Chapter 32

26. Gold (2)

First, I must thank Kaildos. Without the large amount of medicine he brought from his bunker, I wouldn't have dared to treat this guy.

It's not a major treatment.

I applied powdered disinfectant to the area where the ribs were exposed and covered it with gauze.

Gold, being a beast, only growled in pain once during the treatment and didn't show any hostility towards me.

After treating the wound, I provided food.

I made the food myself, boiling the meat that had gone bad and smelled from the freezer, which had thawed during the Lieutenant Yun incident, and mixing it with nutritional supplements and oral antibiotics.

Gold wrinkled his nose when he smelled it.

"Grumble!"

"Ah, come on."

Even dogs can be picky eaters.

Well, he's always eaten delicious things like roe deer and wild boar, so this half-rotten frozen food probably doesn't appeal to him.

Still, he seemed to know that he needed to eat this to get better, so he forced the food into his mouth, chewed it, and swallowed it, letting it slide into his stomach.

Watching him eat the food I had prepared, I felt I understood a little why people keep animals.

It's hard to describe.

It's like my heart was filled in some way as the bowl emptied.

Feeling a bit of what a cat mom might feel, I continued to monitor his progress.

True to his nature as a wild beast, Gold showed an incredibly fast recovery.

In less than three days, he was able to walk slowly, so I brought him to a secluded spot in the hills above the main bunker.

As expected of a smart one, he followed my instructions while constantly being on guard.

He seemed particularly wary of other people.

"It's okay. It's just me."

"Grumble."

"Have you been living a lie?"

He nodded at my words.

"......"

This guy, just how much of human speech can he understand?

Feeling a chill, I built a shelter for him.

I patched together some corrugated metal sheets from a warehouse in the lower village to make a roof and laid down blankets and mats from an abandoned house, along with industrial packaging materials, to create a comfortable spot.

"Here, this is your home."

As soon as the shelter was complete, Gold slipped inside, curled up, and stared at me, making a low growling sound.

His gaze made me feel that he trusted me to some extent.

I felt a sense of accomplishment, and more than anything, the thought of achieving the feat of taming a mutant dog, something no one else had done, made my long-dormant blood boil.

However, as his wounds healed and he gradually regained his strength, my sense of accomplishment gradually turned into unease.

I know how terrifying a mutant dog can be.

In close combat, a mutant dog is a far more dangerous creature than most monsters.

When he lifts his head from the ground and stares at me, I sometimes feel an urge to aim my gun and pull the trigger.

This is because the image of him suddenly pouncing on me and chewing me to the bone flashes before my eyes.

But every time that urge arises, I calm myself by remembering how he followed me and how he imitated human songs.

What inspired me the most was the woman that Baek Seung-hyun had executed.

I wondered if her ability to remain calm in front of a cat several times her size was the true secret to taming mutants.

However, no matter how much I try to control my impulses and instill trust, I am a defensive person.

The thought that Gold might harm me grew in my mind day by day.

One day, another visitor came to my territory.

It was a bus.

The K-walkie-talkie crackled as it received a public broadcast.

"Is there anyone alive in this area? We are not raiders or the military. We are ordinary civilians with a purpose for being here."

This voice.

I've heard it before.

"Please respond if you're there. We are not enemies. We just want a little information. You can respond via radio, but we have a small gift prepared. Fuel. Fuel."

It came to me.

It was Ji Chang-soo.

He was a bit older and thinner, but it was indeed the loyalist Ji Chang-soo who had followed the Jepungho to die.

However, when I looked through the binoculars, I saw that Ji Chang-soo was not alone.

Beside him stood the woman who had tried to stop my father's suicide.

Wasn't her name Ji Young-hee?

She stood there with a discontented expression, awkwardly guarding her father's back.

"......"

What should I do?

It's not a particularly appealing idea to reveal myself for a can of fuel, but they are people I have a connection with.

They brought five armed men, but it didn't seem like they had any business with me.

I'm not someone so important that they would come looking for me, and from the looks of it, they were just passing through on their way to the southeast.

"Stay hidden."

I whispered to Gold.

"I'll be back after a short errand."

He stared at me for a moment before retreating deep into the corrugated metal shelter.

"There are survivors here."

I took out the K-walkie-talkie and responded.

They didn't recognize my voice.

"It's Park Gyu."

As expected, they didn't have any business with me.

We exchanged brief greetings, and I invited them in.

Gold growled, but I had something to test.

*

"......You live in a place like this?"

Ji Chang-soo looked at my camouflage house in surprise.

It's not surprising that he reacted this way.

The rusted, dilapidated container house objectively doesn't look like a place where anyone would live.

"If you don't have anything to take, people won't look for you. It's like living without possessions, you could say."

I told them a story I had heard somewhere and observed their reactions.

The experiment was successful.

My camouflage house, which was hard to see from the outside and gave a feeling of not wanting to enter even when seen up close, made them hesitant to go inside.

We talked outside.

Bringing Ji Chang-soo here, someone I thought I would never see again, was due to the shadow of the past.

He showed me a photo he had printed.

"Take a look at this."

It was a photo I had seen before in the community.

A photo of the Jepungho chairman.

The entrepreneur who led thousands of followers even after becoming a zombie was crudely printed on A4 paper.

"I can't bear to see the chairman, who gave me everything and bestowed so much, wandering around in this state. I want to give him a proper funeral."

That was the situation.

Beyond the territory dominated by Gold's pack, there is an abandoned city where a group of zombies, believed to be the Jepungho chairman, lives.

However, entering the city is not easy.

The city is surrounded by nests of stationary monsters, the base of raiders, and remnants of the Chinese army that barely managed to land, all of which are more dangerous than zombies.

I asked about the remnants of the Chinese army, which I had never heard of before.

