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My house on Villa Street. I wiped my body with a wet towel and sank into thought.

Time still flowed at the same speed, and the world was smoothly falling apart. Hungry survivors still entered the survivor zones to commit petty crimes, and sometimes they even came all the way to our Villa Street.

In this flow, the arson incident wasn’t anything special and naturally got buried.

Unspecified masses caused trouble every day. Plus, the Alliance had a new problem on their hands.

Drought.

“It’s been almost a month since it last rained.”

I looked down at the wet towel. Without rain, it was hard to fill the water tank, and when people struggled to collect water, we had to use it sparingly.

Honestly, we were holding up okay. Since we weren’t farming, we didn’t have much use for water. Even though the river had dried up quite a bit, it still flowed, and we had enough water to drink.

The problem was the Alliance and the military. They had a lot of people. They even farmed, so they didn’t have enough water to go around.

“No matter how much electricity we have, we can’t get water in a drought.”

It’s a deadly season. A season where public sentiment turns turbulent. I used to divide the seasons into the plague of spring, the war of summer, and the famine of autumn, but in reality, these disasters always moved together.

In spring, we fought zombies and scavenged for scarce resources. In summer, we fought to survive and suffered from waterborne diseases. In autumn, diseases from malnutrition and the fight for survival…

Death was always there.

As I was thinking, *beep beep*, the sound of the door unlocking echoed. I stopped wiping myself and grabbed my handgun first. Just in case.

Soon, Park Yang-gun’s voice was heard.

“I brought food.”

“Ah, is it already mealtime?”

I put the handgun behind my back and waited for the door to open. Park Yang-gun came in holding a plastic plate, grumbling.

“The people in charge of food made some weird stuff.”

“…This is really weird food.”

*Thud*, the plate placed in front of me had some unidentifiable food on it.

It looked like flour dough mixed with some kind of weed—not a pancake, not rice cake. It was closer to fuel than food. Just looking at it made me lose my appetite.

“Isn’t there still food left? Why, why this?”

“They were whispering about saving food, and then they made this.”

I poked the strange food with my finger and gently tore it apart. The cooked dough split, and what looked like boiled weeds stretched out.

“Is this really weeds?”

“Yeah, it’s weeds. They picked some grass growing nearby. I guess people are going crazy from not eating vegetables.”

We have kimchi, so why are they doing this? This is a waste of flour.

“Is this even safe to eat?”

“Probably. Someone tried it first and said it was fine. Some old man said eating a little weed won’t kill you.”

Park Yang-gun said that and then subtly reached out his hand.

“I haven’t eaten it yet. If I get a stomachache, it’ll be a hassle. If you don’t want to eat it, give it to me.”

“No, I’ll save it and eat it later.”

I pushed the plate aside. The weather was cool. If the others who already ate it weren’t sick, I could try it then.

Suddenly, a question came to mind.

“Is water not in short supply?”

“Hmm. If it doesn’t rain soon, it might be.”

Park Yang-gun looked out the window. I also turned my head to look at the clear sky without a single cloud. The ground was drying up, but the sky was as blue as the ocean.

Maybe because it’s autumn, the sky seemed unusually high and distant, as if it had nothing to do with the drought.

“All we can do is pray for rain.”

“Or find a way to get water somehow.”

***

The expiration date of bottled water is 12 months. It’s a resource that can be looted.

The problem is that water is a resource that’s easily used up, so it’s hard to come by. Almost no one had properly stockpiled bottled water, and even those who did probably already used it up.

I listened to my companions’ opinions and even went through Professor Kim’s materials, but I couldn’t find any information I liked.

“Making a water purifier or covering trees with bags to collect water droplets. These methods give too little.”

“There’s really no way to get water.”

Jeon Do-hyeong waved his hand. I had gathered my criminal companions for once, but none of them had a solution.

The most plausible suggestion was to move.

Park Yang-gun and Sa Ki-hyeok, flipping through maps, each pointed to a facility. Their fingers pointed to a place quite far from here.

“The river probably hasn’t dried up completely. How about moving closer to the river?”

