Chapter 86

46. Messiah (4)

I emerged from the air-raid shelter and checked the surroundings.

There were no unusual signs.

The rifle hanging on the side of the motorcycle caught my eye.

Despite Defender's advice, I worried that there might be competitors.

They were a much greater threat than zombies.

The worst-case scenario would be if I were ambushed when I brought IMGesus out of the shelter.

If that happened, it would be hard to survive.

Fortunately, there were no signs of an ambush, and I couldn't even sense anyone nearby.

Even if it was just paranoia, I thought it was better than being too relaxed.

"Come on out."

A trembling hand extended a bundle of items from the ladder.

The contents were a satellite terminal, a laptop, and a retro game console.

Baek Seung-hyun's motorcycle had storage spaces not only at the front but also at the back and sides.

The satellite receiver, which protruded like a spire, was the only thing that had to be laid sideways in the rear storage compartment, but there was still plenty of room.

"Come on, hurry up."

IMGesus was still inside the shelter.

To be precise, he was lingering on the ladder at the entrance, which separated the shelter from the outside world.

Judging by how his thin body clung to the ladder, he looked like a cicada nymph attached to a tree.

Cicada nymphs molt while hanging, but I wasn't sure about this guy.

Well, in a way, he had molted.

"Aren't you coming?"

When I saw those shining eyes.

"Can you, can you hold my hand?"

IMGesus said in a trembling voice.

I grabbed his thin hand and pulled him out into the world.

IMGesus looked around the outside of the shelter with a shocked expression for a long time.

"..."

I waited for him to calm down and checked the map.

Fortunately, the church wasn't far from here.

About 2 kilometers.

But I couldn't forget that this area was a zombie zone.

The number of zombies would increase as we got closer to the city center.

If zombies gathered, even a hammer wouldn't be effective.

If I had the strength to throw five zombies at once, it would be different, but I had to take them out one by one with care, which meant using a different weapon.

In the end, it was a gun.

However, a gun was a double-edged sword.

If you killed one with a gun, ten would come, and if you killed ten, hundreds would come.

If it weren't for Baek Seung-hyun's motorcycle, I wouldn't have dared to enter.

"Ah!"

While checking the route, a sudden scream erupted from behind.

"What is it?"

I turned around to see IMGesus sitting on the ground, pointing at the partition wall with a terrified look.

"It's a corpse!"

"It's a zombie."

"A zombie?"

"Yeah, the ones that were here when we came in."

I helped IMGesus up by holding his hand again.

"Did, did Skeleton kill them?"

IMGesus stared at the two fallen zombies with trembling eyes.

Both had their heads split by an axe, oozing grayish-white fluid.

He approached the zombies with wide eyes, both terrified and curious.

"I, I've never seen one. A zombie."

"Really?"

"This is the first time I've seen one in real life."

He stared intently at the zombie in a suit.

"Did, did Skeleton kill them?"

"Yeah. They tried to kill me."

"Are you good at fighting?"

"I can defend myself."

I looked at my watch.

Around 3 PM.

It was time to start worrying about the sunset.

We needed to finish our business and leave the city before it got dark.

Even a child knows that zombies are nocturnal.

But IMGesus couldn't take his eyes off the zombie in a suit.

"What are you doing?"

"Ah, nothing. Nothing."

But he kept staring at the corpse.

"Don't look too closely. Zombies are like moving ghosts of the dead. It can mess with your mind. Don't get obsessed with them."

"I understand, Skeleton."

I hesitated to give him a weapon.

A pistol might be okay, but he seemed too weak.

He might shoot me instead of the zombies.

It's a common comedy to see a weak person shoot the one helping them instead of the one trying to kill them.

"Let's go before it's too late."

The city of the dead was shrouded in silence.

The road was blocked by debris and abandoned cars, but the buildings on both sides were in good condition, and some shops were in a state similar to before the war, making it feel as if time had stopped.

If it weren't for the zombies appearing here and there, I might have opened the door of an audio shop and gone in without realizing it.

No matter how good your beatboxing skills are, a bad microphone ruins everything.

"Can't we just ride the motorcycle?"

IMGesus said, still looking at the street with fear in his eyes.

We were pulling the motorcycle into the city center.

There was no choice.

The engine noise could attract zombies.

