NTN 30

Chapter 30 

Conviction

While Sung Geon-woo, Yong Yeo-hong, Jang Mok-hwa, and the others were fully engrossed in the story, Jeon Du-ha continued speaking, stretching out his hands toward the fire to warm himself.

“Then, at some point, I lost consciousness without even realizing it and collapsed. It must have been swept up by the blast’s air currents. Luckily, when I woke up, I wasn’t hurt anywhere.

After regaining my senses, I kept running. But my grandfather’s house had already completely collapsed, and the two of them couldn’t come outside…

Back then, my grandfather and grandmother were younger than I am now. They raised chickens, grew vegetables—there was nothing they couldn’t do.

Ahem, let’s stop with that story. There weren’t few survivors in that village at the time. I followed some uncles and aunts, along with other elders from nearby houses, to the village. There were still some intact houses, but we didn’t choose them. We picked this open area. Even if a temporary tent collapsed, we didn’t have to worry about being crushed under it.

The communication networks were cut off, and there were no signals, so everyone just waited here. We waited for support, for help, but none of it came…”

Jeon Du-ha’s voice gradually lowered, as if he could still vividly recall the fear and despair of that time.

“Some of the uncles and aunts said they couldn’t just wait anymore. They went to supermarkets or other people’s houses to get food and even tried leaving Haeja Village to head for the city. I went with them. I thought maybe then I could return to my parents. Don’t laugh—that was a child’s very instinctive choice.

We drove on the broken roads, and after a long while, we reached the city.

But that place… that place was even more horrifying…”

Jeon Du-ha’s eyes began to lose focus, like someone trapped in a nightmare with no escape.

The rescue team, including Jang Mok-hwa and Sung Geon-woo, didn’t rush him. They sat quietly around the fire, waiting for the food to warm.

After several seconds, Jeon Du-ha’s focus returned, and he let out a low laugh, shaking his head.

“Everywhere in the city, there were corpses and mindless people. The streets, residential areas, shops—it was all the same.

Mindless people eating corpses with blood smeared around their mouths were no different from the most vicious beasts. They could climb tall buildings like monkeys, falling from ten meters only to appear behind you in an instant, and they even knew how to use guns.

We were only about eight or nine, and as soon as we encountered that situation, our numbers were halved.

I guess I was too young and short to be noticed at first, so I wasn’t the first target. That’s how I barely survived.

Panicked, we ran blindly, not caring about the streets, and broke into a nearby police station.

Luckily, the mindless people knew how to shoot and reload, but they couldn’t actively find weapons. We were able to scavenge quite a few guns and ammunition from the corpses inside the station.”

At this point, Jeon Du-ha chuckled and spoke to Baek Saebyeok and Jang Mok-hwa.

“Do you think we managed to break through the mindless people’s encirclement with those guns?

Not at all. None of us, including the uncles and aunts, knew how to shoot, and the gunfire only attracted more mindless people.

I cried, thinking I was going to die.

Thankfully, some of the uncles and aunts fought with everything they had and didn’t give up on me. We ran until we reached a parking lot.

There, we found an SUV with its doors open and keys in the ignition. The owner wasn’t there, but I assume they had already turned into a mindless person and couldn’t drive anymore, so they’d gone elsewhere.

We got in the SUV, picked up several mindless people, and headed to the main road.

There weren’t many mindless people in that area, and we took the opportunity to get out of the city. Once we reached the outskirts, it finally felt a little safer.”

Jeon Du-ha sighed.

“Before leaving Haeja Village, I wanted to go home and check on my parents, but in the end, I never met them.”

He continued, staring at the slowly boiling pot.

“We had no choice but to return to the village. We packed a little food and some clothes while traveling.

After abandoning the SUV and carrying only our belongings across the broken roads, we recovered the two cars we had used to leave the village.

That’s how we returned to Haeja Village.

By then, it was already winter, and there was no sign of any support coming. So we stopped worrying about aftershocks and decided to use the remaining intact buildings. You can’t insist on living in tents until you freeze to death, right?

It was just before the New Year, so every house had plenty of pre-prepared gifts, and the supermarkets were stocked. We didn’t have to worry about food that winter.

But some uncles and aunts said that simply eating the stored food wasn’t good. It could become a habit and waste valuable time, so they suggested exchanging food for labor instead.

