episode_0057

The shelter family, or rather the insectivores, came out to greet me and the old man. When I told them that it might take a little longer this time, they all had a slightly anxious look on their faces.

By giving the whole orchard and a group of survivors to the Blue Field apartment, the old man and Park Seung-ho had already established a bond that went beyond a blood alliance.

Attacking the old man or our shelter was tantamount to declaring war against the Blue Hills Apartments.

Moreover, in order to operate within the city, one had to use the sewer system that was tightly packed with apartment complexes.

Since the availability of the sewer system directly affects the difficulty of survival, it was safe to say that the old man and I were under an absolute defensive spell.

That is to say, it is safe to say that no force will attack you unless you plan on going to another city by blasting through a zombie-filled highway or by taking a long, boring, and terrifying national highway.

Of course, even if I kept telling that story, the people involved wouldn’t feel anything, so I blurted out the words to the old man with the intention of blowing away their tension and anxiety.

“You didn’t forget anything, did you?”

“A tent that has been cleaned thoroughly, 12 servings of food for emergencies, two well-plowed jungle axes, a walkie-talkie to communicate with the shelter or the Blue Field apartment, a night vision goggle for Dan-hwa, three chocolates for when he runs out of sugar, eight explosive bolts, six shock bolts…”

“You packed a decent amount of daily necessities. Oh, and clothes?”

“A white blouse in size 33-44 that I got while robbing a women’s clothing store, a black skirt that goes with it, and an extra cardigan to wear over it.”

I nodded slowly at the old man’s words.

Of course, changing clothes is important. I’m not the type of person who looks for neatness even outdoors anyway. Since the man knows that I’m satisfied with just one extra set of clothes, he could evaluate that I prepared it just right.

“To wear under a skirt… 2 pairs of black tights that I brought back from a discount store raid, 4 pairs of socks to wear instead of tights in case it gets hot, 1 pair of pants to change into when wearing socks with sneakers.”

You’re thorough, now you’re starting to look like a regular old man. The reason I prepared a lot of socks and tights wasn’t simply because I was planning to change them every day.

Winter has passed, but where did all the snow go? It must have seeped into the unmaintained roads, pooled, or combined with the soil to form mud.

It could be said that you took a lot of precautions to avoid getting into an awkward situation where your feet accidentally sink into the mud or get wet.

When soldiers pack a set of combat uniforms, they pack 4-5 pairs of socks, it was the same principle. It’s not something to brag about, but I learned this kind of knowledge from my uncle.

‘Socks are important. Very important.’

If he hadn’t said something as useless as, “If a girl gets athlete’s foot, she’ll be too embarrassed to show her face when she walks around,” I might have shed a few tears at his consideration.

“Finally, a pair of extra full B-cup bras and a pair of white panties with a black ribbon that the shoes cherish… oh, oh!”

“Don’t talk about that!”

I punched the old man in the face with all my might. Under normal circumstances, he wouldn’t have flinched, but since he was defenseless and talking, it felt like a fatal blow.

This crazy person… and when did I ever care about him?

Since it was just white, I thought it wouldn’t be easy to wash off if it got stained, so I just kept it in my underwear drawer and wore black on my period day.

It had absolutely nothing to do with me saying, ‘I like the design,’ ‘I like the color,’ or ‘I wore it sparingly because the old man worked hard to get it for me.’

When I had a fever, my face felt hot for no reason. When I ran my hands over my face, my palms felt like they were going to burn.

And then I felt eyes focused on my face, and I immediately glared and looked away.

“Cahem!”

I glanced at Park Cheon-deuk, who was coughing in vain, and he shook his head as if he had not heard or seen anything. Lina and Hwa-ryeon avoided my gaze, and only Hye-ji’s eyes sparkled and he moved his mouth without thinking.

“Unlike her personality, Danhwa is a cute underwear lover? I didn’t know what her taste in underwear was because she always wore tights or stockings when I first saw her, and she doesn’t even bathe. But she’s secretly cute!”

“Shut up. I’ll kill you.”

“Aren’t you scared? Danhwa, do you know your face is bright red right now? You’re so cute! I wish Danhwa was cute like Lina even in everyday life…”

‘Just right!’

“Evil!”

He struck Hyeji’s head with the bow. With a loud sound, Hyeji’s back broke. As her back broke, Hyeji’s cursed tongue also meditated.

“Jo, take care on your way back, sister.”

“Danhwa Yang, take care on your way back!”

“Ahem, while Mr. Do-hoon and Miss Dan-hwa are away, I will take good care of Shelter and the kids.”

“Ahhh!”

The last was the dialogue of an ape writhing in pain, making a primitive fire on the top of his head, having failed to make his head sunken.

Indeed, I wonder if it wasn’t an ape. The language was simply not understandable.

