No Exceptions
Jeon Dohyeong blinked dumbly, his face flushing red as his hands began to tremble. True to form for a vicious electricity thief, he seemed thrilled at the mere thought of committing a crime.
“Y-you’re saying we kill them all? Not a single one left?”
“No. We keep you, Park Yanggun, and—if possible—Sa Gihyeok alive.”
How could he even consider killing his fellow criminals? The man was truly rotten. I waved my hand quickly, cutting him off. Jeon Dohyeong pressed his trembling palms together like a man in prayer. His ragged breaths scraped through the mask.
“The kids too, right? We have to kill them?”
“Of course. No discrimination.”
They weren’t children. They were workers, survivors carrying the same hard-earned experience as me. They deserved neither special treatment nor contempt. They were enemies to be met with everything I had.
A flash. Lightning cracked down, followed by the low growl of thunder. Jeon Dohyeong screwed his eyes shut. Deep breaths followed. The trembling stopped. He picked up the hand axe with calm precision.
“I’ll do it.”
“Then I’ll lay out the plan. It’s simple.”
The old man had screamed loud enough for the whole street to hear the commotion. We would walk in claiming we were there to explain the situation, then strike. Trust was our weapon—the trust earned by willingly exposing our own weakness. We would exploit that trust to kill them.
Most residents lived separately anyway, so we wouldn’t be outnumbered. Armed with hammers, pistols, hand axes, shoelaces, and whatever else we could grab, we stepped out into the pouring rain.
“Hello. Someone tried to sell lettuce to the marauders. We’re here about that problem.”
“Oh dear. Someone wasn’t thinking straight.”
“But all of you have even shorter lifespans.”
An elderly couple. The moment I brought the hammer down on the grandmother’s skull, Jeon Dohyeong slipped behind the grandfather and looped the cord around his neck, strangling him before he could scream.
“We need to discuss what punishment to hand out…. Ah. Could I borrow a towel? I’m soaked from the rain.”
“Are there any dry ones left? I put off the laundry, so just a moment.”
“I’ll find it myself. Please stay still.”
I smashed the hammer into the back of the head of the person foolish enough to turn away from me, then drew the hand axe across their throat.
“The person buying the lettuce was a marauder. We nearly all died because of it.”
“Th-that bastard—what are you going to do with him? We can’t just let him go!”
“We can’t just let him go. This is what we’ll do.”
We killed the ones who exploded in anger. We killed the ones who refused to join the meeting. We killed the ones who had considered selling the lettuce. We killed and killed.
Of course, it didn’t all go smoothly. Some people eyed me with strange suspicion, forcing me to send Jeon Dohyeong in first. Others had gone to bed early, so we had to pound on their doors for a long time. A few even managed to dodge my hammer with raw reflexes.
“Ha…”
I collapsed onto the porch, gasping for air. The hammer clattered across the floor. Before me, a blood-soaked man lay face-down. The hand axe buried in his back made him cough up thick gouts of blood as he struggled to breathe.
He had been a difficult opponent—the kind who could dodge my swings and close in to throw punches. Without Jeon Dohyeong, I might have been the one dying here.
Sudden exhaustion crashed over me. My eyelids felt like lead. How many times had I swung the hammer? How many people had I killed? A clammy chill crawled up my spine. The rainwater had stolen too much body heat. I felt like I was coming down with something.
I can’t afford to get sick.
My stamina was completely shot.
“Aaaaaah! Run away!”
A sudden scream. I forced my eyes open. The man with the axe in his back was desperately shouting warnings to the neighbors. I let out a weak chuckle.
“There’s no one left to hear you.”
Everyone in this villa was already dead. The other villas? Only one house remained, and the pouring rain would drown out any noise anyway. The man coughed up another mouthful of blood, painfully lifted his head to glare at me, then shifted his gaze to Jeon Dohyeong.
“Why… why you… you—”
“…”
Why ask him? The implication that I wasn’t even worth questioning left a sour taste in my mouth.
When I looked up at Jeon Dohyeong, he was staring down at the dying man with eerie calm. He even leaned in to retrieve the hand axe. With a wet crunch, he brought it down on the man’s neck and muttered.
“I’m just doing what I can.”
A textbook confirmation kill. Jeon Dohyeong stepped through the spreading puddle of blood with a splash and spoke to me.
