Hiding the House in the Apocalypse

26. Gold (1)

The Christmas season has arrived without fail.

A former game developer who recently changed his nickname from Anonymous 118 to Foxgames opened a tree decorating site following last year.

Bulletin board users whose surplus is time began to cling to each other like bees and decorate each other’s trees.

Unlike last year, this year I also had quite a few decorations on my Christmas tree.

＜Hmm, hmm… is this enough?, Give birth, no fun, hmm…, next year, pay attention to yourself, hmm, hmm, Defender1, Defender2 ＞

hahahaha, our bulletin board friends are mischievous.

I put decorations on Defender’s tree.

As a named user, Defender had already filled 3 trees and was receiving the 4th, but luckily I was able to put my nickname on the lollipop decoration in the last place.

＜ KILL, Quack!, SeaMonkey Papa: why?, SeaMonkey Papa, Memento Mori, Skeleton Friends, DragonC, Born to Kill, SeaMonkey Papada, SKELTON ＞

It has been snowing outside for three days.

My realm and its surroundings turned into a white snowy field.

As the snow piles up, it seems that the golf course in the neighborhood has regained its former beauty.

Because of the weather, there were no shadows of people around.

After the war, only elk and wild boars, which had greatly increased in number, roamed the desert once in a while.

It was supposed to be a peaceful and serene day.

That is, until I heard a wild howl from the southwest.

*

Monster invasion is compared to fungus.

A clear source of contamination called a crack causes mold to grow around it, and the mold creates all sorts of vile germs, which then spread mold again.

Mutations are one of the germs created by the fungus and are one of the worst enemies a civilian can face.

The variety is also diverse.

It is said that lion mutations in Africa, elephant mutations in India, and panda mutations in China each showed their own fierceness, but the real problem mutations come from livestock that humans mainly raise.

Chicken, cow, horse, pig, sheep, goat and so on. The hamster didn’t hear.

The most threatening of these is the mutant dog, whose ancestors hunted humans.

Assuming that the original version is not a wolf, it has high basic combat power, builds a pack, and has a very high intelligence.

A pack of mutant dogs also lives in the southwest of my realm.

The leader of the pack is a very cruel and cunning dog called Gold because his hair is golden all over his body.

The subjugation order was issued when the Korean government was still intact, but the subjugation team returned empty-handed every time.

It even stumbled into my territory once, but recently it has been proving itself that it is a dog seller and a prize seller by sitting down in the southwest where game is abundant.

In the realm of the gold group, intense wild echoes were heard competingly.

Could it be that the mutant dogs are fighting each other?

The roar of primitive violence continued into the late afternoon.

“Can you hear the skeleton? It sounds strange.”

It seems that the sniper mother and daughter heard the sound.

It was Suu who communicated directly.

“It’s like a mutation. Anyway, take care of yourself and Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas. Mom says Merry Christmas too. And they ask if I can use the computer around the new year?”

“why?”

“They want to count down to Eastern Standard Time with the people on the message board.”

“······The computer has been acting weird for a while now. I’ll catch me and get the satellite equipment and laptop, so just be patient. Are your wounds okay?”

“huh.”

“okay.”

After the communication was over, the weapon was maintained.

I got some weapons from Rebecca as an Internet fee.

It is an anti-personnel mine, a Craymore, a recoilless gun, a 7.62mm machine gun, and 200 rounds of ammunition.

To me, who had enough fire extinguishers but lacked neutral firepower, it could be said to be the sweet rain of a drought.

I also received homework, but that homework is the Javelin battery.

Rebecca promised to give me one if I could restore the battery and make it usable.

Not to mention its power.

It can destroy almost all tanks in Korea in one hit.

It would be best not to have such a situation happen, but isn’t a person’s fate unknown?

It is said that there is a truce in Seoul right now, but it is also something that we do not know when we will hit and fight again.

The sun was setting as I took out the dusty battery tester and charger and thought about how to charge them.

It was time to wash my face properly, enter the heating tent, turn on the hot water mat, and go to sleep.

The motion sensor installed on the side of the inner air-raid shelter blinked.

“…”

Something entered my realm.

It is inside the main air defense shelter.

I turned on the wiretapping device and listened to the speaker.

The sound of gasping for breath and shuffling feet came through the speakers clearly.

Soon, the closed-circuit screen showed me the identity of the intruder in black and white.

The identity of the intruder was not human.

A wounded and dying mutation dog dragged into my territory.

No other group is visible.

Had he been attacked?

Anyway, it’s difficult to have something like that in my area.

It would be best to get out quickly and clean it up.

Taking a firearm, an ax and a lantern, he left the shelter and cautiously approached the intruder.

In the twilight, I see something large, staggering and convulsing.

Soon it turned its head toward me, but it seemed to have difficulty even turning its head, and it fell on its side.

Aim the gun and shine the lantern.

“?”

The moment I saw the dog, I was quite surprised.

The identity of the mutation dog that came to my realm is gold. He is the ruler of the southwestern group.

Why did this guy, who overcame countless subjugations and reigned as a local loser, come to my territory alone like this?

Gold lay on his side on the floor, gasping for breath, and only rolled his eyes, staring at me like a human being.

As I illuminated the body with the lantern, the exposed ribs, the torn skin and flesh, and the golden hair that had given him the name Gold appeared one after another and disappeared into the darkness.