Fortunately, the city center was mostly flat, so we could pull anything with wheels easily.

"Zombies can hear the noise and come running."

There were two situations where we would start the motorcycle.

When we go home, and when zombies pour out of a building.

"Wait a moment."

There were zombies on the route.

According to the manual published by the school, zombies have eyes, but their brains don't function properly, so they don't react to movement from a distance.

Zombies only chase what they see when their gray, hardened brains recognize it as a target.

The safe distance when zombies don't recognize you as a target is about 15 meters.

If you're within 10 meters, they will definitely attack.

But this theory is nonsense.

If there are active zombies, they will come running from 30 meters or 100 meters away as soon as they see a human.

Thinking you're safe because you're 15 meters away can get you killed.

However, the theory isn't entirely baseless, and in cases where there are no active zombies, it can be somewhat accurate.

This is one of those cases.

There are zombies everywhere, but they haven't recognized us.

We had to clear the ones blocking our path and make our way through.

Thud!

Another one fell.

IMGesus, who was initially startled, now seemed to have adapted to zombie hunting.

"It's like a game. Like Final Fight, where you just stab them."

"Do you want to try?"

"Ah, no!"

The fresh air seemed to be good for his spirit.

His previously gloomy soul had brightened up, noticeable even on his skin.

Maybe that's why.

"This road. I used to drive a Bentley on this road."

IMGesus spoke up for the first time in a while.

"A Bentley? You used to drive one?"

"It's my dad's car."

"Oh."

"My car is a Porsche."

"Oh."

"But when I parked the Porsche on the street, people didn't pay much attention, while the Bentley drew a lot of glances."

His affluent lifestyle was evident from the air-raid shelter alone.

We built the shelter with a single-minded determination to survive, despite the finger-pointing, family opposition, economic hardship, and even becoming debtors.

For IMGesus, it was just a leisure activity.

When his child threw a tantrum, his father, with his overflowing wealth, built a similar shelter for him to experience.

The location of the shelter was also unusual.

It was built in a commercial area on the outskirts of the city, which was still part of the city.

It was like a luxury camping version of an air-raid shelter.

Ironically, the leisurely feel of it might have been what helped this guy survive.

"What? Here?!"

IMGesus stopped in front of a store.

It seemed to be a flower shop.

The windows were all broken, the inside was in ruins, and the sign, which was cheap, had quickly become dirty and hard to recognize.

"Do you know this store?"

"Yeah. My sister worked here."

"Your real sister?"

"No, my church sister."

IMGesus suddenly went inside the store.

I had to follow closely with the axe.

Fortunately, there were no zombies inside the store.

"Be careful. Zombies often hide inside buildings."

"Sorry."

I looked at IMGesus's face as he passed by me.

Despite his scruffy beard and hair, which covered more than half of his face, I could see the clear signs of anxiety.

It seemed someone important to him had been here.

Sure enough, IMGesus came out of the store with a frame in his hand.

"Sister!"

The frame contained a photo of a young woman.

She had a dignified and beautiful face.

Even in a simple outfit, she exuded a charming presence.

"She was really nice to me!"

But she was his church sister.

While it's a sad story for this guy, it doesn't give me a good feeling.

If it were a normal church, it might be different, but his father's church was like Sodom and Gomorrah from the Bible.

Well, his father was the one who created that Sodom and Gomorrah.

I checked the map.

We were close.

Just around the corner, we could see the fortress-like church.

I carefully turned the corner with the hammer in hand.

A dark figure lunged at me.

Thud!

I finished off one.

But it wasn't just one.

Another one came charging at me.

"Kiiiik!"

I stepped back and hit the zombie's temple with the hammer handle.

Crack!

I confirmed that the zombie's head was broken and then struck the top of its head with all my might.

Thud!

I could only say it was definitely dead when I felt the handle of the hammer crack.

I caught my breath and checked the body of the zombie on the ground.

They were young women.

Why do the women in this neighborhood love dresses so much?

The zombies I killed earlier and the ones now were all wearing dresses.

"..."

I turned around.

IMGesus was still lingering in front of the store, holding the woman's frame.

"Let's move. We need to leave before it gets dark."

"Okay! I understand!"

We turned the corner together.

"Ah..."

IMGesus's thin figure wobbled dangerously.

