All Down, All Down!
"It's raining a bit."
- It's five millimeters per hour right now. At this rate, the drone flight won't be a problem.
The model was waterproof to begin with, but I wrapped the sensitive areas in waterproof vinyl just in case. Furthermore, I turned off the LEDs where possible and covered the rest with light-blocking tape, making it impossible to spot the drone from the ground.
"Status?"
- The number of zombies inside the nursing home is unchanged. Outside, there are a few more than yesterday... it's just over 80 now. If you include the nearby houses, it's over a hundred.
Compared to a densely populated urban area, it was a very modest(?) number, but this place had only two restricted access points. And if, by any chance, the zombies outside were to swarm all at once, the noise could attract others within a radius of two to three hundred meters. That would mean at least two hundred zombies, or in the worst-case scenario, four or five hundred, all converging on the nursing home. Therefore, we had to act as stealthily as possible.
"Let's test the night vision."
We had already done it at the shelter, but Jun-ho and Jun-hyeok checked the thermal imaging night vision goggles mounted on their tactical helmets once more. Such thermal imaging devices were indispensable, truly vital equipment in this apocalyptic world. With just this, one could definitively distinguish between humans and zombies in the night, where vision was limited.
Unlike during the day, zombies didn't move actively at night. Unless they spotted a human or heard a very loud noise, they would just stand still or walk around slowly with their waists slightly hunched. They didn't suddenly scan their surroundings in all directions like they did in the daytime. This was the same even in pitch-black or low-light conditions, which made it difficult to tell them apart from humans in the dark.
However, with thermal imaging night vision goggles, the situation changed. A normal human body temperature is usually between 36.5 and 37.5 degrees Celsius. It might be slightly lower or higher, but the deviation isn't that large. But a zombie's body temperature was much lower, between 26 and 28 degrees. It could occasionally be higher, but it never exceeded 30 degrees. That’s why, when viewed through a thermal imaging device, they were clearly distinguishable by color.
"Thermal imaging operating normally."
"IR laser pointer check."
"Laser pointer check. No issues."
At Jun-ho's command, Jun-hyeok checked the equipment one by one.
"The rain will cause light scattering, so don't rely too much on the laser pointer. There are a few streetlights around the nursing home, so let's make the most of those."
"Got it."
"We'll start from Point One and whittle them down. When I give the signal, move to Point Two and switch to the air rifle or the KP9 to fire. And at the end?"
"Keep waiting, and if you bring the person out from Point Zero, I'll move back to Point One. Or, if you give the signal, I'll enter Point Zero myself."
"Good. Always listen closely to the comms. I'll have Purdy stick with you; if something seems off, look out for yourself before you look out for me."
"Okay."
Jun-hyeok answered calmly. To be precise, they had killed together, but regardless, Jun-hyeok had recovered from the aftereffects of his first kill a few days ago faster than expected. Compared to Jun-ho himself, who had trembled for days after killing his first person before the regression, it was truly astonishing.
"You can do it, right? I believe in you."
"Hyung, I'm not a kid anymore... I can't keep making you suffer at my age, can I? Don't worry. I'll do well."
"......"
Perhaps because of the six-year age gap, Jun-ho had always seen him as a child, but seeing his younger brother's dependable demeanor made him feel proud, yet at the same time, a bit bitter. If it weren't for the apocalypse, he would be on the verge of graduating college and busy preparing for employment right now. But Jun-hyeok had spent the precious, irreplaceable years of his early twenties undergoing all sorts of preparations and training with him. And he had done so without a single word of complaint, trying his best to follow his lead.
"......"
"......?"
When Jun-ho held out his fist, Jun-hyeok, who had widened his eyes, soon grinned and bumped his fist against it.
"Then let's go."
- Drone departing first.
Because it was a night operation, the drone was monitoring the surroundings with a thermal camera at an altitude of 110 meters, much lower than usual. It was a medium-sized drone with relatively high noise, so at that altitude, it would be audible to someone with sharp ears, but thanks to the sound of the rain, it would be impossible to detect.
- No threats within a 200-meter radius. Continue moving.
With Purdy, who had memorized the path to the nursing home in just two trips, leading the way. Jun-ho, armed with a Level 3 bulletproof vest, an AR-15, a KP9, and a Glock 17, was carrying a spare air tank on his waist, unlike usual. Behind him followed Jun-hyeok, similarly armed, even carrying a hard case containing the replica air rifle. The brothers' armament, which included a total of ten spare magazines, was not only heavy but consisted of equipment that ordinary survivors could only dream of having.
* * *
- A window on the second floor of the nursing home is open. No light. A middle-aged man in casual clothes is looking out the window.
"Checking this side as well."
After moving for nearly two hours through mountain paths and pathless forests, the brothers arrived at Point One, a hillside overlooking the nursing home. Although the grass had grown again overnight, the hideout we had found and prepared after scouring the area with drones for the past few days offered a perfect view for observation and shooting toward the nursing home. The brothers had already thoroughly memorized the paths from here to Point Two and Point Zero.
"IR laser pointer test."
At Jun-ho's word, Jun-hyeok lowered his thermal imaging night vision goggles and aimed his AR-15, equipped with a laser pointer, toward the nursing home. The laser, invisible to the naked eye and captured only by NVGs or thermal cameras, swept across various parts of the nursing home building.
"The light scattering seems fine."
Jun-ho, who had lowered the thermal imaging goggles attached to his tactical helmet and checked the targets one by one, nodded.
