They Must Disappear
"Why are the coach and Ah-reum here...? No, wait. Before that, why are those two together?" Choi Hyun-woo was confused. The coach from the mixed martial arts gym—whose name he couldn't quite recall—and Han Ah-reum were complete strangers. Or at least, he thought they were. It wasn't as if he knew every single person in Ah-reum's life, but no matter how he looked at it, they didn't seem like people who had known each other before.
"What do I do? Seriously..." Hyun-woo bit his lip. He hadn't been given explicit orders, but he knew that Jun-ho, the older brother figure he respected so deeply, wouldn't want anyone other than him and his family inside this place. Besides, even if he knew Ah-reum well, he didn't know the MMA coach at all. In an apocalypse where even normal people could suddenly snap, kill you, and take your belongings, letting in a professional fighter—not just a civilian—was a massive risk.
"Weight class or not, I'd get absolutely wrecked..." Even though he had been following Jun-ho and training in Krav Maga, the idea of him beating a former pro MMA fighter was laughable.
"Damn it. This is driving me crazy..." He felt his heart pounding as he looked at Han Ah-reum. She was a childhood friend he’d been close with, someone who had been loyal and honest to a fault, even when life was tough. Despite her difficult home environment, she had studied hard and worked part-time jobs without complaint. Hyun-woo liked her—not just as a woman, but as a person. Could he really just leave her out there?
"...I have no choice, Ah-reum. If Jun-ho Hyung-nim really... wait, what?"
Hyun-woo’s eyes widened. The coach and Han Ah-reum were standing in front of the main gate of the house, as if they had planned it all along. They looked around a few times, then stared directly at the spot where the hidden CCTV was located. They tapped something into their phones and held them up to the camera.
Jun-ho told us to come here! If anyone's there, answer! He even gave us the basement password!
"......!!!"
Hyun-woo’s jaw dropped, and he bolted from his chair. "Urrgh...!" He let out a beastly roar and sprinted up the basement stairs.
"Hyung, are you sure you can do this alone? Wouldn't it be better if I went in with you this time?" Jun-hyeok asked, his voice full of worry. Jun-ho calmly shook his head.
"It's fine. If two of us go in, we’re more vulnerable to unexpected situations. There are too many of them, and they aren't stationed in fixed positions, so the most important thing is to extract as quickly as possible. That’s why being alone is much better."
"I mean, you're not wrong, but..."
Jun-ho, having tucked three throwing knives into each side of his tactical belt for a total of six, checked his commando dagger and machete. He slid them into the dedicated pouches on his chest and thigh. Then, he placed a hand on his younger brother's shoulder.
"Your role is more important than mine. Even with the AI fire control, the target is over 200 meters away. You really need to make your shots count."
"Don't worry about me. I'm shooting from a distance, anyway. Plus, I've got Purdy."
Woof! Purdy, who was more reliable than any drone in the mountains or forests, barked once as if to say, "Trust me." Jun-ho gave the dog a quick pat and pulled several dark gray cylinders from a newly opened metal box, sliding them into the pouches on his waist.
"I didn't think I'd be using these so soon, though."
"Tell me about it. They're so loud I thought I wouldn't be able to use them until next year. Well, it works out. We've got plenty of test subjects."
They were flashbangs, perfectly sized to fit in his palm. While they were far less destructive than grenades, their purpose was to temporarily neutralize human vision and hearing with intense light and sound. They couldn't be quiet, and in the apocalypse, noise meant zombies. But thankfully, the local thugs had rented a mansion in a slightly secluded area, and since the outbreak, Jun-ho had been systematically clearing out the surrounding zombies and survivors. There was little chance of a massive horde swarming the building even if a flashbang went off inside.
"And I've got this, too." Jun-ho pressed a button hidden inside the sleeve of his Gore-Tex shirt. A tactical flashlight, half the size of a phone and mounted to the center of his tactical vest, erupted with a blinding 2,500-lumen strobe.
"Whoa, that's insanely bright. If you looked at that head-on at night, you'd be blinded instantly." Even though it wasn't pointed at him, Jun-hyeok winced hard. The light was so powerful it could almost be called a laser.
"If you see it suddenly, you'll be blind for several seconds. And that's not even counting the strobe mode." Jun-hyeok clicked his tongue at the light, which flickered rapidly like a club strobe.
"If that goes off in front of someone, they'll be blind and lose their mind."
"Exactly. They won't even know who's who, and they might start attacking each other."
The thugs had never experienced an assault like this. Jun-ho hadn't even thought of it himself until he witnessed a former special forces survivor use the tactic in his previous life.
"Tsk. Thanks to that, I'll know exactly where you are, Hyung. You're basically a human flashlight."
"I suppose so. Anyway, the light reaches over 300 meters, so watch your eyes, too. Let's go."
"Roger that."
Jun-hyeok, armed only with his Glock 17 and air rifle, climbed into the multi-purpose electric vehicle. His air rifle didn't have a tank attached; instead, it was connected to a 10-liter metal canister, as he was using a modified version designed for turret use.
Whirrr...
The vehicle, carrying two men and one dog, passed the mountain path behind the shelter and headed toward the mountain pass where the reservoir was located. Tonight, the largest gang in the Namyangju area—the Gado Union OB, also known as the "G"—was going to be erased from the world.
"Ugh, I'm exhausted. I'm literally gonna die, Sis."
"Seriously? What did you even do to be so dramatic?"
"No, seriously. I used muscles I haven't used in a while, and everything hurts." Park Deok-cheol whined, rubbing his arms and legs as his younger sister, Park Seon-hui, scolded him. Seon-hui glanced around nervously and lowered her voice.
