Chapter 85: Real Villains Actually Existed
The sound of shattering glass echoed sharply.
Crack!
Crunch—
“Kyaaaaaah!”
A motorcycle-riding thug swung a metal pipe straight at the driver’s side where Kim Jun sat.
The camper van, which had held up so well until now, crumpled under the blow. The windshield spiderwebbed with cracks before exploding outward, sending shards flying in every direction.
These bastards were clearly trying to wreck the vehicle and kill everyone inside.
“You sons of bitches!”
Even with glass fragments raining down on him, Kim Jun immediately yanked the steering wheel with one hand while his other flew to the revolver tucked at his waist.
The first attacker swerved away nimbly, putting distance between them. The next one roared in, metal pipe raised high, aiming to smash the side mirror.
BANG!!!
“Ughk!”
“Hngh!!!!”
After the first scream came Gaya biting down hard on her lip, followed by In Ah tumbling in the back as the van shook violently.
The sudden jolt made Kim Jun drop the revolver onto the floor.
In that split second, as the third thug charged in, Kim Jun reflexively snatched the air gun that had been lying behind the gear shift.
Ting—!
Thwack!
The air gun, fired at point-blank range, slammed straight into the charging thug’s head. A small hole appeared, blood spraying lightly. The rider wobbled, veered sideways, then the motorcycle skidded across the pavement in a shower of sparks before exploding.
BOOOOOOM!
It was the first time Kim Jun had killed a human being with a gun.
Clenching his teeth so hard they nearly cracked, he roared.
“Everyone hold on tight!”
“Yessir!”
“Oppa, I’m in the ba—kyaaaaaah!!”
CRASH!
He’d shot one with the revolver, but two more were already hammering the rear of the camper van.
“These fucking dogs are really asking to die!!!”
Kim Jun rolled down the half-shattered window, spotted the bastard who’d hit the side mirror through the rearview, and immediately aimed the air gun.
Right then, one of the motorcycle thugs up ahead suddenly spat sparks.
“?!”
Bang!
The unmistakable whistle of a bullet streaking past Kim Jun’s hair.
They had guns too.
Without hesitation, Kim Jun returned fire.
Ting—
CRACK!!!!
The lead pellet he fired burst the front tire of one of the motorcycles following close behind. The bike lost balance, jackknifed violently, and hurled its rider through the air.
Crash! Clatter! Thud!!!
Kim Jun floored the accelerator. As the speedometer climbed past 100 and hit 120 km/h, the remaining thugs hurled their wooden clubs and metal pipes in one last desperate attack.
Boom! Crash!!
“You motherfucker!!!”
The screech of tires. The metallic clatter of pipes rolling across asphalt. Then the van suddenly fishtailed.
“Kyaa?!”
Gaya, who had already been screaming and earning curses from Kim Jun, shrieked again in terror. Kim Jun fought the wheel, trying to straighten the vehicle, only to see a burned-out car blocking the road ahead.
He reflexively jerked the steering wheel to avoid a head-on collision.
The camper van left the road entirely and plunged down the embankment into the rice paddy.
“We’re going down!”
“Eek! Kyaaaaaah!”
Crash! Crunch! Boom!!!
The camper van tumbled down the muddy slope. Kim Jun gritted his teeth, refusing to let go of the wheel, and kept his foot jammed on the accelerator.
The front bumper crumpled. The violent jolts sent all three of them bouncing upward, their heads slamming into the ceiling.
When Kim Jun finally managed to turn his head, the surviving thugs were already spinning their bikes around and fleeing in panic.
“Those fucking bastards!”
He grabbed the revolver again, desperate to kill at least one more, but they were already too far away. He was too late.
“Ughhh…”
Gaya, who had been riding shotgun and screaming the whole time, clutched her arm in pain after being thrown around the cabin.
Kim Jun immediately pounded on the rear wall.
“In Ah! In Ah, are you okay?!”
Thud! Thud!
He hammered the back of the seat with his fist. The answer came slowly.
“I-I’m okay… hic!”
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
“When we rolled… my back… ow!”
For a moment Kim Jun wanted nothing more than to jump out and open the rear door, but he saw zombies shambling toward them from the frozen fields.
Groooan— Krrraaah—
Uuuu— Uuuuuh—
The undead that had been wandering the paddies were now slowly turning their way after the van had crashed down.
“Oppa, over there…”
“I see them!”
When Gaya pointed out the new threat, Kim Jun snatched the revolver he had dropped earlier.
The six rounds he had saved for the motorcycle thugs would now have to be used on the zombies.
He pulled the hammer back and took aim at the approaching corpses.
Bang— Bang!
Two clean headshots. One kill per bullet.
Seeing more zombies approaching from farther away, Kim Jun tried to start the engine.
Chiii— Ching—
“…”
Chiiiing— Chiiiing— Vrrrrrrrm—
After rolling down the embankment, the stalled camper van finally roared back to life.
The driver’s window was completely shattered, the rear camper section was damaged, and both the front bumper and frame were wrecked, but the engine had started.
“We’re getting out of here!”
“Ughhh!!!”
“Hngk!!!!”
