Chapter 89

The sound of Gae Baek Jung laughing gave them the creeps. They didn’t know why this crazy bastard acted the way he did. They didn’t know what he wanted from them. Gae Baek Jung clicked his tongue and looked at the trembling camp members.

“Jeez, this welcoming ceremony feels so hollow. It’s not fun if we end it like this, right?” Gae Baek Jung’s eyes skimmed over the survivors and stopped on Marco.

Marco flinched under his gaze and his body trembled even more. Lieutenant Ahn and Seo Jun, who were camp leaders, experienced horrific deaths. If Gae Baek Jung was looking for the next highest ranked person, then, nine times out of ten, he would be the next to go. Marco did not want to die like this, not in the least. He had survived too long.

‘No way!’

“Hey you!” Gae Baek Jung pointed at Marco and Marco cursed non-stop in his head. “Bring me any woman. Someone that’s my type. If she’s my type, I’ll take her and if she’s not my type, I’ll have your head.”

“Ahhh!” The female camp members shrieked.

“Huh?” Marco’s eyes widened so much that they looked like they were going to pop out of his head. He didn’t want to die, especially not like this. With the white of eyes predominantly showing, he grabbed Ji Hye, who was next to him, by the hand.

“Ah! What are you doing!?” Ji Hye struggled, but could not stop Marco from pulling her out of the crowd. She screamed and begged, but Marco acted as if he couldn’t hear anything. Instead, he dumped her in front of Gae Baek Jung and held his breath.

Gae Baek Jung lifted Ji Hye’s head. Her face was a mess of snot and tears. Still, with her small face, symmetrical eyes, and aesthetically positioned nose and lips, it was hard to deny that she was beautiful.

“Wow, not bad. Good, you can go.”

Marco released a sigh of relief and returned to his spot. People glared at him, but he ignored them as he sat down at his seat.

“See? I’m a very merciful person. If you listen, I won’t be too hard on you. What are you doing? Take your clothes off.” Gae Baek Jung tapped Ji Hye with his gun. Ji Hye, who was still crying, jumped as if she had a seizure.

‘Crazy bastard!’ The camp members could barely hold in their anger. This person was going to rape Ji Hye right in front of them!

“Dwarf.”

“Yes.”

“Until she takes her clothes off, kill someone every 30 seconds. It doesn’t matter who.”

“I’ll take it off! I’ll take it off! Sniff…” Ji Hye moved to unbutton her blouse, but Elder Park stood up slowly and made his way forward.

“What the hell gramps? I didn’t tell you to get up.”

“Isn’t this enough? Please stop—”

Elder Park was interrupted by Gae Baek Jung’s fist in his face. The strike broke his nose and blood gushed out from the injury. Elder Park fell to the floor, but slowly and weakly got back up.

“We’re all human, how can you do this?”

“Are you stupid? You guys are dogs. If you’re dogs, act like one.”

“…We have a garden on the roof. In just two months, it’ll grow fresh vegetables. If you want, we’ll help you to the best of abilities so that you can grow a garden at your desired location. I beg you, please stop.”

Gae Baek Jung looked interested. He slung his rifle over his shoulder and looked at Elder Park.

“Okay. I’ll let you live old man, since I like your courage. I want you to keep farming under me. But first, I’m going to finish what I started.” He turned to Ji Hye, who was trembling and had stopped taking her clothes off. “Hey, what are you—”

“Honey! Come over here!” Genie entered the underground chamber, panting.

“What now? I was having fun. Let’s talk after I’m done.”

“It’s urgent. Super important.”

Gae Baek Jung frowned. He didn’t like that he was interrupted, but it was rare for Genie to get in the way of his work. There had to be a good reason.

“Wait here puppies.” Gae Baek Jung’s large frame exited the underground chamber with just a few huge strides.

He followed Genie to Yohan’s office on the second floor. The door was previously locked, but the door knob had been destroyed by a blunt weapon. The various cabinets inside were all opened and paper was strewn about everywhere, looking as if a thief had ransacked the room. There were important-looking documents, such as maps, lists of camp members, and so on, but these weren’t of interest to Gae Baek Jung. He was about to complain when Genie handed him a stack of paper.

“Look at this.”

It was a document entitled “CAMP RULES” and it had information related to zombies: the names of mutant zombies, their forms, tendencies, among other things. Gae Baek Jung’s eyes grew wide as he poured over the content slowly. There were over 20 types of mutants listed. Simple experience could not have obtained information this developed and detailed.

The union had encountered a mutant zombie before. All their combatants at the refugee camp were killed in the encounter. Gae Baek Jung could not believe that Yohan had acquired all this information on mutant zombies and was still alive today.

Gae Baek Jung skimmed further down. There were rules relating to zombie waves, mutants, and airborne infection. The information on airborne infection was on the last page of the document. Gae Baek Jung didn’t know what to expect, he couldn’t help but look at it.

Regarding airborne infection: It is assumed that the source of airborne infection has to do with mutants. For example, in the middle of a zombie wave, the smallest injury can infect people quickly. In contrast, there has rarely been a case of infection outside of a zombie wave, even when there is a major injury involved. If mutants release something into the air that causes airborne infection, then wouldn’t we be free from said infection as long as we avoid zombie waves? However, there still isn’t enough proof to support this claim yet.

“Wow…”

“That’s not all. Look at this.”

