Territory
The old man’s eyes widened like saucers. “You’ve got a cop friend?”
In this day and age, a cop wasn’t really a cop. The weak ones had already turned into loot piñatas and been hunted down. The ones who survived had swallowed their pride and become gangsters. Having connections with that kind of cop was definitely something worth bragging about.
I slowly scanned the people around me. The mood had already shifted in my favor. Every eye was locked on me.
“I can get my hands on a police uniform too. That should let us slip into the apartment complex without much trouble. We could even open the gates if we wanted.”
The crowd leaned toward me, clearly intrigued, but they still weren’t desperate enough. Doubt and suspicion lingered in their gazes.
“Still, there’s a ton of people living in that apartment complex. What if they come for revenge?”
Someone who’d spent the whole apocalypse hiding safely indoors? He didn’t exactly give off the vibe of a hardened survivor.
“So you’re just going to keep taking it forever?” I shot back. “Even if those apartment bastards storm in, burn down the entire villa street, kill people, and loot everything?”
I glanced at the old man, silently asking for backup. He looked flustered but reflexively jumped in.
“Like I said earlier, next time it won’t end as cleanly as this.”
“Attack is the best defense. I’ve got a plan. Just hear me out.”
Before the atmosphere could swing back to suspicion, I quickly laid out the scenario. I’d pieced it together using scraps of information I’d gathered from the internet, polishing it until it sounded plausible enough to get these people moving.
“We only need to break into the management office. That’s the control tower for the entire apartment complex.”
The internet cut out constantly these days, but social media was still limping along. I’d been quietly monitoring a few residents’ accounts and picked up some useful intel. The management office was their nerve center. Whenever a zombie wave approached or zombies appeared in the elevators, they broadcast warnings. If they needed to gather people for a group outing, they used public announcements to round everyone up. All we had to do was hijack that system.
“Some of us will start fires on the rooftops—big enough to send up smoke. Others will be in the management office, broadcasting evacuation orders for a fire. And once the apartment residents come pouring outside?”
I raised several fingers, then folded them down one by one.
“We can just run them over with cars. Or time it right and lure in a zombie wave. Hell, we could even capture a few zombies, harvest their saliva, and make water guns out of it.”
“Huh? You’d go that far?”
The people staring at me now looked openly rattled, even disgusted. Their revulsion was crystal clear. Apparently spilling blood still pricked at their consciences. Or maybe they had other motives.
The old man, who had been rolling his eyes around nervously, suddenly clenched his fist and shot to his feet. He pointed around at everyone.
“The plan’s solid, but let’s do it a different way. I agree with the villa kid about driving the apartment people outside. We’ll use that… uh, peaceful approach.”
His outstretched hand swept across the whole area, gesturing past the villa street toward the surrounding neighborhoods.
“There must be plenty of people who’ve suffered from those apartment thugs. If we gather them all, we’ll outnumber the apartment residents.”
Did his suggestion appeal to them more? The crowd’s attention swung back to the old man. It made sense. Humans are social creatures, after all. Nothing gives them a stronger sense of security than sheer numbers. In that sense, they probably preferred recruiting more allies even if it meant sharing the spoils, rather than just the limited people from the villa street stepping up.
I glanced at the old man. He was sharper than I’d given him credit for.
He’s using my words as an excuse to gather even more people.
Worse, I could smell the political maneuvering—the way he was trying to check me and seize control even in this tiny meeting.
“We don’t need to do anything too vicious. If we gather enough people and just charge in, it probably won’t even come to bloodshed.”
I could have kept playing politics and argued with him here, but I deliberately stepped back and shut my mouth, showing him respect. Whatever. I wasn’t the type to obsess over being the leader, and raiding the apartment wasn’t my only goal. All I needed was for the villa street residents to leave their homes empty.
“Then I’ll go gather the people. Once everything’s ready, we’ll set a date and go!”
And just like that, the villa street meeting ended.
Exactly as I wanted.
“…What did you just say?”
It was the moment I was briefing my marauder comrades on the meeting’s outcome. Jeon Dohyeong blinked rapidly, as if he couldn’t believe his own ears.
I repeated myself slowly.
