Hiding a House in the Apocalypse - Chapter 119



Only Krnovel

63. Two Children (2)

I examined the wound.

The wound was swarming with maggots.

I swept the maggots away with my gloved hands and looked inside.

It’s late.

The wound is already too serious to be treated.

It’s a miracle I’m alive.

Gold was looking at me with his head on the floor, as if he didn’t even have the strength to raise it.

“Gold······.”

He slowly shook his head.

The guy closed his eyes and bowed his head.

He didn’t really do anything for me.

Me too.

But for some reason, I feel something special about this guy.

Could it be because we never had any expectations from each other in the first place?

I wanted to do something.

But what can you do for a guy who’s going to die soon?

No, there is one.

“It’s gold.”

I called the guy.

The guy looked at me with his head down and only his eyes turned.

“Let’s go home.”

The guy raised his head with difficulty.

“If I have to die, I should die at home.”

The bastard made a feeble, wind-like sound.

The bastard couldn’t even make a sound.

When I raised my head, I saw dried blood and maggots dripping down from under the guy’s fur, along with pus.

But we can communicate without sound.

Gold nodded slowly and stuck out his tongue.

“······Just wait a moment. I’ll bring the truck.”

The guy bent down.

“Can you walk?”

The guy struggles to get up.

“It’s okay. Don’t lose your strength. I’ll drag you over right away. Don’t die until then.”

Gold answered with a rustling sound.

As I climbed onto the motorcycle, Silver wagged his tail and stared at me.

“You, stay here.”

He doesn’t understand what you say and just wags his tail.

Pointed towards gold.

“Over there. Go. Stay next to Dad.”

The guy went to the wrong place.

I looked to see what he was trying to do and he was lowering his butt and moaning.

I turned on the headlights and started moving the motorcycle.

The distance between where the gold is currently hiding and my territory is an age when walking, but a moment by car.

Of course, as expected in the era of destruction, things don’t go smoothly.

Flutter!

Remove the camouflage of dirt and gravel that covers the front of the garage exit,

Wheeeeeeeeing–

You have to open a ramped inlet that is hydraulically operated, powerful but ridiculously slow.

Bang! Bang!

The condition of the electric truck needs to be briefly checked.

Of course, after taking the car out, all other tasks except maintenance must be done in reverse order.

If someone comes into my garage while I’m away, I could lose everything.

But today, things aren’t going so well.

The battery condition is abnormal.

I didn’t use it that much, but the voltage keeps fluctuating.

The batteries that are used every single day of the year are fine, but the batteries of a truck that is only used once or twice a year are causing problems.

Were the CEOs of the good small businesses in Korea wrong? I had to go through the tedious task of replacing the batteries while asking myself.

I replaced the main battery under the body and checked the voltage.

It’s normal.

The night is cold, but the humidity of summer lingers, so my forehead and back are soaked with sweat.

I drank some water and went to the bathroom.

No matter how urgent the matter is, it is important to always be prepared.

After making sure to pack weapons and emergency food, I drove the truck.

Instead of driving up the steep slope because the truck’s condition was suspicious, we went along the gentle ridge and past the old house where Mr. Kim used to live before entering the road.

The headlights didn’t turn on.

My vision had adjusted to the night, and I knew this area so well that I could remember it even with my eyes closed.

There are a few lights to the north, but there are hardly any lights to the south.

The area directly south of my territory was a battleground and a place where strategic withdrawal and evacuation orders were issued at the national level.

With few exceptions, most of the population of lower-level municipalities has been absorbed into nearby metropolitan areas.

Although there was population pressure, it was probably an inevitable choice at the time to deal with the widespread crises.

Even without that, in the midst of a war on the level of World War 3 that was spreading across the country, disasters such as zombie hordes, monsters, and mutations that were difficult to deal with with just a small military and police force were breaking out everywhere.

Could there have been any other way when a city was turned into a zombie den?

A roar is heard in the distance.

Is it a mutation dog?

No, it’s the roar of something else, something unknown.

Dogs aren’t the only ones to have mutated.

Even on the Mayan bulletin boards that I occasionally visit, reports have been made of mutants in the southern region that are believed to be wild boars, deer, crows, and even wildcats.

In particular, mutation cats appear to be real.

If you look at the bulletin board user who lives in Daejeon, he even took a picture of the prize notice posted on the bulletin board in the city and posted it.

Anyway, since it’s an area I don’t know much about, it’s not surprising that there are one or two strange guys.

The only sound that really caused me concern was when I got close to where the gold was.

Woof! Woof! Woof!

The sounds of mutant dogs were heard.

Not one or two, but several.

The shape of the sound is a pattern I’ve heard before.

This is the sound that mutant dogs make when they establish a hierarchy, that is, when they fight with each other.

