Chapter 61: I've Stocked Up Plenty
After the barbed wire installation, Kim Jun was repairing the camper van's bumper—the one he'd crushed zombies beneath and rammed during his frantic arrival last time.
Clang. Clang.
He hammered from the inside, then used a dent puller to smooth everything out in a proper self-repair.
In the meantime, the other girls were each handling their own tasks.
The days following the last zombie attack had been peaceful.
Still, he kept looting to a minimum and created detailed manuals so the remaining girls could handle situations even if he went out.
He standardized it all into an actual textbook, distributed copies to everyone, and continued the systematic fortification of their base.
“It’d be nice if none of this ever happened.”
“But since it keeps happening, it’s better that we memorize these procedures.”
As Eun Ji said, after receiving the manual the girls had memorized it thoroughly and familiarized themselves with their individual roles.
Rather than reading it hundreds or thousands of times, they decided hands-on practice was better, so Kim Jun personally supervised the training.
Under Kim Jun’s command, the idols began their preparations for zombie survival defense.
“All right, start!”
At Kim Jun’s shout, the girls—who had quickly internalized their roles—sprang into action.
“Walkie-talkie operator, Rana!”
Rana immediately entered the room, picked up the walkie-talkie, and made the gesture of reporting in.
Eun Ji, who treated the second floor as the control tower, pointed out the situation.
“Zombies beyond the wall! Direction one!”
They had divided the perimeter into sectors one through four, with the front gate area as sectors one and two, and the backyard containing the water tank and rice storage as sectors three and four.
After receiving Rana’s contact report and Eun Ji’s instructions from the control tower, the girls quickly grabbed slingshots and ammunition and headed up under Gaya’s command.
Kim Jun followed along to observe until Gaya, In Ah, Mari, and Nanika had climbed up and taken aim with their slingshots.
Finally he went down to the first floor, where Emily and Do Kyung were preparing pipes exactly as Eun Ji had done last time.
Of course, since they had installed electrically charged fences, this was primarily for alerting purposes. In an actual emergency they were to wear rubber gloves and even the rubber boots from storage.
And in the final phase, the moment Emily opened the electrical box Kim Jun had built last time and flipped the battery switch—
Bzzzzzt—
—electricity raced through the wires from the rear storage, through the battery, and created a lethal barrier along the wire mesh.
The entire process took less than ten minutes.
“Okay!”
This was solid enough that each of them could handle their roles properly.
“All right, next we’ll switch roles and run it again. Let’s practice multitasking so one person can cover multiple positions!”
“Yes! Oppa!”
Gaya answered immediately and took charge of the juniors.
“Everyone pay attention. This time I’ll man the second-floor control tower, Eun Ji will handle the walkie-talkie, Mari will be on the first-floor switch, and Do Kyung will take the rest of the girls to prepare the slingshots.”
“Got it, I’ll get ready.”
“I’m really bad with the slingshot stuff~ Can’t I take the walkie-talkie instead?”
“You’re not actually flipping the switch, right? It’s just training.”
Each of them offered a comment about their assigned role but followed the instructions diligently.
Certainly, even though Gaya’s physical stats were lower than the others, her ability to command the group was top-tier alongside Eun Ji.
Kim Jun observed the entire process without missing a single detail.
They continued the training until all eight girls had experienced every role at least once.
Next they ran drills for when Kim Jun and two of the girls went out for farming, so the remaining six could defend the base on their own.
“Clear!”
“Okay! New shortest time record!”
The six-person zombie emergency defense manual training was carried out with practiced skill.
Kim Jun had commanded the entire time, even joining in himself to demonstrate both slingshot use and raising the electric fence.
As time passed, the massive piles of zombie corpses beyond the wall had all burned away, leaving only faint scorch marks before vanishing completely.
“Hmm.”
“It’s honestly hard to believe a whole horde of zombies was swarming this wall.”
Kim Jun, rifle in hand, stepped outside the gate to check, with Eun Ji following close behind.
It had been a long time since they’d gone out on foot without any vehicle to survey the surroundings.
The man and woman examined the marks on the wall, then checked the neighboring house as well.
With no maintenance for so long, the place had taken on the eerie atmosphere of an abandoned haunted house.
The house in front already showed cracks in its walls and weeds growing rampant.
The house where zombies had emerged from the rooftop felt dangerous even from a distance.
“We couldn’t go inside somewhere like that to retrieve supplies, right?”
At Eun Ji’s question, Kim Jun shook his head.
“That would be even more dangerous. Besides, we wouldn’t find much even if we searched.”
In the sudden zombie outbreak, no ordinary house would have made proper survival preparations.
Kim Jun had been lucky—the rice and soju left behind by the rural elders he knew had allowed him to feed eight people. Other places weren’t so fortunate.
“Just imagine zombies suddenly bursting out of a room while you’re searching a normal house. And remember, the fridge and pantry would probably be empty anyway.”
“Ugh~ The risk would be way too high.”
Eun Ji quickly accepted the logic and returned inside with Kim Jun.
