Apocalypse N-Student - Chapter 59



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Episode 59 Serihan (2)

As the crowd gathered, the flame tattooed thug gritted his teeth and struggled to get up.

He stumbled and fell several times on his own blood, but he finally made it to the overpass and sat down with his back against it.

People stopped about ten paces apart.

Even though he saw the spears and swords they were holding, and their even more sinister eyes, the flame tattoo glared fiercely as if trying to deny the cold reality that he was not meant to live.

“These fucking bastards······”

A middle-aged man wearing gold-rimmed glasses stepped forward.

“It’s a shame it turned out like this.”

The eyes of the flame tattoo that had been glaring at him as if to kill him suddenly became cloudy as if they had lost the support they had been leaning on.

“······Since when?”

“Well, when did it start?”

The middle-aged man muttered to himself and turned his eyes to the side as if avoiding the question.

I saw some familiar faces.

A tall, timid young man who belonged to a group like the one with the flame tattoo, a young woman who seemed to be the cafe owner and part-time worker, and many of the men I saw in the one-room village of Busan National University.

Everyone was staring at the dying flame tattoo with a mixture of disgust, contempt, anger and guilt on their faces.

The two eyes with the flame tattoo that followed the middle-aged man’s gaze and checked them out burned fiercely again.

“You fucking bastards! Who do you owe your life to? Hey, Gopiri. I saved you from being raped in Beomil-dong. Don’t you remember?”

The young woman opened her mouth with difficulty, her body trembling with emotion as the flame tattoo glared at her and growled.

“You did that to me too, sir!”

The flame tattoo turned its gaze towards the middle-aged man, frowning with a displeased expression.

“Who saved your wife and son by crushing the heads of those zombie bastards? Huh? You said you’d repay the favor for the rest of your life, but is this repaying the favor? You piece of shit.”

The middle-aged man nodded calmly, not avoiding the creepy, blood-soaked gaze.

“I still appreciate that. But you’ve gone too far. There’s no one in the shelter that hasn’t been hit by you. You even touch women. And those kids before… You didn’t have to kill them. They didn’t know anything, right? You could’ve just left them alone, but you… Phew, this is all you’re going to do with us.”

As the middle-aged man finished speaking, a young woman who seemed to be the owner of a cafe glared at the flame tattoo coldly and questioned him.

“Chan-hoo, you killed him?”

The flame tattoo leaned his head against the outer wall of the overpass and the corners of his mouth twisted into a laugh.

“Yeah, I killed it. I kept seeing it because it was weird, and the idiot -like guy was draining the food.

A man who had been furious after seeing a body lying on the street in Busan National University’s one-room district and claiming that the person had been murdered intervened angrily.

“Don’t talk nonsense! Do you want me to believe that? You didn’t steal it?”

“Say whatever you want. Fuck, it’s already fucked up······”

Blood continued to flow from the wound, which had not been properly stopped, forming a red puddle where the flame tattoo had sat.

As the blood drained away, his complexion became pale and his eyes gradually closed, as if he was tired of everything.

I don’t know the exact circumstances, but after hearing it, I think I know what the situation is.

Leadership and tyranny are two sides of the same coin.

Just as you can’t know whether a coin will land on heads or tails until you toss it, you have to experience it yourself to find out whether you will be a leader or a tyrant.

Even if you show great leadership, if your team members’ dissatisfaction reaches its peak, you can end up like that.

Even if a tyrant rules cruelly, if everyone fears him and follows him, peace can be maintained through force.

Which way will the flame tattoo fall?

In the early days of the zombie outbreak, when people froze in fear at the sight of walking corpses, the violent nature of the flame tattoo, which would not hesitate to use water or fire, would have been a great help in survival.

Somehow, I ended up helping people by killing zombies, and as the number of people relying on me increased, I naturally formed a group and became the leader.

It was obvious how a person like that could live in a shelter.

