Hiding a House in the Apocalypse

First, thanks to Kyle_dos.

If it weren't for the substantial amount of medicine I brought from his shelter, I wouldn't have had the courage to try and treat this creature.

It's not a remarkable treatment.

I applied powdered disinfectant to the exposed rib area and covered it with gauze.

Gold, aside from growling briefly in pain during treatment, didn't show any hostile behaviour towards me.

After treating its wounds, I provided it with food.

I had made the food myself, boiling some of the meat that had been thawed in the freezer, which had gone bad during the previous incidents, and mixing it with nutritional supplements and antibiotics.

Gold wrinkled its nose at the smell.

"Grrr!"

"Oh, come on."

Even dogs can be picky eaters.

Well, after always eating tasty things like antelopes and wild boars, it's natural to be put off by half-rotten frozen food.

But it seemed like it understood that it had to eat this to get better, so it reluctantly chewed and swallowed the food I had prepared.

Watching it eat the food I had provided, I felt like I was starting to understand why people keep animals.

It's as if my heart is slowly filling up as the bowl empties.

I continued to monitor the progress while trying to understand a little of what it's like to be a cat mom.

Like what it feels like when it looks at me with those eyes, trusting me to some extent.

I felt a sense of accomplishment, and more than anything, I felt like I was doing something that no one else had done before, taming a mutation.

However, as its wounds healed and it regained its strength, my sense of accomplishment gradually turned into anxiety.

I knew just how dangerous mutation dogs could be.

In close combat, mutation dogs are often more dangerous than most monsters.

When it stuck its head into the ground and looked at me, I sometimes felt the urge to aim a gun at it and pull the trigger right away, because the image of it suddenly attacking me and chewing me up passed through my mind.

But every time that impulse arose, I remembered the time when it followed me and mimicked the human's song, and it helped me suppress it.

Above all, the person who gave me the greatest inspiration was the woman who Baek Seung Hyun had killed.

The woman who could confidently confront a giant cat several times her size, her belief in herself as she tamed the mutation, that was the true secret.

But no matter how hard I tried to control my impulses and instill trust, I was inherently defensive.

The thought that Gold might suddenly attack me grew stronger in my mind with each passing day.

Then, one day, another visitor entered my territory.

It was a bus.

K-Walkie Talkier picked up the public radio signal.

"Are there any survivors in this area? We're not raiders or an army. We're ordinary civilians, and we've come here with a purpose."

That voice.

I've heard it somewhere before.

"If there are survivors, please respond. We're not enemies. We just want to gather some information. You can reply via radio, but we've also prepared a small gift. It's oil. Oil."

It clicked.

It was Ji Changsu

He had aged a bit and looked a bit haggard, but it was indeed the loyal Ji Changsu who had followed the path of the Jepung Ho to die

But when I looked through the binoculars, I saw that it wasn't just Ji Changsu who had come.

Next to him stood the woman who had been trying to stop her father from committing suicide, looking somewhat subdued.

Was it Ji Younghee?

She stood awkwardly behind her father with a somewhat resentful expression on her face.

"...What should I do?"

I don't particularly feel compelled to reveal myself because of a single can of oil, but these are people with connections.

They did bring five armed men with them, but it seemed like they didn't have much to do with me.

I am not such remarkable person that they'd come looking for me from a distant place, especially when they seem to be heading southeast.

"Stay quiet and hide," I told Gold, subtly.

"Just wait for me here for a moment."

It quietly moved deeper into the slate-roofed structure.

"There are survivors here."

I responded with K-Walkie Talkie.

They didn't recognize my voice.

"I'm Park Gyura."

As expected, they didn't have anything to do with me.

We exchanged brief greetings and I invited them in.

Gold growled, but I have a little test to try.

"Have you been living in a place like this?"

Ji Changsu stared at my hideout with a surprised expression.

It's not unreasonable for him to react like that.

Objectively, the rusted container house that looked like it could collapse at any moment wasn't a place where people could live.

"If you don't have anything to take, people won't come looking for you. Should I call it minimalism?"