Could it be that the guys who attacked Gold are back?

That could be the case.

Mutations hate humans.

There must have been someone who saw Gold being friendly with me, and there may have been someone who secretly saw me going to find Gold.

Clank-

I have no intention of going back.

Gold will go and see the guy, whether he’s dead or alive.

I have the right to do so.

Even though I am not the one who gave birth to him, I gave him a life.

I visually confirmed the location of the gun and drove straight towards the abandoned house where the gold was.

A large shadow appears beyond the headlights.

They are mutation dogs.

The guys froze in place, their heads turned towards me, as if they were blinded by the sudden light.

The number is five.

Some of them are familiar to me, and some are new to me.

He got off immediately and pointed his gun at the guys.

however,

“Kkiiing.”

When the guys see me, they slowly avoid me.

Some guys even tucked their tails in.

Are you not willing to fight?

Krrrrrr!

No, there is one.

As the big dogs retreated, a small fierce dog that had been hidden there.

It’s silver.

A small one, twice as small as the others, was covered in blood, its silver fur turning red, its teeth not yet fully grown, and it was showing fierce hostility towards the other dogs.

“Silver!”

I looked towards Silver, wary of the dogs.

thank god.

The guy is alive.

It’s not even a fatal wound.

I saw the dogs retreating.

They slowly and systematically melted into the darkness where no light could reach, while baring their teeth in a wary manner.

“······.”

There doesn’t seem to be any need to shoot them.

They drove Gold to his death, but they didn’t try to take Silver’s life.

If that were the case, Silver would have already turned into a piece of meat.

Those guys were just trying to subdue Silver.

The situation was over and I slowly approached Silver.

The guy who had been baring his teeth and bristling his fur saw me and as if nothing had happened, he hid his teeth, stuck his tongue out, and wagged his tail.

I looked into the boy’s sleepy and tired eyes and stroked his bloody head.

“Well done. You are very brave.”

Beyond the silver, an abandoned house is visible.

I looked into the abandoned house with a hint of anxiety.

Although countless flies still disturbed his hearing and sight, adding to his sense of unease, the giant dog nestled in a corner of the abandoned house in the darkness was alive.

“Gold.”

The guy raised his head slightly.

“······You have a good son.”

Gold snorted.

Looks proud.

I’m also concerned about those squinty eyes that seem to be mocking me.

I turned around and smiled without realizing it.

“Let’s go. Home.”

Gold raised the giant up.

There was something sticky and foul-smelling underneath, or corn was falling down, but I didn’t look closely.

Gold walked out into the midst of the pervasive stench.

The guy with the proud chest that reminded me of a stag was now skinny and emaciated, and the hair that had given him the name Gold was falling out in some places and turning white, but that day, the bright moonlight made his dirty hair look like gold.

Gold struggled to climb onto the truck bed.

As Silver dazed, the guy waved his front paw.

Are you trying to call your puppies?

Soon Silver got into the car.

No, I was trying to climb.

He is brave around other dogs, but he seems to be afraid of cars and is afraid of getting in them.

I grabbed the guy from behind and lifted him up with all my might.

“for a moment!”

My back is under strain.

You shouldn’t hurt your waist.

In this day and age, disc disease is a more frightening disease than cancer.

I have seen many of my peers and juniors suffer from disc problems, so I am more cautious about putting stress on my lower back than on other areas.

Fortunately, Silver just stared at me blankly and then jumped up and sat down next to my father in the back of the truck.

The pus and fluid flowing from his father’s body stained his fur, but the boy licked his father’s wounds with his tongue.

“······.”

Finally, after looking around once more, I got into the driver’s seat.

I stepped on the accelerator, feeling the unique bouncing sensation of an electric car.

*

During my time in China, I once carried a dying comrade.

She didn’t say anything, just buried her head in my back and sobbed.

As the heat of her tears and breath spread across her back and became a little colder in the January chill, I discovered that she was dead.

I didn’t really feel any emotion.

The weariness and lethargy that clung to me like a ghost from my Chinese days only made me feel more sleepy.

A similar experience is being repeated in a slightly more bizarre form.

Instead of carrying his dying comrade by tipping him over, he used a truck to carry a dying dog instead of his dying comrade.

The feelings I have now are different from those of that time.

I guess a sense of duty to do what I had to do strongly dominated my thoughts.

It didn’t occupy a surprisingly large portion of the abstract concepts, such as breaking up or death.

A collapsed house stands before us around the corner.

When I first met Gold, that was where the guy was trying to get into.

Gold’s condition was much worse than when he got into the car, so I had to help him get out.

However, because the weight was so heavy and I was worried about hurting my back at the end, I quickly released my strength and Gold fell to the floor as if he was slamming into the ground.

“Oh my!”

The guy’s hind legs wouldn’t move.