Everyone had been holding out for a few months, but just as they got used to dealing with zombies and looters, things changed drastically.

As the confidence that we could be independent without the flame tattoo solidified through word of mouth, he was no longer needed.

“There’s nothing more to hear. Let’s end it.”

The excited men grabbed their spears in an attempt to end the flame tattoo’s life at any moment.

The middle-aged man shook his head, glancing sideways at the people who were standing to one side and watching with interest.

“Hold on. This won’t do. Let’s tie him up and take him away.”

A few men left the spears to the group, took out some ropes, and tied the hands of the flame tattooed man.

Seeing everyone follow the instructions without complaint, it seemed like the new leader of Lotte Shelter would be that middle-aged man.

“How far do you think you’ll go after teasing me like this?”

“We take care of our own business.”

The middle-aged man’s speech and expression were full of confidence and enthusiasm, but from the beginning, such matters should have been resolved within the shelter.

Dealing with internal conflicts by relying on external forces was like leaving the sword in someone else’s hands.

“Let’s go.”

As the flame tattoo disappeared towards Lotte Department Store with his old colleagues, a gloomy looking man gestured and left the alley.

The man and woman joined a group of men who had been watching.

“Are you a Serihan resident?”

“That’s right. That fat guy over there is the chairman. Everyone else is losing weight because they barely make ends meet on rations, but that guy doesn’t lose any weight. He’s amazing.

“Who is Mr. Lee Gwan-myeong?”

“Just wait a minute.”

Park Hong-sik quickly scanned the men’s faces and ran over there, smiling.

He bowed his head to the chairman and chatted with him for a while before pointing to me and Jong-seok.

“The chairman wants to see you for a moment.”

When we went with Park Hong-sik, who had returned, to say hello, the chairman greeted us with a relaxed expression.

“Are you from the Guseo-dong Shelter?”

“It’s not a shelter, it’s just a place to live together.”

“How is it there?”

“It’s obvious.”

When I vaguely avoided answering, the chairman narrowed his eyes as if trying to gauge my intentions.

Looking at it like that, the eyes were quite sharp.

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“Are you looking for Gwanmyeong?”

“yes.”

“It can’t be a simple greeting, right? What’s your business?”

“I came here at the request of an acquaintance of Mr. Lee Gwan-myeong. I have something for you to deliver.”

I knew this would happen, so I brought a Geiger counter in my backpack.

The plan was to use this to meet with Yi Gwan-myeong and get him to open his mouth in exchange for providing supplies.

“Let’s see what it is.”

“I will give it to you in person when I meet you.”

“Hmm, that might be difficult.”

The chairman sighed and shook his head as he looked at me with puzzled eyes.

“He’s dead. His name is Kwanmyeong. I sent him to block the retreat, and he just stood there blankly until that bastard got him. I sent my wife away first, and I tried to save my only remaining son who was sick, so I sold all sorts of things to buy medicine for him, but that was all in vain. After that, he just lived like a lost soul, and that’s how he ended up like that.”

I didn’t say anything about Lee Gwan-myeong’s sudden death.

In the apocalypse, it was common for entire families to die and disappear, and he had no close relationships with them.

It was just a shame that I was one step late.

“When I get the chance, I’ll send someone to Guseo-dong, so let’s get to know each other better. If we help each other, won’t we be able to live long?”

The chairman smiled kindly and acted friendly, but I didn’t believe him.

I have never seen leaders who were not lust for power, intervening in the internal strife of other shelters to lend their support, even at the cost of shedding blood.

“Yes, that’s right.”

There was no reason to stay here any longer since there was nothing to see.

“let’s go.”

As I was crossing the road with Jong-seok, Park Hong-sik came running towards me in a hurry.

“I’m sorry, but could you spare me two hours?”

“What’s going on?”

Park Hong-sik continued speaking while observing Jong-seok and I’s expressions.

“Did I tell you before? There are 50 survivors here.”