“I’ll handle the rest. Take a break.”
“Ah… no. There are still the kids. A mother and two children. How do you plan to handle three people alone?”
Even for Jeon Dohyeong, three was too many. Kids? The thought of them charging with awls was terrifying enough. I picked up the fallen hammer, but it felt impossibly heavy. My arms ached—whether from a cold or muscle strain, I couldn’t tell. The hammer shook in my grip.
Jeon Dohyeong shook his head.
“I’d just get in your way. Lend me the hammer. I’ll throw the axe and swing this.”
“Let’s rest a little and go together.”
We had to avoid overwhelmingly bad odds at all costs. No matter who the opponent was, we faced them with full power and no complacency. If necessary, I would use the pistol.
I pushed myself up against the wall, but my legs refused to cooperate. I was more exhausted than I realized. My mind was fraying too. Killing them had been easy, but staying tense the entire time had taken its toll.
Jeon Dohyeong simply took the hammer from my hand.
“Seriously. Why are you being so stubborn? Stop worrying and leave it to me.”
I let him have it. Swinging a hammer in this state was impossible. I would use the pistol instead. Two bullets left.
“Still, I’m coming with you.”
“Ah…”
I staggered forward. Jeon Dohyeong followed at a measured pace. The power had returned; streetlights cast a harsh glow over everything. Rain hammered the corpses and pavement, washing blood from our clothes.
We headed for the final house. Leaving the roar of rain behind, we climbed the stairs. The villa was deathly quiet. Our wet footsteps echoed slickly upward.
When we knocked on the last door, a cautious voice answered. The children’s mother.
“Who is it?”
“It’s me. There was someone trying to sell lettuce to the marauders earlier. The old man sent us to discuss it.”
After a brief silence, the door opened slowly. In the brightly lit entryway, the mother holding a kitchen knife scanned us and took a hesitant step back.
“Blood?”
“We ran into a few marauders while escaping…. The person who wanted to buy the lettuce turned out to be one of them.”
I shot Jeon Dohyeong a look. Swing the hammer or the axe—now. But he remained frozen, so I kept talking.
“We need to decide what punishment the lettuce smuggler deserves. Do you have any thoughts?”
“…Could we share that person’s food?”
The mother’s eyes gleamed. Having given so much to the school, she clearly wanted supplies first. I casually slipped my hand into my pocket. My fingers closed around the pistol I had kept dry beneath my jacket.
That was when the children poked their heads out from behind her. They stared up at us with curious eyes.
“It’s the cross uncle. Why are you here?”
“I came to make crosses out of you.”
“Aww, stop lying.”
I laughed. It was a lie. The scarecrow act with the cross no longer meant anything. The time had come to abandon the strategy of threats and expulsion.
I tapped Jeon Dohyeong. He only turned his head toward me with a stiff creak.
“This doesn’t feel right. This is seriously wrong.”
“…”
Was he serious? After coming this far? Had he still not adapted?
“Let’s just go back. We don’t have to do this. We can return to the Hope Community, or just take the remaining resources—”
“Ah, sure.”
I let out a tired sigh and took a step back, as if agreeing with him. Jeon Dohyeong’s rigid expression softened. The mother, sensing danger, tightened her grip on the kitchen knife.
And I drew the pistol and fired.
Bang. Bang.
Two shots. Sparks flared. I immediately snatched the hammer from Jeon Dohyeong’s hand and swung it.
“Uh… ah.”
Jeon Dohyeong could only make senseless noises. He looked dazed, but I was already too disappointed to care. I left only a few short words before descending the stairs.
“We’ll move the resources later.”
No point soaking everything in the rain.
When I stepped back onto the street, the world suddenly blazed bright. Almost simultaneously, thunder crashed as if the sky itself were collapsing. Every streetlight went dark. A real blackout. Whatever the lightning had struck, it had plunged the entire area into darkness.
I had cleaned Villa Street thoroughly, yet my heart sank like a stone.
Summer. The season of disaster had arrived. The season when infrastructure collapsed and people broke. At least we had stockpiled enough resources. That was something.
Eat the lettuce quickly. Store the villa residents’ supplies properly. Don’t get injured. Charge the phone by starting the car. We can survive the summer.
Picturing a future where we stayed alive, I walked home through the rain.