4. Camp Expansion
Yohan went back to his home shelter to restock on ammunition. When he returned, the group asked him where he went. However, Yohan only offered a vague story about getting more ammo from a gun store.
The two rifles were left at the camp. One for the main entrance and the other for the parking lot guards. Yohan instructed them to check the ammo each time they changed shifts. Each gun had only three bullets. The live ammunition was intended for human intruders that might try to barge in. Having too much ammo was dangerous, but having no ammo was even worse. Since the number of zombies outside had thinned out, it was possible that scavengers might stumble across the mall.
"If someone tries to enter through the main entrance despite our warning signs, shoot them without hesitation. If people arrive at the parking lot, disarm them and check their entire body for injuries before letting them into the camp. You can give them food, but keep them quarantined. Explain our reasons for doing this as much as possible. If they still refuse to cooperate, just shoot them." Yohan instructed. Jung Hwan trembled, but he nodded his head.
After leaving instructions with his proxy, Yohan led the recon team to the H Mall. Similar to their mall, the majority of the zombies that were there before had left for the major roads. However, there were still a good number of zombies inside the mall. Thankfully, they weren"t much of a threat now that the influence of the zombie wave was over.
Similar to the entrance blocking mission from before, the recon team moved in a diamond formation. Yohan was in the front, Ha Jin was in the back, and Saeri and Sweeper were on the sides. Saeri was performing much better than Yohan had expected. The recon team looked for two dolly carts inside the H mall before heading towards the general office.
Yohan knocked on the door to the office a few times and waited for a response. Hearing no answer, the four kicked open the door and entered the office simultaneously. The office was empty, but the supplies were still there. Yohan holstered his gun and started moving the supplies to the carts.
"Did the director die?" Ha Jin asked. Yohan didn"t know the answer. In light of the situation, it was likely that Ha Jin"s a.s.sumption was correct. If the director was still alive, they would see signs of it in the mall.
The group moved all the supplies onto the carts and then made their way to the roof to grab the two walkie-talkies there. Saeri frowned when she saw the corpses on the roof. They had been killed by gunshots. She peeked over at Yohan. He turned to meet her eyes once he felt her staring, but Saeri turned away without saying anything.
Afterwards, the recon team went underground. The bas.e.m.e.nt area housed a mixture of freshly turned zombies and zombies that had been rotting for a while. The group killed zombies without hesitation. However, as Yohan was about to kill a female zombie, he heard Saeri"s exclaim.
"Wait!" Saeri"s eyes were trembling as she slowly walked towards the zombie.
"Sis?"
It turned out the zombie was Saeri"s older sister. Yohan sighed. He reached out with one hand and pulled Saeri into a tight embrace just as she was about to run to her sister. Saeri looked devastated.
"Calm down. Or else you"ll get bitten."
The zombie howled and charged repeatedly at the pair, but every time it did, Yohan shoved it back. Saeri was frozen in his arms. Yohan was afraid that she was going to cry and make a fuss, but instead she simply collapsed to the floor. Yohan looked over to her and saw that she wasn"t crying. She had probably a.s.sumed this would happen. Still, she was in a daze.
"Leave that zombie and kill the rest." Yohan instructed. Sweeper and Ha Jin move to opposite sides of the area and took care of the zombies there. Yohan pinned the zombie that used to be Saeri"s sister.
"She"s already dead. You take care of it."
"…I can"t."
"She"s your family."
"…Just kill her. I"m fine."
"Are you trying to make me feel guilty for killing somebody else"s family member?" Yohan was resolute before Saeri"s hoa.r.s.e, pleading voice. Hearing Yohan"s words, Saeri stood up, looking exhausted. She rubbed her face and stabbed the zombie through the head with all her strength.
"Honestly, I was watching the zombies storm into the mall." Saeri whispered.
"I see."
"I gave up… I thought…"
"Never give up until you see the corpse with your own eyes."
It was the death of a loved one. Yohan would never consider bringing a zombie along just because it was once a family member, but he also wouldn"t give up hope that someone was alive until he saw otherwise.
For now, Yohan knew that they had to mourn for those that died. In the zombie apocalypse, the best way to mourn for a loved one was to ensure that they had the chance to rest in peace with your own hands.
Saeri stood up with a determined look on her face. As if he was waiting for her, Yohan a.s.signed a new task to Saeri as soon as she stood up. It looked like he didn"t even care that she had just lost a family member.
"You really use people without any sympathy. You"re cold."
"If you know that already, do your part."
"Working hard will take your mind off of it and help you get over this tragedy."
"Canned food, dry food, canned drinks, and water are our priorities."
"What about ramen? Most of them are expired."
"Take it. If people get hungry, they"ll even eat trash."
Ramen was usually good for six month, but following expiration and "best before" dates was a luxury in the apocalypse. If it won"t kill you, you should always take the food.
Moving the carts up and down stairs was hard work, but they managed to get all the supplies to the mall entrance. Yohan left Saeri and Sweeper there to guard it while he and Ha Jin searched the rest of the mall to see if any Gold Moon members were still alive. Even though they were already exhausted from fighting zombies and searching the entire mall was c.u.mbersome, it was something that must be done. The pair searched every floor and did not find a single survivor. However, they did find the remaining two walkie-talkies and now had four in total.