I offered this explanation while weaving a tale I had heard from somewhere.

The experiment was successful.

My hideout didn't look inviting from the outside, and even up close, it gave off a feeling that one wouldn't want to enter.

Since they hesitated to enter my hideout, we talked outside.

Bringing Ji Changsu here was a remnant of the past.

He showed me a photo that he had printed out with a printer.

"Take a look at this."

It was a photo I had seen in the community.

It was a picture of Chairman Je Pungho.

Even after becoming a zombie, the entrepreneur who led thousands of followers was printed haphazardly on an A4 paper.

"I cannot stand by and watch Chairman Je Pungho, who has given me everything and supported me, wander around like this in the afterlife. I want to hold a funeral for Chairman."

That was the situation.

There is a deserted city beyond the territory of the Gold group, where a group of zombies presumed to be Chairman Je Pungho's group is living.

But entering the city is not easy.

Around the city, there are monster lairs, marauder strongholds, and remnants of the Chinese army that landed by the skin of their teeth, which are more dangerous than zombies.

I hadn't heard the story about the remnants of the Chinese army before, so I asked separately.

"A battalion-size unit managed to land near Asan, but they are all infantry. Their heavy equipment was the second ship to sink after the friendly submarine. Moreover, their home country has collapsed, so what can they do here? They just sat down and did nothing."

I had been focused on Seoul all this time, but interesting things were happening in the south as well.

Excluding the dangerous areas, there were only southwest routes to enter the city, and that's where the Gold group was located.

Gold is much more famous than me in Seoul.

There has been a bounty on him for a long time.

Troop after troop had gone after him, but they only caused trouble, and some ended up as prey for the Gold gang.

Of course, Ji Changsu knew about this, but when he came near the Gold territory, he suddenly got scared and came to find nearby survivors to increase his chances.

I helped him within the limits of providing information.

After Ji Changsu left, his daughter, Ji Younghee, approached me.

I had felt this way for a while, but I felt that I could communicate better with her than with her father.

"It's okay. Even from my perspective, it looks like a crazy idea to drag Hunter Park Gyura into this."

She took a drag of her cigarette and glared at her father, who was heading back to the bus.

"How long are they going to keep shouting 'Je Pungho, Je Pungho'? I really can't understand it. It's not the Joseon era anymore."

There was a sparkling ring on her ring finger.

It was something that hadn't been there before.

"What's this?"

She noticed my gaze and took a deep drag on her cigarette.

"I did end up marrying someone from the Pafung Group..."

After a moment of silence, the smoke from her cigarette spread into the sky along with a heavy sigh.

"He's dead now."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"He was a decent person, but too fragile to survive in these times..."

There didn't seem to be much sadness on her face as she spoke about her husband's death. Perhaps she hadn't even given him the slightest bit of love.

She looked at me briefly and asked, "Are you alone?"

"Yes."

"Divorced?"

"I'm a bachelor."

"I heard hunters tend to marry quickly."

"There are exceptions."

"Aren't you lonely?"

This woman, who had never seemed to inquire about personal matters before, now had a different demeanour. Maybe the world had changed, but her gaze, her voice, everything about her felt stickier than before.

I sighed, looking towards the safe house.

"I did feel lonely at first. But once I let go of desires, everything seems abundant."

"Like a monk, it seems."

"Are you leaving right away then? Mutations are not to be taken lightly."

"I have enough firepower."

She turned to look back.

From the bus, armed men were hoisting a large machine gun towards the ceiling.

It was a 12.7mm heavy machine gun.

I nodded involuntarily.

"That should be enough."

"As promised, I'll leave a can of fuel. It's synthetic, but it should work."

"Can it be used instead of diesel?"

"Our bus runs fine with it. I don't know how much strain it'll put on the engine, but, um, by the way. Look there!"

Suddenly, Ji Younghee's face turned pale.

Even before she turned her head, I knew the reason.

Rough breathing could be heard, and a large shadow loomed between us as if cutting us apart.

Beside the main bunker trench, a gigantic dog the size of a lion stood tall, glaring at us.

Gold.

"Gold."

