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The flies were clumsy survivors.

Humans who focused solely on defense in the fortress called the townhouse. Compared to the survivors struggling on the streets, these flies, driven out of their fortress, had many shortcomings.

They couldn’t respond immediately and threateningly to ambushes, nor were they accustomed to urban warfare.

Still, as survivors, their escape skills were average, but they weren’t adept at handling various threats.

“Caught one.”

“Here’s a captured one.”

By changing their strategy to digging traps and ambushing, their companions began to achieve some results.

The companions sent as hunting groups must have been tired from standing guard, but their bloodshot eyes gleamed with ferocity. They grabbed the hair of one fly they had caught and roughly pushed him to his knees in front of me.

“Ugh!”

A survivor from the townhouse. Quick-witted, the first to flee, a human who survived us.

I looked at the fly with interest, tapping my palm with a hammer.

“I have a lot to ask. You won’t talk easily, will you?”

“No, I’ll tell you everything. Ask whatever you want. Why we’re doing this, where the handguns came from.”

The kneeling fly quickly opened his mouth, but I shook my head. How could I trust the first one to run away? I needed time to make him tell the truth.

“No. Keep your mouth shut. And hold back your screams.”

I swung the hammer down. The cutely swung hammer traced a soft curve and tapped the fly’s knee. A crunching sound was heard.

“Ahhh!”

The fly screamed and twisted his body, but my companions held his shoulders and hair tightly, making him squirm like a real bug.

I glanced at my companions and gestured after inspecting the clean hammer.

“Lock him up in the empty house. Tie him up tightly like before. We’ll cross-examine him later when we catch another one.”

It doesn’t matter if we don’t catch another. The one locked up won’t know much. In a few days, we can act as if we’ve caught someone else and get some believable information.

A companion grabbed the fly’s arm and dragged him away. The companion’s curses could be heard.

“If you lost, you should have run away quietly. Do you know how tired we are because of you?”

“My leg, my leg!”

“Should I break your other leg too?”

Even as the fly groaned and slumped, the companion, exhausted from night watch and hunting, handled him roughly without a care.

They’re starting to look like real pillagers. I smiled contentedly as I watched them, then put the hammer back in my pocket.

‘How can I use this situation?’

If luck is on our side, we might be able to write a decent scenario.

For example, using the fly to get police resources into our hands, ambushing police contacts, or spreading false information.

The police are good at handling people, but it’s not something only they can do.

***

“There’s been no provocation for days.”

“After all, they’re survivors. They won’t fall for the same trick twice.”

In my living room, I responded to Sajihyeok’s words. He looked out the window at a certain house. The room where we had locked up the captured fly.

With one leg broken and fingers, wrists, and neck tied up, the house didn’t need a separate guard. It seemed like cries of pain could be heard from there.

Maybe some companion was venting their anger by beating the fly? Last time I checked, they were force-feeding him during meal times.

Even with solar-powered houses and family by our side, the world is so stressful that military-like abuses are bound to happen. Besides, he’s the enemy. No need to hold back.

“Really… I can’t believe how much the world has changed in just a few months.”

Sajihyeok revealed a bitter emotion with his dark eyes. He muttered as if talking to himself.

“I used to think the world was quite livable while committing fraud. People who easily trusted others, those who couldn’t take back their trust once given, all so naive and easy to deceive. But looking at the world now…”

I think I know what he means. A society where minimal trust existed.

But the world that the apocalypse brought was closer to the wild, and people thought and moved like beasts in the wild.

Hungry, they killed for food; strangers were enemies threatening them. In this world, the ability to adapt and strength were most valued.

“The environment changed, so people changed too. By the way, I’m thinking of interrogating the captured fly soon. Will you help?”

“What fly are you talking about? Ah, the prisoner. No, why do you call people like that? Even if the world has changed.”

Sajihyeok forced a laugh and spouted nonsense again, and I brushed it off.

“We’ll pretend to capture another prisoner and act as if we’re interrogating them. Please write a suitable scenario.”

