Stagnant Water of Apocalypse

<D – Day (1)>

The morning of the 20th was peaceful as usual. People left their home, looking at their surroundings, while some were already gathering with other neighbors. And sometimes even cars passed by. It seems like the hottest topic among the gathering people was about the sudden disappearance of the soldiers.

“Well, they also have to see their families…” They had worked very hard for the past few days, so it was only natural that they would spend their last few hours with their family.

I walked away from the window to the bathroom. I turned the faucet on and as expected, no water came out. The city was now completely paralyzed.

“Dingo, come eat this.” I cut a raw chicken I stored inside an earthen jar that I buried in the forest’s soil in half and fed it to Dingo. Over the past two weeks, he had grown a lot. Now the cute wolf cub I met in the forest had become the size of a Beagle. However, he has not yet been able to lose the unique baby fat of a cub.

“You eat this and wait inside.” Even though I want to take him around with me, the situation would become too chaotic soon. He wouldn’t offer much help. The incoming environment was a place where his strong sense of smell and tracking ability wouldn’t do much.

Let’s just fill my stomach too. I would need all the energy I could get to face what would happen soon. However, it would be a disadvantage instead if I ate too much, so let’s just eat in moderation. While I was preparing my last meal before the end, which sadly came in the form of canned food, the lamp inside the room suddenly lit, albeit dim, for a moment, before suddenly it shone bright enough to light up the whole room.

Oh?

The TV also turned on. And there, the President’s face appeared. He looked haggard and considerably older than the last time I saw him on the TV.

“In just a few days, his face completely changed…” They say that when someone is stressed out, they will grow older in just a few days. I guess that’s not just a saying, huh. The clean cut and neat suit he always used whenever he appeared in public also couldn’t be found anywhere. Replacing it was a disheveled suit which looks like it hadn’t been washed for several days. It was as if the man on the TV wasn’t the most influential man in the nation but just a random neighbourhood elder.

―Dear citizens of the Republic of South Korea. This is Jang Won-taek, the President of the Republic of South Korea. Before starting this broadcast, I would like to ask you one thing. Please call everyone around you to also listen to this announcement. I’ll say it again…

From the street in front of my house, several shouts could be heard.

“Hey, watch the TV!”

“Everyone please watch the TV!”

“The electricity is back on!” I shouted, adding another shout into the countless shouts.

After a few minutes passed, the President nodded and started to speak.

―Dear citizens. This is President Jang Won-taek. I know that you must have been heartbroken by the unknown arrangement that started a few days ago. Today, I’m here to explain everything.

Are you finally telling everyone about the truth?

The street became quiet. Meanwhile, with my eyes locked onto the TV, I moved another spoonful of Bibimbap into my mouth.

“Tasty but a bit salty.” I think, because it was some sort of MRE, it was made with the assumption that whoever eats it would sweat a lot. My throat instantly felt parched because of all the saltiness. I don’t think I would be able to eat this everyday…

―A few days ago, I ordered the enactment of the Martial Law. The Republic of South Korea’s military force has taken over all media outlet offices, important infrastructure, and closed all major roads. Everyone must be curious why I did all of that, right?

The President paused for a moment before putting a cigarette into his mouth and lit it up.

What the… Smoking cigarettes while speaking to the public? It seems that he had decided to throw away all the broadcasting ethics now that the end is near.

“Well, there are only four hours left.”

Puffing a thick acidic cigarette smoke into the air, the President finally spoke.

―Haha…If the opposition sees me doing this, they will undoubtedly make a lot of noise about keeping the dignity of the President. Anyway, the reason I ordered the enactment of the Martial Law was because I wanted an orderly end.

The word finally came out. It was the only natural course of action. As a President who is faced with something as crazy as an apocalypse, he must’ve wanted to prevent all sorts of confusion until the D-Day comes.

