A couple were getting intimate on the rooftop garden. Yohan didn’t need to see them to know what they were doing.
It had been a while since he felt this flustered. His hand at the door knob faltered. It was a basic human need and he didn’t want to interrupt them. He wasn’t in a position to say anything either. He wanted to check the source of the sound right now, but it was not like he could just open the door and say ‘sorry for interrupting your passionate moment, but I need to check the location of some motorcycles.’
As Yohan stood there contemplating what to do, he heard a familiar voice behind him.
“Yohan?” The voice belonged to Jung Hwan. He was looking at Yohan with a strange expression. “What are you doing here?”
“Huh?”
“Uh, what’s that noise?”
“Ooooh!” At that moment, the two could hear a faint, sultry moan coming from the other side of the door. Jung Hwan’s expression twisted into an odd look that was difficult to describe.
“Yohan…”
“We should probably go to the parking lot, right?” Yohan assumed Jung Hwan had come to the rooftop with the same purpose that he had, but Jung Hwan’s next words shocked him.
“Is this the kind of fetish that you have?”
“…What?”
“I don’t want to kink shame anyone, but I didn’t think that you would be a voyeur…”
“…”
“It’s okay. I understand Yohan.”
For a moment, Yohan stared at Jung Hwan with a blank look. Then he laughed like he lost his mind.
“Jung Hwan.”
“Yes, Yohan?”
“Stop talking nonsense. Let’s head down.”
However, even as they walked down the stairs, Jung Hwan kept talking about Yohan’s fetish. In the end, Yohan smacked Jung Hwan and dragged him to where they could spot the motorcycles.
“Look over there.”
“Is that them?” Jung Hwan pointed. They were on the fourth floor of the parking lot. Yohan peered through the binoculars. The spot was far away, so it was still difficult to see things clearly, but he could barely see headlights moving through the darkness. They’d spotted them now. It was difficult to see how many there were, but it wasn’t a small number. Yohan slowly followed the moving lights until they disappeared.
“Those bastards stopped by the hospital. They’ll also go by Sang-dong station as they move towards Yakdae-dong.”
“Do you have an idea where their camp is?”
Yohan shook his head.
‘They wouldn’t have been able to survive this long if they made a camp with that many people. Most likely…’
“Those bastards don’t have a permanent camp.”
“What?”
“I think they just move whenever they feel like it.”
They probably haven’t been in Bucheon for that long. Yohan had monitored the progress of the apocalypse for six months in his primary home camp and never saw a group that stood out as much as they did. There was a good chance that they came from a different region. They were predators that kept moving from city to city. This was probably why they managed to stay safe from mutant zombies and the zombie wave.
Yohan roughly calculated their movement based on their current location. Those cheeky bastards were circling around the mall. They were like a pack of hyenas circling around a valued prey. They were definitely aware of Yohan and Yohan’s camp was aware of them. In the end, the two groups would eventually clash. Yohan went back to his room on the first floor and thought about what he should do.
‘Do I want to attack first or prepare a counterattack for when they invade? Both options have pros and cons, but both are dangerous.’ Yohan contemplated the options deeply.
* * *
Yohan woke the recon team early the next morning. If they wanted combat to go smoothly, they needed to restock something important. The recon team headed towards Bucheon City Hall. It was a large building that was in a state of desolation, similar to the other buildings in the area. The only difference was that cars were littered all around it, blocking the pathway. It was originally one of the first locations that Yohan wanted to search, but the task kept getting pushed back by one thing or another.
The city hall would let them restock on walkie-talkies. Securing a large amount of walkie-talkies was essential for the safety of the organization, as well as enabling the recon team to work independently. Yohan wasn’t expecting to find a lot of weapons. A few years ago, he had heard that the community service center and city halls stored weapons, but when he checked the locations in the previous timeline, he didn’t find any. In the previous timeline, they could only find weapons and ammunition in military bases. In either case, they urgently needed communication equipment more than weapons.
Following Yohan’s lead, the recon team searched through the city hall’s CCTV Control Center, Situation Room, and Operations Room. In total, they obtained nine walkie-talkies. Out of the nine, seven were still working.
After they finished searching the city hall, they moved towards Jung-dong police station. Other survivors probably had already looted the weapons and supplies inside the district’s warehouse but, by chance, they were able to acquire a revolver and another walkie-talkie from a police officer that had turned into a zombie.
Yohan set the chat frequency on the walkie-talkies and handed them to the guards at the mall and hospital camps. Additionally, Gap Soo, Jung Hwan, and each member of the recon team had one. There were still three left over.
“We’ll stop here for today. Everyone head back and rest. We’ll distribute the guns in the afternoon. Ha Jin, you’re in charge.”
“Where are you going?”
“To get guns.”
“Why don’t we go together?” Ha Jin asked. Yohan shook his head. Kkachiul Station was too far to walk. He intended to use the motorcycle that he had parked in the mall’s parking lot.
