Hiding a House in the Apocalypse

Chapter 26: Residue (2)

Kyle_Dos: I was patrolling the area as usual.

It was a sweltering day.

The underground bunker was filled with oppressive heat and humidity.

There was a generator, but its power output was limited, so luxuries like air conditioning were out of the question.

A roar echoed from the north.

It seemed like another monster had burst out of the fissure.

When the colossal creature appeared earlier, I had been lucky. It had come within just 4 km of my location before abruptly changing course.

But the strange transformation of the surrounding vegetation and the eerie whitish light instead of the usual red in the dawn and dusk rays were unsettling even for someone like me, who was ignorant of the fissure's mysteries.

At that time, my hobby was foraging. While I had preserved foods that were as moisture-deprived as bricks and plenty of canned goods, consuming such food for an extended period was not good for one's mental health.

As a remedy for my depression, I had prepared sweet treats like jams and sugar, but if sweet foods alone could cure it, there would be no one in this world suffering from depression enough to go to the hospital or contemplate suicide.

As a change of mood, I went to a nearby stream.

By the stream, the makeshift stalls of the valley traders, left untouched by time, lay there, turning back the clock.

Sitting on a suitable stall, I used my military dagger to catch a big crab lurking in the water. It was not a lobster, just crab-sized, but it was filled with flesh and tasted reasonably good, except for its eerie whitish colour.

I caught enough crabs to fill a large pot and headed back home.

There were flowers I had never seen before in bloom.

It wasn't just one or two; it was a field of whitish flowers composed of hundreds, even thousands of blooms, unfolding before me like destiny.

Among the meticulously arranged flowers, I noticed something entirely different from the whitish blossoms, something white and radiant writhing in the center.

It was a woman.

Her entire clothes were torn off, and she seemed to have been severely beaten and had lost consciousness, but her shape and curves undeniably belonged to a woman.

I brought her back to the underground bunker and nursed her diligently, undeterred by the bunker's stifling heat and humidity.

I wiped the sweat from my forehead with my sleeve as I applied antiseptic to her scratched wounds and carefully applied ointment to her face, which still retained its beauty despite the bruises and swelling.

It took quite some time for the woman to regain consciousness.

When she finally did, she covered herself with a thin blanket, trembling, and asked in a shaky voice, "I'm not sure what happened, but don't worry. I'm not your enemy. This place is safe. If you need anything, please tell me."

That was the first meeting between Kyle_Dos and the woman he had found.

The prologue of DragonC's story received enthusiastic praise.

Anonymous458: Wow, why can't I find a woman like that?

roka3218: Such a beautiful story.

Anonymous848: Jealous! Kyle_Dos! All I see around me are corpses.

kimcic: I don't usually read manga, but maybe because it's your story, I found myself shedding tears without realizing it.

unicorn18: Is she a virgin?

...

...

But not everyone shares the same opinion.

There were some negative comments, and I won't deny that I am one of them.

Defender: Just fantasy. Fantasy. Just show the status screen.

SKELTON: Hmm... it is well written.

Unfortunately, Defender and I posted our comments within an extremely short time interval of 1 second, which only intensified the suspicion that I was a Defender fanboy. I even earned the ignominious title of a troll.

But a few people understood my true intent.

Kyle_Dos himself was one of the rare few who recognized Skeleton's true worth.

He sent me a message.

Message from Kyle_Dos: Skeleton, I'm really sorry, but I have a favour to ask.

And that favour is an extension of the previous request.

Another capsule has appeared, and not just one, but two.

This is not good.

The erosion is faster than expected.

The descriptions in DragonC's prologue and the fact that the plants themselves are changing are solid evidence that the area has already entered the early stages of erosion.

In the academic world, they argue that the corrosion zone itself does not pose any harm to humans, citing the example of the 200 million believers of the Preservationist Sect who have established their base in the erosion zone.

My thoughts are different.

Humans cannot survive in the erosion zone.

It's as if humans are losing something crucial, much like the monsters vanishing from the Earth.

To put it another way, everything becomes transient and loses its meaning.

Where did those 200 million believers they talk about go?

The erosion zone is genuinely dangerous.

I sent a reply to Kyle_Dos.

SKELTON: Where you are living is extremely dangerous. It's not about the capsules. If you can escape, please do.

Message from Kyle_Dos: Where should I go?

I hesitated for a moment.

I knew the model answer, but I couldn't readily offer it.

I'm not just a selfless person.

SKELTON: Anywhere but there. Staying there means certain death. Go see for yourself. Your area has already eorded. It's become a monster's territory.

