A Human Being
Jun-ho scrutinized the four fugitives captured on the CCTV cameras installed at the Gahyeon-ri villa. A man in his mid-thirties, clutching a child to his chest, was leading the pack. Even in his frantic state, he kept checking to ensure the middle-school-aged girl and the elementary-school-aged boy behind him weren't falling behind. About 70 or 80 meters behind them, a dozen zombies were in pursuit.
“Oh my god! What do we do about that?”
“Ahhh…!”
The women in the shelter let out cries of distress. But Jun-ho merely observed the situation with cold, detached eyes.
‘They won’t be caught immediately.’
Fortunately, the pursuing zombies all appeared to be in their fifties or older. Given the demographics of the area, most were likely over sixty. This meant their physical capabilities, including their speed, were significantly diminished. Even so, the reason the four fugitives couldn't shake the pursuit was that the man was carrying a child, and the middle-school girl was running while holding the hand of the elementary schooler, who she clearly regarded as her younger brother.
‘But that man…’
A sense of déjà vu washed over Jun-ho as he watched the man running with a backpack while cradling a small child of about four or five years old. He didn't seem to be anyone Jun-ho had lived with in his survivor group before the regression. Yet, the familiarity persisted—as if he had seen him somewhere by chance.
‘Huh?’
Suddenly, his eyes were drawn to the backpack the man was wearing. It was a character bag popular among early elementary and preschool children. Was the name Koromi?
‘Ah!’
In that instant, a memory from before his regression, one he had long forgotten, surfaced like a flash of déjà vu. Jun-ho had discovered the 'corpse of a man' wearing that exact same bag inside the closed tunnel, in the very direction these four were running. It was a memorable corpse because it was quite unusual: an adult male who had died alone inside a tunnel while wearing a cute character bag that little girls would love. And what he had found while scavenging the belongings of that peculiar corpse was…
“……”
Jun-ho quickly scanned the people in the shelter. Everyone was either at a loss for what to do or trying to look away from the TV screen, biting their lips as they couldn't bear to watch the tragedy that would unfold in a few minutes.
“Jun-hyeok, Brother Ha-il.”
“Huh? Oh, yeah!”
Jun-hyeok, who had been gritting his teeth, and Baek Ha-il, who had been watching the screen with a deep frown, startled and looked at Jun-ho.
“Jun-hyeok, you fly the drone, and Brother, you open the gate. Team Leader Yun Yeong-su, help them.”
“……!?”
“Lee Jun-hyeok. Get a grip, quickly.”
At Jun-ho’s chilling, icy voice, Jun-hyeok, who had been wide-eyed, immediately nodded with a flushed face.
“Got it! Brother Yeong-su, let’s go to the control room together!”
“Okay!”
Yun Yeong-su, who was strangely quick-witted only in ‘situations like this,’ jumped to his feet.
“You open the gate too, Yeong-su. Ho-ya, I’ll take care of the folks here.”
“That would be best.”
Since someone needed to look after the three people who were still confused, Jun-ho agreed and bolted out of the living room like lightning, followed by Jun-hyeok and Yun Yeong-su.
“Ah, Dad…”
Baek Ha-il forced a smile at his children, who couldn't hide their bewilderment, and at Choi Ha-neul.
“Boss Ha-neul, and you kids, you have a lot of questions, right? Just watch the screen from here and listen.”
***
Jun-ho quickly donned a mobile tactical vest equipped with Level 3 ballistic panels over the lightweight, flame-retardant Gore-Tex combat uniform he was already wearing. The tactical vest was already fitted with detachable pouches containing a Glock 17, magazines, a first-aid kit, and various other gear. Finally, wearing a lightweight tactical helmet with an attached camera and headset, along with ballistic goggles, Jun-ho grabbed his AR15, KP9, and the replicated air rifle before rushing out. All his equipment had been perfectly set up last night, the day before the apocalypse began.
“Purdy!”
As soon as Jun-ho opened the main building door, Purdy, who had been lying down, sprang up and dashed out of the kennel, following Jun-ho. Woof! Purdy barked once to stop Kkamsuni, who was instinctively trying to follow, and then jumped into the passenger seat as Jun-ho opened the door of the armored Bionic 5.
Whirrr…!