―I gave the orders to cut off communications, cut off power lines, and shut down the nuclear power plant. We evacuated not only people around the city gas factory, but also residents around the chemical industrial complex. An orderly end, that is what I was hoping for. Then again, you must be wondering, why did I decide to appear in front of you right now of all times?

The President exhaled a long puff of cigarette smoke again and said something unexpected.

―Early in the morning, we received news that the U.S. military forces had failed to intercept all of the Silver Dragon meteorites. A group of meteorites had managed to reach the surface of the Earth, and had landed off the coast of Okinawa, and it was confirmed that Okinawa suffered catastrophic damage. As we speak, a lot of Japanese people are turning into zombies. Yes. Those zombies that you saw in movies that attacks all kinds of living beings. The Japan archipelago is currently being devoured by zombie spores. Currently, Kagoshima is in the midst of chaos. Japan is definitely coming to an end. Unfortunately, we will also meet the very same fate as them soon.

As soon as that bombshell announcement fell, people on the street started to go crazy. Even though some of them might have known that the zombie apocalypse will happen, they probably were taken aback that it happened today rather than in the near future.

After drinking some water, the President continued.

―The exact date of the apocalypse is July 20th, which is today, at 1pm. Zombie spores that infected the Japan archipelago will also land in Korea soon… hmm… I was just informed. People in shelters equipped with air purification facilities will also be infected.

“You son of a bitch!!!!!” I heard an old man swearing loudly outside. And after him, a lot of people also start to shout out a lot of colourful words. They must have felt cheated. But if they thought about it a little more, they would understand that it was all for the best. Afterall, because of the Martial Law, they could spend time with their family for a few days when the people who made and oversaw the decision were busy running around until dawn, without being able to spend their remaining time with their family for the last time.

―What is certain is that we, too, cannot avoid the zombie apocalypse. But few will be able to survive. Namely, the awakeners, and others. For you future survivors, we, the government, have prepared something. From now on, please take note of the places I’m going to tell you…

The President proceeds to list places in several cities, including Seoul and metropolitan cities. It seems to be the underground parking lot shelter Sooyeon told me about yesterday.

―The location I just told you about was currently tightly sealed with concrete and composite plastic. You could call it a time capsule. After one year, when the corrosive disease finally perishes, the seal will be automatically released. If anyone survives until then, there are a lot of items you will find useful such as food, bottled water, clothes, gasoline, diesel, basic necessities, books…

I should note those locations down. The President also listed places to avoid such nuclear power plants and chemical manufacturing complexes.

―Do not, at all cost, approach the listed facilities within the radius of 20 kilometers. Nuclear power plants, in particular, are very dangerous. I shut it down a few days ago and started the emergency cooling procedure, but there will still be residual heat in the core and it will last for quite a while. There’s also a possibility that the core will melt. We have taken several measures to prevent it, but it was far from perfect.

The nuclear power plant was quite far from my area, but that doesn’t mean I could feel relieved. From what I know, radiation exposure will give you the taste of blood in your mouth. But…

“Once you feel it in your body, doesn’t that mean that you’ll certainly die?”

The President’s speech continued.

―Dear citizens. It was a pleasure to be with you. Although I, as both a person and a President, still lacks a lot, I have done everything in my power in order to give the future survivors a better life in the apocalyptic world. All I can do left is pray that you future survivors will be able to live a good life. Thanks to a certain someone who gave us the exact date and time of the D-Day, we are able to prepare this much. Without his help, we would be in chaos by now, caught in the beginning of an unexpected apocalypse.

“It’s not something I should be thanked for…” Rather, I thought I should thank the President. Even though he knew that the end was approaching, he still carried his duty as a President rather than running away. He’s definitely different from a guy like me.

Then a man in a suit from the news a few days ago whispered something towards the President. After a few seconds, the President spoke once again.

