Scavenging in the Blackout
Becoming a scavenger zombie didn't seem to change one's sensory organs in any meaningful way. They didn't grow sharper, nor did they grow dull. It meant that if you held your breath properly, you could slip right past a zombie without it ever noticing. That was why I had dressed to disappear into the darkness. A black baseball cap, all the way down to black sneakers. In a city without power, this was the correct uniform.
I had also chosen my weapons with care. A backup pistol, a hammer, a flashlight standing in for a flashbang, and an alarm clock to use as bait.
"Going alone feels a little risky..."
Once I was fully prepared, I stood in front of the mirror by the entrance and ran through the list of names in my head. Someone stealthy, since we were only slipping in to grab weapons. Not for handing things out to the people on the streets, so a fellow marauder. A handful of names rose up, and I crossed them out one by one.
Sa Gihyeok can't handle physical work. Jeon Dohyeong is too ambiguous. It's got to be Park Yanggun.
Park Yanggun, with his good night vision and real talent for escaping, was the perfect pick. I switched on my phone and checked the time. The blackout was almost here. I needed to persuade him fast.
When I hurried over to visit him, Park Yanggun greeted me with a dazed look.
"Going thieving? Why the hell are you dressed like that?"
"Yeah. I'm heading out to pick up the weapons from that dead cop and the archer. You want to come with me?"
At my words, Park Yanggun scratched his head and stepped back inside.
"Hang on. Let me finish eating first. Can't work on an empty stomach."
"The blackout's coming any minute..."
"I'll be quick."
I stood by the door and waited. When people ate, they took their masks off. No reason to get too close. I poked my head inside and caught sight of Park Yanggun eating in the most pathetic way imaginable. No table, just a ramen pot and a container of kimchi set on the floor. He was hunched over, slurping the noodles down as fast as he could.
"Let's see, something that doesn't make noise..."
Having practically drunk his meal, Park Yanggun tossed the bowl into the sink and quickly gathered his gear. Dark clothes made of quiet material, shoelaces and a kitchen knife to use as weapons. As he passed by, he muttered, "How are we splitting the loot?"
"Half each."
"Nice and clean. ...But you really think any weapons will still be there? Before you go on a job, you gotta lock down the intel first."
It was exactly the kind of thing a thief would say. The careful attitude of someone who did his homework before picking a target. I found myself thinking, Is it because he's a criminal? He seems to weigh the profit before the danger.
Well, that made sense. People who committed crimes in the first place weren't the type to obsess over risk and loss. Even though getting caught and punished was almost guaranteed, they still lived for the short-term gain. It was the perfect nature for a marauder.
"There should still be something left."
"I dunno. They might've recovered them, other scavengers might've taken them, or a zombie might be carrying them around."
Park Yanggun pulled on his own black mask, then stepped closer and said, "Wouldn't it be better to hit up some other people's places instead?"
"...Other people?"
"Houses with candles or electric lanterns on. Houses that smell like food because they're cooking dinner."
For a second, my heart pounded hard enough to hurt. The idea of robbing clumsy survivors who had left traces behind. Food, soap, toilet paper, shampoo, disinfectant, masks. The resources we could gain were endless. But I came to my senses and shook my head. That wasn't the top priority right now.
"Weapons are the most important. We need to reinforce our fighting power first."
"Then I guess we don't have a choice. Let's hope there are still some weapons left."
Park Yanggun shrugged. With that, we left the house. The moment we reached the first floor, the blackout hit, dropping darkness over everything like someone had flipped a light switch.
This was the first time I'd walked through the city streets since summer arrived. And at night, no less. The darkness was thick. With only a thin crescent moon like a clipped fingernail, even the moonlight was faint. It was hard to even make out Park Yanggun walking ahead of me. Occasionally, shapes that could have been zombies or people stirred in the gloom. The sound of stepping on trash or corpses scattered across the street.
…
…
Without sanitation workers, trash lay everywhere. Every single piece was a trap. A noise trap that would reveal my position. We kept our mouths tightly shut and moved onto the relatively cleaner car lane. It was hard to breathe. Even though it was night, the temperature was hot, and the leather jacket, thick jeans, and winter gloves I wore for protection only made it worse. The darkness pressed down on my mind like a vice.
Whenever I heard the rustle of some animal—cat, dog, rat, pigeon—I nearly jumped out of my skin. If sudden footsteps came from nearby, I would flinch and change direction. I was hiding in the dark, but so was everything else. It felt like assassins were lurking everywhere, searching only for me. Zombies, robbers, marauders… anything could be out here and it wouldn't be strange.
