Welcome to the Zombie World (3)
“Looks like it’s gone quiet for a bit. Want to head out and set those up while we’ve got the chance?”
Yubin said, watching dozens of heart-shaped balloons and gold “3” balloons sway back and forth in the breeze.
The watch on his wrist read half past three in the afternoon.
The steady stream of zombies had thinned out a few minutes earlier, to the point where the area could actually be called peaceful. As always, a few stragglers wandered around in twos and threes, but those numbers were easy enough to handle without Jinwoo even needing to step in. Quiet windows like this were rare in the zombie world.
“Yeah. Let’s head out, grab the bikes, and get this done before it gets any later.”
The Sheriff stretched with a loud groan, slung on his personal backpack, and picked up his hammer. They were already deep into late autumn; the shadows had grown long. In another hour the whole area would be swallowed by darkness, making any outdoor work impossible.
“Bikes?”
Mingu asked, sounding puzzled. Yubin nodded.
“There’s a bike rental right next to the subway station. I saw it before.”
Using bicycles could dramatically increase their travel speed. Of course, that advantage vanished the moment they got surrounded by a horde.
“Keep a good watch for us, bro.”
Yubin handed Mingu the walkie-talkie, then clipped his own unit to his backpack strap.
“...Watch?”
Mingu had been about to head out with his machete when the radio was suddenly shoved into his hands. He stared at it in disbelief.
“Yeah. If this thing stops working, just fire a shot into the air.”
Yubin’s tone was matter-of-fact. The odds of the radios failing were extremely low, but having a Plan B was always smart.
“...I’m probably the last person you should be asking to stand watch.”
Mingu stood there stunned for a moment before finally accepting the job. He was the vanguard, the one who always charged ahead swinging two blades to carve a path. Asking him to stay behind felt absurd, but he knew the clever bastard wouldn’t make the request without a good reason.
“You’ve never done manual labor with us, bro. If our hands and feet don’t match up, the work takes forever. We can’t afford that.”
Yubin answered lightly, then grabbed the bundle of strings attached to the balloons.
“Be careful. Those hooks will hurt like hell if they stab you.”
The Sheriff sounded genuinely worried. The three-pronged fishing hooks dangling from the strings were razor-sharp, more than capable of punching straight through flesh.
“Hey, who do you think he is? Yubin’s the most careful one out of all of us. Don’t worry.”
Jinwoo gave the Sheriff a light shove. In response, the Sheriff immediately pointed at Yubin’s leg.
“I’m saying it because he’s the most careful one and he still got his leg shredded by laser wire.”
“Ah, right. I really thought I was going to die that night. Blood dripping everywhere, no medicine, and the pain was fucking unbearable…”
The memory made Yubin grimace in agreement. The next day had been even worse thanks to the Sheriff’s and Samsik’s recklessness, but that night had been genuinely terrifying.
“Good thing those kids got us the medicine. If I hadn’t taken it, I might’ve lost the whole leg. Heh… Okay, you just thread the hooks through the back of the life vest like this and carry it that way.”
Yubin demonstrated, sliding the fishing hooks one by one through the back of a life vest he’d picked up on the first floor. Once secured, grabbing the front of the vest kept the balloons firmly in place and prevented any accidental stabbings.
“You really do think of everything.”
The Sheriff watched in admiration as nearly fifty hooks and balloons were neatly organized on a single life vest, then copied the method.
“Samsuk, let’s go.”
Once he confirmed his friends were ready, Jinwoo slung the tool bag diagonally across his body and led the way down the stairs.
“Let’s take some of these with us.”
Yubin picked up several neatly folded silver emergency blankets from the first-floor concession stand.
“What for?”
The Sheriff asked as he followed Yubin’s lead and grabbed some blankets himself. Yubin gave the floating balloons a gentle shake.
“I think they’ll work perfectly when we hang these. Grab three or so.”
He had originally planned to use plastic boards and tape, but seeing these blankets everywhere changed his mind. They would be far simpler and save a huge amount of time.
“We’ll be back, bro.”
Yubin waved at Mingu on the fourth-floor rooftop after they crossed the pier and climbed the riverbank. With their arms full of floating balloons, the group looked like children heading out for a picnic.
“If you head up that way you’ll run into the monsters right away.”
Mingu leaned on the rooftop railing, looking down. He pointed toward the upper promenade and held up four fingers. Four zombies were shambling around in the park just above the two promenades at different heights. Jinwoo and the big guy would handle them easily, but double-checking never hurt. That was what the lookout was for.
“I’ll take care of them.”
