Shields in the Ruins
Jinwoo looked up with a pleased expression.
“You found some?”
“What? Huh? What is it?”
It sounded simple enough—prying open a refrigerator door—but it was the last thing he actually wanted to do. Just the thought of opening that massive fridge that had been left untouched for the past four months was horrifying. Who knew how many ingredients had rotted inside, breeding God knows what kind of bacteria and filling the air with that nauseating stench…
“Those bastards had shields, right?”
Sheriff said, tapping his own wrist. Jinwoo blinked, not catching on right away.
“Those bastards’ shields… what about them?”
“Aish, you dense bastard! …Those guys! The ones in the black uniforms! The shields they were carrying! They stopped bullets!”
Sheriff raised his voice and mimed blocking with a shield. Of course Jinwoo remembered that much.
“Oh! Right, right. Those… polycarbonate shields, weren’t they?”
If that was what he meant, Jinwoo was more than happy to hear it. The shields those soldiers carried had even stopped 5.56mm rounds from a K-2. On top of that, they were far lighter than stacking multiple steel plates and much easier to handle. If they wedged them between the tables, they would make perfect bulletproof barriers. But…
“Where are they, though? You’re not saying we have to go all the way to the Taeyang Group building, are you?”
Jinwoo asked. No matter how good something was, it was useless if they couldn’t get their hands on it nearby. Yong-san wasn’t impossibly far from here, but he would rather tear open a fridge full of rotten food and deal with that mess than make the trip.
“Why the hell would we go that far? They’re right here. In Jabeolle. Two of them. Two should be enough, right?”
Sheriff said, pointing in the direction of the Jabeolle building. Jinwoo still couldn’t quite wrap his head around it.
“They’re… there? And two of them? Why?”
“Those… guys you shot and killed. They were carrying them.”
“Ah…!”
Jinwoo finally let out a small sound of realization and nodded. Since they were standard issue for the black-uniformed soldiers, the ones who had attacked Sheriff that day would naturally have had them too.
“Are they still there, though?”
Jinwoo asked, a hint of concern in his voice. Sheriff looked at him like the answer was obvious.
“Who the hell would bother coming all the way out here just to take some shields?”
It was true that the shields weren’t valuable enough to warrant sending out a whole squad to recover them. Still, Jinwoo had no memory of seeing them.
“I didn’t see any yesterday.”
“One of them… the guys who went up to find YB took it with them, so it should be where YB got shot.”
“Then it’s on the second floor. What about the other one?”
“I… beat the shit out of the guy holding it, took it from him, and threw it away… Yeah, third floor! It should be there. Where the water tank broke! That’s it.”
Sheriff narrowed his eyes, carefully recalling the moment, then answered with complete confidence. The idea that he had beaten someone carrying a shield that even bullets couldn’t pierce in hand-to-hand combat was absurd, but the level of detail made it clear his memory was accurate. Jinwoo gave the man’s broad, solid shoulder a firm slap.
“If you knew about something like that, you should’ve said so sooner! Let’s go get them!”
Jinwoo and Sheriff bounded up the spiral staircase with light steps. Now that they knew they could get their hands on polycarbonate shields, it felt like a huge weight had been lifted off their chests. Not that Jinwoo had ever really done homework back in school, but it felt similar to finally finishing a long-overdue assignment.
“You’re already done?”
YB asked, visibly surprised. The guys who had gone downstairs to make the bulletproof tables had come running back up in less than twenty minutes, grinning from ear to ear. He couldn’t help but find it strange.
“No, it’s just… the tables down there are terrible quality. They’re not plywood, they’re particle board, so bullets would go straight through. If they were at least MDF, they might hold up a little. The stainless steel sheets are way too thin too.”
Jinwoo explained, but YB still didn’t understand why they looked so happy.
“And that’s something to smile about?”
“Well, we were worried about that, but Sheriff remembered where the bulletproof shields were. Over in Jabeolle…”
As soon as he heard that, YB understood and immediately nodded.
“Ah! Right, right. The black-uniform guys. They were carrying those…”
The memory was crystal clear. The moment the black-uniformed soldiers confirmed he was standing there alone and unarmed, they had set their shields down, grabbed their batons, and surrounded him… It was the first time in his life he had been beaten so mercilessly and so thoroughly.
“If we have those, we can turn particle board or anything into proper bulletproof barriers. We just need to slot the shields in the middle. So we’re going to grab them. …Ugh, heavy.”
Jinwoo shouldered his backpack and asked YB,
“What time should we head out, YB?”
