Magic on the Dead Chapter 36

“Here! This place looks okay.”

Park Chunbeom, who had quickly run to the pharmacy, called the group over. The shutter was firmly closed. After breaking the lock with a hammer, Jeffrey pushed the steel door upwards. Crr-rr-unch— The sound echoed quite loudly, and zombies began to pop out from various corners of the alley.

While Jeffrey and Miso teamed up to take care of the zombies one by one, the rest of the group entered the darkened pharmacy in an orderly fashion. After breaking the neck of the last zombie, Jeffrey forcefully pulled the steel door down and locked it.

In the meantime, Hajin fumbled along the wall, searching for the light switch. Click, the lights came on, and their vision brightened. Fortunately, it seemed the electricity hadn’t been cut off.

Hajin first took out his phone, which had become useless after the battery died, and plugged it in to charge. Following his lead, the group members sat down one by one and connected their smartphones to chargers. Since they didn’t know when the network might be reconnected, they had to desperately charge their batteries.

The pharmacy was quite large. It seemed no one had visited since the outbreak, as the scene was neat and tidy. Eden pushed Lee Changyeol, whom he had been holding, against the door and held the axe blade to him.

“Let’s see the wound.”

“It’s on my knee, so my pants won’t roll up that far.”

“Tearing it is an option.”

“W-well, even so, tearing a uniform is a bit….”

As the excuses continued to be tacked on hesitantly, Eden, narrowing his brow into the shape of a number eleven, retorted in a voice that was barely suppressing his irritation.

“Then pull your pants down.”

At Eden’s demand, Lee Changyeol’s already pale face became even whiter.

“I’ll take care of Byeol.”

Miso, reading the room, led Byeol and disappeared into the pharmacy’s storage room. Eden gestured towards Lee Changyeol with his eyes, as if telling him to proceed. A hesitant Lee Changyeol unbuckled his pants. Only then did Hajin, Jeffrey, and Park Chunbeom also watch his leg with tense gazes.

Lee Changyeol, unable to hide his humiliated expression, bit his lower lip and pulled his pants down to his ankles in one motion.

“…….”

His wound was quite a bit deeper than expected. It was so deep that his kneecap was clearly visible. However, no specific marks were visible above the blood-soaked knee.

“Was there any other contact with a zombie?”

At Eden’s sharp voice asking for confirmation, Lee Changyeol stammered with lips that were even paler than before.

“…There was, there was some, but I don’t think I was bitten. I was out of my mind, but I smashed its head right away….”

“Haa.”

Eden, who had carelessly dropped the backpack from his shoulder onto the floor, swept his bangs back. After a brief look around, he unhesitatingly picked up a bottle of sterile physiological saline solution. Then he sat Lee Changyeol, who was standing awkwardly with his pants down, on the floor.

In a normal battlefield situation, the first step would have been to stop the bleeding to prevent any more blood loss, but in the current crisis, identifying the cause of the wound was more urgent.

“This is going to hurt a lot.”

After speaking in a warning tone, he turned his head to look at Jeffrey. Letting out a faint sigh, Jeffrey took a short-sleeved t-shirt from his backpack and approached Lee Changyeol.

“Try to hold back the sound as much as possible.”

No sooner had Eden finished speaking than Jeffrey ruthlessly stuffed the folded t-shirt into Lee Changyeol’s mouth. The uncapped saline solution trickled down onto Lee Changyeol’s knee with a gurgling sound.

“Kggghh—!!!”

The wound seemed quite deep, as Lee Changyeol’s eyes rolled back into his head.

Park Chunbeom, as if it were too painful to watch, pressed his forehead against Hajin’s back and groaned.

Eden, holding down Lee Changyeol’s struggling shoulder with his left hand, poured the remaining saline solution. As the blood washed away, the hidden wound was fully revealed.

“Kggggh!”

“…….”

Jeffrey kept tilting his head, trying to see Lee Changyeol’s knee, which was obscured by Eden’s upper body.

[What is it? What happened, was he bitten? He wasn’t, right?]

Lee Changyeol’s hands were trembling as he spat out the short-sleeved shirt he had been biting. Ptoo! It was so painful that tears streamed down his cheeks.

Without hesitation, Eden pulled up the pants of Lee Changyeol, who was practically lying on the floor, back up to his waist.

“Agh!! Fuck!!”

Lee Changyeol, whose wound was grazed by the fabric, couldn’t hold it in and cried out.

“Go inside and rest, and I will find the necessary medical supplies and treat you.”

Eden grabbed Lee Changyeol’s arm and slung it over his own shoulder. Lee Changyeol, who had been panting with a mixture of resentment and sorrow, reluctantly limped along with him. During that time, Hajin stood blankly, staring intently at Lee Changyeol’s face.

“Mr. Do Hajin, could you please bring Byeol and Ms. Yoon Miso out from the storage room.”

Despite Eden’s request, Hajin simply stared at Lee Changyeol with a wavering gaze, without a word of reply.

‘His eyes….’

Lee Changyeol’s pupils were gradually turning a silver-gray color.

