Magic on the Dead Chapter 37

Lee Changyeol had explained that he had left the car keys in his office, but Hajin had already seen through that lie.

He had rummaged through all of his pants pockets under the pretext of checking his identity, and had even bumped his shoulder against his chest, pretending it was a mistake, while crossing the hills. The car keys were precisely in Lee Changyeol’s right breast pocket.

“Mr. Lee Changyeol’s car keys. We should at least salvage this.”

Eden narrowed his eyes and looked down at the key holder that had fallen at his feet.

“How long have you had this?”

“I took it out just now in the storage room when I was comforting him.”

“…….”

“I feel like enough of a piece of trash as it is, so don’t look at me like that.”

Hajin, snapping back as if to vent his frustration, shot up from his spot.

It was complicated. It felt as if he had done something unforgivable to a person on the verge of death. Although they had only been together for half a day, it seemed he had unknowingly developed an affection for Lee Changyeol, who was the same age as his younger brother. The image of him smiling brightly as he boasted about his girlfriend’s beauty lingered in his mind like an afterimage.

Eden silently gazed at Hajin, who was running his hands through his hair in frustration. Soon, he turned his gaze and instructed the group on the necessary medical supplies.

“Look for antibiotics first. Find the medicine labeled oxytetracycline.”

“Oxy-tetra… what?”

“Check what I wrote down on the memo pad.”

“Ah, ah.”

Except for Jeffrey, who was still clumsy at reading Korean, Park Chunbeom and Miso moved quickly at Eden’s command. Ophthalmic topical antibiotics, ibuprofen, gauze, fungal antibiotics, anti-diarrhea medicine, and so on. The variety of necessary medicines was greater than expected, and it took quite a while to find them.

“If I had my way, I’d sweep up everything.”

Miso muttered to herself, looking at her bulging messenger bag with a sense of regret. Jeong Byeol, who was watching, pointed to her own bag on her shoulder and whispered.

“Unnie, I’m strong. Put it in my bag.”

“It’s okay. Byeol’s bag already has a raincoat, boots, and a doll.”

“This much is fine, isn’t it?”

“When Unnie tried lifting Byeol’s bag earlier, it was su~per heavy.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really. Byeol is already doing more than enough right now.”

“…I’m doing well?”

“Of course.”

Miso gently stroked Byeol’s white cheeks, full of baby fat, as if she was proud of her. She still couldn’t believe that such an angelic child shared the same bloodline as that cold Eden.

Miso and Park Chunbeom, having gathered the medical supplies Eden had mentioned one by one, regrouped in front of the counter. They had found all the necessary medicines, so all that was left was to check the situation outside and get going. However, no one rashly suggested that they should go outside.

“Grrrrrrrrr….“

Lee Changyeol, who was no longer human but a zombie, was still trapped in that storage room. Eden looked at Hajin’s face, the area under his eyes now even redder, and opened his mouth.

“Thanks to him, we’ve also secured a car, so let’s show him some courtesy.”

What kind of courtesy is he talking about. Towards Hajin, who looked back with a questioning expression, he added.

“I’m saying we should kill Mr. Lee Changyeol and then leave.”

“…….”

“Do you want to do it, Mr. Do Hajin?”

Hajin’s ashen eyes trembled violently.

“If you’re going to swing an axe for the first time, it might as well be for something meaningful. Think of it as a reward for the car keys.”

Saying so, Eden pointed to the hand axe in Hajin’s hand.

“You won’t get hurt. I’ll take care of it before that happens.”

Eden moved towards the storage room, comforting Hajin as if to reassure him. Park Chunbeom and Jeffrey followed behind Eden, gripping the weapons in their hands tightly. Miso, reading the room, took the slightly trembling Byeol and moved to a far corner.

Hajin looked at the clean hand axe in his hand and swallowed dryly. Could he do it?

For Hajin, who had at best only busied himself with bashing zombies’ heads with an industrial hammer or pliers, direct killing was not an easy matter.

“You buckled Mr. Lee Changyeol’s pants for him in the storage room earlier.”

Towards Hajin, who was standing stiffly, Eden offered some quiet advice.

“What you’re about to do now is no different from that.”

At that moment, for some strange reason, Hajin felt that Eden was comforting him. It was an absurd sentiment.

[Hajin, you’re doing a good thing. Don’t think too deeply about it.]

Jeffrey patted the back of Hajin’s head as if to soothe him. It was strange. It felt as if he had become a young child about to take an important exam. This reality of being cheered on for the act of bringing an axe down on a human’s head felt like a scene from a black comedy, even a little sad.

