Hiding a House in the Apocalypse - Chapter 386



Only Krnovel

Hiding a House in the Apocalypse Episode 386

156. The Leader (3)

C Bridge.

One of the bridges that will be used as a kill zone in the upcoming battle.

Already, various obstacles are installed in a zigzag pattern on the road to impede the monsters’ advance, and at the entrance to the bridge, artillery target areas marked with colorful paint are a distraction.

I crossed the C Bridge on a scooter while the idiot tanks camped out on the other side of the bridge watched.

Underneath the bridge, people on fishing boats are pulling in their nets.

The number of fish caught is small, but each fish is unusually large.

It doesn’t really matter whether it’s a mutation or not.

That big fish will fill the stomachs of that fisherman and others today and give them the strength to live tomorrow.

The place where Woo Min-hee settled down is across the bridge, a settlement that everyone else had given up on and left.

Before the war, the land was someone’s home.

The register, which is now just a scrap of paper, will still show ownership and rights relationships between people who are alive or dead.

A typical example of settlement development is to push away ruins that once held someone’s memories or economic destiny and build new buildings on top of the infrastructure they once stood on.

A construction site came into view, with unfinished buildings, container boxes, and materials strewn about.

Finding traces of people wasn’t that difficult.

I spotted smoke rising faintly above the abandoned building.

Woo Min-hee is probably hiding there.

I looked around before rushing into her hideout.

Sure enough, far away, on the ruined hill, you can see the intimidating-looking mutation dogs roaming around.

Among them, there are adults and babies.

The pups have a great time biting and rolling around with other pups of similar size.

I didn’t see anything similar to Silver, but there was a considerable distance between the hill where the mutation dogs were nesting and Woo Min-hee’s hideout, and the mutation dogs didn’t seem to pay much attention to me, so it seemed like I wouldn’t be attacked when I entered the hideout.

Even though the other side of the bridge is within the range of a wireless phone base station, I took out my K-walkie-talkie.

This is Woo Min-hee’s order.

Her wish was to communicate via personal identification number if possible.

I did as I was told.

Chijijik–

After letting the noise flow once.

“Arrived.”

I announced my arrival.

A reply came a while later.

“Do you know where it is?”

“I know.”

Woo Min-hee was living in the basement of a residential building under construction.

There aren’t many items, perhaps because they disappeared suddenly.

There is limited fuel, food, and clothing.

Still, looking at the satellite equipment that was stubbornly guarding the center of the meager living conditions, I felt a sense of kinship.

Well, she was also a friend of our bulletin board.

“Shall we go out for a bit?”

I went outside with Woo Min-hee.

Her expression, which had been obscured by darkness, became more clearly visible.

She has a strange smile on her face, but she looks quite anxious, which is unusual for her.

From afar, the mutation dogs pricked up their ears and looked wary when they saw us, but neither Woo Min-hee nor I reacted much to the mutations.

“Do you like dogs?”

I asked Woo Min-hee.

Woo Min-hee stared into the distance, exhaling white breath and touching the cooling prosthetic hand with her still warm living hand.

“I had a dog when I was young.”

“okay?”

“I don’t think I particularly liked it. Rather, I hated it. I was so tired from going to school all night, and he would cling to me and get spit and fur all over my clothes.”

Woo Min-hee still looked slightly frightened, as if the unpleasant feeling from that time was still coming back to her.

But that expression soon changed into one of longing.

“But you know what’s so strange?”

I waited for her to speak without answering.

“Every day I wished for him to die, but when he actually died, when he didn’t move when I called him, I suddenly burst into tears.”

I thought it was an extremely Woo Min-hee-like behavior.

Maybe that’s why.

I guess a smile spread across my face without me knowing it.

“Why are you laughing?”

“just.”

I looked at the dogs.

The chicks play peacefully, but the adults are wary and some run around busily on the low mountains.

“be careful.”

While walking around the outskirts of the construction site, Woo Min-hee gave a short warning.

There are artificially installed wires.

“Trip wire?”

no.

“No, what is this called?”

“Olmoo.”

“Yeah. That was the name.”

As expected, humans are not easy beings.

Even as they abandon their settlements under threat from mutant dogs, they retain all the malice that humans can show.

The remains of that malice are the bear traps and snares placed here and there, and the piles of feed with warning signs posted.

[Warning! Poisonous! Never eat!]

“As expected, the people who were here. It seems they didn’t just leave.”

“Because this is an era where only veterans remain.”

“But it doesn’t seem to have any particular effect.”

“No, I think it worked a little bit.”

Woo Min-hee looked at the dogs moving busily with narrowed eyes.

The wind blew around us.

The temperature, which had risen to a record high, was now dropping back down below zero.

A cool breeze reminded me of my purpose, which I had momentarily forgotten.

“Hey. Minhee.”

Woo Min-hee answered without turning her head.

“Yeah. Tell me.”

I guess she was expecting what I was going to say.

