Shall I Kill Them? (1)
"Um... Sir? Do I really have to wear this?"
"Yes, absolutely. That material doesn't tear easily, even if a zombie bites you."
"Ah! Yes, sir!"
At Jun-ho's dry response, Choi Jung-woo fumbled as he took off his T-shirt and put on the clothing neatly folded in front of him.
"...Oh?"
Choi Jung-woo, now wearing the long-sleeved Gore-Tex workwear, tilted his head.
"It's cooler than you thought, right?"
"Ah, yes. It's amazing, sir. These shoes are also incredibly sturdy, but they're lighter than they look."
"That's how it should be. They're high-quality gear."
Just that work shirt cost nearly 100,000 won per piece. The armpits and back were made of mesh for excellent ventilation, and it offered superior elasticity and mobility. Furthermore, its abrasion-resistant design meant it could withstand a zombie bite to some extent. On top of that, the mid-top outdoor shoes were high-end products that cost nearly 200,000 won even at outlet stores selling last season's stock at a discount—a favorite among overseas trekkers and camping enthusiasts. They were waterproof, slip-resistant, and extremely durable, making them the optimal choice for outdoor activities in the apocalypse.
"Put these on as well. Wear these on your elbows and knees."
"Yes."
Choi Jung-woo put on a lightweight tactical helmet—capable of stopping lead pellets from an air rifle—and reinforced plastic guards on his elbows and knees.
"Daddy looks cool...!"
Choi Jung-woo, who had been looking up with his mouth agape, picked up his daughter and tried his best to smile.
"Daddy looks cool?"
"Yeah! Like a police officer! But Daddy, are you going to pick up Mommy?"
"......"
Suppressing the urge to let his expression crumble, Choi Jung-woo forced—truly forced—a smile and said, "Ji-woo. Mommy is sick, so she went to the hospital. She has to stay there for a long time. Mommy is hurting a lot."
"Ooh... Then can't I go see her with you and the doggies?"
"It's too far, so it'd be hard for you to go, Ji-woo. You'd have to ride a car, take the subway for a long time, and walk a whole, whole lot. So, Mommy said that if our Ji-woo listens to Daddy and plays well with the doggies... she'll come. She said she'd buy Kuromi and Cinnamoroll dolls and come see you..."
"Kuromi and Cinnamoroll! Really? Really, really?"
"Yeah, a real, real promise."
"Daddy, put me down. Jun-seo Oppa! My mommy said she'd buy me Kuromi and Cinnamoroll dolls! She said when she's not sick anymore, she'll come with Kuromi and Cinnamoroll!"
Not knowing it was a promise that might never be kept, Choi Jung-woo wiped away tears as he watched his daughter run off excitedly to brag to Kim Jun-seo.
"...Your daughter and the children will be safe. I promise you that."
"Yes. Th-thank you. For preparing the game console and the cartoons... thank you so much."
Choi Jung-woo bowed repeatedly to Jun-ho, who spoke with a calm demeanor.
In both hands of Kim Ha-yun, who was leading Choi Ji-woo and Kim Jun-seo into the container residential area, were piles of game and character animation DVDs. Jun-ho had even installed the game console that played the DVDs just a moment ago and taught them how to use it. Normally, he wouldn't have shown this much hospitality, but he had gone to a bit of trouble because of the unexpected presence of young children.
Confirming that the children had entered the container, Jun-ho handed an eye mask to Choi Jung-woo.
"I'm monitoring them via CCTV, so you don't need to worry about the kids. Now, put this on and get in."
"Yes."
With his eyes reddened, Choi Jung-woo put on the eye mask. Jun-ho helped him into the electric truck and gestured toward the location of the CCTV. With a low hum, the container that occupied one side of the residential area split in half and opened. To the naked eye, they all looked like standard residential containers, but the containers at both ends of the rectangular area were automated entrances. This was the reason Choi Jung-woo had wondered how cars and people moved in and out, despite believing the area was completely sealed off.
Whirr... As the electric truck passed through the entrance with a light jolt, the container emitted a heavy mechanical sound and returned to its original appearance as if by magic. Whether from the inside or outside, anyone who didn't look closely would simply assume they were old, worn-out containers.
Whirr. The electric truck traveled down the mountain along a winding road. The container residential area was located halfway up the mountain where Our Shelter was, about a 15-minute walk down from the shelter. The container area and the shelter site were connected by a winding, two-lane road with three sharp corners. Hidden along this road were over ten 2-meter-long metal barricades that would automatically deploy in an emergency.
The road leading from the container area down to the foot of the mountain also had several corners and took over 20 minutes to walk. Moreover, reaching the bottom wasn't the end. At the entrance of the mountain where the shelter and container area were located, a soundproof wall had been erected as if construction had been abandoned long ago, blocking the way. Behind this main gate was a high-tech, fully automated bulletproof steel door, while the outer layer consisted of a 4-meter-high rusted iron gate that looked as if no one had passed through it for years, though it was also automated.
