Marauder of the Apocalypse-Chapter 50: Recapture

The next day, the rain stopped. Faint sunlight filtered through the dark clouds as several zombies ambled out of the villa building.

Maybe from sleeping on stairs or bare floors, they made stretching motions with their joints and muscles. While some zombies left the street entirely, quite a few remained inside the buildings.

Gloomy zombies still huddled inside the villa building. Growling sounds from beyond the entrance.

"Time to start moving."

I lowered my head and turned on my phone. Brief messages appeared in the quiet chat.

The man saying to focus on signals. To act when we heard the sounds.

This wasn't simple action. They'd made plans to minimize risk and danger. I didn't say much. Whatever happened didn't matter much to me.

'Whether people die or the farm recovers, I just need to survive.'

I swung my hammer through the air to relieve tension. Literally just needed to survive myself.

People die? Collect their resources. People live? Keep farming and harvest. Either way, just surviving meant victory without losses.

Though getting rid of zombies would be better.

'The scarecrows aren't working at all. How should I make them to drive away zombies? Maybe hang zombie crosses upside down in trees? Inverted crosses might work.'

While I was lost in thought, the signal to start operations came.

Beep, beep, beep-

Car alarms blaring loudly in the street. Looking at the opposite villa, I saw the man sticking his head and hand out the window repeatedly pressing the alarm button on his smart key.

"Kreeeek!"

Zombies rushed irritably at the cars. They pointlessly pounded on windows, hoods and bodies.

Quite the stress relief scene. Maybe zombies were just as annoyed by the heat and humidity as they rhythmically smashed the cars. Cheerful impact sounds of bricks, baseball bats, pipes.

More zombies joined the free car disposal service.

Rushing out from inside villa buildings to enthusiastically pound on cars.

Beep- beep-

The man skillfully led them further away. As one alarm stopped, he'd switch keys to trigger alarms on more distant cars.

Then came time to exit. Zombies drawn to the street, moved somewhat far away.

"...Maybe wait a bit longer?"

I paused briefly holding my gun, hammer and roof key. Also loosened the bag on my back.

Did I really need to work hard here? My role was accessing the indoor farm, but others had that same role too.

One person missing might get someone killed but that'd be profitable too. Conversely, going out needlessly and getting hurt myself would be an extreme loss.

That's when it happened.

Tap tap tap, gentle knocking at the entrance and Do-hyung's heavily lowered voice:

"What're you doing? Need to open the roof door. Wait, Park Yang-gun's not out either. Really what are you-"

"Oh, coming."

Seeing Do-hyung at the door meant no zombies beyond the entrance. I carefully opened the door with the safety chain still on to check before quickly exiting.

Do-hyung stamped his feet.

"Were you in the bathroom? Why're you so late?"

"Keep quiet. Lots of zombies outside."

"Where's Park Yang-gun?"

"Right here, idiot."

Park Yang-gun quietly appeared behind us. Silent as expected of a professional thief.

We whispered as we headed straight for the roof. I unlocked the door with the roof key. The rain-soaked roof appeared and I quickly locked the door again.

In case zombies could climb up.

"Ladder, ladder."

Do-hyung moved energetically and diligently. He struggled to move the ladder we'd previously anchored in a roof corner for evacuation.

Since Peace Villa and the farm villa were close, the plan was to roughly place the ladder between railings to cross roof to roof.

Do-hyung started to call out to us but suppressed his voice:

"Help me out here."

Park Yang-gun and I briefly looked at each other. His surly gaze met my unenthusiastic one.

Honestly it wasn't something we enjoyed or were good at...

"Uh, isn't the ladder kind of dangerous? It's nearly five stories up. Scary."

"No safety equipment? Safety regulations exist for a reason."

We raised reasonable concerns, but Do-hyung seemed heat-crazed as he jumped in place spouting nonsense:

"This is insane. A person who only picks dangerous things and someone who climbs gas pipes bare-handed are saying this now? How far is it really anyway."

He approached the railing and stretched out his body, reaching his hand across to touch the opposite villa.

About 1M gap.

"Could jump it from standing!"

I subtly checked what others were doing. If they half-assed it I could slack off too.

But villa district people were all doing their jobs. The man leading zombies with alarms, elderly opening windows to shoot slingshots or throw heavy objects, people with my role heading to the indoor farm building from roofs.

I briefly met the eyes of people crossing from the opposite side, crawling across their ladder.

Though I didn't care if they died, no need to look bad unnecessarily.

"Do-hyung! What're you doing! Set up the ladder!"