―All thermal power plants will also be shut down soon, as the managers also need to at least meet their families. They probably are unable to watch this broadcast, but I’m sorry that I had threatened you. I also expressed my regrets to all the generals who were imprisoned for not complying to my wishes. This old man has been talking for too long, so let’s end it here. Before we finished, what will be broadcasted after this was a summary of the monsters which would appear in the beginning. People of South Korea, let’s do our best to survive and see each other again in the future.

At the end of those words, the screen changed from showing the presidential room into a line of text. Just as the President had said, it was the characteristics, weaknesses and countermeasures against monsters which would appear in the beginning such as zombies, goblins, kobolds and bone creepers. And at the bottom, there’s a single line.

“Written by a stagnant water…” Who is it? Whoever it is, I was certain about one thing. They decided to entrust their life to the government. While I was admiring their decision, the screen suddenly distorted and the electricity went out again.

Now, South Korea has finally come to a complete end.

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The reaction from the people was immediate and simultaneous. A lot of people ran out of their house and shouted wildly. Panic screams and cursing screams filled the entire area of my neighbourhood. One particular man even took all of his clothes off before running around.

“You bastards!!”

“Fuck them all!”

Crasshhh-!!

There are sounds of window glasses being broken all over the place while the streets were dominated in madness. It’s only natural, though. People had been very patient these few days while being restricted by the army. And yet, when they thought that the situation was finally over, what was waiting for them was an apocalypse.

“They’ll feel like they were sentenced to death.”

I slowly covered the windows with a few layers of planks I had prepared beforehand and started laying bricks behind it to strengthen it. This building was close to fully camouflaged, but I still equipped it with a minimum amount of defense so I could be at ease whenever I needed to go somewhere to hunt.

“Let’s block the stairs as well…” If I blocked both the stairs and the windows, where would I enter and exit from? The answer is through the large bathroom window on the back of the building. Adjacent to the window was a fence. It was pretty high so zombies wouldn’t be able to climb it. Beyond that fence was an alleyway. It was so narrow and dark to the point where if they were given a choice, people would not enter. I will use that alleyway for my in-and-out path between my building and the streets.

I pushed all the furniture and junk down the stairs to the first floor. It’ll become some sort of barrier. Then, I piled up another round of bricks on the very top step of the stair to block off the stair.

Suddenly, a loud crashing sound of a car could be heard from the street.

“Wow… What a mess” How long will all this commotion last, I wonder?

Sound of people bickering and fighting could be heard from literally everywhere. Now that the law and public authority had disappeared, there was nothing left to control the primordial urge of humans for violence. Even small things which would normally be ignored in everyday life would become significant enough to provoke them into a fight.

However, unlike them, I was busy laying all the bricks and applying a thick layer of mortar mix in the space between them. It doesn’t matter if it dries slowly. Afterall, it was something I prepared for the time after the tutorial.

Then, I went to the forest to check on the motorcycle which had a hammer and an oxygen cutter tied to it. I took the oxygen cutter and turned it on for one last check. And as expected, a frightening flame came out of its nozzle together with a hissing sound, indicating that it’s working perfectly. Satisfied, I tied it to the motorcycle once again before returning to Earth.

Once I went up to the rooftop of my house, I could finally see the violence, chaos and madness which filled the streets. It was a scene which normally could only be seen in a movie. A broken storefront, a lot of smoke and people fighting against each other. However, once I looked closely, there’s only a handful of people who ran wildly. It seems like most of the people decide to hole themselves inside their home.

In the distance, I could see the tow truck driven by the thugs keep surprising people by constantly accelerating and braking. They even hit someone in the process. However, they didn’t stop at all and left the unmoving man behind.

“Looks like the only law that prevails here right now is the law of the jungle.”

So, just wait for me, as I’ll make you suffer the same fate as that man you just hit. When I looked at the gym through my telescope, I saw the members of the group having a meeting with serious expressions on their faces. Hyung-jun Hyung would surely take care of them, so let’s leave them to their own devices.