“On the day the villa street people launch their raid on the apartment, you and Park Yanggun are going to go around to the other villa houses. Mix zombie saliva into cups or water and leave it for them.”
Wasn’t there a line like that in some mafia movie? The Godfather, maybe? Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Flip that around, and it basically meant the neighbors on this very villa street were the enemy.
“Whether it’s the apartment bastards or the villa street people, they’re all going to come after our place sooner or later. Once things get worse, they’ll start demanding we share our resources too. This is the perfect chance to take care of all of them at once.”
I hadn’t stirred people up just to raid one apartment. I’d deliberately provoked this fight to create an opening to deal with the potential threats living right next door.
Tell them to leave their homes empty for the apartment raid. Then exploit that emptiness.
Wasn’t this the very essence of human wisdom?
Killing two birds with one stone. A 1+1 deal. One action, two profits.
The camouflage I’d learned from the sushi restaurant owner and the venom I’d carefully cultivated. I felt a small sense of pride at how far I’d come and let a satisfied smile spread across my face.
If I’ve already eaten the villa, I might as well devour the whole street.
This place was my territory now.
The apartment? The villa street? I would eliminate every single competitor.
Of course, if an enemy I couldn’t handle showed up, I’d abandon the base and run immediately. Fortunately, the truly powerful groups still hadn’t turned their attention this way.
Park Yanggun listened quietly, then cautiously stepped back.
“All that sounds fine, but how are you planning to catch the zombies?”
“We don’t even need to catch them. They drool all the time while they walk around, don’t they? Just wipe up some saliva they left on the ground with a handkerchief. That’s enough.”
Zombies were basically living virus sprayers. You could find plenty of the stuff just by looking at the ground where one had passed.
I waved my hands around excitedly as I explained it to the members, and the plan came together in a somewhat sloppy fashion.
I would join the villa street people in attacking the apartment. While the street was completely empty, my members would spread the virus.
Since the apocalypse had already swallowed the whole world and we were all ruthless criminals anyway, they nodded without hesitation.
Park Yanggun chuckled.
“This is a new kind of challenge. How many houses can we hit in a short time? Sounds fun.”
“As long as we don’t touch the Hope Church…”
I smiled contentedly as well, and laughter rippled through our group of marauders.
They really were the perfect marauder crew.
Time passed.
The old man went from neighborhood to neighborhood, recruiting people for the apartment attack. A few prepared metal ashtrays and smoke-producing waste paper for controlled arson. I, posing as the guy with cop connections, traded for some minor equipment.
Two police friends I hadn’t seen in a while hesitantly handed me a paper bag. Inside were police uniforms and bulletproof vests.
“We’re giving them to you because you asked, but don’t walk around wearing them. You’ll just get attacked for no reason.”
Their eyes were full of worry as they looked at the paper bag. They muttered almost to themselves.
“Don’t show your back to anyone, run if you hear a car engine, and don’t help people. These days citizens aren’t citizens—they’re all robbers after our gear. You have to stay on guard.”
“I’m only going to wear it at home. If a robber breaks in, won’t they run away when they see a police uniform?”
I said this while handing over a reasonably sized cardboard box. Inside were ramen with not much shelf life left and some decent food supplies.
When the two cops saw the box, they finally snapped out of it and laughed awkwardly.
“Thank you. Everyone at our substation has family too, so we’ve been short on food.”
Made sense. Even if only five cops remained at the substation, adding their families could easily bring the number to twenty.
I asked casually, as if it had just occurred to me.
“By the way, any chance you’d consider selling firearms? I feel like I could trade a ridiculous amount of food for guns.”
At that moment, both officers’ faces hardened like stone. They shook their heads violently.
“Absolutely not. We can’t let those crazy civilians get their hands on guns.”
Aha. So they were trying to prevent citizens from arming themselves. It was only natural. What was the benefit of selling guns? You could just shoot people and take what you wanted. It made perfect sense that they wanted to keep firearms as a police monopoly on force.
I hid my disappointment and waved.
“Still, if you ever change your mind about selling guns, please contact me. The world’s so dangerous these days…”
“Yes, we will. Take care on your way back. And if you’re going to wear the uniform, stay alert to your surroundings.”
Preparations for the apartment raid proceeded smoothly, and the day finally arrived.
The day we would attack the apartment.
