Chapter.3 For that handful of silver coins (5)
***
I entered safely through the hole in the wreckage and even succeeded in going through what looked like a hole and going down to the basement.
“Hey, hey, hey, where is this place?”
“Hehe, on the way there, I touched an angled metal structure. I knocked on it slightly and it sounded empty, so it must have been a trash can or locker. First of all, it came in correctly. “This is the room where 30 sets of protective clothing, which I had only heard about, came from.”
Even though it was underground with not a single light coming in, we had to be careful about using fire. Even now, the terrible stench and the moaning of mutants could be faintly heard around, and the basement here was full of scavengers who did not like other competitors.
The two people were desperately trying to find their way, not even breathing, but they happened to reach for it and opened the door handle and went inside before finally being able to have a conversation. Of course, even that was barely a whisper in my ear. ‘The air is
cold
. The floor is cold and smooth. It makes a little noise.’
It feels familiar. The sensation of tiles that you often feel when you enter the bathroom barefoot at home.
“…It’s the bathroom. “It might be enough to do some maintenance.”
Even the groans of mutants could not be heard in the fairly noisy interior, and bathrooms were usually built at the end of the building. Since you only need to watch carefully at the entrance, it is much safer than other places where security is on all sides.
“Hey Bex. “Did you bring anything that could be a light source?”
“I heard it was underground, so of course I packed it, but I didn’t know it would be this big, so I didn’t pack that much.”
Vex took out a roughly made torch from her bag. An oil-soaked cloth wrapped around something like a broken chair leg. I can’t last even 15 minutes with that, and I can’t even turn off the fire when I need to.
“Give it to me.”
The professor took the torch from Vex and immediately dismantled it. An arm-length piece of wood with oiled cloth and a bit of wire that tied it together.
“Hepburn what are you doing! No matter how blind I am, I can’t find my way…”
“Shh.”
The professor slowly traced the wall and looked into the bathroom. This is a wall, and this suddenly protruding structure is a sink. Then the thing in front is probably a mirror.
The professor immediately climbed onto the sink and stretched his arms as high as he could. Luckily, I can reach it and it looks like the ceiling isn’t that high. While walking on the sink and feeling the ceiling precariously, there was a part that suddenly sank in.
“….found.”
The professor turned and pulled out the small light bulb that could be felt at the end of the part where his finger entered, and also pulled out the part surrounding it by pushing the knife in.
“what is that?”
“bulb.”
“Why the light bulb? “It’s not like there’s a battery.”
“Of course, I didn’t bring it for its original purpose. “What I was looking for was this round glass.”
Unscrew the rear contact part of the bulb, then slightly crack the narrow end and pull out the power unit and filament inside with your fingers. Put some of the oil you brought into the light bulb, which is now an empty glass bottle, roll up a length of torn cloth, put it inside, then assemble the contact part and slightly pull the end of the cloth out –
boom ,
boom!
When I deflected the piece of metal with the back of the machete a few times, sparks quickly sprang up and caught fire.
“braided. Simple lamp completed.”
“Wow… it looks useful?”
“It doesn’t ‘look’ useful, it’s just useful. I use it sometimes when I’m at home and when I go out. Bex You said it. This place is like a treasure trove. If you take every tile, piece of plastic, or light bulb out here, it’s all valuable scrap. “When you come to a place like this, there’s no need to bring a lot of things.”
Lastly, the professor tore off the part that contained the light bulb from the ceiling, arranged it in a dish shape around the flame, and then tied it to the glass part with wire so that it could be worn on the head.
“They put something like a light collecting panel around the bathroom ceiling. “I guess this can be called a headlight?”
“Is this the 14th Special Operations Unit?…”
“I couldn’t fight well and was treated as a burden, so I had to show some usefulness in order to survive in the Special Operations Unit. The special forces were treated as a bit of a nuisance, so supply was difficult. I followed them around and did everything I needed to do other than fighting. When we ran out of food, we made meals with locally acquired materials. When we needed a place to take cover, we dug into the ground and built a camp. Even the tools and weapons needed for operation were made locally. Everything we needed was made locally.
That’s why I survived a job where I was sent to die without a job. At some point, the unit members started calling me supply sergeant. “He said he would take care of all the supplies that were not provided from above.”
Well, as I followed him around like that, the battle became somewhat easier, and I participated in battles from then on.
The professor laughed as he made another simple lamp.
