Marauder of the Apocalypse
Chapter 139: Flames

The night passed quietly, and we made it back to the townhouse after walking until our feet ached.

The sentinel on the roof of the watchtower-like house called out to us in a bright voice.

"You're back!"

"Yes! Were there any problems?"

"Nothing unusual!"

It really seemed like there had been no issues. Even though I'd left the townhouse for a day, everyone was going about their business as usual.

It was lunchtime, and people were preparing food. Smoke hazily rose around those using barbecue grills or drums to cook, while people carrying firewood or harvesting crops gradually gathered around them.

The person in charge of food distribution handed out small portions to everyone, like rationing.

Park Yang-gun waved his hand dismissively as he walked toward his house.

"I need sleep too. Every part of me aches, from my back to my joints."

"I'd like to wash up a bit."

My criminal companions said their goodbyes in tired voices and slowly departed. I was equally exhausted, so after glancing at the companions having their meal, I returned to my house.

'Home really is the best.'

Camping was no good. No matter how many corpse clothes and fallen leaves you spread out, they couldn't compete with beds and blankets, products of modern science and technology.

I lay down without even changing my clothes, feeling the elasticity of the bed throughout my body. As I tossed and turned briefly, just before falling asleep, a thought suddenly struck me.

"The bed? Springs?"

Could they be converted into weapons? The bed springs might work as trap components. At the very least, if cut properly, couldn't they make something like barbed wire?

'I should ask people about this later...'

I fell asleep thinking about how to convert beds into weapons.

***

Several days passed. During this time, there had been no provocations from the flies, and the townhouse enjoyed peaceful days. Working, eating, sleeping.

I hadn't shared my exact plans with my companions. I simply told them to focus on defense and townhouse operations.

During breakfast time, when people gathered on the central street of the townhouse.

"From now on, we won't hunt or track separately. We'll only defend. Even if there are provocations, we'll only shoot those who approach too close to the townhouse."

My companions, who had been exhausted from standing watch, seemed to welcome this decision while showing slight anxiety.

"But isn't it dangerous to leave them alone?"

"They're just flies. They don't have the power to kill us. Of course, I still plan to raid occasionally."

After that, Sa Gi-hyeok and Jeon Do-hyung stepped forward to explain the townhouse operational policies.

"We won't change the personnel assignments. Just work as usual."

"We need to harvest all the vegetables and store them. If we leave them any longer, they'll spoil and become inedible."

It felt like we were settling into the townhouse. The companions nodded with satisfaction. After all, raiding always meant risking one's life, and that stress wasn't trivial.

Living like an ordinary survivor group was actually better for mental health than continuing actions that might get me killed.

But since it wouldn't be good if all stress disappeared completely, I gave a final warning.

"Still, the alliance is alive and well. Stay vigilant at all times. And keep your escape preparations ready."

"You mentioned that before, so we've already prepared."

That concluded the announcements. People went back to eating, and those who needed to work returned to their tasks.

Some carried human waste to dispose of in the mountains, since we could use groundwater but couldn't properly process waste. Others carried makeshift A-frame carriers and hand axes. Some pulled carts around the fields.

It was the very picture of an ideal survivor group.

Just then, I heard Jeon Do-hyung's voice from behind.

"I dismantled a bed and tried making various things. I can't make traps. Explosives are completely out of the question, and even if I somehow made a simple trap, the chances of failure would be too high."

When I turned around, Jeon Do-hyung was waving his dust-covered hands while holding tools.

"What about barbed wire?"

"I can make something similar, but the efficiency is poor. We already have fences with nails. It's better to just use the beds as they are."

So making proper traps was difficult after all. This was the realm of specialized knowledge. Like magic in fantasy genres, it couldn't be touched by those without qualifications.

I sighed with disappointment.

"It would be nice if we could make explosives."

While I didn't know how to make improvised explosives, I roughly knew how to increase their lethality. I had handled explosives when fighting against the military as a mercenary for the alliance.

Fragments coated with poison. You could even use rice cookers to make them explode more powerfully.

"If they were easy to make, everyone would make them."

"Can't we extract gunpowder by dismantling ammunition?"

If we collected the gunpowder from bullets... After thinking briefly, I shook my head.

