Magic on the Dead Chapter 74

“That’s enough loading. Let’s go now.”

Eden had Hajin sit in the driver’s seat.

“No matter what I do, don’t be surprised. Just look ahead and drive.”

Hajin, who was suddenly behind the wheel, looked at Eden with a bewildered expression. As if there wasn’t even time to explain, Eden pounded on the glove box a couple of times with his fist, thump, thump.

The radio was buzzing incessantly with conversations about finding the murderer of the lieutenant colonel and the sergeant.

“I’m starting the car.”

It was the moment Hajin, after steadying his trembling breath, placed his foot on the accelerator. Suddenly, black shadows shot out from behind the trees. At the unexpected appearance of the two figures, Eden quickly loaded his gun.

Click-clack!

“Wait a minute!”

Hajin urgently stopped Eden and looked at the uninvited guests blocking the car. One person was wearing a police uniform, and another was hunched over, sobbing their eyes out… It was Corporal Kim and the cult leader’s son.

Corporal Kim placed the crying boy behind him. Then, as if to reassure Eden and Hajin, he raised both arms in a gesture of surrender.

“Mr. Jung Taegeon, Mr. Do Hajin, it’s me!”

Eden frowned fiercely at the sudden appearance of the two. Corporal Kim patted the child who was clinging tightly to his waist and shouted to Eden and Hajin.

“The situation seemed chaotic, so I came out to see, and I happened to see you two coming this way. I’m sorry if we startled you!”

“…”

“If you’re thinking of leaving the ranch right now, please take us with you!”

Hajin chewed on his lip with a perplexed expression. If it were up to him, he would want to let the people in front of him get in and escape this place immediately, but Eden was absolutely not someone to be swayed by personal sympathy. He was a person who never took on companions in the first place, so there would be all the more reason not to give them a ride.

However, if they left the child and the corporal behind here, he couldn’t guarantee what would happen to them at the hands of the soldiers.

“What’s the reason you want to leave with us?”

Eden asked, still not lowering the gun pointed at the corporal.

“I’m on my way back after witnessing this child’s father turn into a zombie with my own two eyes. He said the last time he saw him was when a soldier took him away, so he must have been murdered! I have to save the child, at least!”

At Corporal Kim’s cry, the child’s body finally collapsed to the ground. The sorrow of losing a family member burst out in a mournful wail.

Hajin’s heart ached as if burned by fire at the fact that the child had also faced the tragic scene he had witnessed. As he was pondering how he should persuade Eden, Eden lowered his gun and turned to look at him.

“Let’s give them a ride just until we’re out. What is your opinion, Mr. Do Hajin?”

Hajin’s shoulders flinched at the unexpected choice.

“I think it’s right to get out together for now. We don’t know what will happen if we stay here.”

As soon as he answered without hesitation, Eden gestured toward Corporal Kim and the child.

Corporal Kim quickly helped the child, who was lying prone and sobbing, to his feet. The two, panting, ran over and climbed into the trunk, which was heavily loaded with weapons.

“Haah, thank you!”

After confirming they were seated, Hajin stepped on the accelerator without hesitation.

“Split up and search!”

“Check all the huts, too!”

Noisy shouts could be heard nearby. Eden turned his head and handed a .38 caliber pistol to Corporal Kim, who was holding the child.

“You know how to shoot. I need covering fire.”

“Yes, I understand.”

Corporal Kim roughly wiped his sweat-drenched forehead and took the revolver. He gently pressed on the back of the child, who was sobbing with hitches, to make him duck down.

“Don’t get up until hyung tells you to, okay?”

A tear-choked voice followed, “Okay.” Hajin checked on Corporal Kim and the child through the rearview mirror. The two of them were tense and busy keeping a lookout on their surroundings.

Clatter! They left the cluster of trees and finally entered the promenade where the cafeteria and commissary were located. The palms of Hajin’s hands, gripping the steering wheel, were soaked with sweat. It felt like he would die of a heart attack before being bitten to death by a zombie.

Just then, a soldier who had been stationed in front of the promenade rolled on the ground to avoid the charging Retona. He urgently pulled out his radio.

“S-Sergeant Lim! Th-the culprits are currently in a Retona vehicle and are a-attempting to escape! Th-they’re passing the promenade in front of the commissary!”

Hajin quickly glanced back at the soldier with a somewhat familiar voice and face.