14 Before joining the Special Forces, I lost all of my unit members and came back alive thanks to my father. I had nowhere to go. I harbored venom towards the higher-ups who had ordered a retreat and left my unit in a dangerous area even though there were troops left, and naturally the higher-ups who had heard that I had lost my father in that operation were uncomfortable with me. Because I knew their secrets and had a grudge against them.
So they would have sent me to 14. They probably thought that I, a child soldier with little combat experience and age, would not be able to survive there. “
Okay,
if you do this, mine is complete. It’s temporary so it won’t last long. The wire is short, so it’s not that far from the head. “If you’re unlucky, you’ll burn your eyebrows.”
“…..”
“hmm? “What are those eyes?”
The professor was testing a roughly made harness made of wire to see if it was fastened to his head, but wasn’t Bex looking at him with strange eyes?
“No, just. “I thought that life was so strange, but Hepburn didn’t seem to be ordinary either.”
“What a trivial thing to say. “Among the people who have survived so far, there is no one without a story.”
Once the lamp was properly secured to his head, the professor stood up, lighting the lamp’s tip.
“Now that we have a clear view, let’s move slowly. “I feel like I want to tear up all the scraps here, but if I do that, I won’t be able to bring in the real money-making people further down.”
“What about fire?”
“Turn it on now. It’s a type 1 variant that’s all rotted away. It’s been 5 years since he died, so his eyes must have rotted and become dull by now. After spending enough time, the other scavengers would have gone down. “There will be no problem until the guys fighting at the entrance come in.”
The professor slowly opened the bathroom door, leaving behind Bex who was curious as she followed the professor and lit the lamp.
***
B1. Security room with protective clothing (estimated).
“Wow….”
“Huh….”
Bex and the professor, who turned on the light and took a good look inside, could not keep their mouths shut.
“The walls are all alloy, right?”
“uh. Looking at the shattered part over there, it looks like there is lead under the alloy as thick as a fist.”
“How much is all this…..”
“The Dom kids will go crazy when they see it.”
To the average person, it looked like an empty, modern locker room, but to the professor and Bex, who lived in the wasteland, everything on the walls, ceiling, and floor looked like money. The part with the tear marks on the wall is probably where the machine that stored the protective clothing was located.
Gulp-
“Do it, Hepburn. There’s no need for this, right? “Should I take care of it?”
“That’s right, but your feet won’t fall off… This desk is made of chrome…” There was
no sign of a mutant nearby, perhaps because the scavengers who were pushing in behind him had dealt with it as they went down.
Tuk-tuk.
As I was looking around in a bit of a daze, Bex tapped my shoulder from next to me and sent a hand signal. He had already turned off the lamp.
[Door / Large space.]
‘It sounds like you’ve found the way to the next area.’
The professor quickly put saliva on his finger and rubbed the wick to extinguish it. In an instant, darkness fell around the area.
I lightly placed my hand on Bex’s collar and followed him until I reached a place where there was a door that looked like someone had wrenched it open.
Twinkle-
‘Light!’
They both fell to the floor at the same time. Three lights flickering in the distance were moving slowly.
‘It’s a torch. The number is at least three. There may be some that don’t have fire, so it would be better to assume there are four to five.’
Bex and the professor slowly crawled across the floor. Regularly arranged metal tubes illuminated by flickering lights on cold tiles similar to before.
‘shower head? …..Ah, the ‘Admiral’s Room’,
since it was a building built with the assumption of a post-nuclear war era, it was natural that there would be a facility near the entrance to remove contaminants buried from outside.
I held my breath and approached little by little until I reached the point where I could distinguish their whispering sounds.
“….so. “How long can we stay here?”
“The leader told you to stay where you are. “If there are any rats coming in from outside while you are dusting the inside, kill them.”
“Damn, I wanted to go inside too. “What could there be?”
“I went down a little bit, but I never thought I would be moved by seeing that in my lifetime.”
“What was there?”
“Sign. “The word ‘F-Mart’ was written in big black letters on a yellow background, and it brought tears to my eyes.”
“….shit. “Even if we go a little late, we’ll still have our share, right?”
The professor internally cheered as he heard the scavenger grumbling.
‘Now that I think about it, I heard it was built in conjunction with the underground shopping mall here!’
Listening to the conversation, it seemed like the group of scavengers were satisfied with this supermarket and were planning to leave. Those guys in front are guarding the entrance… rather than being erected to serve as an alarm when scavengers fighting outside come in.
