Marauder of the Apocalypse-Chapter 59: Elimination

I gripped my hammer tightly while watching the distance between the man and me.

'The distance...'

Was awkward. Perfect range for him to swing his steel pipe. He'd already taken a batter's stance. I'd get hit before I could raise my hammer. No time to draw the gun hidden in my pocket.

When I stepped back, he stepped forward. He muttered to himself:

"You, Do-hyung, Park Yang-gun... People who escaped from Hope Community... You all have somewhere to go back to. Maybe you're even spies."

The gap remained constant.

I swallowed hard. Getting hit by the steel pipe? Breaking bones? Getting an infection? Same as just dying. My heart pounded and the world seemed to crumble.

'How did it come to this?'

All my plans had been going well until they crashed through the guardrail and off a cliff at the end. The man whose mind I'd changed had become a madman killing people over suspicions, but he wanted to kill me first.

I didn't know how to fix this. Could I convince him with words? When his paranoia was this severe?

From his words, it felt like he'd crossed a river of no return.

"Especially you. Fake name, fake background. No matter how much I searched the internet, I couldn't find any information about you."

"That's because I don't use social media."

"Really? Then when and where did you learn what from this Professor Kim? No matter how I think about it, there's no connection between you two."

He'd already investigated me. Not a difficult task. He could easily learn enough just by contacting Hope Church people and asking about me.

That I'd worked as Deacon Kwon Da-in, that I claimed to handle disaster response after learning from Professor Kim.

There was no answer. Only one way to resolve this suspicion. Kill him. Can't be suspicious if you're dead. The aftermath worried me, but this wasn't the time for such thoughts. Kill or be killed.

I raised my killing intent while widening my view.

The dirty road in the moonlight. Scattered corpses and trash. Several randomly abandoned cars. Trees and traffic signs.

The man approaching while watching only me.

"Why did everyone at Peace Villa die? Why did Hope Church fail? Why did we fight after getting along with the apartment people? Why do corpses remain wherever you go?"

"That's groundless suspicion."

I slowly circled around a car as cover while responding with indignation:

"It's not that corpses remain where I go. Isn't the world overflowing with corpses?"

"No. That doesn't matter. My suspicion is what matters. I can't trust you. So."

Signs of attack. The already taut steel pipe pulled back further. Filled with strength.

No time to think more. I dropped down immediately as a low shout rang out. freewebnøvel.coɱ

"Die."

My hair stood on end. The steel pipe swept by overhead in a nearly horizontal arc. My baseball cap twisted. If I'd been a bit slower, if the pipe had been slightly more accurate, it would have hit my head.

Then the steel pipe stabbed down roughly. Just as I tried to stand. I barely threw myself sideways and rolled, bang, the impact grazed me.

The gun. Had to make an opening to use it.

"Do-hyung! What are you doing!"

When I shouted, the man's movement briefly stopped. The shadow of Do-hyung, murder supporter, fell across his mind. That moment of suspicion was enough.

I drew and aimed the gun, pulling the trigger repeatedly. Bang bang bang, three shots rang out. I looked up at the man while catching my breath.

Hands trembling as they felt the gunshot wounds on chest and stomach. The steel pipe falling noisily with no strength. The man glared at my gun while letting out a bitter laugh.

"...A gun? That voice shouting about shooting a gun at the apartments was you too. It was you. You were the one who shot then."

"You realized too late."

He even remembered that voice? I really did leave a lot of suspicious clues.

I slowly stood up while the man staggered and sat down. It was over. Just needed to confirm the kill.

Raising my hammer, I spoke one last time:

"Goodbye."

"You. You won't die well either. Living like this..."

Though the man left a curse as his last words, I smiled at him without concern. Just as betrayal couldn't be stopped, death couldn't be stopped either. Only one thing mattered.

"How you die isn't important. It's how long you live that matters."

Crack. The hammer crushed his face. After silently finishing my work, I searched his body. A bunch of keys and a notebook were all his possessions.