“Ha Jin, I’m leaving everything to you.”
“Got it.”
Yohan left the group and immediately headed back to his first shelter. He was hesitant about distributing the guns. However, right now was the right time. The camp survivors were physically and mentally trained and, with Jung Hwan in the lead, he had complete trust. After the zombie wave, no one really went against him again. Even though they lacked skills, everyone did their best to follow his lead. If he had to be honest, he didn’t want to lose even one of his members now.
The weapons had to be distributed. If he hesitated and became indecisive, it could lead to more harm. After making up his mind, Yohan packed up some guns and ammunition into his duffle bag. Most of them were Browning Maxus shotguns. Even if it wasn’t effective during a big zombie fight, it was more than enough against other people. He secured the heavy duffle bag on his back and revved the motorcycle back to life.
* * *
5. Clash
Sweeper heard voices behind a door and leaned in to listen.
“What happened?”
“A few days ago, some scary people on motorcycles rode in and…they started killing the teachers and the soldiers all of a sudden…”
“All of a sudden? With no purpose?”
“I don’t know. They just…when Captain Dong told them that they were intruding and blocked them, they suddenly pulled out a knife and…” The girl that was speaking stopped and started to cry. Her sobs were contagious and soon others were crying too.
“People ran away. They started killing people and ripping the clothes off of the girls…”
The children had witnessed and experienced things that they shouldn’t have. But they were now living in a cruel world. It was unpleasant.
“Sniff, since all the people in the tent died, they tried to come into the classroom, so we hid, but…we were so scared…” As the students continued to talk, Sweeper slowly slipped out of the classroom and lit a cigarette.
Just a few months ago, these kids were just making memories. However, those precious moments were now defiled by this ugly and horrible world. He couldn’t imagine the things that they had experienced up until this point and what they will experience in the future.
“Man, way to ruin a good mood.” Sweeper leaned on the wall and smoked five cigarettes back to back. A zombie noticed the smoke and ran towards him. Sweeper angrily stabbed at the zombie’s head. Finally, he pressed the button on his walkie-talkie to call Yohan.
“Boss man, it’s me.”
After a moment of silence, there came a reply.
— “I’m listening.”
“Did you check?”
— “Yeah. Those bastards marked our wall too.”
“Fucking bastards. Is there anywhere they haven’t marked?”
— “How are things over there?”
“It’s a temporary shelter that the soldiers are guarding.” Sweeper paused for a moment as there was some static feedback. It was also difficult to explain everything in detail, so he only shared the important information. “The soldiers are protecting the students. They’re not a threat.”
— “I see.” Yohan’s reply was short. It was awkward to have a long conversation over radio, but it sounded like Yohan had already guessed as much.
“I think they were attacked. Those bastards came here too.”
— “…”
“What should we do?”
— “What do you suggest we do?”
“Well for me, I’ll just do what the boss man tells me to do.”
— “The person that actually witnessed the scene should call the shots.”
Sweeper was silent for a long moment, so Yohan continued talking.
— “You decide. You can come back by yourself, kill them, or bring them here.”
“Got it.”
In the end, Sweeper decided to watch them for a bit longer. He headed back inside. It was too late to do anything anyways. He ate some of the rations that he brought with him and headed up to the roof. He wanted to keep an eye out to see if the bikers were still around.
He stared out at the dead scenery of the city as the sun set. After finishing his cigarette, he headed back down to find a place to sleep for the night. There were cigarette butts all over the area where he was sitting.
He stealthily moved around the school and found a classroom that wasn’t too far, but also not too close, to where the students and soldiers were. Sweeper laid inside a steel cabinet that was used to store cleaning supplies. He placed some sheets inside, turning it into a bed. Back when he was wandering around by himself, he would often make beds like this. With the cabinet door closed, it was completely dark.
He didn’t know how much time had passed, but he was woken up by sunlight shining through the holes of the cabinet. It seemed like it was morning. Sweeper rubbed his eyes and slowly opened the cabinet door just a bit. However, when he moved, it made a louder sound than he expected. The noise made him flinch.
Just then, he heard some rustling nearby. He turned to look at where the sound came from. Right before him were two female students, staring at him with wide eyes. They were in the middle of changing and were halfway undressed. Sweeper blinked.
“Wow, this is certainly a nice view.” He accidentally spoke his thoughts aloud. The students looked like they were going to scream at any moment. Sweeper gave them a respectful smile and tried to ask the girls for a favor.
“I’m sorry young ladies. I’ll leave quietly, so if you could not…”
“Ahhhhh!” The students screamed loudly.
“…scream.”
They were too loud. Sweeper immediately stood up and the girls fell over as they backed away. Things became more chaotic as tables and chairs fell over, creating a racket. Not long after, they could hear people yelling outside.
“What’s going on?”
“Who’s there!?”
“Shit…I apologize, young ladies. I don’t mean any harm.” Sweeper winked at the girls, opened the classroom’s back door, and ran out.
— Ω —
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