Hiding a House in the Apocalypse - Chapter 46



Only Krnovel

33. Moving (2)

The truck is at the heart of the Defender relocation plan.

I bought a 5 ton refrigerated truck from somewhere.

The truck was loaded with all the luggage, and my brother was one of them.

[ hi. ]

My brother waved at me, showing me his tablet screen.

“hi.”

As soon as she saw me, she typed it out and showed it to me.

[Your body has shrunk a lot? What happened?]

“I was joking. I was just imitating John’s words.”

Upon hearing that, Defender’s younger sister looked at me with a serious expression. Soon, her fingers moved as fast as lightning.

[ I keep getting cursed at because I keep imitating such a weird person. The nickname of the sub-account I fucked up was 183cm83kg3cm, right? Oh my. It’s really transparent. It’s transparent. It’s really consistent. ]

Defender, who had been dissing me excitedly, put down his tablet again and suddenly looked at me blankly.

“There’s a skeleton.”

She spoke in a vocal manner.

Looking closely, my brother’s face looked quite tired and weak.

I looked at her silently, thinking that it was the first time in my memory that she had spoken directly to me.

She made eye contact for a brief moment, but then looked away, hesitating about something.

Do you have anything to say?

As I was watching silently, she picked up the tablet again.

[ It’s nothing. 197cm100kg30cm. ]

“No, that’s just a display of a strong ego.”

[ Go to your brother. ]

“excuse me.”

I could just leave it at that, but this guy is another defender.

“If you have any worries, just tell them.”

It’s clear that there are concerns.

But for some unknown reason, I hesitate to say it.

I can’t solve everything, but I can listen.

“Are you worried?”

My past self wasn’t like that.

I knew that my juniors, peers, and seniors were not only troubled, but suffering and almost in despair, but I left them alone.

Their suffering was interpreted as weakness and a lack of character to face monsters.

As a result, I lost and sent away many colleagues.

The relationships I had been able to save disappeared into smoke.

“Don’t regret it later.”

Maybe that’s what he’s talking about for me and my brother Defender.

Defender was checking the route in the reception room, with a map spread out on four sheets of printer paper pasted together.

“Oh, Skeleton. What would you like to drink?”

“Water is enough. Let’s take a look at the map.”

I stood with my arms crossed next to the Defender, studying the map and the route.

The Defender’s plan was exactly as announced on the Internet.

Zombie – Fanatic + Monster.

Avoid the soldiers and pass through two less dangerous areas.

Once you pass that area, you’re safe for now.

There will often be pioneers, but they are nothing compared to soldiers, fanatics, and monsters.

Meanwhile, the destination marked on the map was about 4km west of my territory.

There too, it is an abandoned land.

It is close to a US military base that was hit by a nuclear bomb, so it was hit by the aftershock of a nuclear explosion as well as hundreds of cruise missiles fired at the US military base.

Is there any place where people can live there?

I asked because I was curious.

“Where are you going to settle down?”

“Your bunker.”

“You know that won’t work, right?”

“Of course I’m joking.”

Defender, who had appeared quietly, displayed something on his tablet and handed it to me.

The place that appeared on the screen was an abandoned country house.

It was a so-called courtyard-style house, but all of the few windows were broken and part of the outer wall had collapsed, revealing the inside like a broken egg.

“This house looks nice.”

“It doesn’t look that good.”

“Even though it’s like this, the basement is well-made. I don’t know what kind of person the previous owner was, but he built a decent residential facility in the basement for no reason.”

“shelter?”

“No, a casino.”

“When did you see me last?”

“It’s been quite some time.”

“fairly?”

The younger brother next to me suddenly answered.

“My brother’s hobby is looking at houses.”

The defender shrugged.

“I knew from the beginning that this place was not a good place. That’s why I went around looking at properties here and there.”

“Why didn’t you choose the right place from the beginning?”

“I wasn’t in a position to do that.”

“okay?”

“This isn’t our house.”

Defender looked at his brother with a faint smile.

My younger brother just listened silently with a strange expression on his face.

“Really?”

The siblings looked at me and nodded at the same time.

It’s amazing.

So does that mean you’ve already moved once?

How did Viva! Apocalypse! join?

Judging by the siblings’ reactions, it doesn’t seem like they’re joking.

Then, only one possibility comes to mind.

There is a possibility that the Defender siblings were marauders from the beginning.

So, what this means is that from the moment the war started, the Defender siblings turned into raiders faster than anyone else, killed the nameless owner of this house, and stole everything from him.

Including the Viva! Apocalypse! account and satellite equipment, which will be named Defender in the future.

The defender who had raised suspicions towards me naturally got up from his seat.

“Let’s go before the sun rises. We’re not going to stay overnight, right?”