The sturdy main gate of the shelter, which used to be the front gate of the branch school but was now fully automated, swung open. The armored Bionic 5 sped through the gap. True to the claims of the specialty vehicle company representative, the armored car maneuvering in tactical mode displayed incredibly agile movement.
The armored car quickly descended the winding mountain road of the shelter, passed the second gate made from a modified empty container, and sped along the narrow road below the shelter, which had already been paved. During the past year since he had left Bucheon and moved completely to the shelter, Jun-ho hadn't just been killing time. He had maintained the mountain trails and this road, and built various auxiliary facilities that even two or three people could easily construct. Furthermore, Jun-ho had used this road as a testing ground, driving the shelter’s various vehicles, including the armored car, countless times.
Within a radius of about 2.5 to 3 kilometers around the shelter, there were five guard posts, and the high-performance CCTV cameras installed throughout the road were within surveillance range. He had to be so familiar with the vehicles and the roads that he could navigate them with his eyes closed to move as quickly as possible if an anomaly was detected.
- Brother! I’ve arrived at Drone Point One. Recon range, no anomalies up to 5 grids from the point!
Ever since they moved to the shelter last year, Jun-hyeok’s operating was flawless, just as they had practiced five or six times every week within the grounds.
“Expand the range to include those people, identify all threats, and let me know. Make it so I can see the video from here. If it looks dangerous, crash the drone into them. You can buy me some time.”
- Roger that!
- Boss! If I launch another drone, we can verify simultaneously and make collision attacks easier!
“Then do that.”
It was Yun Yeong-su who had scanned the entire area near the shelter and created a 3D map with drones. At the time, he had said it was in case any guests got stranded, but as someone with exceptional intuition in ‘specific situations,’ he seemed to have adapted immediately.
- Boss, it’s launched now. Arriving on site in 40 seconds!
“Good. Switch to follow mode when you arrive.”
Maintaining communication through the earphone in his headset, Jun-ho drove the armored car at around 50 kilometers per hour along the narrow, winding road he had practiced on countless times, day and night. Ultimately, it took less than four minutes for the armored car to leave the shelter gate and arrive in front of the closed tunnel entrance. As soon as he got out of the car, Jun-ho slung the AR15 on his back, the KP9 over his left shoulder, and holding the replicated air rifle in one hand, he ran up the hill toward the tunnel with Purdy.
Thump, thump, thump!
Although he had maintained it, the hill was quite steep. However, Jun-ho, whose physical abilities had changed abnormally and who had never missed a day of his physical training routine wearing a 30-kilogram weight belt for over two years, ran up the hill at a speed no different from an elite athlete sprinting on flat ground.
- No anomalies within 3 grids of your position, Brother! The zombies chasing those people are…
- Four more just joined! Sixteen total, two are fast! Distance to your point… entering within 300 now!
- Move to Point Two! The angle is better from there!
Listening to Jun-hyeok’s rapid-fire communication, Jun-ho reached the high hill above the tunnel in less than a minute after leaving the car. He moved quickly toward one of the small bunkers he had secretly built a few months ago, keeping his upper body hunched.
Since it was one of the only two places connected to the shelter grounds, he had built three such bunkers, referred to as ‘points,’ on the low mountain above the tunnel.
“Arrived.”
- Confirmed!
Jun-ho, who had jumped into the bunker with Purdy after clearing away the camouflage netting, opened the reinforced plastic device attached to the center of his tactical vest, revealing a tablet the size of his palm. The video captured by the drone was being transmitted to the tablet screen in real-time. Simultaneously confirming the video, Jun-ho set down all his firearms and first picked up the full-set AR15. Flipping the red dot sight attached to the Picatinny rail to the side, Jun-ho disengaged the safety and scanned the front using the scope set to 3x magnification.
The man was exhausted from running nearly a kilometer while carrying a child and wearing a backpack. The two children running behind him, holding hands, were also on the verge of collapsing, and about 20 meters behind them, a male zombie in his forties and a young female zombie were chasing them. They seemed to be the two fastest among the four that had just joined. As the gap between the zombies and the two children narrowed, Jun-hyeok’s voice continued.
- Distance 220… 210… Target in range!
The stable effective range of the AR15, customized to use 5.56mm subsonic rounds exclusively, was about 150 to 200 meters. Of course, it could inflict fatal wounds beyond that, but the ballistic drop was severe.
