Night Raid
* * *
Kim Jun left Gaya and In Ah behind and rummaged through the dark car center, grabbing whatever parts looked useful.
When he cracked open the side door, he found an alley connecting to the tearoom in the neighboring building. He lit a cigarette there.
“Huuu—”
“Give me one too.”
“Shit, you scared me…”
Seeing Eunbyeol’s hand suddenly appear in the darkness, Kim Jun flicked on his headlamp and handed her a cigarette.
*Click—hiss—*
In the pitch-black night, only two cigarette embers and drifting smoke were visible.
Eunbyeol quietly smoked for a moment before speaking to him.
“I’m glad you’re still alive.”
“Same for the girls on your side.”
“Which one of them is your girlfriend?”
“Nah, it’s not like that.”
“You haven’t fucked them yet?”
“Hey, watch your mouth…”
She had always been the type to throw around dirty jokes and act carefree, but Kim Jun still found it uncomfortable to hear her talk like that about girls who were barely catching their breath in a car behind a wall.
Eunbyeol let out a soft chuckle, exhaled a puff of smoke, and said slyly.
“If I’d known you were alive and could reach you, I would’ve asked you first.”
“Well…”
“Anyway, thanks for watching over us tonight. I have no idea when those bastards might come storming in.”
“If they’ve got half a brain, they’ll either come right away or wait until tomorrow and hit us all at once.”
“Fuck… There’s way too many of them.”
“Don’t you have any weapons here?”
“Just two baseball bats and some sharpened wooden sticks. But even if we swing those at them… you think it’ll do anything?”
“Hmm.”
While Kim Jun was deep in thought, a strange scream suddenly echoed from somewhere.
“Wait!”
“Huh?”
“Put out the cigarette.”
“What? Why all of a sudden?”
“Shh!”
Kim Jun tossed his half-smoked cigarette to the ground and crushed it. Eunbyeol looked confused but followed suit and put hers out too.
With no cigarette glow left, the darkness was absolute. Kim Jun strained his ears.
*Vrrrrm—Vrrrrrrrrrrrrrm—*
“!”
It was distant, but he recognized it immediately.
The sound of a gasoline engine. Most likely a motorcycle.
“They’re already here?”
“Goddamn it!”
“Everyone get inside, and…”
Kim Jun pulled a whistle from his pocket and handed it to Eunbyeol.
“If they break through that door, blow this immediately.”
“O-okay!”
“Hurry up and gather the girls. Get everyone into that basement storage or whatever it is.”
At his words, Eunbyeol rushed inside, waking the sleeping girls and Hwang Yeosa, telling them they needed to move to the liquor storage.
Meanwhile, Kim Jun grabbed the shotgun slung across his back and quietly slipped back into the car center.
*Click.*
He had scouted the building’s layout before nightfall, but he double-checked everything again.
Then he climbed onto the toolboxes stacked beside the shutter door, opened a small ventilation-style window, and carefully aimed the shotgun through it.
The night-vision scope painted everything in sharp blue tones.
After scanning the path leading to their location for a while, he finally spotted moving shadows.
In that instant, Kim Jun switched weapons.
Instead of the shotgun, he grabbed the single-shot air gun.
Even in this urgent situation, he remained calm as he took aim at the approaching figures.
Motorcycles raced toward them at terrifying speed, headlights blazing.
He didn’t even need the night-vision goggles.
The bastards had turned on all their lights in the middle of the night, making them glow like beacons.
‘These stupid fuckers really came right now. And with their lights on, no less…’
There was no need to aim properly.
In this situation, all he had to do was load a lead pellet into the chamber and slightly lower the barrel toward the glaring lights.
Most motorcycle headlights sat right above…
*Ping—*
The moment one lead pellet flew out at high speed, Kim Jun calmly loaded the next round.
From far away, a bizarre sound reached them.
