Yongmasan
The road really was open. Vehicles always slammed into walls or parked like complete assholes in the middle of the street—that was just a constant of the apocalypse, so I ignored it.
After wiping out that massive horde of zombies, things had gone so quiet that I barely spotted any of the bastards at all.
“Almost none. Almost.”
Think about it carefully. The word “almost” still means there are some, after all.
“Kyaaaak!”
I was racing along the sidewalk lined with shattered glass windows when one of them noticed me and reacted.
Sorry, but a single one wasn’t all that scary.
If anything, it was a chance to show off my bicycle’s performance after so long.
“Kyauk!”
With a heavy bang I slammed into the thing head-on. The bike shuddered as the zombie went flying upward.
I didn’t miss the chance—I twisted the handlebars and rode straight up over the fallen creature.
“Struggle all you want!”
The blades on the rear seat snapped open and sliced through the thrashing zombie’s fingers.
Blood sprayed everywhere as it poured out between the rubble.
“This alone won’t kill it for sure.”
I immediately pedaled the electric bike forward and stomped on the zombie’s face.
It’d be nice if that finished it off, but if it died from just this, it wouldn’t be a zombie.
“Kyuk! Gyauk!”
Now the zombie, its hands reduced to Doraemon stubs from the ten-fingered mess, was trying to push itself up when I put a crossbow bolt straight through its face.
“Whew.”
Something this minor was more than enough to punch through. I could just keep racing like this… but the real problem started now. From Gunja Station onward was enemy territory.
And before that there was the Yongmasan side too… What if Yongmasan stabbed me in the back?
“I need information, after all.”
That was the only thing filling my head. The current situation in Gwangjin-gu. I had to know why things were like this.
First, I urgently turned the handlebars toward Yongmasan.
Remember: the other side has firearms. I trusted this body armor, but one lucky shot could still end me.
Yongmasan itself might launch a surprise attack, so I had to be extremely careful.
When my bike finally reached the Yongmasan direction, the barricade was the first thing that caught my eye.
“This is the critical moment.”
No need to hide the guns here.
I checked the Desert Eagle, then finally loaded the sawed-off shotgun and set it in front of me.
“Feels a bit freer now.”
The bag was lighter, but the pressure was heavier.
I roughly jammed the crossbow hanging from my shoulder into the bag and started up the overgrown mountain path.
Yongmasan. A mountain 348 meters high that stretched from Jungnang-gu into Gwangjin-gu as well.
A place that usually drew local residents as a light hiking course.
But now it was a place where a barricade covered in thorns proudly blocked the entrance.
The people who had survived here had begun holding on thanks to nature’s blessings.
There was a mineral spring for water, and even though the lack of maintenance meant weeds grew everywhere, among them were wild greens and things that could be foraged.
On top of that, their periodic clearing operations had made the surroundings somewhat decent.
Yun Hosu. The man in his thirties who managed this place was holding a radio and monitoring the situation as usual.
“Grand Park side just went on emergency alert. Looks like they clashed with the university side and the unit near the bridge.”
“Why the hell?”
An Sohyeon, who had been with him a long time, wore a look of despair.
The roughly fifteen people here had been cooperating with other units to periodically clear out zombies.
But over the last two months that frequency had dropped, and now it had been nearly a month of contact only by radio.
“We already cleared out most of the zombies around here anyway.”
The other side had a point, but the problem was that they were the weakest force among the current Gwangjin-gu factions.
They had burned through their bullets and could no longer fight properly at range. Things had gotten so bad they were using the guns as blunt weapons.
“How’s our weapons situation?”
He glanced at the colleague who handled munitions, and the man shook his head.
“We’ve got about five firearms, but no ammo. Last time we used any was the clearing op that brought back food. We don’t have a single weapon that’s effective against zombies anymore.”
“If it were people, even knives would be fine.”
Their weapons were solid enough in their own way—knives, wooden clubs, steel pipes.
