The Scavenger and the Hounds
The inside of the supermarket was dimly lit. With the lights broken, only faint sunlight filtered through the store, leaving nothing but an oppressive silence. Even the smallest sound felt unnerving. Footsteps. The sound of someone taking a step. It came from behind us.
“Who—”
The moment we spun around, hammers, hatchets, and steel pipes raised, our mouths clamped shut. Had he sensed us first and played dead among the corpses? The person who had gotten the drop on us was pointing a pistol our way. A police pistol.
The man wearing a black mask, tough jeans, and a denim jacket gave the gun a slight shake.
“Don’t move. Hands up and get on your knees.”
“A pistol? Wow. You really are brave. The cops would lose their minds if they saw that.”
Sa Gihyeok casually threatened the stranger, but he’d picked the wrong words. This wasn’t bravery. It was insanity. The police were executing anyone caught with a gun on sight.
The unfamiliar man spoke.
“Cops? Who cares? Without this, I’d have died long ago. See? It’s still useful right now.”
Click. The pistol aimed at my head. Of all the rotten luck, he’d chosen me. Sa Gihyeok and Jeon Dohyeong were right there, so why me…?
I quietly slipped behind Jeon Dohyeong. At the same time, I narrowed my eyes and stared hard at the stranger’s pistol.
“Any bullets left?”
“Who knows? Maybe? Want to check with your head?”
He took another step closer, shortening the distance between us and the muzzle. Even a pistol was deadly at close range. The mere existence of the firearm had become an overwhelming threat. One wrong judgment and you’d be betting your life.
“I’m not really into gambling.”
Sa Gihyeok quickly dropped to his knees. He set the steel pipe he was holding on top of a zombie corpse. Jeon Dohyeong trembled, looking like he wanted to stall, but he soon turned to me.
“What do we do?”
What do we do? What the hell do you think we do?
I couldn’t back down either. In one swift motion, I wrapped my arm around Jeon Dohyeong’s neck in a chokehold and used him as a human shield.
“Hey, what the—!”
With my other hand, I quickly drew my own pistol. Eye for an eye. Gun for a gun. The stranger’s movements froze for a split second. Meanwhile, Jeon Dohyeong thrashed wildly, trying to break free, but I tightened my grip on his neck and whispered.
“Get ready to throw the hatchet.”
“What if I get shot?!”
“It’ll be fine.”
“It won’t be fine for me!”
“That guy’s out of bullets.”
He probably was. If he had any, he would’ve shot us while hiding instead of revealing himself. He was clearly planning to threaten us and steal our gear. Jeon Dohyeong tilted his head, then started struggling again.
“Then there’s no reason to use me as a shield!”
“You never know. …Just kidding.”
I kept my field of vision wide and observed the stranger carefully. That’s how I knew. He had no real intention of fighting either. The moment I pulled out my pistol, his body jerked in surprise and he began taking cautious steps backward. The plastic bag in his hand swayed slowly, and I heard the faint jingle of what sounded like keys.
“Pistol? You got any bullets left?”
It was a distance where shots could easily miss. I released Jeon Dohyeong and stepped back. As I did, I rummaged through my pockets, handed the taser to Jeon Dohyeong, and tossed the virus water gun to Sa Gihyeok.
“I’ve got enough that it’d be a waste to use them all. You’re probably in the same boat. Let’s not waste bullets on each other. None of us have enough valuables to justify burning ammo, and it’s not like there’s much left in this supermarket anyway.”
“…Let’s each go our own way.”
The stranger slowly backed away. We kept our eyes on him until he disappeared completely. Only then did we let out a long sigh. He had been a surprisingly difficult opponent.
Maybe everyone was adapting to the apocalypse, but it felt like people’s primal aggression was slowly resurfacing. The desperate struggle to survive couldn’t be ignored either.
“Looks like some scavengers already passed through here.”
Resources the military had left behind after harvesting. Even those seemed to have been stripped clean. Looking around again, there weren’t any shopping carts left in the store. They’d taken the carts first.
Sa Gihyeok gripped the steel pipe he had set down earlier.
“There really are a lot of dangerous people in this world.”
“The most dangerous one is right here.”
Jeon Dohyeong glared at me and grumbled. He loaded a cartridge into the taser’s handle and kicked a nearby corpse. The corpse’s arm flopped out, pointing at me as if in accusation.
“What the hell were you thinking? If that guy had fired, I would’ve been the one who got hit.”
“I just didn’t want to lose the momentum. If I looked like a crazy person, he wouldn’t want to fight, right?”
When I spoke up belatedly to soothe my looting partner, Jeon Dohyeong let out a long sigh.
“It’s not that you looked crazy. You are crazy.”
That wasn’t entirely wrong, but I let it slide. Instead, I looked around. The quiet, desolate interior of the supermarket. We were already too late. There weren’t many resources left. Still, going back empty-handed would be a waste of time, so we carefully moved through the corpse-filled store.
There really wasn’t much left in the supermarket. Food was obviously gone. Tools and electronics had been completely stripped. Even tape, batteries, car maintenance kits, and kitchen utensils were nowhere to be found. Detergent, shampoo, soap, socks, underwear, cosmetics… The only things remaining were school supplies like ballpoint pens or books.
In a supermarket where the shelves stood as bare as bones after the corpses had rotted away, we even searched the bodies hoping to find something. The results were disappointing.
“Looks like the bodies have already been looted too.”
