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I was planning to take my underlings along with us just in case something happened, but Bae Jae-Hwan seemed rather averse to my underlings. He still had a hard time understanding how Shelter Hae-Young, a place where zombies and humans coexisted, could operate.

However, with Lee Jeong-Uk around, I wasn’t comfortable moving without my underlings. So I ordered my underlings to tail us secretly, about three hundred meters back. The fourth and fifth platoons—about two hundred in total—were following us.

I used to move around with the underlings from the first to third platoons, but these platoons suffered serious losses in the Majang-dong incident.

I’d recruited the zombies from Majang-dong after taking care of their leader, but I hadn’t been able to color them blue because of a shortage of blue spray paint and markers, which explained why I ended up mobilizing the fourth and fifth platoons since they were all painted blue.

We moved toward Eungbong crossroad to avoid the black creature. Eungbong crossroad was on the border of Haengdang 1-dong and 2-dong. We were planning to get into Dae Hyun San Park through Shin Dong-Ah apartments next to Eungbong crossroad.

As we neared Shin Dong-Ah apartments, it began to grow hilly. I ordered the underlings that were following us to take over Shin Dong-Ah apartment and wait for my next move.

We were almost done cleaning up all the street zombies in Haengdang 1-dong, but 2-dong was a living hell. Every street and alleyway was full of zombies. To my surprise, though, Bae Jae-Hwan adeptly avoided detection by the zombies.

He had some empty cans and plastic bottles in his bag, and he would throw them far away every time he saw a zombie to lure their attention elsewhere. As I observed him closely, I realized how he had been surviving this whole time.

‘So this is how he’s survived all this time.’

He avoided physical contact with the zombies as much as he could, taking caution to go around them. I could have taken them out myself, but I wasn’t here to take care of zombies. I knew better than to lose sight of our real reason for making this trip.

Coming into contact with the zombies here might just trigger the black creature to hunt me down. I was more than aware that the zombies with glowing red eyes like me were the best kind of feast these black creatures could have.

We moved through the streets as quietly as mice, and soon, we finally laid eyes on a gym in the distance. As we made our way through the hills, we saw a large number of dust-covered cars. It seemed like this had been an active parking lot before, but now that it was abandoned, it seemed an eerie and foreboding place.

After a moment, Bae Jae-Hwan took out a flashlight and flashed it in a constant rhythm toward the entrance of the gym.

A flashlight, in the middle of the day? I thought he was being silly. However, I couldn’t help but smirk as I saw the same pattern of flashes in one of the gym windows.

‘So, they’ve got some system going on huh? Pretty impressive.’

It seemed like they didn’t allow any outsiders in.

Now that Bae Jae-Hwan had signaled his return, the gym entrance opened, and several people came out.

There were three women and five men.

“Hey Jae-Hwan!”

They came running our way, their faces full of smiles. But after they noticed me and Lee Jeong-Uk, they were taken aback, and halted midway.

“Who are the people next to you?” they asked Bae Jae-Hwan.

“Hey, that person has red eyes.”

“Isn’t he a zombie?”

“Bae Jae-Hwan! What the hell are you doing man?”

They began to talk over each other, and the situation quickly devolved into a mess. Bae Jae-Hwan gestured for everyone to calm down, then looked at me straight in the eyes.

“Um… leader? No… president?”

Bae Jae-Hwan didn’t know my name or even how to address me.

Lee Jeong-Uk, who was next to me, let out a sigh.

“If you have anything to say, say it to me.”

“Oh… Got it.”

Bae Jae-Hwan scratched his neck and then addressed his people in front of the gym.

“The people here are the officers of Shelter Hae-Young. They wanted to see you in person, so I brought them over.”

“Hey, the person next to you is a zombie!”

“Well yeah, but he’s a person too.”

“What are you saying?”

This was the smallest girl out of the eight people who were in front of the gym, who was frowning in disbelief. If Bae Jae-Hwan was the leader of the group, then she would most likely be the second-in-command.

Bae Jae-Hwan slowly walked to his group of people.

“Let’s talk inside.”

