Magic on the Dead Chapter 6

Eden, who had been staring at his focused profile, slightly drew the curtain to check the situation outside. The desperate screams of people begging to be saved had, at some point, abruptly stopped as if it had been a lie.

“Krrreureu… Keudeuk, kkadeudeuk….”

Chomp chomp, a primitive noise, like an animal finished with its hunt picking the flesh off the bones, could be heard from all over. The distance was about 15 meters; the sewer staircase Do Hajin had mentioned was closer than expected, and near it, two zombies were roaming around with their necks bent. The door to the staircase was also wide open. Now was the perfect time to move.

Eden turned his head and gestured to the people. Hajin picked up the child who had stopped crying. Behind him, Park Chunbeom and Jeffrey lined up in succession.

Without any further signal, the curtain was thrown open. Eden ran forward without hesitation. Startled, Hajin quickly followed behind him, and behind them, the other men also ran in a flurry.

“Kyak—!”

Eden, who was running ahead, plunged his knife into the eye of the zombie right in front of the staircase entrance. He expertly twisted the handle and thrust the knife upward. The blade, having passed through the soft eyeball, shattered the sphenoid bone and pierced into the brain. The zombie, its brain impaled, fell backward just like that.

At the unexpected commotion, the zombies on the stage began to rush toward them in a group. Gugugugugung! The stage floor trembled as if there were an earthquake.

Hajin did not look back and only ran, looking forward. His grip on the child in his arms tightened. His shoulders began to get soaked. The child was crying silently.

“It’s okay, it’s okay.”

Hajin comforted the child while simultaneously casting a spell on himself. Thanks to the man who was reliably clearing the path ahead, he was able to run down the stairs without much difficulty. The man occasionally looked back to check on Hajin and the child’s condition.

“Turn left!”

As Hajin shouted, the man quickly changed direction.

“Keep going straight! To the third steel door!”

From the opposite direction, a zombie was rushing toward them at a terrifying speed.

While a horrified Hajin hesitated for a moment, Eden extended his arm, which was wrapped tightly in rope. The zombie, which was dragging its intestines from its half-eaten abdomen as it ran, opened its mouth wide. Eden shoved his rope-wrapped arm right into the zombie’s mouth and raised his knife.

Pook! The well-sharpened blade lodged itself right in the center of the zombie’s forehead. Before the zombie could even fall, he pushed its chest to knock it to the floor and pulled out the knife embedded in its skull with all his might.

Eden began running forward again. Hajin, stepping on the chest of the fallen zombie, unknowingly screamed.

“Uuuaaaghh!”

It was a sensation he never wanted to experience again. Though they were called monsters and zombies, what he had just stepped on was no different from a corpse with a ruptured abdomen. The psychological shock was immense.

While he was unable to regain his senses, the warehouse door was gradually getting closer. Hajin looked back to check on the rest of the group. It seemed they had dragged a zombie in with them when closing the staircase door, as Jeffrey could be seen frantically swinging a hammer.

“Here! Over here!”

The goal was right before their eyes. At this rate, everyone could move safely to the secure warehouse without a single person getting hurt. At that moment, the floor began to rumble, kugung, as if an earthquake had struck. It was the same as the situation on the stage earlier. Hajin, his eyes wide open, looked straight ahead.

“Son of a bi….”

Eden bit back a curse. A tremendous number of zombies were tumbling over each other as they swarmed from the opposite side. It was just as Eden, having reached the front of the warehouse, turned the round handle to pull.

Click.

Click, click.

The eyes of a panicked Hajin and an enraged Eden met at the same time.

The door… was not opening.

“Kyaaaaaah—!!”

The horde of zombies was getting progressively closer.

“Shit, open the door!!”

While Eden pushed against the door with his shoulder as if to break it down, Jeffrey and Park Chunbeom grabbed the handles of the innocent steel doors next to it one by one and shook them. None of the tightly shut supply rooms would open.

Hajin put the child down on the floor, pushed Eden aside, and urgently knocked on the warehouse door.

“Excuse me! Is anyone there?!”

“This fucking piece of shit…!”

“Who’s inside, Miso? It’s me, Do Hajin! It’s Hajin!!”

He pleaded, pounding on the door until his fists turned red.

“Please, open the door—!!”

