Hiding the House in the Apocalypse

19. theme park (1)

I once read that among the repertoire of nightmares that Korean men had before the war, the content about re-enlistment was the most painful.

For me, it’s a nightmare related to loans.

As a bad debtor, I received a huge debt call, but the endless documents were especially memorable.

Summons, payment orders, complaints, hearing notices, judgments, property specification orders, discretionary auction notices, etc. My fan letters with a variety of types.

I don’t want to imagine a future without war.

I don’t have a job, so it’s impossible to do personal rehabilitation, and maybe it wasn’t a bankruptcy ending?

As a result, to confess my conscience, I was a little happy when I heard the news that the war would break out…

As in my case, destruction did not have only negative effects on everyone.

Some, on the contrary, gained vitality that they had not had before in the new change of destruction, and even gained the meaning of life.

My only internet friend, the headhunter, was also a fish that could only swim freely in the turbid waters of disaster.

*

On the day Da-ram Kim went to see my hideout, the human hunter sent a message without fail.

Message from Defender: When are you coming? Skelton. I’m waiting for my throat to fall off.

I’m a person who keeps my promises even if I don’t pay back.

SKELTON: Wait. I’m going to bring you a gift.

Promises must be kept even for the sake of my social face within the community.

I thought about the means of transportation, but in the end, my choice was my favorite gym bike.

Quiet and easy to throw away.

It’s the same if you get attacked properly anyway.

Since there is no mutation, it’s best to be quiet even if it’s slow.

I bought it second-hand from Carrot Net with the intention of using it for a while and throwing it away, but I thought this guy would work the hardest.

It’s also something you don’t know even if you know the world.

Before setting off, the chains were serviced, the tires were fully inflated, and the ammunition box was loaded.

As always, the weapons he brought were a simple travel set: a rifle, a pistol, and two axes.

Still, unlike usual, he wore a bulletproof vest inside.

Rifle bullets will always pierce it, but it’s better than nothing.

According to the information provided by Defender, there are three danger zones around the tangent area.

The first is the monster control zone.

Listening to the human hunter’s explanation, it seems to be a sedentary type that does not move, rooted in one place, rather than a wandering type. As long as you do not enter its territory, it is generally harmless.

The second threat is the area occupied by zombies.

A number of zombies have taken over the side of an abandoned apartment complex and have gone dormant, with some still roaming around in scouting formations, looking for unlucky victims.

However, the zombie area does not appear to be a real threat because it is a terrain that is out of the route southwest of the junction and is quite far away.

The third threat is the rest of the world as a whole.

Yes. The ultimate threat is humans.

Even the headhunters were not sure where they would be or how they would attack.

Unlike monsters and zombies, humans change their location from time to time, devise new tactics and strategies, and set traps to catch people off guard.

Still, it is information that can be known in advance about the area of activity and the spot where the looters often ambush.

The headhunter gave a fairly lengthy explanation about the areas to avoid and the groups of humans to avoid.

What he especially emphasized was the clothes.

Message from Defender: Don’t touch the guys in the red pants at all times.

It’s something I always feel, but the risk of an operation is reduced by devising and suffering in advance.

The rather dangerous journey was calm and smooth enough to feel boring.

Halfway there, the veil of night covered the decaying earth.

From the mounds by the river I saw the off-white, ghostly lights that illuminated the deserted streets.

This is the domain of monsters.

The mission of invasive species that can survive independently in the global environment is not to kill or destroy humans.

It is their role to gradually transform the surroundings they occupy into a form similar to their hometown.

Humans are nothing more than obstacles to be excluded in the process.

Just as the darkness covered me, the monster’s area was also covered, so I couldn’t tell what type the monster was, but at least I confirmed the information that it was a regular type.

Meanwhile, the most concerned human predators could not be found on the route.

Passing through three ambush sites, all I found was abandoned vehicles, wreckage, and charred bodies.

Threats came from unexpected places.

it’s a zombie

Those who were said to be far away from the route were active in large numbers around the route.

Although they were not seen, the chorus of corpses resounding darkly under the pale moonlight suggested that their size was by no means small.

at least a hundred or more

Did it even wake up from dormancy?

We proceeded the remaining route cautiously with as little noise as possible.

It was agreed in advance not to use a walkie-talkie.

Unlike my empty territory, there are quite a few people and factions in this area, so using a walkie-talkie only informs you that there are people on this side.