Additionally, four ultra-compact, high-definition CCTV cameras were hidden in spots difficult for people to notice, monitoring the area around the entrance without any blind spots. In other words, outsiders and vehicles had to pass through all of this to finally enter Our Shelter.
Clunk. After driving along the road for over ten minutes, the electric truck came to a stop. Jun-ho opened the cargo bed and guided Choi Jung-woo, still blindfolded, down to the road.
"Get in. Watch your head."
"Yes, yes... ugh."
"I told you to be careful."
"I-I'm sorry."
Jun-ho seated Choi Jung-woo in the passenger seat of the Bionic 5 bulletproof car he had kept waiting, signaled to Baek Ha-il, who was in the driver's seat of the electric truck, and departed first.
The reason for going through such cumbersome procedures was simple: while Choi Jung-woo might have a rough idea of where the container residential area was, he still didn't know the location of where Jun-ho lived—Our Shelter. Therefore, it was necessary to keep him under the illusion that Our Shelter was located more than 20 minutes away by car from the container area. Even though that wouldn't be the case as long as his daughter was in the container area, Jun-ho had to prepare for any situation that might deviate from his expectations.
It was just approaching 2:00 PM. The bulletproof car retraced Jun-ho's patrol route in reverse and arrived at the entrance of the secret bypass road located in the soundproof wall of the industrial road. Inside the rusted iron gate, a high-strength steel plate had been welded, and steel bar supports were installed, creating a structure that wouldn't collapse even if a truck rammed into it. The soundproof walls on both sides of the gate had also been reinforced with supports along a 300-meter section, so there was no risk of them collapsing unless a container truck or a tank rammed into them. Besides, the area inside was nothing but wild mountains and a small stream, so there wouldn't be any madmen trying to break through the soundproof wall anyway.
'Grid' was the shelter's slang for a 50-meter unit, with 1 grid starting at 100 meters. This was because the effective ranges of the firearms held by the shelter were divided into 100 meters, 150 meters, and 200 meters. Therefore, 5 grids meant approximately 300 meters, and from this distance, they had to maintain a combat-ready posture the moment a zombie or human appeared.
Whirr... Clank! As the secret bypass gate opened, the bulletproof car passed through quickly and entered the industrial road. From the perspective of the industrial road, the old, rusted iron gate that hadn't been used for years closed and locked tightly. The bulletproof car moved along the industrial road toward Gahyeon-ri at a somewhat slow speed of around 30 km/h.
"Confirmed. I'll stop just before the corner, so hand over control of the forward drone then."
"Roger."
Jun-ho slowed the bulletproof car and stopped about 30 meters before the corner that hugged the mountain. He took out the drone smart controller set up by Yun Yeong-su and waited for the signal. Soon, with a blinking signal, the drone's point-of-view footage appeared on the controller's display. The drone, hovering at an altitude of 300 meters, moved toward the corner and captured the 'Bs'—the zombies—wandering around the wrecked vehicles.
"I'm handing control back. Keep the forward drone monitoring the Bs from its current position, and expand the follow drone's surveillance radius to 500 and focus on the safety of Car 1."
"Roger."
"Mr. Choi Jung-woo, please wait in the car for a moment. It'll be over soon. Ah, I should untie this for you."
As Jun-ho removed the eye mask, Choi Jung-woo trembled like an aspen tree and said, "S-Sir. Are you really going to be okay?"
"I'll be fine. The situation was much worse than this when I saved you and the kids this morning."
"Ah..."
"Anyway, just sit still. There's another drone hovering above this car right now, so it's safe within a 500-meter radius. Oh, and I'm watching everything here through the dashcam, so don't touch anything."
"O-of course, sir. I'll just sit here without moving a muscle."
Choi Jung-woo gripped his seatbelt and nodded vigorously. Jun-ho, hunched over, ran quickly toward the corner while opening the reinforced plastic cover in the center of his tactical vest to check the screen sent by the drone on his tablet.
A group of zombies consisting of six adults and two teenagers. Three of them were busy tearing into corpses, while the other five wandered around with grotesque gaits before suddenly snapping their heads around to look at their surroundings. Since they didn't have a fixed routine, there was a high probability of being spotted if he turned the corner like this.
'About 50 meters.'
At this distance, zombies saw and heard just as well as they did when they were human. If they heard even a slightly loud noise or movement, they would sprint toward him.
'In that case...'
Having quickly assessed the situation and calculated his moves, Jun-ho sent a communication via his headset.
"20 seconds after this communication ends, use the drone to distract them. I'll eliminate them in the meantime."
"Roger. Be careful, Hyung."
"Yeah."
Ending the communication, Jun-ho disengaged the safety on his KP9 and folded his elbows comfortably.
Whirr! A moment later, the drone that had been monitoring from high altitude dived toward the location of the zombies with a loud noise like a swarm of wasps. The moment the wandering ones and the ones tearing into corpses all turned their faces toward the drone in unison, Jun-ho moved low to the side and turned the corner using the 'Crab Walk' while maintaining a shooting stance, aiming at the zombies one by one through his red dot sight.
