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The indoor farm was bustling with activity. First, water the lettuce, turn on the plant growth lights, inform the people on Villa Street about the situation, and keep an eye out for zombies.

An unnamed street person was the most enthusiastic. He even pulled out candles prepared in the farm, melted white paraffin using a double boiler, and was busy attacking zombies.

“Die!”

As I approached the window and glanced outside, a zombie was running around, covered in melted paraffin, screeching.

Perhaps because a few had already been taken down, a zombie with hardened paraffin covering its face like a mask wandered the street, flailing its arms.

“Wow.”

I hadn’t thought of using candles as weapons. Surprisingly, they worked well as water-based weapons. While water was better in terms of safety and efficiency, paraffin had its own significant power.

Most of all, I liked the appearance. It looked like something straight out of a horror movie.

‘Maybe we can upgrade the cross? If we pour melted candle wax on it…’

As I pondered this while stroking my chin, Jeondohyeong put a brake on my creative idea.

“I get what you’re thinking, but please save the candles. We’ll need them for lighting if the electricity goes out later.”

He was right. The water supply was still intact, making water an almost infinite resource, and using water was more economical than using candles.

But now wasn’t the time to worry about that. We were trapped by zombies, and it was time to make them suffer as much as we were. We needed to fill them with poison and share the pain to make them retreat.

I summed up my thoughts.

“Tomorrow isn’t guaranteed. Forget about resources, tormenting zombies comes first.”

“This guy’s gone crazy again.”

Jeondohyeong shook his head in dismay and went back to work, carefully distributing fertilizer to the lettuce.

Not wanting to join in such boring tasks, I tapped the street person on the shoulder.

“I’ll handle the watering.”

“No, this is—”

“Hold on, go help over there.”

The street person, holding a bowl of melted paraffin, slowly nodded. He was a conscientious person.

It wouldn’t be fair to keep all the fun to myself. After risking my life to get here and suffering through watering lettuce, I deserved some enjoyable work too.

Excitedly, I grabbed the bowl of melted paraffin and a cup of hot water, looking down near the entrance.

‘Please come out. Oh, there it is.’

A zombie peeked out, looking up. I quickly poured the hot water, but the zombie swiftly pulled its head back, dodging the water, and then darted out.

It seemed to have calculated the delay, but humans have two hands. I swiftly threw the melted paraffin.

“Screech!”

It narrowly missed, only splashing the top and back of its head. The zombie jumped around and fled down the street without looking back.

It was like whack-a-mole. I grinned, refilled the cup with hot water, and focused intently on the entrance, my eyes straining.

“There must still be a lot of zombies, right?”

***

Time passed. The task of reclaiming Villa Street from the zombies progressed slowly. We couldn’t wipe them out all at once, so we had to torment them bit by bit, erasing their reason to stay here.

Hot water was poured all over Villa Street. Following the quickly spread information, everyone used efficient weapons.

Zombies that wandered into Villa Street were drenched in boiling water and fled in terror.

Even the zombies inside the villa buildings began to show signs of retreating.

“Screech…”

A zombie tilted its head, looked at the sky, and ran off in a panic.

They even seemed to have learned something, using dead bodies or zombie corpses as umbrellas to defend themselves. Fortunately, it was just an act of escape, but I clicked my tongue.

“Your patience is too lacking.”

If you trap people in their homes, you should be prepared to be trapped too. Running away just because of some water? Can you even call yourselves zombies?

I pointlessly poured water toward the entrance. No zombies came out, but it was a warning and a threat.

You’re not getting out. If you want to leave, be prepared to get hurt.

“We’ve watered and fertilized. Can we go to another house now?”

“Now? There are still zombies outside the entrance.”

It was a conversation between Park Yang-gun and Jeondohyeong. Park Yang-gun came over to me, glanced down the street, and tilted his head.

“Were you planning to enter through the window using the gas pipes? But would zombies learn that?”

“They probably would.”

I quickly waved my hand to stop Park Yang-gun. This was scary. Zombies learning to break in through windows using gas pipes? If they appeared, it would be terrifying.

‘Surely there aren’t zombies like that already? No, there probably are.’

When humans find ways to deal with zombies, zombies learn from them too. Like how zombies threw bricks during the church siege.