The defender’s younger brother suddenly asked while staring blankly at his brother who was leaving.

“Are you going now?”

“Oh. I’m in the car.”

“What about dad?”

I saw it for the first time.

Defender’s younger brother is becoming serious.

The voice was still small, but it contained a sharp will that could not be easily backed down.

For a moment, the helpless expression she had secretly shown me earlier came to mind.

“Are you going to leave Dad behind?”

The defender stopped.

He spoke without turning his head.

“You were training.”

“I don’t like it.”

“I hate it too.”

The defender turned his head and glared at his brother with cold eyes.

His eyes were ruthless and stained with murder, but his younger brother was no pushover. He met his brother’s gaze without being intimidated at all.

Is this a fight between siblings?

After all, moving is a major event in the family.

Surprisingly, it was the older brother who lost the fierce staring contest between the siblings.

“······Do as you wish. I don’t know.”

The defender ran away with an uncharacteristically deflated expression.

The younger brother, who had been glaring at his older brother, let out a shallow sigh, leaning back on the living room sofa like a deflated balloon.

“What is it?”

I asked my brother again.

My brother looked at me with tired eyes.

“Skeleton.”

He called my nickname and she averted her gaze again.

Instead, what she picked up was that damn tablet.

Her black-manicured fingers dazzlingly tapped the screen, revealing the completed message to me.

-Honestly, do you think we’re weird people?

“I know right.”

-You’ve never dated a skeleton girl?

“There were a lot of women who said they liked me.”

-Why on earth do people act like that?

“······.”

-I have a favor to ask.

“ask?”

-If you go a little further from the house, there will be a cliff overlooking the theme park. In front of it is a hanged corpse.

A hanging corpse?

Is that what you were talking about earlier?

A corpse with similar lines to that of siblings.

-This is my dad.

“······Was it your father?”

I stared at her blankly.

I won’t deny that my gaze is a mixture of reproach and inquiry.

I know what kind of people the Defender siblings are, but even taking that into account, their actions were, in a way, over the line.

My brother didn’t look at me, but he knew what I was thinking.

“I know what you’re thinking.”

She spoke in a vocal manner.

A small, crawling voice.

But inside, emotions are overflowing, ready to explode.

“I’m really sorry, but could you please examine the remains of the body?”

“Why didn’t you do it yourself?”

My tone was so cold that it worried me.

My younger brother shrank, turning his head here and there with a bewildered expression on his face, then curled himself into a ball, lowered his head, and barely managed to utter a word.

“······Because I’m scared.”

“what?”

“It’s not just me. My brother is more afraid of it.”

For a moment, I didn’t quite understand.

You’re scared of corpses?

The siblings who always kill people, touch the corpses, and upload videos of them are afraid of the corpse.

I looked at her quietly.

She was curled up like an armadillo on the single sofa, her bare feet exposed and her body trembling slightly.

“······This is just this once.”

“Skeleton.”

She looked up and looked at me.

It might be because of my mood, but her eyes definitely looked clearer than when we first met.

“Skeleton. I’m ready. I’ll go to the car.”

Defender stood up from his seat, deftly sweeping up the weapons spread out on the desk.

“wait for a sec.”

“Bathroom? The bathroom is over there?”

Without answering, he left the mansion and headed towards where the body had been before.

Whether it was a coincidence or the dead had a story to tell, when I stood before the corpse again, the clouds had prepared a place for the full moon.

Under the moonlight, which scattered colors reminiscent of the desert and the state of the corpse that reminded me of some famous ruin in the desert, I searched the corpse as if I were an archaeologist excavating a pyramid about a hundred years ago.

Bam

“Oops.”

One of my arms fell off.

There is no time or space to put it back together.

Fortunately, the excavation led to the discovery of crucial artifacts.

There was an envelope in the top pocket that appeared to be a suicide note.

I gladly obtained the will, for I considered it to be the decisive evidence that the siblings had not committed the heinous crime of murder.

But the will was unreadable.

The corpse’s juices, the ravages of time, the rain and snow all mixed together to erase the emotions and words written in the will, just like the remains of Ozymandias.

At the end of the erased text, there was one letter that could be deciphered.

Those last words.

[ I’m sorry and I love you . ]

It was such a cliché, a common phrase used by suicides.

*

The truck started off in ominous silence.

Defender took charge of driving and I sat in the passenger seat.

The Defender’s brother crouched in a small gap between the flat sheets behind the seat.

“It smells like a rotting corpse.”

Kookung!

The truck rocked precariously as it descended the slope.

Looks like he probably stepped on a pretty big rock.

Even in the pitch-black darkness, the Defender skillfully descended the steep slope without turning on a single headlight.

