Marauder of the Apocalypse-Chapter 82: Injury

The doctor resumed organizing the cloths and bottles, showing little interest. His muttering sounded like he was talking to himself.

"Professional surgery isn't possible. If you think you're seriously injured, just leave your last words and die. Coming all the way here won't change anything."

Well, that was true in a way...

The electricity was out. We lived in a world where operating rooms couldn't function properly. Medical equipment requiring electricity obviously couldn't be used, and medications couldn't be stored properly.

At best, they could only provide emergency care, simple treatments, and field-level medical attention.

Even that might not be enough to save lives. The way he was conserving medicine with me was evidence enough.

'Specialized medications can't be produced anymore. But patients are overwhelming.'

They seemed to focus on treating confirmed patients rather than wasting medicine on preventing uncertain infections.

Or perhaps they judged that truly sick patients would desperately offer more resources.

"Yes, thank you for your help."

I still bowed my head politely and turned to leave.

After all, he was a doctor and this was treatment. Even just a few precautions from a doctor were a big help. Although it felt like I'd been shortchanged because it seemed so simple.

***

I went downstairs to the first floor with my companions. I'd been told to pay at the pharmacy on the first floor. Since Life Tower was a building housing different hospitals, there was no unified administrative office, so they took registrations at the entrance and collected fees at the pharmacy.

I handed over a small bag of rice to the elderly person in the pharmacy and left immediately.

The street was still crowded with patients.

Sa Gi-hyeok laughed while twirling his gun.

"See? Rumors can't be trusted. They treated you properly, didn't they?"

"I guess."

At least I'd received emergency treatment. I looked around calmly, lost in thought.

Not knowing much about medicine made it difficult to gauge the doctor's intentions. Was he truly providing efficient medical care as a healthcare professional in the apocalypse, or did he have some more malicious purpose?

The only certain fact was that these people weren't to be taken lightly. Those vicious rumors had circulated, and they had actually survived.

Just then, I noticed someone limping into the Life Tower district.

"Ho?"

Ho and several scavengers were walking in, carrying heavy bags.

Unlike ordinary patients, they went into an alley. From what I knew, it led to the general hospital. They seemed to be delivering medical supplies scavenged from distant pharmacies or hospitals.

My eyes flashed as I nudged my companions.

"Let's follow that person."

"Who is it?"

"The scavenger leader."

Someone who survived even after being shot in the leg. That meant they had received proper treatment for a gunshot wound and had a close relationship with Life Tower.

With the right conversation, we could learn various information. Like the true nature of the doctors' power or malice.

Instead of following them directly, we took a different alley to the general hospital. We cut through a short alleyway and crossed a road filled with abandoned cars.

Peering over the wall at the large general hospital with its spacious parking lot, the atmosphere felt quite different from Life Tower.

I saw familiar uniforms and faces.

"Police, riders, firefighters, electricity nomads..."

"This seems to be the real deal."

Park Yang-gun narrowed his eyes while wiggling his fingers. He looked like a thief who had discovered a wealthy home.

It actually seemed similar. Unlike Life Tower that only provided emergency care to ordinary survivors, this was a hospital treating people from truly powerful groups.

But treatment wasn't everything.

Even excluding patients with arm casts, those in wheelchairs, or pregnant women, there were many people moving busily.

Electricity nomads carrying solar panels or bundles of wires, riders with containers of oil, and several police officers lurking nearby.

And Ho.

Ho greeted a police officer sitting on a bench near the main entrance, waving his hand.

"Delivery. Oh man, see this leg? I ran into some crazy bastard who shot me while I was collecting these supplies."

"Yes, thank you for your hard work."

Hearing that conversation, I clenched my fist. The atmosphere felt strange. This wasn't just a hospital. It felt like various groups gathering to do something. Not just treatment, but something bigger.

A word flashed through my mind. Survival zone.

'Are they secretly building it because the rumors spread too much? Centered around the general hospital?'

Installing solar panels on the hospital roof to provide power. Police handling security. The Delivery Vigilantes supplying oil. Oil to feed the emergency generators.

There were probably people from different groups doing different jobs inside the building.

Away from those who had attached themselves.

My companions seemed to have similar suspicions and each spoke up.

"This isn't just a hospital. There's something fishy going on."

"That's how it always is. Even scams don't act like scams. They're pretending to have abandoned the survival zone while..."

