The Purge
The next day.
Today was Friday, March 25th.
Ye-jeong, Jihye, Minji, and I were sprawled out across the bed and the floor, completely motionless. We had raided seven apartments in total, but the water we managed to scavenge was pathetic.
I was the type to order things in bulk because I hated the hassle of doing it often, but it seemed ordinary modern people didn't bother stocking up. After all, why would they when they could get anything delivered to their doorstep by dawn with a single tap on their phones?
Pooling all the water we scavenged from those seven apartments into large plastic bottles yielded a measly four bottles. Dividing that among the eight of us meant only half a bottle per person. I kept a two-liter bottle for myself and my primary wife, Minji, while throwing a 1.5-liter bottle to Jeong Hyeong-uk and Jeong Ju-ho.
Forget washing—we barely had enough water to drink. Cooking anything that required water, like instant ramen, was out of the question, and we couldn't even use the electric rice cooker. We had to survive on instant microwave rice and retort pouches. To minimize water waste, we heated the pouches one by one in a tiny pot, reusing the same water over and over.
"Jihye."
"What?"
"Should we go ahead with what you said yesterday?"
"Yesterday?"
"Killing that rude bitch in Room 201 and the sexual harasser in Room 207 to take their water."
"Do we have to do it right now? I'm too tired."
"Yeah. You're right."
I gave a half-hearted reply, feeling just as annoyed and exhausted as she was. How many times had we eaten instant curry and black bean sauce over rice now? I was sick of it. And because of the water shortage, I couldn't even have sex. Right now, even if Jeong-a danced stark naked right in front of me, I wouldn't have the energy to fuck her. Actually... wait, that was probably a lie.
I glanced out the window. The black rain that had been pouring since yesterday was finally starting to let up. Outside, the streets were littered with the carcasses of dead dogs and cats.
"If you get hit by that rain, you'd die, right?"
"Who knows? Maybe they'll awaken some ability and survive?"
Should I go out and check? No, better not. Let's just wait out the week here, like Ju-ho suggested.
While everyone else was slumped over like wet noodles, Minji, for some reason, looked cheerful.
"Hmm~ hm-hmm~ hm~"
"Minji, what are you so happy about that you're humming?"
"When did I hum?"
"You were literally just doing it a second ago."
I was too lazy to argue, so I just let it slide.
Thud!
I reached out to grope Ye-jeong's breast, but she instinctively jabbed me with her elbow.
"Oh my! I'm so sorry. It was an accident, I didn't mean to..."
A surge of anger flared up, and my fist almost flew out, but I held back, telling myself to treat her like my own mother. Staying inside was incredibly frustrating, but going out would only drain my energy. We had plenty of food to replenish our strength, but without water, the best strategy was to stay completely still and minimize water consumption.
"It's so frustrating. There's so much water falling outside, yet we can't drink a single drop."
"Do you seriously want to drink that pitch-black water?"
"Well, wouldn't it turn clear if we filtered it? It's the radiation that makes it undrinkable. We can easily filter out the physical soot and dust."
Should I just confiscate Hyeong-uk and Ju-ho's water? No, they were still Minji and Ye-jeong's family. I couldn't let them die just yet.
"Minji, come here."
Her cheerful mood was starting to get on my nerves.
"Ye-jeong, get down."
The bed was too cramped, so I reassigned Ye-jeong's position to the floor. Her expression instantly soured.
I pulled Minji into my arms and bit her on the nape of her neck.
"Ah!"
Minji let out a cute little squeak. Wanting to hear more of those adorable noises, I took her earlobe into my mouth and nibbled on it gently.
When she remained stubbornly silent, I got annoyed and bit down a little harder.
"Ouch!"
Her reaction was precious. No wonder Jihye loved bullying her so much back in school.
I ran my tongue up and down Minji's neck, making her squirm and writhe in my arms. Licking her skin almost made me forget my thirst. But like all good things, this had to come to an end. Because of my dehydration, my mouth was bone-dry, and I couldn't produce any more saliva.
"Minji, I'm thirsty."
Minji stared back at me with a look that clearly said, 'And what do you want me to do about it?'
Still, wouldn't a virgin's saliva taste sweet? I forced my tongue into her mouth, trying to drink whatever moisture she had left.
Ugh. Far from sweet, it was an experience I'd rather not describe. It turned out she was just as dehydrated as I was. Fucking non-virgin Minji.
Irritated, I yanked up her t-shirt and pushed up her bra, aggressively sucking on her nipples.
"Ah! Ah..."
"Minji, you're banned from wearing pants from now on. Inside this house, you wear skirts. I'll allow them to cover your knees, but nothing longer than that."
I handed down the punishment out of sheer spite. When she looked at me like I was talking absolute nonsense, I felt the urgent need to reassert my authority as the head of the household.
"If you break this rule, I'll hang you upside down and beat you a hundred times with a club. Got it?"
Minji just snorted and looked away, completely ignoring me.
Annoyed, I clarified the timeline.
"Minji, I said from now on. Why aren't you changing? If you're still wearing pants in ten minutes, you'd better be prepared."
Only then did she realize I wasn't joking. She scrambled out of my arms, rushed over to the wardrobe to find a skirt, and hurried to change. Amusingly, she still insisted on her privacy, locking herself in the bathroom to change. That was the charm of Minji—she still acted so pure and maiden-like, even though she was no longer a virgin.