Pang! Pang!
With the characteristic sound of compressed air bursting in a short, dull manner, two subsonic rounds were fired, piercing the heads of the two zombies running 10 meters behind the middle-school girl and her brother 0.8 seconds later.
Pang! Pang!
Two more rounds flew in succession, striking the heads of the two zombies behind them. The zombies hit by the headshots all had their heads snapped in the direction of the bullet’s trajectory and collapsed limply. Almost no blood splattered. It was because the bullets merely pierced the skull and turned the brains into mush.
The four survivors running frantically and the other zombies didn't even notice the gunfire.
Pang! Pang! Pang! Pang! Pang!
Jun-ho fired five more rounds, taking down five more with one shot each.
- 150! 2 grids!
Jun-ho, who had already finished calculating the approximate distance with his scope before Jun-hyeok could even provide real-time video feedback, immediately lowered the AR15 and picked up the replicated air rifle. From this distance, even if the AR15 used a silencer and subsonic rounds, someone with good hearing might be able to hear the gunshot. And a newly infected zombie possessed the same physical abilities as a human, excluding their eyesight. This meant that if the gunshot was loud, the zombies could also perceive his position.
The air rifle, which had a slightly widened caliber and was loaded with a 10-round magazine of tungsten pellets mass-produced at the shelter’s workshop, also had a scope attached, and like the other firearms, its zeroing was complete.
Jun-ho, who had instantly determined the target order, stared through the scope and pulled the trigger without hesitation.
Thwip…! Thwip…! Thwip…! Thwip…!
Because it had been modified to increase power, the tungsten pellets flew with a sound that was definitely quieter than a gunshot, even if it was a bit louder than a regular air rifle. The heads of the hit zombies caved in, and they collapsed on the spot.
Thwip…! Thwip…!
- 120… 110…
Thwip…!
- 100, one grid, one grid! Brother, weapon switch… finished?
All 16 zombies that had been chasing the four people were dead.
“Continue precise surveillance up to 5 grids around me with one drone, and have one drone grasp the situation up to the maximum distance around those people. I’m approaching now.”
- Ro… Roger!
- Boss, I’ll handle the maximum surveillance!
“Please do. If it looks like anyone, human or zombie, is coming toward us on the thermal imaging, let me know immediately.”
- Ryokai! Currently… there’s no one within a 270-meter radius except for those people! I’m expanding the range and continuing to check!
Listening to Yun Yeong-su’s otaku-like response, Jun-ho packed up his firearms and left the bunker. Jun-ho, who had quickly descended the hill with Purdy, ran while keeping his body as low as possible under the hill, where brush and grass were overgrown. Soon, Jun-ho could see at close range the man who was still struggling to run, unaware that the zombies were all dead, and the middle-school girl who was staggering as if she might collapse but never let go of her brother’s hand.
Swish.
“Aaaah!”
When someone suddenly emerged from behind the bushes less than 10 meters away, the man screamed and fell.
“Aaaah!”
The child in his arms, a girl who looked about four or five years old, burst into tears. The middle-school girl and the elementary schooler right behind them also collapsed to the ground, gasping for air and clinging to each other.
“Ugh… ugh…”
The man, his clothes and face soaked with sweat, hugged the crying child and tried desperately to stand up. But there was no way he had any strength left after running a distance that would be daunting for an ordinary person to even run, let alone while carrying a child.
“Shh! Be quiet and don’t move. You kids stay still too.”
“…Huh?”
Startled by the voice of a human, not ‘those things,’ the man and the children regained their senses and looked back at Jun-ho.
“I’ve taken care of all the zombies. Rest assured.”
“Are… are you a human?”
“Yes, I am a human.”
Jun-ho lifted his ballistic goggles, which were heavily permeated with the smell of gunpowder. Only then could the man, who was finally able to properly examine Jun-ho—or rather, what he looked like—slowly open his mouth. The man and the three children couldn't take their eyes off Jun-ho, who looked like a special forces soldier or a PMC operative they had only seen in movies or dramas, and who was carrying three guns at that. And Jun-ho also stared intently at the man. Because this man, who had been discovered as a corpse alone wearing a Koromi bag inside the tunnel before the regression, was…
‘He had five or six certifications in his wallet, from engineer to technician.’
He was the technician our shelter needed most, along with a doctor.