Marauder of the Apocalypse
Chapter 144: Flames

Just as the alliance avoided all-out war, I too tried to evade a direct confrontation. In terms of sheer power, we were at a disadvantage.

The alliance had too many weapons. Drones, explosives, reserve military firearms, pistols, vehicles filled with fuel, bows, poisons, and more... all tools perfectly suited for killing people. If we fought these lunatics armed with murderous tools head-on, we would be the ones to lose.

That's why surprise and chaos were at the core of my strategy.

Start fires, use those fires to drive zombies and survivors into the survival zone, have companions' family members whose faces weren't known cause incidents from within, and have our combat personnel attack wearing alliance clothing.

'Let's see. Alliance attire...'

During the interrogation of the two riders. I quietly observed the bound riders while counting off on my fingers.

We didn't have police uniforms, but we did have police bulletproof vests. We had more rider outfits. We'd killed four riders in this townhouse, and now we'd captured two more.

Roughly six people could disguise themselves as riders. We might even be able to imitate police with the police vests and pistols.

As I was thinking, the riders tied up before me showed discomfort on their faces.

"Our leader will pay a ransom, so don't do anything weird to us."

While they seemed to strongly believe in RiderZero, they subtly trembled their bound hands, as if my very existence made them uneasy.

I smirked.

"You were planning to attack us, right? Should I show you mercy?"

"You said you'd use us as prisoners. If you want to negotiate, you need to treat prisoners properly."

Prisoners. If I'd been properly maintaining a marauder group, I might have used them for that purpose. Negotiating for prisoner release conditions or using them as shields.

I looked at them with interest.

"I don't necessarily need to use you as prisoners."

I'd rather use them as weapons. Wouldn't it be better to capture a zombie, infect them with the virus, and send them back to the alliance?

Of course, time was too tight for that. The attack was tomorrow. There wasn't enough time to capture a zombie and smear them with the virus now.

Instead, I grinned and said with malice and pleasure:

"I just had a fun idea. What if I infected you with the virus and sent you back? How would you act if infected?"

The riders, stripped of their helmets, muttered curses and stared straight at me. True to their bad history with me, they weren't easily shaken. Instead, they clearly displayed a persistent venom.

"If infected, you live what, three weeks? We'd kill you first within those three weeks."

"If you're going to infect us, do it right now."

They'd dropped the formal speech.

One rider pulled down his mask with his bound hands, revealing his face. A bare face rarely seen in today's world. The skin under the mask was pale white, while the parts not covered by the mask were darkly tanned by the sun.

The unmasked rider spat, "Ptui!"

"How can you be sure I'm not already infected? Come a little closer. I'll get some spit on you."

I looked at the spit that landed at my feet and laughed incredulously.

'I was just trying to get information by injecting doubt and anxiety for fun.'

Anyway, this rider was also a member of the alliance, and not without madness. Come to think of it, these were people who originally raced motorcycles on roads, risking their lives even when the world was normal.

Let alone being lunatics who traversed the incredibly dangerous city during the apocalypse.

I shook my head and took out my hammer.

"Forget the spit. I'd like to get some blood on me."

"Torture?"

The hammer that had tasted countless blood still maintained its clean appearance as it emerged, but the riders snickered.

"Do you know how many accidents I've had while riding? And despite those accidents, I got back on the motorcycle. Pain means nothing."

"Pain is just momentary. Go ahead, hit me."

Truly venomous attitudes.

I smirked.

"Torture is meaningless. It's not like torture gives you accurate information."

Torture isn't efficient. They might make up lies to escape pain, or deliberately tell lies even in pain. Moreover, these guys were filled with venom.

I never liked physical labor in the first place. In the end, psychological manipulation was what I was relatively good at, so I planned to use that.

"Since we're attacking the alliance tomorrow anyway, I'll just damage your legs enough to use you as meat shields."

"...What?"

For a moment, the riders showed signs of disbelief, but I calmly brought the hammer down. The target was the unmasked rider's knee. The hammer traced a gentle curve and struck the knee with a thud.

Something cracked, and the struck rider clenched his teeth so hard they almost ground together.

