The Broker's Garden
After dark, a drone is essentially a stealth device. Since I’ve equipped it with silent propellers, almost no one can detect it while it’s filming from the sky. Unless they find it by pure coincidence, there’s no chance of being discovered. However, even such a drone has its limits. It can only fly for about 30 minutes per scouting mission, and its radius is roughly 5 kilometers. I could push it to go longer or further, but I don’t want to. I have no desire to accidentally crash it and break it. Because of that, my world is small. A world with a 5-kilometer radius. The places my eyes can reach. I have no idea what the situation is like beyond that. So, to know what’s happening out there, I’d have to go and check for myself. And I don’t want to do that.
Still, there are quite a few places within my reach. About five small villages. Two towns. Four golf courses. It’s almost funny how there are as many golf courses as there are villages. Why on earth did everyone love golf so much? Was it really so fun that they had to carve up these mountains just to build them? I can’t know that. I’ve never played golf once in my life. And I probably never will.
Perhaps because this area was so sparsely populated, there aren’t many survivors left. The villages I used to check on with my binoculars are now completely empty. The elderly people who had gathered there have all vanished. Given that there are no corpses or zombies left behind, it doesn’t look like they were attacked. I suspect they might have evacuated somewhere. Surprisingly, the elderly have a strong will to live. So, if someone told them to follow, they might have just followed.
Anyway, whatever the reason, it’s certain that the villages have become ghost towns. In other words, I can assume the world has completely collapsed. Those villages were my indicators. Of course, they might still be barely clinging to life somewhere. I have no idea what the situation is like in the capital region or overseas. My connection with P has been severed. I don’t know if it’s temporary or permanent, but it’s been two weeks without contact. Truth be told, there isn’t much left to gain from P, so I’m not exactly devastated. Still, it feels strange that the connection with the Doctor has been cut off entirely. It’s a different feeling than back then, when I sent the Doctor’s family away at the airport. It feels like I’m truly alone now.
What about Baek Jin-ho? And P? Are they still alive? Or did everything fall into chaos because of zombies that suddenly mutated from within? When I brought the two men who tried to attack me back with the zombies, they turned into zombies themselves. They weren’t bitten or attacked, yet it happened. This means that if a zombie is nearby, spores are generated so intensely that even nearby humans are affected. It made me think that humanity might never be able to return to the world as it was. It’s impossible unless a complete cure is found. If infection only occurred by being in close contact with a zombie, it could have been stopped somehow. They could have used extreme measures like blockades or quarantine to round up and kill all the zombies. But what if they suddenly break out like this? And what if those who turn then cause everyone around them to break out simultaneously? There’s no answer. It’s not something that can be solved.
Those who are gathered in groups are like bombs waiting to go off. Beloved family members, trusted colleagues, friends who worked together to overcome obstacles—they will suddenly turn and devastate everyone around them. Then, can those who haven’t mutated yet simply deal with the zombies they’ve become? Anyway, my world is small. And at least within this small world, there is nothing that threatens me. The few remaining survivors are too busy trying to stay alive. As for the zombies? They’re just subjects for my experiments. They don’t even perceive me as long as I’m carrying a lymph node.
The problem is whether I should just stay like this. What I’m actually worried about isn’t the zombies. It’s what comes after. Perhaps the zombies are just the first of many disasters to come. And those other threats are already rampant around me. Plants. Even at this very moment, plants are growing like crazy. Even though it’s autumn and the temperature drops at night and in the morning, the plants haven’t stopped growing. They’ll stop growing once winter comes, at least. They can’t overcome the cold, no matter what. The cold itself is nature, after all. But what about when spring comes? And summer? I can’t help but worry. How will those silent assassins kill the survivors?
First and foremost, I am the most important. I will survive no matter what. I’ve prepared so much for this. I’ve seized this opportunity. The problem is that surviving alone is only half a success. To be a ruler, you need subjects. Being "high" is only possible if there is something "low." Being "many" requires a comparison to those who are "few." In other words, being the only one left is meaningless. So, it would be a half-success. But I still don’t have the confidence to trust others. It’s not in my nature, either. Still, I’ll try. Even if it’s difficult, I have to do it. By reviving the senses I had before the world ended. By remembering the times when I was a normal human being.
