After finishing our meal and walking again, the real estate guy who was guiding us stopped. He looked quietly at the buildings lining both sides of the road ahead, then turned around.
"We need to go around here. There are zombies that throw bricks like monkeys."
"You mean they hide inside buildings?"
"Yes. I was attacked when I came scouting last time too, but I pedaled my bicycle hard and barely escaped without getting hit."
I nodded calmly.
"Let's go around."
There was no need to fight zombies like these. They'd learned defensive tactics, hadn't they? Fighting would just waste bullets and time. They didn't seem to have resources worth taking, so the losses would outweigh the gains.
Besides...
I looked around. Human shadows seemed to flicker briefly at building corners and between alleys.
The presence Park Yang-gun had uncertainly suspected was growing. Even I could feel it now.
Observing zombies, searching survivors, raiders looking for weaknesses—it felt like various moths were drawn to our resources like a bonfire.
In this situation, there was nothing to gain by fighting zombies that had mastered defensive tactics.
"Please continue guiding us. Everyone else, stay alert in all directions."
It was also awkward to stop and rest in this situation.
Children and the elderly groaned with exhausted expressions, but no one suggested taking a break. They all understood this wasn't the time to rest, even with aching joints and forming blisters.
I pushed the cart with a rumble while watching the back of the real estate guy's head, but my senses spread in all directions. With wide vision and perked ears, I could feel presences.
Low, guttural sounds from the shadows, from beyond buildings, from between streets, and the rustling of footsteps on dirt.
'They're getting closer.'
The time was approaching when someone might attack to test us. And once one attacked, all the others watching would simultaneously explode into action.
***
While it might be difficult to know our destination, they could predict our short-term route. We'd stopped in front of the defensive zombies' territory and gone around it, so they could anticipate we would have crossed that area originally and block our path by getting ahead of us.
So the swarm of moths began by blocking our way.
A wall of fire blocking our path. The sound of burning furniture and garbage. Clearly artificial.
I gripped the combat cart tightly and hardened my expression.
'An ambush?'
Was this an attack aimed at the moment our attention was divided by the fire? I frowned deeply. The unpleasant sensation of being pulled along by someone else's scenario. A situation where we had to respond passively.
"I'll put out the fire."
Some companions who had stopped walking hurriedly searched for fire extinguishers. Fire extinguishers we'd brought as important resources. I stopped their hands as they clumsily tried to pull the pins.
"Stop."
"What?"
"I said stop."
I looked around and put my finger on the trigger.
The city was full of good ambush spots. Just entering a nearby building constituted an ambush. They could fire pistols from higher floors or throw objects. Reinforced concrete buildings were like bulletproof vests in themselves.
"I think someone's hiding somewhere around here."
Tall commercial buildings on both sides of the road. There must be humans hiding somewhere there.
I thought quickly.
'The terrain advantage is with them. The path ahead is blocked by flames. It's hard to utilize the advantages of our firearms. If we keep getting dragged along like this, we'll just end up wasting mental energy, physical strength, or ammunition.'
In that moment, I stared at the blazing fire. Without blinking, I fixed my gaze on the flames until they were reflected in my eyes, then grinned.
"It can't just be disadvantageous for me. Make the fire bigger. Let's see if they can still attack us when their buildings are on fire."
My companions blinked. They seemed not to have heard me properly and stood blankly, then belatedly approached me in alarm.
"You can't! If the fire gets out of control, the whole city could burn!"
"The fire might spread all the way to the townhouse!"
I looked at them calmly. They'd fallen beyond a line, but that was just because their brakes had failed—they hadn't yet properly embraced malice.
Perhaps their vigilance had unconsciously loosened from the time spent moving as the stronger party.
"You shouldn't be looking at me right now."
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Bang, a gunshot rang out. A bullet fired from a window beyond the flames hit a distant streetlight. Sparks flew.
Simultaneously, paving blocks and chairs began to be thrown from nearby windows, and the shrieks of zombies could be heard from behind us.
"Keueeek!"
"Kuaaaak!"
An inadvertent perfect joint attack by moths gathered solely for our resources. I quickly hid behind the combat cart's bulletproof panel and let out a hollow laugh.