“Hold on… The green ones will pass by Jabeolle in twenty minutes… then it’ll be the blue ones after that…”
YB immediately opened his notebook and began calculating while checking the zombies’ movement logs. Since eight different groups moved along different routes at different intervals, it took a fairly complex process to find the right answer.
First, he had divided the area around Ttukseom Han River Park into three large zones. One was west of Jabeolle. The center covered the promenade near the swimming pool, and the last zone was east of the plaza. Then, like a vacation study schedule from elementary school, he drew pie charts and meticulously marked the time slots for each zone. Of course, someone who had properly studied mathematics might have found a more efficient way, but YB had never learned those methods.
“In twenty-five minutes, you’ll have about eighteen minutes of safe time. If you’re any later, you’ll run into the sneaky ones coming from the plaza on your way back. Or you could leave after twelve. That gives you more room—thirty-three minutes.”
YB finished his calculations and answered. In reality, the safe window was twenty minutes, not eighteen, but he had deliberately shaved off two minutes and given them a tighter estimate. It was the best way to prevent them from getting complacent in a dangerous situation.
“Eighteen minutes is plenty. Good! Let’s go now!”
Sheriff shouted confidently and grabbed his hammer and backpack. All they had to do was go to Jabeolle, pick up two shields, and come back. Eighteen minutes was more than enough.
With Jinwoo around to wipe out small groups of zombies in seconds, and with the bicycles already prepared, this was going to be a piece of cake. They even had enough time to stop for cup ramen if the water was already boiling.
“Yeah. Let’s head out.”
Jinwoo agreed with Sheriff.
“Then I’ll come too.”
Mingu picked up the bag containing his machete and prepared to join them. That long Boston bag was his standard pack.
“Sure, hyung.”
After what he had heard last night, YB didn’t try to stop him.
Come to think of it, Mingu must have been feeling cooped up too. For the past month he had spent almost every day stuck on an oil rig, and even after arriving here yesterday, he had been stuck guarding the rooftop. It was only natural he would want to set foot on solid ground and move around. Besides, this wasn’t some dangerous mission—just a simple run to a nearby building to grab two shields and return.
“Let’s go!”
Twenty-five minutes later, once the blue zombies’ procession had completely disappeared into the distance, Jinwoo, Sheriff, and Mingu opened the iron door and dashed across the pontoon bridge.
“Be careful! You can’t see anything behind you from over there!”
YB, who had locked the iron door again, shouted at their backs. Jinwoo, who had just leaped over the headphone zombie’s corpse, waved lightly as if to say not to worry.
While Sheriff and Mingu loaded their gear into the bicycle baskets, Jinwoo climbed the stairs toward the plaza. As always, about ten zombies were shambling around the fountain and swimming pool area.
Bang—! Bang—! Bang bang—! Bang bang bang—!
Jinwoo raised his K-2 and cleaned them up first. It was never a good idea to leave stragglers like these behind while doing external work.
Bang—!
The moment Jinwoo’s final gunshot echoed long and loud, the twelfth zombie—its head exploded—toppled backward toward the fountain. Having finished clearing the area, Jinwoo casually walked back down to the promenade and climbed onto his bicycle.
Whirrrr—!
The three of them pedaled hard, racing westward. Samsuk-i ran alongside Jinwoo, clearly excited. They covered the distance of less than three hundred meters in the blink of an eye, parked their bicycles right in front of Jabeolle, and sprinted up the external staircase leading to the second floor.
Clang clang clang clang—!
The sound of three men stomping up the metal stairs shattered the quiet air around them.
Graaaargh—!
The zombies wandering near the subway station entrance turned their heads at the sound of humans.
Bang—! Bang bang bang—! Bang bang—!
Jinwoo, now on the second floor, aimed his rifle downward and pulled the trigger in rapid succession.
Thud—! Thump—! Thump—! Crash—!
The zombies that had tried to chase after them collapsed onto the pavement with holes punched through their heads before they could even take a single step. Watching the situation resolve itself so quickly and effortlessly, Mingu let out a small, dry laugh.
“Traveling with you really makes a guy lazy.”
From the moment they left until now… in barely a minute, they had taken out nearly twenty monsters without breaking a sweat. For someone like him who had to carefully slit throats and split skulls one by one, the speed and efficiency were impossible to match.
“But I’m completely useless in close combat instead…”
Jinwoo replied modestly, as if it were no big deal, and stepped into the second floor of the building.
“It should be over there somewhere. That’s where YB got shot.”
Sheriff pointed to the northern end of the second floor. The shattered large windows and the black-uniformed corpses that had been dragged into one corner were still exactly as they had been that day. Which meant the shields those bastards had left behind should still be here somewhere.