This is not human.

Although it is said that Awaken is armed with powerful authority that transcends humans, it does not have the ability to bite and tear apart mutations in this way.

This savage wound was inflicted by a kin, a mutant dog.

He remembered the competitive growl he had heard earlier.

Herd animals inevitably try to appoint a leader.

The power of the animal world is not the same as that of humans.

Humans can use all kinds of expedient methods to overlay concrete on power, but animals must die or leave the herd when they grow old and weak, or when a stronger one appears.

Is this guy like that too?

Did he get here after being challenged and defeated by a strong competitor?

“…”

It’s a shame.

It bothered me once, but it stopped humans, zombies, and other nuisances from the southwest.

clap

But that will be over now.

It is also true that he killed dozens of humans.

It is true that he played with and killed the punitive force for fun like a cat mom’s cat, and it is also true that he filled his stomach with cannibalism.

The dying dog stood up.

It turned away from me and headed down the slope past my territory, which was cluttered with grave mounds and industrial waste.

His movements aroused curiosity.

However, this could also be a mutation trap, so I followed Gold while being wary of the surroundings.

The place where Gold was struggling with bleeding and staggering steps was an abandoned village, a small rural community where old man Kim belonged.

A handful of old people came back and tried to do something, but there was no electricity, no oil, no neighbors who had been with them all their lives.

As the scavengers periodically came and raided the empty houses, they walked away lonely and the village turned into complete ruin.

Gold walked straight towards this abandoned village.

Following his bloodstains, I walked into a village that even I had forgotten.

rustle-

From the beginning, the scattered fragments were stepped on.

I followed him with displeasure.

At first, everything was unfamiliar.

The darkness of the night obscured my vision and the tension was created by a monster that could kill me with a single leap.

However, when he suddenly stopped his steps and turned his head to look somewhere, when he saw his melancholy eyes, the black-and-white landscape magically returned to the quiet and complex living village before the war.

Yes.

This road ran through the center of the village.

There was Nonghyup over there, and there was a mart across the street.

The place he was looking at was where the butcher shop used to be.

It was the store that sold a lot of decent meat at a cheap price, and the soup street was very tasty, and sold a large amount of my meat that had turned into pemmican.

The boy licked his lips and moved forward again.

The boy’s steps became lighter.

The wobbly footsteps changed to the breezy movements like those of the free-roaming dogs often seen in town.

The next place he stopped was at the place where the soup restaurant used to be.

Not my favorite store.

The taste was normal, the price wasn’t cheap, and above all, the owner’s lady saw me pouring a glass of soju over rice soup in broad daylight, and a young person gave a slight bruise for saying that she was drinking on a fictitious day without going to work. where it cut off

Due to the nature of the countryside, I had no other place to go, so I started going again quietly.

But to him, it seemed to be a store made up of only good memories.

Looking at the protruding tongue and the saliva dripping down the sharp teeth even in the dark.

Come to think of it, the mischievous owner often put out bowls full of leftover bones outside the store.

Gold took another step.

This time, it growled like a human frowning and glared at a house.

This is the head of the house.

He was a big fan of dog meat because he was an antagonist of old man Kim, who was known for himself and others.

Seeing that guy growl like that, did he even get eaten by a dog he knew? Or did he almost get eaten?

Gold took another step.

His steps slowed noticeably.

The hind legs drooped as if they were not getting any strength, and only the power of the front legs dragged forward as if dragging the lower body.

The guy squeezed through the broken stone walls.

As the lion-sized body pushed against it, the precariously held wall collapsed, pouring out bricks.

The spreading dust covered the guy’s appearance for a while.

clap

Highly intelligent mutation dogs know how to cheat.

Waiting for the dust to settle, I watched trends everywhere.

The sound of rough breathing stayed in one place all the time.

The dust receded and the figure of the guy appeared in front of me again.

He was licking his wounds in a circle in front of the ruined house.

Beyond the weakly wagging tail, a kennel tilted sideways, as if performing an acrobatic stunt, stood at the very edge.

I walked slowly through the stone walls and looked at the house.

this house. seems to have seen

I don’t remember much, but it occupied at least a corner of the living village landscape that I remember.

Why, when you hear the loud barking of dogs every time you pass by, don’t you take a look at what kind of dog it is?

It was this house.

Where Gold lived.

The name he was called was written in oily marker on the overturned kennel.

＜Mix＞

“Mix.”

When I called his name, he looked at me.

“… Gold is better.”

It is said that man is a ship of memories.

In that respect, dogs are not much different from humans.

Inadvertently, a proposition and a woman passed through my mind at the same time as if they were tied together in pairs.

Scholars believe that mutations cannot be tamed.

A woman who lived alone, relying on cats, without family or neighbors.

These two seemingly unconnected ideas culminated in the poor woman shattering the staunch orthodoxy with the club of miracles.

Here, another miracle is about to happen.

The boy began to make breathing noises with a strange rhythm.

At first, I thought this guy was breathing his last, but it wasn’t.

Unlike humans, the beast, which had no tuned vocal cords and was ignorant of pitch, imitated the human song with a rough breath.

Saying Happy Birthday.

“hey.”

called the guy

At the ‘I love you~’ part, he turned his head towards me.

“Do you want to live?”

Curiosity like a disease, my long-standing illness, was triggered.