"Ducky, those men might still be watching us. Don't show how tired you are. Do you want to get kicked out after only one day?"
"Gulp!" Startled, Deok-cheol quickly mimed zipping his mouth shut. Jo Yu-na, who had been brushing the dirt and dust off her work clothes nearby, spoke up cautiously.
"But... that scary man, and the person we worked with today... they didn't seem like bad people."
"That's true. Even if they... kill people quite well." Park Seon-hui shuddered at the memory of the bloody massacre from just a day ago. Just thinking about it made her knees weak and her skin crawl.
"But, come to think of it, if that person hadn't taken care of those... yankees, we would have been in big trouble."
"Hey, Yuna. There are two people here from the States, so using the word 'yankee' is a bit awkward."
"Oh, sorry, Ducky Oppa. That's just what we call thugs in Japan."
"I know. I was just teasing." Deok-cheol chuckled, then looked between the two and whispered, "Anyway, that intelligent murder expert—I don't know about me, but he knew exactly who Psyche Flare was."
"Yeah, he did. It was a bit strange."
"Right? You guys had only debuted a few months ago. So, I was thinking..." Deok-cheol continued in an even lower, deadly serious tone.
"I think that intelligent killer is your fan."
"What?"
"Shh! Calm down." Deok-cheol placed a finger on his sister's lips as she raised her voice. "Think about it. How would he know all that information if he wasn't a fan? He even knew you and Yuna were best friends! Do you think a normal person would know that?"
"That's true. I've never met anyone who knew us that well, except for our company staff and fans."
"Uh..." Even Jo Yu-na agreed, leaving Park Seon-hui looking confused. 'I-is he really our fan?'
Just then, Deok-cheol added slyly, "If he's a fan, that's huge. Sunny, next time you see him, try acting friendly and smile a lot. Then he'll take better care of us, right? So..."
"Shut. The. Fuck. up."
"......!"
Deok-cheol’s eyes widened at the rare "F-word" from his sister. With a blank expression she only wore when she was truly angry, Seon-hui said firmly, "You want me to do that? Ducky, you're my brother. What would Grandpa say if he saw this? He'd be so proud, wouldn't he?"
"N-no, I just..."
"Honestly, that man kills people without a second thought; he's still very scary. But he saved us. He's a lifesaver. And you want to trick and use someone like that? Ducky, I'm really disappointed in you."
"But that's..."
Deok-cheol could only stammer as Seon-hui turned her back on him. Jo Yu-na, who had remained polite enough to bow her head, followed Seon-hui and linked arms with her friend. "I have to agree, that was a bit much, Ducky Oppa. I'm disappointed too. Make sure to apologize to Seon-hui later."
"Sigh..." Deok-cheol watched them walk away, scratching his head before looking up at the sky and making the sign of the cross. "Sorry, Grandpa. I really did something shameful." With a long sigh, he followed them.
He had no idea that someone who had watched and heard their entire conversation via CCTV was clutching their stomach in laughter, or that they had even said "Whoa!" in admiration at Seon-hui’s final remark—and that the entire thing had been "recorded."
- Boss, Boss. You must return safely today. This is a huge deal.
"...What are you talking about?"
- Hehe. It's a secret. Anyway, everything from the reservoir to the bottom of the pass is clear. You can proceed as planned.
"Got it."
Jun-hyeok had already gone to the pre-determined sniper point with Purdy. He would arrive and report back within 30 minutes. Jun-ho checked his personal gear one last time and ran down the sloped mountain pass.
"Hoo...! Hoo...!"
He suddenly remembered running through downtown Bucheon wearing a weighted vest. The total weight of that vest was probably exactly this much. Because he had endured those days, today existed. He had trained and trained to "punish" the likes of the G in the apocalypse. Even if they had treated people like slaves, the G’s thugs had at least gathered people together. But the G had abandoned their humanity to satisfy their instincts and desires, killing and taking whatever they wanted.
He might not have cared what they did elsewhere. 'But not here.' Because they were of no help to his plan to use this area, including Gahyeon-ri, as a defensive barrier, early warning system, or tripwire for his shelter. In short, the G was a massive detriment in every way.
'So...' Today, they would all have to disappear.
"Yawn... I'm so tired, damn it."
"That's why you shouldn't have been screwing around so much, you idiot."
"Oh, shut up, man. She was turning me on, what was I supposed to do?"
On the roof of a mansion with peeling paint, two thugs were chatting. They were talking about the day's events and the new members they had brought in earlier.
"Hey, but at this rate, won't we run out of food soon? The guys we brought in today were eating like pigs."
"The Top will figure it out. We might go raid Yeongsan-ri tomorrow or the day after."
"Huh? That village? Why?"
"It's mostly just old farts there. Easy to deal with, zombie or not. We can probably kill the girls, too."
"Aha. Since it's just old people, there's plenty of food..."
Thwack.
The one who had been speaking, his mouth still half-open, fell backward with a hole in his forehead.
"Uh...?"
The other guy, not yet realizing what had happened, turned to look at his fallen friend. Crunch! A tungsten pellet struck his face, shattering his lower jaw. Spraying teeth, blood, and skin fragments in every direction, he collapsed next to his friend.
"Ugh... Kgh, krrk..."
Creating a small pool of blood, the two thugs who were supposed to be on guard duty became corpses.
- Rooftop clear. You can start, Hyung.
- The perimeter is clean, too.
"Good. Jun-hyeok, you take out anyone you see as soon as I give the signal."
- Okay.
Armed only with his Glock 17, machete, commando dagger, throwing knives, flashbangs, and tactical flashlight, Jun-ho lowered his body like a predator and sprinted through the alleyway, which was growing dark as the sun set. His destination was the thugs' mansion, just 30 meters ahead.