NOVEL WEB Chapter 6: Guests
My bunker is a quiet and secluded place, but it's not entirely uninhabited. Occasionally, there are wanderers in the vicinity.
The first type are the scavengers. They are people who aim to loot abandoned belongings rather than engage in violent acts, scavenging everything they can find in the ruins. A group of around twenty scavengers arrived in my area on a green bus. They primarily focused on searching near the Air Force base, but some of them wandered in my direction.
After briefly inspecting the industrial waste piled up in my area, the scavengers grew irritated with each other and returned towards the Air Force base.
The second type is the wanderers. They are individuals who have left Seoul in search of new territory, and unlike scavengers, they are more interested in real estate than items. There were rarely any groups of wanderers around my bunker. No one would want to live on the desolate and eerie land resembling a grim cemetery.
Sometimes, even non-human entities come searching. They are the mutants. Animals infected with mutation genes continue their pre-infection habits and behaviours. Mutant dogs came to my area, probably thinking I might be one of them. Each of these mutant dogs was as large as a lion, and they were formidable opponents. With strength to shatter concrete walls, speed to chase down moving vehicles, and resilience that bullets couldn't easily penetrate, they were no easy foes. Like any pack, these intruders had a leader, and the ones who visited my place were led by a mutant dog with golden fur, nicknamed "Gold."
Gold was exceptionally cunning and ruthless, so much so that there was a bounty on him in Seoul, but no one had been able to hunt him down. I had no intention of hunting him either. Although he was dangerous, he was essentially the guardian of my bunker's honour, wasn't he?
While these intruders roamed around my bunker's vicinity, I hid inside, waiting for them to pass.
Mutants come with both advantages and disadvantages. Mutated animals maintain their pre-infection instincts and behaviours, but their sense of smell significantly deteriorates. They followed the faint human and domestic scents, but they couldn't pinpoint my location. However, while the immediate danger passed, they left massive amounts of excrement and urine in my bunker. During their stay, I had to endure three days of drinking only purified water and biscuits.
Occasionally, even zombie hordes found their way here. Zombies were like reanimated human corpses, behaving just as everyone imagined. They were unintelligent and roamed in hordes, growing in numbers as they went. Mutant dogs had reduced sense of smell after infection, but when humans became zombies, their sense of smell became more acute. They sensed the delicious aroma of my cooking but couldn't find their way to me. The entrance to my bunker was concealed and reinforced with alloy, so they only wandered near the ventilation shaft emitting scents and eventually moved on to nearby cities.
During such peaceful and beautiful days, I enjoyed sunbathing with a white cloth laid on the ground, sunbathing and disinfecting myself. Lying on the earthen floor with my arms as a pillow, gazing at the passing clouds, made me feel refreshed.
After about a year or so since the outbreak of war, I had spent approximately half that time in such peace. However, nothing lasts forever.
Around late spring when the azaleas were in full bloom, drones began appearing one by one in the sky. They had four wings and were called "quadcopter drones," and these drones were the answer to why I didn't use common and convenient solar power. No matter how well I concealed my hiding place, if I laid out conspicuous solar panels, it would be like putting up a billboard saying, "Here I am, come kill me!" In fact, to my knowledge, one of the community users was fanatical about solar power.
Sunpower: Solar power is convenient, highly efficient, and affordable. Why isn't anyone using it? (genuine question)
Perhaps that friend found the answer to that question when looters stormed into his bunker.
People who flew drones in the deserted wasteland could be divided into two main categories. One was government agencies searching for mutants, monsters, and criminals, and the other was looters looking for prey.
As we watched the cheerful companions of ‘Viva! Apocalypse!' gradually disappear, we could confirm our self-awareness.
We may have been better prepared than others, but in the eyes of other people, we were basically treasure goblins.
Naturally, large survivalist groups dominated the online community.
Anonymous424: Individuals or families could survive, but hold on a moment. To survive in the long term, you eventually need to form groups.
Dies_irae69: We've expanded our group to fifteen combatants. It's a bit challenging with my stockpile, but we can't survive otherwise.
I don't agree with their thinking.
Sure, you can fend off one or two times momentarily.
But the opponents are humans, too.
Hungry and opportunistic ones, for the most part.
Nine times out of ten, they will return with a larger and stronger group.
With everything needed for sustenance, clothing, and convenience in life, would you just leave it be?
The most important thing is to remain inconspicuous above all else.
Not too long ago, even the unblocked human hunters acted with their own reasoning and committed murder.
The dead cannot speak, after all.
Anyway, the threat lurked in my territory.
I put my favourite sunbathing, sun disinfection, outdoor cooking on hold and watched the situation from inside the bunker.
It was clear that drones were flying around my territory.
Scouting occurred throughout the week, mainly concentrated between noon and 1 PM, occasionally with intervals, they sent drones around dusk.
Night flights were non-existent.