Message from Kyle_Dos: Thanks for the advice, but I have no intention of leaving here. My wife is satisfied and living here. Or should I come to your bunker?

"."

Message from Kyle_Dos: Ridiculous. There are several reasons, but who knows better than you why I worry?

SKELTON: I think I understand.

Message from Kyle_Dos: Besides, now that I think about it, it's not something a person would say to come to you. There's a full-blown war going on down there. Well, I'll figure it out on my own.

That was our last conversation.

DragonC: I can't reach Kyle_Dos all of a sudden. Does anyone have contact with Kyle_Dos?

When I heard that Kyle_Dos had disappeared, I felt more like "it's about time" than shock.

But isn't it a bit too soon?

He had his wife with him, didn't he?

If she had said something, Kyle_Dos would have done whatever it took to get out of there and create a new sanctuary for himself and his wife.

Maybe she came to cause trouble without revealing her identity.

Various opinions emerged on the forum regarding Kyle_Dos's disappearance.

Anonymous848: Isn't it the soldiers? Honestly, they're scarier than the pioneers, aren't they?

The most supported theory was that he fell into the hands of the soldiers.

It certainly seemed like the most plausible scenario.

However, there would be no soldiers in that area by now.

They all turned back to Seoul, fighting the civil war.

Unless deserters were roaming around, there wouldn't be any significant figures in the erosion zone where the capsules appeared.

Other opinions existed as well.

Defender: It's Kyle_Dos's wife. To be honest, isn't it more likely that he didn't find her but kidnapped her? Or what's the point of a beautiful woman willingly entering a shabby old bunker like his? She's said to be injured, but there's a possibility Kyle_Dos beat her up, right?

Distorted as Defender's opinion may be, it seemed like a plausible story to me, telling the truth despite receiving a lot of criticism.

Why, because not everything said on the forum is necessarily true.

Due to the nature of internet communities hiding behind the mask of anonymity, there might be more falsehoods than truths.

In my case, even if I speak the truth, it's treated as a lie.

Afterward, various opinions surfaced about Kyle_Dos's fate, but there wasn't a single one that resonated with me.

"Sigh."

I pondered while drinking coffee.

But I knew it was pointless, so I didn't think deeply.

To find out Kyle_Dos's fate, the only way was to go and confirm it personally.

Around the time when doubts like a malaise gradually faded, the civil war came to an abrupt halt.

Just as it had started suddenly, it ended suddenly.

A shortwave radio broadcast announced a temporary ceasefire.

Among the various reasons for the ceasefire, there was also the opening of humanitarian corridors for refugees. The moment I heard this news, I sensed the call of destiny.

I had to go.

At 3 AM, I left the bunker and headed towards the nearest refugee camp as guided by the shortwave radio broadcast.

There was nothing to see at the refugee camp.

What I was looking for was a military officer with authority, not the refugees.

"I'm deeply sorry, but my parents are in Paju. I've been worried since the civil war started, and I want to go and check on them."

What moved their hearts wasn't my long-winded story but the cigarettes I had.

"Here's a travel permit. Go through this route. We can't guarantee safety if you take a different route. Especially, do not enter the Seoul area no matter what they say about a ceasefire. It's still a volatile standoff."

I followed their advice and entered Incheon via Anyang.

Since the military controlled the area, the security was surprisingly good, and the roads were in good condition.

This was my first visit to Incheon since the war started, and the old familiar sights were almost unrecognizable. Instead, massive refugee camps were scattered everywhere.

On the streets, people were selling mysterious honey cakes.

Even the smell of it made me feel nauseous, so I didn't eat any. Instead, I gathered some minor information by talking to other people.

I learned that a massive refugee convoy was about to depart for Jeju Island.

"It's some kind of revenge," the old man who gave me the news said, spitting on the ground.

It seemed that something foreign was mixed into the honey cakes.

"They want to feed human bombs to those bastards who fled to Jeju Island, thinking they'll live well. Do you really think they'd be willing to sink their fellow citizens?"

I headed straight for Paju.

It took some time, but I had been there once, so it wasn't difficult to find Kyle_Dos's location.

I stared at the ground that had turned white for a while from the entrance of the unpaved road that led to his bunker.

I looked at the grass and trees.

The surface of the trees seemed to have withered like prunes, their branches curved endlessly and twisted into a shape that resembled endless drying, and the roots were covered in slimy, repulsive, discoloured weeds.

Corrosion was progressing faster than I had anticipated.

