The Tipping Point of Despair
Winter is passing. The weather is warming up. It’s March. A period when the lingering winter and the impatient spring test each other’s influence between night and day. On such a night in March, I am operating a drone from a spot where I can overlook the Suwon facility.
The drone I’m piloting has three live rats dangling from it. And the zombies, seeing them, chase after the rats. As if they were targets they absolutely had to catch. Normally, I would have had to drive a car or control the lymph nodes myself to lead the zombies around. But that’s no longer necessary. I can lure the zombies like this now.
It’s laughable how hard I experimented with ammonia and carbonated water. I could have just done this from the start. Still, I’m glad I discovered it, even if it was late. No, it’s not even that late. Since I can use it like this, it’s not late at all.
A silent drone, with three rats hanging from it. Zombies are stupid. So, drawn by the faint noise of the drone and the vitality felt from the rats, they run like crazy. I don’t know what they ate to survive the winter, but these zombies move no differently than they did before the winter. Still, their numbers have decreased significantly. However, there are enough to densely surround the Suwon facility. There were just so many to begin with.
The drone, having gathered the zombies once, rises vertically. Then, the zombies stupidly stare at the drone and stop in their tracks. Since both the noise and the vitality have vanished, the zombies have no reason to move. So, I go and bring in more zombies. The Suwon facility is large, after all. To block it off completely and densely, I’ll have to do this for quite a while longer.
I retrieve the drone. One of the three rats hanging from the drone has frozen to death, perhaps because of the cold. Tsk. Poor thing. To freeze to death in March. Well, it couldn’t be helped since it was hit directly by the cold wind while the drone was moving. So, I detach the dead rat, release the other two, and put them back in the box. If they’ve done a shift, I have to let them swap out. And let them eat some special snacks, too. I attach three new rats and fly the drone again. Throughout the night, countless zombies followed the drone and wrapped themselves around the Suwon facility.
By the time morning dawned, the Suwon facility, viewed from the rooftop of a building, was quite a spectacle. Because it’s such a large place, I can only see a part of it, but the sight of the zombies densely surrounding the facility... is quite horrific. I don’t know what kind of weapons the guys inside have, but if they were told to deal with all of that, it would be extremely annoying. Definitely.
It’s morning, but I don’t leave right away. I have to see them discover it. That’s the only way this effort is worth it. So, I observe the Suwon facility from the rooftop. I hide well so I won’t be caught and watch the inside through binoculars. Now that it’s morning and the surroundings are bright, they must have discovered those zombies by now...
And a little while later, just as I expected, people appear inside the Suwon facility. Men with serious expressions as they look at the zombies densely packed on all sides. But they don’t go out toward where the zombies are. They must know, too. That if they get within their recognition range, the zombies will come running.
That’s it. This is enough. Now that they are surrounded, there’s no reason for me to come here anymore. I pack the drone and my gear into my backpack and come down from the building. It took a while to get down because it was a tall building, but my steps are light. As I thought, Phase 1 went well.
Having returned, I go through my usual routine. Except, there is no sex now. Because I killed them all. Well, that part is a little regrettable, but I don’t regret it. It’s a waste of time. And it’s not something that can be undone. Instead, I changed my routine a little. I added a task: going to a place where I can fly a drone to the Suwon facility during the day to spy on them. I have to see how they respond. That’s how I move to the next phase.
In doing so, I saw a few interesting sights. First, it seems they had no intention of staying trapped inside. So, they drove a truck out of the facility. Not a pickup truck like my combat truck, but an 8-ton truck. The car that went out like that just trampled the zombies.
Yeah. This is the problem. Zombies themselves are quite weak. If it weren’t for the sudden seizures among humans, humans wouldn’t have died to this extent. It would have ended at the military level. Even if there had been some damage, they wouldn’t have been wiped out like this.
Anyway, the 8-ton truck that set out boldly hits zombies left and right. Ah. So that’s how it was. I’ve hit quite a few myself, so I knew, but I didn’t know because it was my first time seeing it in the third person like this. But I know that won’t last long. Of course, an 8-ton truck is strong. It’s hard for a zombie to do anything to that truck. However, the corpses on the ground are not. Nor is the fact that the undercarriage of the car is weaker than you’d think.
The truck, which had been happily hitting zombies while going back and forth a few times, stopped at some point. Human bones are stronger than you think. Even if they became zombies, their bones wouldn’t have weakened. And those bones can damage the bottom of the car or get stuck between the tires. So, the result is that.
