Chapter 13: Carelessness at Death's Door
He had been holding his own pretty well in this zombie apocalypse.
From a distance he had picked them off cleanly with the sniping skills he’d honed as a hunter, but a single moment of carelessness had let a zombie close the gap. Kim Jun went down hard under the sudden ambush.
The creature lunged at his throat with fangs bared, ready to rip straight through the fully armored protector like it was paper.
Crunch—
But in that razor-thin instant, fortune smiled on him.
The bag of salt he had been carrying over one shoulder had fallen with him, and the zombie’s teeth sank into the sack instead of his neck.
Kim Jun didn’t waste the opening. He shoved the creature off with raw strength.
“Kyaaaaah!”
Crack!
The moment the salt-crusted zombie tried to bite his leg, Kim Jun’s hand axe split its jaw clean in two.
Zombie blood splattered across his neck and the corners of his mouth, but it slid harmlessly off the dust mask without soaking through.
If he hadn’t grabbed that mask back at the pharmacy, the blood spraying from the shattered skull would have gotten into his eyes, nose, or mouth… and that would have been the end of his promise to keep those eight girls alive.
“…”
Kim Jun finished the staggering zombie with the air gun he kept at his waist.
Thump.
Crack!
The tiny lead pellet dropped the twitching monster instantly.
He ripped off the blood-soaked mask, grabbed a fistful of salt from the nearby sack, and scrubbed it over his protector and clothes.
“Ah, fuck. What am I, a goddamn clam?”
Scrubbing salt into zombie blood wouldn’t actually disinfect anything, but it gave his mind something to do while he scraped away the sticky clumps. Mental hygiene mattered too.
After another careful sweep of the area, he decided it wasn’t worth the risk. He snatched up the bag of fish and ran.
His waist twinged from landing on the gun earlier. He’d need a patch when he got home.
Bang bang bang! Bang bang!
Rana had seen everything from the car. She was hammering on the front window, sobbing uncontrollably.
She couldn’t get out—the door was locked from the inside—and watching Kim Jun nearly die right in front of her had clearly rattled her to the core.
He waved to show he was fine, then opened the rear door and loaded the fish.
Bang bang bang—
“Oppa! Oppa!!! Hwaaang!”
She was crying so hard her tears and snot mixed together. The poor girl looked absolutely wrecked.
Kim Jun shoved the fish sack inside, grabbed a bottle of saline, and poured it over his head to rinse off.
“I didn’t get bitten!”
“For real? You’re really okay?!”
“Of course I’m really okay. Just wait five minutes! I’ll grab one more sack of salt.”
“No! It’s too dangerous, oppa!”
“That salt is worth the risk.”
Thoroughly looting the raw-fish restaurant was out of the question after what had just happened, especially in pitch darkness. But salt was too important to leave behind.
He gave her a thumbs-up, then gripped his pistol and the HD light in a proper Harris technique hold so he wouldn’t repeat his earlier mistake before stepping back inside.
Nothing else was moving except the zombie he had already killed.
“Whew… I almost stepped in it, huh?”
How the hell had exactly one zombie been left inside that particular shop? Pure bad luck.
When his flashlight beam landed on it, he saw a blood-soaked apron. In its previous life it had probably been the middle-aged woman who worked the restaurant floor.
Kim Jun stared for a moment, a wave of complicated emotions rising, then shook his head and kept moving.
He was about to grab another sack of salt when he noticed a 17-kilogram tub of red chili paste sitting right beside it.
“This is gonna be a pain to carry…”
With the salt over one shoulder and the heavy tub in his arms, he sprinted back to the car, loaded everything, jumped in, and started the engine.
Rana kept sniffling and recounting the close call the entire drive back.
“Hic… I really almost ran out after you…”
“That would’ve made it worse.”
“The door wouldn’t even open, and if more zombies had shown up…”
When she mentioned the locking mechanism, Kim Jun gave her a tip for next time.
“In case it happens again—under the driver’s seat there’s a lever. Next to it is a valve that opens doors locked from the outside.”
“!?”
“Turn it sideways and the door will unlock from out here.”
After teaching her one useful trick, Kim Jun resolved to stay sharper from now on.
They drove the rest of the way with extra caution. When they finally neared the house—
“Oppa!”
“Ah, shit!”
He was exhausted and wanted nothing more than a wash and sleep, but a pack of zombies had gathered right in front of the gate. Ten or so of them. Even after clearing them out it would be hard to get inside safely.
“These bastards really know how to pile on…”
“Oppa, what do we do?”
Rana’s usual bold confidence from the first day was gone; she sounded genuinely anxious. In the distance their house glowed with warm light.
Kim Jun pulled out the shotgun and sighted the zombies.
“I’m going to lure them away gently, so don’t panic.”
“…”
“Keep your eyes peeled! If anything comes from behind, we’re screwed!”
It was a small city, so even a “pack” was only about a dozen. The real question was how many of them were the fast ones.
As a last resort he touched the Molotov cocktail waiting in the back seat, then fired a single round.
Bang—
The slug clipped one zombie’s arm on purpose.
The whole group reacted instantly and charged.
“Uwooooooh!!!”
Four of them came sprinting, howling.
“Perfect. Runners first—”
Confirming he had enough shells, Kim Jun opened fire when they were still fifty meters out.
A rapid barrage of shotgun blasts over the next ten seconds. Heads exploded one after another as the zombies dropped.
[Uwooooooh!!!]
Click—bang!
Splat—
The last runner was ten meters from the car when its head burst apart.
“Whew…”
The remaining slow ones shambled forward. Kim Jun flipped them the middle finger.
Of course they didn’t understand the gesture. He timed their approach in seconds, then asked Rana, “Any more behind us?”
