Patrol

I opened the map and checked our position.

Which way do we go?

The hardware stores sat far enough off that the route I chose would swing the danger hard one way or the other. The real choke point is the intersection. The main paths forked into two.

The first carried more risk, but you only crossed once. The catch was that the crossing was a two-way, eight-lane intersection with a bus stop planted dead in the middle.

The second carried less risk per crossing, but you had to take three of them. Safer each time, and in exchange you swung wide around. Stretch the route like that and the total risk probably came out about the same.

Fine. I'll grit my teeth and cross once. Once or twice, luck might hold and nothing would happen. Three times was too many. If it looked truly bad, we wouldn't cut the diagonal. We'd take it in two legs.

I marked the route. From here, all we had to do was follow the shopping street straight through.

Let's go.

A nod. I sent Toy out ahead. If anything dangerous was waiting, Toy would spot it early and warn us.

"Grrrrk."

"Krrrk."

"Kruuuuk."

"Grrrrr."

A wall of zombies packed the street. We had only stepped a little outside the shopping district we'd already cleared, and already we had to stop.

Can't be helped. This is where the crowds pile up. We couldn't pass like this. Clear them and push through, or else—

Fall back.

I had no intention of looping the long way around. Do that, and there was no telling when we would ever arrive. We returned to the shopping street we had cleared.

Bestow Will.

I raised a single zombie and fitted it with a noisy toy.

"Lure them somewhere far off the route."

"Grrk."

I switched the toy on and sent the zombie forward. A little later a chorus rose from the pack, and when I checked five minutes on, nothing remained but a clean street.

Using a zombie as bait is actually incredible. Zombies don't attack zombies. Not unless you hit them first. But they do react to a toy shrieking on a zombie's body. The thing had become a Pied Piper.

Let's go.

A nod. They might wander back, so we hurried. We left the shopping street and came out onto the boulevard.

Now we have to cross this. There were far too many obstacles.

Zombies crammed the roadway. Wrecked cars sat abandoned in the lanes. Concrete barricades had been set to stop traffic, along with obstacles cobbled from planks and steel plate, and a chain-link fence sealed off one whole side of the intersection.

At least there's no fence on the path we're taking. Small mercy? The danger was the same either way. This stretch had more obstacles than anywhere else, and the unidentified debris littering the asphalt was a problem of its own. I stepped up to the curb and tested a piece under my foot. It shattered with a sharp crack.

Everyone avoids the debris on the way across.

A nod came back from every one of them.

Unfortunately, we couldn't lure them off with a zombie here. That would guarantee a wave, and then we wouldn't be able to cross for hours.

Puppet 1, you cross first.

It was dark enough already, and the asphalt was pitch black, so the ground was hard to read. At least the debris is white. That's something. We could avoid it well enough.

"Grrrrrr."

Every time we slipped past a zombie, sweat gathered in my palms. Brush one even slightly and the whole thing would spiral out of control. We were halfway across, breath held, when it hit.

A skill?!

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I nearly yelped out loud. Why now, of all times? It should have popped before we crossed. I couldn't open the skill options in the middle of this, but I didn't need to. My vision had brightened a little. The difference is insane.

The puppets must have felt it too. Puppet 1, out ahead, changed course, and just in time. The road in front of us was broken. Without Cat's Eye, we might never have noticed.

We made it across and hid in a corner.

Now you cross too.

Just in case, I had B, the one I had left on the far side, come over as well. This still wasn't the moment to relax. We had to cross once more.

Past the road, it got easier. We kept to alleys that had probably seen little foot traffic, and the zombies thinned out with them. In the end we reached the edge of the street where the hardware stores clustered.

And then—

What is this?

Every zombie nearby was wearing armor and carrying a weapon. Those are construction safety vests. Hard hats, too. The weapons were all over the place: squared lumber, signal batons, steel pipes, one-handed hammers. What on earth happened here?

They looked like Tier 1 zombies, not even Tier 2, and yet they were geared like this. A type I had never seen, and never heard reported. They weren't even asleep. Every one of them was a walker, circling a fixed area as if running a perimeter patrol.

This is way too dangerous. They were only walking now, but the moment they spotted a hunter they would break into a full sprint. The stiffness had already left their bodies.

Information first.

Go see what's on the hardware-store side.

A nod. I sent Toy off and slipped into a nearby building. A sickening crunch, and the interior was clear. I raised the telescope I had farmed from a stationery shop and took a look.

There it is.