“Yes. You said it would be around that much.”

“To be exact, there are 53 of them. They all live together on the second floor of the shopping mall.”

“Is this a Taekwondo gym?”

“Oh, but it’s really annoying when 50 people live in a place without any partitions. There’s no privacy. So, there are quite a few households that couldn’t stand it anymore and went back to their apartments inside the complex.”

“You said you haven’t cleaned the apartment yet?”

When Jong-seok tilted his head, Park Hong-sik nodded.

“That’s right. But it seems better than I thought since I cleared out all the zombies in the hallways and emergency stairs on the floor I live on. You can use the stairs to get to the 5th floor and below, and although there’s no electricity or water, it’s comfortable to live in since it’s over 40 pyeong. The weather has gotten warmer, so it’s not cold anymore. We get daily rations for supplies, and we just sleep in the house. We use the poop in a bucket.”

It seemed like a reasonable choice, provided we had adequate supplies of food and water.

The outer wall surrounding the complex was over 3 meters thick, so it was safe from outside intrusion.

“The chairman has allowed those who want to move in to live there, but many people are still reluctant to do so if it’s not their own house. It’s hard to open the door, and you never know what might come out from inside.

“You said Mr. Lee Gwan-myeong earlier, right? That gentleman’s room 201, building 112. What do you think? Let’s go in and open the door together and take a look. Kang-jun, get a photo to give to that acquaintance, and I’ll get a new home for our family. It’ll be great for both of us.”

“Did the Chairman give permission?”

“I tried poking him, but he said to do whatever he wanted. Let’s get this over with quickly before he changes his mind.”

Park Hong-sik secretly urged me to do it because my body was warm, but I didn’t answer easily.

The reason Lee Gwan-myeong brought a Geiger counter out of the nuclear power plant was probably because he was concerned about a radiation leak.

If you’re going to sell it, there probably won’t be anything decent left at home.

But it’s better to take a look around the house than to go back empty-handed.

Although we couldn’t sell it to the Golden Chariot, it may have the information or clues we’re looking for.

If you only open one house, there will be no one inside since the family is all dead.

“Okay, then.”

*

He entered the complex through the narrow space between the barricade and the soundproof wall.

I walked along the wall, stepping on the sidewalk blocks over which weeds were creeping.

A bare tree without a single leaf.

A flower bed with a small vegetable garden.

There wasn’t a single bird anywhere.

White apartment buildings stand tall against a clear sky.

Here and there, where the glass was broken, there were dark red blood stains on the sidewalk.

Thinking about the zombies still dormant inside, this apartment, which costs over 10 million won per pyeong, felt like a giant charnel house.

The silence created by the three-meter-high soundproof wall made the sound of footsteps sound strangely loud.

Park Hong-sik, who was walking ahead, pointed to the right with his hand instead of speaking.

I turned my head and saw the number ‘112’ between the buildings.

As we turned the corner at the end of the sound barrier, the front of Building 112 appeared.

The common entrance door of Line 1 was wrapped tightly with a clothesline.

As I untied the knot and opened the glass door, the musty smell that had been accumulated inside hit my nose.

I held the window short and went up the stairs.

It was true that they had cleared the emergency stairs, as there were not a single zombie.

The second floor hallway, which I entered after turning the stairs and opening the fire door, was also empty.

I turned on the flashlight and searched every corner of the hallway shrouded in darkness before taking a step forward.

I moved forward, side by side with Jong-seok, so that I could immediately stab the window at whatever appeared.

Park Hong-sik, who had never worked with others before, took charge of the rear.

I shined a flashlight in front of the door and saw that it was room 202.

After passing the elevator, I stood in front of the door of room 201 across from me, put the window down, and took out my tactical axe.

I was raising my axe to destroy it in one fell swoop when I noticed the keypad that had fallen off.

The digital lock was already broken.

The door wasn’t even locked.

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