Marauder of the Apocalypse-Chapter 79: Alliance

Mr. Ho, now my hostage, spoke in a rough voice. Though his voice trembled as if startled, he still managed to throw accusations at me.

"Are you crazy? What the hell are you doing?"

"You guys started it with your weird signals."

"What? What did we do?!"

He looked genuinely offended, but it was just an act. I couldn't fall for it. If these were decent people, why would rumors circulate warning others to avoid them?

The hand gesture that scavenger first made to Ho was probably reporting that I came alone, and Ho's gesture back was likely a signal to kill me.

They must have been eyeing my clothes, police vest, raincoat, and gun.

"You made hand signals. That was a kill order."

"What insane nonsense are you spouting? Why would we openly—gack!"

I tightened my grip around Ho's throat, cutting off his excuses. He coughed and choked, frantically patting my arm before reaching for my face.

He was clearly trying to gouge my eyes, so I had no choice but to lower my gun and shoot him in the thigh.

"Argh! You fucking lunatic!"

"..."

I wasn't crazy. I was just vulnerable. I nudged the flashlight on the ground with my foot, revealing the scavengers who had already raised their weapons.

The difference in numbers translated directly to a power imbalance. The iron pipes were dangerous enough, but the number of bows and guns pointed at me was seriously concerning.

In situations like this, hesitation means losing control and drowning in circumstances. I needed to drive them, not the other way around.

I grinned and clicked my tongue.

"You've been shot, haven't you? You'll die without immediate first aid. Want to clear a path before this person dies?"

But the scavengers' reaction wasn't what I expected. They stared blankly at me before starting to snicker. Not one of them lowered their weapons.

The scavenger who had made the hand signals earlier stuck his hands in his pockets and nodded.

"If he dies, we get two corpses instead of one. Ho dies, you die. Double the income."

Were these people really without any sense of camaraderie? I looked at them suspiciously, but they genuinely didn't seem concerned about Ho. Even now, blood was steadily flowing from his thigh, bringing death closer.

Still wondering if this might be an act, if Ho might still have control over them, I spoke up.

"Really? Is that how you feel too, Ho?"

"Do we look like family or some community to you? We're the kind of people who see a corpse and wonder how much stuff we can loot from the pockets."

Ho didn't even attempt to give them orders.

At that point, I understood the true nature of these scavengers. Individualism. No sense of belonging to a strong survivor group.

They had gathered solely to sell items looted from corpses, and they didn't care if their supposed leader Ho died.

Perhaps to them, the living and the dead looked the same—just objects to loot items from.

These were truly proper raiders. I slowly opened my mouth.

"Have you heard about the plans to create a survival zone?"

"Sure. But there's no need for this conversation."

The scavengers responded indifferently. But I could see room for dialogue. They were raiders after all.

"I was looking for people who might want to interfere with it, or who'd want to take on the alliance together. Any interest?"

"Uh, no. What are you even talking about, coming here alone?"

A firm rejection. These people didn't think about the future. Killing me now and taking my gun seemed more important to them.

At that, Ho laughed weakly and said:

"There's no need for any of this. Why do you think we're under this bridge? This is upstream. The water that flows through here passes through the area where they're likely to build their survival zone."

As I heard those words, a flash of realization hit me. They weren't ignoring the future—they were already preparing to attach themselves to the survival zone.

'The area suitable for a survival zone.'

A location equidistant from various groups. A place with easy access to water since plumbing would fail. Buildings with proper front doors rather than glass entrances. An area with many rooftops for installing multiple solar panels.

By considering such conditions, one could roughly estimate where the survival zone would be established, and there were other ways to threaten them.

The stream. What if I threatened to dump zombie and human corpses into the water they would use? Or negotiated to manage the upstream area in exchange for a share of their food?

My mouth fell slightly open. Is this how they planned to leech off others? Weren't they afraid of the police?

The scavengers grumbled while waving their weapons.

"For someone about to die, you sure talk a lot."

"I can't talk when I'm dead, you idiots. Seriously, aren't you going to help me? I think I'm dying here."

My brief moment of admiration for the realization that water could be a weapon in the apocalypse was interrupted.

I narrowed my eyes at the scavengers.

'Can I escape without getting hurt?'

I couldn't trust a solution that involved resolving this verbally without fighting. I couldn't shake the suspicion that the moment I released my hostage, arrows and bullets would fly my way.

Maybe it would be better to kill Ho right here and use his body as a meat shield to escape.

"..."

