water bottle.
If the circumstances had been better, I would have collected some zombie bodily fluids and injected them into a water bottle. Still, it was fine. There was no need to take revenge immediately like some neighborhood snitch. I just needed to remember this resentment and give it a little nudge when the opportunity arose.
Thus, after the wave receded, the riders left carrying armfuls of gifts, the people soaked by the wave struggled back into their daily routines, and deep night fell. A night perfect for plotting schemes.
In the night when people exhausted from battle and labor snored in their sleep, the church where even the night watchmen, fearing people might suddenly turn into zombies, dozed off despite their duties. The three marauders secretly gathered in the Pastor’s office. In the dark office with the lights off, we sat scattered about casually. At last, a proper marauders’ meeting was taking place.
“The church desertion meeting is now in session. The agenda is diverting church resources and finding the right timing to escape.”
“…Suddenly? Was it really necessary?”
“I wondered why you called us in the middle of the night. What exactly is the problem?”
The Supply Elder and Jeon Dohyeong, both on the verge of dying from exhaustion, grumbled. Of course, they kept their voices to whispers and didn’t righteously oppose the agenda. It was an attitude befitting marauders whose priorities were survival and profit.
The Supply Elder yawned widely, then tapped the floor.
“Before that, let’s at least introduce ourselves properly. We don’t even know each other’s real names, and we don’t know what kind of people we’ve gathered with.”
“Then the elder who brought up the topic should start.”
When I looked toward where the elder was, he let out a deep sigh.
“Park Yanggun. I did a bit of thieving in my prime.”
How does a thief have the name Park Yanggun? It wasn’t even short for some nobleman’s title. Did this guy change his name with the ambition of becoming a thief? Well, even if it was a lie, it didn’t matter. I introduced Jeon Dohyeong first.
“This guy is Jeon Dohyeong. A vicious electricity thief who steals the nation’s power. And I am—”
“This person is Kim Dain, a crazy murderer. Be careful.”
We enthusiastically tore each other down while making introductions, and Elder Park Yanggun chuckled.
“A murderer, an electricity thief, and a former thief. We’ve gathered quite the collection of criminals.”
“In a world like this, isn’t crime essential for survival?”
“I’m not on that level though…”
Jeon Dohyeong’s grumbling about being unfairly lumped together with us was naturally ignored. As fellow marauders, we were similar types of people. Naturally, there was only one common goal worth mentioning.
“Surviving the apocalypse by any means necessary. That is our sole objective.”
“True. But if that’s the case, is there really a need to leave the church?”
“Yeah. It seems better to stick together with lots of people.”
That was also true, but only for the short term. To survive the apocalypse, you had to stay ahead of others. While others were building bases and focusing on defense according to the current situation, we needed to become scavengers and marauders of the post-apocalypse to truly get ahead. Abandoning your conscience just a little earlier than others meant adapting that much faster.
I explained slowly.
“If you look at this wave—”
The danger of zombies. The siege tactics of learned zombies. Inevitable risks and losses. The dangers of a base acting as a breakwater. The reasons why avoidance and desertion were the best options. The two grumbling marauders listened attentively.
“In the end, the best approach is to hunker down without anyone noticing as much as possible and minimize fights with zombies. In that sense, the church isn’t an ideal base.”
“…You’re right. But then where would we go after leaving the church? What about food?”
Weren’t there houses everywhere? I briefly suspected Elder Park Yanggun’s question before deciding he was testing me—whether I was truly planning for the future properly. I spoke with confidence, in the manner of the Pastor.
“This is the apocalypse. A world facing destruction, where laws and morals have lost all meaning. Just pick any house, kill the owner, and take it. There’s no reason to buy a house like we did before the collapse. No reason to pay money for food either.”
I also shared a bit of my plan.
“Of course, we have Jeon Dohyeong’s camping car, and I’ve prepared a villa building. It still needs some cleaning, though.”
“Cleaning’s fine. As long as there’s no virus, who cares if it’s dirty.”
At that moment, Jeon Dohyeong let out a deep sigh.
“When this guy says cleaning, he doesn’t mean tidying up. He means cleaning out the humans. He hasn’t killed all the villa residents yet.”
“Really?”
Elder Park Yanggun raised his voice in slight surprise, then asked curiously, “How did you get past the door locks?”
So that’s what he was more curious about. I silently took out the taser gun and pulled the trigger. With a crackle, blue sparks flashed. The battery must have been nearly dead; the power was weak.
“Ah. An old-model door lock?”
“Anyway, let’s proceed with the meeting.”
In the darkness, the marauders put their heads together and discussed ways to loot the church’s resources. The key point was one: to take without anyone knowing who had stolen it. Since revealing our existence would make us enemies, hiding our presence was the top priority. After various ideas were thrown out haphazardly, a plan was formed.
To do nothing at all.