Sweat soaked through everything. Inside the gloves, the mask, under the cap. My raw, heightened nerves made the discomfort crystal clear. I wanted to rip off the mask, cap, and jacket right then and turn on the flashlight at full brightness.
Stay calm. Don't reveal yourself. The first one who gets spotted dies.
I barely followed the sound of Park Yanggun's footsteps ahead and forced my gaze up toward the sky. The ground had gone to hell, but the sky was clear. Unlike the lightless city, it was filled with stars. That was all. I pulled myself together again and took one silent step after another.
That was when it happened.
Thud. Something bumped against my foot. A light but blunt sensation. A person, a zombie, or a corpse.
…
I carefully raised my hammer and looked down. In the dimness, I could make out what seemed to be a person. Someone squatting, leaning against the car beside us. The part that should have been a face slowly lifted and looked up at me.
A wave of shock and terror crashed over me. A figure right in front of me. Something this close that I hadn't sensed at all.
What the hell is this? Zombie? Person?
Did it even matter? Whatever it was, I would kill it. I brought the hammer down immediately. Crunch. A heavy, solid impact traveled up my arm. The unidentified shape crumpled silently to the ground. Only then did I let out a long breath and feel relief.
A voice close to a whisper came from the side.
"...Looked like a person."
I nearly jumped out of my skin and raised the hammer again, but right before swinging I realized it was Park Yanggun and pulled back. Instead, I grabbed him with my other hand and hurried us along. A grumble rose in my mind a beat too late. What the hell is wrong with that guy? Why is he sitting out here in the middle of the night like that?
Had he lost all hope in life and come out to the street? Did something bad happen? Was that car some kind of treasure he couldn't leave behind? I had no idea why he felt the need to scare people like that.
After that, my heart kept dropping to my stomach. While walking silently, I accidentally made a loud footstep, and from up ahead came the sound of someone else startling and stomping heavily. … Everyone seemed to freeze, staring through the darkness to gauge the situation, then awkwardly but naturally moved away. Sometimes I kicked an empty can on the ground and the noise made us hurry off as fast as possible. Other times I heard footsteps following me, and when I spun around in panic, it was just a dog panting with its tongue out.
I let out a deep sigh. I'm just another clumsy survivor, huh.
I jumped at every little thing. No matter how much I tried to force myself to think like a marauder, to survive by any means necessary, my weak mind couldn't keep up. There was no way to control the overwhelming tension. I'd never trained for this. Never experienced it. In fact, there were plenty of people adapting better than I was.
I thought back to the shapes I'd seen in the darkness. They might have been zombies or people, but there had clearly been quite a few humans among them. It looks like a lot of people decided night is safer than day and are moving around then.
When I thought about it, it made sense. In broad daylight, the difference between zombies and humans was obvious, while the blacked-out city actually made secret movement easier. People who hid in the darkness, wandering the streets to gather resources. People who hadn't stockpiled enough supplies like I had and were barely surviving day to day, so they had adapted in a different direction.
I gripped the hammer tighter. Like I thought, there are no easy targets. I can't let my guard down.
Just then, Park Yanggun tapped me. We had arrived. It was the school. I whispered quietly.
"Mr. Park Yanggun, please find the items."
It was better to let Park Yanggun, with his excellent night vision, do the searching. I stayed alert, watching the surroundings, and first headed for the main gate.
The school was quiet and dark. I groped around, running my hands over the iron bars. The gloves kept me from feeling the texture or temperature, but I could still find the handcuffs locked onto the front gate. When I applied a little force, the gate opened with a rough scraping sound before stopping. It was proof the gate had been properly sealed, but I shook my head. There were many things piled up beyond the gate. Desks and chairs. Objects stacked like stairs.
The zombies have already escaped.
They had used tools to break out. Avoiding the barbed wire on the walls, they had stacked desks and chairs at the gate and climbed over. No, they had even stacked corpses. I pushed my head against the iron bars until my cheek touched them and checked the faces of the bodies. They had piled desks and chairs haphazardly and even laid corpses on top to use as stepping stones. It looked like the work of the Virus Generator. Only that zombie had shown this level of learning. It might have even packed all the food inside the school into bags before escaping.
With this much intelligence, it might come looking for revenge against me.
Would it remember the person who had shot it with a taser, tied it up outside, and let the children torment it? I was stroking the hammer and thinking when Park Yanggun tapped me again. There was a rustling sound and a low voice.
"Got a pistol, ammo, and a stab vest. No bow or arrows though."
"Let's head back."
I turned around immediately. Zombie revenge or whatever, getting back safely right now was the priority. Even if I had finally obtained the weapons I wanted so badly, it would all be over if I died.