We walked around slowly and talked about what was happening in the new Seoul.

Woo Min-hee listened to the story with a blank expression on her face, giving only short interjections and simple answers.

Perhaps Woo Min-hee knew what was going to happen next.

From refugees to the intervention of the Jeju government.

After the bittersweet story ended, Woo Min-hee shared her thoughts briefly.

“I don’t want to fight.”

Sharp steel hooked fingers pulled at the wire the settlers had left behind.

The wire was pulled taut, and as she flexed her fingers, the sharp edges between the joints snapped the wire like a pair of nippers.

“okay?”

That’s the expected answer.

She expressed her fear of the coming battle several times.

I was about to let out a sigh and say what I had prepared.

“Kang Han-min. That bastard.”

Woo Min-hee’s unexpected, unspoken true emotions burst out.

“It’s obvious.”

Woo Min-hee continued speaking, looking into the distance with a sad smile rather than a cold one.

“I plan to use myself as a sample.”

“Sample?”

“Yeah. I wonder how far an Alpha Awakened like me can go against that monster.”

Woo Min-hee looked at me with a miserable smile.

Those eyes, which simultaneously held emotions of uncontrollable amplitude and a sense of resignation that seemed to be dragged down endlessly, were, to be honest, difficult to look at.

“That human has already pushed me into that monster’s jaws once.”

The thoughts of “no” and “maybe” clashed fiercely in my brain.

The view that it was not possible was pointing out Kang Han-min’s naive appearance during school and the early days of the war, while the view that it could be done was pointing out Kang Han-min’s appearance after the middle of the war when he began to reveal incomprehensible inner feelings.

“Is that true?”

I asked her, unable to come to a conclusion.

Woo Min-hee looked at his hooked hand.

“······.”

I understood what she was trying to say.

“Surely those hands and legs too?”

Woo Min-hee slowly closed her eyes and nodded with a sigh.

“Isn’t that a cheap exchange compared to one’s life?”

Woo Min-hee admitted her past with surprising calmness.

“The title of Savior. Do you know who created it?”

Woo Min-hee opened her mouth again, hiding the prosthetic hand with her thick sleeve, as if the prosthetic hand was cooling down colder than her flesh and giving a tingling sensation to the wrist connected to it.

“Made by Kang Han-min.”

“That’s the first time I’ve heard that.”

“I heard it from senior Na Hye-in. It’s certain. She said that they decided it in front of just the two of them.”

“I’m Na Hye-in······.”

“At that time, it seems that Kang Han-min had human emotions. Kang Han-min. You liked senior Na Hye-in, right?”

Probably so.

No, I definitely liked it.

Kang Min-eun.

I’ve always been watching her closely.

But the Na Hye-in I met in person was full of fear.

“But not now.”

Woo Min-hee looked at me with a blank look.

“Now Kang Han-min is no different from a monster.”

Woo Min-hee continued speaking with a sigh mixed with sorrow.

“In that they are not much different from machines that move for only one purpose. I don’t know. Maybe they chose the shameful title of Savior to hide their terrible intentions. Maybe it’s self-deception. They have to believe that to do such things.”

I feel like the pieces of a confusingly scattered puzzle are coming together inside me.

The eerie thoughts he displayed in my team, the changes he showed after becoming Awaken, and the inhumane appearance I saw in Jeju.

Has he become a monster after all?

The story of becoming a monster in order to fight monsters is an all too common tale of self-destruction.

“······.”

That slightly quirky friend wanted things to be different.

“It’s different from my senior.”

Woo Min-hee looked at me with a changed look in her eyes.

“Despite having a hatred as strong as Kang Han-min, the senior tried to keep the line.”

“okay?”

“Well, I don’t know.”

With a laugh, she turned her gaze to the dogs.

“If my senior had power, things might have been different.”

Kikrik-

The hooked fingers hidden inside the sleeve moved and made a friction sound.

“Anyway, that’s the end of the story. I’m not going back.”

A gleam came into her eyes.

“Ah. Over there.”

I looked in the direction she was looking.

The intersection that brought us together was standing tall among the giant dogs, revealing its presence.

It’s silver.

That’s right.

People say all dogs look alike, but my instincts tell me that this guy is a worthless son who is far from his father.

“Senior. You said you knew that dog, right?”

“I showed you.”

“Wasn’t that gold?”

“That’s his son.”

I have a lot to say.

There are also goals that must be achieved.

But now I was waving my hand vigorously towards Silver and shouting.

“Silver!”

He looked at me.

and.

Jeobuk-

Slowly approaching this way.

“oh.”

A new color appeared in Woo Min-hee’s eyes.

“They’re not the kind of kids who come just because you call them.”

The boy, who had grown up nicely, came towards me, staring intently.

The other dogs tried to stand guard, but when he shook his head, they all backed away.

However, a little boy who looked like a puppy followed the bastard, wagging his tail, but Silver showed no reaction to this.

He put down his gun and spoke to Woo Min-hee.