“What are you saying? Say what you need to say out here.”

The female student didn’t let Lee Jeong-Uk or me in. She was showing extreme hostility. However, her reaction actually gave me a sense of relief. If she had welcomed us as if it wasn’t a big deal, it would’ve made her even more suspicious.

Her hostility toward newcomers and the fact that she had erected barriers against us made me confident that I had made the right assessment about them. They were not ‘dogs’ or gang members, but people who reached out to help others.

Since my suspicion toward them had now faded away, the only thing left to do was to figure out whether they wanted to join us or not. Bae Jae-Hwan looked back and forth between his people and the two of us from Shelter Hae-Young.

“They’re not bad people. They’ve come all the way here to help us.”

“What made you think of bringing a zombie back when you said you’d go look for a shelter?”

“The two here are officers of a shelter!”

“You actually think it makes sense for a zombie to be an officer?”

The woman raised her voice, and the other students around her started whispering.

“Hey, keep your voice down.”

“What are you going to do if zombies come?”

The female student calmed down after hearing what her friend said, but she still gritted her teeth. Bae Jae-Hwan tried to calm her as well, calling her name in the process.

“Ji-Hye, Shin Ji-Hye. Calm down and listen to what I’ve got to say.”

“...”

The female student named Shin Ji-Hye frowned and didn’t say a word. Bae Jae-Hwan smacked his lips.

“The other three are safe as well. They’re waiting for everyone back at the shelter. Can’t you give these officers a chance, since they made the effort to come all the way here to check on us? Can you show them a little bit of faith?”

“What if that zombie is trying to create a place to store away food for itself in the guise of a shelter?”

“No, it’s nothing like that. You’ll understand if you see the shelter for yourself. It’s nothing like that.”

Bae Jae-Hwan was giving a positive account of Shelter Hae-Young based on his two-day experience there. After hearing Bae Jae-Hwan out, Shin Ji-Hye considered me and Lee Jeong-Uk with a sour expression.

“Alright then, come inside. We’re going to kick you out the moment you try anything funny.”

Only then did Bae Jae-Hwan flash a smile and gesture for us to go inside. Lee Jeong-Uk chuckled.

“So-Yeon’s dad, I think that female student is the leader here.”

“Grr.”

I chuckled and nodded. I’d thought Bae Jae-Hwan was the leader all along, but it seemed like the real leader was Shin Ji-Hye. Unlike Bae Jae-Hwan, who only acted all bold and daring, Shin Ji-Hye was truly daring.

* * *

As we entered the gym, I felt warmth on my cheeks. I wondered if this was the warmth of community. Unlike the outside, which was cold, the inside of the gym was warm enough that one could go around in a t-shirt.

As we got to the center of the gym, we saw a couple of tents. Shin Ji-Hye looked at Lee Jeong-Uk and me.

“I guess you two are in luck. We were just getting breakfast ready. Let’s eat together.”

Despite her small physique, and her young, shy-looking face, she had a sophisticated and easygoing personality. We nodded slightly and moved toward the place Shin Ji-Hye was pointing to. There was a portable gas stove and some mysterious soup boiling away. Next to it, we saw three boiled eggs.

Our jaws dropped to the ground looking at the eggs. Lee Jeong-Uk looked at Shin Ji-Hye.

“Are there chickens around here?”

“There’s a henhouse on the hill in the back. We don’t know who made it, but thanks to them, we’re able to eat eggs every day.”

She seemed to be referring to Dae Hyun San Park.

A henhouse in a park. Lee Jeong-Uk let out an energetic laugh and asked a question of Shin Ji-Hye.

“A henhouse huh… Is that a city-run project or something?”

I had no clue why he would ask such a question. I couldn’t figure out the point of asking if the city was running any projects in this damned world. Any government policies would have become trash, and it was obvious that city-run projects would have stopped as well.

Pushing this initial reaction away, I tried to consider where Lee Jeong-Uk was coming from. He was feeling Shin Ji-Hye out. He was prompting her to lead the conversation, and through that, get insight into how this place was operating. Shin Ji-Hye didn’t give the question much thought and responded rather quickly.