A black long-sleeved t-shirt paired with a denim skirt. It sort of matched, but then again, maybe not. Unlike her mother, who looked like walking sex no matter what she wore, Minji just looked like a little kid in everything.
When Jihye saw Minji in the skirt, her eyes suddenly lit up.
"Seeing you like that really takes me back to high school. You were so cute back then too, Minji. Especially in your school uniform."
Jihye spoke with a nostalgic tone, while Minji did her best to avoid her gaze, burying herself deeper into my chest. I hadn't actually told her to come back to the bed after changing, but she seemed to assume that was her default spot. My throat was parched from the lack of water, and I was too tired to speak, so I just let her stay.
I kneaded Minji's small breasts for a moment before pulling my hand away with a sigh.
"Too small."
At that, both Ye-jeong and Jihye stared at me simultaneously.
"What?"
"I feel like this exact same thing happened before," Ye-jeong muttered.
Jihye just giggled in response.
If only my mother-in-law's breasts actually produced milk, I'd gladly suck on them right now.
"I can't take this anymore. Let's just kill that rude bitch and the sexual harasser and take all their water!"
Nobody cheered or agreed. But it didn't matter. I was the boss here.
"Jihye, Minji, gather round!"
Jihye dragged herself over, crawling sluggishly.
"Get up here."
Jihye climbed onto the bed. She cast a brief, downward glance at Ye-jeong. I noticed Ye-jeong biting her lower lip slightly. What's her deal? It wasn't important, so I ignored it.
Then, even though I hadn't called her, Ye-jeong tried to climb onto the bed as well.
"Why is the lunch lady coming up here? It's already cramped, so please get down~" Jihye sneered.
Jihye's mockery was spot on, so I agreed with her.
"It's too tight, mother-in-law. Go wait down there."
Ye-jeong silently turned around and walked into the bathroom.
Sniff... hic... sob...
I thought I heard the faint sound of a woman weeping, but my throat was parched and I was too annoyed to care, so I ignored it.
"Jihye, you're the expert on this kind of stuff. Draw up a plan and pitch it to me. As the leader, I'll evaluate it."
Jihye gave me an incredulous look, but she quickly fell silent, organizing her thoughts.
"First of all, we've never coordinated our movements before, right? We have zero experience fighting as a team. On top of that, none of us have actually killed a human being before. Sure, you and I have fought zombies together, but that's different."
"True."
"So, we should start with an easy target first to build up some experience. The bitch in Room 201 is small, so she'll be the easiest to take down. Plus, she doesn't seem very alert."
"How are we going to subdue her?"
"It's better to just kill her. Keeping her alive would only waste water and food, which defeats the whole purpose of raiding her. Besides, if she somehow escapes and rallies the rest of the building to turn on us, we'll lose. We need to eliminate her as quietly as possible."
That made perfect sense. If all thirty-eight residents banded together and rushed us, we'd be overwhelmed.
"So, how do we kill her?"
"Minji, do you still not have an awakened ability?" Jihye asked.
"I got an ability called Presence Erasing," Minji muttered.
"Perfect. That's a great fit for you. In that case, I'll put on my police uniform and knock on her door. While Honey and I distract her, Minji can use her stealth skill to slip behind her. Minji, you'll wrap your left arm over her shoulder to cover her mouth, and use your right hand to pin her from under her right armpit. Once she's secured, Honey can stab her between the ribs, twisting the blade to collapse her lungs so she can't scream. Then we just wait for her to bleed out."
"Will it really go that smoothly? What if she suddenly bites Minji's hand?"
"Minji, do you have leather gloves?"
"I have one pair."
"Then wear those. And if things go south, I'll fry her with my electric whip or a taser, and Honey can draw his sword and cut her down. Honestly, there's no one on the second floor who can beat us in a straight fight. We're only being careful to avoid making noise and drawing attention from the other floors."
"And after that?"
"The guy in Room 204 is next. He's tucked away in the corner right next to Room 201, which makes him a convenient target."
"Why kill him? He hasn't shown any hostility toward us."
"If two people on the second floor turn up dead, word will eventually get out. Instead of taking that risk, it's safer to just wipe out the entire second floor. Hardly anyone from the other floors ever comes down here anyway. Besides, how long can the eight of us survive on the loot of just two apartments?"
She had a point. We raided seven apartments and only got four bottles of water. Of course, the fact that these people were still alive after six days meant they must have some stash of resources keeping them going.
"So, how do we kill the anchovy?"
"Who's the anchovy?"
"The scrawny, college-student-looking guy in Room 204."
"Ideally, Minji should sneak up behind him with a dagger and slit his throat. If that fails, we'll just have to overpower him. Since he's a guy, we might not be able to silence him before he screams, so maybe we should handle the fat woman first."
"The feminist bitch in Room 205?"
"I don't know if she's a feminist, but she's got a big build, so trying the same tactic we used on Room 201 might fail. Let's have Minji ambush her from behind while Honey stabs her in the lungs from the front. If that doesn't work, I'll electrocute her, and Honey can strangle her with a garrote. It'll be easier to choke her if we attach wooden handles to both ends of the cord."
"And what about the sexual harasser at the end?"
"It's best to leave him for last. Taking him down quietly in one go will be tough. Plus, he holds a grudge against us, so he won't open the door willingly, and he'll probably attack us with a weapon the moment we breach. Even if he hears us raiding the other apartments and realizes what's happening, it's better to save him for last. That way, we won't have to worry about making noise and the three of us can just launch a coordinated, all-out assault to kill him in the shortest time possible."