Hajin, who had been standing blankly, forced his legs, which wouldn’t move, to drag him closer to the storage room.

“Opening it.”

With Eden’s emotionless voice, click, the lock was released. Hajin earnestly wished that Lee Changyeol would jump out and threaten him instead.

Sweat soaked the palm of the hand gripping the axe.

🃏

“You’ve worked hard, Do Hajin. Mr. Lee Changyeol will be grateful too.”

Miso patted the back of Hajin, who was holding a hand axe dripping with blood, as if to comfort him. Hajin’s lips were firmly shut as he cleaned the blood-stained axe blade without a word.

Lee Changyeol, whose forehead had been pierced by the axe, died without even making a sound. While he was unable to pull out the axe firmly embedded in the skull and turned his body to swallow a dry heave, Eden, who had approached wordlessly, quietly handed it back to him.

Hajin was just numb. He had struck down with so much force that his wrist bones still ached as if a gong had been struck. The metallic smell of blood stung his nostrils.

When he turned his head, he saw Lee Changyeol laid neatly on the floor. Over his cruelly broken face, which was hard to look at, was Jeffrey’s short-sleeved t-shirt.

Had life and death ever been this close before?

Only now, after having taken a person’s life, does he realize that he can never go back to his former life.

Even a single breath felt burdensome. For the first time, Hajin wanted to burst into tears.

“If we’re all done, let’s go. Check one more time to see if we’ve missed any medical supplies.”

Eden tidied up the somber atmosphere and encouraged the group. Instead of raising the shutter they had just lowered, he walked towards the back door of the counter.

When he unlocked it, a quiet alleyway with not a single leaf rolling around appeared. At his hand signal, everyone moved in perfect order. The slowest among them was Hajin. He was still staring at Lee Changyeol’s dark red blood flowing along the floor to the back door.

“Let’s turn around and go out the front door.”

Eden walked in step with Hajin, who was the last to come out. He neither comforted the dazed Hajin, nor did he offer words of encouragement.

Nevertheless, Hajin couldn’t shake the feeling that he was being considerate of him. To feel such an absurd kindness from that cold-blooded bastard, unless he was going crazy….

Hajin stopped thinking before it got any more complicated. It felt as if his mood, which had hit rock bottom, had improved a little.

They wandered here and there among the cars crashed on the road. It seemed Lee Changyeol’s death had been a shock not only to Hajin but to the others as well, as not a single trivial joke was uttered in the frozen atmosphere. They just silently moved forward.

Before long, the Sangwon Central Police Station came into view in the distance. Beyond the reddish-gray wall and wire mesh fence that flanked the sidewalk, a rectangular, mouse-gray building revealed its imposing presence, standing firm in its place.

The group approached the wide-open entrance.

“Doesn’t it look like there’s someone in the information booth?”

“It looks more like a corpse than a person.”

Just as Miso said, a figure could be seen through the closed window, head down on the desk. Judging by its motionless state, it was clearly already dead.

Eden, who had been examining the information desk, now turned his gaze to the three-story building near the booth. It was the General Civil Affairs Office and the Traffic Investigation Division building, right next to the main building. The area around it was teeming with zombies.

Eden turned back and made eye contact with each member of the group.

“Keep your heads down and follow me.”

They passed the entrance and moved to the opposite wall. Following Eden, people bent their bodies and crossed over in a line, like a string of dried fish.

Only then did the blind spot that had been invisible come into view. In contrast to the parking lot on the right, the parking lot on the left was quite large, its size difficult to estimate.

There were at least 70 parked cars, and the zombies wandering eerily between them were more numerous than the ones on the left.

How on earth would they be able to find Lee Changyeol’s car in this situation. If they pressed the unlock button, a signal would surely sound, and if that happened, zombies would swarm to the car like a hive of bees. With such significant obstacles anticipated, it seemed impossible to even enter the main building and find any surviving personnel.

“It looks like we’ll have to just take the car and get out.”

As Eden clicked his tongue and spoke, Miso furrowed her brow in disappointment.

“Why? Aren’t we going to check inside the building? It would be nice to get at least one more gun.”

“There are too many parked cars, and there are far too many zombies wandering around outside. The inside of the building will be wiped out too. At this rate, it might even be difficult to find Mr. Lee Changyeol’s car.”

Just then, Hajin tapped Eden’s back with his index finger.

“Come to think of it, there was a car on Mr. Lee Changyeol’s phone wallpaper. I’m not sure if it’s his, but it was a white sedan, and it looked a bit fierce. It looked like he took the picture himself.”

At the ticklish words that reached his ear, Eden tilted his head towards Hajin.