The Reckoning
The day after the recapture, the rain finally stopped. Faint sunlight pierced through the dark clouds, and a few zombies began to shamble out of the villa building. Maybe because they had slept on stairs or bare floors, they stretched their joints and muscles with awkward, jerky motions. Some wandered off down the street, but quite a few remained inside the building. The gloomy zombies still crouched within the villa. From beyond the front door came the low, guttural sounds.
“Time to get moving,” I muttered, lowering my head as I turned on my phone. A short message had appeared in the otherwise silent group chat. The old man’s instructions: focus on the signals. Act according to the sounds you hear. It wasn’t as simple as it sounded. He had come up with a proper plan to keep things as safe and low-risk as possible. I didn’t say much in response. It didn’t really matter to me how things turned out.
As long as I survive, whether people die or the farm gets revived, it’s all the same.
To loosen up, I swung my hammer through the air. Literally, all I needed was to survive. If people died? I could just take their supplies. If people lived? They could keep farming and harvest the crops. No matter what happened, surviving meant an absolute win with nothing to lose. Of course, it was still better to drive the zombies out.
The scarecrows aren’t doing much. What should I make to actually chase zombies away? Should I hang a zombie cross upside down on a tree? An inverted cross might actually work.
While I was lost in those idle thoughts, the signal to begin the operation rang out. Honk, honk, honk— the car alarms we had placed along the street blared loudly. Looking across at the opposite villa, I saw the old man sticking his head and hand out the window, frantically pressing the alarm button on his smart key over and over.
“Krrraaaagh!”
The zombies charged irritably toward the cars. They pounded senselessly on the windows, hoods, and bodies. It was a strangely festive stress-relief session. The zombies seemed just as annoyed by the hot, humid weather as humans were; they smashed the vehicles with rhythmic enthusiasm. The crisp sounds of bricks, baseball bats, and pipes striking metal rang out. More and more zombies joined the free scrapyard service. They poured out from inside the villa building and merrily hammered away at the cars.
Honk— honk— The old man skillfully lured them farther away. Whenever the alarm began to fade, he switched keys and set off the alarm on a slightly more distant car. And then, it was time for us to head out. The zombies that had flooded into the street, the ones that had been drawn a little farther away.
“…Should we wait just a bit longer?”
I paused for a moment, pistol, hammer, and rooftop key in hand. I even let the bag on my back sag a little. Honestly, did I really need to throw myself into this so eagerly? My assigned role was to enter the indoor farm, and there were others with the same job. Even if someone died because I sat this one out, that would still be a net gain for me. On the other hand, if I went outside and got hurt for no reason, that would be a massive loss.
That was when I heard it— a soft tapping on the front door, followed by Jeon Dohyeong’s heavily lowered voice.
“What are you doing? We need to open the rooftop door. Wait, Park Yanggun hasn’t come out either. What the hell are you guys—”
“Yeah, I’m coming out.”
Seeing Jeon Dohyeong at the door, it seemed there were no zombies beyond the entrance. I carefully kept the safety chain on as I cracked the door open to check, then quickly stepped outside. Jeon Dohyeong was fidgeting impatiently.
“Did you go to the bathroom or something? Why are you so late?”
“Shut up. There are lots of zombies outside.”
“What about Park Yanggun?”
“I’m right here, you idiot.”
Park Yanggun slipped out from behind us. True to his professional thief background, he hadn’t made a single sound. We whispered among ourselves as we headed straight for the rooftop. I unlocked the door with the rooftop key. The rain-soaked rooftop came into view, and I immediately locked the door behind us with a heavy click. Just in case any zombies tried to climb up.
“Ladder, ladder.”
Jeon Dohyeong moved with enthusiastic diligence. He struggled to drag over the ladder we had previously secured in the corner of the rooftop as an emergency escape route. The gap between Peace Villa and the farm villa was narrow, so the plan was to simply hook the ladder over the railing and cross from rooftop to rooftop.
Suddenly Jeon Dohyeong poked his head out as if about to shout at us, then forcefully swallowed his voice.
“Can you guys… help me a little?”
Park Yanggun and I exchanged a quick glance. His grumpy stare met my unmotivated one. Honestly, this wasn’t something we enjoyed doing, nor were we particularly good at it…
“Uh, isn’t the ladder kind of dangerous? It’s basically five stories high. I’m scared.”
“Don’t we have any safety equipment? Safety regulations exist for a reason.”
We raised perfectly reasonable objections, but Jeon Dohyeong must have lost his mind from the heat. He began jumping in place and spouting nonsense.
“This is driving me crazy. The guy who always picks the most dangerous jobs and the person who climbed gas pipes with his bare hands are saying what now? How far is it, really?”
He walked to the railing, leaned his upper body out, and stretched his arm as far as it would go. His fingertips touched the opposite building. The gap was about one meter.
“You could jump across from a standing position!”
I glanced around cautiously. What were the others doing? If everyone else slacked off, I wanted to slack off too. But the people from Villa Street were each doing their assigned tasks. The old man was sounding alarms to lure the zombies, the elderly and weak were opening windows wide to shoot slingshots or throw heavy objects, and the others with the same role as me were crossing from rooftop to the indoor farm building.
My eyes met those of the people crawling across to the farm villa like they were inching along on their bellies. Even though their deaths wouldn’t matter to me, there was no need to look bad on purpose.
