Magic on the Dead Chapter 30

“I’m not asking you to accompany me, I’m asking for an escort.”

A brief silence fell.

Not understanding the word “escort,” Jeffrey repeated it like a parrot.

“Escort?”

Miso nudged Jeffrey in the side and quietly explained the meaning.

“Escort means he wants us to protect him. It’s the same as asking us to be his bodyguards.”

“Why?”

“How should I know?”

Leaving the rest of the group bewildered, Eden threw a glance at Hajin.

“Explain it so I can understand.”

He treated the police officer as if he were completely invisible, not even sparing him a look. Hajin, once again impressed by Eden’s mercilessly unsentimental nature, opened his mouth.

“He says the Sangwon Central Police Station is nearby. It’s a bit of a distance, but it’s about a 30-minute walk. It’s in the same direction we need to go anyway, so it shouldn’t be a problem.”

“…”

“He says if we get him to the police station safely, he’ll give us his car. He left it in the station’s parking lot… and if the car is unusable for some reason, he’ll give us his pistol.”

Eden’s sharp, honed gaze turned to the police officer standing ramrod straight. As if he had been waiting, Lee Chang-yeol explained his situation.

“The day the zombie outbreak started was my day off. I was napping at home when I got an urgent call in the afternoon to come to the station, so I hailed a cab.”

He went on to explain that they got into a fender bender on the chaotic roads, and he ended up fleeing the swarming zombies, hopping between nearby houses for a week until he ended up here.

“Ah, for the record, my car was parked at the station because of a work dinner.”

Having finished his explanation, the man silently awaited Eden’s response.

“Is there a reason you must go to the police station, and not your home?”

The question had barely been asked when a crack appeared in the police officer’s consistently composed expression. He roughly ran a hand through his short-cropped hair and let out a low groan.

“The truth is… my girlfriend is in the same department.”

“…”

“The last I heard from her, she was hiding in the garage next to the visitor’s room. I have to go.”

Hajin, who hadn’t been privy to that part of the story, felt his pupils tremble violently. After finishing his explanation, the officer anxiously wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand.

Eden fell into thought. Police stations, fire stations, and military bases were already on his list of potential places to check out if they came across them on their way to Yong-un City. In a disaster, the battle for information was paramount, and if there were any centrally-issued directives, it could be a great help on their journey.

Besides, a vehicle was far safer than traveling on foot. Although the roads were a mess of tangled cars, just getting out of the city center and to a tollgate would be a success. Eden snapped his head up.

“Do you have an ID.”

“Excuse me?”

“I mean an identification card to prove who you are.”

“I’ve already checked that.”

As if on cue, Hajin pulled a thin wallet from the officer’s back pocket. The face and the name on the uniform were an exact match.

“What do you think? I think it seems okay.”

Miso, who had been watching the situation quietly, asked the group. Eden’s deliberation wasn’t long either.

“Fine. But I have a condition.”

Lee Chang-yeol, who had been waiting with a trembling heart, brightened and replied.

“Yes, just name it.”

“Regardless of whether your girlfriend is dead or alive, you hand over the promised car and firearm.”

Hajin squeezed his eyes shut at Eden’s dizzyingly blunt way of speaking. Dead or alive? Did he have to put it so heartlessly…

Contrary to his worries, Lee Chang-yeol answered readily, without a hint of anger.

“My girlfriend will be fine. As long as you escort me safely to the station, I will be sure to reward you.”

His reply was tinged with an innocent brightness, as if he refused to even entertain the worst-case scenario.

The situation was settled quickly. Looking around at the chaotic surroundings, Eden clapped his hands once to gather everyone’s attention.

“Our next destination is the Sangwon Central Police Station. We’ll check out the situation there, get the promised vehicle, and get out of the city. Does anyone have any other opinions?”

Byeol, who had been glancing around nervously, shot her hand up, but when Eden didn’t give her so much as a glance, she spat out the jelly stick she was chewing on. “Ptooey—”

“I raised my hand!”

“This isn’t the time for games.”

“I’m not playing! I have to pee! I wanna go to the bathroom before we leave!”

“…”

Eden was inwardly sighing and nudging Byeol’s back toward Miso, as if to ask him to handle it, when a familiar and piercing scream, one he’d heard many times before, sliced sharply through the air.

“Kiaaaaaah—!!!”

Following the woman’s blood-curdling scream, a series of thick shouts could be heard.