Both Gaya and In Ah desperately clung to whatever they could—door handles, bed frames—anything to keep from being thrown around.
Kim Jun floored it across the muddy paddy, racing toward the slope.
He had to gun the engine at full power to climb back up. If they got stuck here, the only options would be calling a tow truck or using a forklift with a winch, and that would mean losing their only means of transportation.
Vrrrrrm— Vrrrrrrrrrm—
He pushed the half-destroyed vehicle as hard as it would go. The camper van climbed the dried paddy ridge and lurched back onto the national road, front wheels catching for a terrifying moment.
Clunk—
“?!”
Kim Jun immediately threw it into reverse, then slammed the accelerator forward again.
Vrrrrrrrrrm— Thud!!!!
After a short backup, the van surged forward and successfully climbed back onto the road.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief at having survived the crisis before they could even start looting.
Kim Jun looked at the completely shattered driver’s window and the cuts on his arms from flying glass, then let out a long breath.
“Haaaa…”
When he glanced sideways, Gaya was biting her thumbnail. The moment she saw him, her eyes widened in shock and she frantically scanned their surroundings.
Thump. Tap.
He knocked on the rear seat first with his fist, then with his fingers. A response came immediately.
“Haa… I-I’m fine! Oppa!”
“In Ah. Are you really not hurt?”
“I’m really okay!!!”
Hearing In Ah shout from the back, Kim Jun exhaled deeply and headed straight for Sinreung-myeon.
There had been someone else with a gun.
When the motorcycle gang attacked, he had planned to keep his distance and smash them apart, but they had fired back with real bullets.
Kim Jun ran a hand through his hair, remembering the earlier moment. When his fingers brushed the singed tips of his bangs, his hand began to tremble uncontrollably.
“Huu…”
He wanted to check on In Ah right away, and he also needed to figure out how to calm Gaya, who had gone completely stiff beside him.
At that moment, Gaya looked at him and asked cautiously.
“Oppa, right here.”
“What?!”
Kim Jun snapped irritably, but they had reached a roundabout.
It was a narrow one-lane road. If a car came from the opposite direction, there would be no room to pass.
Yet on both sides stood countless shops perfect for looting—fried chicken restaurants, hardware stores, motorcycle repair shops, stationery stores, real estate offices.
“…”
“Is the car… going to be okay?”
“Fuck, just wait a second.”
Kim Jun stopped the van, looked behind them, and waited several minutes in case the thugs returned. He lit a cigarette.
He smoked three cigarettes while waiting, then gave it fifteen minutes before finally pulling into an auto repair shop at the roundabout to fix this piece-of-shit wreck.
“Gaya! In Ah!”
“Yes?”
“…Y-yes!”
“Stay right here and don’t move! Do not come out until I say so!”
Kim Jun gave the warning as he gathered the shotgun, air gun, and revolver.
“This is an auto repair shop. I’m going to replace the shattered windshield and look for tools to fix the bumper. Stay quiet until I’m done.”
Both women nodded. Inside the broken camper, they quietly comforted each other.
“In Ah, are you really okay?”
“My back is a little sprained, but otherwise yes. What about you, unnie…?”
“Unnie is fine.”
Her arm hurt from the impact and moving it was difficult, but as the oldest, Gaya felt too embarrassed about her earlier screaming to complain.
Meanwhile, Kim Jun pried open the long-abandoned, dust-covered shutter of the car center.
Revolver in hand, he swept the area with an HD light. Blood from the torn wound on his shoulder kept dripping down his arm.
But tending to his own injuries came second. First, he needed supplies to survive.
“Ah!”
Inside the warehouse, buried under a pile of dust, he spotted a windshield for a vehicle.
The problem was the size.
“This looks like it’s for a Morning… this one’s for an Avante? And this is for a truck…”
Since the engine still worked, his plan was to grab whatever parts he could, take them home, and repair the van there.
The only worry was whether those motorcycle thugs would come back.
“Should I just head straight to the Sinreung police station?”
It was only about thirty minutes down this one-lane country road. He needed to assess the situation first.
While he was painfully gathering parts, a sudden noise came from behind.
Bang— Bang—
“?!”
Kim Jun spun around and ran back. Gaya was frantically pounding on the half-shattered windshield.
“What is it?”
She pointed desperately in one direction the moment she saw him. When Kim Jun turned to look, he spotted a person staring at them.
“…Ah!”
It was a dark-skinned woman wearing clothes that looked difficult to move in. From her appearance, she was clearly a foreigner. The moment she saw Kim Jun, she turned and ran, shouting.
“Mama! There are other people here!”
Kim Jun quickly checked how many rounds remained in his revolver and prepared to move depending on how things developed.
Soon after, a woman in her early to mid-fifties approached quietly.
She looked at the wrecked camper van, the people inside, and Kim Jun standing outside, and her eyes widened in shock.
“Oh my, oh my goodness?”
“Hm?”
Even to Kim Jun, the woman looked strangely familiar.
He couldn’t quite place where he had seen her, but it was definitely a familiar face. The auntie pointed at him first.
“Sergeant Kim! Are you Sergeant Kim Jun?”
“!”
After being attacked by motorcycle thugs, he had now run into a survivor who recognized him.