If they saw a parkour athlete crossing the city and learned those movements…

“Uh.”

A zombie appeared. Instinctively, I twisted my wrist and poured hot water, but I missed the zombie sprinting at full speed.

At the same time, the zombies remaining in the farm villa rushed out. It was a desperate sprint, as if a bear was chasing them from behind.

“No, ah.”

I had no water left. Frantically, I refilled the coffee pot, but the zombies had already fled. No more zombies came out of the farm villa.

And no more zombies were coming. The ones that had just entered Villa Street saw the fleeing zombies and, after standing still for a moment, turned around.

Thus, Villa Street became quiet again.

For now, we had reclaimed the street from the zombies. A brief peace had arrived. I sighed in disappointment.

We hadn’t fully avenged the zombies that trapped us, ruined our lettuce farm, and destroyed the fruits of our labor…

At that moment, Jeondohyeong pressed his ear to the entrance door, secured the safety chain, and slightly opened the door before pulling out his phone.

“This is the farm. The zombies have retreated. The remaining people can come and water the crops in the other houses.”

Since the zombies had retreated, he was calling people to quickly manage the crops.

I took a deep breath. It would be hard to have such a fun mutual destruction like today in the future. Once the water, gas, and electricity are completely cut off, it would be impossible.

Still, I tried to be satisfied with having survived and melted a few candles.

‘Let’s upgrade the cross.’

***

As I went out to the street and poured paraffin over the rotten crosses, the people of Villa Street began to appear one by one.

Some cautiously turned their heads and approached step by step, some waved blood-stained weapons and dragged corpses, unsure if there were still zombies, and some walked briskly with joyful smiles.

But they all paused for a moment when they saw me.

“Uh, what are you doing…?”

“The cross’s effectiveness has worn off, so I’m upgrading it. Someone from that villa gave me the idea.”

“…”

For some reason, they seemed to subtly distance themselves from me, but I figured they just wanted to get to the farm quickly.

Then, I suddenly noticed an empty spot.

The zombie I had tied up. The virus generator. It was gone. Whether another zombie had freed it or the knot had loosened during the rain, there was nothing where the zombie had been tied.

“It’s not dead. Did it escape? …We used it for a long time.”

Well, if it escaped, we’ll just catch it and tie it up again.

After roughly reinforcing the cross, I stretched and returned to the farm.

Entering the house with the most activity, I found people gathered in a somber, disorganized manner.

An uncle was holding a notebook, scribbling with a pen.

“This many people have died.”

Glancing at the notebook, it was a list of names. On the page listing the people of Villa Street, black lines were drawn through some names.

From the grandfather who died during the first zombie attack due to heatstroke, to the two who died while entering the farm.

Quite a few people had died. Looking around, all the people of Villa Street were gathered in one house, but it felt surprisingly empty. Especially, many of the younger workers were gone.

With this many people gathered, it should feel suffocating, but the distance between everyone made it quite comfortable.

‘Good. We have people to farm, and resources left from the deaths.’

It was a decent outcome.

The uncle, with a dark expression, fiddled with the notebook and suddenly turned his head. His gaze fell on the kid’s mom. A difficult voice came out.

“The kids…?”

“I contacted the school. They’re alive. I even talked to the kids.”

The mom, with a bright expression, spoke with relief but quickly changed her tone, sensing the mood.

Still, the news that the kids were alive was good news even in this situation. People murmured words of relief.

“Good thing we sent them to school.”

“There are soldiers and police there. It’s better than here.”

A hopeful atmosphere lingered, knowing we had survived another day.

They looked around and checked the crops first. The lifeless leaves that hadn’t been watered.

“Oh no. They have no strength.”

“Let’s water them quickly.”

The people moved busily. I slowly stepped back. I had done the most dangerous task of entering the farm. I needed to rest.

Leaving behind the sight of the uncle and Jeondohyeong contacting other groups, I returned home.

The road, soaked by rainwater, the water we poured, and paraffin, was quiet as if zombies had never been there. The hot sun and humid air clung stickily to my skin.

Looking up, I saw broken windows from the storm. Not just the first-floor glass within human reach, but even the higher windows of the building were starting to shatter.

It felt like a world gradually crumbling, with people dying one by one and things falling apart bit by bit, heading toward destruction.

 

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