“It’s not a difficult task.”

Sajihyeok, immersed in sentiment, adjusted his clothes with a strange gleam in his dark eyes.

“Where should we start? To exploit the information imbalance, we need to act as if we have solid information.”

With that, Sajihyeok and I talked for a while. Taking turns playing the prisoner’s role, extracting as much information as possible, assuming various questions and answers.

In the end, we headed to the house where the prisoner was held.

***

Entering the room where the prisoner was tied up, darkness greeted us. The windows were tightly sealed to prevent him from seeing outside or keeping track of time, so even though it was daytime, the room was dark.

A groan came from the darkness.

“It hurts. It hurts. My leg.”

I silently turned on the flashlight. The bright light illuminated the pitiful fly.

In just a few days, the fly had become haggard. Pale complexion, dark circles. And the noose around his neck tied to the desk leg.

The slumped fly weakly raised his head, squinting his eyes at me.

“What now? I just ate.”

“How have you been?”

“You…”

I looked the fly up and down. Surprisingly, there were no signs of being beaten by my companions. The noose around his neck and the restraints on his hands were still there, and the wound on his knee remained.

“Did our friends bother you?”

“They didn’t.”

Do my companions still have some decency left?

The fly lowered his pupils, contracted by the flashlight’s beam, to the floor.

“There was someone who wanted to hit me, but someone else said that if they got careless and something happened, they didn’t know how the boss would react, so they held back. …I didn’t know you guys were so well-organized. I thought you were just a bunch of reckless people.”

Really? I thought my position might be shaken due to conflicts with the alliance, but it seems my companions still think of me.

“That makes sense. Our boss sometimes does scary things.”

Sajihyeok spoke with confidence, and I glared at him before taking out a notebook from my pocket.

A notebook from a paranoid uncle I met while living on Villa Street. Soaked and crumpled, it no longer functioned as a notebook, but it was still a good prop when pretending to think.

I flipped through the notebook and spoke briefly.

“About 175 cm tall. Slim build. Some white hair, receding hairline. What’s this person’s name?”

The description of the person my companions tracked down. I naturally mentioned him as if we had captured him.

“You’re talking about Jo Yeongseok.”

“Haha. The name we heard is different. You shouldn’t lie. You don’t know what our boss might do.”

Sajihyeok laughed heartily and pointed at me, and I quietly looked over the fly.

If we were to torture him, what should we do? If we leave more wounds, he might die. Depriving him of sleep is a waste of manpower. If we have time to stay here and torture him, we should be doing other things.

‘In the first place, torture isn’t fun or efficient. I’d rather just kill him cleanly.’

My gaze moved to the fly’s crown. A good spot to hit with a hammer.

Feeling my gaze, the fly trembled. He spoke urgently.

“It’s Jo Yeongseok. He lied. I’m sure.”

“Alright. Next question. How do you contact the alliance?”

I vaguely mentioned riders or police, but it was also a way to say that we knew they were provoking us under the alliance’s orders.

This was information we could have known without capturing a prisoner. The sudden appearance of handguns, meaningless provocations. There’s no reason to do this unless it’s under the alliance’s orders.

The fly answered.

“A rider comes. The meeting spot is decided by the rider, but I’ve been caught for a long time, so I don’t know.”

“Do you know the five Ws and one H?”

I closed the notebook and took out the hammer. If you’re going to talk, be precise.

“Who, when, where, what, how, why. If you miss even one, you lose a finger.”

“…If my body gets that broken, I won’t have a way to live.”

A flash of venom crossed the fly’s eyes.

“Even if I tell you the truth, there’s no guarantee I’ll live. Promises are meaningless.”

It seemed like he was about to throw himself at the noose around his neck. I leisurely stroked the hammer.

“But we can’t ignore our interests. If you work with us, give us benefits, we can live together.”

I grinned.

“Can you still pretend to work and divert alliance resources? Ah, don’t worry about the work. If we capture a few more, it should be enough.”

 

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