“No! I don’t see any!”
He swept the area with the HD light, checked the rearview mirror, but nothing was sneaking up. Good.
When the slow walkers had closed half the distance, Kim Jun decided it was time. He restarted the engine.
“All right! We’re heading back!”
After luring them this far, he reversed, cut a wide C-turn, and swung the car around to the opposite side.
By the time the zombies realized what was happening, the gate was already open and the car was inside. Just before it closed, Kim Jun picked off one more with the air gun and added another quiet kill to his tally.
“Whew… whew…”
Out of all the supply runs so far, today had been the roughest.
His body reeked of rot, salt, and cigarette smoke. He told Rana first, “Go on inside.”
“What about you, oppa?”
“That thing from the fish place is still bothering me… I’ll come in after exactly one hour.”
“But still…”
“Hurry.”
“Y-yes!”
Following his earlier instructions, she pulled the lever under the seat to unlock the door from inside, got out, and knocked. When the door opened quietly, the other girls peered out at the car. Kim Jun waved them over and told them to unload the fish.
“Oppa, what’s wrong? Did you…”
“Yeah. Got a little hurt.”
The moment Mari and Gaya heard the word “hurt,” every trace of color left their faces.
Kim Jun waved them off and held up two fingers.
“Just in case, I’ll wait a bit longer before coming in.”
“Were you… bitten…?”
“Skin’s fine. It’s the blood splatter that feels gross.”
He tossed the blood-stained mask that had saved his life out the window.
“Burn that.”
“…”
“The fish will rot if we don’t process it fast. Clean everything except what we’re eating tonight.”
“I’ll handle all the prep inside! Oppa, can we use all the vinegar, chili paste, and salt?”
“Yeah, go wild.”
Do Kyung grunted as she hauled the heavy salt sack from the trunk. In Ah, Nanika, and Eun Ji carried the fish that still smelled strongly of the sea, already planning the meal. Everyone else moved to their assigned tasks, but they kept glancing back at Kim Jun with worry in their eyes.
He stayed in the car, eyes closed, smoking a cigarette.
The smoke helped mask the stench of blood, rotten seawater, salt, and gunpowder while he waited.
He checked his body thoroughly, but there wasn’t a single scratch the size of a fingernail. Perfectly clean.
“Feels like I’m some kind of super soldier.”
The old memory made him chuckle. He waited quietly, letting the nostalgic feeling of a time before smartphones wash over him.
When the hour was up he stepped out, aired out the car with freshener and cleaner, then slipped inside once the night had grown deep.
“Welcome home!”
“…You girls were all waiting out here?”
The eight of them greeted him in a rush. Kim Jun peeled off his blood-and-salt-crusted suit and clothes piece by piece, already knowing he’d have to wash every single item.
After a careful shower—using water he really should have saved—he walked into the living room, body aching.
“Oppa! I made spicy fish stew. Come eat!”
“You cooked that in the meantime?”
Despite his words, the mention of spicy stew sent him straight to the table.
Steam rose from the pot. It was a shame there was no tofu, but the broth boiled hard with perilla leaves, peppers, and mushrooms tasted sharp and clean. One sip and Kim Jun immediately craved soju.
A meal after washing up always tasted like heaven. Gaya, reading his mood perfectly, brought out the soju.
“There was still half a bottle left from last time.”
Emily and Nanika came up behind him, kneading his shoulders and saying he had worked hard. In Ah smiled from across the room, asking how the food tasted.
It felt like an emperor’s banquet.
No matter where he looked, there were beautiful girls waiting on him hand and foot.
After the meal, Kim Jun stretched and immediately grabbed his throbbing waist.
“Ow, shit!”
“Oh no! Are you hurt?”
“Fell earlier.”
“I’ll take a look!”
“I give great massages!”
Mari and Emily approached. Kim Jun simply lay face-down on the bed.
Mari prepared a hot steamed towel and carefully pressed around his waist. “Looks like a simple sprain,” she said, then applied a compress.
Afterward Emily smiled brightly while looking at his calves and feet.
“I’m really good at kneading.”
“Yeah, sure.”
“Anywhere you want.”
“I’m tired…”
Too exhausted to deal with everyone, he sent all the girls away except the ones working on his waist. The rest took turns waiting their chance to look after him, eyes sparkling with anticipation.
When dawn approached, Rana slipped in quietly.
“You were crying your eyes out earlier. Feeling better now?”
“I’ll put a patch on you.”
She lifted his shirt and applied the patch with careful fingers, then gently rubbed lotion over the surrounding skin.
“Good thing we brought these today.”
“Yeah. Ah—ow!”
Every place the lotion touched stung like fire. Kim Jun flinched and waved her hands away.
“Enough! No more.”
“But I want to do it for you.”
Her hands started wandering again.
“…Stop that.”
“Stop what?”
“My waist is the only thing that hurts.”
“Really? Nothing else?”
They teased each other now, joking even after the world had ended. The closeness felt natural.
“Once I’m healed we’ll have to move again. I need to keep scavenging if I’m going to feed all of you.”
“Hmmm~”
Rana slid down beside him and ran her fingers through his hair.
“That’s true. We’re only able to eat and survive because we have a superhero oppa like you. We came here with nothing on us.”
“We’re survivors, aren’t we? At this point… we’re basically family, right?”
“Family… yeah, I guess we are…”
At the word “family,” Rana leaned close to his ear and whispered.
“Since we’re family, that night when you were drunk and tired you said it was safe, then you pinned me down and…”
“…Ah, get out.”
Rana’s face flushed bright red as she waved the best treasure they had found today—the oral contraceptives.
“I’ll keep these safe. Vag…ina…”
“Pfft!”
They promised that once his waist healed they would get even closer—like proper family.