Marauder of the Apocalypse-Chapter 99: End of Summer

Fire is dangerous. Especially in a time when fire departments no longer function. If a spark flies astray and spreads, there's no stopping it.

That's why we prepared fire extinguishers before setting the fire. The heavy extinguishers weren't considered essential resources, so they were scattered throughout buildings and easy to find.

Crackle, crackle.

The flames danced.

"Burns well."

I mumbled absently while watching the flames consume the pile of corpses. Perhaps because we'd gathered trash from the streets and broken branches from fallen streetlights, it burned exceptionally well.

Watching the flickering flames brought me a sense of peace. That red glow and gentle movement. This was...

"Is this what they call the camping vibe?"

Do-hyung would have protested in horror if he were here, but he was asleep back in the villa district.

The people gathered here were all raiders with questionable humanity. The mercenaries snickered as they joked around.

"Our captain is so considerate. Giving these folks a proper funeral in times like these."

"What's it called again? Cremation, right? These bastards are living it up even in death."

Their jokes made me laugh too. I grinned widely. They had a similar style to mine. Though I'd formed this group by chance, I felt I'd made the right decision.

"These kind souls are giving us their precious resources. The least we can do is provide this service."

In this cheerful atmosphere, I glanced up at the villa building.

We're making all this commotion, and still no reaction? I'd expect them to be firing their guns in irritation by now.

Time to provoke them a bit.

I cleared my throat with a fake cough. It wasn't yet time to use our speaker, Sa Gi-hyeok. Glancing to the side, I saw our member, the father.

He stood stiffly among the mercenaries. I draped my arm around his shoulders in a friendly manner and raised my voice.

"Are you listening? This guy here paid us resources to kill you."

"What? What?"

The father member trembled as he looked at me. I tightened my grip, pulling his neck closer. My voice flowed cheerfully.

"But when I think about it, the cost-benefit doesn't add up. I don't want to waste more precious bullets. And I definitely don't want to crawl inside and get shot."

I shoved the father member toward the mercenaries and snapped my fingers.

"So let's settle this cleanly. Give us more than what this bastard gave us. Then I'll kill him right here and leave."

"That's not what you said! And we didn't give you anything in the first place!"

The father member shouted with a face drained of color. I gestured lightly, and a mercenary immediately struck the back of his head with a rifle butt.

"Argh!"

"Shut your mouth. Say another word and you're dead."

Click-click, several mercenaries aimed at the fallen member. He lay face down on the ground, squirming and making unintelligible groans.

The mercenaries followed orders well. Probably because it didn't conflict with their interests. Sa Gi-hyeok fidgeted nervously, as if thinking this would ruin our business, but remained silent.

I looked around before raising my gaze upward again. Still no reaction.

"I'll give you three minutes. If there's no answer in three minutes, we're setting the building on fire."

A lie. Wouldn't arson destroy valuable food too? This was just a show of force. Of course, making threats without following through would expose me as a fraud, but I was confident in my ability to cover that up.

I could threaten that they'd die painfully for wasting our precious three minutes.

Just then, a mercenary casually remarked:

"I brought cup noodles. Should I boil some water? We've got a fire here, and cup noodles take three minutes, right?"

He was looking at the fire using the corpse pile as firewood. I stared at him in disbelief. Is this appropriate? I finally opened my mouth to nitpick.

"Doesn't that take more than three minutes when you include boiling the water?"

Cup noodles aren't a three-minute dish. It's three minutes after adding water. His time calculation wasn't accurate.

The mercenary awkwardly fiddled with the transport cart. It contained supplies in case we couldn't return straight to the villa district.

"If you like them firm..."

Just as I was about to sigh in exasperation, a voice came from above. A man's voice.

"You crazy bastards. Mister, are you insane? Even if we treated you roughly, bringing these psychos!"

Words condemning our member.

I craned my neck upward and saw a head poking out from a third-floor window. A sharp-featured face wearing a mask.

I immediately drew my pistol and fired in that direction. Bang, a single gunshot rang out, scraping the villa's exterior wall.

The man's head quickly disappeared. I heard frustrated yelling.

"What the hell! I thought we were going to talk? I need to know how much to give you!"

"No. I just don't like being looked down on."

A small prank, with a bit of purpose too.

"Come down here and we'll talk."

"Kill that bastard first! Then we'll talk!"

I glanced at my wristwatch.