Opening the notebook revealed densely written sentences. Information gathered from talking with villa district people, separate information found online. Their hometowns, schools, companies, relatives, actions after the apocalypse, and so on...

I quickly flipped through pages before stopping at the one with my name. It had the most suspicions written down.

Kwon Da-in? Kim Da-in? What's their name? Why hide it? Starting with things like that, then the murder at Peace Villa, information about being an aspiring screenplay writer, deaths where I'd passed by, personal information that couldn't be found online.

I suddenly looked down at the man's corpse.

"I was trying to recruit you. And this is how you betray me."

A world where distrust and betrayal were inevitable. A world with no one to trust anywhere. A world where allies attack you. The apocalypse.

Drop, drop, raindrops started falling. Looking up at the sky, clouds were gathering to cover the moon. Seemed a shower was coming.

I pulled my baseball cap down tight and walked toward the villa district.

Rain poured down. Soaked in rain, I fell into thought. The aftermath was the problem. Two paths lay before me.

One was maintaining the villa district.

It was possible. We barely escaped because the lettuce buyer was a marauder. The man died. It was that lettuce leaker's fault. Could use the lettuce leaker as a sacrifice to bind people together.

The other was elimination.

Trust still remained. Could go in saying I'll talk about the lettuce leaker and hit their heads. Cleanly leave only marauder companions and resources would become plentiful.

Rumble-

Thunder struck and lightning flashed. I felt summer in the rain. Rain, wind, lightning. A laugh suddenly escaped.

"The apocalypse is coming, the apocalypse has come."

In the end everything would fall apart. Infrastructure would break down stopping farming, the villa district would scatter without the man as its center, betrayal would surely happen.

Now was the best timing. Timing to clean up the villa district. If I just suspected and hesitated like the dead man, it would be too late.

"Let's clean up."

Time to stop playing at survival community and return to being a marauder.

I splashed through puddles heading back to the villa district.

First visit was the lettuce leaker and the rice seller watching them. The corpse storage house on Peace Villa's second floor. Opening the entrance in one breath revealed two people with terrified expressions.

"No, why are the corpses arranged like this?"

"My leg, my leg."

Corpses seated at dining chairs like eating, lying demurely on blankets like sleeping, fixed by windows like sightseeing, propped against walls like watching TV, a house decorated to feel somewhat lived in.

The person wanting to sell rice walked around the house uncomfortably before hearing my footsteps, splash, and turning around.

"You're back? What happened with the lettuce buyer?"

"They were marauders. We barely escaped."

"Ah... We could have all died if they'd really sold the lettuce."

I naturally approached them and asked:

"How's the corpse storage house?"

"Well, it's a bit uncomfortable to look at-"

"Then die."

Elimination. The hammer quickly struck their head. Several heavy thuds followed.

"Huh."

The lettuce leaker looked up at me with trembling eyes. When they tried somehow standing on their broken leg, I hurriedly spoke:

"That man's gone crazy now. He's trying to kill all the smokers and drinkers. We need to escape."

"What...?"

"Escape first!"

Unable to properly grasp the situation, they stood there stupidly. I quickly went behind them and pushed their back before hitting their head with the hammer. Splash, falling forward, they escaped the apocalypse.

I calmly recalled the list from the man's notebook. Still many people to kill. Would rather save bullets if possible.

Really needed supporter Do-hyung. Going to his house, Do-hyung greeted me while ending a call. His gaze fell on my hammer. The hammer wet with blood and rain.

"What did you do? Who did you kill again?"

"Killed the man. Quick, grab weapons. We need to kill the street people."

"...Kill who? Why?"

Guess they don't know the situation. I sold out the man who betrayed my expectations.

"That man suspected we were Hope Community spies and tried to kill us all."

"He did seem dangerous... But there's no reason to kill everyone in the street-"

"Do-hyung. Can't stop now. That man killed the lettuce leaker, and I killed him. Before the villa district explodes, we need to kill everyone first."

The brakes were already ripped out. Full speed ahead running them all down.