Chapter 8: Solving Things Bit by Bit
Kim Jun set out doenjang soup, rice, kimchi, and the rest for breakfast, then spoke to the top stars as they ate.
“Listen up while you eat, girls.”
All eight women immediately focused on his every word.
“I know you got into it yesterday while grabbing stuff from the fridge, and everyone’s on edge because food’s running low. But there’s no need for that.”
“!!!”
Eyes widened around the table as they waited to see what he would say. Kim Jun gave them the reassurance they needed about their current situation.
“There’s rice and canned emergency rations stored on the first floor. They’re exactly what the name says—emergency supplies.”
“For real?!”
The moment the words left his mouth, Emily snatched two slices of ham from the plate and slapped them on top of her rice.
Gaya and Do Kyung shot her sharp looks, but pointed their chopsticks at Kim Jun as if to say they should listen to what oppa had to say first.
“We’ll keep looting, of course.”
“Yes, then I’ll—”
Gaya had stepped up after their first run and hit nothing but misses on food ever since. When she tried to volunteer again, Kim Jun stopped her.
“You’ve done enough, Gaya.”
“But the others might not be able to handle—”
As the oldest, she had taken the lead only to freeze up at the terror outside. Worried her younger sisters might suffer the same, she kept trying to shoulder the burden.
Eun Ji quietly began to raise her hand, offering to go next, when someone else moved first.
“Um… can I go out this time?”
The woman who confidently lifted her hand was Seo In-ah.
The former “national little sister” who had debuted on a music program at seventeen under the stage name Shine. A true multi-entertainer who excelled in acting, singing, and variety. These days she handled laundry and cooking inside the house.
“Good. While In-ah’s out, Eun Ji, you take care of the laundry.”
“Yes, I will.”
Kim Jun made the assignments and began preparing to head out. Gaya handed over the tasks she normally handled when driving, along with the arm guard and cane, then gave In-ah a quick lesson on dealing with zombies.
The most important point was simple: when Kim Jun fired his gun, never interrupt him and never get startled.
While the handover continued, Kim Jun cleaned his shotgun and air gun, then loaded up plenty of ammunition.
“Let’s move.”
“Yes!”
In-ah did her best to look cheerful and hide her nerves as she climbed into the vehicle.
Just as she had been told, she checked the partition, scanned the dashboard, and studied their current location on the map.
“Alright, today we really need to hit the jackpot.”
“I hope so too.”
“Anything you’re craving? Just say the word and we’ll go there.”
“Hmm…”
Kim Jun’s attempt to ease the tension made In-ah study the Sosa-beol City map on the dashboard, checking all the spots already marked with Xs.
Then she asked the question that had been on her mind for a while.
“Oppa, is there a seed shop near here?”
“A what?”
“A place that sells vegetable seeds or flower seeds.”
“Oh, that kind of shop?”
Kim Jun thought for a second, then stepped on the accelerator.
“No way a rural area wouldn’t have one!”
There was a flower farm and a direct-trade agricultural spot he remembered. He headed straight for it.
From the overpass where he and Gaya had looted the general store, continuing toward the farms, there was exactly one such place.
They did have various seeds stored in the warehouse as a last resort, but they had never found a proper spot to plant them. The original garden had been bulldozed for the water tank, and they didn’t have any decent pots on hand, so the idea had slipped his mind.
But now that he thought about it, there was a perfect location.
“The rooftop terrace on the third floor.”
“Yes! If we plant vegetables in pots up there, we should at least be able to achieve some self-sufficiency.”
“Worth trying, right?”
The property was about 100 pyeong total, with the main house taking up 40 and the rooftop addition another 18. It was more than enough space for small-scale crops. In fact, they had cleared the laundry rack and set up pots there before.
Kim Jun drove past the overpass and toward the former general store site.
Traces of the zombies he had killed last time still lingered. In the distance, he spotted roughly ten more.
Confirming the threat thirty meters ahead, Kim Jun quickly parked and killed the engine.
Once the idling noise died, only the distant moans of the undead remained. He cracked the window and spoke quietly to In-ah in the back seat.
“Not a sound. I’m using the gun now.”
“Understood.”
“Only call me if you spot one nearby.”
He had done the same with Gaya, but he wasn’t taking any chances. Calculating every variable, he eased the barrel out the window.
Maybe it was a blessing that the outbreak was happening in a smaller city—the number of zombies seemed limited to certain zones.
Kim Jun loaded a pellet into the air gun and took the first shot.
A soft ping cut the air.
The zombie’s head exploded in a spray of blood and it collapsed. The others immediately charged.
Two runners. The rest were walkers.
Plenty I can handle.
Kim Jun set the single-shot air gun aside and grabbed the shotgun. Calmly, he put two rounds into the runners.
BANG—clack! BANG—
Both zombies dropped instantly.
“Any behind us?”
“None!”
“Good. Keep going.”
Kim Jun took aim again.
The slow walkers gave him time to reload. He switched back to the air gun with its plentiful ammo and took careful shots.
Compared to picking off magpies from a transmission tower during his hunter days, these targets were big and sluggish. He had all the time in the world.
One after another the zombies fell. He waited a full minute, watching for any twitching, then started the engine.
He weaved through the fallen corpses like a stunt driver and returned to the sidewalk. The road ahead became pure countryside.
“Should be around here somewhere…”
After scanning the area, Kim Jun spotted the seed shop.
“There it is!”
He drove straight over and parked.
“I’ll get out and get ready—”
“No. Wait.”
Kim Jun stopped In-ah as she reached for the cane with the bicycle seat, grabbed his pistol and shotgun, and stepped out first.
A seed shop next to a hardware store. This run was going to be a gold mine.
The door creaked open. No zombies inside.
Both stores showed dried blood smeared across the floors, but that was all.