“That, I don’t know either. But there’s a high chance that’s what it is. There was a banner in the back, by the hill. A ‘farm within a city’ or something like that. Thanks to that, we can get vegetables as well.”

“Vegetables?”

“Stuff like potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, and cabbages. I think they were growing easy-to-grow stuff. Well, technically speaking, we’re growing them now.”

“Well, you’ll probably need water to grow them, don’t you? How are you doing with drinking water?”

“Jae-Hwan and some other people go to the supermarket every two days. It’s a little dangerous since it’s far away, but we have no other choice if we want to survive.”

Lee Jeong-Uk nodded as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. After a moment, he looked at Shin Ji-Hye straight in the eyes.

“I can’t believe you thought of going outside and risking your own lives. Simply amazing if you ask me.”

“What else can we do? We have to survive too.”

“Then I bet you were surprised when Bae Jae-Hwan went missing, right? I mean, he was in charge of getting water for everyone after all. Am I wrong?”

“Well, Jae-Hwan and a couple of others went out to look for a shelter, and then he shows up five days later with two strangers. In the meantime, the rest of us had to get ourselves water.”

“A shelter you say… Isn’t this place a natural fortress, except for the south side? There are trees all along the west, north, and east sides, and there’s even a parking lot on the south side. Is there a particular reason you guys are looking for a shelter?”

Shin Ji-Hye remained silent.

“And there’s even a henhouse and a farm. Why would you abandon such a place to move yourselves into a shelter?”

Lee Jeong-Uk’s tone was polite, but at the same time, he had cut to the chase. At this point, Shin Ji-Hye would look suspicious if she didn’t answer. I didn’t realize Lee Jeong-Uk had this side to him. Deep down, I was very surprised.

Shin Ji-Hye looked at her friends and seemed to hesitate for a moment. Lee Jeong-Uk smiled at her gently, like a friendly next-door neighbor.

“You don’t have to tell us if you feel uncomfortable. We’re just trying to exchange information for the safety of Shelter Hae-Young.”

Despite the way he had started off his sentence, he was clearly directing them to give us an answer. Shin Ji-Hye frowned and remained silent for a while. After a moment, Bae Jae-Hwan, who was next to her, spoke up.

“Well, about that… I can tell you about it.”

Bae Jae-Hwan looked at Shin Ji-Hye as if waiting for her go-ahead before he shared what he was about to say. She nodded slowly and left us.

‘Does she not want to talk about it nor hear about it this much?’

I wondered what had happened. Lee Jeong-Uk looked at Bae Jae-Hwan, and he smacked his lower lips.

“Long story short, it’s not safe here.”

“Not safe?”

Lee Jeong-Uk tilted his head and repeated the words as a question. Bae Jae-Hwan’s expression grew melancholy.

“The zombies are evolving.”

Lee Jeong-Uk frowned and tilted his head side to side again, as if trying to understand what Bae Jae-Hwan had just said.

I was startled by his statement.

‘Is he talking about how zombies are developing naturally? The process of them starting from only having a sense of hearing, to being able to smell, and then having vision?’

Given Bae Jae-Hwan’s choice of words, though, it didn’t seem like he was talking about this concept of growth. Lee Jeong-Uk swallowed hard.

“Evolving? Elaborate, please.”

He was talking comfortably with Bae Jae-Hwan. It seemed like they’d gotten comfortable with each other over the course of a couple of days at the shelter. Bae Jae-Hwan sagged his head and croaked out a few barely-audible words.

“Sorry for not telling you ahead of time.”

“No, no. It’s fine. Just tell me what happened.”

“A lot of my friends… died because of those monsters.”

We considered this in silence.

“Hah… since we’ve brought this up, I might as well tell you everything from the beginning.”

Bae Jae-Hwan let out a deep sigh and looked at Lee Jeong-Uk and me. He looked haggard. He went through his memories and began to speak.

“It was about three weeks ago when I first saw it.”

We were all ears as we listened to his story.

For a split second, I wondered if he was talking about the black creature, but I could tell as he went on that there was a new mutant out in the wild.