Chapter 99

After exploring the inside of the building once, Jung Hwan started grumbling as he gathered supplies. There was fishing gear and some other daily necessities here; quite a few items had been left behind.

‘Firearms and ammo are the top priority, next is food. Third is first aid supplies. The rest we can get when we have time.’

“Let’s see…” Jung Hwan saw a pack of cigarettes that was a brand that the guys liked, so he grabbed them and some canned food.

Since they were close to the gathering point, it was enough to simply take the most important items for now. Jung Hwan made several trips in and out of the fish market building to move the supplies he found. Ah Young stood up to help.

“Don’t come!” Jung Hwan shouted, a bit louder than he intended. Ah Young flinched and looked like she was about to cry. Jung Hwan felt a drop of sweat roll down the side of his head.

‘There aren’t any zombies inside anyways, why am I yelling at a girl who is just trying to help…’

Jung Hwan couldn’t help but overreact. Whenever they went on a recon mission, the recon team team members were always on high alert and were extremely tense as a consequence. However, from Ah Young’s perspective, she was just trying to help and Jung Hwan was being harsh.

“Oh, sorry. It might be dangerous. Be careful when coming in, okay? Hold here…”

Jung Hwan only had the fishing tackle left. He was thinking that it would be good to have a full set of fishing gear since they were going to an island. There was one on top of the display stand and he was worried about falling, so having a helper was nice.

“Hold tightly.”

“Okay.”

Just as Jung Hwan grabbed the largest fishing tackle, he heard something.

“Grrrr—”

Jung Hwan’s body froze. It was quiet, but he definitely heard something. Silence and anxiety overcame him simultaneously. Instinctively, he hid Ah Young behind him and gripped his knife tightly. However, nothing appeared. Jung Hwan moved slowly. The days when he was scared of one or two zombies popping out of nowhere were long gone. He was confident that the experience he had built up across many battles and victories would allow him to survive, no matter the crisis.

He needed to take care of the threat before leaving. Yohan had taught them to get rid of anything that could potentially come back and bite them in the future. As Jung Hwan moved carefully through the building, he could feel Ah Young holding onto his shirt. He thought briefly about going to the back of the building, leaving Ah Young in a safe spot, and then coming out to fight on his own. However, turning his back to a zombie threat was more dangerous, this he was certain of.

In the end, he was worried about nothing. Jung Hwan found the source of the growling and let his arms flop to his sides. The howling and growling came from some tiny puppies. They looked less than six months old.

“…They’re just puppies.”

Ah Young peeked out from behind him and squealed in delight. The puppies were in a simple storage space that was roughly 40cm off the group. It had a steel door that could be locked. Inside, he could see the mother of the puppies, but she had passed away already. The puppies were still suckling on her teats. All around the puppies were ripped sacks containing fish bait paste and water bottles with teeth marks all over them.

As Jung Hwan moved closer, he brushed some dry blood that crumbled to the floor. It was clear what had happened here. The mother of the puppies was pregnant when she was bitten by a zombie. She came in here to find food and died from her injuries while taking care of her newborns. The dead body still had milk which, combined with the fish bait paste, was enough to allow the puppies to survive this long.

Still, they were suffering from malnutrition. Their whimpering was so soft that they could barely hear it, even now. They could see their tiny thin ribs pressed up against their skin. The puppies were so lethargic that they could barely open their eyes. They didn’t even struggle when unfamiliar strangers started handling them.

“I feel bad for them.” Ah Young approached the puppies. Suddenly, with a loud crack, the ceiling gave away. Ah Young covered her mouth with both hands to stop herself from screaming. A zombie fell from the ceiling. To be precise, half of its body dangled down from the hole in the ceiling.

“Raughhhhh!” The zombie reached its hands towards Ah Young, who let out a faint scream through her fingers. Jung Hwan slapped its hands away, but soon more hands reached down from above and some zombies fell down to their level. Fighting on instinct, Jung Hwan pushed the zombies away with one hand and sliced the legs of the other zombies that were trying to get to Ah Young.

“Go! Get out! Hurry!” Jung Hwan yelled, desperately.

“Ah…ack…ahhhhh!” Ah Young was frozen in fear, being completely unused to the situation.

“Hurry!”

* * *

From afar, Yohan noticed Ah Young running through the area and motioned to the people around him to stop loading the boat.

“Why are you walking around by yourself? Didn’t you hear us telling the kids to stay in one place?” Yohan glared at her coldly.

“Ju—Jung Hwan…”

“What happened? No, where?”

“The supermarket over there…”

Immediately, Yohan took off, running. Sweeper, who had already finished clearing out his building, joined him. Yohan reached the fish market building instantly and spotted Jung Hwan surrounded by five zombies. It was a dire situation. He was struggling in a confined space, trying to push the zombies away.

Yohan threw a knife. It sailed through the air like an arrow and entered the back of the head of one zombie. Sweeper stepped up and yanked two zombies away from Jung Hwan.

“Hah, hah…Yohan…”

“Did you get bitten anywhere?” Yohan had a stiff look on his face as he helped Jung Hwan stand up. He moved him into a lit area and started inspecting his body.