He let out a long breath and was about to call In-ah when a zombie came sprinting toward the car.
Kim Jun raised the gun on reflex and fired. Blood splattered across the camper’s rear.
“Shit…”
He needed to open the doors and loot, but the corpse was right there.
He jumped back in, calmed In-ah, started the engine, and crushed the downed zombie beneath the tires.
A wet crunch sounded. Once he confirmed it was completely pulverized, he turned the vehicle, got out again, and opened the trunk.
“In-ah, just wait a little longer.”
She nodded silently.
Kim Jun went inside, grabbed bleach from the hardware store, and sprayed it over the gore stuck to the tires. The fumes burned his lungs, but he scraped everything clean with a plastic broom from the shelf.
Now it was time to loot.
He opened the refrigerator first, taking all the bottled water and loading it into the trunk. Then he swept every cigarette and drink from the hardware store. Finally he gathered every single seed packet in the shop.
“Tomatoes, definitely. Radish… young radish… kidney beans, soybeans, lettuce, perilla leaves, chicory, garlic chives, spinach…”
Seeds were a stroke of genius. Tiny volume, endless future harvests, and everything fit into a single bag.
After cleaning out the seeds, he added flower shovels and hoes.
Clunk!
Kim Jun’s head snapped up. In-ah had gotten out of the car.
“Are you insane? Why the hell did you—”
She suddenly sprinted off. He cursed and started after her, only to see her returning with an armful of something.
“Styrofoam boxes?”
In-ah calmly tossed the stack into the cargo area.
“We can use these as pots. We just need potting soil.”
“Potting soil… wait, why did you come out?”
“It’s fine. I’ll help!”
“Hey! Get back inside!”
“Yes!”
She darted back into the vehicle at his command.
Kim Jun watched her, then scanned the surroundings once more before nodding and waving her out.
In-ah hurried into the seed shop and stuck close to his side, eyes scanning the shelves.
“We need sawdust, potting soil, trays, nutrients…”
“You used to farm at home?”
“When I was little.”
“You’re good at it… but don’t jump out like that again. Scared the hell out of me.”
“Sorry.”
She calmly gathered the supplies while Kim Jun carried them to the car.
One seed shop alone would provide years of crops. Maintaining them would take time, of course, but still.
“At least we’ll have plenty of greens for side dishes.”
“Leafy vegetables grow in a month.”
As they built solid plans to turn the rooftop into a garden, In-ah spotted something else.
“Oh! Those!”
She approached bags filled with clumps of mold. Originally they had contained oyster mushrooms, enoki, button mushrooms, maitake—all of them now rotten and covered in thick fungus.
“I’ll take these too.”
“What are you going to do with rotten mushrooms?”
“I can grow them.”
“From moldy bags?”
“Trust me.”
In-ah gathered every last one despite the nasty smell. Kim Jun loaded them into the trunk.
Next he entered the hardware store next door. The place was packed with tools.
“Damn. If I were still in the military, my eyes would’ve rolled back in my head.”
He started with lighter items—welders, batteries, LED lamps—then moved on to heavier power tools, electrical components, cans of thinner, butane gas, and even cement.
“This run is a total jackpot. Let’s head home!”
“Yes, oppa.”
Kim Jun tore open one of the ten cartons of cigarettes, lit one, and drove off carefully. With thinner and butane gas in the back, he took his time, picking off zombies one by one on the way.
That night the house enjoyed carbonated drinks for the first time in weeks. Some of the girls preferred soda over alcohol. Three cases of cola vanished in minutes.
But not everything was good news.
Thud.
“Huh?!”
“Oh no!”
The power went out.
The house plunged into darkness. Kim Jun grabbed a flashlight and headed for the breaker box.
No matter how many switches he flipped, nothing came back on.
“Sigh… the electricity finally died.”
It had lasted a full month, which was longer than expected, but the sudden loss sent everyone into a panic.
“What do we do? The lights are gone!”
“The fridge and rice cooker stopped too.”
“It’s really gone? Then from now on…”
While the girls worried, Kim Jun activated the emergency generator. Power returned, though he immediately killed everything except the living room lights.
“Listen up! Before bed, we’re doing some night work. Anyone here know how to handle electrical wiring?”
Silence.
“…Electricity?”
While everyone stood there dazed, In-ah raised her hand again.
“You can actually do it?”
“I can at least splice broken wires…”
“Perfect. Come here.”
Kim Jun made a mental note to ask later what kind of life this former national little sister had lived. Debuting at seventeen, she already knew farming and now electrical work.
He pulled out the oil-powered generator they had taken from the shelter when rescuing the girls.
“Connect this wire to this one.”
“The clamps make it easy. Just keep water away from it.”
“We’ve got plenty of tape.”
Drawing on his military experience, Kim Jun connected the wires while In-ah, wearing gloves, wrapped them securely with electrical tape.
“Remember those LED stick-on lights we grabbed? Put batteries in them and attach one to the ceiling of every room.”
“Yes! I can do that with the other unnies.”
She really was the hardest-working girl in the house.
In-ah moved quickly, mounting the palm-sized LED lights to the ceilings and attaching wireless switches to the walls. From now on they would rely on these instead of regular bulbs.
Though dimmer than before, they had light again. In-ah even led Do Kyung, Gaya, and the others to install lights on the second floor and in the bathroom.
“Alright! Store as much water as possible and we’re done for tonight!”
At Kim Jun’s command, the eight celebrities moved with surprising order—motivated by the three cases of cola—to improve their shelter. Everyone lent a hand.
It was late into the night, but as a treat he handed out two more cases of cola and reminded them to brush their teeth before bed. Then he took a bottle of soju and headed to his room.
Tomorrow would bring serious work. Long-term survival meant tackling the problems of water and electricity head-on.