I scout for suitable targets. I examine the survivors within my remaining territory. First, they must be people without firearms. They must be people I can physically defeat. Ah, before that, I need to procure some zombies first. I only have one lymph node left, so I need to replenish my stock quickly. Catching zombies is easier than harvesting rice from the nearby fields. This is a rural area, and there are quite a few people who farm. No, used to farm. But most of the elderly who worked the fields have left. Thanks to that, the rice fields are full of golden waves of grain, and no one is touching them even though it’s harvest time. But a good thing is that because of that, I can figure out where survivors are if I fly the drone during the day. I just have to look for harvested fields. Because there’s a 100% chance that survivors are living there.
Anyway, I leave the base again. And I go to harvest zombies. Let’s bring back three or four. And I’ll have to cut off their limbs. That way, I can store them for about a week. Come to think of it, cutting off their limbs seems like a decent method. Besides, there’s no need to bury them. If I give them to the zombies, they’ll eat them on their own. Not a bad idea. I’ll do that from now on. Eating their own arms and legs might be a bit much, so I’ll have to tell them to eat each other’s limbs. That much manners is necessary.
It’s fortunate that the villages are scattered. So, I go into a rural village and harvest zombies. When I checked with the drone, there were at least four. If I count the ones standing blankly somewhere else, there are probably more. I hang the lymph nodes around my neck, tie up the zombies, and load them into the truck. I quickly caught the target amount of four. Hmm. Should I get more? I do have other experiments to run. No. For now, let’s just take the four. Securing living people is a higher priority than zombies now.
I returned and cut off the limbs of the four zombies. Then I tied mountaineering ropes around their necks and hung them securely on one side. This way, these guys have no choice but to stay here quietly. Good. No worries about them running away. Although, if someone saw this, they’d probably call me a devilish bastard. Well, there’s no way they could see this, so that worry is meaningless. Since I’ve secured extra zombies, I’ve bought myself at least five days. So, I take my time and examine the survivors. And I picked one group of survivors that was most suitable. A group of four elderly people. Two grandfathers and two grandmothers. They seem like people who lived in the same village. They seem to get along well. Well, I don’t really know that for sure. I’ve only watched them from afar with a drone. But the fact that they’re still sticking together makes me think they might get along well. In a world like this, staying together means they trust each other to some extent, right? They seem to be in their 70s. And they used equipment to harvest rice. What was it called? A combine? Right. I think that was the name. Anyway, it was fascinating to watch. When the combine passed by, the golden waves in the field vanished instantly. Seeing how much land they’ve harvested, they must be among those with plenty of food. Furthermore, the two grandmothers had a vegetable garden and a greenhouse. I don’t think they’d have to worry about food as long as they don’t get infected. The funny thing is, they were putting the harvested rice into a mortar and pounding it. I wondered what they were doing, but then I realized it had to be that way. The rice mill probably isn’t running due to the power outage. Rice harvested like that isn’t ready to eat immediately. It’s unhulled rice. So, you have to peel off the husks one by one to finally get rice. That’s why they were peeling the husks like that, putting them in a winnowing basket, and letting the wind blow them away to make rice. Since electricity is gone, they’re doing it the old-fashioned way. Well, they have no choice.
I think I’ve identified a point where I can approach them. So, I’ll start preparing. They are quite capable people, so they are the most suitable for what I’m about to do. They are, after all, professionals when it comes to farming and crop cultivation. I pack my gear. Whatever I do, I need perfect settings and preparation. Enough so that they won’t be easily suspicious. So that there are no awkward or suspicious parts. Just making up a story isn’t enough. So, once I leave this base, I’ll have to be able to fully immerse myself in the role. Once I finished my preparations, I checked the distance to that place. It’ll be a bit hard to walk. I’ll have to take the car to get close. Having finished my preparations to leave, I loaded my gear into the car. And I caught one zombie, put its lymph node in a sealed container filled with physiological saline, and threw the remaining corpse to the zombies. I can’t leave this behind, no matter what. Those elderly people could turn into zombies at any moment, too.
Having finished my preparations, I drove the car out into the world. To become a pure, kind-hearted young man with a sad story.