Sasak –
Vex’s fingers tapped the back of the Professor’s hand to signal.
[You / Left / Me / Right]
The professor tapped Bex’s shoulder to signal that he understood and slowly stood up.
“Wow, I’m full just thinking about it. “I’m going to run some errands for a moment.”
“I see. Wow, just imagining it is amazing. A liquor corner would be fine too. There will be plenty of 7-year-old liquor for free! “Alcohol has no expiration date, right?”
“The grocery section is also worth a look. Canned food also has no expiration date. No, there was? “I heard it was quite long…”
Tuk-tuk.
“They say it lasts up to 7 years.”
“Oh yeah! Thank you!”
Tduduk-!
“Thank you.”
The professor who sneaked up from behind snapped the neck of one person and the sound of something collapsing was heard from a short distance away, so it seemed that Vex had sent the guy who was doing his business away in good faith.
When two of his colleagues were killed by a hand that suddenly appeared in the dark, the lone scavenger was left sitting backwards in fear.
“Huh! Save me! I am nothing! “He’s just a guy who makes a living by picking up scrap metal and eating trash – ugh!”
The professor covered the guy’s mouth before he could get any louder.
“Hey Bex, come here.”
“Hepburn, what are you thinking? Surely… I won’t kill you?”
“No, it’s been a long time since something like this happened in the wasteland. “Normally, you don’t think you’ll be saved.”
I don’t know if this guy attacked me, but I’m also a person with a good sense of chivalry.
The professor grinned at Vex and slightly loosened the scavenger’s neck that was being held in his forearm.
“Puhak! “Huh!”
“Shhh. quiet. “If we want to live as nothing but friends, we have to be quiet, right?”
“Ugh! town!”
“Okay, okay. “If you can survive here, you can breathe outside.”
“Ugh! town!”
“Hmm, okay. Attitude passed. Now, if you answer my questions very honestly from now on, in about 5 minutes you will be breathing the stale air of the wasteland, not the stale air of this basement. “Did you understand?”
“Ugh! town!”
“Breathe, breathe. “You don’t have to answer.”
“Puh-haa! Thank you.”
The professor continued to ask questions, ignoring Bex, who was constantly poking his side and making signals like ‘What are you doing?’
“Okay, first question. Besides your friends who are left here dead, how many of your friends are inside-”
“Seven! Seven! We, the Scraping Dogs, are a clan comprised of a total of ten people, and when we heard that something big was happening here-”
Crackling-
“Aaaah!!! Absolutely!” town! Ugh!!!”
“Shh. You didn’t ask that. “Wouldn’t I be in trouble if my colleagues heard you talking and came to visit me?”
The professor, who broke the man’s fingers with his left hand, memorized the information in his mind: ‘7 nameless group’.
“How are you arming yourself?”
“Leader Lee is holding an AK, the leader’s wife is holding an Uji, and the rest are armed with swords and arrows… Ah! “One guy is holding three Molotov cocktails!”
‘Plague. ‘What kind of person has so many guns in Korea?’
Even though globalization reached its peak in 2050, if you couldn’t speak two languages, you would be treated as illiterate and there would be no need to distinguish between Koreans and foreigners. Still, Korea had quite strong gun laws. It seems that more goods flowed in during the war than expected.
“Okay, you’ve done pretty well so far. Um…what’s your name?”
“Dalton! “It’s Dalton!”
“Yes Dalton. Now for the last question…”
“Yes yes!”
“That thing that you’re secretly reaching for that’s in your inner pocket right now. “Can you tell me what that is?”
“Holy shit-!”
Tdu-duk-!
Dalton’s body fell apart with a sound of his neck being twisted. The professor picked up the fallen man’s body and put his hands inside his jacket.
“Oh, the karambit knife. “You were holding something pretty good, right?”
“I was surprised, Hepburn. “I wonder if you’ll try to save him.”
“Are you crazy? Hey Bex. “Do you see this?”
The professor showed Dalton’s front jacket pocket a glimpse of it in the torchlight. There were several points that were roughly marked with thread.
“It’s a kill mark. The circle is a woman and the scissors are a man. At a glance, I saw that there was not enough space in the middle of this child, so only the woman was displayed. It’s nothing. Oh shit. “I touched something dirty.”
Bex smiled bitterly as she looked at the joking professor. The professor was certainly a good person, but he didn’t seem to be an idiot.