If the headhunter had a personal identification number, he could have communicated on his own frequency instead of the dangerous public frequency, but I am the only one of the two with a personal identification number.

Instead, we set the meeting place and estimated time in detail, but the headhunter took a picture of the meeting place and sent it to us.

The meeting place was under a large fir tree that looked like a large ferris wheel tilted as much as the axis of rotation of the earth.

As we approached the theme park, we searched for similar trees.

there is.

The viewing angle is different, so the ferris wheel looks like it sticks out rather than leaning against the tree, but the same tree as the photo was standing upright under the moonlight.

There were no people around.

He drew his weapon and approached slowly.

Keeping all senses open, ready for all possibilities.

After a while, a presence was felt.

a person

A man is standing behind a tree.

My heart beat lightly.

Will we finally meet

The bad guy on the bulletin board called the headhunter?

what would it look like

Maybe it’s a surprisingly good impression.

Human nature has nothing to do with appearance.

But this breath.

It’s too thin to be a man’s.

In a slight shock, the shadows behind the trees appeared.

It’s a woman.

A long-haired woman with pale skin resembling moonlight.

A woman with a very attractive appearance is carefully looking at me with eyes filled with both curiosity and fear.

She waved and greeted awkwardly.

Instead of responding, he raised his pistol and aimed at his back.

“Come out.”

There is one more.

clap

“I was told to come out.”

At the edge of his field of vision, he felt the woman move slightly.

“Still.”

He pointed at the woman with his right hand, holding an axe, warning.

Shrubs swayed lightly.

“wow.”

The young man’s exclamation echoed in the shrubbery.

Soon, a black shadow emerged from the shrubbery in strides, slowly stepping forward with raised hands in the moonlight, revealing itself.

A tall, handsome man was looking at me with his teeth exposed.

“This is my first time. Not falling into our trap.”

Slowly stepping back, putting the two in sight, he asked briefly.

“Are you respectful?”

The man laughed.

“No, even if you say it, why do you name a bastard like that? sadly I am Defender.”

My eyes alternated between male and female.

The man smiled and the woman turned her head away and averted her gaze.

“It’s both. It’s my younger brother who often posts.”

“what?”

I stared at the woman.

was it this guy?

The guy who posted cynical comments and murder confirmations that didn’t show even the slightest speck of humanity?

It doesn’t look like that at all.

The face itself looks nice.

Well, you can’t judge people just by what they look like.

The man glared at the woman who turned his gaze.

“My brother, in real life he is a hamster, but on the Internet he is a female. Well, since it’s my account, I also post when I have free time. I tend to comment often.”

“…was it something like that?”

The headhunter’s identity has been revealed.

They are two, not one. siblings

They were both in their mid-twenties, and seemed to be in good nutrition and stable psychologically.

“Since we introduced them, should we introduce you too?”

Their bodies, which they thought would smell like corpses, smelled of burnt grass.

He answered briefly, remaining expressionless.

“It’s a skeleton.”

I wasn’t coming

Feeling regret for unknown reasons, I pointed towards the bicycle.

“That’s ammunition. take it.”

What is the reason?

Because there are two of you? Is it different from what you thought? Feeling repulsed by an overly friendly attitude?

No, I think I know roughly.

Their methods were in contact with bad memories.

With a smooth-faced young woman at the fore, a man swoops in and kills his victim while the other is caught off guard.

This is a scene often seen in China, which has become a demon cave.

A fellow Hunter, not on my team, was caught in the shallows and his decapitated head was caught under a traffic light.

I’m not trying to take issue with the meanness of the method.

I just hated seeing the same scene repeated in front of my eyes.

“Why are you so vigilant?”

The man turned to me as he moved the ammunition.

The woman is watching me cautiously from earlier with her arms crossed.

After being vigilant for a while, she took out something, rolled it up, put it in her mouth, and lit it on fire.

It smells like burning grass, not cigarettes.

Perhaps this is the cause of their body odor.

“Shall we have a cup of tea inside?”

A man blurts out as he moves ammunition onto a cart.

“No, I just have to go. Go in first.”

“Why are you so vigilant? Weren’t we friends?”

“…”

“Why are you silent?! Skelton. Are you disappointed in us?”

He nodded.

“······why?”

This time, the siblings asked at the same time.

Both of them with shocked faces.

To be honest, I just don’t want to see it, but I don’t think I should say it out loud.