Most people agreed. Until spring, we divided the buildings into rooms, repaired the exterior walls, created irrigation channels for the fields outside the village, built a water purification station at the water tower, and learned how to use guns.

It was only later that we realized how important those preparations were. They helped immensely when dealing with famine, beasts, raiders, and mindless people.”

As he recalled the collective labor, the old man’s eyes lost focus again.

In a voice that had become almost a whisper, he muttered,

“When the weather warmed and spring arrived, we finally had the conviction:

Support would never come…”

He lifted his head and forced a smile.

“You can probably guess what happened next.

During winter, when a large number of mindless people died, we started exploring the nearby ruined cities. We gathered supplies like food, clothes, guns, ammunition, batteries, and fuel. Meanwhile, we managed production, attempted hunting, and sent people far away to check if any cities had survived.

Want to hear more?”

Jang Mok-hwa nodded slightly.

“Yes, I do!”

She smiled brightly.

“You can speak while eating. We’ll listen while we eat.”

The beef stew in the pot was bubbling vigorously.

At that moment, Sung Geon-woo rubbed his stomach and said,

“I’ll go to the restroom first.”

“Me too.”

Yong Yeo-hong got up as well.

“Okay, we’ll wait for you.”

Jang Mok-hwa fully understood the two team members who were outside for the first time. She herself had struggled with basic needs when first venturing into the black swamp wilderness from the company. She didn’t want to squat behind trees or bushes unless she absolutely had to.

Small matters were manageable, but facing bigger challenges required real courage.

From her observation, Sung Geon-woo and Yong Yeo-hong had never really dealt with such needs since leaving the company.

Following Jeon Du-ha’s directions, Sung Geon-woo and Yong Yeo-hong passed through a chaotic area full of houses and headed to a public restroom built along the side wall.

Along the way, they encountered a mixture of horrible odors. It was impossible to tell exactly what, but it was certainly repulsive. They had to hold their breath as best they could.

Sung Geon-woo also noticed multiple houses sharing a communal stove to cook food, and people squatting at doorways drinking nearly empty, pale gruel without removing the mud-covered clothes they wore.

Through a half-open door, he saw someone sick in bed, groaning painfully and searching for a spittoon. Meanwhile, a child not even a year old, unable to return home in time, urinated on the street.

Even children under ten in every house busily helped their parents, making fires, cooking, and cleaning clothes.

Continuing under the curious and cautious gaze of local children, Sung Geon-woo and Yong Yeo-hong finally reached the public restroom.

On the left was a sign for women in skirts; on the right, a man was depicted.

Following the signs, they turned right—and their eyes widened.

The public restroom looked nothing like they had imagined, nor like the shared restroom inside Bango Bio.

Urinals stretched along the front wall, while larger toilets were installed along the back wall.

Water from both the urinals and toilets was flushed at set times through a system connected to the women’s restroom. There were no partitions, so when the water flushed, everything inside was swept away. In other words, the urinals and toilets were like two flowing streams.

The only comforting fact was that Haeja Village placed significant importance on restroom hygiene, so it was relatively clean.

“Shall we?”

Yong Yeo-hong hesitated.

“Let’s.”

Sung Geon-woo took the lead, squatting down and lowering his pants.

Yong Yeo-hong chose a slightly distant spot, trying to avoid Sung Geon-woo, and unbuckled his belt.

“This feels… weird…”

He muttered, unable to look at Sung Geon-woo, as there was no divider between them.

Sung Geon-woo pinched his nose.

“What did you eat recently?”

“….”

Yong Yeo-hong couldn’t reply.

At that moment, a group of Haeja Village residents rushed in.

They glanced at Sung Geon-woo and Yong Yeo-hong, then some went to the urinals while others squatted at the toilets.

“This just got weirder,”

Yong Yeo-hong thought, seemingly reading Sung Geon-woo’s mind.

Sung Geon-woo’s thoughts soon wandered oddly.

“If the village chief squats here, and someone comes in, would he greet them?”

A nearby villager replied automatically.

“The chief has a bathroom in his room.”

In this strange situation, Yong Yeo-hong was completely speechless.

Finally finishing, he hurriedly adjusted his clothes and washed his hands at the sink outside.

Taking a deep breath of fresh air, he realized once again that compared to the wandering outposts, the underground buildings of Bango Bio were like heaven.