"A battalion-sized unit managed to land in Asan, but they are all Albo soldiers. Our navy sank their ships, and with their country destroyed, what can they do? They just settled down."

My focus had always been on Seoul, but it seems interesting things were happening in the south as well.

Aside from that dangerous area, the only viable route to the city is the southwest route, which is where Gold's pack is.

Gold is a much more famous figure in Seoul than I am.

There has been a bounty on his head for a long time.

Several hunting parties have gone after him, but they all came back empty-handed, and some were defeated and became food for Gold's gang.

Naturally, Ji Chang-soo knew this, but now that he was near Gold's territory, he was scared and was looking for nearby survivors to increase his chances.

He also went to the famous sniper mother and daughter in the area, hoping to at least get some information through communication.

"To think that Hunter Park Gyu would be hiding in such a place. It's like a divine revelation."

Ji Chang-soo kept praying and thanking the heavens.

"To think that Hunter Park Gyu would be here to help us."

"Excuse me?"

This guy, isn't he drinking the kimchi broth too quickly?

I haven't even said I would help, and I don't plan to.

"I'm very sorry, but I've been out of active service for a long time and am not in a position to fight properly. If I had the same skills as before, would I be living like a beggar in a place like this?"

I gave him some information and helped him to that extent.

When Ji Chang-soo left, his daughter, Ji Young-hee, approached me.

I've always felt that it's easier to communicate with her than with Ji Chang-soo.

"It's okay. I think it looks crazy, but I can't involve Hunter Park Gyu."

Ji Young-hee glared at her father, who was walking back to the bus, with a resentful look and a cigarette in her mouth.

"How long will he keep talking about Jepungho? I really can't understand. This isn't the Joseon Dynasty anymore."

She had a shiny ring on her ring finger.

It wasn't there before.

"This?"

She noticed my gaze and took a deep drag on her cigarette.

"I did end up marrying someone from the Pahung Group, but......"

After a moment of silence, she exhaled a thick cloud of smoke.

"He's dead."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"He was a good person, but he was too weak. He wasn't cut out for this era......"

Her face didn't show much sadness when talking about her husband's death.

Perhaps she never gave him even the minimum amount of love.

She glanced at me.

"Are you alone?"

"Yes."

"Divorced?"

"I'm single."

"I heard hunters get married quickly."

"There are exceptions."

"Aren't you lonely?"

This woman, she never used to ask about personal matters.

Even when the Pahung Group was still somewhat intact and had no future, she would ask for my help, but she never showed any interest in me as a man.

But perhaps because the world has changed, her gaze and the tone of her voice feel stickier than before.

I don't dislike it, but she and I are still strangers.

I sighed and looked at the camouflage house.

"At first, I did feel lonely. But once I let go of my desires, everything seemed abundant."

"You sound like a monk."

"Are you leaving now? The mutants are not easy to deal with."

"We are well-armed."

She looked back.

The men on the bus were mounting a large machine gun on the roof.

A 12.7mm heavy machine gun.

I nodded in agreement.

"That's enough."

"We'll leave a can of fuel as promised. It's synthetic, but it's usable."

"Can it be used instead of diesel?"

"Our bus runs well on it. I don't know how much strain it puts on the engine, but...... Hey!"

Suddenly, Ji Young-hee's face turned pale.

I already knew the reason before I turned my head.

I heard heavy breathing, and a large shadow loomed between us.

Standing next to the main bunker, a massive hound, rivaling a lion in size, was staring at us.

It was Gold.

"Gold."

Click

I called his name and aimed my gun.

"Back off."

Gold bared his teeth and growled at Ji Young-hee.

Ji Young-hee, her face pale, took a step back and asked me.

"Y-You're raising it?"

"I'm not raising it."

"Then?!"

"It just happened."

I warned Gold again.

"This person is not an enemy. They will leave soon. They won't harm you."

Gold didn't show any hostility towards me.

His clear hostility was directed at Ji Young-hee.

"Gold."

I spoke with emotion, and there was a murmur from the bus.

"What's going on? Young-hee!"

Ji Chang-soo's voice was heard.

Gold stared at Ji Young-hee, then suddenly turned and quickly left my territory.

"Gold......"

No doubt about it.

Gold was leaving.

He ran down the hill where I had built his shelter, leaped down a steep slope, crossed a deep stream, and disappeared into the plain beyond.

He was heading southwest.

The plain he had once dominated.

Click

Ji Young-hee aimed her gun at Gold.

I forced her gun down.

She glared at me in protest.

"......Let it go. It's a waste of bullets."

"Are you trying to raise a monster like that? A hunter, of all people?"

"I didn't raise it. I just took care of it for a while. It had severe injuries. Even beasts know gratitude, don't they?"

"He doesn't seem like the type to bring you meat."

Ji Young-hee put her gun on safety and slung it over her shoulder.

"I didn't do it for that."

Black dots began to appear at the edge of the plain beyond.

Even without binoculars, I could tell.

They were mutant dogs.

They seemed to have heard Gold's howl and come.

Among them was one I hadn't seen before.

I confirmed with binoculars.

Indeed, it was a new one.

A black, short-haired dog with a head twisted like a demon, almost as large as a bull.

Is it him?

The one who injured Gold, drove him out of the pack, and took his place as the leader.

He stands out from the many mutant dogs I've seen.

Ji Young-hee muttered beside me.

"......I really don't want to go now."

Why did Gold go back to the black one?

Is he trying to challenge again?

To reclaim his pack and territory?

Unlikely.

His body has recovered enough to run, but not enough to fight a giant like the black one.

Judging by the black one's size and appearance, he would be a tough opponent even in top condition.

It's a pity to see the effort of a few days go to waste, but it's out of my hands now.

Gold stood in front of the