I aimed my gun at him as I called his name.

"Back off."

Gold revealed its fangs, still staring at Ji Younghee.

With a face pale with fear, Ji Younghee took a step back and asked me, "D-did you raise it?"

"I didn't raise it."

"Then?"

"It just happened."

I warned Gold again with emotion in my voice.

"Its not an enemy. They will leave in a bit. They won't harm you."

At least, Gold didn't show any hostility towards me.

He was showing clear hostility towards Ji Younghee.

"Gold..."

Clank.

As I called its name, it lowered its head.

"Is something wrong? Yeonghee!"

The voice of Ji Changsu could be heard.

Gold turned away from Ji Younghee, swiftly left the area, and disappeared into the steep slope beyond the hill I had built my house on, leaping across a deep stream and heading towards the plains on the other side.

The direction he was headed was southwest.

The field he used to dominate.

Clank.

Ji Younghee aimed her gun at Gold.

I forced her gun down.

She looked at me with a protesting gaze.

I stared at Gold as it moved farther away.

"...Let it go. It's just a waste of bullets."

"Did you really try to raise such a monster? As a hunter of all people?"

"I didn't raise it, exactly. I just looked after it for a while. It had severe injuries. Don't even animals show gratitude?"

"I doubt it'll be grateful to Mr. Park, though."

Ji Younghee secured the controls and slung the rifle over her shoulder.

"I didn't do it for it to be grateful."

On the edge of the field beyond, distant dots gradually became visible.

Even without binoculars, it was easy to identify them.

They were mutation dogs.

It seemed they had heard the howling of Gold.

Among them was a newcomer.

I confirmed it with binoculars.

Indeed, it was a newcomer.

A creature with black, short fur reminiscent of a pit bull, with a devilishly contorted face, and nearly the size of a bull.

Was it him?

The one who wounded Gold, drove it away from the pack, and took its place.

In appearance and size, it stood out among regular mutation dogs.

I've seen many mutation dogs, but that one was exceptional.

Ji Younghee muttered beside me, "I really don't want to go."

But why did Gold turn to the black one?

Could it be that he's attempting another challenge?

To regain his lost pack and territory?

A pack.

While his body had recovered enough to move around, it wasn't in a condition to wrestle with such a huge opponent.

Judging by the size and demeanour of the black one, even in peak condition, Gold wouldn't stand a chance.

The effort he had put in for the past few days would be a waste if he were to die so senselessly, but it was out of my hands.

Gold stood its ground in front of the black one.

The other dogs, the newcomers who seemed to form a new pack with the black one, stood behind it, watching over Gold.

Their threatening posture revealed that they already didn't consider Gold part of their pack.

The black one looked at Gold and growled, a growl so loud that it could be heard vividly even kilometers away.

It was almost like a shockwave.

Despite this intense barking, Gold nonchalantly took a step closer to the one who had taken everything from it.

"Gold."

I felt a sense of disappointment.

If it were to come back to me, I was willing to treat it well.

I would even give it unspoiled meat.

Contrary to my expectations, the situation escalated rapidly.

The black one opened its mouth, revealing razor-sharp teeth.

"..."

Was it going to end like this?

Gold turned to look back.

It felt like it was looking at me.

In the next moment, something unexpected happened.

Gold lowered its tail and suddenly flipped its body, exposing its belly.

A submissive posture.

Gold, who was once the leader of the pack, was acknowledging the dominance of a stronger opponent and seeking acceptance back into the pack.

"..."

A sigh escaped me involuntarily.

I felt a mix of disappointment towards Gold and a curiosity that was akin to my obsession.

Could it be that mutations couldn't be tamed after all?

Perhaps failure was inevitable.

The essence of the animals we call dogs is the gray wolf.

I saw that nature in it when it devoured the punitive force.

Not all gray wolves want to become dogs.

Some are tamed, but some die as wolves.

"..."

It had chosen the path of a wolf, not a dog.

That was all.

"Even dogs know how to change their attitude depending on the situation," Ji Younghee quipped from beside me.

"My father might be worse than those dogs."

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