"Tick-tock. Time's running out. And how much to give? Almost everything you have, obviously. It's the price of your life."

"Damn it! Fine! Wait!"

The moment they agreed to negotiate, our fallen member suddenly jumped up and tried to flee, but was caught by a mercenary. Two mercenaries grabbed him from both sides and forced him to his knees.

"Stay put."

"I'll forfeit the incentive! I withdraw my report! Please!"

We pretended not to hear the member's cries, and soon someone emerged from the entrance.

A tall woman holding a box. Seems the guy I was talking to sent her out instead. He was probably hiding somewhere safe, assessing the situation.

I gestured with my pistol at the woman who was taller than me. I aimed at her thigh.

"I said I don't like being looked down on."

"You sick..."

Even as she cursed, the woman awkwardly hunched down. This naturally let me see the contents of the box. Not many resources. Canned food and cup noodles. At a glance, items with expiration dates drawing near.

"Leftovers? Why no new items? And so little?"

The woman looked up at me with frustration while maintaining her awkward posture.

"Where would you find new items in today's world?"

"...True."

I tapped my helmet with my gun hand. Maybe it was because of the mercenary who mentioned cup noodles earlier. I felt like I was becoming stupid too.

All such food left in the world was close to expiring.

I hurriedly waved my pistol.

"Put that down on the ground. Bring more. It's not enough yet."

"This is everything... You don't believe me?"

"You expect me to believe that?"

The woman sighed and turned around. This was repeated several times. Surprisingly, she showed no attachment to the resources. Maybe it was a raider trait.

Easily obtained resources. Resources you could get anytime as long as your body and gun were intact. Saving your life was the priority.

The woman finally put down the last box.

"This is it. There's really nothing more."

Her voice was full of sincerity. When a mercenary dumped the box into the transport cart, sighs erupted from all around. This business was truly a failure. These people were poorer than the old man.

There were only about three boxes, and the resources inside were meager. The cost-effectiveness was terrible no matter how you looked at it.

I guess with eight people, they couldn't stockpile much. Or maybe they were true raiders who didn't care about stockpiling at all.

The woman glared at our battered member with hatred-filled eyes.

"Now kill that bastard."

The arrow of hatred pointed in an unexpected direction. Not at us who attacked them, but at the weaker member. A voice came from above as well.

"A deal should be clean, right? It would be even better if you threw him into the fire with my friends."

"Ah, that."

I glanced upward to see the man just barely poking his gun out. I spoke in a regretful voice as I slowly pulled the combat cart backward. The mercenaries matched my pace.

As the burning pile of corpses grew more distant, an idea flashed through my mind. Fire. We could use it.

"Why would I kill my client? That was obviously a lie. We have fire extinguishers here, so you can put out the fire yourselves. Leave it, and the fire will spread and burn you alive."

"I knew he'd say that! What killing? No, just go!"

With those shouts echoing behind us, we departed.

***

In an alley a short distance from their hideout, I stopped the mercenaries.

"Those guys must have more resources, right?"

"Of course. Who acts honest and straightforward these days?"

They must. I lied myself just now. This made things very simple. I turned the cart around. If we went back now, the timing should be perfect.

"Should we go back and kill them, boss?"

"But they're holed up in the building."

"No. They'll have come out to put out the fire."

They would definitely need to come out to stop the campfire-like flames. Left alone, the fire would spread everywhere. We'd use that.

Without another word, I immediately pushed the cart forward at a brisk pace. The cart rattled and shook as it rolled over the rough road.

And in no time, we arrived at the street with a view of their hideout.

The moment I put my finger on the trigger, I clearly saw two figures in the distance.

"That's how he died."

"It's a decent death. Remember that guy last time who died from diarrhea after getting sick?"

People sighing as they sprayed fire extinguishers. White powder fell like burial shrouds over the blackened corpses. The flames were dying down.

Perhaps because I rushed forward without hesitation, they sensed my presence and turned around despite the distance, but it was meaningless. We had different weapons, and the range was entirely different.

Ta-da-da, gunshots rang out in quick succession. The two people became corpses, falling on top of their friends.

"Haha."

I grinned as I confirmed the kills with my hammer. Then, picking up the fire extinguisher, I coated their bodies with the same white powder as their friends, digesting the idea.

'Disguise, lure, trap.'

Leave as if finished, lure them out with fire, and shoot them when they emerge. It was an improvised scenario, but effective, and if refined properly, it would become my weapon.