"Rather than using ammunition to make explosives, it would be better to just shoot people with those bullets."

"We should probably give up on explosives."

It was really disappointing. Having just one prop like explosives would have opened up an enormous range of possible scenarios.

"Nothing we can do. More importantly, what are the flies up to?"

"They're gathering people, as you said."

Jeon Do-hyung replied bluntly.

"Aren't we moving? Didn't you say we'd escape the city?"

"Well..."

Escaping the city. Rationally thinking, it was an excellent approach. There was no reason to stay in the city anymore.

The city's resources were bottoming out. The remaining survivors and zombies were exceptionally tenacious. Our relationship with the alliance was poor, and the remaining military forces were a potential threat.

It might be better to leave the city and start anew in a quiet rural area.

But... I smirked. Would living in a quiet countryside be fun?

"Isn't it peaceful here already?"

The townhouse had electrical facilities and groundwater, maintaining a pastoral atmosphere. Life outside the city would probably be similar.

Just living, a boring life.

Jeon Do-hyung stood with one leg cocked, speaking in what sounded like nagging.

"What peace? This is the calm before the storm. Don't you know the alliance is targeting us? They're using those survivors, and they said they're making zombie-luring drones."

"That's why we can't escape."

I pointed at the sky.

"Imagine self-destructing drones falling from the sky while we're fleeing. We'd all die."

"Why would the alliance bother with us if we're running away?"

"No, it's the opposite. They can't touch us because we're here. Because they're afraid we'll set fire to the mountain."

Even if we really wanted to escape, we couldn't do it like this. Only after starting fires, causing chaos, and turning the world into a mess would a path to survival open.

"Drones aren't the only problem. The Delivery Vigilantes. What if they get ahead of us and plant improvised explosives on the road? Or what if they set up police and archers in ambush? What if they set traps coated with the virus?"

Jeon Do-hyung seemed to think deeply, then spoke in a faint voice.

"Things have gone beyond repair... How did it come to this?"

I accidentally fell over the fence, and was pulled down as if by gravity.

Maybe if I hadn't killed someone on the first day, maybe if I hadn't killed the pastor, maybe if I had stayed with the Hope Community, there might have been another path...

But all events were insufficient to stop a falling person. As I fell unrestrained, I broke everything I collided with.

"Anyway, don't think too far ahead. Just focus on what needs to be done today."

"It's just, I regret the past. It feels like everything was wrong from the start."

I stared blankly at Jeon Do-hyung. In a way, he wasn't wrong.

"You're right. If you hadn't been stealing electricity, we might never have met?"

If Jeon Do-hyung hadn't been stealing electricity in that bathroom at the foot of the mountain that day, we wouldn't have ended up moving together like this.

The same went for Park Yang-gun. If he hadn't been stealing from the warehouse that day, things would have been different. If Sa Gi-hyeok hadn't lived by conning people, he wouldn't have been chased by pursuers and wouldn't have come to the villa district.

In the end, we were all criminals, and crime had connected our fates.

Jeon Do-hyung's face turned red, and he shouted.

"No, stealing electricity is—!"

Just then, bang, a light gunshot echoed. The flies' provocation.

I turned my head toward the lower part of the townhouse and adjusted my rifle.

"Information has arrived. Let's go."

***

The commercial building where the fly had fired. Park Yang-gun and I searched the building for a while, and Park Yang-gun found a note. He unfolded it, scanned it, then passed it to me.

"There's some information here. Check it out."

"Alright, let's see."

Hastily scribbled writing. Squinting to read it, I found it contained useful information.

A report about gathering some people. The location, time, and number of people for the next provocation. The timing and location for meeting with a rider.

The note ended with a question.

Where should they place the resources for us? Write in a note and put it in a corpse's pocket, it said.

"Are they really double agents?"

The information was written too clearly. Given their resentment, you'd think they'd hide it. Was Park Yang-gun right about them trying to extract resources from both me and the alliance?

Just then, Park Yang-gun asked.

"What will you do now?"

"Kill the prisoner we've kept locked up at home."

I glanced up at the townhouse. The prisoner we'd captured for information, whose knee I'd broken. His usefulness had diminished. There was no need to keep feeding him and keeping him alive.