As I was rolling my head that couldn’t turn, I heard a bizarre sound from not far away on the wind.

“mom······. mom······. Ehh.”

It’s not like the voice of a ghost.

it’s a child’s cry

There are about two children under the age of ten, crying bitterly and looking for their parents.

That anxious cry might be an attribute belonging to the space called the theme park nestled down there, but not now.

“Skelton.”

The male defender was straight.

The female defender was already grabbing the wheelbarrow and preparing to pull it.

“Let’s go home for a while.”

“What is going on?”

“It’s those bastards.”

The male defender revealed a clear life for the first time.

“The reason I need a bullet.”

*

The Defender’s base was not an air-raid shelter, but an old house nestled in the mountains overlooking the theme park.

It’s more like a mansion than a house.

Overall, it looks old and decaying, but it is a luxurious specification with a private house, warehouse, and even a garage.

Is this why he chose to kill them all rather than hide them?

In the small greenhouse made of vinyl under the moonlight, miscellaneous plants were growing, but it was foggy and it was impossible to check what they were growing.

The female defender looked at the luxurious box in my hand with shy eyes.

He seems to be still wary of me, but seeing as he persistently looks at me, he seems to be interested.

“······Skelton. what is that?”

She asked in a timid voice.

“this?”

Da-ram Kim’s high-end snack.

I brought half of the leftovers to give as a gift to the Headhunters.

I wanted to increase the favorability of the defender and hopefully my reputation would naturally improve.

However, the Defender I actually saw was a worse image than I had imagined.

And one more mouth.

So I thought I would take it back and eat it myself, but suddenly I was invited and brought it with me.

“Sir, it’s a gift…”

Reluctantly, I handed out the sweets to the female defender.

She opened the box and stared at me with a wide smile.

“Skelton!”

A look that really makes me happy.

“…”

I averted her gaze.

Instead, I looked around the house.

Unlike my air-raid shelter, the open feeling of the wide open hall stimulated my eyes.

It is also a rich house.

You can see traces of money everywhere.

Even so, it seemed that it could not avoid the magical corrosion and abrasion unique to the period of destruction, and the worn and collapsed parts were visible in places.

Soon, a male defender served steaming tea.

“oh.”

He smiled wide as he looked at the cookies.

“Skelton! he’s a nice guy too He’s a real man I recognized!”

“…”

As we stayed silent, the female defender whispered something into the male defender’s ear.

“My brother says that, but he asks why men are so timid so that they can’t be manly?”

“?”

Who is looking at whom?

When I look at the woman, I try to avert my eyes and look away.

He sighed and opened his mouth.

“What is the sound of a baby crying?”

This is the main point.

The sound of a child crying brought me here.

“Let’s have some tea first.”

The brother and sister listened to the car at the same time.

I smelled the scent.

Good smell.

It is a luxurious scent that is different from the cheap iced tea in my shelter.

But I didn’t drink tea.

Don’t take what they give you.

It is the etiquette of a person living in a period of destruction.

But unlike me, the Defender siblings gorged on my cookies.

I couldn’t lose, so I grabbed one and carried it to my mouth. As I bit into my mouth, I had no choice but to take a sip of tea.

it’s good.

It’s a perfect match~.

I also have friends on the Internet, so I should have trusted you a bit.

As I was licking my lips at the empty box, soaked in regret, the male defender opened his mouth.

“I am a pioneer.”

“pioneer?”

“Are there any chicks camped in front of the Keystone house? The same kind as them.”

“okay?”

“However, the quality is so poor that it cannot be compared with them.”

The male defender snapped his fingers at his younger brother.

Then the female defender opened the laptop and showed me the screen.

In the photo taken with a mobile phone, there was an armored vehicle and plain middle-aged men with guns standing hesitantly.

Just when I thought there was nothing special about it, I noticed that the pants they were wearing were all red, and I also noticed two kids squatting under an armored car.

“This?”

The male defender sneered coldly.

“A parrot.”

“A parrot?”

“After mobilizing the children and making them squeak, we will pull out the moles hiding in the air-raid shelter.”

The male defender pretended to slit his throat.

“Take everything and kill it. Kill the men, rape the women, and use the children for the next trap.”

“They are trash.”

“So I’m going to kill you.”

The headhunter showed his teeth and smiled whitely.

For some reason, the expression on his face as he talked about murder seemed very happy.