"But-"

"This is so frustrating!"

I smacked Do-hyung's back hard before immediately grabbing the ladder. Though quite heavy, I could somehow hook it to the opposite villa's railing.

Even roughly placed, the gap was so narrow it caught automatically.

"Hold tight."

I ran thump thump thump across the ladder. Reaching the farm villa right next to Peace Villa. Three from Peace Villa, three from other villas caught their breath at the roof door.

Then flung it open immediately.

No hesitation.

These were people adapted to the apocalypse, killers who'd tasted blood. Above all, zombies were mortal enemies before precious lettuce.

Though some zombies remained inside, people hunted them down yelling:

"Kill them!"

"If you ruin our farming!"

Short weapons for fighting in narrow villa stairs and corridors swung fiercely. Sometimes kicking zombies in the chest down stairs, sometimes spraying fire extinguishers in their faces.

The zombies didn't go down easily either.

"Kraaah!"

Backing away to throw bricks, or grabbing and dragging with one arm even after the other broke.

One cunning zombie hurriedly turned back and brought others. Countless footsteps and presences felt from the stairs below.

Limited visibility made it hard to gauge the outside situation. Whether the luring still worked, how many zombies approached the farm villa, if cover fire continued. No time to stick heads out stair windows to check.

The unknown became pressure.

'Really hate zombies. Nothing to loot even after beating them.'

Trembling, I quickly pressed beep beep beep beep entering the door code. The door opened first try.

"Hurry inside."

I entered first, followed by Park Yang-gun, Do-hyung, and one unknown street person rushing in frantically. Two people had died to zombies.

Through the rapidly closing door gap I saw zombie faces. Mouths wide open, spraying spit as they roared.

"Kreeeek!"

Just before reaching hands made it through, the door slammed shut. Quickly turning the lock.

Bang bang bang, pounding on the door.

I sighed in relief.

'Done. We survived.'

Entrance doors were invincible. Victory achieved by entering the farm house with food and water.

But the street person stared blankly at the entrance before suddenly shouting and starting to punch the door.

"You bastards! They died because of you! They're dead! Why, why!"

They must have been quite close to the dead people, their voice nearly a wail. The slurred pronunciation sounded like zombie roars. Like zombies communicating through the entrance door.

Then click click, consecutive button pressing sounds followed by a sigh.

"The farming's ruined..."

"What?"

I quickly turned and entered the indoor farm. A room with faint light from dark clouds, strange purple light cast by just-activated grow lights.

Do-hyung and Park Yang-gun watched the planters with slumped shoulders. Park Yang-gun flicked a lettuce leaf.

"No water, no sunlight. It's done. This'll taste bitter, can't eat it."

"Ah..."

The small leaves swayed lifelessly. The once vigorously growing lettuce had barely grown while we were gone. Weak, small, unsightly.

And I'd worked hard making these planters. Lettuce I'd invested labor in.

I'd thought farming could fail if people died, but seeing the wilted lettuce felt strange. My invested time...

"Are they alive? If we water them again-"

"They're not dead. Could save them. Just won't taste good."

"That's some relief at least."

Alive was enough. Taste didn't matter much. Not like we grew lettuce to sell. As long as it was edible, that was sufficient.

'Still feels bad though.'

Click click, Do-hyung photographed the lettuce and tapped his phone, seemingly posting to the group chat. Reporting the situation after reaching the indoor farm.

"So what do we do now? Even if the lettuce is alive, zombies are still outside. We're trapped like this."

Beep-!

I filled the electric kettle and pressed the button. Zombies? The zombies who dared ruin our farming? The zombies who nearly killed our lettuce?

Anger like when I first failed the screenplay contest slowly rose. A situation where my efforts didn't bear proper fruit.

"No. It'd be unfair if only we're trapped. They should be trapped here too."

"...What? What do you mean?"

The kettle boiled. Hot water. The ultimate defensive weapon combining advantages of fire and water.

I approached the window overlooking the villa entrance, opening even the bug screen. Zombies were still entering the farm villa.

I dumped hot water over them.

"Kraaaah!"

"Kreeeek!"

Zombies jumped around wrapped in white steam. I spoke coldly:

"Let's take turns pouring boiling water continuously. Zombies entering, leaving, any using the entrance. Kill them all."

Die of starvation inside the villa or get scalded by boiling water.

The unknown street person who'd been slumped at the entrance looked up. Finding an outlet for their anger, they started moving energetically.

They filled a pot with water and put it on the stove, snatching the kettle from me.

"I'll do it. Torturing those zombie bastards."