If it hadn’t been zombies, they could have confidently bunched up and gone hunting.
“But the zombies are too vicious. Yeonju who died last time…”
Zombies that charged harder than wild animals weren’t something you could face without guns.
They had only held out this long because their defensive gear was sturdy.
In fact, many of them wore multiple layers of military uniforms or fought in winter-issue gear.
Yun Hosu even had a stab-proof vest.
They fought relying on that, but without bullets none of them dared venture far.
And now the Grand Park side had gone into an unusually high state of alert as well.
They had just heard the reason.
The personnel who had been fighting on the front line near the bridge had suddenly started attacking the university side—an absolutely massive piece of news.
“Is that for real?”
“No way that’s true, right? Something feels off about that.”
They were lost in confusion, not knowing what to do. Should they trust the radio, or the distant gunfire?
Yun Hosu shook his head.
“No. No matter how I think about it, there’s no reason to waste bullets that should be used on zombies.”
The Yongmasan side had truly poured everything they had into the undead.
So when news suddenly came that they were fighting each other, it left them deeply rattled. Waste didn’t get more wasteful than that.
An Sohyeon spoke in a gloomy voice, offering a despairing prediction.
“Maybe… it’s a dead end? There’s no supply, after all.”
That was true. How long could a unit without supply last?
“They’re hitting their limit so they’re raiding somewhere else?”
It was the most realistic principle of action, and in reality that was exactly it.
Just then a middle-aged man approached and added one more thing.
“Grand Park side isn’t safe either, is it?”
“Mm…”
Yun Hosu broke out in a cold sweat. That was right. That was absolutely right. The people from Grand Park might come raiding their way next.
“We don’t have much food either.”
Water was the only thing they had some leeway with. In that situation, with the political landscape starting to shift rapidly, they had no idea what to do.
“Someone’s here!”
A bell suddenly rang out. It was the trap they had set—the moment something tripped it, it made a racket on purpose.
Yun Hosu and about ten others armed themselves and headed toward the sound, every one of them tensing up.
Because through the overgrown weeds stood a figure in sand-colored military fatigues that looked like something out of Iraq, carrying a sawed-off shotgun and a military backpack.
In that moment of pure terror they leveled their empty K2 rifles.
“Who the hell are you!”
“Just someone passing through.”
But the man was completely calm. The fact that he wore a helmet instead of a ballistic helmet was unusual.
“You’re not military, are you?”
Yun Hosu asked bravely, and the helmet nodded up and down.
“That’s right. Just a guy who kills zombies to survive.”
Yun Hosu shot a look at his companions, asking if anyone recognized the face, but the whole group shook their heads.
“First time seeing you. Where’d you come from?”
“Came down from the Jungnang-gu direction. Saw signs people were living here, so I came.”
At least conversation was possible. Yun Hosu still stayed tense as he probed the man’s purpose.
“What are you doing here? If it’s food, we can’t give you any!”
“Not food. Women and information.”
In that moment Yun Hosu had the strange illusion that the man inside the helmet was smiling faintly.
A still-cool breeze passed between them.
Women and information. Food wasn’t the top priority?
“Bullshit! What’s your real angle!”
Of course he didn’t believe it. In this world food was equivalent to life itself. And yet information and women?
It made no sense.
Following instinct, Yun Hosu stepped in front of his longtime friend An Sohyeon.
At the same time the helmeted head moved to follow.
“Hmm.”
Eyes that seemed to be appraising something. Just as the undergrowth rustled with a stifling sound, the man shook his head.
“I’ll just take the information.”
The man had given up on women and was only demanding information.
“Why should we give you that?”
“It’s not free. I’ll trade food for it.”
“…How are we supposed to trust you?”
The man turned his body at that.
“Bring proof and you’ll believe me. When I bring it, tell me everything you know about this place.”
“What?”
The man simply trudged away. He hadn’t attacked first, so they were left completely baffled.