“Mr. Do Hajin.”

Hajin, who had been staring blankly, snapped to his senses when his name was called again.

“Ah.”

Hajin rushed to the storage room and called Miso and Byeol out.

Miso, coming straight out, asked with a bewildered expression.

“What? Is he okay?”

Eden quickly put Lee Changyeol inside the now-empty storage room. Lee Changyeol, leaning his backside against a brown box, gasped for breath and hung his head low.

“Ugh….”

“Wait here.”

Eden’s hand, about to close the door, was stopped by someone. When he lifted his head, he saw Do Hajin staring into the storage room with a contorted face.

“Just a moment.”

“It’s dangerous.”

Eden whispered softly, telling him to back away.

“Mr. Changyeol.”

Hajin insisted on squeezing past the closing door and grabbed Lee Changyeol’s shoulder. He was panting for breath, his chest heaving greatly.

“It’s going to be okay. Don’t be too scared.”

Hajin, while comforting Lee Changyeol who could turn at any moment, pulled up the rest of his clumsily hitched-up pants and even fastened the buckle. Hajin’s hand, trying to preserve his last bit of dignity, was trembling slightly.

“Thirsty… give me water… Water….”

“Okay. I’ll get you some.”

“Am I… hic, going to be okay?”

“Yes, everything will be fine.”

Drip, drip-drip…. A line of blood finally trickled down over Lee Changyeol’s uniform pants from his nose.

“Fuck, it hurts…. It hurts so much….”

Eden grabbed the shoulder of Hajin, who showed no intention of coming out, and pulled him away irritably.

“Come out now. It’s too dangerous.”

His roughly turned body was pushed weakly outside. Thump! The door closed. Without hesitation, Eden turned the lock on the storage room door.

From beyond the door, Lee Changyeol’s muttering could be heard.

“Kggghh… what, why… are you locking the door….”

Eden, after rubbing his face dry once, looked at the faces of the group members who were demanding an explanation and opened his mouth.

“That man is infected.”

Shock slowly crept over the faces of the people who had been thinking, “no way.” Everyone was speechless, as if they had become mute. Hajin, with a gloomy expression, chewed on his lower lip. Just as he had said, Lee Changyeol was turning into a zombie.

Only Eden had a calm expression, as if he had nothing to do with this situation. He habitually checked his wristwatch. The man had been bitten by the zombie roughly 15 minutes ago.

“Open… Open up!!! Fuck, you said you’d… kgggh, treat me—!!”

Compared to others who had turned immediately after being bitten, he was holding on for quite a long time.

In that case, does the time vary depending on the severity of the wound? The zombie’s bite mark, clearly imprinted on Lee Changyeol’s knee, was at least 2 cm wide. For how deeply it was imprinted, the width itself was not that large. His claim that he had hit it on a rock seemed to be true, as the bleeding was happening from a different wound, not the bite mark.

“Open up, fuck, open… You said you’d treat me… hic….”

The man, who had been pounding on the door as if to break it, at some point began to mix in the cries of a beast.

“Kgggh… Kiiiik….”

Eden checked the time once more. Taking into account the margin of error, he reached the conclusion that if the wound in the bitten area was not severe, or depending on one’s physical abilities, one could hold on for about 20 minutes.

While he was grasping the general process and time of zombification, Hajin sat down on the floor with a thud, his expression gloomy. Following Hajin, Park Chunbeom also sank to his knees.

Eden scanned the agitated faces of the group members one by one and said in a dry voice.

“The storage room door is locked, so don’t touch it if you can help it. We will just loot the medical supplies we aimed for and leave.”

“We should have tried cutting off his leg, at least up to the wounded area.”

Miso, who was pacing around in circles, offered her opinion. Even though she knew it was already too late, she suggested another possibility that they hadn’t tried, as if with lingering regret.

“It was above the knee, not the ankle. It wouldn’t have been easy, and even if we had cut off his leg, in an environment like this, it would be worse than death. And there’s no one to consistently look after the wound.”

As expected, a realistic answer came back. Miso, letting out a deep sigh, asked an additional question.

“It seems there’s no point in going to the police station now, so where should we set our destination to next?”

“Let’s head straight north. If it’s okay, stopping by the police station wouldn’t be a bad idea either. Though I don’t know if any related personnel have survived.”

Eden took out the portable compass from his pocket and checked the direction. Then he turned his fierce gaze towards Hajin, who had sat down on the floor and become quiet.

“Mr. Do Hajin.”

“…….”

“One reckless act like the one before is enough. Comforting someone who is already finished doesn’t change the situation.”

“…….”

“You could have been bitten, you know.”

Eden, who had been holding back his anger, finally ended his sentence in informal speech, as if he found the situation more and more absurd the more he thought about it.

After a moment of silence, Hajin slowly lifted his bowed head. The area around his eyes was red.

“I believe I told you I’m not that nice of a person.”

Answering like a sigh, he took out an item from his pocket and tossed it lightly at Eden’s feet. Thud.

It was a navy blue cowhide key holder, about the size of two finger joints.