Magic on the Dead Chapter 120

Hostility, fear, and eyes suffering from starvation. The group endured the countless gazes pouring down on them and steadfastly moved their feet towards their destination, the maintenance depot.

From somewhere, a rumbling engine noise that vibrated the ground was heard, gruuuumble. Before they could even get out of the way, a red motorcycle sped up and came rushing towards them. Hajin, who had stopped in his tracks in surprise, was roughly yanked backwards.

“Ugh!”

It was a close call. Just before the helmeted assailant could snatch the bag loosely slung over Hajin’s shoulder, Eden had pulled Hajin into his arms.

“Are you alright?”

【Hajin, are you okay?!】

Eden and Jeffrey raised the weapons in their hands and turned to face the unidentified assailant. The assailant did not flee but circled the group like a biker gang member, vroom vroom.

【What’s with this bastard! You wanna go?】

Simultaneously with Jeffrey’s shout, colorfully decorated motorcycles appeared behind the assailant. In the hands of the men, who all wore black helmets on their heads, were thin, long pipes. The way they scraped the concrete floor, screeeech, was extremely menacing.

As if they had no intention of killing the delicious-looking prey before them all at once, they circled around, teasing them, resembling a pack of ill-natured predators that had taken over the plains.

Jeffrey, who had been panting as if ready to fight at any moment, soon realized the gravity of the situation and clamped his mouth shut. The group, unable to move forward recklessly, stood rigidly in place as if nailed to the spot.

“Haa… fuck, this is really one thing after another.”

Hajin flinched at the fierce curse that flowed from Eden’s lips and studied his expression. His cold eyes were filled with murderous intent towards the outlaws blocking his path.

It was a completely different sight from when he had meekly handed over his food to the looters they had encountered on the road once before. He seemed to have become extremely sensitive due to the scorching sun, the constant threats from the surroundings that stimulated his nerves, and the anguish over the gradually approaching maintenance depot.

‘Something is dangerous.’

It was when Hajin, sensing an ominous feeling, turned his head back towards the biker gang. One of the men, who had been chuckling as if finding Eden’s belligerent expression amusing, rushed forward with a loud vrooooom.

Eden swung his hand with an unhesitating motion. The hammer left his hand, flew towards the man’s head, and shattered the sturdy helmet. Thwack—! With a horrific sound, the man’s body rose into the air and then crashed to the ground.

As the motorcycle lost its balance and fell, a tremendous impact sound, kwa-bang—!, filled the road.

“Everyone, get under the cars.”

Leaving those words behind, Eden rushed towards the fallen motorcycle. While he picked up a pipe that was rolling on the road and mounted the motorcycle, Hajin had to be forcefully led by Jeffrey’s hand to hide under a dump truck.

A short while later, the sound of several pipes clattering and bones breaking could be heard.

“Ugh!”

“Aack!!”

As the men’s coarse screams rang in his ears one after another, Hajin could not hold back and peeked his face out from under the truck.

The first thing he saw were three motorcycles lying on the road and the faces of three men who had collapsed, bleeding. The remaining two were fleeing with their tails between their legs, showing off their loud exhaust sounds.

At the situation that had been resolved in an instant, Hajin stood up with a dazed expression.

“Mr. Jung Taegeon, are you okay?!”

“I’m fine.”

Eden nonchalantly wiped the sweat trickling down his temple and called for Jeffrey. Jeffrey, crawling out from under the truck, asked Eden brightly.

【We got a motorcycle. Should we ride it?】

【No. Who knows what these bastards have been doing with this motorcycle.】

【Is that so? Well… it’s a bit awkward to carry Pie on it anyway, so it’s better to just walk.】

Before they could even fully calm their startled hearts, the group slung their bags to the front and set off on the road again.

The survivors they encountered here had all lost hope and were only showing a primal craving for survival. Continuously facing these people who lacked any trace of humanity, Hajin grew increasingly weary.

It was physically much better than the situation of endlessly fleeing from zombies, but his mental strength was rapidly depleting to the point where that advantage was meaningless. He felt like he wanted to grab anyone and have a conversation, just to find out what on earth was happening here.