Jinwoo pressed the K-2’s stock firmly against his shoulder and strode up the stairs. He had already scouted the zombies’ positions before they left the floating café. Going out with friends without that kind of preparation would be reckless.
The moment the park and swimming pool came into view, Jinwoo raised the muzzle and slipped his finger onto the trigger. Thirteen zombies were wandering the area. He held no personal grudge against them, but leaving them alive would put him and his friends in danger.
“Kill them all?”
Jinwoo glanced back at Yubin for confirmation. Logically the answer was obvious, but Yubin sometimes made strange yet surprisingly beneficial decisions.
“Yes.”
Yubin nodded. Even if they cleared these ones out, the next passing horde would leave behind a similar number on instinct. Right now, securing a safe workspace took priority.
Bang—! Bang bang—! Bang bang—! Ba-bang—!
Jinwoo swung the barrel smoothly, pulling the trigger again and again.
Thwack—! Crunch—! Thump—!
Zombies with shattered skulls collapsed where they stood. Even while moving up the stairs, Jinwoo’s bullets found their mark like guided missiles, punching clean holes through each zombie’s head. One shot, one kill. Even the ones that came sprinting at the sound of gunfire got perfect holes drilled through their foreheads.
The final two shots dropped the last zombies that had been roaring toward them from a hundred meters away. The situation ended as simply as that.
“Holy shit… I can never shoot like that.”
The Sheriff walked toward the Jabeolle building with his mouth hanging open in awe. He had always believed his athleticism surpassed Jinwoo’s by a fair margin, but when it came to shooting, there was no comparison. No matter how carefully he aimed, he couldn’t match the precision of Jinwoo’s shots.
Sure, he could hit stationary targets well enough, but in a world where zombies charged at you, that level of skill wasn’t enough to survive. Miss once and waste a few seconds on a single target, and you’d be surrounded before you knew it.
“Well, some people are good at baseball, others at soccer. On the other hand, Sheriff, you’re incredible in close combat.”
Yubin offered the simple explanation. The Sheriff still shook his head.
“Nah… I mean, you’re right, but… it makes me sound like a weakling. Hanging around that guy makes my tough-guy charm disappear or something.”
“Pfft! Who the hell would call you weak? That’s ridiculous!”
Yubin burst out laughing. More than eighty percent of their survival through last summer’s brutal conditions had been thanks to the Sheriff’s overwhelming strength.
Even though Samsik had figured out the zombies’ movement patterns, it was the Sheriff who had actually killed them and cleared paths. Without his hammer they never would have dared raid a convenience store, never would have reached Sangbong Station to meet Jenny, and never would have had the luck to rescue Terra.
“Let’s hang the first one here.”
Yubin set down the life vest with its balloons and touched the chain-link fence that curved around the swimming pool. The promenade suddenly narrowed here, creating the perfect spot for a simple trap. He also liked that too many zombies couldn’t swarm the area at once.
“Pull this forward a bit, Sheriff. Use the hammer.”
Yubin asked while gripping the fence. Anyone else would have needed to unscrew bolts one by one, but the self-proclaimed “weakling” could do it with raw strength.
The Sheriff hooked the hammer head on the fence.
“How far? All the way?”
“No, not that much. Just tilt it about fifteen degrees…”
“Got it. Stand back. …Hup!”
While Yubin was still demonstrating the angle with his hands, the Sheriff had already braced himself and yanked the hammer handle forward with all his might.
Crunch—!
The screws snapped and flew out as the two-meter section of chain-link fence bent helplessly. All it had taken was one pull.
“Heh, what a weakling.”
Yubin teased the Sheriff, then unfolded one of the silver blankets.
“We stretch this out, thread some cord through it, then hang the balloons here. About fifteen balloons per blanket. If we punch the holes too close together the blanket might tear, so we’ll stagger the height in a zigzag pattern.”
Yubin demonstrated his plan by holding the silver blanket against the bent fence. The method was simple.
Punch several holes along the top and bottom of the blanket, thread cord through them in a crisscross pattern, then tie both ends of the cord to the fence parallel to the path. This created a hanging silver banner. Then they simply pushed the balloon strings’ fishing hooks into the banner at intervals. Only one of each hook’s three prongs went into the blanket; the other two pointed toward the path. That was it. Ridiculously easy.
While Jinwoo stood at the corner keeping watch over the blind spots and covering Yubin and the Sheriff, Samsuk busily patrolled the area, marking his territory with urine. Everyone was completely focused on their tasks.
“Think they’ll actually fall for this?”
The Sheriff asked, resting his chin on his hand as he studied the blanket trap like it was a work of art. Yubin nodded with complete confidence.
“Definitely. That’s what I’m counting on.”