*Screeeeeeee—*
*Graaaaash—Crash! Bang! Boooooom!!!*
The motorcycle that had been sliding across the road, throwing sparks, slammed into the rice paddy ridge just like Kim Jun’s camper earlier and exploded with a deafening roar.
“Whoa~”
Flames erupted behind it, igniting the dry weeds in the field. Three motorcycles came to an abrupt halt.
If they stopped there, it was a gift to Kim Jun. The air gun, now reloaded, swung toward the next motorcycle with its headlight still on.
*Ping—*
*Clack—*
*Ping—*
He couldn’t tell whether the two shots had hit the riders or the bikes, but one thing was certain.
The bastards finally realized what was happening and turned off their headlights.
When he switched to night vision, the scene became clear.
Two figures sprawled on the ground. One shadow stumbling around in panic.
Another was desperately trying to flee while still on fire.
Of course, Kim Jun had no intention of letting him go.
This time he switched to the shotgun loaded with slugs and slowly aimed at the fleeing man. He almost pulled the trigger to blow the guy’s head off, but his finger hesitated slightly at the thought that it was still a living human.
“…”
*Bang—*
The trigger was pulled. The man’s calf exploded, and he collapsed, rolling across the ground. Kim Jun let out a small snort.
He’d gone easy and only shot him in the leg.
Then the man suddenly pulled something shiny from his pocket and began waving it wildly in the air. Kim Jun quietly climbed back down.
“So I’ve taken care of all the bastards trying to raid us at night?”
As if nothing had happened, Kim Jun checked his shotgun after sniping the humans.
But when he tried to inspect the gun, a sharp pain suddenly shot through his left arm.
“Ugh…”
He had stopped the bleeding and endured it earlier, but the pain was flaring up again. Kim Jun dropped the gun and curled in on himself.
At that moment, a violent banging erupted from the neighboring building.
*Bam bam bam—Bam bam bam!!!*
“Hey, you fucking bitches! Open the door!”
“!?”
“I’m gonna rip your goddamn mouths open!”
Somehow, more of the First Faction’s thugs had arrived. They were pounding on the door of the tearoom next door.
In that instant, Kim Jun raised his gun again and grabbed the doorknob in the alley, preparing to face them.
*Crash!*
Suddenly the door flew open and slammed straight into Kim Jun’s body.
“Ugh!”
Kim Jun lost his grip on the shotgun and fell backward. A vicious-looking First Faction thug stood there, holding a flashing sashimi knife and a flashlight.
“Oh ho~ So it was this bastard!”
Even in the darkness, the tattoos covering both arms were visible. The man pointed the sashimi knife—capable of killing a person in one stab—directly at Kim Jun and charged.
“You son of a—”
*Crunch!*
“Argh!”
Kim Jun tried to grab his shotgun in a hurry, but the man kicked his arm at point-blank range.
It was his left arm. The wound tore open again, spraying blood.
“Huu— Come here, you bastard. I’m not gonna kill you quick.”
The man had come from a different direction than the ones on the motorcycles Kim Jun had shot. He was after the women in the tearoom and had been lured over by the gunshot.
He planned to slice both of Kim Jun’s ankle tendons, slit his throat, then steal the truck and all the equipment.
“Ugh…”
While Kim Jun staggered, the man stomped down hard on his right ankle and raised the knife, aiming for his calf.
At that moment, Kim Jun grabbed the hand axe in his right hand and twisted his body.
*Swish!*
“Ugh?!”
The thug hadn’t been hit cleanly, but he instinctively dodged when he saw the blade flash in front of his eyes.
Kim Jun reflexively glanced sideways and saw two more men holding sashimi knives near the tearoom. He gripped the axe tighter.
The two men spotted the rolling flashlight on the ground and rushed forward to claim it first, swinging their weapons.
*Slash—*
*Crunch!*
“AAAAAAGH!”
