The True Purpose of the Shelter
The large man was loaded onto a stretcher, and LD and Kelvin were dragged away by the resort staff. Jun-ho looked at the people murmuring around him and spoke up.
"Since everyone is gathered here, I have an announcement to make. You all know about the chaos a while ago when those gangsters came here and started shooting. They were a gang called the Daeseonghoe…."
Jun-ho relayed the facts about the Daeseonghoe with a slight exaggeration.
"…So, we joined forces with the resort staff here and took care of them all. In other words, there won't be anyone threatening you or the Kangho Resort for the time being."
"Waaaaah…!"
The people, who had been on edge, finally erupted into cheers. It wasn't that there weren't others like the two rappers or the large man from earlier, but most of them were satisfied with living at the resort. Although they had to do unfamiliar physical labor, they had seen and heard enough before the broadcasts and internet went down to know that the outside world was a living hell. No one wanted to go out there, where zombies—and even scarier human looters—made robbery, murder, and all sorts of crimes rampant. The fear they had felt when the armed gangsters targeted the resort was beyond imagination, so the news that they had been officially wiped out was enough to make everyone happy.
"Thank you. Thank you so much."
"Oh my, you all worked so hard. Phew, really…."
People surrounded Park Cheol-woo and the combat team, expressing their gratitude. It was they who had cleared all the zombies inside the resort, and they who had fought against the external enemies. The people were genuinely thankful to Park Cheol-woo and the combat team.
"……."
Jun-ho, an outsider, slipped to the back and headed toward Park Deok-cheol.
"Hyung-nim, here."
"Yeah."
Ahn Yu-jeong and the members of Blossom, who had been watching Park Deok-cheol's lead, looked at Jun-ho—who was once again strapping on his various gear and weapons—with eyes mixed with fear and admiration. They had heard from Park Deok-cheol about what Jun-ho had done at 'Golden Heights' just a short while ago. And that was a vivid testimony that was just as 'exaggerated' as the respect Park Deok-cheol felt for Jun-ho.
'Are we really going to where this oppa lives now?'
'I'm so happy. We're really saved now.'
'I'm going to work really hard. Even harder than Sunny unnie.'
Jun-ho, having finished packing his gear, was secretly startled by the Blossom members glancing at him with strangely burning(?) eyes, but he didn't show it on the outside and walked over to Yoon Seol-hee and the dispatched combat personnel.
"The manager is injured, and I didn't want to overwork you, so I took care of it. Are you okay?"
"Yes. Thank you for your hard work."
"Don't mention it. It wasn't even a warm-up. By the way, did you really accept someone like that?"
At Jun-ho's words, Yoon Seol-hee wore a bitter expression.
"I obviously didn't want to accept them either. But the Representative made the decision. The policy the Representative set is to accept anyone for now and observe them."
"By sending them here and making them work?"
"That's right. You know well."
To the slightly surprised Yoon Seol-hee, Jun-ho gave a faint smile. Everyone did their assigned tasks at the resort, but the large-scale vinyl greenhouses built in this village and by the riverside were places where full-scale farming took place, so the labor intensity was higher. In other words, Kang Baek-ho was sending people who wanted to join the group here to work and observe them before deciding whether to fully accept them or not. And that was very similar to the purpose for which Jun-ho had built the container residence under his shelter. They had never discussed it with each other, yet both were using almost the same method to screen candidates for their group.
'As expected of Baek-ho hyung.'
Admiring the ability of 'Gwangju's Kang Baek-ho' anew, Jun-ho turned his head toward the combat personnel.
"My introduction is late. I'm Lee Jun-ho."
"I'm Kim Ji-min. It's a pleasure to meet you, President Lee Jun-ho."
"I'm Assistant Manager Kim Jae-mun. I've heard a lot about you. I'll do my best."
"I'm Gu Jeong-mok. I've met you a few times following Manager Yoon and Manager Park, do you happen to remember…?"
"Ah, I know. It's been a while. It's really nice to meet you two as well. I look forward to working with you all."
Jun-ho politely greeted Gu Jeong-mok, whom he had seen a couple of times when meeting Kang Baek-ho, and the other two. The three men who were to be dispatched to the shelter looked surprised. They were taken aback by Jun-ho's incredibly polite attitude, which stood in stark contrast to the stories they had heard and the scene they had just witnessed.
"W-we are the ones who…."
"We will do our best."
Although they had heard the environment was better than the resort, they still had to see it for themselves. More than that, the three men, who had been slightly worried about the terrifying(?) track record of the employer at the dispatch company, were deeply moved.
However….
"Manager, with this, those guys will be quiet for a while, right?"
When Jun-ho glanced to one side, everyone looked in that direction. There, the delinquent men who had been watching the showdown between Jun-ho and the large man with excited eyes while mingling with the crowd—and who had already been punished once by Yoon Seol-hee and the resort staff—were completely dispirited and glancing this way.
"Yes. It's thanks to you, Jun-ho. Well, they'll probably try to crawl back up again someday, but Senior Park will step in then, so it'll be fine."
Jun-ho followed Yoon Seol-hee and nodded at Park Cheol-woo.
"If it's Manager Park Cheol-woo, it's certain. By the way, those people… they should know how lucky they are…."
"Lucky… you say? Ah, because they can live here even if they have to farm hard?"
Gu Jeong-mok, who was somewhat acquainted with him, asked while tilting his head, and Jun-ho replied with an expressionless face.
"Well, that too, but if this were a place I managed, they would all be dead already."