I had suggested infecting the entire community with the virus to collapse it before taking what we wanted. Elder Park Yanggun planned to use his position as Supply Elder to divert goods during purchases. But unexpectedly, Jeon Dohyeong hit the core.
With a voice carrying some righteous determination, Jeon Dohyeong said, “You said the church is going to be destroyed by the wave anyway. Then wouldn’t it be fine to come back after it’s destroyed and just take the resources?”
“…Is that so?”
I tilted my head, then countered, “But then the church would become a zombie den. How would we fight the zombies while—Ah. Right. We wouldn’t need to go there ourselves.”
Rider Zero. Would it be okay to commission the Delivery Vigilantes to recover the items? In exchange, we could share some of the warehouse resources. Of course, the Delivery Vigilantes might just take it all, but then we could attack and loot them. People were easier to kill than zombies. The important thing was that the resources existed. It didn’t matter whose hands they were in.
Thus, the first marauders’ meeting concluded.
“Then let’s each handle our own escape. Since Dohyeong and I can leave easily, Elder Park Yanggun, please find a good way to slip out.”
“What do you mean, find a way? It’s not like this is the military.”
Our marauders returned to our sleeping quarters like cockroaches to make up for our lack of sleep. To the communal bedroom where many people lay together. People snoring, people crying into their blankets, people moaning as if having nightmares. Despite all the disturbances, I diligently sketched out the future before falling into a deep sleep.
Morning came. People grabbed ramen cooked on gas burners or instant rice heated in the microwave and scattered. Wearing my mask, I approached the Evangelist Elder and the Administrative Elder.
“Deacon Kwon! Haven’t you eaten breakfast?”
“You need to eat to have strength. Eat at least a little. There’s still corpse disposal and a lot of work today.”
I shook my head. Then I spoke lightly, as usual.
“Dohyeong and I plan to leave the community now.”
The two elders, who had been busily working their chopsticks and spoons, were startled. They stared at me with wide eyes.
“What? Why?”
“Deacon Kwon. Was there something uncomfortable for you?”
Their expressions were filled with deep confusion, as if they couldn’t understand at all. I explained slowly. A plausible reason.
“After seeing how well the wave was repelled, I don’t think there’s anything more I can help with here. I’d rather go to other vigilante groups and help them. It seems like a better way to save more people.”
The two elders gaped for a moment before letting out soft gasps of admiration. For a second, they looked at me the way they had looked at the Pastor.
“Really…. Thanks to Deacon Kwon, many people were saved. We’re truly grateful, and we hope you spread hope to others as well.”
“You’re not planning to leave empty-handed, are you? Take something! Where’s the Supply Elder? Is he sleeping?”
There was no reason to refuse when they were offering. After all, whether it came into my hands now or later was just a matter of time. I decided to take some quarantine supplies. Also, the list of vigilante groups that the Evangelist Elder would have.
“I’ll just take a bit of disinfectant.”
“Sure, take it.”
“Also, Evangelist Elder. Could I get contact information for other vigilante groups? I’d like to look into them myself and contact them before going.”
“Of course. Let me see.”
The Evangelist Elder hurriedly took out his phone, and I said briefly, “You can send it to Dohyeong by message after you finish eating.”
“No, I’ll send it now. Deacon Kwon, if it gets tough, come back anytime.”
“Yeah. We set up all these defense plans for the church based on Deacon Kwon’s suggestions.”
I smiled silently and bowed my head. Why would I return to this doomed community? I was even going to outsource the resource collection. In any case, my coincidental connection with the church ended here. Whether some of them died or not had nothing to do with me. In fact, it would be inconvenient if they didn’t die. Then I’d have to move myself.
I took the disinfectant and finally went to find Jeon Dohyeong. He was talking with Na Yeji.
“If it seems dangerous, just run away. Or hide. If you look at the last room on the third floor—”
“Dohyeong! Let’s go!”
“Ah, yes!”
Jeon Dohyeong came running hurriedly. And Na Yeji followed him. With a pale face, she looked up at me.
“Can’t I come with you?”
“No, you can’t. We don’t have enough food.”
Na Yeji pouted her lips in disappointment. She was eliminated from the marauders. There was no way we would accept someone who didn’t fit with a small elite group. If she were an expert in electricity, machinery, or medicine, it might be different, but a human whose only use was as zombie bait… no.
Jeon Dohyeong gave his final farewell.
“I’ll come visit sometimes! See you next time!”
“Come visit often! See you later too, Deacon Kwon.”
I had no business with her. Unless I saw her as a corpse later, perhaps. And so I quit the communal living that never suited me and returned to being an unburdened marauder. As expected, moving without anything to protect felt good. The restraints and brakes of community had been removed.
I smiled refreshingly as I passed the pile of zombie corpses.
Zombies, do your best to bring down the community.
Because I would be attacking the former church believers listed in the entry records. A world where people and zombies each did their own jobs. This was the apocalypse.