'So this is how disadvantageous it is to recklessly enter someone else's territory without information.'
But this level of disadvantage wasn't insurmountable. My companions and their families skillfully hid under wagons and carts, maintaining formation while extending their gun barrels in all directions.
Immediate return fire commenced.
"Shoot! Fourth floor window!"
"Pistol on the third floor beyond the flames!"
The sound of enemy pistols and our sporadic gunfire, the dull thuds of paving blocks raining down, the pain-filled groans of someone hit by a chair, the approaching shrieks of zombies.
I pushed the cart swiftly and moved toward the zombies.
"Just suppress the enemies in the windows! We'll sweep the zombies with the machine gun, and you two in the rear, set fire to the buildings!"
It was enough to just suppress the enemies firing and throwing from windows, preventing them from sticking their heads out. Meanwhile, if we set fire to the buildings, they'd all die.
As for the zombies...
"Wait, why are zombies taking cover?"
Had they already learned about the dangers of firearms? The zombies approached slowly, hiding their bodies as they moved between roadside cars and building walls. I caught glimpses of weapons or bricks in the zombies' hands.
Despite their horrible shrieks, their movements were full of caution, and they didn't approach too closely.
Had they learned the concept of magazines too? Had they mastered hunting methods that used numbers and careful approaches to make us waste ammunition before attacking? Hunting methods that depleted ammunition as a form of stamina?
"The machine gun is useless from the front."
I pulled the trigger anyway. Rat-tat-tat, bullets sprayed like horizontal rain. The zombie group was swept away instantly. The machine gun's bullets, which easily penetrated even cars, were like a rain of death in themselves.
The zombies who survived by luck bared their yellow teeth and growled, then lowered their bodies.
They'd identified the weakness of the machine gun, which was awkwardly mounted on the cart and couldn't aim downward.
"Keueeek!"
The zombies shrieked, then all scattered while keeping their bodies low. Some entered nearby buildings, others fled far away.
Around that time, the companion who had left to start fires returned. Instead of reporting to me, he raised his voice as if threatening the moths.
"I've set fire to the buildings!"
"Well done."
I grinned and raised my hand. Stop shooting now. In an instant, the gunfire ceased. The other side wasn't attacking either.
"We've set the buildings on fire. All of you come out before you burn to death."
My voice echoed dully because of the gunfire.
After a moment, there was movement. The sound of moths extinguishing fires with fire extinguishers. Several of my companions immediately went over to prevent them from escaping.
Moths emerged crawling from buildings on both sides, with guns pointed at the backs of their heads, wearing expressionless faces.
***
Being from different survivor groups, they glanced at each other and sighed with regret.
"Didn't think you'd set fire to the buildings from there."
I observed these survivors quietly. Despite having been in a firefight, they showed no shock, and no one had died.
We too had only people injured by bricks or chairs. Human resilience was stubborn, and urban warfare was difficult.
No wonder the military had abandoned the city center.
"You must have been very hungry, attacking us all at once."
"We're not starving. You have to get food when you can. And it would've been nice to get your guns too."
One of the moths answered.
Was this claiming they had resources? That they could offer something for their lives?
"Were you planning to keep making us waste ammunition? Prod us and run away?"
"Ammunition is consumable. I thought we could negotiate if we kept getting on your nerves."
I adjusted my mask briefly and looked around at my companions. One who had been hit by a brick was massaging his shoulder, and a family member who had been hit by a chair was groaning in pain.
I muttered.
"I told you we should have made the fire bigger from the start..."
I was right and they were wrong. When this is repeated, it becomes impossible to doubt in the first place. Having planted another fence in my companions' minds with this opportunity, I focused on the moths again.
Since we couldn't attack the townhouse today anyway, I needed to raid these people's resources and use them as manpower.
I gestured to Jeon Do-hyung.
"You're all prisoners now. Jeon Do-hyung, tie up all their fingers and wrists with cable ties and rope. Restrain their ankles too with knots like handcuffs."
"Yes."
We would use them as bait and trap disarmers when attacking the townhouse.
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