“There’s a small dam far from this city. There might even be a hydroelectric facility.”

I took the map and held it up in front of my face. The dense map. The distance from our current location to the places they mentioned…

“It’s ambiguous. It’s too far. If we had a car, maybe, but walking there on foot would be tough.”

Moving. And we’d have to carry all our luggage without a car or truck. Just the ammunition and firearms alone were a lot, and moving our stockpiled food would require multiple trips.

There was also a high chance we’d use up all our ammunition and food during the move.

And most importantly, the dam was dangerous.

“If it’s a hydroelectric facility, there’s a high chance a proper military unit is stationed there.”

The military is dangerous, and even if it’s a functioning military unit, we can’t expect the shelter to be working properly.

It’s been over half a year since the apocalypse. People probably flocked to major national facilities, but could they handle it all? Wouldn’t the shelters be more like lawless zones?

If it’s the same lawless zone, it’s better here.

Then Jeon Do-hyeong raised his hand.

“Let’s at least make a few makeshift water purifiers. If we use purifier filters, we can use stagnant water.”

“Yeah, let’s do that.”

It wouldn’t hurt to prepare.

Last summer, after the typhoons and heavy rains, there might still be water pooled underground. We’d have to purify and boil it, but water is water.

***

Even in a drought, work must go on.

A few companions and I went back to the river area, and the river had changed quite a bit. It had turned into a stream, as if it had overflowed recently.

The bottom was exposed, and the lush plants around it had dried up. Even the car stuck in the river had dried out.

“Doesn’t this make it hard to catch fish?”

As I muttered, Park Yang-gun nodded. He mumbled like an old man, even though he’s an uncle.

“People in the past didn’t value water for no reason. Without water, everything falls apart. I can understand the urge to hold a rain ritual.”

A rain ritual. Somewhere, they might actually be holding one. Sacrificing people as offerings.

I looked around at my companions. I hadn’t been to the survivor zone recently, so I didn’t know the latest situation.

“How’s the river situation? Have more people or zombies gathered, or are there people eyeing the river? Has anything changed?”

“It hasn’t changed much here. In other rivers, there are people trying to charge for water use, but thanks to us, it’s peaceful here.”

Right. No one would dare stick their head into our territory, armed with military firearms.

But then I felt a strange thought.

“Then why aren’t people flocking here? We don’t charge for river use.”

“Well…”

My companion awkwardly smiled.

“Seems like our business is inconvenient.”

“Ah, I see. It’s inconvenient.”

Well, that makes me uncomfortable too.

The river area business is almost at its end. Those who wanted to run have run, those who wanted to join have joined, and those who were going to die have died. It’s autumn, so resources aren’t plentiful either.

I tapped the handle of the combat cart and unfolded the map.

“Where are the guys who took over the other rivers?”

Then we’ll just have to raid other territories. What else can we do?

“Here, here, here.”

Rivers scattered around, avoiding the Alliance’s territory and ours. The closest one was upstream from our river, and the farther ones were other river branches.

“Should we attack the guys who took over the rivers?”

When I asked, my companions blinked.

“Now? Shouldn’t we give them some time to accumulate resources?”

“Of course, we’ll do it in a few days. We need to check their weapons and numbers.”

Survivors like scavengers might not be rich, but pillagers like me probably are. You get more by raiding the rich.

“Since we don’t know how long the drought will last, it’s good to secure a few more water sources.”

“At best, we can secure one more. Anything beyond that is too far. It’s beyond our range of movement.”

Park Yang-gun gave some sound advice.

The limits of mobility.

I folded the map again and looked at the bicycle parking lot near the river.

“Then let’s just take some bikes today. We need to start supplementing our mobility.”

The faster and farther we can move, the more we can do. It’s the season of famine, so we need to work harder.

Park Yang-gun wiggled his fingers.

“Stealing bikes isn’t really my style.”

“Is that so?”

“It’s too easy.”

He was serious. Park Yang-gun fiddled with his fingers a few times and unlocked the bike lock. The bike tied up in the parking lot was freed.

We picked the bikes that were in the best condition.

 

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