Hajin decided to speak to a woman and a boy, presumed to be her son, who were walking in front of him.

“Excuse me. May I ask you something….”

But before he could even finish his sentence, the woman screamed with a face full of fear and stumbled backwards. When the flustered Hajin extended his hand to help her up, the woman even started begging profusely, tears streaming down her face.

“No, I, I didn’t mean anything like that….”

Eden quietly pulled Hajin’s body, which had frozen in bewilderment.

“It’s no use. Let’s go.”

In the end, the group left the woman and child, who seemed to have lost their minds, and set off on the road again. After that, Hajin did not attempt to talk to anyone.

A short while later, they discovered the bodies of two men wearing helmets, lying in the bushes beside the road. Judging by the absence of motorcycles nearby, it was presumed that other assailants, likely targeting the motorcycles, had attacked them.

A villain was eliminated by the hands of another villain. This was a place where the repetition of such history was not strange at all.

At that point, Hajin truly felt his mind becoming dizzy. He had a premonition that a nightmare of a different dimension from what he had experienced so far was about to unfold before his eyes.

What on earth had driven them mad? The question that had been swirling in his mind was only resolved after they reached their destination, the maintenance depot.

🃏

The Yongun Maintenance Depot, unlike a general comprehensive maintenance depot that handled various military weapons, was newly built solely for the depot maintenance* of Blueworx’s aircraft. The building area was over 3,000 pyeong, and the runway was a whopping 4 kilometers long. It was large enough to handle the takeoff and landing of large passenger planes without any problem.

A tall and sturdy barbed-wire fence surrounded the military base jointly created by Blueworx and the Republic of Korea Air Force. Beyond it, a runway so vast that just looking at it made one’s chest feel open and clear was spread out.

“Let us on too! Why not us!!!”

“Let us in!! Save us!! Save us!!”

And on the black road, shimmering with a scorching haze, a national flag carrier with the Taegeuk mark was parked. Stairs called a ‘step car’ were installed on the left side of the plane, and several soldiers in military uniforms and men in suits were going up and down.

“Isn’t that the opposition party leader?! It is, Representative Lee Jangshin!!”

“Please, take our child at least, please!!!”

“The government has abandoned its people!”

A man holding a business briefcase ascended the plane stairs, looking as neat as someone going on a business trip. A woman with her face covered by sunglasses and a child in a floral dress hurriedly followed him. It was a stark contrast to the refugees, who were no different from the homeless.

The people boarding the passenger plane were the political and business figures of South Korea, who ridiculously adorned the pages of the news, and their families.

“Cowardly bastards!! You sons of bitches!!!”

“Just die! Just die!”

Hundreds of people were clinging to the maintenance depot fence, forming a blockade. At a glance, they looked no different from a horde of zombies. As the people’s cries grew louder, the pillars of the fence, which were firmly embedded in the concrete, began to shake.

And Jeffrey, who was watching the whole scene from a distance, muttered with a dazed face.

【Cra…zy…. This is a sight I never imagined.】

Hajin, too, stood there blankly, at a loss for words at the horrific scene unfolding before his eyes.

It was an enormous number of survivors, the first he had seen since the zombie outbreak began. There was a time when he had thought that perhaps everyone except themselves had either turned into zombies or died. But that had been a huge miscalculation.

“Open up! Open up!! Open up!!!”

“Open the door! Open the door!”

The soldiers guarding the entrance of the maintenance depot were pointing their guns at the survivors with a menacing air, as if they were about to open fire at any moment. Some of the survivors tried to climb the fence, only to fall miserably to the ground.

Eden led the group away from the ferocious survivors and armed soldiers and took shelter behind a nearby public restroom. They sat in a circle and listened to the roar of the people pouring down like a bombardment.

“So this is why….”

Eden muttered blankly.

The countless vehicles that had crowded near the Yongun Tollgate, the tall sack firewall and tanks set up at the tunnel entrance. All sorts of memories flashed through his mind, from the withdrawn soldiers to the numerous survivors who had lost hope in life and had resorted to attacking each other.

And if his prediction was correct, that passenger plane would be the last transport from the maintenance depot.

*Depot maintenance: The highest level of aircraft maintenance concept, up to complete restoration.