When I looked at my watch, it was currently 11 o’clock. There’s still 2 hours left before the apocalypse begins. I could just start looting now, but it’s better to do it later in order to avoid people’s eyes.

“Right now, people are still scary.” At 1 o’clock, no one would notice me because of the chaos caused by the arrival of the zombies. Suddenly, a loud sound came from the sky. When I looked up, numerous pieces of paper rained down from a plane that flew by. When I caught it, the paper listed the location of all shelters mentioned by the President earlier, places to avoid, and the walkthrough of monsters from earlier broadcasts.

“They are truly great people.” Living with such people in the apocalypse would be worth it. However, people like them were few and far in between. In reality, the world would be full of bastards like me and all kinds of trolls like those thugs.

I crumpled the paper and tossed it to the street below. Then I went to take a nap while waiting for the zombies to come.

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At around 12:59 p.m. I opened my eyes. Strong wind blew and ruffled my hair. At the same time, an ominous sense of incongruity swept the street below. A man who was running around the street just a second prior suddenly stopped as if he was exhausted and collapsed to the ground. He gasped several times before grabbing his head and screamed.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

His body ominously twisted before becoming completely still. When he slowly rose to his feet, blue spots could be seen covering all over his face. He was turning into a zombie. He’s not the only one though, as all over the street, numerous people also rise to their feet with blue spots covering their face.

I went downstairs, went out through the bathroom window and let the motorcycle out of the portal once I reached the street.

There’s around 5 hours before the corrosive disease strikes. In the meantime, I must loot all the places as soon as possible and move the portal location to another location because I need to check whether the corrosive disease affects the forest or not.

I started the engine, and it roared. However, even though it was noisy no zombies noticed me. When I pulled the throttle and took my foot off the clutch lever, the motorcycle moved. Almost at the same time, the zombies on the street glanced at me. Their eyes gleamed and saliva was dripping from their mouth. But they couldn’t move right away.

“Let’s go.” My first target was the pharmacy. I drove in the middle of the road while ignoring all the zombies. Right now, they still can’t move because it takes around 5 to 10 minutes for the spores to take over the brain and start to control the body. Until then, I just have to focus on getting to the pharmacy.

All over the street, all I could see was zombies. There’s no living person at all. Just where did they go? Were they all infected?

Once I arrived at the pharmacy, there was no one there. On top of it, the shutters were not down. I broke the glass door with the hammer before parking the motorcycle inside and closing the shutter.

“Open portal.” I summoned the portal. Then I quickly shove everything on the shelf into the portal. Currently, it is an unusually hot summer, and when the shutters were closed, it was completely steamy inside. As I was frantically moving around, my breath quickly became shallow and beads of sweat started to trickle down all over my body.

“How could a small pharmacy like this have so much stuff?” I was left bewildered as soon as I entered their storage room. However, it only lasted for several seconds before I began to tilt the shelf and swept everything into the portal.

As I almost finished looting everything in the pharmacy, someone suddenly banged the shutter. I threw the last bunch of syringes then pounded the shutters.

Guaaahkkk-!

The answer I got from the otherside was a roar and another set of banging.

“I’m not happy at all to see you.” From the sounds alone, I could tell there’s not just one, but several zombies outside.

“For now, let’s turn the motorcycle around first.” Driving out as soon as the shutter was opened was a bad idea as there’s a chance I would crash down because of the zombie and get eaten. It’s better to do it step by step.

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I moved the location of the portal to another warehouse and came out with a mace and shield. Fully equipped, I raised the shutter while putting the shield in front of me. Four zombies quickly limped towards me with their hands stretched forward. However, they couldn’t reach me and collided with my shield instead.

Keakkkkkk-!!

They let out another roar. The scene unfolding before me really threw me back to my early days of Survival Life. I could feel tears welling up in the corner of my eyes. What a nostalgic feeling, really.

I retrieved the shield and swung the mace into the head of the zombie standing in front of me.

“Let’s dance.”