“Vex, let’s take this torch. “There are three.”
“…To deceive them?”
“huh. The state of the armament is better than expected. I thought it wouldn’t be a big deal since they were just beggars, but it wasn’t even a homemade gun, it was an AK and an Uzi. I don’t know how much ammo we have, but I don’t think anything good will come from sticking around. Molotov cocktails are also a problem. If a fire breaks out here, we’ll all suffocate to death.
“The area leading down to the mart will be the most guarded, so let’s use the torch to pretend to be the guys who were here and pass them by, hang the torch in a place where they can see it, and let’s go down quietly.”
If it is similar to the structure of the supermarket I know, the road going further down will not be too far away.
I
don’t know if it was from above or below, but explosions and gunshots could still be heard occasionally.
The professor waved the torch as he looked at Bex, who was looking toward the mart with regretful eyes.
“Let’s not dwell on small things. “Our goal is shelter.”
A bomb shelter complex built in preparation for nuclear war. If something was built to prepare for an environment like the current world, there are things that cannot be missing.
“Bring an emergency generator without fail!”
“Does that go in that bag?”
“It depends on the size! “If you don’t go in, you’ll have to carry it on your back!”
The professor strengthened his resolve, thinking about the debt of 2.4 million shillings. A generator that I can’t sell because I don’t have one. The latest generation generator for 2050, which will be in a shelter built for the rich.
‘If you just have that one thing, it will turn your life around!’
The professor’s eyes began to burn with determination.
***
Meanwhile, on the ground, the battle between scavengers, which had almost reached a lull, was entering a new phase.
“Tsk! “If this is the case, I wonder if I can even get my money back no matter what I take out of there.”
“Brother tongue!”
“why!”
“Isn’t that the black thing over there, those guys?”
“hmm? “How will they understand if I say they are…!”
A pitch black vehicle. A group dressed in all black gear was located in an alley two blocks away.
“How long has that been there?”
“I thought I saw it earlier, but I guess I saw it wrong…”
“Why are you telling me that now, you idiot!!!!”
Dain’s eyes, the leader of the Scavenger Clan ‘Wanderer’, were filled with fear. If that group is what he thinks it is, they always come prepared before starting a fight.
Piyuuuu-
“….Fucked.”
“What is this sound?”
“It’s a mortar! It’s a bombardment! Scattered! “Go into the building!”
Kwagwagwagwang!!!
The scavengers, who were already almost dead due to the shelling from unknown sources, suffered damage that was close to annihilation, and a group of people wearing old uniforms began to push in.
“Gagging!”
“Ugh! Fuck… this fucking thing!!”
Taang –
Nearby scavengers, including the wounded who could not escape, were instantly annihilated and the floor was filled with corpses. A man in a coat slowly walked in.
Chijik-
“It’s Raptor 2. We have arrived at the entrance of the box.”
“Chizzik – Nest response. “What about the enemy’s remaining troops?”
“Raptor 2. Nothing moves in sight.”
Chizik-
“That’s great. Raptor 2 doesn’t have that much time. We confirmed the traces of Dome’s recovery unit ahead. As of this time, the operation being carried out by Raptor 2 should be canceled and immediately deployed to secure the old box. Lead the unit and loot the box. “Take the most valuable items and then return to join the main unit.”
“Raptor 2 confirmed. “What if the Dom arrives first?”
“Crackling – just like always.”
“Raptor 2. Confirmed.”
Chick –
The man who handed the receiver to the radio operator behind him took off the watch from his wrist and stuffed it deep inside his coat.
“If the main team is making such weak comments, it means that those rats’ information was faster than ours.”
Incompetent children. If I hadn’t been lucky enough to have him operating nearby, wouldn’t I have been one step behind the rats in the dome?
He nervously stroked his gun with his pure white gloves and spoke to the troops waiting behind him.
“few.”
“Anyone who resisted will be killed. We took the wounded and those who surrendered as prisoners.”
“Kill them all. “I think we need to carry a lot of luggage.”
chuck!
As soon as the command was given, the soldier stepped back. A moment later, the sound of guns being fired repeatedly and screams rang out.
“Take the flamethrower. “Take only what you can carry and burn everything else.”
chuck!
There was no answer. Just a polite salute and movements following orders.
“I pray that you have a rewarding day today, gentlemen.”
A wry smile appeared on his lips as he led his troops inside.
***