“and.”

I know it’s not the time to be amazed, but his talent was so great that I couldn’t help but exclaim in admiration.

“What’s that smell?”

Defenders were sensitive to the smell of corpses.

I looked towards my brother.

She looked at me quietly, then seemed to have made up her mind and spoke in a small voice, looking at her brother’s silent back.

“Skeleton took care of my father’s will.”

“okay?”

The Defender’s reaction was indifferent.

“So what did you write? Could it be that you wrote, “I’m sorry. I love you?” You didn’t write such trivial words, did you?”

“How did you know!?”

I interrupted without realizing it.

But the country’s impurities seemed to have no effect on the relationship between the siblings.

It’s as if we posted “Skeleton’s Beatbox (3)”, a masterpiece that was just as good as Sea Monkey Papa’s military service on our bulletin board, but no one noticed it.

“It’s not too late. Can’t you just put on some makeup?”

My brother said seriously.

“I can’t just leave it there forever.”

“You liked theme parks, didn’t you? They reminded me of when we were kids. It was so nice to see them even after I died.”

“Brother.”

The truck shook violently.

A bitter smile appeared on Defender’s lips.

“Oh, my father. He’s still the same.”

He muttered in a self-deprecating tone.

“It’s a shame that he came back to life again at this crucial time and caught me by the ankle.”

The annoying shaking has stopped.

A truck entered the road.

You have left the most dangerous military territory and now entered zombie territory.

“Please give me the side.”

The Defender turned on its headlights.

The lights revealed a variety of smooth-edged iron bars mounted on the front of the truck.

It’s a measure to prevent zombies.

Although sharp spikes were once in the spotlight, spikes have many weaknesses.

Because the corpse sticks.

Besides, zombies don’t feel pain.

The point is that sharp things are nothing more than zombie glue.

On the other hand, the round obstacles you would see in a playground may not hurt zombies, but they will make them flail around and fall to the ground. Naturally, there will be no corpses attached to them.

The roar of zombies could be heard from afar.

I thought of a map.

The zombie area is, strictly speaking, a fairly roundabout way.

Because it is a northern region that you should never pass by on foot or by bicycle.

But there was a road, and to avoid the army, we had no choice but to take this route.

“It’s close.”

As the sound of zombies got closer, the Defender stopped the vehicle.

Beyond the lights, the shapes of people begin to appear one by one.

It’s a zombie.

The inhabitants of the abandoned city came running barefoot to welcome us.

Crash

The gun was loaded.

Crash

There was a noise from behind too.

This time, my younger brother also took up a gun.

When I looked back, my younger brother was smiling broadly, sticking his tongue out slightly.

“Beauty tricks don’t work on zombies.”

You didn’t really try, did you?

No, if it were those siblings, I guess they might have tried.

Anyway, the smell of corpses lingers inside and outside.

“Go.”

The truck accelerated rapidly amidst the pervasive stench of corpses.

The zombies came into vivid life under the lights.

In the darkness, their eyes glow with red light, longing for flesh and companionship.

thud!

The truck blasted a few zombies away with its reinforced bumper and crushed a few more.

“under!”

My brother laughed, showing his teeth.

Defender also had a cool smile on his face as if nothing had happened.

“Skeleton! Side!”

This sibling definitely enjoys killing people.

Bang! Bang!

Two guns struck the group advancing from the side.

More effective was the pump-action shotgun my brother had.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Every time a rain of shotgun shells fell, four or five zombies that had been clinging to the ground fell over.

“haha!”

Defender whistled and stepped on the accelerator with his brother’s rising laughter.

Boooooooooooo-

The truck’s engine roared as it trampled everything in its path.

It was a perfect breakthrough that was refreshing.

That cool action certainly opened the door between the siblings that had been closed.

In front of the fanatic’s realm, which is turning grayish white.

Defender stopped the car and inspected the vehicle.

In particular, he carefully checked the joint condition of the armor plates attached to my sister and I.

“Brother.”

My brother called Defender in a different voice.

“Tell me a story.”

She looked at me.

“Skeleton is curious.”

The defender let out a shallow sigh and then lowered his head with a helpless expression.

Fierce worry appeared and disappeared between her beautiful eyebrows several times.

Soon the Defender raised his head and pointed in the direction we had come from.

“I mean the house we were in.”

“uh.”

“This is the owner’s house.”

“Master’s house?”

For a moment I didn’t quite understand the meaning of the word.

I thought I heard wrong.

Because it was a million light years different from what I had thought.

The distance was quickly narrowed by the next word.

“Oh. My father was a servant in that house.”

The Defender’s gaze, which had been flickering with a strange murderous intent, became cold and collected.

His gaze was directed towards a blurry, unwanted past.