The Warriors of the Apocalypse
"Hurry! Hurry!" The soldiers in the truck scrambled through the rear doors and into the warehouse. "Whoa...!" They were greeted by the sight of dozens of 800-kilogram sacks of government-reserved rice, stacked two high, filling the space.
"What are you doing, man!" "Hey! Don't just stand there with your mouth open, move!" Startled by the prodding of the officers and non-commissioned officers, the soldiers quickly began to move.
"Pull!" "One! Two! One! Two!" Even though each sack weighed 800 kilograms, they were movable when six or seven men pushed and pulled together. The soldiers, who had been packed tightly into the trucks, quickly created makeshift barricades on both sides of the warehouse entrance using five or six of the rice sacks.
"Opening it!"
Whirrrr!
As Jun-ho pulled the lever, the thick stainless steel shutter blocking the entrance rose with a loud clatter. The entrance was about five meters wide. As soon as the door opened, two electric trucks drove inside and parked side-by-side, sealing the opening completely. The soldiers quickly ran to the tops of the trucks and the ends of the entrance, mounting their rifles and taking up firing positions.
"Check magazines! Load magazines! Cycle the bolt!"
Click! Clack!
Following the orders of Major Lee Seok-jin, who had been the first to jump onto a truck, the soldiers removed their magazines to check them, reinserted them, and cycled the bolts. Meanwhile, Major Lee Seok-jin and his two lieutenants kept their eyes fixed on the main gate of the Nonghyup Warehouse. Not a single rat had appeared yet, but they knew it was only a matter of time before the zombies swarmed, and their eyes and expressions were filled with tension.
Guaaaaaa...!
At the roar of zombies echoing from afar, Major Lee Seok-jin parted his dry lips wide. "They're coming! Squads 1 and 2, set to semi-automatic! Squads 3 and 4, set to full-auto!"
The soldiers, just as tense as Major Lee—or perhaps even more so—adjusted their fire selectors. And twenty seconds later, at the broken main gate of the Nonghyup Warehouse, about 50 meters from the entrance, zombies in tattered clothes with disheveled hair began to pour in.
"Open fire!" Major Lee Seok-jin screamed at the top of his lungs. The soldiers lying prone or sitting on the trucks fired in semi-automatic, while those behind the rice sacks at the entrance fired in full-auto.
Boom-boom-boom! Boom-boom! Bang-bang-bang!
Dozens of K2C1 rifle barrels roared and spat fire. Everyone was wearing earplugs, but the sound in the confined space was deafening. Even Jun-ho, who was waiting behind the truck with his air rifle, winced for a moment. But for the zombies passing through the main gate, this gunfire was nothing short of a catastrophe.
Bang-bang-bang! Boom-boom-boom! Boom-boom! Thwack! Thwack-thwack-thwack!
The zombies fell like sheaves of wheat. As Jun-ho had suggested, the full-auto fire from behind the rice sacks targeted the zombies' lower bodies. A 5.56mm round piercing a knee or thigh wouldn't kill them instantly, but two or three hits would destroy their mobility, causing them to collapse or limp. The soldiers on the trucks targeted the heads of those same zombies. They didn't hit every shot, but the method was highly effective.
"Rotate! Rotate!"
Bang-bang-bang! Boom-boom!
As soon as a soldier emptied their magazine in full-auto, the person standing right behind them quickly took their place to continue the fire. Soldiers with little combat experience struggled to change magazines quickly and accurately under pressure. That was why Jun-ho had suggested that once a soldier emptied a magazine, the person behind them should take over—a suggestion Major Lee Seok-jin had deemed logical and accepted. In contrast, the soldiers on the trucks were experienced NCOs or marksmen who could handle semi-automatic fire, keeping ten magazines by their sides and swapping them out as needed.
Boom-boom-boom! Bang-bang-bang-bang-bang! Boom-boom!
The firing continued like a flowing stream, and in proportion, corpses piled up at the main gate and the front yard of the warehouse. The biggest contributors were the two K15 light machine guns placed behind the sacks on either side.
"Burst fire! Burst fire! We don't have many spare barrels!" At the NCO's shout, the K15 gunners, despite the tension, fear, and adrenaline, didn't just hold down the trigger but fired in controlled bursts of four or five rounds.
"Ammo box empty!" "Ja-jammed!" "Damn it! Rotate immediately!"
The K15 machine guns were also operated by rotating the entire weapon and gunner, not just the ammo box. Since they didn't know how many more battles they would have to fight, they needed to preserve the weapons and give as many soldiers as possible real combat experience.
Bang-bang-bang-bang! Boom-boom! Bang-bang-bang! Boom!
The troops commanded by Major Lee Seok-jin kept up the fire in three or four rotations without a single pause, slaughtering the zombies of Yeongho 2-ri. About five minutes after the first shot was fired, the battle entered its final phase.
"Cease fire on the side sacks! Squads 3 and 4, keep firing!" "Safety on! Muzzles up!"
Following the NCO's shout, which echoed Major Lee's orders, the soldiers at the side sacks pointed their muzzles to the sky. It had only been a few minutes, but they were all drenched in sweat. Facing a countless number of zombies just tens of meters away was a massive drain on their physical and mental stamina.
Boom! Bang! Bang!
