Hiding a House in the Apocalypse - Chapter 21

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Potter

◈ Hiding a House in the Apocalypse ◈

Chapter 21: Theme Park (1)

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Before the war, I read that one of the most distressing nightmares Korean men[1] had was reenlisting.

For me, it was nightmares about debt.

Like the delinquent debtor I was, I got hit with relentless collection notices. What stuck with me most were the documents that kept coming without end.

Final demands, payment orders, complaints, hearing notices, judgments, asset disclosure orders, voluntary auction notices, and so on. My fan mail came in all kinds.

I didn't want to imagine what my future would have been like if the war hadn't happened.

I had no job, so debt rehabilitation was out of the question. It probably would have ended in bankruptcy.

So, in the interest of confessing honestly, I was a little happy when I heard war was coming...

The end of the world hadn't brought only negative effects to everyone.

Some people found vitality they had never possessed before amid the new changes of the apocalypse. Some even found meaning in life.

My only internet friend, the human hunter, was a fish that could swim freely only in the muddy current of disaster.

* * *

The day Kim Daram came by and criticized my hideout, the human hunter messaged me as usual.

A message from Defender: When are you coming, SKELTON? I've been waiting so long my neck's about to snap.

I might not pay back money, but I was the sort of person who more or less kept promises.

SKELTON: Wait for me. I'll bring a gift.

For the sake of my social standing in the community, I had to keep my word.

I considered my means of transportation, but ultimately chose my trusty cargo bike.

It was quiet, and I could abandon it easily.

Besides, if I got properly ambushed, I'd die either way.

Defender said there weren't any mutations around, so slow and quiet was probably best.

I'd bought the bike secondhand on CarrotNet, intending to use it briefly and throw it away. Who knew it would work harder than anything else?

You never could tell with life.

Before setting off, I serviced the chain, filled the tires with air, and loaded an ammunition crate.

As always, my simple travel set consisted of a rifle, a pistol, and two axes.

Still, unlike usual, I wore a bulletproof vest underneath.

Rifle rounds would punch right through it, but it was better than nothing.

According to Defender's information, there were three major danger zones around the meeting area.

The first was Monster territory.

From the human hunter's explanation, they seemed to be a Settled Type rather than the wandering kind. They settled in one place and did not move. As long as I stayed out of their territory, they were generally harmless.

The second threat was an area controlled by zombies.

A large number of zombies had taken over an abandoned apartment complex and entered dormancy. Some were supposedly still roaming around as scouting parties, looking for unlucky victims.

However, the zombie zone lay southwest of the meeting place, off my route and quite far away. It didn't seem like a practical threat.

The third threat was everywhere else.

That's right. The final threat was humans.

Even the human hunter couldn't say where they might be or how they would attack.

Unlike Monsters and zombies, humans changed locations constantly, devised new tactics and strategies, and set unexpected traps.

Still, I could learn beforehand which prime spots raiders frequently used for ambushes and where they operated.

The human hunter gave me a lengthy explanation of the places and human groups I needed to avoid.

What Defender emphasized most was clothing.

A message from Defender: If you see guys in red pants, don't mess with them unless you have to.

I'd always thought this, but the more effort you put into planning and worrying over an operation beforehand, the less dangerous it became.

The fairly dangerous journey was so peaceful and smooth that I almost got bored.

About halfway there, night draped its veil over the dying land.

From a rise by the river, I saw pale gray, ghostlike lights illuminating an abandoned street.

Monster territory.

The mission of an invasive species capable of surviving independently in Earth's environment was not to kill or wipe out humans.

Their role was to gradually transform the territory they had taken over into something resembling their homeland.

Humans were merely obstacles to be removed in the process.

Darkness hid me, and it hid the Monster territory as well, so I couldn't tell what type of Monster lived there. But I at least confirmed the information that it was a Settled Type.

Meanwhile, I didn't find a single human raider along my route, despite them being my greatest concern. As I passed through three prime ambush spots, all I found were abandoned vehicles, debris, and bodies burned black and dry.

The threat came from somewhere unexpected.

Zombies.

The things that were supposedly far from my route were active in large numbers nearby.

I didn't see them, but the corpses' chorus echoing mournfully beneath the pale moonlight suggested their numbers were far from small.

At least a hundred.

Had they awakened from dormancy?

I proceeded along the rest of the route as carefully and quietly as possible.

We had agreed beforehand not to use walkie-talkies.