“I’ll be back.”

“Everyone, please take good care of the shelter. I’ll be back soon… bang!”

“Shut up, mister. Are you that upset about what happened back then? Why are you advertising other people’s underwear and breast sizes? Do you really want to die?”

The old man raised his voice and explained, as if he was being wronged.

“No… I just reported it with a pure heart because I thought you’d get mad later if you didn’t have anything to change…!”

“Ah, so you even talked about full B-cups, your favorite underwear, and things like that with ribbons?”

At my sharp remark, the old man’s mouth snapped shut like a freshly fished clam. What should I do with this man? Should I split his head in half?

“I’m sorry! Danhwa! I meant to give you a hard time… but I won’t do it again.”

“Die, you mortal!”

My bow swung with more force than when it split Hyeji’s head.

‘Bam!’

“Bam!”

The old man’s last words burst out. He couldn’t scream loudly outside like he did inside the shelter, so he forced his last words to be tightly contained inside his body.

Judging by the slightly reddened scalp, it might even cause warts. Well, since he’s a monster, he’ll probably get better soon.

“How do I get to the dam?”

I asked as I deftly opened the sewer lid. A musty, damp smell rose up. Fortunately, it didn’t smell like sewage.

There were also trees that had grown roots all the way to the sewers, and most importantly, the water’s self-purification function was working properly because the amount of pollutants was greatly reduced.

Occasionally, when the idiots caused the zombies to pour into the sewer, a terrible stench would come out, but since the Blue House apartments would periodically patrol and clean up the zombies that resulted from such unfortunate incidents, this did not last long.

“Just what, take the sewer up north to the water intake, then follow the riverside road to the dam?”

“It’s easier said than done. There must be some kind of detailed plan in place. That’s what I’m asking, so what are you talking about?”

“When we arrive at the auxiliary dam, we decided to send a communication through that channel. If the riverside road conditions are bad, we decided to take the mountain road and go back. After making contact, we will take the boat prepared by that side to the outer ring road on the eastern side of the city. How much?”

“If it’s the outer ring road… Are you thinking of taking the IC? Didn’t you say the highway was a mess? You said you were moving services and supplies. Is that right?”

“What would they be thinking? Would they tell you to do something that won’t work? No matter how well they live, they won’t waste money like that.”

I let out a deep sigh. This easygoing person. As expected, he was nodding like an automatic revolving door as soon as I spoke.

The personality of just letting things slide until a problem arises is what creates an emergency situation…!

“What’s that guy Park Seung-ho or whatever doing these days?”

I changed the subject because I thought that if I vented my frustration, it would only make me feel worse. I was curious about the current state of the Blue Field Apartment that swallowed up the orchard.

“I heard recently that they’ve finished pruning the orchard and are planning to use the bunker there as a cold storage.”

“Cold storage?”

“The bunker is in the shade anyway, and Mt. Majang is very windy. It seems like they’re trying to solve the problem of food storage that was difficult to store by dividing the frozen and refrigerated areas appropriately.”

In my common sense, it didn’t seem like it would work out well. No matter how windy it was and how shady it was, how could that happen?

“They said they were going to install a few coolers, and they got cooperation from the soldiers at the dam. In exchange for providing some electricity, they decided to give out some fruit for free.”

“Can we get some too?”

Although I wasn’t a big eater, I couldn’t help but perk up my ears when the topic of fruit came up.

The reason was that the fruits from Majangsan Mountain were sweet and delicious, perhaps because they were exposed to a lot of cold wind and sunlight.

“I heard you’re looking forward to summer and fall? They said they’d give you a selection of products.”

As I was listening to this news, the corners of my mouth went up without me realizing it because it was such good news.

I even thought to myself, ‘I don’t have to be so obsessed with canned fruit this year.’

As we walked and chatted like that, we quickly arrived at our first destination.

‘Water intake pipe A’, ‘Water intake pipe B’.

As if to prove that we were below the water intake facility, we were greeted by a large sign hanging above a large water channel with water gushing out.

“They’re all here already.”

The old man said. I didn’t completely agree with the old man’s opinion. This was still a sewer, not a water intake facility.

“Please guide me. I’m a first-timer. There’s no way the sewer is connected to the riverside road.”

He placed his hands on his hips, puffed out his chest, and spoke confidently.

“Ah, if you just go up that way, there’s a water intake facility. After you get out of the water intake facility, if you go straight up the road, it’s the riverside road.”

I was dumbfounded by the old man’s words. No, it’s easier said than done. I lightly placed my hand on the bow.

“Just follow me to where I’m going! I’ll go up first and make sure it’s safe?!”

As I fiddled with the bow, the old man began to move quickly, saying that every arrow was a medicine.

I meant to say that a long time ago.