Suddenly, the firmly shut steel door swung open. Thump! Hajin, who had slammed his head into the steel door, staggered back. In that gap, Jeffrey, Park Chunbeom, and Jung Byeol quickly disappeared into the warehouse.

“Do Hajin! Hurry!!”

A hand shot out from inside the warehouse. Hajin made it into the warehouse as if being sucked in, and right after him, Eden followed.

“Kyaaaak—!”

Thump! The door was shut by a hair’s breadth. Kwagwagwang! A series of thunderous noises, as if a bomb had gone off, followed. The horde of zombies that had failed to get inside were slamming their bodies against the warehouse door.

Hajin, who had fallen onto the dusty floor, coughed, colok. When he lifted his head, he saw a familiar back of a head. Miso, her hair tied up in a tight bun, was bolting the lock on the warehouse door.

Thump! Kuung! The fierce assault continued, so much so that it would not have been strange if the steel door had fallen off.

“Heok, heok… haa….”

His heart was beating abnormally, to the point his temples throbbed. Before long, the movements of the zombies pounding on the steel door grew quiet. Krrreuuu…. The commotion ceased with a final, bizarre howl that sounded like a throat being scratched.

Other than the sound of breathing, no one dared to open their mouths. The space was submerged in an eerie silence.

Hajin, the tension draining from his entire body, lay down flat on the floor. His breathing would not calm down easily. His chest heaved up and down. His head was so hot that even when he opened his eyes, his vision was completely white.

“Heuk, heup… mister….”

Just then, the child’s weeping echoed through the quiet warehouse. As if on cue, thump! Something slammed into the steel door from outside. The startled child gasped and clamped his hands over his own mouth. The monsters were clearly reacting sensitively to sound.

“Fuck, the door….”

Eden spat out a curse, as if finding the situation just moments ago, where they had almost been helplessly trapped, to be absurd. Hajin rubbed his painfully tightening chest and looked up at the man standing beside him. He was neurotically wiping away a bloodstain splattered on his cheek.

“…Excuse me,”

Hajin opened his mouth as if possessed, addressing the man.

“Why do you… use the knife… so….”

Eden narrowed his brow as he looked down at Hajin, who was mumbling something to him. The magician’s face was completely drained. He looked so dazed that it seemed he did not even know what he himself was babbling about.

“You’re so… natural… using it on people….”

“People?”

Eden, with his hands on his hips, scowled fiercely.

“I guess those look like people to you.”

Whether it was a defense mechanism kicking in due to the unrealistic situation, or whether his original disposition was just that fierce, the man’s retort was as sharp as the knife he had been brandishing earlier. For someone who had risked his life to run all the way here together, it was a rather cold attitude.

In the meantime, Miso collapsed next to the exhausted Hajin. She washed her dry face with her hands and then buried her face in the chest of the lying Hajin. She was desperately holding back the sobs that threatened to burst out.

“Do Hajin, you jerk… haa, I thought you got caught too, I was really….”

Hajin, who was quietly listening to Miso’s suppressed voice, lifted his dazed eyes. …You too? Hajin slowly pushed his upper body up into a sitting position with a questioning look on his face. He took another deep breath as he took off his jacket, which was filthily matted with blood and dust.

“Where’s Jinwoo?”

When he asked, Miso, sniffing once, k’eung, shook her head.

“…I don’t know. Just… the radio transmission telling us to run was the last I heard.”

“…….”

“He’s probably just injured.”

Miso had been the one to clearly witness the scene of those who were bitten and injured quickly turning into monsters while they were escaping to this place. But she could not bring herself to say that Assistant Jinwoo was probably dead, nor that he had probably become a monster. It felt like she should not.

“…….”

A short silence passed. Hajin, pressing on his throbbing temples, finally dropped his head toward the floor. Hajin, too, could not bring himself to say the words, that he was at least glad she was safe. The face of the assistant, who had pushed him into the transparent carriage and smiled brightly, telling him to hang in there, flickered before his eyes.

Because he still could not believe this entire situation that had unfolded in such a short time, Hajin had to clench his trembling hands into tight fists.

“What about the security guards? There were guards stationed all over the concert hall.”

As he asked, squeezing out his voice, Miso’s face darkened rapidly. Biting her lower lip, she shook her head.

“You must have seen on your way here. Those monster bastards… even the police couldn’t kill them.”