Hiding a House in the Apocalypse-Chapter 80.5: Breeds (5)
“Did we... kill them all?”
Jang Ju-im, standing behind me, asked hesitantly.
“Not all of them, just a portion,” I replied.
“What about our robot? How did it do?”
“It’s fine.”
Truthfully, it wouldn’t have made much of a difference even without the robot. In a narrow, straight hallway devoid of any cover, mowing people down with a 7.62mm machine gun isn’t exactly difficult.
The only reason we managed to kill five of them was because we lured them in. If we’d started shooting from the entrance, we might not have gotten a single one. Still, the initial show of force was enough to assert dominance.
Now the real challenge begins.
But something’s nagging at me.
I can hear crying behind us.
It’s coming from the room where the children are.
I turned to the researchers.
“Can’t you do something about those kids? Their cries are going to give away our position.”
“Well... opening the door now would be tricky.”
“Why?”
“There could be accomplices among them.”
They weren’t accomplices, but I didn’t bother arguing. No point wasting energy on that.
The problem was that the children’s crying and wailing would carry through the hallway and right into the ears of the raiders camped at the entrance. Any experienced soldier would be able to pinpoint our location from the sound alone.
And, as expected...
Bang! Bang!
Scattered gunfire erupted.
Clang! Clang!
A few bullets whizzed through the air, some hitting the robot.
The robot’s response was sluggish. It swayed heavily from side to side, unable to counter the enemy’s tactics of shooting and quickly ducking back into cover.
“Pull the robot back around the corner.”
“What? Back? Aren’t we going to use it?”
“We’ll bring it out when we need it again.”
Jang Ju-im, his face pale, nodded shakily and maneuvered the robot back behind cover.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The raiders’ gunfire persisted as the robot retreated to the corner of the hallway.
“What now?” Jang Ju-im asked.
“Let them keep shooting. All we need is time, right?”
It was 9 p.m.
We had to hold out for another ten hours to see the light of day.
But...
“Scared!”
“Moooom!”
“Teacher! Teacher!”
The kids were screaming their lungs out.
They were nothing like Sergeant Jang’s kids.
The problem was their constant noise was exposing our weakness.
A silhouette darted past the entrance in the darkness.
The second wave was coming.
Tat-tat-tat-tat!
Machine-gun fire tore through the air.
The raiders had set up their own machine gun and were now unloading bullets in our direction.
Tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!
Good thing I’d pulled the robot back. Its sensors or cameras would have been shredded by now.
“They’re coming again,” came the copilot’s voice over the radio.
I cracked the door open and peered into the hallway.
The second wave had arrived.
These guys weren’t ordinary raiders. Their discipline and coordinated movements screamed military training—a full-fledged combat unit.
“Deploy the robot again.”
“Should we attack?”
“No, just show me the camera feed.”
Jo Ju-im connected the tablet to the robot’s camera and handed it to me.
The robot’s night vision was the only piece of equipment we had for seeing in the dark. I wasn’t using it for surveillance—I wanted to see their gear.
Sure enough, the first wave had been a scouting party. The second wave was the real deal.
One of them was carrying a flamethrower, inching closer with his body low, using the children’s cries as a beacon.
“Hold.”
As soon as the door opened, I fired into the darkness.
Bang! Bang!
I wasn’t aiming to hit anyone.
No one was hit, but I must have grazed them—the return fire was ferocious.
Tat-tat-tat-tat!
The burst of gunfire gave away their positions.
As soon as the gunfire subsided, I emerged from cover, spotted the flamethrower in the fleeting light, and opened fire.
Tat-tat-tat-tat!
Fwoom!
A brilliant explosion lit up the hallway as the flamethrower went up in flames.
“Arghhhh!”
The raiders, now ablaze, scrambled away as I reloaded my weapon.
“What was that just now?”
The pilots radioed in, their amazement obvious.
I brought them back to reality. “We’re not done yet. There are still plenty of them left.”
Not even ten down.
And then...
Tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!
Machine-gun fire roared again as the raiders advanced down the hallway in a crawl.
Thud-thud-thud!
Bullets raked the door we were hiding behind.
Jo Ju-im screamed like a child.
“They’ve deployed smoke!” came the copilot’s voice over the radio.
I turned to Jang Ju-im.
“Can the robot see through smoke?”
“I-I think it has infrared capabilities.”
“Good. Activate it.”
Jang Ju-im pressed a button, and the robot’s red sensors flared to life.
But...
No gunfire.
“The bullets are jammed!”
Jo Ju-im thrust the tablet toward me.
“What now?”
“We’ll have to clear it manually.”
The worst-case scenario had arrived.