Nevertheless, Gold crawled slowly but desperately on his front paws and eventually returned to the house where he was born and raised.

Looking at that sight, one question came to mind.

If this was the result, what would be the difference between not helping at that time and not helping at all? This is the so-called economic question.

No, it seems there is something.

Next to the gold is the treasure he left behind.

The treasure licked the dying father’s face.

Gold closed his eyes as if he was sleepy and turned his head towards me.

For a brief moment, I felt as if I was hearing an auditory hallucination saying thank you, and I watched the guy close his eyes.

“······.”

Oddly enough, I don’t feel as sleepy as I used to.

It’s a strange thing.

The drowsiness I felt in the fierce battlefield where thousands of people were dying every day was not felt at all in this quiet and peaceful place.

Silver raised his head high and howled.

A guy howled a couple of times as if he was mourning his departed father and came towards me.

I looked at Silver’s bloody wounds, stroked his head, and looked at my dog ​​who would never open his eyes again.

“······Your father was brave and courageous like you.”

I don’t plan on asking about gold.

In that place, in the house where he was born and raised, he will spend his days rotting away, turning to skeletons, and eventually disappearing.

Like their brother wolves.

*

He brought Silver to the bunker.

There, I treated the guy’s wounds and lightly washed his fur.

Meals were also provided.

But this guy is a picky eater.

I don’t even touch frozen meat.

He sniffed around and then pushed the bowl away with his front paw.

Instead, he ate the fresh fish he caught yesterday greedily.

I thought that he was indeed a wild-grown guy.

What should I do?

Should I go hunting?

There must have been a lot of prey there for the Gold Rush to live there.

If I were to raise this big guy, I would have to hunt every day, but would that new lifestyle really suit me?

But if it was for long-term survival, it didn’t seem like a bad choice to have some prior experience as a hunter.

First of all, hunting is essential to raising this guy.

But all this was just a rumor.

The next day, Silver disappeared like the wind.

Leaving behind a few hairs of a different color than his father, the boy chose freedom from human hands.

It was the Defender siblings who suddenly brought up the guy’s current situation.

“Skeleton. Did you see the picture I sent you? Mutant dogs have puppies too? Aren’t they cute?”

The aerial photo she sent showed a silvery little fellow proudly blending in with the pack of mutant dogs that had probably confronted me that night.

I couldn’t help but smile as I recalled the boy who was a little stupid, but brave and proud like his father.

“······Yeah. It’s cute.”

Even if the human era perishes, the era of these guys will never end.

It occurred to me that perhaps the bloodline that led to Gold might rule this peninsula.

Anonymous1532: You should be thankful to your dad. When I see you, I feel like shooting a gun in the street several times a day, but I can barely hold back when I see your face.

It seems like the children of Gold are more qualified than the children of humans who are active on our bulletin board.

“······.”

Knock knock

SKELTON: A bastard worse than a dog

“ah.”

I lost my composure without realizing it.

Gold and silver are the result of me investing more than my fair share of emotions.

The reaction was hot.

Anonymous1532: What? This little bastard? A little bastard who is worse than a dog dares? Who are you? Where do you live? Skeleton? Skeleton? You little bastard! Look at the old age area! Right now!

“······.”

But since it has come to this, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to say one more thing.

SKELTON : Slowly

Anonymous 1532: Disband the military? Disband the hackers, track their locations immediately, send them away, and take them down?

SKELTON : ㅗ

I ended up adding two more words.

A mistake that is not like me.

But the response is good.

Countless waves of compliments are flying in through the message.

Foxgames: Skeleton! Unblocked! I’ll give you a royal account when you open!

rokagg : skeltonham seed

Defender: Sir!

Anonymous458: Hahahahahahaha

mmmmmmmmm : Oh, you know how to have fun?

gijayangban : Hmm….

…

…

Maybe the courage to write this curse comment is a gift from Gold to me?

But it’s not luxurious.

The K-Walkie-Talkie made a peculiar beeping sound.

Sensing an ominous future, he checked his radio.

This is Woo Min-hee.

“······.”

This Park Gyu is strong in a crisis.

In any situation, judge the situation calmly.

It’s right to get in touch now.

I received a call calmly, as if nothing had happened.

“Hey, Minhee. What’s going on? Hey! It’s totally fall weather~.”

“Senior, do you use the internet?”

“No, I don’t.”

“really?”

“Yeah. I really don’t.”

“Senior, can I go play in the bunker?”

At that moment, I covered my mouth with my hand.

The words I stopped him from saying were, “Where are you coming from when you’re feeling unwell?”

“Can I go? Right?”

“There’s something I’m embarrassed to show at home.”

“It’s okay. It’s okay. I just wanted to check something.”

“······.”

We’re in trouble.