But of course the mention of food raised their hopes.
“Don’t let your guard down! He might have just been scouting us on purpose!”
Yun Hosu snapped his companions out of their growing complacency.
“What kind of proof makes you trust him that easily? Get your heads on straight!”
Exactly. Were they really going to believe those words with zero guarantee? He could have been mapping their position for a surprise attack.
“Hyung-nim. Move the telescope position.”
They shifted the telescope that had originally been pointed toward Grand Park near the summit of Yongmasan. Toward the place the enemy had come from. And they increased the number of people so they could keep watch in every direction at all times.
They spent a full day like that. Their telescope finally succeeded in spotting the man.
“Look over there! He’s coming!”
The signal from the summit crackled over the radio, and they waited under emergency alert.
Turning every direction in case it was a raid by some other group.
A tense moment—but no other group appeared besides that one man.
“He’s really alone?”
“Is that food on the cart?”
“For real? There’s leftover food?”
They didn’t lower their guard amid all the questions.
But once he actually arrived and told them to take the food, they fell into confusion.
He’s just handing over food that easily?
They went over tense, wondering if he had a group hidden somewhere, but nothing happened the entire time they moved the supplies.
“Holy shit.”
The moment they received a substantial amount of food, their wariness collapsed.
Where else would you find a good Samaritan like this? Just give information and you get food.
Yun Hosu stared blankly at the man who was now waiting for the information.
Just then a junior whispered to him.
“Hyung. Looking at how much he brought, he’s got room to spare. Should we hit him?”
“What?”
“I mean, who in this day and age brings this much food? He’s got to have a big stockpile somewhere.”
That was true. Bringing an entire cart of food was itself proof he was far from starvation. Otherwise he would have carefully brought only a little.
“Honestly I thought he’d only bring enough for a day or two.”
“Right? So how about we tail him secretly… Ack!”
But Yun Hosu smacked the junior on the head.
“Don’t cut open the goose that lays the golden eggs. You see that shotgun he’s holding? If he’s got leeway, the important thing is to squeeze more out of him. And if he did us a favor, we should do one back.”
“Ugh… is that so?”
“Shut up and just take it.”
They didn’t step on the landmine. They decided not to rashly attack or provoke the mysterious man right now.
Truly wisely, they did a give-and-take information trade and gave the man everything he wanted.
“Ah, so the Ttukseom side has the best combat power?”
“Yes. They were the front line, after all.”
“Grand Park side is probably under Colonel Min Taegon, and Konkuk University is under Sergeant Sim Sangwon.”
The man calmly typed the contents into his phone.
“Do you know the number of firearms?”
“We don’t know that much. But the last time orders came down, we heard that outside of Ttukseom the number of people authorized to use guns was less than ten.”
“Any other rumors?”
The man grilled them relentlessly. He asked for names and numbers of combat personnel they barely remembered, how they set up their defenses, everything.
All of it information perfectly suited for fighting the other side.
In particular, this man was practically drooling over the radio.
“No supply, huh… If one side gets taken over, give me a radio call.”
“That we can do.”
They didn’t know what he was thinking. But for them, they had no choice but to rely on him.
Yun Hosu tossed one more line at the man who was about to leave.
“Um… sorry, but if you’ve got extra food, could we get more? We’ll need information and such.”
“Food? I can give more. But you’d have to bring me matching benefits in return.”
“If you’re going to pass through Gwangjin-gu, we already know the rest of the faces, so we’ll bring more intel.”
“Good. And it’d be nice if you slaughtered any zombies you run into as well.”
The man pulled traps out of the cart.
“Periodic zombie cleanup, information on the Gwangjin-gu factions. Keep delivering those to me and I’ll give matching compensation.”
“Understood.”
For the time being there was no need to worry about food. Yun Hosu cheered inwardly.
They had no intention of betraying him and accepted the mission duties faithfully.
Only, a major problem had broken out somewhere else.