“These bastards came up those stairs over there holding these shields, threatened YB, and drove him that way…”
Recalling the scene, Sheriff shuffled around imitating the black-uniformed soldiers, turning his head this way and that. The actual site was far messier than he remembered, so the shields weren’t immediately visible.
Above all, there were too many large objects—chairs, tables, parasols, bookshelves—blocking the view. And compared to that midday in summer, the amount of light coming in was far less, making the interior quite dark.
“Transparent… transparent ones…”
Jinwoo kept his gaze lowered as he slowly walked forward, reaching out toward anything that looked suspicious. The soldiers would have set the shields down casually, so they probably hadn’t hidden them too deeply.
“Hmm…”
Beside him, Mingu narrowed his eyes and began searching with a serious expression. As more than a minute passed without finding anything, a strange competitive spirit quietly arose among the three men over who would find the shields first.
Of course, none of them voiced such a childish thought out loud, but they all secretly prided themselves on having the strongest competitive streak. So instinctively, they felt the urge to win. A strangely childish, boyish atmosphere flowed around the three of them, creating an oddly tense vibe. Then, after another thirty seconds or so—
“Found one!”
Mingu shouted as he lifted a transparent polycarbonate shield from beneath an overturned sofa.
“Aw, fuck! I was just about to look there!”
Sheriff clicked his tongue in disappointment. Seeing the bullet holes in the sofa and the surrounding floor, it looked like someone—probably that Samsik bastard—had hidden behind the sofa holding the shield when the helicopter’s submachine guns opened fire.
“Heh!”
Holding the shield tightly as if he had discovered some priceless treasure, Mingu smirked and tossed out a comment loud enough for Sheriff to hear.
“I’ve never even been here before, and I found it first.”
It was a childish provocation. And yet… it was incredibly irritating.
“Ha! This guy’s provoking people again…!”
Sheriff let out a sigh and, before he even finished speaking, bolted toward the staircase leading to the third floor. He was determined to be the first one to find the shield that should be somewhere up there.
“Hey, Sheriff! It’s dangerous, don’t run off by yourself like that!”
Jinwoo, who had been walking toward Mingu, shouted at the man’s back. Of course, he wasn’t actually worried that Sheriff would get into real danger. The guy could handle five or six zombies by himself without breaking a sweat.
“I’m fine, you idiot! Don’t worry!”
Sheriff’s voice came from the direction of the external staircase. Jinwoo tried to stop him again.
“Let’s look together, you idiot! We’ll go in together and search fairly!”
At that moment, the heavy footsteps clanging on the metal stairs suddenly stopped. After a brief hesitation, Sheriff shouted as if he were doing them a favor.
“…Fine, then come up! Tell that guy to come too!”
“Yeah, got it! Just a second!”
After shouting back and forth with Sheriff on the external stairs, Jinwoo gestured for Samsuk-i to come over. Then he pointed at Mingu’s shield.
“Samsuk, smell this! We need to find one more! On the third floor, okay?”
Huff huff huff—! Sniff sniff—!
Samsuk-i pressed his nose against Mingu’s shield and sniffed diligently.
Wait, is this really that simple? He’s not some drug-sniffing dog.
Mingu thought it was ridiculous as he watched Jinwoo and Samsuk-i. Even so, he unconsciously kept lifting the shield higher, trying to prevent the dog from getting a proper whiff…
That was when they heard the roar of zombies coming from the direction connected to the subway station.
Graaaargh—! Gahk—! Graaaawr—!
The zombies’ howls spread further and further, echoing off the tube-shaped building’s walls. Jinwoo and Mingu exchanged glances. From the volume, they weren’t too close yet, but a fairly large number of zombies were clearly approaching from the subway station. Probably from the exposed outdoor tracks.
“We still have more than twelve minutes.”
Jinwoo said after checking his wristwatch. That meant this Jabeolle building was not inside the activity radius of those subway zombies. They would probably approach somewhere along the subway tracks and then turn back.
But that didn’t mean they could relax and mess around. Zombies would chase humans until they killed them or died trying.
“Stop playing around and find it quickly so we can leave.”
Mingu said, lowering the shield so Samsuk-i could smell it properly. The little treasure hunt was over.
Clang clang clang clang clang—!
Just as their expressions turned serious, Sheriff came sprinting back down the external staircase, grabbed the door, and yelled.
“Hey, we’ve got trouble! Zombies are coming!”
“Yeah, I know. The ones inside the subway station…”
When Jinwoo pointed toward the subway, Sheriff frowned.
“What subway! There are a shit-ton of them outside! Ah, fuck!”