Unlike my empty territory, this area had quite a few people and factions. Using a walkie-talkie would only tell everyone that someone was here.

If the human hunter had a personal identification number too, we could communicate on a private frequency instead of a dangerous public one. But I was the only one of us who had one.

Instead, we had set the meeting place and expected time in detail. The human hunter even sent a photograph of the meeting place.

It was beneath a large fir tree beside what looked like a massive Ferris wheel leaning at an angle as steep as Earth's axis.

As I approached the theme park, I searched for a similar tree.

There.

From this angle, the Ferris wheel looked more like it was sticking out from behind the tree than leaning against it, but the same tree stood straight beneath the moonlight.

There was no one nearby.

I drew my weapons and approached slowly.

Every sense alert, prepared for every possibility.

A moment later, I sensed a presence.

A person.

Someone was standing behind the tree.

My heart gave a small leap.

Was I finally going to meet them?

The human hunter, that troublemaker from the message board?

What would they look like?

Maybe they would unexpectedly have a kind face.

Human nature had nothing to do with appearance.

But this breathing.

It was too soft to belong to a man.

Slightly shocked, I watched the shadow behind the tree step out.

A woman.

A long-haired woman with pale skin like moonlight.

An extremely attractive woman cautiously looked at me with eyes full of both curiosity and fear.

She waved and awkwardly greeted me.

Instead of responding, I raised my pistol and aimed behind her.

“Come out.”

There was one more.

Click.

“I said come out.”

I saw the woman move slightly at the edge of my vision.

“Stay still.”

I pointed the axe in my right hand at the woman and warned her.

The bushes rustled lightly.

“Wow.”

A young man's exclamation came from the bushes.

Soon, a black shadow sprang out of the brush. With his hands raised beneath the moonlight, he slowly stepped forward and revealed himself.

A tall, handsome man stared at me with his teeth bared.

“This is the first time anyone hasn't fallen for our trap.”

Slowly backing away to keep both of them in sight, I asked briefly, “John_nenon?”

The man gave a bitter laugh.

“No, why would you test us by bringing up that asshole's name of all people? That's hurtful. I'm Defender.”

My eyes moved between the man and woman.

The man smiled, while the woman turned away and avoided my gaze.

“Both of us are. My sister is the one who posts most often.”

“What?”

I stared at the woman.

Was this really them?

The person who left cynical comments without a trace of humanity and uploaded proof of their killings?

They didn't look like it at all.

Their face looked kind, even.

Well, you couldn't judge people by appearances.

The man glared at his sister, who had turned her gaze away.

“My sister's a hamster in real life, but online, she's Lü Bu[2]. It's my account, so I post when I have time too. I comment pretty often as well.”

“...So that's how it was.”

The human hunter's identity was revealed.

They were not one person, but two. A brother and sister.

Both appeared to be in their mid-twenties, well-nourished and mentally stable.

“We introduced ourselves, so shouldn't you introduce yourself too?”

I had expected them to smell like corpses, but their bodies smelled of burnt grass.

Keeping my face expressionless, I answered briefly.

“I'm SKELTON.”

I shouldn't have come.

Feeling an inexplicable regret, I pointed toward the bike.

“That's ammunition. Take it.”

Why?

Because there were two of them? Because they were different from what I expected? Because their overly friendly behavior repulsed me?

No, I roughly understood.

Their method reminded me of bad memories.

They put a pretty young woman in front, then the man ambushed and killed victims when they let their guard down.

It was a scene I often saw in China after it became a hellhole.

It hadn't been my team, but one of my fellow Hunters fell for that shallow trick. His severed head had been hung beneath a traffic light.

It wasn't that I wanted to take issue with how underhanded the method was.

I simply hated seeing a scene from the battlefield repeated right in front of me.

“Why are you so wary?”

The man looked back at me as he carried the ammunition.

The woman had her arms crossed and had been cautiously watching me for a while.

After remaining wary for some time, she took something out, rolled it up, put it in her mouth, and lit it.

It smelled like burning grass, not cigarettes.

That was probably why their bodies smelled that way.

“Want to come inside for some tea?”

The man suddenly asked as he loaded the ammunition onto a handcart.

“No, I should get going. You two go inside first.”

“Why are you so wary? Aren't we friends?”

“...”

“Why aren't you saying anything?! SKELTON, are you disappointed in us?”

I nodded.

“...Why?”

This time, the siblings asked together.

Both wore deeply shocked expressions.

