The Sound of Gunfire
The multipurpose electric vehicle carrying Jun-ho and Park Deok-cheol moved precisely along the path once used by the local gangsters. As the weather warmed, zombies that had been hiding in private homes throughout the winter were emerging, driven by instinct, but they posed no real threat. The road itself wound through the mountains, and the occasional houses visible along the way were in remote locations. And those who lived in such places were, nine times out of ten, the elderly.
Pow!
"But, sir. Isn't it strange that the elderly living in places like this have all turned into zombies, just like the house we saw earlier?" Park Deok-cheol asked, tilting his head after dispatching an elderly zombie who looked well over eighty with his air rifle.
"...I think I know the reason."
"Yes?"
Jun-ho spoke coldly, peering through his digital monocular at an elderly zombie lying in the yard of a dilapidated slate-roofed house, where the nearest neighbor was nearly a kilometer away.
"In cases like this, you have to assume someone turned them into zombies on purpose."
"What? Seriously? No, but why on earth..."
"Why? Because that's the only way to keep people from approaching."
"...?"
"In a world like this, what's safer to travel on? A public road or a remote path deep in the mountains?"
"Ah, I suppose that's true. Wait? Th-then, by any chance...?"
"Exactly. Those gangsters must have turned them."
"That's insane..."
Park Deok-cheol looked disgusted. However, Jun-ho, who had seen countless instances of people intentionally releasing zombies near their residences as a sort of security measure or alarm system before his regression, spoke calmly.
"It is insane. But aside from Gahyeon-ri and its immediate vicinity, the whole world is doing things like this. Because there is no longer any law or order."
The fact that some nearby areas, including Our Shelter and Gahyeon-ri, were unique spaces rarely seen in the apocalypse was a testament to their situation. There was no law, yet order existed, and the fact that thousands of survivors were living while maintaining that order themselves could be called a miracle. And that was all thanks to the anomalous existence that was Jun-ho.
"...Yes sir."
Knowing that fact well, Park Deok-cheol swallowed hard and nodded.
"Let's go bury the body."
Just as they had with the entities they’d dispatched while traveling this route, Jun-ho and Park Deok-cheol buried the body of the elderly zombie they had just killed in a hidden spot. It wasn't out of respect for the dead, but rather to ensure that if the gangsters returned to this path, they wouldn't see the corpse. After burying the body in a small vegetable garden behind the house and offering a brief moment of silence, Jun-ho and Park Deok-cheol climbed back into the multipurpose electric vehicle and moved on.
* * *
The interior of the leisure sports marina, which looked as if it had been out of business for a long time from the outside, was surprisingly pleasant and clean. This was because the solar panels installed on the roof allowed electronic devices, including the lighting, to function normally.
"Brother, look at this."
Park Deok-cheol, who had been searching the inner office, called Jun-ho, unable to hide his surprise. When he went over, he found 20 power tanks with a 5-kilowatt capacity, which had clearly been left behind by the gangsters. It seemed they had used solar power to store a total of 100 kilowatts of electricity, using it to charge various electric devices, including electric carts, whenever they stopped by.
"Ignorant thugs. They should have just left an ESS battery or two."
Even as he said that, Jun-ho connected the drone he had used to get here to a power tank and began charging it. If Major Lee Seok-jin's unit handled the gangsters, all the power tanks here would belong to Our Shelter.
"Deok-cheol. The outside is clear too, so let's unload the gear and get to work."
"Yes."
After unloading the cargo they had brought in the multipurpose electric vehicle, the two went to the spot Jun-ho had marked when he had previously tracked the gangsters here and installed a repeater. Of course, even if they installed a repeater here, it wouldn't allow for wireless communication with the shelter. This was because it was nearly 10 kilometers away from Our Shelter and over 6 kilometers in a straight line from the repeater installed in the Jaeseong Building in Mokuri.
However, once installed, they could fly drones within a radius of 4 to 5 kilometers centered on this location, and wireless communication would be smooth within that distance. Furthermore, more importantly:
"Later, we'll connect a wireless relay from our shelter to here. Then almost half of Namyangju will be within our wireless range."
After confirming that the repeater and amplifier, which had taken nearly an hour to install, were working normally, Jun-ho flew several drones he had brought from the shelter one by one. As expected, all the drones were capable of flight and filming within 5 kilometers, and Jun-ho meticulously scouted Yangpyeong-gun across the river and the Joan-myeon area of Namyangju, which was the destination for the next repeater installation.