“Jeon Dohyeong! What are you doing! Set up the ladder already!”
“But—”
“This is so frustrating!”
I slapped Jeon Dohyeong hard on the back, then immediately snatched the ladder from him. It was quite heavy, but I managed to hook it over the railing of the opposite building. Even when I roughly dropped it, the narrow gap made it catch automatically.
“Hold it tight.”
I dashed across the ladder with heavy footsteps. That was how I reached the farm villa right next to Peace Villa. The three of us from Peace Villa and three people from the other villas caught our breath in front of the rooftop door. Then we flung it open without hesitation.
There was no hesitation. These were people already adapted to the apocalypse, murderers who had tasted blood. Above all, the zombies were mortal enemies standing between them and their precious lettuce.
There were still a few zombies left inside the building, but the people hunted them with furious shouts.
“Kill them!”
“If the farm gets ruined because of you bastards!”
Short weapons meant for fighting in the narrow villa stairwells and hallways were swung with savage force. Sometimes they kicked zombies in the chest and sent them tumbling down the stairs. Other times they sprayed fire extinguishers directly into their faces. The zombies didn’t go down easily either.
“Kraaagh!”
They would retreat while throwing bricks, or even with a broken arm, grab onto people with the other and try to drag them down. One cunning zombie hurriedly ran off and returned with more of its kind. From below the stairs came the sound of countless footsteps and presence. With our view blocked, it was hard to tell what was happening outside—whether the luring was no longer working, how many zombies were flooding into the farm villa, or if the support was going well. There was no time to stick our heads out the stairwell windows to assess the situation. The unknown became oppressive pressure.
I really hate zombies. Even if I win the fight, there’s nothing worth looting.
Shivering, I rapidly punched in the door lock code—beep beep beep beep. The door opened on the first try.
“Hurry inside!”
I entered first, followed by Park Yanggun, Jeon Dohyeong, and one nameless person from the street who rushed in after us. Two others had been killed by zombies. Through the rapidly closing gap, I caught a glimpse of a zombie’s face—mouth wide open, spraying spit as it screamed.
“Krrraaaagh!”
Just before its outstretched hand could slip through the crack, the door slammed shut with a heavy thud. Hands hurriedly turned the lock. Bang bang bang—the sound of fists pounding on the door. I let out a sigh of relief.
Good. I survived.
The front door was invincible. Now that we had entered the farm house with its food and water, this was victory. But the person from the street stared blankly at the door before suddenly exploding in rage and began hammering it with his fists.
“You fucking bastards! Because of you, they died! They’re dead! Why, why!”
He must have been quite close to the dead. His voice was closer to a wail. His slurred pronunciation made it sound like a zombie’s shriek. It was as if zombies were communicating with each other through the door.
Then came the repeated clicking of buttons, followed by a sigh.
“The crops are ruined…”
“What?”
I spun around urgently and entered the indoor farm. A room lit by faint light from the overcast sky. The plant grow lights we had just turned on cast an eerie purple glow. Jeon Dohyeong and Park Yanggun stood with slumped shoulders, staring at the pots. Park Yanggun flicked his finger, lightly tapping a lettuce leaf.
“Couldn’t drink water, couldn’t get sunlight. It’s over. This one tastes bitter and can’t be eaten.”
“Ah…”
The tiny leaves drooped limply. The lettuce that had been growing so vigorously had barely grown at all while we were gone. It looked weak, small, and pathetic. I had made those pots with my own hard work. The lettuce had my labor invested in it. I had thought it would be fine if the farming failed as long as people died, but seeing the wilted lettuce now left me with a strange feeling. The time I had invested…
“Is it still alive? If we water it again—”
“It’s not dead. We can save it. It just won’t taste good.”
“That’s a relief, at least.”
As long as it was alive, that was enough. Taste wasn’t that important. It wasn’t like we were growing it to sell. As long as it could go in our mouths, it was sufficient.
Still, it feels bad.
Click click—Jeon Dohyeong took photos of the lettuce and tapped on his phone, apparently uploading them to the group chat. Since we had entered the indoor farm, he was reporting the situation.
“So what do we do now? The lettuce is alive, but there are still zombies outside. At this rate, we’re trapped.”
Beep—! I filled the electric kettle with water and pressed the button. Zombies? The zombies that had dared ruin the farm? The zombies that had nearly killed the lettuce? The same rage I had felt when I was first eliminated from the scenario contest slowly rose within me. The situation where my efforts had not borne reasonable fruit.
“No. It’d be unfair if only we were trapped. Those bastards should be trapped here too.”
“…What? What are you talking about?”
The water in the kettle began to boil. Boiling water. The ultimate water-based weapon that combined the advantages of fire and water. I walked over to the window overlooking the villa entrance, even opening the insect screen. I could still see zombies pouring into the farm villa. I poured the scalding water over them.
“Gaaaargh!”
“Krrreeek!”
The zombies jumped around frantically, wrapped in white steam. I spoke coldly.
“From now on, we take turns pouring boiling water nonstop. Any zombie coming in, going out, or passing through the front door—kill them all.”
Starve to death inside the villa building, or get covered in boiling water and suffer severe burns. The nameless person from the street, who had been slumped in front of the door, lifted his head. Having found an outlet for his rage, he began moving with surprising energy. He filled a kettle with water, set it on the gas stove, and snatched the electric kettle from my hands.
“I’ll do it. Tormenting those zombie bastards.”