Conversely, Do-hyung blinked in shock and sighed.

"Seems like the elders deceived me too. I'm an outsider after all."

I gripped my hammer tightly. The leather gloves tightened, making it feel like my blood flow was being cut off.

'Are they really building it? Right here?'

The location conditions were actually quite good. An area where zombies didn't approach because Life Tower had scattered poison. A stream just a ten-minute walk away.

This changed the situation somewhat. Instead of casually investigating doctors out of simple curiosity, we needed to get solid information.

I said:

"When Ho comes out, I'll talk to him in the alley. Have your guns ready."

***

We positioned ourselves on both sides of a narrow alley. The alley Ho would have passed through. Assuming they'd use this path on their way back, we hid behind abandoned cars and utility poles, waiting.

After about 20 minutes, Ho and the scavengers approached leisurely, still carrying what looked like heavy bags.

They noticed our ambush and quickly scattered, taking cover behind obstacles just like us.

"What the hell? Who's there? Don't you know doctors will raise hell if you cause trouble here?"

"It's me."

I poked my head out slightly. Ho held up a hand mirror to check my face, then stood up abruptly.

"You!"

The face still covered with a hat, sunglasses, and mask. But the irritation in the voice made it easy to guess the emotion.

"What now! Wasn't putting a hole in my leg enough?"

"I have some questions. And I got my head cracked open too."

I casually took off my baseball cap and showed my wound. Evidence of a doctor's treatment.

Seeing that, Ho suddenly burst out laughing.

"Right. Hurt others and you'll get punished. Who hit you? I'd like to send them something as thanks."

"Not a person. I was hit by something that fell in the strong winds."

"Haha, karma got you."

For some reason, Sa Gi-hyeok and Do-hyung also let out slight laughs. I glanced at my companions briefly, then turned back to Ho with a question.

"Can these doctors be trusted? I was cautious and didn't take any medicine."

"Why should I tell you that?"

"Because a shootout here would be troublesome?"

My companions, hidden behind cars and utility poles, casually pointed their guns.

Ho saw that and sighed. He put his own gun to his head and used the barrel to scratch the top of his hat.

"I don't know if the police sold guns to crazy people, or if crazy people stole them and are now doing crazy things on streets where police are present."

When I stared at him steadily, Ho grumbled on.

"The general hospital is trustworthy. But Life Tower over there is questionable. They prioritize using medications that aren't in good condition."

"There are rumors they deliberately kill patients."

Rumors probably don't come from nowhere.

Ho snickered.

"Depends on the patient. People bitten by zombies, those who did stupid things, those who threatened doctors and tried to enslave them. Those types all died."

In the early stages of the zombie outbreak, all sorts of people flocked to Life Tower.

People who threatened doctors to treat zombie bites, those who tried to kidnap doctors as professionals, those who wanted to claim Life Tower as their territory.

All of them died at the hands of the doctors, Ho said. Killed while pretending to treat them, neutralized with sleeping pills or anesthetics before being killed, or having injuries deliberately worsened.

"So let's not cause trouble here. We shouldn't get on the doctors' bad side."

"I see."

I nodded.

We're all the same—people who die when injured. Only doctors could give a chance at survival, and at the same time, they could kill while pretending to save.

Getting on their bad side would be a loss.

I lowered my gun and asked one final question. This was actually the main point.

"Is the survival zone being built here? At the general hospital?"

"..."

Ho fell silent. I could almost feel his gaze from behind that completely covered face.

"I saw resources being openly moved. I couldn't help but be suspicious."

"You mentioned something about taking on an alliance before. What's your purpose?"

Ho concealed himself behind a car, crouching as if preparing for combat.

"Who knows."

"Are you perhaps a spy for the military?"

The military was suddenly mentioned. I blinked in confusion. The military? Out of nowhere? Weren't they farming on the outskirts of the city?

"Is the military showing interest in the city?"

"You really don't know? The typhoon and monsoon destroyed all the crops. The military units stationed there have no food."

He was saying that the military was showing signs of entering the city to survive.

I suddenly realized something. The reason they were hastily forming an alliance. The reason "everyone would die at this rate" was none other than the military.

"Wait, the military..."

"Yeah, you might oppose the survival zone if you don't understand the situation. But think clearly. We need an alliance to check the military too. It's fine to attach yourself to it, but don't interfere."