"Time check."
"10:18."
- 10:18.
At Jun-ho's words, Jun-hyeok and Yun Yeong-su, who was in the shelter control room, spoke the time simultaneously.
"Then, we enter in two minutes."
Just as Jun-ho said that and was checking his weapons and gear one last time.
- A young man in a uniform just appeared at the window! What the!? It looks like he's tying curtains together to climb down?
"What?"
- That's right. A nurse and a middle-aged woman are tying them up like crazy. That floor below is... the kitchen. It looks like they're trying to get water or food because they've run out.
"Entering immediately. Everyone, stay sharp."
An unexpected situation had occurred, but it didn't matter. Pa-pa-pa-pak! Jun-ho dashed quickly through the rain along the path he had already identified. The ground, soaked with rainwater, was slippery, but thanks to Jun-ho's reflexes and his high-end outdoor mid-top shoes, he didn't slip or fall.
- They're almost down now. It looks like they're trying to open the kitchen window. Ah, there must be zombies in the cafeteria and kitchen...
It was information I had been able to uncover because I had been monitoring the nursing home for quite a long time. Thanks to Kim Ha-yun, who had often visited the nursing home following her grandmother, the approximate internal structure had already been identified.
"Point Two reached! Open fire!"
At Jun-ho's command, given as he tossed the spare air tank Jun-hyeok would use to Point Two, which was about 70 meters below Point One. 5.56mm subsonic rounds were fired in succession from Jun-hyeok's AR-15, who had finished preparations at Point One.
The first targets were the zombies wandering the nursing home parking lot. Pish-shook... Spack... Shwing... Thanks to the silencer and the added sound of the rain, the gunshot of the AR-15 couldn't be heard, but the sharp sound of the subsonic rounds whistling past nearby was audible, and the zombies standing blankly in the parking lot inside the nursing home collapsed one after another, their heads bent at bizarre angles. In the pouring rain, the sight of them suddenly falling one by one was truly grotesque. In just over ten seconds, all eight zombies had fallen.
Just as Jun-ho, who had arrived at the nursing home at a speed hard to believe for someone heavily armed, vaulted over the 1.5-meter-high parking lot wall in a single fluid parkour motion. With Jun-hyeok's continued firing, this time the zombies in the nursing home courtyard began to fall one after another. And after another ten seconds passed.
- All down, all down!
- The male employee is just about to open the kitchen window and enter!
Hearing Yun Yeong-su's urgent report, which followed Jun-hyeok's voice as if he were suppressing his excitement, Jun-ho took a deep breath. It would be troublesome if the male nursing home employee, whether his name was Jae-seok or Jae-sik, encountered a zombie in the kitchen and caused a huge commotion. Jun-ho put strength into his legs and ran at full speed across the parking lot, through the courtyard, and toward the back of the nursing home building.
Pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pak!
- Ugh...
Yun Yeong-su, startled by Jun-ho's speed as he dashed through the rain like a short-distance sprinter, swallowed his breath. Jun-ho, having immediately gone around to the back of the building, saw the window open in the darkness and threw his body into the window, lowering his thermal imaging night vision goggles as he did so.
Ta-tak!
"Hee-ik...!?"
Jun-ho, who had landed on the floor, rolled once upon hearing the young man's startled sound. The zombies in the kitchen all turned their bodies at once toward the noise the two had made. Jun-ho used the rotational force to rise, simultaneously taking a kneeling position, and aimed his muzzle toward the green-yellow targets that had entered his thermal imaging goggles.
With Jun-ho's god-like marksmanship, which continued without a moment to breathe, the KP9 changed direction twice per second, spraying subsonic rounds. Ta-tak! Ta-tak! Ta-tak! Tak! Tak! Ta-tak!
In just three or four seconds, six zombies, with ten or so bullets embedded in their bloodless faces and foreheads, collapsed onto the kitchen and cafeteria floor just as they were about to take a running stance. However, because the noise was quite loud, Jun-ho quickly moved his muzzle here and there to find other targets, and said to the nursing home employee who was sitting in the corner with his eyes wide open.
"Mr. Lee Jae-sik? Are you an employee of Hanam-reum Nursing Home?"
"Yes, yes... B-but who, who are you? And I... I'm not Jae-sik, I'm Jae-seok..."
"Do you happen to know how many more of them are outside the cafeteria?"
At Jun-ho's response, which cut off the unimportant words, Lee Jae-seok swallowed hard and answered.
"I, I don't know about the first floor. Ten on the second floor? Ah, no, is it more than that...?"
"Then how many employees and elderly people work at the nursing home in total?"
"Th-there are seven employees and thirty-eight residents..."
"What about the ones that were in the courtyard and parking lot... no, the people?"
"The young people are, are people who came to volunteer from the cathedral in Guri. The elderly are the seniors here..."
No wonder there were quite a lot of zombies that looked to be in their 20s and 30s at the nursing home; there was a reason.
"How many survivors are there in total?"
"Including me, there are six, no, s-seven people."
"Understood. Then..."
Jun-ho was about to ask the most important matter to him, but suddenly thought he should ask the secondary priority first. After all, he already knew that the doctor couple was perfectly fine.
"You know Yang Myeong-suk, who works part-time in silver care here, right? That person... where is she right now?"
"Ah... on the second floor."
Even in the midst of being so terrified and flustered, Lee Jae-seok, who had been answering Jun-ho's questions one by one, raised his finger and slowly pointed upward.