Jun-ho, who held an 'Outstanding' grade with a 98 percent accuracy rating in the Redrock Academy's live-fire evaluation, fired.
Tap! Tap! Tap! Tap! Tap! Tap! Tap! Tap!
With god-like single-tap shooting, he didn't miss a single headbox of the zombies that entered his dot sight. The 9mm subsonic rounds penetrated all of their temporal and occipital bones within 0.2 seconds of leaving the muzzle, and the eight zombies collapsed onto the asphalt within just 5 to 6 seconds.
"All down, all down!"
Jun-hyuk's voice, filled with admiration, could be heard, but Jun-ho remained in his shooting stance and advanced slowly. His survival experience in the apocalypse before his regression, the teachings of Instructor Scott at Redrock Academy, and an inexplicable 'sixth sense' kept Jun-ho from letting his guard down.
And at that moment.
"Graaaah...!"
A small female zombie jumped out from the half-open backseat of a car about 10 meters away.
Tap!
Jun-ho reflexively turned his muzzle toward it and pulled the trigger.
Thud!
Confirming the zombie that had fallen backward with a hole in the center of its forehead, Jun-ho said quietly, "Use the drone to thoroughly check the inside of all the cars here. Tell me when you're done."
"Ro-roger!"
With Jun-hyuk's flustered voice, the communication ended. And.
"......!"
Choi Jung-woo, who had witnessed this entire situation through the drone footage on the bulletproof car's display, trembled uncontrollably with his mouth agape.
A thorough search with the drone revealed no more zombies. Jun-ho moved the zombie corpses under the grass by the road and concealed them well, asked Baek Ha-il to collect them later, and started the bulletproof car. Listening to Jun-hyuk's communication, who seemed highly motivated perhaps because he had experienced an unexpected crisis, he arrived at the mountain road leading up to the Cheonghaksan Communication Relay Station.
"Hyung, the drone signal is a bit shaky from here on. I'm handing over control."
"Yeah."
Control of the drone passed back to Jun-ho, or more accurately, to the bulletproof car. Just as ADT Mobil representative Park Jae-hyun had boasted, the drone was perfectly linked with the bulletproof car's operating system. Of course, he had already confirmed this through several test flights since last year, but it would have been troublesome if a problem arose while operating it in a real-world scenario. However, the drone linked with the bulletproof car's system, followed the car from high altitude, and displayed all surrounding conditions on the wide display.
Choi Jung-woo in the passenger seat watched the display with curious eyes, then suddenly asked cautiously, "Um... Sir. May I ask you one thing?"
Ever since he saw Jun-ho dispose of people—no, zombies—in an instant, Choi Jung-woo's attitude had become much more polite. He wondered how he could kill them without any hesitation when he himself trembled in his hands and feet just by looking at them. Choi Jung-woo was both afraid of and in awe of Jun-ho.
"Go ahead."
"Yes, thank you. It's nothing else, really. I know this screen is from the drone camera, but I was wondering what that is right in front of you."
"That's the thermal imaging for the front, back, left, and right of this car. If anything that emits heat is hiding within a 20-meter radius, it shows up almost entirely."
"Ah, I see..."
"We're almost there now. Get ready."
"Ah, yes. I understand."
Tension returned to Choi Jung-woo's face, and a moment later, the bulletproof car entered the grass. Because it was summer, the grass and shrubs were overgrown, making it perfect for hiding the vehicle. However, Jun-ho went ahead and covered the bulletproof car with a camouflage net once more. He was worried that someone might fly a drone here.
Having thoroughly finished concealing the bulletproof car, Jun-ho touched the tablet on his tactical vest and set the drone's follow mode target to himself. The encrypted wireless communication system and antenna mounted on the bulletproof car worked normally up to a 500-meter radius, and although the communication relay station was still high up, the straight-line distance was only 200–300 meters, which was sufficient.
"Can you hear me?"
"Yeah! I can hear you, but the sensitivity is a bit weak. I really need to install a relay there."
"Yeah. That's why we came. Anyway, you'll be able to check the drone footage to some extent from there, so keep communicating with me while watching it."
"Roger."
The moment Jun-hyuk's voice ended. Beep, beep, beep, beep... Startled by the sudden warning sound coming from his headset, Jun-ho checked the tablet on his tactical vest. Along with a flashing red 'Alert' sign, the drone's surveillance mode had switched from passive to trigger, and the drone's wide-angle camera was fixed on one direction.
"......"
Jun-ho narrowed his eyes. There were four buildings, large and small, below the high communication tower of the relay station, and people were coming out of the largest gray building. There were eight people who came out of the building with normal gaits, not walking grotesquely like zombies. They were all assumed to be adult males, and all of them were carrying weapons like iron pipes or machetes. Above all, two of them were...
"Air rifles...?"
They were carrying hunting air rifles slung over their shoulders.