“A moment ago…my hand…”

Yohan fought the urge to curse and removed the glove from Jung Hwan’s hand. They could see teeth marks on the skin, but it didn’t break through thanks to the thick leather gloves he was wearing.

“Shit man. You have so much experience and you can’t even deal with five zombies? You made us worry.” Sweeper slapped Jung Hwan on the back of his head. Jung Hwan’s shoulders slumped.

“Why were you walking around with that kid?” Yohan’s voice was quiet, but his tone was tense.

“You see…”

“You think this was a date?”

“Yohan…” Sweeper, feeling that Yohan was being a bit harsh, started to mumble something but then stopped. Yohan was clearly upset, which was unusual.

“I thought I told you not to be careless.”

“I’m sorry.”

He could have easily been bitten. There wasn’t enough room to fight in that confined space and there were too many zombies. They could’ve lost Jung Hwan if they were just a little late. This was someone who survived two zombie waves and three encounters with the Seoul Survival Union. Yohan didn’t know if Jung Hwan realized it, but he was almost irreplaceable. He can’t afford to be careless just because of his feelings. If he had died, it would have been a meaningless death.

“Wake up. This is a warning.”

“Okay Yohan. I’m sorry.” Jung Hwan replied. His head drooped as he reflected upon his actions. He knew that Yohan was being hard on him because he was worried about him. Jung Hwan also knew that he was careless.

“Whew, let’s go.”

Yohan and Sweeper headed off first. Jung Hwan sat there thinking for a moment before he slapped himself in the cheeks and stood up. Just as he was about to walk away, he heard whimpering again. Most of the puppies had died from the incident, but one survived and it was crawling toward him. Jung Hwan picked it up with one hand.

“What’s that?” Yohan frowned when he saw Jung Hwan walk up with a puppy in his hand.

“It’s a puppy we found inside the building…its mother died.”

“And you want to keep it?”

“If we leave it, it’ll definitely die…” Jung Hwan’s voice was soft. He knew that he already caused a lot of trouble. He glanced up at Yohan and saw that he had a dissatisfied look. There were pros and cons to having a pet, but Yohan was against it. It was difficult to keep them quiet and train them in general. More importantly, they couldn’t spare the food and he didn’t want to think about searching for dog food. As these thoughts crossed Yohan’s mind, Jung Hwan offered his opinion.

“When we fought the Seoul Survival Union for the last time, I saw someone who had a hunting dog. It was able to find people really well. If we have something like that, I’m sure it’ll be useful.”

Dog Nose of the Seoul Survival Union. He had encountered Jung Hwan and Jung Hwan won. Yohan’s demeanor softened as he recalled how Jung Hwan took down a union leader single-handedly.

‘I’m getting soft. Just seeing these guys improve is weakening my resolve.’

Reluctantly, Yohan nodded his head. Jung Hwan smiled and handed the puppy to Ah Young. However, Yohan snatched the puppy from Ah Young and gave it back to Jung Hwan.

“You raise it. Don’t give it to the kid. If you can’t train it properly, you’ll have to kill it yourself. It’s a hunting dog, not a pet.”

“Okay Yohan.”

Yohan spun around and walked away. Sweeper fell into step with him.

“You’re being generous. This isn’t like you.”

“It’s emergency food.”

Sweeper laughed.

“Once we settle down in one place and stabilize, I was thinking about raising livestock anyway,” Yohan said. A well-trained hunting dog could be a big help in a stable region.

“Whatever you say, boss man.” Sweeper knew that he had a soft spot for Jung Hwan and Hyuk.

They walked back to the rally point. All the other recon team members had finished clearing out their buildings and gathered up again. Yohan lined them up in front of the boat. The boat was old, but it was sizable. Yohan knew that they would need to move supplies, so he had invested a lot of money into buying it. The recon team members had different thoughts running through their heads when they saw the boat, most of them revolved around admiration.

“It’s a small boat, so we’ll need to make a few trips. I’ll drop off the advance group first to take care of the zombies. The rest of you will help organize the supplies while we’re gone,” Yohan ordered. He looked at all the recon team members before him. “The advance group will be Sweeper, Ha Jin, Jung Hwan, Hyuk, Saeri, and Corporal Ong.”

“You use us too much, bro.”

“Personally, I prefer to fight than move supplies.”

“You do have a point.”

“You can use guns, so don’t slack off and clear the place before we finish moving everything.”

“How much time will we have?”

“Five hours.”

“That’s plenty.” Sweeper chuckled, grinning at Saeri and Ha Jin. “To think that Saeri is now a gunner. That’s amazing progress, right?”

“Well, with her skills…she’s better than most people,” Ha Jin replied.

“Of course. I carry my own weight now. Right, Yohan?” Saeri took it as a compliment and looked at Yohan with hopeful eyes.

“I’d give her an 8 out of 10,” Yohan said, indifferently. Saeri pretended to spit at him. “The leader of the advance group will be Sweeper. Go out and wipe out all the zombies.”

“Yes sir. Oh, what if we find people? Should we kill them?”

“If you think they’re a threat, kill them. If not, then disarm them and stand-by.”

“Roger.” Sweeper gave a mock salute as the boat departed.

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