“Grrrrrr…”
“You fucking bastard… I’ll kill…”
*Crack—Crunch! Craaaack!*
*Clang!!!!*
The flashlight spun wildly, casting the shadows of two men. The sashimi knife and hand axe flashed again and again—until someone’s foot stomped down on the flashlight, shattering it.
*Crunch!*
After the loud noise, silence followed.
Some time later, two First Faction members who had been banging on the iron door of the basement storage came looking for their comrade after noticing the girls were missing.
“Tae-su! Did you catch that bastard?”
“Why aren’t you answering… what the fuck?”
“Ugh… ugh…”
A blood-soaked First Faction member named Tae-su was dragged out by the neck, his body covered in axe wounds, and thrown outside the door.
The two immediately drew their weapons and shone their lights on him.
They saw Kim Jun, drenched head to toe in blood, wearing a face full of murderous intent. The two thugs who realized there was a man guarding this place charged at him—only to notice the gun in his hand.
“Y-you… no way…?”
“What? You’re not leaving?”
Kim Jun aimed the pistol at the two First Faction members, warning them that he could put a bullet through their foreheads at any moment.
“Fuck… Hey, let’s make a deal!”
“?”
“I’ll let you take one of the bitches. We only need the water and liquor boxes those sluts have anyway. Let’s end this here.”
“…”
“We’ll quietly grab President Hwang and drag these bitches away… so you pick one first, you son of a bitch.”
The First Faction thugs planned to kill Hwang Yeosa and take all the girls underneath her.
Anyone could guess what kind of hell the girls would suffer if they were dragged away by these men.
And they didn’t even care about avenging their comrades. When they offered to let him take one girl and call it even, Kim Jun gave a bitter smile.
“Especially that Eunbyeol bitch. She’s a bit feisty, but she’s fuckable, so you can take her…”
*Ping—*
Kim Jun had heard enough. He immediately fired the air pistol at the first man’s knee.
“AAAGH! AAAAAAGH! What the hell is this?!”
It wasn’t the sound of a normal gunshot. It was the sound of a spring releasing. A hole smaller than a fingernail appeared, and blood poured out.
“You fucking bastard!!!”
The man beside him charged, but Kim Jun fired again in quick succession.
*Ping—*
The second man took a direct hit to the knee and collapsed onto his blood-soaked comrade Tae-su, unable to stand.
With a lead pellet lodged in his kneecap, every movement would cause blood to gush out.
“You bastard!!! Do you even know who we—”
Instead of answering, Kim Jun simply closed the door.
Then, with his staggering body, he dragged several heavy objects from the car center and barricaded the door tightly.
It wouldn’t be long before the demons of the night, drawn by the noise and the smell of blood, arrived.
“Uwaaah?! Aaaagh! Boss, they’re coming!”
“Fuck, those monster bastards!”
*Bam bam bam!*
“Hey, open the door! Let’s survive together for now!”
“…”
*Bam bam bam bam!!!*
“Fuck! We’ll only take two of the bitches!! That’s enough, right? Please open the door!”
*Tap—tap—hiss—*
“Huu~”
Kim Jun sat down behind the pile of luggage stacked in front of the door, leaning his back against it, and lit a cigarette.
When he swept the area with his headlamp, he confirmed that as long as this door was blocked, there wasn’t a single hole a zombie could squeeze through.
*Bam bam!*
“You fucking bastard, open the—AAAAAGH! AAAAAAAAAAGH!”
*[Uuuuuurgh—Uuuuurgh—]*
“Boss! Please open the door!! Save us!!! I don’t want to die ye—AAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!! S-save… ughhh!!!”
Piercing screams rang out, accompanied by the wet *crunch* and *rip* of flesh being torn apart, the shuffling of zombies, and finally the pitiful knocking on the iron door.
Even then, Kim Jun continued smoking, slowly exhaling a long plume of smoke.
He quietly loaded the remaining bullets into his gun, one by one.
As the banging on the door grew weaker and the screams of the First Faction members faded, it seemed he needed to prepare for the next round.
* * *