"..."

An awkward silence fell. Ho's blood flowed like sand in an hourglass, soaking his pants.

The situation wasn't in my favor, so I couldn't shoot first, and they were too wary of my gun to make a move.

All that could be heard was Ho's rough breathing.

Then, drop, drop, the sound of raindrops began to fall. The gentle rain sound instantly transformed into a roaring waterfall. The sound of raindrops hammering the world.

The scavengers' attention scattered.

"Ah, rain again?"

"We need to move quickly."

This was my chance. I slowly began dragging Ho toward the outside of the bridge. Threats flowed from my mouth.

"If we keep this up, those boxes of supplies you've stockpiled might all wash away. Isn't what you'd lose more than what you'd gain by killing me? Let's just part ways here."

"Do we have to?"

The scavengers' attention returned to me. Some had already started moving boxes as if I wasn't even there.

I pointed my gun at those people.

"I have more than one gun. All loaded with lethal rounds. Should we really take this to the end?"

If it came to that, I could cause significant damage even alone. I had two shields—Ho and my police vest.

And if they really tried to kill me, I wouldn't go quietly. As long as I had a finger to pull the trigger, I'd fire every bullet before I went down.

'If I'm going to die anyway, I'll take as many with me as I can.'

The scavengers seemed to look into my eyes for a moment, and Ho slightly turned his head to look up at me, then shook his head.

"Enough, guys. This bastard isn't right in the head either."

"Fine, whatever... Go. Leave Ho here."

"I'll keep him until I reach the top of the bridge."

Why would I release my shield? I needed to at least get up there first.

The scavengers' eyes flashed. A menacing voice spoke:

"Fine. But if Ho dies, you die too."

"Agreed."

With that, I backed away until I was off the bridge and up on the road, then released Ho. He collapsed into a sitting position and shouted angrily.

"Bring bandages and antibiotics! Disinfectant too if there is any! You idiots, sending me up here where bacteria could get into the wound."

As I stared at the back of Ho's head, my finger briefly entered the trigger guard, but I quickly turned away.

***

Maybe it was because I got soaked in the rain last night, but I wasn't feeling well. In my dim house, dark despite it being daytime due to the rain, I weakly called for Sa Gi-hyeok.

"How are people reacting?"

"Well, it's complicated."

Sa Gi-hyeok, who had been spreading rumors at every street where markets or streetlight districts were open, scratched his head.

"There aren't many people with complaints. Instead, more people are asking how they could get in themselves, or how to get their families in too."

I closed my eyes.

'Hope...'

The pastor of Hope Church had used hope as a tool to gather people. The hope of defeating the virus, the hope of survival by belonging to the church. He moved people with that hope.

The survival zone was similar. It was simply survivor groups coming together to live, but that itself was hope. The hope of living safely. A light that drew people in.

I opened my eyes and asked with a sigh:

"Isn't anyone complaining about them abandoning people and only looking out for themselves?"

"That was my miscalculation. The world is the way it is now. People think it's natural to only look out for themselves."

That's right. Maybe not when the world was normal, but in times like these, such framing wouldn't work.

Nothing was going right in this world. The raiders I wanted to gather were all dead, and the scavengers were just preparing to leech off others.

Just then, Do-hyung burst in and flopped down in front of us.

Seeing Do-hyung sighing heavily as if something bad had happened, I asked:

"What's wrong? Didn't you go to Hope Community? Did you fight with your girlfriend?"

"We did argue a bit. But that's not the problem. They're not making the survival zone anymore."

I blinked. Suddenly? Just like that?

"Why?"

"The alliance itself has been called off. They were discussing various things and ended up in a huge fight."

Do-hyung swung his fist. He continued his story.

They fought about where to establish the survival zone, argued about who would have a say as members of the operating committee, debated how to manage resources...

Some insisted the armory was crucial, others said the operating room was more important, some argued they needed a place to install solar panels, others questioned what to do about water, some claimed those with guns should have more say, others asked if they could live without electricity, some said even in an alliance they couldn't share resources, and so on.

But the biggest issue was the weather.

"It's typhoon season soon, and they said moving and establishing a survival zone now doesn't make sense."

I listened blankly to his words, then let out a hollow laugh. A strange sense of joy welled up.

Why? Isn't it enjoyable when everyone fails together rather than just yourself? Just as I couldn't gather raiders, they couldn't form an alliance.

I heard Sa Gi-hyeok mumbling to himself:

"In a world where cooperation is needed to survive..."