Magic on the Dead Chapter 55

“The zombies are flocking here.”

It was a statement that felt utterly unreal. Hajin, who had been staring blankly with his mouth open, got up from his spot, trying to ignore the goosebumps gradually spreading across his skin.

“What do you mean, zom… bies are flocking here? At this time of night?”

Eden did not answer and left his spot, shaking the others who were already fast asleep awake. Byeol, who had been whining about being sleepy, quickly shut his mouth at Eden’s heavy atmosphere. Without even a moment to brush off the dry leaves stuck to their backs, everyone, plunged into a state of panic, packed their belongings in perfect order.

An unnerving silence fell after Eden’s words that the number of zombies approaching seemed to be well over 100. The situation was more serious than they thought. If he hadn’t gone on patrol before the night grew deeper, they would have been ambushed by the zombie horde in their sleep, completely helpless.

“Grr, kya-ga-gak—!”

The faint vibrations shaking the ground and the roars of the zombies tightened their grip on his heart. Perhaps because they had been letting their guard down for a while, sweat pooled in Hajin’s groin from the overwhelming sense of fear.

“Then, wh-where do we go?”

“We are going to the road. Split into pairs of two and hide under the vehicles.”

The group hurriedly left the stream. While they frantically navigated through the pitch-black darkness using the light of the half-moon and three flashlights, they sometimes tripped over claw-like bushes or piles of trash left on the ground and tumbled.

The zombies, having detected the sound, moved faster than before. The howling that vibrated the air began to be heard from nearby.

Hajin’s breathing, who was at the very back with Eden, also grew rougher in pace with it. Jeffrey and Jung Byeol, and Park Chun-beom and Miso, paired up and jumped over the guardrail next to the expressway first. Eden, who followed them, reached out his hand to Hajin, who was trying to climb up after him.

“Grab it.”

It was the moment when Hajin, who had barely managed to steady his legs that kept slipping on the slope, extended his right hand. A fishy, bloody scent brushed past the tip of his nose, and thud, thud-thud, the sound of running with a strange rhythm was heard.

“Watch out!!”

Hajin shouted just before their fingertips touched. An unidentified something lunged at Eden’s body from the left. Losing his balance for a moment, he fell to the ground. Thump! The strength of the mysterious figure in the darkness that had attacked without a sound was immense.

“Kuh—!”

As soon as his neck was grabbed, Eden quickly extended his leg and roughly pushed the figure’s chest. The smell of rotting flesh and blood, so putrid it made him want to vomit, clung to the mucous membranes of his nose. He barely managed to get up just before the hard, sharp teeth could tear into his neck again.

Eden picked up the hatchet he had dropped on the road. While he drove the dulled axe blade into the charging zombie’s head like a hammer, a frantic warning echoed faintly in his ears.

“Mr. Jung Taegeon! Behind you!!”

Cursing under his breath, he threw off the backpack he was wearing. Right behind him, something else was charging. Unlike the existing zombies, these new fiends attacked without even making a sound, so Eden had to move his body relying solely on his senses. A fierce struggle unfolded in the darkness.

After inflicting a sharp stab wound to the chest of the second charging zombie and digging his nails into its neck, he pushed it with all his might against the guardrail, and snap—the sound of a neck bone breaking echoed eerily through the space.

“Hah, hah….”

Eden, shaking his sweat-drenched hair, glared hard at the dim, empty air. A searing heat rose from his entire body, which had suddenly expended a burst of energy. His heart, pounding as if it would explode any moment, ate away at his breath.

The two fiends that had attacked this time felt quite different from the existing zombies. They showed superior differences in speed, strength, and reflexes, and they didn’t even make the kind of sounds a beast would make.

He touched his elbow, which had been scraped on the road, and instinctively checked his body. Fortunately, he had not been bitten anywhere. Eden, who was holding his breath and approaching to check the corpses, suddenly stopped in his tracks.

“Mr. Do Hajin.”

The presence of Do Hajin, who should have already climbed up by grabbing the guardrail, was not felt. He looked down below the road, but saw nothing but crushed grass. It was obvious that if he shouted for Hajin, the zombie horde would flock to them.

“What the. Where’s Hajin?”

Miso, who had stuck only her head out from under a nearby vehicle, shouted in a small voice.

“Do not move and stay hidden here. I’m going to find Mr. Do Hajin.”

“Pardon? No, you’re going back down? It’s danger—No, Mr. Jung Taegeon!”