"Yangpyeong is fine for now since we aren't crossing over immediately."
While Jun-ho had used a drone to scan Yangpyeong across the river once, he scouted Joan-myeon, where they had to head south along the Bukhan River, in detail. Although the area was quite large, Joan-myeon was mostly mountainous and had a very small resident population. However, because Joan-myeon was adjacent to Paldang Lake and the Bukhan River, there had been quite a lot of people who had come to enjoy their summer vacations during the holiday when the apocalypse broke out. Tourists who had stayed in pensions, bed and breakfasts, and motels built along the river had turned into zombies and were wandering around the vicinity in large numbers.
"Are we passing through there?"
When Park Deok-cheol, who had been watching the situation along the river in Joan-myeon where dozens of zombies were roaming around with a tense expression, asked, Jun-ho chuckled.
"If we want to get to Gwangju, we obviously have to pass through. But we aren't going by road or path."
"Then how?"
Jun-ho gestured toward the items he had unloaded from the cargo bed of the multipurpose electric vehicle along with the repeater and amplifier.
"We have to use that."
Where Jun-ho pointed, there were two boxes slightly larger than clothing storage boxes and a long gray motor.
* * *
"Hoo, hoo, hoo."
Park Deok-cheol, who had been an idol performing intense choreography before coming to Our Shelter and had been trained as a combatant for the shelter until recently, possessing stamina and strength far above average, inhaled and exhaled rhythmically as he pumped.
"Done."
"Hoo...? Don't we need to fill it to full charge at once?"
Park Deok-cheol, who had been diligently pumping air into the rubber boat using a manual pump, wiped his sweat and asked.
"No. We just need to get the shape right. We can do the rest once we put the floor in."
Jun-ho spread the floor material into the half-inflated rubber boat and pushed the aluminum reinforcements into the grooves to fit them. It was a task he had done several times since ordering this product, so it wasn't difficult at all.
"Hoo, hoo, hoo."
Before long, Park Deok-cheol injected air again with the pump. After the rubber boat took its shape and Jun-ho meticulously installed the air floor, he turned the valve cap to lock it and even checked for leaks with soapy water.
"All done. Now, then..."
Jun-ho attached an electric motor to the transom of the rubber boat. This electric motor, capable of cruising at about 70 kilometers per hour at low speed, had a duration of 12 hours. It was also very easy to attach and detach from an 8-10 person rubber boat, making it perfect for this operation.
After attaching the motor to the rubber boat and checking the shaft length, Jun-ho ran the motor very weakly, then moved various pieces of equipment, which were tightly wrapped in waterproof plastic, including the battery, back and forth to balance it. Perhaps because he had experimented and practiced several times at the reservoir in the safe zone, Jun-ho was able to complete all those tasks slowly but surely.
However, it was certain that if he hadn't done a lot of experiments and practice before the apocalypse occurred, he wouldn't have been able to properly install even a single electric motor on a rubber boat.
"All that talk about anyone and everyone riding boats across the Han River is a total lie..."
Jun-ho muttered to himself in a low voice. At that, Park Deok-cheol, who had been watching Jun-ho's work as if it were truly fascinating, nodded in agreement.
"That's right. Boat driving is extremely difficult too. So, shall we load the luggage now?"
"No. Let's rest here today and leave at dawn tomorrow. We need to scout a bit more and replenish our stamina."
In an apocalyptic world where you don't know when or where a sudden situation that threatens your life, whether from zombies or looters, might occur, not for a day or two, but for at least a week, you have to move. So, you must never be impatient.
"Tomorrow, we'll install two units near Sambong-ri and Ungilsan Station, and the day after tomorrow, we'll install one at a suitable spot on Paldang Lake."
Once that work was finished, they would be able to fly drones to the entrance of the Gyeongancheon Stream, which flows from Paldang Lake to Gwangju. That meant it would guarantee the safety and survival of Jun-ho and Park Deok-cheol, and at the same time, it would enable smooth communication between the 'alliances' that would later connect Our Shelter-Gahyeon-ri Community-Lee Seok-jin Unit-Gangho Resort.
* * *
Jun-ho and Park Deok-cheol, who spent the night at the leisure sports marina, ate the last lunch box that Choi Ha-neul and Park Seon-hui had painstakingly made for them when they left yesterday for breakfast. Since they would have to eat only combat rations and high-calorie emergency food for the time being, the two finished their meal without leaving a single grain of rice and finally checked the boat and the equipment to be loaded onto it.