"Yohan," Ha Jin called out as he rejoined the group at the entrance, "it"s really weird…"
"What is?"
"The director"s corpse isn"t here. If he died, he should have been a zombie or left a corpse somewhere. I looked everywhere, but didn"t see him."
"He had a long life for a third-rate villain." Yohan frowned.
"What should we do?"
"Hm… we"ll just keep that in mind. I would have liked to take care of him once and for all, but we can"t force it. We"ll need to tighten up our camp"s security and take turns patrolling the area. He probably didn"t get too far."
The recon team brought all the supplies from the H Mall back to their camp. Afterwards, they visited two other convenience stores. The zombies that were once part of the zombie wave were now spread out and weren"t much of a threat. Still, there was enough of them on the streets that it deterred other scavengers. This was a good thing, as the supplies inside the convenience stores were untouched. The recon team made several trips. Soon, there was a lot more supplies in both the storage room and loading dock.
"Whew, I think we"re good on supplies for a while." Sweeper commented. Yohan shook his head. He was planning on making their camp the main supply center that would support other camps. Even if they gathered all the supplies in the city, they still wouldn"t have enough for his purposes.
"We still need an efficient way to burn the corpses."
The more they fought, the more corpses there would be. They couldn"t ignore the corpses, but they also couldn"t waste precious fuel burning them every time. Yohan traced his finger around Bucheon city on a large map, deep in thought. He had a lot to do. He still had to expand the camp, obtain more weapons, and block all the pathways that zombies in nearby cities could enter from.
And before all that, he had to gather all the survivors in the city. He had a solid plan, but there were a lot of variables. In the apocalypse, six months was a really long time. It was difficult to imagine what might have happened within the city in that time frame.
"Yohan, take a look at this." One of his managers, Seo Jun, called him over. Yohan recalled how, when they conquered the first floor of the mall, Seo Jun locked the door behind them for safety and Yohan ended up promoting him to manager. Seo Jun had since adopted his role well.
"That"s…"
"It"s a slingshot." Seo Jun showed Yohan a Y-shaped slingshot made from wood and along rubber band. "You know how there are a lot of nuts and bolts in the mall"s hardware store? Since we have to save ammo and arrows require us to recollect them after use, I figure we could use this to guard the parking lot. Wouldn"t that be easier?"
"Could you give me a demonstration?"
Seo Jun led Yohan to the parking lot with a confident expression on his face. A bolt flew through the air. Seo Jun looked embarra.s.sed as he missed a few more shots before one went deep into a zombie"s head. The zombie didn"t seem to realize what had happened and looked around with a bolt sticking out of their head before falling down dead.
"Zombie skulls are weaker than a normal human"s, so this is more than enough to deal with them."
"Oh, that"s amazing." Yohan said, honestly. As Seo Jun noted, this new weapon was light and easy to use. It could be useful in many situations. Of course, in a big battle between humans, where anything could happen, it would be less useful as a weapon. But it was good enough for guarding the parking lot.
Seo Jun tried to hide his smile as Yohan complimented him. His expression seemed to say "I didn"t do it to get compliments from you!". He handed the slingshot to Yohan with one hand while scratching his head with the other.
"Anyways, keep this weapon in mind when planning. I"m going to make around ten more."
"Thank you for your hard work. I think it would be good if one person had a gun while the other had a slingshot during guard duty."
"Oh, well you don"t have to make changes right away. It"s not that big of a deal." Seo Jun walked off. Yohan smiled as he looked at the manager"s back.
Yohan decided to rest for a few days, focusing on cleaning up the inside of the camp, which was light work since it was secure from zombies for a while. Between the combat, support, and recon team, there were less than 20 people. Additionally, the recon team didn"t stay at the camp most of the time, so usually there were just over ten people there. It wasn"t ideal, as some support team members had to partic.i.p.ate with guard duty as well, but, all-in-all, the camp was becoming safer.
There were five people in the support team. Yohan chose them after interviewing each and every camp member. Ji Hye"s role was easy to decide, as her exceptional cooking skills helped raise morale. Seo Jun was also working hard as a manager and showed that he was capable of handling the role.
They had no choice but to include Elder Jung in the support team, designating her as a repair person. While she wasn"t technically adept, she was the only person that knew how to use a sewing machine, so she took on the entire role of repair person.
"Lastly, there was also someone with an unexpected talent…" Yohan"s train of thought was interrupted by a loud sound that reverberated throughout the mall. He went to investigate.
"What is this sound? Are you trying to attract a zombie army or something?"
"Jeez Yohan, don"t say scary things like that. Take a look." Jung Hwan pointed at the steel door. A steel plate had been welded between the door"s hinge and the gap.
There was a welding technician among the camp members. Excluding the main entrance and parking lot emergency exit, they were planning on welding shut all the other entrances. Before, anyone could get through the side doors or emergency exit simply by breaking the handle. However, it was a different story if they broke the handle themselves and weld the doors shut. This would allow them to almost completely block out intruders.
Jung Hwan already knew the specialties of all the survivors and kickstarted the effort to secure the camp once he overheard that there was a chance that the director was still alive.
"That"s amazing. It"s great." Yohan complimented them both. The pair were responded excitedly to Yohan"s compliments. They looked as if they had just received some sort of certificate.
"A cook, a manager, a repair person, and a welder. And the final member of the support team is Elder Park, whose specialty is…"
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