Right behind the hardware store we had been aiming for sat a massive construction site. It looked as if they had been putting up a building. I watched for a while, and their pattern came clear. They were patrolling with the site at the center, as if standing guard over it.

Play it right, and we can make the hardware store. All we had to do was punch through wherever the patrol zombies circulated least.

I waited until Toy came back.

Was there a path we could break through all the way to the store?

A quick double nod. Fortunately, Toy seemed to have found a sector where the watch ran thin. I turned the map on and held it out. A tiny hand jabbed one point. Then jabbed it again.

We would have to go out as far as the road, but the road was narrow, and Cheonggyecheon ran right alongside it. There probably wouldn't be many zombies.

Good. Let's move.

A nod. We turned down the alley and eased out to the roadside. Around here, the only zombies were the sleeping kind. We cleared them and secured a line of retreat.

Those are the problem.

A patrol zombie in a yellow safety vest dragged a shovel along the ground. Three more followed at a distance.

Better to thin them slowly. In a straight fight the puppets would win without breaking a sweat. The problem was that everything else would add. Let that happen once, and dozens of runners would come pouring in. Their footsteps would drag ordinary zombies along, and a wave would start.

Don't tell me the veteran hunter I saved was looting a place like this. It fit. No way a veteran had been dragging dozens of runners around for no ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠reason at all.

Don't tell me Gangbuk Central Hospital is the same. If hundreds of patrol zombies are circling that place, the difficulty would spike dozens of times over.

Please let that not be it. We would work out a countermeasure after we got back. For now, focus here.

First I put a hand axe in Puppet 1's grip.

Take only the one at the rear, then get out.

A nod. Puppet 1 advanced without a sound, reached the corner of their patrol route, and dropped flat in one smooth motion, axe hidden under the belly.

A little later—

"Kuuuuuh."

Scrape. Scrape. The leader passed, dragging a shovel.

"Kweeeek."

Tok. Thunk. Thunk. The second zombie hauled a length of lumber past.

"Kuruk. Kururuk."

Then the third went by.

"Krrrrk."

Before the last one, the zombie at the very rear, could clear the corner, Puppet 1 snapped upright like a released spring, snatched the axe, and swung for the neck the hard hat didn't cover. The blade, laid flat, hissed sideways and bit.

The head came off, and in the same instant the empty hand caught it as it dropped, hard hat and all, while the hand still holding the axe wrapped the torso.

Puppet 2, go help.

A nod. Puppet 2 moved in and helped haul the corpse. I looked over the body we had brought back.

Hm. Nothing different. So how did this happen? A patrol zombie was no different from a Tier 1. What had them circling the construction site like that?

Either way, the haul isn't bad.

I didn't pass them out to the puppets. A steel pipe was a poor match for enemies in hard hats, and if the puppets put the clothes on, playing dead would stop working.

They must have already finished a circuit. Far off, more patrol zombies were coming our way, and Puppet 1 was already prone in their path. One squad down. Two more packs still circled the hardware stores. Even so, their route seemed longer than the ones we had dealt with. It would take them a while to come back around.

Farm in the gap. Loot fast and pull out, and we could be done before they arrived.

A double nod. We crossed the road and entered the nearest hardware store. Puppet 1 followed me in. Puppets 2, 3, and 4, along with B, split off into the stores lined up beside it.

While Puppet 1 put an ordinary zombie down with a dull thud, the goods started coming in.

Delicious! Delicious! Delicious!

A specialty hardware store, just as I had hoped. The display was nearly bare, but every last thing still on it was a weapon worth using. I could put them in the puppets' hands. Sell them, and the prices would be absurd.

I was rushing the farm when it happened.

A crowbar!!! No way. This actually dropped?!

A steel crowbar. A pry bar. The king of blunt weapons. Hard. Tough. Built to be used in both hands, so you could put your weight behind it, and lighter than other two-handers, so it never went sluggish.

A glint. It was even an item.

I held my phone up to scan it.

Hkk—!

A scream climbed all the way to my throat. I-I'll check it later.... Confirming the details outside wouldn't be too late. The hand that picked it up would not stop shaking.

S-should we leave? But the junk I still hadn't grabbed snagged my eyes. No. We have to leave now! But if I used the subspace—!

On the way out I kept flinging a hand at whatever junk was left.

I was only supposed to scoop up whatever my hand happened to catch. My hand would not let go.

Out! Get out, you maniac! They're coming, I said!

I barely wrestled my disobedient hand to a stop and burst outside.