I could understand his feelings.

Where the church once stood like a fortress, only a desolate ruin remained.

Judging from the situation, it seemed to have been hit directly by a Chinese missile.

A heavy one at that.

While it might seem like bad luck, it could have been intentional.

Why? Because the communists deny religion.

There's a possibility that they destroyed this building to leave a symbol or a lesson.

Either way, the reality is that his father's church was in ruins.

"Ah, it's ruined."

Surprisingly, IMGesus's reaction was nonchalant.

He stared at the church with cold eyes.

"Idiot, bastard, son of a bitch."

Vulgar curses flowed from his scruffy beard-covered mouth.

"Good. This is what happens when you don't listen to me. That bald idiot. I told him everyone would die in the war, but he wouldn't listen. He wouldn't listen."

It's a common sight.

A person cursing their family after losing them.

I let him rant.

If it could make the living feel better, it was a cheap price for the dead to be cursed.

Silently, IMGesus looked at me with eyes filled with a faint glow.

"Do you know that my dad is a bastard?"

"Your dad?"

"You know, right? Everyone in Korea knows."

I slowly nodded, observing his expression.

"I've heard a bit."

Hearing this, IMGesus snorted and began to spout cold, blade-like words while glaring at the church.

"My dad, he claims to hear Jesus directly."

"Wow, impressive."

"Impressive? He's just a crazy bastard. Just a liar. A big liar. But that big lie worked on rich, ignorant old ladies and their acquaintances, which is how it grew so big. It used to be a tiny church."

IMGesus stared into the air with a strange expression.

"Who does he think he is? Huh? Why would Jesus talk to a guy who rapes middle school girls?"

"..."

"It's all because he didn't listen to me! He didn't listen to me. I told him to evacuate, but..."

After letting out a string of curses, IMGesus crouched down.

I stood guard beside him, hammer in hand, watching out for any wandering zombies.

"Damn... Bastard... He should have listened to me..."

Tears finally streamed down his face.

Seeing this, I understood.

Despite his hatred, he loved his father.

"Should we go to the front of the church?"

It was an impulsive suggestion.

While impulsive, I won't deny that it was a sharp calculation.

The best choice in this hell of zombies was to quickly calm this guy down and get him out of here.

IMGesus looked up at me, his eyes filled with both a glow and tears, and extended his hand.

"Y-Yeah!"

I grabbed his hand and helped him up.

Ruin.

We looked up at the collapsed church together.

The church, now a grotesque skeleton, resembled the corpse of the giant monster Behemoth from the Bible.

I could see IMGesus's eyes gradually calming down as he looked at the ruins.

He was slowly accepting the reality.

He must have known.

In the nearly three years of tribulation, the world he knew had been completely destroyed.

He just confirmed it with his eyes later than others.

"Skeleton."

He looked at me.

It was time to leave.

But.

"Huh?"

IMGesus's eyes shook violently.

"Sis?"

I turned around.

A zombie in a flowing dress was staggering towards us.

No doubt.

That zombie.

The woman in the frame.

"..."

She was quite beautiful.

Even as a zombie, she still retained her charm.

I could understand why this guy was so attached.

But a zombie is a zombie.

This zombie had to be killed, no matter what.

When to do it.

I hesitated to take the lead, as I might hurt him.

I watched silently.

"Sis?"

IMGesus approached the zombie.

"Grrrrr..."

The zombie recognized IMGesus.

It bared its teeth and lunged at him.

"Grrrrr!!!"

IMGesus stared blankly at the approaching zombie.

"Sis?"

"Your sister is dead."

I ran forward with the hammer.

Just as I was about to smash the zombie's head, a cold hand grabbed my wrist.

A thin, bony hand with no strength.

But that hand held the power I craved.

Boom!

A shockwave erupted from the heart of the young man with glowing eyes.

I felt my entire body tremble as I watched him.

IMGesus shook his head at me.

"No."

He walked towards his sister.

"My sister is alive."

I was witnessing a miracle.

The zombie, which had been trying to kill a person, stopped.

It stood still, watching the human approaching it.

As if it were human.

Boom!

Even as the shockwave erupted from IMGesus's heart, it resembled the wave of a monster.

"..."

Curiosity arose.

I wanted to see the end of this miracle.