Without the robot, we couldn’t hold out.
But repairing it meant leaving only the two pilots to fend off over 25 trained killers.
Impossible.
We needed more fighters.
The researchers weren’t an option.
Which left only one choice.
Click-click!
I snapped a fresh magazine into my rifle.
“Jang Ju-im.”
“Yes?”
“Take this and follow me.”
“I-I can’t fight!”
“Follow me if you want to live.”
Darkness is impartial.
It conceals both sides equally.
Moving silently, I approached the children’s room.
A face appeared behind the glass.
Sergeant Jang’s kids.
I met their eyes and asked, “Can you fight?”
They nodded.
I saw it in their eyes—hatred.
The same flame I carried burned eerily in theirs.
“Open the door.”
“What?! Are you letting them out?”
“Be quiet.”
Bang!
A bullet zipped past us, grazing the air.
Jang Ju-im’s face turned ashen.
“Quickly!”
I yanked him toward the door, and he reluctantly opened it.
The moment it swung open, Sergeant Jang’s kids bolted out.
I blocked their path and thrust weapons into their hands.
“Take cover. Didn’t Sergeant Jang teach you anything?”
The boy with the bruised face nodded, recognition dawning. I’d been the one who hit him.
Behind him, a gaunt girl stared at me with fierce eyes.
I handed her a weapon.
She shook her head and passed it to a smaller boy beside her.
“He’s a better shot than me.”
She smirked at me, baring her teeth.
“From now on, I’ll be repairing the robot. You two hold off the gang. You, follow me.”
The boys nodded solemnly.
Jang Ju-im whispered to me, “Are you sure about this? What if they hold a grudge?”
“They’ll just get caught by the gang and put to work as beggars again.”
I turned to the girl.
“Let’s go.”
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Gunfire erupted from behind.
It was the kid who I’d struck before.
Fierce retaliatory fire followed, providing just enough cover for us to crawl to the end of the hallway.
“Hold this tight.”
The firearm was based on the M60.
I opened the top cover assembly and inspected the chamber with a flashlight. As expected, a round was jammed inside.
With quick hands, I cleared the jammed round. It was a brief task, but even in those moments, fine dust particles clung to my fingers.
Honestly, it was a wonder the weapon hadn’t jammed earlier.
Click!
I closed the cover and spoke into the radio.
“Everyone, take cover and deploy the robot.”
Whirrrr—
The robot’s red sensors came to life.
Tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!
The machine gun roared again, its relentless barrage cutting through the smoke and tearing apart any enemies who dared find solace within it.
“Ahhh!”
“Cheol-min’s down!”
Tat-tat-tat!
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Each burst of gunfire was met with the enemy’s dying screams and panicked shouts. They retaliated with ferocity, but against a steel monster, their efforts were futile.
“Retreat! Fall back!”
I could hear their retreating footsteps.
The second wave had been repelled.
“You’re pretty good at this, Mister.”
The scrawny girl stared at me with an expression of reluctant admiration.
“...You’re not bad yourselves.”
But the fight wasn’t over yet.
“Stay here.”
“What?”
“There’s somewhere I need to be.”
I sprinted toward the emergency exit we’d secured before the battle began.
It was time for misdirection.
I climbed the makeshift ladder and pushed open the manhole cover.
Cold air seeped into my body as I scanned my surroundings.
There was someone there.
“?”
They were squatting, pants down.
Probably relieving themselves.
In that fleeting moment of recognition, my axe struck first.
Thwack!
“...”
I retrieved a communication device from the dead man’s body.
The raiders’ chatter buzzed through it.
“Damn it! Their resistance is too strong.”
“Can’t we take them out with an RPG?”
“We don’t have a clear shot.”
“I just got word from Choksae—there’s a helicopter out of Incheon.”
“Is it headed this way?”
“Push forward in one go!”
From the shadows, I observed the raiders gathering near the entrance.
It looked like they were gearing up for a final assault.
I checked my weapon and remaining ammo, then took cover and advanced.
The raiders were preparing their offensive.
Soldiers carrying shields moved to the front of the group.
This was it—their last stand.
Tat-tat-tat-tat!
Bang! Bang!
Gunfire erupted mercilessly from both sides.
Judging by the rhythm of the shots, Sergeant Jang’s kids were returning fire with determination.
As the gunfight raged on, I circled to the enemy’s flank.
From the cover of a hangar’s wreckage, I observed raiders reloading behind the wall near the entrance.
Distance: 80 meters.
Wind: calm.
It was ideal for target practice.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Each pull of the trigger sent another body collapsing to the ground.
“Where’s it coming from?! What direction?”