Drones' performance, especially regarding cameras, wasn't suitable for capturing images in the dark, and there was a risk of loss, so they seemed to minimize the risk by limiting flights to daylight.
Since I enjoyed doing calisthenics under the moonlight, I refrained from going outside during the day and only ventured out at night to breathe in the fresh air and maintain my peaceful days.
Then one day, something unusual happened.
One of the popular posts appeared on the community board.
Dongtanmom: It's been fun so far.
I clicked on it.
Something was hovering in the sky, and when I looked closely, it was a drone.
It caught my attention just once, but unfortunately, it belonged to the looters.
I don't have time to write a long post, but those guys are trying to cut through my door with a welding machine.
Thank you all for sharing great posts, and I've enjoyed it because of all of you.
P.S. If you hear an explosion from the Dongtan area, know that it's mine. It's a 10-ton TNT explosion.
Not long after reading that post, a distant muffled explosion, along with a faint vibration, was detected.
That was the last post from that person.
Many users expressed concern and inquired about their well-being, but there was no response from them.
Only one person, a self-proclaimed psychopathic human hunter, left a sarcastic comment.
Defender: An unverified post, and you expect us to believe it? You claim to be typing on your keyboard while they are welding the door. What's with the username, "Dongtanmom"? Clearly, you're just stirring the pot, aren't you?
***
It was two days after the truck had become a wreck that I discovered it.
There were about ten people in the truck, half of whom were lying in the cargo hold, groaning in pain from significant injuries. The rest were following the truck, their faces showing signs of exhaustion as they struggled to crawl behind the slowly moving vehicle.
Identifying them was not difficult.
They were looters.
People who killed others and plundered to survive.
I recalled the last post I had seen from Dongtanmom just yesterday.
Could these individuals have been the ones who attacked Dongtanmom?
A subtle rage began to boil within me.
Indeed, they were easy prey.
There were plenty of reasons to kill them.
But I refrained from doing so.
Because this was my territory.
To declare a territory as your own, you must know everything about that territory.
I know.
The path they were taking was the hunting ground for the mutation dog known as "Gold."
Humans, moving slowly with injuries, were the optimal prey for mutation dogs.
Soon, the golden-furred and ferocious mutation dog, Gold, which had a mix of wolves and bears in his appearance, revealed his terrifying presence by letting out a fierce roar as he caught the scent of blood and began to wander around in the south.
"Aaaah!"
"Mo-monsters!"
The looters, unable to distinguish between mutations and monsters, were doomed.
Clang!
Despite the looters firing their guns, the muscular hounds dodged the bullets or took the shots with their robust bodies, relentlessly charging at the humans. The outcome was that humans turned into mere prey for these fierce hounds.
The agonizing screams and the sound of bones being crunched echoed but soon subsided.
At the moment when one group of looters was annihilated.
Was Dongtanmom's spirit watching this?
If it was, what kind of expression would he have?
Perhaps a bright smile?
However, the human world.
It's not that easy.
Dongtanmom: "Beok!" (Sound of irritation)
Dongtanmom was still alive!
The person who had desperately informed us of their dire situation not long ago was now casually saying, "Beok!" like this.
Users who had been worried about him flooded the comments section like a swarm of bees.
Anonymous848: Wait, what? Was this a prank?
Kyle_Dos: Wow, you're fishing here of all places? Are you mocking people?
Anonymous458: Seriously, is it okay to do something like this here? Apologize to everyone before you get blocked.
SKELTON: This is really making me angry.
In response to the furious users, Dongtanmom posted an apology.
Dongtanmom: I'm sorry. I had a bout of depression, and I unintentionally wrote and posted something different from the truth~
Afterward, Dongtanmom continued with his habitual trolling, claiming that he had engaged in such behaviour because he didn't know how to set up antennas and wasn’t helped. He was acting like a shepherd boy.
However, everything has an end.
Dongtanmom: This time, it's not a joke, it's real! It's dangerous! This place is not Dongtan; it's closer to Gwanggyo. There are only about five people here! Please, anyone nearby, come and help! Please give me at least the sound of fireworks. I'm begging you!
This time, he even uploaded photos.
The first photo showed five people indistinctly captured on a closed-circuit TV. The second photo depicted the chaos inside the bunker, with smoke streaming from the ventilation ducts. The third photo showed boxes stacked like mountains with "TNT" written on them.
That was Dongtanmom's last post.
But could this, too, be one of his lies?
Most of the users, including me, thought that Dongtanmom had once again triggered a false alarm.
It couldn't be helped when they had clearly written "TNT" on the boxes.
The truth remained to be seen.
Because our wise human hunter left a message.
Defender: A massive explosion rang out near Gwanggyo. It could have been a 10-ton TNT explosion. Did Dongtanmom, the liar, finally bite the dust?
On that note, this human hunter friend of mine lived around Gwanggyo.
We shouldn't get too close
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