Genie handed him another document. This one contained the names of the survivors from the Seoul Survival Union. This was information on Gae Baek Jung’s group! It had their names, nicknames, characteristics, and the approximate time of when they joined the union. The strangest thing was that the document outlined things that were going to happen in the future. It contained not only the names of Union members in 2018, but also those that would join in 2019.

They could have dismissed it all as the rantings and ravings of a lunatic, but there were the names of their top members that had been planted in other camps as spies working to break up the camps from the inside. These were names that not even Kim Seol Hwa knew. Gae Baek Jung felt goosebumps on his back.

“Who the hell is this bastard!?” Gae Baek Jung started yelling. His anxiousness made him look up suddenly.

“Crazy Dog! Cola Bear! Still no word from them?” He yelled at the underling that managed comms.

“…Y—yes.”

“I’ll kill them. What the hell is going on?” Gae Baek Jung snatched the walkie-talkie from his underling’s hand and jammed down the transmission button. “Crazy Dog! Cola Bear! Answer me!”

No matter how much he yelled, no one answered. Did they really get killed by this guy? How? The battle here proceeded as he expected. No matter how skilled these people were, the combatants of the Seoul Survival Union were more accustomed to killing humans. There was no way they could have been defeated. That’s the way it always was. Gae Baek Jung gritted his teeth and spoke through the walkie-talkie again.

“Yohan, I know you’re there… Answer me, Yohan! This is the camp that you tried to hide from us. You hid over 100 people here! Oh, actually I killed over 10 people, so I guess it’s not 100 anymore. How does it look? Your loyal underlings were desperately calling out to you. Yohan! Yohan! That’s what they sounded like. Right before I crushed their heads!” Gae Baek Jung tried to hide the desperation in his voice. The walkie-talkie remained silent, but he had a feeling that there was someone on the other side listening. It was just a feeling, but instinct was what had kept Gae Baek Jung alive until now.

“You bastard! Who the hell are you!?” Gae Baek Jung was afraid of this unknown enemy. This was the first time he had felt fear since the apocalypse started.

* * *

In order to strike the Seoul Survival Union from behind, the recon team waited in silence in Gulpocheon station, which was located in the middle between the mercenary’s camp and their camp. Yohan slammed down the walkie-talkie in anger. They had acquired the radio after killing Cola Bear.

“What? What’s going on?” Saeri asked, seeing the serious expression on his face. Yohan took a deep breath.

“The main camp has been captured. There are casualties. I think everyone has been taken hostage.”

“Wh—what? What about Jung Hwan!?”

Yohan shook his head. He was indicating that he didn’t know, but Saeri misinterpreted as if the worst case scenario had occurred. She slumped down to the ground.

“N—no way.”

“Don’t worry so much.” Yohan tried to comfort Saeri as she mumbled to herself in a devastated state. He then pulled out his recon team walkie-talkie.

“Everyone move to Sang Dong. We’re going to surround the recon team shelter.”

— “What happened?”

“The bastards attacked our camp. We’re going with plan D.”

Sweeper mumbled something sadly through the walkie-talkie. During their briefing, Yohan had told them that, if the Union attacked their camp, it would result in the most deaths. It was the scenario he wanted to avoid the most.

“I’m saying this just in case, but prepare yourselves. Especially Hyuk. No matter what happens, stay in your place. If anyone goes against my order or acts on their own, I’ll kill them myself.” Yohan growled, instructing the recon team to steel their resolve.

He had a feeling that this scenario occurred because the camp members failed to carry out his orders. Plan D, the fourth scenario, was for when Gae Baek Jung’s main force arrived at their main camp. Even though he had planned for it, he desperately wanted to avoid the scenario. This entire fight with Gae Baek Jung was an unexpected variable that stemmed from their initial mission to rescue Hyuk. If everything didn’t fit together perfectly like a jigsaw puzzle, it was bound to fall apart.

The crux of the plan was the underground chamber under the recon team’s shelter. Yohan had prepared the area under the recon camp in case he wasn’t around when the main camp got attacked. Even if the entire camp was destroyed, he wanted to at least save the recon team members. It was the main reason he scouted the location to be the recon team shelter back when they were still moving around from camp to camp. Yohan had hoped that the underground chamber would be able to withstand even a nuclear bomb, as unrealistic as that may seem.

The original plan he relayed to Jung Hwan relied on the door closing specialist to take all the survivors to the well-prepared shelter and keep the door locked. They were supposed to wait until the recon team found the enemy. Other than this plan, Yohan couldn’t think of any other alternatives. Dog Nose and his hunting dog’s tracking abilities were unrivaled. Combined with Genie’s brains, even if they abandoned the camp, the enemy would eventually catch up to them. If they split up and hid, they would be caught bit by bit.

Yohan had anticipated that the recon team shelter would be discovered. It was only a matter of time before they found it. The key idea was to push the Seoul Survival Union into a single area and entrap them. He needed something that would round them up together and stop them from moving around. For that, Yohan had thought for a long time before remembering the documents in the cabinet in his office. These documents contained the apocalypse survival guide and everything he remembered about the Seoul Survival Union.

He had written everything down before he could forget. It was also insurance in case he died or went missing. Everything was to be passed down to the next leader of the camp. These documents were the last piece of the puzzle, which is why he didn’t ask Jung Hwan to remove or incinerate the documents and left them somewhere easily found by the enemy.

‘I know who you guys are. I know you like the back of my hand.’

— Ω —