‘But th-they say the zombies in the ca-capital region will be taken care of so-soon, so if I wait just a little longer, I’ll be able to go see them. U-until then, I will be co-completely loyal to the ba-battalion commander’s orders.’

Right in front of him was Private Gu, the one who had given a naive answer to the question of whether he missed his family, the one who had cleaned the hay warehouse with him all morning.

‘Acting all innocent, that murderous bastard…!’

The moment the furious Hajin was about to shout something at the fallen Private Gu, Corporal Kim, who had been waiting for an opening, began to fire.

“Aack!!”

Behind Private Gu, who collapsed after being shot in the thigh, soldiers began to swarm in.

He didn’t feel a shred of pity. Whatever the reason, he had no intention whatsoever of condoning their choice to drive innocent residents to their deaths.

Meanwhile, Eden was taking a grenade out of a box at his feet. Hajin’s eyes widened when he noticed it belatedly.

“What are you do—!”

Before he could even try to stop him, Eden’s thumb hooked onto the grenade’s round safety pin. He stood up and swung his arm with all his might toward the commissary and cafeteria.

KABOOM—!! Immediately after, with a tremendous roar, building fragments shot up into the sky.

“Ugh!”

The startled Corporal Kim quickly ducked down, protecting the child. Hajin, at the wheel, also ducked his head down low.

“Mr. Jung Taegeon! What was that all of a sudden! Please, at least give me a heads up…!”

He yelled, terrified, but Eden paid him no mind and pointed a direction with his finger.

“As soon as you’re past the entrance, make a sharp right. I plan on blowing up the power plant too.”

“I get what you’re saying, but can’t we just escape quietly?! Why are you blowing everything up!”

“Even with Lieutenant Colonel So dead, as long as the ranch is intact, innocent civilians will continue to be used. If I had my way, I’d like to snuff out every last bastard here, but since we don’t have time, I have to at least blow up the key facilities.”

Hajin’s mouth fell half-open, momentarily at a loss for words. Was it even possible to make such a rational judgment and decision in such a frantic moment? As a fellow man, he couldn’t help but look at Eden with a sense of admiration.

Bang! Bang, bang! Meanwhile, bullets continued to fly from behind them. To make matters worse, a police car even started to follow.

There were a series of hair-raising moments as bullets from behind hit the car body, making loud thud! thud! sounds, or lodged themselves in the windshield.

As they exited the ranch entrance, Eden once again grabbed the pin of a grenade.

“Drive as far away from the wall as possible.”

The second grenade flew from his hand after he gave the order to Hajin. Two seconds later, BOOM—! With a deafening roar, the concrete wall collapsed. A chain of explosions followed. It seemed he had hit the power plant properly, as flames began to soar endlessly, as if they didn’t know the sky was the limit.

The pursuing police car was also crushed by the collapsing wall and came to a stop.

“We did it!”

Hajin, confirming through the rearview mirror that no one was following them anymore, let out a sigh of relief. Corporal Kim, who had been in a covering fire posture, finally relaxed the tension in his shoulders.

“Haah, you went through a lot! Thanks to you, we escaped safely!”

After Corporal Kim’s words of gratitude, the child who had been lying on the floor sat up.

“Heuk… Thank you, hyungs… sob…”

The child, who was much skinnier than at the rest area, looked so small that you could have said he was a third-year in middle school instead of a third-year in high school.

Hajin swallowed the bitter aftertaste and looked forward again. The road on the mountain path was quite clear. The Retona sped down the one-lane road without restraint.

Just then, Eden threw the rifle he was holding onto the road.

“Why?”

Ignoring Hajin’s anxious expression, he turned his body and silently picked up a new firearm.

“What, why? Wh-what’s wrong? Is there something else?”

Hajin’s ears were still ringing from the grenade he had thrown so carelessly. Seeing him wordlessly assume an attack stance again, his heart began to pound with anxiety.

Soon after, he saw Corporal Kim also follow Eden’s lead and load bullets into his revolver.

“The way the ground is shaking is unusual. We might have to abandon the car if things go well.”

The ground is shaking? Hajin, who was turning the steering wheel in a state of high tension, finally listened for the faint noise. Rumble… rumble… As if a massive, active volcano was on the verge of erupting, the rumbling on the ground was unusual, like an earthquake.

He whipped his head around and looked back toward the ranch, where flames and smoke were soaring high.

‘Fuck…’

The familiar ground tremor, the roar of enraged beasts. If his guess was correct, this was undoubtedly the sign of a horde of approaching zombies.