I don’t know what kind of problem there is, but the truck couldn’t move anymore. A truck stopped in the middle of countless zombies. And dozens of zombies flock to that truck. The car windows are surprisingly sturdy. It’s hard for a zombie that spent the winter to break them with its fists. Of course, a zombie wouldn’t even think of breaking that with its fists. It just rushed at it.
But it’s a bit strange. The moment the car stops, that car shouldn’t be a target within their recognition range. Do they smell the human scent inside? Even if that scent came out, with the airtightness of the car, it would be quite weak, wouldn’t it?
Anyway, the zombies gathered around the stopped truck are quite horrific. Like ants gathered on candy. Ants wriggling and gathering in a black mass. Exactly that appearance. What must the driver inside be thinking? His cold sweat must be immense, right? He must be thinking he’s screwed, right?
But the truck doesn’t move. So, I looked at the Suwon facility side again. There, humans were boarding another truck. Wow. Are they going to rescue them? That won’t be easy, will it? Since they saw the car stop right in front of their eyes, it won’t be easy to rush back there. Even so, the guy who got on the truck there sets out without hesitation. Toward the stopped truck.
But, even if he goes, what is he going to do? It doesn’t look easy to deal with those zombies swarming there. The other truck runs toward the stopped truck. The zombies headed toward the new truck, and thanks to that, not a single zombie remained attached to the stopped truck. Ah. So that’s the method. You’re going to be bait and lure the zombies away? And that method seemed quite decent.
The other truck lured the zombies away completely, and thanks to that, there wasn’t a single zombie near the stopped truck. A chance to escape. A chance that doesn’t come easily. That’s why the truck door opened, and the man inside jumped out of the truck and started running toward the facility like crazy. The problem was that there were tons of zombie corpses on the ground. The man ran like crazy, fearing that the zombies might chase him. But that must have been the problem. Crushed zombies strewn on the ground, rapid breathing, an excited situation, extreme stress. The man who was running suddenly stopped dead in his tracks and fell to the ground, rolling a few times.
Ugh, that must hurt. But that man probably can’t feel the pain of falling. Because he’s lying there, shaking his whole body. It’s a scene I know well. I know what that means. Mutation. Even though another truck acted as bait, that guy is stupidly becoming a zombie. Sigh. If so, he should have at least covered his nose and mouth with something. A pathetic sight.
Seeing that, I can roughly tell what level the guys inside are at. And there’s another problem. The truck that became bait to save that guy who turned into a zombie. That’s also a problem. The truck was making a large turn and coming toward the facility. So, he must have seen that the guy he was trying to save had become a zombie. How futile must he feel? But now is not the time to think about that. He should be thinking about how he’s going to get back. Right now, that’s more important.
If he comes back in like that, the truck will be entering the facility while leading a bunch of zombies. Then? Now the facility is ruined. Even if they don’t directly encounter the zombies, the spore concentration inside the facility will rise even higher. Well, the indoors might be different, but it’s strictly different to have zombies only outside the facility versus having zombies inside the facility as well. In other words, that guy made a mistake from the moment he came out. Like an idiot.
The truck stopped. And the truck that stopped like that quickly reverses again. Thanks to that, countless zombies are crushed and trampled. To the point where that raw sound reaches where I am. The car that reversed for a long time like that suddenly accelerates. I roughly know what he’s thinking. He’s going to run at high speed like that, shake off all the zombies, and enter the facility, right? If he enters like that and stops, the zombies will stop moving. Because the target has passed outside their recognition range. Then that driver will be safe. Not a bad idea. Perhaps, right now, there’s no better idea than that.
The 8-ton truck ran fiercely. It hit a few zombies, and those zombies were blown away. But there was one thing that truck driver overlooked. The crushed zombies strewn on the ground. He seems to have completely ignored that. With a bizarre sound, the truck running at high speed slipped. As it did so, it twisted at a strange angle and couldn’t overcome the speed, eventually tipping over to the side. With a loud *CRASH!*, the truck eventually overturned. It’s only a short distance from the entrance of the facility. What a waste.
The zombies that were chasing reached the place where the truck was. Even though the truck stopped, they must have followed because of the momentum of the chase. And unfortunately, the truck’s window was broken. So that means there’s nothing that can protect the guy who drove that truck. Not even a single thin sheet of glass. The zombies that gathered like that struggle to get into the driver’s seat of the truck. And amidst those roars, a scream that didn’t belong to a zombie was heard.
A little while later, the zombies stopped reacting. They just stood there blankly. What that means is certain. The guy who was driving died, or he became a zombie.