"Done."
"I'm clear too, brother."
The two, who had checked each other's life jackets, boarded the rubber boat floating at the marina where the water mist was slowly thinning. Whirrr. With a low current sound, the electric motor rotated vigorously and propelled the rubber boat forward. It was a slow speed of 5 to 6 kilometers per hour, but because the motor sound was so quiet, it would be impossible to hear it from the riverside.
"Cover it with the camouflage net, and you watch the front."
"Yes."
The mottled waterproof camouflage net had been meticulously camouflaged once more with tree branches and bushes. Although it was narrower than the Han River, the Bukhan River was 400 to 500 meters wide, so even if you looked this way from the riverside, it would be difficult to distinguish whether this was a boat or bushes clumped together and floating down.
"......"
Sitting with his body lowered as much as possible at the back of the boat, Jun-ho kept his guard up, constantly watching the front, back, left, and right with the safety catch of his AR15 released. Although there was still water mist, it was easy to secure visibility up to about 30 meters, so there was no problem at all in steering the boat at this speed.
About 30 minutes after they had followed the Bukhan River down, "Br-brother. Th-that... look at that." Park Deok-cheol stammered in a voice full of tension. Jun-ho, who looked that way, narrowed his eyes slightly. Hundreds of corpses were piled up around a small island at the end of a stream flowing into the Bukhan River, which could be seen as soon as they passed under the bridge. The corpses, bloated with water and with bones and skulls exposed, were so horrific that they made one want to vomit even from a distance. And dozens of zombies were in the middle of tearing apart a few corpses that were still relatively intact on that small island.
The moment he saw that scene, which was truly no different from a hellscape, things he had seen and experienced before his regression naturally came to mind. That was the 'real' apocalyptic world Jun-ho knew. The Our Shelter safe zone, the Gahyeon-ri community, and some areas under Jun-ho's influence still didn't know such a reality.
"......"
Jun-ho, who had been staring at the horrific scene unfolding on the small island with cold eyes, aimed his AR15 toward it.
"Br-brother?"
Without answering Park Deok-cheol's whisper, Jun-ho aimed at the zombies with his scope. And the moment he discovered the only one among the 30 or so zombies that had an 'expression'. Jun-ho moved forward and pulled the trigger, considering the drop caused by the movement of the boat moving up and down.
Pang!
The subsonic bullet pierced the head of the Alpha that had made the small island its nest. The one whose head was penetrated while still wearing the same satisfied smile as it looked at the slave zombies fell backward with a thud.
"......!"
Park Deok-cheol's jaw dropped at Jun-ho, who had succeeded in sniping the Alpha from over 200 meters away with a single shot from a moving boat.
"Keep guarding the front. If you discover something like that, let me know immediately."
"Ye-yes."
Park Deok-cheol, who nodded his head quickly, became very tense and examined the Bukhan River riverside more carefully. However, even in that tension, Park Deok-cheol felt relief and reassurance. 'Cherry. You must stay alive. If I'm with Big Brother Jun-ho, there will be no problems at all.'
* * *
For two days, Jun-ho succeeded in installing 3 more repeaters by going back and forth on the Bukhan River using the rubber boat with the leisure sports marina as his base. One was installed on a mountain in Sambong-ri, Joan-myeon, one on the railway bridge where the Gyeongui-Jungang Line passes. And the last one was installed in an ecological park adjacent to Paldang Lake. Jun-ho and Park Deok-cheol, who finished all the work, camped out for one night at a suitable place on the riverside of the ecological park, and after scouting up to the distance the drone could fly, they finally entered the Gyeongancheon Stream, which connects to Gwangju.
"You have to be really careful from here on."
"Yes."
The two, who hid the boat at a suitable spot in the Gyeongancheon Wetland Ecological Park where the drone had last checked the situation, walked down along the riverside road, which was full of nothing but vinyl greenhouses. About two hours after they had walked along the Gyeongancheon Stream like that, Bang...! Bang...! Gunshots heard from far away greeted the two. They knew they hadn't shot toward them, but at the same time, they jumped into the waterway and hid their bodies.
"Gunshot!? Brother!"
"I heard it too."
Jun-ho examined the direction from which the gunshots were heard with a sharp gaze. Tatata...! Bang...! Bang...! The direction where the gunshots were continuing was still quite far away, and although mountains were blocking them in layers, it was the southeast where the Gangho Resort, which Jun-ho had set as his final destination, was located.