“Step back for a moment.”

Woo Min-hee did as she was told, letting out a faint laugh.

“Over there. Senior.”

“why?”

“I was going to say it earlier but I forgot, it’s about those dogs.”

“huh.”

“It looks like a baby was caught in a trap.”

“okay?”

“So be careful.”

Woo Min-hee winked slightly.

Of course you have to be careful.

My life is one and precious.

He says he put down the rifle, but he still has a pistol and, most importantly, his old friend, an axe.

A greater weapon than that is faith.

Even if human loyalty was incomprehensible and worthless from the beast’s perspective, I believed that if the guy was Gold’s son, he would show at least the bare minimum of sincerity.

The closer he got, the more surprised I became.

He was big and proud like his father, with sharp eyes.

The puppy that had been following him suddenly ran to the side, wagging its tail.

I was momentarily taken aback.

There is feed there.

It says do not eat.

It is dangerous to suddenly make a big move in front of a beast that you have a past connection with but have not built complete trust with.

As I was thinking for a moment about what to do, a loud roar rang out.

It’s silver.

The boy stopped the cub’s movements with a roar.

Then he slowly approached the feed and nodded at the sign written behind the feed.

“Krrrr······.”

As if to show the contents of the sign to the young child.

At that moment I felt another slight shock.

This guy.

Was he really this smart?

Clearly, back then, that guy couldn’t understand what was being said and always seemed awkward.

The next moment, I let out a gasp without realizing it.

“ah.”

Was even that a deception?

I feel a smile creeping onto my lips.

“Was it like that?”

He asked Silver.

If the guy was that stupid, he wouldn’t have come to me.

From the beginning, the guy was acting on me.

Maybe he thought I would catch him if he showed off how smart he was.

They say there’s nothing more disgusting than a beast acting like a human, but this time it’s different.

I feel like I’ve been hit with a clean and proper punch.

“······Silver?”

I asked the guy to confirm.

The guy who had been pretending not to understand what people were saying nodded as if it was natural and motioned for me to follow him.

In Woo Min-hee’s hideout, in the ruins that were hard to see, a mutant puppy was tied up with wire and looking at me with a pitiful face.

I saw a leg tied to a rope.

The moss has not yet penetrated into the flesh.

Perhaps Silver or another adult told him not to move.

A few of the dogs bared their teeth at me, but when Silver turned to look at them with his stern, stern eyes, they all lowered their ears and tucked their tails.

I saw the dog tied up in a rope amidst the heavy breathing.

“Okay. Let’s begin.”

Bang!

He cut the wire with one blow.

The chick, which had probably been tied up in a rope for several days, roared louder than an adult and rejoiced at its freedom once more.

Silver approached me as the dogs each roared with joy.

Do you have anything to say?

The guy who showed his teeth,

“Krrrr······.”

He bowed his head toward me.

“Silver.”

The guy raised his head and took a brisk step back.

The guy looked at me with a sharp look in his eyes and then left without a second thought.

Following the leader, the rest of the dogs followed him like the wind.

In an instant, the dogs disappeared from around me.

The ending was so abrupt that it felt like what had just happened was a dream.

“senior.”

Woo Min-hee called me while I was lost in thought.

Her scarred face was marked by the passage of time, but at the same time retained the freshness of her school days.

“How did you do that? Huh? I’m seriously serious right now.”

He answered with a big smile.

“I told you. I know Silver.”

“No matter how much you know, it’s still like that! A mutation dog? The biggest characteristic of mutations! Their spontaneous hatred for humans! Didn’t you learn that in school?”

“There are exceptions everywhere.”

There was something else I had to do.

I spoke to her, looking at her with a look of lingering surprise.

“You don’t have to fight.”

At the sudden change of topic, Woo Min-hee looked at my expression with an uncharacteristically surprised face.

I told her what I meant once again.

“You don’t have to fight.”

“What does that mean?”

“You just saw it?”

He picked up the broken rope with his hand.

“Just because you’re the leader doesn’t mean you have to do everything.”

“what do you mean?”

“A leader is just a leader who leads the group, not an omnipotent Superman.”

Only then did Woo Min-hee’s briefly awkward face return to its original cynical and overbearing appearance.

“A leader has a leader’s job. I want to leave that job to you. And that, in a way, involves fighting.”

He put down the axe that was numbing his hand and put the axe in his other hand back into the axe sheath, spinning it between his fingertips.

“But at least I won’t put you in front of that monster.”

“······senior.”

I let out a shallow sigh, my breath still on my lips, and turned around.

You can see the mighty Han River and our new city standing tall beyond it.

“He is my prey.”

I looked back at her.

“So let’s go back.”

He extended his hand to our leader with a faint smile.

Woo Min-hee looked at me intently and showed a hesitant attitude.

But after a moment of hesitation, our leader extended his hand to me.

A hand that feels warm, not a cold, hooked hand.

“huh.”

Our leader has returned.