“It’s an ambush! There are others here!”
I spoke into the radio.
“Advance the robot.”
Tat-tat-tat-tat!
The robot answered my call with its thunderous gunfire.
Panic ensued as the raiders inside the bunker scrambled out in chaos.
At that point, I ceased firing.
I had no desire to pile corpses in my territory, nor did I want to endure the desperate resistance of cornered enemies.
With their morale broken, the raiders clambered into their trucks and sped away in a frantic retreat.
*
Although sporadic skirmishes continued, they were nothing more than meaningless exchanges of gunfire.
The helicopter arrived earlier than expected, rescuing us without a single casualty or injury.
As expected, the transport plane was unscathed. The raiders had hoped to capture the pilots alive and transport them to their base, leaving the plane intact.
While the aircraft was being repaired, the captain and co-pilot approached me.
“Thanks to you, we’re alive.”
“No need to thank me. Really.”
From a distance, I saw Sergeant Jang’s children watching me.
For a moment, I thought about offering some words of encouragement, but such things didn’t suit me. Instead, I asked the question that had been nagging at me.
“Did you... kill Sergeant Jang?”
“Us? Why would we? He was bound to die even if we did nothing,” the scrawny girl responded, her face twisted in mock indignation.
“We were even there to see him off in his final moments!”
“...Really?”
I looked at her skeptically, and she pulled out her phone, showing me a picture.
The image was taken in a dimly lit room, showing the dying man surrounded by children. Despite his evident agony, he was forcing a smile, forming a V-sign with his fingers.
“...”
Even in the face of unbearable pain, Sergeant Jang managed a faint smile.
His life had been miserable, but at least he hadn’t died alone.
“Hey.”
As I stared at the photo, lost in thought, another girl approached.
It was one of the children from the international residence.
She extended a hand to the scrawny girl.
The scrawny girl blinked in confusion at the offered hand.
“I’m sorry. Honestly, I underestimated you.”
After a brief hesitation, the scrawny girl smirked faintly and took her hand. Though different in many ways, the two shared a certain camaraderie now.
It was time to settle things.
The children stood together, those with pedigree and those without.
Sergeant Jang’s kids looked at me.
I had nothing to say to them. The decision wasn’t mine to make—it was Jang Ju-im’s.
As Jang Ju-im hesitated, the captain and co-pilot stepped in.
“Take them with us.”
“What?” Jang Ju-im flinched in surprise.
“All of them,” the captain said, glancing at Sergeant Jang’s children.
“Kids with this kind of guts could be useful anywhere, don’t you think?”
“But!”
“You’ve heard about the emergence of Anti-Awakened, right? We’ll need them. Young blood with grit. These kids are tougher than most soldiers I’ve seen. So what if they’ve sinned? The world’s already a mess.”
It was then I realized just how much authority the transport plane’s captain wielded—far more than I had assumed.
Jo Ju-im chimed in.
“There are predictions that future battlefields will be too much for a single Awakened to handle. I’ve heard a great Hunter, someone called Professor, discovered a new type of Anti-Awakened.”
“...”
“Hunter Park Gyu, what’s with the face all of a sudden?”
“...It’s nothing.”
Do they not know my callsign?
Did Woo Min-hee not tell them?
Not that I felt like announcing it myself in this situation.
“Hey.”
Before I could decide, that same girl from the international residence interrupted again.
“Thank you, Mister.”
This time, it seemed she had something to say to me.
“...”
“Is something wrong?”
“No. Nothing.”
“Why don’t you ask me anything? Aren’t you curious about my family?”
“Do I need to ask?”
I sighed as I replied, and she blinked before smirking knowingly.
“You seem softer than you look.”
“Are you going to Jeju Island?”
“Yes.”
“Word is, people die when they go there.”
“I’m going anyway.”
She glanced at the transport plane.
The defiant glint in her eyes had been replaced with something softer—regret and longing I couldn’t quite place.
“My little brother dreamed of seeing Jeju. I want to see it with my own eyes, even if it costs my life. That way, I’ll have something to tell him, even if I die.”
“You must’ve been a real headache for your parents.”
“Yep.”
Whirrrrrrr—
The transport plane’s propellers roared to life.
Jang Ju-im called for the children.
“My name is Do-hee. Jin Do-hee. If I survive, I’ll call you on the radio.”
“Professor.”
“What?”
“My callsign is Professor. PROFESSOR.”
“Oh... okay.”
Jin Do-hee was the last to board the transport plane.
With soldiers and the helicopter watching, the plane sped across the snowy runway and rose into the sky.
The plane left, carrying not pedigree, but children.
I hope they’ll become our hope.