It was a cool evening. The moon was bright enough that even a blackout wouldn’t matter. People gathered on the villa street where the streetlights drew swarms of insects.
At the front stood the old man with a red headband tied around his forehead. The words “United Struggle” were written on it. Work gloves, red vests—everything was red, as if foreshadowing the bloody survival competition that was about to begin.
He raised a steel pipe high.
“Alright, let’s go! People from the other neighborhoods promised to arrive at the apartment on time too!”
It felt a bit haphazard. Instead of professionally securing the management office first and then infiltrating, it was more like a wave of people rushing in and sweeping through targets one by one.
“Waaaaah—!”
The crowd roared. I felt a slight sense of unease but waved my hand half-heartedly in agreement.
The apartment raid? Even if it failed, my marauder comrades would still work over the villa street.
Good thing I kept my head straight.
It was worth the effort of suppressing impulsive urges and carefully refining such a sloppy plan.
The crowd surged down the street. Zombies were no problem. They retreated at the sight of so many humans.
“Graaaagh!”
Occasionally a particularly stupid zombie charged, but it was quickly beaten into a corpse by the crowd’s clubs. It was as if the zombies had become human, and the humans had become a zombie wave.
This tendency grew stronger the closer we got to the apartment. Groups from other neighborhoods joined us one after another.
“Welcome! Our target is the apartment management office!”
“Got it!”
Excited voices rang out from people walking without fear of zombies. Confidence born from overwhelming numbers. Rough breathing echoed everywhere, and weapons scattered the cold chill of steel.
Soon our destination came into view. An expensive-looking apartment complex. A wall like a castle rampart encircled the entire area, and the entrance was blocked with barricades like a fortress gate.
“Hurry! Straight to the management office first! Arson team, head to the rooftops of each building!”
“Yes!”
A human wave. A tide of people surged into the apartment complex. Some broke off from the main flow. As I moved toward the management office, I observed the apartments.
How many buildings were there? And how many people lived in them?
I looked up at the towering apartment towers and felt a wave of pressure.
A full frontal assault is completely impossible.
There were probably well over a hundred humans hiding inside those reinforced concrete fortresses. How could we possibly win?
Around that time, I, the old man, and a few representatives from neighboring areas reached the management office first. Pale lights glowed inside.
“Let’s get in quickly!”
We passed through the already shattered entrance and stepped inside. And at that exact moment, we all realized something was wrong.
“…There’s no one here?”
The place was empty. Completely deserted. We searched the storage rooms and every other space, but there wasn’t a single sign of life. Not even breathing. Just… nothing.
In the room filled with CCTV monitors for the elevators and the apartment complex, only the faint hum of machines could be heard.
“Wha— what the hell!”
Soon, confused shouts rose from the crowd surrounding the management office, and someone came sprinting over in a panic.
“We’re surrounded! The apartment people have us completely encircled! What do we do?”
“What…?”
An unexpected development. The apartment residents had already prepared for the raid. They had turned the tables and surrounded us instead.
I immediately assessed the situation. The old man, who had led this attack, ground his teeth.
“A rat! There was a rat among us!”
A traitor. Someone had sold our raid information to the apartment people. Since we’d gathered folks from multiple neighborhoods, the number wasn’t small. It was possible some had different ideas, but…
People really are the problem.
I let out a sigh. The raid had failed. If things went wrong, even the villa street operation would fall apart.
I checked my phone. We needed to buy time.
I have to stall until the blackout hits.
I glanced at the old man. He was furious at the traitor, gripping his steel pipe tightly, but his eyes were shaking with panic. I approached him.
“If we retreat like this, we lose. We have to get something out of this. Otherwise we’ll lose too much. Who’s going to trust us or listen to us in the future?”
For the old man, who had gathered people and clearly wanted a leadership position, this would be a fatal blow. After going through all the trouble of recruiting everyone, only to fail? His credibility would plummet.
The shaking in the old man’s eyes finally stopped. He tightened the headband that read “United Struggle” once more.
“I know. At the very least, we need to get back what they stole from our neighborhood. They probably don’t want to fight to the death either, so we should be able to negotiate.”
Yes. That was it. Problems created by people should be solved by people.
I grinned, hiding the smile beneath my mask.