"……!"
"I let that guy earlier go because of Baek-ho hyung. I absolutely do not tolerate such bastards. Whether I kill them myself or throw them to the zombies, they would be dead already anyway."
This was a group led by Kang Baek-ho, so Jun-ho couldn't kill people recklessly. No matter how close they were and how much help they had exchanged, the leader here was Kang Baek-ho, and he shouldn't cross the line set by him. However, Gahyeon-ri and his shelter were different. That was his territory, and if an incident similar to today's were to happen there.
"I do not leave seeds of trouble alone. So, you all must remember that, and when you go there, do not show any mercy."
It was a message to know the 'line' he had set, not Kang Baek-ho, and to focus on the assigned tasks as long as they were being dispatched to his shelter.
"Yes, understood!"
However, the three men, who took those words as a warning directed at them, stood at attention without anyone prompting them and replied.
"W-we too!"
"We will work hard! Oppa!"
Ahn Yu-jeong and the Blossom members also shouted with their military discipline tightened, as if they had returned to their rookie days.
"……."
Something felt strangely off, but Jun-ho was satisfied with the sight of everyone steeling their resolve. Beside him, Yoon Seol-hee twitched her lips, holding back a laugh that was about to burst out.
Early the next morning. Jun-ho, the Blossom members, and the combat personnel led by Yoon Seol-hee left the village. Since communication would soon be connected and people and supplies would be moving back and forth frequently, there were no grand farewells. The group went to the ferry landing built on the riverside of the village, boarded an electric motorboat that had been fully charged overnight, and traveled up the Gyeongancheon Stream to enter Paldang Lake.
The boat's capacity was tight, but because the Blossom members were so thin and light, and the other personnel didn't have much luggage, the boat was able to pass through the river while maintaining a cruising speed of 7 to 8 kilometers per hour.
"Wow…."
Jun-ho and Park Deok-cheol had seen it several times, so they were indifferent, but the Blossom members marveled at the mysterious landscape of Paldang Lake, where water mist was rising. However, as the mist gradually cleared and the grim reality of the apocalypse was revealed, their faces, still only around 20 years old, hardened rapidly.
It was because they saw the corpses scattered all over the riverside and the villages near the Bukhangang River, which had turned into ghost towns as trees and vines grew over them because they couldn't be maintained at all.
"……."
While the boat was submerged in silence like that, it arrived under the Yangsu Railway Bridge, where the Gyeongui-Jungang Line crosses the Bukhangang River, emitting only a low vibration sound.
Jun-ho was able to meet the 20 or so soldiers who had departed from 'Golden Heights' early in the morning, taken the Gyeongui-Jungang Line through Deokso and Paldang Station, and arrived at Ungilsan Station right on time. And unlike the flop idol group Junix that Park Deok-cheol belonged to, the young soldiers were extremely excited to see the members of Blossom, a top-tier girl group that almost everyone in Korea knew, in person.
However, because Yoon Seol-hee and the dispatched combat personnel, whose atmosphere was clearly not ordinary at a glance, and above all, Jun-ho were watching with sharp eyes, the soldiers quietly clenched their fists or just puffed out hot nasal breaths and moved quietly as Jun-ho ordered.
Jun-ho, who had moved everyone to the water sports marina that the gangsters used as an intermediate base by making three round trips with the electric motorboat, gave them a short break before coming outside and finally opening the channel connected to his shelter.
Beep.
"Is anyone there?"
- "Pre-si-deeeent!"
Jun-ho frowned at Yun Yeong-su's screech, but soon chuckled and looked at the drone floating in the sky.
"Can you see me? Did you take control of the drone?"
- "Yes! I've got it now. I can see you veeery well! Whoa! How long has it been? You aren't hurt anywhere, are you? Well, of course, our President is who he is. Oh, but what about Deok-cheol?"
At Yun Yeong-su's voice, which continued like a machine gun, Jun-ho realized anew that he had gotten closer to 'home' and said.
"He's resting inside the marina. Neither of us is hurt. I brought people from Kangho Resort and soldiers. Nothing happened at the shelter, right?"
- "Not at all. Wait, actually, something did happen."
"What? What happened?"
Jun-ho narrowed his brows. It had only been about a week at most, so what could have happened?
- "First of all, the Hanareum Nursing Home. Two of the elderly people staying there passed away one after another."
"……."
Indeed, they were elderly people who were already of advanced age, and their vitality had withered further as the world became like this, so it wouldn't have been strange if they had left the world at any time. Moreover, although their bodies had weakened, the psychological problem was even greater, so even though the couple Choi Ui-su and Kim Hui-yeong, who lived in the shelter, went to the nursing home frequently to look after their health, there was a limit.
- "The funeral was held well. The problem is that Elder Go Seok-jin is also ailing. It seems he's having a hard time mentally because the people he had been with at the nursing home for a long time passed away one after another."
"……."
Jun-ho, who had forgotten the memory for a while, closed his mouth. In the apocalypse, it is not only zombies and looters that kill people. The 'apocalypse' itself, where loss and despair are much greater than hope, also kills people. And it seemed that it was about to swallow up Go Seok-jin, the elderly man who had been a great help to his shelter as an expert in farming and livestock.
'It seems the time has come. No, actually, it's a bit late.'
The surrounding forces that could have been a major threat had all been dealt with, ending with the Daeseonghoe. Now that the Blossom members and the combat personnel had joined, it seemed the time had come to fully implement the 'true purpose' of the container residence built under the shelter.