To be honest, I just didn't want to see their faces, but I didn't think I should say that. Was there some gentler way to put it?

As I racked my brain, which wasn't working at all, a strange sound carried over on the wind from not far away.

“Mom... Mom... Waaah.”

It wasn't a ghostly sound.

It was children crying.

About two children under ten were tearfully calling for their parents.

Those desperate cries might have belonged to the theme park settled below us, but not now.

“SKELTON.”

The male Defender's expression hardened.

The female Defender was already gripping the handcart's handles, ready to pull it.

“Come to our house for a moment.”

“What's going on?”

“Those bastards.”

For the first time, the male Defender showed clear killing intent.

“That's why I need bullets.”

* * *

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

Calling it a house felt wrong. It was more like a mansion.

It looked old and dilapidated overall, but it was a luxurious place with a separate building, storage shed, and garage.

Was that why they had chosen to kill everyone rather than hide?

Inside a small plastic greenhouse beneath the moonlight, all kinds of plants were growing. The fogged plastic kept me from seeing exactly what they were growing.

The female Defender looked at the luxurious box in my hand with timid eyes.

She still seemed wary of me, but her persistent stare suggested she was interested.

“...SKELTON. What's that?”

She soon asked in a timid voice.

“This?”

Kim Daram's fancy cookies.

I had brought the half-eaten box intending to give it as a present when I met the human hunter.

I thought it might improve Defender's opinion of me and naturally raise my reputation.

But the Defenders I met in person left a worse impression than I had imagined.

And there was an extra mouth to feed.

So I had planned to take the cookies back and eat them alone. But they invited me in, and I ended up bringing them along.

“I-It's a gift...”

Reluctantly, I held the cookies out to the female Defender.

She opened the box, gave me a bright smile, and stared straight at me.

“SKELTON!”

She looked genuinely happy.

“...”

I avoided her gaze.

Instead, I looked around the house.

Unlike my air-raid shelter, the openness of the spacious hall refreshingly stimulated my eyes.

Definitely a rich person's home.

There were traces of money having been spent everywhere.

Still, it hadn't escaped the magical corrosion and wear unique to the apocalypse. Parts of it were old and crumbling here and there.

Soon, the male Defender brought out steaming tea.

“Oh.”

He broke into a wide smile when he saw the cookies.

“SKELTON! You're a great guy after all. A real man I approve of!”

“...”

As I remained silent, the female Defender whispered something into the male Defender's ear.

“My sister wants to know why you're such a scaredy-cat.”

“?”

Who was she talking about?

When I looked at the woman, she tried to avoid my gaze and act innocent.

With a sigh, I opened my mouth.

“What was that sound of children crying?”

This was the main issue.

The sound of children crying had brought me here.

“Have some tea first.”

The siblings raised their cups together.

I smelled it.

It had a pleasant scent.

It was an expensive aroma on an entirely different level from the cheap iced tea in my air-raid shelter.

But I didn't drink it.

Don't blindly consume what you're given.

That was etiquette for people surviving the apocalypse.

Unlike me, though, the Defender siblings wolfed down my cookies.

Not to be outdone, I grabbed one and put it in my mouth. With a cookie between my teeth, I had no choice but to take a sip of tea.

Delicious.

They were a perfect match~.

Internet friends were still friends. Maybe I should have trusted them more.

As I stared regretfully at the empty box and smacked my lips, the male Defender spoke.

“Pioneers.”

“Pioneers?”

“You know those assholes camped out in front of Keystone's house? Same kind of people.”

“Really?”

“But they're far worse than those ones.”

The male Defender snapped his fingers toward his sister.

The female Defender opened a laptop and showed me the screen.

In the photo, taken on a phone, a single armored vehicle stood with ordinary-looking middle-aged men holding guns awkwardly around it.

Just as I thought there was nothing especially unusual about them, I noticed that all of their pants were red. I also spotted two children crouching beneath the armored vehicle.

“What is this?”

The male Defender gave a cold snort.

“A forced begging racket.”

“A begging racket?”

“They make little kids cry and cry to lure out the moles hiding in air-raid shelters.”

The male Defender made a cutting motion across his throat.

“Then they take everything and kill them. They kill the men, rape the women, and use the kids for the next begging racket.”

“They're garbage.”

“So I'm going to kill them.”

The human hunter smiled brightly, teeth exposed.

For some reason, the expression on his face as he spoke of killing seemed thoroughly joyful.

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