“Agh!! The door, block the door!!”

Terrified cries began to erupt from all over, simultaneously. The foretold time bomb had finally exploded.

Rumble, rumble. The heavy vibration of footsteps traveled through the floor. The frantic crashing of carts created a cacophony of screeching metal. All the noise was coming from the back door of the warehouse they had used as an entrance.

Hajin turned his stiff neck like an under-oiled robot. A flood of zombies poured out from between the torn warehouse doors. As one fell, another, then two, then three… the zombies piled up on top of it, rapidly forming a mountain of bodies.

“Krr-ughhh! Gack!!”

The mass of monsters, their arms and legs bent at bizarre angles, looked like a single, enraged tarantula. The zombies, crowded into the narrow space all at once, struggled desperately to get back on their feet.

A purplish arm swiped through the air in a parabola, the image playing out in slow motion. Atop the high pile of corpses, one zombie that had been on the ground shot to its feet and twisted its neck with a grotesque crack.

Their eyes met. Hajin felt his breath catch in his throat.

A rough hand grabbing the back of his neck snapped him back to his senses.

“Everyone, move!!!”

At someone’s shout, the entire group started running forward in unison. At the same time, the zombies gained momentum and began to rush into the mart.

The first victim was an old man who had been greedily gathering supplies. Unable to let go of the cart in his arms, he hesitated, and was ultimately thrown to the floor by an oncoming zombie.

“Aack!! Oh god, save me, save me!!!”

The old man let out a choked scream as a zombie bit into his temple. Hajin covered his ears and bit down hard on his lower lip.

Another zombie climbed onto a display rack and scrambled forward quickly on all fours. The monster, mouth agape and drooling, pounced on a child who had been separated from his mother. A chunk of flesh was instantly torn from the back of the child’s neck. The mother’s desperate scream echoed tragically.

“Stop looking back there and run!!”

Miso grabbed the scruff of Hajin’s neck, who kept turning to look behind him. Hajin’s face flushed red as he finally gasped, letting out the breath he had been unconsciously holding.

The sudden onslaught of so many zombies had sent him into a panic. The screams of the terrified people, crying out like frightened animals, kept reminding him of the day the magic show went wrong. The terror he had completely forgotten over the past week was now right in front of him.

‘Act composed. Fear is a natural phenomenon that all humans experience. I’m no different.’

Hajin instinctively recalled Eden’s advice. His firm voice, saying that fear could even be used to one’s advantage, rang in his ears.

‘It’s simple. The more anxious you are, the more you run. Run to a safe place, search frantically for a way to survive.’

Hajin forced his legs, which kept wanting to give out, to move. That’s right. To a safe place, an even safer place. To find a way to survive…

But no matter where he looked, an escape route seemed distant. The people who had already reached the main entrance were flailing, trying to open the firmly shut steel doors.

Behind them, the horde of zombies was surging forward like a furious tidal wave, leaving no time to react. There was no time.

‘I’m not playing! I have to pee! I wanna go to the bathroom before we leave!’

For a moment, the sulking child’s voice flashed through his mind.

Click. A red switch flipped on in Hajin’s head.

‘Right, the bathroom…!’

He remembered the women’s restroom next to the counters on the left. It was one of the places he had passed without a second thought while wandering aimlessly in search of supplies.

The hallway to the restroom, which had an ‘Under Repair’ sign on it, was blocked by a thin, temporary partition, structured in a way that you would easily miss it if you weren’t looking closely. His heart pounded heavily.

Turning his head again, he saw Eden’s back, having quickly reached the front entrance. He was striking the lock on the steel door with the axe he was holding. It was obvious that even if he got it open, another swarm of zombies would pour in.

Hajin drew a deep breath from the pit of his stomach and shouted.

“Do Hajin! This way!!”

It was the signal they had agreed on. In a situation where it was hard to distinguish friend from foe, one was to shout their own name loudly before getting to the point.

The group, which had been running with their eyes fixed only on the main door, turned their heads in unison at Hajin’s shout. Hajin ducked toward the self-checkout counters and ran quickly to the women’s restroom.

When he looked back, he could see the others desperately following him. One, two, three, four, five, and six… all of them, without exception, were following the path he led.

Hajin overcame the suffocating pressure and fear and came to a dead stop at the restroom entrance. He slammed his whole body into the partition, knocking it over. With a loud thud, the wide-open restroom corridor was revealed.