But this rider disregarded the pain and opened his mouth while sweating profusely.

"Tomorrow, you're attacking?"

"Yes."

What they ultimately cared about was the alliance's well-being. The center where lines crossed, as RiderZero liked to put it. A survival organization formed by many people joining hands.

How enjoyable would it be to destroy all those lines? I hummed like a song, filled with anticipation.

"The city will burn tomorrow. Aren't you excited?"

"You're really going to do that?"

So they did know about the city burning plan. I'd spoken too openly in front of too many people. But the alliance's preparations didn't seem sufficient.

The rider with the damaged knee forgot his pain and looked at me with trembling eyes.

"Are you insane? What do you gain from doing that? That's just killing everyone together. Don't you know it's madness to actually carry out such a threat?"

I chuckled and waved my hammer.

"That's right. Let's all die together. You were going to attack us, so we should die together."

"If you set fires! Don't you know it'll kill not just the alliance but all other survivors too?"

"That's it. That's exactly what I want."

Leaving only ashes and corpses. Isn't that the marauder's textbook?

The rider with the intact knee observed me silently before squeezing his eyes shut.

"The police and our leader were right. We should have attacked immediately without hesitating out of fear of your threats."

It seemed those who had noticed my true nature had actively advocated for a preemptive strike, but others must have rejected it.

'What if he really starts fires, let's attack after it rains, let's attack after checking him using other people—there were probably various opinions.'

Rational. That's why they couldn't handle madness.

The majority of the alliance didn't expect me to move so extremely at this point, and that carelessness would become a weakness, a gap to thrust a knife into.

I probed the riders I was going to kill anyway.

"I'll use the flames to push zombies and survivors into the survival zone. We'll infiltrate wearing your clothes. People you don't know will cause chaos from inside. How about that?"

I observed the riders carefully. Their resolve was already shaken. They would show instinctive, genuine reactions.

If they were confident they could stop my plan, they would feel relieved; if they thought it was lethal, they would tremble with anxiety.

And the riders showed a reaction mixed half with anxiety and half with relief.

"That's..."

"No."

Though seemingly reassured as if thinking of something, they still trembled with anxiety. Some aspects seemed prepared for, while others seemed unexpected.

Without blinking, I carefully observed the riders' reactions while continuing to talk.

"You've prepared for fires, right? But you didn't expect me to attack this quickly, did you? You didn't particularly think about us infiltrating in your clothes either? Ah, you didn't."

The rider reacted to my snake-like whisper. Honest and frank reactions. I didn't miss these reactions and continued to gather information one by one.

'Of course, this is just intuition-based circumstantial evidence.'

I stroked my hammer and became lost in thought.

I couldn't rely on this information. The rider, being just a lower-ranking member, might not know everything, and I might have misinterpreted the reactions.

Though unlikely, the rider might have been trained to respond to interrogations and deliberately implied false information, or the alliance might have used ill-informed riders as sacrificial pawns from the start to create confusion. Just waiting for us to capture the riders.

But I was certain about a few things.

'They have fire prevention measures. But they don't know about the surprise attack.'

That's enough.

I suddenly turned to look out the window.

Outside, companions and their families were busily moving about. They loaded belongings onto handcarts or shopping carts crudely attached to the raided motorcycles, and placed bags containing daily necessities on the street.

The moving preparations were finished faster than expected. At this rate...

From behind, the rider groaned.

"You're really going to pull that off? For real?"

"No. Don't react. He's just testing us. Checking how prepared we are."

They belatedly realized my intentions and shut their mouths, but it was far too late. I turned back to look down at the riders.

"It's actually a lie that we're attacking tomorrow."

"Right? Right. Doing that would just get us all killed..."

"We're not attacking tomorrow, we're attacking tonight."

With that, I swung my hammer and tapped both of their heads. Having struck their crowns precisely, the two riders lost consciousness and collapsed.

I glanced at the bodies and left the house.

'I need to move up the schedule.'

Faster, move even faster. Before the alliance became suspicious due to the unreturned riders, I needed to fire when they least expected it.

And above all, isn't watching a fire more enjoyable at night?