Marauder of the Apocalypse-Chapter 70: Rainy Season

The rain fell endlessly. Lightning flashed like a replacement for sunlight, thunder crashed as if the sky was falling, fierce winds howled, foul smells and the stench of water filled my nose, and dampness clung to my feet.

I stood at the open window looking down at the villa streets.

'Is this the monsoon?'

It didn't seem like just a passing shower or normal rain.

Several days had passed since returning from Professor Kim's apartment, but we hadn't seen clear weather. The rain hadn't stopped during those days. Though the rainfall sometimes thinned, the sky never cleared.

"At least it's good we don't have to worry about water."

I looked around at the ruined streets.

Abandoned corpses had swollen up, while soaked garbage either flew in the wind or floated away in the water flowing across roads. That drifting trash either plugged up drainage points or covered them.

Raindrops struck my fingers as I drummed the windowsill.

'The drainage will probably break down soon.'

No matter how much I cleaned, there were limits to what one person could do. Plus this was the apocalypse. A world where recycling and disposable waste were just abandoned on streets - the drains clogged quickly.

Disaster was coming to this city covered in asphalt and concrete.

'According to Professor Kim's materials, disease spreads easily after flooding.'

After being lost in thought for a while, I slammed the window shut and returned to my desk. Several books and printed materials we'd taken from Professor Kim's house lay there. Though the paper was damp from humidity, they were still readable.

With the monsoon making it hard to go outside, I studied Professor Kim's materials.

***

I gave up studying. Had it even been 30 minutes since opening the book? I slammed it shut and tossed it in a corner of the desk. This wasn't a book. It was a foreign language I couldn't read.

"Can't understand any of this."

I stared blankly at the book cover. I'd thought these engineering books would be useful if I studied them, but I couldn't even read them to begin with.

Electrical and mechanical engineering. I didn't know what the letters and symbols meant. I couldn't even read the Korean. Strange words kept appearing that I couldn't understand.

I'd wanted to repair and modify vehicles and electronics, try more efficient recycling, but this was impossible.

My head hurt as I pressed my scalp, then swung my hammer through the air.

"Right, what am I doing trying to study?"

Was studying something a marauder did? Better to just kidnap educated people and chain them up to use their knowledge.

Just then, someone suddenly came and knocked on my front door. Do-hyung's voice came through:

"Come out! Water's rising outside!"

"What?"

I jumped up and looked out the window. The rain was falling terrifyingly hard. The scene outside was tinted a misty gray, as if seen through a gray filter.

I threw on a raincoat and hurried out to find Do-hyung stomping his feet anxiously while pointing at the roof.

"That con man and Mr. Park Yang-gun are up there too."

"Let's go."

Rushing up to the roof, Sa Gi-hyeok with his black umbrella and Park Yang-gun stood blankly at the railing looking down.

I went beside them and looked at the street again.

It was chaos. Water flowed thinly across roads, manhole covers rattled while spouting water like fountains. Looking around, I saw water flowing into villa buildings' semi-basements.

It was nearly a flood. No, if the rain continued like this, it would flood. I thought quickly.

'No resources stored in semi-basements or first floors. Enough food for now. No major problems yet. But what comes after is the issue.'

Sa Gi-hyeok muttered:

"The cars will flood."

"No more air conditioning then."

They were right. Until now we'd started cars to use what electricity we could. But if the cars broke down, we couldn't even use phones. No way to charge them.

This was the apocalypse. Once something broke, we couldn't fix it.

I watched the flowing water. It was washing away even the remnants of modern civilization. Like approaching death, the water kept rising.

From splashing at footsteps to ankle-deep, past calves to knee-high, the water level rose. Roads had become rivers, buildings became islands. Garbage floated like buoys.

In moments we were stranded in one building without infrastructure. I spoke calmly:

"Good. At least we won't have to worry about zombies or unwanted visitors for a while."

"That's true."

Park Yang-gun muttered while watching corpses float away.

What would normally be a serious disaster almost seemed trivial in this crumbling world. Perhaps because there were so many direct threats to life like zombies and marauders.

Just then, Sa Gi-hyeok jumped up pointing somewhere.

"Look! Isn't that canned fruit?"

Among the garbage swept along in the muddy water was canned fruit. At a glance it looked new, not just an empty can.

Sa Gi-hyeok paced around, watching the fruit can float away regretfully.

"I wanted fruit... What a shame."

"What, you want to go out there? You'll die trying to grab one can!"

"But it's fruit. Even if we can't get fresh fruit, canned would be nice."

Ignoring Sa Gi-hyeok and Do-hyung's bickering, I turned my gaze. Though the rain obscured it, I looked toward where mountains should be.

Not all survivors were in the city. Some had gone to the mountains, others farmed in the outskirts or countryside. But what would happen with rain like this?

'The crops will probably fail.'

Wouldn't any growing grain, fruit or vegetables all rot?

Perhaps the monsoon's indirect dangers were greater. Destroying what vehicles and infrastructure remained, ruining crops, breaking down civilization and resources.

At that thought, I pressed down my raincoat hood and turned away.

"I'm heading back. Don't think watching changes anything."

The rain continued for two more days. The water filling the roads rose and fell repeatedly, only disappearing somewhere long after the rain finally stopped.

The streets were far filthier than before. Garbage was plastered like wallpaper over the black asphalt, and cars were painted with what looked like mud.

True ruins. Not the fake ruins our marauder group had created, but chaos left by flooding.

We came out to the street to look around. Park Yang-gun kicked a car.

"We can't clean all this up."

"Let's leave it. First let's find cars that still start."

No need to clean. This was natural camouflage requiring no work. Didn't it perfectly capture the feel of an abandoned area?

Do-hyung actively went around with car keys. He held a dead phone in his other hand. ƒreewebηoveℓ.com

"Please, just start."

Unable to charge his phone during the rain, he seemed worried about not contacting his girlfriend.

Meanwhile, Sa Gi-hyeok searched through garbage scattered on the street. I approached and asked:

"What are you doing?"

"Checking if anything useful washed up."

"Like that can from before?"

"Yes."

True, I wanted fruit too. No, not just fruit - meat, eggs, milk, all fresh food.

I muttered, remembering old news:

"Would've been nice if cows or chickens washed down."

Though I didn't know how to butcher them, still. A hen could at least provide eggs without butchering.

Sa Gi-hyeok burst out laughing.

"Haha. Like a cow would float all the way to this city. You've got quite an imagination. Even if one did, it would be too rotten to eat."

What was this? Was he picking a fight? I blinked then sighed. It wasn't new for Sa Gi-hyeok to speak unpleasantly. Had to let it go, nothing else to do.

I swung my hammer while looking around.

"I'll watch for zombies or people."

The rain had stopped. Time for people trapped indoors during the monsoon to crawl out. The monsoon had been dangerous, and they'd move more actively to replenish food eaten while holed up.

Same for zombies. Whether they'd stockpiled food or starved during the rain, they'd come out seeking food.

I left my busy companions in the street and went up to the roof.

I could partly see the ruined downtown. The whole city had probably been swept by the monsoon. Areas without power would have increased, resources would be more depleted.

A world muddied by floodwater. The gray concrete city took on more natural colors, and civilization crumbled further.

"People must have gotten closer to nature too."

I thought of the people and zombies I'd seen. Months had passed since the zombie outbreak began. People who had lived in civilization had become primitive humans competing for survival.

I couldn't fall behind either. Had to think and act more like a marauder.