Zombies had a strong tendency to stick to paths they had already chosen. Yubin was betting on their simplicity and dull reaction to external stimuli. They would bump into each other in the narrow bottleneck and brush against the silver blankets. At that moment the fishing hooks would pierce their skin and lodge firmly. The bent section of fence the Sheriff had created would increase the contact rate even further.
After that, the color and shape of the balloons dangling from them would let the group distinguish between different hordes. The method would never work on humans, but it was perfect for zombies.
“This is definitely easier than setting up paint cans.”
The Sheriff looked satisfied as they installed the second silver blanket trap. Compared to using dozens of paint cans, thinner, and bathtubs from Costco to mark the hordes, this method was simple and required almost no effort.
Helium balloons wouldn’t float forever, of course, but a special coating inside would let them last about three days. Three days was more than enough time to understand the local hordes’ movement patterns. After that there would be no need to keep distinguishing them. This was only a temporary shelter they would leave after eight days anyway.
“Perfect.”
Yubin clapped his hands in satisfaction after installing four blanket banners at roughly ten-meter intervals. The first zombies to pass through this area would now spend the next three days carrying bright red heart balloons.
“Mingu, can you see us?”
Yubin asked over the radio, testing its performance.
—Crackle. Yeah. I can see the balloons.
Mingu answered after a slight delay. The man’s movements were as sharp as a blade, yet he somehow became a bit clumsy the moment machines were involved.
“No zombies approaching, right?”
—None.
Mingu’s reply was curt and short. Maybe when God made this man He had removed all the gentleness and poured that portion into his physical abilities instead.
“Got it. We’re heading toward Jabeolle now. Keep watching for us.”
—Crackle. That area’s a blind spot. Can’t see it.
“Ah. We’ll handle that side. Just watch the other areas, bro.”
After ending the transmission, Yubin picked up the life vest with the gold “3” balloon and headed west.
“That car is still sitting there!”
The Sheriff’s voice was thick with emotion when they reached the bottom of Cheongdam Bridge. His gaze was fixed on the plaza in front of the Jabeolle building, where a completely burned-out Corolla sat.
“It really is. That’s the car that caught fire the day we met, isn’t it?”
Jinwoo’s voice was also full of feeling as he approached the vehicle. The blackened body still clearly showed the bullet holes from when the men in black uniforms had opened fire on them that summer day. In a zombie world where no one cleaned up, it was only natural, but seeing a relic of their memories up close like this stirred up strange emotions.
“Jenny and I went for a drive in this thing.”
The Sheriff ran a gloved hand over the roof riddled with bullet holes and the shattered windows. Jinwoo let out a small, envious sigh.
“Really? Just the two of you? Wow… I still haven’t gotten to do that even once…”
Saying they could do it now wouldn’t work. There were no cars on Big Island, and no roads for them to drive on. They had motorboats, but those weren’t nearly as cozy or romantic as a car.
“Hey, hey. Old men! This isn’t the time to be getting lost in memories. Let’s finish hanging the rest of the balloons and head back. Or at least grab some bikes first and play around after.”
Yubin, who had been scanning their surroundings, turned and scolded them. The subway entrance, Jabeolle, the container buildings, and the restrooms created countless blind spots. In an unfamiliar place like this they needed to stay sharp. Even with the Sheriff and Jinwoo beside him, letting his guard down would be foolish.
“Yubin really is cold sometimes.”
The Sheriff grumbled as he reluctantly left the Corolla behind. Jinwoo chimed in.
“I think the kid’s sense of sentiment died after the zombie outbreak. When I first saw your face through my scope… I actually cried.”
Chatting away, they reached the stairs connected to Jabeolle and encountered more traces of that day. The bodies of the Shadow Shield members Jinwoo had killed were still there.
“Ugh… These are still here too.”
The Sheriff frowned.
Scuttle—!
Cockroaches startled by their footsteps quickly scattered from beneath the corpses. The bodies had decayed considerably and become nests for insects, but they still lay exactly where they had fallen.
“All three of them took one to the head…”
As the Sheriff sighed, Jinwoo, who had been watching the front, pointed at one of the bodies.
“No. That one was the heart.”
“Ah, right. I think that was the case.”
The Sheriff nodded slightly as he looked at the body Jinwoo indicated. The fact that the corpse’s front teeth were all shattered confirmed it was the squad leader who had beaten him so viciously.
“But why did you shoot that one in the heart? Couldn’t you get a headshot?”
When the Sheriff asked, Jinwoo—the one with the “living sense of sentiment”—answered calmly.
“I did it on purpose. So he would die in a little more pain.”