Car keys, house keys, IDs, cigarettes and lighters, bags—anything useful was already gone. All that remained were useless things like wallets, cash, or credit cards.
I opened a light bag. I’d managed to stuff it with some insecticide, a few flowerpots, and plant nutrients, but it was far from enough. Maybe my judgment had been wrong from the start. A supermarket that zombies, the military, and scavengers had already passed through. This place had been a kind of mine, and since everyone had already dug it up, there was nothing left.
I guess we really have to rob people.
People were the real treasure goblins. Hoarding resources to survive was instinct, and we had to target what they’d stockpiled.
I pulled my cap down firmly.
“Let’s just stop by the pharmacy and head back.”
We turned around and walked toward the supermarket entrance. We stepped carefully between corpses, sometimes crushing them underfoot. That’s when we saw the scavenger from earlier again. He seemed to be on his way back after finishing his own harvest.
“…”
“…”
We glanced at each other briefly, then ignored one another like we didn’t exist and kept walking. A subtle tension lingered in the air. We didn’t turn our eyes directly toward him, but our arms stayed tense, ready to raise our guns at any moment.
This is annoying. Should I just shoot him now? No, bullets are too precious.
The farther we walked, the brighter the world became. The sunlit entrance drew closer. Unconsciously, our pace quickened. The moment we reached the entrance, we stopped.
The situation at the entrance had changed from when we’d entered.
Sa Gihyeok let out a surprised sound.
“Aren’t those puppies? Cute—wait. Huh? Wait?”
Cute? What the hell was cute about them? They were tearing into corpses. A pack of feral dogs, their muzzles covered in blood, were feasting on a human body. Their aura was vicious. It was different from people or zombies. This was the feeling of beasts that could attack and kill humans.
A Doberman that had been burying its head in the corpse, gnawing at the face, suddenly lifted its head. It bared its teeth and growled. Its tail stood straight up. The dogs that had been focused on their meal all raised their heads at once and showed their teeth at us.
“Slowly, back up—”
This was really bad. I’d rather fight zombies or people. How were we supposed to fight a pack of dogs that had tasted human flesh? One bite could be fatal.
That was when the scavenger with the pistol suddenly turned and started sprinting. At his abrupt flight, the pack of dogs charged after him. The sound of their frenzied barking filled the air.
I spun around and ran too, shouting.
“Run!”
“Where to?!”
Where? The destination didn’t matter. You couldn’t win a race against dogs. I gritted my teeth and pointed at the scavenger running ahead of us. We’d offer him up.
Jeon Dohyeong understood my intention. The master of murder by proxy, Jeon Dohyeong, aimed the taser at the scavenger and fired.
Bang! The sound of a balloon popping. Then the crackle of electricity. But it didn’t work. The scavenger was wearing tough clothes as zombie protection, so the electrode needles hadn’t stuck properly.
Pistol? While running, can I even hit him with proper aim? Gunshot? Would the dogs run if they heard a gunshot?
I might as well throw the hammer. I put all my running momentum into a powerful swing. The hammer left my hand, spinning through the air, and struck the scavenger in the back.
“Ugh!”
That was it. He didn’t fall. His pace didn’t even slow. The sound of dogs’ paws scrambling and their relentless barking chased us from behind.
“Damn it!”
I was seriously considering whether I should trip Sa Gihyeok or Jeon Dohyeong when Jeon Dohyeong quickly detached the cartridge and hurled it with all his strength. The target was quite far from the scavenger. The light cartridge spun through the air, and the wires wrapped around the scavenger’s legs. His legs were momentarily tangled. It was enough time for us to catch up and knock him down.
“I’ll hit him!”
Sa Gihyeok swung the steel pipe with force. The trajectory went wide because he stepped wrong, but the scavenger twisted his body to dodge and ended up ramming his head right into the pipe’s path. A heavy impact rang out, and the man staggered before collapsing.
“Nice!”
“Why did that even hit?”
I ignored the nonsense, quickly snatched the bag the scavenger had been carrying. It contained keys, an ID, a lighter, and other items. Now there was only one thing left—escape.
“Emergency exit!”
From behind came the horrifying sound of dogs barking and flesh being torn. The number of footsteps chasing us had decreased, but they were still there. We ran without looking back and barely made it through the emergency exit. We slammed the door shut, locked it, then crouched down, gasping for breath.
It felt like I was going to die from the heat. The supposedly protective tough jacket was soaked with sweat. It was stuffy, sticky, and burning hot. The mask made it feel like I couldn’t even breathe. We collapsed haphazardly on the emergency stairwell and stared at the closed door. Scratching sounds and barking came from the other side. We had really almost died.
“Dogs are seriously scary.”
“Only the scary ones are surviving, I guess.”
It felt like the difficulty was rising as time passed. Everything was turning into a powerful enemy. Nature, animals, people. The spring when the plague had spread had passed, and as summer approached, the apocalypse that had taken root and sprouted was growing wildly. It was a truly difficult world to survive in.
After catching our breath for a while, we slowly left the supermarket. Afraid of the dogs, we went all the way to the parking lot before running desperately along the road. Fortunately, we managed to gather a lot of mosquito repellent and nutritional supplements from a pharmacy on the way, so the risk had been worth it.
On the way back to the villa, the hot sunlight that signaled the arrival of summer chased after us, and wildflowers were beginning to bloom here and there along the untended roads.