On the trucks, they were still picking off the zombies' heads one by one. But since no more were rushing through the gate, they could calmly shoot the ones that were crawling or limping slowly toward them.
"Squads 5 and 6, follow me! The rest of you, check your weapons! Officers and NCOs, check the condition of your men, and thoroughly inspect all weapons and ammunition! Lieutenant Jeong, scout the area with the drone and radio me!"
"Yes, sir!"
As the two lieutenants replied sharply, Major Lee Seok-jin turned to Jun-ho, who had been firing alongside them with his air rifle. "Mr. Lee Jun-ho. The ones that didn't charge in and retreated—those are the Alphas, right?"
"Yes, that's likely. They saw it was a slaughter and ran. Those bastards."
"I intend to track them. Will you join me?"
Major Lee Seok-jin was deeply impressed by Jun-ho. Just moments ago, even some of the active-duty soldiers had been paralyzed by the fear of the zombies approaching within tens of meters, failing to fire properly. Yet, Jun-ho—a civilian, regardless of his past military service or survival experience—had continued to fire without a hint of panic. This was not something just anyone could do.
"Let's do it. The more of them we kill, the safer the survivors in this town will be." Since one of his goals was to hunt Alphas to further boost his physical stats, Jun-ho agreed readily.
"Good. Let's go." Nodding, Major Lee Seok-jin turned back and shouted, "Squad 5! Squad 6! Let's move!"
Jun-ho and Major Lee ran out of the Nonghyup Warehouse with about twenty soldiers. The soldiers' faces turned pale as they saw the corpses of the zombies they had shot at point-blank range, but the adrenaline from the battle still coursed through them, and they bravely followed their reliable battalion commander.
Using a drone to locate and kill the fleeing zombies was more dangerous than the battle at the warehouse. Even though it was the countryside, Yeongho 2-ri was a relatively bustling village with a shopping district, and the Alphas were hiding in two or three-story buildings, attacking the troops from the flanks or the rear.
However, there was a special person among the troops moving through the streets of Yeongho 2-ri. He was a regressor who had passed CQB training and real-world tests in military academies at home and abroad with near-perfect scores, and who had already experienced fierce combat several times over.
"Flank! Two-story commercial building!"
Jun-ho, now possessing combat skills and animalistic instincts that made him the natural predator of Alphas, was the first to spot the zombies, shouting and firing his air rifle. The soldiers, the moment he spoke, fired in that direction, clearing out the remaining zombies in Yeongho 2-ri.
Ten minutes later, the troops led by Major Lee Seok-jin had dealt with most of the remaining zombies near the warehouse and those that had fled.
'Since the town is small, there aren't many Alphas either.' Having killed one that was definitely an Alpha, Jun-ho scanned the surroundings with sharp eyes and said to Major Lee Seok-jin, "This should be enough. The rest can be handled by the people in this town. Or I can come back and take care of them later."
"Understood. Then I'll inform the survivors in this village and rescue..."
"Major, don't do that."
"What do you mean?" Major Lee Seok-jin narrowed his eyes. Jun-ho decided to tell this upright officer, who possessed great ability but had not forgotten his duty to the nation, the 'reality' of the apocalypse.
"You said the soldiers who took over Jojong-myeon and Sang-myeon have turned corrupt, right? You said they don't seem like the ROK Army anymore?"
"...That is correct." Major Lee Seok-jin's expression twisted as he thought of those who had transformed into something akin to warlords—people he could no longer call 'comrades.'
"It's not just the soldiers who have changed. The people have changed, too."
"......!"
"You know how ruthless and selfish the people who have endured and survived in this world have become, Major. If you rescue the people in this town, they'll try to treat you and these soldiers like civil servants at a local office."
"That's impossible. They aren't fools; they wouldn't dare treat armed soldiers like that..."
"So, Major, can you shoot them with your gun?"
"......!!!" Major Lee Seok-jin's eyes widened.
"You can't, can you? Country folk aren't naive. They'll realize immediately that you're that kind of person. What do you think will happen then?" Jun-ho conveyed only a tiny fraction of the future that would have likely awaited Major Lee Seok-jin had he not met him.
"......" Major Lee Seok-jin, who had not yet forgotten his duty as an ROK Army officer, bit his lip with a hardened face.
"So just leave them be. There was a massive amount of gunfire, and some of them are probably watching us from hiding right now." At those words, some of the soldiers glanced at the surrounding buildings. Indeed, silhouettes of people could be seen behind curtains that were slightly pulled back.
"They're hiding right now because they're scared of the soldiers, but once you and your men leave, they'll go to the warehouse on their own and take the rice. Eventually, they'll realize that most of the zombies in this town are dead. Then they'll figure out how to live and fight among themselves. Unless you can take responsibility for them until the very end, it's best to stick to the original plan."
"...I understand what you mean." Finally convinced, Major Lee Seok-jin said to his soldiers, "Let's return to the warehouse. Everyone, stay alert. We return in search formation."
"Yes, sir!"
The soldiers moved in groups, spreading out to cover the front, rear, left, and right, rifles at the ready. Perhaps because they had experienced fierce combat, there were no gaps in their posture. The soldiers who had 'liberated' rather than 'occupied' Yeongho 2-ri were no longer the ordinary men who had been drafted from civilian life. They were now warriors carving their way through the apocalypse.