Eden left Miso, who was spewing curses, behind and jumped down below the guardrail.

Far away, beyond the stream, a horde of zombies like a black storm cloud was approaching through the bushes. He ran back to the stream and checked the waterway while crossing the temporarily placed stone bridge. The water was calm, and no screams for help were heard from anywhere.

Eden was seized by a strangely anxious feeling. Even the half-moon that had been illuminating the path disappeared into the storm clouds, and the lens of the flashlight he had tucked in his pocket had been broken during the fight with the zombies. No matter how skilled a former special forces soldier he was at searching, there was nothing he could do if he couldn’t see ahead.

“Shit.”

Eden, who was ruthlessly pushing through the bristlegrass that tickled his ankles, listened to the sound of the zombie horde approaching from the opposite side. He changed direction according to his intuition and started running with his back to the zombie horde.

After running for about a minute, a faint groan that caught his ear was heard from somewhere. Halt. He stopped in his tracks and gripped his hatchet tightly.

“Koo-eh-eh-eh-ek!”

When he turned his head to the right, where the sound came from, a light like white mist flashed and then disappeared. It was the light of a flashlight. Eden turned his body toward the light, mercilessly pushing through the endlessly overgrown grass that blocked his view.

He arrived at the downstream of the stream, but still, all he could see was pitch-black darkness. But Eden felt a change in the air. He felt a gaze from somewhere. The moment he instinctively held his breath and lifted his head upwards, he was grabbed by the collar from the front.

His back, which was sucked into somewhere, hit a thick wall. The hatchet he was holding fell to the ground with a clang.

Eden reflexively grabbed the nape of the person blocking him with force and pulled him off.

“Ugh! It’s me, me!”

A familiar voice pierced his ears.

“Do Hajin?”

“Kh, get this off!”

Hajin fiercely pounded on Eden’s chest as the pulled-back collar of his shirt still choked him. Eden let out a gasp and relaxed his grip.

“Cough, keuh….”

Hajin, who had desperately suppressed a dry cough, bent over. However, before he could even catch his breath, the cry of a beast that stimulated his nerves was heard from nearby.

“Grrrrrr!”

The zombie that had been about to attack Eden from above had followed him inside. Hajin, pulling himself together, swung his axe widely at the zombie.

Eden, too, began to grasp the situation again. He felt the rough texture of cement on his back, which was against the wall, and the angle of the ground his feet touched was strange.

‘Is this a cylindrical underpass…?’

What lay inside was only endless darkness. It seemed the exit was blocked.

Hajin, having dealt with the zombie, staggered back into the underpass. He composed his ragged breathing and approached Eden, who was still leaning against the wall.

“Mr. Jung Taegeon, whoo…. Are you crazy? Why would you follow me here?”

Hajin scolded him in a whisper, unable to raise his voice.

“Then, am I supposed to leave you to die?”

“It’s not daytime, it’s night! It could have been danger…”

Rumble… rumble…!!

Just then, the grand sound of zombies’ footsteps began to be heard from above the underpass and from the entrance. If they were not careful, they were on the verge of being surrounded and killed, completely helpless. The eyes of Eden and Hajin, who were glaring at each other in the darkness as if blaming each other, wavered simultaneously.

“Let’s go further inside for now.”

Eden grabbed Hajin’s arm. They moved in step, little by little, into the depths of the underpass, into the endless darkness. His head throbbed from the sour, nauseating smell.

The deeper they hid inside, the more sticky and dirty filth stuck to the soles of their shoes. The amount of filth increased as they went further, so they couldn’t go any deeper.

“Fuu…”

Cursing under his breath, Eden found a relatively clean spot and pushed Hajin against the wall. The two of them were about halfway through the underpass, standing against the left wall. The two pairs of eyes facing each other were fierce. As Eden leaned in, their body heat pressed close.

“Ugh, it’s hot….”

“Just bear with it.”

The chiding voice was somehow cold. Hajin, not liking the rough texture of the cement he felt behind his back, bit his lip for no reason. The posture, as if he were trapped in Jung Taegeon’s arms, was also quite bothersome.

After pondering, he spun his body around and switched places with Eden.

“I’ll stand here, ugh!”

As soon as he moved, his foot slipped on the curved ground. Eden reflexively grabbed Hajin’s elbow tightly and pulled him into his arms.

“Ah.”

Hajin pulled his nose, which was pressed against Eden’s neck, away and turned his head to the left. He consciously controlled his breathing and glared at the innocent entrance, but his startled heart did not calm down easily.