As they entered, they glanced at the barbed wire once more before stepping into the first-floor commercial space.
“Whoa, it’s hot in here.”
The interior was positively sweltering.
For indoor cultivation they kept the stove running at near-early-summer temperatures, and they had peeled away the cellophane tape from the glass walls to let sunlight pour in.
Inside, crops grew in pots made from old tires, styrofoam, and the various containers Kim Jun had hastily knocked together from plywood.
Mushroom — Water Parsley — Spinach — Green Onion — Tomato — Beans
“In Ah really worked hard on this.”
“It’s impressive no matter how many times I see it.”
They had even placed individual sprayers next to each labeled crop.
With this setup, self-supplying their side dishes no longer seemed like a problem.
“This is how we’re living now.”
“Do you think other survivors are doing the same?”
At Eun Ji’s question, Kim Jun scratched the tip of his nose.
In a city that once held a population of one hundred fifty thousand, he had encountered fewer than twenty living survivors so far.
And two of those had been worthless looters not even worth mentioning.
As this long-term survival dragged on, Kim Jun pulled out a cigarette and stepped outside.
Eun Ji, thinking she had crossed the line again, shook her head slightly and quietly headed upstairs.
“Ooooh!”
“Wow, this is the real deal!”
“Our In Ah is the best!”
One evening.
Kim Jun, returning from outdoor work, opened the door and was immediately greeted by a sweet aroma. He walked toward the excited chatter of the girls.
There, In Ah had put in real effort for the first time in a while and created something incredible with the supplies she had stockpiled.
“Ta-da~ Seo In-ah’s signature chocolate cake, coming right up!”
“Ooooh—”
As the girls clapped and cheered once more, a smile formed on Kim Jun’s lips as well.
“Today’s all bread, huh?”
“Yes~ I made a ton of everything, Oppa!”
The bread-based dinner, using up all the ingredients she had gathered over time, was incredibly varied.
First came cake made with margarine from cooking oil and flour, with a chocolate cake featuring fresh cream and cocoa powder taking center stage.
Next were round dinner rolls and pizza bread using mock cheese made from the emulsifier they had used for Eun Ji’s birthday pizza last time.
Donuts fried in boiling oil and dusted with sugar, plus marmalade spread made from canned fruit jam.
It was such a luxurious feast that it was hard to believe this was the apocalypse.
On top of that, with nice consideration, they had even prepared Americano coffee. As Kim Jun sat down, he clapped.
“All right, let’s eat!”
At Kim Jun’s words, each girl picked up whichever bread she wanted and took a bite.
“Mmm~”
Emily chewed her pizza bread with a blissful expression. Nanika and Rana, craving something sweet, split a donut between the two of them.
Eun Ji quietly watched before picking up a dinner roll, spreading it with margarine, and taking a bite. Mari and Gaya looked perfectly content just watching the girls eat.
“Oppa, you should try this too.”
When Do Kyung offered a marmalade bread she had cut in half and taken a bite of, Kim Jun opened his mouth and accepted it directly.
In that instant Do Kyung’s fingers brushed his lips, and her face flushed bright red.
“Ah!”
She quickly pulled her hand back and acted as if nothing had happened, grabbing another piece of bread.
Kim Jun, suspecting she was still conscious about the time his hand had slipped toward her bra strap while touching her belly, pretended not to notice and continued eating.
“Here~ Fresh fried donuts coming in hot~”
“Oh~ Donuts!”
Kim Jun pronounced it the original English way, blew on the freshly made glutinous rice donut, and took a bite. Steam rose in fragrant curls.
In the midst of nothing but depressing events lately, a warm and harmonious meal like tonight felt like it had been ages since the last one.
After everyone finished the sweet evening meal, brushed their teeth, and fell into comfortable sleep, Kim Jun stepped outside for a brief night walk.
Whenever he couldn’t sleep lately he would force it by downing shots of soju.
But after that incident, he had taken to patrolling with a lantern at night and then exercising under the moonlight instead.
Still, he had kept his body in solid condition, and the other girls—though not at their idol-era levels—were maintaining themselves through their own routines.
“Whew~”
He opened the camper van’s rear door, sat down, and lit a cigarette.
As he stared into the vehicle, a flood of thoughts suddenly hit him.
“It’s been an incredibly long time, hasn’t it?”
Come to think of it, the situation had never allowed for it. In the midst of panic and constant movement, none of the girls had tried to seduce him.
And Kim Jun himself had no intention of thoughtlessly dragging any of them off to satisfy his lust while they were depressed about their families or crying after the zombie attack.
But now that they finally had some breathing room, those urges were slowly returning.
“I wonder if any of them are still awake?”
Excluding the ones he hadn’t touched yet, if he made eye contact with any of the girls who stayed up at night, things would happen immediately.
Kim Jun stubbed out his finished cigarette, quietly scanned the area, noticed a sign of movement, and headed for the third floor.
What he had saved up plenty for today wasn’t limited to In Ah’s cooking ingredients.
Kim Jun himself had accumulated so much that it was practically overflowing.