I took out a mask and covered my nose and mouth.

Scholars claimed that the air in the erosion zone was harmless, but it was my own experience.

The air here was undeniably harmful.

I detected Kyle_Dos's bunker amidst the white haze.

The bunker appeared to be a mass-produced burial-type bunker manufactured in a factory, like the cheap ones, with a ladder leading inside.

The hatch was open.

I prepared my gun and axe while feeling pity.

Inside the bunker, there was no sign of any form of life.

Instead, the smell of decaying corpse was so strong that it could penetrate even through my mask.

I turned on my lantern and entered.

There was something that looked like a power switch, and surprisingly, the light came on when I pressed it.

The light revealed dozens of women in swimsuits filling almost the entire bunker wall with their pictures.

Among them were also explicit photos of women exposing their breasts.

However, despite all these beautiful women, the bunker's cramped space couldn't be concealed.

On top of the bed, a body was decaying with its throat slit.

Decomposition was so severe that it was hard to identify properly, but the clothing, maggots, oozing fluids, and the long hair that had stiffened with the pus all indicated that the deceased was of the same gender as the women filling the bunker's walls.

The time of death seemed recent, but there were no signs of looters.

Supplies like food, laptops, and satellite equipment were intact.

Is there about a year's worth of food left?

The abundant variety of medicines caught my attention, especially.

I opened the laptop.

The laptop had gone into sleep mode, but as soon as my hand touched it, it magically powered on and showed me exactly what the previous owner had been working on. It was the forums, and Kyle_Dos was composing a message.

• I'm going to the flower garden with my wife. To the place where I met her. I'll take some time to gather my thoughts and then tell you the next part of the story. Just wait a bit, don't rush me.

The recipient was DragonC.

Perhaps he was discussing the next plot for the webtoon.

As I removed the bodies and looked around, I found two more corpses. They were in worse decay than the women, making it difficult to determine the exact cause of death, but both were male and appeared to have been shot from behind.

I continued to scan the area.

In the place where there used to be the capsule, there were new capsules, and behind them, another entity had nonchalantly taken its place, like a tumour.

It was too large and heavy to carry on my bicycle.

After gathering all the valuable items from the bunker, especially painkillers, I closed the hatch, covered it with dirt and fallen leaves, and marked the area with a sign.

I was about to leave when I recalled the last message Kyle_Dos had intended to send to DragonC.

He mentioned going to a flower garden.

I decided to take a look.

There was no such flower garden anywhere.

I climbed up the valley mentioned in the webtoon, but it was futile.

The season had withered everything, and the forest seemed too barren to harbour a flower garden.

Just as I was about to give up, a single house passed by me as if from the dreams.

Kyle_Dos claimed he had found his wife, rescued her, and slowly built a bond as a married couple.

But what if that was a lie?

What if his story was distorted with lies?

In that case, there were several possibilities to consider.

The first was the possibility that the woman had been dead from the beginning.

Severely beaten and unconscious, the woman might have died before she was discovered.

Kyle_Dos might have brought the lifeless body to his hideout and gone on to talk to her, confess love, and spend time with her in the same bed.

Then, as the body decayed, he might have patched up the unresponsive corpse, talked to it, confessed love, and even continued to share a bed until the body decomposed to the point of no return, eventually forcing Kyle_Dos to leave the bunker and disappear.

The second possibility was more gruesome.

While patrolling, Kyle_Dos might have stumbled upon a group of survivors, including the young woman.

Initially, he might have intended to send her away, but her beauty could have awakened primal instincts within him.

Once he regained his senses, he might have realized that everyone else in the group, except the woman, had died. Kyle_Dos might have claimed the woman as his own through violence and persuasion. The honeymoon period ended with the woman's suicide, and only then did Kyle_Dos realize his mistake. He left the bunker and vanished.

The final possibility and I hope this is the truth was that everything, including the woman, was a fabricated creation of Kyle_Dos.

In other words, the woman never existed from the beginning, and Kyle_Dos never brought her to the bunker.

For a long time, in the confined madness of this narrow chamber, he couldn't bear the loneliness. Desperate for more than just a dream, he created a woman out of his imagination, beyond the boundaries of reality.

In the hazy mix of dreams and reality, Kyle_Dos left the bunker with his "wife" and went on dates. Afterward, an unrelated woman arrived at the bunker, hanged herself, and died. Perhaps, this is the entire story.

I am witnessing it all.

The flower garden that Kyle_Dos intended to go to in the end.

It consisted of thousands of capsules.

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